Chapter 90: Tian Yuan Dharma Assembly (VII)
It is now 8 o'clock in the evening, and Soichi is editing a video in his room.
Shan Gui and Lu Ren are also here. They are listening attentively to Zong Yi's explanation of the key points, while accumulating experience and preparing for Shan Gui's future self-media career.
As the only two children, Qilinzai and A Bing stayed obediently in Lu Ren's room, watching cartoons on Lu Ren's mobile phone.
Not far from the two of them, Peng Ju was emitting light from the bottle of mineral water on the bedside table. However, due to the bright lights in the room, the faint red light was immediately covered up, and it would be difficult to detect if someone was not paying attention.
Unfortunately, Qilinzai and A Bing were so focused on watching the cartoon that they didn't notice anything unusual about Peng Ju's behavior.
Soon, as if in response to the signal sent by Peng Ju, strong winds began to blow on the mountain. The treetops swayed wildly in the wind, and the branches were bent in exaggerated arcs, making people begin to worry that they would be at risk of breaking at any time.
If an ordinary person were to encounter this sudden evil wind in this deserted place deep in the mountains, they would definitely be a little scared. But Qilin Cub and A Bing were immersed in the adventure stories of SpongeBob and Patrick at the moment, and had no time to pay attention to the weather changes outside the window.
Just outside the window, in the dim moonlight, a sudden gust of wind blew a huge dark cloud from the horizon, instantly blocking the already dim moonlight.
If someone looked up at the sky at this moment, they would be surprised to find that the dark cloud, as thick as ink, was actually getting bigger and bigger! If one looked more carefully, they would suddenly understand: it was not that the dark cloud was getting bigger and bigger, but that the cloud was actually getting lower and lower.
Finally, the cloud completely covered the top of the cottage. At this time, its true form was finally revealed: it was not a cloud at all, but a swarm of locusts.
This group of locusts also exuded the same strange smell as Peng Ju. They smelled like neither nor demon.
Therefore, even though they had already entered the base camp of the Xuanshi, they were still not discovered. Because in the eyes of all the detection spells, they were just a group of wild insects gathered together.
At this moment, the group of locusts were approaching the window of the Qilin cub.
The wind is biting cold in the early winter night. Even though Qilin is a mythical beast, it is impossible for it to be accustomed to being cold, so the windows of the Qilin cub's room are currently closed.
The double-layer soundproof glass blocks the outside wind noise, and the room is illuminated by bright lights. The bedroom is filled with the sound of the mobile phone, and the whole room is reverberating with the funny and humorous dialogues of cartoon characters. In this background, the cute little boy sitting on the bed is holding his little bear, watching the mobile phone screen with relish.
Everything in this picture seems so warm and beautiful.
However, this beautiful scene was soon interrupted by a strange noise.
There was a dull thud on the window glass, as if something had hit the outside of the double-layer glass. The sound was neither too loud nor too soft, just enough to attract the attention of the unicorn cub in the room, but not enough to be noticed by others.
So, Qilin cub, who noticed the noise, pressed the pause button on his phone and came to the window with A Bing in his arms.
A dead locust was lying on the windowsill. Its stiff body swayed slightly in the wind, and then was blown away by a strong wind, leaving no trace.
Although the bodies of the locusts were blown away, the young unicorn who was close to the window heard the sound of flapping wings above his head. So he looked up in the direction of the sound and found that at this moment, a group of locusts were hovering over the villa like a dark cloud.
The locusts were looking for Peng Ju, and the locust that crashed into the window was sent to spy on the enemy. Because the locust was too excited, it failed to distinguish whether there was glass on the window, which directly led to its own death. At the moment of death, the locust sent out a signal: "This is the room, there is only one child, kill him!"
The locusts that received the signal then swirled and gathered together, like a funnel, slowly gathering together and tightening from the sky-blocking scene, and finally gathered on an open space on the ground.
The locusts gathered together with their limbs connected to each other, becoming inseparable. Finally, they transformed into a human form.
The man wore a white top hat, a white tailcoat, and even a delicate-looking cane. Judging from his attire, he looked like a gentleman who was about to attend an elegant concert.
But beneath his elegant clothes, he was actually quite bloated. He had an ordinary but fat middle-aged man's face, a big belly, and the buttons on his shirt on his chest and abdomen looked like they were about to burst with one breath.
He looked at the Kirin cub lying on the window in the room, took off his hat, waved it over his head a few times, saluted, and then said to the Kirin cub politely: "Good evening, child, my name is Bai Gu, may I ask if my sister is in your hands?"
He enunciated clearly, and the night in the mountains was very quiet, so even through the window glass, Qilin Cub could still hear his questions clearly.
However, Bai Gu's self-introduction confused Qilin Cub: "Bai Gu? Uncle, are you actually a woman?"
Although the words of Qilin Cub were totally irrelevant to Bai Gu's question, Bai Gu seemed to be very patient. She smiled and answered Qilin Cub's question: "Of course not, it's just that when I transformed many years ago, I chose a female and got this name at the same time. Later, I found that it was too difficult for a woman to make a living in this world, so I changed into a male image."
Regarding the idea of choosing gender, Qilinzai once heard Bai Ze say: It is said that some monsters can choose their own gender when they transform.
But this was the first time he had seen a real individual, and he couldn't help but feel a little strange.
In fact, Bai Gu, who had known that Peng Ju was in the room, was just asking knowingly, and brought the topic back to the right time: "Since uncle has answered your question, can you also do uncle a favor?"
The unicorn cub blinked his big watery eyes and asked innocently, "What can I do for you?"
"Give my sister back to me." As he said that, Bai Gu looked behind Qilinzi. Qilinzi followed his gaze and happened to see Peng Ju on the bedside table, which was emitting red light intermittently.
Qilin Cub was a little hesitant about Bai Gu's request. After all, strictly speaking, it was not his decision whether Peng Ju should stay or go. The one who caught Peng Ju was a mountain ghost, and Qilin Cub just borrowed the little spider to play with. As a good child, he could not give someone else's things to others on his own initiative. That was wrong: "But..."
Bai Gu was surprised when she saw the Qilin cub hesitate. She thought, "This kid looks innocent, but he actually has a lot of tricks. Could it be that he is suspicious of me?"
Bai Gu should also be suspected. He was indeed not a good person. The children who had never been on guard against him ended up with nothing left. It was not unfair for him to be suspected.
So Bai Gu curled her lips, complaining in her heart that children these days are indeed getting harder to fool, but she continued to put on an amiable look on her face, coaxing the Qilin cub, "How about this, wasn't my sister telling you that she wanted to play the 'three levels' game? I happen to be the gatekeeper of the second level, so why don't you challenge the 'second level' now. If you win, I'll leave; if you lose, you have to return my sister to me, okay?"
When Qilin Cub heard this, he thought it was feasible. He thought: "Breaking through the levels sounds like fun... No! I'm doing this for Ren! Ren and the others are going to break through the levels anyway, why not let me try... Yeah! That's it! If I pass through, I can get Ren's praise; if I fail, I can provide Ren with information about the second level, and I can get Ren's praise as well, great!"
So Qilin cub nodded and accepted Bai Gu's invitation.
Bai Gu smiled when she heard this and said, "You've taken the bait." Then she waved her hand and cast a spell to create a large table of delicious food on the open space where he landed. Roast suckling pig, Buddha jumps over the wall, Wellington grilled steak, French baked snails... a fusion of Chinese and Western food, everything you could imagine.
When the Qilin cub saw it, his eyes lit up, he swallowed hard, and exclaimed: "Wow——"
Bai Gu smiled and said, "If you want to pass the test, you just need to finish eating all the food on the table, how about that?"
Hearing the word "eat", Qilin cub's eyes lit up: "Can I eat it?"
"Of course, these are all transformed by my spiritual power. They are safe and non-toxic, and you can eat them with confidence. They are even more effective in prolonging life than ordinary human food."
So Qilin cub cheered, holding the teddy bear, and climbed out of the window, and went straight to the table on the open space. He was about to bite it directly, but was stopped .
Bai Gu continued reading out the rules, "However, if you can't eat anymore before you finish it, there will be a punishment."
The Qilin cub pricked up his ears: "What punishment?"
Upon hearing this, Bai Gu's mouth curled up into a sinister arc: "Of course you have to compensate me for the food that was eaten--" Using yourself as food.
Hearing this, the Qilin cub who had just been eager to try seemed a little hesitant: "If you want Ah Ren to pay money, I'd better not participate."
I can’t cause trouble for A-Ren.
"Don't worry, you won't lose money." Seeing the innocent and obedient look on the child's face, Bai Gu relaxed her guard even more. "If you are afraid of losing, you can call a few more helpers."
Hearing that he didn't have to pay compensation, Qilin Cub finally breathed a sigh of relief: "No need for help, A Bing will help me." After saying that, he raised the teddy bear in his hand.
"Hahaha, that's good."
Bai Gu laughed out loud after hearing this. He thought happily: "The brain of such a silly and cute child must taste very sweet."
In fact, even if the dishes transformed by the spiritual power are eaten, they will still grow again because they are not real food, but just the manifestation of Bai Gu's spiritual power.
As long as Bai Gu's spiritual power is not exhausted, the food on this table will never be finished. He cast his eyes on the Qilin cub who was sitting and doing warm-up exercises, preparing for a big meal, and felt extremely happy.
He liked human children pickled by spiritual power the most. They tasted extremely delicious. As soon as he recalled the taste he had tasted before, Bai Gu couldn't wait. So he asked the Qilin cub with concern, "Are you ready?"
"I'm ready."
“Ready! Go!”
At the command, the child rushed to the dining table with the teddy bear in his arms. However, the child was not in a hurry to eat first. Instead, he unzipped the teddy bear before eating.
Just as Bai Gu was wondering, she saw four huge black tentacles sticking out from the zipper of the teddy bear. After the tentacles roughly wrapped around the table, they rolled all the dishes and tableware into the small teddy bear in one go.
In an instant, the desktop became clean.
Bai Gu was stunned. He heard the child complaining to the teddy bear, "A Bing! Why didn't you leave any for me? There's nothing to eat... Wait! Ah! Great! The vegetables are growing again!"
The child's clear voice echoed in Bai Gu's ears, but his brain was obviously unable to process the meaning of the words he heard and the situation happening in front of him at the same time.
"What kind of monster is that ?" Just as this question was echoing in Bai Gu's mind, the second table of food that had just grown was digested in an instant.
Ah Bing is a corpse, coming from chaos, and is nothingness itself. Everything returns to nothingness after returning to illusion. Therefore, Ah Bing will never be able to eat enough.
When the sixth table of food was also finished by A Bing, Bai Gu finally realized that the spiritual power in his body was fading too fast. He began to feel dizzy because of the disappearance of spiritual power. His body shape also slowly changed from a fat middle-aged man to a thin middle-aged man, as if his flesh and blood were being sucked away bit by bit by something invisible.
That was because his spiritual power was rapidly dissipating. At this rate of consumption, Bai Gu could no longer maintain his human form.
Bai Gu finally realized that he would only destroy himself if he continued like this, so he panicked and tried to stop Qilin Cub and A Bing immediately: "Stop eating! Stop eating!"
Unexpectedly, due to Bai Gu's weakness, her voice became too soft at this moment. Ah Bing and Qilin Cub were concentrating on eating, and the knocking of cups and plates was louder than Bai Gu's call to stop, which directly led to the two of them continuing to eat as if no one was around even though Bai Gu called to stop.
While Bai Gu was talking, A Bing and Qilin Cub had already eaten at the eighth table. They ate very quickly, fearing that if they ate a little slower, they would fail. At this point, Bai Gu, who had lost too much spiritual power, was completely speechless.
He became a skeleton covered only by a layer of skin.
When A Bing and Qilinzi finished eating at the tenth table, the table with the dishes disappeared with a bang.
Seeing this, Kirin realized that he had completed the challenge. He happily hugged the teddy bear and jumped up and down: "Great! I helped! Ah Ren will be very happy when he knows about this."
After saying that, Qilin cub turned his head and looked in the direction of Bai Gu: "Uncle Bai Gu, did we succeed in the challenge..."
Strangely, the Bai Gu who had just stood there was gone. There was only a huge white locust lying where Bai Gu had just stood, and its body was obviously stiff.
The Qilin cub touched his head, a little confused: "Did he leave first?"
So the unicorn cub had to climb back into the room with his full belly. He also brought the rare white locust back with him and put it in the mineral water bottle that held the little spider.
The little spider no longer glowed at this moment. It returned to its previous motionless state and continued to curl up in the mineral water bottle, looking half-dead, which was really strange.
However, the unicorn cub who successfully passed the level alone did not care what happened to the little spider at this moment.
He was very excited now, and was thinking that when Lu Ren came back, he would show off to him how he had successfully passed the level on his own.
However, after waiting for a long time, Lu Ren still did not come back. Not long after, because he had eaten too much supper, Qilin cub finally fell asleep on the bed before waiting for Lu Ren.
At 10:30 pm, Lu Ren finally came back after learning editing. As soon as he entered the room, he saw Qilinzi lying on the bed with A Bing in his arms, sleeping soundly. He didn't know what delicious food he was dreaming about, and he smacked his lips in his sleep.
The adorable look made Lu Ren couldn't help laughing out loud: "You little greedy cat, you must be dreaming about something delicious." He gently tucked in the corners of the quilt for the Qilin cub, then turned off the lights and fell asleep together.
The next day, the early morning sunlight shone directly into the room through the undrawn curtains and onto Kirin Cub's eyelids, successfully waking Kirin Cub, who had failed to show off last night, from his dream: "Aren!"
But Lu Ren was no longer in the room. He was eating breakfast with Shan Gui and Zong Yi in the restaurant. It was the breakfast that He Ma personally sent to Zong Yi, as a reward for his rare visit. Therefore, even Zong Yi, who always had an irregular life, got up early this morning to enjoy this meal that contained He Ma's affection. He planned to eat breakfast and then go back to sleep.
When they were halfway through their meal, they saw the Qilin cub running out holding the mineral water bottle that contained the little spider yesterday.
"Hello, Ren! I passed the second level by myself yesterday."
When everyone heard this, they looked and saw that there was indeed a white locust in the bottle. It looked like the little spider and was motionless.
Before Lu Ren could finish his compliment, Zong Yi jumped up from his chair and shouted to Qilin Cub, "Well done!"
Then, he turned around and said to Mother He with a bit of boasting and pride in his smile, "Mother He, this year even a child can easily pass the three levels by himself. The difficulty is too easy, hahahaha."
However, when he saw the expression on He Ma's face, he was stunned. Because He Ma's face at the moment did not look happy at all. She just stared with a little fear and said: "But, but... this year... there is no 'three levels' segment!"
