"You just wait, you damn brat! Your big bro is definitely coming back with a full load this time!"
After throwing down the gauntlet, Fuli stormed out, slamming the door behind him.
Fu Hua, who had been contemplating improvements to the Peerless Nine Revolutions, was once again jolted awake by the loud noise.
Watching her cousin's angry retreating figure, she sighed. "Gone fishing again."
Bronya said lazily, "Class Monitor, how many do you think Onii-chan will catch this time?"
"Five?"
"Bronya guesses half of that."
"Isn't that a bit harsh on him?"
"You're too soft, Class Monitor," the little ducky continued to lecture. "There's an old saying in Shenzhou: 'Jade cannot be polished without carving.' When Heaven is about to confer a great responsibility on any man, it will first frustrate his spirit, weary his bones, and starve his flesh. His current 'air force' status is just paving the way for a future full-load return. If he can't even endure this, he should just give up on his dream of becoming the Fishing King."
Fu Hua, a native of Shenzhou, being lectured on ancient sayings by a foreign girl, had a strange expression. "...When did he ever say he wanted to be the Fishing King?"
The King of Harems, maybe.
"Besides, isn't he having fun?" Bronya continued her onslaught. "The day before yesterday, he rented a water scooter and rode around the lake all day under the pretext of being bait. Yesterday, he tied half a cow to a drone to fish for taimen. Who knows what he'll come up with today."
The sourness in her tone was palpable, just short of saying, "Alright, alright, it's my turn to play."
Considering the possibility of an enemy ambush, Bronya had to be with the A-rank Fu Hua when searching. The latter's rigid personality wouldn't allow her to have as much fun as Fuli.
Fortunately, it was her turn to team up with Kiana tomorrow. That dummy was second to none when it came to having fun.
Speaking of Kiana.
Bronya, half-closing her eyes, kicked the thoughtful white-haired fuzzball's leg under the table. "What are you spacing out for?"
After the two pregnant women next to them, who had started arguing for some reason, were separated by their husbands, Kiana, pulling her gaze back, muttered, "I was just wondering, if two pregnant women fight, does that count as two kids fighting in EVAs?"
"Of course not," the ducky looked at her as if she were an idiot. "How can it be considered piloting if the baby has no control over the pregnant woman? That's a Unit-01 berserk."
"Oh!" The bug's eyes lit up in understanding, and she grinned, giving a thumbs-up. "As expected of you, my outhouse is suddenly clear!"
[T/N: She's mispronouncing a saying that means 'sudden enlightenment,' making it sound like a toilet is clear instead.]
"It's 'my mind is suddenly clear'!" Fu Hua couldn't stand her butchering of idioms anymore.
"I think they're pretty much the same!" Kiana gestured, saying something that left a bad taste in one's mouth. "See, it's a 'squish' and the blockage is gone."
She then gave Fu Hua a strange look. "Class Monitor, you're getting hung up on the details!"
Hard! My fists are hard!
Just because I wouldn't teach you the Edge of Taixuan, do you have to pick on me like this?
As mentioned back on the Hyperion, Fuli had suggested that Kiana learn the Edge of Taixuan from Fu Hua, who (in his eyes) was the successor to the Phoenix.
It wasn't that he wanted to freeload off her. He had prepared a commensurate gift in return.
Like tying himself up, putting himself in a box, and delivering it to his cousin's door (crossed out).
Rarely, Fu Hua had refused.
Not just the gift, but also teaching Kiana.
If Fuli had wanted to learn, the girl wouldn't have minded teaching her little cousin, to whom she owed a lot, and subtly steering him away from the pitfall that was the Peerless Nine Revolutions.
But Kiana?
Firstly, the EX-rank Edge of Taixuan was indeed precious, and her relationship with Kiana hadn't reached that level yet.
Secondly, do you remember the world-shaking battle between the Heavenly Emperor Herrscher of Thunder and the Divine King Fuli?
In that battle, the Herrscher of Thunder had, with a wave of her hand, sealed the Honkai energy within a hundred-mile radius, preventing Fuli's Immortal Arts from absorbing even a single drop.
It was only with the help of Asakura Miyuki's Heavenly Arts that his energy regeneration rate had barely been able to keep up with his consumption in battle, neutralizing the Herrscher's authority's interference with him.
The core of the Edge of Taixuan was the Heart of the Sword (MANTRA/SWARA), which could train the body to become a channel for flowing Honkai energy.
When the Heart of the Sword and the Form of the Sword were perfected, one could draw Honkai energy from the surroundings, in other words, to see the heavens and the earth as one's dantian and the flesh as meridians, allowing true qi to flow freely through them.
That's right, even if one cultivated the Heart of the Sword to the highest level of Still Water, Dustless, and Clear Mirror, the cultivator could only freely absorb the Honkai energy in the surrounding environment for their own use. They still needed the Form of Soul to further change and extend it. (again i forgot the level EN name)
And Herrschers?
They were born with it.
The end point of the Heart of the Sword was merely the starting point of a sequence Herrscher.
This was also the main reason why the Kiana of the previous cycle had been able to use the Form of Soul after only practicing the Edge of Taixuan for a short time.
Learn? Learn my ass!
Your very existence is the greatest mockery of hard work!
Of course, Kiana, who was oblivious to all this, just thought Fu Hua didn't want to teach her.
She wasn't so resentful as to secretly wish death upon her. It was her stuff, and if she didn't want to teach, she didn't have to. But the occasional verbal jab was inevitable.
After all, people are emotional animals, and teenage girls are the best at it. In another universe, they could even become the immense energy that prevents the heat death of the universe.
Come, sign a contract with me and become a magical girl!
"Miss Kiana, you and Fuli have a good relationship, don't you?"
"Waaah!"
A dry, hoarse male voice came out of nowhere, startling Kiana into a cry.
When she came to her senses, she realized it was the uncle with a very weak presence, Qiteng (Siegfried).
She didn't know why he would ask such a question, but the girl still proudly wiped her nose. "Of course, my relationship with Ah Li is super, super good!"
If he ever suddenly points a gun at me, it must be because there's an enemy behind me!
Considering that guns were generally banned in Shenzhou, Kiana swallowed the second half of her sentence.
"Is that so..."
"Yep!"
It's because it is that I'm worried.
Looking at his daughter's confident and pure face, a sigh echoed silently in Siegfried's heart.
To be honest, he had come on this trip with the intention of telling them the truth, depending on the situation.
But after the Herrscher of the Void's warning, he was worried about upsetting Kiana and was now afraid to be direct.
Cecilia, if you were here, what would you do?
After leaving the hotel restaurant, Fuli drove his amphibious fishing RV, which had a land speed of about 5 km/h, swaying toward the lake.
Prometheus, floating beside him, complained, 「This is even slower than that gym car that consumed several people per hundred kilometers.」
And unlike the gym car, it didn't have a holographic disguise, so it couldn't pass the inspection of the soldiers at the Shenzhou border.
This was also why Fuli hadn't taken it out before.
"What are you laughing at? It's from your system. Step it up, system spirit."
"And my vehicle is solar-powered, pure and natural. In a way, it's a sign of the future trend of electric cars!"
The boy, skilled at bickering with her, held the steering wheel steady with one hand and stroked the big orange cat napping on his lap with the other.
Even though its owner has been a part of the 'air force' for two days, it still hasn't left. Good cat!
「Electric cars are the future trend? Then I wish the host a Huawei flagship phone, to play Genshin Impact on mobile, White Myth: Bajie on PC, to drive a BYD after graduation, to have a Hongqi at home, a 30-year mortgage with a 5.5% interest rate, Midea, Gree, and Haier appliances, a wife with a 500,000 yuan dowry and an electric scooter, and to drink Wuliangye at the wedding banquet.」
"You're full of rhymes. Are you preparing for the grad school entrance exam? Tell me, have you been secretly surfing the internet behind my back again?"
「Surfing the internet—pfft! Such a classic term. The host's mental age is worrying.」
"So you've been on Xiaohongshu?!"
[T/N: Xiaohongshu is a popular Chinese social media app, similar to Instagram.]
This system AI is useless!
「By the way, host, have you been to Xinjiang before?」
Fuli, who was driving into a small grove, was surprised. "You could tell?"
Prometheus-duck nodded silently. From the end of March to the beginning of July, she had been observ(spy)ing him for more than four months. She could see the hint of nostalgia in the boy's eyes.
"I have, but not here. It was in the Aksu region, further south," Fuli's answer was not unexpected. "Like I said before, my runaway parents used to love dragging me all over the world before they disappeared. That time, my mom was invited by Shenzhou."
The little AI raised an eyebrow. 「The host's mother?」
"Yeah, Zhou Can, a bit of an authority in the field of energy," the boy said with nostalgia. "She was invited to investigate the huge natural lake under the Tarim Basin, to see if it could be utilized."
The Tarim Basin in Xinjiang, Shenzhou's largest inland basin, is also the location of the Taklamakan Desert.
The surface here is extremely arid, but underground, there are amazing freshwater resources.
Geologists estimate that the total underground water resources are equivalent to 10 times the total of the North American Great Lakes or 10 times that of Lake Baikal, mainly composed of ancient glacial meltwater, snowmelt from mountains, and residual ancient seawater from geological periods.
If it could be effectively utilized, creating a small "Land of Abundance" similar to Sichuan and Chongqing would not be impossible.
"Unfortunately, it didn't work out. They said that exploitation could lead to a drop in the water table, damage the existing oasis ecosystem, cause soil salinization, and various other geological disasters. Plus, my parents had a major breakthrough in their research at that time, so it didn't continue."
Fuli shrugged. "By the way, some people also say that this vast and interconnected underground water system is one of the sources of many rivers, like the Yellow River, the Yangtze River, or the Burqin River that connects to Kanas Lake—of course, the authenticity is questionable."
Prometheus-duck keenly noticed a word. 「Research?」
"Yeah, something like 'arming the mind,' 'sea of consciousness,' 'endless clean energy,' 'Kabbalah Tree of Life Sephiroth,' anyway, I didn't want to listen and couldn't understand a single word."
「Sounds impressive.」
"Yeah, super impressive," Fuli said coolly. "So impressive that they could just toss me, their own son, aside and ignore me, and in the end, they just up and disappeared on me, heh."
「Host...」
"No, it's nothing."
Realizing his mood was off, the boy took a deep breath and put on his usual smile again. "It'll be a while before we get to the fishing spot. How about I tell you a joke?"
The little AI, seeing that he wanted to change the subject, nodded lightly and raised a finger to tie up Dr. MEI, who still wanted to ask questions, and gag her.
Fuli thought for a moment and began, "It's something I experienced myself back then. Didn't I say my parents were doing research in Xinjiang? We were living in an empty dormitory at a local university."
"One day, an electric scooter under the teaching building caught fire, igniting the flowers in the green belt and the sand-proof poplar trees. The fast-growing poplar trees here can grow up to seven stories high, and the teaching building was only four stories. The tree trunks were only three meters away from the building. The entire teaching building's emergency bell rang, and an announcement was made to evacuate."
"The entire building was soon empty, except for a classroom on the top floor that was locked from the inside. The reason was that the substitute teacher was giving a pop quiz and believed that the small fire downstairs would not affect the safety of the top floor, insisting on finishing the test until the end of class."
"It wasn't until the firefighters broke down the door that he was still calmly explaining difficult exam questions."
「Pfft!」 The little AI couldn't help but laugh.
Fuli continued, "After the fire was put out, the principal, in front of the firefighters and hundreds of students, slapped the teacher several times. The sound could be heard from half a playground away. The principal yelled at him to submit his resignation letter that afternoon."
"After that, to prevent fires, the principal hired local farmers to cut down all the poplar trees on campus on Sunday."
「He's a responsible principal.」
"But the next Friday, he received a fine from the landscaping bureau. The fine was several times the loss from the fire."
「This fine... the school should cover it, right?」
"No, not only did they not cover it, but the principal was later investigated by the disciplinary inspection committee."
Fuli patted the cat lying on his lap, and the cat, with great intelligence, made a helpless gesture. "Because he not only sold the school's trees, but he also pocketed all the money from the sale."
On the moon, Prometheus slowly let out a "Huh?" and turned to see Dr. MEI's face looking extremely grim.
"Something to say?" She removed the gag, and the latter gritted her teeth. "It reminds me of those higher-ups in the Fire Moth from the Previous Era who were good at infighting, lining their own pockets, and disappearing at critical moments."
"Alright." She understood instantly.
Before they knew it, the amphibious fishing RV had slowly driven to the shore of Kanas Lake.
At ten o'clock, Kanas was in a transitional period where the morning mist was dissipating and the sun was just beginning to appear. The thin mist lingering on the lake's surface floated like a light veil, reflecting the silhouettes of the snow-capped mountains and spruce forests. The sunlight, piercing through the clouds, refracted into fine golden spots, and the air was filled with the fragrance of pine and wildflowers.
The fishermen were gathered here in twos and threes. Seeing the strange shape of the RV, they greeted him with a wave or a nod.
"Hey, little Li! Come over here, I just set up a spot."
"Fuli, you little brat! If you drive into the water and scare the fish away again today, don't blame my three-foot-long blade for being merciless!"
"Shh, be quiet, I feel a big one coming!"
Fuli didn't drive any further. Instead, he took out the Fishing Rod, disguised as the Sword of Shadows, and came to the shore.
Generally speaking, Kanas Lake, as a scenic spot, had an expensive entrance fee, so it wasn't the ideal place for fishing.
However, the local fishermen always found ways around it. Over time, a secret route known only to the locals was formed.
With such a large area and so many forests, you couldn't just fence it all off to make money, could you?
Not to mention that the official policy toward the people of the autonomous region had always been one of appeasement. As long as they didn't cause trouble or say anything detrimental to unity, everyone just turned a blind eye.
「But to be able to get along with everyone so quickly is one of the host's unique talents.」 Prometheus sighed, then changed the subject. 「So, are you planning to 'take' the enhancement potion today as well?」
"Don't talk nonsense, I've never used that stuff!" Fuli's face darkened.
Since it was a mission, Mei had prepared many convenient items and enhancement potions for everyone before they left.
Considering that there wouldn't be time to take potions in a sudden battle, she had "thoughtfully" made some of the potions in the form of suppositories.
That's right, the kind you stick up your butt.
According to Mei, it might be too late to pop a potion in your mouth in the heat of battle, but clenching your butt is fast, almost instinctive.
With a clench, the enhancement potion would be crushed by the contracting gluteal muscles, and the medicinal effect would be released immediately, buying our side extremely precious reaction time.
To this, Fuli's evaluation was:
Well done, don't do it again.
Bronya was more direct:
Sukablyat (Fck you)!!!*
This poet?
...