Chapter 731: Awkwardly Perceptive
‘This is the first time I’ve ever heard a mind that was so loud…it was almost like something out of a story book…’
Initially, Zhong Wei had little to no interest in taking up the assignment to protect Princess Jinju Ren while she galivanted and cavorted on another continent. Zhong Wei was one of the rare few cultivators in the world that was able to use both anima and aether at the same time, as such, he had developed a touch of apathy for the world at large. He had exactly zero desire to do much of anything except read whatever books he could get his hands on.
As such, despite being in the employ of the Pearl Scale Emperor and his kin, he was going to refuse the assignment of watching over yet another descendant of the horndog emperor. However, the interjection of the Inked Devil herself, Zhen Xun Tian, convinced him to at least give this particular assignment a try.
∆∆Trust me on this, you apathetic super hermit. That princess had her heart captured by someone who is gonna be the center of a massive storm, ∆∆ Zhen Xun Tian told him over drinks. ∆∆The kind of storm that we used to read about and wonder if she was really as powerful as the legends said she was.∆∆
As Zhong Wei watched Zhen Liu and Princess JinJu Ren make their exit from the room, he couldn’t help but to muse upon a funny little tidbit in history.
‘It was said that the Storm Queen was someone who’s very presence made people think that a rain of thunder and lightning was about to fall on their heads. The only woman who was able to scar the Pearl Emperor himself…and now someone who has her presence is engaged to his daughter. What a lark!’
Unsurprisingly though, he wasn’t the only one who found this situation amusing.
__________________________________________
∆Either Anima Wielders have been getting worse in quality over the centuries, or we’re just that good at running interference.∆
=Probably both, to be completely honest. While it has been ages since we had to deal with anima wielders, we’ve had practice in dealing with Lady Bellona and her mental shenanigans.=
∆Yeah…built-in telepathy hits different.∆
=It does.=
∆Anyways, how far do you think that dragon princess will take her flirtations with our lord?∆
=Depends. How badly do you think she enjoys teasing not only him, but Jin Fang and Rianna as well?=
∆Incredibly so.∆
__________________________________________
‘On the one hand, this is probably the dreams of nerds and lonely people everywhere…on the other hand…’
“So I’ve noticed you have brilliant green eyes, do you think once we have kids they’ll inherit yours or my golden ones? Oh! You’ll think they’ll have both?!”
‘I didn’t expect to be talking about babies at what I’m assuming to be three in the morning.’
Zhen Liu had honestly wanted to just grab a glass of water, drink it and then go back to sleep and/or figure out what his next course of action, but lo and behold, something happened that threw his plans sideways.
Sitting at the dining table, across from him as he was drinking a glass of water was the infuriatingly blunt, yet somehow adorable, Princess JinJu Ren. A beautiful woman that would technically be his natural enemy under any other circumstance, but had somehow end up as his fiancée.
“Oooh, wait! Since I’m technically half dragon and you’re half Bisoner and Tider, does that mean there’s a chance one of our kids end up a half dragon and half bisoner? Would we have a kid that’s a full Tider?”
“Why do I hear Gregor Mendel spinning in his grave?”
“Who?”
“Some scholar I read about once. He apparently figured out a method to predict what traits a flower seed may have based slowly on what the parent plants were.”
“Does this apply to offspring that aren’t leafy and green?”
“Supposedly.”
“Yay.”
A feeling of deja vu came over Zhen Liu as he recalled the last time he was stuck in a conversation with Jinju Ren. At this point, Zhen Liu was fully convinced that the dragon-blooded princess wasn’t doing this on purpose, but it may have been as a result of her upbringing.
‘She did mention before that the Pearl Scale Emperor was a bit…polyamorous. Actually, I think that’s a stretch, dragon man’s horny and he has husbands and wives. Might as well use this opportunity to understand her better.’
“So, Jinju-”
“Bah! That’s too formal! Please just refer to me as Xiao Ren or…I think the term was dah-ling? I just remember it sounded cute.”
“Darling?”
“That! It sounds a lot like the word for ‘fiery passion’ in Tide Tongue.”
“Darling…da ying…oh it does, neat. Okay then, darling, would you telling me a bit more about-”
“Xiao Liu, are you by any chance related to the Invulnerable Storm Queen?”
“Urk! What?”
As soon as Zhen Liu heard this title getting dropped out of literal nowhere, he couldn’t help but to choke on his water.
Factually speaking, the closest living relative of the Invulnerable Storm Queen was none other than Zhen Liu’s childhood friend/girlfriend/maid, Jin Fang. Of course, Jinju Ren had no idea of knowing this little tidbit, because she was busy fighting Fallen Clan warriors in another part of the arena when this mentioned.
That said, the question still caught Zhen Liu by surprise.
__________________________________________
∆And we are now three for three on crazy perceptive woman being able to figure your ass out in almost record time.∆
[Three for three? Not four for four?,] Nepherage asked.
∆I am counting Bellona and his great grandauntie in this, Lady Jin Fang doesn’t count due to her stumbling upon you and Zhen Liu before you two had a chance to crash that funeral.∆
[Oh yeah…Lady Jin Fang has a really mean right hook.]
∆Not surprised.∆
‘Why the fuck does she know that name?!,’ Zhen Liu mentally screamed, while ignoring the commentary from the kaijin and Pathos. He expected that kind of shit at this point, so he learned how to just…roll with it. That and it helped that Logos was always ready to focus on the important details, as well as help to explain it to him.
=Milord…you do remember that the Invulnerable Storm Queen is technically a part of the Pearl Scale Empire’s history, yes? It was mentioned in some history books how she was the only woman in the world to have left a noticeable scar across the Emperor’s face? It’s in practically every history book and is a mark of pride and shame to the Pearl Scale Emperor.=
‘Right…why did she give him that permanent shiner again?’
=Like we said, we can’t exactly remember because our records of her activities got sealed up. But as for what others recorded…the reasoning ranges from “jilted lover” to “righteous revenge quest due to injustices done to her family”…the realms of insanity and chaos, I fucking hate creative interpretation of historical events.=
∆To be fair, knowing our track record, it was probably all of those reasons at once in some convoluted manner.∆
=You’re not wrong, but still.=
‘Wait a minute!,’ Zhen Liu intrjected. ‘I just noticed something important…she didn’t mention why she thinks I’m related to her. It could be something incredibly benign or easily deniable…hopefully.’
__________________________________________
“Like I said, are you by any chance related to the Invulnerable Storm Queen?” Jinju Ren repeated with a strange glint to her eyes. Zhen Liu had begun to notice that when Jinju Ren wanted to know anything in particular, her eyes would sparkle like a child that’s been given freshly made candy.
He didn’t know wherether to mark her as a history buff or straight up insane at this point.
“I…okay, I’ll bite. What makes you think I’m related to this… Invulnerable Storm Queen?,” Zhen Liu asked in a time suggesting that he was playing dumb.
Not detecting this vibe though, Jinju Ren proceeded to lay out her reasoning in asking this question.
“In the old history books, they mention that the Storm Queen could call upon fierce warriors that were like natural disasters in humanoid form. I’ve seen your puppets and they most definitely fit the descriptions in the books. Well, not exactly. The ones in the books were described as looking more like sea monsters.”
“That’s… interesting…,’ Zhen Liu answered while trying to keep his emotions in check. While the bit about looking like monsters was accurate, she was still under the impression that the kaijin were puppets. Granted, that didn’t stop her from pointing out other traits.”
“Besides from that though, there are less obvious traits you have that seem to suggest this link. Such as your aura.”
“Aura?,” Zhen Liu asked, even though he knew where this was going.
“The Invulnerable Storm Queen was said to cause and calm storms by simply releasing her aether. That she was a one woman army, someone who could flip mountains by just swinging her spear. On top of that though, it was said that just by looking at her, one would feel as if they were facing a natural disaster.”
‘Oh boy.’
