Chapter 552: line with translation of chapter title

Many years later, when the magical beasts finally obtained the territory and sovereignty they deserved, and were permitted to legally log onto the Internet.

Because they followed the Supreme God, the wise Pegasus awakened, and the first thing he did was register a Swift Joy account, then raise his hooves and speak to the camera.

【Family, who understands! This world is too dark, everywhere filled with oppression against our honest horses!】

【This is my ID, I want to real-name report that the centaur general Ke Li Si Ting·Zhenzhu, in her youth, abused her position horsehurthorse!】

Although the Pegasus was very indignant, Ji Ming had indeed just returned this time, so he didn't see what crazy thing Ke Li Si Ting was doing around it earlier.

Therefore, even if he noticed the two horses' conditions were a bit off, he couldn't say much; he could only open the iron gate, take hold of the Pegasus's reins, and prepare to go inside.

Who would have thought the Pegasus had already been frightened stiff by Ke Li Si Ting, so his tug made him lose balance on the spot and he collapsed limp onto the ground.

Moreover……

"Oh, no, heavens!"

As a high-level magical beast, the Pegasus is both arrogant and fastidious; Ji Ming had never before seen it relieve itself on the ground in front of a person.

Moreover, although it's always kept nearby, this kind of intelligent divine steed— not even Ji Ming, but even the garrison knights— are just fenced off a patch of land and left to graze.

So he simply didn't know how to take care of the Pegasus, and could only look to Ke Li Si Ting beside him.

"You're also a horse, you should understand better than me, what should we do?"

But Ke Li Si Ting is ultimately a centaur, quite different from horses, and she has never raised a magical beast either; hearing this, she could only keep shaking her head.

"I don't know, anyway it wasn't me who did it!"

"Ah this……"

Ji Ming had been confused by Ke Li Si Ting, and he had only been away for three minutes— what are these two horses doing?

But even if you let him take out his brain stuffed with big·hard·iron, wash it, sun it, tidy it up.

He also never expected that Ke Li Si Ting, this super-centaur destined to do great things, would go eat jealousy over a clueless magical beast horse.

So since he couldn't figure it out, he just stopped thinking; Ji Ming walked up to the Pegasus, and then… then directly activated the 【Suggestion Technique】.

"Up!"

Controlling the Pegasus's mind and spirit to make it rise again, Ji Ming, while having Ke Li Si Ting use water magic to help rinse it, checked it over.

Fortunately, the Pegasus's fall only resulted in a splash; if its leg had been broken, it might have had to be euthanized outright (great sorrow).

Ke Li Si Ting:???

Entering the private garden, Ji Ming first found a sheltered spot with trees, then gave the Pegasus a calming suggestion, letting it go play on its own.

After finishing all that, he sat on the bench.

"All right, there's no one else here, say whatever you want to say."

"I..."

Ke Li Si Ting hesitated a moment, then bent her knees and sat in front of him.

Even though she voluntarily lowered her leg height, she was still taller than Ji Ming when he stood up.

"I just wanted to tell you that I've pretty much done everything you told me at our parting."

No matter how you say it, we were comrades who fought side by side against the shadow doppelgängers, so when Ke Li Si Ting initially decided to venture into the Deep Forest, Ji Ming had offered her some advice.

I urged her that after going to the Deep Forest she must firmly grasp her life's direction, as much as possible be someone with principles, at least not betray her conscience.

The facts show Ke Li Si Ting did indeed do well; at least when they met again, it was certainly not a life-and-death battlefield, but truly a quiet and friendly chat like that night.

The Deep Forest is a big dye vat; to achieve all this, the warhorse maiden surely put in effort and even paid a price, so Ji Ming did not stint on praise.

"Hmm, I saw it— you've only been there less than a year, and you've gone from rootless duckweed to a newcomer who can be shown off in other countries; this is truly no small feat, you've successfully realized your wish, right?"

This sentence hit Ke Li Si Ting right in the heart; if Ji Ming had said it earlier, perhaps the Pegasus wouldn't have been frightened into urinating by her.

In a smile she could barely contain, Ke Li Si Ting chattered on about how hard she had worked to obtain this title.

One can only say it's no wonder it's the greatest legacy left by the Little Lion; the Deep Forest, this ultimate efficient war machine, could still operate normally without interruption even five hundred years later.

Thus, relying on the large amount of 'heritage' hoarded by the former mercenary alliance leader Fein, Ke Li Si Ting could actually use 'spoils' to cleanse her family's stigma and directly obtain the 【Viscount】 status, which is practically a heavenly opening.

Afterward, she even rose straight from a minor noble with little influence to an earl who could join the Deep Forest's high-ranking circle, merely by relying on a single large-scale operation, gaining a ticket to climb further.

Even if princely struggles behind the scenes paved the way for her, she alone could still achieve such a rapid promotion speed, which is nearly impossible in the Hui Guang Kingdom.

You should know that even the earl previously enfeoffed by the Sun King, strictly speaking, was not a reward to an individual but to all Pioneers; besides, spending a thousand gold to buy a thousand-li horse bone, done to show the opposition factions, is definitely not a normal path.

Sigh, truly no wonder he's an old fellow from the parallel world— completely a protagonist template.

If the Little Lion hadn't died mysteriously, perhaps the little boss could have achieved success several hundred years earlier.

【Don't, there cannot be two suns in heaven; my heart holds only one sun, the Savior!】

"Heavens, your licking is too disgusting!"

After throwing in a jab at the little boss, Ji Ming suddenly realized this was a good opportunity to observe the Deep Forest Kingdom from a noble's perspective.

Using the pretext of saying "Wow, that's amazing, can you tell me in detail!", he let Ke Li Si Ting elaborate on what happened after she left Sunshine City.

The poor warhorse maiden was toyed with in the palm of his hand, just like an elementary school kid being picked up by his mother, so excited that she held nothing back and spoke without reservation.

After returning to Shen Lin Wang Guo, he cleared his family's name, summoned his old troops for training, and voluntarily applied to go to the northern border to garrison.

Later, by a twist of fate, he fought side by side with the third prince, and he told Ji Ming in detail the entire process of saving his life from Bei Mo Si Ke Han's hands.

No matter how you say it, they are acquaintances, so Ji Ming naturally knows these things.

But being able to hear the story face-to-face from Ke Li Si Ting, the person involved, still added many details missing from the rumor versions, for example—

"You say the atmosphere in Chang'an City is getting more oppressive?"

It's not a typo; in order to show his determination to establish a Han-Tang in another world, Little Lion, when he set the capital of Shen Lin Wang Guo back then, truly named that future destined brilliant city 'Chang'an'.

Even if it weren't really incompatible with the Yang Month naming conventions, before he settled on the name 'Deep Forest', the first word that popped into his mind was actually 'Immortal Qin'...

The facts prove that Little Lion's idea was good, his wish was kind, and his execution was quite good.

But just like Li Er's sole blemish of killing his elder brother and forcing his father, it instead opened the extremely dark court intrigue beneath the glory of the High Tang, which had almost never known peace.

The years-long power vacuum caused by Little Lion's sudden death, and the struggle for the throne in which his descendants fought each other, resulting in heavy casualties and nearly reshuffling the Royal Capital's forces three times.

All living beings are in misery! Such a terrible, cruel, heart‑stirring beginning also completely distorted Shen Lin Wang Guo's succession mechanism.

To some extent, if it weren't for the northern nobles continuing Little Lion's alliance mechanism, and under the influence of potential threats in the north, they have always remained loyal to the throne.

The Lionheart Kings who stood out under such high pressure are indeed versed in both civil and military affairs, quite resourceful, adept at using otherworldly arts of ruling subordinates such as "speaking in riddles," "painting grand pies," and "Sichuan opera face‑changing."

Shen Lin Wang Guo should have, like the Eastern Han, seen imperial power decline and warlords rise, perishing because of its own "strength," thereby completely erasing the last trace Little Lion left in this world.

But no matter what, since the founding of Deep Forest five hundred years ago, Chang'an has never truly known peace.

Moreover, the people of Deep Forest are naturally overflowing with martial virtue; it's normal for them to start a street duel over a trivial matter and fight until one side dies.

Thus, all factions here take turns performing; when power shifts, they also launch a massive indiscriminate fighting tournament, naturally turning Chang'an into the world's largest death arena.

Such a place, which in some ways is worse than Sunshine City, where almost every inch of land is stained with blood—if the atmosphere weren't oppressive, you'd see ghosts.

But Ke Li Si Ting's first visit to Chang'an was at the beginning of the year, and her second visit was to meet the Lionheart King to receive the marquis's award.

Between them was only a short few months, yet the atmosphere allowed her to notice an obvious change, and indeed it was "getting more and more" like that.

Ji Ming's "Problem!" radar in his head immediately started beeping, prompting him to quickly interrupt Ke Li Si Ting's narration.

"Wait, why do you feel uncomfortable?"

Ke Li Si Ting pondered for a long time, but still looked puzzled.

"I… can't explain it clearly, but I just feel something is off, not right! So after receiving the award I left directly."

Others might just let it go, but Ji Ming wouldn't choose to give up, so he lowered his voice and coaxed patiently.

"Let me help you sort it out—did you see something strange, or meet someone strange?"

"Uh… ah… I, I entered the palace—there's so much stuff in there, I… I can't think clearly."

"Don't rush, we have plenty of time, let's think again—for example, since you went to the palace, did you see the Lionheart King and get scared?"

Alright, his professional habit kicked in, and Ji Ming really started acting like a teacher at an educational institution, helping the kids recall where the wounds on their arms came from.

However.

The warhorse maiden's doubt: "Um…"

"For example, his smile is terrifying, his clothes are ugly, or his adornments are strange—looking at him, he doesn't seem like a ruler?"

The warhorse maiden's contemplation: "This…"

"Or is there a special smell in the palace? Or did you meet a very strange person on the way?"

"I… ah!"

Ke Li Si Ting indeed lived up to expectations; after a moment's thought, she truly caught a faint hint of inspiration in her mind full of wontons.

【Why not dumplings? I like eating dumplings】

Seeing that there seemed to be a way in, Ji Ming quickly agreed.

"Hey! Right, so…"

Then they saw the warhorse maiden's raised finger slowly go limp, whispering.

"Um… ah, I guess… I didn't, didn't expect…"

Ji Ming: ……

This is also because he really has patience and promised to talk properly with Ke Li Si Ting; otherwise he should have activated Suggestion Technique to save time and effort.

Wait, brain!

Ji Ming called back the sneaky heavenly horse, cut a strand of hair from Ke Li Si Ting's body, and tied it to its mane.

This is a new method he learned after becoming a secret arts wizard; as long as he also uses a specific potion and Suggestion Technique, the world's rules can temporarily treat the 【Divine-Selected Love Horse】 as 【Pearl Marquis Ke Li Si Ting】.

Although doing this still doesn't make him immune to targeted curse effects, because once the curse is triggered, the world's rules just need a random self‑check to detect and fix this bug.

But as long as Ji Ming can lift shadows like lifting a shirt hem, completely shielding both of them, he can maintain Ke Li Si Ting's "existence" continuously.

Indeed, Ji Ming doesn't think that with Ke Li Si Ting's intelligence, she would be the kind of fool who clearly bumped into something evil but doesn't know what she hit.

So he decided to, in the temporary clinic set up in the shadows, check whether Ke Li Si Ting's memory and soul have been affected or damaged.

Even though previously he wouldn't bother with extra protective measures even when playing with this operation in the minds of Flower‑rank envoys.

But he has already turned three Flower‑rank individuals against their side; who knows when the Deep Forest god will notice, or maybe he's just idly updating an anti‑fraud app.

Moreover, Ke Li Si Ting is a noble; what if the one applying this influence isn't the Deep Forest but someone even more cautious?

Anyway, it's just adding an extra step—think of the old sly wolf king father and son, you can't be too careful!

"Relax, I'll help you!"

Fact proves this layer of vigilance was indeed justified, for just as Ji Ming used Suggestion Technique to pour his will into Ke Li Si Ting's brain.

Just like a broadsword mine buried at the doorway being triggered, a golden signal as fast as lightning rose from Ke Li Si Ting's divine consciousness and flew toward an unknown direction in the sky.

But unfortunately, after slaying the Wendigo and formally inheriting its shadow divinity, the current shadow little black house is already so tight it could almost block a sophon, let alone such a fragile magical signal.

Therefore its escape is utterly meaningless; instead it's like actively sending itself into a prison made of endless shadows.

Without even a moment to break free, it was continually wrapped by surging darkness, layer upon layer, tightly sealed.

【You know what I want to say】

"I don't want to know."

(End of chapter)