Chapter 86:

When Liuhuo first became obsessed with making puppets, he honestly used his concentrated energy hair to weave cloth, and the material piled up—yes, just like a human who starts with a 6,000 yuan budget for a gaming computer, then adds a few more upgrades here and there, and finally looks at the price: "Okay, I've made 10,000 yuan."

Liuhuo's first finished puppet was criticized three times by Lan for being too extravagant, and it eventually became "Chixing."

Indeed, the "Chixing" part was simply Liuhuo's own creation—and Lan, completely bewildered by Liuhuo's bizarre manipulation, was forced to become a spoiler parent to protect his reputation in the Star God education world.

Honestly, Lan doesn't really know how to educate a Star God. After all, he's a human ascended, and even before becoming a Star God, he already possessed a very mature and personal understanding. But the fact that he's a "hunter" rather than a "circulatory" puppet clearly illustrates the inherent difference between them.

The main reason Liuhuo has only superficially learned everything is because Lan only constrains his behavior, not instills his own will.

So, Liuhuo imitates Lan in his attempts to salvage the immortal boat, knowing that crossing certain boundaries of "descent" will result in Lan's punishment. Chasing Lan is fine, but crying over the Medicine Master's wheel will surely result in an elbow strike—and Liuhuo doesn't understand why. Do

you ask Lan if he knows Liuhuo is this way?

He brought him up, so surely he wouldn't know.

But would he try to "instill the right values" in Liuhuo for "future contingencies"?

Oh, if he were the type to plan ahead, calculating everything and choosing the optimal solution, then he wouldn't be a "hunter."

He would only strike Liuhuo with the most brutal blow possible if he truly committed a sin on the scale of the Insect Emperor and showed no remorse.

Regardless of what humans might think of their relationship, to Lan now, Liuhuo is Liuhuo. He will not, and never could, become "another Lan."

Perhaps the Xianzhou thought so too—hence "Epidemic-Exorcist Heavenly Lord" is a "Heavenly Lord," even though he likely has far more followers on Xianzhou than "Bu Tian Siming."

But "All-Knowing Heavenly Lord" is also a "Heavenly Lord"—which makes things seem more normal.

In short, thanks to the concept of "flow," Liuhuo, who could easily stray from a human perspective, unexpectedly became a "human-friendly" good boy under Lan's guidance.

Sadly, Liuhuo himself isn't interested in human perspectives; he simply doesn't want to be teased by Lan.

In corners beyond human observation, Liuhuo has even swiftly grabbed and chewed mature stars—the first time he did, he was teased by Lan, and he stayed quiet for a while. Eventually, it was discovered that Lan had intervened due to intelligent life in the galaxy. Since then, he's been able to occasionally snack on them, feeling less burdened.

Actually, after learning to convert imaginary energy, he no longer needed to scavenge for food like a poor little creature. However, he'd been really hungry at IX's place before, which had given Liuhuo a... uh, passive craving for snacks.

Incidentally, Liuhuo's tendency to focus on food when dealing with Chuuya Nakahara and Weilun was also due to his previous hunger.

Well, if he'd eaten too many snacks, Lan would still feed him—so Lan's ability to compress imaginary energy had indeed improved significantly—oh, actually, because of his broader destiny, Liuhuo's own efficiency in converting imaginary energy was higher than Lan's, but he simply found Lan's food tastier.

As for how much of a motivation this was, the desire to eat the same food Lan did was a matter of opinion.

In a sense, Lan had socialized Liuhuo, this "wolf boy," into a proper "human."

Back in Omfalos, the people on the train had to juggle concerns about the unusual situation on March 7th and the loss of contact with Dan Heng and Xing. After a wave of doubt, Latio expressed his uncertainty about entering Omfalos alone without the help of Liuhuo. However, he unexpectedly learned about Dan Heng's situation from the Snow Sparrow puppet: Liuhuo was never shy about answering Latio's questions.

"...That's good." Knowing that Dan Heng and Xing were safe in Omfalos's chaotic timeline, Ji Zi and Uncle Yang breathed a sigh of relief. Uncle Yang even took Zhou Ri with him to the Black Tower Space Station, hoping to persuade it to help.

Frankly, Uncle Yang and Zhou Ri both believed that Ms. Black Tower would be happy to make the trip—not to mention Xing, who was helping the simulated universe; she wouldn't miss the opportunity to communicate with the Star God. Uncle

Yang had already decided: if Black Tower truly showed no interest, he would use Latio or even Liuhuo,

as long as they could mobilize someone to help his companions.

However, they interrupted Black Tower's opportunity to question Master Boshi.

Black Tower: I give in.

If it weren't for the fact that he hadn't locked the door, Black Tower would have been ten times more difficult to talk to than Uncle Yang had imagined.

Though his anger hadn't completely subsided, after listening to Uncle Yang's explanation, Black Tower decided to intervene in this dilemma that had even the Starry Sky Train in its grip.

Honestly, given Black Tower's stature, his willingness to lend a hand showed genuine recognition of the Starry Sky Train's problem-solving abilities—at least, it aligned with Black Tower's own philosophy: the destiny of a genius is to tirelessly solve the challenges presented to them.

To be called a 'difficulty' by Black Tower... hummm...

what's the true value of the Starry Sky Train?

Black Tower hadn't yet realized Latio was on the train—after all, due to some discrepancy, Ms. Black Tower, who should have had little impression of him, had now become a simulated universe developer who regularly approached him with joint research invitations—honestly, if Latio himself didn't want to join, then allowing the owl on his shoulder to join her research would be...

well, that owl had a life of its own.

Sadly, Black Tower had visited Argon-Apache but found no trace of the stuffed owl.

Alas, while "Biphasic" shrouded in mystery and wasn't her area of expertise like the Robot Head, it was still a C'tan, and one that could communicate with humans...

Recalling her recently interrupted audience ceremony... even Black Tower, who never cared about money, couldn't help but console herself.

How could someone in this world be as lucky as Veritas Latio?

Black Tower had read Latio's research and recognized his talent—but she felt that, purely in terms of talent and achievements, she couldn't possibly lose to Latio: it was just bad luck. Do

you think Black Tower felt a little envious?

—That was Ms. Black Tower, how could she envy anyone else?

With Uncle Yang and Jizi placing great expectations on her, Black Tower used teleportation to "visit" Omphalos...

and then? And then, because of the unspoken Lygus, she had to "log out" for the time being.

But are you, Ms. Heita, such an easy person to talk to?

Heita, having been persuaded to retreat, raised her hand and turned the screw.

Hearing Uncle Yang's retelling, Latio closed his eyes: "...If I had known things would turn out like this...

No, even if I had known, I wouldn't have used Liuhuo's forces.

" Liuhuo might have beaten Nanook up enough to calm his anger, but he hadn't forgotten. The amnesia tour, which was still at 70% progress, was most likely Nanook's fault.

You said the Lord of Extinction doesn't mean "destroying" the deity? ...Sorry, Latio isn't the "transmigration" deity either.

I'm taking my anger out on you, so why would I argue?

Latio, who had originally just wanted to do the think tank administrator a favor so he could get his Pam doll back, now had something against Omphalos.

Not to mention how Lagus was beaten up by the Black Tower, Screw, and Gum duo, the dolls that followed Danheng were essentially slacking off the entire time—of course, if the dolls weren't slacking off, it would be Lagus who would have jumped up and down, begging everyone to personally repair Danheng and Xing's car.

But right now, it was Misty who felt the worst.

His jellyfish head wasn't even floating.

The reason was simple: Oh my goodness, the peerless ninja... er, ninja god, Lan, had somehow ended up here on his hunting trip.

Lan: Do you think he was just passing by?

Actually, Liuhuo's repair time here was pretty short. With his efficiency, he could have played while repairing, so it would only take four or five days... well, even by human standards, that's a pretty short time.

But there was a Misi beside him.

Regarding the temporary care of the nursery, Lan only trusted a certain expert hammer-wielding expert.

He wanted to see what this "mystery" was all about.

It might sound strange, but Lan was a complete junior to Misi: His current mood, to put it in a metaphorical way...

well, it was like a guy hiring a professional to install his computer, and then for some reason, the girl's... family? Elders? Suddenly, they showed up to keep an eye on him...

Misi: I really just asked him to fix something! I'd already paid for it!

Liuhuo? Seeing Lan coming, Liuhuo happily went on strike. He might as well just go play with Lan. There's no rush here, and it wouldn't matter if he came back in an Amber Era or two.

But Lan, after all, was a reasonable and kind Star God. After listening to Liuhuo's "■■■" a few times, Lan figured out what was going on and let Liuhuo deal with it all at once, saving them an extra trip.

For Star Gods, imaginary energy doesn't affect them. Even if they can't connect the worlds through the imaginary space with a galactic track like Achievelli, they can still come and go freely.

But now this place... well, it's like a perfectly good leaf with a hole dug through its center.

Even if this place was originally small and insignificant, it's forced to have an imaginary space...

Lan: No wonder they'd come after little Liuxing.

Asking Misi to do this on his own would be like trying to cover one's ears and steal a bell. Let's use a door repair analogy: a small pet door on the door is suddenly broken by one of his cats. Misi takes a look and decides he can only open the door to let the cat through. He asks around, and they all either have top-notch door-removing skills or can just knock a hole through it...

Liuhuo is the meticulous DIY craftsman who can find the materials to repair the pet door.

Misi: (whispering) And it's not expensive.