Chapter 1015 — It Never Rains but It Pours

"Not a pure gold chain—far too vulgar. A pure gold rice bowl is what I want. Three big rice bowls!"

Dragon Qilin's voice came drifting over: "My room should be the same as Sister Yan'er's—half dragon nest, half sparrow nest. No Qilin lair; it's vulgar... Sect Master! The Sect Master is back!"

Dragon Qilin turned his head, caught between shock and delight—but Snow Fox had already beaten him to it, flying over in a pounce. The fox spirit had taken the shape of a little girl of about ten, arms flung wide, body pitched forward, racing straight for Shen Mu.

Shen Mu hurriedly bent down, scooped her up, and seated her on his shoulder, laughing: "So it really is Ling'er who's come! Ling'er, how did you get to the Heavenly Court?"

Snow Fox hugged his face and rubbed against it, chattering at breakneck speed: "The Heavenly Court wants to build spirit-energy translocation bridges, and my Jingping Directorate of Works snatched up the contract. This trip I'm here to hand the finished translocation bridges over to Zaofu Palace, settle the accounts, and tidy up the Young Master's Heavenly Lord Residence on the side. When I came a few days ago, I saw that every other Heavenly Lord Residence was rich and splendid, and only the Young Master's was run-down and shabby—Fat Long and Sister Yan'er even had to live off handouts from that Qi Jiuyi brat, so hungry their faces had gone green... Who is this sister?"

She had suddenly noticed God King Langwan, and hostility showed on her without her meaning it. Behind her, fox tail after fox tail stood straight up, every hair on them bristling, thoroughly on guard.

Shen Mu cleared his throat: "This is..."

"My name is Langwan."

God King Langwan looked Snow Fox over, spread her palm, and a pearl appeared in it. She smiled: "Little sister Ling'er, this is our first meeting; let this be a greeting gift for you."

"I don't want it—"

Snow Fox turned her head away and shook it: "I don't take things from just anyone. Take from a hand, and you're bound to that hand."

God King Langwan explained patiently: "This is a minor heaven. The space stored inside isn't large, but it is more than ample to hold a sun-and-moon star system. And I heard that little sister Ling'er is fond of wine, so I made a point of keeping some fine vintages inside—not much, only a lake's worth."

Snow Fox was sorely tempted. Her face was still turned aside, not looking at her, but her small stubby hand reached out and quietly pinched up that minor-heaven spirit pearl and tucked it away. At once her face lit up with a grin: "How did you know I like to drink?"

God King Langwan smiled faintly and glanced at Shen Mu. Snow Fox took the meaning, and thought: "So the Young Master really is good to me after all."

But Shen Mu knew he had never told God King Langwan what Snow Fox liked. The reason Langwan knew was that her spirit consciousness was too powerful: one brief contact with Snow Fox and she had felt out every detail of her background clean as could be.

Dragon Qilin stepped forward, sizing up God King Langwan warily. His nose twitched; he sniffed at her scent, and inwardly he grew alert: "She's not Yun Chuxiu, but she's full of schemes—she bought off Big Sister the moment they met! And the Sect Master seems to have been bewitched by her as well..."

God King Langwan looked his way. Dragon Qilin said: "Miss Lang, do you have a big pot and a big steamer basket here? I'm very fond of those."

God King Langwan flipped her palm over, and a gleaming golden pot and a golden steamer basket really did appear before Dragon Qilin. She smiled: "This, you mean?"

Snow Fox studied her curiously, unable to tell where she had produced them from.

Dragon Qilin gave them a look, propped up the pot, set the steamer basket on top, leaped onto the basket, and spat a breath of fire downward to start heating the pot.

Shen Mu was baffled, unsure why he would do such a thing.

Dragon Qilin lifted a claw, seized the steamer lid, and cried: "Sect Master! In ancient times, men carried their coffins to court; today, Long Pi steams himself and seeks an audience. I have a tale to tell the Sect Master. If the Sect Master will hear it, I'll come down. If the Sect Master won't, I'll steam myself done and let the Sect Master carry me off and eat me."

Shen Mu set Ling'er down and laughed: "Fat Long, dinner's served. Get down here."

"Oh." Dragon Qilin hopped down from the steamer basket.

God King Langwan asked curiously: "Long Pi likes eating spirit pills? I have a Treasure Bowl here. Put a single spirit pill into the bowl, and a hundred will come gushing out. Do you like it?"

Dragon Qilin thought it over and decided to surrender to this woman, thinking: "This woman is formidable. She panders to my every liking; I cannot stand against her."

Suddenly a little greenfinch came fluttering over and landed on Dragon Qilin's head, cocking its head to study God King Langwan with curiosity.

God King Langwan's eyes turned, and she handed the Treasure Bowl she had just produced to the little greenfinch. The bird alighted on the ground and became Yan'er.

God King Langwan pinched up a spirit pill and dropped it into the bowl, smiling: "Little sister Yan'er, look."

The spirit pill fell into the bowl, and at once a clattering torrent of spirit pills came pouring out. Yan'er was astonished and overjoyed. She picked up a pill at random and popped it into Dragon Qilin's mouth, beside herself with delight: "With this bowl, everything will be so much easier from now on!"

God King Langwan smiled faintly—and saw that Shen Mu had walked on ahead and was surveying the layout of the Heavenly Lord Residence. A great many Jingping craftsmen were repairing it, and it had been decorated most lavishly: carved beams and painted rafters, jeweled towers and jade halls.

God King Langwan went up to him. Shen Mu said: "Sister God King, do not always use your spirit consciousness to probe the thoughts of others. If you always go about your dealings with people this way, they will have no secrets left before you. You know every thought they have, and you can create things besides—it makes you seem far too calculating."

God King Langwan laughed: "Holy Infant, as a God King of the Creator race, knowing what all living beings think is precisely the strength of my race. As the Holy Infant of the Creator race, you now possess that same formidable power. To have power and not use it—is that not letting it go to waste?"

Before Shen Mu could speak, God King Shujun walked over and said lazily: "Holy Infant, have you still not seen it, still not worked it out? God King Langwan is the one and only God King of the Other Shore World, a being who can even stand against Heavenly Lord Shen—how could her mind be simple and open? The very moment we entered the Other Shore World, which of us was not arranged neatly into place by her? She holds the entire Creator race in her grasp; such calculation and such methods are perfectly normal."

God King Langwan glanced at him and said with a smile: "What is the God King babbling about?"

"Nothing."

Shujun opened his robe, revealing a gaunt, withered body—since his spirit consciousness had not yet recovered to what it once was, the flesh he had visualized was skin and bones, two rows of ribs laid bare. He said: "I do not wish to remain in the Other Shore World. One reason is that I want to know whether the Great Emperor is still in the Heavenly Court. Another is that I know I would accomplish nothing even if I stayed. The power of the Other Shore World is held tight in God King Langwan's hands. Even if she left the Other Shore World with you, I still could not seize any power from her."

He laughed: "And is it not the same with you, Holy Infant? Think it over carefully: your prestige among the Creator race is immense, but do you hold any real authority? Can you mobilize any of the Creator clans?"