A Smile

"Love Hearts, charge, charge, charge!" In the cosmic void, the maiden Huangquan waved both hands, scattering countless energy hearts across space in an instant. She was in no hurry to destroy the Wheel of Evil Blossoms; after all, what kind of story had the hero defeat the final boss right at the start without clearing the mobs first? "Evil fiends, your sins shall be purged by none other than me, Miraculous Girl Huangquan!" Stepping atop a glowing heart, Maiden Huangquan flashed directly before a flower monster. The moment she finished shouting her slogan, she struck with another heart, reducing the flower monster to ash and smoke amidst the burst of love. It was still the kind of death that looked delightfully picturesque. By this point, the Wheel of Evil Blossoms had spotted Maiden Huangquan through its flower monsters. It cared nothing for their lives; the moment it located the enemy, its eyes locked onto Maiden Huangquan's position, intending to devour her along with that entire tract of cosmic space. "Just as expected of an evil fiend! Behold, I'll sprinkle some love in your eyes!" Acting with prescient speed before the Wheel of Evil Blossoms could even unleash its attack, Maiden Huangquan teleported right in front of it and waved her hand, sending forth a deluge of hearts. All of those hearts flooded into the creature's eyes, sending the Wheel of Evil Blossoms into violent spasms of agony. Maiden Huangquan paid no further attention to it, turning back around to continue bullying the mob. Aboard the Aska, Yu Xian and the others could see plainly that Maiden Huangquan could likely eliminate the Wheel of Evil Blossoms in an instant if she wanted to, but her chuunibyou personality made her in no rush to finish it off. "Little Huangquan is indeed extraordinarily strong right now, but this temperament of hers could be considered a weakness," Niman analyzed. Yu Xian chuckled. "How could that be a weakness? As long as one is strong enough, no weakness is truly a weakness." "Little Huangquan is so strong! No, I have to work hard to get stronger too! Transform, transform, transform..." Seeing Maiden Huangquan dispatch the flower monsters with ease and suppress the Wheel of Evil Blossoms casually, Little Nora immediately conjured mounds of food, gorging herself as she watched. Nora sighed. "A pity it can only be used once a day. Still, it makes a fine trump card." "Once a day is plenty," Yu Xian said with a smile. To be fair, he felt remarkably at ease now. For support and wits he had Auntie Number Two, for combat might he had Muse and Huangquan; advancing, he could sweep aside Hegemon Rank foes, and retreating, he could sit safe and secure aboard the Aska. Who could threaten his safety? A mere Zhi'er was nothing more than an insignificant itch. When one's mood was good, one's appetite followed. Yu Xian grabbed a lamb chop conjured by Little Nora, chewing happily while watching Maiden Huangquan slaughter the flower monsters. The battle was completely one-sided. It was not as if the flower monsters did not attack Maiden Huangquan, but they could not breach her defenses at all, and even the Wheel of Evil Blossoms' other attacks posed no threat to her whatsoever. "Right, tell Little Huangquan not to destroy all the unowned flowers," Niman said hurriedly to Yu Xian, suddenly remembering them. Yu Xian immediately contacted Maiden Huangquan through their contract. "Little Huangquan, don't destroy those unowned flowers. Do your best to protect them." "Who cares about mere flowers? Take this!" Maiden Huangquan did not listen to him in the slightest, refusing with utter willful disregard. With a burst of hearts, she blasted another flower monster to death in an instant, obliterating the surrounding unowned flowers right along with it. Seeing this, Yu Xian felt a bit of a headache coming on. Though Little Huangquan's current form was immensely powerful, she refused to listen to anyone else's advice, which was rather frustrating. "The Useful Mask can only be used once a day to solve one problem," Niman analyzed with a smile. "Yu Xian, what you just brought up was essentially asking it to solve a second problem, which is why Little Huangquan rejected your request." Little Nora nodded in agreement. "Sister Niman is right! If we could keep giving suggestions and Little Huangquan agreed to all of them, wouldn't the Useful Mask effectively be usable without limit throughout the day?" Maiden Huangquan slaughtering the flower monsters did not violate her original objective, because these flower monsters were fundamentally part of the Wheel of Evil Blossoms rather than distinct new life-forms. Killing flower monsters counted as killing the Wheel of Evil Blossoms, which was why Maiden Huangquan reveled in it without tiring. With Niman's reminder, Yu Xian realized the core issue. Clearly, Maiden Huangquan in her current state would not listen to anyone; she would only pursue her predetermined goal. Of course, there was plenty of leeway in how she chose to accomplish that goal—otherwise, she would have already slain the Wheel of Evil Blossoms by now. "Forget it. We've already awakened our divine sense anyway; eating more unowned flowers would only be icing on the cake. If we can't get them, so be it." Yu Xian let go of the greed in his heart, smiling easily now that he had thought it through. He simply reclined halfway, munching on snacks while watching Maiden Huangquan fight monsters. Sure enough, the moment one embraces lying flat, the world suddenly feels vast and wide. After letting go of his obsession with the unowned flowers, Yu Xian noticed that Maiden Huangquan's combat capability was actually remarkably formidable, far from just flashy, reckless nonsense. Maiden Huangquan dodged and countered nearly every sneak attack by the flower monsters with sheer perfection. Some of her counterattacks were so flawless that even he marveled at them, replaying and simulating them several times in his mind. "Miraculous items truly are terrifyingly powerful," Yu Xian couldn't help sighing in admiration at last. Speaking of which, where was Xiao Sensen? Thinking of miraculous items naturally brought Xiao Sensen to mind. His divine sense swept outward immediately, and he spotted Xiao Sensen sitting motionless on the other side of the room. The fellow had his eyes wide open and looked like a genuine wooden puppet, his presence unexpectedly dim and faded into the background. Yu Xian got up, walked over to Xiao Sensen, and waved a hand before his eyes, but Xiao Sensen remained wide-eyed and completely still. "Xiao Sensen?" Yu Xian crouched down, calling out in puzzlement. Then, he shook Xiao Sensen's shoulder, but there was still no response whatsoever. "Not good, something's wrong with Xiao Sensen," he said hurriedly to the others. Scarcely had the words left his mouth when the puppet-like Xiao Sensen's eyes suddenly lit up. Glaring at Yu Xian, he complained, "Yu Xian? Why are you interrupting my sleep?" "..." Yu Xian froze. Looking down at the revived Xiao Sensen, he fell silent for a moment before saying, "I thought you were dead." "Ptui, ptui, ptui! I won't die even if you do!" Xiao Sensen shouted indignantly. Yu Xian asked curiously, "Do you always sleep like this?" "How else would I sleep?" Xiao Sensen countered. Yu Xian straightened up and said, "I thought you'd at least breathe, snore, or look somewhat like a living creature when you sleep." "Xiao Sensen, we're good friends, aren't we? You definitely still have singularities, right?" Little Nora poked her head out from behind Yu Xian, her eyes glittering as she stared at Xiao Sensen. Previously, none of them had known just how powerful miraculous items were, so they hadn't placed immense value on them. Now, however, both Muse and Maiden Huangquan had demonstrated the sheer might of miraculous items to everyone present. Naturally, their interest in the singularities capable of creating miraculous items had been piqued. Yu Xian and the others turned their gazes upon Xiao Sensen, looking at him like the Big Bad Wolf eyeing Little Red Riding Hood. "D-Don't even think about it!" "I really don't have any singularities left! Stop scheming against me!" A chill ran down Xiao Sensen's spine under their intense stares. Shrinking back, he whimpered defensively, then spun around and bolted. Watching Xiao Sensen's fleeing back, the group shrugged. In truth, they hadn't really been after Xiao Sensen's singularities—after all, wasn't there another way to create miraculous items? For instance... a smile!