Shifting the narrative from the now-bygone previous cycle back to the present, Fuli sometimes wished that the people he knew weren't so sharp.
It made it so that he had to wait for the right opportunity to even get close to them, lest a rash move put them on high alert.
Otherwise, with the future knowledge he possessed, it wouldn't have been impossible to pull together a crisis response team (in short, a harem) ahead of time.
But that was fine. External forces were ultimately fleeting; self-improvement was the true foundation.
As long as Fuli could reach the level of a Grand Sequence Authority within two years—no, even an exceptional S-rank would do—then whether it was Shuhu or the Herrscher of Domination, he'd take them all on and hack them to pieces, one by one.
Speaking of hacking to pieces, that was also how he had seen through Yanqing's disguise.
In the previous cycle, in order to investigate the cause of the future Sword Master's death, Fuli and Yunli had, on a whim, stolen his body from the mortuary and dissected it.
After returning the dismembered pieces of the Sword Champion bit by bit, they had basically memorized all the abilities he possessed.
Fuli could also make a pretty good guess as to why Yanqing had specifically disguised himself as a police officer this time. Not wanting to completely burn his bridges with the Taixu Frontline, he decided to just pretend he hadn't seen anything.
It was just like when he had tacitly allowed Ms. Sadako to come to the Hyperion to gather intelligence. Sometimes, ignorance is bliss!
Yeah, right. It was only because he couldn't afford to provoke them.
Soon, Fu Hua, holding Fuli by the scruff of his neck, left the police station.
Since it was their second time, they didn't even need to ask for directions; it was all very familiar.
Stepping onto the stone-paved street, she set down her well-behaved little cousin. "There are three days left until the deadline."
"I remember," Fuli raised a hand. "If we still haven't solved the mystery of Genghis Khan's tomb by then, we'll notify the Shenzhou officials to take over."
"Not disappointed?"
"Not at all. There are no walkthroughs in real life. There's no rule that says you have to complete every mission you accept," Fuli shrugged. "As long as I do my best and have a clear conscience, that's enough for me."
"Quite carefree, heh. Not bad."
Fu Hua had been a little worried that her little cousin would get emotional and start a conflict with Yanqing and the others, putting her in an awkward position.
It seemed now that he was quite sensible.
"Come with me."
The girl turned and led Fuli to a nearby open-air milk tea shop.
They sat down in an empty corner and ordered two pearl milk teas from the waiter.
After the waiter left, Fu Hua's expression turned serious. "I've been thinking about the Peerless Nine Revolutions these past few days. There's something I think you should know."
"What is it?" Fuli asked, chewing on his straw.
"You know the origin of the Peerless Nine Revolutions technique, right?"
"It was jointly developed by Su Mei and Ma Feima, two of the original Seven Swords of Taixuan, for the disciples of their Peerless Sect to practice. It's said that these people walked the line between good and evil, acted mysteriously, and even earned the reputation of 'Better to offend King Yama than to provoke a Peerless man or woman.'"
"Correct." Fu Hua nodded. "But we also know that the original Seven Swords were all disciples of the Phoenix. The technique they practiced was the Edge of Taixuan, and the Edge of Taixuan is incompatible with the Peerless Nine Revolutions."
The purpose of the former was to control the free-flowing energy in the world; the user did not store Honkai energy within their body. The latter was human-centric, with all power originating from within.
To practice the Edge of Taixuan, one could not practice the Peerless Nine Revolutions, and vice versa.
Fuli was quite clever and immediately sensed the problem in her words.
"No way?"
"Way."
As the creators of the Peerless Nine Revolutions, Ma Feima and Su Mei had never practiced the technique themselves.
They had simply created it and passed it on to their disciples. Since the Peerless Sect had been destroyed early on, even the parts of the technique after the seventh revolution were just imaginary concepts created by its founders, with no practical value.
"So it's the Honkai version of the Heaven and Earth Great Shift?" [T/N: A famous martial art from Jin Yong's novels that was famously incomplete.] Fuli quipped.
So he had been practicing a defective product all this time?
Fu Hua twisted the knife. "And because of this fatal flaw, once a practitioner reaches the seventh revolution, they will inevitably go berserk, their minds filled with the desire to slaughter all things Honkai."
Even though he had vaguely guessed this before, the boy still found it hard to stomach.
He didn't think he had wrongly accused the Herrscher of Domination, though. With his strength growing, the current Fuli was only a step away from the S-rank threshold.
He was aware of the power gap between a normal S-rank and his state just before his death. To put it bluntly, he could crush ten of them with one hand without breaking a sweat.
It must have been that Babar of Domination who had tampered with his body, perhaps by implanting a Herrscher core or something.
After all, he did have a little bit of talent. Fuli thought, trying to find some humor in the situation.
"Are you suggesting I give up this technique, Cousin?"
"Yes," Fu Hua answered directly. "In exchange, I will agree to any condition I can fulfill."
"Even as a bed-warming maid?"
"Haven't I been doing that for the past two days? Pick something else."
Hua gave him a slight eye-roll. A flash of indignation and crimson crossed her elegant and beautiful face, the momentary charm dazzling to behold.
During the few days they had been sharing a room, Dr. MEI had been using "intelligence debriefings" as an excuse to force Fu Hua and Fuli to sleep together at night through various means.
As the saying goes, the first time is awkward, the second is familiar. At first, the requirement to "maintain constant, unobscured contact between both cheeks and two-thirds of the skin" was very embarrassing. But after several consecutive days, even if they were to be completely naked with each other, the girl would at most just say, "Oh."
In the words of the instigator, it was a process of gradual acclimatization, letting Hua's body get used to the little host's presence.
To break through the heart of the 5,000-year-old Phoenix and take a step further, one could only wait for a key plot point like the Fenghuang Down incident.
Since that was the case, they would start with her not-so-cold 37°C body.
What if, one night, an "accident" happened? What if Fuli's "J-10C fighter" accidentally slipped into Hua's "hangar," and its "PL-15 missile," stimulated by a certain "enlargement jutsu," viciously pierced through the "Rafale's" paper-thin defenses?
When it came to helping Fuli build his harem, Dr. MEI was always serious.
"Sorry, Cousin, but I really don't want to give up the Peerless Nine Revolutions."
Fuli was also serious.
As the first ray of light he had found after searching for more than half a year, this technique meant too much to him. Moreover, he didn't have time to switch to another.
Time was a cost. The opportunity to use the Divine King Mask's causality manipulation to raise the technique from the first to the fifth revolution was a once-in-a-lifetime chance; there would never be a second.
He had to reach the level of a Grand Sequence Authority within two years—at the very least, an exceptional S-rank. If he abandoned his current path and started over, just building the foundation would waste a long, long time, and it would inevitably cause a significant drop in his combat power during that period.
No matter how good the software (various skills) was, if the hardware (physical condition) couldn't keep up, it was all for nothing.
Furthermore, Fuli didn't want to give up the possibility of achieving the state of Brahma's Hundred Beasts. There was no particular reason, other than the fact that it was ridiculously strong.
Never underestimate the attraction of the word "strongest" to a man.
"So, my all-powerful cousin, you must have a way, right? Right!"
Fuli, who had just made a bold declaration, switched back to the whining mode that only appeared in front of Fu Hua. He quickly moved his chair over, grabbing the girl's delicate, jade-like hands and refusing to let go.
His mischievous look made many of the surrounding men indignant. Let go of that slightly flat-chested, gray-haired beauty and let me at her!
"Alright, I'll think of something."
In the end, it was still the memory clone's fault (she mistakenly believed it was the memory clone from Maluyazi Island who had taught him the technique). Fu Hua, her heart softening, sighed and squeezed Fuli's hand back, warning him solemnly, "But I need your constant cooperation. You're the only one in the world practicing the Peerless Nine Revolutions right now. I need feedback."
"No problem! However you want me to feed, I'll give it back!" the boy cheered, then snuggled closer and shook Fu Hua's arm. "So, Cousin, the King Garuda I've been dreaming of..."
The second-revolution super-mutated organ slot had been empty for a long time!
With the immortality from the Shedding Scales Rebirth and the super-regeneration from King Garuda, combined with the 90% defense reduction from the Sun Armor and the various damage reductions from the Stigma Imprints, he'd like to see anyone below S-rank dare to try and kill him!
"Fine, but—"
Fu Hua affectionately poked his forehead, her cool gaze sweeping over their surroundings.
Fuli instantly realized she was saying this wasn't the right place. Impatient, he scooped his cousin up in a princess carry, tossed some money for the milk tea on the table, and rushed towards the second floor of the hotel.
"I'm here to collect!"
He burst through the door, tossed the girl onto the double bed, hooked the door shut with his foot, and pounced with a wicked laugh.
"Inch-Force: Thunderbolt."
BOOM!
A delicate fist, wrapped in crackling dark lightning, stopped just three centimeters from Fuli's nose.
"So impatient!" Fu Hua was a rare mix of shy and angry.
With Yanqing now involved in local affairs, there were already many of his spies in the vicinity.
In addition, the surveillance cameras on every street were monitoring their movements around the clock.
At this moment, the intimate scene that had just occurred must have already been presented on the desks of all the powerful figures secretly concerned about this matter.
The juniors who didn't know Fu Hua's identity wouldn't care, at most they'd just sigh about the moral decay of modern times.
But those who did know?
「Holy crap! The pure and chaste Ancestor Phoenix, who hasn't had a single scandal in five thousand years, is keeping a man!」
「Holy crap! A woman 30,000 years his senior! It's cradle-robbing on a celestial scale!」
「Holy crap! A young calf eating immortal grass! By the way, how do the seniority lines work now? He calls me uncle, and I have to call him grandmaster?」
How was she supposed to face her many juniors in the Taixu Frontline after this?
My brain! My brain trembles!!!
The culprit behind all this, however, showed no signs of remorse. He sat cross-legged on a corner of the bed, his clean, handsome face full of innocence and naivety. "Cousin, why are you so nervous?"
Only when he spoke did the girl remember that the perpetrator was still here, acting as if nothing had happened.
She flared up. "Look what you just did! In public, with so many people around! After that hug, won't everyone get the wrong idea?!"
"But even without that, they'd still get the wrong idea," Fuli blinked innocently. "We've been living together for so long, anyone who should know probably already knows."
Gasp!
Hua, who had a bit of an airheaded side, took two steps back, her trembling pupils vividly illustrating the phrase, 'How could I have forgotten about that?'
No wonder Yanqing had been looking at her strangely at the police station earlier. Of course, the fact that they were sharing a room in the hotel couldn't possibly have been hidden from him!
When a person panics, their brain works at lightning speed.
The cornered Fu Hua immediately came up with a plan born of her world-shaking wisdom:
Didn't I leave a memory clone on Maluyazi Island in the South China Sea? Good! From now on, you're the real Phoenix!
And I'm just Fuli's cousin, a sixteen-year-old Valkyrie from St. Freya.
As long as I can lower my seniority, then I haven't lost face!
What's wrong with a sixteen-year-old boy and girl rolling around in bed together? This is youth! Youth! Who hasn't done something out of line at this age, right?
Whether it was wise or not was debatable, but you couldn't deny it was world-shaking.
"Um, Cousin?" a timid voice interrupted Fu Hua's self-deception. "The Honkai Beast gene?"
"Here."
The girl, determined to pass the buck, casually handed him a vial of blood, clearly having prepared it in advance.
Fuli took it with an "oh." Seeing that she was in a bad mood, he decided not to mention the fact that "intimate contact between the two parties can accelerate the construction of the super-mutated organ within the body."
That kind of intimate contact required, at the very least, an exchange of bodily fluids. Doing the deed to make babies would be even more effective. He was afraid that if he said that, he would be beaten to death by Cousin Hua channeling her inner Black Tiger Ah Fu.
Seeing Fuli still standing there, Fu Hua said irritably, "Aren't you going to construct the organ?"
It seemed rude on the surface, but Dr. MEI, observing from the shadows, cheered loudly.
When trying to capture the heart of an immortal walking the mortal plane, the worst thing is for her state of mind to remain as still as an ancient well.
Emotional fluctuations were good. Whatever the reason, it meant that she had indeed opened a corner of her heart to him.
"Oh."
Fuli responded, a little aggrieved (he was pretending, he was actually overjoyed), and activated the devouring power of his Immortal Arts, absorbing the blood, vial and all, into his body.
He then set the Inferior Honkai Jade fragment to "accelerate the construction speed of the Garuda regeneration organ" before tiptoeing out of the room.
Today, Kiana and Bronya were on search duty. Dr. Zhou had also gone to watch, leaving only Siegfried, disguised as a photographer, downstairs.
Seeing the boy he had been waiting for come down, he finally found his chance to be alone with him and silently walked over.
"Want to play a game of chess?" he asked from behind a thick mask.
"Sure, sure!"
Fuli, in a great mood, didn't refuse and sat down opposite the man.
The two quickly set up the pieces. Fuli, with the red pieces, should have gone first, but he froze, staring at the board which was missing horses, elephants, and chariots.
"Where are my pieces?"
I put them away, of course. Siegfried thought with a hidden smile.
The elephant (相, xiàng), closer to the general, symbolized Fu Hua. The horse (马, mǎ), a little further away, was Kiana, who was also nearby but in a different room. The chariot (车, chē), the furthest away, symbolized Raiden Mei, who was on the Hyperion.
Mei's and Fu Hua's relationships with Fuli were also not simple. Siegfried desperately wanted to know which piece Fuli would mention first, to determine which girl held a higher place in the boy's heart.
No father would want his precious little girl to become a member of someone else's harem, right?
The disappearance of Fuli's parents might indeed be related to him, but that wasn't a reason to sell his precious daughter to their son as a concubine.
"..."
Fuli frowned at the chessboard. His powerful instincts told him that this was not a simple question.
「Host, I think he's mocking your ○○○ ability.」 At this critical moment, the reliable Dr. MEI came online.
She pushed up her glasses and said seriously, 「According to the relevant materials I have read, in Chinese chess, the horse, elephant, and chariot are all important pieces. But in folk slang, they are often used to refer to the male reproductive organ. The word for chariot, 'chē', in particular, sounds close to certain vulgar words in some dialects... This person has deliberately hidden these pieces. On the surface, it refers to the missing pieces on the board, but in reality, it is a test of your relationships with women.」
I see.
Fuli understood, and a cold smile formed in his heart.
Obviously, the fact that he was always with three super-beautiful girls had attracted the envy of others.
Uncle Qiteng was trying to use this method to find out which one was his official girlfriend, so he could make a move on the others.
And so, Fuli, with a calm expression, said to him, "It's fine, Uncle. As long as my cannon fires well, whether it's the horse, the elephant, or the chariot, none of them will be a match for me."
[T/N: In Chinese slang, "cannon fires" (炮打) is a euphemism for sex. "Horse" (马子), "elephant/partner" (对象), and "chariot/car" (车) can all refer to women/girlfriends.]
I want them all! (clenches fist)
Siegfried smiled faintly, then grabbed the chessboard and smashed it over his head.