GRMFBS CH306

Zhan Jinli furrowed his brows.

If Yan Yan really was Bai Ze, everyone’s reactions were indeed reasonable. But…

“It shouldn’t be…” Zhan Jinli swallowed back the rest of his words. He exchanged looks with Wan Yan.

Wan Yan understood directly from his inner thoughts.

Divine abilities originated from the soul and could roughly be divided into two categories.

One category was like Zhan Jinli’s. Originally an ordinary koi carp, he cultivated into a demon later on and developed his own divine abilities. The connection between this type of divine ability and the soul wasn’t as inextricably bound, allowing him to cut out his demonic core of his own accord and utilize his divine ability to stabilize Wan Yan’s soul.

The other category was like Di Ting and Chongming—these mythical beasts possessed innate divine abilities from birth, and their powers were woven far more tightly into their souls.

Di Ting had lost his divine ability, causing his soul to nearly disperse.

No one understood better than Zhan Jinli what state an innate mythical beast was left in upon losing its divine ability. Di Ting’s divine ability was merely lost, whereas Bai Ze had destroyed his own divine ability back then.

Zhan Jinli knew he could use his own divine ability to fill the hollow within Di Ting’s soul and stabilize him, but he could never save Bai Ze through the same means. Bai Ze’s divine ability wasn’t lost—it had been destroyed, or at least a portion of it was. His soul had inevitably suffered trauma because of it.

Even if Bai Ze had retained a portion of his divine abilities, it was impossible for him to be entirely normal—just look at what Wan Yan had been reduced to after the incident. If Bai Ze was still alive, he would most likely be a little half-wit right now.

How could his younger brother possibly be him? Yan Yan was totally normal, lively and bouncing around all day.

Listening to Zhan Jinli’s inner thoughts, Wan Yan grew confused as well.

Oh, right. How did Bai Ze manage to stay normal?

Seeing Wan Yan’s dazed look, Zhan Jinli knew he couldn’t count on getting any more answers out of him.

Better head back and discuss this with the others first.

Wan Yan watched Zhan Jinli furtively as his inner voice kept buzzing straight into his ears.

Ghost King Lin Yuan had an aloof and indifferent disposition, so his inner thoughts were usually quite simple. Wan Yan rarely heard much unless Lin Yuan was experiencing intense emotions.

Well, Lin Yuan’s emotions are pretty intense right now. He was replaying so many shocked reactions from when he first learned about the family’s secret identities in his head…

Who told him not to listen when he had the chance?

Zhan Jinli suddenly shot Wan Yan a glance.

Wan Yan flinched, sitting up rod-straight with his tail curled primly over his front paws, looking extraordinarily well-behaved.

Zhan Jinli: “What are your plans?”

Wan Yan: “Ah… Me? Can I come to your house?”

Bai Ze had already sorted out the messy business of everyone in the household hiding their secret identities, so Wan Yan wouldn’t have to worry if he visited.

Zhan Jinli considered it for a moment, saw no issue with it, and nodded.

…

Holding the clingy Xingxing in his arms, Zhan Yan was scrolling through the chaofan forum.

Lately, the forum was dominated by two primary topics: the sudden surge of anomalies, and the cooperation between the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau and the Wan Yao Alliance.

Zhan Yan had originally logged on to check if any clues slipped through the cracks, but he unexpectedly stumbled upon a heated argument thread.

The thread’s title and contents were quite standard at first:

{There are so many scammers lately… I got scammed again, wuwuwu.}

OP: Human society is just full of traps. I just bought a few things online, and not long after, I got a call claiming to be official customer service. They said there was a quality defect with my purchase and wanted to issue a refund. I clicked the link, and all the money in my bank card was wiped out, wuwuwu.

The first few replies were fairly normal, merely expressing sympathy toward the OP and discussing the rampant scams lately.

Starting from the 7th floor, things took a turn.

7L: OP must be a demon, right? Humans are exceptionally cunning; playing by human rules simply won’t work.

9L: Exactly. I also hid my identity to live in a human city, honestly working to earn a wage, only for the boss to withhold my pay. I used a little magic to intimidate him into coughing up my wages, and the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau actually came to warn me instead!

14L: The Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau is completely unfair. They don’t do anything about human wrongdoing, only keeping their eyes glued on us. Humans are just selfish and deceitful.

…

The OP also chimed in among these comments.

A few hot-tempered human cultivators started arguing back, driving the thread’s replies higher and higher.

Zhan Yan felt something was off. He seemed to have seen this style of instigation before.

Opening his melon entries to investigate—yep, just as suspected, anomalies were pulling the strings.

67L: What? The OP got scammed and isn’t even allowed to complain? You humans are hilarious—you deceive people and won’t let others speak up?

69L: Oh, so there are no bad demons out there? You just have to generalize, don’t you? Wasn’t the Taotie that slaughtered innocents and devoured everything one of your demon kind?

72L: Stop fighting. The Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau and the Wan Yao Alliance are cooperating right now. Aren’t you slapping the authorities in the face by brawling like this?

73L: Heh, cooperating my ass. The Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau’s bias is obvious.

74L: And what about it? Taking in Xiangliu after he destroyed half a continent—the Wan Yao Alliance is so righteous, right?

76L Approaching Science: OP has a grand total of 0.32 yuan in their bank account.

77L Approaching Science: 9L is a human; what are you playing a demon for? The anomaly helping you conceal your identity is unreliable. Reported.

78L Approaching Science: The Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau has a dedicated Human-Demon Dispute Mediation Department. If anyone gets cheated in human society, go to them directly. Last time rare ore deposits were prospected in a mountain forest inhabited by tiger demons, they went to the mediation department, which immediately sealed the mine and designated the whole area a nature reserve. Check for yourself whether the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau is biased or not.

79L Approaching Science: 74L is a cockroach demon that was kicked out of the Wan Yao Alliance for secretly laying eggs inside other demons’ homes.

80L Approaching Science: Everyone else, don’t get misled by these deliberate instigators.

Zhan Yan fired off a string of replies, halting the thread so completely that no one posted for a solid thirty seconds.

When people started replying again, everyone was significantly calmer.

82L: Hahahahaha! I felt something was fishy watching this thread unfold earlier and kept spectating. Approaching Science is a fan of both Tianshi and Chongming Demon King; he must have been anxious watching this thread, right?

83L: Same here. It’s tough for Approaching Science too. Who told the two big boss factions he stans to be on bad terms with each other?

Zhan Yan: … Hmph! If you thought it was fishy earlier, why didn’t you say anything then? Just wait until we don’t have to hide our secret identities anymore—when news of my parents’ marriage drops, it’ll scare you all to death!

He began pinging several administrators. Time to work! Hurry up and ban these troublemakers!

While waiting for the admins to reply, Zhan Yan turned his head and told Gu Jiancheng, “I found several anomaly leads.”

Gu Jiancheng’s shadow avatar immediately got to work.

Zhan Yan turned back to the forum. The one handling business was Administrator Luowang.

Luowang had fallen asleep again a while back, but she happened to be awake right now.

With high efficiency, she banned a batch of accounts and put up a public notice.

Approaching Science: [You’re awake?]

He thought the one handling it would be Administrator Lingyu or his brother. Luowang had been asleep earlier.

Administrator Luowang: [Just woke up.] [Though since when did the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau and the Wan Yao Alliance start cooperating so deeply?]

Approaching Science: [While you were asleep.]

Administrator Luowang: [Ohh.] [Still feels a bit weird.] [This cooperation is awfully thorough.]

Zhan Yan: That’s because my parents’ disguises both dropped. However, he couldn’t share this with his gossip buddy.

Administrator Luowang: [Still, cooperating is a good thing.] [These instigators are truly annoying.] [When I banned them just now, their desires smelled so foul they practically choked me to death.] [Let me tell you, I just dug up a massive melon from one of the banned users.]

Zhan Yan waited patiently for Luowang to dish out the gossip.

Five minutes ticked by.

Zhan Yan: ??? Why did she vanish halfway through opening the melon? Did Luowang fall back asleep? Falling asleep so abruptly—was she feeling alright?

Better let Dad know first.

…

Mount Chaofu.

Zhan Jinli suddenly received a notification from the forum. Opening it, he saw his younger brother calling him to work.

Administrator Rather Die Than Own A Cat hadn’t used his admin privileges in so long that he was exceedingly rusty. By the time he finally located the account-banning function, Luowang had already finished the job.

Zhan Jinli gave up.

A sudden thought crossed his mind:

[If I’d known the admin account had this feature earlier, I could have banned Wan Yan back when his sickness was acting up.]

[Wan Yan didn’t hear that, did he?]

The Wan Yan cat: … The little cat’s tail awkwardly switched directions to wrap around himself. Never mind me, don’t look at me. I can pretend I didn’t hear that.

After the two Ghost Kings sat across from each other in silence for a while, the communicator in Zhan Jinli’s possession shattered the quiet.

The new message came from the private group chat the family had made behind Yan Yan’s back.

Chongming: [Candle Dragon has awakened.]

After Monster Doctor died, a massive amount of Candle Dragon power was released. Da Wule had rushed the job to purify all of that Candle Dragon power.

By now, that power had already returned to Candle Dragon for some time, and after fusing and recuperating, the Candle Dragon who had slept for twenty-seven years finally woke up.

Xunmu Demon King was ecstatic.

The sleeping Candle Dragon often released temporal ripples inside his hollow, to the point where the erected protective barriers could barely hold. He was constantly terrified that the barriers would fail one day, and Candle Dragon would throw temporal ripples everywhere from a nightmare. It took him so many years to grow such a thick trunk; he couldn’t let it get ruined by Candle Dragon.

Xunmu Demon King was so pleased that he used his fluorescent moss to arrange a welcome ceremony for Candle Dragon.

Candle Dragon opened her eyes, and just as she dizzily figured out her surroundings, she saw an assortment of chaotic glowing moss arranged into bizarre shapes, blinking wildly around her. It had quite the eye-burning, polluting effect.

Candle Dragon: !!! Had she not sensed the pure vitality of nature from it, she almost wouldn’t have held back from whipping it with her tail.

“Xunmu, what are you doing?” Candle Dragon’s ethereal, cool voice echoed in the tree hollow.

Xunmu Demon King: “Celebrating your awakening!”

Candle Dragon was silent for several seconds: “Thank you, I appreciate the thought.”

How on earth did Xunmu’s aesthetic sense turn into something like this?! …Oh, right, some demon hooked Xunmu up to the internet, didn’t they? That’s how his tastes got led astray.

Luckily, her dream incarnation had never disconnected from the network. Otherwise, having slept for twenty-seven years during a period of massive changes, she would have needed quite a while to adjust after waking up.

Candle Dragon turned around, wanting to avert her gaze from this eye-searing ring of fluorescent moss, only to discover that Xunmu had completely covered every corner of the tree hollow with it.

Candle Dragon: … “Get me connected to the network.”

“What do you need the internet for?” Xunmu opened a passage. “Head outside; I’ll hook you up out there.”

Candle Dragon swiftly glided out through the passage. Outside the hollow, the mountain woods were misty and lush with moist greenery. She couldn’t help taking a deep breath; the vertical eye on her forehead blinked twice, revealing a touched expression.

Ah… these pure colors, this gentle lighting, these natural forms—how wonderful!

Xunmu Demon King was very satisfied too. He tossed out all the luminous pearls used for the barriers, the stones brought from Mount Zhong, and all sorts of other junk.

Burp—much better.

He extended a branch down to scoop Candle Dragon up, speaking lazily: “The leaf functions as a screen; just input what you want using your spiritual energy. I’ll go tell everyone you’ve awakened… What are you getting online for, anyway?”

Candle Dragon skillfully logged into Administrator Luowang’s account, her tail tapping out an impatient beat against the branch: “I need to find Approaching Science.”

Xunmu, having just sent a message to Zhan Yunkai: “What do you want with Approaching Science?”

Candle Dragon sighed in distress: “I have something very important to tell him, but I can’t explain it all completely, because there are parts he’d better not know…”

Xunmu Demon King didn’t understand her convoluted goal, but he had another solution:

“Then you can just tell Chongming. It shouldn’t matter if Chongming knows the things Approaching Science can’t know, right?”

Candle Dragon’s head filled with question marks: “What’s the use of telling Chongming?”

Xunmu Demon King: “Chongming is Approaching Science’s dad.”

Candle Dragon: “Huh?”

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