Chapter 128: This Dragon… So Dumb
Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations
Editor: Karai
A low, hoarse voice echoed through the mental field, warm breath brushing against Lin Xu’s cheek. “It’s me.”
Even with excellent night vision, Lin Xu couldn’t defy the laws of optics and biology. In pitch darkness, he still couldn’t make out the figure in front of him. He reached out, fingers tracing Heinrich’s high-bridged nose and sharp brow. “You changed back.”
“Mm.” His answer came with the tightening of a dragon tail, coiling around them in the cold deep sea. The tail’s warmth was especially noticeable in the chill.
“You scared me just now,” Lin Xu muttered.
“Sorry. I was in a bit of a hurry.”
“What were you so anxious about?”
The two of them were squeezed tightly together inside the narrow shell of a giant clam. Lin Xu didn’t see any urgent issue that Heinrich needed him for.
“It’s just…” Heinrich began, then trailed off, unsure how to explain.
His heart-voice filled in the silence: My clothes got torn when I transformed into a dragon.
So he was embarrassed because he didn’t have anything to wear?
“There’s no one here.” Lin Xu tilted his head. “No one will know Marshal Chu is swimming around naked in the ocean.”
“I know.” But Heinrich had always been the type to wrap himself in full military gear, tailored and tight. Accepting this level of vulnerability wasn’t easy for him.
Lin Xu paused, realizing something. “Heinrich… you can control your thoughts in the mental field now?”
Normally, even if Heinrich gave a terse verbal response, there would be all sorts of unspoken thoughts bouncing around his mind. Lin Xu would catch hints of them. But now—nothing. He was back to being the silent, restrained Marshal Chu.
“Mm. It used to be…” Heinrich hesitated. “When I turned into a dragon, my intelligence and self-control would drop.”
He added, “Probably a brain-to-body size issue. But not by much. If something needs to be done, you can still count on the dragon.”
“Got it.” Lin Xu knew the dragon was obedient. He nudged Heinrich gently. “Get up. I’ll find you something to wear.”
Heinrich must have just shifted back from dragon form, still disoriented. But he obeyed Lin Xu’s words without complaint, even helping him open the giant shell.
As the shell parted, a faint sweetness in the water was swept away by the current. A twinge of regret and longing welled up in Heinrich’s chest—but his rational mind quickly suppressed the instinct.
Lin Xu rummaged around and pulled out a set of merfolk robes Ji Yu had given him. The garments were loose-fitting and long; if Lin Xu could wear them, then Heinrich definitely could too.
Ji Yu had gifted him all sorts of styles, including open-front robes—popular among merfolk who often liked to bare their chests, like the bold and brawny Xian Huo. But merfolk didn’t really wear pants. For Heinrich, just wearing an open robe would be no better than staying naked.
Considering his tail was still exposed, Lin Xu chose a long tunic-style robe instead. It resembled ancient Greek clothing—two wide, uncut pieces of fabric tied together with a cord over the shoulders, covering the front and back, with a belt at the waist. Just to be safe, Lin Xu added one of those open robes over it.
It was probably the first time in Heinrich’s life he’d worn something resembling a dress. Under the soft pink light of the glowing jellyfish, his expression was impressively stiff. But there wasn’t much choice—these were the best options available in a merfolk’s underwater home.
“All done,” Lin Xu said, adjusting the collar on Heinrich’s chest. The loose neckline revealed the powerful contours of muscle beneath.
For a moment, Lin Xu felt as though a statue of a Greek war god had stepped out of myth and appeared before him—tall, broad, and classically handsome. The flowing fabric only served to emphasize the grandeur of his form.
“Want to go back to sleep for a bit?” Heinrich asked. But Lin Xu, who had been jolted awake and tossed into chaos, had already lost all traces of sleepiness.
“Let’s go for a walk. Head up to the surface.”
Heinrich followed him out of the room. But even with dragon strength, swimming with human limbs didn’t compare to Lin Xu’s tail. So Lin Xu grabbed Heinrich by the wrist and tugged him upward.
As they neared the surface, moonlight spilled like shattered silver over the ocean’s waves, rising and falling with the breeze. When the two broke through the water, a pod of dolphins leapt nearby, playfully dancing across the sea. The tide rolled on. The moonlit night was quiet and still.
– –
The next day, when Lin Xu returned to the deep sea with Heinrich, Ji Yu was startled by the sudden appearance of a human. After Lin Xu introduced Heinrich’s identity, Ji Yu blinked, then her expression lit up in sudden realization.
Later that day, Lun Yuesheng came by to deliver another round of prenatal foods for Lin Xu—and out of curiosity, he took a peek at the human form of the dragon. It took only one look before he was scared off by Heinrich’s typically expressionless face.
Mermaids were naturally warm and gentle creatures, and in the first half of his life, Lun Yuesheng had never been scolded by either a person or another mermaid. But after stealing another glance at Lin Xu, he began to think that this so-called “affinity” might be a social trait—not a biological one.
Once Heinrich reverted to his human form, the awkwardness of being a guest in someone else’s home became glaringly apparent—especially since all mermaid structures were made entirely of transparent crystal, offering almost no privacy.
Lin Xu asked Ji Yu whether there were any unoccupied buildings they could borrow, but after Heinrich swam around the seafloor once, he began inquiring about how to build a crystal structure of his own.
Ji Yu invited some mermaids skilled in construction to explain the methods to both Heinrich and Lin Xu. If speed was the goal, the fastest way was to dig out a cave in an existing crystal mountain. For a more refined structure, one could cut and lay individual crystal bricks, but that took considerably more time.
Heinrich chose the faster route. A few young mermaids eagerly volunteered to help “Mr. Lin” dig out the mountain—but after a single glance from Heinrich, he stepped forward, transformed into his dragon form, and slammed a claw into the mountain.
The seafloor shook.
When the dust and shards settled, there was a sparkling crystal cave large enough to serve as a two-bedroom home.
After completing the task, the dragon circled Lin Xu twice in the sunlit shallows. Sunlight rippled over his silver-white scales, making them gleam like molten silver.
Lin Xu cleaned out the debris inside the cave, borrowing tools from the mermaids to polish the interior walls. Occasionally, he used his claws to carve patterns into the crystal.
The mermaids had gifted Heinrich soft gauze and silk, which Lin Xu arranged in the deepest part of the cave, loosely bundled and layered with sea grass and sea crystals. Finally, he added several dragon scales scented with Heinrich’s vetiver pheromones.
In his normal state, Lin Xu was never the type to collect random things and pile them onto a bed—but the nesting instincts brought on by pregnancy had overridden his usual habits. By the time he came back to his senses, a vibrant, colorful nest had already taken shape.
While Lin Xu nested at home, Heinrich—still in dragon form—swam to the sea crystal mines, planning to bring back a fresh supply. After leaving Thales, both Lin Xu and the baby would surely need them.
For merfolk, the energy in seawater was usually enough to sustain life. But sea crystals were a valued supplement, used to enhance the body, heal wounds, and even slow aging.
These crystals were abundant in the deep sea and continued to grow naturally, making them nearly inexhaustible. The only issue was their extreme hardness, which made mining them difficult. But for a dragon, that wasn’t a problem.
In the deep waters, a silver-white dragon flapped his wings and backed up several dozen meters. With a powerful surge, he rocketed forward and slammed into the crystal bed. The impact shook the entire area, dislodging countless shimmering crystals.
He let out a deep roar and began gathering the fallen sea crystals into a tidy pile. The crystals, in shades ranging from dark to pale, soon formed a pointed little mountain beside him.
With a flick of his head, the dragon backed up again, preparing for a second charge. In the distance, Shen Yuan and Xian Huo floated respectfully in the water. Before them stood a figure in a white robe, lacking a mermaid’s tail.
The robe was impeccably tailored, detailed with subtle gold and gemstone embellishments at the collar and cuffs. Black hair flowed freely down the figure’s back, and from behind, he looked so serene and radiant he might have been mistaken for a holy being. But the words coming from his mouth… weren’t exactly saintly.
“This dragon is… so dumb.” A few rabbit-cats with tabby and tiger-striped coats were swimming illogically around Shen Yuan and Xian Huo, brushing against the edges of the white robe.
The figure cradled a long-haired tortoiseshell rabbit-cat in his arms, absentmindedly scratching its chin with long, elegant fingers.
He let out a quiet sigh and turned away from the scene of the dragon smashing into walls, as if “out of sight, out of mind” might preserve his peace. Still… the dragon was quite handsome.
The next moment, Shen Yuan and Xian Huo watched as several tiny dragons—with wings flapping madly—fluttered into view. About the size of the rabbit-cats, they began circling the Spiritual Monarch playfully.
The Spiritual Monarch looked almost identical to Lin Xu—except that he smiled more often. Even though Lin Xu always made an effort to soften the more intimidating edges of his presence, Shen Yuan still had to fight the primal fear that stirred in his blood whenever he faced the apex predator of the deep sea.
But with the Spiritual Monarch, there was no such pressure. He was a gentle, friendly presence—bringing water, food, and shelter to the merfolk, asking nothing in return. And yet… this was the first time Shen Yuan had heard such blunt words from him.
“You’re not going to see Mr. Lin?” Shen Yuan asked cautiously.
“No rush,” the Spiritual Monarch replied. His legs didn’t move, but his body drifted sideways through the water, tiny dragons and rabbit-cats fluttering around him like butterflies. He had always been here, just rarely seen.
“How is his health?”
“Everything’s fine.”
The Spiritual Monarch nodded. “I’ll go explore on my own for a while. You don’t need to follow me.”
The moment he finished speaking, the figure and the animals before Shen Yuan and Xian Huo vanished without a trace. Not even a ripple disturbed the water, as if they had never existed. The two mermaids shrugged and clasped hands, returning to the shallow sea.
The Spiritual Monarch ceased projecting outward, withdrawing back into the world composed of Yan particles and Ye waves, and returned to the crystal cave. Suddenly, a ripple passed through the spot where the Spiritual Monarch stood.
Lin Xu, who had just used his powers, looked up toward the entrance of the cave. The direction of the earlier attack was empty—no one in sight. Yet, just moments before, he had clearly felt someone watching him… Maybe he’d been too jumpy lately.
The steadily accumulating energy was helping Lin Xu’s body recover. His nausea and other pregnancy symptoms were easing. But as the egg grew, his lower abdomen began to bulge, the hard outline clearly palpable beneath his skin.
He grew sleepier by the day, sometimes falling asleep in the middle of whatever he was doing. He even dozed off while Heinrich helped ease his birth canal.
The sudden sleep episodes themselves weren’t alarming, but the unpredictability was dangerous. Lin Xu forced himself to stay alert, determined not to collapse at inopportune moments—and as a result, he became especially sensitive.
He stared at the ocean currents outside the crystal cave. Only a few crabs drifted lazily along the seabed’s flow—no one else was around.
Closing his eyes, Lin Xu rubbed his temples, then resumed carving the shape of a dragon into the crystal wall with his sharp claws. He pushed his mind and body until he saw the dragon return to the cave, carrying sea crystals. Only then did he crawl back into the nest he had built and finally succumb to sleep.
After shifting back to human form, Heinrich quickly swam back to the cave, dressed and composed. He picked out several of the best-quality sea crystals but found Lin Xu already asleep. So he placed the crystals beside Lin Xu’s nest, intending to feed them to him once he woke. But Lin Xu…
Heinrich cupped Lin Xu’s face in his hands and felt a fierce heat radiating from his skin. Lin Xu’s body flushed with warmth, and a sweet, honeyed fragrance drifted beneath Heinrich’s nose, carried by the seawater. Heinrich touched Lin Xu’s black fish tail and detected the scent coming from the fluid seeping between the scales. Lin Xu was… about to give birth?
Author’s Note:
A little disdain from the Spiritual Monarch.
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