Chapter 18: Angry Buddha Lotus Flame

Jyan-Tyenhaw shoved Xiao Yan’s soul back into his body. Xiao Yan writhed, his movements uncoordinated, then collapsed onto the floor.

Even his father—the last person still willing to protect him—no longer believed him. Overcome with grief, Xiao Yan shouted at Xiao Zhan,

“Father! I’m not an otherworldly demon! I’m a transmigrator—my soul crossed over! It’s complicated, but I really am your son!”

“Silence!” Xiao Zhan thundered. “You vile demon! You stole my son’s body! Give him back!”

His hair and beard bristled with rage as he rose and tried to lunge at Xiao Yan. But his injuries had not fully healed. After two staggering steps, his legs nearly gave out, and the servants beside him hurriedly caught him, urging him not to let grief overwhelm him.

In the Xiao Clan’s main hall, several elders dropped to their knees before Finn and his three companions.

“Thank you, esteemed masters, for destroying this otherworldly fiend and saving the Xiao Clan.”

“That disgusting pervert disguised himself as a young man and committed such vile acts against Xun’er!”

The elders quickly came to the same conclusion: the Spacetime Administration Bureau had to be some famous and powerful sect. They needed to find a way to ride the coattails of such a formidable backer.

Xiao Xun’er was equally stunned. She had never imagined that Xiao Yan, who guided her sexual awakening, had long ago been possessed by an otherworldly demon. The thought made her skin crawl.

Nalan Yanran, Ge Ye, Xiao Xun’er, and Xiao Zhan all stared at Xiao Yan with utter disgust, repulsed by the pervert’s true face.

“I’ve been framed! I’m really not a lolicon!” Xiao Yan cried in helpless frustration, still making one final attempt to defend himself.

Finn opened a video call with Moonbell and turned the translucent projection toward Xiao Yan.

On the translucent projection, Moonbell wore a sky-blue gauze princess dress. Bright-eyed and smiling, with twin ponytails and wispy bangs, she floated in midair like a delicate young blossom.

She was holding a tub of rainbow-colored ice cream, scooping it up with a tiny wooden spoon and eating it one dainty bite at a time.

“She’s so cute! Even cuter than Xiao Xun’er!”

Xiao Yan’s eyes went wide. His breathing quickened, his chest rising and falling as though he wanted to dive straight through the projection.

“Confirmed lolicon. Cuff him!”

Finn fastened another pair of gleaming silver bracelets around Xiao Yan’s wrists.

“Hey!” On the other end of the call, Moonbell frowned. Realizing that her teammates had once again used her as a lolicon detector, she immediately cut the connection.

Finn activated a three-dimensional holographic projection from his phone and read out the charges against Xiao Yan.

“Under the Criminal Law, anyone convicted of molesting a child shall be punished more severely within the prescribed range of up to five years’ fixed-term imprisonment or criminal detention. If the offense is committed by a group or openly in a public place, the sentence shall be fixed-term imprisonment of five years or more.”

Although everyone had turned against him, Xiao Yan stubbornly clung to his defense.

“Xiao Xun’er was willing! She didn’t resist! We love each other!”

Finn gave him a contemptuous glance and continued,

“Under the law, children have limited capacity to understand sexual conduct. Whether the child consented or resisted is irrelevant. Any act of molestation committed against a child constitutes this offense.”

A chill sank into Xiao Yan’s heart. Remembering that someone had mentioned chemical castration earlier, he was seized by a fresh wave of despair.

He shouted indignantly, “Fine, I admit I broke the law! But this is another world—a feudal, dog-eat-dog society! You have no jurisdiction here!”

Finn regarded him sternly and declared with righteous authority,

“Another world is not a lawless place. Mind your words and actions.”

Xiao Yan sighed miserably and lowered his head.

“Flex King, we’ve caught Xiao Yan. Can we leave now?” Jyan-Tyenhaw asked Chen-Awelon.

“Let’s go. I’ll study him later and figure out how a Child of Fortune works. Wait—I have something important to do.”

Chen-Awelon stopped. His hands itching for action, he hauled Xiao Yan up by the collar and slapped him across the face.

Smack!

The crisp sound echoed through the hall, and the voice of the Strongest Flex-and-Face-Slap System rang out in Chen-Awelon’s mind.

[Face-slapped Dou Emperor Xiao Yan. Flex successful. Reward: 500 Flex Points!]

Chen-Awelon stopped holding back. Alternating hands, he slapped Xiao Yan’s face again and again.

Smack! Smack! Smack! Smack! Smack! Smack! Smack! Smack! Smack! Smack!

The crisp, almost musical cracks came without pause, popping like firecrackers. Under the barrage, Xiao Yan’s head whipped from side to side like a pellet drum being spun.

Bearmont, Jyan-Tyenhaw, and Finn stared in disbelief. None of them understood what Chen-Awelon was doing or why he was relentlessly beating a defenseless boy.

“Chen-Awelon, what are you doing?” Finn asked.

“Can’t you tell? I’m face-slapping the Flame Emperor!”

Chen-Awelon’s hands never slowed as he continued raining slaps across Xiao Yan’s cheeks. Both sides of Xiao Yan’s face swelled until his head resembled a pig’s.

“The Flame Emperor? But this version of him is still just a kid.” Finn could not begin to follow Chen-Awelon’s logic.

Smack!

After one more slap, Xiao Yan actually burst into tears.

When all was said and done, he was still only a young and inexperienced boy. Until then, he had been undergoing his perfectly ordinary round of humiliation, with Nalan Yanran right in the middle of breaking off their engagement.

Everyone had been lining up to humiliate him, and the plot had been proceeding exactly as it should. Then, out of nowhere, a group calling themselves the Spacetime Administration Bureau had appeared and exposed every last one of his secrets.

After that, he had been branded a lolicon and told he might be chemically castrated.

Now someone was slapping him over and over again.

The last of Xiao Yan’s emotional defenses crumbled. He gave up completely, tears and snot streaming down his face as he wailed at the top of his lungs.

“Waaah! Waaah! Waaah…!”

His tears poured out like water through a broken dam.

[Made Dou Emperor Xiao Yan cry. Flex successful. Reward: 2,000 Flex Points!]

“Ha ha ha ha!” Chen-Awelon threw back his head and laughed triumphantly. “So much for the Dou Emperor!”

“What a psycho.” Finn stared at the sobbing Xiao Yan and wondered whether Chen-Awelon had shit for brains.

Bearmont and Jyan-Tyenhaw were equally speechless. They were even beginning to feel sorry for Xiao Yan, whose face had been beaten into a swollen pig’s head.

“Danger!”

Sainquartz’s warning suddenly blared through the communicators embedded in their ears.

“I’m detecting anomalous spacetime activity and massive fluctuations in Dou Qi! Even the sun has been blotted out! A terrifying entity has just crossed through spacetime!”

Sainquartz rapidly explained the situation, then shouted through the communicator,

“Run! Now! Split up!”

Bearmont reacted instantly. He kicked off and sprinted away, accelerating past the sound barrier. He smashed straight through the Xiao estate’s buildings and outer wall as he fled. Moving like a bolt of lightning, he vanished into the distance.

Jyan-Tyenhaw brought his five fingers together, formed a hand seal, and murmured an incantation. His body dissolved into a formless, colorless breeze that drifted out of the Xiao estate.

“Hey, Sainquartz! What’s happening?” Chen-Awelon demanded, still clutching the sobbing Xiao Yan.

“Stop asking! Run!”

Without warning, heaven and earth darkened.

A vast vortex of Dou Qi gathered above the Xiao estate. Black clouds hung low, thunder rumbled, and brilliant lightning snaked through the vortex.

The Fallen Heart Flame, Bone Chilling Flame, Purifying Demonic Lotus Flame, Sea Heart Flame, Three Thousand Burning Flame, Green Lotus Core Flame…

Countless Heavenly Flames blazed across the sky, flooding the entire firmament with a dazzling spectrum of color.

At their center stood a towering figure between heaven and earth, consumed by fury. His hair and beard bristled wildly as he roared in a voice like thunder,

“You reckless ants dare humiliate my younger self!”

“Oh, crap!” Finn stared up at the furious figure in the sky. “The real Flame Emperor is here!”

“Run for it!”

Chen-Awelon tucked the young Xiao Yan under one arm and was about to bolt.

“ANGRY BUDDHA LOTUS FLAME!”

The Flame Emperor Xiao Yan roared.