"But it hurts all over where you pinched me..."
After Xu Yanwu had kneaded him over once, Lianshan somehow felt that the bruises on his body had gotten even worse...
"Don't talk nonsense."
Xu Yanwu solemnly slapped Lianshan on the back, making him cry out in pain.
"I'm speeding up your recovery. Once I finish applying this ointment and you eat half a pot of food, your injuries will be mostly healed."
(′▽`) It's definitely not because you and Ji Lin have been getting awfully lovey-dovey these past two years, and I'm jealous as a single dog.
"Oh..." Lianshan wore a miserable expression as he slowly got dressed after Xu Yanwu finished applying the ointment.
Lianshan suddenly remembered something and asked, "Brother Xu, how many days are we staying out here this time?"
Xu Yanwu rubbed his chin and thought for a moment. "I think three days should be about enough. We can also see whether we run into people from other tribes..."
In the near future, Chi You would bring disaster upon the Land of Shenzhou. Even if he could not save them directly, giving them a warning would still be doing all he could.
A Honkai Beast no weaker than a Herrscher...
At that thought, Xu Yanwu raised a hand and touched his neck. At the junction of his neck and shoulder, a faint line of blood could still be seen.
The wound the Herrscher of the End had carved into him still had not fully healed.
"Forget it, let's stop talking about this. The meat's done stewing. Eat, eat, eat."
"Yawn~!"
Squatting outside his house, Xu Yanwu yawned as he did some carpentry work. He looked so lazy that it felt as though even if the sky collapsed, it would have nothing to do with him.
"Ji Lin went off to train again... Cang Xuan seems to have been busy lately with something about burying a Quantum Computer... That sounds vaguely familiar. I should make a wish later and dig through my memories... Right, Danzhu seemed to be looking for Chi Yuan to go into some cave and find something? Didn't she say a couple of days ago that she wanted to make up myths about herself?"
Xu Yanwu muttered to himself, "What will I be like in the myths of the Land of Shenzhou in the future?"
Yinglong? Or Xingtian? Or perhaps both?
"Hmm, I don't feel too reassured if I don't go take a look... What if she makes up some ridiculous nonsense about me? Wouldn't I be screwed?"
He tossed the half-finished chair in his hands onto the ground, clasped his hands behind his back, and walked like an old man toward the clay-filled cave where Danzhu was staying.
Along the way, Xu Yanwu even had the leisure to greet the people working in the tribe.
Just as he reached the cave entrance, he heard Danzhu muttering from inside. "[Danzhu, the creation goddess of ancient times, was a beautiful and powerful young woman...]"
"[Yinglong, a powerful being created by the goddess Danzhu, possessed the strength to move mountains and fill seas...]"
Then Chi Yuan's voice rang out. "Danzhu, what are you do—"
"Danzhu! What nonsense are you writing?! Since when did I become a being you created?!"
Xu Yanwu could not hold himself back at all. Shouting, he charged into the cave.
"E-E-E-Eh?! Uncle Xu Yanwu! Why are you here?!"
Startled by Xu Yanwu's sudden entrance, Danzhu immediately hid behind Chi Yuan.
"I shouldn't come? How could I not come? The moment I heard you wanted to write myths, I knew you wouldn't be up to anything good. If I hadn't come, I'd have ended up as your son..."
Xu Yanwu looked utterly exasperated. Thankfully, he had arrived just in time. There was still room to fix this...
"I'll write my own myths. You write everyone else's!"
"Xu Yanwu, Danzhu, what do you mean by writing myths...?"
Chi Yuan asked curiously.
"Hm?"
Xu Yanwu and Danzhu looked at each other, then answered in unison, "To look cool / To spread knowledge, obviously!"
".../..."
"Uncle Xu Yanwu! Myths aren't toys for you to play with!"
Having discovered that Xu Yanwu was a heretic, Danzhu instantly bristled. "I'm going to use them to spread knowledge to the people of this Civilization Era!"
"...But wouldn't it be great to make me look cooler while spreading knowledge..." Xu Yanwu said pitifully. "Waaah, waaah, I'm a warrior who fought against the Honkai, you know. Can't I leave behind at least a little good reputation...?"
"..."
Danzhu and Chi Yuan were both disgusted by Xu Yanwu's tone. Without even discussing it, they each took a step back away from him.
"...All right, all right. Enough messing around."
Xu Yanwu dropped the whining act and shrugged. "As for myths, it's clear that people nowadays still can't accept so much science, yet they can unexpectedly accept all that gods-and-ghosts stuff. That's why we need to make up myths to guide them."
"But there's a reason I want to make up myths about myself as well. Your powers come from scientific knowledge, but mine don't. What I use is mystical power that stood against the Honkai from the very beginning."
*Hmm (*￣rǒ￣), if the malice of Africa counts as power... then I really did get transported here and face the Herrscher of the End because my luck was too awful...*
"But does spreading stories about yourself really have any meaning?" Chi Yuan asked.
"Of course it does. Why wouldn't it?"
Xu Yanwu scratched his chin. "In fact, every civilization relied on myths to progress at the beginning. Rather than teaching them in their spare time that flames can reach hundreds or thousands of degrees Celsius and burn their hands, it's better to tell them directly that touching fire will anger the god of flames, and it will punish the part of their body that touched the fire by making it rot and burn."
"See? Much simpler."
"Yes, yes, yes! Exactly!" Danzhu nodded in satisfaction. "So, to spread these myths better, we absolutely have to find the Secret Treasure in the depths of this cave!"
Danzhu turned to Xu Yanwu. "Uncle Xu Yanwu, you came at just the right time! Let's go look for it together!"
"...So you're planning to use me as labor again, huh?"
Xu Yanwu yawned. "But that's fine. It gives me something to do."
Xu Yanwu remembered. Wasn't this part of the Side Story, Forgetting Person, from Honkai Impact 3rd?
Interesting, interesting. That meant Otto, the future First Green, and the future Fu Hua would eventually see what happened here again?
Xu Yanwu tugged at his collar. Though his wild clothing was terribly out of place, he still gave a slight gentlemanly bow. "Then, my two beautiful ladies, would you be willing to accompany me in search of the Secret Treasure within this cave?"
Before you continue