Cohabitation with Sword Spirit-Chapter 266 - 5: I Don’t Want to Be a Shen Family Member Anymore!

Long-haired short-nosed elephants often live in the mountainous forests of Central Province, Yuezhou, Fengzhou, and other regions. With a robust body, an adult male long-haired short-nosed elephant stands five meters at the shoulder and is over ten meters long. Its thick hair is often covered with mud and vegetation, making it as hard as armor, Vajra Unbreakable. The tusks on the sides of its trunk are sharp as knives, making it a hero among wild animals.

This creature is of a violent temperament, especially during mating season, it behaves as if possessed by the Demon Race, fighting with the heavens and earth. Mountain folk in the forest frequently witness large tracts of woodland trampled and destroyed by it. On the other hand, the short-nosed elephant is a gregarious animal, showing great internal unity. Except for battling for leadership, they maintain perfect order without mutual infringement. When faced with an external enemy, this unity becomes more apparent.

So, from very early on, many armies have adopted the long-haired short-nosed elephant as their spiritual totem, especially those corps known for strict military discipline and robust combat style, who love to use it as a unified tattoo. In some corps, these tattoos are considered a medal marking distinguished war achievements; those without remarkable accomplishments don't even qualify for such a tattoo.

The position of the tattoo represents the corps' unity in battle and determination in the face of casualties. Those who tattoo on painless spots like the arm or chest are naturally not comparable to soldiers who bear tattoos on vulnerable areas.

"So once again, I reiterate, the long-haired short-nosed elephant tattoo is a very common and reasonable tattoo, and your big fuss only exposes your shallow ignorance."

In the village chief's house of Yulin Village, Wang Jiu explained with a serious face, causing the more than twenty soldiers to burst into tears of gratitude.

On the other side, Shen Qingming looked at their Celestial Divine Sword with a complex expression.

"Listening to you rationalize such perverse behavior is truly bewildering."

Wang Jiu said, "That's just your preconceived notions affecting your objective understanding, but it doesn't matter. As long as you can learn to empathize, you can understand some seemingly unconventional, hard-to-grasp behaviors."

Shen Qingming made a disgusted face: "I can't learn, can't learn, to empathize with these perverts..."

Wang Jiu suggested, "I could give you a tattoo, so you can personally experience the wonders of this passionate tattoo."

"You, you want to give me a tattoo!?" Shen Qingming's cheeks turned as red as a tomato in an instant.

"Oh, if you're worried that due to organ differences, you can't achieve the aesthetic like the Shen City patrol team, I could help you with prosthetics, or make the elephant trunk pattern facing upwards, or turn the elephant head sideways, so the mouth shape is perfect..."

Wang Jiu expounded on his genius ideas, as Shen Qingming's face began transitioning from red to purple.

"You pervert, go to hell!"

—

Just when Shen Qingming was about to enter a berserk state, determined to perish together with Wang Jiu, Patrol Captain Hong Yu finally woke up. Seeing Li Wanqing and others, he snorted coldly and lowered his head silently, appearing somewhat disheartened.

The rest of the soldiers, seeing their captain's fragile appearance, grew indignant and restless. The air was thick with True Essence Fluctuation, echoing battle cries.

Despite Hong Yu's dark yet determined gaze stopping them from taking action, the high-pressure atmosphere in the house was still unbearable for many.

The village chief felt the most awkward, but seeing his beloved grandson attentively caring for Hong Yu without even bothering that he wasn't wearing pants... Particularly as Hong Yu awoke and shifted, the two elephant heads nearly touching, the village chief's heart hardened as he sternly said, "Alright, now the village's disgrace has been exposed for everyone! Are you satisfied now!?"

Hong Yu, in excruciating pain, though awake, had to focus all his energy on withstanding the pain and couldn't argue with the village chief. He simply snorted and continued cuddling next to his lover. His good elephant friend, on the other hand, raised his eyebrows and retorted sharply, "If it weren't for you repeatedly blocking, things wouldn't have escalated to this point!"

The village chief ignored his village's nonsense and focused solely on Hong Yu: "Xiao Zhu is young and inexperienced, but Captain Hong Yu, you've traveled widely, don't you understand anything!? You Shen City soldiers, as much as you want to mess around in the barracks, we hill folk can't meddle, but why bring it to our home?"

At this remark, the soldiers couldn't help but curse, "Nonsense! If you hadn't repeatedly run to the city crying about Demon Essence disturbances, would we willingly drive our war cars out to these desolate wilds for fun at midnight!?"

The village chief retorted defiantly, "Protecting the homeland and people is your duty! Our village also pays taxes to the city every year!"

"Your little fish-selling money isn't even enough to start up one of our war cars, and you have the nerve to bring it up!"

"If it's too little, you can choose not to take it!" The village chief embraced his rascal nature, cursing, "Besides, if it's too little, the city officials should talk to us. Since establishing this as a protected area, deploying troops is justified."

"Fine, dispatching troops to exterminate demons is justified, but specifically installing high-performance security arrays for your little broken mountain village, protecting even the grain fields and livestock, how is that justified!?"

The village chief continued boldly, "You have a guilty conscience for sure!"

"You old codger! I'll have to teach you a lesson today!"

"Mr. Zhao, calm down, after all, he's Captain Hong's father-in-law, some basic courtesy should be maintained."

The veins on the village elder's temple popped out: "You're the father-in-law, your whole family is the father-in-law!"

And just as the conflict was nearing an impasse, someone suddenly yelled, "Those people are gone!"

Everyone was stunned: gone? Who's gone?

Upon looking again, they suddenly realized that Li Wanqing and the others, who had just acted heroically, had secretly slipped away while the village elder and others were vying for attention!

In the place where Wang Jiu had just stood, there was a letter left behind.

A curious villager picked up the letter, and saw a terrifyingly written message on it.

Suggestions for resolving the village conflict:

Considering the village elder's objections are solely focused on the disapproval of homosexuality and the emphasis on bloodline inheritance, and there are no personal grievances against Hong Yu, simply select one of the two to undergo a gender reassignment surgery, and the conflict will be perfectly resolved.

Suggested locations for gender reassignment surgery: According to the "Medical Guarantee" section in Part Four of the Shen City Tourism Encyclopedia, Shen City First Military Hospital and Third Military Hospital can perform perfect gender reassignment surgeries, with complete changes to body and mind, reproductive capabilities, and an enhancing effect. However, the cost is relatively high, usually ranging from 100 to 300 Spirit Stones. In addition, Sha County Hospital and Chengdu Hospital can provide relatively inexpensive gender reassignment surgeries, which also have reproductive capabilities but do not involve changes at the mental level, resulting in a longer psychological adaptation period. The surgical costs typically range from 10 to 50 Spirit Stones, with specific contact information as follows:...

——

Meanwhile, outside Yulin Village, Li Wanqing was dragging Shen Qingming and the others, fleeing silently at a fast pace.

After running over ten miles, Li Wanqing finally stopped and complained with disappointment, "Ugh, such a rare chance to play the hero and save the beauty, and it turns into such an ugly mess... In this rural backwater, I actually met such a beautiful and charming Little Fish Girl, I had even prepared my lines. If all went well, I could have won her over by tonight."

Shen Qingming scolded, "If you hadn't stirred up so much trouble, we wouldn't have witnessed that eye-searing scene!"

Li Wanqing retorted, "Upholding justice is the essence of a cultivator. In that situation, how could I just stand by and watch? Besides, I led the charge and you didn't stop me... It's really insane, Shen City is endlessly bizarre, Yu Zishen—no, I mean Shen Ziyu—was one thing, but even a fishing village over a hundred miles outside the city can cause such a spectacle, it's truly eye-opening."

Remembering the shocking scene in the village elder's house, Shen Qingming clutched her chest and incredulously said, "Yeah, they were proper military personnel, yet they were getting tattoos in a place like that..."

Li Xinyu suddenly speculated, "Come to think of it, the Shen Family has always prided itself on the military, with values different from ordinary people; perhaps the Shen Family also has such tattoos?"

In the next moment, Li Wanqing, Li Chaolu, and Li Xinyu all looked at Shen Qingming.

Shen Qingming furiously said, "What are you looking at!?"

"No, no, no, we're not suspecting you, after all, we bathed together as kids. We were just thinking…"

"My mom doesn't have one either!"

Li Xinyu asked, "What about your uncle?"

"How would I know!?"

Li Chaolu taunted, "Haven't you read that famous martial arts novel, where the father and son recognize each other by tearing open their shirts to reveal a wolf tattoo on their chest? Maybe for the Shen Family, it's about pulling down pants to show off a war elephant."

"Go to hell!" Without a second thought, Shen Qingming raised her fist and started throwing punches at Li Chaolu.

Li Xinyu then asked, "Mr. Wang Jiu, if the people in Shen City take pride in this, would it make me more popular with the girls if I got one?"

Just as Wang Jiu was about to nod after some thought, he saw in the distance a pink Sword Qi slicing towards Li Xinyu, knocking him into a rolling mess.

Li Chaolu, while dealing with Shen Qingming's heavy punches, angrily cursed, "Li Chaolu! If you dare show Mr. Wang Jiu that hideous thing, I swear I'm cutting it off!"

Blasted by the Hundred Flowers Sword Qi and almost coughing up blood, Li Xinyu hurriedly vowed, "I'll do it myself, tattoo it myself, no need to trouble Mr. Wang Jiu!"

——

Amidst continuous bickering, under the cover of night, the group hurried along their journey, finally arriving outside Shen City's gates, covered in dust and exhaustion, just before dawn, as planned by Wang Jiu.