The dragon claw slowly pushed the lid of the coffin to a side, emitting a grating sound.

　　Nine Lanterns and Song Shuhang immediately turned their heads and kept a close watch on the bronze coffin.

　　When Song Shuhang saw the dragon claw come out of the coffin, he exclaimed in surprise, “Is this a corpse coming back to life?”

　　“Fear not. I excel at dealing with these things,” Nine Lanterns said. After all, she was the disciple of a buddhist school and was an expert at dealing with the undead.

　　Just as they were speaking…

　　“Clang~ clang~” Almost half of the ancient bronze coffin was uncovered, and a skeletal snakehead revealed itself from the opening. Red dots of light were twinkling in its empty eyes sockets, making it look very scary.

　　Nine Lanterns didn’t attack immediately. After all, it was Senior Lightning Pig that had built the chamber tomb and buried the white dragon inside. Therefore, there must be a purpose to it if this skeletal snakehead was here in this place.

　　As long as the snakehead wasn’t the going to attack first, Nine Lanterns wouldn’t make a move.

　　After gazing at Song Shuhang and Nine Lanterns, the snakehead opened its skeletal mouth and said, “Hello, who called me just now?”

　　“???” Song Shuhang.

　　Nine Lanterns replied, “No one called you!”

　　Unexpectedly, this skeletal snake had developed intellect and could even speak!

　　“Impossible. I clearly heard someone calling me,” the snake skull said while pushing the lid of the coffin almost completely open.

　　At this time, Song Shuhang and Nine Lanterns discovered that there were two small pointed horns on the head of the snake. It wasn’t the skull of a snake, it was the skull of a flood dragon!

　　“Two fellow daoists, my name is Dragon Bone. Now, are you sure you didn’t say my name earlier?” The flood dragon pushed the lid of the coffin away and revealed half of its body.

　　The flood dragon looked very scary from its appearance, but after exchanging a few words with it, they discovered that it was rather gentle-natured.

　　Dragon Bone? Nine quietly wiped the sweat from her face. Just now, she had indeed unconsciously mentioned the two words ‘dragon’ and ‘bones’.

　　In a way that only Nine Lanterns could hear, the nearby Song Shuhang said in a low voice, “Miss Nine Lanterns, is this skeletal flood dragon an undead or a specter?”

　　Nine Lanterns didn’t even have time to reply that the skeletal flood dragon itself started to explain, “Little fellow daoist, I’m neither. Although there are indeed things like zombies in this world, I’m not such an existence.”

　　Song Shuhang blinked. The skeletal flood dragon had heard him even though he lowered his voice…

　　“Let me introduce myself—I’m the sentient flood dragon puppet ‘Dragon Bone’, pleased to meet you. I can be classified as a magical treasure, and I’m a different species than zombies.” The skeletal flood dragon cheerfully waved its claws at Song Shuhang. Although it had been mistaken for a zombie, it wasn’t angry.

　　“…” Song Shuhang.

　　“My name is Nine Lanterns.” Nine Lanterns joined her palms together as she replied to Dragon Bone.

　　“My name is Song Shuhang,” said Song Shuhang after cupping his fists; he felt that this situation was rather strange.

　　“Fellow daoists, may I ask you why you came here? It’s been a long time since we’ve had guests here.” The lower jaw of the skeletal dragon was moving up and down, as though it was laughing.

　　“We were digging, and we carelessly dug a hole in the wall of this room,” Nine Lanterns replied.

　　The red dots of light in the eyes of the dragon glittered, and he replied, “So that’s how it is. You carelessly barged into this place, huh?”

　　After a short pause, it smiled and added, “You were thrown into the hole by Lightning Pig, right?”

　　“…” Nine Lanterns.

　　Some things mustn’t be mentioned! If you didn’t understand this principle, many a friendship would be ruined!

　　The skeletal dragon used its claw to knock on the lid of the bronze coffin, saying, “Well, why were you looking for Lightning Pig?”

　　Nine Lanterns didn’t speak. She took a step backward and allowed Song Shuhang to get in the front.

　　Song Shuhang cleared his throat and, after cupping his hands, he said, “We came here to request Senior Lightning Pig to give us the ‘skeletal dragon’s withered vine’. However, Senior Lightning Pig wanted to sleep, and since it found us too noisy, it threw us here.”

　　“So, your objective was the skeletal dragon’s withered vine! I should have some of that weed growing on my body.” The skeletal dragon smiled. “Whenever I wake up, I’ll have that thing growing on my body; it’s rather annoying. However, plucking it off of my bones is very comfortable. It’s just like extracting a thorn pricking in your skin, a very good feeling.”

　　After hearing this much, Song Shuhang’s eyes lit up. “Fellow daoist Dragon Bone, can you give me some of that skeletal dragon’s withered vine?”

　　“Sure, it’s not a problem. Moreover, I can give you a quite a lot of those vines… wait, let me see how many are there.” The skeletal dragon quietly returned inside the coffin.

　　Then, its voice echoed from the coffin. “One, two, three, four, five… ten… fifteen, sixteen.”

　　After counting them, the skeletal dragon showed half of its head and said, “This time, there are sixteen vines. I can give them to you if you want, but you also need to help me with something.”

　　“Please say.” Song Shuhang was extremely excited.

　　“It’s very simple. Do you see that crystal coffin in the center?” The skeletal dragon pointed at the crystal coffin with the small white dragon inside.

　　Song Shuhang silently nodded.

　　“Good, do you see that groove beside the coffin? I’ll have to trouble you to go over there and pour a bowl’s worth of blood into that groove. If you do it, I’ll give you these vines.” The skeletal dragon laughed.

　　Song Shuhang gazed at that groove, somewhat confused. Then, his face became a bit paler. If they were talking about a ‘bowl’ from the perspective of a dragon, it was something equivalent to a small washbasin! If he were to lose this much blood, he would die directly!

　　Song Shuhang swallowed a mouthful of saliva. Then, he turned his head and asked, “Do I have to fill it up?”

　　“No need, no need. If you pour a bowl’s worth of blood inside it will be fine,” the skeletal dragon said with a laugh.

　　Song Shuhang looked at Nine Lanterns. He was worried whether pouring blood into the groove beside the crystal coffin would activate some hidden mechanism or something of the sort.

　　“Don’t worry. With Senior Lightning Pig watching over us, nothing bad will happen,” Nine Lanterns said.

　　Song Shuhang nodded and arrived beside the groove. Then, he stretched his arm and prepared to use Broken Tyrant to cut his wrist to pour his blood into the groove, just like those cool scenes in movies.

　　But when he was about to cut his wrist, he started to have doubts as to where he should cut.

　　After all, he had no experience in his matter. If he were to cut too deeply and lose too much blood, it would be a problem. And if the cut was too shallow and no blood where to come out, it would also be a problem.

　　“Miss Nine Lanterns, can you help me with the cut?” Song Shuhang said with a hollow laugh.

　　“Sure!” Nine Lanterns happily took Broken Tyrant from Song Shuhang’s hands and cut above his wrist without second thoughts.

　　As long as it wasn’t your own arm, you wouldn’t care too much when leaving a cut on it.

　　Blood started to flow… and after seeing this endless stream of blood flow out of his body, Song Shuhang’s heart twitched a little.

　　In the blink of an eye, a bowl’s worth of blood had gathered in the groove.

　　Next, Nine Lanterns stretched her hand and grasped Song Shuhang’s wrist lightly, immediately stopping the stream of blood.

　　After the fresh blood poured into the groove, it flowed through the various channels all around the crystal coffin, wrapping the coffin completely.

　　At this point, something inside the crystal coffin should have changed, right?

　　❄️❄️❄️

　　The red dots of light in the skeletal dragon’s eye sockets flickered again and again. It seemed it was looking forward to some change.

　　But even after a long time… the crystal coffin had no changes.

　　The skeletal dragon silently heaved a sigh.

　　Song Shuhang turned his head around and asked, somewhat confused, “Did I fail?”

　　“It wasn’t a failure… but it wasn’t a success either.” The skeletal dragon faintly sighed.

　　“Do I need to pour more blood into it?” Song Shuhang asked.

　　“Thank you, fellow daoist, but there is no need.” The red lights in the dragon’s eyes regained calm. Next, it stretched its claw and passed those sixteen withered vines to Song Shuhang.

　　Song Shuhang took the vines in his hands.

　　These withered vines were very small. Each of them had the length of a palm and was as thin as a strand of hair.

　　If one were to carefully examine them, they would notice that these thin vines were like small lifelike sculptures of a flood dragon. They had horns, claws, and looked very pretty.

　　“The transaction is complete. Now, I’ll allow you two to leave this place. Although I would like to chat with you a bit more, this place is full of dragon corpse aura… it would harm your bodies if you were to stay here for too long,” the skeletal dragon said gently.

　　In the next instant, without waiting for Nine Lanterns and Song Shuhang to reply, it gently moved its claws, causing the duo to hover midair. Afterward, a passage suddenly appeared on the ceiling, and the two of them were shoved into it.

　　After they were gone, the skeletal dragon shot a gaze at the crystal coffin, sighing.

　　In the end, it wasn’t ‘that guy’…

　　After sighing, the dragon stretched the upper part of its body and knocked on the bronze coffin next to him. “Dragon Claw, wake up! It’s your turn to keep a watch next, I’m going to sleep for a while.”

　　“Hm… let me sleep for a few more centuries…” A pure and lovely voice echoed from the nearby bronze coffin.

　　“Sleep your a*ss, get up now!” The skeletal dragon started to knock on the coffin repeatedly, producing a deafening sound each time.

　　After a while, the lid of the nearby coffin slightly moved, and a sharp claw came out of it.

　　The skeletal dragon nodded satisfied. Then, it retreated inside its own coffin and firmly sealed it—it was planning to have a good sleep.

　　❄️❄️❄️

　　At this time, in the Chu Family.

　　Soft Feather was sitting on the grass with her long and slender legs slightly bent, creating a beautiful and charming arc. From time to time, she would move her little toes, looking very adorable.

　　There was a laptop on her legs, and a lot of beautiful pictures were displayed on the screen.

　　Amongst these pictures were Senior White twin-tails edition, Senior White ponytail edition, Senior White double braid edition, Senior White hair-up edition… with all kinds of different hairstyles. There were even pictures of Senior White with what resembled ox horns and pigtails coiling up on the top of the head.

　　Soft Feather typed on the keyboard quickly and started to scroll through these pictures, trying to decide which ones to choose. There was no need to apply filters to these pictures to beautify them. Therefore, she was merely resizing them and storing them away.

　　“Ah! I was thinking to choose several pictures and send them to Senior Song. But each of these pictures is so beautiful… I’ll have to send them all!” Soft Feather muttered.

　　Then, she decided to organize Senior White’s pictures orderly.

　　Amongst them were the [Senior White’s smiling expression], the [Senior White’s stupefied expression], the [Senior White’s cute expression], the [Senior White’s pouting expression], and so on.

　　Finally, she took all these expressions and put them into a package.

　　‘I’m so clever.’ Soft Feather silently nodded and praised herself.

　　Then, she opened the chat program and selected the account named ‘Stressed by a Mountain of Books’, sending him the [Senior White’s cute expressions package] document in offline mode…