GRMFBS CH110

Basil Gallagher had never gotten an X-ray or a CT scan, and he was quite unfamiliar with his own internal anatomical structure.

The shapeshifting boss Zhan Yan had connected with over the past two days was a chameleon demon named Xi Mu.

Senior Xi Mu had his own distinct aesthetic sense. He wore a brightly colored, floral-print shirt with the top two buttons undone, paired with narrow black trousers, oversized sunglasses, and highlighted hair. He looked incredibly fashionable.

The moment Xi Mu saw the centaur, his eyes lit up. “A centaur shapeshifting? My goodness, this is a brand-new research topic!”

He happened to be a professor at a university for demons.

Basil Gallagher couldn’t help but tremble slightly under his intense stare. He felt something was a bit off about attending this Cultivator Convention today; he had been feeling a sudden, inexplicable chill earlier too.

“Don’t worry, don’t be scared. I’m mainly just excited to see a new research topic.” Seeing his nervousness, Xi Mu adeptly began to comfort him. “Let me explain shapeshifting to you first. Shapeshifting is different from illusions. Illusions merely provide a superficial cover, while the essence remains unchanged. Shapeshifting is different; it’s a complete transformation. You can switch between two forms, and each form is entirely whole and functional.”

“Look at him.” Xi Mu pointed at Han Shen. “Does a sea cucumber have facial features? No, right? But look at him now—he has eyes where eyes should be and a nose where a nose should be. Doesn’t he look perfectly human?”

Han Shen: …Thanks for dragging me into this.

“Therefore, to shapeshift, you need to understand the physical structures of the different forms.” Xi Mu spoke logically, completely confusing the centaur. “Say, how many hearts do you have? Is it in the human half or the horse half?”

[Xi Mu is also incredibly curious about the physiological structure of a centaur.]

Basil Gallagher said pitifully, “I-I don’t know. Please don’t use the word ‘half’ to describe it, that sounds terrifying.”

Xi Mu whisked the centaur away. Han Shen went off to figure out how he was going to explain things to the still-unconscious Jiang Xin.

The first day of the Cultivator Convention ended rather anticlimactically. Zhan Yan returned to the hotel and prepared to organize the day’s harvest.

Weng Yan, who hadn’t been seen all day, suddenly popped up. Stroking his beard, he greeted Zhan Yan, “Ahem. Little Yan, how did it go? Did you harvest anything today?”

This senior expert had really gone all out to avoid being mocked by his old rivals. Zhan Yan had wandered the entire venue today, and later even scrambled around high and low searching for documents, yet hadn’t caught a single glimpse of him.

Zhan Yan cornered the old senior and continued digging for information. “I heard people mention ‘Candle Dragon remnants’ today. What are those?”

The information Bao Qingshan gave him was very vague. Assuming Zhan Yan was just an ordinary person who didn’t know anything, he only told him how to hide if he ever encountered one.

But Weng Yan knew he had dreamt of the Candle Dragon, so he should be able to dig up more from him!

“Young people shouldn’t bite off more than they can chew. You already know enough for now. Figure out how to open your Yin-Yang Eyes first,” Weng Yan said, clasping his hands behind his back.

[Weng Yan is also not very clear on the specific details regarding Candle Dragon remnants.]

Zhan Yan: “…”

Fine, I’ll save the old man some face and pretend I was successfully brushed off.

Information regarding Candle Dragon remnants still had a high confidentiality level; he had asked around all day, only to receive vague answers. It seemed he would have to rely on himself if he wanted to learn more.

Items containing the power of the Candle Dragon, on the other hand, could be collected by leveraging others.

Having walked around the venue for too long today, Zhan Yan was a bit tired. Lying on the bed with his eyes closed, he began mentally organizing the day’s harvest.

He had met a new group of supernatural contacts and even joined their group chat! Besides notifying members about various events, everyone frequently chatted casually in the group, which was a great way to gather information. He could use the channels within this group to collect items containing the Candle Dragon’s power.

He had also learned from Bao Qingshan that Candle Dragon remnants practically functioned like game dungeons. However, to learn more about them, he would probably have to enter one and experience it himself. Although Bao Qingshan said it was dangerous, he had the little silver lock his mom gave him, so his personal safety was definitely guaranteed.

But it was unclear whether triggering the little silver lock would expose his mom’s secret identity, so he would have to put a pin in that idea for now.

There was another thing: he had learned one of the reasons for the terrible relationship between the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau and the Wan Yao Alliance. It seemed both sides were searching for Candle Dragon remnants.

Because the Gossip System wasn’t very helpful here—searching for Candle Dragon remnants often triggered the [Loading…] bug—if Zhan Yan wanted to figure out the exact reason, he would have to enter a Candle Dragon remnant to see for himself. And this brought him right back to the risks of the previous point.

Ah—

Therefore, the most important thing right now was still ensuring his mom didn’t blow her cover. He needed to level up as quickly as possible to unlock another “Information Confidentiality” star to protect her.

No! I can’t slack off! I must rise to the occasion!

Zhan Yan opened the chaofan forum to do missions! Eat gossip! Collect information tags to level up!

And then, accidentally, he casually clicked into the forum’s water cooler section.

Ah… Well, eating gossip in the water cooler section also gathers information tags anyway. I’m really too tired today and don’t want to do any more missions.

The forum hadn’t had any major news lately. The hot topics were still the Tianshi’s lightning and the Chongming Demon King’s cry from New Year’s Eve.

These two had recently become the top trending figures on the forum. If the two bosses still logged onto the forum, they would probably be greeted by an inbox completely flooded with tags.

As Zhan Yan scrolled, he started getting annoyed. The crowd was tearing each other apart without restraint: one group was flaming the Tianshi, while another was flaming the Chongming Demon King.

Administrator Lingyu had been busy lately with matters concerning the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau and didn’t have time to monitor the forum. But why wasn’t Luowang doing anything about it?

Zhan Yan opened the Gossip System and searched.

[Luowang woke up from her deep slumber, once again unable to remember what she had dreamt about.]

Hmm? What does this mean?

But since she had just woken up, it was no wonder these threads were flying around everywhere without anyone managing them.

Zhan Yan poked Luowang first, then simultaneously started searching for what this “deep slumber” meant.

Approaching Science: [[Link][Link][Link]]

[There are so many people flaming the Chongming Demon King, hurry up and do something about it!]

Luowang was currently chatting with the Chongming Demon King.

She had only woken up in the past day or two. There was no set pattern for when Luowang might fall into a period of deep slumber. The top bosses in the Wan Yao Alliance had checked on her and said there was no issue; it was just a characteristic of Dream Demons.

Luowang actually really wanted to understand it better, but unfortunately, she was the only Dream Demon in the world, leaving her with no reference points. She would dream when she fell into a deep slumber, but the moment she opened her eyes, she couldn’t remember a single thing. Left with no other choice, she could only leave the matter be for now.

The Chongming Demon King had sought out Luowang to ask her to send a private message to Lin Yuan. After leaving Mount Chaofu, Zhan Yunkai had lost contact with Ghost King Lin Yuan again—that guy only kept his private messages open for other administrators and Approaching Science, maintaining a very socially isolated lifestyle.

Luowang forwarded the message on behalf of the Chongming Demon King, but it was uncertain when Ghost King Lin Yuan would reply.

She happened to receive Approaching Science‘s message right then, so she forwarded it to the Chongming Demon King to see.

His little fan is so thoughtful, how adorable!

Seeing it, Zhan Yunkai felt very gratified. Aiyah, Approaching Science is such a good kid!

Thus, acting on a whim, he logged onto the forum to take a look himself.

On the forum, Zhan Yan saw that Luowang had started purging the threads flaming the Chongming Demon King, so he relaxed.

Mm, Dad’s side is being handled by Luowang. I just need to deal with the people flaming the Tianshi.

User 29L in a certain thread:

I just don’t get what’s so great about the Tianshi to be a fan of. Wearing a mask and a big robe all day, and a bunch of people just howling ‘Tianshi is so cool! Tianshi is so cool!’ Do you even know what he looks like under that mask? Let it be known: anyone playing the mysterious card is guaranteed to be butt-ugly!

Approaching Science replying to 29L:

You were the one who posted a mission looking for hair-growth medicine before, right? You’re the one who went shirtless in the dead of summer, exposing your beer belly, burned everyone’s eyes, and then made a post saying young girls should find you slapping your belly cute, right? You’re the one who failed at a blind date and then posted saying people nowadays are too superficial and don’t understand inner beauty, right? You don’t honestly think hiding in a dark corner secretly slandering others is a sign of inner beauty, do you?

User 32L in a certain thread:

Is the Tianshi really that strong? It’s just one strong lightning technique. Someone who min-maxes like that is super easy to deal with; it’s just that no one has targeted him before. They all place too much importance on traditional cultivation and ignore the power of modern technology.

Just give me a specially made Faraday cage suit, and I don’t care if it’s ten thousand bolts of lightning, it won’t hurt me. When the time comes, I’ll operate a grounded weapon through the cage suit. The moment his lightning touches my weapon, it’ll be grounded to the earth. I’ll take out the Tianshi instantly.

Approaching Science replying to 32L:

Look at you acting all capable. I can’t even be bothered to correct your basic common sense. You should go exercise first. Taking over eight minutes to run a thousand meters and almost collapsing on your knees—and you’re talking about a Faraday cage suit? Even if I gave you one, would you even be able to stand up while wearing it?

User 12L in a certain thread:

Give me a break, you really think the Tianshi is that amazing? Isn’t he just a symbol hyped up by the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau? Just an empty facade put up to look good, and people actually believe it? Does he have any actual achievements? Insiders all know that the Tianshi’s status isn’t actually that high; he’s just there to fool you newbies.

He looks glamorous on the surface, but behind the scenes, who knows how many of his messes the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau has had to clean up. He’s done a ton of shady things.

Life is a beautiful gown crawling with fleas. The more glamorous it looks on the surface, the uglier it is behind closed doors. Wake up, all of you.

Approaching Science replying to 12L:

You piece of trash who lies without drafting and relies entirely on idiotic remarks to grab attention. Without the Tianshi, you would’ve been reincarnated eight times over by now; by seniority, you should be calling me grandpa-ancestor.

Just because you’re dark and selfish yourself, you project that everyone else is just like you. You heard one famous quote and now you think you know everything.

Come on, keep making things up. Let’s see what shady things you’ve done first, and see if you’re the one crawling with fleas!

…

A new thread quickly appeared in the water cooler section.

Isn’t Approaching Science a fan of the Chongming Demon King? Why is his combat power so off the charts when speaking up for the Tianshi now?

2L:

Could it be that Approaching Science is simultaneously a fan of the Tianshi too?

3L:

That doesn’t seem right. We’ve never seen him speak up for the Tianshi before.

4L:

In the past, didn’t we have Boss Lingyu and Boss Artisan standing on the front lines? One would delete posts and ban accounts, while the other would offer points to hire people to curse them out together. The battles usually ended before anyone else even had a chance to perform.

7L:

Has anyone thought about this: if Approaching Science is such a big fan of the Tianshi, why didn’t he join the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau when the Tianshi tried to recruit him before?

9L:

Probably couldn’t stand the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau’s management regulations, right? [Doge]

@Administrator Lingyu, shouldn’t your Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau do some self-reflection?

12L:

But is Approaching Science really this fierce in a fight? When I saw him speaking up for the Chongming Demon King before, he wasn’t this savage.

Zhan Yunkai wanted to ask the exact same thing.

Harboring expectations for his little fan, he opened the forum, only to discover his little fan rolling up his sleeves and fighting tooth and nail for the Tianshi, while tossing him aside to Luowang. He inexplicably felt a sense of defeat by comparison.

Is the Tianshi really that great?!

Where do I fall short?

I’m pissed!