"And another thing—damn it, you've gotta call me big brother!"
"I was contracted by Boss first. Going by seniority, you come after me!"
The Treasure-Hoarding Marten spoke angrily and irritably.
What Apep had said wasn't something it didn't understand.
The depths of the Chasm were extremely dim, already hard enough to navigate.
On top of that, the paths were winding and convoluted—Xiao Bai getting lost was practically inevitable.
"Heh, who made the rule that whoever comes first gets to be big brother?"
Apep said with a face full of disdain.
"You—!"
Xiao Bai flared up, and the two immediately started arguing again.
And so, these two brothers-in-misfortune bickered all the way, wandering around in circles deep within the Chasm.
"Wait—what's that?"
Suddenly, Apep spoke up, making Xiao Bai stop in his tracks.
"What?"
Xiao Bai looked in the direction Apep was staring.
"This is…"
A grave expression appeared on Xiao Bai's face.
Ahead of them, a group of monsters shrouded in pitch-black mist were roaring, their expressions ferocious and twisted.
"This feeling… it's very strange, yet oddly familiar!"
Apep spoke in a low voice.
"This is power from outside the world!"
Hearing Apep's words, Xiao Bai's heart jolted.
Power from outside the world?!
Immediately, Xiao Bai pulled Apep behind a protruding rock to hide.
"The black mist coming off these monsters is exactly the same as the fog that came off that purple-armored guy Boss killed!"
Xiao Bai narrowed his eyes, his tone heavy.
He could clearly sense that the black aura carried a trace of something that made him instinctively repulsed.
"Looks like these are the Abyss monsters Boss mentioned!"
Apep nodded atop Xiao Bai's head and said,
"I've seen similar creatures thousands of years ago."
"They tried to recruit me into their ranks back then, but I refused."
"Even though I was severely injured at the time, they still wanted to fight me and forcibly take me away."
"They just didn't win."
"Thinking back on it, it's almost funny. Just a bunch of ants, daring to act so presumptuous in front of me! Even injured, I wasn't something those ants could challenge!"
Seeing Apep's boasting getting more and more outrageous, Xiao Bai quickly interrupted him:
"The real problem is—what do we do now?!"
"You've been turned into a little snake by Boss. You can't fight at all."
"And you know me—I'm great at treasure-hunting, but if it comes to fighting, I'm probably not even a match for a hilichurl."
Hearing this, Apep also fell silent.
"…Aren't you fast?"
"How about… we run?"
After a long while, Apep's uncertain voice sounded.
Xiao Bai looked at the ever-growing number of monsters gathering in the distance and immediately sensed that something was wrong.
"Have you noticed? There are more and more of them."
"This is really strange. No one's commanding them, yet they're gathering on their own."
"Let's get out of here first. A wise man knows when to avoid a loss!"
Xiao Bai stood up and began tiptoeing away.
But with his snow-white fur, he stood out glaringly in the dim depths of the Chasm.
Especially when—
Crack.
Xiao Bai accidentally stepped on and crushed a pebble.
All the monsters turned their heads in unison, locking their gazes onto Xiao Bai.
A dense killing intent washed over them, instantly freezing Xiao Bai and Apep stiff.
"Run! What are you waiting for—becoming their snack?!"
Apep roared, his slender tail repeatedly smacking Xiao Bai's body.
Xiao Bai snapped out of it and immediately sprinted, all four limbs pumping as he bolted toward the distance at top speed.
"ROAR!!!"
The monsters shrouded in black mist let out furious roars.
Red light flickered in their eyes as the violent aura around them surged.
In the next moment, a dense mass of monsters flooded toward Xiao Bai's escape route.
"Bad luck, bad luck, bad luck!!!"
"Xiao Bai rat, following you is the worst damn luck of my eight lifetimes!!!"
"Shut your damn mouth! I'm a Treasure-Hoarding Marten—a snow-white Treasure-Hoarding Marten! Not a damn Xiao Bai rat!!!"
In the dark depths of the Chasm, the furious shouts of Xiao Bai and Apep echoed throughout the entire space.
…
Ever since Jiang Yan fell into slumber, someone came every day to check on his condition.
Cloud Retainer and Guizhong continuously searched through various ancient texts, desperately looking for a way to wake him.
But nothing seemed to work.
In their attempts to wake Jiang Yan, they tried shaking him forcefully, making the surroundings noisy—basically every method that might wake a person.
All of it was tested.
Yet Jiang Yan still didn't wake up.
If not for his steady breathing, Guizhong and Cloud Retainer might have truly thought something had gone wrong.
Recently, Ganyu had started leaving work on time.
In the past, even after her official hours ended, she would work at least two more hours before leaving.
But now, the moment work hours were over, she didn't care whether her tasks were finished—she would immediately turn and leave.
Every single day, Ganyu went to Jueyun Karst and sat by Jiang Yan's side, talking to him.
She tried to wake him with her voice alone.
Though Guizhong and Cloud Retainer had both advised her not to exhaust herself by traveling back and forth, Ganyu stubbornly persisted.
When she became truly tired, she would lie in Jiang Yan's arms and sleep for a while.
After waking up, she would continue speaking softly to him.
Day after day.
Year after year.
To ease Ganyu's burden, Morax shifted most of the work onto others and personally sat on the third floor of Yuehai Pavilion, taking over Jiang Yan's duties.
Just like that, five hundred years passed.
Jiang Yan still had not awakened.
Despite Morax's efforts to conceal the truth of Jiang Yan's slumber, the news eventually leaked during a gathering of the Seven Archons.
At first, Raiden Makoto, Raiden Ei, Barbatos, and Greater Lord Rukkhadevata hadn't realized that Jiang Yan was asleep.
They were only puzzled as to why Jiang Yan hadn't shown up at this gathering.
Morax made up an excuse, saying Jiang Yan had gone out on business and probably couldn't make it back in time.
But the perceptive Raiden Makoto and Greater Lord Rukkhadevata soon sensed that something wasn't right.
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