Chapter 183: A long time coming…
The day after the engagement party, Zhen Yue and Santiago had to split apart… physically…for the next few months.
Weddings, regardless of the time and place and universe, always took a lot of time to prepare for.
Venues had to be prepared, feasts had to be ordered, guests had to be invited and dresses had to be comissioned. This was especially true when it comes to Roaring Tide style weddings… affairs that take about a week to do.
Either way, no major plans or events were in motion for the foreseeable future, meaning that Zhen Liu, for the first time in a while, was free to do whatever he wanted.
“Finally! I can go back to the Library!”
Although, this time he wouldn’t be going back alone.
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Zhen Liu waited a few days before asking to borrow Tiny and Mini to go on a training/hunting trip of sorts. He was quickly given the go ahead, since immediately after the engagement, the patriarch decided now would be a good time to help promote Zhen Hai to the Aether Master level. Due to it being a conditional formula, advancement in them required certain procedures to be respected. That being said, Zhen Liu’s mother did assign Jin Fang to go with him in order to make sure he didn’t get assassinated…again.
With the okay given, Zhen Liu, Tiny, Mini and Jin Fang made the return trip to the Jade Lake.
The latter member of the party however was proving to be a bit of a handful…
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“Jin Fang, you’re…still mad, aren’t you?” {Bro, she’s asking for it.}
“Mad? Why would I be mad?”
“Well…” {It’s pretty obvious she’s trying to mark her territory, oblige her!}
As of this exact moment, Jin Fang was essentially sitting in Zhen Liu’s lap as the two of them were riding Tiny’s back. Let it be known, riding hippos tend to get a bit bouncy.
To explain why, on the night that Bellona kissed him out of nowhere, Jin Fang had unexpectedly witnessed this event occuring in real time. She had a bit of free time from her duties and had went over to where Zhen Liu and Bellona were chilling.
However, despite catching Zhen Liu in a moment of infidelity, she didn’t get angry at him or Bellona, at least not in an obvious manner.
Instead, she very calmy and quickly, walked over to Zhen Liu, subtly nudged Bellona to the side, grabbed Zhen Liu’s face and kissed him in such a manner that the French would go, “Sacre Bleu”. It even made Bellona blush.
Zhen Liu couldn’t really register what had happened since his mind was already shocked from Bellona’s kiss, so Jin Fang’s sudden and passionate made his brain non-existent at this point.
He could barely register the exclaims of shock from his kaijin at that point, but he did manage to hear Jin Fang say the words: “me first”.
Not “mine”.
Not “back off”.
Just “me first”.
Zhen Liu wasn’t sure what to do with the implications of that sentence, but his brain wasn’t active enough to figure out the deeper meaning at the time.
He was illuminated on these words later on, when on the day that he was set to leave for the library, she showed up in an adventurer outfit that was equipped with booty shorts, ala, Final F@ntasy, T0mb R@ider, etc. Making matters worst, she insisted on sitting in his lap the whole ride there, insisting that she was only doing so to keep Mini safe and snuggled.
That this also meant that she was essentially pressing the full weight of her ass upon his lap was completely coincidental and not at all indicative of ulterior motives. The fact that she also had Zhen Liu wrap his arms around her waist to keep her safe might have been a bit more indicative.
The [Voice of Lust] screaming in Zhen Liu’s mindscape didn’t help either.
‘Keep control, keep control, keep control,{stop the hippo, find some place quiet, return the kiss with interest and then punish this bratty bottom!}’
Honestly, Zhen Liu was looking forward to get back to the Library just get this stupid voice out of his head.
But after three-ish days of the most vigorous mental training Zhen Liu had been subjected to in his current life, the group finally returned to the Jade Lake.
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“So this is where it all began? I thought it’d be more majestic looking,” Hurricroak commented while looking over the Jade Lake.
Since there was no one else in the area except for him, Jin Fang and the hippos, Zhen Liu decided to let out all of his current kaijin in order to give them time to stretch…and in possible anticipation of things going sideways once they get into the library proper.
“It’s…big…,” Frosttusk rumbled.
“Lots of things to cut, though,” Razor Maiden observed.
Nepherage for her part didn’t say anything, she just quietly looked over the area,while Tiny and Mini used this opportunity to take a bath in their home lake. As for Zhen Liu and Jin Fang, the former was explaining to the latter about why they were here.
“You mean to tell me that underneath this lake is some giant library of arts and knowledge that the world hadn’t seen in years, and that’s why you’re now able to…do all of this?,” Jin Fang asked while gesturing to Zhen Liu’s entire being. The answer to which was a simple nod and a small exposition.”
“Yup, the only issue now is that we’ll have to hold our breaths for a while as we-”
=There will be no need for that, Kaijin Lord. Conditions for Library raising has been met, deactivating camouflage and first layer of defense,= a semi-robotic, serious sounding voice suddenly called out.
“That’s a new voice.”
“Who was that?!”
“Wait, you could hear that one?!”
*RUMBLE!*
The ground began to shake and the lake began to churn as something massive arose from it’s depths and exposed itself to the sunlight above.
First came towering obelisks that seemed to pierce the heavens themselves, then came a massive dome that was decorated with murals of monsters, heroes and everything in-between and finally, a giant gate that was flanked by a pair of demon guard statues wielding equally large halberds.
The appearance of the massive building rendered everyone speechless, with the kaijin in particular staring at the building with rapt attention.
Once the building had fully surfaced from the lake the gate opened up and a pathway made of cobbled rune stones formed out of nowhere.
=Welcome one and all to the Demon’s Archive, the world’s greatest depository of forbidden knowledge in this life or the next.=
=Oh…right.=
A shock of static sound occured before the exact message the group just heard repeated again, but in Spanish.
Zhen Liu promptly facepalmed at the words, while Jin Fang commented, “Wait…is that Salamander Tongue?”
