Chapter 535 - 264: Bogged Down by Mundane Affairs (Part 2)

Chapter 535: Chapter 264: Bogged Down by Mundane Affairs (Part 2)

"You will forever wonder why. You will never solve it, never understand it, never see through it. I, Xie Luohe, will become an eternal, unsolvable mystery in your destiny."

"A mystery you can never solve!"

...

Zheng Xiu walked on for a while before stopping, his gaze distant, hiding a touch of melancholy.

Feng Bei couldn’t make sense of it, and neither could he.

Just as Xie Luohe had said on their wedding night.

She had become a mystery, coiled between Zheng Xiu and Feng Bei.

Now, the two of them, who should have ended up together, were struggling to adapt to a new kind of relationship.

Second Lady’s expression faltered for a moment. She couldn’t help but wave a fair palm in front of the Red King’s face.

The Red King snapped back to his senses and said with a smile, "Let me think about it some more."

Second Lady wondered to herself, ’This boy isn’t actually considering... which girl he should marry, is he?’

’Are there too many girls in the household?’

He walked with Zheng Erniang for a while. Today, Second Lady seemed composed, as if she had cast aside the previous day’s gloom. After secretly arranging for the household staff to keep an eye on her, Zheng Xiu walked out of the Red King Mansion.

The sun was high in the sky. He first made a trip to the Disaster Prevention Bureau. Just as he stepped into the Red King’s office, he saw a figure curled up on his desk.

Taking a closer look, he saw it was Snake, one of the sisters from the Western Regions, whom he hadn’t had time to deal with since Lu Town.

Puzzled, Zheng Xiu went over and slapped Snake awake.

Snake opened her eyes, and drool trickled from her mouth. It landed on the desk with a SIZZLE, and a few wisps of green smoke rose up.

Seeing this, the corner of Zheng Xiu’s mouth twitched. He took a few steps back. ’You’re fucking poisoning my territory?’

’My Incarnation isn’t afraid of deadly poison, but my Main Body doesn’t have that kind of Constitution.’

’Can I charge you with the attempted murder of a Prince?’

Snake woke up groggily. A face that was both familiar and strange swam before her eyes. Dazedly, she opened her arms to Zheng Xiu. A bewitching, faint fragrance wafted from beneath her veil—the scent of her saliva.

"Little brother, hug..."

Zheng Xiu slapped his forehead. Of course, he’d never revealed the truth to Snake and Ye. Unfamiliar with Zheng Xiu, they really thought he had a nephew. At this moment, Snake was clearly mistaking the two of them, who were ninety-nine percent identical in appearance, for the same person.

’When you thought about it, you couldn’t really blame her.’

Zheng Xiu picked Snake up, tossed her aside, and said irritably, "Are you using my desk as your nest?"

"HISS!" Hearing Zheng Xiu’s voice, Snake was jolted fully awake. Her delicate body shot up, and she sprang to the side of the wall, exclaiming in shock, "It’s you, you Bed King!"

Zheng Xiu: "...???"

’Is your tongue forked or something? Can’t you speak properly?’

’How could you mix up "Bed" and "Red"? They sound completely different.’

’If you can’t talk, then don’t.’

Zheng Xiu immediately put on a stern face. He sat down decisively in the expensive chair and looked at his desk where the snake saliva had corroded a small patch of the wood veneer. It was still sizzling and smoking. Feeling helpless, Zheng Xiu decided not to scold her and simply asked, "What are you here for?"

"Hmph, I’m here to see that nephew of yours! Where have you hidden him?"

Snake looked like she was there to call him to account.

"Oh? You’re looking for him?" Zheng Xiu paused, thinking, ’Why are you looking for my Incarnation for no reason?’

"What’s it to you?"

Even though Zheng Xiu had spent the whole trip back praising himself while in his "Zheng Er" persona, Snake still didn’t have a good impression of the Red King. Zheng Xiu pointed at the puddle of poison on the desk and said calmly, "It’s nothing to me. By the way, for damaging public property, you’ll pay ten times the cost in compensation. I’m docking your salary for three months."

"You!" Snake’s eyes flew wide with rage, her trembling finger pointing at the Red King’s nose. She never thought the Red King would actually reveal his true capitalist colors right in front of her. After pointing for a moment, faced with the Red King’s calm expression, Snake retreated in defeat. She muttered, "Hmph, fine. My sister will support me anyway. Just tell me, where is your nephew! We made plans when we came back!"

Zheng Xiu paused again.

Snake’s gaze shifted about as she clutched a tablet with both hands. She huffed, "Let me be clear, it’s not like Snake came looking for him on her own. He was the one who said he wanted to borrow Snake’s venom after we got back... for cultivation, right! He said he wanted to cultivate! He said he was practicing a secret Path and needed Snake’s venom!"

"He was the one begging me... HISS HISS!"

At first, Snake spoke without much conviction, but the more she talked, the more she started to believe it herself. Her voice grew louder and full of confidence.

Zheng Xiu thought back carefully. He did seem to recall casually mentioning this on the way back from Lu Town. But in the few months since his return, he had been busy cultivating with the Orchid Mystics and had completely forgotten about it.

Between one snake and four orchids, Zheng Xiu felt he didn’t have a choice.

"Deal." Zheng Xiu thought for a moment. The Evil Child’s Constitution was stuck at a bottleneck, already immune to the poisoned water Ji Hong’ou specially mixed. Since Snake had brought it up herself, Zheng Xiu set a time for her to go and ’visit’ the Evil Child to see if her venom could help the Evil Child’s [Constitution] achieve a breakthrough.

"Looks like I should get a personal secretary, someone to manage this king’s schedule."

He’d been so bogged down with mundane matters lately that he had neglected his Path cultivation, a fact for which Zheng Xiu secretly blamed himself. But who could blame him when he was practicing so many things at once? Besides his Path Mystic Skills, he also had to grind his Incarnation’s Attributes and Skills. He simply had too much to do, he wished he could split himself in two... scratch that, he *was* working on his split self.

"Why does everyone want to cultivate with me lately?"

Zheng Xiu muttered to himself in his office.

In the past, he was always the one fleecing others. Looking back now, he realized it was no wonder the four women’s Path Mystic Skills had improved by leaps and bounds after they became Mystics. He had unwittingly become the sheep they were fleecing.

Speaking of secretaries, one person came to Zheng Xiu’s mind. Ye seemed quite suitable. Her personality was the closest to his impression of a "female secretary": efficient, capable, and completely unflappable.

As he pondered how to ask Wei Chen for the personnel transfer, he left a note for Jiang Gaoyi on the desk. The note instructed him to organize all the case files on supernatural incidents from the past few months and deliver them to the Red King Mansion in three days. With that done, he left the Disaster Prevention Bureau, humming a little tune.

In the afternoon, Zheng Xiu stopped by Mo Kuang’s house.

As for Mo Kuang giving "birth" to a "child" in Lu Town, Zheng Xiu had made everyone who personally witnessed it swear to secrecy. Currently, only the original ’vice squad’ knew about it.

What did it feel like to suddenly become a father?

Zheng Xiu had no idea.

But from the intelligence reports he occasionally received from the Brotherhood, he knew that the kid, Mo Kuang, had been having a rough time these past two months. It seemed he still hadn’t managed to make the identity transition from "child" to "daddy."

"R-Red King?"

When Zheng Xiu arrived at Mo Kuang’s home, Mo Kuang opened the door with messy hair and deep, sunken eyes.

"Where’s your kid?"

Zheng Xiu asked casually.

Just then, a palm-sized baby poked its head out from the front of Mo Kuang’s shirt. Its two jet-black eyes had no whites, yet they vividly conveyed a sense of "timidity" as it secretly peeked at the Red King.

Zheng Xiu tried to reach out to the Nascent Soul, but it ducked back into Mo Kuang’s clothes with a WHOOSH.

Zheng Xiu asked a few questions, and Mo Kuang answered truthfully.

This Nascent Soul was different from a human baby. It didn’t eat or drink, never slept or rested, couldn’t speak, and wasn’t attached to anyone but Mo Kuang. Xi’er had even come to visit once, but the Nascent Soul didn’t give her the time of day, treating her with the same indifference as everyone else.

"Looks like you really are its dad."

Zheng Xiu was amused. Though he said that, he was still somewhat worried about this "Nascent Soul" born from the Darkness. If the Orange Cat hadn’t said it was fine, Zheng Xiu would have definitely strangled the menace in its cradle.

For the past two months, Zheng Xiu had people secretly observing Mo Kuang and the Nascent Soul’s interactions. So far, the little guy hadn’t shown any harmful tendencies.

As for the Orange Cat calling it a "great tonic," Zheng Xiu looked at the Nascent Soul, which kept peeking its little head out from Mo Kuang’s shirt, and silently shook his head. ’Forget it. A man can’t do that. Or at least, he shouldn’t.’

He wasn’t Zhu; he had principles to uphold, no matter what.

The idea of "eating" this sentient little creature as a Spirit Medicine was something Zheng Xiu found hard to accept.

Before leaving, Zheng Xiu warned Mo Kuang not to let anyone else see the Nascent Soul. He frightened Mo Kuang by telling him that if the previous Night Lord found out, he would stop at nothing to hunt Mo Kuang down and take his miserable life.

Mo Kuang, his face a mask of misery, could do nothing but nod.

"Huh?"

Just as Zheng Xiu was about to leave, he spotted a thread-bound book on Mo Kuang’s shelf.

*Sequel to Lanxin Ruomeng*.

"When did this outrageous book get a sequel?"

Mo Kuang, still in a state of fear, replied distractedly, "The Great Scholar Ximen Bei went out to gather material. It’s his new work, just released last month. It’s a bestseller in all the major bookshops now."

"Interesting. Let me borrow it."

Zheng Xiu had tried and failed to corner Ximen Bei several times. The Great Scholar was so elusive that Zheng Xiu had almost suspected him of being Zhu at one point. To be honest, he was quite interested in the next installment of the outrageous story *Lanxin Ruomeng*, so he borrowed it from Mo Kuang to read back home.

As the sun set, Zheng Xiu returned to the Red King Mansion. In his study, he had Pingping brew some tea and sternly rejected her request to cultivate with him that night. He then opened *Lanxin Ruomeng*, ready for some entertainment.

He had just flipped two pages and read the first sentence—"Last time, we told of how the husband and wife had been married for three years. They were as respectful to each other as strangers, but gradually, resentment began to grow between them again"—when a knock came from the door.

"Master, I’m back!"

It was Qing Shisan’s voice.