Editor: Xinghe
Translator: YuQiChen/Churen
The underground fell into silence.
Shen Tazhi remained silent for a while, but Jiang Que was sure the other wouldn’t refuse, so he hugged his own tentacles even tighter.
Just letting this human go, he still had his tentacles to keep him company, so he wouldn’t be sad.
The tentacles moved, mimicking Shen Tazhi’s actions, patting Jiang Que’s head gently:
[It’s okay, we can still praise Xiao Que.]
Shen Tazhi didn’t expect Jiang Que to actually say “let you go.” He stood still in shock for a moment before coming to his senses with the soft comforting voice of the tentacles.
He looked at Jiang Que, who was hugging his tentacles, and couldn’t help but sigh inwardly.
This wasn’t about letting him go; every word and sentence clearly expressed Jiang Que’s loneliness. He might as well have written “I’m so lonely, can you stay with me” on his face.
This kind of Jiang Que always softened people’s hearts.
Thinking this, Shen Tazhi naturally bent down, embraced Jiang Que, who was talking to himself and the tentacles, and said gently:
“But I said from the beginning that I wanted to take you with me.”
Jiang Que’s eyes widened, obviously not taking his previous words seriously, incredulously asking, “Why?”
He had thought Shen Tazhi was only saying that to make him relax his guard, but now that he clearly said he could let the other go, Shen Tazhi still responded like this.
Was Shen Tazhi stupid? Did he really not understand that Jiang Que was ready to let him go?
Shen Tazhi didn’t directly answer his question but instead asked back, “Don’t you really want to go to the outside world?”
“You know, I have a lot of money in the outside world. I can provide you with plenty to eat, let you read many novels, and perfectly conceal your different tentacles from humans, allowing you to live among them.”
“I can give you… everything you want, Que Que.”
Jiang Que, not letting Shen Tazhi off the hook, persistently asked, “So, why?”
Why was he so insistent on bringing him out of the abyss? What benefits did Shen Tazhi have in doing this?
As Jiang Que said this, he looked up and froze when he met Shen Tazhi’s gaze.
Here it comes again, the same expression as when they first met.
Jiang Que’s mind flashed with a glimmer of insight and he tentatively asked, “Is it because you feel sorry for me…?”
Shen Tazhi shifted uncomfortably, vaguely responding with a “Hmm.”
Jiang Que became even more puzzled, “So you want to take me out because of that? Is this how all you humans are? So strange.”
He broke free from Shen Tazhi’s embrace, took a few steps back, and pointed at the array on the ground, “Although I am indeed curious about your ‘human world,’ I can’t go out with you. These arrays not only gather grudges but also trap me. I’ve told you about this.”
Perhaps knowing they were about to part ways, the usually impatient Jiang Que was unusually patient in explaining to Shen Tazhi, even demonstrating by taking a few steps forward.
Within ten meters, he couldn’t move forward anymore, as if blocked by an invisible wall of air. He could only helplessly reach out to touch the unseen wall and turn back to Shen Tazhi, saying, “See, just like this.”
For the past eighteen years, he had been living alone in this mere ten square meters of space.
Shen Tazhi fell silent for a moment, “If I can break this array, would you be willing to leave with me?”
“Sure,” Jiang Que casually replied, not believing that Shen Tazhi could break the array on the ground.
After deciding to destroy humanity, he had tried to attack the array on the ground, attempting to solve the problem at its root. However, no matter how hard he smashed it, the array would quickly restore itself after shattering, not even weakening a bit.
After several unsuccessful attempts, Jiang Que didn’t continue wasting efforts on this. After all, hitting the array with tentacles was quite painful.
Now, Shen Tazhi’s quick agreement was probably because he had never seen the strength of the array. Once he found out he couldn’t destroy it, he would probably leave on his own.
That’s what Jiang Que thought.
Lost in his thoughts for a moment, Shen Tazhi pulled out a yellow talisman from somewhere in his backpack, with an unknown charm drawn in bright red cinnabar on it.
Although his very existence was already a huge challenge to materialism, the fact that a standard modern person took out a charm from his backpack was too fantastical. Even Jiang Que found it unsettling and unbelievable.
Under his gaze of half doubt and half shock, Shen Tazhi walked to the center of the array with the talisman in hand, looking down at the eye of the array, his expression turning cold.
“Swish—”
As if sensing the threat from Shen Tazhi’s talisman, a strong wind started blowing from the center of the array, making the thin yellow paper rustle.
Stones from the ground started flying around, Shen Tazhi’s hair got tousled, and Jiang Que anxiously protected his withered tentacles in the corner, not letting them get blown away. He didn’t even have time to look up and see Shen Tazhi’s expression.
In the center of the raging wind, Shen Tazhi clutched the talisman, bending down slowly but firmly, pasting it onto the eye of the array.
“Swish—”
The final burst of furious wind lifted the talisman, the sharp edge of the paper cutting Shen Tazhi’s hand like a sharp blade under the wind’s force.
Blood dripped from his tiger’s mouth1area between thumb and pointer finger, but Shen Tazhi stood up as if he felt nothing from the wound on his hand, looking at the fading array, and said to Jiang Que behind him, “It’s resolved.”
The array that had trapped Jiang Que for so long in this life and the last, was now resolved by him.
Shen Tazhi had actually wanted to directly unravel the array from the beginning, but the Taoist had warned him while drawing the talisman that triggering the array’s automatic defense system during its resolution might cause a significant disturbance. He was concerned that sudden commotion might heighten Jiang Que’s vigilance, so he waited until now to act.
Jiang Que was stunned, “Resolved…?”
How could the array that he couldn’t solve just disappear so easily?
It took Jiang Que a long time to slowly come back to reality, looking at the darkened ground, memories of his encounters with Shen Tazhi playing uncontrollably in his mind.
All the doubts about Shen Tazhi that he had accumulated finally surfaced at this moment:
The inexplicable palpitations, the prepared stories, the abundant food, and now the unravelled array.
Everything was telling him that Shen Tazhi had come prepared.
Shen Tazhi was suspicious.
This realization left Jiang Que feeling somewhat down, but it was followed by an indescribable anger.
His tentacles assumed an aggressive posture as Jiang Que took a few steps forward, grabbing Shen Tazhi by the neck, looking fierce, “Who are you exactly? Why did you come here?”
Why did he effortlessly unravel the array that had originally trapped him? What was Shen Tazhi’s relationship with those people?
His neck was tightly gripped, this time Jiang Que was truly ruthless. Shen Tazhi had no defense against Jiang Que’s sudden attack.
He could hardly breathe, struggling to gasp for air, even his attempts at resistance only resulted in a few strained sounds.
The lack of oxygen to his brain made Shen Tazhi’s thoughts sluggish, and he could only vaguely think:
He should have listened to the Taoist and not rashly unravel the array in front of Jiang Que, which only made the other party more alert…
Out of the instinct for survival, he reached out and tried to create some breathing space by grabbing the tentacles coiled around his neck like a python.
However, in the next moment, the bindings around his neck suddenly loosened.
“Cough… cough… cough…”
Fresh air rushed in, and Shen Tazhi knelt on the ground coughing awkwardly.
Before he could understand why Jiang Que had suddenly released him, he heard the other’s tense voice above him, “Why are you bleeding? Will you humans die from this?”
Shen Tazhi raised his head to see Jiang Que holding his bloodied tentacle, looking like a child who had done something wrong, examining him to see where the injury was.
Raising his hand to look at the cut on his tiger’s mouth, Shen Tazhi, with hoarse and damaged vocal cords, smiled helplessly, “Que Que…”
The Taoist’s worry was truly unnecessary; what Jiang Que lacked most was vigilance towards humans.
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