Chapter 72: Return

By the time Lin Fang reached Evergreen Apartments on his motorcycle, the clock was nearing 10:30 p.m.

Nebula, the cow demon, was seen in humanoid form. She wore a simple T-shirt and pants, which he had bought on the way at a clothing store. To cover her tiny horns protruding from her forehead, a beanie cap was used.

Meanwhile, the direwolf, in its puppy state, was in her arms as they made their way into the residence.

Soon, the door creaked open, and to his surprise, all of his roommates were waiting in the living room.

“Welcome back!” Zhi Yan let out a pleasant smile, raising her hand in greeting as soon as he saw Lin Fang. But then a moment later, as her eyes fell on the giant beauty that entered after him, her facial expression froze. “Eh? Who is…”

The others seemed just as surprised as she. Only then did Lin Fang remember that he had forgotten to mention the cow demon in the phone call he made to Li Liu on the way. He only told her that he managed to tame a monster.

Clearing his throat, he introduced her. “Everyone, this is Nebula. She is my…”

But before he made the introduction, Li Liu gasped, widening her eyes. “Oh my god, it’s a monster.”

“Eh?” “Huh?”

Everyone, including Lin Fang, was taken aback and looked at her. Even Lin Fang was shocked at how Li Liu found it so easily. He couldn’t help but ask. “How do you know that?”

Li Liu replied. She has a spirit core. And humans don’t have it.”

“An intelligent monster with a humanoid transformation? She is not a dragon, right?” Hao Bin asked, gulping his saliva in nervousness. However, in reality, his fists were clenched in wariness.

Narrowing her eyes, Zhi Yan said. “Let him talk first.”

Lin Fang, turning awkward by the secret exposed in just a moment and hesitant to explain her demonic nature, could only avert his gaze and said. “I got lost from the group, and things just happened on the way, ending up gaining a monster companion.”

Before others could react to his vague story, Nebula responded with a chuckle, “But, I’m not a monster though.”

“Huh?” All eyes turned to the cow demon. Lin Fang also couldn’t help but furrow his brows, intending to stop her from saying that she is a demon.

However, Nebula then followed it up by affectionately grabbing Lin Fang’s arm while releasing the direwolf in her arms, “I’m Master’s number one slave. The future Empress of Master’s world and the one who will bear his children.”

“Say what…” Li Liu’s voice turned pitch high, and others’ jaws opened widely in astonishment. They couldn’t react for a while.

At that, Lin Fang felt like he was electrocuted by ten thousand volts of shock. Trembling for a moment, he hurriedly looked at Li Liu and waved his hand, “She could read my memories, and her language developed based on the strong dialogues from anime and TV series. Don’t take it seriously.”

“Oh, is that so?” Li Liu blinked twice, not knowing what to say next. Zhi Yan, meanwhile, slightly frowned, her eyes darting left and right toward Li Liu and Lin Fang for a bit. Her thoughts were unreadable.

After a while, as they settled down, with Nebula obviously gaining too much attention due to her monstrous physique yet retaining a beautiful face, Lin Fang briefly talked about the entry to his separation from the teammates.

Li Liu’s eyes softened as she looked him over. “I guess you must have gone through many tough battles during the past week.”

“Not many, just a few…” Lin Fang shrugged, trying to undermine at first, but then added, “But those few were quite life and death battles. It made me realize that we can’t just blindly depend on strangers just because they are strong or promise to keep us safe. At the end of the day, everyone is out for themselves.”

Zhi Yan leaned forward, worry plain in her tone as she patted his shoulder. “You should have waited for me back then. I actually wanted to give you a set of battle gear for armor protection, but you left before I could. This was your first exploration, so I was a little worried…” Letting out a sigh of relief, she further said. “Thankfully, nothing happened. Next time, you should go fully prepared and also wait until you get the license. I mean, you don’t even have a Hunter’s License, and even if something happens, no one would side with you for justice. Not to mention, Stellar Rift is a lawless land and anything…”

As she went on speaking about her worries, Lin Fang cut in, letting out a small smile. “Don’t worry. I don’t plan on going for Stellar Rifts or dungeons at the moment anyway. I intend to focus on business. I now have enough funds to kickstart the pet store again. So, my focus will be entirely on that.”

Hao Bin nodded with a smile. “Yeah, that would be for the best.”

Li Liu then leaned forward a bit in curiousity. “By the way, Fan-ge, tell me about your experiences in the rift. What kind of beasts did you face?”

Lin Fang, however, rubbed his temples with fatigue weighing on his voice. “We can talk later in detail, Liu-er. I need sleep right now.”

“Ah, ok…” She sounded a bit disappointed but could only agree.

As Lin Fang stretched his body, “Goodnight, fellas.” The cow demon also got up from the chair and followed him. “Master, wait for me.”

“Wait…” Zhi Yan suddenly spoke aloud.

“Hmm?”

“Well…” Her gaze shifted from Lin Fang to Nebula for a few seconds of silence, but she eventually shook her head with a forced smile. “Nothing. Goodnight. We can talk tomorrow.”

Lin Fang nodded with a weary smile. As both of them entered the room and the door was closed, Zhi Yan’s gaze lingered on it for a while until she felt a hug from her back, and Li Liu placed her chin on her shoulder as she said softly. “Yan Yan, it’s just a monster. You don’t have to be that sensitive. Your real competition is Li Xue. You should worry about her the most.”

“Wha… What do you mean by real competition?” As Zhi Yan stuttered, with a faint hue of pink crept to her cheeks, Li Liu giggled and whispered, “A month ago, he had nothing but looks. He was completely broke. Today, not only does he have quite a bit of wealth, but he also has an intelligent monster following him. That Nebula, when she dies, is also bound to become a spirit king. Even an idiot could see that his future would be bright. Even though he claimed that Li Xue only wants him for a fake relationship to escape her marriage, it won’t take much time before that fake relationship turns into real. But at the moment, I can see he seems quite angry at his guildmates. If you are looking for something to happen, you have to strike at this opportunity or else, once he forgives them and moves on, it will be tough for you, girl.”

“I…” Zhi Yan remained speechless for a while, clearly tormented by something. She couldn’t voice it aloud and just stayed silent.

Meanwhile, Lin Fang, who slipped into the room and locked the door, exhaled fully, exhaustion finally catching up as he lay on the bed. While Black rushed to the corner of the room to drink water, Nebula quietly sat beside him. However, as seconds passed by, she became restless.

“Hmm? What happened?”

“Umm… master, these human clothes you made me wear are too uncomfortable. Can I take them off?”

“Eh?”

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