Chapter 175: Su An’an Helps Seville in Her Dream
The young cub was clutching its head with its deformed paws.
Its left ear had mutated into a bat-like membranous wing, and its right cheek was covered in black scales.
Its spine bulged unnaturally, as if something were squirming beneath the skin.
Most terrifying of all were its eyes. What were once scarlet beast-like pupils were now splitting into countless compound eyes.
"My head hurts so much!"
Qiuqiu’s voice was as rough as sandpaper as he sobbed,
"I don’t want to turn into a monster, WAHHH!"
Seville knelt on one knee by the edge of the bed, a faint golden halo of healing energy gathering at his fingertips.
"It’s alright. It’s just a common bloodline eruption."
His tone was calm as he pressed his palm to Qiuqiu’s forehead. "Just get some sleep. You’ll be fine."
The instant the Holy Power flowed into him, a bloody gash suddenly split open on Qiuqiu’s chest.
Three black-and-red-striped Destiny Snakes shot out!
They followed the path of the healing energy back to its source, sinking into Seville’s wrist like venomous fangs.
"The Black Priest’s bloodline mark?!"
Seville’s pupils trembled violently.
The Black Priest’s power spread through his veins like venom, forcing him to shatter three of his core Golden Feathers.
Amidst the brilliant flecks of light, he saw an even larger serpent’s shadow coiled within Qiuqiu’s body.
’That isn’t a temporary mark at all,’ he thought. ’It’s a parasitic entity, planted long ago to devour its host!’
「Waste Female Safety House, Su An’an’s Bedroom」
Deep in her sleep, she suddenly curled into a ball as the Divine Pattern on her lower back began to glow with a searing light.
In her dream, a giant black-and-red-striped snake was about to devour Qiuqiu.
Qiuqiu’s left paw was frozen in a plea for help. Even the scent of strawberry milk clinging to his scales was being consumed by a bloody mist.
A white figure suddenly appeared, shielding Qiuqiu.
His tattered wings were like a sail shredded by a storm, and blood still trickled from the roots of three broken Golden Feathers.
"Get the hell out of Qiuqiu’s body, you damn snake!"
Su An’an furiously condensed her spiritual power into a spear, but as it struck the serpent’s eye, the attack backfired.
The eyes of the Destiny Snake revealed the horrifying fates of all those it had devoured through the ages.
Among those twisted faces, she saw it—her own original, fated demise.
On the bed, Su An’an’s brow was tightly furrowed. Her eyes darted wildly beneath her lids, and her fingernails dug deep into her palms, yet she still couldn’t wake up.
In the dream, just as her spiritual power was about to collapse, Su An’an noticed a faint crack on the serpent’s neck.
’That’s a fragment of the Heavenly Dao Chain!’ she realized.
The memory struck her like a lightning bolt, cutting through the fog. It was a remnant from when she had altered the original story’s plot.
’So that’s how it is!’
A smirk touched Su An’an’s lips as she focused all of her spiritual power into a single needle. ’If the Heavenly Dao can be broken...’
The needle’s point plunged precisely into the crack. ’...then your time is up!’
「Meanwhile.」
Seville’s wings trembled violently in the darkness. A trickle of pale gold blood ran from the corner of his mouth.
His seventh core Golden Feather disintegrated into ash at his fingertips.
But the Destiny Snake remained coiled around Qiuqiu’s heart, a greedy black hole that continuously devoured his Purification Power.
"Hang in there, little one!"
His voice was a hoarse, grating rasp. On his mangled right wing, another feather began to turn to ash.
Suddenly, with a BOOM!
Golden starlight erupted without warning, bathing the room in an ethereal glow.
Within the starlight, the silhouette of a female appeared.
The stellar radiance flowing around her coalesced into millions of slender arms, which seized the serpent’s vital point like a surgeon’s scalpels.
’The materialization of spiritual power from a distance... This is... the power of a Divine Female!’
Seville’s pupils quaked.
The translucent arms seemed gentle, yet they slowly began to peel the serpent’s body away from Qiuqiu’s internal organs.
Every inch of separation was accompanied by a sickening, tearing sound.
When the most vulnerable scales on the serpent’s belly were exposed,
Seville didn’t hesitate. He shattered his last three Golden Feathers. "Incinerate!"
As flames and starlight intertwined, the spectral Destiny Snake let out a bloodcurdling shriek.
Qiuqiu’s eyes snapped open, now clear and bright. His little pink paw grabbed the blood-stained collar of Seville’s clothes.
"It smells like Auntie!"
Seville, who had been examining the healing scar on the cub’s chest, suddenly gripped the scruff of Qiuqiu’s neck and demanded,
"This ’Auntie’..."
The Swan Beastman’s voice was a hoarse, inquisitive rasp. "Is she the female who adopted you?"
Qiuqiu’s pupils contracted, his scales bristled, and his eyes flashed with panic.
"Is she...?" Seville paused deliberately, his eyes fixed on the cub’s tail, which had gone rigid with tension.
"A Divine Female?"
"I-I don’t know!"
Qiuqiu abruptly buried his face in the pillow, his tail wrapping tightly around Seville’s wrist.
The evasive action was more telling than any words could be.
Seville chuckled, letting go of the cub’s scruff.
"Divine Female or not, she’s certainly... interesting."
He patted Qiuqiu’s little tail. "To care so much about a half-breed cub like you."
Before he could finish, the cub shot up and bit his finger, mumbling indignantly,
"Auntie is the best!"
"Alright, alright!"
Seville flicked the little one on the forehead and stood up.
"You get some rest. I’m going to go make you a medicinal broth."
「Waste Female Safety House, Su An’an’s Bedroom」
Her pajamas, soaked with cold sweat, clung to her back. She shot up in bed, her fingertips still tingling with the phantom pain of burning the Destiny Snake in her dream.
"Qiuqiu!"
She clutched her wildly pounding heart, where the cub’s cries for help from her dream still seemed to echo.
The door was suddenly thrown open, and the Four Great Beast Husbands filed in.
"We found Seville,"
Ying Jiuyao said, pulling up a map on his smart device and pointing to a red dot.
"He’s in the Black Star East District."
"We’re leaving now."
Su An’an stepped barefoot onto a floor littered with shards of glass from the window her rampaging spiritual power had shattered in her sleep.
"Wait, why do you look so pale?"
Fei Zhao blocked her path, his expression worried.
"I just had a nightmare. Qiuqiu was almost devoured by the Black Priest’s power."
Su An’an grabbed a long black dress and walked into the dressing room. "I have to go save him now."
"Alright!"
Fei Zhao’s nine tails drooped in defeat. He picked up a pair of white sheepskin boots and passed them into the dressing room.
"At least put on some shoes."
Big Cat, Night Abyss, and Lan Cangming sighed in unison.
They knew it was useless to argue. Su An’an wouldn’t rest until Qiuqiu was back.
「In front of a two-story building in Black Star.」
Su An’an’s finger hovered over the doorbell, her knuckles white with tension.
She couldn’t help but feel a surge of anxiety as she remembered Seville’s last words to her: "Don’t ever let me see you again."
’This is for Qiuqiu!’ she thought.
She took a deep breath, just as she was about to press the button.
SWISH!
A swirl of peacock-blue fabric appeared before her like a whirlwind, blocking her path.
"Su! An! An!"
Nicola bit out each syllable as if it were squeezed from between her teeth.
Her cat ears puffed up into two balls of fluff, and the heels of her ten-centimeter stilettos looked sharp enough to strike sparks from the pavement.
"How dare you show your face here?!"
She ripped the fan scarf from her neck. Embroidered on it in gold thread were the words: [President of the Seville Universe Fan Club].
"Wasn’t it enough that you poisoned his voice three years ago? Now you’ve chased him all the way here! Are you trying to finish him off for good?"
Her voice suddenly choked with emotion, her cat-like eyes blazing with a fan’s righteous fury.
"That was a voice kissed by the Beast God himself! A divine, one-of-a-kind sound in the entire universe, and you... you destroyed it!"
Su An’an’s fox ears drooped for a moment, then shot back up.
Her voice was cold. "Get out of my way. I don’t have time for this."