All morning long, Konoha Village was buzzing with talk about the latest events.
With the exception of people like Naruto who still hadn't woken up, practically every villager in Konoha had been roused out into the open.
It couldn't be helped — the news was just too explosive.
First, early in the morning, the Third Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, had announced his abdication, ceding the post to a successor.
At that, everyone began speculating about who the next Hokage would be.
If you were to name the most likely candidate, then surely it would be Jiraiya of the Sannin, having finally had a change of heart?
If one really wanted to consider it, Tsunade wasn't out of the question either — after all, she was also one of the Sannin, and the odds of her coming around were not zero.
It couldn't actually be Orochimaru, surely?
Don't even joke about Danzo — he'd just committed suicide.
Namikaze Minato — what the hell?!
It wasn't that Namikaze Minato's prestige wasn't enough. If anything, the man was way too damn distinguished — to the point that everyone knew he had died in the Nine-Tails Incident!
Even the commotion on the Uchiha side had begun to die down. The situation really was a bit eerie, and people felt they ought to sit down first and see how it all played out.
The crowd's suspicions were largely concentrated on a single point: had the Third actually gone senile and started hallucinating?
That was, right up until that figure appeared in front of everyone, greeting the villagers warmly with the familiar smile they'd known him for in life.
Only then did the gathered crowd finally come to a realization: oh hell, the one caught up in a genjutsu seems to be me!
But very quickly, everyone discovered that Namikaze Minato really did seem to be alive again.
It wasn't some weird, exotic ninjutsu, nor was it the work of some idiot whose brain had short-circuited and decided to impersonate him — it was, genuinely, the real Namikaze Minato!
And so, as Namikaze Minato formally stepped into the Hokage's office, the crowd at last began to talk freely about it.
For a while there, nobody was even discussing Danzo's death anymore.
Danzo's death was, just like that, officially classified as a suicide — a suicide complete with seven bullet wounds in the back — which perhaps, much further down the line, would draw someone's attention and prompt a few comments.
But by then, would that minor discussion really matter?
So Danzo's affair was glossed over without further fuss. A cold, ended life was transformed into warm firewood for Anthony's Origin Furnace, and energy for Lobotomy Corp.
And once the discussion had begun to cool down, Namikaze Minato at last stepped forward to issue an official statement.
Essentially, he claimed he had never actually died — he'd merely been gravely wounded, and to avoid being ambushed, he'd staged his own death while recovering, and so on and so forth.
Now that he'd recovered, he could finally take the burden off the Third's shoulders, and reassume the post of Hokage.
Of course, whether anyone actually believed him when he said it was a separate matter.
So long as a face-saving explanation could be offered on the surface, that was enough.
By that means, Namikaze Minato completed the handover of the Hokage position at top speed, while at the same time secretly assisting Anthony's operations.
Because that very day also happened to be the day Special Officer Smith took up his post.
With Danzo dead — though the public uproar hadn't been particularly loud — the ANBU had nevertheless ended up in the awkward state of being a body without a head.
And so, someone quietly stepped into the role.
The first thing Minato did upon taking office was to deal with the ANBU. He went over there to address them, briefly mourned Danzo's passing, and then announced Smith's appointment.
As for everything else, Minato cheerfully tossed it all over to Anthony to handle as he saw fit.
Danzo's deeply rooted power base within the ANBU, after all, was difficult to shake. Even Minato himself had no especially good solution for that.
Even though the Hokage's authority would let him airdrop a new administrator in from on high, whether that administrator could command the loyalty of those under him was another question entirely.
But since Anthony claimed he had a few connections, Minato simply chose to trust him.
As for Anthony's approach to handling it — that was even simpler.
If I just don't handle it, isn't that enough?
If Danzo's root system was so hard to uproot, then by all means, leave it where it was.
A root system was the sort of thing that, so long as all its soil was cut off and its supply of nutrients was halted, would sooner or later wither away.
Minato didn't need these roots, and so neither did Anthony.
On his first day in office, the ANBU was nearly brought to a standstill.
Those who weren't part of Danzo's root system, or whose loyalty to it was wavering, were singled out, set aside to be delivered over to Minato at a later date. As for the rest of Danzo's remnants…
Want to get something done? Sure — just go through the proper procedures!
The thing is, this procedure is just a little bit long.
You know, going forward, we're a proper organization. A proper organization requires registration, and after registration there's review, and after review there's project approval, and after project approval there's execution.
There may be a few small hiccups along the way — oh, don't worry, you just have to go through the procedure again. Just wait a bit longer.
Oh, by the way, there are a lot of people registering, and our efficiency is limited. So this whole 'going through procedures' business — please form an orderly queue. No need to rush.
Aiya, I understand how you all feel, but the efficiency we have is the efficiency we have, and there's nothing I can do about it, you know!
Of course, sometimes there are moments when efficiency is rather higher.
But for that, it takes a little 'consideration.' I don't mean that kind of consideration; I mean this little consideration of yours is a bit lacking in consideration, and you'll have to give it a little more thought.
And so, under the wise and martial leadership of Special Officer Smith, the entire ANBU achieved the earth-shattering feat of grinding to a complete halt within a single day.
The tasks that had originally been assigned to the ANBU were, in fact, still being carried out — only by those who weren't part of Danzo's root system. Those people were, step by step, being reassigned as Minato's direct subordinates.
At the same time, Minato had begun to cultivate his own direct lineage, taking on the work that had been the ANBU's.
Don't worry, brother department — these are all just technical adjustments!
What's that? You say you're being sidelined? Aiya, what are you talking about? We're all brother departments here!
Our ANBU is on a path of steady, prosperous growth!
At last, with Anthony turning a blind eye, the ANBU's efficiency improvement was also visibly, astonishingly dramatic, climbing to nearly one hundred percent.
One hundred percent in absolute value.
Of course, there were certainly those who refused to accept it and wanted to scheme on the side. However, they were all personally dealt with by Special Officer Smith.
From there, they were sent into the depths of the Stygian Vessel, never to return.
Nominally speaking, the ANBU remained the darkness of Konoha — except that, at the moment, it might be the darkness of corruption, or it might be Lobotomy Corp down beneath the Underworld with the lights off.
Only Anthony was raking in the money — and enjoying every minute of it.
Once Konoha no longer nominally needed the ANBU, all of this would come to a natural end.
As for Konoha on the surface — with Minato there, things would still be kept under control. No matter how wildly Anthony cut loose, there was always Minato to backstop him from above.
And so: the Third went home, Minato took office, Anthony raked in money — all three of them had a bright future ahead of them, and it could be said that everyone was satisfied.
So that left only one final thing to do.
At about ten o'clock that morning, Uzumaki Naruto rubbed his bleary, sleep-fuddled eyes and crawled out from his dreams.
Then, half-awake, he got out of bed and went to push open the window for a bit of fresh air — but the moment he pushed it open, he saw a Konoha villager standing in the doorway below, gazing up at him.
Naruto immediately went on alert.
Just as he was thinking it was yet another troublesome villager, he heard the villager in front of him shout up at him:
"Oi, Naruto, time to get up!"
"Hurry up and go take a look — your old man's come back!"
In that instant, as Naruto heard these words, it was as though a thunderclap had gone off in his chest out of a clear blue sky.
For a moment, Naruto was rooted to the spot.
"What? What did you say?"
He stuck his head out hurriedly, and asked the person below in agitation. The man simply answered:
"You don't know yet? At the Hokage's office — your old man's come back. He said he didn't die."
Having said this, the man left. He didn't look like he had come specially to tell Naruto this — more like he'd been passing by, the thought happened to occur to him, and out of kindness he'd mentioned it in passing.
Among Konoha's troublesome villagers, this guy was practically a living saint.
After hearing all this, Naruto stood there in a long daze, who knew what he was thinking. After a moment, he slowly sat down.
His figure vanished from in front of the window.
His entire mind was on that one place: the Hokage's office.
But how was he supposed to get in there?
He thought hard, racking his brain for some way to sneak unnoticed into the Hokage's office, but in the end, he came up with nothing.
The urge to go and see for himself only grew more pressing in his heart.
If only Old Man in the Ring were still here.
Naruto's eyes dimmed for a moment. At times like this, in moments when he was puzzling through a plan, Old Man in the Ring had always been the one to chime in.
And his suggestions were, more often than not, very good ones indeed.
Unfortunately, even now, Old Man in the Ring had still not returned. Naruto did not know where he had gone — he only believed that, sooner or later, he would come back.
But the present Naruto was in no mood for such thoughts. He was just turning over and over in his mind the matter of his old man.
The old man he had never been able to meet in person since the moment he was born.
Just as Naruto was rolling over and over in his head how he might go to see his old man, all of a sudden, he heard sounds from outside the window.
It was as though someone else had arrived.
Hastily he got up again, leaned out, and looked outside. But this time, the one he saw was someone else entirely.
The person had golden hair, very much like his own. He was very young, with a gentle smile on his face.
A little further off stood another person — eyes that seemed to have stars spinning within them, carrying with them an aura of mystery, watching the whole scene from afar.
The blond one was knocking on the door, calling out:
"Naruto, is Naruto home?"
In that moment, when Naruto laid eyes on the blond man, a realization came to him.
It was almost as if it had come from some kind of instinct — the moment he first saw him, a thought rose up in Naruto's heart.
Oh, so that's it. He's my old man.
He recognized that face. Of course he did. But even if he hadn't, it wouldn't have mattered — in that moment, the call of blood had transcended even instinct.
"Old man!"
And so, perched on the windowsill, Naruto could not stop himself from shouting those two words, making Namikaze Minato jerk his head up and look toward the window.
Then, he smiled at Uzumaki Naruto.
No further words were needed. Uzumaki Naruto turned in an instant, scrambled down the stairs, raced down the steps, came to the front door, and threw it open.
And so, father and son met. Namikaze Minato lowered his head, met Naruto's wide eyes, and for an instant, a very strange feeling welled up in his heart.
It was utterly unlike when he had spoken to Naruto in the form of Old Man in the Ring.
This time, as he looked into Naruto's eyes, Namikaze Minato suddenly realized: he's grown so big already.
And then — well, look at him. This was Uzumaki Naruto. This was his son.
He was his son!
There were no extraneous words. This realization, like an instinct, sank deep into his heart.
At last, Namikaze Minato had found the source of that strange feeling — and that was family. A family bound by the web that bloodlines formed, something that tied him and Naruto together.
So he crouched down. Naruto still seemed to be in a daze of bewilderment and joy. Namikaze Minato reached out and gently ruffled Naruto's hair.
"It's been a while, Naruto."
At last, Namikaze Minato said quietly. Uzumaki Naruto said not a word — instinctively threw his arms around his old man, and suddenly, let out a small choked sob.
The choked sob was like the harbinger of an emotional dam breaking. In the next moment, like a torrential flood, the emotions swept everything before them, and tears burst forth.
Naruto sniffled loudly, snot and tears streaming, and there was no avoiding it — he began to wail.
Faced with this situation, Namikaze Minato didn't quite know what to say. He could only hold Naruto in front of him, gently patting his back.
"I thought, I thought, I thought you were never coming back."
This sentence got stuck several times in Naruto's throat — each time, as he was sucking the snot back in.
"Didn't I come back in the end?"
Namikaze Minato comforted him softly, his hand patting Uzumaki Naruto's back:
"And I won't be going away anymore. Besides — haven't I been back for a while now?"
It took Naruto a long while before his crying finally subsided. Then he raised his head, looking at Namikaze Minato a little blankly.
Until Namikaze Minato opened his mouth and, in a voice exceedingly familiar to Naruto, spoke to him:
"Does this sound a bit more familiar?"
"It's you!"
For a moment, Naruto forgot all about crying. He let out a shout of astonishment, and almost jumped on the spot.
Then, looking at Namikaze Minato, he couldn't help but really laugh.
That voice — little Naruto knew it well. Over the past while, every day, that was the voice he'd heard from Old Man in the Ring's side.
He laughed. Then he slammed his fist into the hollow of Namikaze Minato's shoulder, and after a long pause, suddenly said:
"Old man, will you stay with me more from now on?"
"Mm. I will."
Namikaze Minato nodded contentedly. He stood by Naruto's side, raised his head to gaze toward the village — from the Hokage Rock, all the way across the whole village.
At last, he said:
"Naruto, I've come back. Not only have I come back, I'm the Hokage again. This time, I won't leave you all behind. And — I want to make this village better."
I want to give you all a better life.
Namikaze Minato thought to himself. Naruto, for his part, paused for a moment, then turned his head and said:
"Old man, you're the Hokage? Then in the future I'll be Hokage too. So does that mean I have to defeat you, old man?"
Namikaze Minato paused, then suddenly laughed.
"That's right. Of course. Will you be afraid?"
"As if! I'll definitely become Hokage!"
Namikaze Minato laughed loudly. At last, he raised one hand. Naruto hesitated for a moment, then raised his own hand too, and bumped fists with Namikaze Minato.
Namikaze Minato said: "I'll be waiting."
Now this — this is my son!
As for Anthony, he sat off to one side, watching this scene unfold, and in his heart let out a quiet "tsk tsk" of admiration.
What deep father-son affection.
For the next while, with the resurrected Minato here to handle things, and Smith able to step up as a combat equivalent of him when necessary—
For a very long time, at the very least, Konoha could be called the safest place in the shinobi world. In a certain sense, his own mission could be considered accomplished.
Anthony stroked his chin, thinking to himself silently. Then he looked again at Minato and Naruto, and a smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.
So then — since matters on the Hokage side were settled, next, it was time to head back and deal with his own affairs.
He breathed out softly. For a moment, he thought of the situation in the main world's Underworld, and his face couldn't help but grow a little troubled.
The bonus round in Konoha was over — eventually, he still had to go back and face that particular instance.
Especially when it came to dealing with Erlang Shen up next.
Although things on the True Lord Erlang Xiansheng's side were quite possibly a bonus round too — nothing dangerous about them — from what he'd seen, Anthony was still a bit worried.
Well then — just as well.
Now that things on the Hokage side were sorted, it was time to drag a certain someone over to be his backup.
For a moment, as Anthony looked at Minato, a hint of resolve appeared in his eyes.
[Lord of the Ivory Throne: @Yellow Flash of Konoha, get your father-son heart-to-heart in quick — it's overtime hours up next]
[Yellow Flash of Konoha: Are you about to head back?]
[Lord of the Ivory Throne: About that time. The things that needed doing on this end are settled]
[Lord of the Ivory Throne: Smith will be staying here anyway. Whatever you need in the future, @ me in the group or look for Smith]
[Yellow Flash of Konoha: Got it. Head over first then. Just give me a shout when you need me]
Namikaze Minato cheerfully gave that response. Anthony closed the chat group, and slowly closed his eyes.
And so, the soul-body that had been split apart traversed countless turbulent currents in that instant.
From atop the kaleidoscopic Primordial River, Anthony once more emerged, and then slowly returned to his original soul body.
When he opened his eyes again, all that remained in his sight was that broken-down Underworld.
Seeing the ramshackle Underworld again, Anthony felt his mood take another turn for the worse, and couldn't help but sigh.
And then he saw, walking back and forth within the Underworld, hauling evil ghosts into the Eighteen Levels of Hell, eight Yin Officers.
There was no spiritual awareness in their eyes, nothing at all resembling vitality. But the moment they laid eyes on Anthony, they nevertheless straightened up, as if standing to inspection.
Anthony stepped forward to check. The Yin Officers' condition was reasonably stable; the Shinigami's quality of work looked pretty good.
Just then, during the inspection, he suddenly heard the Yin Officers cry out:
"Welcome, Boss, on your tour of inspection!"
Anthony went still for a moment, suddenly feeling that something had probably glitched a little when these Yin Officers had received their bureaucratic placements.
After a long silence, Anthony, headache mounting, swept his gaze across the Eighteen Levels of Hell.
The stockpile of evil ghosts was growing slowly, but they hadn't even filled one tenth of the first level of the Eighteen Levels of Hell.
Although there were several functions within the Underworld that could be repaired by using evil ghosts, the current numbers were clearly far from sufficient.
Time to head over to Erlang Shen's place and grab some heavyweight evil ghosts.
Anthony thought, drew his gaze back, and slowly made his way forward, sitting down upon the Ivory Throne.
His soul's perception spread out along the Ivory Throne, extending into the mortal world. In an instant, Anthony sensed an untold number of beings he could call upon.
Before meeting Erlang Shen face to face, Anthony still planned to give a heads-up phone call first.
After all, he couldn't very well rely on Haku's avatar to go knock on Erlang Shen's door. Doing so would create the problem of how to explain that he was, in fact, the King of the Underworld.
He drew in a deep breath, gently tapped the armrest of the Ivory Throne. In the next moment, his perception extended along the Yellow Springs Road, knocking on Erlang Shen's line of communication.
Since he'd already observed the mortal world once before, the present Anthony could naturally locate Erlang Shen's whereabouts.
And so, in that moment, the phone in Erlang Shen's house rang. Anthony looked through the field of vision of the Yellow Springs Road, and the corner of his eye twitched.
Damn, this is pretty up-to-date with the times, isn't it?
He'd always thought the Ivory Throne's mode of communication would be some kind of telepathy — but it turned out this thing was literally just a phonebook!
Then, in the field of vision of the Yellow Springs Road, a slender, delicate hand picked up the phone and pressed the answer button. Anthony promptly cut off his peeping through the Yellow Springs Road.
"Hello? Is this the little King of the Underworld?"
Suddenly, the voice on the other end paused, and a young woman's crisp, clear voice came through. Anthony was taken aback for a moment.
"You know me?"
He inquired cautiously, and got the calm reply of the young woman on the other end:
"Ah, of course. The caller ID shows 'Ivory Throne,' after all."
"For all these years, anyone calling from a 'Ivory Throne' line has been one of the past Kings of the Underworld. Anyone else is unlikely."
"And besides, that monkey came by recently and told me about you."
Listening to Erlang Shen's seemingly very casual words, the sense of cognitive dissonance Anthony had been carrying about Yang Jian being a woman finally died down a bit.
Not bad — at least she sounded like a proper senior. The shut-in otaku-girl business was probably just her private persona, then?
But — that the Great Sage had told Erlang Shen about him beforehand — that genuinely moved Anthony.
The Great Sage really was a good person, all right.
"He swung by my place yesterday to mooch."
Erlang Shen's bland, neither-warm-nor-cold tone came through: "And at the end, just to change the subject, he chatted with me, asked me if I knew that the King of the Underworld had recently been revived."
Anthony fell silent.
He genuinely didn't know what to say, and for a moment, the words froze in his throat.
Great Sage — give me back the gratitude I just had!
"Anyway — what did you want from me? If you're going to keep standing there silent like a block of wood, I'm hanging up."
Suddenly, Anthony felt the voice on the other end of the line take on a strongly languid air, the shut-in otaku-girl vibes spilling out all at once.
Anthony didn't know what Erlang Shen was up to, but at this point he honestly hoped Erlang Shen really did have something to do.
"Could I ask you for a favor? Since the Great Sage has told you about my situation, you should know the state the Underworld is currently in."
Anthony sighed, addressing his question to Erlang Shen. On the other end, the silver-haired young woman's crisp voice took on an extra hint of strangeness:
"You want me to help you fix the Underworld?"
"It's not exactly that — there are several evil ghosts in the mortal world I need to find a way to bring back."
Anthony responded a little awkwardly to her words. Then he heard the silence on the other end of the receiver.
"I know it's a bit impolite to throw a troublesome task at you right out of the gate, but — I'll do my best to repay the favor."
Anthony waited a while, then continued.
"It's not really a question of you owing me a favor or anything…"
"How about I bring you some figurines? Or some real goods from the worlds of the corresponding works?"
Anthony asked tentatively: "Or how about I head over to Arknights and bring something back for you to play with?"
In that moment, silence spread within the receiver.
At last, Anthony heard Erlang Shen's words, as if she were forcibly holding something back:
"Ha? Why would I need that kind of thing? And besides — what kind of weird things are you spouting out of nowhere?"
"Hm?"
Anthony instinctively went blank for a moment, his brain not yet caught up: "Aren't you a two-dimensional fan?"
The silence deepened.
At that, Anthony suddenly realized what was going on. At the same time, the silver-haired young woman, after a long silence, finally spoke up:
"…Where did you hear that from?"
"The Great Sage told me!"
Sorry about this, Great Sage, but since you sold me out, don't blame me for being unloyal!
In that moment, Anthony silently said this in his heart, and without hesitation sold out Sun Wukong. Whereupon he heard the silver-haired young woman's voice:
"That damned monkey!"
He could just about picture the silver-haired young woman, teeth clenched, expression black as thunder. The corner of Anthony's eye twitched.
The truth was, Erlang Shen wasn't particularly keen on admitting she was an otaku.
Especially not in front of the junior little King of the Underworld.
Honestly, when Sun Wukong had told her that the little King of the Underworld had awakened, Erlang Shen had actually been quite pleased.
At last — a god who didn't know she was a two-dimensional fan, and wouldn't right off the bat laugh at her for being one!
But who could have ever imagined — who could have ever imagined — there'd been a mole among them!
Sun Wukong!
Erlang Shen ground her teeth and called out the name in her heart. But very quickly, her expression returned to normal, her tone once again indifferent, and she turned back to the phone.
"Alright, never mind, I'll go deal with that damned monkey later. Keep going."
"Then — about the two-dimensional business?"
Anthony hesitated, but finally asked all the same. Erlang Shen was silent again for a long while. After a long moment, she drew a deep breath.
"I'm not all that interested in the two-dimensional stuff — I'm just a little curious about modern people's entertainment."
"If you want to bring those things as a meeting gift, I have no objection."
Erlang Shen's voice was extremely flat — as if forcibly maintained that way. Anthony thought it over for a moment, then said:
"In that case, I'll come find you later."
"Fine. I'm always at home, anyway."
Erlang Shen said firmly, then hung up. Anthony sat upon the Ivory Throne, and fell into contemplation.
But after a while, he sighed all the same, and then, the fishing rod appeared in his hand.
And so, within the ancient temple of Grand Flame, Haku slowly lifted his eyes.
"Second Brother, I'm heading out for a bit."
Anthony spoke casually. Jianwang casually waved a hand. In an instant, the figure vanished — and in the blink of an eye, he had arrived in the realm of the Underworld.
Then, the moment he opened his eyes, he made his way toward the Yellow Springs Road.
So then — next, it was time to formally meet that Erlang Shen.
"What the heck, that damned monkey!"
Meanwhile, on another side, after hanging up the phone, Erlang Shen, while scrolling on her phone, was loudly grumbling.
She'd just sent a message to Sun Wukong, and at the end had been rewarded with a long string of 'hahahahahaha' from him.
Haha your foot!
The young woman gritted her teeth as she thought it, and only after a long while did she finally calm her mood, after which she began browsing the figurines section.
It was kind of an old habit by now — every day she'd take a look at the new releases, to see if there was anything that caught her fancy.
And this time, the young woman didn't take long to spot something interesting.
"A Haku figurine… life-sized? Articulated?"
The young woman, with a bit of puzzlement, murmured these words out loud. Then, suddenly, a flicker of interest arose.
The description below the product was equally interesting — it said it was a figurine that appeared as though it possessed spiritual awareness.
Erlang Shen carefully checked the comments section and took a look at the buyers. A thought formed in her mind.
Probably some god's leisure-time hobby. These days, that sort of thing wasn't uncommon. Doing things like this on a small scale — everyone had gotten used to it.
Money, naturally, wasn't in short supply. So, with hardly any hesitation, the young woman blinked, and somehow, the payment was automatically deducted from her wallet.
There's still room at home to put it, anyway.
She thought to herself, lifted her head — but suddenly, she remembered something.
Oh, wait — the little King of the Underworld is coming over.
She glanced at the figurines arrayed everywhere across her home, and hurriedly stood up.
She had to hurry — the persona she'd just set up couldn't be allowed to crumble!
Better to put them away first. Tidy these figurines up. A room with fewer decorations would, just so happen, look more austere as well.
The senior persona must not be lost!
It took a long while, but the young woman finally got all the figurines in the room put away, leaving behind a slightly empty-looking room.
As for the item she'd just ordered — Erlang Shen figured that by the time it arrived, the little King of the Underworld would already have gone home. It would be in time.
Even if it really did arrive early, surely it wouldn't happen to come exactly when the little King of the Underworld was here?
No problem, no problem, just a small issue.
Erlang Shen thought, gave a yawn, and rare for her, sat down in front of the desk and tidied herself up to look a little more presentable.
At least she didn't look like a vagabond who hadn't been groomed in years — all tangled and messy.
So, once everything was tidied up, Erlang Shen felt the situation was just about ready.
She still didn't know when the little King of the Underworld would arrive, but that didn't really matter.
The persona must absolutely not collapse!
Erlang Shen thought silently to herself. She passed the time in her room, quietly waiting.
As nightfall approached, Erlang Shen's ear twitched — she heard a knock at the door.
She hopped down off the bed to go open it: "Coming. Is that the little King of the Underworld?"
But when she opened the door, the person she saw wasn't the current King of the Underworld she'd been expecting.
To be honest, Erlang Shen had never actually seen what the current King of the Underworld looked like. The folks who often went down to the Underworld were a few famous deity loiterers, none of whom had anything to do with her, Yang Jian.
So when she opened the door and saw, behind it, a youth with dragon horns growing from his head and a dragon tail growing from his back, her expression couldn't help shifting to one of shock.
Standing on the other side of the door, Anthony was just about to open his mouth in greeting — and then he saw the young woman's face full of astonishment, as she grabbed his arm and the small of his back, and opened her mouth:
"Eh? So this is what it is? The figurine I bought this time arrived this fast?"
"And it doesn't even come with the packaging?"
____
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