A Weary Bo Saixi

Bo Saixi took a deep breath, then slowly let it out.

"Jiang Lan." Bo Saixi's voice was terrifyingly calm.

"Guh, Little Guga?" Jiang Lan, with a head full of rainbow-colored hair, gave Bo Saixi a forced smile. His skin was still rapidly shifting between red and green.

"What are you doing?" Bo Saixi wore an exceptionally dignified smile, but for some reason, it made every hair on Jiang Lan's back stand on end. "Give me a reasonable explanation, or else..."

"Or else what, gah?" Jiang Lan subconsciously took a step back.

Bo Saixi did not answer. She merely raised a hand and gave the distant sea a light wave.

A wave over ten meters high surged up, carrying several thoroughly bewildered fish within it.

"Or I'll throw the two of you into the sea to feed the fish." Bo Saixi withdrew her hand and took a sip of tea.

Her movements were so elegant that it was as though that world-shaking strike just now had nothing to do with her.

Jiang Lan and Doro exchanged a glance, then spoke in unison.

"It was Doro/Jiang Lan!"

Bo Saixi looked at the two little troublemakers passing the blame back and forth. One was the adopted son she had raised with painstaking care, and the other was the bizarre Martial Soul he had just awakened. Neither gave her a moment's peace.

Holding her teacup, she gracefully took another sip, the rim concealing the slight twitch at the corner of her lips.

More than a hundred years of cultivation and more than a hundred years of composure were facing an unprecedented test at this moment.

"Passing the blame, are you?" Bo Saixi set down her teacup. Her movement remained gentle, but the crisp clink of the cup against the saucer made Jiang Lan and Doro shudder at the same time.

Jiang Lan's skin had just switched to blue mode. He was so cold that his lips had turned purple, and with that rainbow-colored explosion of hair on his head, he looked like a frostbitten multicolored lollipop.

Doro hid behind him, only poking out half her round little head. Her large purple eyes blinked as she tried to muddle through by acting cute.

Bo Saixi was completely immune to Doro's adorable assault.

She stretched out both hands, pinched Jiang Lan and Doro's cheeks with unerring precision, and gently pulled them apart.

"Wuh, Little Guga—!"

"Doro—!"

"Tell me, who started it?" Bo Saixi's tone was as gentle as a sea breeze, but there was nothing gentle about the strength in her hands. "Confess and you'll be treated leniently. Resist, and there'll be no dinner tonight."

At the mention of no dinner, Jiang Lan and Doro both jolted.

"It was her/him!"

There they went, accusing each other again.

Bo Saixi took a deep breath, let go, and straightened up.

She looked down at the boy and the little ball of fluff, her gaze sweeping back and forth between them twice.

The same sentence was written all over their faces: I know I was wrong, but I'll dare to do it again next time.

Bo Saixi said nothing more. She simply turned around, clasped her hands behind her back, and gazed at the distant sea.

The sea breeze lifted her dark blue hair, and her red robe snapped in the wind. Her back was straight and lonely.

As Bo Saixi gazed at the sea she had watched for more than a hundred years, she suddenly felt exhausted.

Not because Jiang Lan had turned his hair rainbow-colored, not because Doro had created a bunch of bizarre mutated oranges, and not because several craters had been blasted into the beach.

Honestly, those things only needed a bit of repair. A scolding would settle the rest.

What exhausted her was that she could not handle a six-year-old child and a white little ball of fluff.

Back then, when she faced Qian Daoliu and Tang Chen's challenge, her expression had not changed.

Back then, when the Deep Sea Demon Whale came attacking, she had calmly continued drinking tea.

Every Titled Douluo on Sea God Island had to kneel when speaking to her, and the guardians of the seven Sacred Pillars did not even dare breathe loudly in her presence.

She was the Sea God Douluo, a Peerless Douluo, the High Priestess of Sea God Island, and one of the strongest experts on the entire Douluo Continent.

Yet now, she was utterly helpless against a six-year-old in a penguin outfit and a white little ball that only knew how to eat oranges and burp.

Scold them? One would play dumb, going "Little Guga, Little Guga," while the other would stare up at her with huge purple eyes and act cute. Scolding them was the same as not scolding them.

Hit them? One was the successor chosen by Lord Sea God. If she hurt him, she would have no way to explain herself.

The other was the successor's Martial Soul. Hitting her would be pointless.

Reason with them? One had just turned six, while the other's intelligence was probably equivalent to that of a three-year-old. No matter how thoroughly she explained things, it would be like playing music to a cow.

She, Bo Saixi, had lived a life of storms and trials. What had she not seen?

But faced with a combination she could neither hit nor scold, and with whom reason was useless, she truly felt a profound sense of powerlessness for the first time.

Was this what raising children felt like?

No, this was not raising children. This was worshipping two little ancestors.

Bo Saixi slowly closed her eyes and silently made a decision. Never have children again. Absolutely never. One alone could shave a hundred years off my life. If there's another, I might as well go report to Lord Sea God directly.

As for Lord Sea God...

Bo Saixi sneered inwardly. You're living freely and happily in the Divine Realm, yet you tossed your illegitimate son to me and washed your hands of him.

Do you know how much trouble your precious son can cause?

Do you know what kind of Martial Soul he awakened?

Do you know how I felt when I saw grass growing from his head and his skin flashing like neon lights?

You don't know. You only care about yourself.

Lord Sea God, since you dared dump your illegitimate son on me, you'd better be ready for me to come settle accounts with you after I die.

Bo Saixi opened her eyes again. The exhaustion in them had completely vanished, replaced by her usual cold and imposing bearing as the High Priestess.

She turned to look at Jiang Lan and Doro, who were still standing where they were.

"You two."

"Little Guga!"

"Doro!"

"You two had better behave yourselves, or your butts will bear the consequences." Bo Saixi warned Jiang Lan and Doro.

Jiang Lan and Doro nodded frantically. One nodded so hard that his rainbow hair left afterimages, while the other nodded so hard that the bow on her bun was nearly flung away.

Bo Saixi looked at these two little things, who seemed obedient on the surface but were surely brewing some ridiculous scheme inside, and silently sighed to herself.

She turned and started walking back. After taking a few steps, she stopped and added without looking back.

"Fill in the pits on the beach before dinner. For every pit you leave unfilled, one dish will be taken off the table."

Behind her came Jiang Lan's miserable cry and the frantic pattering of Doro running in circles on the spot.

The corner of Bo Saixi's lips rose by a pixel, then swiftly returned to normal as she continued walking back with dignified steps.

If I can't discipline you, can't I still deal with you?

Heh.

Jiang Lan and Doro stood on the beach, watching Bo Saixi's red-robed figure vanish behind the reef. They remained there for a full ten seconds to make sure she would not double back to kill them, then both let out a sigh of relief.

"That was close, gah." Jiang Lan plopped down onto the sand, his rainbow-colored hair swaying with the motion. "We almost got thrown in to feed the fish."