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Taklamakan, China's largest desert, covered a total area of 337,600 square kilometers and was known as the Sea of Death. It was desperately short of water, with yellow sand filling the sky. Only the Populus euphratica, known as the Tree of Heroes, could struggle to survive here. Yet even in such a desert, there were oases.

This was quite a small oasis, and it looked as though it would soon disappear. At its center was a small pool, only a few dozen meters across and perhaps six or seven meters deep at its deepest point. The water inside was extremely murky, though not yet intolerable. Scattered around the pool grew a few drought-resistant desert plants. If the groundwater level continued to fall, even this tiny oasis would vanish.

The reason I had gone to such lengths to describe this insignificant little oasis was that I was currently soaking in this damned pool!

Why had Lin Xue and Pandora both landed safely, while I had to get teleported into a pool?!

It took me a tremendous effort to swim to shore. Then, under Lin Xue's expression of barely restrained internal injuries from holding back laughter, I climbed ashore in a bedraggled state.

"Stop holding it in. If you want to laugh, just laugh!" I said irritably to Lin Xue.

Lin Xue cooperatively went, "Pfft—"

I shook the water droplets from my hair and looked around—though of course, there was no way I could make anything out...

I turned to Pandora, who stood quietly nearby, and asked, "Pandora, where are we right now?"

"We are approximately 122 kilometers from the base. I have already used Mind Communication to notify the Esper Team to come receive us."

"Mm." I nodded.

My clothes were soaking wet. This felt awful...

"Pandora," I called over the little Loli, who was boredly looking around, "help me dry my clothes."

"Okay." The little one answered, then pulled out a massive cannon as thick as a roof beam.

I broke out in a cold sweat. "Forget it... I'll just wait for them to air-dry naturally."

At that moment, I noticed Lin Xue staring fixedly at me. Curious, I asked, "What are you looking at?"

"Oh—nothing." Lin Xue suddenly snapped back to her senses and answered somewhat flusteredly. Then she muttered to herself, "Why does this feel like a dream..."

"It really is hard to accept," I said. "As long as you remember to keep it secret."

"Of course," Lin Xue replied immediately, then muttered softly, "I don't want to be hunted down by your alien army someday."

I said helplessly, "I've already told you, they don't mean any harm. Just think of them as alien friends visiting Earth for sightseeing—oh, right, I didn't see you anywhere in Sandora's base. Where did you go?"

"Obviously, I went to have a good look around. An alien military base! When would ordinary people ever get an opportunity like that? Speaking of which, you still haven't told me why you became their emperor. So? Can you tell me now?"

"If you're asking me, who am I supposed to ask? One day, I woke up and became the Shilin Emperor, and I even got a little Loli in the bargain—wait, doesn't that mean I came out ahead?"

Lin Xue made no attempt to hide her contempt. "As a creepy uncle, you've hit the jackpot!"

"Brother," Pandora tugged at my sleeve, "what is a Loli?"

Based on what I knew about Pandora, she was purely messing with me right now. From this, it seemed the little one was becoming more and more human.

Time slowly passed amid our idle chatter. Just as I was beginning to grow impatient, the deep roar of a desert off-road vehicle specially made for the Esper Team finally drifted over from afar.

Once the vehicle came to a stop, a petite figure immediately rushed out through the open door and threw herself into my arms. Qian Qian's tearful voice rang in my ears. "A Jun! Sob... thank goodness... you're okay... You all disappeared so suddenly, I thought..."

"All right, all right," I comforted Qian Qian, patting her back while viciously glaring at Lin Xue, who stood to the side with an expression of enjoying the show. "Aren't I fine? Did you forget? I'm a pretty powerful Esper!"

Qian Qian sobbed, "I know, I know you're amazing, but I was still worried..."

Just as I was about to say something else, a sudden "Ahem, ahem" came from beside us.

I turned my head and saw a middle-aged man with a full beard standing before me, looking at Qian Qian and me with an ambiguous gaze.

"Ah, Uncle Xu!" I cried out, quickly releasing Qian Qian from my arms.

"It's fine, it's fine." Uncle Xu waved his hands repeatedly. "You two carry on, carry on. I've already approved of you two..."

"Dad!" Qian Qian had calmed down by then, but when she heard her father's teasing words, her face immediately turned red. "What do you mean, approved or not approved? A Jun and I... um..."

Seeing Qian Qian stammering speechlessly, Uncle Xu laughed heartily. "All right, do you think I can't see what's going on between you two? Don't worry. Since Little Jun risked his life to save me this time, I'll accept him as my son-in-law!"

I immediately seized the opening and bowed deeply. "Greetings, Father-in-law! May Father-in-law be blessed!"

"You two..." Qian Qian pointed at Uncle Xu and me, both annoyed and amused. Then she stomped her foot and turned around, heading back into the off-road vehicle.

"Little Jun," Uncle Xu suddenly leaned closer, "I heard from them that you're some kind of Esper too?"

I nodded. "Yes."

"I never expected it." Uncle Xu sighed. "I thought it was all pseudoscientific nonsense people made up, but it actually exists. What happened these past few days felt like something out of a movie. Even now, I still can't quite accept it. This incident has taught me a lesson too. From now on, I ought to use my brain a little more..."

I nodded along, but inwardly I thought, You can't accept this? There are plenty more things on my side that you won't be able to accept!

Although many twists and turns had occurred during this operation, finding Uncle Xu and the others meant everything had come to a satisfactory conclusion. Lin Xue learning my secret had been an accident. I had originally thought that the only people in this world who might ever know my secret would be Qian Qian and Older Sister. I never expected this person, who had been naturally incompatible with me from the start, to beat them to it.

Besides successfully rescuing Uncle Xu's group, unexpectedly meeting the Shilin Emperor Sandora had also been a huge gain from this operation. Not only had we saved a large number of soldiers, but we had finally confirmed that my inexplicably acquired status as emperor was valid within their ranks. That finally eased one of my worries—at least I no longer had to fear being humanely eliminated by another Shilin Emperor.

Speaking of Sandora, she should be leading her warriors in battle right now, shouldn't she? I wondered how they would integrate into human society. With the agreement between Sandora and me in place, they would not harm humans or disrupt the normal order of human society. But honestly, when it came to those Shilin Apostles, each more capable of causing trouble than the last, I wasn't reassured in the slightest.

"A Jun, why are you spacing out again?" Older Sister's concerned voice suddenly reached me, jolting me back to my senses. "Are you sick? Lately, you keep spacing out like this every so often."

"Oh, it's nothing." I shook my head and replied.

It seemed I really needed to change this habit of constantly drifting into a daze. Otherwise, I would keep making Older Sister worry.

"A few days ago, a teacher from your school suddenly called me and said that you and Qian Qian had gone to some exchange conference. It gave me quite a fright," Older Sister said after seeing that I had come back to my senses, bringing up the matter of Qian Qian and me attending that "exchange conference" a few days ago. "You live so close to home, so why couldn't you come back and let me know in advance? What kind of exchange conference could be so urgent? At the time, I thought something had happened to you two at school. I was scared out of my wits. Luckily, your homeroom teacher came personally that evening to explain..."

Looking at Older Sister's beautiful face, filled with relief, and listening to her nagging beside me, I couldn't help feeling a wave of guilt.

"Older Sister," I suddenly interrupted her, "I'm sorry for making you worry..."

"What are you saying?" Older Sister smiled sweetly, then lightly flicked my forehead as she had when we were children. "You don't need to feel sorry. As long as you're safe, that's all that matters..."