Chapter 20
Chapter 20
The drizzle was like silk, gathering into droplets on the freshly cleaned glass and blurring the world outside the window.
The Dragon Bone and fine scales lay quietly in the shoebox. Qin Ying sat at her desk, holding a canned fruit jar in one hand to examine its contents.
The Four-Horned White Deer inside the jar was lying stiffly on its back at the bottom, still looking like it didn’t know whether it was dead or alive.
It was intentionally sticking out its little tongue, but the tip of its tongue kept secreting transparent drool, which had pooled at the bottom of the jar.
Furthermore, the rapid rise and fall of its belly exposed one thing.
This fellow was playing dead.
“Quite high intelligence, I see!”
Qin Ying flicked the glass jar with her finger, already having a plan in mind.
She suddenly pressed her face close, issuing a devilish threat: “Stop faking. Stand up, or I’ll slaughter you and stew you into soup!”
As soon as she finished speaking, a loud boom of thunder echoed outside the window, and the rain suddenly intensified.
Before Qin Ying could even be surprised, the Fuzhu-whose mood swings drove changes in the weather-scrambled up with a start.
A puddle of drool had accumulated by its feet, and its four hooves slipped and skidded several times before it managed to stand steady.
With its ears trembling in a submissive ‘airplane’ position, it lowered its head and cautiously peeked up at Qin Ying.
Qin Ying glanced at the torrential rain outside and raised an eyebrow slightly at the Four-Horned White Deer.
The rain outside… seemed to have something to do with this fellow!
She wasn’t entirely sure, so she pulled out her phone and took several close-up photos of the strange creature in the jar.
Following her movements, the wind howled and thunder roared outside, making for quite a lively scene.
Qin Ying’s lips slowly curled upward. “Attacking a human city and causing heavy rain-what should your punishment be?”
Her tentative questioning made the Fuzhu’s deer heart nearly leap out of its mouth.
Its front hooves went weak, and it knelt down inside the jar just like that.
It let out a few soft bleats, sounding like it was either defending itself or begging for mercy.
Qin Ying couldn’t understand ‘deer-speak,’ but she learned one thing clearly from the creature’s expression.
This deer could understand human speech and was terrified of her. There was none of the arrogance it had shown when attacking the human city in the box.
Moreover, she noticed something else.
For the thumb-sized Four-Horned White Deer, the large peach jar was plenty of space, yet it stayed huddled at the very edge as if trying to get away from something.
Following its line of sight, Qin Ying saw the shoebox.
The answer was obvious: the little deer was afraid of the Dragon Bone inside the shoebox.
Qin Ying slowly straightened her back, a faint smile playing on her lips.
With her phone in one hand, she used a pair of cell-culture tweezers with the other to pick up the skull of the Dragon Bone from the shoebox.
She held it up playfully in front of the little deer in the jar.
“I have a little toy here. Do you want to take a look?”
The black scorch marks from the lightning strike ran through the Dragon Bone, and its horn let out a soft *clink* as it bumped against the glass jar.
The Fuzhu’s eyes rolled back, and it was about to faint again when it heard Qin Ying’s voice.
The woman, who was playing with the Dragon Bone as if it were a mere trinket, whispered, “You still dare to summon lightning and storms?”
The Fuzhu’s tail twitched, and in its terror, it squeezed out several sesame-sized droppings.
Its deer eyes blinked, and it instantly burst into aggrieved tears.
The Fuzhu was born amidst floods; wherever it went, rain would surely follow. When its emotions were stirred, it would draw forth storms.
This was an innate talent and a curse it was born with-it couldn’t control it!
The Fuzhu felt deathly wronged, sobbing as it knelt on the ground, trying to coax itself to stop crying.
The torrential rain outside the window immediately lessened. The smile on Qin Ying’s face widened further.
She nodded with satisfaction. “You’re quite obedient to discipline.”
Hearing this, the Fuzhu looked up with a mix of caution and a hint of secret joy.
*I was praised by a powerful existence! I’m a little happy.*
The rain outside intensified again, and the Fuzhu hurriedly composed its mind.
Qin Ying placed the Dragon Bone skull back into the shoebox, her gaze constantly sizing up the Fuzhu.
The little deer’s fur emitted a faint glow, and its four antlers looked like white jade.
It was beautiful. She wanted to keep it.
Her smile grew increasingly kind. “Considering you haven’t caused any irreversible blunders, this time…”
Under the Fuzhu’s apprehensive gaze, Qin Ying said, “I’ll let you off the hook this time.”
Before the little deer could cry out with joy, Qin Ying held up her phone and showed it the photo she had just taken.
“However, I have already placed a mark upon your soul. Will you still not submit?”
Qin Ying was merely teasing the little fool, but to her surprise, the Fuzhu suddenly perked up at the word ‘submit.’
It looked up at Qin Ying, its two eyes wide with shock.
“What? Unwilling?” Qin Ying’s face darkened.
If this white deer, capable of summoning storms, was truly defiant, she couldn’t simply let it return to the World in the Box.
Nor could she keep it by her side and let her home be flooded every day.
The only solution would be humane destruction.
Qin Ying was not a soft-hearted person; in the blink of an eye, she was already considering methods for its execution.
Unexpectedly, the Fuzhu suddenly let out a string of bleats.
Then, it lowered its head, its four jade-like horns touching the bottom of the jar as it performed a full kowtow of three prostrations and nine bows.
To have a powerhouse who treated a Dragon Bone like a trinket and received incense sacrifices from humans demand its submission… the Fuzhu hadn’t even dreamed of such good fortune, not even if it were struck by heavenly lightning.
Once it finished its human-style bow, Qin Ying was astonished to see faint golden patterns emerge in clusters upon the deer’s snow-white fur.
They were identical to the patterns that appeared on the box during the sacrifices in the World in the Box.
These golden patterns, resembling scrolling grass, bloomed like flowers.
Finally, they converged at the center of the Fuzhu’s antlers, forming a golden mark.
Then, a white phantom of four-branched antlers emerged from its forehead, passing straight through the glass jar and hovering before Qin Ying.
It was as submissive as a puppy, simply waiting for someone to claim it.
Qin Ying hesitated for a moment before slowly raising her hand.
The mark drifted over and settled obediently into her palm, transforming into a line of characters.
It was a script even more ancient than oracle bone script.
As she held this line of ancient text, a subtle sense of absolute control filled her entire body.
She understood the words.
‘On Ao’an Mountain, there is a beast. It resembles a white deer but has four horns. Its name is Fuzhu. Wherever it appears, great floods follow.’
The room fell silent, save for the sound of light rain tapping against the window.
Qin Ying’s eyelashes fluttered as she let out a long breath, and the small line of text vanished without a trace.
“Fuzhu.”
Hearing its name, the Fuzhu, its body weak, buried its head deep down.
Qin Ying unscrewed the tin lid of the jar and shook the Fuzhu out.
The Fuzhu was soaked-it was hard to tell if its fur was naturally damp or if it was covered in a cold sweat from fear.
It stood trembling on the desk, looking utterly lost.
Qin Ying pointed to the mini-sacrifices sitting nearby. “If it’s not poisonous, you can eat it.”
Hearing Qin Ying tell it to eat the incense offerings, the Fuzhu walked over hesitantly.
It sniffed the three animal sacrifices offered in the World in the Box, first shaking its head to indicate they weren’t poisonous.
Then, it looked at Qin Ying timidly.
These items were imbued with incense and faith, offered by humans to the Supreme Deity.
Was she really giving them to it?
Qin Ying nodded again. The Fuzhu’s four hooves trotted in a circle around the mat before it reached out and snatched up the jar containing the fermented mash.
With a snap of its jaws, it bit the jar open.
Tilting its neck back, it swallowed the pottery shards along with the mash inside, letting out a long, satisfied sigh like a drunkard.
Though it looked like a herbivore, the Fuzhu didn’t refuse meat either.
Next, it bit into the golden-roasted pig, making a crisp crunching sound as it chewed.
It wagged its tail as it ate, while Qin Ying watched from the side with her chin resting on her hand.
Just as the atmosphere reached its most harmonious point, there was a sudden knock at the door downstairs.
“Qin Ying!”
The loud, energetic shout nearly caused the Fuzhu to choke on the pig’s snout and jolted Qin Ying out of her daze.