Lu Xiao’s mind was still buzzing. The sound from that clam shell was far too shrill. When he lifted his eyes and looked, he nearly died on the spot. Was Qian Jinye still human? That enormous clam shell and he just caught it alone?
“Br… Brother?”
He hesitated. Qian Jinye’s hand was bulging with veins, his forehead beaded with sweat and even his previously pale face had gained a flush of color. Only then did Lu Xiao confirm he wasn’t dreaming, Qian Jinye had actually woken up.
“It’s me. Hurry and get out of the way. This bastard is a lot stronger than it looks, quite a temper too.”
He said it so casually that Lu Xiao broke into a sweat on his behalf. If you’re going to fight this clam creature, then fight it properly, why are you still chatting with me? Aren’t you afraid of getting distracted?
“You be careful! That clam thing is vicious. If it injures you later, my heart’s going to ache.”
Worry was worry but Lu Xiao couldn’t help adding a little flirtation, he was used to being shameless like this. The moment Qian Jinye heard that, his face turned red instantly. He stammered, as if wanting to say something but before he could, the clam took advantage of the moment and lunged to bite him.
Qian Jinye’s eyes sharpened at once. He rammed forward ruthlessly, knocking the clam shell back. The corner of his mouth lifted, as if ridiculing the clam’s incompetence. He tipped his chin up, openly disdainful of the quivering mass inside the shell, letting out a mocking laugh.
Following his line of sight, Lu Xiao finally realized, where was the clam meat? That was clearly a rat!
Judging by its size, it should be that same little mouse. The entire creature was fused into the clam shell, not stuck like a glue trap but literally grown into the shell itself, merged with what should have been the clam meat. No wonder Lu Xiao didn’t notice earlier.
Now angered by Qian Jinye, the mouse’s mouth twitched rapidly, as if desperately wanting to gnaw him to death but with the barrier of the shell, it couldn’t reach anything. It squeaked nonstop, the sharp cries grating on the ears.
Wait, was the mouse growing inside the clam shell or had a shell grown onto the mouse? Lu Xiao had seen the mouse first, so there was only one explanation: the shell had grown from the mouse itself.
And this same clam shell had just earlier bitten off the head of the giant rat, chewing and swallowing it. It had pulverized the rest of the giant rat’s body but the giant rat had clearly been trying to protect the small mouse, so why had this little mouse repaid kindness with betrayal, letting the big rat die such a miserable death?
Disgusting. Lu Xiao felt his stomach turn again, thinking of that shapeless lump of flesh smeared across the wall. Then he looked at the little mouse with its blood-red eyes, it was truly nauseating.
“Lu Xiao! The clam meat! Dig its meat out!”
Seeing that Lu Xiao not only didn’t run but was spacing out behind him, Qian Jinye hurriedly called out. Qian Jinye might possess inhuman strength but he was still only one person, he didn’t have a third hand.
His shout jolted Lu Xiao out of his fog. With no real weapon at hand, he quickly grabbed the metal pincers that Li Xianguan had dropped when he fainted. He aimed them directly at the mouse, ready to clamp down.
“Squeak!!”
The mouse shrieked sharply. The clam shell retreated several steps, breaking free from Qian Jinye’s sword. It clamped its shell tightly shut, refusing to let its inner flesh be exposed. It clearly sensed the danger of the weapon in Lu Xiao’s hands.
The clam shell went quiet now, no screaming, no thrashing but if they let it go, it would definitely launch a sneak attack later. Qian Jinye had no intention of sparing it. He stepped forward, sword in hand, preparing to pry the shell open again.
“Brother, don’t act rashly! There must be some kind of corrosive substance inside that shell. Look at Brother Xianguan, he’s fine where he touched blood but the parts touched by that clam liquid completely burned through his clothes.”
Lu Xiao had checked earlier. The culprit behind Li Xianguan’s current condition definitely wasn’t the giant rat’s blood. The rat had only been an ordinary oversized mouse that had eaten the Qian family’s white pearl powder, making it slightly bigger. The real problem lay in this clam shell creature, which barely qualified as a living organism anymore.
Hearing Lu Xiao’s warning, Qian Jinye spared a moment to glance at Li Xianguan. His face had been wiped clean but his clothes where the clam’s secretions had touched were gone, dissolved away. The skin underneath was still bleeding.
“I understand. Then you tell me what to do.”
Qian Jinye twirled his sword once before retracting it. Still unsatisfied, he kicked the clam shell hard. The shell shuddered violently, clearly, that kick was brutal.
Seeing that, Lu Xiao couldn’t help swallowing. As expected of the man he had set his sights on, so domineering. If that kick landed on him, he didn’t dare imagine how exhilarating it would feel. He shook his head fiercely, tossing away those indecent thoughts and forced himself to think seriously.
“Under what conditions would a clam open its mouth?”
Lu Xiao already had the answer in his heart. He smiled faintly and stared into Qian Jinye’s beautiful fox-like eyes, hoping to hear his agreement but before Qian Jinye could reply, Qian Shengke walked over and stood beside him.
“Cook the clam. Then it’ll open. Stop pretending to be clever, no one is fooled by your little tricks.”
Just when Lu Xiao managed to look cool for once, he was mercilessly slapped down. His mouth twitched from embarrassment. His dislike for Qian Shengke rose yet again. Just because he stole his younger brother, did he have to be this hostile?
Still… Lu Xiao really had been thinking exactly that. If they heated the clam shell, it would open like any ordinary mollusk, revealing whatever secret hid inside.
Hearing this, Chen Yu’er lit a pile of wood and glanced at the three men. The clam shell began trembling violently, as if foreseeing its fate. It struggled desperately, refusing to accept its doom, until Qian Jinye and Qian Shengke elbowed it simultaneously from both sides, forcing it into stillness.
For the first time, Lu Xiao found himself unable to tell the two brothers apart. Qian Jinye was far more seductive than Qian Shengke but at this moment, both of their gazes held the same level of seriousness. The usual glitter in Qian Jinye’s eyes and the warm gentleness in Qian Shengke’s, had completely vanished, replaced only by an invincible pride.
The Qian family truly had every reason to be proud, strength, talent, wealth, they lacked nothing.
Lu Xiao grew quiet. He looked slowly toward Qian Shengke. Wasn’t this future brother-in-law a scholar? Then why was he just as monstrously strong as Qian Jinye? For the first time, Lu Xiao felt real respect for him. It was impressive that he hadn’t smashed Lu Xiao’s head the moment they met, his self-control was admirable.
Sensing Lu Xiao’s gaze, Qian Shengke glanced at him with disdain. There was no trace of his previous gentle façade, this contempt came from the heart.
“Big Brother Qian… aren’t you a scholar?”
“A scholar can’t practice martial arts? Who decided that? I taught Jinye his swordsmanship. If you judge people only by the surface, you’re ignorant.”
Lu Xiao felt his teeth itch. He ground his teeth hard, he’d been scolded again but Qian Shengke really was impressive. Brilliant in academics, formidable in martial arts. With Lu Xiao’s current abilities, matching him would be like a child swinging at a giant.
“Alright, that’s enough, Brother. Don’t bully Lu Xiao. Lu Xiao, don’t take it personally. You’ve already seen our situation. If we didn’t learn ways to protect ourselves, none of us would have survived this long.”
That was true. With monsters appearing one after another, without real strength, a clam shell the size of a human would be enough to kill them and the brothers’ recovery abilities were astonishing. They’d only just emerged from the temporal disturbance.
Qian Shengke was acting like nothing had happened. Qian Jinye had merely weakened for a moment, slept for a while and other than the faint crimson still lingering in his eyes, adding an extra edge of murderous aura, he seemed completely normal.
The entire Qian residence, be it the people in it or the things inside, filled Lu Xiao with an instinctive sense of dread. Everything about it was eerie. This world was already mad enough as it was yet the Qian family somehow managed to be even more unhinged.
“Move aside if you can’t help. Jinyue, let’s lift this clamshell up.”
Being barked at like that, Lu Xiao obediently stepped to the side. He couldn’t deny it, the man was right. At this moment he really couldn’t help with anything. Standing there would only get in the way. With such a massive clamshell, only these two brothers, who were ridiculously strong, could possibly move it.
Qian Jinyue and Qian Shengke moved with perfect coordination. They didn’t even need to call out a rhythm; they simply exerted force at the same time and hoisted the clamshell up. The giant clam had been knocked unconscious by them earlier, so it was quiet now, as if it hadn’t been the one chasing Lu Xiao around and slamming into everything.
They slowly lowered it down, careful not to let the enormous shell extinguish the fire beneath. The fire sizzled loudly. If Lu Xiao hadn’t known what kind of “filling” this clamshell contained, he might have even found the scene mouthwatering.
“By the way, Brother Lu Xiao, is it enough if we just boil this thing? How do you know whether the liquid inside is dangerous or not?” Chen Yue’er asked casually, without thinking much of it.
But Lu Xiao froze from head to toe.
He had forgotten something important, what happened when a highly corrosive liquid was heated? If a small mollusk could produce a burst of force when it suddenly exploded, then what about something this gigantic? It didn’t bear thinking about… And who knew whether heating it would release toxic fumes? He had been careless.
“Jinyue! Quick, take it off the fire! Something’s wrong, don’t let it cook!”
The moment he spoke, Qian Jinyue stepped forward and delivered a sharp kick, sending the clamshell flying. His movement was so swift and clean that Lu Xiao nearly clapped on the spot. He looked exactly like the heroic protagonists from the wuxia novels he had read as a kid, absolutely breathtaking.
The poor clamshell was completely innocent. It had barely started warming up when it was dragged away from the fire. It had already been knocked unconscious earlier and now it had to suffer another kick. This time it embedded itself into the wall.
The entire room’s four walls were already full of dents, who would believe they were all made by a giant clamshell going wild?
The clam couldn’t get out on its own. Lu Xiao stepped up to pull it out of the wall but after straining for a long time, the shell didn’t budge even a millimeter. Awkwardly, he retreated to the side, trying his best to look calm and unaffected.
Qian Jinyue took his place. He merely patted the clamshell lightly and it loosened immediately. It dropped out of the wall and he caught it with perfect ease.
Lu Xiao: “……”
This only made him feel even more useless.
“What do we do now? We can’t roast this thing with fire, we can’t pry it open and leaving it here is a disaster waiting to happen. We can’t not deal with it.”
Everyone looked around but no one spoke. Lu Xiao discreetly took out the hammer and nails he had packed before leaving home. He stepped forward… and pried the clamshell open.
“Ha! Didn’t I say that learning lock-picking in college wasn’t a waste…”
A pungent, choking stench burst out from inside the shell, becoming even stronger after being heated. As Lu Xiao pried it open, he accidentally inhaled a deep breath of it and instantly his vision spun and his head swam.
“Bang!”
✦ ✧ ✦
Nycreth
[Translator]
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ChaptersChapter 1 · The beginning of the tragedyChapter 2 · Don’t forgetChapter 3 · Look at it directlyChapter 4 · Whom are you trying to seduce?Chapter 5 · TeaseChapter 6 · Sleeping in the same bedChapter 7 · Internal locksChapter 8 · Tampering The rules…Chapter 9 · Black LotusChapter 10 · FledglingChapter 11 · There are no horses in the stable.Chapter 12 · Water-oil separationChapter 13 · The cost of backtrackingChapter 14 · It got biggerChapter 15 · Was it a mouse?Chapter 16 · Too fieryChapter 17 · Administer medicineChapter 18 · Tracing the PearlChapter 19 · A KissChapter 20 · Ge, Kiss meChapter 21 · Ten Thousand Deaths Without RegretChapter 22 · Endless CorridorChapter 23 · CowardChapter 24 · GoodbyeChapter 25 · Back toChapter 26 · It’s is me, Not MeChapter 27 · VictimChapter 28 · Crossed CupsChapter 29 · IntuitionChapter 30 · ChangeChapter 31 · DifferentChapter 32 · ErrorChapter 33 · Mind Your Own BusinessChapter 34 · WanderingChapter 35 · EmbraceChapter 36 · LoveChapter 37 · UnrestrainedChapter 38 · Asking Over a DrinkChapter 39 · As BeforeChapter 40 · SatiatedChapter 41 · A Change in the WindsChapter 42 · A’SuChapter 43 · Welcoming the BrideChapter 44 · GossipChapter 45 · WeaknessChapter 46 · Wedding NightChapter 47 · Brother QingChapter 48 · FadingChapter 49 · Lying LowChapter 50 · CaressChapter 51 · OnceChapter 52 · The Hidden PassageChapter 53 · MotherChapter 54 · FlawlessChapter 55 · ProphecyChapter 56 · EtherealChapter 57 · DecipheringChapter 58 · The TrapChapter 59 · Stone StatueChapter 60 · ChessChapter 61 · AssassinsChapter 62 · The National Preceptor?Chapter 63 · Please return my belongings to me.Chapter 64 · I’m not that desperate.Chapter 65 · No wayChapter 66 · No turning backChapter 67 · I told you, get out of the wayChapter 68 · Still became a monsterChapter 69 · Let’s end thisChapter 70 · Why do you look so much like him?Chapter 71 · One wanted to kill, two stopped himChapter 72 · Unless, the people at Mingzhu Academy are keeping it from himChapter 73 · FraudChapter 74 · Don’t look back, Lu XiaoChapter 75 · It’s coldChapter 76 · Kill MeChapter 77 · We are even marriedChapter 78 · Gege… I Love YouChapter 79 · “It” had arrivedChapter 80 · Wake Up!Chapter 81 · How Nostalgic….Chapter 82 · You already Promised meChapter 83 · Their TerritoryChapter 84 · Jokes were JokesChapter 85 · What you dream was realChapter 86 · Did you cry?Chapter 87 · What’s wrong, young Master?Chapter 88 · No, I only ever said it to youChapter 89 · Honey, Please let me go.Chapter 90 · What are you pretending to be, a gentleman?Chapter 91 · It’s just a shoddy trick to fool people, but I like it anywayChapter 92 · Ge, I did it voluntarily, it’s no useChapter 93 · You little BratChapter 94 · Gege~ please have mercyChapter 95 · Hearing Lu Xiao come in, he patted the seat next to himChapter 96 · Stop fooling around, let me kiss youChapter 97 · “I want…” “Want what?”Chapter 98 · Gege, watch closely how I get youChapter 99 · Little Eleven, how about we talk to ‘it’ first?Chapter 100 · Had it gone mad?Chapter 101 · I will make my decisionChapter 102 · Tsk, how indecentChapter 103 · You are the creator of my original worldChapter 104 · The world is not your toy, go back to where you came fromChapter 105 · He was a boy with snow-white hair and a handsome faceChapter 106 · Haven’t seen you for a long timeChapter 107 · TYRBL Extra: 1Chapter 108 · TYRBL Extra: 2Chapter 109 · TYRBL Extra: 3Chapter 110 · TYRBL Extra: 4