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"—It's to throw a flying kick on the spot!"
Sylvester lifted his leg in a clean, spirited motion, brimming with confidence. This instantly sent Bailu's imagination racing—Could there be some decisive secret move here?
Her heart leapt, hanging high with anticipation. Against her will, she actually began to look forward to this so-called lower strategy.
Then she saw Sylvester, wearing the solemn expression of a righteous hero marching bravely to their doom, utter words whose momentum plunged straight off a cliff.
He pressed two fingers together and pointed at the floor.
"Catch the enemy off guard and drop to your knees right there! Give them a good scare first!"
"Ah?!"
Bailu's expression changed so fast it could best be summed up in four words:
Bro, are you serious?
Clinging to the goodwill she had built up toward Sylvester, she asked with trembling hope, "Th-this… what kind of strategy is that?"
"Heh heh." Sylvester sneered coolly, utterly shameless. "This is called the [If You Can't Beat Them, Join Them] strategy. Compared to all the others, this is the ultimate plan for ensuring invincibility!"
Completely unfazed by Bailu's twitching eyelids, he laughed. "With your current strength, wherever you go people would be fighting to worship you! As long as you defect, it's wealth and glory—fat stacks of credit chits, baby!"
Even he couldn't keep a straight face anymore.
Waving his arm, he shook his head and laughed. "Ha, just kidding. How could there possibly be a strategy like that? And even if there were, it wouldn't work more than once or twice—no value for widespread adoption."
After all, the people who actually used that strategy repeatedly were strangled first, then beheaded.
And they even went down in history with eternal infamy—something like Surname Something Slave, if he recalled correctly.
"Phew~~ You scared me." Bailu lowered her head and patted her small chest.
If that were really the case, then this truly was a bottom-of-the-barrel strategy.
This wasn't a plan at all—this was outright defection! Way too humiliating!
Sylvester put away his playful demeanor and spoke seriously. "Miss Bailu, have you heard that the Cloud Knight prodigy Yanqing and Miss Yunli from the Zhuming Xianzhou have taken in a disciple together?"
"Yeah, I think I've heard something like that."
Bailu tapped her little head, finally recalling a few details. "Oh right! A few days ago, Yanqing and the others even came to the Alchemy Commission to look for Sister Lingsha. They wanted to make some kind of super lollipop—for their disciple."
Sylvester said calmly, "That's right. And that disciple is March 7th from the Astral Express. This is actually a great opportunity. If you join their special training, you might not become an outstanding warrior right away, but it'll be more than enough to build proper fundamentals. Combined with your natural strength, even fighting enemies head-on wouldn't be a problem. That said…"
At this point, the corners of Sylvester's mouth curved faintly. He pinched his thumb and ring finger together, leaving a gap thinner than a sheet of paper.
Smiling meaningfully, he said, "Special training always comes with a bit of extra hardship. But not too much—just a tiny bit. A teensy bit."
"Th-this sounds like the option with the fewest consequences, right?"
Bailu failed to notice the hidden danger in Sylvester's words.
Resting her chubby chin in her hand, she swayed back and forth. After a show of deep contemplation, she imitated General Jing Yuan's scheming air and said in her soft, childish voice:
"What you call the lower strategy… is in fact the upper strategy."
"Improving one's strength must be built on steady foundations. Relying on clever tricks will eventually ruin great endeavors."
The more serious Bailu became, the broader Sylvester's smile grew.
Her thinking wasn't wrong at all. Forging oneself to perfection was indeed stronger than anything else.
What she didn't know, however, was that March 7th's training intensity was—if not exactly different from what she imagined—at least worlds apart.
With a body this small, once she fell into Yanqing and Yunli's hands… there would be quite a show.
It wouldn't take two minutes to make Bailu cry her eyes out.
Well—although the Vidyadhara technically had no parents.
"Hmph~"
Imagining March 7th and Bailu clinging to each other and sobbing, Sylvester let out a rather malicious chuckle.
Then he remembered the Chaos of Floating Embers, when Bailu had been tempted by the Heliobi—and when the Astral Express Crew went to rescue her, she had run circles around them in the world constructed by the Heliobi, leaving them exhausted and empty-handed.
Hmm… maybe with this little one's stamina, the only one crying would be March 7th?
Oh—and he almost forgot. Bailu's body had already been reinforced. Though she was still short, she now possessed a genuine Dragon Emperor physique.
Well then, nothing more to say.
March 7th—may you graduate soon.
Sylvester silently observed a three-second moment of sincere mourning for her.
Suppressing his laughter, he gave Bailu a thumbs-up. "Miss Bailu, with this level of awareness alone, you're bound to become a top-tier warrior someday!"
"Hehe, I'll take your blessing! Once this High Elder achieves great success, I'll definitely thank you properly!"
Hearing Sylvester's praise, Bailu felt even prouder of her wise decision.
Her earlier display of righteous maturity must have looked incredibly impressive!
She was almost moved by herself—completely unaware that this fake maturity would later become a black mark from her childhood, the kind that would make her want to slap herself awake in the middle of the night.
But of course, she couldn't realize that now.
Ha! Training with Yanqing and Yunli would strengthen her body—and she could even borrow [Pure Yang Supplementary Manual] and [Romance of the Three Kingdoms] while she was at it.
Hehe, willpower needed tempering, and strategic studies couldn't be neglected either. A qualified High Elder had to develop on all fronts!
In her mind, she envisioned her future self—with pen in hand to pacify the realm, fists raised to settle the cosmos, wise and valiant beyond measure—so happy she nearly giggled out loud.
Seeing her on the verge of drifting into a grand daydream, Sylvester smiled softly—not mockingly.
Her thoughts were obvious, because everyone had once felt the same.
What child didn't wish to become a perfect and great figure?
Even knowing they might never achieve it, they couldn't help but imagine it.
And besides—who could deny her? Who could say Bailu couldn't do it?
For others, such dreams were merely fantasies. But for the present-day Bailu, they could only be called… reasonable projections.
After a satisfying mental whirlwind, Bailu couldn't wait to go back and boast to someone she trusted.
She asked Sylvester for her jade token. "Shopkeeper Sylvester, I'm done opening my bin. Let's settle the bill."
"Alright." Sylvester returned to the counter and charged three million credit points.
Seeing Bailu about to leave, Aventurine let out a breath—unsure what emotion it carried.
He prepared to stand up.
At last, the moment to wash away his humiliation had arrived.
"Take care." Sylvester handed Bailu back her jade token, then added with a smile, "Oh, and one more thing—give my regards to Lingsha for me."
Come to think of it, she'd mentioned wanting to give him a gift. He wondered how that preparation was going.
"Uh…"
That final remark made Bailu's small hand freeze mid-air.
In that instant, she remembered—the fear of being dominated by Sister Lingsha.
Sneaking out, using a goofy pillow and coral to fake a stand-in… she'd been caught red-handed, hadn't she?
If she went back now…
"Ahaha…" Bailu laughed awkwardly and pushed the jade token back. "I—I actually want to get even stronger and contribute more to the Luofu, so… I'll open a few more bins."
The speaker meant nothing by it. The listener suffered greatly.
Aventurine had just stood up—his legs not even straight, his back still hunched—when Bailu's words shoved him right back down, just like the jade token.
"Tsk." He clicked his tongue, the sound cutting sharply through the air.
A sense of frustration—and an inexplicable dread—rose in Aventurine's heart.
He had a feeling that today's bin-opening experience… was not going to be pleasant.
Bailu's small hands tapped on the trash bins.
After choosing one, she yanked it open with a loud clatter.
The moment her hand pressed down on the lid's handle, Aventurine's heart skipped violently.
He suddenly realized—
This wasn't an ordinary Curio at all.
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