Quest Maker: 396 (Patreon)

Title: Fuel

The statement—A lot has happened—would be an understatement for Dai Taiyin. He exhales softly with Zhu Ning lying beside him, a thin bedsheet covering their bodies. He stares at the ceiling of their new house. It would be a lie if he said they did not miss their kids. But their stay on this continent would end soon enough. They accomplished their objective, and he’s proved his worth to acquire his father’s position once he returns and manages the southern part of the Douluo Continent—Under the Blood God’s name, of course.

‘It has been a long time. My nephew would be born by now, too.’ Dai Taiyin lets Zhu Ning shove an arm and a leg under him as she purrs in satisfaction.

Even as he smiles, his glance cannot help but fall on her weary features. It’s not physical exhaustion.

Taiyin has no delusions that his wife misses their sons several times more than he can imagine! But she understood how easier his mission would get if the two of them worked together, allowing them to complete their task of defeating one Titled Douluo using their Spirit Fusion as two Spirit Douluos.

“Hey, I’m sorry to do this, but we’ll be late,” Taiyin whispers, already prolonging their time in bed for as long as he can. His palm strokes her fair cheeks as she groans again, instinctively nuzzling against his hand—unlike the ruthless Spirit Master she presents herself as. “No need to apologize,” she whispers, hugging him and replying sleepily. “It’ll all be over soon.”

“Hmm.” Taiyin grunts.

Eventually, the duo gets up from the bed, their bedroom bereft of luxurious furniture similar to the ones in their clan. Their clothes, too, lack any royal garments. Taiyin dons a silver-lined navy robe contrasting with his short blonde hair while Zhu Ning wears a plain black garb, tying her long, dark hair into a tight bun with fatal pins in place.

They walk into a long wooden corridor, nodding at the bowing servants of the relatively tame manor built near the outskirts of an empire—Sun Moon Empire.

The duo stops after walking down a flight of stairs before Taiyin knocks on the door.

“Come in.”

A calm voice allows them to enter a part of their house.

Taiyin and Ning look at each other before he opens the door, revealing a flight of wooden staircases descending underground. The calm and gentle voice can somehow follow such a length without issues. The duo steps downstairs as the wooden structure around the stairs transitions into natural minerals. The couple stands at a deep-red marbled door, a circular pattern of thousands of tiny runes carved into its surface.

Not needing permission again, Taiyin presses the door open without any issues, observing the dimly lit interior of the artificial pond the manor hosts underground.

Zhu Ning is no different. Despite the scene, her expression does not shift—disgust, apprehension—nothing.

Patches of hazily glowing blood-red moss cover the cave’s surface, shedding light on a few red-cloaked individuals lined with golden threads. The embroidery on the clothes depicts multiple patterns made from tiny runes. In the center of the cave sits a small pond of bubbling blood!

Surprisingly, the cave’s surroundings feel fresher still!

Dai Taiyin’s and Zhu Ning’s gaze falls on a small hill of female clothes next to the pond near the other door connected to this dome.

Resting in the center of the pond with only his face visible is a pale Qian Xunji, who smiles at the couple.

“Welcome.”

“Are we interrupting?” Dai Taiyin asks plainly.

“You will address Blood God with respect!” A shrill voice escapes one of the three red-cloaked individuals.

“Blood fills the pond to a brim,” Dai Taiyin notes. “A mound of clothes is left open to inform us of the fate of those sixty women who did not know any better. And the fate of their children is unknown.”

Looking at the speaker, Taiyin punctuates, “As a father, Chrysanthemum Douluo, Blood God will only get so much respect from me.”

“Not to mention, he came running here after HIS return, still not recovered,” Zhu Ning adds coldly, ready to back her husband in physical or verbal lashings—their experience with Ja Sun filling them with all the COD lobby enlightenment they’ll ever need.

Qian Xunji cuts in before Yue Guan can say anything, “Your interactions with divine elements before my ascension and your encounters with Ja Sun fill you with enough confidence to judge me as a mortal. I don’t mind it. It’s true. I asked Yue Guan to leave the clothes alone to send the underlying message. I’m glad it is understood.”

Slowly stepping out of the pond as his usual outfit, made out of his spirit bones, covers him without letting a peak get through—much to Yue Guan’s frustration, Qian Xunji soon stands a meter away from the couple.

“You have done well. I asked you to find a way to bring this budding kingdom to its knees. You used deceit, raids, assaults, and many other tactics. As promised, you are free to leave and return to your children. Also, as a testament to your talent, both of you,” he adds while glancing at Zhu Ning briefly, “I will assist you in completing your sets of Spirit Bones from this continent. But you must hunt for yourself if you want a 100000-year-old beast or above.”

Taiyin nods.

“And the priority for any other God Inheritance I come across belongs to you. However, the inheritance may or may not accept you.”

“Then I’ll have to ask you to drop us back in Douluo Continent.”

“I’m afraid not.” Qian Xunji smiles.

Already anxious to meet her children, Zhu Ning bares her teeth, “You’re going back on your word!”

“You will stop this foolishness!” Yue Guan snarls instantly as Dai Taiyin gently pats Zhu Ning while Yue Guan feels a stifling pressure almost crushing him to oblivion.

“Henceforth, only Dai Taiyin will speak. Anyone who speaks out of turn for the time being can join me in the bath as fuel for my recovery,” Qian Xunji smiles gently at his followers while Taiyin whispers to his wife.

“He has no reason to go against his word when it’s as easy as breathing. Calm yourself.”

While he respected Zhu Ning, he too wanted to return to his children, and getting killed for some words is not the way to do that!

Zhu Ning carefully lowers her head, her heart beating anxiously, as a wisp of godly pressure announces its presence to her for an instant.

“It is true. But you mistake my reasons. I have kept my word. You are free to leave. But I need to keep myself hidden from Ja Sun for the time being. I realize, and he would too if he is half as intelligent as he poses to be, our conflict ends with one of us dying. For that to happen, we must have equal strength, and we do. Unfortunately, my followers do not boast the assistance of an inheritance to tackle Bibi Dong.”

“And that’s why you brought all the Titled Douluos of the Spirit Hall and him here,” Dai Taiyin looks at one of the three hooded followers with ridicule.

The figure trembles in angst, a monster within him roaring like crackling lightning and clapping thunder!

“I did. If you go on your own, you will die in the sea. And you have no other way,” Qian Xunji calmly explains. “Keeping my position a secret.”

“And he won’t search for you?” Taiyin questions. “Are you really his foe to have such a casual response from him?”

“His arrogance will doom him,” Xunji half-shrugs and snaps his fingers as the previously furious hooded man walks deeper into the cave.

“Tell me,” Xunji turns around, walking toward the pool of boiling blood. “You have had a chain of encounters with Ja Sun. Do you think he is foolish enough to let a being like me escape? He wouldn’t have wasted his time defeating a foe doomed to die if he wasn’t arrogant. He went after her first to satiate his need for closure. To be betrayed by the forest he hailed Beast God in must have hurt him.”

A flicker of shared confusion flashes on the couple’s faces as the hooded follower returns with a peaceful sleeping, bood-haired infant in his arms.

“Your son?” Taiyin questions before nodding. “Congratulations.”

“No,” Xunji shakes his head and stares at them, noting their confusion. “Not yet.”

Both of them frown as Xunji questions.

“You doubt my theory. Why?”

As he speaks, he walks near the hooded figure to gently take the infant from him.

“Ja Sun, or Ka-ul, when he met us, did not strike me as a man who kills,” replies Taiyin. “Mu’er knows more about Ja Sun because of Tang Hao and others and told me once that he strips, humiliates, and tries to emotionally destroy his enemies. But he’s never taken a human life or refuses to. And I think she is right. You can aim to kill him, betray him, slap him, spit on him, and even steal from him. He doesn’t kill.”

“The enemy was a spirit beast,” Xunji supplants.

“I think you’re wrong to believe he didn’t come after you of arrogance.”

Xunji narrows his eyes, deep in thought.

The fact that he would try to kill him allows Xunji to understand his actions were worse than Taiyin described a second ago.

“Hmm,” the Blood God nods with a bit of noise as he starts descending into the pond with his child. As he does, his clothes begin to recede in his body again while Taiyin’s eyes widen, promptly holding his wife’s shoulder firmly.

*Tssss*

A soft hiss echoes as the sleeping infant’s skin starts to dissolve into blood itself, never waking up during the entire ordeal.

The couple stares at the Blood God harshly as he returns to the center of the pond, addressing the two: “That’s why I will ask you two to hold off the congratulations for now. This little one did not make the desired cut. Of course, now you also understand why the two of you must not be the reason for Ja Sun locating this place.”

Taiyin and Zhu Ning feel their flesh shuddering in fury, imagining the same fate inflicted upon their children despite their boorish traditions.

They slowly turn around until Taiyin looks back, mustering. “Maybe you will firm Ja Sun’s heart in killing you if he saw this. That child must be his master’s grandson, right?”

“No, that bag of flesh was fuel,” Qian Xunji replies with a smile. “My offspring is someone that fulfills a certain purpose.”

***

Alternate Title: A New Kingdom; Time Passes; A Time Skip? *Gasp*; Evil’s New Face; Yes, I Did Watch Monster; Xunji: Griffith Did Nothing Wrong… Ja Sun: Imma Guts You; References… References Everywhere; Ja Sun’s Distant Followers; The Sixty Mothers? The Sixty Packets of Blood!; Xunji Has No Damn Filter!; Pot Thinking Kettle Black; Did Xunji Not Look At Gu Yuena? Jackal Would Obviously Get Her… Ehm, Help!; Ja Sun’s Gonna Skin Xunji!