CHAPTER 218

“Ka—ka—ka—”

Dongfang Minghui thought she heard the sound of a lock being opened.

The noise was a little odd, kind of like a machine jamming, coming in fits and starts.

But it only happened two or three times, and when it stopped, everything around her went quiet again.

“Am I dead?”

Her eyelids drooped, her body felt heavy, like something was pulling her down.

After pondering this rather serious question, she gradually slipped back into unconsciousness, missing even the distant, ancient sigh that echoed by her ear.

Everything was silent.

In a sea of blazing red, she lay unconscious on top of the magma, like a tiny boat drifting all alone.

If anyone saw her, they’d notice a faint green glow surrounding her, like a guiding light in the darkness, making people feel a sliver of hope.

Not far behind her, a helmet floated in the sea of fire.

The old patterns on its shell looked freshly washed, shining with a unique light.

The helmet spun in place, like a headless fly, searching for something.

It rolled and tumbled on its own, up and down, scrubbing its shell clean.

The distance between the two kept stretching, and stretching…

But every time it got more than two meters away, the helmet seemed to grow legs and headed straight for the floating person.

The red flames around them kept splashing like waves, each one pushing her farther away.

And so, it repeated.

——

“You’re a dragon, not a beast.

Stop these bad habits.” The person finished speaking and lashed the little beast beside him hard.

The whip was covered in thorns, and with one strike, it tore the bound little beast’s skin open.

A fiery red, ornate iron chain locked its limbs, leaving it nowhere to hide.

“Awoo.”

The little beast seemed to protest, but only got whipped even harder.

Its whole body was pitch black, so even if it bled, you couldn’t see a thing.

All you could hear was its constant, miserable whimpering.

The sound was broken and piercing, drilling into her ears.

That’s what woke Dongfang Minghui up.

She stood up and followed the sound, only to see this heartbreaking scene.

She reached out to comfort the little beast, but her hand passed right through it.

Trying hard to see the person on the other side, she noticed two horns sticking up from their forehead, but their face was blurry and unreal.

“Am I dead?”

“Awoo.”

The little beast lay there in despair, not moving, letting the blood soak its once-mighty fur.

“If you keep being stubborn, I’ll throw you into the Soul-killing Forest.”

The scene shifted.

The wind howled, full of murderous energy.

The biting cold wind made her spirit body flicker.

She floated in midair, confused—if she was dead, why wasn’t she seeing Seventh sister, but Toothless instead?

The little beast lay there, barely alive, letting the creatures conjured by the forest’s evil energy bully it.

Its lantern-sized eyes looked sadly at the sky.

Dongfang Minghui followed its gaze and saw that the sky here didn’t even have stars—just thick, ominous clouds.

“Toothless, hang in there.”

“Awoo.”

Toothless howled in misery and then just gave up.

“Wow, what’s that thing? Looks weird.” A bunch of evil spirits, all misshapen and faceless, saw Toothless and started mocking it.

Soon, they brought over a gang of their friends.

At first, they just threw rocks and sticks at Toothless, trying to drive it out.

Toothless ignored them, pretending not to see.

“Don’t hit it.”

She realized she couldn’t stop them at all, and could only watch helplessly from the side.

Seeing Toothless keep backing down, the group got bolder, pulling its fur and deliberately poking at its wounds.

The bullying kept escalating for days.

When Dongfang Minghui couldn’t stand it anymore, she floated away, wanting to see where this place actually was.

But the forest was huge, and the evil energy was aggressive.

After circling around, she returned to Toothless and found her spirit body was flickering, about to disappear at any moment.

“Toothless, I can’t stay with you much longer.”

“Toothless.”

“Toothless, get up and fight back.

Don’t let them bully you.”

…

Dongfang Minghui felt like she’d just dozed off, but when she woke up, the air around her was blazing hot, and sharp, noisy sounds kept ringing out, making her eardrums ache. ŗ𝐚𝐍οᛒÈȿ

She floated up and looked around, seeing Toothless chasing those evil spirit monsters, swallowing them whole.

She wasn’t sure if it was her imagination, but every time Toothless ate one of those things, its wounds healed a bit.

By the end, the monsters acted like mice seeing a cat—one look at Toothless and they screamed in terror.

Meanwhile, the flames had set the whole forest on fire.

Dongfang Minghui followed Toothless, feeling satisfied, but then started to worry.

There was a dark energy coiling around Toothless, lingering at its wounds.

“Roar—”

Toothless’s dragon roar quickly drowned out the sharp, shrill screams. Then, to Dongfang Minghui’s surprise, she saw another version of herself, like looking in a mirror—identical in every way.

But looking closer, she saw the other her was shrouded in evil energy.

She guessed it was the forest’s energy taking her form to trick Toothless.

Looking at Toothless, she saw the little beast was ready to fight, baring its fangs, clearly knowing this wasn’t really her.

“Did I miss something?”

What surprised her even more was that the evil energy version of her was really “brave”—despicable, shameless, and cunning.

Maybe because of that face, Toothless actually fell for its tricks several times, which made her furious.

“Toothless, don’t hold back, bite it to death.”

“Roar—”

The flames had almost completely destroyed the evil forest.

That dragon roar seemed meant to scare off the monsters trying to sneak up on Toothless.

She watched Toothless charge in bravely.

Watching herself get bitten by Toothless over and over, Dongfang Minghui couldn’t bear to look, especially when Toothless finally chomped down… The scene was just too much, so she covered her eyes.

But as soon as she did, everything changed again.

Flames shot up all around.

The fire on Toothless was so intense, there was no hiding it.

Even as a spirit, Dongfang Minghui felt like she was about to catch fire just from being nearby.

“Toothless, where are you going?”

Toothless strode across the volcano, and every drop of blood that fell from its body sizzled and evaporated in the fire.

Dongfang Minghui followed behind it, but her spirit form was getting weaker and weaker, almost transparent, as if it could disappear at any moment.

“Toothless, you’re about to transform into a human, aren’t you?”

She’d been so anxious before that she completely forgot Toothless had already turned back into a human.

Comparing that to the small figure in front of her, she immediately understood—she’d returned to the time when Toothless had left her.

But she didn’t understand why she was being shown all this.

“Toothless, you have to take care of Seventh sister for me from now on.” Even though those two always fought or argued when they were together, they’d still depended on each other for a time.

Dongfang Minghui looked at her increasingly transparent hand.

“Sometimes Seventh sister says things you can’t accept, but she’s actually doing it for your own good.

You’ll understand one day, Toothless—”

Before she completely faded away, she was lucky enough to see Toothless leap fiercely, crashing straight into that volcano made of who-knows-what material.

——

“Why isn’t she waking up yet?” Pig Fairy Grass’s voice.

“Maybe she lost too much blood before and is too weak.” Little Colour’s voice sounded muffled and listless.

“There’s some spiritual liquid here.”

Dongfang Minghui vaguely felt a bit of liquid being poured into her mouth.

Once it entered her body, it actually produced a faint spiritual energy.

“Didn’t I die?”

If you die, where do you go?

She hadn’t had time to think about this question she’d always pondered, when she heard Little Colour suddenly say, full of energy, “Die my ass! Hurry up and think of something, or we’re all going to die here together.”

Dongfang Minghui’s eyes snapped open.

She found herself in the center of a sea of flames, with Little Colour and Pig Fairy Grass squeezed together in her soul sea, muttering about something.

“So that wasn’t a dream just now?”

“What dream?”

She recounted everything she’d seen happen to Toothless.

Little Colour and Pig Fairy Grass whispered to each other, the two plants getting along for once—probably because disaster was looming and they had no choice.

Finally, Pig Fairy Grass said, “It’s probably because that flame came from Toothless, so you could see what happened to her before.”

“I see.”

She quickly calmed down, touched the Love Entanglement at her waist, and only muttered when she saw the things in her space: even Seventh sister’s triple seal couldn’t withstand the dragon’s true fire.

She’d only been unconscious for a moment, and all three seals had been undone.

Pig Fairy Grass stretched out its tail and curled it around her finger.

“Doesn’t matter.

In this Longevity Cauldron, staying alive is what matters most.”

Gurgle, gurgle—

“What’s that sound?”

“Little Bean Sprout’s flowerpot.” Little Colour pointed with its mouth, signaling her to look behind.

Dongfang Minghui saw the Tianyin Helmet tumbling around in the sea of fire, flipping over and over.

Every time it surfaced, it made bubbling noises like a person, not too far or too close—just about two meters away.

She tried to touch the sea of fire beneath her, but her finger was almost swallowed by the flames.

Most of her nail was gone, and her finger was left charred and black.

“Are you trying to die again?” Little Colour snapped.

“Little Fatty.”

Little Colour and Pig Fairy Grass both fell silent.

In the end, Pig Fairy Grass couldn’t stand the sadness on her face.

“After the seal was undone, I only saw you and this flowerpot.” It hadn’t known what happened before, since it was sealed in the space.

It just hadn’t expected to wake up to such a life-or-death situation.

Pig Fairy Grass looked thoroughly depressed.

“Little Fatty.” Dongfang Minghui called out unconsciously.

“If I’m okay after all this, Little Fatty must be fine too.”

Little Colour really didn’t want to shatter her fantasy, so it just urged, “We’ve probably been dragged into the Longevity Cauldron’s territory.

If you don’t want to die, you’d better figure out how to break out of here.”

Dongfang Minghui immediately straightened up.

She sat cross-legged and first checked her space, finding that several medicinal plants were still perfectly fine.

Then she realized her spiritual energy was actually full.

Her wounds had been bleeding before, so she should have been very weak.

Just in case she was still dreaming, she pinched herself hard, making herself grimace in pain.

“Did you find anything?”

“Nothing, it’s all magma everywhere.”

“Hmm, I heard Xiuqi say that any ancient artifact usually has an artifact spirit.

I think we need to catch that spirit first.” Pig Fairy Grass idly tugged at its tail in the soul sea, sounding full of disdain when it mentioned ‘Xiuqi.’

Little Colour in the soul sea glanced at it suspiciously, but put the doubt aside for now.

“If it’s developed intelligence, it must be cunning and is definitely hiding somewhere.

How do we lure it out?”

An artifact spirit that wanted to swallow them whole probably wasn’t anything good.

Little Colour had a terrible impression of the Longevity Cauldron, and being so weak right now, the sight of all the red flames around just made it worse.

Dongfang Minghui listened to their discussion about the artifact spirit and fell into deep thought.

The Longevity Cauldron should be a metal object, so its artifact spirit must be formed from metal elements.

Metal can’t stay in magma for long, so it was probably hiding somewhere with little or no fire.

She looked around.

All she could see was red, except for the Tianyin Helmet, which stood out as it floundered back and forth in the magma.

“Little Colour, can you pull the Tianyin Helmet over here?”

Little Colour’s true form in the soul sea trembled a few times.

Fetching the helmet from the magma was like walking on a knife’s edge.

Pig Fairy Grass just had to add fuel to the fire.

“Are you scared of this fire? If you can’t do it, I can.”

While they were bickering, the Tianyin Helmet sank into the flames again, bubbling, but ended up even closer to them.

She watched the bubbles.

“Could Little Fatty actually be underneath?”

“Huh?”

“How could that be?”

Dongfang Minghui was about to try convincing them when the previously calm magma suddenly started churning.

A wave of fire surged forward, pushing her a bit closer.

She looked ahead at the endless sea of fire.

“Why is it that from the outside, the top of the flame was just a small tuft, at most as round as the sun? But once we’re inside, it’s a whole world of magma.

Did our perspective shrink, so everything looks magnified?”

“Not impossible.”

“Hey, look, a fire person!” Pig Fairy Grass sounded full of energy, even a little excited.

Dongfang Minghui couldn’t help but facepalm.

She turned to look and froze.

Where the Tianyin Helmet had been, a person appeared, completely red like the magma.

The fire person was about 1.75 meters tall, slender, and she couldn’t see the features clearly because the flames were too bright—except for those crimson eyes.

The moment she saw them, they felt strangely familiar.

“He’s coming our way, be careful.”

Dongfang Minghui couldn’t move; she was completely at the mercy of the lava’s flow.

If the lava didn’t move, she could only stay where she was.

Luckily, when that person walked, he stirred up the lava around him.

She stared at his eyes and tentatively called out, “Little Fatty?”

“Ah—”

The familiar voice didn’t come from the person in front of her, but from behind.

Dongfang Minghui turned her head back expectantly, only to see another fire person behind her, identical to the one in front—same height, same build, even the same face.

She looked left and right, completely confused.

Either none appeared, or two identical Little Fattys showed up at once.

“Ah.” The one behind her called out anxiously and even waved at her.

“Two?”

In this lava pool, the aura was the same, all carrying that scorching fire element.

Little Colour did smell something else, but unfortunately, even their auras were identical.

“Weird, they both have a cold metallic scent.”

“Hui.”

The one in front stopped and smiled at Dongfang Minghui.

“Ah.”

“Hui.”

The two seemed to be competing, each saying just one word at a time, making things even more confusing.

Dongfang Minghui frowned and blocked both Little Fattys who were approaching her at the same time.

“Stop.

You two stand right there.

Don’t move.”

“There’s definitely an artifact spirit among these two Little Fattys.

Artifact spirits are metal element, so they’d have a cold weapon scent.

But I don’t get it—why does the other one have it too? Could it be that both are fake?”

Dongfang Minghui couldn’t figure it out either, but she was more inclined to believe the one behind her was the real Little Fatty.

Little Fatty couldn’t speak, only made those “ah ah” sounds.

“The flowerpot is gone,” Pig Fairy Grass said in confusion.

The flowerpot was still floating on the lava, bubbling from time to time.

“Maybe the one in front is actually Little Fatty.”

“Oh, that’s the scent of the Tianyin Helmet,” Little Colour finally understood why both Little Fattys had a metallic scent.

One had been tainted by the Tianyin Helmet, and the other was the Longevity Cauldron itself.

“But that just makes it even harder to tell them apart.”

Dongfang Minghui bit her lip, thinking hard about what made Little Fatty unique.

“Do either of you have the Tianyin Helmet? Whoever has it, I’ll believe is the real Little Fatty.”

The Little Fatty in front got anxious, kept calling “Hui, Hui,” and took a step forward.

When the lava pushed her farther away, she stayed put, not daring to move.

“Ah.”

The Little Fatty behind her squatted down, searched in the lava for a bit, and then happily pulled out a Tianyin Helmet.

The helmet was bright and shiny, like it had just been forged.

Little Colour hesitated, “Artifact spirits are always cunning.

It knows every detail about Little Fatty.

The fake and the real are exactly the same.

It’s really hard to tell.”

“It knows every detail about Little Fatty?” Dongfang Minghui muttered, turning the words over in her mind.

“This is tricky.

If one of them is the artifact spirit, how do we catch her?”

Pig Fairy Grass volunteered, “Tie her up.”

Little Colour suddenly said, “Got it.

The white silk from the man-eating grass is tough for most to break.

Use that to tie her up.”

“You said before it’s a metal element artifact spirit.

What if it breaks free?” Dongfang Minghui felt that relying on the man-eating grass alone wasn’t safe.

If it escaped, finding an artifact spirit in this endless lava would be impossible.

She didn’t know why the artifact spirit was pretending to be Little Fatty, but she wasn’t about to miss such a good opportunity.

“Seventh sister’s Binding Immortal Rope isn’t with me, what a shame.”

“If the three of us combine our strength, we can definitely restrain it.”

“Three—” Dongfang Minghui understood Pig Fairy Grass’s meaning: it, Little Colour, and the man-eating grass.

“But the other side is covered in flames.

If it turns on you, you could get hurt.”

“That’s true.”

“Then it depends on whether you can spot the fake,” Little Colour hinted.

“If you find the fake, Little Fatty can absorb its flames, and then it won’t be a problem for us.”

“Hmm, good idea.”

She pretended to be deep in thought, but was actually discussing with the two spirit plants in her soul sea how to catch the artifact spirit.

“Hey, why would the artifact spirit disguise itself as Little Fatty?”

Pig Fairy Grass and Little Colour fell silent.

How would they know such a perverted idea?

“Little Fatty.”

Dongfang Minghui chose the one behind her.

She tried to reach out, and the lava started to flow, quickly carrying her to Little Fatty.

“Little Fatty, how did you suddenly get so big?”

The person in front of her smiled and handed her the Tianyin Helmet.

Dongfang Minghui kept her expression steady, hesitating as she reached out for the helmet.

The Little Fatty in front kept paddling through the lava, calling “Hui, Hui,” and was heading their way.

She didn’t look back, but shouted in her soul sea, “Now!!!”

The man-eating grass shot out its white silk, wrapping the fake Little Fatty’s outstretched paw tightly, instantly turning it into a white cocoon.

The so-called Tianyin Helmet turned into a puddle of lava.

The white silk burned and snapped into pieces.

The artifact spirit bound by the silk tried to shrink itself, attempting to slip out like a cicada shedding its shell.

“It’s trying to escape.”

“Little Fatty, help!”

“Hui.”

No one knew how Little Fatty did it, but in an instant, the two-meter gap shrank to one, and in a blink, she was right in front of them.

The man-eating grass tightened its silk desperately.

Every time the artifact spirit shrank an inch, it tightened an inch and a half, binding the spirit tightly inside.

But they still underestimated the artifact spirit.

The lava started to churn.

Dongfang Minghui was tossed up and down, almost kissing the lava, the danger no less than charging through a sea of blades and fire.

“Li-little Fatty, Fatty, suck away the flames from that artifact spirit, don’t let it escape.”

Whether they could get out, whether Seventh sister and the others could leave alive, all depended on whether they could catch this artifact spirit.

She’d risk her life to catch it.

Little Fatty didn’t say much, just waved a hand and calmed the churning lava.

The fiery aura all over was overwhelming.

The closer Dongfang Minghui got, the more dangerous it felt, that natural predator vibe making her hair stand on end.

The two in her soul sea were bristling.

“Little Fatty, you—” Dongfang Minghui had never imagined there’d be a day when Little Fatty would turn into a fire person.

How was this any different from Xiao Miao, the child of flame?

“Hui.” Little Fatty grabbed the artifact spirit with one hand, like pinching a bug.

The person who’d been the same height and build as Little Fatty was forcibly squeezed down to palm-size.

Man-eating grass was smart, too, tightening the white threads and pulling them back, finally tailoring the perfect size for the artifact spirit.

A fresh mummy was made.

“Do we need to reinforce it?”

“Go ahead.”

Dongfang Minghui still wasn’t reassured.

After hearing Little Colour’s evaluation of the artifact spirit, she thought it was safer to add a few more layers.

In the end, it became a vine-wrapped mummy.

She gripped it with both hands.

“Artifact spirit, I know you’re awake.

I order you to open the Longevity Cauldron.”

Mummy artifact spirit: “Ah.”

It looked just like another Little Fatty.

Little Fatty kept slapping back the rolling lava, the waves surging like several fire dragons roaming around.

Little Colour watched, heart pounding.

“Don’t tell me this Little Fatty is the fake one?”

In its memory, Little Fatty was tiny, smaller than it.

But in just a few months, she’d grown taller than it, almost as tall as Qian Wanyu.

Even scarier was this destructive power.

Watching her easily calm the lava, Little Colour suddenly felt like maybe they’d tied up the wrong person.

This lava inside the Longevity Cauldron—besides Toothless, only the cauldron’s artifact spirit could control it so freely.

“She was just a flower bud split off from a bean sprout, how did she get so freaky?”

“Um, didn’t she bite you before? Let her bite you again, then you can tell by the aura.” Plants’ sense of smell never failed, but Little Colour thought Pig Immortal Grass’s idea was crap.

Why should it offer itself up to be bitten by that fatty again!!!

“Are you sure you didn’t get the wrong person?”

“No way.”

Dongfang Minghui was very sure.

“Little Fatty has a special attachment to the Tianyin Helmet.

She’d never give it to me.

Besides, you saw it just now—there was no Tianyin Helmet, it was just the artifact spirit’s trick.”

Pig Immortal Grass mused, “What’s this artifact spirit up to?”

She thought of the extra hand the artifact spirit had stretched out under the Tianyin Helmet earlier, and guessed, “Maybe it wanted to refine me, and when it couldn’t, it tried to drag me down itself.”

Thinking about it, that was really dangerous just now.

They were after the artifact spirit, but the artifact spirit was also eyeing her unique material.

Little Colour still couldn’t convince itself.

While Little Fatty was slapping away another fire dragon, it tried to sneak attack from behind, but a slender, pale hand caught it easily.

That hand was delicate and white, not the fiery red from before, making people want to touch it.

Little Fatty pulled the vine over for a look, quickly recognized it as Little Colour’s, and said simply, “Colour.”

“Colour your head, let go!”

Little Fatty let go as requested, but when Little Colour kept pestering, she finally had to tie the vine into a knot and hand it to Dongfang Minghui.

Dongfang Minghui saw Little Colour fuming in the soul sea and said, “Little Colour, stop testing.

She really is Little Fatty.”

Little Fatty and Little Bean Sprout came from the same plant, one she’d nurtured with her own blood.

Of course it carried her aura.

She was from the Longevity Clan, naturally attuned to plants, so she instinctively trusted that this was Little Fatty.

Little Colour puffed up, actually convinced but still a bit unwilling.

That annoying Little Fatty kept changing, now turning into a tall girl—this was just unnatural.

Dongfang Minghui squeezed the artifact spirit like a rubber ball, curiously looking at Little Fatty.

“Little Fatty, where’s the Tianyin Helmet?”

Little Fatty blinked, playing dumb like she didn’t know.

“You lost the Tianyin Helmet.

If Little Bean Sprout finds out, she’ll be mad at you.” She spoke from experience.

The Tianyin Helmet was metal, probably melted in the flames, so it was normal if it was gone.

“I—” Little Fatty still couldn’t speak, just poked herself with a finger.

Dongfang Minghui was confused.

I, I, I what?

“I.”

Dongfang Minghui stared at Little Fatty for a while, seeing her so serious, scratched her head and laughed.

“Little Fatty, you can say other words now.

That’s great.”

Little Fatty couldn’t get her meaning across and got anxious, but didn’t know what to say, stuck for a moment.

“Little Fatty, let’s talk about you later.

For now, let’s interrogate this artifact spirit.” Dongfang Minghui had a little green braid in her hand, woven from the vines of three spirit plants, one end tied to her wrist, the other to the artifact spirit.

The artifact spirit tried to play dumb.

“Ah—”

“Don’t ‘ah’ me, that word doesn’t suit you.

You’ve been in this Longevity Cauldron for hundreds of years, aren’t you lonely?” Dongfang Minghui asked gently.

“Do you know what’s the biggest difference between you and Little Fatty?”

The artifact spirit had planned to keep playing dumb, but the topic suddenly shifted to something it was interested in.

“What is it?”

“Knew it, such a schemer,” Little Colour snorted in the soul sea.

“Little Fatty was raised on my blood essence.

Even though she’s fire-type, her aura meshes really well with mine,” Dongfang Minghui muttered.

“She has feelings for me.

The way she looks at me is so focused.

But you’re different.”

The artifact spirit didn’t get it.

It had copied Little Fatty’s every move, so why wasn’t it the same?

“Of course you don’t get it.

You were born inside the Longevity Cauldron.

I bet no one’s ever come in here before, right?” Dongfang Minghui guessed.

If someone had, the cauldron wouldn’t have just been sitting here open, waiting for them to walk in.

The artifact spirit stayed silent.

It had been asleep for ages, only to be awakened by this group of people.

Dongfang Minghui rambled on to it for a long time, mostly her talking while the artifact spirit kept its cool, sometimes grunting, sometimes not making a sound at all.

“Why bother talking so much? Just threaten it to let us out.”

“How do I threaten it?” Dongfang Minghui couldn’t do that.

“This Longevity Cauldron is its true body.

If it doesn’t want to, even if we destroy the artifact spirit, we still can’t get out.”

The key was figuring out what the artifact spirit wanted.

After a long string of words, Dongfang Minghui finally figured out a little—this artifact spirit liked listening to their adventure stories.

“Sigh.” She let out a heavy sigh.

The artifact spirit waited for a while, but when she didn’t continue, it just kept hearing her sigh and asked, confused, “Why are you sighing?”

“Sigh.”

“Sigh.”

Little Fatty copied her, and the two of them kept sighing back and forth.

Anyone who didn’t know better would think they had a ton of worries.

In the soul sea, Little Colour was getting goosebumps from all the sighing.

“Stop sighing and just talk.”

“I’m done.

I’m tired.” Dongfang Minghui pouted, thinking, My mouth’s dry from talking, and none of you are reacting at all.

“Sigh.”

The green vine mummy followed their lead and sighed too.

“Why do humans always like to sigh?”

But Dongfang Minghui suddenly smiled.

“Little artifact spirit, look at our Little Fatty—hmm, Little Fatty’s grown up now, not scared at all, and actually really pretty.

Should we give her a new name?”

“No.” Little Fatty shook her head.

She liked this name.

“Alright then.” Dongfang Minghui decided to respect her choice and continued, “Little artifact spirit, you’ve been around for hundreds of years at least.

Can you tell me what kind of species our Little Fatty is?”

The little artifact spirit didn’t get it and answered bluntly, “She’s the same as me.”

Dongfang Minghui had wanted to stump the artifact spirit with this question, but when she heard the answer, her jaw almost hit the floor.

After a moment, she repeated, “Artifact… spirit?”

Artifact spirit!!!

Little Fatty is an artifact spirit!

“Nonsense!” Little Colour was the first to object.

“Wasn’t she the bud that split off from Bean Sprout? How could she be an artifact spirit? Impossible.”

Pig Immortal Grass looked thoughtful.

Dongfang Minghui stared at Little Fatty in shock, only to see Little Fatty glance back at her nervously and say simply, “Yes.”

The mummy artifact spirit looked totally lost, its only two movable eyeballs darting between Dongfang Minghui and Little Fatty, back and forth, busy as could be.

Seeing Dongfang Minghui so shaken, Little Fatty nervously called out to her over and over.

Dongfang Minghui’s muddled brain finally snapped back.

“Artifact spirit, artifact spirit, are you the artifact spirit from the Tianyin Helmet?”

Little Fatty watched her anxiously, then nodded.

Dongfang Minghui couldn’t accept it.

She’d always treated Little Fatty as a plant, but it turned out she was the artifact spirit from the Tianyin Helmet, born from another bud of Little Bean Sprout.

“I need a moment.”

“Okay.”

Little Fatty was understanding and decisively jumped back into the magma, not afraid of it at all, making the little artifact spirit stare at her without blinking.

Dongfang Minghui rubbed her forehead, suddenly remembering that time in the gold-eating rat cave, when the rat had pressed the Tianyin Helmet onto the Soul Tempering Furnace and burned it for ages.

The artifact spirit probably gained consciousness then.

But there was still a lot she didn’t understand.

She wanted to ask, but with the way Little Fatty talked now, she probably wouldn’t get any answers.

She glanced at Little Fatty, still unable to believe that just because she’d been bored and planted Little Bean Sprout in the Tianyin Helmet, she’d ended up with today’s Little Fatty.

“Artifact spirit, artifact spirit.” Little Colour was hit hard.

It had wanted to compete with her, only to find out she wasn’t even the same species.

“Why are you all so shocked? Artifact spirits are great too.

If she can swallow the Longevity Cauldron’s artifact spirit and take its place, we can get out,” Pig Immortal Grass suggested, making all three of them freeze.

Especially Dongfang Minghui.

She’d never thought about making the mummy artifact spirit disappear.

It took a long time for an artifact spirit to form, especially one that seemed to have gained consciousness.

She definitely hadn’t thought about having Little Fatty swallow someone alive.

Little Colour hesitated, then muttered, “It’s a good idea.

But if the other’s memories can’t be shared, it’s pointless.”

“Worth a try.”

Dongfang Minghui hesitated and looked at the little artifact spirit.

“Little artifact spirit, would you be willing to let us out?”

The little artifact spirit was confused.

“Isn’t it nice to stay here and keep me company?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

Dongfang Minghui patiently explained, “It was Toothless’s true fire that woke you from the Longevity Cauldron, but we can’t handle this magma.

If we stay here too long, we’ll all disappear one by one, and in the end, no one will be here to keep you company.”

But the little artifact spirit said, “That won’t do.

You all have to stay here with me.”

“Pretty stubborn,” Pig Immortal Grass muttered.

“If we can’t think of anything else, swallowing this artifact spirit is the best plan.”

“Let me think a bit more.”

Based on the way Little Fatty used to eat without any restraint, if she were told to devour the artifact spirit, she’d probably swallow it without a second thought.

Boom—

The entire magma pool erupted, and Dongfang Minghui was pushed far away by the surging lava.

“Little Fatty, what’s going on?”

Little Fatty strode through the magma, each step huge, and in just a couple of strides she was right in front of her.

With one hand, she waved away a fire dragon charging from afar, and with the other, she tried to suppress the churning magma.

“Little artifact spirit, it’s you—”

“It has nothing to do with me,” the mummy-like little artifact spirit said seriously.

“They’re the ones who caused this.”

The Longevity Cauldron shook twice more, making them both dizzy and disoriented.

The magma surged like ocean waves, rising and falling, and Dongfang Minghui was like a lone boat, struggling weakly in the lava.

Luckily, Little Fatty was still controlling things behind her, or she really might have sunk for good.