But the loss of the parents' association's strength was secondary; what Qingchen cared about was that these were all living, breathing people.
The people who were drinking, singing, and dancing just moments before.
He suddenly stood up and anxiously looked around.
Suddenly, a drunk parent-teacher association member in the distance tripped over a tree branch and staggered to the left, about to plunge headfirst into the blazing campfire.
Everyone was drinking, and no one noticed the drunkard's entanglement with the tree branch, no one cared what had happened.
Qingchen saw this scene and ran through the crowd, but it was too late.
But the parent-teacher association member stumbled to the campfire, but instead of collapsing into the blazing flames, he fell to the ground with a thud, accidentally pressing his hand on the charcoal and yelping.
No deaths occurred.
Qing Chen: "?"
He looked at the black spider with a puzzled expression.
Black Spider was also stunned for a moment: "?"
In an instant, the trees around Black Leaf Plain rustled, as if they were calling out from a hundred years ago.
Qing Chen suddenly understood something...
The giant prophet had previously stated that the first prophet's greatest wish was to continue protecting his people.
Therefore, although Black Leaf Plain does not have the same magical functions as Whale Island, its greatest purpose is protection.
The Arbiter's curse, which could decide life and death, has been downgraded here!
Chapter 904, A Gift for the Puppeteer
"Is it possible that... something went wrong with your six-pointed star?" Qing Ji looked at the burned PTA member: "The Arbiter's curse is a bit too hot to handle."
Black Spider: "..."
She looked at Qing Ji expressionlessly. How could something so taboo be made so easily?!
Qing Chen said thoughtfully from the side, "The first prophet spent almost his entire life fighting against the Roosevelt Kingdom. He led his people to migrate again and again, from north to south, and from south to north. They lost their homeland time and time again, and were found by technological power time and time again."
Thus, the forbidden object extracted by the first prophet was unrelated to the prophecy. Qingchen suspected that it was more like a forbidden object of obsession. The great prophet wanted to use his last strength to build a sanctuary for the giants, to shelter them from the wind and rain, so that they could build a city of their own in peace.
Women don't have to migrate while pregnant, and children don't have to leave their swaddling clothes at a very young age.
With such pioneers, the race of giants is destined to continue.
Black Spider looked at Qing Chen: "What do we do now?"
What else could we do but keep playing the music and keep dancing...
It was very difficult for the giants to brew wine, and they could only drink it once a year during festivals.
They only have two holidays. The first is National Day, which is the day they settled down in the Black Leaf Plain Royal Court.
The second is the birthday of the first prophet, when giants would pick and eat the plums that the prophet loved most during his lifetime.
When they ran out of wine, Qing Ji simply opened the Shadow Gate and sent the parents' association members to the Qing family to get more.
At first, they went to the warehouse in city 5 to move the goods, but that wasn't enough.
He directly opened the Shadow Gate at the winery, took it directly from the brewery, and had the Qing family pay the bill after they finished drinking it.
The brewery owner was all smiles; this business was easy, with no middlemen taking a cut!
But then, in the Black Leaf Plain Royal Court, singing and dancing resumed. Yi and Ling had been chased to the children's campfire, smiling awkwardly but politely.
Zero suddenly asked, "Aren't you angry that they chased you away like a child?"
“I’m angry,” Yi said matter-of-factly. “I can’t drink it because of health reasons, not because I don’t want to.”
"Don't you feel out of place?"
Yi paused for a moment: "No way. Even in the human world, close friends will say they can't drink anymore, so they'll go to the dog's table. It's because they do that that I feel like they treat me as one of their own. If we were always so polite, we'd feel out of place."
This time, it was Zero's turn to be stunned: "What you said makes sense."
Yi smiled and said, "My dad taught me."
"What else did he teach you?" Zero suddenly asked.
“He taught me so much,” Yi said, looking at the starry sky. “When I was little, I was in a tablet. He would hang the tablet around his neck and take me to see all sorts of things. Although I didn’t have a sense of touch back then, I could always feel the warmth in my dad’s arms. When he was happy, he would lift me up very high… Now that I think about it, his friends probably think he’s a fool.”
Yi muttered to herself, while Ling listened quietly, imagining the man with what looked like a tablet on his head—it all seemed so wonderful.
Kamishiro Unra was drinking with the female giant, while Sora was drinking alone nearby, and Kamishiro Unshu fell asleep, clutching his long katana...
Da Yu had been replaced by Xiao Yu. Zard pulled him to drink some with him, and the two of them got flushed from drinking.
After getting drunk, Zard carried Xiaoyu on his back and ran like the wind through the royal court, just like when they were children.
When Xiaoyu was little, he couldn't fly a kite because he couldn't run due to the medication he was taking. Back then, Zard would carry him on his back and hold the string, and the kite, Swift, would fly very high in the sky.
On the other side, the second-in-command was also drunk. He had just learned how to play the guessing game and was sitting face to face with Luo Wanyi: "Good buddies, three stars in a row! Seven lucky numbers!"
To Luo Wanyi's dismay, this veteran who had dominated the drinking scene for decades had never once beaten the second-in-command.
This is no longer a technical issue... it's luck.
The Arbiter's Black Magic Curse.
After drinking too much, Luo Wanya muttered and cursed, "This arbitrator is really bored. What's the point of cursing me to lose a game of guessing? Can't he do something decent? Can't he curse something else instead!"
Second-in-command: "Don't make excuses when you lose."
Luo Wanya: "..."
To be honest, even the Arbiters probably didn't expect that their throat-drying curse, meant to kill five thousand people, would have such an effect in Black Leaf Plain...
If they knew this was how it was, they'd probably be cursing in the air fortress by now!
At this moment, the Giants' Royal Court is filled with the unfortunate faces of the PTA members.
Someone picked up a beer bottle and said he wanted to spin it, but after only two spins, he choked and sprayed the contents of the bottle onto the face of his drinking buddy across the table like a fountain.
Some people get grilled meat stuck in their teeth.
Someone almost suffocated when the drunken giant held him in his arms.
Someone was hit by a pile of bird droppings.
The cunning and ruthless demon Qing Ji walks among them, collecting their dark history with great pleasure.
Black Spider suddenly realized that Qing Chen had left the bonfire party at some point. She turned around to look for him privately, only to find him sitting cross-legged on the top of the palace, his eyes constantly fixed on the ground below, as if observing for any unusual activity.
However, at that moment, Qing Chen suddenly jumped down and arrived at a person's side like lightning. He saw that when the parent-teacher association member staggered and fell, there was a protruding rock behind his head. If he fell, the consequences would be very serious.
After helping the parent-teacher association member up, Qing Chen returned to the roof of the palace to re-examine all the details.
Black Spider came up to the roof and stood behind him, asking, "Boss, do you always do this?"
"What?"
“While others are celebrating, you remain absolutely clear-headed, taking everything upon yourself,” Black Spider said.
Qing Chen smiled and said, "I'm their parent, so it's only right."
The black spider asked, "So, if I'm in danger, you'll do the same?"
Qing Chen recalled the recent merits of Black Spider: "Yes, don't worry."
Black Spider said, "Even with Black Leaf Plains' protection, the curse of life and death still appeared, which means someone got his hair or blood. This mole is very close to you."
"Um."
Black Spider: "I also really want to help you curse those Arbiters to death, but we never reveal our real names to each other. For example, my code name is Black Spider, and others have other code names. The Arbiters are actually the offspring of seven old families in Storm City. They practice dark magic themselves, so we are extra careful."
"Um."
“We shouldn’t let them continue drinking now, or something bad will happen,” Black Spider said.
"It's alright, I'm keeping an eye on it," Qingchen said with a smile.
"Why are they allowed to drink?" Black Spider asked curiously. "Just curious. I think we should be in wartime now, and you can't drink alcohol during wartime."
Qingchen shook his head: "The real war hasn't started yet. I just hope that before that dark time really comes, everyone can have some more fun... Shendai Yunluo said that drinking can make you happy."
Many people harbor wishful thinking when facing a crisis: Can we coexist peacefully? Can no one die? Is there a better solution? Can we all compromise?
My older brother, Kyung-joon.
Mr. He from Kyushu.
Parents' meeting for sixth graders.
The Kunlun members who died in City 10, including Iodine.
And those who died at Base A02.
These are the people who repeatedly remind Qingchen how cruel the world he has to face is.
War is not a dinner party; war is bloodshed and sacrifice. It is those who defend their homeland using their blood and flesh to build a Great Wall behind them.
In war, those who hesitate and are weak will surely lose.
Therefore, the more Qingchen knew how difficult the future would be, the more he hoped that everyone could still have a moment of happiness.
When that time comes, everything from the good times will become sweetness in the bitter days and hope in the darkness.
Black Spider sighed, “The Eastern Continent never guarded against black magic before, but now it has given Duke Storm the opportunity… We have Blackleaf Plains for protection, but we can’t hide in Blackleaf Plains forever, can we?”
Qing Chen laughed: "You got into character very quickly. Were you worried about us?"
“I’m already a member of the PTA, and I just became a Golden Family member yesterday.”
“But you don’t agree with the parent-teacher meeting, and you’re still unfamiliar with them.”
Black Spider said earnestly, "But I acknowledge you, and that's enough."
“Understood,” Qingchen nodded. “After everyone wakes up tomorrow, I will start to resolve this matter. He wants to play this game with me, so I will play along. He holds cards that I don’t yet know about, but I also have cards that he doesn’t know about. I will give him a huge surprise and make his efforts over the past few centuries turn to dust.”
...
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