TYMIMA Chapter 109

Lance rested on Zhan Pingchuan’s chest for a moment before his body temperature gradually returned to normal.

 

He looked up, kissed Zhan Pingchuan’s lower lip, and finally propped himself up: “We need to get back quickly. Since the anglerfish said Selarl wants the beast’s fragments, let’s send him this pile of meat paste on the ground. Tomorrow’s engagement ceremony must proceed as planned. I want him to be utterly disgraced in front of everyone.”

 

“How’s your body?” Zhan Pingchuan helped him sit up, still wrapping him in the outer coat. Although his coat had also gotten dirty rolling on the ground, it was better than Lance’s torn clothes.

 

Lance nodded: “Much better.”

 

Marking and soothing was indeed more effective than deep kiss soothing. If he had known they would fall in love, he should have let the little wolf cub mark him directly that first night at school.

 

Zhan Pingchuan hesitated for a moment, temporarily setting aside his confusion, and stood up with Lance.

 

Li Bang and the others indeed had a large box outside, probably prepared to pack the mutant beast fragments.

 

Thinking about it this way, that orca was truly vicious. He not only wanted the king to be forced to marry him, but also wanted the king to be heartbroken and lose emotional control at the engagement ceremony, causing Tasman people’s dissatisfaction.

 

The two walked to the pile of devoured flesh fragments. Lance estimated—the flesh fragments from so many people would be enough to disguise as a mutant beast’s remains.

 

Zhan Pingchuan pinched his nose and summoned a barrier, using it as a shovel to scoop up the flesh fragments.

 

“There’s another problem, baby. We’re both inside—how do we get out now?”

 

But he immediately remembered: “Right, there was a scale where we were unconscious earlier. It should be left by the king’s boyfriend!”

 

He quickly ran back to pick up the scale and carefully tucked it away. With this scale, the iron door would determine they had defeated the strongest mutant beast in the underground city and would let them out.

 

“It seems…” Lance hesitated to speak.

 

But he apparently didn’t need to say it, because Zhan Pingchuan saw it after walking a few more steps.

 

The originally unshakeable iron door had been torn with a huge gash. The deep seawater outside continuously crashed against the breach, fortunately being pushed back by the gas produced by kelp trees.

 

Some jelly-like F-level mutant beasts crawled along the stone walls to the breach, poked their heads out, squeezed through the iron door, and drilled into the deep sea trench.

 

Zhan Pingchuan was dumbfounded.

 

In his eighteen years of life, this was the first time he’d seen an underground city’s iron door cracked open.

 

He pointed at the damaged iron door and asked curiously: “Did the king’s boyfriend smash this? Are S+ mutant beasts this overpowered?”

 

Lance also looked at the breach and said seriously:

 

“No, I smashed this.”

 

Zhan Pingchuan: “……” Oh, so it was my boyfriend who smashed it.

 

Lance felt their relationship had reached the point where they could be completely honest.

 

“It’s a bit complicated. After this matter is over, I’ll explain everything to you in detail.”

 

 

“……Alright.” Zhan Pingchuan had already sensed that Lance was far more than just an ordinary college student from a poor background. Actually, the first time they entered the underground city, when Lance cleanly dealt with the Pouncer, he should have guessed.

 

He had watched an animated series as a child called “The Red-Haired Knight Who Kills in All Directions and His Dog.” The protagonist came from humble origins but encountered a sealed wizard when he fell off a cliff. The wizard granted him all his power and magical secrets, and from then on he began a career of constant cultivation and killing in all directions.

 

“Baby, did you fall off a cliff as a child or encounter some reclusive master?”

 

Lance pondered. He had indeed fallen countless times from cliffs and skyscrapers in the fears the Outer God created for him.

 

A reclusive master?

 

That vague voice in the Spirit Realm system, that broad and warm chest—that could count.

 

“Yes.” Lance said with certainty, forcefully pulling the box from outside, opening the lid to receive the chunks of meat shoveled by the barrier.

 

Zhan Pingchuan got it.

 

The animated series must have come to life in reality.

 

“After this matter is over, I also have things to confess to you.” Like my family environment, my relationship with Ghost Eye Guild, the reasons for hiding my identity, and that the hundred-square-meter bathroom apartment in the internship dorm was actually specially chosen by me for you.

 

Lance chuckled softly: “Good.” You’re actually S-level instead of A-level, right, little dummy? I’ve known all along.

 

The two packed the meat fragments into a full box. Just as they were about to leave with the box, Zhan Pingchuan suddenly stopped.

 

“I’ll go say hello to the king’s boyfriend.” Although it was an S+ mutant beast, it was still the king’s beast after all. This was basic courtesy.

 

Zhan Pingchuan ran to the end of the corridor and found the S+ mutant beast lying on the reef, curiously watching in their direction.

 

“Hey buddy, thanks for the scale—top quality. With a grateful heart, my baby smashed your iron door. You don’t mind, do you? If you do mind, we’ll help you rebuild it later. Right now we need to go help Sandro deal with the bad guys. We’ll chat later.”

 

After speaking, Zhan Pingchuan waved at the S+ mutant beast before disappearing into the corridor.

 

Ryan propped up its body a bit more, its transparent ear tips twitching slightly.

 

Actually, Ryan didn’t understand most of what Zhan Pingchuan said. It wasn’t that familiar with this language, and the speech was too fast.

 

But it clearly heard the four words “help Sandro.”

 

Mutant beasts had no way to leave the underground city and go to the human world. No matter how powerful they were, they were firmly locked by an invisible restriction. Those who left were already dead, so when Sandro said he wanted revenge, it had no way to follow him.

 

It didn’t know at this moment that the restriction had been destroyed by the deity, but hearing Zhan Pingchuan mention Sandro’s name, it instinctively loosened its coiled tail, let the tail tip dangle into the sea, and reached forward with its webbed hands.

 

At the iron door entrance, Lance couldn’t help asking: “When you talk to it, can it understand?”

 

Zhan Pingchuan was very confident: “Of course it can. It communicated with me through eye contact, saying it doesn’t mind you smashing its iron door and we don’t need to compensate.”

 

Of course, this was mainly Zhan Pingchuan’s own expectation. But although the buddy was a mutant beast, being able to become the king’s consort meant it must have extraordinary magnanimity and definitely wouldn’t mind.

 

“……”

 

Lance: “I wasn’t planning to compensate anyway.”

 

He wouldn’t clean up the Outer God’s mess.

 

The two pushed the box and squeezed out of the iron door, being wrapped again in kelp tree bubbles.

 

The two guards outside the iron door still lay where they were, their flashlights fallen to the ground, the dim yellow light illuminating the muddy seabed.

 

Suddenly, a jelly-like F-level mutant beast flashed past the light, its flowing mouthparts swallowing a gulp of sea mud.

 

Zhan Pingchuan and Lance were both stunned, because it was common knowledge that mutant beasts couldn’t leave the underground city alive.

 

Lance immediately understood—the Outer God had broken this common knowledge!

 

He was once again shocked by His power. So the balance between the underground city and the human world could be easily broken by Him. Those experiences and rules that humans had summarized over decades were worthless before Him.

 

Zhan Pingchuan also suddenly remembered what He Jing’en had said in his first class.

 

—”Although things in the underground city haven’t been able to walk out of that iron door yet, I believe that sooner or later, they will come out…”

 

He really saw a mutant beast come out.

 

Zhan Pingchuan’s Adam’s apple bobbed with difficulty as he said painfully: “Baby, I think we should still rebuild the door for them later.”

 

It should still be salvageable. Wasn’t there that famous baby elephant chain experiment?

 

When the elephant was young, it was chained to a post. When it became an adult elephant capable of breaking the chain, it no longer tried to resist.

 

As long as they repaired it to imitate the iron door, those mutant beasts generally wouldn’t want to come out.

 

Lance took a deep breath and exhaled slowly: “Let’s leave this matter for the king to handle. But since things have come to this, why don’t we bring the S+ mutant beast along? After all, who could be more suitable for underwater combat than it?”

 

Anyway, he couldn’t summon the Outer God for a while. That bastard, after being deceived, would probably ignore him for a long time unless he was about to die.

 

So Ryan saw the humans who had just run away return again shortly after.

 

It frowned in confusion.

 

Why didn’t the little jellyfish make two rounds when leaving?

 

Zhan Pingchuan enthusiastically waved at the consort beast: “Buddy, I have good news for you. Thanks to my baby tearing down your iron door, now you can go out and reunite with your wife. Are you happy? If you’re happy, pack up and come with us!”

 

Again, extremely fast speech, a long string of chatter.

 

And this sentence didn’t contain “Sandro.”

 

Ryan uninterestedly lowered its golden eyes, swished its tail onto the shore, splashing water everywhere.

 

Zhan Pingchuan couldn’t believe it actually lay down after hearing such an enthusiastic suggestion.

 

“Buddy, you’re an S+ mutant beast. You can’t be trapped by baby elephant chains. You have to believe in yourself, be brave enough to step out of your comfort zone. Sandro is still waiting for you to save him.”

 

Hearing Sandro’s name again, Ryan propped itself up again, raised its golden pupils, its tail stirring the seawater.

 

Zhan Pingchuan hadn’t expected he actually had the potential to be a psychologist.

 

“Right, right, right, come, come, come. Sandro is in the palace, but you have to wait. He’s being watched right now and can’t see you temporarily.”

 

Hearing Sandro’s name repeatedly, Ryan exerted force with its waist and abdomen, leaping into the green sea.

 

“Where is Sandro”

 

In just seconds, it swam from the mangrove area to the end of the corridor, its ethereal, low voice pressed out from its throat.

 

“In the offshore, come with us.”

 

Lance walked out from inside, pointing toward the iron door.

 

Lance spoke slowly and clearly. Ryan could finally understand. It of course knew Sandro was in the sea on the other side, but it couldn’t go out like humans—a force would bounce it back.

 

It anxiously swished its tail fin, stirring the seawater into chaos, frightening low-level mutant beasts into panicked flight.

 

Lance and Zhan Pingchuan exchanged glances. They actually couldn’t read what the mutant beast was thinking, and the beast obviously didn’t want to communicate much with them. It was only obsessed with Sandro.

 

“Come with us.” Lance said to it again¹he spoke in english.

 

“Sandro…” Ryan stared at Lance with its golden eyes.

 

“The door is broken, you can get out.”

 

Ryan raised its tail fin, looking at Lance in confusion, because this sentence was tantamount to a death threat for a mutant beast.

 

Going out the door meant already being dead, but they had clearly helped it.

 

Humans were really too complicated.

 

“Sandro is facing a crisis. It’s up to you whether to keep up or not.”

 

With that, Lance stopped waiting and pulled Zhan Pingchuan away. Their time was too pressing.

 

Breaking through psychological shackles and shattering established perceptions was an extremely difficult thing, requiring a strong heart and exceptional courage—the same for both humans and mutant beasts.

 

The two gradually disappeared into the corridor, their footsteps growing more distant.

 

Ryan narrowed its eyes, leapt into the corridor, and closely watched their departing backs.

 

Lance and Zhan Pingchuan dragged the box back into the deep sea, turned on their flashlights, and swam upward toward the trench.

 

“Will it come out?” Zhan Pingchuan asked while swimming.

 

“I don’t know. It’s my first time talking to a mutant beast. This experience is so bizarre,” Lance shook his head.

 

Actually, if Lance had gone in first and seen the white robe using the Thornfish Cutting Net against the S+ mutant beast, he definitely wouldn’t have been as decisive as Zhan Pingchuan, choosing to save the mutant beast within seconds.

 

He was heavy-hearted and suspicious, and breaking psychological shackles and established perceptions was very difficult for him.

 

He admitted he didn’t have Zhan Pingchuan’s broad and magnanimous heart, able to ignore species, groups, conflicts, and ethics, only judging right and wrong.

 

“I think it will,” Zhan Pingchuan was the first to swim up the cliff and pulled Lance up. “If your life were hanging by a thread, even knowing it was impossible, I would still try.”

 

Lance suddenly looked up at Zhan Pingchuan, his heart suddenly tugged.

 

But Zhan Pingchuan didn’t find this sentence unusual. He flicked Lance’s bubble and teased, “What’s wrong?”

 

Lance smiled with curved eyes, said nothing, just held Zhan Pingchuan’s mischievous hand.

 

Their ten fingers tightly intertwined, holding the box with a barrier, they arrived at Wonderland Trench Station and boarded the bubble transit again.

 

Twenty minutes later, they arrived at the palace’s rear station.

 

Although they didn’t know if the mutant beast would eventually step out of the iron door, they didn’t close the underwater transit valve.

 

The glowing kelp tree bubble passage extended from the palace to the four underwater trenches.

 

Following the light, it always led near the palace.

 

They groped their way back to the hotel and contacted Dream Witch in advance, asking her to bewitch two palace guards.

 

Dream Witch immediately took action, confidently walking through the hotel toward the palace.

 

Sure enough, a guard stopped her, and she immediately bewitched the Omega among the guards, who then dispersed the hotel staff and let Lance and Zhan Pingchuan in.

 

Lance pointed at the box: “Tell these two guards to deliver the box to the anglerfish, saying the mission is complete and everything went smoothly, but the messenger is leaving, and Li Bang is taking people to send off the messenger.”

 

Dream Witch gave him an OK sign, smiling gently as she informed the two Omegas.

 

The two guards were so bewitched they were dazed, carrying the box to find the anglerfish.

 

“What’s in the box?” Dream Witch asked.

 

Lance: “Go back and say.”

 

Perhaps restless, Selarl had a nightmare.

 

In the dream, he returned to his childhood, when he had no abilities.

 

He hid in the shadows of a dilapidated alley, sweating coldly, trembling, clutching the rough wall with his fingers, staring at the passing crowd, but had no courage to rush out.

 

A vicious slap hit his back, and his drunken father cursed: “Just stealing something, is it that hard? Useless stuff!”

 

Selarl gritted his teeth in pain but dared not retort.

 

He was too weak, afraid of their curses and beatings, and more afraid of being abandoned to fend for himself.

 

So he mustered courage, stepped out of the shadows, and entered a convenience store.

 

He wore clothes cut from woven bags and straw sandals. Perhaps because of his shabby appearance, the shop owner stared at him firmly as soon as he appeared.

 

Selarl’s heart seemed to have a motor, beating so fast it was about to burst from his chest.

 

His palms were sweaty, sweat dripping from his eyelids, stinging his eyes so he couldn’t open them.

 

Passion County was too hot and too poor, and his neck was still sunburned and peeling.

 

He entered the convenience store, saw no one around, quickly stuffed a pack of bread into his woven bag clothes, his nerves stretched to the limit, his face redder than the sun.

 

Fortunately, he finally completed the task and was eager to escape.

 

So Selarl quickened his pace.

 

However, just at the door, the shop owner’s wife shouted: “Stop! What’s that in your arms?”

 

Selarl had never been so scared. He swore that moment was more terrifying than his parents’ beatings and all his nightmares.

 

His mind went blank, his legs weak, and his blood seemed to stop flowing.

 

The shop owner’s wife took the bread from his arms and scolded: “Young and naughty, stealing things, your parents should discipline you well!”

 

Because he was a child, the shop owners didn’t make things difficult, just chased him out.

 

But the fear didn’t disappear. Selarl staggered on the street and broke down crying.

 

He didn’t know why he cried—maybe fear of being discovered, shame of stealing, fear of his parents, or all of these.

 

That day was like a nightmare, following him wherever he went, no matter how old he grew, tormenting him.

 

Even though stealing and robbing became routine for him later.

 

So, he killed the couple who ran the convenience store.

 

He watched them fall under his knife, lying in despair in a pool of blood. The childhood nightmare was resolved; they could no longer haunt him.

 

Relying on his strong physique and tall stature, Selarl took back more and became a notorious bully in Passion County.

 

His parents drank themselves to death daily, recklessly squandering the property Selarl had taken back.

 

Until one day, drunk and boasting about the past, Selarl learned that they had once been residents of the Tasman Pirate Nation. Because of conflicts with neighbors, in a fit of anger, they killed the entire neighbor family and were expelled by the king, never allowed to return, and their descendants lost citizenship.

 

“Damn king! That family deserved to die!”

 

“Yeah, not letting us return, who does he think he is!”

 

Selarl trembled with anger. He realized he could have been born not in hot, poor Passion County but in Tasman. He could have lived in a houseboat, enjoying a high-class life without worrying about livelihood.

 

Everything was ruined by his parents; they shouldn’t have given birth to him.

 

In the dream, Selarl took out a knife, angrily stabbed his parents, blood splattered all over his face. They quickly went limp, begging and confessing.

 

This was what Selarl always wanted to do, but in fact, due to control and beatings since childhood, he had no courage to kill them. They controlled and used him, depriving him until he was an alcoholic and died on the street.

 

They should have been killed long ago.

 

If not for the damn king’s law, he could have returned to Tasman long ago and enjoyed a better life.

 

He could even have offered his parents’ heads as a sign of sincerity.

 

It was Sandro’s ruthlessness that forced him onto another path, making him a co-conspirator of the Federation.

 

All because of Sandro.

 

Selarl suddenly opened his eyes and found himself in the palace, lying in his bedroom.

 

It was already 4 a.m., quiet all around. Everything he had longed for and hoped for would be realized tomorrow. He would transform from a thieving beggar to the king’s fiancé.

 

Selarl sat up and drank water to soothe his throat: “Where’s the anglerfish?”

 

The anglerfish had just slept less than two hours when he was awakened and hurried to Selarl’s bedroom.

 

“How’s Li Bang’s side?”

 

The anglerfish didn’t dare to be grumpy and smiled: “The mission was successfully completed. I just checked the box brought back by the guards. It was a bloody mess, shattered beyond recognition. I quickly had it refrigerated, fearing it would spoil overnight.”

 

Selarl smiled: “Good. Find someone to take some out, chop it into minced meat, and present a special dish to everyone tomorrow. After the king eats it, bring the box up and distribute the precious S+ mutant beast meat as engagement gifts.”

 

The anglerfish shuddered violently, nearly retching.

 

Every time he thought Selarl was vicious enough, Selarl seemed to become even more vicious.

 

This person seemed to grow and thrive in malice, without any emotions belonging to normal humans.

 

But the anglerfish could only agree: “Brilliant, everyone will surely love your gifts. This top-grade mutant beast meat might even extend life if eaten.”

 

“Where’s Li Bang? I want to reward him.” Only then did Selarl remember Li Bang.

 

“Uh… it seems the messenger wanted to leave, and Li Bang went to see him off. He said he’ll definitely be back for tomorrow’s ceremony.”

 

“Then let the messenger be. Tell Li Bang to serve carefully.” Selarl wasn’t particularly eager for the messenger to stay anyway. He didn’t want to have to accommodate this master at his own venue.

 

“Yes, I’ll tell Li Bang right away.” The anglerfish withdrew.

 

The anglerfish sent Li Bang a message and quickly received a reply.

 

In the hotel suite next to the palace, Lance put down Li Bang’s phone, turned back to everyone and said four words: “Everything is ready.”

 

There were still 8 hours until the engagement ceremony.

 

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 (advanced chapters available on kofi)

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  he spoke in english