Clan Deity held Luo Yuan in his arms and drifted to the front of the shrine, gently setting her down.

At this moment, Clan Deity looked like a man who had been dragged out of bed by a midnight phone call to work—unhappy, irritable.

Luo Yuan said nothing. She retreated into the shrine, watching the situation outside through the gap in the curtain. The two clan gods did not have a friendly pre-battle conversation, nor did they exchange harsh words. Both sides simply moved at once, clean and decisive.

Almost in an instant, Luo Yuan saw red threads filling the gap, layer upon layer, crossing and covering endlessly. The Liang clan god emitted a faint glow all over his body, like a rising sun. Specks of golden light seeped from him, drifting freely through the gaps between the red threads.

When those light specks struck the red threads and wrapped around them, the threads would ignite at once.

Under Luo Yuan’s personal “filter,” even Qin clan’s god had become a fragile man in need of protection. These beautiful red threads, naturally, also became “delicate” threads. She seemed to have forgotten how, on their first meeting, these eerie threads had sliced several people apart alive right before her eyes. All she remembered was how they had behaved obediently in her hands, tied into bows. Seeing the red threads burn, she hurried forward two steps in worry.

But only moments later, the flames died out—because thick, rich blood oozed from the red threads, swallowing the fire entirely. The blood dripping from the threads stretched out, turning into another red thread that made the “heaven-and-earth net” even tighter.

Unfortunately, a thread was still a thread; there would always be gaps. The stray light specks from the Liang clan god were too fine—most were blocked, but a small portion still managed to slip through, drifting past the threads to other places. Two light specks flew into the shrine through the curtain. Luo Yuan glanced at them twice and felt that these glowing specks looked like willow catkins dancing in the wind.

Guessing that touching these things might be dangerous, she stepped back two paces to avoid them. A red thread slipped in through the curtain gap, whipped toward those two light specks, caught them, and swallowed them with blood. Luo Yuan saw a scorched black spot appear on the red thread. She subconsciously reached out, and the red thread naturally rose to meet her, hooking around her fingertip in a circle before slowly retreating.

Immediately after, the shrine became even more tightly wrapped. She could no longer see what was happening outside.

Outside, something else seemed to have caught fire. Smelling the faint scorched scent, Luo Yuan took out her phone and called Minghuang.

Minghuang had only just fallen asleep. She answered groggily, “Mm? Sister An?”

Luo Yuan said, “Minghuang, wake everyone up. Tell them to bring fire extinguishers and put out the flames. There’s a Liang clan god setting fires in the shrine.”

This was truly terrifying news. Minghuang was stunned just listening to it. Only after a long moment did she understand what was happening. She scrambled up from bed, still in her pajamas, and ran outside. Her quarters were close to the shrine, and as soon as she stepped out, she saw glimmering specks of light drifting through the courtyard of the clan god. Wherever those specks landed, the place charred and smoked.

She gasped softly. Then she heard Sister An reminding her through the phone, “It’s a little dangerous inside. You all stay outside; don’t come in. It’s best to stay farther away. If you see sparks anywhere, use the extinguishers to put them out. Don’t let the house burn down.”

Hearing her calm voice, Minghuang also calmed down. She pressed the bell and woke everyone up. Following the instructions, the clan members gathered with fire extinguishers, fully on guard.

“Inside… the Liang clan god is fighting with our clan god?” Minghui asked, holding the extinguisher she’d been handed, disbelief written all over her face.

“Of course. Sister An already said so—how could it be fake?” Minghuang replied.

“These lights are caused by the Liang clan god… Isn’t it strange for us to deal with them using fire extinguishers?”

Minghuang had also felt it was strange at first, but Luo Yuan had quickly convinced her. A fire meant using a fire extinguisher—obviously. The old residence was in the forest. If a forest fire broke out, that was no joke! This was a very serious matter.

The extinguishers did come in handy. The specks of light drifting out of the shrine courtyard ignited whatever they touched. Whenever actual flames appeared, the Qin clan members would promptly spray them out with a hiss, though the only pity was that some specks landed on surrounding buildings, leaving scorched black marks.

Minghuang looked at them with visible heartache. “Sigh, we have to hire people to repair the old residence again.”

Minghui was pulled along by her thoughts. “Perfect time to install electricity in the shrine.”

“Are you here specifically to burn down my house?” Qin clan’s god hovered on the red threads. The sleeves of his robe and the hem beneath it were all densely woven red threads. Not far in front of him, the Liang clan god—whose form had previously resembled a person—continued to shed light. His body slowly turned into a crumbling stone statue, and he was about to be completely bound by the red threads.

He said, “I am about to be devoured. The damage caused by the power leaking out before my death should naturally be borne by you.”

This was the real reason he had come here willingly. He couldn’t very well burn his own house down at the very end. Even at this final moment, the two of them spoke with ordinary calmness, not a hint of gunpowder in their exchange.

“Sigh—”

“Qin clan… annihilation is the fate of clan gods. You will eventually become the same as us—”

The Liang clan god let out a sigh. His entire body solidified completely. The red threads entwined around the stone-like figure interwove endlessly, shredding this petrified god statue.

In the instant it shattered, overwhelming light burst forth from the broken statue, flooding the entire shrine courtyard. Even the darkness of night seemed to be driven away, revealing brilliant morning light ahead of time. Everything exposed to the light at close range suddenly caught fire.

Everyone waiting outside the courtyard saw that light. Their eyes were stabbed by its intensity. They hurriedly covered their burning, tear-filled eyes, not daring to look again.

Countless red threads also ignited. The white clan god at their center was struck by the heat and flames like a moth flying into fire—yet he was not burned at all. Instead, with a sweep of his long sleeves, tides of red threads surged from him, engulfing the intense light completely, attempting to devour all of its erupting power.

Everything happened extremely fast—the burst of light and the red threads enveloping it took only two or three seconds. But in that brief time, aside from the shrine wrapped tightly in threads, the rest of the shrine courtyard was burned pitch black.

“Is it… over?” Minghuang asked from outside the courtyard, barely opening her stinging eyes, clutching her fire extinguisher.

Standing quietly inside the shrine, listening to the sounds outside, Luo Yuan felt a sudden flash of brightness before darkness returned. Then the red threads covering the shrine writhed and retreated. She knew—it must be over.

She stepped forward, lifted the curtain in one motion, and immediately saw the clan god standing in the courtyard, black hair loose around him. Sleeves and the ground beneath him trailed tangled masses of red threads scattered everywhere. And his face—

That was not a face. It was a protruding mask, severe and rigid. The raised portion merged seamlessly with the edges of his cheeks. There was a crack down the mask.

Luo Yuan felt she must have gone insane. Seeing such a strange clan god, her first feeling wasn’t fear. Without thinking at all, she stepped off the corridor and jumped down.

“Er-ge!”

But her foot slipped—the red threads had crept under her without her noticing. The sensation was too eerie, like stepping on a pile of writhing insects.

The clan god standing in the courtyard turned toward her and lifted his sleeve.

Luo Yuan rushed toward him, but what caught her wasn’t a hand—it was the red threads, alive like living beings. Rather than supporting her, it was more like they wrapped around her waist.

Luo Yuan barely had time to call out “Er-ge” when she felt wind roaring past her ears. In an instant, she went from outside to inside the shrine. The clan god, dragging endless writhing red threads, suddenly swelled—and collapsed against her in a rush of red threads, leaving only a white garment falling into her arms. Then the threads layered over her, wrapping her together with the garment.

It was like becoming a cocoon.

She knew that every time a clan god devoured power, he would cocoon. She had even bumped into one once before, daringly hiding next to it to avoid the clan women searching for her. But she had never imagined she would one day be wrapped inside the cocoon itself. The experience was downright chilling.

Inside the red cocoon was extremely cramped. With her slightest movement, the red threads expanded and contracted like breathing. Luo Yuan only panicked for a moment before calming down. She reached out to stroke the threads. Wrapped in the white garment, curled up inside, she felt this contracting red cocoon was like a beating heart.

She couldn’t hear anything from outside—only the rise and fall of this “heart.” She hugged the soft white garment tightly and felt something round inside it. She pulled the garment open and looked—inside was a small ball formed from gathered red threads. The ball pulsed along with the breathing of the giant heart outside.

Luo Yuan instinctively knew this small ball was the clan god.

It was slowly growing larger. When it grew to the size of an embrace, the ball of threads loosened and revealed a jade-like infant.

Holding the child in her arms, Luo Yuan said, “…Ah.”

Just calling him “Er-ge” once—Now, looking at this tiny child, she couldn’t say it at all.

His eyes never opened. Leaning obediently against her chest, his small body slowly grew—first into a child half her height, then into a slender, thin youth—maturing bit by bit at a speed visible to the naked eye. Luo Yuan had no idea how much time was passing outside. Two days? Three days? She could only clearly feel the growth of the clan god.

Finally, he grew taller than her, becoming a beautiful young man. Their positions inside the cocoon had completely reversed—what began as her holding him became him holding her.

Luo Yuan didn’t dare move. The wide white robe the clan god had been wearing now covered both of them, and the clan god was currently in a newborn state…

Her hands absolutely could not move, or she would look like some kind of pervert. Her eyes also couldn’t wander, so she could only keep staring at his face. His face had become the gentle expression she was familiar with. The corners of his lips lifted slightly, as if he were smiling.

This body—she didn’t know how it had transformed—was flawless. Cool to the touch, a chest without the beating of a heart, wrists and the side of his neck without the pulse of flowing blood.

But everything that should be there was there.

The space was cramped; the two of them were pressed very close. Somehow, Luo Yuan ended up completely squeezed into the clan god’s embrace. She couldn’t see, but her legs could feel it.

I really didn’t know I had this kind of kink before.

Leaning against the clan god’s cool chest and breathing in that faint scent, Luo Yuan thought in shame,

Why am I having such a strong reaction to a body that’s basically an animated statue? Surely no one else is like me.

As she was thinking this, she sensed a faint cracking sound by her ear. She lifted her head and saw a long fissure suddenly appear across the clan god’s pale chest, as if struck by something.

Kacha—

The crack spread rapidly. Its shape and size were exactly the same as before. A crack had appeared on the clan god’s chest again, and this fissure would not disappear with each metamorphosis.

What exactly… was this opening?

Luo Yuan’s hand brushed along the edge of the crack. Lowering her head, she kissed the fissure gently, full of comfort and ache. With her movement, the area around the crack slowly seemed to be dyed with red pigment, gradually revealing a vivid red.