Chapter 50 – New Developments

Qin Shu was temporarily residing in a three-story villa. The ground floor had a living room and kitchen, the second floor held bedrooms, and the third floor was an expansive open space with an array on the floor designed to gather spiritual energy. The ceiling was made of special glass that didn’t block ultraviolet rays, allowing sunlight to perfectly penetrate the room.

It was midday, and the sunlight filtered through the glass, shining upon a spirit beast with sparse fur, bald patches all over its body, and that was barely breathing.

If Qin Shu hadn’t told everyone that this was Bai Ze, Yun Xiguang would have found it impossible to associate this spirit beast with the legendary divine beast he’d encountered before.

“How did Bai Ze end up so injured?” Yun Xiguang asked.

He had heard from Li Zheng that Bai Ze predicted the emergence of the bookworm, revealing heavenly secrets and suffering divine retribution as a result. It had spat blood and fainted, never waking up again.

Bai Ze was a spirit beast with a clear understanding of things. When it made predictions, it knew exactly what kind of injury it would sustain. Logically, Bai Ze wouldn’t pay such a high price for humans; the prophecies it shared wouldn’t lead to its demise.

Bai Ze must have believed it could handle the repercussions of the prophecy before speaking out.

It shouldn’t have been injured to this extent.

Qin Shu also said, “I’m not sure either. Before attempting the prophecy, Bai Ze told me it might fall into a coma for some time, but not too long. It said that after a month of recuperation, it would wake up. But now, three months have passed, and not only has it not woken up, it’s developed symptoms such as hair loss and weight loss, completely different from what it expected.”

Qin Shu squatted down, placing his palm on Bai Ze’s body, with a tear falling in heartbreak.

He had failed to protect Bai Ze properly.

If he had known it would end like this, he would never have let Bai Ze risk peeking into the workings of heaven.

The aged Qin Shu sat beside Bai Ze, his expression serene as he resignedly said, “But I won’t let Bai Ze face this alone. I’ll be with it.”

The Azure Dragon transformed into a dragon floating in the air, two meters long, to avoid damaging the house with its larger form. Hearing Qin Shu’s words, it advised, “As long as the Spirit Contract is dissolved before death, neither the spirit beast nor the Spiritbond Master’s death will affect the other’s life.”

Yun Guanyue had dissolved his contract with the Azure Dragon before dying.

In most cases, a spirit beast’s soul energy was stronger than a Spiritbond Master’s. If a Spiritbond Master died, the spirit beast wouldn’t be affected, but it might be attacked by heavenly fire. Conversely, if a spirit beast died, the Spiritbond Master would perish due to the depletion of their soul energy.

Qin Shu could have avoided death by dissolving the contract, and Bai Ze would likely have agreed to dissolve it. Yet, Qin Shu didn’t do so.

Shaking his head, Qin Shu said, “I was originally just a poor boy who dropped out of school due to poverty. All my achievements in this life came from Bai Ze. Meeting Bai Ze was the luckiest thing that ever happened to me. Without Bai Ze, I can’t continue to enjoy the treatment it fought for me, unaware and unappreciative.

“Let the identity and glory of the dean be buried along with Bai Ze.”

He placed his hand on Bai Ze’s hoof, and the creature moved its foot slightly, seemingly responding to Qin Shu.

The Azure Dragon sighed deeply. “Humans, precisely because of your complexity and variability, you bind our souls, making us love and hate you at the same time.”

It stayed with the Yun family because it was moved by Yun Guanyue’s righteousness; it wanted to leave the Yun family because it was disgusted by their filth and thus despised humanity.

There were always those who showcased evil to the extreme, and there were always those who shone with the brilliant light of humanity.

Seeing Bai Ze in such a state, Yun Xiguang also sat down on the ground in sorrow, gently stroking the fur that hadn’t fallen out yet.

The Golden-Winged Little Peng, however, lacked empathy. It was now a loyal lackey to the Phoenix Venerable, and the Phoenix Venerable wanted Bai Ze to come pay respects. Even if Bai Ze was dead, someone had to carry it to meet the Phoenix Venerable.

It lowered its head, pecking at Bai Ze’s head to see if it could rouse it.

The Golden-Winged Little Peng applied quite a bit of force, piercing Bai Ze’s forehead and causing it to bleed.

Heartbroken, Qin Shu stood up and embraced Bai Ze. “Golden-Winged Great Peng, whatever grudge you have with Bai Ze, take it out on me. Why bully Bai Ze? It’s already so weak!”

The Golden-Winged Little Peng hadn’t expected Bai Ze to be so fragile. It merely pecked at it, not intending to attack.

It opened its mouth to explain, but when it spoke, it emitted a whistling sound, as if it had a leaky mouth.

“Whoosh~ I wasn’t, whoosh~ doing it on purpose, whoosh whoosh~~” the Golden-Winged Little Peng said.

Hearing its strange voice, everyone’s gaze fell on the bird’s beak.

“Your mouth…” Yun Xiguang said in surprise.

“Whoosh~ What’s wrong with whoosh~ my mouth whoosh~?” the Golden-Winged Little Peng said, struggling with a leaky mouth.

The Azure Dragon flicked its tail, creating a water mirror in front of the Golden-Winged Little Peng, allowing it to see its own appearance.

To its shock, the Golden-Winged Little Peng’s beak, renowned for its ability to cut through metal and stone, had several holes in it, as if corroded by something!

“Whoosh!” the Golden-Winged Little Peng exclaimed in surprise.

Just moments ago, it had been fine, but after pecking at Bai Ze, it ended up in this state.

Yun Xiguang immediately looked at Bai Ze’s forehead, noticing that the blood flowing from it was an abnormal black color.

Carefully, Yun Xiguang took out a tissue and wiped away Bai Ze’s blood. The tissue wasn’t corroded. He glanced at Qin Shu, who had held Bai Ze’s injured forehead but showed no signs of damage on his palm.

Gathering his courage, Yun Xiguang used his fingertip to wipe away the dirty blood from Bai Ze’s wound. The black blood landed on his fingertip, leaving his skin unharmed.

This blood posed no harm to humans or objects.

The Azure Dragon plucked a scale from its back and handed it to Yun Xiguang. “Try this.”

Yun Xiguang placed the scale on Bai Ze’s wound, which remained unhealed, continuously dripping blood.

As the black blood dripped onto the scale, the Azure Dragon’s scale, much like the Golden-Winged Little Peng’s beak, developed a hole.

“Is the blood flowing from Bai Ze’s wound harmful only to spirit beasts? Is this the power of the backlash from the prophecy?” Qin Shu asked.

The Azure Dragon shook its head. “No. Being backlashed by one’s own prophecy is fundamentally an overexertion of one’s abilities, using powers beyond what the body can handle. It’s similar to human athletes. Some weightlifters, in order to defeat their opponents, forcefully lift weights exceeding their capacity. After the competition, they immediately start bleeding from their noses and mouths because of the damage to their internal organs. This is the injury caused by overexertion.

“Humans have fragile bodies and find it difficult to overextend themselves without training. Spirit beasts, on the other hand, often possess the capability to withstand ten times or even a hundred times more force than their bodies can handle in an instant. Every spirit beast has such a trump card move, also known as a forbidden technique.”

Qin Shu said, “At first, Bai Ze’s injuries were indeed nosebleeds and unconsciousness. After placing it in this spirit gathering array, its condition gradually improved. But one day, it suddenly started losing hair, becoming weaker and weaker. Are you suggesting, Senior Azure Dragon, that this isn’t an injury from the backlash of the prophecy, but rather caused by something else? Was Bai Ze secretly attacked by someone?”

“But I’ve never seen such an injury before. In ancient times, there didn’t seem to be such a power,” the Azure Dragon said, puzzled.

Yun Xiguang asked, “Dean, during this time, were you constantly by Bai Ze’s side? Did you ever leave it? Did any spirit beast or human approach it?”

Qin Shu shook his head. “During this time, I only left once to attend a meeting. While attending, I also set up surveillance in the room, and no one approached Bai Ze.”

Yun Xiguang looked at the scale in his hand, noticing that the hole in the scale was slightly different in shape from the wound on the Golden-Winged Little Peng’s beak.

He then grabbed the Golden-Winged Little Peng and closely examined its beak.

“Whoosh~ What are you doing, whoosh~ don’t be impolite whoosh~” the Golden-Winged Little Peng resisted, its speech impaired.

“I’m observing your wound. Your wound is so round and symmetrical,” Yun Xiguang said.

He picked up the scale, and while the hole in the scale appeared round, it was actually irregular, resembling a liquid pattern on the table. However, the wound on the Golden-Winged Little Peng’s beak was perfectly round, unlike the corrosion caused by a liquid, and resembled the instant penetration of a needle.

Yun Xiguang then examined Bai Ze’s body, getting close enough to smell a faintly putrid odor. However, Bai Ze’s skin was intact, and the flesh didn’t appear rotten.

“Little Peng, help me with something,” Yun Xiguang said.

“Who gave you permission to call me whoosh~ Little Peng whoosh~~?” the Golden-Winged Great Peng angrily exclaimed.

Ignoring it, Yun Xiguang pointed at Bai Ze’s skin. “Please use your Divine Eye to help me inspect the skin where Bai Ze lost its hair and the skin where it hasn’t lost its hair.”

Although angry, the Golden-Winged Little Peng still helped out of respect for the Phoenix Venerable.

The Azure Dragon said, “I’ll connect your vision to the water mirror so everyone can see.”

Its dragon whisker moved, detaching and transforming into an invisible thread connecting the Golden-Winged Little Peng’s eye to the water mirror.

Everyone looked at the water mirror, seeing through the Golden-Winged Little Peng’s eyes the stark difference between the two areas of Bai Ze’s skin.

The area with hair was normal skin tissue, but the area without hair revealed thin lines. Bai Ze’s hairless skin was actually torn apart and stitched together with extremely fine threads that were indistinguishable to the naked eye.

If not for the Golden-Winged Little Peng’s careful inspection with its Divine Eye, no one would have noticed how Bai Ze’s skin had deteriorated.

“What’s going on?” Qin Shu gently stroked Bai Ze’s skin, filled with heartache. “What could have attacked Bai Ze under my watch?”

The Azure Dragon was also puzzled. “It seems like some sort of ability, but what spirit beast possesses such an ability?”

Yun Xiguang had a suspicion and immediately took out his phone to search for images online, comparing them to the pattern on the water mirror. Indeed, they matched perfectly.

“It’s the weaver ant,” Yun Xiguang said.

The Azure Dragon and the Golden-Winged Little Peng tilted their heads, pondering for a while before asking, “What is it?”

Qin Shu was also curious. “What kind of spirit beast is it? A newly discovered spirit beast by the Yun family?”

Shaking his head, Yun Xiguang replied, “Not a spirit beast, just an ant, a species of ant living on the fringes of Southeast Asia and tropical forests. After encountering the bookworm in the Records Department, I became interested in insects. Besides spirit beasts belonging to the insect category, I also read some biology books and learned about many ordinary insects.”

This wasn’t knowledge from the field of spirit beast studies, but rather biology, so neither the Azure Dragon, the Golden-Winged Little Peng, nor Qin Shu were familiar with it.

“You’re saying that Bai Ze was harmed by ordinary ants? It’s a divine beast!” Qin Shu said in disbelief.

“No,” the Azure Dragon said. “Spirit beasts were originally ordinary creatures. Some fortunate beings received the favor of a certain power and thus gained intelligence and formidable strength. Before Kunpeng soared nine thousand miles, it was just an ordinary seabird.”

“It’s the vitality bestowed by the honored lord who cares for all living beings,” the Golden-Winged Little Peng respectfully looked at Chi Qiong.

Yun Xiguang said, “A single or a group of ordinary weaver ants obtained the fourth spirit energy, giving birth to a new spirit beast.”