The Most Bizarre Kid in Hundreds of Thousands of Years

"What are you doing?" Baxa asked.

"Give it to my Senior Sister," Nine Li said. "She needs to show it to them, or they won't believe it! After all, the Fiendbloom is an extremely rare, irreplaceable treasure. There's no way they'd hand it over so easily."

Baxa nodded indifferently. "Take as much as you want, just don't touch it. My blood is poisonous."

So Nine Li took out a porcelain bottle, used his spiritual power to slice open Baxa's wrist, and drew some of his blood.

"All right! Let's go, hurry up!" Lily Bai urged.

She didn't want to discourage Nine Li.

If High God Quentin Lian doesn't want to give up a Fiendbloom, even blood tainted with Demonic Poison won't help.

Nine Li nodded, then suddenly, a surge of black demonic qi rose from his face!

He staggered a few steps, then collapsed to the ground.

"Nine Li!" Lily Bai cried out in alarm, rushing over to help him up. "What's wrong with you?"

Nine Li stretched out the hand holding the porcelain bottle.

He dipped his finger into the bottle, deliberately drawing the Demonic Poison into his own body.

"Are you insane?" Lily Bai screamed. "What the hell are you doing?!"

"Senior Sister, stop yelling," Nine Li said, his lips turning black and his eyes gradually bloodshot. "Think about it—if you were the leader of the Spirit Alliance, and some not-so-close friend of your daughter came asking for an unbelievably precious Fiendbloom, would you just hand it over?"

Lily Bai was silent.

"At the very least, he'd ask who got poisoned, right? He might even insist you bring the patient so he can treat them himself. What would you say then? Can you really tell him you're begging for Baxa? Even if you weren't afraid of being condemned by the Divine Race, they still couldn't just give it to you, could they?"

"But you can't just... What if there's no Fiendbloom left?"

"I owe him my life anyway. If I die, it's just paying off a debt." Nine Li looked at Baxa and flashed him a bright grin. "Big Brother, if you die, at least you'll have your little brother for company on the Road to Yellow Springs. You won't be lonely."

Baxa stared at him for a long moment, utterly speechless.

This foolish, clueless kid—who's never even tasted alcohol—really is the weirdest thing Baxa has seen in all his hundreds of thousands of years...

"Nine Li, even if I do get the Fiendbloom, I'd rather feed it to a dog than let you have it!" Lily Bai fumed, grinding her teeth. "Then I'll just watch you grow boils on your head, pus on your feet, eat raw flesh, and go totally insane! I'll make you look in the mirror every day and stare at your own monstrous face..."

She grabbed him and flew straight toward the Spirit Alliance.

"Kids always worship the strong," Azure Flame said. "I used to think all his 'Baxa big brother' talk was just childish hero-worship. Never thought this kid would actually risk his life for a friend."

Baxa looked at the wound on his wrist, and suddenly remembered Nine Li, tipsy and flushed, leaning on his shoulder and saying, "Baxa big brother, from now on, I want to call you my big brother! Is that okay?"

His eyes back then were so genuine and earnest.

Baxa smiled faintly and closed his eyes.

......

Luna Lian is usually stationed at the Spirit Alliance.

When she got Lily Bai's call, she came out and personally brought them inside.

The moment she saw Nine Li, her face changed dramatically. She demanded to know what had happened.

Lily Bai said they'd run into a demonized rat spirit on the road, and that it was the one who poisoned him.

"A demonized rat spirit? You don't mean... could it be Demon God Noctis?"

"He... yeah, his name was Noctis. You know him?" Lily Bai asked. "Why do you call him Demon God?"