Otherworldly Affairs Office

Chapter 1199: Aftereffects

"Hehehe!" Saraf looked at Pei Yan’s serious expression, which was no joke, and shook his head with a wry smile, saying, "Living long enough really lets you see all sorts of things. I never expected that the Desert of Origin Qi would have a day when a strong one would rise. Good! Just this alone made my awakening this time worthwhile. Come on! Let me see how strong the legendary Beast God Fusion really is!""I must clarify! With your current strength and the injured state of your body, you can withstand only one strike from me at most. Also, this is the first time I’m using the Beast God Fusion after signing the contract, and I have no control over its power, so you might suffer more pain!" As Pei Yan spoke, he had already extended his right arm, and standing beside him, Hu Jiu, who had transformed into a human form looking exactly like him, also slowly raised his left arm, and their palms met in mid-air, clasping together.

"No need to say more! This is all my choice! No matter how much injury I suffer, I am willing!" Saraf said, stopping himself from healing his own injuries and instead focusing all his potential on strengthening his body, specifically his fist! He believed that Pei Yan, such a strong opponent, would not play tricks in this final strike and wanted to make his last stand and prove himself.

Under his challenge, Pei Yan and Hu Jiu were enveloped by a merging white light. When Saraf sensed the aura emanating from the figure emerging from the white light, he knew that he was destined to lose this battle.

The sound of a mournful yet heroic dragon roar reverberated throughout the Dragon Realm. With unwavering determination, Saraf charged toward that indistinct figure!

"One strike! Is it really just one strike?"

Three days later, the reinforcements who arrived at the Dragon Realm were cleaning up the remnants of its buildings while eagerly retelling the final moments of that epic battle to their fellow clansmen who hadn’t witnessed it.

"Am I lying to you? Didn’t you see it when you arrived? The long trench stretching six to seven hundred meters and over twenty meters deep on the outskirts of the Dragon Realm! That’s the aftermath of that one strike! With just one strike, Saraf was thrown into the sky, and his arm, which he used to fight the Young Master, was completely twisted out of shape," said a Dragon Race guard who had witnessed the entire battle and had since become a fervent admirer of Hu Jiu, responding indignantly to his companion’s skepticism about his new idol.

"Wasn’t there also a human named Pei Yan?"

"Oh! That guy is certainly formidable too, otherwise our Ancestral God wouldn’t have agreed to let his descendants sign a symbiotic contract with him!"

"So where are they now?"

"I don’t know! Now that the Dragon Realm war has temporarily settled, they might be planning their next move, I guess?"

"Ah, so what’s going to happen to us next? Are we going to war with those Blood Race people? Is the Old Dragon King going to rescue them?"

"Why do you have so many questions? How am I supposed to know the answers to those?"

Such queries and conversations were rife in every corner of the Dragon Realm for three days, while the protagonists of these discussions lay inside a guest room specially arranged for them in the Dragon Realm, complaining endlessly.

"Ugh~ ah~ ah~!"

"Awoo~ awoo~ awoo!"

The former cry came from Pei Yan, while the latter naturally came from Hu Jiu, who had returned to his original form. If those outside engaging in discussions saw their newly minted idol in this state, they would be utterly astonished. One looked as if his entire body was covered in red rashes, littered with dense red spots, and was rolling back and forth on the bed, obliviously howling. The other wasn’t doing any better, but the people of the Dragon Realm were obviously more concerned about their Young Master, as several maids surrounded Hu Jiu, continuously wiping his equally red and swollen fur with medicinal liquid.

"Hiss~ ah~ awoo! Long Jin! Damn it! Now I understand why you said the symbiotic contract is a cursed contract! You didn’t tell me that after the Beast God Fusion there’d be such a strong rejection reaction! Ugh~ ah!" Lying on the bed, Pei Yan’s entire body felt like it was on fire with excruciating pain and itching that threatened to drive him mad. He tried to scratch at his skin but was firmly held down by several Dragon Race guards. Beside him, Long Jin hurriedly advised, "You can’t scratch! You can’t scratch! If you do, the fire and blood poison will seep in, making it even harder to deal with!"

"Tell me what the hell is going on! Damn it! If I had known it would be this painful, I would have just brought Saraf back after subduing him!" Pei Yan raised his head and roared in anger.

"I wasn’t the one who made you agree to it!" Long Jin bowed his head with a grievance, muttering under his breath.

"You still dare to speak! You didn’t tell me there would be side effects! What exactly is going on?" Pei Yan, near breaking point, moved his only mobile neck vigorously, rubbing his body against the quilt to relieve the unbearable itching since the day he had taken down Saraf with one strike. He and Hu Jiu returned to normalcy without incident that day, attending a banquet hosted by Long Taichu and several prominent clan leaders of the Dragon Realm in gratitude that evening. But on the second day, they started developing swollen skin with red rashes, and the situation worsened over the ensuing days.

"There are very few successful signings of the symbiotic contract in the first place, and the records do describe slight rejection reactions post-Beast God Fusion, but according to the records, the reactions were never severe, merely some headaches or body weakness, which could be remedied by resting for a few days. As a cultivator, you should know that this is a normal reaction following the use of power beyond one’s limits and is really not worth mentioning. But there’s no record of such an intense reaction like what you’re experiencing," Long Jin explained patiently, fearing Pei Yan might misunderstand.

"Then what does this mean for me?"

Long Jin had no answer to Pei Yan’s question. Just then, the door to the room was burst open by someone storming in—a young lady of the Blood Race and Dragon Race who could walk freely across the Dragon Realm. Upon seeing Pei Yan and Hu Jiu in such a state, she couldn’t help but burst into laughter, only stopping after getting an angry glare from her senior. Then she bouncingly came before Pei Yan and teased, "Your current situation has already been reported to the Daoist Realm, and the teacher just replied with a solution. They quickly found the root cause! They suspect it’s because your bloodline is too mixed. Previous symbiotic contractees generally had a single or at most two bloodlines, but aside from your own, you also have Demon Race, Blood Race, and several divine beast-level bloodlines from the Dragon Realm. Haha, back then they just considered making you stronger and overlooked that you’re different from that Blood Race’s Nero, who has the Blood Race’s special Power of Origin to support him and perfectly integrate those mixed bloodlines. But you don’t have that luxury. In the exact words of your elder sister, Lin Junzhao, it’s like you’re a high-end sports car fueled with all sorts of random oils. When not pushed to full power, you function normally, but when you and the Young Master fused your full potential, your ’engine’ just couldn’t take it!"