Yujie returned shortly, carrying a fishing rod and a net. He looked visibly startled when he saw the two of them, yet somehow, the goofy guy actually believed the girl's excuse that she was just out for a stroll.
The tension eased, and leaving the two of them alone, Yujie went back to fishing on his own.
Before long, he hooked something and started battling the fish.
"Hurry up and help! What are you just standing there for?" Yujie shouted at them.
Xi didn't hesitate, rushing over to grab Yujie by his clothes from behind. The girl hesitated for a moment before taking the fishing net and standing by the side.
"Hey, this guy is pretty strong!"
The two of them matched wits and courage with the fish in a life-or-death struggle, refusing to yield a single step, until Yujie finally gave a mighty heave. A slender, dark shadow cut through the night sky, sending water splashing in all directions.
The shadow struck Yujie right in the face with two resounding tail-slaps, left and right.
"Mmph mph mph... what on earth is..."
Taking advantage of Yujie's frantic howling, the dark shadow leaped back into the water with a single bound. By the time Yujie snapped out of it, the fish was gone, and the fishing line was snapped.
"Ahhhhhhhhh..."
"That was a close one," Xi said, watching the scene unfold from a safe distance.
"And you're just enjoying my misfortune..."
"So what were you trying to catch a fish for anyway?"
"Sigh, didn't he say the water is polluted? Harmful substances must be accumulating in it, so all I had to do was catch a fish and test it to prove myself right."
"A hydrometric station could easily do that, you know. And maybe what he said wasn't necessarily wrong."
"You don't believe me either? And to think I thought we were already..."
"Ah, what is that over there?" the girl suddenly cried out.
"Isn't it just a fish..." Recognizing the dark shadow from earlier, Yujie rolled up his sleeves, ready for another three-hundred-round rematch.
"I really think you shouldn't act rashly..." Xi warned.
"Ha, you're just making a mountain out of a mo—"
Before Yujie could finish, the dark shadow let out a long howl toward the sky and soared into the air. Moonlight illuminated its form, finally allowing everyone to see its true appearance.
It had a pair of wings on its back, a large and long head with a sharp snout, small nose, eyes, and ears, eyebrows arched like curved bows, and a protruding forehead. Its neck was slender and it had four limbs. Deep blue scales gleamed under the moonlight, and its eyes, resembling bronze bells, burned with a faint fury.
"Uh... W-what is that?" Yujie stammered.
Before Xi could speak, the creature let out another long howl, suddenly whipping up massive waves on the calm river surface. Towering waves dozens of meters high engulfed them all, and everything plunged into silence once more...
How much time had passed? Xi opened his eyes to pitch darkness. Suddenly, a light shone in the distance, and as he drew closer, he saw it was Yujie and the girl.
"Where are we?"
"We must be in some underground cave."
"Huh? That's pretty rare. Usually, coming to a place like this means stumbling upon some great destiny."
"You read way too many web novels..." Xi felt his way around the surroundings, and soon his eyes lit up—he had found something good. Shielded by his own body, Xi reached out and pressed his hand against the stone wall. An invisible force gradually spread, and the entire wall lit up. The light extended along the passage into the distance.
Looking closer, the light came from a kind of round fruit.
"What is this?"
"Luminous berries. They glow like this when stimulated," Xi explained. "They only grow in this kind of environment."
"There's such a thing?" Yujie couldn't help marveling at the boundless wonders of the world.
"I plan to move forward. What about you two?" Xi asked.
Yujie and the girl exchanged glances and quickly made up their minds. Did they even need to choose? They simply had to cling tightly to the bigshot's coattails!
"I—my name is Lin Xi. Please take care of me," Lin Xi said with some embarrassment, her cheeks tinged with a slight blush.
"Xi," Xi replied expressionlessly, then took the lead and walked at the very front.
How cold! Lin Xi lightly stamped her foot and hurried to catch up.
"Hey, Lin Xi, why bother paying attention to that weirdo? My name's Yujie, big bro will protect you," Yujie chimed in, sidling up to her.
"Hmph." Lin Xi didn't even spare Yujie a glance as she trotted after Xi.
"..."
Umm... did he forget something? What was it? After pondering for a moment, Xi cast the thought to the back of his mind.
...
After walking for just a short while, the group spotted the creature from earlier. In the glow of the light, Xi recognized its true identity.
"This is a Yinglong—yes, the exact one from the Classic of Mountains and Seas."
"It? The size doesn't match at all," Yujie muttered, trying to recall the legendary Yinglong he had seen in games and movies.
"It's injured. Let's save it..." Being a girl, Lin Xi was much more observant and spotted the problem at a glance.
Little Yinglong was lying on a stone platform, curled up in a heap. It was still awake, but even as it saw the group approach, it lacked the strength to resist.
"Oh ho, it really is hurt." Light flashed in Yujie's eyes as he rubbed his hands together excitedly.
"What do you think you're doing—" Lin Xi stepped in to block him.
"Uh... I'm just a bit excited seeing a mythical creature, that's all."
Xi walked over to the stone platform and carefully examined Little Yinglong. There was a deep scratch on its belly, running all the way from the back of its neck down to its abdomen.
"What should we do?" Lin Xi walked over to the side, looking anxiously at the dying little creature.
"How about we find a veterinarian to take a look?" Yujie stared at the Yinglong for a long time before speaking.
A veterinarian... Xi's eye twitched. If they really took it to a vet, the group would probably end up on tomorrow's front-page news.
They fell silent. It was already hard enough to raise a cat or a dog normally; asking them to save a creature from myth was probably harder than solving the Goldbach conjecture.
"It's not that there's no way at all..." Xi suddenly said. "It'll just cost us a bit of our remaining lifespan."
That sounded terrifyingly ominous, alright. Why could he say it with such a calm expression? Yujie's perception of Xi was shattered all over again.
"Let's do it!" Lin Xi suddenly cried out beside him, startling Yujie. She looked at Xi with a resolute gaze.
"Alright, time waits for no one. Let's begin."
"Hey, hey, why am I being left out? I'm in too."
Xi closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, his pupils had turned cyan. He extended his hands flat, golden threads emerging from his fingertips; they connected to the three of them while simultaneously flowing into Little Yinglong's body.
Yujie and Lin Xi felt something indefinable draining out of their bodies—as if they were being hollowed out.
In the deepest darkness of the underground depths, a streak of crimson stained the black fabric. A pair of deep red, vertical pupils spun around once, then stared straight upward—toward where the direction of life lay.