You make a damn good point, and I have absolutely no rebuttal.
Rendered utterly speechless by Prometheus's razor-sharp, strike-to-the-core logic, Fuli could only cover his face and walk away in defeated silence.
"...Lord Fuli, where are you going?"
"Ah? Oh! Nothing, nothing!"
He had momentarily forgotten that his debate with the AI was taking place entirely inside his mindscape. The boy casually strolled back to his teammates, pasting on the most natural smile he could muster so they wouldn't think he was having a schizophrenic episode.
[The Host already is a schizo. You literally have a hospital certificate to prove it.]
[Shut up!]
While the two bickered internally, Hyacine had already pulled a thermos and three disposable paper cups from her backpack—which, naturally, was printed with a garish pattern of sunshine and rainbow pegasi.
"Here everyone, try some of this!"
Radiating boundless energy, she unscrewed the thermos and poured a translucent, amber-gold liquid into the cups. Instantly, the crisp, sweet aroma of honey mixed with a faint herbal fragrance filled the air.
"A warrior's send-off drink?"
Yunli stepped closer, rubbing her chin as she inspected the liquid. "I've never seen anything like this in Grandpa's cellar. Did you brew it yourself, Jin-bao?"
"Mhm! It's called Golden Mead! I managed to perfect the recipe after countless experiments based on my ancestors' ancient notes!"
Hyacine nodded vigorously, her pink twin-tails bouncing. "If you drink this before traveling through the vacuum of space, Imaginary Space, or even the dangerous Sea of Quanta, your body handles the extreme hypoxia and environmental stress much better! It even helps resist low-level mental corruption and physical mutation!"
"That's incredible!" Fuli's eyes lit up. He immediately asked the million-credit question: "What's the cost? Jin-bao, is this a nightmare to mass-produce?"
"The medicinal herbs and honey aren't actually that rare or expensive. It's just the fermentation and extraction process that takes a bit of time and patience."
Hyacine capped the thermos with a proud smile. "Actually, I've already asked Mr. Jiaoqiu to help me submit a patent application to the Taixu Frontline High Command! Once it's approved, we should be able to mass-produce it. Exploring the Sea of Quanta and Imaginary Space will be so much safer for everyone!"
It was common knowledge that the Sea of Quanta was essentially the Warp from a certain grimdark tabletop game. There were pockets of it where merely glancing at the environment would tank a person's Sanity points and trigger instant mental contamination.
Worse yet, you could be corrupted by unspeakable cosmic horrors and mutated into an abomination. It was literally a stare-too-long-and-your-eyeballs-melt kind of hazard.
This inherent extreme danger was one of the biggest roadblocks preventing ordinary citizens and weaker explorers from mapping the Sea. If this Golden Mead could be commercialized, it would change the entire galactic landscape.
The problem was, Fuli—a regressor who had lived through a previous timeline—had never heard of this miracle mead. He hadn't even heard of her faction, the Twilight Courtyard.
Even if the Luminary Wardance in his past life wasn't as grand as this one and didn't use a point-based commission system, someone with Hyacine's blindingly pure, saint-like personality would never have hoarded an invention that could save millions of lives.
Which left only one grim possibility—
[An accident.]
Dr. MEI reached the exact same conclusion in his mind. She sighed in pity. [It is highly likely this child met an untimely demise before she could popularize her Golden Mead in your previous life. Thus, the invention never saw the light of day.]
"Li-bao?"
The crisp call pulled Fuli from his dark thoughts. A cup of golden, shimmering mead was hovering right in front of him.
"I'm fine."
Fuli took the cup and downed it in one gulp. A wondrous, gentle warmth slid down his throat and bloomed in his stomach, spreading to his limbs and bones. It was an indescribably cozy sensation, as if liquid sunshine was seeping into every cell of his body.
"Jin-bao," he asked, keeping his tone casual as he set the cup down. "If you hadn't come to participate in the Luminary Wardance, what were your original plans for this time period?"
"Ah? Me?"
Hyacine tapped her chin with her index finger, thinking seriously. "I probably would have used the ancient texts left behind in the Twilight Courtyard to go looking for the ancestral ruins mentioned in my clan's journals. The ones detailing the origins of our Sky Clan—the Chrysos Heirs."
"But I really don't have much to go on!" She shyly adjusted the straps of her backpack, revealing two cute dimples. "I don't even know where the ruins are actually located. It probably would have taken me years and years of searching."
"I see."
Fuli nodded in understanding. With a thought, a set of archaic riding gear—complete with reins and a short crop—materialized in his hand.
"Here, you and Little Ica should borrow this for now."
He handed the tack over. "We're going to hit some unavoidable combat during this clearing op. As our primary support, you need to have enough self-preservation capability."
"Don't worry about me, Li-bao, I'm super tough!"
To prove her point, the petite girl instantly dropped into a textbook Bajiquan stance, throwing a few sharp, surprisingly disciplined punches.
Unfortunately, seeing such a deadly, stoic martial arts form executed by someone with such tiny arms and legs was overwhelmingly adorable. The sheer contrast drew good-natured chuckles from several other travelers waiting at the starskiff port.
Hyacine's face flushed beet red, but she stubbornly held her ground. "A-Anyway! I definitely won't drag the team down!"
"Hey, it's not just for you. It's for Little Ica too."
Seeing her hesitate, Fuli smoothly deployed his ultimate weapon: moral kidnapping. "Your Memosprite Little Ica is an independent living creature with its own thoughts! You can't just ignore its needs and opinions just because you're stubborn!"
"Ah?" The girl blinked, suddenly flustered and unsure of what to do.
While she was caught off guard, Fuli's hands moved like lightning. He resized the gear and strapped it straight onto the baby pegasus.
Bellerophon: Reins of the Riding Hero. A powerful Noble Phantasm comprised of a bridle and whip that explosively boosted all attributes of a summoned mount.
Its target was strictly limited to sentient creatures capable of being ridden. Once equipped, it massively amplified the mount's speed, strength, and defense, and could even forcibly extract their latent power regardless of their own will.
Fuli had pulled this from a ten-pull in the system ages ago (Volume 5, Chapter 3). He had never used it because he didn't own a qualifying mount. Kiana and Bronya didn't either, and Mei's Kurikara was too prideful to care about the stat boost, so it had collected dust in his inventory.
He had impulsively tried to use it on Jingliu once. Tragically, the system rigidly ruled that a cold, aloof, unapproachable swordmaster Master did not count as a mount.
Speaking of Jingliu, a certain rumor desperately needed to be cleared up.
To the outside world, the Master always acted like she had Fuli wrapped around her finger, casually boasting about how she "stepped on her rebellious disciple" whenever she pleased. She projected the aura of an absolute conqueror.
However, as the old saying goes: Only a bottom desperately insists they're a top. In reality, the dynamic of their master-disciple relationship in the bedroom was completely inversely proportional to their actual combat strength and status.
At the end of the day, Fuli's 'loadout' was simply too overpowered for a physical contest of stamina.
Just his Partial Expansion Jutsu alone was more than enough to make Master Jingliu cry for mercy.
(Illustration: Master Jingliu Looking Flustered)
But returning to the matter at hand—as a juvenile Memosprite, Little Ica perfectly met Bellerophon's activation requirements.
"Doo—!"
Empowered by the Noble Phantasm, the creature instantly evolved from a chubby mascot that could fly into a chubby mascot that could manipulate hurricane-force winds.
Excited, it nudged Fuli with its head, then unceremoniously tossed the boy onto its back. In a flash of white, the pegasus turned into a literal tornado, recklessly zooming around the crowded port.
"Hahaha! Run 'em over, Little Ica! No, wait—Big Ivan!"
Channeling his inner Steel Ball Rider, Fuli cheered at the top of his lungs.
"Doo doo!" Little Ica shrieked in agreement, cranking the speed dial even higher.
"YOU! TWO! IDIOTS!"
CLANG! CLANG!
Yunli's furious roar was accompanied by two swift strikes from Ol' Iron.
"Stop causing a scene in a crowded transport hub! Do you want to get thrown in the brig?!"
Sporting fresh, steaming welts on their heads, the boy and the Memosprite instantly deflated. They sat side-by-side on the cold floor, whispering their apologies in unison:
"I'm sorry."
"Doo..."
"Hehe~"
Watching this chaotic, overly energetic display, Castorice couldn't help but cover her mouth, letting out a soft, melodious laugh that sounded like chiming wind bells.
...
Although standard starskiffs were perfectly capable of navigating the Sea of Quanta, World Bubble 1025 was located extremely far from Luofu space. Since a massive Cloud Knight cruiser returning from border patrol happened to be heading back for resupply, the Crychic Squad naturally hitched a ride.
The moment Fuli boarded, he weaponized his inherited Kaslana-grade sociability. Within an hour, he was entirely buddy-buddy with the Cloud Knight crew.
Case in point: With the hearty permission of the Vice-Captain, Fuli was currently sitting in the helm's main command seat, hands casually resting on the cruiser's sci-fi steering wheel as he piloted the massive warship.
To summarize the chain of events: Fuli bragged during a chat -> A skeptical crewmate went "Bet you can't fly this" -> Fuli said "Watch me" -> He actually flew it.
Men were incredibly simple creatures. This had absolutely nothing to do with him legally being the Cousin of the Marshal.
"Wait a damn minute!"
Having watched the entire exchange, Yunli was practically having a heart attack. "Do you even know how to fly this thing?! One wrong move and you'll crash this entire ship into the Sea of Quanta!"
It wasn't a joke. If this ship went down, even she—a legitimate S-Rank equivalent—couldn't guarantee she'd survive the Sea's depths.
Since the S-Rank Restriction Treaty had been repealed, the young master artisan no longer had any reason to suppress her power. She had formally tested into her true rank, making her the heaviest hitter on the Crychic Squad.
"Relax, Li-bao. Look how smooth my steering is," Fuli said, pushing up his sunglasses. "Right, bros and babes?"
"Brother Fuli seriously has a gift! He's a born pilot!"
A veteran Foxian helmsman gave a vigorous thumbs-up, his other hand stealthily hiding the bottle of Premium Anti-Balding Miracle Shampoo Fuli had bribed him with.
"Honestly, once we reach the airspace around World Bubble 1025, we won't even need to deploy a dedicated pilot for your insertion craft. You can just fly the assault starskiff down yourselves."
"Agreed!"
"Yeah, Brother Fuli is solid!"
The bridge erupted in a chorus of approval.
"See?" Fuli shot Yunli a smug, highly punchable smirk.
Hidden beneath his shirt, the pink, heart-shaped mark on his abdomen was glowing with a faint, imperceptible light.
Stigmata of Reason. The absolute mastery over any tool or instrument created by sentient life. A galactic cruiser and an assault starskiff obviously fell under that umbrella.
And so, the original plan of having a professional military pilot drop them off was officially scrapped. Fuli would take the wheel.
The Crychic Squad's operational plan was simple: Once the cruiser reached a safe distance from World Bubble 1025, they would launch in a smaller, highly agile, and stealthy assault starskiff to infiltrate the target zone.
Why the extra hassle?
To prevent the massive cruiser from drawing the immediate aggro of the Borisin splinter fleet currently occupying the Bubble.
The Borisin might look like uncivilized, bloodthirsty beastmen, but their biotechnology was terrifyingly advanced. If a ship this large descended into the atmosphere, the Borisin would immediately lock on with their biological beyond-visual-range heavy railguns and blast them to kingdom come.
Of course, Yunli was completely immune to Fuli's blatant flexing. But the same couldn't be said for others.
"Lord Fuli... is amazing..." Castorice murmured softly, her pale purple eyes shimmering with genuine admiration.
For a girl who had been forced into total isolation due to her death-inducing constitution, Fuli's 'succubus' ability to effortlessly befriend a room full of armed strangers was as dazzling as the sun.
But she still had a question: "Um... why did he call them 'bros and babes'?"
"Just buttering up women. Tch, look at how smooth he is—it's practically a biological instinct at this point!" Yunli crossed her arms, rolling her eyes.
"But you're also an incredibly important partner that I'm trying hard to woo, Li-bao!" Fuli immediately turned to her, his expression as solemn as a man taking an oath.
"Yeah, hard pass."
The young swordmaster's delicate features scrunched up in profound disgust, and she dramatically sidestepped away from him.
She vividly remembered how absolutely unhinged he had acted back in Jigui City. He clearly had some other woman named 'Yunli' deeply entrenched in his heart, yet here he was, flirting with her without even blinking? Did this guy even have a conscience?!
(Illustration: "Do you even have a conscience?!")
...
Fifty-two hours later, the colossal cruiser slowly hummed to a halt, anchoring itself in the quantum tides seven thousand kilometers away from World Bubble 1025.
Looking out through the massive observation deck windows, the world encased within the fragile, soap-bubble-like membrane revealed itself.
It was a beautiful sphere: roughly thirty percent jewel-blue ocean and seventy percent vast continents of ochre and earthen yellow. Thin veils of clouds drifted lazily across the planet's surface.
"It looks so much like Earth! I honestly thought it was going to be one of those flat-earth realms!"
Hyacine had her face completely pressed against the cold glass of the window, her eyes wide as she let out a constant stream of awe-struck gasps.
"World Bubbles capable of nurturing an Ether Anchor tend to stabilize into these spherical, highly ordered forms," Castorice explained gently from beside her.
The Sea of Quanta had existed since the dawn of the universe, but initially, it was just as barren as the cosmos itself.
Over countless eons, accidental resonances between the Sea and the planets of the Real World (the Imaginary Tree) occurred. This breaking of symmetry birthed time within the previously empty Sea of Quanta.
With time came evolution. Countless dimensions and spatial pockets were born and destroyed. The vast majority were mere fleeting shadows of the Real World, destined to pop in an instant. But occasionally, a World Bubble would stubbornly refuse to die.
By constantly siphoning nutrients from the outside, these Bubbles acted like living organisms, maintaining their existence and operating under their own unique physical laws.
And when one of these stubborn World Bubbles developed to a critical threshold... an Ether Anchor was born.
Ether Anchor—also known as a Stellaron. Usually formed near the core of a World Bubble, it was the physical crystallization of the world's life force, acting as its heart and soul. The advent of life, biological evolution, the birth of civilization, and the progress of ideals gradually fed into the Stellaron, making it indestructible.
In return, this indestructible core fed power back into the World Bubble, projecting a barrier that protected its billions of inhabitants from the lethal environmental hazards of the Sea of Quanta, forming a perfect, self-sustaining loop.
Back in the day, when the Hyperion had accidentally drawn a massive horde of monsters due to Fuli's 'Void Well', Mei had converted the surrounding area into the Superstring Space—commonly known as the Abyss. At the time, she had suffered endless headaches trying to stabilize the newly birthed dimension.
Fuli had solved the problem by purchasing an Imaginary Branch from the system shop—an item forged from the ruined Ether Anchor of a massive World Bubble—to anchor the Superstring Space's reality (Volume 3, Chapter 12).
"Only World Bubbles that currently possess or previously held an Ether Anchor can maintain stable exchanges of matter, energy, and information with the Real World," Yunli added, lounging on a soft sofa in the recreation area, idly swinging her legs. "World Bubbles that never birthed a Stellaron are mostly composed of Ether—concept-based, imaginary elements. Their practical exploitation value is basically zero."
This was the fundamental reason why the Borisin splinter fleet had chosen to build a stronghold here, and why Kafka and Sam of the Stellaron Hunters had paid the world a visit.
"That makes the Stellaron Hunters sound like the bad guys," Hyacine murmured, subconsciously hugging her baby Memosprite tighter.
"I can't speak for their other actions, but you can't blame them for what happened here," Fuli said, recalling the faction's modus operandi. "The Borisin got here first. They conquered the World Bubble and slaughtered the natives. The Hunters only showed up afterward to extract the now-ownerless Stellaron core."
He paused, his eyes narrowing slightly. "Though, considering their leader—'Destiny's Slave' Elio—can literally see the future, him ordering his team to take the Stellaron probably serves a much deeper purpose."
It was a classic trope: a faction that looked inherently villainous on the surface but was actually saving the universe through cold, calculated pragmatism.
Hyacine nodded, half-understanding. "But what happens to a World Bubble after its Ether Anchor is taken?"
"The world initiates a final, desperate act of self-preservation. It accelerates its 'ascent' to physically crash into and merge with the Real World."
Yunli bit into a candied hawthorn stick, her voice slightly muffled. "Take World Bubble 1025, for example. Normally, it would take a seven-day voyage from the Luofu to reach this sector. But we got here in just two days."
"This unnatural acceleration is directly caused by the loss of its Stellaron—it lost its physical anchor in the Sea. That's almost certainly why the Matrix of Prescience issued an emergency clearing commission."
They had to eliminate the Borisin threat stationed on the planet before the Bubble fully collided with the Real World and caused an unpredictable disaster.
Just then, the crisp chime of the ship's PA system echoed through the cabin:
"Attention. We have arrived at the designated airspace. Will the Crychic Squad please report to Hangar Bay 3 immediately to board the assault starskiff."
"I repeat, we have arrived..."
The four of them exchanged glances, standing up in unison. Following the broadcast's instructions, they made their way to the hangar, where a sleek, aerodynamic assault starskiff was quietly idling.
Fuli hopped into the pilot's seat with practiced ease, while Yunli, Castorice, and Hyacine strapped into the passenger cabin behind him.
"Buckle up, everyone!" the boy joked smoothly, flashing a thumbs-up to the deck crew outside the window who were running the final pre-flight checks.
Moments later, the starskiff lifted off. Like an arrow loosed from a bowstring, it shot out of the open hangar doors.
While the Sea of Quanta wasn't a true vacuum, its medium was incredibly thin, making friction negligible. The starskiff tore through the quantum tides at breakneck speed. Within minutes, it plunged headfirst through the shimmering, water-like membrane of World Bubble 1025, officially entering the doomed world's atmosphere.
But the very second they broke through the barrier and sensors registered native atmosphere, Fuli's eyes snapped wide open in horror.
"Die-bao!"
He slammed his foot on the deceleration pedal, violently wrestling the yoke to abort the dive and pull the starskiff back out into space.
"I'm absolutely not blaming you right now!" he shouted, his words bleeding out like a machine gun. "But are you one hundred percent certain the mission briefing said the Stellaron had already been removed?!"
"That is exactly what the data stated! But..."
Castorice's face had gone deathly pale. Just like her teammates, she could feel it.
A heavy, unshakable, utterly stable invisible shackle pressing down on reality.
The reason Fuli had specifically asked about the Stellaron earlier was simple: In a World Bubble that possessed an Ether Anchor, the foundational laws of physics and spatial barriers were incredibly rigid. High-tier fighters were suppressed here exactly the same way they were suppressed in the Real World.
(Conversely, the reason Earth universally suppressed the destructive output of superhumans was highly likely because the Previous Era had plundered Stellarons from the Sea of Quanta and fused them into Earth's foundational laws).
But that wasn't why Fuli and Castorice were panicking.
Having their destructive power scaled down to 'normal' Real World physics wasn't a big deal.
What was terrifying was that the intel was wrong! The Stellaron was still here!
"Forget about the intel! Fuli, help me intercept! Hyacine, initiate wide-area scan immediately!"
Yunli's voice cut through the panic, sharp and ice-cold.
Right on cue, tearing through the cloud layer ahead of them, over a dozen unidentified projectiles trailing scorching exhaust plumes locked onto their trespassing starskiff, accelerating toward them with deadly precision.
It was the pinnacle of Borisin biotechnology—Mechabeasts repurposed as biological missiles boasting low-level intelligence.
Every single Mechabeast was packed with a horrifying payload of explosives. They were literally relentless, self-guided, biological ICBMs.
"Incoming! Die-bao, you said you weren't great at precision interception, so take the yoke and keep the starskiff steady!"
Without a second of hesitation, Fuli leaned out the side window. The world-incinerating power of Heaven's Abyssal Ignis instantly condensed at his fingertips, forming a blinding beam of heat as thick as his arm.
"Cleave!"
With a brutal swipe of his arm, the hyper-condensed laser swept across the sky like the sword of judgment, slicing horizontally through the incoming swarm of Mechabeast missiles!
BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!
A chain of deafening explosions rocked the heavens. More than half the swarm was instantly detonated before they could even get close, blooming into grotesque, spectacular fireworks of vaporized flesh and fire.
Yet, a few exceptionally cunning—or exceptionally lucky—Mechabeasts managed to evade the beam's sweeping arc. Unfazed, they continued their suicidal dive toward the starskiff.
Unfortunately for them, they ran face-first into the second line of defense. Standing atop the hull of the starskiff, Yunli swung Ol' Iron with terrifying precision, physically batting the stragglers out of the sky and detonating them mid-air.
Inside the cabin, Hyacine had her hands clasped together, rapidly chanting an ancient incantation.
Eye of the Sky. A clairvoyance spell that projected a real-time, satellite-style view of the terrain onto a sphere of condensed air hovering between her palms. The caster could zoom in and out at will, surveying the battlefield from above.
However... the very second Hyacine projected her mind into the sphere and scanned the seemingly peaceful yellow continent beneath them—
Just one glance was all it took.
The girl's eyes widened in sheer, unadulterated terror, and she let out a blood-curdling scream.
(Illustration: Hyacine Screaming)