Chapter 60

Shi Zhirong felt a chill run down his spine. Having possessed the golden toad for so long, this little child was the first person who could actually see it.

Throughout the entire week, he had brought the golden toad in front of his family, out into the streets, and to school, yet not a single person had ever noticed its existence.

As for the golden toad, it decided that this was indeed the human it had been craving. As long as it could feed on this human's blood, its power would increase significantly, and there would even be hope of breaking free from control.

Shi Zhirong was somewhat afraid to let the golden toad feed on the child's blood. Having his source of power seen through made him deeply uneasy.

"Great Toad Immortal, how about we skip this one?"

The golden toad asked coldly, "Don't you want to become a superhero?"

"I do, but... she's still so young."

"If you want to, shut up and hurry."

The golden toad was also feeling nervous. Its bulging eyes stared fixedly at Qingyao. In truth, this was not the first time it had fed on Qingyao's blood; it had already succeeded several times prior to this, controlling the mosquitoes that had bitten Qingyao. However, the amount of blood obtained back then was too meager, only allowing it to float up from the surface of the water.

Now, a golden opportunity was right before its eyes, and the golden toad would never give it up.

Seeing that Shi Zhirong was still hesitating and had not touched Qingyao, the golden toad grew impatient. It abruptly bent its legs and leaped forward, aiming straight for Qingyao's head.

Its sudden departure left Shi Zhirong panic-stricken.

The golden toad was the source of his superpowers; if it left, everything he currently possessed would vanish.

Shi Zhirong reached out his arms, desperately trying to grab it.

However, the golden toad neither landed on Qingyao's head nor was it caught by Shi Zhirong.

Simultaneously, two pairs of hands reached out from beside Qingyao, grabbing one of the golden toad's legs from the left and right respectively. If they had not stopped their movements in time, the golden toad would have been torn in half.

After grasping at empty air, Shi Zhirong realized that the golden toad had been seized by someone else. He froze for a moment, then instinctively shouted, "Give it back to me!"

Only after shouting did he realize—why could these two kids see the golden toad too?!

The golden toad remained motionless, gripped by the two pairs of hands. It could only feel two strands of demonic energy entangling and binding it, rendering it completely unable to move.

It was then that the golden toad abruptly realized these two children were actually demons.

Weren't there only two adult demons in that family? How could the little one be one too?!

After a moment of shock, a layer of sticky liquid instantly overflowed from the golden toad's body. The liquid was extremely slippery, and the demonic energy seemed unable to hold it anymore. Caught off guard, Qingli and Qinglai lost their grip as the golden toad broke free with a single bound, this time decisively leaping toward the river behind the bushes.

Never expecting it to run away so decisively, Qingli and Qinglai turned their heads and rushed to give chase. However, the golden toad's escape speed was top-notch, and with a splash, it vanished into the water.

Qingli nimbly jumped onto the railing to look down, and was just about to leap in when she was called back by Qingyao.

"Sister, don't go down! You mustn't play in the water!"

Qingli covered her forehead. This wasn't playing in the water; they were trying to catch the golden toad!

Yet, once the golden toad entered the water, any trace of its aura vanished completely. Even if she went into the river, she wasn't guaranteed to find it, especially since neither of them excelled at swimming.

Qingli hopped down from the railing and returned to Qingyao's side, gazing at the river with a hint of regret. How could the golden toad have run away just like that? She hadn't even had the chance to properly study its abilities.

The three of them stood together, staring at the water surface with sighs. Behind them, Shi Zhirong finally snapped back to reality upon realizing the golden toad had entered the water and disappeared, taking his superpowers with it. Panicking, he shoved the three children aside, intending to dive into the water to search for it. His leap was even more reckless than the golden toad's.

Disregarding the risk of exposing the fact that they were demons, Qingli and Qinglai used their demonic energy to grab his legs and haul him back up.

The moment he was pulled up, Shi Zhirong acted as though he were possessed, still trying desperately to jump down again.

He could not live without the golden toad. It was what he had found—he was the one who found it!

Noticing something was deeply wrong with his state, Qingli made the swift decision to knock him unconscious.

His reckless leap had drawn the attention of the other kids who were busy testing their own superpowers, and they quickly ran over. They had not witnessed the process of Shi Zhirong being hauled back up by demonic energy; they only saw him soaked from head to toe, climbing over the railing and lying flat on the ground as if he had fallen into the water and been pulled out.

"What's wrong? What happened? Why did he go into the water! Did he fall in?"

"He didn't choke, did he? Shi Zhirong, Brother Rong, why isn't he responding?"

Qingyao said, "He didn't choke on water; he just passed out. Hurry up and take him home. If his clothes stay wet, he'll catch a cold."

Just a few days earlier, Shi Zhirong had fallen into the water, and their parents had strictly warned them never to go near the water again. Yet only a few days later, Shi Zhirong had fallen in once more. None of them knew how to explain this to the adults; their faces were as bitter and distressed as if they had swallowed bitter gourds.

Returning home would undoubtedly earn them a severe beating.

"Who's going to carry him back?"

"He's so heavy, I definitely can't carry him."

"Then let's lift him together. All of us."

Each taking a side, the kids finally managed to heave him up.

With great difficulty, they dragged him as far as the residential compound's entrance before running out of energy, forcing them to drop him on the ground to rest for a moment.

Wiping the sweat from his forehead, Ke Yi suddenly suggested, "Didn't we just get superpowers? Let's use our superpowers to carry him back! Quick, let's try if it works."

The children jumped up in sudden realization, attempting to use their superpowers to make him float. However, the powers that had worked without fail moments earlier now produced zero response, and their attempts to bend tree branches proved completely futile as well.

"Did they wear off?!"

"Ah, me too. It's not working anymore."

"Can't it last a little longer? I haven't had enough fun yet."

"Let's wait for Shi Zhirong to wake up and ask him if he can make the time longer next time."

"Pinch his philtrum and see if we can wake him up. I don't want to carry him back like this. If I do, my parents are definitely going to thrash me."

Surrounding Shi Zhirong, the kids pinched his philtrum, slapped his face, and shook his shoulders. Seeing this, Qingli—standing behind them—applied a subtle boost of her own, and Shi Zhirong quickly regained consciousness.

The moment he opened his eyes, he scanned his surroundings, then shoved aside the friends who had crowded around to check on him and attempted to sprint back toward the riverside.

The others looked at him in utter bewilderment. "What's wrong with him? Where is he going?"

Acting as though he were under a spell, Shi Zhirong had only one thought: to get back into the water. As he pushed past the group and hurried toward the river, Qingyao happened to be standing not far away. Catching a glimpse of the child out of the corner of his eye, Shi Zhirong instantly remembered how desperately the golden toad had wanted her blood. A scheme quickly formed in his mind; halting his steps for a fraction of a second, he suddenly hoisted Qingyao over his shoulder and bolted forward at a run.

Reaching the riverbank in a few giant strides, he actually attempted to jump into the water while holding Qingyao in his arms.

His speed was so extreme and so completely unexpected that none of them had time to react, watching helplessly as he rushed toward the bridge.

Qingli and Qinglai felt their hearts leap into their throats, and they instinctively surged forward to try and stop him. Yet, there was a crowd around them; the other children, terrified by the sudden turn of events, chased after them screaming, "Shi Zhirong, what are you doing!"

"Holy crap, even if you want to jump in the river, you can't drag a kid down with you!"

"Hurry, call for the grown-ups! Get an adult over here!"

At that moment, they completely forgot about the fear of being punished at home, lifting their voices and yelling toward the surroundings. "Help! Someone's trying to jump in the river! Someone help!"

It was nearly five o'clock, and plenty of people were bustling in and out of the compound's entrance. Hearing the cries, they hurried over to look, and pointing toward the riverbank, the children showed them the older boy standing on the bridge holding a young child and attempting to climb over the railing to jump.

"What's going on? Is someone jumping in the river?!"

"What a tragedy, hurry up and grab him!"

Adults quickly gathered and dashed toward the bridge. In an instant, the area was filled with running figures, and the space outside the compound descended into total chaos.

Meanwhile, Qingyao—who had been hoisted over a shoulder and threatened with a joint plunge—felt not an ounce of fear. Gazing at the water's surface, she looked left and right without finding a trace of the golden toad.

She said to Shi Zhirong, who was about to jump, "The frog isn't here anymore. It's already gone."

With one leg already straddled over the railing, Shi Zhirong paused at her words and looked down at the water. "How do you know?"

"I can't see it anymore. Are you trying to jump down to find it, Big Brother? Did your superpowers disappear because it left?"

Shi Zhirong looked down into the eyes of the child in his arms, the pure gaze making him almost unable to meet her eyes.

"But it's a bad frog. The light on Big Brother's body was eaten by it. Once your light is all eaten up, you'll die."

A chill struck Shi Zhirong's heart. What was this kid talking about!

Standing at a moderate distance, Qinglai and Qingxin felt an agony of anxiety. There were simply too many people around now; with so many eyes on them, it was inconvenient to use demonic energy. The two could only stay closely behind, prepared to rush forward and save lives at the first sign of danger.

Distracted by Qingyao's words, Shi Zhirong hesitated just long enough for the adults to swarm up. Several people lunged forward from behind, dragging him down from the railing, pinning him to the ground, and snatching the child out of his arms.

"Why on earth would you want to throw your life away?"

"I know this kid; he lives in Building One, right? What happened here? Whatever is wrong can be talked about. You're still so young; you still have a long and good life ahead of you."

"Why is it Qingyao? Where are your parents? What on earth is going on here? Does Stony bear some kind of grudge against this child?"

Qingli swiftly dialed Hu Yuanfei's number. Hu Yuanfei, who had been in the middle of stir-frying dishes, had already heard the commotion outside, but never imagined it involved Qingyao, so he had simply continued focusing on his recipe. Now, hearing that something was wrong, he turned off the stove. Without even waiting for the elevator, he pushed open the window, leaped out from the back door, and sprinted to the bridge.

Still wearing his apron, Hu Yuanfei shouted Qingyao's name at the top of his lungs, snatched her away from the arms of the crowd, and pulled her tight.

"Qingyao, are you okay?!"

Qingyao shook her head, wrapped her arms around his neck, and looked over at Shi Zhirong, who was sitting dejectedly on the ground in silence, lost in thought and looking like an entirely different person compared to his frantic state earlier.

The blow of losing the golden toad had hit him this hard, though perhaps he wasn't devastated simply by the loss of the toad itself.

Hu Yuanfei cast a puzzled look at Qingli and Qinglai standing nearby. With them around, how had Qingyao managed to get abducted?

"What happened here?"

Guiltily lowering their heads, Qingli and Qinglai replied, "We're sorry. We didn't watch our sister properly."

They had been weighed down by too many reservations; they should have stopped him the very first second.

Noticing that Hu Yuanfei's mood was sour, Qingyao lost interest in looking at Shi Zhirong and instead reached out to turn Hu Yuanfei's head back toward her.

"Daddy isn't allowed to scold my older brother and sister!"

Hu Yuanfei patiently explained, "I'm not scolding them. I was just asking; I was worried about you."

"It was a bad frog! They beat up the bad frog and chased it away!"

"A frog?"

Qingli explained, "It was a golden toad. The golden toad controlled that boy, and Qingyao saw it, so she followed it to see what was going on. We all went along, but during the fight, the golden toad jumped into the river and escaped. After that, the boy lost his mind and tried to jump in. I knocked him out, but when he woke up, he tried to jump again. He probably blamed us for the golden toad's escape and took it out on Qingyao, trying to drag her down with him."