Chapter 1781 - 156: Next Step_3

"Like this: no matter how it goes when you contact the Chaos Species later, you deal with the usurping life power on that Phoenix first. After that’s settled, you go talk to the Chaos Species. If it works, that’s obviously best; if it fails, I’ll kill myself immediately and hand the Destiny Complement Manual over to you."

The Cardinal of Destiny pondered for a moment and started calmly analyzing the next step.

Hearing her say the word "suicide" so casually, Fisher and Alagina couldn’t help but lift their eyes to her, yet all they saw on her face was an expression of serious thought.

"Once you have the Life Completion Manual and the Death Completion Manual, plus my Destiny Complement Manual, even if the Death Completion Manual requires you to witness the Death of God before you can fully read it, you can still finish the other two. I believe you’ll be able to read them completely. At the very least they can give you some support and completely isolate all other Chaos carriers besides Death."

"...Alright. I’ll go find Valentina right now. Once I’ve finished dealing with things on her side, I’ll come back to you and we’ll contact the Chaos Species."

"Mm, go... Oh, right, that ugly book of yours is probably sulking at you and hiding who-knows-where. Go look for him too."

The Cardinal of Destiny smiled faintly and sat back down on the chair by the laboratory door. Hearing that Fisher was going to look for Valentina now, Alagina pressed her lips together and said to Fisher,

"Then Fisher... just go to her. I’ll stay here and wait for your arrangements. I... don’t really want to see her..."

Fisher nodded. For now, this was all he could do.

He really did have to thank Alagina. He had too many things piled up in front of him, and on top of that someone as heavyweight as Elizabeth. Even though he’d already steeled himself for a chaotic scene the moment he came to the Wutong Tree, before coming he’d even gone over all kinds of possible scenarios in his head—how they might unfold and how he should handle them afterwards...

For example, if Alagina suddenly went after Valentina, what should he do, given the situation in reality? Or on the flip side, if Valentina lashed out, brooding over how he left her to go to Elizabeth, and then add Alagina’s situation to that—what should he do then?

But once he arrived, he found that Valentina hadn’t started off by demanding answers, and Alagina seemed no longer intent on butting heads with Valentina. Instead she was thinking about her sister’s upcoming problems and had decided to bear the grievance herself.

Is that a good thing?

Now that he suddenly felt so light, Fisher was inclined to say yes. At least it meant he could shift more of his energy toward resolving the Doomsday Prophecy. But his conscience insisted this wasn’t entirely a good thing, pushing him to do something about it.

With that in mind, he left Alagina’s lower-level laboratory and headed up toward the meeting room. Once there, he discovered Alicia and Valentina weren’t around. After asking a guard, he learned Valentina had gone back to her boudoir to rest, while Alicia had been taken out to eat by Emhardt.

Alright then, he’d go to Valentina first.

The time flow between the Spirit Realm and reality seemed somewhat different. He had spent a long time in the Spirit Realm, yet in the world it had only just reached dinnertime at dusk. Going to Valentina now more or less counted as "at night." If it didn’t work out, he could wait until after she finished eating.

The Phoenix’s quarters were very well hidden, but because Valentina had already informed the staff beforehand, Fisher reached them quickly under a Maid’s guidance. After the knock and announcement, a slightly nervous voice sounded from inside the door,

"Is that Fisher? Let him in, quickly..."

"Sir, please come in."

"Thanks for the trouble."

This wasn’t Fisher’s first time entering this kind of palace. Thinking it over, the Dragon Court, the Golden Palace, and now the Wutong Tree—he’d pretty much been inside the top-tier palaces of most places... and, well, had even stayed over to spend some rather lovely days there.

Compared to the other Empresses’ palaces, Valentina’s was even more luxurious.

When he opened the door, Valentina was sitting on the bed in casual clothes, looking at a scroll in her hands. She turned toward Fisher as he entered and smiled,

"Fisher, you’re here? Emhardt came to me to complain earlier, saying you bullied him. He was so aggrieved."

"...Let me guess—you put on a gentle face and said something that hurt him a second time, so he ran off feeling even more aggrieved?"

"How did you know?"

Valentina covered her lips in surprise, not understanding how he’d guessed so accurately.

"..."

He’d go comfort the great Book Knight later. For now...

Fisher came to the side of her bed, ready to talk about the usurping life carrier on her body. But when Valentina saw him approach, clearly about to bring something up, her expression suddenly turned unnatural.

She still seemed unwilling to talk about destroying the usurping life carrier. Her gaze dodged a little as she looked at Fisher and said,

"It’s already evening. Fisher, what would you like to eat later? I can have them make it and send it up..."

"Anything is fine, Valentina. Thing is..."

"Fruit? Have some fruit."

Fisher was about to open his mouth again when Valentina swiftly picked up a Northern Fruit from the fruit plate on the bedside table, something like a tiny grape. Fisher didn’t know what kind of fruit it was—he only thought it tasted sweet and fragrant. He chewed one, then prepared to speak again,

"Valentina, earlier..."

"Thunk..."

Valentina fed him another, a bigger one this time, making him eat the next fruit.

"Val..."

She hastily raised her finger and pushed another fruit into his mouth, so that Fisher suddenly had three fruits in there at once, his face instantly lined with black streaks of exasperation.

The next moment, just as Valentina adorably tried to offer yet another fruit, he gently bit down on her fair finger that was trying to retreat, and at the same time caught her other hand holding the scroll. In one smooth motion he pressed her down onto the soft bed, which let out a faint sound.

"Ah!"

Looking down from above at Valentina’s slightly flushed, helpless face, Fisher munched on the sweet fruit in his mouth while lightly licking her soft fingers, making her cheeks grow even redder.

She swallowed a mouthful of saliva, her gaze blankly focused on Fisher in front of her. Her legs rubbed together on reflex, and then she suddenly closed her eyes straight on, tilting her head back slightly, sending a jolt through Fisher’s heart.

He’d originally just wanted to hold her still so he could talk business, but with her looking like this, Little Fisher suddenly got excited and tried to wrest control of his brain.

But...

Maybe having a little dessert before dinner wasn’t a bad idea either?

He gently released her fingers and looked at her closed eyes and obedient, almost kiss-begging expression. After a short silence, he still couldn’t help leaning down a bit, wanting to go a step further.

But in the next second, from behind her white hair, a somewhat speechless, childish voice suddenly piped up,

"Okay, trivial one, stop kissing already. It’s gross."

"!"

"!"

Fisher froze for a moment, and Valentina hurriedly opened her eyes, her whole pretty face flushing scarlet at once.