Chapter 873: A jungle by any other name…is still freaking humid.
[Ey yo! That came out of nowhere!]
[Bold…]
[I guess it’s five in the afternoon somewhere.]
[Hmmm. If the daughter is this bold, you think the father is bolder?]
[Don’t know, but that kiss just gave me an injection of Lust power! Wooo! No wonder I went nuts!]
[How did a single kiss do that?,,]
[Turns out her tongue is pretty dragon-like too!]
[Oooooh.]
…
“Mwah! Thanks for the good luck kiss, darling. Be sure to immediately beeline to me after you secure your treasure. Kay?”
“Uh…Kay.”
After releasing Zhen Liu’s face, Princess Jinju Ren immediately returned to her group and left for what was arguably the most dangerous treasure that the Zhen Clan was attempting to secure this day.
Zhen Liu could feel the gazes of the rest of his family being directed at for him for this sudden display of public affection, but he proceeded to ignore them.
Seeing how Zhen Liu was being nonchalant about the whole thing, the others simply took it at face of value and left as well.
Evidently, it was good none of them were able to read minds.
…
[Hey, milord…why are you releasing waves of embarrassment? This isn’t the first time you got forcefully kissed in public.]
‘There is a bit of a difference between being kissed in front of a crowd of strangers and being tongue kissed in front of family. One’s easier to forget about, the other sees yoh everyday.’
[Fair enough.]
‘It did not, no.’
[That would explain the suddenly spike of Envy…and Patience? Wait…maliciouslu horny patience, interesting…]
‘Oh boy.’
________________________________________
One incredibly public display of affection later…
The Zhen Clan expedition groups immediately set off to their assigned targets, with Zhen Liu’s puppets in tow as a means of communicating with one another, and as a force multiplier.
While there were technically treasures and arts that were able to facilitate the function of the former, perhaps with even higher clarity than what Zhen Liu and his puppets were able to achieve, that latter effect of acting like a force multiplier made them infinitely even more valuable.
Communication may be key to victory but numbers and brute force was still what actually won most wars.
Of course, the puppets ability to act as such was dependent on their puppeteer being in good health.
Thankfully, Zhen Liu was in good health, but he was about to enter a situation where that might not be the case…
…
‘Sorry for having you do this, Razorstella.’
[It’s fine, director. It’s good exercise for me to do this…plus, y’all are too damn slow with your chopping.]
“Damn, at this rate, we’ll make it to the fountain in no time. Good on ya son!”
[See?]
“Mister Zhen Yan doesn’t know about the kaijin, right?,” Rianna asked Jin Fang with an aether coated whisper.
“No.”
“Ah…”
Unlike the [Vault of Hel], which was a giant temple in a massive underground cavern, the [Monkey’s Temple] was a massive sprawling jungle surrounding several ruined structures that seemed to be older than the jungle itself.
Therefore, in order for Zhen Liu, Jin Fang, Zhen Yan and Rianna to get to the [Fountain of Raging White Water], they had to rely on Razorstella’s innate sharpness to cut through the foliage in a timely manner.
The group had packed heavy machetes meant to cut through the foliage themselves, but due to Zhen Liu wanting to be efficient, they switched to using the power of Zhen Liu’s sword limbed ballerina puppet to cut through. Granted, it should be that was just the excuse Zhen Liu shared with his father when Razorstella started to run ahead of the group for the sole purpose of acting like a walking, giant lawnmower.
Which was honestly fine by Zhen Liu, because the longer they spent trudging through this jungle, the more likely that they would get ambushed by roaming aether beasts.
“Wait a minute, stop,” Zhen Yan and Rianna suddenly said in accidental harmony.
‘Razor?’
[As you wish.]
The moment Razorstella pulled back from kicking down even more foliage, both Rianna and Zhen Yan suddenly surged forward and crouched to the ground without saying a word to anybody else.
“What the…”
Zhen Liu, Jin Fang and Razorstella were all quite confused at this sudden change in behavior, until they heard two words that made the former two understand and the latter confused.
“Aether tracks.”
“Ah.”
[Huh?]
Since Zhen Liu never employed the kaijin in any capacity that involved the hunting of wild aether beasts, none of them had any practical experience in regards in how to deal with them, other than pure violence.
Thankfully, as a member of a clan that is entirely focused on aether beasts though, Zhen Liu knew how to convey what was going in a concise manner.
…
‘You know how normal animals tend to leave markings like footprints and droppings, things that hunters use to track them down?’
[Yeah.]
‘Aether tracks are basically the same thing, but they only appear when conflict occurs between high tiered aether beasts.’
[That’s…weird. why?]
‘The stronger the beast, the more intelligent they become and the more aether gets infused into their bodies. While some go with the route of being living natural disasters, even more go for the “hidden predator” route. By camouflaging themselves in such a manner, they hide away from mortal warriors like us and other aether beasts that would seek to harvest their bodies for loot and power. Makes sense?’
[So…the fact that we found aether tracks and not animal tracks…mean something really big and really nasty passed through here?]
‘More or less…did the rest of you get that too?’
[Yes.]*4.
‘Good.’
[Wait…shouldn’t you be over there parsing through all those tracks too then, maestro? Since you’re a Zhen Clan scion?]
‘Yeah, that requires me to be able to use aether through a normal manner.’
[Ah.]
…
“Judging from the feel, it appears that there was an Ignatii aether beast…”
“But look at the depth, that’s clear signs it has Terraqi.”
“True…”
As his father and Rianna continued to analyze the aether tracks, Zhen Liu decided to take this opportunity to make small talk with Jin Fang.
That and he wanted to make sure she was okay…given that Blazejudicator felt her release enough [Envy] and [Patience] to warrant a response.
“So…when did Rianna learn about how to hunt more general beasts? I thought she was hardwired to deal with giant aether insects.”
“That would be my doing,” Jin Fang said with a hint of pride. “I figured if Rianna was going to become a member of the Zhen Clan, then she needed to be taught about the ins and out of what we do. She’s actually surprisingly adept everything except beast training.”
“Really? How did that pan out?”
“She tried to choke out a Giant Feather Eared Rabbit after it tried to bite her.”
“Aren’t…aren’t those famous for being incredibly gentle pets?”
“Yes. Weird thing is, she gets along really well with all of the spiders and lacewings that Aranea and Lucille brought in.”
“That tracks.”
“Was that a pun?”
“Maybe.”
“Pfft!”
Zhen Liu and Jin Fang continued to watch Rianna and Zhen Yan in silence for a couple of moments after that short talk…until the former decided to open up with a statement that could’ve technically been saved for after they escaped the dangerous jungles.
Then again, this has been plaguing his mind for months now.
“Hey…uh…I’m sorry.”
“Huh? For what?”
“Being a shit boyfriend,” Zhen Liu explained. “I mean…for like the last few months, I’ve made you worried because I throw myself into dangerous situation, I’ve brought back four different women, became engaged with three of them and had basically been neglecting my relationship with you to the point that I’m pretty sure we haven’t had a proper outting since…not even Roaring Tide, holy shit.”
“Uh huh…”
As Zhen Liu continued on with his spelling out on why he was a shitty boyfriend, Jin Fang had developed this strangely nostalgic look in her eye. Like she was being reminded of why she fell in love with this dork in the first place.
“And with all that in mind, I’d completely understand if-”
“Hey.”
“You-hmm?!”
Just as Zhen Liu was about to finish his rant, Jin Fang kissed him in a manner similar to Princess Jinju Ren. Albeit, instead of grabbing his collar, she grabbed his chin.
It should be noted that while Zhen Liu wasn’t exactly against being kissed in such a manner, he was kind of getting sick of not being the one initiating it.
He had to have some pride as a man, after all.
After holding this kiss for a couple of moments, Jin Fang released a dazed looking Zhen Liu and stared at him with surprisingly loving eyes.
A rather unusual thing to show, given the nature of the discussion just moments ago.
“If I was really jealous of you having other women, I would’ve dumped you the moment Bellona showed up,” Jin Fang explained. “Besides, I’m the only who’s seen you at your best and worst. So if I loved you then, I’m pretty certain I can still love you now.”
“That…I…”
“OOOK, OOOK, OOK!”
“REEE!”
“Huh?!”
[We got company!]
Just as Zhen Liu was about to reciprocate the feelings, the jungle exploded with aggressive activity.
