Chapter 734: Accidental Induction
*Bing-Bong*
We interrupt this chapter to inform you that the term branch clan will be reverting to simply “Zhen Clan”, due to the focus being on the branch again.
Thank you.
…
-Have…have you guys kissed and made up yet or…-
|I don’t want to talk about it.|
I learned I’m into more viscerally carnal things than anticipated.
-Gross…-
*Bing-Bong*
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∆Wait…should we try and use this as the moment to initiate that dragon girl into the secrets of the kaijin and the library?∆
=Well…the others have determined while she’s not the type to try and betray our lord…she is a bit of a… blabbermouth…=
∆I don’t think that’s the right term, it’d be more accurate to say that she’s a little…blunt. Either way, wouldn’t be the first time we had a kaijin lord bring in someone who was technically his natural enemy into the library as a lover.∆
=It isn’t?=
∆You don’t remember the Devout Heretic? He was that old…crap I forget the name of the religion he used, but went through some kind of spiritual epiphany when he found us? Ended up marrying that shaman? Called her a weird nickname…Peggy? Pogon? Something like that.∆
=Oh yeah…wait, wasn’t he the reason we established the VV scale?=
∆Yeah!∆
=Well that’s a helpful remin-oh. Looks like we won’t have to debate it anymore.=
∆Eh? Por que?∆
=Miss Jinju just surprised our lord and the two of them fell through the door.=
∆Like a romcom, baby!∆
=Wait a minute, aren’t Jasper and Janice currently in that portion of the library?=
____________A brief explanation___________
‘Well, shit. Looks like I’m going to have to use a door as opposed to drawing one…’
Due to the Zhen Clan’s flotilla having just started their journey back, there was literally no need or good reason to stop it mid-voyage. As such, Zhen Liu had to look for a boat with a door that was unoccupied at the moment.
Thankfully, such a boat wasn’t too hard to find since everyone else were busy at the other boats doing something either productive or just relaxing.
Zhen Liu would’ve checked to see if Rianna and Jin Fang wanted to come to the library as tradition, but the two of them were busy doing…something.
From what he could observe at the time, they were both carrying bow and arrows, but when he asked, they simply said, “girl things”. While he had an idea of what that term meant in a previous lifetime, he had no idea what it meant in this particular context and he didn’t want to find out…yet.
Regardless, he had things to take care of at the library and now wasn’t the time to dill-dally.
Unfortunately, Zhen Liu was so focused on the task that he failed to notice that he was being stalked…granted, it wasn’t a malicious stalking.
‘Oh? Why’s my future darling walking about like that? I should follow him.’
Jinju Ren was just about to go and bother Zhen Liu out of boredom anyways, so she figured she’d do the responsible fiancée thing and stalk him.
(Disclaimer: Do not actually stalk anyone, not even someone you consider a lover and/or close to. There is no quicker way to destroy someone’s trust than stalking them.)
Well, she actually going to do that “guess who, surprise!” thing that couples like to do, because she liked seeing Zhen Liu’s panicky face. It stirred something in her.
‘Huh…he is surprisingly more oblivious than I thought,’ Jinju Ren thought to herself as she kept stalking Zhen Liu for a couple of minutes. ‘Or am I more stealthy than I let on?’
Eventually, Zhen Liu stopped at a seemingly random boat…to her at least.
In Zhen Liu’s eyes, it was perfect because not only was it empty, but it had a locked door as well. Meaning that on the very off-chance someone was following him, they’d end up finding a locked room and nothing else.
Unfortunately, for him that wasn’t the case.
In the exact same moment he opened the door the Library, Jinju Ren thought this was the best time to surprise him.
“Hey, what you doing!”
“Bah!”
“Whoa!”
*Click!*
The next thing either of them knew, the both of them rolled through the door of the library like something out of a romantic comedy.
If the door hadn’t closed behind them when they disappeared, things would’ve been a bit more hectic than they were already becoming.
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“Whoa…what is this place? It looks like a library…”
When Jinju Ren surprised Zhen Liu, she was expecting to simply pin him against a door while openly flirting with the man who she deemed to be her equal in all but status.
What she didn’t expect was Zhen Liu being in the middle of opening a doorway to a place that Jinju Ren could immediately sense to be in a pocket dimension.
As an Imperial Princess, Jinju Ren knew that powerful warriors like her father, her bodyguard and the matriarch of the Zhen Clan, had access to these small pocket dimensions in which they would keep their treasures and secrets hidden, as well as have these places act as their personal retreats.
How they accessed these places varied from person to person, some of them being tamed wandering ruins that were now anchored while others were newly minted. From what she could sense though, this place was more similar to a set of wandering ruins, but were much older than them too.
“This place is…ancient…and powerful…”
From what she could see, there were thousand upon thousand of shelves, filled with books from who knows where, containing knowledge who knows what.
What she could sense with her aether was a different story.
“Is this why he’s so strong? Is this how he managed to learn all of those aether arts? Wait…there’s more…”
It didn’t matter which direction she looked, she could sense all sorts of aether arts ranging from a multitude of Corporeal arts to the faintest hints of World and possibly even Universe class aether arts. Mixed into those aether arts though, she could sense a scant few anima abilities and even arts that radiated dragon force.
Underneath all that though, she could sense that same strange energy that Zhen Liu used on the day of their battle, that strange energy that his puppets used that was almost able to injure her.
She had no idea what to call this energy exactly, but she could tell it was something that was in natural opposition to the dragon force she wielded…and it excited her.
For someone who would normally be her natural enemy in every other circumstance, to be her future husband in this one…how many people could boast something like that?
Well, there were those who were forced to married political rivals due to extraneous circumstances, but that wasn’t the same thing in the slightest.
“Ufufufu! How lucky am I that my future husband is not only super adorable and super strong, but has access to what appears to be an infinite source of knowledge,’ Jinju Ren thought to herself. ‘But where has my future darling gone? I need to praise him properly.”
“As much as I appreciate the sentiment, can you please get off me? I don’t mind being sat upon, but I would like to do so without hurting someone in the process.”
“Eh?”
It was at this point in time, that Jinju Ren finally noticed that when she had entered this mysterious library, she had unknowingly landed on top of Zhen Liu, who was sprawled out on the ground a bit like a carpet at the moment.
A part of Jinju Ren was going to do exactly as Zhen Liu asked, getting off of him and helping him back to his feet.
Another part of her, however, noticed that he was sprawled on his back at this moment and was essentially in a rather vulnerable position. Then again, it also probably helped that she noticed that their waists just so happened align in a…suggestive fashion.
A deviously subtle smile began to form on the princess’s face as an amusing thought came to her mind.
“Oh? Do you really want me to get off you so soon?,” Jinju Ren said in a teasingly slow tone of voice as she began to slowly lean over Zhen Liu’s face.
She repositioned herself in such a way that more of her weight was now focused on her lower body, while she leaned over to place a hand next to Zhen Liu’s head. Her face was less than a foot away from his.
Evidently, Zhen Liu wasn’t that dense of a man, but he had no idea how to handle shit like this so his face was about as red as a tomato.
“Uh…”
“You know, I can’t help but notice that we’re the only ones in this big, empty library,” Jinju Ren said with a look that reminded Zhen Liu that she technically had the blood of an apex predator in her veins. “I bet we can make a lot of noise that-”
*Clatter*
“Eh?”
‘OH SWEET HEAVENS!’
At that exact moment, Jasper and Janice, who were eating their mid-day pudding snack, had simultaneously dropped their spoons in shock.
A silence as thick as a steel beam, befell them all.
‘Just…just bury me in the ground right now…’
As to who thought this last bit…leave it to the imagination.
