Beibei was all too familiar with the sea serpent before her. Many monsters in the coastal waters had died at the hands of this serpent and its senior brother. Although she had managed to escape their pursuit time and again, she still suffered unimaginable injuries. If Qian Xiao hadn’t found her on the beach a few nights ago and she hadn’t pleaded with Xu Yiyi for help, she probably would have died as well.
Beibei swung her seashell, smashing it hard at She Jiu. However, her own Boundary was too low. Not only did she fail to inflict any serious damage, but the backlash also left her face pale.
Beibei gritted her teeth, her hatred for Xu Lai lessening. Right now, she only wanted to kill She Jiu to avenge the innocent Sea Demons who had died.
"Tell me what happened," Xu Lai said, his interest piqued. For this ’First Swordsman’ to be so enraged, this snake had to have some sort of background.
Beibei hesitated for a moment before recounting the whole story. However, when it came to the Barrier of the East Sea Dragon Palace, she was elusive and refused to go into detail.
Xu Lai naturally didn’t press the matter. He had eaten more dragons than Beibei had even heard of and was getting quite tired of them.
Upon learning that this snake was not a local, Xu Lai said nonchalantly, "Then let’s make Spicy Snake."
Beibei’s expression changed. She staggered back several steps, looking at Xu Lai with wariness. As it turned out, what Xu Lai had said earlier about steaming her and eating her was no joke.
"But She Jiu is a Great Demon, apprenticed to a Demon King from the Sakura Country. If you eat him, the consequences will be..." Beibei began nervously.
"Then I’ll eat him too," Xu Lai said.
A kitchen knife appeared in Xu Lai’s hand, and he began gutting it with practiced ease. The extreme pain woke She Jiu. When it saw a kitchen knife piercing its body, it roared in anger, "You... what are you doing!"
Xu Lai frowned slightly.
And then, She Jiu was unable to utter another word.
She Jiu saw Beibei nearby, standing silently with her scalp tingling in fear, and understood everything. This was all because of her.
She Jiu tried to self-destruct its demon core, but of course, it was not going to succeed. Forget a mere Great Demon; even a peak Immortal Venerable Realm expert was nothing but a junior in front of the Supreme Emperor.
And just like that, on the verge of excruciating pain, She Jiu alternated between passing out and regaining consciousness.
Beibei watched powerlessly. She Jiu, a creature that had wreaked havoc in the nearby waters, was turned into a plate of ingredients without even a chance to resist. Beibei couldn’t help but shiver.
Xu Lai is definitely a Devil, he’s too terrifying!
At that moment, a figure approached from the distance; it was the First Divine General, Taotie.
Seeing Xu Lai, his eyes brimmed with emotional tears. "My Supreme Emperor, my Supreme Emperor, I’ve missed you so much..."
The Supreme Emperor!? To use such a title... isn’t that a bit too arrogant?
For some reason, as the large man drew closer, Beibei felt her legs trembling. She quickly hid inside her seashell, her very soul quivering. This was instinctual fear!
"And this is..." Taotie then turned to look at Beibei, who was peeking her head out to watch him. He smiled and said, "Hello, my name is Taotie."
Tao-tao-tao... Taotie?!
Beibei’s eyes rolled back, and she fainted from fright. Taotie’s ferocious reputation was widespread; he was one of the Four Fiends of ancient times, after all.
"She works for Yiyi," Xu Lai said nonchalantly.
Taotie’s expression immediately turned respectful. In the future, the Empress of the Heavenly Court will surely be Yiyi. And this little monster... although her current Boundary seems low, her future status... She’ll probably become what I am today: the Empress’s right hand.
"Where are the rabbits?" Xu Lai asked.
Taotie opened his Storage Space, and out came a group of strange and exotic animals—a three-legged Golden Crow; a black peacock shrouded in mist; a Howling Moon Silver Wolf that looked a lot like a husky; a Nine-Colored Fairy Deer whose body color constantly changed; and a blood-red celestial horse that left fiery footprints on the ground with every step, the very elements churning with every flap of its wings.
There was even a round, black-and-white animal. In its youth, it was only the size of a watermelon, and it rolled out of the Storage Space to Xu Lai’s feet. The little guy didn’t seem afraid of strangers and tilted its head. It spat out the bamboo it had been chewing on and gulped down the sea snake meat on the plate, but it seemed to dislike the taste and spat it back out before picking up the bamboo from the ground and continuing to gnaw on it.
But Xu Lai recognized it at a glance. That was Purple Bamboo, a treasure scarcely less precious than the Jade Bamboo of the Chongming Bird Clan...
"My Supreme Emperor, the Demon Race heard that Princess Yiyi needed pets and volunteered to send the finest offspring of their clans," Taotie said emotionally. "I couldn’t bear to refuse, so I brought them all."
Veins popped on his forehead. "I wanted rabbits! Rabbits!"
"Here, here, here." Taotie hurriedly held up two rabbits, one black and one white.
But these two creatures looked oddly familiar. As doubt crept into Xu Lai’s mind, he suddenly remembered. Weren’t these Fairy Chang’e’s rabbits? They did nothing but gnaw on wood and stone, to the point they had even chewed away the Cold Palace of the Moon in the Eastern Immortal Domain...
Xu Lai glanced at Haitang Court and Mount Haitang, feeling that in less than an hour, these two rabbits would render him, his wife, and his daughter homeless.
Xu Lai’s face darkened. "Didn’t you realize that woman only gave them to you because she didn’t want them?!"
"No," Taotie scratched his head. "Fairy Chang’e was crying when she sent the rabbits off. I just don’t know why her sobs sounded just like laughter. It was creepy."
His intelligence is seriously lacking!
Xu Lai held his forehead in frustration and began kicking the pets back into Taotie’s Storage Space. Just as he was about to kick the panda...
Xu Yiyi, who had been in the backyard, heard the commotion. Still in her duck-shaped swim ring, she came running out happily.
"Ah, Daddy, what a cute panda!"
"Xu Lai, have you lost your mind?" Ruan Tang, wrapped in a bathrobe, said, her face drained of color. "Poaching a national treasure is illegal!"
"Mistress, this is not a panda," Taotie explained respectfully. "This is a Gold Swallowing Beast."
Earth’s pandas have another name, Iron-Eating Beasts. They may seem cute, but their ancestors were genuine carnivores. However, they paled in comparison to the notoriously fierce Gold Swallowing Beasts of the Immortal Domain. After all, the Gold Swallowing Beast clan ranked nineteenth in the Star Domain species rankings. To break into the top hundred among billions of species required terrifying strength, let alone the top twenty!
"And who are you?" Ruan Tang asked, puzzled.
"Answering the Mistress, I am the First Divine General of the Heavenly Court, Taotie!" he said, cupping his fist.
Ruan Tang shot Xu Lai a dark look. He coughed and said, "He’s my right-hand man."
Ruan Tang arched an eyebrow and said, "First, explain what to do with this panda."
"It’s a Gold Swallowing Beast," Taotie carefully reminded her, only to be kicked by Xu Lai.
"What my wife says, goes!"
"Yes, yes, yes, this is a panda..." Taotie nodded repeatedly.
"Mommy," Xu Yiyi blinked her big eyes, full of hope. "Can we keep it, please?"