"Then let's give it a try, shall we? Let's see where this little guy came from."
Fuli waved the two items in his hand, a corner of his mouth curling up.
"What are these?"
The group of girls swayed their delicate bodies closer. Kiana was the first to notice the small thing Fuli had placed on the table.
"Haaa~"
A Q-version, three-heads-tall little Mei in a sailor uniform, about the size of an adult's finger, sat there yawning. She rubbed her eyes, got up from the ground, tilted her head, and curiously examined the white-haired fuzzball that had approached her.
She raised her hands and shouted:
"Mei!"
"So cute!!!"
Kiana's heart was about to melt from this little thing. "Ah Li, Ah Li! What is this, what is this!"
"This is a Mei-Mei Tracker," the boy explained.
The Mei-Mei Tracker was an external piece of equipment for the Raiden Type-II Soul Steel Armor. It worked by launching a clay figurine in the shape of Mei from the wrist.
The little Mei was coated with a specially treated nano-adhesive, allowing it to stick effectively to the surface of objects. During this time, the little Mei would continuously emit signals, and the microcomputer on the armor could locate its coordinates by receiving these signals.
「Wasn't the Soulium Armor damaged in the previous battle?」
Bronya was taken aback for a moment, then quickly shook her head.
The various functional modules of a mechanical creation from Raiden Mei were relatively independent.
Even if one function was completely destroyed, as long as it didn't damage the other parts, it was generally not a big problem.
Fu Hua said thoughtfully, "Cousin, are you planning to stick the tracker to the finless porpoise's surface and have it dive into the water first to check the situation?"
"Exactly." Fuli nodded. "The natural conditions of Kanas Lake are not suitable for the healthy growth of a finless porpoise. Since this little guy can grow to this size, its habitat must be a world of its own."
"In a moment, I'll use the Beast Taming Cultivation Method to order it to return to the place where it grew up. I'll use the tracker to take pictures of the surrounding environment, and only go after making sure everything is safe."
Light Cone: Beast Taming Cultivation Method, grants the ability to communicate telepathically with pets and summoned beasts, and can strengthen them by consuming energy.
He had given one to Asta before, but it wasn't a rare item. Fuli had quickly found another one in the system store.
One should always think about danger, retreat, and change. He had no intention of recklessly diving into the water with it. That was something a stupid pig or a dumb donkey would do.
There was no harm in testing the waters first.
"Then what's this?" Bronya looked at the diary he was holding tightly in his right hand.
[Name: Blood Letter Diary]
[Level: C]
[Category: Item]
[Effect: A paired item. When someone writes in one of the books, the writing will also appear in the other. After a while, the writing will gradually disappear.
The diary has extremely strong anti-interference properties and will also be attracted to the other book.]
[Remark: It is said that this notebook is a living, extra-dimensional creature. Writing on it is creating a wound, and the reason the writing disappears is that the wound is gradually healing.]
"Just in case."
Fuli handed one of the books to the little Mei, unable to resist poking her on her big forehead.
"Mei!"
The little one struggled to hold the Blood Letter Diary, which was bigger than her, her eyes as determined as if she were joining the Party.
She staggered onto the finless porpoise's back, secured herself with the nano-adhesive, and pursed her lips as if to calm her nerves.
A moment later, Fuli had also turned the finless porpoise into his companion.
"Let's go! To the seaside!" Kiana waved her hand.
"It's a lake," Bronya corrected, then looked at Dr. Zhou.
"Don't you dare leave this old man behind!" The old man's hair stood on end. As the saying goes, "If a man in the morning hears the right way, he may die in the evening without regret." The thing he had pursued his whole life was right there. Even if he wasn't a hero, he had no intention of deserting.
"Um, uh!" Siegfried, on the other hand, raised his hand and said, pretending to tremble, "I'll... I'll sit this one out..."
It seemed he was afraid of encountering those terrifying, hundred-meter-tall monsters again. The others nodded in understanding.
The more experienced Fu Hua raised an eyebrow, sensing that this person's logic was not quite right.
If he was really scared, he would have left after the first encounter with the Lake Saints. To choose to leave at this moment made his motives unclear.
A hand rested on her shoulder.
The girl turned her head, and Fuli shook his head slightly.
Out of trust for the person she shared a bed with, Fu Hua pushed up her decorative glasses and didn't ask any more questions.
「Is he planning to dive into the water alone first to clear the way for you?」 Prometheus made a reasonable guess, implying that Siegfried intended to go ahead.
「I think he's after the treasure in Genghis Khan's tomb.」 Dr. MEI, on the other hand, did not hesitate to suspect others' motives with the greatest malice. The environment of intrigue with the Fire Moth members in the Previous Era was one reason, and Siegfried's complicated background was another.
Troublesome characters like fathers-in-law were better off dead.
The more lonely and helpless the girls were, the more their hearts would be attached to their beloved, right?
With a clear goal, the Kanas team quickly arrived at the lakeside in the heavy rain. Thanks to the Water Dragon's Chant's ability to control liquids, their bodies remained clean and dry.
After pouring the finless porpoise and the water from the bucket into the lake, Fuli said solemnly, "I'm counting on you, Sea Pig, little Mei-Mei."
Sploosh!
The finless porpoise, very displeased with that name, spat a mouthful of water in his face again, then disappeared into the rain-swept lake with a flick of its body.
The boy wasn't annoyed. He wiped the liquid off his face and joined the others next to Bronya, staring intently at the constantly moving image on the light screen in front of her.
This was to synchronize with little Mei-Mei's vision.
Since he had used the Beast Taming Method this time, the playful finless porpoise didn't take a detour, but swam swiftly through various undercurrents, soon arriving in front of another taimen several sizes smaller than itself.
A taimen of this size was not uncommon in Kanas Lake. The fishermen had caught quite a few in the past few days.
The finless porpoise happily circled the other fish a few times, as if satisfying some sort of authentication. The latter opened its mouth and swallowed the former, which was larger than itself.
"Holy crap! How dare it?!" Dr. Zhou, thinking the jail-time beast was in trouble, jumped up on the spot, but was quickly pushed back down by Fuli.
"I know you're anxious, but don't be anxious yet," he raised his chin and gestured at the ever-changing light screen. "It's not over."
Even though it had entered the taimen's belly, the finless porpoise was still moving forward at an incredible speed, wagging its tail.
The second layer, the third layer, the fourth layer...
After passing through seven barriers in a row, the little one finally broke through the surface of the water.
The sky was brilliant, pouring shattered gold onto the endless water. The shadows of the clouds moved, and schools of fish, like scattered copper coins, gathered and dispersed.
A deep vortex suddenly appeared in the center of the waves, and a giant black shadow rolled up the scent of ancient moss from the bottom of the water. It opened its mouth and swallowed the phosphorescent light in the sky, leaving only a few bubbles rising.
Looking at its figure, except for its size of "only" thirty-odd meters, the rest was exactly the same as the Lake Saint that had fought them before.
"That's right, this is it!"
The teenagers and young adults exchanged a look, and they all saw surprise and understanding in each other's eyes.
They had long been mentally prepared for the fact that the Lake Saints' habitat was a world bubble.
With a size larger than a blue whale, to avoid being discovered by the 2 million tourists who visited annually, they must have had their own paradise.
But no one had expected that the entrance to the world bubble was not a fixed place, but in the mouth of a certain fish.
Their concealment ability was already so strong that even the official monitoring teams sent by the Shenzhou supernatural department several times had found nothing. The entrance itself was in constant motion day and night.
A 45.73 square kilometer lake, and a one-meter-long fish. With these two factors combined, the probability of finding it was no less than finding a needle in a haystack.
As for why the finless porpoise, a fish that had slipped through the net, had appeared, it was probably because the Lake Saints had come out in too much of a hurry during the previous battle. The huge jet of water created by their massive bodies had swept up some unlucky fellows who were wandering near the entrance.
The suitable water temperature in July had prevented the finless porpoise, which had high environmental requirements, from dying immediately, and its mischievous nature had made it appear before Fuli.
If any one of these conditions had been missing, they would have had to return empty-handed this time.
Bronya and Fu Hua exchanged a look, and both showed a look of感慨. "The air force has made a great contribution."
Hilarious. If it weren't for his persistent "air force" status, why would Fuli have rushed to the lake every day with such gusto?
The person in question just felt that they were mocking him.
He was just about to speak.
With a beep, the light screen in front of them went silent.
"What's wrong?" Dr. Zhou was shocked.
"The signal with the tracker has been lost," Bronya explained. Hearing this, Fuli took out the Blood Letter Diary as insurance and opened it.
After waiting for a while, a line of words appeared on it:
「Wuwuwu, so scared. Safe. Yuan, come save little Mei-Mei T^T」
Just looking at this line of words, one could imagine the little one hugging the diary, which was several sizes bigger than her, hiding alone in a corner, tears streaming down her face.
"Let's go, quickly!" Kiana pointed at the location shown on the Blood Letter Diary, scratching her ears and cheeks impatiently.
"She already looks like a monkey, and now she looks even more like one." Bronya glanced at her and raised the hand wearing the Water Dragon's Chant.
With a BGM of "TearHeartRelease," the downpour in the sky suddenly stopped.
The rain gathered into a semicircular shield covering a radius of several hundred meters, condensing into a distorted, rainbow-colored camouflage.
After using this method to block possible satellite surveillance, Bronya let out a soft cry.
Like Moses parting the sea in the Bible, the lake in front of them was neatly split in two from the center. The water flowed back and forth at the cut, like writhing flood dragons.
Even though he had already seen the Lake Saints, witnessing such a miracle of human control over nature still left Dr. Zhou, an ordinary person, in awe.
"Just showing off." Kiana pointed, then flashed into the bottom of the lake.
The Wonderful Dharma Bell that she had gotten from Yan Shila had already been repaired by Mei. The surface of the ancient bell flashed slightly, and a transparent film wrapped around the girl's short boots, preventing the mud from dirtying her toes.
Fu Hua had a different style. She walked as if she were strolling in a garden. It didn't look like much at first, but in reality, it was as if she were shrinking the ground, and she was even a little faster than Kiana.
This was the Vermilion Bird Stepping on Clouds footwork from the Inch-Heart Fist. When she moved, energy surrounded her body, pushing aside the air. She wouldn't create a sonic boom even when breaking the sound barrier, and she wouldn't even stir up a sharp wind that could tear everything apart.
"Let's go."
Seeing the two of them showing off their skills, Fuli picked up Dr. Zhou with one hand, preparing to teleport away.
A few clouds condensed from water vapor suddenly formed under his feet. Realizing that Bronya was helping him, he sat down cross-legged and let the simple version of cloud-riding carry the two of them into the depths.
Not long after the few of them disappeared, the parted lake gradually closed, and the downpour from the sky fell, as if nothing had happened.
Until another person stepped onto the shore.
It was the skilled woman who had tried to take on the "family of three" and whose body had been found in the lake.
She walked barefoot by the lake, yet her body was completely dry.
The raindrops falling from the sky would unconsciously shift away just before they touched her, as if merely touching her was a desecration.
"Stop hiding, little brother Yanqing." She had her hands behind her back, a charming smile on her face.
Like a drop in animation frames, the fishing spot that had been empty a second ago now had the elegant young Sword Champion standing there.
His well-defined hand rested on the hilt of the sharp weapon at his waist. His voice was low and full of killing intent:
"Shuhu!"
"Yes, it's me." Shuhu smiled and waved in response. The body she had borrowed on a whim dissipated with the wind.
Purplish-white hair cascaded down like a waterfall, a pair of fox ears stood up nimbly in her hair, and her slender waist was cinched by a neat, short outfit, a few silver tassels swaying with her steps.
Her sapphire-blue eyes were clear and bright, as if reflecting the faint light of the stars. When she smiled, they curved into crescents, exuding warmth and cunning.
She let out a "ya" and retreated. A bladeless greatsword, carrying the force of a thousand jun, smashed into the spot where she had been standing.
BOOM—!!!
Shattered stones flew like shrapnel, and the ground cracked. Spiderweb-like cracks instantly spread, and broken stones tumbled down from the collapsing edges.
Awesome shout came at the same time: "Don't you dare walk the world in Senior Baiheng's form! You mongrel are not worthy!"
The newcomer was dressed in a green and white dress, looking to be in her prime. Her features were as delicate as a painting, her skin like white snow with a touch of rouge, and her eyes were especially clear and bright, as if crushed stars were dotted within them.
She let out a "keng" and pulled out the black greatsword, of which only the hilt was left outside, and held it by her side. Her heroic and valiant appearance would make anyone who saw her praise her as a peerless beauty, making them want to look again and again.
Shuhu, who had retreated a few steps, "only then" steadied herself. Her gaze drifted over, and the corner of her eye lifted. "You've learned to call for help, little brother Yanqing. Yunli, right? The Zhuming's Baiye after Yingxing—ah, no, it's Blade now. Your fame and temper are equally deafening."
"First, Senior Yingxing did not become a Baiye." Yunli looked at her coldly, her words sharp. "Second, I said, don't go around swindling people with Senior Baiheng's appearance, you piece of dog shit!"
"Such a mouth." Shuhu smiled and shook her head. "Don't misunderstand. I use Miss Baiheng's appearance to walk the world precisely out of respect for her."
"Respect my ass!" Yunli didn't want to listen to her nonsense at all. She swung her old iron and was about to smash it down.
A few flying swords blocked her.
The young Yanqing asked coldly, "Shuhu, what are you doing here?"
...