“You can’t handle him?” a startled Lu Yun asked the big-headed doll.
“This little grandpa is only so old, my body hasn’t fully developed yet. Once I grow up, I’ll be able to take on this Fire Virtue Potentate…” the doll sighed solemnly. “Huh? Wait, Lu Yun, we’re not friends! We might even have to fight each other at some point. Don’t you dare think that I’ll take care of that ghost below for you!”
His casual use of Lu Yun’s name indicated that he was very familiar with the young man, casting even more doubt in Lu Yun’s mind on where the doll came from. But of one thing he was certain—the big-headed doll had something to do with his future self.
“Don’t worry, that’s my affair. I don’t need your help,” Lu Yun nodded.
“No, wait, I’m here to stop you. You better watch yourself!” the doll quickly added when something occurred to him.
“I’ll leave right now if you return Ghost Dragon and Ghost Phoenix to me,” Lu Yun responded gravely.
The doll blinked, then said meaningfully, “Are you so sure that they’re yours?”
“They’re not mine, they just helped me before, so I owe them a favor. I need to pay it back,” Lu Yun said.
“Then fine, go do whatever you wish to do. It doesn’t matter a single carrot to me in the least! I wouldn’t have bothered coming here if it wasn’t for that old donkey in the lost ancient city. So what if the Hongmeng is destroyed? This little grandpa will just live it up in the fourth realm!” snorted the big-headed doll before sneaking a look at Lu Yun. He deflated when he saw the young man remain completely unmoved by his performance.
“You can’t have Ghost Dragon and Ghost Phoenix, someone else will take them sooner or later if they’re by your side. No one knows where the real article is if they’re with me, and no one knows which is their true body,” harrumphed the doll. “And don’t ask about their backgrounds, you’ll be another Azure Dragon Divine King if you ask.”
Lu Yun: ……
“Did you create the akasha ghosts?” Lu Yun looked at the brush in his hand and the one in the doll’s hand. They looked the exact same and bore the same presences; both of them could draw akasha ghosts.
“Would I need to hide in this forsaken place if I could create akasha ghosts?! You need to ask yourself where they come from! You’re the reason why I’m like this too!” The doll rolled his eyes at Lu Yun and waved his coffin into his hand. “Anyway, you need to leave this place and not touch the Fire Virtue Potentate!”
“…can I take a bite of your coffin?” A bewitched Feng Qi stared spellbound at the big-headed doll’s coffin.
“A bite of my coffin? Sure, if you want to lose all of your teeth—huh? Huh? Huhhh?? What are you doing, actually biting it? Open your mouth! Get your mouth off my coffin! This is my treasure!” The doll jumped with shock.
Feng Qi really had thrown himself at the coffin and chomped down a few times. It took only a few breaths for several large bite marks to appear on the formerly pristine coffin.
Alarmed and horrified, the big-headed doll squawked with outrage. His incomparably strong coffin was as if a large bun in the strange young man’s hands—completely ineffective and inert!
“Yummy!” Feng Qi took another large bite.
Bam!
The doll snapped out of his daze and promptly gave up on the coffin, instead punting Feng Qi away with a kick.
Feng Qi flew away with a thirty-meter-long plank from the coffin in his mouth, keeping a death grip on his prize. The immeasurably durable material was as weak as tofu in his hands.
“What, what, what kind of monster are you?!” yelped the doll. “My coffin is made of the fourth realm spirit root Soulprison Wood! There’s almost nothing harder than it in the fourth realm and certainly nothing in the Hongmeng that can leave marks on it! What are your teeth made of??
Lu Yun and the Fish King also gaped at Feng Qi. While they may not know what the Soulprison Wood was, a spirit root of the fourth realm was peerless treasure. Feng Qi had eaten it, just like that?!
“Good treasure, nice treasure! Just one bite of this fills me halfway!” Black and blue from the doll’s kick, Feng Qi nevertheless wore a content smile. All was right in his world when his stomach was full.
“Your body is as durable as an ultimate Hongmeng treasure. Pfft, you don’t need the protection of the Thousand Obliteration Formation of the Six Royals.” The big-headed doll swiftly put his coffin away, deeply afraid that this weirdo would set his sights on it again.
“My body is durable, but my nascent spirit is really weak. Anyone can shatter my nascent spirit with just a little bit of strength,” Feng Qi responded glumly. “I’d be invincible in the realm if my nascent spirit was also really strong.”
“That’s true.” The doll thought about it and shuddered when he realized that Feng Qi was staring greedily at him again. “Forget about it, this little grandpa’s not sticking my nose into this. It doesn’t matter when I pay back the favor I owe to that donkey, so I’m calling it quits today!”
He grumbled some more and cast one final terrified look at Feng Qi before vanishing in a streak of light.
The brush in Lu Yun’s hand twitched, wanting to leave with the big-headed doll, but Lu Yun kept a firm grasp on it.
“There’s a brush like that in the Terra treasury as well,” the Fish King suddenly offered.
“Oh? Just like this one?” Lu Yun blinked.
“Yes. The Terra ruler once allowed me to choose any treasure from the vaults. I wanted that brush, but it wouldn’t leave with me.” The Fish King nodded.
“What did you choose in the end?” Feng Qi interjected and cast a disinterested look at the brush in Lu Yun’s hand.
“Nothing,” the Fish King responded shortly. “I’d have to become the consort of that piece-of-trash crown prince if I chose anything.”
The Terra Potentate and ruler of the Terra divine nation weren’t the same person. The potentate was the creator of the divine nation and its spiritual representative. He was more like a deity to the people, and the ruler his disciple. The ruler administered Terra on the potentate’s behalf, acting like an emperor.
All of the ten divine nations operated in such a manner—none of the eleventh potentates were the nation’s ruler. The crown prince that the Fish King had beaten before was the ruler’s son, not the potentate’s son.
Since Feng Qi was the Aer Potentate’s son, he was infinitely more noble than the Terra crown prince.
“I see,” Feng Qi nodded. “I’d thought you’d claim the Terra Book.”
I really wonder what’s the story behind the akasha ghosts…
