"Please, follow me."
Mei's tone carried a hint of mystery. She turned slightly sideways, elegantly making a gesture of invitation, pointing to a seemingly ordinary door deep in the workshop.
"Really? There's an extra surprise grand prize?!"
Hearing this, Raven was instantly overwhelmed by endless fervor and greed.
She hurriedly put away the precious +15 equipment and was about to follow the girl's back with a heart full of joy.
Her step, about to be taken, suddenly paused.
"By the way, this beautiful Miss Raiden," a hint of appropriate confusion appeared on her face, her eyes suspiciously scanning the surroundings, "are there stray cats sneaking into your workshop?"
Mei still responded with an impeccable, perfect smile: "The Hyperion encampment has patrol robots monitoring around the clock. At the same time, the instruments inside the workshop continuously emit a special low-frequency repellent electromagnetic field, so that those cute little guys won't wander into dangerous areas by mistake."
"Is that so?" Raven rubbed her chin: "But just now, why do I feel like I vaguely heard a cat meowing?"
"The location seems to be..."
As she spoke, she looked around seemingly casually.
Her fingers, adorned with metal claws, suddenly swiped through the air in front of her!
"Here!"
Tear—!
A sound like tearing cloth was heard as she forcefully tore open an invisible curtain, revealing a small spatial fault hidden behind it.
"Yo—uh, hi?"
Kiana-cat, hiding inside, awkwardly raised her hand and gave a polite greeting.
"I was wondering how my luck could be so good, succeeding fifteen times in a row. So, I was set up by you damn capitalists."
Miss Raven rolled her eyes coquettishly, glancing at the still calm and composed Dr. MEI: "When did you find out?"
"That is a commercial secret that naturally cannot be disclosed."
Snap!
Mei elegantly snapped her fingers. The pre-arranged electromagnetic field expanded, like an inverted giant bowl, enveloping the entire courtyard.
At the same time, the Herrscher of Thunder's Domain floating beside her transformed into a discrete mode, releasing a large amount of pulsating purple-white lightning to protect her master and Kiana, preventing the top mercenary of North America from becoming desperate and lashing out.
Scanning the completely sealed environment, Raven helplessly spread her hands in self-mockery: "This setup... so I walked into the tiger's den from the very beginning?"
"Since I chose to approach you proactively, naturally I was fully prepared."
Mei bit into an apple, the crisp sound and overflowing juice spreading in her mouth, as if the goddess of victory was tasting the fruit.
She licked away the sweet juice overflowing from the corner of her lips: "Hand over the Seven Thunders of Retribution and sign a soul contract as a deed of sale. Do these two things, and I can consider letting you leave this place."
"Wow! A deed of sale! So direct, without any cover-up at all, this black-hearted capitalist!"
Ciora pointed fingers, then her attitude changed: "But, my dear Eldest Miss Raiden, how can you guarantee that you can easily handle me, whose real body isn't even here?"
She, Raven, was no rookie. Even if she thought her identity was perfectly hidden, she would never be so reckless as to appear in her true form in the core base of her sniping target.
However, the girl's next casual words made the stone in her heart smash onto her ingrown toenail.
"Shapeshifting Puppet, a reconnaissance-type substitute. Its appearance is a special palm-sized wooden puppet. Injecting enough energy and spiritual power can transform it into a designated image, while connecting with the user's five senses for remote control."
"An interesting little gadget." Mei bit into the apple again: "But you wouldn't be naive enough to think that just by sending a clone, I wouldn't know your real body is cooling off in the shadows under the third tree to the right of the back door of the forestry station in Fyxestroll Garden?"
"Holy crap! Doxxed!"
Raven exclaimed exaggeratedly, her expression gradually becoming serious: "So what if you know where my real body is? If it were really on your turf, with the support of that aerospace warship above, I would naturally have to shed a layer of skin even if I didn't die."
"But Fyxestroll Garden has nothing to do with you!"
Question: A mage is invincible in her magic workshop. How do you achieve victory?
Answer: Just don't enter the workshop.
If you know there is a tiger on the mountain, then don't go to that mountain!
"Besides, is it really necessary for us to go this far?"
The current Miss Raven did not know that her identity as a World Serpent cadre had been told to Mei by a certain Regressor.
So she tried to talk her way out: "In the end, sister, our grudge is just a conflict from a sniping job. I, a mercenary, am just doing things for money... as long as the price you offer is attractive enough, I can even help you snipe that bastard who hired me."
Anyway, Gray Serpent is like Otto, that old silver coin, with a bunch of spare bodies. Dying thirty or fifty times won't matter.
Thinking this, she immediately became righteous and confident.
"And for some reason, I find you quite pleasing to the eye, Eldest Miss. If you really want to hire me, I can give you a friendship price." Raven gritted her teeth, as if she had made a great sacrifice: "20% off! Just 20% off, how about it?"
"20% off? What a tempting option."
Mei threw away the apple core and slowly raised her hand. Magnificent purple lightning danced merrily between her five fingers.
"But as a customer, I naturally have to bargain." The girl blossomed a beautiful yet heart-chilling smile: "My psychological price is 50% off."
"Cutting it in half directly? This is a bit too much—Ugh?!"
Before she could finish her refusal, Raven's eyes widened suddenly.
A strange and strong sense of withdrawal swept through her body, as if something essential was being forcibly stripped away by an invisible large hand.
Although this feeling acted on her real body far away in Fyxest-roll Garden, through the link of the five senses, the puppet substitute here also felt that indescribable weakness and horror.
Raven frowned tightly, losing all her teasing and composure for the first time, her voice cold and full of killing intent:
"Raiden Mei! What did you do to me?!"
"Have you heard of quantum theory?"
The girl smiled leisurely: "If an atom is split into two halves and placed at two edges of the universe respectively, when one half is interfered with, the other half will also react in the same way. Different space-time differences cannot hinder this connection."
"So you used some means to forcibly separate half of my real body's mass and spread it evenly on this clone?"
Raven interrupted her long speech, her eyes sharp, but her accelerated speech speed exposed the shock in her heart.
This is possible? Are you freaking cheating?
"Otherwise, why do you think I would preserve the five-sense link between your real body and the Shapeshifting Puppet? The purpose is to make you exist in my workshop and Fyxestroll Garden at the same time."
Mei shrugged, her posture relaxed: "By the way, even if you cut the link immediately, the hijacked mass cannot be returned. Once it is disposed of, not only will your real body's strength plummet, but it may even leave irreparable root damage—"
Before she finished speaking, the last bit of light in the eyes of the Raven puppet in front of her suddenly extinguished.
Almost at the same time, an extremely dangerous and unstable destructive energy fluctuation surged wildly from within.
Self-destruction?
Mei frowned imperceptibly: "Kiana."
"Alright!"
The white-haired Tuna aside had been ready for a long time. Her Herrscher authority was instantly activated.
Under the perfect cooperation of Critical-rank strength and the authority of the Herrscher of the Void, before the Raven puppet's self-destruction energy was fully released, it was forcibly compressed, stripped, and thrown into the chaotic and disorderly turbulent flow of the Imaginary Space, without even a ripple.
"So decisive. Worthy of a World Serpent cadre."
Mei's tone was calm, and it was unclear whether it was praise or mockery.
Without seeing her make any special movements, the +15 long spear that fell to the ground flew lightly into her hand as if pulled by an invisible thread.
The girl casually hung it on the weapon display rack, as if it were just an ordinary decoration.
On the other side, Kiana put her hands on her hips, her face full of helplessness and a little admiration: "Every time I see you fight, Mei, I feel like you and we are not in the same style at all."
"It's just a different level of application of knowledge."
Mei's expression became slightly serious as she explained: "For example, the quantum theory I just mentioned, its principle has actually been unconsciously applied by you in your respective combat systems. For example, your Imaginary Annihilation is essentially—"
"Stop, stop, stop! Hold it! Hold it!"
Kiana hurriedly crossed her hands in front of her chest, afraid that this academic best friend would start a incessant teaching mode: "So what about the other half of that guy? This half self-destructed, what about that side?"
"The Seven Thunders of Retribution is not on her. There's no need to waste more energy." Mei showed a condescending indifference to this: "Just a hiding and scurrying fellow. I don't think much of her."
Although she said so, she still left a small gift for Raven's real body far away in Fyxestroll Garden.
As for when the other party would discover this surprise, it probably wouldn't be too far away.
At the same time, Luofu, within Fyxestroll Garden—
"Raiden Mei!"
The emptiness and weakness in her body, as if half of it had been dug out, were constantly tormenting her.
Raven, running rapidly along a gloomy forest path, gritted her teeth, wishing she could eat her flesh.
After her location was accurately reported, she immediately made a decisive decision and moved from her previous hiding spot to the vicinity of the Swallow's Joy Pavilion dozens of kilometers away.
Although she still hadn't completely left the range of Fyxestroll Garden, she was already very far away.
However, before she could catch her breath, Raven felt that half of her mass—or rather, her essence—had been plundered out of thin air.
Even though she decisively cut the link with the clone and ordered it to self-destruct to avoid falling into the enemy's hands and becoming a threat, this feeling of sudden drop in strength still made her feel so bad that she was almost going crazy.
Fortunately, Raven's original strength was also top-tier among Critical-ranks. Even if she lost half of her body, she wouldn't drop a rank.
Furthermore, over 80% of her combat power was reflected in her use of the Seven Thunders of Retribution, so from the surface, it seemed that the impact was not big—
Yeah, right!
Everyone knows that compared to powerful external objects that can be taken away, what you own yourself is more reliable.
Even if that power was insignificant compared to the Divine Key, it was still something Raven had earned one step at a time.
So angry! So damn angry!
Ahhhhh, I really want to stab her with a knife!
But being angry was useless.
God knows what other weird means that crazy woman Raiden Mei had, and whether she would continue to pursue relentlessly.
Raven's top priority was to leave this damn place of Luofu immediately! Right now! and get away from the radiation range of the Hyperion's forces.
Then return to a safe base of the World Serpent as soon as possible and find a way to make up for half of the deficit.
Fortunately, her identity as a World Serpent cadre had not been exposed, so leaving Luofu shouldn't be a big problem.
Thinking this, Raven suppressed the monstrous anger in her heart, twisted and turned to leave Fyxestroll Garden, and embarked on the road to the Starskiff Sea Central.
As she walked, she found that the situation was not right.
No matter where she went, the passersby around would first look at her with a strange look, then immediately become extremely indignant, and some even wanted to roll up their sleeves and fight.
What's going on?
She subconsciously hid in a small alley and nervously checked herself up and down.
She circulated her energy to sense her surroundings and found no tracking marks or spiritual hints, nor was she attached with any strange metaphysical effects.
"A bunch of lunatics!"
Raven cursed in a low voice, composed herself, and planned to continue on her way.
"She's there!"
"That European dog doesn't want to run away!"
"Give me your life!"
"Kill!"
Who would have thought that just as she stepped out of the alley this time, a group of people with red eyes rushed towards her like a tide from all directions, shouting "Heaven punishes the traitor!" and "European emperor, die!" as they charged at Ciora.
She was stunned at first, followed their gaze up, and looked above her head.
Yes, Mei hadn't done anything to her body.
But above her head...
Only to see a golden, huge, and extremely conspicuous virtual banner floating about ten meters above Raven's head, with several lines of large characters written in extremely arrogant artistic font:
Hahaha! I successfully reinforced a B-rank weapon to +15!
Can you useless non-Europeans do it?
You know you can't!
To prevent her from discovering it early, it was specially set to activate only when there were many people around.
"RAI—DEN—MEI—!"
The Little Island Explosive Crow, understanding everything, once again let out a roar full of humiliation and fury.
She had soaked in the reinforcement workshop for so many days and knew too well how many people had gone bankrupt and lost everything in front of this reinforcement furnace in the past half month.
This hatred was pulled to the point where she was literally being roasted on the fire of all the failed reinforcers in the entire Luofu!
"I swear for this life! Next life! And the life after next, I'm not done with you!"
"You just wait for me (voice break)!"
The Little Island Explosive Crow, transforming into Tiger Bro, let out a roar and was then chased all over the Starskiff Sea.
To be honest, wasn't this a kind of fate destined for three lifetimes?
Despite providing information about Jackal, Fuli's personal points panel had not changed.
The reason was simple: this information was too explosive, directly involving the highest-level cadre of the World Serpent.
If handled improperly, it could very likely alert the mole inside Luofu to the problem, leading to the failure of the subsequent capture operation.
Therefore, Fu Xuan decisively suppressed the information, and the points naturally were not reflected temporarily, but would be after the operation was over.
Of course, this definitely did not mean that Fuli got nothing.
For example, right now, he was following behind the Heaven-Smiting General Feixiao, heading together to the Yaoqing Xianzhou's office in Luofu.
"Come to where I live now to collect the reward for reporting Jackal."
Feixiao, walking in front, turned her head, her smooth silver long hair swaying gently: "My place is quite big, with all kinds of living and entertainment facilities. After you get the reward, it will be enough for you to improvise."
She specifically emphasized the four words "improvise."
"Um, I'll just wait outside for you to bring it out. I won't bother you by going in..."
Fuli responded somewhat absent-mindedly, his gaze always drifting uncontrollably to the fluffy fox ears on her head that trembled slightly with her steps, looking like they would feel great to touch.
Damn it! They look super nice to touch, I really want to rua (pet) them!
And these are proper fox ears, Yae Sakura's are clearly donkey ears!
Like other alien races, the Foxians were one of the intelligent races that the ancestors of Shenzhou met and eventually integrated into the Alliance during their expansion in the Sea of Quanta.
But their fate was not just that. In the more ancient mythological era, the bubble world where the Foxians lived had contact with the intrinsic world.
Five thousand years ago, the precursors of the Fire Moth gradually awoke from their hibernation pods.
Some of them implemented the Kindling Project on the land of Shenzhou, and the level of technology once saw explosive development.
Unsurprisingly, this leapfrog development triggered several large-scale Honkai eruptions in a short period of time.
Compared to the disasters in later generations that would give birth to Sequence Herrschers and be marked as the Xth Honkai Eruption, conventional large Honkai eruptions would also shake the space barrier of the Earth, causing many bubble worlds to float up and contact the intrinsic world, just not so violently.
The two bubble worlds where the Foxians lived, Qingqiu and Tushan, floated up at that time and met and befriended the ancestors of Shenzhou.
Until the execution of the Kindling Project became more and more radical, finally attracting the first Judgment-class Honkai Beast of this era.
Realizing the seriousness of the problem, the precursors stopped the technological climb one after another. The space barrier of the Earth gradually repaired itself over time, and these bubble worlds that had briefly floated up once again moved away, returning to the depths of the Sea of Quanta.
And the memories left behind in those brief contacts formed the origin of later legends of spirits and monsters.
Later, the King of Qin swept through the six kingdoms.
Some remnants of the six kingdoms dissatisfied with the status quo and some old Qin people entered the Sea of Quanta through the Sea Abyss Eye opened by Xu Fu.
The environment of the sea need not be mentioned, and Xu Fu was not a responsible good person.
The ancestors soon lost more than half of their numbers under the siege of monsters. While struggling to survive, the Foxian race arrived by chance.
They recognized the descendants of these old friends and gave great help, helping them to quickly gain a foothold.
From then on, the relationship between the two sides became closer and closer. After thousands of years of development, they had now even reached the point of being indistinguishable and completely integrated, with the Foxians directly becoming an indispensable main race in the Alliance.
"The only slight pity is that," Feixiao seemed to think of something and shrugged, with a hint of playful regret: "there is reproductive isolation between us Foxians and you humans. Theoretically, we cannot have offspring."
She suddenly turned her head and threw a seductive look at Fuli: "But as far as I know, some cross-species lovers actually think this is pretty good. After all, it completely eliminates the risk of accidents, and they can enjoy the world of two people together day and night with a clear conscience."
Her voice rose slightly at the end, full of alluring aura.
"I-Is that so?"
Facing the heroic and valiant Heaven-Smiting General who was cracking a dirty joke with a straight face, the fresh meat Fuli was suddenly a little unable to handle it.
Moreover, he was not sure if she was hinting at something. What if he was overthinking things and making wild guesses, and became a "shrimp-head man" as Kiana called it?
"Yeah."
Feixiao's eyes flowed, showing a very aggressive expression to the big boy she liked: "So do you want to do an experiment with this big sister and see if Foxians and humans can have offspring?"
Her words were direct and passionate, embodying her unique madness and confidence.
This was the Heaven-Smiting General of Yaoqing. Worry-free, regret-free, and invincible. Once she set her heart on something, she would act decisively.
No dawdling, absolutely not leaving any regrets for her future self.
"Huh?"
Good heavens, no need to doubt anymore, she's confessing.
If it were anyone else, facing such a beautiful General with unparalleled looks, a hot body, respected status, unparalleled combat power, and most importantly, the bonus of an alien race attribute, with such a direct and strong confession, their heart might waver, and they might half-push and half-pull agree.
"I'm very sorry... although I'm indeed a bit tempted, thinking about it calmly, it's really not possible!"
But our Little Li... well, everyone who knows, knows.
"Is that so."
Feixiao sighed softly, and a touch of pitying sadness instantly covered her beautiful face.
Those fox ears seemed to droop slightly, but she forced herself to cheer up: "In that case... at least, we can still be friends, right?"
"Of course, no problem!"
Fuli affirmed immediately to ease the awkward atmosphere.
"Alright, we are friends now."
The sadness on the beauty's face was swept away, as if it had never appeared.
She stretched out her well-defined hand: "Let me reintroduce myself. I am Feixiao, the General of Yaoqing Xianzhou. Single."
"Mm, mm! I'm Fuli, from Hyperion."
Little Li, not knowing he was being trapped step by step, also hurriedly stretched out his hand and shook hers back.
"Between friends,"
Feixiao held his hand and did not let go immediately. Instead, she took an inch and moved a little closer.
The corner of her mouth raised a very natural smile, as if it were a matter of course: "Visiting each other's homes and playing is also very normal, right?"
"Normal, normal! Hmm? No! Not normal, not normal!"
Fuli, finally realizing what was wrong, hurriedly tried to pull his hand back.
"Oh, this is very heartbreaking, you know?"
Feixiao said confusedly: "Just got rejected from a confession, my heart is wounded, but I am still so guarded against; you say we can be friends, but you won't even step into a friend's house; moreover, the promised compensation reward is from my private little savings..."
She counted them one by one, and her eyelids drooped lower with each one.
"In! I'll go in! I've actually always wanted to admire the boudoir of the Yaoqing General!"
"That's more like it."
The beauty succeeded, her smile cunning and charming.
She turned and took the initiative to hold the boy's wrist, leading him to the destination in a happy mood.
The situation on the battlefield is unpredictable. The Heaven-Smiting General, who had fought across battlefields all her life, was never a brute who only knew how to fight head-on.
—Arashi Body, Feixiao's signature self-created movement technique. When performed, the body is like a flowing wind, sometimes extremely gentle, sometimes fierce and abnormal, sometimes as fast as lightning, changing freely and extremely flexible.
Under the drive of this wonderful movement technique, Fuli only felt the surrounding scenery recede rapidly.
In just a few seconds, the two had already crossed most of the Exalting Sanctum and arrived at the Starskiff Sea Central.
Just as they arrived at the entrance of the Yaoqing encampment, a noisy clamor came to their ears.
Due to the dense buildings here, and too many various starskiff vehicles and onlookers, Fuli could not see the whole picture at a glance.
But he saw the bright thing in the sky and couldn't help but complain: "It's one thing for this person to succeed in reinforcement, but how dare he taunt everyone on all channels? If he gets killed, he deserves it."
Feixiao came over enthusiastically: "Equipment reinforcement furnace? Is that the signature facility you guys from Hyperion made?"
"Mm, it's one of the special projects, but we have better ones."
"Then I must go and see it with my own eyes one day, to see if the effect is as magical and powerful as rumored."
"Welcome, General, to visit and guide us!"
Smelling the potential huge business opportunity, Fuli transformed and bowed solemnly.
Yaoqing was the most open one under the Taixu Front, even to the point of being criticized by other high-level officials for its close cooperation with the IPC.
"I will go."
Whether to cooperate or to snatch a man, we'll see.
Feixiao nodded affirmatively, then remembered another matter: "And the Overlord hair-loss shampoo you provided last time, my colleagues on my ship all had very good feedback after trying it. We are just waiting to go back this time to fully promote it in Yaoqing."
"That's a must! We can't screw over our family!"
Fuli patted his chest resoundingly, thinking that this trip to the festival was so damn worth it.
"Family?"
A familiar cold tone entered their ears: "Cousin, did you find your parents?"
"Not yet. The records on Schicksal's side are still missing." Fuli naturally took over the topic: "Cousin, why are you here?"
Today's Fu Hua was still in a simple and elegant ink-wash style training suit. The clothes fluttered as if mountains, rivers, yin, and yang were flowing, her posture was upright, and her temperament was detached.
"I was entrusted by Himeko to come and sign up for the Wardance's preview warm-up arena match."
She pointed to the lively and noisy registration point on the side, then looked at Feixiao on the side and nodded slightly in greeting.
"Marshal!"
The Heaven-Smiting General's expression was serious, but she did not salute.
The identity of the Celestial Phoenix had not been exposed, and there were many idle people around, which could easily lead to gossip.
"Mm."
Hua responded, considered a greeting.
Her gaze shifted between Fuli and Feixiao, finally landing on the distance between the two that seemed a bit too close.
She squinted her eyes alertly: "Are you two going to...?"