After the tremor, a deep joy followed.
"From now on, no one can kill me again!"
"I am invincible!"
Wang Zhong raised the Tuan Yan Fan towards the sun, his face a mask of almost frenzied delight.
With just a minor test, Wang Zhong knew how terrifying the fan in his hand was. It was an ultimate weapon that only gods could forge, possessing world-ending power.
The stronger the enemy, the greater its destructive force!
Using the enemy's strength against them! With the Tuan Yan Fan in hand, no one could kill Wang Zhong!
"Hm? That sounds quite significant!"
A clear, melodious voice descended from above. A tall, slender figure stood against the wind, her pink skirt fluttering, her face as beautiful and ethereal as a fairy's, adorned with the most gentle smile. Her wine-red eyes and hair shone with an angelic warmth in the sunlight.
The Tuan Fan slipped from his grasp and fell to the ground. Wang Zhong's eyes widened as he looked at the figure descending from the sky.
A mist gradually rose in his eyes. He pursed his lips and leaped up, throwing himself into the embrace of the figure he had missed to the core, apologizing in a hoarse voice.
"I'm sorry, Mother, I was wrong!"
"I missed you so much!"
Bibi Dong held Wang Zhong tightly, her slender jade hands stroking his hair, speaking in a gentle, soft voice, "Mm, Mother received it."
"Mother missed you too!"
They embraced in mid-air, two figures, one big and one small, holding each other tightly, like the closest of kin.
A quarter of an hour later, Wang Zhong slowly lifted his head from Bibi Dong's embrace, wiping the moisture from his eyes, and asked with a smile, "Your Excellency, why are you here?"
Carrying Wang Zhong as they descended from the sky, Bibi Dong gently wiped the tears from his eyes and smiled softly, "Why, has the way you address me changed again?"
"It doesn't matter, I told you, I will live up to that title of 'Mother.' No matter when you call me that, I will respond."
"No matter what form I take, I am always the Mother you speak of!"
Her sincere voice, filled with deep tenderness, flowed like water, nourishing the parched heart that longed for parental affection.
Wang Zhong's lips pressed together even tighter. His green eyes rippled like a lake's surface, shimmering with light. The gentle, genuine smile before him was etched deeply into his heart, never to be erased or fade.
Wang Zhong remained silent, burying himself once more in Bibi Dong's embrace, like a homeless child who had found a home, cherishing the warmth and affection she offered him in that moment.
Bibi Dong gently patted Wang Zhong's back, her expression soft and tender.
After a long, long time, Wang Zhong took a deep breath and grinned at Bibi Dong, "I like to keep the word 'Mother' hidden in my heart. It's my most precious treasure, something no one else can touch."
The boy's innocent words struck Bibi Dong's heart in an instant. Her wine-red eyes trembled slightly.
She cupped Wang Zhong's small face with her delicate, jade-like hands, stroking it. At that moment, Bibi Dong also etched the pure and untainted smile, tinged with childish innocence, into her heart.
Feeling the cool touch on his face, Wang Zhong asked with a smile, "Your Excellency, why are you here?"
Her red lips curved slightly, and Bibi Dong smiled in response, "To see if my naughty child has been playing too wildly and forgotten that he is still being punished."
Wang Zhong scratched his head, smiling a little sheepishly.
Here, he truly didn't feel like he was being punished at all; instead, he felt a sense of freedom and joy.
"You, I really don't know what to say to you."
Bibi Dong playfully glared at Wang Zhong, feeling inexplicably weary. How could she guide such a child to truly grow up?
Glancing at the ravaged surroundings and the violently struggling demonic bear in the distance, which was barely breathing, Bibi Dong shook her head helplessly and said, "Let's clean up. This place has seen a great battle, and powerful beings from the Death Canyon might notice us. Let's leave here and go somewhere else."
Wang Zhong nodded in agreement, put the dropped Tuan Yan Fan into his Soul Guide device, walked up to Bibi Dong, and said, "Okay, I've tidied up."
Bibi Dong blinked, asking curiously, "That's it? Nothing else?"
Wang Zhong chuckled, "Yes, what else would there be?"
"Alright, you're truly excessively concise, little one."
"Let's go, we'll go somewhere else."
They walked hand in hand into the depths of the great canyon. After about an hour, the earth trembled, and forests collapsed. A colossal beast's head, resembling a tortoise, emerged.
Its massive head was like a small mountain, its colossal golden eyes like molten lava, cold and emotionless. Fierce scales covered its entire head, vast and terrifying.
Its golden eyes glanced at the near-dead violently demonic bear, and its sharp, heavy mouth opened and closed, swallowing the three-meter-tall bear in one gulp.
With a trace of human-like confusion in its eyes, the giant beast's head tilted upwards, its long neck stretching like a python into the sky, surveying the entire forest. Its gaze swept across the area, but it found nothing unusual.
The neck retracted, and the beast's head withdrew. The earth trembled again. If someone could fly above and look down, they would see that a thousand-zhang-tall mountain in the Death Canyon, covered in strange rocks and dense trees, was moving at an extremely slow but steady pace.
The ferocious beast's head, high above the forest, surveyed everything like a king or emperor. Its limbs, as thick as stone pillars, reached the heavens. Each step it took made the earth tremble.
In the Death Canyon, there were only a few overt rulers and kings. But in the dark depths, a colossal tortoise, ancient beyond reckoning, resided. It was the uncrowned king of the entire canyon.
Ancient, weathered, terrifying! Not a single so-called king among beasts dared to disturb its slumber.
For countless years, it had accustomed itself to passing the uninteresting passage of time in slumber. But just now, in its endless darkness, it had sensed a familiar aura.
Fiery red, noble, and wild – a memory etched into its soul, deep within its bloodline, a unique aura of royalty!
It was this aura that awakened it from its dream and brought it to this place. However, after surveying the area, it found only the figures of two humans and no sign of the fiery figure from its memory.
It had come with expectation but left disappointed. Such was life!
A hint of sadness flickered in its golden eyes. The colossal beast's head drooped powerlessly. Eventually, it retracted its limbs into its shell and its head, transforming into a motionless mountain.
Just as it had been for countless years, unchanging, silently awaiting the arrival of someone or something.
"King, have you truly died?"
An ancient, hoarse voice, rough as grinding sand, emanated from the mountain, filled with sorrow and remembrance.