The Natives of This World Are So Fierce - Chapter 34: Magic That Devours
Huang Jiutian was a very thoughtful guy.
It was already past eight in the morning when he came home from work.
Carrying a spare key, he slipped inside quietly, a bag of breakfast in his hand: fried dough sticks, sticky rice rolls, tofu pudding, and the like.
Doudou hadn't nicknamed him "Mama Huang" in private for nothing.
When it came to doting on Doudou, even Qin Xiaoxia, his "older cousin," couldn't compare.
But Huang Jiutian, who had expected Qin Xiaoxia to sleep in as usual, came through the door to find both Qin Xiaoxia and Doudou sitting on the living room sofa, staring at the coffee table.
Qin Xiaoxia said, "Oh, Jiu Tian, you're back."
Doudou said, "Oh, breakfast is here."
Both of them only glanced at Huang Jiutian before looking away again, their attention fixed entirely on the coffee table in front of the sofa.
His eyes red from working overtime all night, Huang Jiutian found his curiosity piqued.
What's so special about the coffee table? Some lousy beer bottle?
From where Huang Jiutian stood, all he could see on the table was a beer bottle sealed with a cork. Yep, an empty one.
"Have you two lost it? What are you looking at? Is there a sealed demon god in that beer bottle who'll grant wishes if you let him out, or does it have the Black Pearl inside?"
But Qin Xiaoxia ignored him, and even Doudou paid him no attention.
The two stared at the beer bottle, occasionally exchanging glances.
Gulp.
That was the sound of Doudou swallowing.
"Cousin... wh-what's going on here?!"
Doudou was undoubtedly curious, but even Huang Jiutian could hear a trace of fear in that curious voice.
Qin Xiaoxia wore a grave expression and simply stared at the beer bottle without speaking.
Huang Jiutian closed the door, walked into the living room, and set breakfast to one side. Aside from their initial greetings, the two were treating him as though he were invisible.
He simply couldn't stand it anymore.
"You two! What the hell are you doing?! This is my house! Don't I deserve some respect?!"
Qin Xiaoxia and Doudou both raised their heads to look at him.
But Huang Jiutian felt that the pair had merely looked up instinctively because he'd shouted so loudly.
How should he put it? In any case, their eyes were unfocused. They clearly weren't looking at him, but were each lost in their own thoughts.
That hurt Huang Jiutian a little.
What's the deal with this beer bottle? Another one of Xiaoxia's pranks?
Qin Xiaoxia and Doudou weren't deliberately giving Huang Jiutian the cold shoulder. They were simply shocked by the current development, and even more baffled by it.
The beer bottle was an ordinary beer bottle. Qin Xiaoxia had merely grabbed it to "seal" the Faceless Yin Ghost's corpse inside, and the seal itself was made of his magic.
What had caught Qin Xiaoxia and Doudou's attention was the change inside the bottle.
The corpse of the Faceless Yin Ghost-a juvenile Ghoul-had disappeared.
But neither of them believed that something already dead had escaped on its own.
In fact, as a lesser form of Corpse-Shadow Chippelo, a Faceless Yin Ghost couldn't produce something as advanced as magic unless it mutated.
In Doudou's words, the quality of Qin Xiaoxia's magic was "pretty damn high." It outclassed a Faceless Yin Ghost by who knew how many levels, never mind a dead one.
And there was another reason they were certain the corpse hadn't "broken out" on its own.
The total amount of magic inside the bottle had increased!
The increase might only have been about ten percent, but Doudou had been constantly "guarding" the bottle, while Qin Xiaoxia was the magic's owner. How could either of them be mistaken about that?
Reluctant though they were to admit it, there was only one explanation.
Qin Xiaoxia's own magic had "eaten" the Faceless Yin Ghost.
Although he hadn't used his own mouth, the thought of eating something like a Faceless Yin Ghost still made Qin Xiaoxia feel thoroughly disgusted.
Aside from the increase in quantity, the magic in the bottle didn't feel any different to him.
That reminded Qin Xiaoxia of how panicked "Haohao" had looked upon seeing him the previous day.
Creatures with low intelligence survived through either numbers or instinct, and numbers were themselves a product of instinct.
Perhaps Ghouls possessed some kind of instinct that allowed them to detect unknown threats in advance.
"Doudou, I'm going to open it!"
At those words, Doudou immediately jumped off the sofa and hid behind Huang Jiutian, leaving the latter even more confused.
What kind of guessing game are these two playing?
Ignoring Doudou and Huang Jiutian, Qin Xiaoxia reached out and pulled out the cork.
He guided a thread of magic out of the bottle.
In truth, his magic could pass straight through the bottle's glass. Pulling out the cork was merely a psychological cue to prepare himself.
Once that thread of magic returned to his body, it felt no different from when it had been outside.
He could control it freely, and it even carried a sense of "joy" at returning.
Magic had no consciousness, and could only act on its owner's commands. But certain special types of magic did possess strange traits resembling "emotions." That was nothing new.
Still, those "emotions" usually came from their owners.
For instance, when an owner was angry, the magic they released would be more frenzied. If the owner was gloomy, their magic would tend to be cold and sinister.
Yet the thread of magic Qin Xiaoxia had retrieved was clearly different.
Has it developed a mind of its own?
Shaking that somewhat ridiculous thought out of his head, Qin Xiaoxia retrieved all the magic in the bottle at once.
Magic was so precious that, in many situations, it could be considered a form of life force. He couldn't possibly abandon it over a little psychological discomfort.
Only after the surrounding magical fluctuations had settled did Doudou emerge from behind Huang Jiutian.
If anything could offer some protection against magic, it was a body of flesh and blood.
If Huang Jiutian knew that, who knew what he'd think of this "child" he doted on so much?
"Wow, tofu pudding! Nice, nice. Hey, Jiu Tian, why aren't you going to bed? What are you doing standing in the living room like a lunatic?"
Qin Xiaoxia took the tofu pudding out of the bag, opened the container, and started eating with a disposable spoon.
Doudou had already gotten a head start and was munching on a rice roll.
A vein on Huang Jiutian's forehead twitched twice.
"What exactly were you two doing just now? Tell me! Right! Now!"
Patient as Huang Jiutian was, he wasn't a pushover. Qin Xiaoxia was one thing, but to think Doudou, his little cousin, really did take after him. They behaved exactly alike!
Everyone had a curious streak, and from what he knew of Qin Xiaoxia, what had just happened hadn't looked like an act put on to mess with him.
At those words, Qin Xiaoxia propped up his chin while eating his soy milk, then swiveled his eyes toward him at an eerie angle.
That stare gave Huang Jiutian an inexplicable chill, weakening his bluster a little.
"What are you doing? I'm asking you a question!"
Qin Xiaoxia set down his spoon and held out his hand, palm up.
Instead of answering, he said something else entirely.
"Jiu Tian, remember when I got this brand burned into me in our first year of middle school? I took ages off sick, and when I finally went back to school..."
At that, Qin Xiaoxia raised his head and smiled at Huang Jiutian.
"You said this brand looked unbelievably cool! Right?"
For some reason, Huang Jiutian felt goosebumps sweep from the soles of his feet all the way to the top of his head.
About the updates: I'll be home tonight, so I'll resume posting two updates a day tomorrow!
Thank you, everyone, and I hope you'll keep supporting me with your votes. The novel has made it onto the featured urban fiction recommendations. If it flops this round, my chances of getting another recommendation will probably be shaky...