This man was being hopelessly controlled by his daughter, to the point that he no longer remembered the important task at hand. Yi Qing sighed and sat down on a chair in front of him. He let the little toddler in his arms rest on his thighs as he said in a low voice, "Master, you... do you remember anything?"
Baby Ying stared blankly back at him, as if whatever he just said flew right past her head. The big, watery eyes blinked back at him.
Yi Qing studied her very closely for half a minute, and found nothing in those big, round eyes of hers. There was not even a hint of familiarity. Shen Ying, on the other hand, sensed that he was getting upset. She picked up the toy boat made out of immortal pills that Lonemoon had handed to her earlier and held it out to Yi Qing.
Her thoughts were clearly written on her face: If you like it, we can play with it together!
"Forget it, forget it." Lonemoon's heart was beginning to ache. He interrupted Yi Qing. "Little Ying has already said that she's only three years old. How much could she know?" He retrieved a dharmic bell from inside his robe and looked at her mischievously. "Do you want to play with this? Come over to Daddy!" He could not help but reach out to carry her, but Yi Qing shunned away, glaring at him icily. Get lost – stop trying to tempt my master.
Lonemoon's expression fell as he caught air. How could you! That's my daughter.
"We cannot delay the problem with that mushroom world. Let's go to the divine territory first," Yi Qing changed the topic to distract Lonemoon from trying to steal Little Ying once again. "We cannot leave Master alone while she's like that. I'll take her with us."
With that, Yi Qing turned to open a portal and walked right into it.
"Wait! I can carry her in too!" Stupid Chef – if Lonemoon had known this would happen earlier, he would not have put in a good word for him. My daughter...
In a blink of an eye, the three of them found themselves in a familiar place. The only difference was where they saw a space full of planets in the past, all they saw now was a golden tree that almost reached the sky.
Yi Qing glanced at the plane tree, then glanced at the little person in his arms. He was put in a spot. Lonemoon had already found his way around the area and picked a spot to conjure a thick mat. There, he set the area surrounding the mat aside and then waved to Yi Qing. "Come, put Baby Ying here so that she won't knock into anything."
Yi Qing walked over and placed the three-year-old Shen Ying on the thick mat. "Master, we have to go and seal that small world as soon as we can, or those baddies might try their hand at taking over our plane again. Please wait for us here."
Shen Ying stared back at him with that little face and big round eyes of hers. She was clearly confused.
"I already told you – she won't understand these things," Lonemoon reminded Yi Qing in a firm tone as he rolled his eyes. Then, he rushed toward Shen Ying with another tempting smile. With an unashamed voice, he said, "Be good, Little Ying. Daddy has something important to attend to. Wait over here for Daddy, alright?"
Baby Ying understood this time. She nodded profusely. "Alright, Little Ying will be good!"
She turned and hugged the little immortal boat that Lonemoon handed him earlier, her behind planted firmly on the mat. She looked back at Lonemoon with an obedient smile.
Dong dong! Lonemoon felt two more arrows pierce right through his heart. He could not stop himself from pulling that precious treasure into his arms.
"Or, Daddy could carry you even as he conjures- Oh!"
Before he could finish speaking, Yi Qing pursed his lips and picked up the retarded man stiffly. Then, he turned to walk away.
"Wait, Chef! Little Ying... Daddy will be right back. Wait for me, wait for me..."
Yi Qing walked squarely toward the plane tree, refusing to let go of Lonemoon until they arrived right below it. He pointed to the freshly grown red mushroom underneath the bunch of golden leaves. "Important business."
"I get it." Lonemoon rubbed his neck, which suffered from a bit of a whiplash when Yi Qing picked him up. Now that Baby Ying was out of his reach, Lonemoon could finally focus on the urgent matter at hand. From time to time, however, he would turn back to glance at the little figure playing with the immortal toy boat. He would even wave and try to get the attention of the toddler, overwhelmed with fatherly emotions. He did not even care that Little Ying did not reciprocate.
He had decided! Once he settled this problem with the small world, he would rush Lan Hua to refine 180 new dharmic artifacts so that Little Ying would have more toys to play with. He was Niu Huayun – how could his daughter only have one toy to play with?
A while later...
"This mushroom is different from all the other small worlds. How should we seal it off completely?" Lonemoon asked in a low voice.
"Master said before that our powers are sufficient," Yi Qing answered as he furrowed his brow. He guessed, "I think she means that we would have to make use of our assistants' authorities."
"Let's use our authorities to try conjuring an array!" Lonemoon suggested.
Yi Qing nodded. The two of them tried to activate an array together, making use of the assistants' seals in their bodies. A moment later, they felt a huge burst of energy rush forward. They gathered together this energy to form a strange shape and pushed that energy toward the mushroom.
The next moment, two golden light balls appeared on either side of the mushroom. They began to form the shape of talismans, then multiplied so that the air around the mushroom soon became filled with talismans. Finally, the original two talismans turned into two half-spheres, which traveled toward each other to form a ball around the mushroom.
Suddenly, they shook wildly. Lonemoon and Yi Qing lost control of the two half-spheres. The golden array began to flicker and break apart. Even the talismans around the mushroom lost their glow. Lonemoon and Yi Qing took several steps back.
"It's not working!" Lonemoon pressed his hand against his chest to try to calm his pounding heart down. He shook his head and said, "Even when the two of us join forces, we can't control that small world."
Yi Qing furrowed his brows. They had intended to seal off the small world, like the Godfiend did to the realm beyond realms. They hadn't imagined that it would be so difficult. Even after activating their assistants' authorities, they could not do anything to disturb that small world's position in the plane.
"Chef, I thought that method would work, but it isn't working at all!" Lonemoon thought for awhile, then said worriedly, "The realm beyond realms was sealed off this way as well, but that's because it did belong to the plane originally. Otherwise, Shen Ying and I would not have entered it so easily. Let's think of other methods to deal with this foreign small world."
Yi Qing frowned even more deeply and replied in a low voice, "But did that small world belong to the plane in the beginning. Apart from isolating it using an encapsulation seal, what other methods do we have that would separate it from this plane?"
Lonemoon fell silent. Out of all the sorceries known to them, the encapsulation seal seemed like the most appropriate. How could they pluck this mushroom from the tree for good?
"Mommy..." Before they could think of any solution, a soft voice sounded from beside them. Something was gently tugging at Yi Qing's sleeve.
"Master!" They had not noticed when Baby Ying suddenly walked off the mat and toward where they were. She was now raising her head and looking at both of them with her big, round eyes and calling out to Yi Qing in a slightly indignant tone. Yi Qing's heart softened. He felt the sudden urge to give her everything in the world. "What... what's the matter?"