Divine Beast Creator

"Do you have something to say?"

Feng Yuan squatted down to look the other in the eye and asked. The frail little boy sized up Feng Yuan, glanced at Xiao Ji on Feng Yuan’s head with some envy, then shook his head. Granny Mianlan sighed, walked over and said,

"Xiao Zhu, come here."

"You better hurry back, or Granny will get mad!"

Seeing Granny Mianlan’s somewhat angry expression, Cen Chudie quickly pulled Feng Yuan out the door. After walking a while, they arrived at the edge of the village where Wen Yanrong, chin in hand, looked at the village and said,

"There’s something strange about this village."

"What? Do you guys really want to investigate? Not afraid of making Granny angry?"

"Just walk around Granny’s concerns— I noticed Granny and that Granny Yuan seem to be very good friends. Going in is like going back to your own home—"

Looking at the excited Cen Chudie, Feng Yuan shook his head and said,

"You can’t seriously want to keep investigating, do you?"

"Of course— Don’t you think this village is weird?"

"What’s so strange about this village, besides being suffused with Ghost Qi?"

Yang Hongzhi scratched his head and scanned the surroundings, while Wen Yanrong glanced at Yang Hongzhi with disdain and said,

"To think you’re a member of the Red Fire Team, and you can’t even notice this?"

"Notice what?"

"It seems there are no Spirit Beasts in this village, and those houses are way too old."

"Really? I thought those houses looked pretty new. And as for Spirit Beasts... how do you know that?"

Cen Chudie surveyed the surrounding buildings and fields and said,

"Only the exterior is new; the styles are very old, okay? As for the Spirit Beasts, we’ve met so many people; it’s impossible for all of them to leave their Spirit Beasts at home, right?"

"Why bother with such things? Let’s go, let’s head back."

Cen Chudie said dissatisfiedly as she looked at Feng Yuan,

"This could be the work of a Ghost Series Spirit Beast! How can you just talk about leaving?"

Feng Yuan hugged Xiao Ji into his arms, played with Xiao Ji, and chuckled,

"That’s just your guess."

"You! I can’t talk to someone like you! We’ll investigate on our own!"

"Hey!"

Watching the two leaving, Yang Hongzhi looked puzzledly at Feng Yuan and said,

"Why do I feel that you’re acting strange?"

"Do I?"

"If you’re referring to the investigation, if you’re interested, you can join them. I’ll be here by this big tree waiting for you."

Feng Yuan, holding Xiao Ji, walked to a big tree nearby and, without minding the dirt, sat down against the tree, amusing Xiao Ji and the Dreaming Dragon Baby and occasionally teasing Big Cat. Watching Yang Hongzhi turn and follow the others, Feng Yuan sighed, looked at Big Cat beside him and said,

"You go follow them and have a look. Don’t let them do anything rash and anger Granny; that would be troublesome."

"Meow?"

Seeing Big Cat tilting its head to look at him, Feng Yuan couldn’t help placing Xiao Ji on top of his head, stood up, walked over, and rubbed Big Cat’s head, saying,

"Don’t play dumb with me; I don’t believe you have no clue what this is all about!"

"Meow..."

"Right, don’t you think their behavior is pretty bad?"

"Meow..."

Big Cat hesitated, then looked at Feng Yuan and turned to chase in the direction of the three departees. Watching Big Cat leave, Feng Yuan sighed, looked at his hands dirtied from pressing against the ground when he got up, shook his head; Xiao Ji and the Dreaming Dragon Baby looked at him curiously. Feng Yuan sighed and said,

"I just have a rough guess; there’s no harm in discussing it with you guys..."

"Ji~"

Xiao Ji and the Dreaming Dragon Baby looked intently at Feng Yuan, listening to his explanation.

"I think this place is the most suspicious!"

"Why?"

Wen Yanrong looked at Cen Chudie as she spoke; Cen Chudie glanced around and whispered,

"This household doesn’t have children. You know, Ghost Qi does do quite a bit of harm to children. Families with children wouldn’t cause such trouble, so..."

"Maybe a certain family doesn’t treat their child well?"

"Do you think that’s possible? Plus, I’ve observed those kids and they all seem happy, none of them show any signs of abuse."

Cen Chudie, disdainful, looked at the questioning Yang Hongzhi and glanced over his shoulder, asking

"Where’s Feng Yuan?"

"He said he’d wait for us under the big tree outside the village."

"Tch, who knows what’s gotten into him. Forget about him, let’s investigate on our own and not tell him when we find the truth—that’ll drive him crazy."

As Cen Chudie spoke, she knocked on the door. A middle-aged woman opened it and looked at the trio with glazed eyes, asking

"What do you want?"

"We are students from Maomu Academy, currently doing an investigation..."

Listening to Cen Chudie spinning tales, Yang Hongzhi looked at Najia on his shoulder, speechless. After a while, the middle-aged woman suddenly changed her tune and shouted,

"What’s there to investigate in my house! You must be up to no good, thinking about stealing or something! Get lost! Don’t make me call for help!"

"Uh..."

"Meow!"

Just as Cen Chudie was about to gently explain, Big Cat rushed out from the side, grabbed her clothes with its mouth, and pulled her away. Seeing this, the middle-aged woman glanced at the trio disdainfully and slammed the door shut with a bang. The three of them could faintly hear the sound of the lock clicking. Exchanging looks, after a while Cen Chudie complained to Big Cat,

"What was that for! Suddenly grabbing a girl’s clothes—did that jerk teach you that? This is molestation, I’m telling you!"

"Meow?"

"Pretending to be pitiful!..."

After berating for a while and realizing that Big Cat just tilted its head and stared blankly at her, Cen Chudie stopped her tirade and said to the others,

"Since directly approaching this house for information didn’t work, let’s try asking others. I refuse to believe we can’t uncover the truth!"

"Go for it."

Wen Yanrong encouraged, looking at Big Cat, Cen Chudie said menacingly,

"Don’t mess things up for me again!"

"Meow?"

Seeing Big Cat tilt its head and feign ignorance, Cen Chudie’s teeth itched with annoyance. Unhappily glaring at Big Cat, she said very unhappily,

"If it weren’t for the fact that you belong to that guy, do you believe I’d settle you right this instant!"

"Meow?"

"Play dumb, don’t bother with it."

Cen Chudie nodded at Wen Yanrong, ignoring Big Cat. After Cen Chudie asked several homes and was turned away—perhaps the word had spread—other villagers looked at the trio strangely. When they knocked on a door again, the person inside just cracked the door, peeked to see it was them, and abruptly closed and locked it. Watching the village become deserted, Cen Chudie shouted loudly in dissatisfaction,

"Are they all in league with each other! Fine then, I’ll call the police!"

"Call the police? It doesn’t seem like anything has happened here, right?"

"Turning a place into this ghostlyness and even affecting Liantang Town, I don’t believe they’re not up to something illegal here!"

Cen Chudie gave Yang Hongzhi a look, then took out her phone and started to dial. Yang Hongzhi sighed and said,

"Aren’t you reaching a bit too far..."

After a while, Cen Chudie angrily hung up and said,

"What do they mean by a false alarm! Doesn’t this ghostly atmosphere indicate anything is wrong! And they have the nerve to insist nothing is wrong!"

Yang Hongzhi, with a cue from Wen Yanrong’s eyes, took some time to convince Cen Chudie. After her anger subsided, she set off once more on the investigative trail.

"It’s been so long... how could they possibly find anything..."

Feng Yuan, looking at the surrounding seedlings, chuckled to himself at the lush greenery. Xiao Ji, enjoying the breeze and the time spent with Feng Yuan atop his head, felt so comfortable it almost fell asleep. Upon seeing the scrawny boy approach, Feng Yuan stood up, summoned some water to wash his hands and pants, and asked Dreaming Dragon Baby, freēwēbηovel.c૦m

"Could you help me dry these off, please?"

"Roar?"

After a moment’s hesitation, Dreaming Dragon Baby reluctantly breathed some flames to dry Feng Yuan’s pants. The scrawny boy just stood there, watching with great interest Feng Yuan interacting with the two Spirit Beasts. Eventually, Feng Yuan crouched down to meet his gaze and asked,

"Did you need something from me?"

The scrawny boy pointed at Feng Yuan, then at himself, and again towards the village. Feng Yuan, hesitating for a moment, guessed,

"Are you asking me to go with you?"

The scrawny boy nodded, and Feng Yuan, puzzled, followed him.