Chapter 76

Chapter 76

“Inside my pot!”

Following Aman’s panicked question, Han Lie heard the Supreme Deity’s somewhat teasing reply.

Setting aside Han Lie’s complicated feelings for a moment, Qin Ying didn’t think there was anything wrong with her actions. She had simply flipped her Pressure Cooker upside down to serve as a temporary safe house.

Inside the World in the Box, the Red-furred Hou that had burrowed out from underground lived and multiplied in this desolate territory. They spent their days consuming fire and chasing each other for fun; when had they ever seen such a grand spectacle?

Upon the expanse of White Jade, the Pressure Cooker-which was not much shorter than the Divine Shrine-sat inverted. Perhaps the Hou that had emerged from the earth weren’t very bright, because after their initial panic, they actually perked up their tails and began to circle the Pressure Cooker, licking it.

The Hou’s saliva, which could turn matter into jade, smeared against the Pressure Cooker, leaving clusters of white marks. A thin layer of jade-like crust began to form on the steel walls of the pot.

If these Hou were given enough time and sacrificed a few tongues, they might actually manage to turn the entire rim of the Pressure Cooker into jade.

On a high rock beside the Divine Shrine, a particularly massive Hou stood alone. A long tuft of white fur grew from its forehead, drooping diagonally between its eyes. By human aesthetic standards, this Hou-nearly the size of a small calf-looked quite dashing, albeit with a heavy ‘Shamate’ punk vibe.

As the leader, it let out a majestic howl toward the sky to gather its companions and hunt the intruders. But the moment Qin Ying’s Pressure Cooker came crashing down, its eyes bulged, and it bit its own tongue, swallowing the latter half of its roar.

What… what was that thing that fell from the sky?

Under the unique reddish light of Chixia Golden Saddle Mountain, the inverted Pressure Cooker looked exceptionally expensive. The Hou looked toward the clouds, its fur standing on end.

A beast’s intuition told it that high above the clouds, a being from a higher plane of existence was watching it.

This Hou King tucked its tail between its legs and instinctively took a step back, wanting to flee. But thinking of its companions, it stopped abruptly, its throat vibrating as it let out a series of warning barks: “Woof! Woof! Woof!”

“Pfft!”

Outside the box, Qin Ying had been feeling a bit tense. Hearing those authentic dog barks, she burst out laughing.

She reached for the Barbecue Tongs sitting nearby and aimed them at the Red-furred Hou standing on the highest point. It was this fellow’s fault for having such an eye-catching tuft of Shamate white hair. Qin Ying wanted to pull it out and take a closer look.

Inside the box, the barking grew more urgent as the Hou pack fell into a frenzy. The Hou that had been treating the Pressure Cooker as a novelty, licking it incessantly, weren’t finished yet. They lingered nearby, barking at their own reflections in the polished steel. One or two even grew bold enough to lean in and inspect their shadows.

Seeing this, the Hou King’s eyelids twitched. It began to growl and snarl in its throat, seemingly cursing them out in frustration. Only then did the lingering Hou look at each other and retreat.

Having driven its tribesmen back, the Hou King on the rock gave its white forelock a habitual toss and prepared to withdraw. It tilted its head down and leaped from the rock in a standard diving posture, aiming to plunge back into the jade disc on the ground.

However, mid-leap, it realized it was being pinched by something. It didn’t return to the White Jade; instead, it drifted further and further from the ground.

Its barks grew increasingly frantic. A terrestrial beast like a Hou would normally never leave the ground by more than thirty feet in its entire life unless it met with some miraculous fate. Now, enjoying the treatment of being suspended high in the air with its four paws dangling, the Hou discovered… it might be afraid of heights.

With its tail tucked and its claws drooping, the Hou King with the tuft of white hair began to foam at the mouth. Suddenly, its entire body felt damp as it was enveloped by clouds, and then everything went black.

When it opened its eyes again, it saw an impossibly large eye. A voice like rolling thunder boomed in its ears.

Its eyes rolled back, and it lost consciousness from the shock.

With their leader snatched away, the remaining Hou showed no sense of loyalty and scattered in every direction.

Qin Ying saw the Little Red-haired Dog caught in her Barbecue Tongs suddenly pass out. She panicked for a moment, thinking she had accidentally killed the little thing.
She placed it on the lid of a Preservation Box and leaned in to observe. Seeing its paws still twitching, she felt a bit more at ease.

Considering that its drool could jadeify objects, Qin Ying locked it alone in a thickened insulated box and placed it next to the Fish Tank, letting Fuzhu keep an eye on it.

Fuzhu pressed its deer face against the glass of the Fish Tank, watching the Hou lying on its back with its four legs twitching as if it were looking at a rare curiosity.

After finishing this, Qin Ying used Barbecue Tongs and chopsticks in tandem to retrieve the upturned Pressure Cooker from the box.

Han Lie was still standing, but Aman had collapsed on the ground, likely frightened out of his wits.

Qin Ying couldn’t help but ask, “Is he alright?”

Han Lie, seeing the light of day again, looked up and replied, “Thank you for the rescue, Supreme Deity. Aman is fine. He just suffered a small fright.”

Han Lie crouched down and splashed some water on Aman’s face, causing him to wake up shivering.

As soon as he opened his eyes, he scrambled up from the ground, swallowing hard as he looked around. “Has the Supreme Deity withdrawn her divine power?”

Something occurred to him, and he suddenly grew excited. “Just now, were we taken into the Supreme Deity’s Sleeve Bag?”

It was unclear what he had studied during his travels in Luoyang, but his head was full of wild and fanciful ideas.

Han Lie saw that he was in such high spirits and felt relieved, helping him to his feet.

Outside the box, Qin Ying wrapped the retrieved Pressure Cooker in paper towels and sprayed it with several rounds of alcohol for disinfection, but her smile gradually faded.

The areas of the special-grade steel Pressure Cooker that had been licked by the Hou had turned into an extremely thin shell of White Jade.

When Qin Ying touched it with a cotton swab, it shattered, revealing the silver steel beneath.

This made her realize one thing-the dangers and oddities of the World in the Box exceeded her expectations.

She was already considering whether she should simply have Han Lie and the others retreat. It would be a terrible waste if Han Lie were to perish here.

However, before she could make a decision, a cry of surprise came from inside the box.

After the Red-furred Hou retreated, a large number of hollows of varying depths appeared on the ground. Some things that were originally hidden beneath the jade had been unearthed.

Aman saw a jadeified thigh half-buried in the soil; from its shape, it was human.

Han Lie and Aman exchanged a glance, put on leather gloves, and stepped forward together.

They dug down along the thigh and unearthed half a Jade Person wearing the clothing of the Sand People.

The jadeified lower half still maintained a running posture, but the upper half had rotted away, leaving only ashen, withered bones.

They laid the half Jade Corpse flat on the ground.

Han Lie, his hands gloved, searched every inch of the body. Aman stood guard nervously, watching their surroundings.

Suddenly, Han Lie called out, “Aman, come look at this totem.”

He flipped the half Jade Corpse onto its side and pointed to the jadeified lower back. “Is this the totem of the Guifang Tribe?”

On the lower back of the Jade Corpse was a cyan totem that looked like both a flame and a bird. As its owner had jadeified, the totem had been frozen forever without rotting.

Aman looked closely, and after a long while, he said uncertainly, “It’s the Guifang Bird, but some of the details are different.”

Han Lie nodded. “Totems undergo subtle changes in different periods; that’s normal.”

He said with certainty, “This is a person from the Guifang Tribe.”

In the stories told before, it was mentioned that the chieftain of the Guifang Tribe had once led warriors into the Divine Shrine. This half Jade Corpse undoubtedly corroborated the truth of that story.

Han Lie stood up and looked toward the megalithic Divine Shrine standing dozens of yards away.

Aman asked, “Are we going in?”

Han Lie was about to answer when his expression changed, and he looked off into the distance. The rustling sound of flapping wings, accompanied by a heavy scent of sulfur and rot, approached from afar.

The sound reached outside the box, and Fuzhu’s ears pricked up inside the Fish Tank.

It was the Yong Bird, Fuzhu’s nemesis.

Before it could react in anger, Qin Ying said to Han Lie inside the box, “Go to the Divine Shrine! Find a place with a roof to hide!”

With that, she picked up the Insecticide and the Igniter. “I’m going to start a fire!”