Chapter 96: Dragons Have No Reproductive Barrier
“So, are the Gui Fang people nowadays also of the Yellow Emperor breed?”
Zhang Min sighed and said: “They’ve grown more and more like us. In the past, Gui Fang people had some with four arms, and some with four legs.
Unless they were the most powerful warriors, the extra limbs on ordinary people didn’t provide more combat power.
Ever since borrowing seed from the descendants of Xuan Yuan Shi, the offspring they gave birth to were just like us, with two legs and two arms. Even if there were failures, they’d at most have three hands or three legs, with one hand or one leg being a weak limb that could just be cut off.
Two thousand years ago, those green-skinned, multi-armed, multi-legged guys were merely slaves of the Great Han people, helping the Great Han build the Great Wall, construct walls, open highways, and such. It’s said that under every inch of the Great Han’s highways lies the blood of Gui Fang people.
One thousand five hundred years ago, there were already very few multi-armed or multi-legged people among the Gui Fang people. Apart from their skin being a bit greener, there wasn’t much difference from us.
By the time King Huo marched north, which was a thousand years ago, the Gui Fang already had handsome men and beauties that made Great Han people drool. Most fatally, they could already intermarry normally with Great Han people and give birth to offspring, no longer needing descendants of Xuan Yuan Shi to do it personally.
At that time, on the wasteland of the Gui Fang, countless thatched houses were built, and each one housed a beautiful Gui Fang woman. Any Great Han man could enter and enjoy the beauty’s tenderness, not to mention there was lots of delicious food there.
King Huo led three million elite troops to campaign against the Gui Fang for forty years. Although he killed nearly ten million Gui Fang people, he ultimately left the Gui Fang with nearly ten million newborns.
A thousand years ago, everyone thought King Huo’s prolonged campaign was a victory. After all, he drove the Gui Fang north by ten thousand li, and no more Gui Fang people coveted the Great Han’s territory.
1 Six hundred years ago, the historian Official Jie gave a new interpretation of the matter. He believed that King Huo’s northern expedition was actually a war with losses outweighing gains, because that war thoroughly changed the breed of the Gui Fang people.
1 The Gui Fang people killed by King Huo were all those with incomplete or failed evolution. Those Gui Fang people who evolved like us continued to multiply in the distant north. The offspring they gave birth to were more powerful and smarter than the previous generation or even several generations before.
1 Yun Ce listened intently to Zhang Min recount those distant stories. There was just one thing he completely couldn’t understand: why did the Gui Fang people originally have reproductive isolation with other Han people, but not with the descendants of Xuan Yuan Shi?
1 Zhang Min took a sip of water to moisten her throat. Seeing Yun Ce still deep in thought, she smiled and said: “Are you wondering why descendants of Xuan Yuan Shi could produce healthy children with Gui Fang people?”
1 Yun Ce nodded repeatedly and caringly refilled the empty cup for Zhang Min.
1 Zhang Min smiled bitterly and said: “This problem that people two thousand years ago pondered for a thousand years without figuring out was later cracked by an offhand remark from King Huo.
1 That remark was—dragons beget nine sons, each different. It can produce all sorts of children with mother dragons, wolves, large birds, toads, lions, turtles, tigers, fish.
1 Xuan Yuan Shi have always claimed themselves to be dragon sons and grandsons, so they must carry dragon bloodline, and naturally could produce new offspring with four-legged Gui Fang people.
1 After hearing Zhang Min’s explanation, Yun Ce couldn’t help but glance at the red date horse that had sauntered into the courtyard. If this horse were female, Yun Ce still couldn’t help but think: if he were with the red date horse, would he give birth to a dragon horse or something else?
1 No sooner had the thought arisen than Yun Ce’s hair stood on end, and he shook his head violently to fling out this impure strange notion.
2 The descendants of Xuan Yuan Shi could create a new dominant breed with Gui Fang people. He had gnawed on dragon eggshell, taken Ao Bing’s dragon breed, and later seized another dragon breed. His strongest martial skill was transforming his arm into a dragon claw. By such reasoning, a clear answer could be drawn.
2 Wasn’t the dragon concentration in his own body even higher than that in the descendants of Xuan Yuan Shi?
2 By further reasoning, wasn’t the dragon concentration in his body approaching that of the dragon itself? Since dragons could produce children with toads, he with…
2 At this thought, Yun Ce still let his gaze fall on E Ji. He could accept having children with E Ji, but with things like the red date horse, better not.
2 Zhang Min had brought Yun Ce an extremely important biology lesson today, so Yun Ce brought out the braised pork he had specially made this morning to reward her.
2 At the moment of deliciously eating the braised pork, Zhang Min kept sowing discord between him and E Ji.
2 “Beating the drum on the wasteland to attract lovers is a custom that came from the Gui Fang people.”
2 E Ji fed a piece of braised pork into Doggy’s mouth and asked Yun Ce uncomprehendingly.
2 “What are Gui Fang people?”
2 Zhang Min said with a beaming smile: “A bunch of ugly ghosts.”
3 Yun Ce glared at Zhang Min and said: “The indigenous Ling Kingdom people in Yun Prefecture are also of Gui Fang breed?”
3 Zhang Min shook her head and said: “They’re a variant of Han people. Don’t worry, your wife has a clear background; she’s of Han breed. I was just teasing her earlier.”
3 Although E Ji was illiterate, she was very smart and had long heard that Zhang Min was slandering her. She just didn’t understand what the slander was. With Yun Ce’s question, she instantly understood everything. She aimed Doggy’s mouth at Zhang Min, then twisted Doggy’s tail with all her strength.
3 While Zhang Min was still baffled, Yun Ce yanked her off the bench. Before Zhang Min’s anger could rise, the milk dog’s mouth suddenly turned into a massive black hole, and two rows of knife-sharp teeth clamped down like a cleaver, biting the wooden stump she had just been sitting on into two pieces.
3 Recovering, Zhang Min flew into a rage. Her soft sword slithered out like a spiritual snake from her sleeve, heading straight for E Ji’s throat. E Ji twisted the milk dog’s tail again, so that black hole appeared once more, large and round, blocking her soft sword.
3 Zhang Min was very experienced in dealing with spirits. She leaped back, used her soft sword to wrap up things and smash them into Doggy’s mouth. In an instant, the tables, chairs, and benches that Steward Qiu and the others had painstakingly made, as well as the delicacies on the table, were all bitten to bits by the dog mouth.
3 Yun Ce didn’t step in to mediate. At this time, no matter whom he pulled away, the other would seize the chance for a fatal strike. It was better to let them fight rationally for a while until the anger subsided, then mediate.
3 Zhang Min’s judgment was correct. The milk dog indeed couldn’t sustain its giant mouth function for long. No matter how E Ji twisted the milk dog’s tail, the milk dog just whined in pain, its mouth unable to enlarge again. E Ji then said to Zhang Min: “I’ll let you off this time. Next time, I’ll definitely make Doggy bite you in two.”
3 “Oh dear, without this dead dog, could you even take one move from me?”
3 “Doggy was caught by my young master for my self-defense. If Doggy fails, my young master is still here. Can you beat my young master?
4 If not for seeing you as a hopeless woman, I’d have long had my young master smash you into meat paste to feed Doggy.”
4 Zhang Min was speechless and glared angrily at Yun Ce: “Would you help her beat me?”
4 Yun Ce could only spread his hands, indicating it was hard to say.
4 As expected of a secret agent envoy, Zhang Min quickly sobered from the quarrel. Pointing at Doggy, she said: “This is Dog King Nao Sheng. How did you capture it alive? Among the spirits of Yun Prefecture, Dog King Nao Sheng’s prestige surpasses even Pig King and Bear King. Are you stronger than Zhou Chengming and Wu Tong combined?”
4 Yun Ce hurriedly shook his head: “Zhou Chengming alone beat me until I was shitting myself in fear.”
4 Zhang Min said: “Those two could kill Pig King and Bear King, but they couldn’t capture Dog King Nao Sheng alive, let alone turn the majestic Dog King into a milk dog for a woman and child to play with as a toy.
4 Yun Ce, don’t get careless. Spirits are hard to tame in the wild. Even if they seem docile, it’s only temporary dormancy. Once they have a chance to escape, they will definitely counterattack.
4 I really dislike your wife, but I can’t bear for her to end up in the mouth of Dog King Nao Sheng. For the sake of my kind reminder, tell me, how did you catch Dog King Nao Sheng?”
4 E Ji saw that the most powerful weapon in her hands could now only whine. Her young master didn’t seem to support her in taking out Zhang Min either, so she huffed, patted Dog King Nao Sheng’s buttocks while cursing under her breath, and returned to the house.
4 The tables, chairs, and benches in the courtyard were all destroyed, and the delicacies on the table were gone too, so the two could only stand and talk.
5 Yun Ce recounted in full how he had gone to Chuyun City to exchange for things, brought back the families of mid-level officials from Chuyun City, and on the road encountered a super huge pack of doggies besieging them, leaving him no choice but to single-handedly challenge the Dog King.
5 After hearing this, Zhang Min worriedly glanced toward E Ji’s bedroom, then looked up at Yun Ce and said: “So, Doggy King Nao Sheng has already undergone a new change?”
5 Yun Ce nodded: “If Dog King Nao Sheng didn’t have the giant mouth ultimate move before, then it should be as you guessed.”
5 Zhang Min sighed: “The Gui Fang people are changing, the spirits in the wild are changing, but we Han people, after thousands of years, have only made slight progress, merely slight progress.”
5 Yun Ce smiled: “There is, it’s just you haven’t noticed.”
5 Zhang Min said seriously: “Are you talking about yourself?”
5 Yun Ce shook his head: “You’re underestimating the heroes of the world too much. Follow me.”
5 Zhang Min followed behind Yun Ce to the house where Peng Zeng lived. Yun Ce pointed at Peng Zeng, wrapped like a rice dumpling in cloth fragments, and said: “He’s the one.”
5 Zhang Min poked the terrified Peng Zeng with her finger: “Doesn’t look any different from ordinary people.”
5 Yun Ce smiled: “This guy was stabbed seventeen or eighteen times this morning, with seven or eight wounds piercing major blood vessels. By rights, a person like him should have frozen to death in last night’s heavy snow, but this guy, with such severe injuries, crawled more than ten li through the snow to my doorstep.
6 Now, as you see, he’s alive again.
6 And this revival is the most unremarkable one among his countless revivals.”
6 Hearing Yun Ce praise him so much, the fear in Peng Zeng’s eyes was nearly condensing into substance. He wanted to object, but upon turning and seeing Zhang Min’s eyes gleaming with gold, he despondently stopped struggling.
