Chapter 29: Making Amends and Visitors Part 2

Su Bingyao had no intention of sitting idly by while Luo Shang destroyed the world. He’d vowed to do everything in his power to stop it, and with Su Mingyao’s foreknowledge of the plot on their side, even if Shen Changqing dug in his heels and refused to cooperate, the two of them alone would ensure Luo Shang’s little play went off without a hitch—a perfect, one-hundred-percent performance!

Shen Changqing wasn’t stupid. The moment he saw the contact info attached to the message, he understood everything.

The Su brothers had been prepared from the start. If he’d resolved not to lift a finger, this exact scene from the original plot would’ve played out anyway, with the blame still squarely on his shoulders—except the one pulling the strings in the shadows would’ve been Su Bingyao!

Now that he’d made the suggestion himself, Su Bingyao had neatly dumped the task in his lap. He’d have to reach out to the agent Su Bingyao had arranged and issue the final order himself—which amounted to doing the deed.

Shen Changqing nearly ground his teeth to dust.

He wanted to blame Su Bingyao, but he couldn’t. The man had at least given him a path forward. Without it, Shen Changqing would’ve been on his own, with no way to pull it off in these few minutes. He’d have been helpless as Luo Shang extracted his soul and took control of his corpse.

He wanted to blame Su Mingyao, but that wouldn’t stick either. The guy had shared glimpses of the future out of goodwill and even made helpful suggestions—it was Shen Changqing who’d refused to act on them.

So who was left to blame?

In the end, all he could do was curse his past-life self for going too far. He’d exposed Su Shang without a care for the Su family’s reputation just to humiliate him, and now in this life, he’d run smack into Luo Shang—a brick wall that had shattered his foot.

~~~

Far away from Luo Shang’s Native Plane, in the Teammate Space of the Reincarnation Squad where he belonged, a long-haired youth in ancient robes was rubbing his temples. A transparent orb sat before him on the table. Inside it swirled a nebula of beautiful misty substance, while at the bottom lurked a thick, tangible darkness like congealed shadow.

With every sway of the orb, the two points forming the nebula drifted downward a fraction, some brushing against the black shadows and beginning to shift from their original fluorescent hue to pitch black.

Just then, a deep crimson point materialized without a sound, devouring every point on the verge of turning black.

“You watching the Captain on his mission again?”

A pair of arms draped over the youth’s shoulders from behind, hands interlocking to trap his head between them.

The newcomer was a short-haired woman in modern lab attire. Her left earring was a half-full conical flask glowing fluorescent green, while the right bore a radiation symbol. She had a laid-back, roguish air about her.

“Ever since the Deputy Captain went back home to his family, the Captain’s been like this. When his nerves get frayed, he heads out on missions to vent—wiping out a few worlds always puts him in a better mood.”

“Who can blame him? The Deputy Captain flat-out refuses to say what exactly he’s doing back home, so the control freak loses it.” The short-haired woman snickered with a hint of schadenfreude.

“The Captain just cleared out dozens of small worlds tainted by the Abyss in one go,” the ancient-robed youth said with a sigh.

“He’s not worried about biting off more than he can chew?” The woman frowned at that.

“Always dancing on the razor’s edge like that? Even with his species’ unique talents, it’s way too risky.”

“If he gets infected and falls into the Abyss, the Deputy Captain will have to find a replacement when he gets back.”

Within the orb, that deep crimson point stretched out, forming the vague shape of a fish as it patrolled the edges of the black shadows.

“The captain has his own plans… but ever since the deputy captain vanished, he’s grown even more extreme. Even his plans now chase thrills right on the knife’s edge.”

“And the deputy captain hid the coordinates of his pocket world,” the youth in ancient robes added.

“Isn’t that perfectly normal?” The short-haired woman shrugged. “Even partners need a little privacy, don’t they? I’m not dying to know the coordinates of your native world. If you don’t tell me, I won’t pry.”

“But I’d tell you. Hell, you’ve even gone back there with me,” the youth in ancient robes replied.

“That just makes the captain look even worse by comparison. The deputy captain never gave him the exact coordinates. He layered on a thick spiritual energy barrier and barely replies to messages.”

“…Fair point,” the short-haired woman conceded.

“I remember him asking me once if humans have a custom of bringing partners home to meet the folks… but he never took the deputy captain to his place to do the same,” she pointed out.

“Er, actually… they have met,” the youth in ancient robes said, looking a touch awkward.

The short-haired woman: ?

The short-haired woman: “Didn’t the captain absolutely loathe his native world and his own kind? Why would he ever bring the deputy captain back there? I’ve never heard a peep about this. Was it before I joined the team?”

“No, it was after you joined,” the youth in ancient robes clarified.

“I only found out later when the deputy captain was griping about it.”

“The captain didn’t bring him home to meet the parents. Instead, he brought the parents to meet him.”

“He dried his own father into fish jerky, turned it into a protective talisman, and handed it over to the deputy captain. Said it could block two fatal strikes for him.”

The short-haired woman fell silent at those words.

Who wouldn’t gripe about something like that?

Sure, gear that blocks lethal attacks is rare in the Reincarnation Space. But that doesn’t mean your partner’s going to love receiving your preserved daddy as a gift.

Couldn’t he have just handed over the talisman without dropping the “this is my dad” bombshell?

The short-haired woman was at her limit. By her experience and worldly knowledge, the whole affair was downright absurd. No wonder the deputy captain had vented!

“Speaking of which, when’s the deputy captain coming back? The captain’s been giving me the creeps without him around.”

“No idea. I’ll try reaching out,” the youth in ancient robes said. “See if I can pin down a timeline.”

“I hope it’s soon. I can’t stand staring at the captain’s mug anymore. It’s not like the deputy captain ran off with someone—he just went home.”

“Even the captain can’t get through to him. My odds aren’t great either…”

~~~

In a certain plane, deep within the Bone Forest.

The Bone Forest earned its name because every “tree” in it was crafted from the bones of myriad creatures—from the delicate bone flowers carpeting the ground to towering bone trees. Every petal, every leaf gleamed with a stark, skeletal pallor.

These bone trees, bone shrubs, and bone flowers lived out full life cycles just like their living counterparts: sprouting from the earth, growing tall, blooming, and bearing fruit. Their seeds were typically tiny finger bones or chips of granular bone.

Skeletal beasts darted through the woods, going about their lives. If not for the fact that the entire forest was forged from bones, it would be indistinguishable from any ordinary woodland.

Here, death and vitality wove together in strange harmony. This was the site of Necromancer Demi-Lich Sophia’s Mage Tower—the holiest ground in the plane.

Unlike other planes, where necromancers were reviled and hunted down, this world took pride in the art of necromancy. The half-lich who dwelled here was the dream mentor of every aspiring spellcaster.

Any necromancer hoping to apprentice under Sophia first had to brave this bone forest. Their trial revolved around it: to become a Mage Tower apprentice, one had to randomly identify the bone sources for eight plants within the forest, along with the death causes of those original species.

Did the fragile bones forming a bone flower’s petals come from a rat or a raven? Had the femur comprising a branch’s trunk met its end gnawed by hellhounds or corroded by dark matter?

Some spent their whole lives failing Sophia’s Mage Tower entry exam, reduced to lingering at the forest’s edge and sighing wistfully at the distant spire.

Though dubbed a mage tower, fortress was a better fit.

Apprentices, necromancers, and liches bustled in and out, studying spells, dissecting arcana, running experiments. Deathly miasma hung thick in the air, yet the place thrummed with energy.

Right now, the tower’s mistress—the uncrowned sovereign of this native plane, idol to every necromancer, founder of the Necromancy Era, and Demi-Lich Sophia herself—was lounging in bed, scrolling the Spirit Net.

As one of the Reincarnation Space’s senior players, she was on vacation back in her native world.

“Branches from the Elf Clan’s Mother Tree—buy, buy, buy!”

As the mother tree that had nurtured the entire Elf Clan, it brimmed with premium life energy—perfect for research if she could get her hands on some.

Sophia clicked the purchase button on the Spirit Net, only for a blacklist notice to pop up: You have been blacklisted by the Elf Clan.

Sophia fell silent: ……

Those long-eared folk were as discriminatory toward the undead as ever. Even though she was now a Half-Lich, in the eyes of elves who revered life and nature, everything she did was a blasphemy against existence itself.

She checked Hebe’s Fountain of Youth next, wondering if it was available for purchase. As the goddess of youth, Hebe possessed water in her treasure vase that could grant eternal youth—a fantastic research material.

Lately, several liches in the Mage Tower had been eager to break through to Half-Lich, and they needed materials bursting with vitality. Ordinary stuff simply wouldn’t cut it, so she’d have to stock up on the good things…

Sophia was lost in thought over her research material woes when a private message chimed.

Shang Yu (AAA Peaches of Immortality Supplier): “Can provide Peaches of Immortality, discount available. Send a High-Rank Corpse Manipulation Scroll first, then we talk.”

Peaches of Immortality! The ones from Queen Mother of the West’s Garden! Fruits that matched the lifespan of heaven and earth, aging in sync with sun and moon—these divine treasures had always been far beyond Sophia’s budget. But if Shang Yu was reaching out privately and offering a discount, she figured it was worth a shot.

An Advanced Corpse Control Scroll? The tower had endless supplies of those. She could just have one of the liches below engrave a fresh one… No, wait—to show sincerity, she’d do it herself. Dragon skin for the medium…

Half-Lich Sophia (Revenge Find Me for 99% Off, Professional Bone Shatterer): Address.

Shang Yu (AAA Peaches of Immortality Supplier): Quick delivery. Arrive early, get an extra Peach of Immortality core for free.

Sophia bolted upright from her Bone Bed.

Wait, a free Peach Pit too?

No problem! She’d finish engraving it and personally shuttle across worlds to deliver it herself!

~~~

Meanwhile, a flash of light erupted behind Su Mingyao.

The projection of the paternity test results hung there—no parent-child relationship between Luo Shang and Madam Li Qingshu—stark black text on white paper, impossible to miss.

The entire audience erupted in uproar.