Chapter 10
The Penthouse’s salted-fish density had crept to a critical threshold—one breath away from physical collapse.
On the huge projector screen, so episode of a slice-of-life ani looped for the hundredth ti: the main cast chatting under cherry blossoms, the kind of brain-dead tea party that could drown a person in peace. The air was a sticky marriage of salty crisps and strawberry candy; the combo ford a sweet-salty barrier that froze thought and atrophied limbs. I was a slice of toast that had long since surrendered to the oven—no will to flip, no wish to rise—subrged in the beanbag’s gentle swamp, every bone broadcasting the sa signal: PERMANENTLY MOORED. My cherry-white hair spilled over the backrest like moonlight, a few strands swaying to the slow, heavy rhythm of my breathing.
Xing Dian’s indigo phantom had grown so bored it was running “enhanced-photosynthesis trials” on the pothos leaves, carefully mimicking solar wavelengths. Yue Fei crouched statue-still on the sofa’s summit, violet eyes shuttered, tail-tip suspended in mid-air—deep power-save mode, i.e., dead to the world.
A true salted fish doesn’t even bother to think.
Numbed—yet weirdly fulfilled—I fished the last shard of potato chip from the bag’s ruins. Crunch. Daily ration complete. I rolled a grain of salt between my fingers, tasting the void. This is the life! Sky falling? Plenty of ceiling height up here...
But salted-fish bliss is a soap bubble—soone always brings the needle.
Just as my eyelids sealed, preparing to slide into dreamless dark—
Bzzzt!
A familiar, lazy-yet-icicle-sharp thought-wave slamd into the core of my mind like a laser-guided depth charge.
“Heeey, cute little ‘’...” ng Yun Xi’s voice—crystal shards in iced mint—vaporised every trace of sleep. “Lying there till even your bones lt?”
“......” Ancestor! Did my sleep-monitor grow a soul?!
“This perfect vessel—refined by my own blood, sweat, Space-Ti Dragon bloodline, and Eternal Dream: Pri Abyss—reduced to a petri dish for fat colonies and inertia spores?”
Fat colonies?! Inertia spores?! I pinched my side through my loungewear. Still springy... but her words were poisoned needles skewering the blubber of my complacency.
“Look at this moon-lit skin~” Her tone turned luxury-saleswoman. “These dragon-blood-forged tendons~ This Arbiter’s body with infinite potential~” Then she snapped into head-teacher mode. “A pretty girl’s physique, zero exercise, plus high-intensity static ferntation...”
ntal image: a chibi Yun Xi lted over the sofa, buried in snack wrappers. Fast-forward x100: cheeks balloon, waist accordion-stacks, limbs puff—until she’s a gigantic white rice-cake with dead fish eyes. Caption dripping red (energy drink?): [STUBBORN-FAT WARNING! BELLY & THIGHS CRITICAL!]
“But you’ll grow stubborn flab~” Devil whisper. “The entrenched, eviction-proof kind that camps in your core zones~”
I jack-knifed upright so fast Xing Dian executed a graceful parabola off my lap.
Stubborn flab?! Core disaster zone?!
In the mirror my delicate face already seed glazed with oil. Energy conservation—this damned universal law spares no salted fish.
“Moderate exercise is essential for elegance and power control,” Yue Fei piled on, violet eyes reopening with relish.
“Exercise? Night jog?” I whimpered. “Outside... Shadowmare! Zhao Kai! Unknown dangers!”
“Shadowmare loathe sunlight and crowds; noon or busy riverfront is safe. As for those pests...” Contempt dripped. “Perfect practice dummies. Rember the Survival Guide—‘Graceful Concealnt’ isn’t hiding; it’s learning to... help them exit your sight. Power control likewise needs live reps, not theory.”
Use hooligans for reps? My eyelid twitched. But the twin terrors of Stubborn Fat Power Overload crushed my inertia.
“F-fine!” I stood like a martyr en route to execution. “I’ll run!”
......
Night draped the city in neon jewellery.
Riverside Park near the complex: amber streetlamps, swaying trees, the black ribbon of water whispering. I hovered at the border of light and shadow, a rookie agent on a suicide op, every cell screaming for the sofa.
No disaster-grade neon pink tonight; no fish-ho pajamas. Old Wei had shoved a pro-sports set at before he left—black sweat-wicking tank, grey quick-dry jacket unzipped to the collarbone, matching leggings that... outlined every sculpted line of my legs. White sneakers. Yue Fei had corralled my cherry-white hair into a high ponytail with a black sports band, revealing the faint pink “overnight badge” on my forehead.
Sleek, crisp, energetic—if you ignored the “Wind Howls at River Yi” look of doom on my face.
“Go, Owner! Starlight boost—run like wind!” A rice-grain-sized Xing Dian hid inside my zip-pull, vibrating.
“Breathing rhythm: three in, three out. Eyes front, thoughts as dust—brush aside. Concealnt on standby, negligible drain,” Yue Fei intoned, GPS-calm.
I inhaled cool air, blocked the search-light stares, copied an uncle’s warm-up swings, then bit the bullet and joined the sparse stream of joggers.
First steps: marionette-awkward, breathing ragged. Fifty tres and I was puffing. Worse, my “sweet-soft” physique was a magnet: curious, appreciative, dissecting... and one slithery slug-trail gaze that made my spine erupt.
A middle-aged jogger locked eyes, oily grin plastered on. Scalp exploding, I nearly triggered Concealnt.
“Target non-lethal; visual parasite. Ignore, crush,” Yue Fei anchored .
I stared at the lamp-lit pavent, found a rhythm. Wind brushed sweaty skin, flicked my ponytail—strangely nice. Sowhere, the dragon blood stirred, a trickle of starlight through my veins.
Not... scary? Even... fun?
“Acceptable pace. Maintain,” Yue-Fei praised.
“Owner rocks!” Xing Dian squeaked.
Mood up-ticked. I risked a glance at neon across the river, at shadowy couples...
Salted-fish doom always waits for the first ray of hope.
Rounding a dim bend I heard wolf-whistles. Three punks in cheap neon shirts, hair like spilled paint, cigarettes drooling, leaned on the railing. Yellow-hair spotted , eyes lighting predator-green. He elbowed Redhead.
“Fuck , look at that! Face, legs—top-shelf!”
“Baby, running alone? Co play with us!” Yellow-hair stepped onto the path, arms wide, blocking . The other two fanned out. Stench of cheap tobacco, sweat, stale alcohol hit like a fist.
Heart crushed by an icy claw—fear and volcanic fury. Zhao Kai’s leer overlapped theirs.
Again. This. Filth.
“SCRAM!” I snarled, voice cracking with rage. I froze half a step back, right hand flashing to my jacket (Xing Dian), left hand half-curled as if to summon.
“Initiate Con—” Yue Fei began.
Too late. The instant Yellow-hair’s nicotine claw reached for , sothing primordial snapped.
A cold, star-deep terror—Dragon Might—erupted. Not the polite warning at the office; this was a sun-core flare of a Higher Being insulted. For unshielded mortals, it was glimpsing the abyss of space.
“Ghk—!!” His hand locked mid-air, smile shredded into a rictus of fear. Eyes bulged, throat squeaked, body convulsed as if hamred by an invisible piledriver.
CRASH! He slamd against the tal railing, alloy shrieking inward like a punched tin can. He slid to the ground, twitching, pupils blown, crotch darkening.
Redhead squealed, dropped his cigarette, crawled backward. The third thug dropped to his knees, banging forehead on asphalt, babbling for rcy—another wet stain.
The roar vanished as suddenly as it ca, leaving only the rail’s twisted grin and the stink of terror.
“M-monster... demon...” Redhead whimpered.
“Beat it.” My voice low, glacial. The Eternal Dream: Pri Abyss bracelet flared silver-blue—cosmic eye blinking once.
They scrambled away, dragging their leader, leaving a trail of tears and urine.
Only , the wind, and the dented railing remained.
I shook, adrenaline and aftermath colliding. Wind froze the sweat on my spine.
“Owner! You okay?!” Xing Dian sobbed, light flickering.
“Power control—lost. That blast can fry mortal minds. Without last-second retraction we’d have corpses or vegetables. And...” Yue Fei’s thought landed on the warped tal, “pure physical overflow. Too dangerous.”
I stared at my unblemished palm. I’d nearly killed them.
“Ancestor...” I whispered, voice quavering, “I... can’t leash it...”
“I felt it.” ng Yun Xi, quiet for once. “Rage is the fuse. Power needs a channel and an unbreakable rein. Tonight was a warning; next ti could be annihilation. You need more than jogging—you need to ta the beast.”
Ta it? How?
Exhaustion rolled in, erasing every scrap of runner’s high. Under the lone streetlamp the city lights looked cold, unreachable. Inside this soft shell slept a cosmic predator.
I knelt, touched the dent. Bracelet answered: silver-blue mist seeped into the tal, fibres creaking, ti reversing. Seconds later the railing was pristine—only a ghost of cold lingered.
Fixed. As if nothing happened.
Yet everything had.
I drew a ragged breath, turned, and jogged ho—each step a leaden slog, shadow long and lonely under the lamps.
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