Chapter 33: You’re Not Strange
Lufiel gave another quiet “mm,” this time even softer.
When Dong Li had burrowed into his arms earlier, a flash of bright gold had slipped past his sight.
He had seen it.
Of course he knew what it was.
Dong Li secretly studied Lufiel’s expression.
He didn’t seem to have any particular reaction.
After hiding alone in the mining crevice for so long, Dong Li was finally beginning to relax—and with that relief came an even stronger sense of grievance.
“I don’t know what happened,” he said, lowering his lashes. “I passed out, and when I woke up, all of you were gone.”
Heidan, Yuanbao, and all the half-demons had been unconscious.
The mine had been so quiet it was frightening.
Dong Li hadn’t dared wander around. He had simply stayed where he was and waited.
“And Rongrong disappeared too…” Dong Li hesitated. “Rongrong feels like… like he’s inside me now…”
He looked up at Lufiel again, anxiety creeping back into his eyes.
“Did I… become a half-demon?”
“I’ve never heard of anything like this either,” Lufiel soothed him. “But don’t be afraid. I’ll protect you.”
There was no precedent in the game for an NPC turning into a half-demon.
Players who ended up on the wanted list were technically classified among demonic entities too, but players didn’t have spirit forms, and their appearance didn’t change.
And before Lufiel arrived, Liufeng had already used his mental energy to check Dong Li.
Dong Li’s overall data was flowing smoothly, with no signs of disorder.
So whatever had happened to him, at least it didn’t seem to be a bug caused by the server crash or anything similar.
Dong Li had always been unusually special.
Now that he had suddenly developed a second form, perhaps it wasn’t entirely surprising.
Lufiel held him close and asked once more whether anything hurt or felt uncomfortable.
Dong Li shook his head.
“I’m just a little hungry…”
He was tired too, the same way he felt after making too much medicine.
But all that golden fire outside had come from him.
Compared to the tiny amount of fire he usually used for brewing, the difference was enormous.
Considering that, the fact that he wasn’t exhausted to the point of being unable to speak was already impressive.
Liufeng was waiting nearby, and the half-demons were still standing at a distance.
Lufiel took two date-paste pastries from his inventory and fed them to Dong Li.
After Dong Li finished eating, Lufiel took out the long outer robe he had worn before.
It was long enough to hide his tail.
And once the hood was pulled up, it would cover his ears too.
Lufiel fastened the robe around him and helped him to his feet.
Dong Li adjusted it himself, but still felt awkward.
He muttered gloomily, “Do I look really weird now…?”
Maybe he simply wasn’t used to it.
He had never thought there was anything strange about the other half-demons.
But when it came to himself, he suddenly cared far too much.
“No.”
Lufiel bent closer.
“You’re cute.”
Dong Li froze, his violet eyes widening slightly.
Then Lufiel kissed his cheek.
“Let’s get out of here first.”
Dong Li’s lashes fluttered.
He answered quietly.
Then he suddenly felt his tail lift a little behind him.
He hurriedly reached back and pressed it down.
Thankfully, the outer robe was loose enough to cover him completely.
No one should be able to tell.
Lufiel couldn’t resist kissing the tip of Dong Li’s nose too before straightening his collar.
The group prepared to set out again.
Liufeng brought the half-demons over.
The leading Titmouse was closest and immediately sensed that Dong Li’s aura had changed.
“My Lord Fox Spirit…”
Dong Li shrank behind Lufiel.
“I… I’m fine.”
The Titmouse nodded and said nothing more.
Golden fire still burned across the path ahead.
Liufeng had originally planned to take a detour, but no one knew how far the flames had spread.
Dong Li turned to look at them.
After hesitating, he said, “I’ll try.”
They were his flames.
In theory, he should be able to control them as easily as Rongrong did.
He simply hadn’t been able to control them well in the past and had never really tried.
Lufiel went with him.
The closer they got to the golden fire, the stronger the pressure became.
Strangely, the flames themselves gave off very little heat.
The stone walls had been scorched badly, though, with ash and powder already falling away in layers.
To Dong Li, however, the golden fire felt warm.
He stepped forward alone and cautiously reached out.
The flames danced around his pale fingertips.
A tiny cluster slid directly into his palm.
Dong Li brought it closer to inspect it.
Then he squeezed his hand.
The flame went out.
But with so much fire everywhere, putting it out one handful at a time would take forever.
Since the golden flames couldn’t hurt him—not even his clothes—Dong Li simply stepped into them.
He waved his hands around.
Then stomped on the ground a few times.
Using the simplest method imaginable, he slowly cleared a path through the golden fire.
Lufiel watched him for a moment, then told Liufeng over the communicator to bring the half-demons forward.
When Liufeng approached, he lowered his voice.
“What happened to him?”
“Rongrong may have fused with his spirit form,” Lufiel said. “We’re already heading toward Asura City. There’s a purification river there.”
The purification river was where players went to cleanse their kill value, preventing it from rising too high and triggering a wanted status.
If Dong Li had truly become a half-demon, there was no precedent for that among game NPCs.
Perhaps they could try a method normally used by players.
Wanted players were classified as demonic entities.
High kill value represented excessive demonic corruption.
And half-demons and demonic beasts were both demonic creatures.
“Fused with his spirit form?” Liufeng stared at him. “Why didn’t you say so earlier? I could’ve checked him more carefully…”
No wonder Dong Li had seemed so emotionally unsettled.
When Lufiel arrived, Liufeng had deliberately backed off to give them privacy, so he hadn’t seen anything.
Lufiel’s tone didn’t change.
“You already checked him. His data isn’t unstable. That’s enough.”
Fine.
If he didn’t want Liufeng looking, then forget it.
Lufiel had always been like this.
He had told Liufeng that Dong Li existed and let him know about their relationship.
Sometimes he would ask Liufeng questions.
But he never allowed much direct contact.
And thinking about it, Dong Li was so unusual that a simple examination probably wouldn’t explain anything anyway.
“Asura City works,” Liufeng said, changing the subject. “But what I actually wanted to ask was… you and the former Chief…”
Lufiel went silent.
His gaze shifted to Dong Li up ahead.
Dong Li had recovered much of his energy and was now happily playing with the golden fire.
He compressed a cluster of flames into a ball and tossed it forward.
Wherever it hit, a strip of fire vanished.
When he gathered enough golden fire together, he could even burn wider openings into narrow sections of the stone wall.
The little stream of magma from earlier had already dried up completely.
The magma monster had crumbled into fragments, leaving behind several colored stones.
Dong Li picked them up, inspected them, decided they were ugly, and casually threw them away.
Lufiel watched him quietly.
Only after a while did he say,
“Message me.”
Liufeng nodded in understanding and opened his system interface.
The two of them continued forward in silence, followed by the half-demons.
Dong Li walked alone at the front.
Once they finally passed through the wall of golden fire, Lufiel called him back and kept him close at his side again.
By then, Liufeng had also learned what had happened between Lufiel and Lu Zenuo.
He raised a hand to his forehead.
He had known Lufiel skipping training for days in a row would eventually cause trouble.
He just hadn’t expected it to happen this quickly.
And Dong Li’s situation was so unusual that Lufiel clearly had no intention of leaving him for even a moment.
Worse, the former Chief somehow had a game recording of the two of them…
[Liufeng: Do you think the former Chief might do something to Dong Li?]
Lufiel had simply run away.
Lu Zenuo had to be furious.
Fortunately, Lufiel had been preparing for this sort of thing for a while.
He had secretly bought property on a small planet, and Lu Zenuo probably didn’t know about it.
After stealing the starship, Lufiel had disabled the navigation system and forcibly used his mental energy to trigger several jumps, making pursuit difficult.
The fact that he had managed to return to the game so quickly was already impressive.
Lufiel and Lu Zenuo were blood relatives.
They had spent years around each other.
Yet neither seemed to have ever truly acknowledged the other.
[Lufiel: He won’t.]
[Lufiel: I know him.]
With Lu Zenuo’s personality, he would never take a game—or an NPC inside that game—seriously.
To him, they were nothing more than data.
He certainly wouldn’t go so far as to use his authority to shut the game down.
From beginning to end, his target would only ever be Lufiel.
[Liufeng: Sigh… What if Tianheng Star expels you?]
[Lufiel: Doesn’t matter.]
[Liufeng: Be careful. Don’t let them find you.]
[Liufeng: The former Chief’s people might even show up inside the game. Better stay cautious.]
[Lufiel: Mm.]
Dong Li knew none of this.
He simply let Lufiel lead him through the mine.
With the golden fire behind them, small creatures occasionally emerged from the shadows and tried to attack.
The Titmouse reacted quickly.
A few iron feathers were enough to scare them all away.
To reach Asura City, they had to cross the entire mine.
The deeper they traveled, the more winding the tunnels became.
Eventually, they encountered another magma monster.
Dong Li raised his hand.
A tiny cluster of golden fire rested in his palm.
“I saved this from earlier,” he said. “I don’t know if I can make that much fire again…”
Liufeng hurriedly stopped him.
“No, no, don’t! We can just find another route.”
What if he crashed the server again?
Lufiel agreed.
“You stay here.”
Dong Li hesitated.
He cupped the tiny flame in his palms.
“But… I want to try throwing this one at it.”
That did seem much safer than having Dong Li summon fire directly.
After a moment, Lufiel finally nodded.
The two of them went forward alone once more.
This magma monster was asleep on the ground, its chest rising and falling steadily.
Dong Li crept closer on tiptoe.
Then he threw the small ball of golden fire.
Immediately afterward, he ducked behind Lufiel.
The flame obediently landed on the magma monster.
The creature jolted awake with a shriek and leapt straight into the nearby stream of magma.
But the golden fire spread rapidly.
Within seconds, it wrapped around the monster’s entire body.
Then the magma stream itself began to burn.
One minute later—the magma monster had crumbled into debris.
The stream had dried up completely.
Only a few small golden flames remained, burning quietly in the empty channel.
Dong Li stared in shock.
“T-That’s my fire…”
Even Lufiel looked surprised.
He hadn’t expected such a tiny flame to completely destroy a magma monster.
Farther back, Liufeng was even more stunned.
The way he looked at Dong Li changed yet again.
Dong Li finally snapped out of it.
Delighted, he hurried forward and picked up the golden flames from the bottom of the dried stream, carefully cradling them in his palms as usual.
When he bent over, the tail beneath his robe lifted the fabric slightly.
Dong Li noticed immediately and straightened in a panic.
Lufiel came up behind him and steadied him.
“Don’t worry. They didn’t see.”
Dong Li’s hood had slipped crooked too.
Lufiel reached up to fix it, inevitably brushing against the fox ears hidden underneath.
The fluffy tips twitched.
Dong Li instinctively tilted his head—and accidentally rubbed one ear against Lufiel’s palm.
Then he felt the tip of his ear being gently rubbed.
Even through the fabric of the hood, the sensation was startlingly clear.
Dong Li looked up in confusion, almost as though he had been startled.
His violet eyes met Lufiel’s.
“What’s wrong?”
Lufiel bent closer.
“You don’t like that?”
Heat inexplicably rushed into Dong Li’s ears.
“N-No…”
He remembered what Lufiel had said before they left.
That he was cute like this.
Dong Li had been thinking about it the entire way.
Now, before Liufeng and the half-demons could catch up, he tugged on Lufiel’s sleeve and quietly asked, “You really don’t think I… look strange?”
Apparently, they had left in too much of a hurry earlier.
Dong Li still hadn’t been fully reassured.
Once they were farther away from the magma zone, they could stop and rest for a while.
“I really don’t.”
Lufiel lowered his head and kissed the tip of Dong Li’s small nose.
“Later, let me hold you for a while.”
