Crab Feast

"Your father is a Dominator. I recall that Dominator-tier instances last anywhere from ten to fifteen days at the shortest, up to several months at the longest. Family Head Xie couldn't have been inside for even half a month yet." Zhang Yuanqing patted Xie Lingxi's head to comfort her. "Still..." The little green tea didn't brighten up at his reassurance. Looking fraught with worry, she said, "The instance my father entered is Instance No. 015, Palace of the Arbiter of Fate, an A-grade instance. There's a walkthrough for it! The founding ancestor of our Xie family was one of its pioneers, and it's not the drawn-out kind. By all rights, he should have cleared it within a week, but it's already been ten days." Although she didn't have clearance to view the walkthrough's specific details, her father had entered the instance, so the clan elders had naturally disclosed some relevant information—such as its difficulty and typical duration. Zhang Yuanqing's brow furrowed, and he mused, "Maybe he ran into some kind of unexpected hitch. But don't worry. In my experience, an A-grade instance with a walkthrough has an actual difficulty of B+ at most, not even a weak A. Your dad is a family head, so he isn't lacking top-grade items. Clearing that instance won't be a problem for him. Just be patient." Xie Lingxi thought it over and nodded vigorously. "Then can you spend the day with me, Gege? I've been having insomnia and no appetite lately—I'm looking so haggard." Pouting her glossy pink lips, she put on a pitiful display. "Anything except sleeping with you," Zhang Yuanqing said, eyeing her sideways. Footsteps sounded from the stairs just as Guan Ya happened to walk down. Xie Lingxi didn't turn around; her ears merely twitched slightly before she suddenly feigned bashfulness and chided him: "Aiya, what do you mean, 'sleeping with you'? You just love teasing me, Gege! I'm not talking to you anymore~" Spinning gracefully around, she dashed shyly toward the hallway, running straight into Guan Ya as she descended. "Ah!" The little green tea stopped in apparent panic and stammered, "Sister Guan Ya, ju-just now Yuanshi Gege was joking with me. Please don't misunderstand!" With that, she slipped past Guan Ya, carrying herself like a cornered cheat fleeing the scene in disgrace. Once the little green tea had disappeared upstairs, Guan Ya rolled her eyes. "The scheming intent is written all over her face. That 'sister' of yours—if you call her smart, she's certainly drenched in green tea and full of underhanded tricks; but if you call her stupid, playing mind games in front of a Scout is dumb beyond words." "Alright, alright, let's not talk about her," Zhang Yuanqing said. Guan Ya hummed with an eye-roll, peering sideways at her boyfriend. "You sure care a lot about her, don't you?" Zhang Yuanqing didn't say a word. He simply pushed her onto the sofa and pulled her into a passionate, breathless kiss. No matter what attitude Guan Ya wore on her lips, whenever her younger boyfriend demanded affection, she gave in unconditionally, pampering him without limit. Kissing her until her cheeks were flushed crimson and she was gasping for air, Zhang Yuanqing finally sat up in satisfaction. Licking his lips, he asked, "Queen went out shopping. Who are you practicing combat with?" Guan Ya wore a white martial arts uniform, a black belt accentuating her slender waist, while her ample chest strained against the loose fabric. "I had Xiahou Aotian craft two Level 5 melee puppets to spar with me." Guan Ya sat up, smoothing her disheveled hair, her face still slightly flushed. "Scouts hone their physical techniques during the Transcendent stage, but once you become a Swordsman, you have to hone your swordplay. Compared to veteran Swordsmen, my sword techniques still fall far short." Although every Swordsman could control sword qi and possessed an innate mastery of swordplay, that was only a baseline. The refinement of one's technique and the potency of one's sword qi both required arduous practice. The quintessential representative of swordplay was Fu Qingyang. The Money Prince, whose technique bordered on the Dao, could fight ten Swordsmen of the same level all at once. "Honing your swordplay? In that case, I won't join you," Zhang Yuanqing said regretfully. If it were physical combat training, then with his current peak Level 6 cultivation and his minor completion in the Pure Yang Body Cleansing Record, he could easily hold his own against Guan Ya. When it came to swordplay, however, the Starlord's naturally cautious, tactical playstyle relied on high mobility paired with yin corpses and spirit servants to grind down squishy Swordsmen. If he abandoned a Starlord's strengths to clash head-on against a Swordsman's sharp sword qi, the risk was far too great. Starlords had no super-resilient defense; taking a single sword blow could easily cost an arm or a leg. Knowing he wouldn't make a good sparring partner, Zhang Yuanqing didn't push it. *** Headquarters. Secretary Zhou, who was hunched over his desk reviewing documents, suddenly heard a *ding* from his computer monitor—the alert for a new email. Setting down his papers, Secretary Zhou glanced up at the screen while reaching for his mouse. He opened the new email. [I am the Conjurer. Inform your master: tonight at the hour of the Rat, Room 302, No. 26 Shamen Road, Chaoyang District, Capital City.] Secretary Zhou's pupils contracted slightly, and his back snapped straight. His entire aura shifted instantly, like a tourist wandering peacefully through the mountains who had stumbled upon a stalking tiger. *The Conjurer* was the Spirit Realm ID of the Southern Sect's Grand Elder. A peak Dominator. Secretary Zhou immediately grabbed his landline phone and dialed Elder Cai's number, but quickly hung up. After pondering for several seconds, he picked up the receiver again and contacted his assistant: "Have the driver get ready. I need to see Elder Cai in person." *** The night was hazy and cool breeze swept through as Songhai's neon lights wove a dazzling, magnificent nightscape. Inside the bedroom where the grand enterprise of propagation had just taken place, the curtains were drawn tight, leaving the room pitch-black. After the storm settled, Zhang Yuanqing held his girlfriend and sighed. "The higher the level, the less EXP dual cultivation yields. Shouldn't we upgrade to a Dominator-tier quilt?" Guan Ya was slick with sweat, strands of hair plastered to her face. Curled beneath the thin sheet with half of a rounded, fragrant shoulder exposed, she didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "Buying a Dominator-tier item just for dual cultivation? Not even Fu Qingyang is that extravagant." With that, she gave her boyfriend a languid nudge and said in a raspy, drowsy voice, "Turn on the air conditioner. It's hot..." "If you're hot, just kick off the blanket." Still in his refractory period, Zhang Yuanqing was too lazy to get up, so he simply tossed aside the Yin-Yang Joyous Union Quilt. Instantly, a snow-white, voluptuous body was laid bare before him. Guan Ya's curves were strikingly alluring, her physique forged through years of training delivering an immense visual impact that never grew dull to Zhang Yuanqing, no matter how many times he looked. He especially adored the pale, smooth lower abdomen outlined by her Apollo's belt and ab lines. A woman's truly enticing figure lay in having a delicate, svelte form draped with a thin layer of body fat—that layer was what gave a woman her most enchanting softness. Too little fat, and she looked like a washboard; too much, and it turned into bloated flab. As he kept looking, Zhang Yuanqing's refractory phase evaporated, and he ravenously leaned over her again. The labor of propagating descendants carried on until midnight, until Zhang Yuanqing had spent all his riches upon his girlfriend and stepped out empty-handed. He went out to the villa's rooftop and began his daily Stargazing. A Starlord was a chess master, a schemer pulling strings from the shadows. Ever since advancing to Starlord, Zhang Yuanqing had rescued Magic Eye, captured Pluto, fought Heaven's Punishment Saints, and hunted down the Southern Sect's Sixth Elder—every maneuver had been brilliant. Yet now, facing a deadly tribulation that likely originated from a high-status entity, even Stargazing proved utterly helpless. *Sigh, I still can't see anything.* Zhang Yuanqing put away the Daluo Astrolabe and pulled out his phone. Opening his contacts, he hovered between "Cousin" and "Elder Dog," hesitating over whether he should tell them about Master Wuhen's attempt to break through to demigod. *Master Wuhen may be devoted to doing good, but he belongs to an evil class after all. If he fails his breakthrough to demigod, the consequences will be catastrophic. Jinshan City might end up paying the price for his descent into madness. Strictly speaking, I ought to report this to headquarters.* *Yet headquarters would never sit by and watch a Level 9 Voidwalker ascend to demigod. No matter how harmless the Master seems, he still belongs to an evil class. As the frontline force fighting evil classes, the official faction's hostility toward them is carved into their bones; the conflict between the factions is irreconcilable. Furthermore, if Master Wuhen fails his attempt, he will truly lose control. Under those circumstances, I doubt even Elder Dog would take his side.* The price of losing control could be the annihilation of an entire city, or it might even spill over into Songhai. Who would dare wager the lives of an entire city? *If I report it to headquarters, the Five Elements Alliance will deploy all its experts to hunt Master Wuhen down. If I don't report it, I'll be gambling with the lives of innocent people in Jinshan City...* Zhang Yuanqing grimaced. *Looking at it from another angle: Master Wuhen is dedicated to benevolence and definitely isn't a lunatic who treats human lives like grass. If he weren't confident in reaching demigod, he wouldn't have made this choice. I should wait and see. Yeah, surviving my own death tribulation comes first. Looking out for my own life is what's most urgent...* He set Master Wuhen's matter aside for now and sent his cousin a string of cartoon stickers. She replied instantly, but it was an automated system response: [Currently in an instance. Leave a message if you need anything.] Zhang Yuanqing had originally wanted to ask her whether she could protect her dear younger brother's good buddy—and her younger cousin's boyfriend—for a month from a life-or-death crisis. Turns out she had drifted out of reach into an instance. *Then I can only rely on myself. Once I attend the Crab Feast, I'll enter an instance... No, my true body will enter the instance, and I'll send an avatar to attend the Crab Feast. I can share the avatar's senses anyway.* Zhang Yuanqing decided to play it safe. To make an avatar, he would need to borrow the Yata no Kagami from the Thousand Cranes Group again. He had three opportunities to borrow from them. The first time, he chose the Yata no Kagami; the second time, he chose Ame no Murakumo and gave it to Guan Ya for self-defense. Over the past month, Guan Ya had only used it twice during missions; the rest of the time, it sat in her inventory, and when she entered instances, she kept it hidden in her room. It had basically gone to waste. For his final opportunity to borrow, he would choose the Yata no Kagami again. When he originally agreed to attend the Crab Feast, his motive had been to build ties with the Xie family—it never hurt to be on good terms with a Spirit Realm clan. Now, Yuanshi Tianzun was already a prominent figure. Whether he networked at the Crab Feast hardly mattered anymore; his ties with the Xie family were already rock-solid. His primary motive for attending the feast was to meet the Xie family's ancestor and ask the demigod about the history of the Chu family. *** At the hour of the Rat, Room 302, No. 26 Shamen Road, Chaoyang District, Capital City. This was a two-bedroom apartment. A thin layer of dust covered the kitchen stove, the sink, and the floor. Evidently, no one had lived here for quite some time. A figure stepped out from the dark living room into the kitchen and twisted open the faucet. *Whoosh!* Bubbly tap water gushed out, but instead of draining into the sink, it meandered across the floor, tracing out two characters in the dust: *What matter?* The figure chuckled. "Cai Qinhe, you're as cautious as ever." The two characters *What matter?* darkened on the floor, serving as a silent, repeated inquiry that signaled an unwillingness to waste time chatting. The figure said, "Past Without Traces has obtained the key item needed to become a demigod and is currently attempting his breakthrough. I have been instructed by the Cult Master to relay this to you." The words *What matter?* washed away as a fresh stream of water flowed out to form a line of text: *What is in it for me?* The figure scoffed. "I'm merely giving you this intelligence. As for what you can gain from it, figure that out yourself." With that, he turned and left. *** October 1st. At 6:30 p.m., Xie Lingxi—wearing white over-the-knee socks, flat leather shoes, light makeup, and a pale pleated skirt that fell to her knees—clasped Zhang Yuanqing's arm and waved to Guan Ya and Queen. "We're heading out! We'll be back tomorrow!" Her outfit was simple yet elegant, with white tassel ribbons tied into bows accenting her cascading black hair, making her look like a delicate little princess. Early October was the Xie family's Crab Feast. Ignoring the little green tea's remarks, Guan Ya looked at her boyfriend and said, "Come back early tonight!" Guan Ya had initially wanted to attend the Crab Feast as well, but Xie Lingxi had made a show of being troubled: *"Aiya, Sister, outsiders aren't invited to the Xie family Crab Feast. Yuanshi Gege is a guest personally chosen by our ancestor, so I'm really sorry!"* With her putting it that way, Queen had also felt awkward about tagging along. Just like that, the little green tea finally got her chance to monopolize Yuanshi Gege. The two stepped into the luxury van. Zhang Yuanqing sank into the plush seat, crossed his legs, and asked, "Your father still hasn't come out?" Xie Lingxi, who had been in high spirits, drooped at his words and pouted, shaking her head. *Looks like an accident really happened...* Zhang Yuanqing mused inwardly. Xie Su had been inside the instance for half a month, yet that Palace of the Arbiter of Fate was supposed to take less than a week to clear. "What did the Xie family elders say?" Zhang Yuanqing dropped his casual expression. "What else could they say? They aren't in the instance, so they don't know the exact situation either. They just keep saying that given Father's strength, nothing should go wrong." Xie Lingxi sighed. "Even Mother, that aged green tea, hasn't been stirring up trouble lately. She must be genuinely worried." *Aged green tea, what an apt title...* Zhang Yuanqing said, "Your ancestor will probably meet with me. I'll ask him on your behalf when the time comes." "Thank you, Gege!" Xie Lingxi took the chance to lean her head against his chest.