The tumultuous current surged with great force. Xue Xian rode its momentum, his body coiled around Xuanmin to bring them both to the shore. To him, the broad river spanned no more than the turn of his head or the flick of his tail. Quick as lightning, he’d reached the bank with both the lock and Xuanmin.
With a twist of his upper body, he sent a large wave pouring downward, and the stone lock and Xuanmin were pushed onto the muddy bank. Xue Xian tossed his head again. White waves engulfed him as he transformed back into human form.
Shit! No clothes!
Before anyone could see, he had instantly turned back into a dragon.
When he’d painted the paper doll, he’d made sure to include clothes. Now that he’d returned to his true body, that wasn’t the case.
Awkward. He pulled his lips back from his teeth in a dragon’s grimace and plopped down. With a listless sigh, he sank back to the riverbed, wishing he could just bury himself.
Moments later, a small black worm, which was really a dragon no more than a few inches long, drifted to the riverbank on the crest of a wave. It looked up at the sky and released a long but silent sigh, then slithered over to Xuanmin without a word before slipping into his sleeve and coiling around his wrist like a delicate bracelet.
The moment that cool, smooth sensation brushed his skin, Xuanmin opened his eyes.
A dragon’s body was covered in scales; the ones along its back were the toughest, akin to armor. The closer the scales were to the head, the larger they were, and the reverse was true for the ones near the tail. If you plucked a scale from the dragon, its edge would rival even the sharpest of blades.
However, the scales on its belly were quite a bit softer. Earlier, at Guiyun Hall, Xue Xian had gifted Xuanmin with a scale from his belly. Xue Xian was proud by nature and believed that most people were irredeemable fools who couldn’t be trusted with anything. He feared that if he left Xuanmin a scale from his back, that bald donkey might try consuming it without grinding it up first. If he did that, the scale’s edges would slice his mouth right open, and he’d drop dead in the room. That would be quite the scene.
In any case, this tiny dragon had a much softer belly. To Xue Xian’s annoyance, after shrinking himself down, all his scales had become soft and tender—even the hardest scales of his back had lost their edge. All his scales had left was a slight suppleness, and it was even more pronounced on his belly.
Xue Xian lowered his head and poked at himself with his claws. How ridiculous—his scales gave out at the slightest prod, no different from the skin of an ordinary human! They might have been even softer than that!
The worst part was that he felt no pain in his abdomen either. He was poking himself with a dragon’s claw, which could cut iron like butter, but he felt no pain. Clearly, his claws had softened terribly as well.
It was a heavy blow to his dignity. With the scales on his body so soft and tender, Xue Xian felt a little vulnerable as he sat coiled around Xuanmin’s wrist.
Xuanmin’s hands were quite lovely to look at: slender and strong. However, as a place to curl over, Xue Xian found the one he was on quite uncomfortable. Xuanmin’s wrist bone dug into his belly, and he felt as if he were lying over the rounded bowl of a ladle. It wasn’t painful, but it didn’t feel good either, and it was extremely annoying!
Xue Xian scratched at that wrist bone with a claw, but to no avail; he didn’t draw even a hint of blood. Instead, it felt more like he was scratching an itch for the monk. Instantly incensed, he turned his head away and refused to move another inch.
This evil spirit had a flair for the dramatic, as well as an awful temper. His talent for driving himself into fits of pique was absurd.
However, his constant shifting around was useful for catching Xuanmin’s attention.
Xuanmin blinked, his expression blank as he stared at the darkened sky with unfathomable pitch-black irises. There was a hint of emptiness within them. Then, his lips turned downward, because he’d detected a faint whiff of blood mingling with the damp air from the river water.
When he’d fallen into the water, his eyes had been closed, and he’d recited his incantations silently to avoid swallowing any water. Nonetheless, he’d been trapped on the riverbed for too long, and now his chest prickled with a dull pain.
He quietly coughed twice and propped himself up. Without thinking, he surveyed his surroundings. He was on the soft mud by a riverbank, beside a heavy stone block that had sunk a few inches into the earth. There was no one around him, so there was no immediate danger. The river’s surface was shrouded in mist, and the fishing boats were gathered in a distant spot, busy with their own business. No one was paying attention to where he was. Satisfied, he looked away.
Xuanmin couldn’t stand dirt and filth. When he observed his surroundings, a faint look of disgust emerged on his face.
As he was getting up to clean off the blood and mud, he felt something on his wrist moving. Frowning, he brushed aside his sleeve and came face-to-face with the thing coiled around his wrist.
Xue Xian peered up at Xuanmin. Due to the dragon’s discomfort, his entire being exuded a slothful disinterest, and he was loath to engage someone so irritating. The moment he saw Xuanmin’s expression, Xue Xian couldn’t help rolling his eyes.
Here we go again!
He made a noise of impatience, then stretched out his words as he spoke. “Shut up. Don’t ask who I am, and don’t ask who you are either. Just listen to me. Touch the left side of your neck.”
Xuanmin was a mistrustful man. If someone else had spoken to him in this way, he’d tie them up first and ask questions later. However, this thing wrapped around his wrist sounded far too self-assured, like there was no way it was speaking nonsense. Moreover…based on appearances, he could crush this thing without blinking. It wouldn’t be able to harm him anyway.
In the end, Xuanmin coldly stared at it for a moment before complying. He raised his hand to examine the left side of his neck.
Xue Xian shook his claws, directing him as if he were his servant. “Is your hand too short or something? Move it a little higher—yes, right there. Touch that spot. Don’t talk to me before you wake up. I’m not in the mood to entertain your nonsense.”
The incident with the chain and his short claws had left him frustrated, so he was taking any opportunity he could to mock Xuanmin. Truly, Xue Xian was an unreasonable evil spirit.
He watched as Xuanmin touched the spiderlike mole on the side of his neck. Just like the last time, the blood vessels surrounding the mole gradually retracted. The process of the blood withdrawing must have been an unpleasant one; Xuanmin’s brows knitted, and he closed his eyes, sitting still for a moment before reopening them. The trace of wariness in his gaze faded away, replaced by a neutral countenance, though with a hint of exasperated bafflement in his gaze. Seeing that, Xue Xian knew Xuanmin’s episode was over, and that he’d remembered everything.
Dropping his head, Xue Xian returned to his flippant attitude, still coiled around Xuanmin’s wrist. “Constantly forgetting everything… How did you end up like this? Isn’t it annoying having to do this routine before you remember?”
Xuanmin didn’t answer. He’d been disorientated earlier and hadn’t quite examined his new living accessory. Doing so now, he discovered that the evil spirit had sprouted a head and a tail, and even a full set of whiskers and claws. From the shape of its head, it looked like a dragon, but he’d never seen such a tiny dragon. Ignoring the tender scales, its lower half appeared lifeless. The slender, swaying tail seemed unable to move, as it didn’t coil around his wrist like the upper half did. Instead, it hung down limply.
Xuanmin stared at it for a moment, then reached out to pinch that dangling tail. Under his fingertips, it felt thin and pointed, with a peculiar texture.
Xue Xian shot him a sideways glare and snorted. “Unhand me! What are you doing? Did you feed your sense of propriety to the dogs? Which book taught you it was okay to grab someone’s tail like that?”
It was true his lower half lacked sensation and wouldn’t feel pain even if pinched. But pain and discomfort were one thing and dignity another. Here he was, a proper dragon, being made fun of by someone! It was disgraceful. If not for the fact that he had to rely on this monk for transportation, he would have tossed this clueless fool into the South Sea with a single swipe of his claw.
Of course, Xuanmin wasn’t a playful person. In fact, he had no idea what “fun” was. He was just surprised that the evil spirit had so quickly undergone such a drastic transformation.