When Qibao came out after her bath, Yin Mo had already plugged in the hairdryer.
Seeing that Qibao was still wearing a set of cool and comfortable pajamas, Yin Mo sent her a telepathic message: "I'm not interested in women, and I only see you as a tower. Song Chao is different—he has wicked intentions. You'd better not let him see you dressed like this."
Qibao, who neither considered herself human nor regarded Yin Mo and Song Chao as human, paused for a moment, then nodded. No matter what, Yin Mo meant well, and there was no need for her to state the truth and deflate a snake demon who was becoming increasingly obedient.
Once Qibao was seated, Yin Mo began to blow-dry her hair.
Inside the tower, Song Chao couldn't see outside but could hear what was happening. He asked Yin Mo via telepathy how Qibao had obtained her human body.
Yin Mo gave a brief explanation.
Song Chao grew excited: "There was only one set of Heavenly Treasures for forging a physical body, and she used all of it. So as long as we destroy this body of hers, won't she have to return to the tower, becoming a dead tower with only defensive capabilities and nowhere to go on her own?"
Yin Mo: "I advise you to give up on that idea right now. She can contract an S-Rank human powerhouse. If Tu Jian is as upright as you say, then she's a perfect candidate for Qibao to contract. When that happens, Qibao won't even need to persuade Tu Jian—Tu Jian will kill you, a Carp Demon who knowingly breaks the law."
Song Chao: "We could bury her deep underground so she can't contract any humans."
Yin Mo: "Ignorant. She's an Innate Magic Treasure. If she wants, she can grow larger on the spot and emit a golden treasure light strong enough to attract humans to come searching for treasure."
Song Chao let out a deep sigh. The Heavenly Dao was truly unfair. Demonic beasts like them had to cultivate painstakingly to gain divine abilities and spells to resist humans, while Qibao, an Innate Magic Treasure, had done nothing and already possessed powerful divine abilities and infinite lifespan.
The buzzing of the hairdryer continued.
Song Chao: "Her hair is really long. Tu Jian's hair took just a few minutes to dry. Sigh, if you two hadn't come, we'd already be lying in bed asleep. Not like now, separated from each other."
Yin Mo: "How did you seduce her?"
Song Chao: "Who seduced anyone? It was love at second sight for me, and for her, it was affection that grew over time."
After Tu Jian brought him back to Jiangcheng, he indeed arranged a job for him—working as her personal assistant.
Song Chao treasured this opportunity to be protected by a powerhouse and studied very seriously. Even though he made some mistakes at first—accidentally spilling coffee, or holding an umbrella for Tu Jian in the rain only to leave half her shoulder soaked—Tu Jian forgave him with tolerance. Later, as Song Chao improved, Tu Jian's occasional glances at him grew increasingly gentle.
But Tu Jian's human suitors found him extremely annoying. Some even attacked him!
Song Chao was only A-Rank at the time. No matter how careful he was, one of her suitors still managed to wound his arm. When Tu Jian discovered this, she was furious. She ordered the person taken to the police station, then personally drove him to the hospital for treatment. It was on that drive, feeling Tu Jian's gentle care, that Song Chao couldn't help himself and kissed Tu Jian on the cheek.
Song Chao regretted it immediately after, afraid Tu Jian would scold him. But unexpectedly, the seemingly cold Tu Jian kissed him back with even more passion—right on the lips.
"Stop it. Disgusting."
Yin Mo ruthlessly cut off Song Chao's increasingly dreamy reminiscing tone.
Song Chao concluded with lingering satisfaction: "You don't understand. All the joyful days I had in the thousand-plus years before I was locked in this tower don't compare to how wonderful these past four years have been."
Yin Mo looked at the jet-black hair held in his hand and ignored him.
After attending to Qibao, it was Yin Mo's turn to shower. Before going in, he glanced over and saw Qibao leaning against the headboard, opening a projection from her wristband.
Yin Mo: "Watching a movie?"
Qibao: "Searching the forum for news about Tu Jian."
Yin Mo went to the bathroom.
Song Chao continued chatting with Qibao: "Search all you want. There's no one in the entire base with more of a sense of justice than Tu Jian."
Qibao: "Shut up."
Whether in Tancheng or Jiangcheng, because the base would broadcast videos of the generals leading their guard forces in battle against Aberrant Beasts to contribute to the base, every S-Rank Powerhouse was a public figure—even young children recognized them. So no matter whether a general did something good or bad, there would always be discussions on the forum. Even if generals like Li Hongda arranged for posts to be deleted to protect their reputations, it couldn't stop waves upon waves of criticism from base residents.
In just over ten minutes, Qibao found many posts praising and thanking Tu Jian, and also found many posts expressing dissatisfaction with her. Clicking into them, they were all complaints that Tu Jian meddled too much—saying this was the apocalypse now, and survival of the fittest should be allowed. Being too strict about maintaining pre-apocalypse legal justice would drive away many high-level Ability Users who disliked restrictions, reducing Jiangcheng's appeal to the strong.
Only then did Qibao ask Song Chao: "Did high-level Ability Users really leave because of Jiangcheng's fair law enforcement?"
Song Chao: "There are. Even before the apocalypse, some people liked to bully others by relying on their power. After the apocalypse, a new batch of people emerged who used their abilities to rise up. These newcomers had been suppressed for a long time, and after the apocalypse, they wanted to become local tyrants and do whatever they pleased. But they couldn't defeat Tu Jian, nor could they get the Jiangcheng authorities to expel Tu Jian for their benefit, so they could only go elsewhere to throw their weight around. However, leaving such people behind would only harm ordinary residents, so the ordinary residents would definitely support our Tu Jian."
Qibao thought to herself that a ruler praised by many ordinary residents wasn't necessarily a good person, because it could be a facade deliberately created by the ruler. But a ruler who could make a group of morally corrupt villains unite in disgust and condemnation was probably good.
Qibao continued browsing through the posts.
The sound of the bathroom door opening came from that direction. When a figure appeared at the corner of her vision, Qibao casually glanced over, only to see Yin Mo, who would normally at least wear his pajamas neatly, now wearing only a pair of trousers, his fair but clearly defined upper body exposed without any pretense. As Qibao looked over, a drop of water happened to fall from the tip of his short hair, landing on his shoulder before sliding down…
Qibao subconsciously counted—Yin Mo actually had eight abdominal muscles that weren't exaggerated but were firm and distinct.
She counted seriously, while Yin Mo raised a towel to dry his hair, secretly observing Qibao through the gap beneath his arm. Seeing that Qibao didn't hide her appreciation of his body, a pleased smile surfaced in Yin Mo's eyes.
What "love grows over time"? He'd bet that Tu Jian had simply taken a liking to Song Chao's looks. If Song Chao were ugly, Tu Jian wouldn't have kept him by his side.
And as for looks, Yin Mo had them too—even better than Song Chao's.
Putting away the towel, Yin Mo walked to the guest bed across from Qibao, grabbed the hairdryer placed there, sat down, and dried his hair with his head lowered.
Qibao simply lacked firsthand experience with certain behaviors of humans and demonic beasts, but that didn't mean she was naive enough to overlook the schemes and calculations of these flesh-and-blood beings.
Watching Yin Mo focus on drying his hair without looking aside, Qibao sent him a telepathic message.
Suddenly, a soft laugh from Qibao echoed in Yin Mo's mind—a voice as pleasant as spring water, laced with a hint of mockery that made his heart race.
Yin Mo looked up at her.
Qibao: "What, are you trying to learn from Song Chao, using your looks to seduce me so you can be promoted from prisoner to my boyfriend?"
Yin Mo immediately shot back with an even more sarcastic cold laugh: "General Tu at least knows what male charm is. What would a dead tower like you know? Since you don't even understand it, why would I bother seducing you? Besides, what benefit is there in being your boyfriend? Wouldn't I just have to serve you in every way, even all the way to the bed? I'm not that stupid, looking for trouble for myself."
With that, before Qibao could respond, he yanked the cord, grabbed the hairdryer, and went back into the bathroom to dry his hair. When he came out again, he was a black snake as thick as an arm, coiled on a mat he'd laid out, hissing gloomily at Qibao: "Since you have an extra prisoner now, why don't you have Song Chao come out and serve you? If you're interested in male charm, you can order him around all you want."
Seeing the snake demon bury his head and completely go on strike, Qibao rarely reflected for a moment—had she truly wronged this snake demon?
But why else would he have kept his clothes on properly all this time, only to expose his body on the very night they found Song Chao?
The snake demon refused to work, so Qibao released Song Chao with a single thought.
Completely unprepared, Song Chao crashed onto the floor in his carp form with a "smack," bouncing once before barely managing to transform back into human form. Catching a glimpse of Qibao sitting in the shelf bed wearing only a flimsy nightgown, Song Chao spun around sharply, covering his face with his hand in disgust: "I have a girlfriend. Please show some decency."
Yin Mo, coiled nearby, slightly raised his head and continued mocking Qibao: "Maybe she wanted to test your loyalty to General Tu with this method, but you didn't take the bait. Or perhaps she overestimated her own feminine charm."
Song Chao automatically sided with Yin Mo, adding a cold laugh: "There's only Tu Jian in my eyes. Even if another woman stood naked in front of me, I wouldn't give her a second glance. I advise you to stop wasting your effort."
Qibao remained unmoved.
Back when the seven Great Demons had first been locked in the tower, which one of them hadn't cursed at the female cultivator—at her—with torrents of abuse? Qibao didn't care about even more vicious words, let alone this.
Controlling the pagoda, she gave each demon a smack, then returned to the tower after finishing her search of the forum.
Song Chao, in human form, was smashed back into his carp form, his fish head landing directly facing the black snake coiled beside him.
Yin Mo, in an extremely foul mood, suddenly enlarged his head and lunged his snake jaws wide open at the carp.
Song Chao, who was already afraid of snakes, lost control at the sight and transformed into his original form—a carp over ten meters long. His slippery body spun in place, and his tail wildly slapped at the snake demon while he shouted Tu Jian's name at the top of his lungs.
Qibao was disturbed by the noise and came back out. Seeing that the furniture in the guest room had been smashed by the two demons and the floor was soaking wet, she angrily flew up her pagoda and knocked both the snake and the fish unconscious, then sealed them inside the tower.
Just as she finished, there came a knock at the front door. It was Tu Jian: "I heard someone calling for help."
Qibao opened the door for her in her pajamas, then explained as Tu Jian surveyed the scene inside: "Those two don't get along. I knocked them out and locked them up."
Tu Jian: "…I need to confirm Song Chao's condition."
Qibao released the unconscious golden carp. The force that could knock out two Millennial Great Demons had caused several scales to fall off the fish's body.
Seeing Tu Jian staring at Song Chao's wounds with an unreadable expression, Qibao inexplicably thought of the White Snake who flooded Jinshan Temple to save Xu Xian.
Just as she was bracing for trouble, Tu Jian suddenly smiled slightly and said with lowered eyes: "You're still the formidable one. Even knowing he's an Aberrant Beast, I don't think I could be that ruthless in such a short time."
Qibao: "…"
Why did it feel like the compliment wasn't entirely sincere?