We Are Invincible

While Lao Xia, Tang Baona, and Little Apple were "watching" the lightning storm from the rooftop of their house in Chongyun Village, Little Chubby Girl and Yang the Third, who were far away in Peng City, also went up to the rooftop.

Wearing only a short-sleeved shirt, Yang Zhen'er shrank her neck and glanced at the Little Chubby Girl next to her. "It's so windy on the rooftop, it's a bit cold. Little Bell, aren't you cold?"

The Little Chubby Girl, also wearing short sleeves, was focused on her iPad without looking up and said, "I'm not cold."

"Little Bell, when did Chef Xiang tell you to come to the rooftop?"

"Afternoon."

"That's strange, why didn't he tell me?"

"Uncle Baldy asked me to bring you up here."

"That's backwards! I'm the adult, I should be the one taking care of you... Little Bell, what are you looking at?"

"Look at the lightning!" Liu Shiling didn't look up, intently watching a video of a lightning storm in the mountains playing on her iPad.

"I know it's lightning... uh, I'm asking why you're looking at this? Chef Xiang say what we're going to do on the rooftop? He's not going to come by helicopter, is he? Haha!" Yang Zhen'er squatted down behind the Little Chubby Girl, rested her head on the Little Chubby Girl's shoulder, and looked at the tablet in her hand.

"We want to see lightning strike!" Liu Shiling said.

"Huh? We want to watch it too? Then we can watch it at home, why go up to the rooftop and get chilled?" Yang Zhen'er said, rubbing her cheek against the Little Chubby Girl's cheek. The Little Chubby Girl's cheeks were bouncy and it felt really nice to touch.

"We can only see it from the rooftop, and we can't break the TV or the refrigerator anymore. If we tell Mom it was the Egg Pie that did it, they'll be in big trouble," the Little Chubby Girl said.

"Hehe, then I'll take the blame next time. I'll just say I was drunk and acting crazy, haha. Wait a minute, you mean, if we want to see lightning... we have to create it ourselves?" Yang Zhen'er asked in surprise.

"Yes, that's right," the Little Chubby Girl said matter-of-factly.

Yang Zhen'er perked up immediately, suddenly realizing that the wind on the rooftop wasn't strong at all, and it wasn't cold at all.

She stood up, looked up at the clear night sky, and frowned. "Create a lightning storm right here? I've never done that before. Can I even pull it off? Oh right, I only brought one eraser. That's not enough."

The Little Chubby Girl also looked up at the starry sky and said, "Old Fairy Sister, didn't you hear me?"

"What did you hear?"

"Boom... Boom..." The Little Chubby Girl imitated the sound of thunder.

"The sound in your video? You always mute your videos, how could I hear it?" Yang Zhen'er said.

"No, it's over there," the chubby Little Chubby Girl said, pointing her short, white finger into the distance.

Yang Zhen'er squinted and looked in that direction, then shook her head and said, "There's nothing there."

"Hey, that video you were watching, it looks like it was filmed at Chongyun Mountain?" Yang Zhen'er suddenly realized.

"Yes," the Little Chubby Girl nodded.

"Who sent it to you? Lao Xia? Or Nana?"

"Little Screw."

"It's Little Screw again? Isn't Little Screw an online friend you know? How does she have the thunderstorm video of Chongyun Mountain? Oh right, is it from before? Found online? The one where the fugitive was struck by lightning?"

"No," the Little Chubby Girl said, "Old Fairy Sister, concentrate and listen to the thunder."

"No thunder at all... Huh?"

As they were talking, Yang Zhen'er suddenly heard a loud rumble of thunder. She paused for a moment, looked down, and found that it was coming from the tablet in the Little Chubby Girl's hand, even though the tablet was no longer playing a video.

Amidst the rumbling, it seemed as if someone was humming a song, but it was hidden within the thunder and couldn't be heard clearly. However, she subconsciously thought of Nana —because she had heard this kind of humming melody many times when she was in Chongyun Village a while ago.

As she listened, a thought struck her, and she said to the Little Chubby Girl next to her, "Little Bell, it's windy and thundering!"

As soon as he finished speaking, a thunderous roar echoed in the sky, and a bolt of lightning cleaved the entire sky from east to west.

The flash of lightning instantly illuminated Liu Shiling's upturned face, and she instinctively exclaimed "Wow!"

That "Wow!" seemed to give Yang Zhen'er tremendous encouragement. She spread her arms wide, gazed intently at the sky, and shouted:

"Thunderous warships, hoist your sails and set sail! Form ranks and await my command, Silver-Armored Immortal!"

"To cleanse the world of evil... no..."

"To celebrate the arrival of your King! The Silver-Armored Immortal... the most powerful magician under the Silver-Armored Fairy Liu Shiling... um... to celebrate magician Liu Shiling getting a long vacation!!"

"Offer your thunder!"

"Come on! Let it roar!"

As she rambled on with nonsensical, cheesy lines, dark clouds gathered in the sky, dimming the stars and moon. Occasionally, flashes of lightning flickered among the clouds, giving the impression that a tremendous force was brewing.

As she finished speaking, bolts of lightning struck down from the sky, connecting heaven Little Chubby Girl earth, crackling and popping as they hit a large tree not far away.

Of course, the tree was perfectly fine, both in reality and in what they saw.

"YEAH!" Yang Zhen'er jumped up excitedly.

Liu Shiling also jumped along with her.

Even knowing it was an illusion, they were all incredibly excited.

Although the two of them had conducted numerous illusion experiments indoors before, and had made all sorts of bizarre attempts, they had never tried, or even considered, creating such a large-scale, weather-affecting, and godlike illusion outdoors.

Moreover, Yang Zhen'er hadn't made any preparations beforehand, and she hadn't even brought many of her "old buddies."

At first, Yang Zhen'er imagined thunder descending upon the world, annihilating and cleansing all evil and demons. However, she inexplicably sensed that what she imagined this time was not "punishing thunder," but "celebrating thunder"—the "celebration" of the word "celebration."

One bolt of lightning after another struck down from the sky, and the eye of the thunderstorm was right in the city center, right around the building where they were. At first, the two of them flinched a little as the lightning struck and the thunder roared, but they quickly got used to it and started standing on the rooftop, calling out to the thunder and lightning, having a great time.

"Little Bell! Did you see that? All the captains of my Dark Cloud warships are celebrating your holiday!" Yang Zhen'er shouted, hands on her hips.

"Old Fairy Sister is amazing! Long live Old Fairy Sister! Old Fairy Sister is invincible!" Liu Shiling shouted a few times, then suddenly remembered something and asked, "Old Fairy Sister, where's my magic wand?"

"Your magic wand is in your hand," Yang Zhen'er said, blinking.

Liu Shiling looked down and found that the iPad she was holding had transformed into a magic wand. She raised the wand high and shouted, "Chocolate! Ice Cream! Lemon Tea!..."

Yang Zhen'er was startled and quickly squatted down to hug her. "Little Bell, you mustn't..."

"Don't worry, Sister Fairy, Little Screw is watching over you, it's very steady, everything will be alright," Liu Shiling patted her back to comfort her.

"Little Screw?" Yang Zhen'er's eyebrows twitched, as if she were hearing Tang Baona mutter "Little Sprite" to herself for the first time.

Then she suddenly noticed that five gleaming Coin were floating around her. As she looked over, they shot into the air and disappeared into the churning dark clouds above her head.

"Look, Sister Fairy!" Liu Shiling shouted, pointing her "magic wand" at the sky.

Yang Zhen'er looked in the direction she pointed, and amidst the flashes of lightning in the clouds, she vaguely saw five round, Humanoid Creature moving through the night sky and within the clouds.

Those five people even seemed to be wearing armor? They really looked like heavenly soldiers!

Moreover, the fact that they could see a vague outline from here proves that the five round figures were enormous, probably much larger than a typical passenger plane.

Did these five Coin from the Little Bell transform into something else?

No, it must be an illusion.

But shouldn't illusions be something I imagine?!

I've never seen it before!

Yang Zhen'er was momentarily confused and couldn't help but rub her eyes.

Beside her, Liu Shiling, dressed in a black magic robe with gold trim, silently put on her hood and tugged at the drawstring, causing the two cat ears on top of the hood to twitch.

Below them, in the building where they lived, the woman of one household was playing an online game on her phone in the living room. While playing, she found that she had lost connection, and then she faintly heard thunder, which seemed to be coming from her own television.

She glanced up at the TV; it was clearly showing a romantic drama, a man and a woman chatting in a coffee shop. The weather outside was sunny and calm, so why was there such a loud rumble of thunder?

She couldn't help but ask her mother, who was engrossed in watching TV, "Mom, did you hear thunder?"

"Thunder? Is it thundering? Is it going to rain?" Her mother instinctively craned her neck to look out onto the balcony.

"No, it's on TV..."

"Ah, the TV? No... wait, there really is thunder, and other sounds too. Is someone singing opera?"

Boom--!

A deafening clap of thunder rang out, startling both the mother and daughter inside. They were both certain that the sound didn't come from the television, but from outside.

Even the sliding glass doors to their balcony were rattling loudly, and the light was very noticeable.

"Oh dear, it's really going to rain. Quickly close the window," the mother nudged her daughter's shoulder and urged.

The woman glanced at her phone; it still had no signal. She put the phone in her pocket and got up to close the balcony window.

As I walked to the edge of the balcony, another bolt of lightning struck, this time hitting a building a few hundred meters away. Although the strike was incredibly powerful, nothing happened afterward.

"Is it grounded? A lightning rod?" The woman scratched her head.

Just as she was about to close the window and go back to check her optical modem and router, another bolt of lightning struck, followed by a continuous barrage of lightning, one after another, accompanied by deafening thunderclaps. She instinctively shrank her neck, covered her ears, and crouched down.

But strangely, she found the thunder not scary at all, but rather... kind of festive?

At the same time, many people throughout the city had the same experience as her: they were all startled by the thunder and then witnessed an unexpected "lightning storm" that took place in the city.

After an unknown amount of time, the thunderstorm subsided.

But on the rooftop, Yang Zhen'er noticed that the wind hadn't stopped; in fact, it had picked up a bit. She glanced at the Little Chubby Girl beside her; she was no longer wearing her robes, and her magic wand had transformed back into an iPad. The illusion had stopped, hadn't it?

A raindrop the size of a bean fell and landed on her forehead, making her exclaim "Eh!" Then she subconsciously looked up, only to be attacked by a barrage of raindrops, one of which even landed in her eye.

"It's raining! Sister Fairy, run!" Liu Shiling grabbed Yang Zhen'er's hand and led her towards the rooftop stairwell.

Once she reached the bottom of the stairwell, Yang Zhen'er wiped the rain off her face, looked back at the torrential rain pouring down outside, tilted her head to look at the sky, and stared at the sky with a puzzled expression.

What's going on?

Wasn't that thunderstorm a massive illusion created by her and Little Bell together? Wasn't it a sight only the two of them could see?

She clearly remembered that when she and Little Bell first went up to the rooftop, it was a clear night sky with a moon and stars! Their tinkering shouldn't have taken long, so how could it suddenly start raining so heavily?

Was what I just saw real? No, it's impossible; there wasn't a single trace of being struck by lightning around me.

Then she suddenly remembered something and asked the Little Chubby Girl next to her, who was also wiping the rain off her face, "Little Bell, where's your Coin?"

The Little Chubby Girl patted the pockets of her pants, and the sound of Coin clinking inside could be heard.

"Little Bell, they just flew up! They flew into the sky!" Yang Zhen'er said. "And... and they even seemed to turn into heavenly soldiers and generals! Round and chubby!"

"Hey-hey."

"Little Bell, stop chuckling! Tell us quickly, did you secretly use some trick just now? And who is this Little Screw you keep talking about?" Yang Zhen'er pressed.

"Old Fairy Sister, let's hurry back and take a shower, or we'll catch a cold." Liu Shiling pulled Yang Zhen'er's hand and walked towards the stairwell, saying as they went, "Uncle Baldy said you can figure it out yourself, and if you really can't figure it out, just go ask him."

Yang Zhen'er couldn't help but mutter, "What's the point of asking him? He's probably just trying to fool me again." But she still followed the Little Chubby Girl downstairs. It didn't matter that she had a cold, but it would be a big problem if Little Bell caught a cold.

In Chongyun Mountain.

Under a makeshift rain shelter formed by the sprawling branches and leaves of a huge, crooked tree.

Mr. Liang watched as the "mutated bird," which he had searched for a long time with great effort but had been unable to find, suddenly emerged from the ground, like a gift being unwrapped and revealed. For a moment, he was at a loss for words, and he and the bird stared at each other blankly.

Although this "mutated bird" looked completely different from the one he last encountered in Wushu Mountain, even being several sizes smaller, Mr. Liang still instantly recognized it as the "giant raptor" he was tracking.

It was actually captured alive by Xiang Kun?

And it's been hidden underground all along?

Xiang Kun's strength seems to be even more powerful and unpredictable than he had anticipated?

Especially those tiny, densely packed beads still suspended in the air, and the vines and roots on the ground that seemed to have a mind of their own—these things seemed impossible to exist in the real world, and even someone like him found them hard to comprehend.

It seems that Xiang Kun is probably a creature on another level of complexity, just like the "Ultimate Predator".

"You mean..." Mr. Liang looked at Xiang Kun not far away. "I want to treat it as a 'blood source' and undergo a phased transformation?"

Xiang Kun nodded. "Yes, it's very suitable. And you should also know how much damage it caused; anyway, it needs to be fixed."

Mr. Liang shook his head. "At my stage, I need to undergo a phased transformation, which requires a very high level of 'bloodline,' and this may not be suitable."

"Don't worry, I'm absolutely sure it'll suit you perfectly."

Xiang Kun finished speaking, the "mutated bird" suddenly flapped its wings, which had been strangely folded together, as if trying to fly into the air.

Clearly, as soon as it regained a little mobility, it tried its best to escape.

For it, neither Xiang Kun nor Mr. Liang were anything but death.

Mr. Liang subconsciously controlled the dozens of miniature drones that had regained contact to come over, but unexpectedly, the countless spheres that had been floating beside him quickly gathered together and wrapped the "mutated bird" into a large iron ball. It didn't even make a sound before falling back to the ground.

Watching the orbs disperse again, revealing the "mutated bird" once more, barely alive, Mr. Liang asked, "If I devour it, will I be able to draw out the 'Ultimate Predator' and cause it to have a concentrated, intense conscious reaction?"

"No, it's far from enough. But don't worry, I'll take you to hunt enough 'blood sources,' and I know where they are," Xiang Kun said confidently. "You don't need to worry here; I can control everything. Even the 'Ultimate Predator' can't threaten you; its connection to the relevant special factors has been severed by me. But there's one thing I must tell you in advance: after you undergo enough phased transformations to satisfy the 'Ultimate Predator's' blood-drinking requirements, you yourself will face physical disintegration. Theoretically, I have a way to help you rebuild your body, but since I haven't tried it, I can't guarantee 100% success. However, I can guarantee that your consciousness, your subjective perception, and your memories will never disappear. Even if I can't restore your original body, I can ensure your consciousness continues to exist in other forms."

Mr. Liang's mouth stretched to his ears, revealing an expression that was hard to decipher as either a smile or something else. He controlled dozens of drones to approach the "mutated giant bird," and said in his deep, hoarse, metallic voice, "No need to comfort me. I only have this one choice now, don't I? Xiang Kun, I'll do what I have to do. If anything happens to me, remember to remove the small, cross-shaped metal piece under my left brain, then go find my driver, Lao Xie, and have him take you to Old He... He'll help you access our secret files, allowing you to see many long-forgotten secrets and the research data and information we've accumulated over the years. Especially the last video I recorded, you need to watch it carefully... Then, continue doing what needs to be done."

Xiang Kun nodded slowly and said only three words: "Don't worry."

Subsequently, tens of thousands of Super-Linked Object orbs scattered again. Even without Xiang Kun's assistance, Mr. Liang could easily defeat the "mutated giant bird" that couldn't fly in this situation with just two words—instant kill.

Mr. Liang dealt with it in the same way he dealt with Guo Tianxiang: the micro-drones interconnected and sacrificed themselves to create a laser network that sliced the "mutant bird" into a bloody mist, and he then strolled forward, bathing in the bloody mist.

Xiang Kun could sense that Mr. Liang had hesitated, felt uneasy, struggled, and was afraid after hearing his words, but after making his promise, Mr. Liang suppressed those emotions and made a decision.

Mr. Liang was also afraid of death, but there was something he feared even more than death.

Xiang Kun did not watch Mr. Liang "drink blood" from the sidelines. Although he knew all the details whether he was there or not, he still used the branches of the Little Radish to climb onto the "temporary rain shelter" and stood in the rain, gazing into the distance.

That's the direction of Chongyun Village.

A thousand kilometers further on lies Peng City.

During this time, Xiang Kun had further refined his plan, but he knew that he needed help to have a greater chance of success.

Not only do we need Mr. Liang's help, but we also need the help of Alice, Lao Xia, and even Little Chubby Girl, Little Apple, Nana, and Yang the Third.

He needs to better and more comprehensively utilize the "Super-Sensing Item System" to ensure everything goes smoothly.

He felt a weight on his shoulder; a pair of small leather shoes stepped on his left shoulder. He didn't need to look up to know it was Alice.

Alice, now fully revealed, held up an incredibly bizarre "umbrella"—a tightly connected structure of dozens of roasted chicken wings and crispy pork knuckles—and shielded Xiang Kun's head. Looking in the same direction as him, she spoke with a firm tone:

"Boss, we're invincible."

I'll try to adjust the update schedule to a more regular time for the next chapter...