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High in the sky, amongst clouds as dark as ink.

Ye Zichen and his companions lay in wait, peering down through gaps in the cloud cover at the situation on the Nine-tailed Fox Clan's back mountain.

On their way Fatty Yin had stressed Denglong's strength and all of them remained on high alert. No one made any hasty movements.

"What's the situation?"

Fatty Yin, who'd been trailing behind them, leaned in and roughly pushed Yuan Hong aside to examine the situation below."

"Damn, they really all showed up. No, wait, there's one missing. But still, judging from this, Denglong really has got to be at least somewhat afraid of Nuwa, but she similarly also feels somewhat troubled by him. For now, their mutual suspicion actually seems to have created a stalemate."

Despite having just arrived, Fatty Yin directly took over the role of spokesman. He shook his head and continued analyzing the situation.

"Why did you come? Are you here to throw away your life with us?" asked Su Liu'er with a frown.

"Sister-in-law, in the future we'll be part of the same family. What are you being so rude to me? Fatty Yin peevishly rubbed his nose and shrugged. "I was just giving you a suggestion. A suggestion! You ought to understand that, right? But you all absolutely insisted on going. Am I, fatty, a coward who fears death?

"So then who exactly was it that was so scared they practically pissed their pants?" said Su Liu'er without an ounce of concern for his feelings.

This scene made everyone else raise their eyebrows. In the eyes of outsiders, Su Liu'er's image was that of an empress.

An empress's authority could not be challenged.

She appeared utterly unwelcoming to strangers, no matter who they were, and had always hated useless chatter. She preferred to speak with her actions, not her words.

Who would've thought that this empress could speak so poisonously? It was quite a novel experience to the onlookers.

Fatty Yin's face wore an innocent expression. Su Zhu, sensing the situation, decided to help him out.

"Sis, Yin Shang didn't mean anything by it. Don't give him such a hard time. We're all in the same boat here, so please let him off the hook."

As she spoke, she stared pointedly at Fatty Yin, who took the hint and nodded repeatedly in response.

"Right, it's just that I lost control of my mouth earlier is all. 'A great man forgives a petty person's mistakes', right? So let's just start over with a clean slate, okay?"

"You haven't even gotten married yet and you've already started siding with him over your own family members, "Su Liu'er said while gazing at Su Zhu dotingly.

Then, she fixed her gaze on Su Yan and said, "Little sister, you won't be like this, right?

"I...Of course I'll always support you, sis," said Su Yan.

"Then if, say, Ye Zichen and I got into a fight, who would you support?"

"I….um..…."

Looking at Su Yan's conflicted expression, Su Liu'er couldn't help but face-palm.

"I've really worried about you two for nothing"

"Alright, let's stop talking now."

Ye Zichen, who'd been focused on the situation below throughout their conversation, reached out and cut them off. They all drew in close.

"It never occured to me that the pieces of your soul had possessed other people's bodies. No wonder my brother and I couldn't find even a trace of you throughout the years.

Lady Nuwa's expression was serious. Already she was facing a group and not just Houqing himself. Two other men stood by his side, and Nuwa could sense Denglong's aura emanating from their bodies.

She retrieved the Sky Repairing Stone from the sky. After all, it only had a limited amount of divine power.

She understood completely that continuously activating it would just waste it's limited power supply without threatening Denglong at all.

But what about the flame qilin by her side?

It was still lying on the ground lazily, dozing with its eyes half-closed.

As the pressure from above dissipated, Houqing laughed and said, "At least you've got enough brains to figure out that the Sky Repairing Stone is already completely useless against us. But my dear lady Nuwa, didn't you solemnly swear to kill me mere moments ago? What's stopping you?"

"Why are you wasting your time talking to that bitch? If you think dealing with her is too much trouble, I can do it for you."

The man who spoke had long hair and emanated ferocity. His upper body was uncovered, and his muscles burst forth with explosive strength.

Yinggou.

One of Denglong's three vessels.

In life, Yinggou served as a guardian deity of the underworld. Countless years of living under those conditions had already made him terrifyingly ferocious.

After giving his body to Denglong, his ferocity had only increased.

Denglong's vessels actually all retained the personalities of their original owners to varying degrees. Of them, Yinggou was the most compatible with Denglong, and was the vessel he was most satisfied with.

Nuwa frowned slightly, but Yinggou was an opponent she couldn't carelessly make a move against. What worried her most, however, was the other man standing behind Houqing, despite the fact that he'd yet to speak.

She could sense Denglong's aura emanating from his body, but….

She couldn't sense Denglong's soul.

"Brother Yinggou, there's no need for you to get involved."

As he said this, a horde of dark and dense shadows burst forth from the Nine-tailed Fox clan's rear mountain, seemingly from nowhere.

From their bloodthirsty expressions, it was clear that they were all zombified spiritual beasts.

"Damn it."

Yuan Hong's eyes reddened from his perch on the clouds. He could sense that those zombies had all once been spiritual beasts from the Beast Region, and that quite a few had been spiritual apes from mount Huaguo.

"Hey, if you're angry go take it out on those Zombie Progenitors, don't just sit there and sulk."

Su Liu'er's words were even-keeled, but her cold expressed betrayed her true feelings.

"Aren't you curious about where those zombies came from?" asked Su Zhu, getting down to the key issue. The others frowned.

No one could tell where the zombies had appeared from or how they'd done it.

"Let's stop waiting and go down and help!" said the impatient Yuan Hong, but Fatty Yin held him back, saying, "what are you in such a hurry for? Haven't you noticed that Lady Nuwa doesn't seem nervous at all? Let's wait a little longer--it's still too early for us to go onstage."

"Hm?"

Lady Nuwa's expression shifted-before this she hadn't senseed even the tiniest hint of the zombies lying in ambush.

As the zombies turned their rigid necks toward her and charged, Nuwa turned to her side and called gently.

"Flame Qilin."

The instant she spoke the Flame Qilin's eyes popped open. It slowly stood up and padded over to her side, then rubbed itself against her body affectionately.

"Lin'er, go take care of those zombies for me."

"Grrrrrr......"

The flame qilin blew two tongues of flames from its nostrils and nodded before rubbing against Nuwa.

"Good boy, go on"

She gently rubbed it's head, and it appeared to thoroughly enjoy the feeling of Nuwa petting it.

It rubbed against her one more time, then circled twice with its head lowered.

"Grrrrrr……"

It unleashed a deafening roar, seemingly totally different from its formerly lazy self.

Even though the zombies were so numerous as to make one's hair stand on end, the qilin's blood-red eyes held scorn for all of creation as it looked down on the undead horde.

"Roar!"

A purplish-red fireball burst forth from its jaws, and in an instant turned all the zombies charging toward Nuwa to ash.