"Is that really you, Pi?" a lady"s voice drifted into my ears.
"I"m Goudan..." I answered.
"Hmm, Pi," she said as she went under my shirt.
"Goudan..." I insisted as I was getting squashed.
"Yeah, Pi," she continued, hugging me tightly.
Dan..." I trailed off as her knee pressed to a sensitive area of mine.
She cooed, "Yeah."
I don"t know how much time has pa.s.sed before she got up with my shirt.
I regained a bit of awareness but I was still paralyzed.
She spoke faintly, "I"ll borrow your s.h.i.t for a bit, Pi. I"ll come back for you. Be good."
I then felt her pulling my pants down, leaving me in my underpants.
She put my pants on, went to the door, and knocked on it.
No response.
She grabbed the doork.n.o.b and clawed it with force.
Three deep scratches appeared on the door.
She shook the metal door, its lock was broken but it was still stuck.
I knew there were more doors beyond this with even more locks attached to them.
She banged the door down with her body, taking down a piece of wall with it.
Her strength left me dumbstruck as light shone in from the other side, illuminating her side profile.
She was stunningly beautiful and she possessed a tinge of heroic charm.
Pardon my poor description as I find it difficult to depict what I had seen.
She turned around to look at me. "I"ll be back soon, Pi."
She ran out of the room and disappeared from sight.
I looked out. It was empty, probably because Baize had taken everyone else away.
I tried getting up but I couldn"t.
Without a choice, I started crawling, hoping to exit the room before anything else happens.
It took me a good five minutes to crawl out of the small s.p.a.ce.
That effort drained all my energy and I collapsed onto the ground, gasping for air.
I had no control over my body.
Xiaoai appeared from not far away. "You"re out?"
"What exactly happened?" I questioned with much effort.
"Three days have pa.s.sed since you got in."
"No way! I was in there for three days?"
She touched my skin lightly and said, "This is the green dragon trace and it"s appearing on and off, which means that your body is under a lot of stress."
I looked at myself. I was naked except for a pair of underpants and the green dragon trace on my skin was slightly trembling as it faded in and out.
"Did anything else happen in these three days?" I asked again.
"Nothing much. When Dad came out, he said there was no need to wait and that you two were only going to wake up a few days later. The rest of us left since he said that but I"ve been visiting you every day."
"Go call your father. He should know what"s going on with me," I requested.
"There"s no need. I know what"s wrong."
"You do?" I asked.
"It"s very simple and Dad did brief me on what was going to happen after you leave the room. Think about your age. The dragon"s sons are already tens of thousands years old. Plus, you"ve already absorbed Pi. How long do you think you"ll need to fuse with all these?" Xiaoai asked.
"I"ve absorbed Tao Tie and Pu Lao previously but why didn"t this happen during those times?" I questioned.
"They gave a part of their souls to you willingly, and this time, you weren"t willing to absorb Pi"s. It"s not going to be the same. Just hang in there."
"Hang in there? How long is this going to take? And that woman… she kept calling me Pi. Will Pi take over my soul soon enough? You guys aren"t tricking me are you?" I asked suspiciously.
"No one"s taking over anyone. One"s been residing within a host body for thousands of years and is extremely weak, while the other"s absorbed some dragon souls and is stronger than the average human. It"s really hard to differentiate which brother is suffering more."
"Who"s his brother?" I rolled my eyes in frustration.
"Don"t be impatient. I"ll think of something," Xiaoai told me.
The woman reappeared from again, startling me.
She had changed into another set of clothes, a white blouse under a red muslin coat.
My first thought was that she resembled Dongfang Bubai in that outfit and the second was that it fitted her well.
Following behind her was Kylin.
The woman held a set of green flax clothes that were worn by ancient people.
It matched her outfit since both weren"t of a modern style.
She smiled at me. "I brought you some clothes. Yours has a smell so I got someone to wash it. Wear this in the meantime."
She bent down to pick me up.
"Who is this?" she asked, turning to Xiaoai.
"The daughter of Bai Ze, Bai Xiaoai. You hugged me once before, don"t you remember?" Xiaoai introduced herself warmly.
"Bai Ze"s married? I think she was the one he sent to treat my illness," the woman commented.
Kylin said from behind, "Boss, Bai Ze"s here now."
Xiaoai whispered to me, "One is a soul that"s been enduring for thousands of year whereas the other is a body that"s just lost a long-residing soul. Your body can"t be controlled as a result and she"s probably suffering a temporal memory loss and is unable to distinguish between time periods.
The woman supported me up, put the clothes on me, and said, "I prepared this for you a long time ago. Ever since people started wearing clothes, I"ve had always wanted for us to put on a couple"s outfit."
"No, no, wait. These clothes don"t belong in this era. Why must you wear this? People might think you"re cosplaying Dongfang Bubai," I protested.
She was taken aback. "Cosplaying? What"s that? Don"t they look good? I am Dongfang Bubai! You can call me Bubai or Xiu. It"s up to you."
I was pretty sure I could"ve swallowed her whole with how wide my jaw fell open.
Kylin chimed in, "Boss had seen Jin Yong when she wasn"t very clearheaded and told him a few short stories."
"Wait. According to your words, Jin Yong"s written about a metros.e.xual Dongfang Bubai, inspired by Pi and Xiu?" I clarified.
"Yes, but Boss fell unconscious midway through her stories. I made the rest up and Jin Yong even complimented my idea. I"m sure this is something outside of your expectation. This set of clothes is made according to my story so you should count your blessings," Kylin explained.
"F*ck! When am I going to be as talented as you?" I blurted out.
"You flatter me. Wear it, quick, so you don"t catch a cold. You have quite the body, I must say," Kylin complimented.
"Alright, alright. Take your clothes off. You can wear this all you want and I"ll wear what you have on instead," I proposed.
"I…" Kylin replied hesitantly.
The woman gave him a look and flung the clothes in her hand at him. "He"s asking you to strip. What are you waiting for?"
"Alright, Boss," Kylin conceded immediately and took his own clothes off in exchange for the swordsman"s costume.
The woman then retrieved Kylin"s casual clothes and put them on me.
She dressed me in big but very meticulous movements, flattening out every crease.
I turned to look at Xiaoai, noting that she was acting a little strange.
Her face was beet red as she looked at me, and that made me feel weird.
"Hey, Dongfang Bubai? What should I call you? I"ll need a more human-like name," I asked, hoping to cover my embarra.s.sment.
"Dongfang then. Back then, the Northeast region was still a desolate land. People fought against me but they didn"t stand a chance, hence they called me Dongfang Bubai (Undefeatable in the East). I was also called Guandong (the one in charge of the East) because people who came over had to get through me first. Slowly, Guandong turned into Dongbei (Northeast) and my eventual name, Dongfang Bubai," Dongfang said.
Kylin took over, saying, "We had a big gang back then — Sun and Moon Religion. When we left that life behind, the region became Heilongjiang"s Sun and Moon Swordsmen Forest Park. But let"s not talk about the past anymore."
Guandong? Dongbei? Dongfang Bubai? Sun and Moon swordsmen? And religion?
"Oh my G.o.d," I exclaimed in astonishment.
Dongfang hoisted me up and turned me around. "This fits you well, Xiu."
"Can you not call me that, Dongfang? Xiu, xiu, xiu (Shame, shame, shame)… it"s not as if I"m being naughty. My name is Goudan, or you can call me Dan."
"Alright, Xiu," she nodded.
I thought momentarily about repeating my words, but I decided against it. "Whatever you like."
Dongfang then lets me go and I tried hard to stand up on my own. I did not last more than a few seconds before collapsing once more. It did not hurt, but my body just wasn"t listening to my orders.
Dongfang looked over at Xiaoai. "What"s your name?"
"Just call me Xiaoai," Xiaoai answered, smiling.
Dongfang pointed at a small house. "Follow me for a bit, Xiaoai."
Both ladies entered the aforementioned house through its opened door.
I could see, from my angle, Dongfang stripping her costume off and handing it over to Xiaoai.
I gulped and so did Kylin.
Dongfang came out shortly in Xiaoai"s casual outfit.
Because it wasn"t of the right size, the clothes wrapped snugly around Dongfang"s body, accentuating her voluptuous figure.
Xiaoai, in contrast, looked rather adorable in Dongfang"s oversized clothes.
"Do you feel uncomfortable? Are you still unable to move?" Dongfang asked me.
With much effort, I nodded.
Dongfang hoisted me up again and headed toward the main hall.
"Wait, where are you going?" I asked anxiously.
"Bai Ze should be around here somewhere, we"re going to look for him," she responded.
Xiaoai whispered, "Dad said this can"t be treated. You"ll just have to slowly adapt."
Dongfang stopped for a moment. "Not treatable? We"ll look for Jiao Tu then. He knows a lot. I"m sure there"s a way."
"Jiao Tu? Another son of the dragon? What?" I was confused.
"This is a factory that manufactures safes. Boss has 50% of the stocks. The other 50% belongs to Jiao Tu, who is in charge of providing technical support since he does a lot of research in all subjects including science. There are many with academic degrees from local and overseas universities. He often calls himself an overseas-trained professor but I like to call him a turtle," Kylin shared. (海归 vs 海龟, one who"s returned from overseas vs a turtle, an Internet slang for the former.)
Dongfang dragged me along with one hand while Kylin and Xiaoai followed behind us.
We walked further and further into the factory and finally into an extremely big room.
With a strong kick, Dongfang sent the door flying out and toward the pieces of equipment on the table in front.
It suddenly stopped midair before falling over slowly.
Not far away sat a turtle, who was reading a book. This turtle, however, had a head of a dragon.
The turtle was tiny, only about half a meter tall. He sat on the chair, flipping through the pages of his book with his long dragon tail. He also used it to wrap around a teacup to sip on his tea.
Dongfang placed me on the floor and said to the turtle, "Come take a look at him. Xiu came out of my body. He can"t move now. See what you can do."
The turtle replied leisurely, "Who is it? Don"t disturb my rest and let me finish my book first. Don"t rush me."
"Hey, you wanna die?" Dongfang threatened flatly.
The turtle turned his head around and looked at her. "You"re awake, Sister?"
"Help me take a look at him, quick. I have no time for you to waste," Dongfang urged, pointing at me.
The turtle"s arms started to grow longer and he slowly transformed into a human figure. "That"s Xiu on the ground?" he asked as he approached me. "How many thousand years has it been? It"s a good thing that you guys are separated now."
It was then that I gathered a clear look of Tu Jiao. He was slightly old and he had a thick black spectacle frame and a belt on.
Jiao Tu extended his hand to touch my forehead. "You"re pretty complicated, little fellow. How messy! It"s amazing that you"re still alive."
"You"re that prof, right?" I asked.
Jiao Tu pushed his thick gla.s.ses up. "Just call me Senior."
I was at a loss. "Se… senior?"
"Yeah. I can"t treat you," he said simply.
"Forget about that. I have something to ask you," I told him.
He looked at me and replied, "If that"s the case, I ought to help a junior out."
"Why must you turn into a turtle to read?" I asked.
"Oh, this. I"m rather restless as a person, but transforming into a turtle restricts my movements, which helps me to stay still. Plus, my metabolism rate drops when I"m a turtle and I didn"t need to eat, drink, and sh*t as much," he answered.
"666, Senior. Let me lie here for a bit. Just ignore me. You three as well. My belief system"s almost wrecked. I"ll need time to get used to it," I requested with a bitter smile.
"I said I can"t treat you, Junior, but I said nothing about not being able to recover your mobility. It"s still easy to get you to walk," Jiao Tu said with a laugh.