Now that his injuries were fully healed, getting dressed was as easy as one, two, three.
The only downside?
Bubai pulled on his short-sleeved, second-hand robe and sighed.
"Merlin's wallet... I'll have to go get new robes after this tourney or I might have to parade around bare-butted like the emperor with new clothes."
His eyes then fell on his pair of battered, scorched armguards that looked like they were about to fall apart after another hit or two.
"Hey, at least these survived though."
Tanking the flames from those explosions was no joke.
Compared to regular mortal outfit, these good lads did well in not melting on him and even helped guard his face at critical moments.
That kept his human face mask intact, for the most part. Not a bad trade-off, all things considered.
Speaking of the mask…
Bubai fished out a bronze handheld mirror from his water-filled pouch and checked his own face out.
Mm. Face's fine. But...
"…Huh? My hair... has grown out this much? Even my eyes got covered. Wait a sec, this… this..."
Holy Merlin… this was that legendary hairstyle, isn't it?!
The one possessed by those legendary cultural anime protagonist!
Dear Merlin above. Is his life really heading in that direction?
Bubai narrowed his eyes at himself, then turned the mirror side-to-side, checking angles.
Hey, not bad, not bad! Will he soon start his NTR career—Ahem. Ahem.
There's no need for his Nuclear Thermal Rocket to shoot that way.
Children, no Need To Run! Nothing To Report here!
Ahem. Pun aside, maybe he should trim it to avoid drawing too much attention?
Bubai peeked over to the Miss Officer gearing up her raven-black uniform.
Well... since some matters already got leaked, no point in hiding too much.
Bubai put away the mirror and bent down to pick up the rest of his gear.
The backup storage bag went into his underwear. The main storage pouch refastened to his waist. The locked loot bag set aside. As for the gourd…
He tried to stuff it into his high-grade pouch, only to feel a repulsion force like two magnets of the same pole repelling each other.
"As expected… can't store it."
Items spiritually-branded by others weren't welcome in his own personal storage warehouse, but regular storage bags had no problems holding such refined magic tools.
So even if that Wu Dawei left a mark, that wasn't the issue here.
Bubai studied the gourd in his hand. "If I'm not wrong, this should also be a spatial storage device?"
But… is it that simple?
Find the fairy for appraisal? Or…
Bubai slid his gaze over to the uniformed lady slotting back on her black raven mask.
It wouldn't hurt to give it a try?
"By the way… like a sage once said—know thy enemy, know thyself. You should know the details about this magic gourd, right?"
Miss Raven paused and her cool gaze slid over.
That quiet look gave him quite the different pressure from before. Authoritative. Distant. Unapproachable.
A mask and uniform really sculpted a different feel.
But just when Bubai thought this aloof officer will brush him off, she surprised him.
"Unclear about the specifics. Just know it's a storage device that holds nothing except water, but said to hold up to five million Jin."
5 mil?! Bubai was shocked!
Converting that, that's roughly about twenty-five hundred square meters of storage space! That's bigger than his high-grade pouch!
That meant if this gourd got filled up, it could pretty much drown the whole arena and still have enough left over to make a spa!
Of course, getting that much water in this desert in the first place was an absolute luxury.
Ugh. Now that he thought about it…
Bloody Merlin, all that water wasted! That's gallons of wealth!
Too bad he can't collect that free water because he can't use the gourd, nor any refined magic tool, in public.
Sad face.jpg.
Oh well. Just hand it over to his ever-faithful water-refiller waifu once he gets home. It'll get filled eventually.
Until then, his heart could only stay a little thirstier for what could've been.
Man, if only his dao seed would show up like a normal cultivator's instead of turning into a leaf hiding in his mysterious dantian space!
Otherwise, he'll be stuck playing a Qi Refinement piggy for a lifetime!
Ack. A problem he'll have to solve. Eventually.
After setting aside the gourd, Bubai's divine sense secretly gave himself a quick internal checkup.
Yup, full recovery. The cost? About 8% of his dew pool.
To achieve this in a mere hour-long-sprint, the cost-efficiency was almost game-breaking!
Bubai's gaze then drifted back to Miss Raven who was hooking her black veil back on.
"Miss Wu, hope you'll remember our little deal. Feel free to come to me anytime."
Miss Raven shot him a pointed look but didn't say anything. She simply took out a shadowy black pearl and crushed it.
The sealed-off shadow realm broke apart like an unraveling cocoon with all its dark, writhing tendrils slinking back to the shadowy corners of the chamber.
Seeing Miss Raven heading for the door, Bubai sat there with one elbow resting on his knees and smirked.
"You can tell her to come in. Oh—and try to keep eyes out."
No reply. No farewell.
The door slid open and Miss Raven didn't even spare him a second glance before it sealed shut once more.
Well. Well. The attitude was there. But will she be back? Oh, she will. Even if it's not her, it'll be someone else.
That's just how these spy chicas roll.
The door ripped open and in stepped his hot assistant with flaming red hair.
One glance at him, and she sneered like he owed her a palace then slammed the door shut.
Oh boy, another one with even worse temper.
Drawing back in her flaring spiritual pressure, Miss Hong marched over with arms folded while clicking her tongue.
"Tsk, tsk. You really have your ways. What kind of shady deal did you make to get her to kneel and pay so much to help you?"
Bubai showed an innocent face. "Hey, hey! Don't slander people! Nothing happened! It was just a bit of friendly conversation! Really!"
"Tch. Take me for a fool?" Miss Hong stopped right in front of him and leaned forward to take a sniff of his collar.
"Tch. You have her smell all over you. Still saying nothing happened?"
"Think what you want." Bubai shrugged then patted his thigh. "Alright, enough drama. Brief me on what happened outside."
"Tch." Miss Hong unceremoniously plopped herself right down onto his lap like a queen claiming her throne.
"Nothing much happened. Just bottom-feeding trash fighting over scraps. A second deathmatch is still raging now, but it should be over soon. Once it's over…"
"If nothing goes wrong, they'll all be jumping to be the first to tear a piece of meat off you."
Bubai chuckled. "Heh. Wonder which lucky winner will come collect my sesame seed, just to lose their melon."
Right on cue, his hand slid into her qipao to crop a feel of what was very much like real melons.
Miss Hong shot him a half-lidded glare.
"You already messed around for an hour. Still haven't had enough?"
Bubai's thumb rubbed her lips. "You can't blame me. Who told you to be so attractive."
"Tsk." She caught his hand and pushed it away. "Pointless, flowery talk."
That's what she said, but she didn't hesitate to slip off his laps to get down on her knees...
"Tch! Your dirty thing is already so hard..."
She didn't say more and buried her face where it belonged.
"Good." Bubai grinned and petted the obedient redhead. "Xiao Hong, I'll let you hold onto the gourd and bag I just snagged. You know I don't like bringing useless things around with me."
The hottie shot him a sharp, upturned glare. Then she proved how she was far from useless…
While fresh flowers were sweet, no matter how good they were, nothing beats a mature peony ripe with experience like this redhead.
But the red flags already got raised, and time waits for no one...
"Yan Zhuo versus Mo Chen, Mo Chen wins! Next... Ge Tianqi challenges Mo Bubai!"
A wicked grin took over Bubai's face.
"Ah... looks like somebody really took me for a soft persimmon, huh?"