Si Yao's Little Fox

Earth, Suburban Villa.

After this period of intensive "cramming" and hands-on practice, Su Xiao Li had more or less mastered the vast amount of knowledge Si Yao had forced into her head. She could also use the Mental Algorithms—so complex they were practically maddening to ordinary Super Soldiers—with reasonable skill in combat.

Si Yao wasn't the sort of person who rushed things. Seeing her attitude and the progress she'd made, visible to the naked eye, he stopped pushing her and simply waved a hand, giving her some time off to get a good rest.

However, now that she was free from her high-pressure training, Su Xiao Li had started to get a little carried away.

She sidled up to Si Yao, fidgeting, and looked at him with her big, dewy eyes. Her voice held a hint of pleading and tentativeness. "Boss~ You see how hard I've been working... Could you maybe come out with me for a bit?"

When Si Yao remained unmoved, she added, "You have such amazing Space Technology, anyway. You can get anywhere in an instant! Take me to see the places I used to only be able to look at on my phone or on TV, please? Like snowy mountains, the ocean, the grasslands... Just think of it as a reward!"

Si Yao didn't even raise his eyelids. His first instinct was to refuse.

As far as he was concerned, this kind of "travel" was utterly pointless, a pure waste of time and energy.

But he couldn't resist the way Su Xiao Li gazed at him so hopefully, so pitifully, while the nine fluffy fox tails behind her swept unconsciously across the ground. She looked like a little dog begging its owner to take it for a walk.

Besides, he really didn't have much to do lately. The Angels were busy searching the universe for demons, Xiong Bing Lian was locked away on the Juxia for intensive training, and Lianfeng was buried in developing a targeted Mental Firewall. No one was coming to bother him anymore.

If nobody was coming to him to deliver "results," then he'd just have to go out and "happen upon" something himself.

Or rather, the moment a special figure like him—one watched closely by all the various factions—started moving, everyone's nerves would naturally be set on edge.

Wandering aimlessly all over the world for no reason would be a little too deliberate.

But taking his little fox out to clear her head... That was a reasonable enough excuse.

"Suo Dun, watch the house."

In the end, Si Yao agreed. He gave the order to Suo Dun, who was sunbathing in the Backyard, then vanished on the spot with an excited Su Xiao Li in tow.

At Su Xiao Li's enthusiastic request, Si Yao took her on a series of rapid Space Jumps to famous destinations all over Earth.

They admired the Paris nightscape from the top of the Eiffel Tower, felt the scorching sun and yellow sands deep in the Sahara Desert, listened to nature's symphony in the canopy of the Amazon Rainforest, and gazed at the dazzling aurora above the Antarctic Ice Sheet...

The dreams that had once seemed beyond Su Xiao Li's reach were now easy to fulfill.

Travel expenses that she used to have to calculate down to the last penny were now just a number he could change on a whim.

And thanks to the marvelous encoding function of Kongshi Realm Divine Power, even the language barrier that had once troubled her no longer stood in her way. She could even communicate simple thoughts with the local animals.

Su Xiao Li seemed determined to make up all at once for the happiness she'd missed out on over the past decade or so. She was thrilled at every stop, dragging Si Yao around to take pictures, sample local snacks, and buy all kinds of little knickknacks she found novel and amusing.

Night fell, and Si Yao eventually brought the still-unsatisfied Su Xiao Li to the Antarctic Ice Sheet.

"Boss, look! The phone says this is where you can see the prettiest aurora in the world!" Wearing a thick down jacket that fit the mood, Su Xiao Li excitedly pointed at the dark sky.

But tonight, the sky was almost too clear. Only a few scattered, icy stars glimmered overhead. The brilliant bands of light she'd been hoping for were nowhere to be seen.

Seeing the disappointment on Su Xiao Li's face, Si Yao remained calm.

Of course he knew this wasn't the best time of year to see the aurora in Antarctica.

But when you got down to it, an aurora was nothing more than a small energy phenomenon caused by high-energy charged particles from the solar wind entering Earth's magnetic field.

As far as he was concerned, he didn't need to wait for one to "see" it.

He raised his head. His gaze seemed to pierce the deep night sky and thick layers of atmosphere, reaching straight toward the star 150 million kilometers away—the sun that provided light and heat for the entire solar system.

He held out a hand, fingers slightly spread, as if he meant to grasp the whole starry sky.

An invisible thought, imbued with Supreme Might, crossed the vast distance and touched the roiling sea of energy on the sun's surface.

He simply tried to give those violent tides of energy a gentle "nudge," using Yongzhen Realm Divine Power infused with a basic Stellar Drive Technology, and guided a small, carefully measured gust of solar wind toward Earth.

It was no trouble at all for him.

And yet, that casual little gesture set off enormous chain reactions.

Juxia, Command Center.

A piercing alarm suddenly blared, shattering the silence of the night!

"Warning! Abnormal fluctuations detected in Solar Energy!"

"Solar Wind Index rising sharply! Energy Level... Below the danger threshold, but... the fluctuations are extremely irregular! They came on very suddenly!"

Lianfeng rushed to the main console at once. Watching the energy curve on the screen spike and then quickly stabilize, she furrowed her brows.

Any civilization that had entered the God-Making Era possessed technology for driving Stellar Energy.

But on Earth today, the number of people with that kind of ability could be counted on one hand.

The Angels certainly had it.

But if they were manipulating Solar Energy, the only possible explanation would be that they were in the middle of a fierce battle.

However, Deno Three's monitoring system hadn't detected any powerful Dark Energy Signals clashing nearby.

The demons? Morgana was doing everything she could to stay hidden. Why would she deliberately expose herself by releasing an energy signal that could be tracked so easily?

Aside from those two possibilities, all that remained were Lena and... Si Yao.

Lena's control over Stellar Energy was still extremely crude.

At her level, she could conjure a terrifying Solar Storm capable of wiping out every living thing on Earth, but there was no way she could manage such a slight, precisely targeted Energy Guidance as this.

And Lena had no reason to do something like that.

Once you eliminated the impossible, whatever remained, no matter how unbelievable, had to be the truth.

Lianfeng could only fix her suspicions on Si Yao.

But... why would Si Yao drive Stellar Energy at a time like this? To show off? Or was there some other purpose she didn't know about?

The far side of the Moon, aboard Heavenly Base Four.

The Angels had also detected the sun's abnormal activity at once. Their first thought was the same as Lianfeng's: demons!

But before Angel Chase and Moy could prepare to investigate, Angel Yan put her extraordinary intelligence—and... her unconventional way of doing things—to use.

She didn't immediately report the incident or organize a response. Instead, she contacted Su Xiao Li directly through the Dark Communication Channel they'd recently set up, the one she'd saved under the name "Si Yao's Little Fox."

The call connected quickly, and Su Xiao Li's excited, stifled shrieks came through in the background.

Angel Yan got straight to the point. "Xiao Li Sister, where are you right now?"

"We're in Antarctica! Yan Jie! We're watching the aurora! It's so prettyyyyy—!"

The moment she heard the answer, Angel Yan understood everything.

After ending the call, Angel Yan looked at Angel Chase and Moy, who wore equally peculiar expressions, and spread her hands. "Well, case closed. Si Yao's making his little fox happy."

Angel Chase gazed toward Antarctica, where an unnaturally beautiful aurora slowly unfurled across the night sky. For a moment, she was lost in thought.

"Yan Jie... I'm suddenly thinking that Mr. Si Yao might not be as old-fashioned and rigid as we first imagined."

She paused, searching for the right words. "Look, he'll casually nudge the solar wind to make an aurora just to cheer Xiao Li up. That... That sounds like something a young Male God would do—a little romantic, a little silly. Is he really that old?"

Angel Yan fell into thought as well.

She recalled the moments she'd spent with Si Yao. Whenever the conversation turned to sensitive subjects like the "Pangu Civilization" or "the Void," he became especially cold and distant, as if he'd turned into a different person.

But in most everyday, non-confrontational situations, he was actually... fairly easy to get along with?

At the very least, when she made probing jokes or teased him a little too far, he would mostly ignore her or fire back in his own calm, even tone. He'd never truly gotten angry or shown any hostility.

For an ancient being whose identity was unknown and whose power was immense, that level of tolerance was actually quite unusual.