GRMFBS CH269

FOR ADVANCED CHAPTERS, VISIT MY PATREON ACCOUNT.

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The atmosphere was as heavy as if it were about to drip water; the air felt so thick it made people want to double over.

Zhan Yunkai looked at the stiff-necked Tianshi and the Black Wolf, who was ready to strike at any moment, and felt his mood plummet. He didn’t want to fight. Neither of these were opponents he could easily take down, and his priority right now was finding his youngest son.

However, the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau clearly knew something, and they seemed unwilling to let anyone else intervene. If he wanted to be involved, he would likely have to take out the Tianshi and the Black Wolf first…

Ji Yueming didn’t want to fight either. The Chongming Demon King was not an easy opponent. Although they had the Black Wolf on their side, truthfully, the Black Wolf was no match for the Chongming Demon King. If a fight broke out, she would inevitably be distracted and wouldn’t be able to enter the Candle Dragon’s remnant image to find Yan-yan with peace of mind.

The Black Wolf’s entire body was tense. He hadn’t fought the Chongming Demon King before, but the King had several times his age and experience. Fortunately, it was a full moon today. His shadow powers were stronger under the moonlight than in ordinary shadows. He might not be able to defeat the Chongming Demon King, but he could stall for a while—the only problem was whether that would be enough time for the Tianshi to find her youngest son…

Ugh, the Bureau doesn’t even know how to get into that Candle Dragon remnant yet. How long do I have to stall?

If it came down to it, he’d have to call for backup. But if he called people from the Bureau, the Chongming Demon King could call demons from the Wan Yao Alliance. If they started calling in backup, it would turn into a massive war between the two organizations…

The Black Wolf’s ears twitched. He suddenly turned toward the direction the Chongming Demon King had come from.

A massive silver wolf leaped under the moonlight, landing lightly in the yard of the farmhouse, its head lowered, looking down at the small courtyard: “Why is it so lively here?”

Didn’t the Chongming Demon King’s youngest son disappear here? What’s going on? Did the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau kidnap him?

The Black Wolf looked up, eyes wide: “Old Man?”

Bai Po only then noticed the Black Wolf.

The massive silver wolf bared his fangs in a grin: “No manners, you brat! Call me Great-Grandfather!”

The Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau personnel were stunned by this sudden gossip. What? Captain Black Wolf is the great-grandson of the Sky-Howling Wolf King of the Wan Yao Alliance? How come we’ve never heard of this… and Black Wolf has black hair—those furry black wolf ears are still on his head! Isn’t the Sky-Howling Wolf King’s clan all silver wolves?

Everyone continued their work methodically, but their ears were pricked up.

The Black Wolf stopped posturing for a fight. Damn it! Old Man Sky-Howling is here too. At worst, I’ll commit a bit of treason and drag Bai Po far away. The Chongming Demon King will have to be dealt with by the Tianshi.

“Why did you come here?” The Black Wolf held his lower back. Damn! Bai Po’s sudden appearance and the pressure of a Wolf King made his tail almost pop out.

“I should be asking you that,” Bai Po said, simply lying down and resting his massive wolf head on the other side of the roof.

Zhan Yunkai moved aside to give him some space.

The Black Wolf snorted: “There’s an abnormal phenomenon here; isn’t it normal for us to show up? What about you? Why are you here?”

The tension in the air relaxed slightly.

Bai Po: “We also detected an abnormal phenomenon, so we rushed over.”

The Black Wolf and Bai Po were smoothing things over. Zhan Yunkai had been observing in silence. The Black Wolf hadn’t told the full truth, but he hadn’t lied either. This was enough for Zhan Yunkai to conclude that the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau had indeed come because of the anomaly, not that they were the cause of it. In other words, Yan-yan’s disappearance likely had nothing to do with them.

This put Zhan Yunkai somewhat at ease. Cooperating with them was better than being forced to fight.

Ji Yueming was similarly silent, unable to judge whether Bai Po was lying. But if they really had just rushed over because of the anomaly, this would be easy to resolve.

A voice as deep as rolling thunder came from behind the Tianshi’s mask: “We will resolve the anomaly here.”

The atmosphere tightened once again.

The Chongming Demon King narrowed his eyes; the Sky-Howling Wolf King stood up. The Tianshi didn’t move, but her robes began to flutter without a breeze.

“Your methods are truly detestable,” the Chongming Demon King said slowly.

Bai Po stared at the Black Wolf: “Do you want me to carry you off by the scruff, or will you go yourself?”

The Chongming’s youngest son was missing; they certainly couldn’t back down.

The Black Wolf bared his teeth: “You couldn’t carry me anymore.”

The Tianshi’s youngest son was missing; their attitude was bound to be uncompromising.

Tianshi: “This has nothing to do with yo—”

Halfway through her sentence, her communicator suddenly buzzed with Ning Xi’s urgent voice: “Found it. It’s a stable Candle Dragon remnant, but it’s sealed. We can locate it, but entering requires permission from the Candle Dragon—the Candle Dragon might still be alive, and it’s highly likely she’s at the Wan Yao Alliance.”

“Chongming and Sky-Howling likely came here because of that.”

Judging by the two Demon Kings’ behavior, they might not know what was going on either; otherwise, they wouldn’t have had to rush over—the Candle Dragon remnant wasn’t physically here, so as long as it could be located, it could be entered from anywhere. But to enter it, they needed permission from the Wan Yao Alliance.

Ji Yueming swallowed the rest of her words. She was silent for a moment, then asked in her most sincere tone: “Shall we cooperate?”

Zhan Yunkai: ???

Bai Po: ???

Black Wolf: Hm… he heard the Vice-Director’s words too.

Bai Po lay back down. Better not to fight if it can be avoided. They hadn’t figured out what was going on, but the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau seemed to have made progress—might as well ride their coattails.

The leaders of both sides began negotiations.

Inside the Candle Dragon remnant, the great “Deep Shadow” (Gu Jiancheng) was expressionlessly clearing out anomalies, wondering why he had let the four-legged creature nearly three times his height follow him.

The Di Ting hadn’t been behaving since it caught up with him, constantly darting around, searching for something. It was fine at first, just running around him within his line of sight. Later, it seemed to think they were close enough, and it started trying to dictate their direction.

Every time the Di Ting wanted to go somewhere but felt that it was outside of Deep Shadow’s protected range, it would try to drag him along.

Deep Shadow let it get away with it once… twice… three times… Damn it! After that, he couldn’t stop it. Wherever the Di Ting wanted to go, it would push and pull to get him to go together.

Gu Jiancheng tried to refuse, but for some reason, the moment he saw the Di Ting’s eyes, he couldn’t help but follow.

I can’t go on like this! I can’t let a remnant image from the Candle Dragon dictate my actions!

“No,” Deep Shadow firmly refused. “We are not going there.”

He felt his clothes tighten, and then he was hoisted into the air and began moving rapidly.

…Damn it! That idiot Di Ting actually dared to grab me and run!

Deep Shadow was furious and was about to counterattack, but the Di Ting set him down, shook its four hooves, and started sniffing and searching again.

Gu Jiancheng asked gloomily: “Can’t you find it yourself?”

Zhan Yan replied with righteous indignation: “I can’t beat them!”

Gu Jiancheng’s face turned dark. The Di Ting is purely useless! Why did I go soft? Why? Do I have a problem?

Zhan Yan continued to search. Because he was using the Di Ting’s body, he had a faint sense of where the hidden horn was, but he couldn’t pinpoint it. Zhan Yan was worried. He had used the Gossip System to search, but still couldn’t find any clues.

However, he did figure out why he couldn’t control the Di Ting’s body at the beginning. Through the journey with Xiao Gu, he had subtly pried for information and deduced when Xiao Gu had entered. The moment he could control it was just about the same time Xiao Gu entered.

Zhan Yan reopened the cipher translator and finally saw what he had sent to Xiao Gu: a bunch of messy lines. In reality, they were parts of a stellar track that made up the strange beast—it was effectively a key. Only when the key was complete could he move freely.

He opened the system backup. The stellar tracks that formed the beast were scattered across the starry sky, turning into a bunch of meaningless lines.

Why don’t these things automatically reassemble after being pulled apart?

Zhan Yan tried to put them back together. As he did, his sense of the Di Ting’s horn grew stronger. Once finished, he felt he could leave the Candle Dragon remnant.

…I see. So, if I hadn’t dismantled the “key,” I could have started looking for the horn as soon as I got in?

Zhan Yan stood up and said to Gu Jiancheng, who was standing by with his arms crossed in annoyance: “Let’s change locations again…”

Suddenly, a rapidly refreshing gossip feed in his “Special Attention” tab caught Zhan Yan’s attention.

He took a look…

Help! How did Mom and Dad run into each other suddenly?!!

The Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau and the Wan Yao Alliance were sitting down to negotiate. Zhan Yunkai learned from the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau about the existence of the special Candle Dragon remnant and confirmed that his youngest son had likely entered it by accident. Ji Yueming received a promise from the Wan Yao Alliance: the Candle Dragon was indeed still alive and recovering well. The Alliance could now wake the Candle Dragon and obtain the certification needed to enter.

Now, they were just waiting for the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau to locate the troublesome Candle Dragon remnant so they could go in and retrieve their sons.

However, Ning Xi brought some less-than-pleasant news: Entering this Candle Dragon remnant required dual permission, and the second layer was unknown. If they only had the Candle Dragon’s certification, they would have to forcibly break through the second layer. Under such circumstances, only one person could be sent in.

The Black Wolf and Bai Po froze. One looked at Ji Yueming, the other at Zhan Yunkai.

Black Wolf: “We at the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau arrived first; let the Tianshi go in this time.” The Tianshi’s son is in there; she has to be the one to go.

Bai Po: “The Candle Dragon’s permission was provided by our Alliance; no matter how you look at it, let us in.” Chongming is looking for his son; how can he feel at ease letting someone else go in?

Ji Yueming and Zhan Yunkai locked eyes, both seeing that neither was willing to back down. The atmosphere grew oppressive.

Black Wolf: “We provided the location of the remnant, too. The Tianshi can definitely handle it. Do you doubt her combat power?” Seriously, why is the Alliance being so stubborn? Why fight over a single mission to enter a Candle Dragon remnant?

Ji Yueming’s eyes began to leak lightning, feeling extremely displeased with the Chongming Demon King. What are you fighting for? We’ve cooperated before, but that doesn’t mean I can’t beat a Demon King!

Bai Po: “The Tianshi is strong, but she can’t use anything other than lightning-based arts, right? What if another technique is needed?” How many times have they tried to pull that controlling Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau style? We usually don’t bother, but can’t they give way this once?

Zhan Yunkai’s pupils began to gather iridescent light, very dissatisfied with the Tianshi. So what if she’s the Tianshi? What can she do besides lightning? What if Yan-yan is hurt and needs healing?

The Black Wolf and Bai Po couldn’t reach an agreement. Now that the location was set and they had the Candle Dragon’s permission, all that was left was to finalize the spots. Every second delayed was another second of danger for their sons. Parents on both sides were getting short-tempered.

The iridescent pupils collided with the lightning light. The divine bird on the roof ridge slowly spread its wings. A terrifying surge of lightning-qi billowed around the Tianshi’s robes.

It looked like they were going to start a fight over the entry spot. Ning Xi was panicking in the communicator.

Black Wolf bared his teeth at Bai Po: “Can’t your Alliance take a step back? This is really important to us.”

Bai Po rolled his eyes at the traitorous brat: “How many times has your Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau snatched the lead? Why not take a step back yourself?”

Black Wolf scratched his head: “This time is different! It’s really important. If you take a step back, I’ll step back in every future mission where we cross paths with the Alliance, okay? …Ah, our Vice-Director also said you can set conditions.”

Bai Po snorted in annoyance: “This is important to us too. No conditions will work.” He stared at the Black Wolf’s restless stance and warned: “Let them fight. If you try to intervene, I’ll beat you up.”

The Black Wolf bared his teeth. He didn’t move. It wasn’t that he was afraid of Bai Po, but if they all got involved, it would easily escalate into a full-scale war between the two major organizations…

This is infuriating. How did the youngest sons of both the Tianshi and the Chongming family get dragged into this?!

Zhan Yan watched the gossip feed as his parents were on the verge of fighting.

Help!

No, I have to get out. I’ll leave the Di Ting’s horn search to Xiao Gu.

Zhan Yan pulled out the newly assembled key, shoved it into Gu Jiancheng’s arms, and exited the Candle Dragon remnant at high speed.

On the roof ridge, the divine bird was surrounded by clouds; in the air, the Tianshi was accompanied by thunder.

Zhan Yan rushed toward the divine bird in front of him, hugged its leg, and turned back to roar at the Tianshi at the top of his lungs:

“Mom! Don’t move! That’s Dad!”