“Master!” Niu Lang and Zhi Nu kneeled down and greeted Jin, which shocked him for a moment.
“Alright, you two. Do not disturb the Master, go and enjoy your new house.” Que Er, the Queen of Magpies, was standing beside Jin with an elegant smoke pipe in her mouth. Staying true to the lore, Jin had custom-built a house that had a bridge behind it and right behind the house? A setting Moon instead of a Sun as the backdrop of their home instance.
Apparently, Jin only had access to Niu Lang, Zhi Nu and the Queen of Magpies, Que Er. The rest of the bosses and minions were not unlocked for him by the System. Perhaps the system thought that it would be too generous to give him the entire cast of the Qixi Festival dungeon instance. Or maybe, it felt that Jin was not ready to receive the entire cast since his cultivation was still considerably low. Whatever the reason was, Jin did not care much and created a house to let these two star crossed lovers have a proper home.
“But they sure were happy to see each other even though they are still together,” Jin commented vaguely but the Queen of Magpies interjected with her own remarks. “It’s because before you brought them together, they were only allowed to see each other once a year…for centuries.”
“Isn’t Niu Lang a mortal? How did he…” Que Er knew that question was coming so she interrupted Jin. “He realised he was only part mortal after the whole incident. Remember Taurus, the ox that he took care of? That old cow stayed with the cowherd boy for far too long and gave him his everything. Leather hide, tail hair, horn, and meat.”
“Niu Lang ate the meat of the celestial ox, making him partially immortal. People did not know that he lived for centuries before he finally died of old age. I helped him look younger every time he went to meet Zhi Nu so that he would not feel so guilty looking imperfect every time they reunited.” Que Er added.
“Soon after, since the strands of tail hair were being used up, they decided to not use the entire strand but half the strand per year. The duration was cut drastically and they saw each other for maybe 10 mins or so. The powers of half the strand were not equivalent to half of a full strand.” The Queen of Magpies took another puff of smoke in.
“On their last encounter, they did not even speak a single word and instead just stared into each other’s eyes until the strand magic was used up. Niu Lang lived for another 50 odd years or so before he died in a secluded area of the world.”
“There are a lot of things that don’t add up. Why are you helping this couple so much? How did Niu Lang survive so long without being noticed by anyone else?”
“Because Taurus helped my mortal lover, which was the reason why he was punished and sent to Earth. Yet, despite his sacrifice, both of us were not daring enough to accomplish what Zhi Nu and Niu Lang had. So whenever I helped them, it was actually just me selfishly trying to remember my old lover before he passed on due to sickness.” Jin could see Que Er trembling a little as she retold her story to him.
“Sorry,” Jin said to her but she shook her head. “A partial immortal was not safe so I kept him under wraps in a magical farmland. He did not complain much and his only goal was to see Zhi Nu once a year. If you look at it from some other perspective, it might look like he had an unhealthy obsession for her and I was encouraging that even more, but he wanted to stay that way. Hence I complied.” Que Er replied.
“Then this Niu Lang…” Jin looked at Niu Lang, so young and robust, who did not in any way look like the man Que Er had described.
“I do not know, I thought this was your doing, bringing the three of us together again.” Que Er looked at him with a curious eye.
“Actually, the system brought them together.” Yun appeared in front of them.
“The system wanted to know what love is?” Jin tried to deduce the system’s intention but Yun shrugged her shoulders. “All I know is that the system brought these people together again. It didn’t want to tell me what its purpose was though.”
“In any case, Que Er. If you are uncomfortable staying with those two star crossed lovers, tell me and I will create a new house or something.” Jin told Que Er but she laughed.
“Me? Uncomfortable? Give me a roof to perch on and I will already be happy enough. To see the two of them together? You made my oldest wish come true.” Que Er waved goodbye to Jin as she turned into a beautiful red magpie and flew around in the night sky.
———–
Lastly, Jin visited the Deep Ones’ Home Instance with Yun since she was around. It had an absolutely different atmosphere in comparison to the star crossed lovers Home Instance. Jin had not wanted to try this because he thought he might drown in it, but surprisingly he was able to breathe normally… even in the lowest depth of the seas with just a ray of dwindling light shining through the waters.
He released the Deep Ones from his phone along with Derpy and they looked really excited to view the Seabed Town, which was modelled from Luvcraft’s illustrations of Innsmouth. While the Deep Ones were exploring the area, Derpy came towards Jin with its eye right in front of him. Even the diameter of Derpy’s eyeball was three times larger than Jin’s height.
“Insolent one, do you not know the kind of wrath you will receive by capturing a fragment of Lord Dagen? I might be under your control at the moment but know this. He will not forget the loss of his fragment. In fact, if he knows that you still have a fragment of him, Lord Dagen will do whatever it takes to retrieve it back, even if it means allying with the Great Old Ones.”
“Ehh, so are you my ally?” Jin was not scared a single bit and was playing around with Derpy.
“Unwillingly, yes. Somehow, you broke the connection between this particular fragment of Lord Dagen and the main body. I still have his powers but whenever I use them, let it be a reminder. Once I unleash my destructive powers and abilities for you puny human to observe, always remember that Lord Dagen can use the same moves a hundred times- No, a thousand times stronger than me!”
“Okay, Derpy. Hand.” Jin lifted his hand out and Derpy pulled its gigantic hand out and gently tapped the tip of its claws against Jin’s hand. “Good Fish.”
“I am not just a Fish! I am not Derpy either! I am the fragment of Lord Dagen’s Entity! I am -” Before Derpy could finish its words, Peppers appeared between it and Jin.
“So?” Peppers folded her arms and Derpy immediately laid its entire body down in submission.
“There you go, that’s a good fish. Now listen to Master Jin or I’ll give you to Chef Roro so he can make you into sashimi.” Peppers winked at Jin and he chuckled as he patted Peppers’ head.
“Now, Derpy. Go govern your underlings. Make sure they are ready for fights. Soon I will create a dungeon for you guys to terrorise the cultivators.” Jin said and Derpy reluctantly agreed.
“Do not worry Derpy, to the cultivators, you are Shadow Dagen. A shadow of the Real Lord Dagen. Better than just a fragment.” Jin waved goodbye as he went back to the store, still dry and clean. Derpy was secretly delighted by the new name and started to command the Deep Ones around to make themselves comfortable.
“New Day, New Customers.” Jin stretched a little before he checked if everything was in order to open the store.
