novelraw Chapter 1150: Plastic Mother-Daughter Bond
Chapter 1150: Plastic Mother-Daughter Bond
One stream, two, three... dozens, hundreds—black sludge rapidly surged into Luo Qiu’s palm.
Like pulling the plug on the depths of the ocean, an immense amount of black sludge spiraled and formed a massive vortex—at the vortex’s core was Luo Qiu’s hand.
Weaken, weaken, weaken… frail!
What once surged into Dragon Fiend’s body from the earth—an endless hatred of the land—was now being stripped away at an overwhelming pace. Yet at the same time, more boundless resentment continued flooding into its body!
Dragon Fiend’s body had become like a leaky sieve, completely incapable of holding onto any of the land’s resentment—or rather, its body was acting like a filter.
“What did you do to me?! What the hell did you do?!”
Chunks of rotten soil—black sludge—peeled from its body in great masses, extracted and dragged into the vortex. It felt a weakness it had never experienced before, even its consciousness fading.
“I refuse… I refuse!!!”
Cracked and dried... Dragon Fiend’s body was now completely brittle, like dried-up mud under scorching sun. Each step it took caused its massive body to break apart.
Its legs shattered… calves collapsed… the arm it reached out cracked in midair!It collapsed completely onto the ground. Yet stubbornly, with only its torso, head, and half an arm remaining, it crawled frantically to Luo Qiu’s feet.
That last arm slowly lifted... only to crumble, flaking away in midair—until what remained of Dragon Fiend fully disintegrated, becoming nothing more than a three-foot-high pile of ash.
Within the ash, a figure was faintly visible… the one Dragon Fiend had used as a vessel: Gongsun Shiyu.
His breath was extremely weak, his life flickering like a candle in the wind, seemingly about to extinguish at any moment… even his consciousness was too dim to gather. Luo Qiu glanced at him indifferently and paid no further attention.
The massive vortex of sludge began shrinking… finally condensing in Boss’s palm into a polished black orb—swirled with dark mist, constantly circling within.
“Where’s Dragon Fiend?”
Long Xiruo, still holding the unconscious Su Zijun, slowly walked over.
“Here.” Boss Luo raised the black sphere. “Dragon Fiend and the resentment of the land… most of it is in here.”
Long Xiruo’s eyes widened slightly—was there anything this man couldn’t do?
Countless years of Divine Land’s resentment… just sealed away like that?
“What is Lady Long thinking about?” Luo Qiu smiled slightly. “I merely took away the excess resentment beyond the threshold… no customer requested us to permanently solve the problem.”
In other words, even though Dragon Fiend and the land’s resentment were sealed inside this orb, the source of that resentment still remained. Someday, when mankind’s destruction of the land again reached its limits, the same thing would likely happen again.
Realizing this was just a temporary fix, not a permanent solution, Long Xiruo felt slightly regretful. But thinking of Luo Qiu’s shop and its rules, all she could do was sigh inwardly.
“What… what do you plan to do with it?” Her eyes fell on the black orb in his palm.
“Lady Long, would you like to purchase it?” Luo Qiu suddenly asked.
Long Xiruo froze. “You… you're going to sell that as a product?!”
“Has Lady Long forgotten our store’s motto?” Luo Qiu replied with a calm smile.
“I haven’t forgotten!” she snapped, glaring. “Not even when I die will I forget… But if you really put this thing on the market and some twisted person buys it—!”
“That’s the customer’s business,” Luo Qiu replied flatly. “Righteous or wicked, a customer is a customer. If they want it and can afford it, we will hand it over.”
Looking at the source of a potential future catastrophe right before her, Long Xiruo couldn’t deny she was tempted. If it were in her hands, at least she could try to purify the resentment and guide the souls within Dragon Fiend to peace.
“…How much?” she muttered after a pause.
She was already betraying her original intention—just like she told Su Zijun, it was a path of no return. Once you developed a need, this man and his shop would always find something irresistible to place before you.
The True Dragon of Divine Land—nearly immortal and unrivaled—but even she had moments of need.
“Your soul would do. Or your True Dragon power,” Luo Qiu offered casually. “Of course, Miss Zijun’s soul would work too. Or perhaps… the 779 sealed evil souls currently held by Xuanyuan Palace.”
“Scammer!!” Long Xiruo scowled fiercely at him.
While glaring at the Boss, she cursed Su Zijun in her heart—this reckless brat! Xuanyuan Royal had accumulated 813 evil soul seals over countless generations… and this girl had burned through dozens in no time!
She really wanted to throw her to the ground!
But she couldn’t bear to let go of Su Zijun now. All she could do was vent her frustration on the Boss. “Try selling that thing to someone! I’d like to see who can actually afford it! You damned scammer!”
“Indeed,” Luo Qiu nodded calmly. “At present, very few individuals could afford it. And also…”
“And also what?” Long Xiruo tensed—afraid this conman had another weird idea.
Luo Qiu shook his head. “Also, Lady Long, you seem to have forgotten something else.”
“Something else?” she frowned—then her expression instantly changed.
The spiritual energy breach!
She had focused entirely on dealing with Dragon Fiend, and then Luo Qiu’s arrival. In that time, she had left the breach unattended.
And now…
Boom—!!!
From the great fissure beneath Mount Tai, a radiant light surged skyward—accompanied by twelve thunderous dragon roars!
From that massive breach, a brilliant dragon figure bathed in gold and silver light shot toward the heavens!
“It’s over…”
Long Xiruo’s arms went limp, and this time she really dropped Su Zijun!
“Damn it!” She stomped and soared into the sky, transforming into a golden dragon, spiraling upward in pursuit of the first dragon shadow escaping the spiritual energy breach!
“With no Dragon Fiend, Lady Long’s True Dragon power is fully restored. Now that the twelve ancestral veins are reconnected with the Divine Land, I assume she’ll have no problem suppressing this spiritual energy storm. However… since the gate has been opened, sealing it again won’t be easy.”
Luo Qiu spoke calmly. “Still, while the recovery of spiritual energy can no longer be reversed, Lady Long should be able to minimize the damage caused by the surge… That said, it likely isn’t the ending Miss Su Zijun had hoped to see.”
Su Zijun, who had been thrown to the ground, suddenly began to slowly get up… After rising, she immediately opened her mouth and vomited out a large amount of black sludge.
Luo Qiu handed her a pack of tissues.
“Tch!” Su Zijun snatched the tissues from Luo Qiu’s hand with a wave—so useful, after all.
“Miss Zijun, are you planning to request additional services? We can help stop Lady Long’s actions,” Luo Qiu said with a slight smile.
“Quite the schemer, aren’t you?” Su Zijun sneered. “You knew what Dragon Fiend really was from the beginning, didn’t you?”
Luo Qiu replied calmly, “In business, we always need to gather as much information as possible. It allows us to provide better service.”
“Tch!”
That was Su Youqian’s second annoyed click of the tongue. She looked at Boss Luo with deep dissatisfaction. “I only asked you to give her a proper dose of humiliation in the dungeon! I didn’t ask you to restore her strength! If this Dragon Fiend were just some Evil Dragon and you hadn’t interfered by restoring her True Dragon powers, I would’ve slaughtered all the Daoists and Demons near Mount Tai by now! This is breach of contract! I seriously doubt you even followed my instructions! I protest!”
As if anticipating her outburst, Boss Luo merely smiled. He put away the black sphere in his palm and instead pulled out a camcorder.
“According to your request, the entire scene has been recorded.” Luo Qiu handed the camcorder to Su Zijun and gestured politely. “Please review it, Miss Zijun.”
So annoying!!!
Still, without hesitation, Su Zijun opened the recording.
—“What… what are you doing?!”
—“Stay away!”
—“Don’t you dare—”
—“Ahhh——!!!”
The tender and frightened voice echoed from the camcorder. Su Zijun’s eyes lit up as she locked onto the footage, unable to look away.
She waved her hand, and several orbs of light shot toward Luo Qiu, which he casually absorbed into his palm.
Now, out of the total of 813 sealed evil souls, several more had just been spent.
Boss Luo smiled slightly. “With that, I won’t disturb you further, Miss Zijun.”
“Wait!” Su Zijun asked without even lifting her head, “She doesn’t know you recorded that, does she?”
How should he put it?
Luo Qiu glanced at Divine Land’s True Dragon, who was currently struggling to suppress the spiritual energy storm, then looked back at Su Zijun, who was intently watching her dirty footage—and a cheeky internet saying came to mind:
“Plastic mother-daughter bond,” indeed…
“Please enjoy, Miss Zijun.”
Without answering her last question, Luo Qiu gave a slight bow. His figure gradually faded from her sight until he finally vanished.
…
Damn it!
With her naturally fiery temper and two thousand years of repressed, imbalanced energy, Divine Land’s True Dragon was now annoyed at everyone she saw!
The spiritual energy eruption deep beneath Mount Tai could no longer be reversed… but at least it was still possible to prevent large-scale disaster from the resulting energy storm.
Just then, in the distance, a second burst of radiant light shot into the sky—within that glow, a silver dragon silhouette briefly appeared, causing Long Xiruo’s expression to drastically change!
Another spiritual energy breach?!
Before she could react further, she noticed something odd—the energy storm from Mount Tai wasn’t nearly as overwhelming as she had expected.
As Long Xiruo puzzled over this, seven Jade Dragon Pillars buried around Mount Tai suddenly launched into the sky.
The seven pillars arranged themselves in the pattern of the Big Dipper, and atop one of them was a small silhouette—
It was Hope, the newly ascended dragon god born from Mount Tai’s ley lines!
The seven Jade Dragon Pillars formed a heavenly pattern, connected by a dragon’s presence—Hope’s true body!
Now, the violent spiritual energy erupting from the earth no longer spread outward. Instead, the Big Dipper-shaped formation of the Jade Dragon Pillars acted like an inverted funnel.
Spiritual energy burst forth from underground, got pulled into the funnel, and then ejected upward—its violent nature smoothed out, turning into a breeze-like current that filled the sky.
“What is this…” Long Xiruo stared, stunned.
“The current successor of Plain-Clothed Dao really is a genius.”
Luo Qiu’s voice suddenly came from behind her.
This startled Divine Land’s True Dragon so much she got goosebumps—she couldn’t explain it, but she instinctively feared hearing this man’s voice behind her back.
Her mind instantly filled with scenes from that small dungeon room...
“What did you say?”
“Did you forget Hope’s ability?” Luo Qiu asked, his gaze turning toward another explosion of light in the distance—it was from the Crouching Dragon Estate.
“Spatial… folding.” Long Xiruo froze, then her eyes flew wide. “You mean… Hope’s role in this spiritual energy revival wasn’t to unleash it, but to contain the damage from its eruption?!”
“Spiritual energy outbreaks are most dangerous in the initial explosion,” Luo Qiu said calmly. “High-purity energy is like poison. But when it passes through layers of spatial folding, the shockwave is greatly reduced. Once released, it’s no longer hazardous. Look over there—Crouching Dragon Estate, another outbreak point, has also been weakened in its early phase.”
“They… actually had that much foresight?” Long Xiruo was in disbelief.
“Not entirely,” Luo Qiu shook his head. “They may have sacrificed a million people… but they saved tens of millions—perhaps even more. Considering the blast radius would have reached the capital, the number saved is beyond calculation. Lady Long, you understand the cost-benefit, don’t you?”
Long Xiruo opened her mouth, stunned. “Killing a million is an unforgivable crime… but to save millions more? Could it be… that Lai Caisheng’s true goal was to earn the karmic merit of saving the world?!”
“He never made a move himself, after all.”
Luo Qiu added calmly, “He took part, yet stayed detached—used others to act on his behalf. Even if he bears the sin, that merit will eventually outweigh it. You, Lady Long, and all the Daoists and Demons of Divine Land… you were unknowingly made into his pawns. Doesn’t that make him… a genius?”
“Bastard!!!”
(End of Chapter)