Chapter 2626 - 847: Power Without Virtue Brings Disaster
Chapter 2626 - 847: Power Without Virtue Brings Disaster
When the three young Hunters of the Yuzui Hunting Team were swept into the Sandbox Mini World.A few blocks away.
San You Bookstore.
The Yellow Flowered Cat nimbly leapt to the display window, craned its head to look outside, and the glass pressed its furry face flat. The window frame creaked and groaned, as if in the next second the display window would be crushed to pieces by the Flower Cat.
But the expected next second never came.
No matter how the Flower Cat plastered itself to the glass like a pancake, the display window remained as steady as Mount Tai; even the dust on the window frame did not so much as tremble, as if every concept related to this shop had been frozen at a certain moment.
The Yellow Flowered Cat jumped down from the display window in a fury, bouncing from one corner of the room to another like a runaway cannonball, darting back and forth between several bookshelves and the front counter, knocking over and smashing countless books, pen racks, vases and other ornaments along the way—of course, even in this state of impotent rage, it did not dare directly reach out a paw to scratch the bookstore owner lying on the recliner.
After all, the old man’s current condition was a bit delicate; with only this faint connection he still maintained with the World, who knew whether concepts like "joking around" or "fooling about" still existed in his consciousness.
When the Flower Cat finally stopped to catch its breath and looked back, the pen rack it had just sent flying was once again sitting steadily on the counter, the books it had knocked over had tucked themselves back obediently into the shelves, and those vases, cups, and so on—even the ones it had deliberately smashed onto the floor—had all returned to their original state, not a single drop missing from the tea inside the cups.
It immediately felt a twinge of dejection.
"If you don’t want to go out, why are you locking me in the shop too!" The Yellow Flowered Cat squatted on the table not far from the bookstore owner, angrily washing its paws in a teacup as it yelled, "I don’t want to go with you to some weird place... The world is such a wonderful place; isn’t it comfortable to nap in the sunshine?"
This topic had already been discussed between them countless times, so the bookstore owner remained as if oblivious, completely ignoring the Flower Cat’s yelling.
After a pause, the Yellow Flowered Cat switched to another line of argument.
"What about Zheng? He’s fallen into someone else’s trap again and again and again!"
It deliberately stressed that "again" several times, then abruptly changed tack: "I can understand you not stepping in, but I can at least go help, right! The Sandbox Mini World isn’t something a Little wizard his age can deal with. Even if his Blood Symbol Bullets are powerful, if they can’t find the array core and can’t break the Small World barrier, their only ending is to be slowly ground away as the World collapses! Last time he got lured into a sandbox by those parasites from the Dark Council, didn’t I lend a hand? I can help like I did last time!"
The gently rocking recliner came to a stop.
The Flower Cat’s eyes lit up at once, its fur puffing out all over, a hint of expectation appearing on its face.
The old man on the recliner did not get up. After opening his eyes, he only turned his head to glance in the direction of the North Beita Town, and after a long moment, replied lazily, "...It’s fine. The incarnated obsession of R’lyeh has always been by that kid’s side; that’s enough to deal with this kind of trouble."
The implication being that that Little Green Snake was more reliable than the Flower Cat.
Hearing the somewhat unfamiliar name "R’lyeh," the Yellow Flowered Cat didn’t react for a moment, but soon it recalled the Little Green Snake in Zheng Qing’s ear and thought of its origin.
"That wisp of obsession left over after Xiangliu devoured Cthulhu?"
It muttered, as if it still wanted to argue that its own initiative was stronger, but considering that this being currently named "R’lyeh" was already an Ancient One, if the old man in front of it truly left this World, then in order to get by in the future it would inevitably have to watch the face of such a great personage.
At this thought, it grew even more dejected, and even washing its paws in the old man’s teacup couldn’t make it more Positive.
It pulled its wet paws out of the cup.
When the tea surface calmed, it reflected an image of the North District street scene.
At a glance, the Flower Cat saw another place in the image where Magic Power was converging, and finally realized another discordant detail.
"What about that girl Korma? She’s so close—why didn’t she make a move either?"
Having given up on escaping the bookstore, the Yellow Flowered Cat was indeed thinking on Zheng Qing’s behalf at this moment, and thus couldn’t help becoming somewhat calculating: "Although she hasn’t been a Big Wizard for long, she’s that close, and they get along pretty well... Three familiar auras suddenly disappear; I don’t believe she didn’t notice at all!"
The owner of San You Bookstore moved his fingers slightly, as if tapping the armrest of the chair, or as if simply making a quick calculation.
Then his originally Ancient Well Without Waves expression changed by the slightest degree.
The Yellow Flowered Cat keenly caught this scene.
Before it could let the surprise in its heart show on its face, the gentleman let out a soft sigh: "This child has somewhat fallen into a delusional realm... Perhaps she saw it, but out of fear that the future might change, she chose to do nothing... Yiyun, when virtue does not match one’s station, calamity is inevitable—that’s what this means. Of course, I’m not reproaching her from some moral high ground, but speaking from a standpoint of strength. In the words of the Buddhists, since she received the karmic position of North District Great Wise Person, she must naturally bear the karmic consequences of the North District."
The Flower Cat scrunched its little face into a knot.
It had never liked that kind of mystical, verbose theory.
But it could still barely understand what the bookstore owner meant.
"You’re saying that Su family little girl Korma became a Big Wizard by taking a shortcut, so her foundations are unstable, her reserves insufficient, and thus she’s gone astray?"
The Yellow Flowered Cat squatted on the table, hugging its paws, utterly baffled: "If I remember right, didn’t she tag along with Zheng Qing last Christmas to sponge a New Year visit? Why didn’t you help reinforce her fundamentals back then? I distinctly recall you firmed up four tails for that Su Family little girl! That’s way too much favoritism!"
The bookstore owner shot it a rather speechless glance.
"I can only help them solidify their foundations in terms of Magic Power, but I can’t smooth out the flaws in their minds." He closed his eyes again, seemingly about to fall back into slumber, and his voice grew fainter and fainter: "Every Big Wizard has their own path and an independent worldview; these are not things others can easily interfere with... As for that little girl, her current state is largely because she’s been influenced by that new Academy... Too many people want to stick their hands into the new Academy, and she is its most fragile Gatekeeper."
At the words "new Academy," the Yellow Flowered Cat immediately felt its paws go weak.
It knew all too well what kind of attraction the founding of the Edge Academy held for those Elder Wizards striving to achieve Legend. This was a trouble far beyond anything it could solve.
So, after only a brief moment of thought, it promptly tossed Korma’s troubles to the back of its mind.
"What about that kid Zheng Qing?" it decisively dragged the topic back, bellowing the question while the bookstore owner had yet to fall asleep.
The gentleman did not speak, but the recliner beneath him began to rock gently back and forth again. Just as the Flower Cat was growing anxious, the bookstore owner’s voice, like a murmur in sleep, sounded in its ears: "We do nothing... Slowly, slowly, it’s about time he learned to face this World on his own."
piratefiction