Chapter 27

They set out.

At the thought that they could finally go home and have a look, Lin Hanxuan and Hal were both excited. Shafu, on the other hand, seemed very restrained, unable to quite relax. Along the way, Lin Hanxuan chatted with her on and off, and he also discovered that this Shafu was very different from the fox girl in his impression. She was a very shy little girl, afraid of strangers.

"All right, Lin Hanxuan, Hal, Grandpa is going to take a trip to the Fox Territory and bring Shafu's family over. You two clean the house properly first, haha." After Fields put Lin Hanxuan and Hal down, he prepared to fly toward the Fox Territory.

"Wait, Grandpa," Lin Hanxuan called. "What about some of Dad's things? There's nowhere else to put them."

"Oh, sort everything out, and when the time comes, just move it over to my place, won't that do?" Fields tugged on Silver Chain, and behind him Shafu clung tightly to Dahei's feathers. The Thunder Eagle, born to a life of toil, slowly rose again and flew toward the western sky.

Sigh. He had finally looked forward to a holiday, and now he actually had to stay home and clean. Lin Hanxuan looked in the direction where Grandpa had vanished, somewhat speechless. There was no helping it. Since Peiganbo had caused the trouble, as his master, he could not ignore it.

"Boss." Hal walked over with a grin. Lin Hanxuan answered irritably, "What?"

"Do you want something to eat? I'll go buy it for you," Hal said, wrinkling his nose.

Lin Hanxuan glared at him. "You're going to find your bunny girl, aren't you?"

"Heh heh." Hal scratched his head in embarrassment and said, "Kind of. I haven't seen her in over a month. I miss her a little."

"Tsk, you're pretty impressive too. You managed to chase her down in just a few short days," Lin Hanxuan said with no small amount of emotion. At school, he himself was treated like a pervert and basically had no chance to exchange more than a few words with any female classmates. Sigh.

"No, no, we're still just friends." Hal's face turned faintly blue. Lin Hanxuan did not have the heart to force him to clean together with him, so he could only say, "Fine, then bring me back something to drink. If it's past dinnertime, bring me dinner while you're at it."

"No problem." Hearing that the boss was willing to let him go, Hal shot out of the front yard like a wisp of smoke, heading straight for Rainbow in the Rain.

"...Once there's the opposite sex, there's no humanity," Lin Hanxuan muttered.

The old home was not big, but tidying it up alone was still quite tiring. And since guests were moving in this time, Lin Hanxuan naturally put in twice the effort to clean.

"That's right, how could I be so stupid, cleaning all by myself?" Lin Hanxuan was lying on his stomach under the bed, about to pull things out, when a flash of inspiration suddenly crossed his mind.

"Peiganbo!" Lin Hanxuan shouted, and in an instant, a mantis green from head to toe appeared before him.

"What is it?" Peiganbo had originally been placed by Lin Hanxuan in the Rotting Swamp Forest and was lying among the Star-Language Flower Grove asleep when Lin Hanxuan summoned him over.

"Heh heh, Peiganbo, there's something I need to trouble you with." Lin Hanxuan smiled with ill intentions.

"Of course. Give the order, and I'll do it," Peiganbo said very straightforwardly.

"I need to clean the house right now, but the things under the bed are too heavy." Lin Hanxuan said, "I don't know if you're strong or not. Could I ask you to help me take the things out from under the bed?" Lin Hanxuan asked very politely. In his heart, he did not regard Peiganbo as a servant he could order around at will.

"...I'll give it a try, then. But are the things under the bed sturdy enough?" Peiganbo stretched out his foreclaws, the sharp hand-blades reflecting the afterglow of the setting sun.

"It's fine. I don't know what's in there either. Pull them out first and we'll see. Thank you." Lin Hanxuan said it unconcernedly.

"Mm?" Peiganbo had just been about to move when a sudden sense of approaching danger made him pause. Without even thinking, Peiganbo opened the wings on his back and leapt upward, avoiding a silent attack.

"Who's there?" Peiganbo flew in the air, fully on guard.

Lin Hanxuan was also startled. Seeing a gleaming object on the grass, he bent down and picked it up, examining it for a moment. It looked like... a tooth?

"Lin Hanxuan, don't touch it." Peiganbo was fully on guard in the direction the hidden weapon had flown from and had not noticed Lin Hanxuan picking it up. By the time he realized it and tried to warn him, it was already too late.

"Ugh." Lin Hanxuan only felt a wave of numbness sweep through the right half of his body, the side that had picked up the tooth. His head spun, his vision blurred, and he was about to lose his footing.

"Damn it." Peiganbo had no time to worry that the enemy was still hiding in the dark. He flew down to the ground, grabbed Lin Hanxuan in one motion, and placed him on his back, preparing to fly back to the rotting swamp first.

"Blood Mantis, by order of the Great Commander, we ask you to return and assist in the investigation of the Sand Tiger disaster. You had best not resist." A deep voice rang out. Peiganbo raised his head and looked toward the source of the voice. A tiger tribesman in a gray robe from head to toe stood on the roof, holding a magic staff.

"We do not intend to hurt Lin Hanxuan. He has merely been knocked unconscious by a paralyzing poison fang. Put him down and obediently come with us."

The sound of footsteps came from beside the wall, and a towering minotaur slowly walked out from around the corner, a massive iron hammer in his hand.

If Lin Hanxuan had still been awake at this moment, he would have discovered that this minotaur was actually Dead City's richest man, Niu Dacheng.

"...I don't trust anyone, and orcs are no exception." A vicious gleam flashed through Peiganbo's triangular eyes. These people faintly seemed to be surrounding him, and in the shadows there was at least one more enemy—the one who had just shot the venomous fang. Fighting one against three, he naturally was not afraid, but Lin Hanxuan was still on his back.