Song Chao didn't enjoy the fighting and killing of the human race, nor did he like working fixed hours at a set location. So after officially getting together with Tu Jian, he happily settled into the role of a stay-at-home husband. But he only handled the three meals for the two of them—a hired auntie took care of the other household chores. In his remaining free time, Song Chao either researched new recipes or transformed into a carp and swam around in the backyard pond.
This morning's breakfast was entirely cooked by Song Chao alone. The main dish was hot dry noodles, accompanied by salt-baked prawns, stir-fried vegetables, fried eggs, a fruit platter, and a lotus root and pork rib soup.
Four people, four fried eggs. The eggs on Song Chao and Tu Jian's plates were shaped into beautiful hearts. In comparison, Qibao and Yin Mo's eggs were extremely perfunctory.
Qibao didn't complain. As a guest, having ready-made breakfast was already good enough—as long as Song Chao hadn't poisoned it.
Yin Mo swept a gloomy look at Song Chao, then stared at the irregularly shaped egg on his plate and viciously stabbed it with his chopsticks.
Tu Jian asked Qibao what her plans were for today.
Qibao wanted to wander around Jiangcheng. The information on the forums was half-true and half-false; she wanted to see the city's public security situation with her own eyes and also personally inquire about Tu Jian's reputation.
Tu Jian said, "Alright, arrange your own schedule first. When you have time, if you're interested, I'd like to take you on a tour of the military district."
Every rebuilt base after the apocalypse needed talent. Tu Jian didn't care about losing high-level Ability Users with bad character, but for an S-Rank Powerhouse with a special Ability like Qibao, Tu Jian wanted to fight hard to recruit her for Jiangcheng.
Qibao nodded noncommittally.
After breakfast, Tu Jian took out four sets of blood collection equipment from her spatial storage and said to Qibao and the two Beastmen, "Based on current information, we can't rule out the possibility that there are other Aberrant Beasts outside that can transform into humans, nor can we guarantee whether they harbor ill intentions toward humans. So I'd like to collect blood samples from both Song Chao and Yin Mo in their Beast Forms and human forms, and send them to the military testing center to see if we can identify Beastmen through blood analysis."
Keeping Song Chao around was her personal bias, but as a General, Tu Jian needed to take responsibility for the safety of Jiangcheng and even all human survivors.
Qibao had no objections. After all, she didn't know whether there were local Aberrant Beasts capable of transforming into humans. If Tu Jian could detect them through this method, then Qibao had inadvertently helped humanity. If nothing was detected, or if no such transformations existed at all, a simple blood test wouldn't waste too many resources.
She admired Tu Jian's big-picture thinking even more.
Song Chao naturally cooperated with his girlfriend. Yin Mo's expression was icy cold—clearly unwilling to comply.
Qibao coaxed him through Telepathy: "We're eating and staying here for free, and last night you damaged someone's property. Giving a little blood counts as compensation."
Yin Mo: "…Fine, I'll do it, but you'll be the one performing it. No ordinary mortal gets to touch me."
Qibao really wanted to say—General Tu Jian could burn Yin Mo to death with a single S-Rank fireball. What was this Snake Demon still being so arrogant about?
But since the Snake Demon was willing to cooperate voluntarily, that was better than having to beat him up to force compliance. Qibao had no choice but to agree.
As Tu Jian was unwrapping the equipment packaging, Yin Mo continued messaging Qibao through Telepathy: "Watch carefully. Don't poke the wrong spot later."
Qibao shot him a glare while beginning to question her own luck. If she had encountered Song Chao when she first came out of the mountains, Song Chao probably wouldn't have nearly as many issues as Yin Mo.
But on second thought, Yin Mo was still the better option—at least he could serve as her mount. Song Chao's true form as a carp could only flop around in place.
Tu Jian began tying a tourniquet around Song Chao's left arm.
Qibao watched very attentively, but in Yin Mo's eyes, it looked like she was staring intently at Song Chao's fair forearm. Song Chao's fairness was different from Yin Mo's pale complexion—his carried a healthy, well-cared-for flush of vitality.
When the thin needle pierced Song Chao's vein, the unfamiliar sting drew a muffled grunt from him that Yin Mo found utterly contemptible. But Qibao noticed Tu Jian's lowered lashes flutter slightly. After drawing the blood, she pressed a white cotton ball over Song Chao's needle mark and held it there gently for quite a while.
The human form was done. Now the Beast Form needed to be sampled as well.
Song Chao cooperatively transformed into a small carp about thirty centimeters long and obediently lay on its side on the dining table.
Yin Mo let out a laugh, dripping with obvious mockery.
Song Chao's fish eye rolled toward him. Qibao and Tu Jian also looked at Yin Mo with strange expressions.
Yin Mo: "…Don't you all think he looks ridiculous like that? Especially his mouth."
No sooner had he finished his disdainful remark than Song Chao's slippery body twisted, his carp mouth opened, and he shot a water arrow at Yin Mo.
Both of them were water-users. Yin Mo casually raised a hand, and the water arrow transformed into a ball of crystalline water, rolling above his slender, fair palm.
Song Chao tried to shoot again, but Tu Jian pressed one hand on his fish body and raised the blood collector with the other, warning, "Don't move."
Song Chao stared at Yin Mo with the look of one who had died with his eyes wide open.
The moment Tu Jian finished, Song Chao immediately transformed back into a handsome man in a white shirt, standing beside Tu Jian, waiting to see Yin Mo make a fool of himself.
Yin Mo smiled faintly, rolled up one sleeve, and sat down across from Qibao.
Qibao mimicked the procedure, fastening the tourniquet and disinfecting the area. When it was time to insert the needle, she pointed at the blue vein visible beneath the skin on Yin Mo's inner wrist and confirmed with Tu Jian: "Here?"
Tu Jian, who had already sensed Yin Mo's bad temper, stood behind Qibao and guided her hand to help her place the needle.
Yin Mo felt the pain too, but he didn't grunt—he just watched Qibao.
Qibao focused entirely on the blood collection device.
Yin Mo: "…"
Once Yin Mo had transformed into a three-meter-long black snake, Song Chao mocked him vengefully: "Ugly as hell, like a black rope."
Yin Mo ignored him. The snake's head stretched out and nimbly coiled around Qibao's right leg as she sat, finally wrapping in loops around her thigh, his flat head resting silently against her as he waited for her to draw his blood.
It was precisely for this reason that Qibao didn't pull him off.
The beast form didn't show veins, so Qibao mimicked Tu Jian's casual manner and flipped aside one of Yin Mo's scales, then pierced the needle inside.
In that instant, the very tip of Yin Mo's tail, hidden at the deepest part, pressed tightly against Qibao's thigh.
Qibao knew he couldn't bear the pain, so after the blood was drawn and Yin Mo still remained coiled motionless, Qibao held him with one arm while gently pressing the scale back into place against his body with the other.
Tu Jian collected the four blood samples and said to Qibao, "I'm heading to work first. While I'm gone, you'll supervise Song Chao?"
Qibao nodded.
Tu Jian glanced at the black snake in her arms, seeming to want to say something but holding back.
Qibao: "Don't worry. After last night, they won't dare fight in front of me again."
Meeting Song Chao's pitiful gaze that clearly didn't want to be separated from her, Tu Jian set off with less than full confidence.
Qibao first tucked Song Chao into the pagoda, then asked Yin Mo in her arms: "Are you climbing down yourself, or should I toss you down?"
This snake demon, full of mischief, was just putting on an act. Qibao had experienced blood drawing once herself and knew the pain passed after a moment.
Yin Mo transformed directly back into human form. Because he'd been in Qibao's arms before the change, when his feet landed on the ground afterward, he was still pressed close against her.
Qibao, whose gaze was level with his shirt collar, instinctively stepped back.
Yin Mo didn't move. He lifted the hem of his shirt, looked down for a moment, then pointed at a tiny red dot on his waist, complaining via telepathy: "Your second needle went too deep. It hurts a lot."
As he spoke, with a subtle flex of his waist muscles, a small bead of blood slowly welled up at the needle mark.
Human customs were strange—Qibao felt nothing when she knocked him unconscious, yet now she couldn't help but pick up a spare white cotton ball from the table, lean down, and press it against Yin Mo's needle mark, applying steady pressure to help stop the bleeding.
Watching her lowered head and the ribbon tying her hair, Yin Mo smiled, his tone still carrying a hint of complaint: "Go lighter next time."
Song Chao, inside the pagoda, could only hear their voices and sneered: "Crying over a blood draw. What a backbone you have."
Yin Mo: "At least I'm not whimpering pointlessly."
Song Chao: "Whimpering wouldn't do you any good anyway. If I let out a whimper, Tu Jian would feel sorry for me."
Yin Mo pulled Qibao up abruptly, meeting her wide, puzzled black eyes, and sent via telepathy: "See, he's showing off again."
Face to face with Yin Mo's displeased eyes at close range, Qibao suddenly realized the snake demon wasn't as calculating as she'd imagined. After all, he was quite handsome—if Yin Mo had let out a fake whimper like Song Chao when she'd inserted the needle, then looked at Tu Jian with pitiful eyes, maybe Tu Jian would have been charmed by his looks?
Wait—if Yin Mo really wanted to seduce Tu Jian, why had he refused to let Tu Jian draw his blood?
Recalling the moment, Qibao admitted she'd probably wronged Yin Mo once again. He was just envious of Song Chao, not actually trying to compete with him for Tu Jian.
"Enough. He shows off what he has—you can show off what you have too. Come on, release your phantom."
Qibao, who didn't enjoy listening to Yin Mo whine about such trivial grievances, offered him a good idea.
Once the phantom appeared at the entrance of Tu Jian's villa, Qibao also released Song Chao in human form.
Song Chao had never had much material desire even back on the Cultivation Continent—mainly because there were no treasures in the lake he inhabited, and he didn't like going too far ashore to scavenge for them. After arriving here, Song Chao was already content with gaining Tu Jian's affection. Since Tu Jian didn't care for luxury goods, Song Chao had no interest either. So while he could tell the car in front of him was brand new, he didn't even recognize the make.
"Why did you let me out?" Song Chao eyed the two of them warily. "First, I will never sell my looks. Second, I'm not your slave—don't think you can boss me around and make me serve you."
Yin Mo: "…You don't recognize this car?"
Song Chao: "What's there to recognize about a car? No matter how nice it is, it's still just a car. Oh, you're trying to show off with this? Hilarious. Our Tu Jian—"
Yin Mo rudely cut him off, looking at Qibao and saying, "I don't want to hear him talk."
Qibao also felt that Song Chao didn't appreciate luxury cars, so she put him back into the tower and completely sealed off the floor where Song Chao was, so that he could neither hear the outside nor use Telepathy to keep showing off to Yin Mo how well Tu Jian treated him.
Even so, Yin Mo wore a sour expression the entire way.
.
Qibao "visited" the third ring road of Jiangcheng for a whole day before returning to the villa at 5 PM, urged on by Song Chao.
Tu Jian hadn't returned yet, so Song Chao washed his hands and went straight into the kitchen.
Yin Mo followed him.
He and Qibao did have a lot of food stored in their space that they'd bought from restaurants. Before coming here, Yin Mo and Qibao had always eaten from their own stainless steel lunchboxes without thinking anything was wrong. But after just one meal at Tu Jian's villa, seeing the exquisite porcelain Song Chao had carefully selected and the beautifully arranged plating, Yin Mo—who cared deeply about status and presentation—felt particularly bitter. Why could a Carp Demon and a mortal live so elegantly, while he and Qibao had fallen to the level of those rough mercenaries?
While he was openly criticizing and secretly learning, Tu Jian returned and handed Qibao four test result reports.
Qibao couldn't understand the complex data, so she only looked at the conclusions. She found that the human-form blood of the two demons was no different from that of normal humans, but their beast-form blood was clearly distinct from human blood—yet it also didn't match the Carp Aberrant Beasts or snake-type Aberrant Beasts preserved in Jiangcheng.
Seeing that Tu Jian looked quite serious, Qibao comforted her: "There probably aren't many of these mutated people. You don't need to worry too much."
Tu Jian said, "The experts say we can add a psychological test for residents. Aberrant Beasts react differently from humans to certain questions and emotions."
She went on and on about the scientific basis for this test and gave example questions.
Qibao listened with a serious expression, but inside she was a little panicked, because she had gotten some of those test questions wrong herself! In other words, once this psychological test was rolled out across all the bases, she might be judged as non-human and expelled or attacked?
Tu Jian then took out a USB drive and said in a low voice, "Tonight we can have the two of them try it first."
Qibao breathed a sigh of relief. Perfect—she could memorize the correct answers to these test questions in advance!