“What happened just now? Did I black out?”

Kunpeng was out for only a few seconds.

When he slowly came to, he was still dazed. He pushed himself up, feeling pain all over; it was as if every bone in his body had been crushed.

He lifted his eyes to Lin Mo, who was staring at him, and rubbed his head. “What… what happened to me just now?”

Lin Mo rolled his shoulders and smiled faintly. “From where I was standing, you just went flying on your own.”

“There’s something that weird?”

“How could I send myself flying?”

Kunpeng couldn’t figure it out. It never even occurred to him that the problem might be with Lin Mo.

He chuckled. “Young Master, does what you said just now still count?”

Lin Mo nodded. “Of course it counts.”

He hadn’t finished his testing yet; he still wanted to study the secret art the Yao Lord had planted in his body.

The moment Kunpeng heard he could get close to Lin Mo, he was overjoyed. He even forgot about the pain in his body and scampered over to Lin Mo, butt wiggling.

“Bang!”

Kunpeng was sent flying again.

This time, his head stayed clear.

He clearly felt that the instant he came into contact with Lin Mo, a strange force surged through his entire body.

He could be sure it definitely wasn’t Lin Mo doing anything. The demonic qi in Lin Mo’s body hadn’t changed at all. The force came out of nowhere, sudden and inexplicable, leaving him completely at a loss. He had no way to resist it—more accurately, he had no idea how to resist it.

Kunpeng landed face-first, then got up and stared at Lin Mo in confusion. “What’s going on?”

Lin Mo didn’t explain. He could only say that this force didn’t affect him much; it just warded off men, that was all.

Even if it meant he couldn’t have any physical contact with his own father or grandfather, he didn’t care.

As long as it didn’t stop him from touching his wife’s precious daughter, that was what mattered.

Back in the room, he saw Qu Ruyan clutching a huge pile of fruit, wolfing it down.

“Yanyan, are you full yet? If you are, come with me.”

“Senior Brother, where are we going?”

“Where else?” Lin Mo lightly tapped Qu Ruyan on the head. “Back to the Human Realm, of course.”

“What, you’re reluctant to leave now?”

Qu Ruyan said, “How could I be? Wherever Senior Brother goes, I go.”

As she spoke, she casually swept all the fruit Kunpeng had prepared on the table into her storage ring.

Lin Mo was long used to this.

After a brief farewell to Kunpeng, Kunpeng once again took up the role of Lin Mo’s guide back to the Human Realm.

Restored to his true form, Kunpeng fluttered his little wings at Lin Mo. “Young Master, come on, ride on me!”

Qu Ruyan also returned to her true form at this time and let out a screech at Kunpeng. “Senior Brother should be riding on me.”

Kunpeng was a bit rattled by that roar.

He had seen Qu Ruyan’s terrifying eating ability. If he annoyed her, she might just decide to eat him.

Lin Mo didn’t hesitate to sit on Qu Ruyan’s back.

Mainly, he didn’t really have a choice.

Seeing this, Kunpeng’s eyes filled with disappointment, then he turned and started leading the way.

The way back wasn’t the same as the way they had come.

Lin Mo asked curiously, “The entrance to the Demon Realm and the path back aren’t in the same place?”

Kunpeng said, “Right. The entrance from the Human Realm to the Demon Realm and the exit from the Demon Realm back to the Human Realm aren’t set in the same location.”

“The main reason is to prevent some humans who learn where the Demon Realm’s entrance is from setting up ambushes.”

“After all, master–servant contracts are far too dangerous for the Yao clan.”

Hearing this, Lin Mo found it reasonable.

The whole way, Kunpeng wouldn’t stop chattering, all about how Lin Mo should settle down in the Demon Realm if he wanted to be safe.

There was no way Lin Mo was going to stay in the Demon Realm long-term.

At the end of the day, he was just a human wearing the skin of the Yao clan.

Here, he felt absolutely no sense of belonging.

Once they returned to the Human Realm, Kunpeng reluctantly said goodbye to Lin Mo.

This trip to the Demon Realm hadn’t been especially long, but it wasn’t exactly short either.

It had been close to a year.

There wasn’t much time left before the Lin family of the Upper Realm held their internal grand competition.

Passing by a lake, Lin Mo frowned at his own devastatingly beautiful reflection.

“Am I really going back like this?”

At that moment, the system’s voice echoed in his mind.

“Dear Host, you can try unequipping the skin.”

“If I take it off, I won’t explode?”

The system analyzed, “You probably won’t. After all, your true body wasn’t directly targeted by the Yao Lord’s secret art. There might be some other effects, but I think it shouldn’t be a big problem.”

Lin Mo said suspiciously, “What do you mean, you ‘think’ it’s not a big problem?”

“Stuff like this—if you don’t give me accurate intel, it can get me killed.”

“Mainly, this is the first time I’ve seen a situation like yours, dear Host. Even if you really were going to explode, we’d still have to follow procedure, right? And you can switch back at any time.”

That was true enough.

Lin Mo immediately chose to unequip the Blazing-Fire Phoenix skin.

In the next instant, he returned to his original appearance.

Hmm. To be honest, his looks weren’t that different.

Compared to his Blazing-Fire Phoenix form, the two of them were more like twin brother and sister—dragon-and-phoenix twins.

After reverting, Lin Mo immediately focused his mind to examine the state of his body.

Just as the system had said, his true body hadn’t been affected.

He could still sense the secret art the Yao Lord had cast residing within him, but that power remained very stable.

Seeing this, Lin Mo let out a small breath of relief.

Qu Ruyan, who had been at Lin Mo’s side the whole time, had seen the entire transformation. Her eyes sparkled. “Senior Brother, I want to learn that ability you just used!”

Lin Mo shook his head. “You can’t learn this one.”

Qu Ruyan asked in confusion, “Why not?”

Lin Mo smiled. “Because you don’t have a system.”

“A straw?”

“What’s that?”

Lin Mo didn’t explain. He flipped over and climbed back onto Qu Ruyan’s back.

“Let’s go. We’re going back to the Lin family.”

The Lin family compound.

“Ow, ow, ow—Lili, stop hitting me!”

Lin Tian was fleeing all over the courtyard, with a beautiful girl chasing him, long sword in hand and fury on her face.

This beautiful girl was the Lin family’s guest elder—Wang Li.

“Today I’m chopping off those filthy pig hands of yours!”

“Hey now, I just squeezed your butt a couple times. We’ve already slept under the same blanket like good buddies—what’s the big deal?”

Lin Tian’s words made Wang Li’s face flush even redder, and her speed increased by a few notches.

Lin Tian was naturally no match for Wang Li, who was in the Divine Transformation Realm.

Just as she was about to catch him—

A familiar figure flew in from the sky. To Lin Tian, it was like seeing a savior.

“Uncle Mo, save me!”

As he shouted, he bolted straight behind Lin Mo, wrapping his arms around Lin Mo’s thigh, trying to use him as a human shield between himself and Wang Li.

He had only been holding on for a few seconds when Lin Tian suddenly realized something was off.

This… this didn’t feel right!

“Uncle Mo, have you been slacking off this past year? Your leg isn’t as firm as it used to be.”

Before Lin Mo could answer, Lin Tian’s whole body was blasted away, smashing heavily into the courtyard wall.

His head was ringing.

In his daze, he saw that where Uncle Mo had been standing a moment ago, there was now a curvy beauty.

Before he could see clearly, he passed out cold.

…