RBCT Chapter 710 At times like these, the villains need to find a different way to cause trouble.
Chapter 710 At times like these, the villains need to find a different way to cause trouble.
At first, Su Tianqing thought that Bai Ling and this unfamiliar senior stargazer might just be friendly friends.
After all, the latter disappeared without a trace more than a decade ago along with the disappearance of the albatross. Now that it has reappeared in an unfamiliar alternate dimension, it is hard not to feel a sense of confusion, wondering "what exactly is going on?"
Nan Xiaofeng felt the same way, but she had been completely liberated by the personal adjustments and education from the fox spirit and the gentle guidance from her fox mother. She was no longer bothered by such things, and instead developed a sense of striving unique to a protagonist of the main storyline.
That's the kind of drive we need—the spirit to forge ahead despite knowing the road ahead will be difficult.
But when Bai Ling also fell into a state of embarrassment and depression at this time, Su Tianqing suddenly felt that she might have miscalculated the specific situation of the main characters in the "royal road" genre:
Thinking about it carefully, the white sable in front of me seems to be a protagonist in the classic saga.
However, unlike Nan Xiaofeng, a superhero-type protagonist, Bai Ling is the kind of character who gradually develops and grows—
At first, she seemed useless and everyone could trample on her, but everyone was very friendly to her. Bai Ling herself was also secretly trying to help everyone. Finally, in a crisis, she unleashed a level of combat power far exceeding her usual level, even reaching and surpassing some extremely high levels, and thus reversed the battle.
With the help of the shared materials provided by Yue Tianxin to the Tail Network, the Fox Brain Cluster's computing power quickly outlined Bai Ling's current experience and deduced what she should do now.
As a villain, one can usually cause mischief and occasionally pull off some amazing feats when finding interesting fox gadgets, but there are a few things one absolutely cannot do:
First and foremost, one must never betray one's self-definition as a person who enjoys life, and one must never actually want to do something as worthless as ruling the world.
The second issue, which is what I'm currently facing, is that I can't have a very serious negative impact on the key growth of the protagonist in the "royal road" genre.
Such moments are usually accompanied by earth-shattering events. For example, the birth of Nan Xiaofeng's Starry Shadow was due to the attack of his own handmade, beggar-level version of the Astral Jellyfish, and he even evacuated the masses in advance, only to have fun.
If she had shown even the slightest sign of malice at the time, Su Tianqing felt that what would have been destroyed wouldn't have been the jellyfish, but rather her own fox tail.
Next came the battles against Jormungandr and Garuda. Hyacinth led the charge in both of these battles, always at the forefront as an indomitable vanguard. She even unleashed a dazzling form that surpassed the Shadow of Stars, with destructive power approaching that of Nekomamushi's Black Hole form.
Imagine what would have happened if I hadn't chosen to support them unwaveringly, but instead turned around and tried to use the secret manual to control the giant beasts and wage war against the magical girls?
This could be quite bad.
All of the above is to illustrate one point: never nitpick at the growth points of a protagonist in a classic shonen manga/anime series, or you'll be used as a speed bump and your car will overturn.
"Senior Bai Ling, are you... are you paying tribute to some senior?" the fox spirit asked tentatively.
The white sable silently looked at the fox spirit in front of it, then turned to look at the tombstone with its simple inscription. It opened its mouth as if to say something, but did not actually say anything.
Seeing this, Su Tianqing keenly sensed the inner turmoil in Bai Ling's heart.
Her expression clearly indicated that she didn't want to tell him, but rather that she was considering how to phrase it. In this situation, what he naturally needed to do was—
"I'm sorry, if this is bothering you, Senior Bai Ling..."
The fox spirit had drooping ears and tail, looking very flustered, like a child who had said something wrong.
Seeing Yue Tianxin like this, Bai Ling became even more nervous, waving her hands and shaking her head repeatedly, her two mink paws twitching wildly.
"No, no, no, how could that be? I just... I don't know how to explain it to you, Xiaoyue... It's about... Senior Mengmeng..."
When the name of her predecessor was mentioned, Bai Ling's expression visibly fell again, and her gaze towards the tombstone remained complicated.
"...If you don't mind, Xiaoyue, I'd like to tell you about Senior Mengmeng."
"Look, I lured Bai Ling in with just a little seduction. This fox truly lives up to her reputation as a master of seduction," Su Tianqing thought to herself.
The cemetery wasn't a place for chatting, so the two stargazing elves flew back to Bai Ling's residence and sat down on the sofa in the living room.
"Xiaoyue, would you like some drinks? I have some coconut juice that I just bought."
"Good coconut!"
Two glasses of chilled coconut juice were placed on the coffee table. The fox spirit sat down next to the white ferret spirit, and the two of them took a sip of the pure white drink from their glasses at the same time.
"Mmm~" "It tastes so good."
The two elves exclaimed in admiration at the same time, as if the drink had dispelled their sadness.
Starry Sea Coconut Juice is the most renowned beverage brand in the Star Realm. It is loved by residents everywhere and has launched different packaging styles for various ethnic groups. Its sales have even reached beyond the Star Realm.
However, neither Star God nor the Star Realm Consumer Association could find the specific place of origin of these beverages. Their registration information existed in the Star Realm Consumer Association's database in a very strange form: a handwritten note that read, "I developed this beverage. If you have any questions, come to me."
Signed as [Eighth Lord of the Abyss · XXX].
It is said that this beverage has been sold in the Astral Plane for thousands of years without any negative reviews. The only time someone deliberately caused trouble to extort a sum of Divine Stones from the developer was when the Star God Council, having realized the situation, suppressed the incident within half an hour.
"Senior Bai Ling, was that senior in the cemetery someone you used to know?"
With the drinks helping to bridge the gap, Yue Tianxin tentatively asked another question.
This is the art of asking questions. After Bai Ling responded with silence to my previous probing, asking again now is like emphasizing to Bai Ling that I am curious about this matter, which can have a very interesting effect.
Bai Ling's reaction this time was much more enthusiastic:
"Hmm...we're even closer than acquaintances."
"Senior Mengmeng is the person I admired the most when I was studying at the Stargazer School, and she is also the senior who took the best care of me."
Bai Ling recounted in detail a series of events she encountered during her time at school.
Things like not understanding the lessons in class, failing exams, being forced to repeat courses because you couldn't pass the makeup exams, and almost blowing up the entire lab building with a spell you accidentally cast in lab class...
"Xiaoyue, you definitely don't have this kind of trouble, right? You're a super high achiever with perfect scores in all subjects," Bai Ling remarked at the end.
Yue Tianxin smiled lightly, neither confirming nor denying, and continued to ask for more details about this meerkat senior.
Bai Ling also told the fox spirit beside her everything that had happened between her and Mengmeng, from morning until noon, and they were still talking about it while having lunch together at the table.
It was through this communication that Su Tianqing successfully understood what kind of position this senior held in Bai Ling's heart:
Simply put, she was Bai Ling's mentor in entering the stargazing profession. Bai Ling entered the stargazing profession because she admired the example of her predecessors, and a deep friendship was formed between them.
But beyond all these things, there's still one thing Su Tianqing doesn't understand.
Why did Bai Ling fall into such a strange state of confusion and depression when she reunited with her senior after a long separation?
Yue Tianxin subtly raised this question.
"Senior Bai Ling, I heard from Hyacinth and the others that you stopped talking to her after assisting the Hero Association in investigating the strange alternate dimension yesterday. Did she make you angry?"
"Well... although Xiaofeng does often make me angry, I haven't been ignoring her..."
Bai Ling was a little confused.
"Maybe it was because I was so eager to find some clues back then, so I couldn't wait to come back to the Astral Plane to look for things from before. But I still didn't have any leads, so I was quite frustrated..."
"Um, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to..."
Feeling as if she had neglected her friend's feelings, Bai Ling realized that she had done something wrong and bowed her head to admit her mistake in front of the fox spirit.
Yue Tianxin smiled and extended her fox paw to comfort the white sable.
"It's alright, it's alright. I asked Dandelion to comfort Xiaofeng. She should understand you, Senior Bailing."
"But what exactly is it that requires two or three days to find out? Can I help?"
"If it's you, Xiaoyue, it might actually work! Wait a moment, I'll go get the thing that Senior left me."
—Look, this is the art of language. Su Tianqing couldn't help but puff out her flat fox-like chest.
Bai Ling's search didn't last long. She flew back to the living room carrying a divine stone and played a recording in front of Yue Tianxin:
[****……]
Garbled text, disordered garbled text and noise.
"I can't hear anything. Is it broken?"
This left Yue Tianxin completely bewildered. She turned to look at the white sable beside her, puzzled, but Bai Ling nodded and said:
"The recordings my senior gave me have always been like this. I've consulted many highly skilled experts in restoring divine stones, but they all say there's nothing wrong with this divine stone."
Yue Tianxin squinted and replayed the garbled recording that contained no information.
An unfounded idea arose in my mind:
Was this recording encrypted in some way?