Two Matters

Void Realm, Sea of Knowledge. A small boat suddenly emerged from a Vortex. Sitting upon it was the Veela, cradling the little bat in her arms. Freya promptly unfurled her Silver Wings, seeing that her void wings had already begun to take shape. Now, even if she took no more risks to create a Vortex, simply staying in the Void Realm for another month or so would essentially allow her to fully coalesce her Silver Wings. Although she had the little bat to help her, creating a Vortex was still quite a challenge. First, they had to encounter a knowledge creature, then precisely manage its health to beat it to the brink of death, and then track it all the way until it collapsed and died of natural exhaustion in the sea before a Vortex could form. Accidentally killing it, failing to catch up, or not even encountering a knowledge creature at all were all par for the course. In all the days since obtaining the secret poison notebook, the Veela had only managed to create three Vortices. "See that? I'll be able to coalesce my Silver Wings soon!" she said happily, holding up the little bat. "When that time comes, I'll be able to ascend to the Time Continent, and maybe I'll even run into him in the Void Realm!" The little bat flapped its wings. Though it didn't say anything, Freya seemed to understand what it meant: "You think my faction realm isn't high enough? Hmph, I don't need to advance my faction realm to the Gold rank first—his diary has information about the Golden Fish!" "At the end of yesterday's chapter, he'd already discovered that the Sea of Knowledge is actually inside the belly of the Golden Fish. Today he's going to update on how to find the Golden Fish! He definitely reached the Time Continent through the Golden Fish himself! After all, he's even lazier than me. When I lived with him, I never once saw him cultivate. Without sneaking across, how could he have gone from scratch to a Two-Winged Sorcerer in just a month? I just have to follow in his footsteps, and sooner or later I'll catch up to him!" "Speaking of which, it ought to be updated by now..." The Veela summoned the copy of the diary and saw a red bookmark in the upper right corner, indicating a new entry. However, when she turned to the latest contents, she found that it wasn't the follow-up chapter on the Golden Fish. "Why isn't it the Golden Fish? Did he really have to leave it on a cliffhanger right there? Jerk!" the Veela lamented. Perched on her shoulder, the little bat nodded furiously in indignation. Even if Yaxiu had ended on a cliffhanger, she still had to read the update. The Veela looked down and saw he was writing today's diary entry— "June 8. Two things happened to me today, one after the other. The first happened in the morning and annoyed me quite a bit, though it was at least within expectations. The second happened at night. It should have been none of my business, but when combined with the first, it casts a thick veil of mystery and doubt." "Chronologically, I ought to write about the first matter first, but I just feel like starting with the second." ... ... In the afternoon, on an aerial highway bridge paved with a pale blue glow, three Yafeikong sports motorcycles hurtled at breakneck speed under the boost of the miracle highway, their streamlined frames blurring into phantoms. Riding in high spirits, the motorcycle in the middle popped a wheelie and cruised on a single wheel, scaring the passenger behind so badly that he hurriedly clamped onto the female rider. "Eldest Miss, I'm begging you, could you please keep it steady, aaaaah?!" These three Yafeikong sports motorcycles carried the six members of Funeral. Banjie and Harvey shared one, Yaxiu and Annan rode another, while Igola and Lisi took the third. Logically speaking, Yaxiu should have ridden with either Lisi or Igola. However, Yaxiu didn't know how to ride a sports motorcycle himself, so naturally he couldn't take Lisi; meanwhile, Igola adamantly refused prolonged physical contact with Yaxiu, acting as though terrified of what Yaxiu might do to him, which left Yaxiu feeling utterly spurned. Originally, Yaxiu had thought this arrangement was quite nice. He could wrap his arms around the young lady's slender waist and go for a joyride—truly an employee perk courtesy of the agency. But the moment the motorcycle roared onto the sky's miracle highway, every shred of romance in his heart was wiped clean away—she was going far too fast! While Annan didn't look like an obedient, well-behaved girl to begin with, Yaxiu never imagined she had such an utterly unhinged side, gunning it straight to top speed and barreling forward the entire way. Igola and Banjie had initially been cruising at an easy pace, only to be forced to squeeze every drop of performance from these steel beasts just to keep up. Not only that, she loved pulling off tricks. Popping wheelies was mere child's play; the real main course was the curves in the road. The first time she accelerated and leaned hard into a corner, Yaxiu felt like he was going to be plastered onto the road and smeared into a puddle of mush at any second. From then on, every time he saw a bend in the road, he desperately clamped onto Annan for dear life, as if trying to fuse his entire body into hers. Having apparently had her fill of thrills at last, Annan eased off the throttle slightly, her voice filtering through her helmet: "Fun?" "Fun, my ass! I—" "Sounds like my service wasn't up to par. I've still got plenty of tricks I haven't shown you—" "No, no, no! It was amazing, I loved it! I can't take any more of your ravaging, Eldest Miss." "Heh heh," Annan chuckled. "I have a side like this, too. You'd better get used to it from now on." "Isn't this just a rare occasion where we're not taking the hovercar?" Yaxiu's eyes widened. "There's a 'from now on'?" "Of course. I like riding motorcycles," Annan said. "Do you like it?" For some reason, Yaxiu detected a faint trace of hesitation and anticipation in the Purple Moth's tone, like someone sharing their favorite thing with a friend. It suddenly occurred to him that Annan had barely had any friends growing up, and this dangerous hobby clearly didn't meet with Banjie's approval. She might truly never have had a companion to share it with. More importantly, Yaxiu had to find a way to stop Annan from racing recklessly: "I do. Could you teach me how to ride?" "You don't sound very enthusiastic." "I'll work hard for your sake!" Yaxiu said with utmost sincerity. "Please, teach me!" "Sweet talker." Annan huffed with a laugh. "Truly a man capable of bringing down the Evil Arts List." Yaxiu's face darkened. Just then, Annan suddenly crouched up on the bike and asked, "Are you ready?" Seeing their movements from behind, Igola and Harvey immediately sped up, honking their horns incessantly. Yet Yaxiu was still utterly bewildered: "Ready for what—" Before he could finish, Annan gave a light leap and sat back down, shoving Yaxiu into the driver's seat while she landed on the rear seat, pressing her entire body against Yaxiu's back. In the blink of an eye, the two had swapped positions. She seized Yaxiu's hands and pressed them onto the handlebars. "Left hand is the clutch, right hand is the front brake, left foot shifts gears, right foot is the rear brake. Got it?" "Couldn't you teach me while you were riding?!" Yaxiu was on the verge of a breakdown; he felt completely incapable of keeping up with the young lady's tempo. "Of course you learn fastest by driving yourself," Annan said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "All right, all right, stop paying attention to your back and focus on driving." Yaxiu hadn't paid attention before she mentioned it, but the moment she spoke, every nerve in his body focused entirely on his back—as expected of the Eldest Miss; one single sentence and she's made me genuinely fall in love with motorcycles! With hands-on instruction from a master rider, Yaxiu quickly learned a new skill worthy of being recorded in his sorcerer manual. Not only did he learn it, but he also intuitively mastered the secret technique of "accelerate-decelerate-accelerate-decelerate," only stopping his mischievous antics when Annan gave the flesh on his waist a full twist. Once Yaxiu was riding the sports motorcycle smoothly, Annan suddenly remarked, "Starting this morning, the Empire revoked your wanted bulletin. Congratulations, you're legal." "Because of the Evil Arts List, right?" Yaxiu replied, looking thoroughly dejected. "Yet I can't bring myself to be happy at all."