"Sigh... Qingque, oh Qingque, where do you think I can get my hands on a star-destroying warship?" Chen Li asked casually, propping his chin up with his hand as he sat in the archives of the Divination Commission.
"Ehehehe..." Qingque didn't answer, just giggled foolishly.
"What are you giggling about? You're practically drooling." Chen Li flicked her on the forehead.
"Well, when I went to the General's residence wearing your glasses, I happened to run into the Lady Diviner there," Qingque said, wiping the corner of her mouth. She didn't find any drool, but she didn't seem to care.
"And?"
"It felt so good to have the Lady Diviner serve me tea and dote on me." Qingque devolved into foolish giggles again.
"That's it?"
"Of course not! The Lady Diviner even played Celestial Jade with me. I won round after round! It was awesome!"
"...You two didn't gamble for money, did you?" Chen Li asked tentatively.
"No, why?"
"That's a relief." Chen Li let out a sigh.
"Why are you so scared?" Qingque asked, confused.
"Qingque, don't forget, I'm in disguise right now, but sooner or later I have to drop it and clear my name. If you had won so much that the Lady Diviner had to give you the socks off her feet, then once my identity is revealed, you can look forward to being assigned to wash every dish in the entire Divination Commission," Chen Li reminded her.
"...I almost forgot about that." The memory sent a shiver of fear down Qingque's spine.
"In short, it's a good thing you didn't win her pants off her."
"..." came the silent reply from Qingque.
"Qingque, why aren't you talking?"
"I was just thinking..." Qingque started, but then trailed off.
"Forget it, don't say it. From the look on your face, you've obviously caused some trouble. Don't share it with me; I'm not taking the blame for this." Before Qingque could even finish, Chen Li had already put up a shield, scooting to the side to signal his dissociation from her.
"No, Li-bao, save me!" Qingque instantly hugged Chen Li's thigh, wailing dramatically.
"...You're a lost cause. Rest in peace." Chen Li patted her head with a smile and said no more.
"Don't go! Save me! Buy the horse's bones! The horse's bones!" Qingque clung to his leg for dear life.
"Fine. I'll ask you first, then. What exactly did you do?" Chen Li asked after a moment of consideration.
"It was nothing, really. I just called her... Little Xuan a few times."
"...If it's just that, it's not a huge deal. I have a plan that can ensure your safety."
"What is it?" Qingque's face lit up with hope.
"You just need to cause a bigger disaster to make Fu Xuan temporarily forget about your smaller one, right?"
"Huh?"
"Relax. It sounds like a big disaster, but if you handle it right, not only will you not get scolded, you'll actually come out looking good. Don't worry, don't worry. You might just get chewed out a little more intensely at the time. I've got your back, really."
"...Alright then." Although Chen Li's words sounded unreliable, Qingque somehow detected a sense of sincerity in them.
After comforting Qingque, Chen Li started gnawing on the Amber of the Divine Body she had brought back for him from the General's residence. It was a piece of amber the size of a washbasin, glowing with an alluring luster under the light.
Even though "amber shed from the body of the Amber Lord as he swings his celestial hammer" sounded a bit like the Amber Lord's dandruff, Chen Li chose to suffer a brief moment of amnesia after taking a bite.
It tasted great, and it gave a lot of attribute points!
After that one bite, however, he put the rest of the amber away.
"Hmm? You ate some, why not finish it?" Qingque asked, puzzled.
"Oh, because the amount of enhancement I get is fixed after the first bite. Eating more only increases my resistance to that specific item and my damage against it. The Amber of the Divine Body has a rather unique effect, so that resistance isn't very useful to me," Chen Li explained.
"But... what's the use in keeping it?"
"I'll sell it to the Interastral Peace Corporation later. I'll tell them it's a piece of Divine Amber that the Amber Lord himself took a bite out of," Chen Li said.
"Will the IPC even believe that? Can you please stop treating them like complete suckers?" Qingque retorted.
"You have a point. In that case, what if I use my teeth to carve this piece of amber into the shape of the Amber Lord?" Chen Li asked.
"Chen Li, are you some kind of genius?!" Qingque was instantly stunned.
A path she had never even considered!
When Qingque received the amber from Jing Yuan, he had explained its properties—only a chosen one with a will as unyielding as stone, after long trials and tribulations, could carve through the light solidified within. This meant that changing its shape was extremely difficult.
But what if someone could carve it into the shape of the Amber Lord... with their teeth?
"The star-destroying warship is now secured." Chen Li put his hands on his hips, feeling like an absolute genius. He could probably buy several of them. A brand-new one could be used to trade with Yurine Hanazono for any good stuff she pulled. The used, second, third, fourth, and fifth-hand ones could be used to extract the [Star-Destroying] Entry.
The plan was perfect.
Theoretically, he could just go to the IPC and trade a Curio for money, or use Herta as a middleman if he didn't trust them. But he neither trusted the IPC nor could he find Herta.
Because Herta hadn't even joined the Friends Circle.
On the contrary, while he was messing around in the Jashin-chan world, he received a notification that Ruan Mei had joined. However, she had yet to communicate with him, perhaps being a bit "shy."
As for why there was no response from Herta? She was probably in the middle of an experiment. In any case, Chen Li refused to believe that Herta wouldn't be interested in something as fascinating as the Friends Circle.
The Herta in question was, in fact, staring pensively at the phone in front of her. On the terminal's screen were the words [Real-Name Authentication]. But the Herta puppet felt that all three verification procedures were a bit difficult for a puppet.
[Fingerprint Authentication], [Soul Scan], [Iris Lock]
"Asta! Help me courier this phone to my home! Use express shipping!" the Herta puppet sitting in her office on the space station shouted.
---o---
"A fair-weather friend! You only come to see your dear servant when you have need of her, yet she yearns for you so. Is my Lord not the slightest bit cruel? Oh, very well. If it is only my body you desire, then your servant shall acquiesce."
Kaguya Houraisan looked at Chen Li, who was standing before her, and sobbed dramatically.
"New account, don't mess around. Someone's watching," Chen Li rolled his eyes at her. He was currently communicating with Kaguya via a holographic projection.
After obtaining the five negative Curios that had popped out of the Recycler this morning, he had given one to Kaguya. This allowed them to have unlimited holographic projection calls through the Friends Circle.
"Oh, I've sent the hair over," Kaguya's expression instantly changed, and she spoke in a business-like tone.
"It's this ability of yours to switch moods on a dime that I really admire."
"I admire it too," Kaguya nodded magnanimously.
"Alright, thanks for the hair. I'm going to start forging. The [Eternal] Entry is so useful." Chen Li gave another thumbs-up and then closed the projection.
The view switched back to the archives of the Divination Commission, where the Flame of Miracle blazed fiercely in the forge before Chen Li.
He didn't immediately accept Kaguya's hair. Instead, he threw the anchor with the [Anchor Point] Entry that Tonghua had given him into the flames.
He had originally called Kaguya to forge a Curio that could make the angel halo regenerate endlessly. But during the call, the Guide had suddenly popped up and presented him with a new miracle commission.
Commission: Scissors
Objective: To forge a beloved pair of scissors for Sirin, who has wanted to be a designer since she was a child.
Issuer: Sirin
Reward: 10 ~ 50 Miracle Crystals
Risk: Low ~ Medium
It was a strange commission, but it gave him the perfect opportunity to travel to the Current Era.
Chen Li had already been planning to go to the Current Era to use the anchor-item to fix the sequence of Herrscher appearances in the Previous Era. That way, he could do whatever he wanted to the Herrschers in the Previous Era without worrying about unplanned ones showing up. (The Cocoon of Finality can selectively spawn Herrschers based on a civilization's progress.)
So, he was now forging this item.
As for the scissor Curio? Didn't Night Raid from the Akame ga Kill! world have a ready-made one among their Teigu? He would just go find them, buy it, and modify it a bit. What if they wouldn't sell? Impossible.
At the same time, Chen Li had an even bolder idea.
Since he could travel to the Current Era, didn't that mean he could meet two Cocoons of Finality?
If he could find a way to sever the threads of causality between the Previous and Current Eras, turning their past-future relationship into a parallel one, then he could have two Cocoons of Finality working for him.
Oh, no, not for him. For the Honkai world.
However many cycles the Cocoon of Finality had screwed over the Honkai world, that's how much it would pay back through hard, under-the-table labor!
It sounded absurd, but wasn't that what miracles were—goals that were normally impossible to achieve? Of course, another reason was that he felt the story of the Current Era, aside from certain tragedies, was quite beautiful. And the culprit behind those tragedies was obvious. He also felt that the Astral Express couldn't do without Welt.
As for how to sever the law of causality? Aren't scissors meant for cutting things?
And would Sirin complain if she saw a pair of scissors different from what she envisioned? Not a big problem. Chen Li would just "pinch" her cheeks and make her give him a good review.
[Thorn in the Eye] (One-Time Use): Can ignore distance to be nailed onto any object you can see, fixing a random attribute of that object. Once an attribute is chosen to be permanently fixed, the Curio will disappear, and the effect will last forever.
This was the first time Chen Li had forged a one-time-use Curio. The downside was that it was gone after one use. The upside was its immense power and low cost. For the price of eight crystals, he had created an effect comparable to a one-star Curio.
"Nice. It's usable. One-time-use items are great." Chen Li didn't dare toss this Curio around. It was prickly.
Seeing the Cocoon of Finality wasn't hard; he just had to poke any unlucky Herrscher and activate the "eradicate the root" effect. But which attribute of the Cocoon the [Thorn in the Eye] would pin down was completely random, so he would probably have to shoot it many times.
Maybe I should borrow Elysia's attack speed gear? But will people think I'm a pervert?
But more interesting than being seen as a pervert was the note from Miracle at the bottom of the Curio's description.
(Miracle: Master, I have a plan. It can greatly motivate the members of the Friends Circle to earn Star Jades and bring the Friends Circle to unprecedented glory!)
"Then I ask you, what exactly is your plan? Just say it. The two things I hate most are people stopping halfway through a sentence, and people who don't let me stop halfway through a sentence," Chen Li complained. He felt the little fairy probably hadn't even thought it through and was just trying to keep him in suspense.
[It's quite simple. Why not launch a "Feed Li-bao" Plan? Since Master can eat anything, we can simply add a feeding function to the Friends Circle. Users can personally feed Master the useless items they pull with Star Jades, increasing your affection level. Reaching certain affection thresholds could unlock limited physical contact. This would promote Star Jade sales and improve your physical stats. We could also start an Idol Plan, live-streaming your activities to everyone in the Friends Circle for free, but charge for sending comments and interacting with you.]
"I perform for art, not for my body... Wait! This works on you too?" Chen Li froze when he heard that strange yet familiar voice.
Seeing the use count of his [Then I Ask You] Miracle Card reset to zero again, he fell into deep thought.
So... you really can ask anything.
Although this experiment felt like a waste of a use, Chen Li suddenly had a plan! The little fairy had given him an idea.
If he asked the little fairy: [Show me all the Source Text words you know], wouldn't the fairy, who already knew all of them, be able to communicate with him continuously by forming the words into sentences and displaying them? And he could learn how to use the Source Text at the same time.
"I'm a genius!"
"It seems... this Miracle Card doesn't have a time limit for how long the target has to answer my question." Chen Li examined the card from all angles but saw no such clause.
As for why he didn't ask something like "What do you want to say to me?" That was because he was truly eager to improve.
Anyway, the little fairy would be released at level 10. It was better to learn more of the Source Text first.
Coach, I want to learn the Source Text!
Chen Li had long decided to put the little fairy to work as an unpaid laborer once more of her functions were unlocked from the Guide. It would be good for her to get used to it beforehand.
He just hoped that when he finally reached level 10, the little fairy would still be willing to come out.
---o---