CSMCDB - Chapter 163
Chapter 163
"Strange, why are those rewards floating toward Lin Jinyu?" 1947 was puzzled. Logically, these kinds of rewards should drop randomly. Even if they floated, shouldn't they go toward those Star Emperors? Besides, 1947 also noticed that these rewards seemed to resist Wen Yuncheng's touch, even though she could have absorbed that energy to slightly strengthen her body.
Wen Yuncheng didn't know why this was happening either. She had felt quite comfortable when that ball of light merged into her body. But as long as her Little Ice Mountain received a fortuitous opportunity, she didn't care too much about it. Ever since she started using her Mechanical Overlord mode, Wen Yuncheng had lost interest in fighting others in close combat or one-on-one duels. Wasn't it much better to swarm them with machines?
Because Lin Jinyu had passively absorbed too many light clusters, the Star Power in her body swelled, forcing her to enter seclusion to digest it and rest… which temporarily delayed their journey. It was the first time the Star Emperors had ever heard of such a thing. Not knowing whether to laugh or cry, they stayed in the town with Wen Yuncheng and the others for a few more days. They took the opportunity to help clean up the fragments left behind by the fortress and watch over the scholars who had rushed over to extract information.
While Lin Jinyu was in temporary seclusion, Chu Han and a few other Star Emperors stayed behind to protect Wen Yuncheng. Mo Dingtian, however, took the news and hurried back to the Imperial Capital to brief the imperial family and high-ranking officials on the battle's outcome and the discovery of the "heaven and earth rewards."
During the two days Lin Jinyu was in seclusion, Dragon Island remained quiet, showing no new signs of activity. This made some of the Star Emperors who were secretly monitoring Dragon Island suspicious. Could it be that Dragon Island isn't colluding with the Huanling? That's impossible. But with all three strongholds taken down, why haven't the Huanling made their next move?
Wen Yuncheng quietly stood guard while Lin Jinyu was in seclusion, and she also paid attention to the news. After all, Chu Han was still there, and imperial intelligence needed to be communicated through these Star Emperors. This allowed Wen Yuncheng to get firsthand information from him.
Wen Yuncheng was also surprised by the Huanling's lack of action. However, she soon came to terms with it. After all, if not for her interference, those three Huanling strongholds would have held out for a long time. Wasn't the sheer size of the additional rewards proof of that? She had disrupted the Huanling's offensive strategy, so it was only natural that they would need time to regroup and redeploy.
But honestly, constantly being on the defensive wasn't a viable solution. She hoped the scholars of the Starry Sky Continent would step up and quickly develop relevant tools. It would be best if they could even develop a planar passage—though there were no spatial ability users, what if they could figure out how to apply Star Power to spatial manipulation?
"Other scholars probably wouldn't dare to dream of that in their entire lifetimes," 1947 said, utterly speechless. "Applying Star Power to spatial manipulation? Wen Yuncheng sure knew how to come up with proposals. If those scholars could actually research that, the Empire wouldn't treat a few random teleportation scrolls as priceless treasures."
Lin Jinyu wasn't in seclusion for long; she emerged on the third day. Of course, despite the short duration, she had already advanced to the second layer of the Star King realm. Her Star Power was stable, and she was in a state of complete control.
Wen Yuncheng wasn't overly surprised to see her Little Ice Mountain break through to the second layer of Star King. Lin Jinyu had been running around with her, gaining so much combat experience, and with the added opportunity from the light clusters, breaking through a minor layer was perfectly normal. After her successful breakthrough, they headed for the Imperial Capital together.
At first, Wen Yuncheng was happy about Lin Jinyu's increase in strength, but she soon felt that something was off. Since they weren't in a hurry, they rode a Gugu Bird back together. On the Gugu Bird, although Lin Jinyu was holding Xiao Shi'er, she… seemed to be constantly spacing out.
It wasn't very obvious at first, so Wen Yuncheng didn't pay it much mind. After all, a dazed and distracted Lin Jinyu was unexpectedly a little cute. But as it happened more and more often, Wen Yuncheng started to worry. This wasn't right! Could Lin Jinyu have run into some kind of trouble? With her cultivation?
After returning to the Imperial Capital, the Empire gave Wen Yuncheng a customary reward and told her she could contact Chu Han for anything she needed. They also expressed their hope that if Wen Yuncheng planned any future actions or battles, she would inform them so the Empire could dispatch Star Emperors to protect her.
The preferential treatment was obvious, and Wen Yuncheng gladly accepted it. The Empire was even willing to let her choose one or two Profound-rank spirit treasures from the treasury, but Wen Yuncheng declined. She felt she could accumulate her contributions and try to exchange them for Earth-rank or Heaven-rank spirit treasures later. Profound-rank ones were no longer very useful to her.
With the Huanling still inactive, Wen Yuncheng found herself with free time again. She sent Xiao Shi'er off to Star Academy to find the Celestial Fox King, while she and Lin Jinyu spent a few days enjoying a world of their own.
But… Lin Jinyu started spacing out even when she was with her.
"Jinyu, have you hit a bottleneck in your cultivation recently?"
"…No." Lin Jinyu snapped out of her daze, a hint of apology on her face. But she was indeed troubled lately, and this trouble… was something she couldn't tell anyone about.
Lin Jinyu now understood a little of what Wen Yuncheng must have felt, holding a secret she couldn't share. She sighed. The things that Baby Voice had told her were truly beyond her imagination. The Child of the Plane, the Plane Consciousness… The Starry Sky Continent was one plane, and the Huanling Continent was another. But the Huanling Continent was stronger; its Child of the Plane had already been nurtured, and its consciousness and Child of the Plane wanted to devour the consciousness of the Starry Sky Plane—the very same Baby Voice.
Being sought out by the Plane Consciousness, being asked to take on the responsibility of the Child of the Plane, being told to grow stronger quickly… Lin Jinyu still felt lost. Especially when the Baby Voice said that it had chosen a Child of the Plane long ago, but for some reason, twelve years ago, its chosen one had suddenly lost their connection to it, as if they no longer belonged to this plane. It had been waiting for its Child of the Plane to grow, but the seed had just sprouted when it was uprooted and taken away.
"Alright, I am troubled by something," Lin Jinyu sighed. She didn't want to deceive Wen Yuncheng. Besides, she was well aware of her current state; whenever the Plane Consciousness wanted to contact her, she would enter that mysterious state—which looked exactly like she was spacing out.
Hmm, it was probably like an out-of-body experience. Calling it "spacing out" was also accurate.
"Ah, can't you tell me? Maybe I can help you shoulder the burden," Wen Yuncheng said, a little dejected. Does my Little Ice Mountain have a secret she has to hide from me? If her Little Ice Mountain hadn't been by her side this whole time with her attitude unchanged, Wen Yuncheng might have suspected a new love rival had appeared.
The Plane Consciousness received the message from the second Child of the Plane it had meticulously selected through the heaven and earth rewards. Its second chosen "master" was actually asking if she could tell another person about all this?
The Plane Consciousness was utterly shocked. It had already told her this was something she couldn't tell anyone, so why was she asking again?! Damn it, who had bewitched its second choice? The Plane Consciousness didn't refuse immediately. Instead, it sent out a probe, locked onto its newly chosen Child of the Plane, and then detected the person beside her… who seemed to be the one she wanted to tell.
But this person was…
"[Beep! Warning, special fluctuation detected!]" 1947 suddenly became alert. Who? What the hell is that?!
Just as it was surprised and on guard, it suddenly received an unknown communication. After a moment's hesitation, 1947 accepted it. It wanted to see just what this thing was…
【Damn you! You bastard! What the hell are you??? Why was my first chosen Child of the Plane stolen by you? You despicable alien creature, you severed the connection between me and my chosen one, and you still dare to roam freely within my plane! You thief! Damn it, damn it, stay away from my second Child of the Plane!】
The moment the connection was established, it was met with a furious tirade. Hearing this fiercely cute, milky voice, 1947 wasn't angry at all; in fact, it found it rather amusing. After a moment of thought, it knew what this was.
Oh, so it was the Plane Consciousness. Such a young-sounding voice… It seemed this plane was very young indeed. That made sense, since it didn't even have a Child of the Plane.
Wait, what did it just say? Child of the Plane?
With its processing power, 1947 understood what was happening in an instant. And then, naturally, it was shocked! So the person it had accidentally crashed into was this plane's Child of the Plane?! Wen Yuncheng had been chosen by the Starry Sky Continent's Plane Consciousness from the very beginning? Oh, it was normal that it didn't know. After all, that crash had obliterated everything, and 1947 had been unable to extract the mark the Plane Consciousness had initially left behind.
"[I never thought… I really am a Long Aotian Growth System,]" 1947 suddenly exclaimed with emotion.
Wen Yuncheng: ? She suspected 1947 was having an episode, suddenly issuing a warning and then making a bizarre, emotional comment.
After learning everything, 1947 got serious. It began to apologize to the Plane Consciousness, explaining that it was all just an accident. It hadn't known that Wen Yuncheng had been chosen by the Plane Consciousness from the start. If it had known—it definitely would have applied for compensation for the Plane Consciousness too!
But it hadn't known. When the connection was severed, all the Plane Consciousness knew was that its Child of the Plane had suddenly vanished, unable to be contacted or located. Later, it was targeted by another consciousness that wanted to devour it, leaving it even less time to grieve. Thus, it was impossible for 1947 to have known any of this. Until today… until this unlucky Plane Consciousness chose a second Child of the Plane, who happened to be the wife of the former one.
What a mess. A total mess. 1947 couldn't help but roar in its system space. It ripped the Long Aotian Growth Manual to shreds. What the hell was going on?! It thought it was compensating Wen Yuncheng by turning her into a Mechanical Master, giving her the path to become a Long Aotian—but Wen Yuncheng kept straying from that path. It had always comforted itself by saying, "Accidents happen. If it had bound a true Long Aotian, the script wouldn't have gone wrong." And yet, and yet… Wen Yuncheng really was the Child of the Plane!
While 1947 was having a breakdown, the Plane Consciousness was sobbing its heart out. It didn't know why it was so unlucky. That despicable foreign system was an absolute thief. Not only did it abduct its first Child of the Plane, but it wouldn't even let the second one go!
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