Chapter 123: New Companion’s Ability

Chapter 123: Chapter 123: New Companion’s Ability

Shen Yun didn’t expect Xuan’s reaction to be so extreme.

It wouldn’t do for her to be this shy. Even if she was only shy around him, being this bashful would sometimes lead to all sorts of inconveniences.

Should he train her a bit? This thought suddenly flashed through Shen Yun’s mind, but he shook his head. There was probably no way to train something like this.

"Little Xuan, where did you run off to?" Shen Yun asked in his mind. He felt like his brain was a central hub now; he could choose to communicate with any of his spirits.

"I... I’m going to fly for a bit."

Little Xuan’s voice seemed to have returned to normal. Only when she was flying could she completely focus. Once she slowed down, the scene from earlier would reappear in her mind. She couldn’t help but feel that sooner or later, she too would...

"WAHOO—"

Little Xuan, who was about to break out of the stratosphere, accelerated once more. Hearing the shy exclamation echoing in his mind, Shen Yun was somewhat baffled. Did he say something wrong?

Fortunately, despite feeling unbearably shy, Little Xuan turned around and headed back after Shen Yun called for her. A beam of light descended from the vast night sky, and she appeared before him and Little Nine once again.

"Master..." She pursed her lips and clasped her hands behind her back, adopting the standard standing posture of a pilot.

"You don’t need to be so tense. Relax," Shen Yun said helplessly. It wasn’t like he was going to eat her.

"Master, this is my relaxed posture." Little Xuan instead stood at attention, puffing out her chest even more.

"..."

"If you just go over, hug her, and give her a kiss, Master, she’ll definitely relax," Little Nine said with a cheeky smile, looking as if she had seen through everything.

A visible flush spread across Little Xuan’s neck and cheeks at a speed visible to the naked eye. She hastily dropped her hands and stood there, looking at Shen Yun with a mixture of nervousness and grievance.

"Stop joking around, we’re talking about serious matters," Shen Yun said, glaring at Little Nine.

"Mmm..." Little Nine immediately behaved herself.

"Little Xuan." Shen Yun turned back to her and gave a light cough. "First of all, congratulations on gaining your own life and soul. We’re a family now, so you don’t need to be so formal. You should more or less know my personality by now."

Little Xuan was stunned for a moment by the word "family" before giving a soft murmur of agreement. She was just a little afraid that Shen Yun might do something embarrassing to her. Merely thinking about it made her so shy that she wanted to run away. But aside from the shyness, her sense of closeness to Shen Yun originated from the depths of her soul.

"Isn’t that right?" Seeing that Little Xuan had finally relaxed a bit, Shen Yun couldn’t help but chuckle softly. "What is the Heavenly Dao Law that you’ve comprehended? Is it speed?"

"No." Little Xuan shook her head, her straight, raven-black hair swaying behind her. "It’s impact."

"Impact?" Shen Yun was taken aback.

Ever since he learned that his own attribute concept was enhancement and Little Jie’s was explosion, he had a rough idea of what everyone’s attribute concepts entailed. As for impact... Recalling that azure energy light from earlier, it did seem to fit the nature of a fighter jet.

"So, does it just mean you’re really fast?" Shen Yun asked again.

"More than that." Giving her usual concise answer, Little Xuan raised her palm.

BOOM—!

A blue pulse of energy burst from her hand, smashing into the nearby woods with a loud crash. Visible to the naked eye, dozens of large trees were instantly crushed into sawdust.

Shen Yun realized how it worked. There was no burning or explosion—just the purest form of energy impact. He proceeded to ask for more detailed information regarding this law of impact and finally understood it completely.

Its simplest characteristic was that the output was stable and precisely controllable. She could use sustained energy impacts to move a small island horizontally, release short shockwaves for long-range attacks like she had just done, or even emit area-of-effect shockwaves for broad attacks. Furthermore, whether it was short-distance burst speed or long-distance high-speed cruising, she far surpassed Little Nine, who was currently approaching the Void God stage.

He felt that it was incredibly powerful.

"Alright, I’ve got it now." Turning his head, Shen Yun suddenly noticed that Little Nine looked as if she was bursting to speak. "Little Nine, do you have something to ask?"

"I do!" Little Nine immediately raised her hand high. "Student Little Nine requests permission to ask a question!"

"Hold on." Seeing Little Nine’s demeanor, Shen Yun knew she was about to cause trouble again. He quickly added, "You’re not allowed to ask about her measurements or anything like that. Little Xuan will get shy."

"Huh? I wasn’t going to ask about that." Little Nine looked puzzled. "Besides, you can calculate those things just by looking at her. Does Master want to know?"

"..." Shen Yun realized he had made a mistake.

True to form, Little Xuan was already clutching her chest tightly, looking at him with a beet-red face. Judging by her posture, she was probably ready to bolt at any moment.

"Ahem." Shen Yun coughed dryly. "Then what did you want to ask?"

"That! I wanted to ask about that!" Little Nine suddenly puffed out her cheeks and put her hands on her hips. "Why is the style of her name so different from ours? Master is playing favorites."

She was called Little Nine, and the tank was called Little Jie—both plain and simple names. Why did the fighter jet get a beautiful name with special significance? Xuan, meaning gentle flight. Hmph, he was definitely playing favorites.

"Well, naming... How can you call naming someone playing favorites?" Shen Yun argued weakly. "These things rely on inspiration. I just happened to think of this word, so I couldn’t help it. I can’t exactly withhold a good name when I think of one, can I?"

"I don’t care, Little Nine wants a pretty name too." Little Nine threw herself into Shen Yun’s arms, rolling around and speaking in a sickeningly sweet voice. "Like a nickname... a pet name that you only use at night, Master..."

Watching this scene unfold beside her, Little Xuan couldn’t control the various images flooding into her mind, and her face grew redder and redder. She wanted to run away again. However, Little Nine was actually just acting spoiled as usual. This smartphone spirit always had her ways of winning her Master’s affection.

An unknown amount of time passed. Shen Yun finally remembered that they needed to head back, seeing as the sky was almost beginning to brighten.

"Little Xuan, can you transform into your original form?" Shen Yun asked. Little Nine’s original form had undergone changes, so he wondered what would happen with Little Xuan.

As soon as his words fell, Little Xuan’s figure was enveloped in a dazzling azure light, which gradually expanded and stretched. Once all the light dissipated...

"WOW—"

Shen Yun couldn’t help but let out a gasp of amazement.

Appearing before him was a completely silver fighter jet that was nearly twice its original size. The proportions of its wings had been slightly reduced, while the fuselage had expanded. Unlike its previously compact design, the cockpit was now more spacious than the interior of a standard sedan, looking as though it could easily seat four or five people. Furthermore, the physical canopy had completely vanished, replaced by a wrapping of an azure energy shield.

"Master." In this form, Little Xuan wasn’t as shy. She opened the energy shield and said, "Come on up."

"Oh, right." Filled with excitement, Shen Yun climbed inside along with Little Nine.

The seats were soft and comfortable, and the interior space had become extremely streamlined. There was no control stick. Instead, a half-body projection of Little Xuan appeared on the silver panel in front of them.

"Where does Master want to go?" the projected Little Xuan asked.

"Back to the Violet Empire."

Feeling a sense of novelty, Shen Yun sat down side-by-side with Little Nine. He looked left and right but couldn’t find a seatbelt. Then, he suddenly realized that they were already amidst the clouds. He hadn’t felt any acceleration thrust at all.

"Master, this place is filled with soothing energy pulses." Little Nine tumbled onto Shen Yun’s lap with a roll and hugged his neck. "It doesn’t matter what we do... Ah!"

Before she could finish her sentence, she was pushed back into her own seat by a sudden, heavy impact pulse.

"No, no, absolutely not!" The Little Xuan on the projection turned beet-red again.

"I can’t even hug him?" Little Nine puffed out her cheeks.

"That’s also a no!" Little Xuan firmly refused. Although today was technically their first official meeting, Little Nine’s image was already ruined in her mind. She was an absolute embarrassment-generating machine.

"Stingy," Little Nine muttered, not saying anything more.

"Behave yourself a bit." Shen Yun reached out and tapped Little Nine lightly on the forehead before looking at Little Xuan. "Since you can fly like this, why did you carry me while flying earlier?"

The two flying experiences were vastly different.

"This isn’t real flying," Little Xuan said, her expression suddenly turning serious. "Only by truly feeling the sky like we did earlier can it be considered real flying."

"...Alright."

Shen Yun could tell that flying was an incredibly important matter to Little Xuan. As she had mentioned before, she wanted to carry him and keep flying forever. If that was the case, he would just have to grit his teeth and endure it. Shen Yun didn’t want to just take from them one-sidedly; making such a trivial sacrifice for their sake was nothing at all.

Eventually, Little Xuan brought them into the airspace above the Violet Empire and transformed back into her human form. Then, they descended all the way down. Only then did Shen Yun notice that the Royal Palace was undergoing expansion, as was the capital city itself. Many Mages and Warriors were hard at work. This place was gradually being transformed into an Imperial Capital befitting the status of the Violet Empire.

The transportation capacity of the Bronze Hall, even with the significant enhancement after its upgrade, was still insufficient. Otherwise, they could have dispatched modern engineering teams to participate in such a massive project. The personnel exchange between the two worlds was still maintained on a very small scale.

Shen Yun and Little Xuan landed directly inside the Royal Palace. Little Nine transformed back into a smartphone and stayed on his person.

Meanwhile, Vierlia was sitting in the grand hall, scolding someone.

"Ernest, I have already agreed to accept the vassalage of your Ibi Empire, but how could the thirty-percent share of the Sky-Splitting Crystals possibly amount to only this much!"

"Respected Your Majesty," the Saint Realm expert standing below said with a look of trepidation. "The Sky-Splitting Crystal Ore reserves within our borders have been dwindling year by year. Your Majesty can absolutely dispatch an envoy to inspect it in person. I am truly not deceiving you."

"..."

Vierlia didn’t say a word, but just by sitting there, she naturally exuded an aura of imposing authority. Dispatch an envoy? Did he really think she didn’t know about all the tricks involved in that?

"What happened? Why are you so angry?" Shen Yun strolled in at that moment, walking as casually as if he were taking a leisurely stroll in a courtyard.