Hai Bodong: The Clown Was Me All Along

"Kid Yan Lin, are you really Medusa's fiancé?"

Once the deal was struck, Hai Bodong took a healing pill and led Yan Lin to his secret underground ice chamber to break the seal. Their conversation along the way had been fairly pleasant, and Hai Bodong finally asked what he had long been curious about.

As they slowly walked through the basement passage shrouded in faint cold mist, Yan Lin did not stop at Hai Bodong's question. He merely gave a casual "Mm."

His answer was so offhand and brief that Hai Bodong, eager to know the truth, could not help pressing further. "I'm curious. How did Medusa come to fancy you?"

He still found it hard to believe that someone as proud as Medusa would actually take a liking to a little man—and a human boy at that.

Yan Lin stopped and looked at Hai Bodong's gossip-hungry expression. He had not expected the old man to have this side to him.

Still, everyone had a contrasting side. Yan Lin showed no great emotion, though his tone was both earnest and casual as he said, "What if I said she forced me? Would you believe that?"

"Forget it if you don't want to say."

Hai Bodong clearly did not believe him.

With that woman's pride, how could that be possible?

Yan Lin had known this would happen.

He was clearly telling the truth, yet no one believed him.

"That's the truth. Believe it or not."

Yan Lin had no intention of explaining further. He spread his hands and continued onward.

The Ice Emperor followed after him. "It's not that I don't believe you. It's just hard to believe. You're a human—how could Medusa possibly take a liking to you? That woman is extremely hostile toward humans."

"Who said I was human?"

Yan Lin stopped again and turned sideways to look at Hai Bodong. The latter took a moment to realize it, surprise appearing on his aged face. "You're not human?"

You're the one who isn't human! Your whole family isn't human!

The words almost slipped out, but reason made Yan Lin swallow them back down.

In this life, he really was not human.

Still, it sounded like an insult to him. Fortunately, he knew Hai Bodong had not meant it that way.

Facing the Ice Emperor's scrutinizing gaze, Yan Lin said nothing. He simply shifted back into his Snake Person form.

Having taken a Humanoid Pill, he could freely switch between Snake Person and human forms.

Seeing it with his own eyes, Hai Bodong immediately understood. No wonder I always found something strange about this kid. His aura was somewhat unusual, and the Dou Techniques he used were extremely similar to those of the Snake People Clan. So this kid really isn't human!

At that moment, every oddity the Ice Emperor had previously noticed suddenly made sense.

He now believed seventy or eighty percent of the claim that Yan Lin was Queen Medusa's fiancé.

Yan Lin was a Snake Person and a supreme genius. At such a young age, he was already close to breaking through to the Dou Wang realm. It was perfectly reasonable for Queen Medusa to take an interest in him.

"You can transform while only a Dou Ling. You must have taken a Humanoid Pill, right?" Hai Bodong guessed.

Yan Lin nodded frankly. "Mm."

Hai Bodong would be following him for at least a year. With the old man's sharp eyes, he would eventually discover that Yan Lin was a Snake Person.

Yan Lin also felt there was no need to hide it.

"Then why didn't you use your magical beast form to fight me earlier? That should be your peak state, shouldn't it?"

Hearing Old Hai blurt that out, Yan Lin gave him a strange look. After a brief pause, he said something that struck the Ice Emperor right in the heart and shattered his defenses. "I didn't need it against you."

Hai Bodong: "..."

He felt like a clown now.

Those five short words gave the Ice Emperor a sense of being utterly crushed.

Sometimes, the truth hurt the most!

"Unsealing Method!"

Sitting cross-legged, Yan Lin focused his mind on removing Hai Bodong's Snake Seal Curse. After drawing the curse out from the latter's body and forcing the snake pattern on his brow to appear, Yan Lin swiftly performed the Unsealing Method upon Hai Bodong, then formed a two-finger hand seal.

Under the catalysis of the Unsealing Method, the Dou Qi within Yan Lin gradually transformed into Extreme Flame capable of undoing the Evil-Sealing Method.

With a soft whoosh, Yan Lin gathered the Extreme Flame on his index and middle fingers, forming a small cluster of white fire.

Yan Lin lightly tapped Hai Bodong's brow with his two fingers. The Extreme Flame slipped into the green snake pattern there. At once, Hai Bodong's body trembled violently with his eyes tightly shut, pain spreading across his face.

In no time, fine sweat covered the Ice Emperor's forehead.

The green snake pattern between his brows also released wisps of green smoke as it was eroded and burned by the Extreme Flame.

As the Extreme Flame gradually weakened and dispersed, the green snake pattern also dimmed considerably.

Once the dim snake pattern faded from sight, Hai Bodong abruptly opened his tightly shut eyes. A sharp gleam burst from them as though it had substance.

A fierce aura erupted from the body that had been sealed away for decades, like a slumbering dragon awakening.

As that powerful pressure spread, the ice chamber shook violently, and cracks began to form in the layers of ice crystal covering its walls.

Within a few breaths, Hai Bodong had crossed from the Dou Ling realm into the Dou Wang realm.

His head of white hair began reverting to black, while the wrinkles on his aged face faded as though he had grown decades younger, returning him to the appearance of a middle-aged man...

"Haha... I'm a Dou Wang again!"

His Dou Qi wings spread wide, and Hai Bodong shot upward from the ice platform like lightning, hovering in midair. Feeling the powerful strength he had lacked for so many years, his face was filled with wild joy as he threw back his head and laughed.

His laughter carried such piercing force that many of the icicles hanging from the ceiling snapped and fell.

"Congratulations, Old Hai, on returning to the Dou Wang realm!"

Wiping the sweat from his forehead, Yan Lin rose from the ice platform and offered Hai Bodong a perfunctory congratulations.

Although Hai Bodong had regained his Dou Wang strength, he was only a one- or two-star Dou Wang. Yan Lin was not afraid of him.

Besides, once the Snake Seal Curse was undone through the Unsealing Method, it had to be performed three times within a year. If the process was interrupted midway, the Snake Seal Curse would backlash and prove fatal.

Yan Lin had told Hai Bodong this plainly as well.

It was both a display of sincerity to better win him over and a warning that kept Hai Bodong from daring to break their agreement.

For the sake of his own life, Hai Bodong naturally would not dare do anything to him.

Therefore, even though Yan Lin had expended a considerable amount of pure Dou Qi in performing the Unsealing Method, he was not afraid that Hai Bodong would suddenly turn on him.

Still, the amount of Dou Qi consumed by the Unsealing Method had exceeded Yan Lin's expectations. It had nearly drained more than half of his Dou Qi.

Thinking about it, though, that made sense. After all, he was undoing Queen Medusa's Snake Seal Curse. She was a peak Dou Huang, and even if he was only temporarily removing one layer of the seal, the corresponding expenditure of Dou Qi was naturally immense.

"Yan Lin, how about another fight?"

Upon hearing Yan Lin's congratulations, Hai Bodong flew down before him and unexpectedly issued a challenge.

His eyes blazed with eagerness to fight.

More than twenty years had passed, and he had finally seen hope of rebirth. His emotions were running high.

Now that his strength had risen greatly, he could no longer suppress the restless urge to battle. He wanted another fight with Yan Lin to vent his surging emotions.

Secondly, Hai Bodong still could not let go of losing to a junior. He wanted to regain some face from Yan Lin.

Seeing how eager he looked, yet sensing no hostility from him, Yan Lin smiled and teased, "Old Hai, are you trying to regain face and get your revenge?"

"You brat, do you take me for that kind of person? Even with my Dou Wang strength restored, with your abilities, I'm afraid I still wouldn't be able to do anything to you."

Hai Bodong had been seen through, but his skin was thick enough that he stubbornly refused to admit it.

Still, what he said was not entirely false.

Although Yan Lin was only at the peak of the Dou Ling realm, if he went all out, he was confident he could handle a one- or two-star Dou Wang like Hai Bodong.

"Next time. My Dou Qi hasn't recovered yet, and even if you won, it wouldn't be an honorable victory." Yan Lin did not press the matter.

Hai Bodong nodded slightly. "Then next time."

After saying that, he solemnly promised Yan Lin, "Kid Yan Lin, I won't waste words on thanks. For this year, I'll follow our agreement and do as you command."

"If Old Hai keeps his word, then I won't go back on mine either."

Yan Lin smiled. "Just as I expected, after the first stage of unsealing with the Unsealing Method, your strength can recover to the early Dou Wang realm. The next stage can only be carried out half a year from now. By then, your strength will recover to the peak of the Dou Wang realm."

"In just one year, Old Hai will be able to regain your Dou Huang cultivation. So long as you follow me during this year, I will keep my promise and restore your strength."

Hai Bodong nodded. After pondering for a while, he finally asked Yan Lin what he planned to do next.

"What are your plans now?"

"I want to make a trip to Desert City."

"Then I'll pack my things and go with you."

"Mm."