CH 21

There was a heavy aura inside the flying carriage, Ying Qianqiu’s pupils contracted as he stared at Ji Ning without blinking, before suddenly moving towards him.

With such a tiny beast cub body, Ji Ning couldn’t bear the terrifying aura. He lay on the ground trembling, barely able to stay conscious, when he was abruptly embraced by a pair of cold hands. 

A long, sharp sword was unsheathed and a humming energy quivered through the air. Qin Ruwang pointed his sword towards Ying Qianqiu, death aura colliding with spiritual energy. Facing such intense power, the monsters outside the carriage were frightened and ran away in a panic, causing the carriage to jolt violently.

“Qianqiu, stop!”

Seeing thin cracks spreading out across the carriage, Yun Dao tried to bring him back to his senses, “Yingxue, tell Qin Ruwang to stop!”

There was so much movement inside the carriage that it was noticed from outside. In a matter of seconds, many patrol guards arrived on flying horses, surrounding the carriage with their swords drawn. 

“My lord, are you alright? What happened?”

Through the curtains, Ji Ning could see the shadows outside the car. His heart clenched in worry. No matter how strong Qin Ruwang was, how could he resist Ying Qianqiu’s tens of thousands of subordinates?

“Ruwang, it’s alright. Qianqiu is not a bad person, put away your sword!”

Ji Ning jumped up and down in Qin Ruwang’s arms. After repeated persuasion, Qin Ruwang finally put down his sword and Ying Qianqiu restrained his aura, returning to his original cold indifference. But he still didn’t take his eyes off Ji Ning.

Ji Ning was disturbed by his probing gaze. He didn’t understand why Ying Qianqiu suddenly reacted like this. Why was he only doubting his identity now? It didn’t make sense, he hadn’t done anything unusual.

【Ying Qianqiu may indeed be suspicious of you. He can recognise your voice.】

Future connected his consciousness with Ji Ning and said,【When you first entered his world, there was a recording of your voice from when you were young inside a jade slip. It sounds near identical to your current voice.】

The jade slip… 

Ji Ning’s body froze when he heard Future’s words.

He had been through too many words and forgotten their intricate details but Future could store and retrieve all of his data. Once he was reminded, of course he remembered the jade slip. He had tried to take it back from Ying Qianqiu many times but was unsuccessful and Qianqiu had managed to keep it.

After he had finished his mission and was transferred on to the next world, Ji Ning hadn’t known what happened to the jade slip, but judging from Ying Qianqiu’s reaction just now, the jade slip was clearly still in his hands and he had listened to it enough to recognise his voice from just a few words.

This felt both unexpected and unfair. Even he couldn’t recall what his own voice sounded like when he was a child, how could he have predicted that Ying Qianqiu had already listened to his voice countless times… 

If Ying Qianqiu doubted his identity, then his reaction would make sense. This really wasn’t good…

Ji Ning couldn’t help but feel anxious. Although the familiar voice could make Ying Qianqiu suspicious, it wasn’t concrete evidence, but if Ying Qianqiu forced him to eat a Huaxing pill which revealed an appearance identical to how he looked previously, combined with the fact that he appeared right after the soul summoning ceremony, then he would be completely exposed.

【If you don’t want to reveal your identity, there is a method that might work.】Said Future.

「What can I do?」 

Ji Ning was a little surprised. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust Future, but rather he was surprised it was willing to help him. This wasn’t part of Future’s responsibilities and it had almost never interfered before.

【This method will not violate the regulations.】Future assured him,【This world is different from Gu Chen’s world. This is a high risk world with power and abilities, therefore I have the right to apply again to release your power seal. As for what you do with it, that is up to you.】

Ji Ning felt a wave of relief. Future was right. As long as his power seal was lifted, he could transform his appearance and successfully deceive Ying Qianqiu.

「Please help me apply.」He asked. 

【However, it will take some time for the application to get a reply. It can only be approved after seven working days.】

「Seven working days…」Ji Ning was speechless for a while, but was also used to the low work efficiency of the system operator. He gritted his teeth and said,「It doesn’t matter, I can wait.」

He could stay in Gu Chen’s world for those seven days. Oh wait, he needed his soul to recover for at least two days in this world. Then, as long as he could survive for two days in this world, he would be fine. It seemed that his current task was to avoid being fed the Huaxing pill for two days so that Ying Qianqiu could not confirm he was actually Ji Ning.

Of course, Ji Ning wouldn’t just abandon this world. He had to come back because he had promised himself he would restore Qin Ruwang’s intelligence and memory. 

【Okay, I have sent the application.】said Future,【I wish you all the best.】

「I’m still curious」said Ji Ning,「Why are you helping me? Even though it doesn’t violate the rules, I wouldn’t have expected you would take the initiative to help me with a personality like yours.」

【……】Future was silent for a moment, then responded【Because you said we were friends.】

Ji Ning was a little surprised. He joked,「If I had known this earlier, I would have called you my friend a long time ago.」 

Future did not respond and cut off contact. In reality, their conversation only took a few seconds and Ying Qianqiu and Qin Ruwang were still facing each other, with Yun Dao trying to stop them.

Now with an answer to his problem, Ji Ning no longer felt like he was crushed under pressure. Facing Qianqiu’s gaze, he calmed himself down, blinked his eyes, and asked timidly, “Qianqiu, did I make you angry?”

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The silver haired demon stared at the cub beside his feet with a calm expression, his thoughts unreadable. He bent down and picked up the cub, stroking its fur soothingly, “I’m not angry, rest assured.”

His answer made the girl beside them relax. It was all fine as long as he wasn’t angry. Qianqiu’s moods were truly terrible, she didn’t want to be anywhere near him when he was upset.

But if Qianqiu wasn’t angry, why did he react like that just now?

Yun Dao didn’t understand, so she stopped thinking about it and jumped up to the window, waving to the many guards outside, “Don’t worry, it’s fine in here, you can go.” 

The guards followed her order and dispersed.

Ji Ning stayed with Ying Qianqiu for a while, but seeing that Qin Ruwang seemed to want to draw his sword again, he jumped down quickly. Pretending to be extraordinarily innocent, he played with the tip of his tail, entertaining himself.

Ying Qianqiu turned to Yun Dao and said, “Yingxue’s subjugation of the corpse will be a great help for the future, he’s done a good job. Order someone to go to Tiandu city and collect one hundred Huaxing pills to help him gain a human form.”

“Okay!” 

Yun Dao’s eyes lit up, what Ying Qianqiu ordered was completely different from a usual Huaxing pill transformation. This way, the cub would not only gain a human shape but achieve an enlightened mind, which would help with his future cultivation.

“Little guy, aren’t you lucky,” she said to the cub, “Qianqiu said that he will definitely help you transform into a human. Are you excited?”

Of course Ji Ning wasn’t happy. On the contrary, he felt this was extremely troublesome. He knew that Ying Qianqiu only wanted to give him a human form in order to see if he looked like the Ji Ning of the past.

But he refused to expose his thoughts and showed an excited expression, wagging his tail, “I want to be a human! If I’m a human, can I be like Qianqiu and sister Yun Dao in the future? Awesome!” 

Yun Dao was overjoyed and happily raised the cub up into the air, “Of course! You, me and Qianqiu and Qin Ruwang, together we will be invincible against the world!”

Saying this, she took the cub and left the flying carriage, calling over someone to go to Tiandu city to buy the Huaxing pills. Qin Ruwang followed closely behind them, staring at Ying Qianqiu one last time before leaving.

Soon, Ying Qianqiu was left alone in the carriage. He sat with his usual indifferent expression but in reality, his heart was pounding.

He recalled the previous soul summoning ceremony. Once the ceremony was completed, he felt no response from the soul. He assumed the ceremony had failed again, but in the sacrifice cave, he and Yun Dao met Yingxue, who hadn’t died. Occasionally, some monsters did survive the blood sacrifice ceremony, but never weak cubs. 

Did this mean the summoning was successful? He couldn’t be sure. If Ji Ning really had been revived, then why did he attach himself to a beast rather than directly entering the body Ying Qianqiu had prepared for him?

Were there unexpected difficulties, or did Ji Ning not want to meet with him?

He couldn’t believe it was a coincidence that Yingxue and Xiaoxiao’s voices were the same. Yingxue had eaten a Huaxing pill and Yun Dao saw Xiaoxiao’s face in a daze. When he first saw Yingxue, he was reminded of Xiaoxiao. All these clues…it seemed he had always seen Xiaoxiao in Yingxue.

Just now, he had deliberately mentioned the Huaxing pill in front of Yingxue, but Yingxue hadn’t shown any abnormalities. He didn’t know whether it was because he lost his memories of his previous life, or if he deliberately pretended, but if Yingxue was really the person he was missing… 

The silver haired man’s eyes darkened and his fingers clenched slightly.

He would never let him go again.

Ji Ning was taken by Yun Dao and watched her order several people to go to Tiandu city and buy Huaxing pills. He felt uneasy but the people soon returned, saying the auctions had all closed as the city had entered curfew hour.

Yun Dao looked disappointed, but there was nothing she could do, so she sent them away and told them to buy the pills as soon as the city gate opened the next day. 

She then took the cub out to eat, ordering the kitchen to prepare delicacies from the mountains and seas to reward him. When the little cub lay motionless on the table with a full stomach, she revealed a satisfied smile.

It was only at this late time at night that Yun Dao encountered another problem. Since she had been raising the cub, he had slept in her flying carriage, but now Qin Ruwang was inseparable from the cub. The aura of his body was so gloomy, how could she sleep peacefully in the same room as him?

The girl was just thinking about asking around for an empty carriage when a servant came over, bowed respectfully, and said softly, “Good evening Saintess, the lord commanded this servant to send Yingxue over to the lord immediately, and…”

She glanced at Qin Ruwang, a little frightened, and said in a low voice, “And this lord, should also go with him.” 

“Okay, I’ll go right now.”

Yun Dao responded, slightly confused. She couldn’t think what Ying Qianqiu would want to do so late at night, and he hadn’t even asked for her, just for the cub to be sent over.

She asked Qin Ruwang to pick up the cub, and carried them over to Ying Qianqiu’s carriage with her internal qi. Although she was very curious about what Ying Qianqiu wanted, he clearly didn’t want her to stay, as the moment the cub entered his carriage, he waved his sleeves and moved her outside with a burst of qi.

So mean! 

The girl ran back to sleep angrily. It didn’t matter anyway, she soothed herself, the next day she would directly ask Xue Tuan what had happened.

Inside the carriage, Ji Ning sat at the table, staring at a plate of spiritual fruit in front of him in horror.

Ying Qianqiu was wearing a plain white shirt, his silver moonlight hair loose across his shoulders, slightly softening his harsh features and giving him an elegant beauty.

He stretched out slender fingers, plucked up a cyan Lingguo fruit and placed it against the cub’s mouth, calling out, “Yingxue.” 

No, he didn’t want to eat it…

Looking at the Lingguo fruit, Ji Ning felt a conflict in his heart. It was the food he hated the most in the world. Even if he took a single bite he would want to throw up. Ying Qianqiu must still doubt him, so he was using this as a test.

In contrast with his own tastes, the snow beasts saw this spiritual fruit as a delicacy, as it would rarely grow in the habitat they populated. They coverted the fruit so much that there were even cases where snow beasts fought to the death over a single fruit.

Although Ji Ning currently occupied the body of a snow beast cub, his spiritual disgust for the fruit overpowered any biological urges. Facing the spirit fruit, he not only had no appetite, but felt the desire to immediately run away. 

This was just forcing him to eat shit!

The tip of Ji Ning’s tail trembled, but facing this terrifying thing, he had no other options. No other snow beast would be able to resist the temptation of the Lingguo fruit, if he ran away, it would prove to Ying Qianqiu that he wasn’t really a snow beast.

“Thank you Qianqiu. Wow, I can really eat this…”

Ji Ning’s eyes watered with tears but he pretended to be ecstatic as he took the fruit into his mouth. The wretched taste filled his mouth and his body went rigid. 

“How is it?” Ying Qianqiu asked.

“Too…”

The cub burst into tears, as if crying tears of joy, “Too…”

“If you really like it, “ Ying Qianqiu pushed the full fruit bowl in front of him, “It’s all yours, eat it clean.” 

Thud.

The cub slipped off the table and fell to the floor.

Fortunately, in the end Ji Ning convinced Ying Qianqiu that he had eaten too much earlier and was too full to finish the plate of spiritual fruit. Otherwise, he might have really died at the hands of Ying Qianqiu.

This was definitely to test him… 

Ji Ning slumped into a soft pile, his tail hanging down weakly.

Fortunately Yun Dao had made him eat so much earlier, giving him a reason to reject the Lingguo fruit, but he knew this only made him look more suspicious in Ying Qianqiu’s eyes.

He was really pushing him…

After tossing around such a small body all day, Ji Ning was very tired and unable to resist the pull of sleep. He curled up to sleep on the table and quickly fell into a dream. 

He dreamed of Qin Ruwang’s world. As the God son, he had asked the monarch for the young prince and taken him to his side, but Qin Ruwang had soon discovered his mother’s death was caused by a God’s child.

Bang.

Hearing the sounds of broken plates from behind the closed door, the Goddess daughter looked worried, turning to face Ji Ning as she said sadly, “He still refuses to eat…”

Since the boy had arrived in the palace of the Gods he had locked himself inside a room and refused to eat. He would show nothing but extreme hatred at the sight of the God son and Goddess daughter. If they weren’t protected by the servants, he would have directly rushed up and strangled them. 

“I’ll go to him.”

Ji Ning exhaled, he had never expected such a situation. The Qin Ruwang in the original novel became silent and withdrawn after the death of his mother, he didn’t act like this at all. The reason his reaction was so intense now was probably because he was facing his enemies directly, unlike in the original novel when there was a distance of heaven and earth between him and the children of the Gods.

Since this was his fault, he had to be the one to solve it.

With the aid of a palace servant, Ji Ning slowly walked over. The servant entered the door first, eyeing the boy cautiously, fearing he might injure the noble God son. 

The room had long since become a mess, most of the gorgeous furnishings smashed to pieces. Chairs had been thrown across the room and there was not a single undamaged area.

The boy was crumpled on the bed, his chest heaving, panting for breath. Hearing the sound of the door opening, he raised his head, staring at Ji Ning with red eyes.

This time he didn’t rush at Ji Ning like before, just stared without saying a word. Ji Ning guessed he was exhausted from three days without food, so asked the palace servant to help him walk over to the boy.

“You-” 

Just as he started to speak, the boy moved suddenly, raising his hand to reveal a sharp piece of porcelain that he fiercely stabbed towards Ji Ning.

“Lord God, be careful!”

Panicked, the palace servant pushed Ji Ning away. Ji Ning’s body was weak and he fell to the ground, while the boy, relying on his lithe stature, avoided the palace servant’s hands and pounced on Ji Ning again.

Amidst the chaos, the shard held by the boy pierced into Ji Ning’s chest, his white clothes instantly dyed a dazzling crimson. 

Ji Ning felt a pain in his chest but wasn’t worried. The wound wasn’t deep and was far from fatal.

Qin Ruwang was only young and hadn’t eaten in a long time. Even if he harboured deep hatred, he couldn’t exert too much strength. What’s more, his hands were shaking so violently that he had missed the heart.

The palace servant rushed to pull the boy away but Ji Ning stopped him softly. He smiled at him and said, “You can go out, I want to talk to him alone.”

“Lord God, it’s dangerous!” 

The palace servant was terrified and knelt down to beg him but Ji Ning kept insisting and even said that he would be executed immediately if he didn’t leave. Finally the servant left, closing the door behind him.

“Please let it go.”

Ji Ning gently held the boy’s hand and opened his fingers one by one, revealing a bloody palm, “Your hand is hurt.”

The boy’s injury might have been more serious than his. He had been holding the porcelain so tightly that his palm had been cut to pieces, a slither of bone visible. 

Ji Ning stroked the boy’s hand, finding it much rougher than his own. Ji Ning’s hands were smooth and unblemished. As the God son, the heaviest thing he had to hold in this world was a mask. This boy was a prince, his hands shouldn’t be like this.

But Ji Ning knew that although the boy was a prince in name, he had never been treated as one. He hadn’t even had the prince’s naming ceremony. The name ‘Ruwang’ was given by his mother. As a slave, his mother would have had a job that required hard labour. To have such hands at his age, Ruwang must have been working alongside her.

But the only person he had to rely on in the world was gone.

The blood continued to flow out the wound. Ji Ning took out some of the medicine he was forced to carry with him and smeared it across the boy’s palm, creating a seal to stop the blood flow. He asked in a low voice, “Does it hurt?” 

“…”

The boy lowered his head and said nothing, but tears dripped down his face, wetting Ji Ning’s sleeve.

Ji Ning slowly wrapped his arms around the boy’s back, holding the thin boy. At first the boy struggled, but hearing Ji Ning’s weak breathing he stopped, leaning into Ji Ning’s arms. Slowly he began to cry, the sound getting louder and louder.

“Why do you try to take care of me…” The boy’s tears soaked into Ji Ning’s clothes, “You killed my mother, so just kill me, why are you trying to look after me…” 

“Because you are called by both heaven and earth. You will ascend to the throne and be named Emperor. You will rule over nations and be famous amongst the people.”

Ji Ning stroked his hair and spoke in a soft voice.

Qin Ruwang’s crying stopped abruptly.

He raised his red rimmed eyes and stared carefully at Ji Ning. Although he was young, there was a frightening chill in his eyes. 

“So you’re nice to me, just because of that?” he asked.

Ji Ning shook his head and said nothing.

“I won’t forgive you.” Qin Ruwang said each word carefully, “If there is such a day, I will wipe out the kingdom of Wushen, slaughter your Gods and people and burn down your idols. I will dig up your corpse and burn you to ashes so you can never enter reincarnation.”

“You can’t kill me now, or you will be executed. But you don’t have to wait until I die to vent your anger on my bones.” 

Ji Ning smiled, “Before I die, you will become the Emperor of Daxia. Then you can give me death and burn me to ashes.”

He hugged the boy tenderly and said with a smile.

“I’m waiting for you to kill me.”