"Heh~"
Reflected in his crimson eyes was Kiana's slightly trembling shoulders. Fuli leaned against the wooden railing with his arms crossed, a faint smile curling at the corner of his lips.
In all honesty, regarding the tenuous connection between Kanas and Kiana, he had purely just moved his lips and spouted a random guess.
However, in the boy's view, the truth of such a trivial matter was irrelevant; as long as his own Tuna could be happy, that was all that mattered.
The magnificent spectacle was fleeting, and the Buddha Light above the sea of clouds vanished without a trace in the gentle breeze.
Kiana, who seemed to have wept tears of joy just moments ago, sniffled loudly and spun around abruptly.
Trying hard to keep a straight face on her pitiably cute features, she waved her fist and shouted with feigned seriousness, "Don't get the wrong idea, everyone! Just now... just now, the mist was too heavy, this young miss didn't cry at all!"
"Yes, yes, yes, Idiot Kiana didn't have tears in her eyes." Bronya's response was flat and monotone, filled with perfunctory meaning. "It was just that the Buddha Light on the cloud sea was too blinding, and you 'accidentally' got your eyes stung."
Fuli also let out an exaggerated sigh at the right moment. "Oh my, what a pity. I thought I could receive a passionate hug from a moved white-haired beautiful girl, but it turns out—"
Before he could finish his sentence, a warm, soft figure carrying the scent of sunshine crashed into his embrace like a cannonball.
The force wasn't small, causing his chest to shake slightly.
"Thank you... Ah-Li, thank you."
The girl's voice buried in his chest was muffled, but unusually clear, carrying a hint of imperceptible softness.
Fuli's body stiffened for a moment, then relaxed. He raised his hand and somewhat awkwardly, gently placed it on her soft white hair.
"Mmh, you're welcome."
He responded softly, his usual teasing fading away, leaving only a gentle warmth.
Bronya: (ᗜ˰ᗜ)
Do these two think I don't exist, quack?
Watching this heartwarming scene, the girl felt a little annoyed. She secretly moved the "Property of Fuli" stamp on her buttock again, shifting it from the center of the left side to the very edge, almost slipping out from the coverage of her hot pants.
Affection level dropping, desu!
"Screech—!"
A sudden eagle cry broke the silence. The Eternal Gyrfalcon flapped its wings across space-time, circling back and forth above them.
"Oh no! Grandpa Zhou is still in the trial space!"
Kiana suddenly remembered something, her beautiful eyes full of worry.
"Don't panic," Fuli said calmly. "When I split the Great Lake, I already placed him on the small island there."
Fuli Chaoslana relied on the Authority of the Void to directly split the Mausoleum World Bubble in two. The area where the battlefield was located had collapsed, but the Great Lake part remained intact.
"Which means we still have to go back to the World Bubble to bring the old man out again." Bronya sighed, her petite body swaying as she leaned toward the boy. "Brother, Bronya is tired, can't walk."
"Then Brother will carry you."
Fuli caught his little sister and skillfully piggybacked her.
"Mmm..."
Kiana's eyelid twitched. She felt like Bronya was targeting her actions from just now.
"Bleh, bleh, bleh!"
"You're doing this for revenge!"
Pointing an angry finger at Duck-Duck who was making faces at her, Kiana yelled furiously.
"By the way, do we have to go by water again and pass through the Taimen's mouth?" Fuli, the newly minted fishing enthusiast, was eager to try. "Leave it to me this time! I guarantee I'll fish it out of the water in one go!"
"No need." Bronya on his back tapped him with her chin. "Information from the translation software says the Gyrfalcon already left a feather for positioning at the Great Lake. We can rely on its teleportation ability to go there."
"Coo coo!"
The Eternal Gyrfalcon landing on Kiana's shoulder raised its head proudly. Even though it wasn't an adult yet, transporting fewer than five people through space was a piece of cake!
The only pity was that this innate ability had a considerable cooldown, which was the main reason the little guy only appeared now.
"Indeed a pity." Fuli sighed. "Otherwise, we could have played Flying Thunder God Technique."
After saying that, he glanced at Kiana.
As the vessel for the Void Core and the future Herrscher of the Void, theoretically, this guy could freely use all space-type skills below A-Rank, and even A-Rank ones with a bit of effort. Flying Thunder God would naturally be no problem.
"Ah-Li, why are you looking at this young miss? Hurry up and come over to teleport!"
"Damn!"
Okay, still a long way from growing into her complete form.
When will I be able to hug a Herrscher's long legs? Mei is already an ex, so she doesn't count!
Carrying the future Herrscher of Reason on his back, the boy muttered to himself while holding the soft, jade-like hand of the juvenile Herrscher of the Void.
Three people + one bird vanished from the spot with a swish.
Thick water vapor hit them in the face, followed by wailing sounds:
"Little Li! Little Qi! Little Duck! Grandpa Zhou missed you guys to death!"
On the small island in the center of the Great Lake, Dr. Zhou squatted in a corner, tears and snot flowing. "My camera ran out of battery, so I can't take pictures. Did any of you bring a power bank?"
Turns out he's crying not because he's afraid of death, but because he can't take pictures of the animals!
The trio simultaneously roasted him in their hearts.
It truly fit the stereotypical impression the old man gave.
Fuli: "Bronya."
Bronya: "Project Bunny."
Like an engineering project being subcontracted layer by layer, as the subordinate of a subordinate, the steel knight materialized from the void. A cable extended from its finger, which was as thick as a normal person's wrist, and connected to the camera's Type-C charging port.
A line of text appeared in the air: [Li-ion battery does not support fast charging; requires four hours to fully charge.]
"NO—!"
The old man cried his heart out.
"Don't panic, Grandpa Zhou," Kiana comforted him. "It's useless to panic anyway. Why not take a few more looks at the animals in the lake before your memory is erased?"
No matter how grandly he spoke before coming, upon seeing the treasures in this Great Lake and thinking that he would soon forget everything cleanly, Dr. Zhou was now not just heartbroken but even foaming at the mouth.
"Does she think she's comforting him?"
"Idiots are like that. The high EQ way to put it is 'straightforward and outspoken'."
Fuli and Bronya whispered to each other.
"You two over there! If you're going to whisper about this young miss, keep it down, at least don't let me hear it!"
Kiana scolded with one hand on her hip, then turned around. "Even if he forgets, it doesn't matter, right? With such a large World Bubble, the Shenzhou officials will definitely take over. As long as they see so many endangered or even extinct species from the outside world inside, they will definitely think of ways to transfer some to the Proper World first. By then, even if he loses the memory of this period, wouldn't he still be happy enough to forget himself?"
Extinct creatures seeing the light of day again—what a gimmick, what inspiring news.
Looking at the current protection efforts: "Every finless porpoise implanted with a tracking chip," "Immediate emergency response triggered after a few minutes of no reaction"... Geez, even giant pandas don't get this treatment.
Of course, there would definitely be many, many problems during this period, but as the saying goes, problems brought by development ultimately need to be solved by development. The world spirals upward amidst struggles.
Dr. Zhou blinked, thought about it, and realized it was true.
Immediately, he beamed with joy. His waist didn't ache, his legs didn't hurt, and climbing fifty floors in one breath wouldn't be a struggle.
Bronya continued whispering to Fuli, "So should we tell them that the old man who took the Primary Evolution Potion has already half-stepped into the realm of Honkai, and the probability of his memory being erased is basically zero?"
The latter patted her little butt. "It's fine. When the Shenzhou officials come to visit later, they will explain it to the Doctor themselves."
"So you're just going to let him be on tenterhooks during this time?" The little girl leaned into Fuli's ear, her small, charming lips uttering blaming words: "Brother, bad."
Pfft—!
The little finless porpoise popping its head out of the water thought the same, so it spat water directly into the boy's face.
"Hahahahaha!"
Kiana laughed heartily, Bronya's lips curled up, and the air was filled with a cheerful atmosphere.
"Ah, right."
Relaxing, Dr. Zhou suddenly remembered something and opened his cross-country bag used for miscellaneous items.
"A middle-aged man with white hair and blue eyes gave this to me before leaving, saying to bring it to his silly daughter."
The old man fumbled around for a while and took out a pitch-black package.
"Hmph, hmph, it must be from my smelly dad to this young miss!"
Having gone through the baptism of the Cloud Sea Buddha Light, Kiana was excited, but mostly confident.
She took the package and carefully opened it under everyone's gaze.
It was a dress.
A dress named "Winter Princess."
And beneath this dress, there was a nagging note pressed down.
Use your brain a bit, silly daughter. Who with B-Rank strength dares to run to the US military base in the Far East every day to steal bullets? If it weren't for your dad having a bit of face on Anti-Entropy's side, you would have been caught and locked in a dark room long ago.
Also, protect yourself well in the future. If you encounter grievances, contact your Uncle Ryoma Raiden. Although your smelly dad's organs are highly cancerous all over, to take care of you, living another few decades won't be a problem.
In the dense jungle, with a splash, a strong, vigorous hand reached out from the rushing river water and firmly embedded itself into a protruding boulder by the river channel.
"Ha, ha, really..."
The man climbed ashore in a sorry state, shook his wet white hair, and gasped for breath.
This was the Kanas River connected to Kanas Lake. Its 125-kilometer length made it impossible to monitor well. Coupled with Siegfried's own concealment methods, which even base-form Fu Hua couldn't see through, he managed to escape the encirclement net set up by City God Mu Hanyin and numerous subordinates.
Although it was called an encirclement net, the original intention was to invite this hero to the aerial battleship for a chat; both sides knew when to stop.
After the fierce battle with the Eternal Heaven and taking a non-full-power hit from the Edge of Taixuan, Siegfried should have been extremely weak at this moment.
But looking at his complexion, aside from being pale, he actually looked surprisingly okay overall.
This was the amplification brought by his bloodline. As an awakened Kaslana, Siegfried possessed characteristics similar to Fusion Warriors—rapidly recovering his state by devouring the flesh and blood of Honkai Beasts and Zombies.
After being brought to the Great Lake by Fu Hua, he quickly devoured the remains of the Lake Saints killed by Fuli and the others.
Just as he planned to return to the battlefield, he found the space-time he was in stripped away by Fuli Chaoslana using the Authority of the Void, and subsequently witnessed the defeat of the Eternal Heaven with his own eyes.
"This is what they call 'the waves behind driving the waves ahead,' right?"
Sitting on the riverbed, Siegfried chuckled in a low voice, tearing off his tattered combat suit to reveal a very masculine, muscular upper body.
"Then you probably won't mind being smacked onto the beach by the waves again, Hero-sama~"
The bewitching voice did not reach the man's ears. The person involved, far away at the Kyrgyzstan border, was merely reading his lips through the screen unfolding before her.
Siegfried's head was outlined in the diamond-shaped light spot. Natasha Ciora, dressed in raven-feather leather clothing, lay prone on the rooftop of a high-rise building.
Her ample bosom, which understood men's hearts well, pressed against the cold floor tiles. Accompanied by the slight vibration of her heartbeat, it created a side-boob curve that would make mouths go dry.
——— For our Sovereign who is destined to return, reclaim the Judgment of Shamash unreasonably occupied by the mediocre Siegfried Kaslana!
Recalling the EX-Rank mission permanently listed on the World Serpent HQ board, as well as the generous reward enough for her to buy a small country, Miss Raven placed her slender index finger on the trigger of the purple, sci-fi style sniper rifle in her hand.
With the lighthearted mood of a corporate slave learning on Friday afternoon that they didn't have to work overtime tomorrow, she pulled the trigger briskly, without a trace of killing intent.
The sky-piercing Shamash Unsheathed, Durandal's cross-border reinforcement, the movement of the Jiangsu Ship, the intelligence personnel arranged within the Taixuan Front...
All of the above were enough for World Serpent's intelligence network to determine the general situation in the Kanas region.
This was undoubtedly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and the money-strapped Ms. Island-Buy-Buy-Raven seized this opportunity perfectly.
Even an ordinary person with slightly keen intuition would feel a hair-raising sense of crisis when pointed at by a gun muzzle.
That was the killing intent inadvertently revealed by the shooter, not to mention an intuition monster like Siegfried who came from the Kaslana lineage.
Ciora was different. Her shooting carried absolutely no killing intent. This was an instinct she had learned from Gray Serpent's teachings over more than a decade.
An instinct as an assassin.
Furthermore, the weapon in her hand was the Third Divine Key, "Key of Judgment," Seven Thunders of Retribution.
The Seven Thunders of Retribution was very particular about compatibility with its user. Like the Herrscher of Thunder who was the source of its power, it was a willful lady. If you didn't humor its temper, its condition would deteriorate.
Before coming here, Ciora had specially given the Divine Key's main body a meticulous maintenance session. Her skilled SPA techniques allowed the synchronization rate between the two to reach a rare 80%.
This allowed her to use the Key of Judgment's First Rated Power: Wing of Plunder—locking onto a target and firing a hugely powerful beam that could cross half a continent to deal a devastating blow to the target, with a terrifying blast radius extending a hundred miles from the impact point.
Miss Raven didn't intend to do that.
First, as the price for unleashing the First Rated Power, the main body of the Divine Key would be temporarily damaged and require a very long time to recover. If used forcibly when in poor condition, it could even lead to permanent damage to the gun body.
Second, World Serpent didn't intend to completely fall out with the Taixuan Front yet. If she really fired such a shot in their territory without warning... Raven didn't know if World Serpent would die, but she herself definitely wouldn't live to see the next day.
Therefore, what she used to snipe Siegfried was the Third Rated Power of the Key of Judgment—Heart Blade.
...