"Let's talk about something serious instead. What exactly do you need?"
Su Han's deliberate attempt to ignore the topic left the fox very dissatisfied.
There were only the two of them inside the Serenitea Pot.
What was there to be embarrassed about?
But Yae Miko had come to ask for a favor today. Since Su Han didn't want to discuss it, she naturally didn't dare continue pressing the issue.
"It's like this. Ei wants to establish a ninja force, so..."
"Here."
Before she could even finish speaking, Su Han handed her a book on Chakra Extraction Techniques.
He had printed many copies of this thing specifically for moments like this.
The fox flipped through it and looked at him in surprise.
"You already expected this?"
"Rather than expected it, Inazuma is currently lacking combat strength. Even if you hadn't come today, I would have sent someone to deliver it to you."
The stronger Inazuma became, the more time he would have for slacking off.
Su Han was very calculating.
But Yae Miko didn't see it that way. In her eyes, this chakra cultivation method was priceless.
It could even change Inazuma's entire ecosystem.
If there were large numbers of ninjas, Inazuma would never have to fear intelligence problems again.
What a dependable man.
Feeling delighted, Yae Miko carefully tucked the cultivation manual away. Then she remembered their earlier topic, and her pure little face suddenly became wicked.
The fox bent down and moved close to Su Han.
Seeing his wary expression, Yae Miko brushed back her hair and whispered softly:
"Say, you've helped us out again. Do you want me to tell you one of Ei's little secrets?"
"I'm not interested!"
"Really? This is something only I know. Even Senior Kitsune Saiguu doesn't know it..."
The fox looked like a devil. Her smile was wicked no matter how one looked at it.
Su Han looked at her with curiosity.
Yae Miko giggled and leaned close to his ear, whispering softly:
"Ei is a white tiger."
"!!"
Su Han stared at the fox in shock.
Was that information real?
Don't mess with me.
Yae Miko understood his expression immediately. She was even more satisfied by his reaction, and the smile on her face deepened.
Now that's how men should react.
"The secret is true. So look forward to the day you verify it yourself."
"By the way, let me ask you something."
"What?"
"I can no longer sense Ei's Gnosis. Where did you hide it?"
From the moment she entered, the fox had felt puzzled.
Although she had handed that troublesome item over to Su Han for safekeeping, not even the slightest trace of its aura could be sensed now.
"Oh, that thing? I already gave it to that puppet."
"The puppet? You're planning to use him?"
Yae Miko didn't care that Su Han had given the Gnosis away.
After all, the moment she handed it to him, it became his decision.
What interested her more was Su Han's objective.
"Not really. Using something useless to win over a powerful expert while also disgusting the Fatui is actually a pretty good deal. More importantly, Inazuma now has time to recover."
Although Inazuma's military strength was formidable,
Su Han believed that freedom from interference was the true prerequisite for prosperity.
Throwing away the Gnosis meant Inazuma no longer possessed anything that would attract the Fatui.
Even if their branch offices were destroyed, they wouldn't be interested in continuing their schemes here.
All things considered, the benefits outweighed the drawbacks.
Yae Miko put away her smile and sat down cross-legged.
"Then who are you planning to disgust?"
"The Second Harbinger of the Fatui, The Doctor."
When Su Han mentioned this person, his voice became extremely cold.
Yae Miko even sensed a faint killing intent.
"You really hate him?"
"Yes. A scumbag, a butcher, and a foul creature that doesn't even understand what humanity is. If I could completely eliminate him, I'd be very happy."
"Is it really that serious?"
It was the first time Yae Miko had heard so many insults come from Su Han.
In her impression, Su Han was a gentle and kind person.
If someone like him hated a person this much, she was curious what sort of atrocities that individual had committed.
"Serious? If I finished listing his crimes, you'd probably want to grind his bones to dust."
"A madman, a butcher, a devil completely devoid of humanity."
"Years ago, he became involved in human modification experiments. Because he had absolutely no regard for human life, countless people died at his hands. Eventually, he was completely expelled."
"And that was only Dottore's first step toward madness."
"With the Fatui backing him, he later stirred up wars across multiple nations. Inazuma is the most obvious example, and Mondstadt also suffered because of him."
"Kidnapping children. Using young children as human test subjects."
"Do I need to continue?"
Someone who had sliced even himself into clones, what else could he be but a madman?
After hearing about Dottore's deeds, Yae Miko's face filled with disgust.
"Don't continue. Otherwise, I might throw up everything I ate for breakfast. Speaking of which, is Kirei Kotomine from Fate based on him?"
"More or less. They're the same type of trash."
Su Han had no interest whatsoever in scum.
Because once his strength increased enough, these would be the first people he cleaned up.
Yae Miko's suspicions were confirmed, and she nodded lightly.
It seemed that all of Su Han's manga characters had real inspirations.
The two chatted for a while afterward.
Seeing that the fox had no intention of leaving, Su Han decisively returned to his cultivation.
Meanwhile, Yae Miko took out the Chinese Paladin manga and leisurely began reading.
She hadn't read this one yet.
Judging from the cover, it seemed somewhat similar to the sword immortals of Liyue. It was probably an interesting manga.
Gradually, the fox became engrossed.
The story was very interesting. (TL/N: I have never played nor read Chinese Paladin 3. I simply translated what was written, if there's any errors, do let me know.)
It told the tale of an apprentice from a pawnshop and a noble young lady embarking on an adventure together.
A chance encounter brought them together.
Later, they traveled to Mount Shu and became involved in the Poison Zombie incident.
After investigating, they discovered that the mastermind behind the Poison Zombies was Tang Xuejian's second uncle working together with the master of Thunderbolt Hall.
One sought the position of sect leader.
The other sought dominion over the world.
But turning humans into weapons was truly an act against the natural order.
Looking at an entire city overrun by Poison Zombies, Yae Miko nodded inwardly.
"The plot progression is extremely tight, and the Poison Zombie concept is very innovative. I should have those editors read this when they have time."
"So they stop constantly giving this immortal fox outdated stories."
The first volume slowly came to an end after the appearance of the Five Poison Beast, Huaying.
The later story was equally exciting.
Jingtian was accidentally injured and eventually became a Poison Zombie himself.
In the end, everyone worked together and completely resolved the Poison Zombie crisis. The story of the minor character Wen Xuan and his mother Yinglan was especially touching.
Though they were ordinary people,
it was precisely these ordinary stories that moved people the most.
After the Poison Zombie incident ended,
the Divine Sword within Mount Shu's Demon Locking Tower was pulled out. Coincidentally, the person who took it happened to be the strongest being in the Demon Realm.
The Demon Lord's goal was to duel Jingtian because Jingtian's previous life had been the strongest divine general of the Divine Realm, Feipeng.
Fortunately, Jingtian was clever and managed to save everyone through his own ingenuity.
However, the crisis was not limited to the appearance of this powerful expert.
The Demon Locking Tower had been damaged, causing another fiend sealed within to begin stirring. His identity was equally complicated.
He was actually the evil thoughts of humanity's strongest warrior.
Seeing this, Yae Miko became confused.
"Why didn't the elders of Mount Shu ascend to immortality even after increasing their magical power?"
It was strange.
They clearly possessed immense strength and had even expelled the evil thoughts.
According to the setting established at the beginning, all five elders should have been able to ascend.
With her doubts growing,
Yae Miko continued reading.
The birth of the Evil Sword Immortal was not merely the creation of a strand of evil thought.
It could feed on the evil thoughts of all living things and grow endlessly.
Now that was alarming.
It was already a manifestation of evil energy.
If it continued feeding on the evil thoughts of all existence and eventually gained a human form, it would become a catastrophe even more terrifying than Demon Lord Chonglou.
However, reaching the Divine Realm required the blood of both heaven and mortals.
Thus, the task fell to Jingtian.
Yet when his blood splattered onto the seal, absolutely nothing happened.
Instead, Xu Changqing activated the gate.
At this point, Yae Miko frowned even harder.
She felt as though she were looking at some hidden conspiracy.
Although she couldn't identify it exactly,
Jingtian was the reincarnation of the strongest divine general, yet he couldn't open the gate to the Divine Realm.
What did that imply?
It was difficult not to suspect that the Heavenly Emperor didn't want him to return.
Later in the story,
the two traveled around slaying demons while searching for the Five Spirit Pearls.
Before descending the mountain,
the leader of Mount Shu entrusted Jingtian with a helmet, claiming it belonged to the Crown Prince of Jiang Kingdom, and specifically warned him not to wear it lightly.
After returning home,
Tang Xuejian found herself homeless, and Jingtian even encountered a younger sister.
Friction gradually arose between them.
However, once the truth came out, everyone realized that Jingtian really did have a younger sister.
As for the memories of the past,
Su Han shamelessly pushed that revelation into the next volume.
Yae Miko searched for the continuation but discovered that only the first two volumes of Chinese Paladin were available on the market.
"He didn't print more?"
"He shouldn't have. This manga is so good."
Looking at the cultivating Su Han, Yae Miko felt somewhat speechless.
The manga was this entertaining. What was wrong with printing more copies?
How annoying.
She waited for three whole hours.
Only then did Su Han awaken from his cultivation.
The moment he opened his eyes, he saw Yae Miko's hand stretched toward him.
"Hm?"
"The continuation of Chinese Paladin 3!"
"You still haven't left?"
As he printed the manga, Su Han looked at her in surprise.
He had been cultivating for nearly three hours.
Was this fox really that addicted?
The moment Yae Miko heard those words, she became unhappy. Her face instantly drooped.
"You know I've been waiting forever, so hurry up and hand it over!"
"Relax. Here it is."
Su Han took out the next four volumes of Chinese Paladin 3 all at once.
Honestly,
even he had been startled when he checked the system panel earlier.
In just a single day, Chinese Paladin 3 had sold sixty thousand copies.
Even more shocking, that number continued increasing every moment.
Only after receiving the four manga volumes did Yae Miko smile again.
"Good. At least you're sensible. By the way, while reading earlier, I suddenly thought of a question."
"What question?"
"Is the Heavenly Emperor of the Divine Realm actually a good person?"
Yae Miko's question caught Su Han slightly off guard.
He hadn't expected that to be what she wanted to ask.
Soon, Su Han laughed.
"I really didn't expect you to ask that. You've been paying close attention."
"Of course. I'm not stupid. The hints are way too obvious."
The Heavenly Emperor's attitude.
The strange behavior of the five elders.
The gate to the Divine Realm that never opened.
Any one of those could be called a coincidence.
But when every single one of them obstructed mortals from ascending to immortality, wasn't that a little ridiculous?
Looking at the fox's confident expression, Su Han smiled and nodded.
"So it's really true?"
"Mm. According to the manga's setting, yes. You'll gradually learn more later."
Why was the Heavenly Emperor like this?
Simply put, he wanted to completely suppress the descendants of Nuwa.
That was the core of Chinese Paladin 3's story.
What sort of background did Xu Changqing possess?
Aside from being loved by Zixuan, he really had nothing special.
But that alone was enough.
Looking at the entire plot, it was difficult not to suspect that the Five Elders of Mount Shu had been cooperating with the Heavenly Emperor all along.
For example,
the Heavenly Emperor's gate was located at Mount Shu.
And Mount Shu was the strongest cultivation organization in the human world.
If even their members couldn't ascend to immortality, then who else in the world possibly could?
The romance between Zixuan and Xu Changqing was less a love story and more a carefully orchestrated trial.
Why did the Heavenly Emperor go to such lengths to seal off the Divine Realm?
Because he wanted Zixuan to willingly transfer her power to Xu Changqing.
That way, even if the descendants of Nuwa retained some power, they could never threaten Fuxi's position as Heavenly Emperor.
That was the answer he sought.
As for maintaining peace among the Three Realms, why would the Heavenly Emperor care about that?
There was another matter as well.
Feipeng had also been reincarnated.
Was it voluntary?
Or forced?
The answer was naturally the latter.
The Heavenly Emperor used the rules to force Feipeng into reincarnation, while Xiyao served as a hostage.
Refuse to obey?
Then he'd destroy Xiyao's physical body first and see whether Feipeng would still dare resist.
After listening to Su Han explain the Heavenly Emperor's story,
Yae Miko immediately moved farther away from him.
"What are you doing?"
"Making sure you don't scheme against me."
The fox's answer caused Su Han to silently raise his middle finger.
He was just the guy making the manga. What did any of this have to do with him?
A story was just a story.
Seeing that it was getting late, Yae Miko stood up with her manga.
"I should get going. Is there anything you need help with?"
"No."
His manga shop was right outside the door.
What else could Su Han possibly need?
Seeing this, Yae Miko hurriedly departed.
Once she reached the street,
the cool breeze blew across her face.
It felt so comfortable that she narrowed her eyes.
Then Yae Miko turned around and said with a trace of exhaustion:
"Tell me, when will I finally get back to my carefree old life?"
The workload from this short period of time had already exceeded the total workload of the previous five hundred years.
This fox was exhausted.
"Probably another six months or so."
After some estimation, Su Han gave that answer.
Although peace had returned to Inazuma, it was still a nation rebuilding from ruin.
Its military.
Its economy.
Its population.
All of them needed to recover.
Without question, those were goals that would require long-term effort to achieve.
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