novelraw Chapter 218
Chapter 218
Chapter 218: The Silver Dragon’s Shenanigans
Xia Li didn’t believe that Lucia, a dragon, could come up with any good ideas.
He was afraid that after a lot of effort, she wouldn’t get any magic power, and then she would lie in his arms whining, saying things like ‘I’m just a noob’ or ‘I’m just not good enough’.
——Though, that might be pretty nice too.
Xia Li’s current thought was to let Qin Chuan settle down first.
This buddy couldn’t handle any stimulation for the time being. If he wanted to get magic power from him, it was better to use a gentler method.
Once he was stable, no matter how depressed he felt, he would still experience joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness when he encountered those trivial matters in daily life.
After all, people live on emotions.
If all else fails, take Qin Chuan to a haunted house, or show him some funny short videos.
If that doesn’t work, go browse Tieba, there are jokes in there that can make your blood pressure skyrocket. As for Lucia…
If the little dragon girl was willing to try, let her try. Xia Li was happy to cooperate with her.
It was approaching midnight.
Xia Li estimated that the family restaurant was about to close, so he called Qin Chuan at the right time.
Qin Chuan had just been arranged accommodation by the boss and had just finished making his bed when Xia Li called him over.
According to Qin Chuan, the restaurant’s staff dormitory was in the community next to Xia Li’s.
There was a small three-bedroom old house there. The house was the boss’s wife’s property before she got married. After they moved, they didn’t sell it, so they simply used it as a staff dormitory for the restaurant.
The living environment was not bad, much more spacious than the gloomy hostel. Qin Chuan said his roommates were all elderly uncles and aunts, and they were quite easy to get along with.
“Excuse me…”
This was the first time Qin Chuan had been to Xia Li’s house.
He pushed open the rusty iron door, and the old door made a series of creaking sounds.
This door was the same style as the one in Qin Chuan’s dormitory.
Looking at the interior environment, there was an old sofa and an old wooden coffee table.
Xia Li’s house was small but cozy. The corners and the table were piled with books and sundries. The small fish tank on the coffee table had no fish, but it was filled with candies and biscuits.
It was similar to most ordinary families, with the smell of cooking oil and food, and full of life everywhere.
…It was completely different from the splendid and luxurious life that Qin Chuan had imagined the ‘author’ would have when he was looking at his phone before.
He was very similar to himself.
At least, their living environments were very similar.
Qin Chuan’s self-deprecating heart gained a little courage.
“Come on in and sit down.”
Xia Li warmly welcomed the guest. There were spare shoe covers at home, and he handed Qin Chuan a pair.
Qin Chuan had never used this kind of thing before. He never took off his shoes when he entered his rural home, and there was no such attention to detail in that dark other world.
Seeing his awkward expression, Xia Li taught him how to use them. Qin Chuan pondered for a while before putting them on his shoes. After entering the house, he looked around the living room.
“Where’s Dragon Sister?” he asked.
“…” Xia Li choked, “Why are you also calling her Dragon Sister…”
“I saw Wuqi calling her that, so I followed suit.” Qin Chuan replied.
He couldn’t call her Sister-in-law.
Sister-in-law was a way to address your brother’s wife after you became sworn brothers.
Qin Chuan didn’t think he was qualified to become sworn brothers with Xia Li.
“Dragon Sister it is then,” Xia Li didn’t mind.
“This dragon is older than all of us combined, so it’s reasonable to call her Sister.”
As soon as Xia Li finished speaking, there was a clattering sound from the balcony, as if she was dissatisfied with his words.
It was easy to cause family conflicts by discussing a girl’s age.
Xia Li added with a guilty conscience.
“…Dragon Sister is busy right now and will be back soon. You can sit in the living room for a while.”
“Okay.”
Qin Chuan had a momentary doubt.
Xia Li and Dragon Sister should be living together, so why wasn’t Dragon Sister home yet?
But he didn’t ask any further questions and sat down awkwardly in the corner of the sofa.
Xia Li turned on the TV and handed the remote control to Qin Chuan. He took out his phone and started scrolling.
“You can choose whatever you want to watch. I rarely watch TV.”
“Okay,” Qin Chuan responded again and curiously leaned over to look at Xia Li’s phone.
Xia Li’s phone interface was Bilibili, which Qin Chuan was very familiar with.
How many nights had he spent acting like an internet troll, arguing with all kinds of readers online, and constantly introducing his worldview to others.
Doing so wasn’t a way of venting, it was purely finding an outlet for his pent-up emotions.
Often those readers couldn’t stand his long speeches, and each of them would scold him a couple of times, which made him feel better.
Now…meeting offline, Qin Chuan was actually shy.
Truly a social butterfly online, a social recluse offline.
I’m a keyboard warrior online, meek and mild in real life.
Watching Xia Li skillfully operate the backend, patrol the comment section, and then open the editing software to start typing.
Qin Chuan watched for a while and muttered two words.
“Update please.”
“No…but…”
Xia Li was startled and turned around to look at him as if he had seen a ghost.
“There are really people who come to the author’s house to ask for updates?”
“Haha…”
Qin Chuan found Xia Li’s reaction a bit funny and couldn’t help but laugh.
Xia Li’s expression also changed from surprise to a dry smile.
“Forget it, I’ll show you a live version.”
Xia Li didn’t mind him watching and typed very quickly.
The story in the book had reached the power struggle in the human kingdom and its impact on the Silver Dragon Lucia. Most of the plot here was adapted from what Xia Li had heard from Lucia, so it was half-fiction, half-truth.
Qin Chuan had no feelings for this kind of plot about changing situations. He was a setting enthusiast and only wanted to see those races and animals on Azure Continent.
“The plot is too slow, just show me the outline directly.” Qin Chuan said after glancing at it twice.
“That’s not possible.” Xia Li refused.
“…Why?”
“Because I don’t have an outline at all.”
“…”
“I’m just kidding, I actually do, but this thing is the author’s lifeline. Leaking it out is equivalent to ruining the whole book.”
“Alright.”
Qin Chuan didn’t insist. Reading a book should be done slowly, so that there’s a sense of immersion.
He watched Xia Li typing unhurriedly.
Suddenly, his vision went dark.
“Click!”
It seemed like the sound of some switch being pressed…or rather, a power outage?
Qin Chuan froze for a moment and looked back at Xia Li.
“Power outage?”
Xia Li had already turned off his phone. The only light source in the living room was the screen of the TV.
Qin Chuan immediately realized that if there was a power outage, the TV shouldn’t still be on.
Looking again, the sports channel originally playing on the TV had changed to the movie channel, and the movie playing inside happened to be a horror film.
Qin Chuan had seen this horror film.
A woman, barefoot, wearing a white dress, with long hair draped over her shoulders, slowly crawled out of the TV.
Sadako!
Thinking this, a black shadow swiftly flashed past Qin Chuan.
A big black rat??
He abruptly stood up.
His battle-hardened body reacted to this scene.
After glancing at the snacks and books on the table, Qin Chuan finally picked up a book, rolled it into a stick shape, and got ready.
“Hey…”
Xia Li wanted to stop him, but after thinking about it, he held back.
“Hee…hee hee…”
A young girl was standing in front of the TV at some point.
She was standing with her back to the light. The TV was playing eerie images, and the background sound was filled with the girl’s sharp laughter and a noise like countless snowflakes.
The girl’s hair was disheveled, and her white dress dragged on the ground. At first glance, it really seemed like Sadako from before had crawled out of the TV.
She slowly raised her head, her backlit face was expressionless, but you could see a fish weighing about five pounds being held in her arms.
The fish was struggling, making a “plop plop” sound.
“Plop plop,”
“Plop plop,”
The fish’s tail slapped the girl’s slender arms, and the girl felt ticklish and couldn’t help but reach out and scratch.
Qin Chuan: “…………”
Calmly putting down the book rolled into a stick in his hand, he looked at Xia Li with a puzzled expression.
The ensuing silence was deafening.
The scene seemed to freeze.
The girl was holding the fish, a black cat wearing a Batman mask stood at her feet, and Xia Li sat on the sofa without saying a word.
Only the fish, which was struggling constantly due to suffocation, became the only thing moving in their sight.
About two minutes passed.
Lucia’s arms were getting sore from holding the fish.
Wuqi was even more uncomfortable being blocked by the mask and started scratching it with his paws.
“Why is there no magic power!”
Finally, the evil dragon holding the big grass carp couldn’t help but speak.
Qin Chuan also spoke up.
“How could there be any magic power with this!!”
“Why weren’t you scared!”
Lucia put the fish down, her expression quite aggrieved.
She had carefully arranged this scene, and the images on the TV were also downloaded and screencast in advance using her phone.
She even grabbed Wuqi to act as a temporary actor…
As for why she was ‘holding a fish,’ it was entirely because she wanted to create a bloody and terrifying scene.
The only thing in the house that could bleed was this big grass carp that Xia Li had bought home to raise.
She originally wanted to gut the fish, but Lucia had a natural sympathy for this kind of scaled species, so she couldn’t bear to kill it.
Although coming out to scare people while holding a big live fish was indeed a bit funny…
But still.
The atmosphere had been built up to this point, anyone should be scared out of their wits, right?!
Lucia had it all planned out. This carefully arranged trap would at least allow her to store a long row of dragon scales!
But the other party didn’t react at all.
It was so embarrassing for a dragon!
“I told you it wouldn’t work.”
Xia Li held back his laughter.
He couldn’t comment.
◈◈◈
When the smart dragon daughter proposed this plan, he knew it was going to fail.
As expected, it still failed.
However, it’s quite nice to mess around with her.
“Why… Why wasn’t he scared?”
Lucia couldn’t understand, racking her dragon brain, she squatted on the ground dejectedly, lost in thought.
She had simulated it many times in her mind, and every time she felt it was successful, so why didn’t the actual operation go as planned?
“…”
Qin Chuan didn’t want to discourage Dragon Sister, so he comforted her.
“Actually, it was quite scary…”
“He clearly wasn’t scared at all…” Lucia pounded the ground.
Xia Li was holding back his laughter so hard he almost got internal injuries.
But seeing Lucia’s truly disappointed look, he held back his laughter, walked over, and hugged the silly dragon.
“Hey, why are you scaring him? You’re not allowed to scare him, scare me instead.”
“You’re not easy to scare either!”
Lucia’s deflated little face pouted, muttering constantly, feeling very wronged.
Xia Li patted her back to soothe her, speaking softly.
“I’m easy to scare.”
“I should have grabbed two kitchen knives just now, that would have been scarier than holding a fish!”
Lucia was furious, not only had her magic power disappeared, but she had also lost face as a dragon.
She initially wanted to grab the kitchen knives, but Xia Li said it was dangerous and wouldn’t let her.
It must be because there were no kitchen knives, it has nothing to do with being a dragon!
“Hahaha…”
“You’re still laughing, you’re not allowed to laugh!”
Xia Li couldn’t hold it in anymore and burst out laughing.
Because he had held it in for so long, he laughed until he twitched, burying his face in Lucia’s soft body and rubbing against it.
Lucia was still angry, but when Xia Li rubbed against her like this, her little face turned white and then red.
“You, you, get off me…”
She pushed Xia Li’s head, but couldn’t move it. Now Lucia felt even more embarrassed as a dragon.
Two pairs of eyes were watching them. Xia Li was a sly one, they had agreed not to do this or that when there were people around.
“Hahaha…”
Xia Li felt like he was about to laugh his lungs out.
The angrier Lucia glared at him, the more he couldn’t help but laugh.
As he laughed and raised his head, Xia Li’s gaze inadvertently fell on Qin Chuan.
Qin Chuan stood by the side, quietly watching this scene.
At this moment, in the dark living room, something luminous flickered beneath Qin Chuan’s chest.
“Huh?”
“Meow??”
Xia Li and Wuqi, who witnessed this scene, were both stunned.
Wait, what kind of emotion is this?
『I know this meow, it’s called ‘jealousy’!! 』
Xia Li looked at Wuqi, who was speaking.
Wuqi then changed his words.
『Of course, you can also call this emotion ‘envy’. 』
Qin Chuan touched his chest, he wasn’t sure why the Heart of Stone glowed at this time.
Just watching Xia Li and Dragon Sister fooling around, he also thought of his friends in the other world.
If he had also bickered and joked with them like this, he would have laughed out loud like this too…
However, he might never be able to see his friends again.
Therefore, when he thought of this, a feeling of sadness touched him.
“‘Is this, envy’?”
A neutral voice, devoid of emotion, like an AI speaking, rang out.
The source of the voice was Wuqi’s watch.
As long as he was given enough time to type, he could use the voice playback function to express what he wanted to say.
This method was unnecessary with Xia Li, but when Wuqi communicated with Dragon Sister and Qin Chuan face to face, it was their only way to communicate.
Qin Chuan shook his head and replied to Wuqi.
“It’s not that feeling… I just felt a little sad.”
“Could it be that only ‘sadness’ can be converted into magic power?” Xia Li asked.
“Then it really is a tremor… mm.”
Lucia subconsciously started to analyze, but then suddenly remembered Xia Li’s warning not to say that, so she obediently shut her mouth for the rest of the sentence.
As the Earthlings discussed their strategy, Lucia, a little dragon person, couldn’t get a word in edgewise, so she trotted over to turn on the living room light. As she returned to Xia Li’s side, she grabbed two biscuits from the fruit plate, tore off the wrappers, and stuffed them into her mouth.
The evil dragon munched on the snacks, looked up at the two humans and one cat, and then snuggled closer to Xia Li.
After pondering for a moment, Qin Chuan said.
“It’s hard to say… But in the other world, other emotions could be used, but after returning to Earth, it seems that the Heart of Stone only reacts when I feel sad.”
“A new restriction?”
Xia Li thought about it and felt that it shouldn’t be the case.
Since the Heart of Stone still worked on Earth, it proved that it was only weakened, not that there were more rules restricting it.
If it was a rule restriction, it would be too complicated, there shouldn’t be such messy things on Earth.
“It’s very likely because you’ve only felt ‘sadness’ since you returned to Earth…” Xia Li analyzed.
Qin Chuan nodded, thinking it was possible.
He hadn’t felt genuinely happy for a long time.
When he laughed at Xia Li just now, he only felt five parts awkward and five parts amused, there was no real heartfelt feeling.
“Crunch, crunch,”
Lucia, sitting next to Xia Li, was munching on snacks like a hamster.
Seeing that the discussion between the two humans and one cat had yielded no results after a long time, Lucia, feeling a little impatient, suggested.
“Do you want to see how much magic power there was just now?”
The evil dragon was quite ‘heartless’ towards people and things outside.
She didn’t care about people other than Xia Li. She might occasionally feel sorry for left-behind children, or sigh when she saw an old lady carrying a vegetable basket wider than her shoulders.
But these were all ways of thinking that she developed after being influenced by society. Based on Lucia’s dog-eat-dog upbringing, she was definitely an egoist.
So it was reasonable to say that she was always ‘heartless’.
“Meow.”
『I want to see too. 』
As soon as Dragon Sister made the suggestion, Wuqi, the straight man, was the first to agree.
Xia Li glanced at Qin Chuan to see what he thought, and Qin Chuan nodded, indicating that it was okay.
“The ability I can use is to interfere with the fate of things…
I can show all the possibilities in cause and effect. For example, the lighter on your table has a 0.001% chance of leaking and exploding, I can directly realize this 0.001% possibility…”
As Qin Chuan spoke, he raised his right hand.
He made a grasping motion towards the lighter, just as he was about to speak, Xia Li grabbed him.
“Wait, you’re going to burn down my house!”
“No, I’m just going to make it leak oil…”
“Don’t, don’t even leak oil. Your magic power is very useful to me!”
Xia Li didn’t want to waste the hard-earned magic power on such a boring experiment.
He had more important experiments to do.
Stopping Qin Chuan’s wasteful behavior, Xia Li went to the balcony to get his sword.
The moment he drew the Demon Repelling Sword, a faint blue light illuminated his face.
The human, the cat, and the dragon all subconsciously took half a step back.
All three of them had some psychological trauma related to this Demon Repelling Sword.
“…” Xia Li looked at this scene speechlessly.
The most frightened one was still Lucia. She timidly grabbed the sheep plush pillow and held it in front of her, only revealing a pair of pitiful eyes.
“Why are you scared too?” Xia Li ruffled the dragon’s head.
It was one thing for outsiders, but this little dragon was practically the Demon Repelling Sword’s mistress, what was she afraid of?
“Can you try to guide the magic power out of your body?” Xia Li asked Qin Chuan, holding the sword.
Qin Chuan thought for a while.
“Guide?”
“Yes, don’t release it in an offensive way, but let it leak out…” Xia Li said, following the idea of using Wuqi’s Golden Bell.
“Then try to transfer this magic power to me, I’ll find a way to convert it.”
Xia Li told Qin Chuan about the Demon Repelling Sword’s ability to convert magic power.
This ability, similar to format conversion, puzzled Qin Chuan.
No matter how powerful an artifact is, directly converting magic power from another world… It sounded too fantastical.
But he didn’t think too much about it and followed Xia Li’s method to guide it little by little.
Qin Chuan held it in for a while, but there was no response, the Heart of Stone in his chest was even more lifeless.
Five minutes passed, ten minutes passed…
Xia Li felt that something was wrong.
Could it be… that the magic power of the two worlds was too different and simply incompatible?
Looking back at Lucia’s expectant eyes, Xia Li couldn’t help it and took a step forward.
There was no need for men to be shy about anything, Xia Li directly placed his hand on Qin Chuan’s chest.
As soon as he placed it there, the calm stone beneath Qin Chuan’s chest actually reacted.
A faint white light emerged from the cracks in the stone, Xia Li’s face lit up, he felt again the unfamiliar, unknown magic power he had felt when he approached Qin Chuan last time.
This magic power was different from the power in Azure Continent, it was more complex and colder.
Xia Li tried to pull the flow of magic power, guiding it towards his arm.
The light actually moved according to his will, flowing along his arm bit by bit into the palm of his right hand, then through the hilt of the sword, and finally converging on the Demon Repelling Sword.
The already enchanted Demon Repelling Sword shone even brighter, as if it could unleash a world-shaking blow with this magic power in the next second.
It worked!
Xia Li was pleasantly surprised.
Originally, seeing Qin Chuan’s pained expression, he thought this operation would be difficult to achieve.
But unexpectedly, with just a little effort from him, the magic power conversion was complete!
“…”
Qin Chuan, standing in front of Xia Li, fell silent.
He felt a sense of powerlessness, like Captain America lifting Thor’s hammer.
Wait a minute.
Why would the Heart of Stone—which had been embedded in his chest for over twenty years, shared life and death with him, and gone through countless cycles of reincarnation—
react in Xia Li’s hands??