Battleship

East Sea Academy, Girls' Dormitory E, Room 105.

The noon sun streamed through the spotless glass window, casting bright patches of light across the pale floor. Na'er had already changed into the blue-and-white academy uniform, arranged her desk and bed, and was about to head to the cafeteria for lunch. She looked at the bed by the window opposite hers. The silver-haired girl was still maintaining the same posture she had been in when Na'er left that morning—or rather, she had taken it even further.

Gu Yue had changed out of her practical casual clothes and was now wearing a loose, dark-purple silk pajama set printed with cartoon dragon patterns. Na'er thought they looked a little like chibi Di Tian. Without a shred of dignity, she lay sprawled across the bed, clutching a fluffy duvet as though it were her closest comrade. Her soul communicator was mounted on a stand before her, and both thumbs flew over the screen like lightning. The dazzling effects of Containment Records flickered across the display, illuminating her utterly focused face as she sometimes frowned and sometimes broke into a silent, foolish grin. A few strands of silver hair stubbornly clung to her forehead, but she could not even be bothered to brush them aside.

"Gu Yue," Na'er could not help saying, "it's already noon. Aren't you going to eat lunch?" It was hard for her to connect this pajama-clad shut-in with the imposing, then later utterly haggard Silver Dragon King she had met by the sea two months ago.

At that, Gu Yue did not even look up. She merely drawled lazily, "Ah—bring me something back, please~ Anything's fine. As long as I don't starve to death." She even rubbed her cheek against the soft blanket and let out a contented sigh, while her fingers never stopped moving. Clearly, she was in the middle of some crucial match.

"Huh?" Na'er was genuinely dumbfounded now, even instinctively taking half a step back. The contrast was way too extreme! Could the pressure have been too much? Or had something gone wrong with her cultivation, causing her to... split off some strange "sloth personality" again?

Perhaps sensing Na'er's hesitation and that faint, barely noticeable fear, Gu Yue finally spared a few seconds to pull her gaze away from the screen and glance at her. There was a touch of teasing in her eyes, along with the open-minded ease of someone who had figured things out. "Don't worry. I'm not crazy, and I haven't split apart," she explained casually. "It's just that my master, Leng Yaozhu, said I'd been wound too tight lately. She said that if I kept it up, even my elemental control would start going wrong, so she ordered me to relax for a while and find my 'true self' again. And then..."

She shifted into a more comfortable position on her side, propping her head up with one hand while continuing to play with the other. In the same tone one might use to discuss the weather, she said, "I lay down and thought about it carefully. Shrek and the Spirit Pagoda... isn't it really just one word from Huo Yuhao? If he wanted to, he could just show his face at the Sea God Pavilion or the Spirit Pagoda headquarters and state his position. His influence might be greater than mine after struggling and climbing for decades. So what was I agonizing over before? Why did I wear myself out like that? For what?"

Na'er: "..."

She had no way to respond to that. Something about it felt off, but... it also kind of made sense?

"But don't think I've completely given up," Gu Yue abruptly changed the subject. Her fingers traced out a beautiful combo on the screen, ending the match. Only then did she set down her communicator with satisfaction and stretch hard. The hem of her pajamas rose slightly, revealing a sliver of her pale, slender waist. "I'm still studying all that political and economic stuff, and I've already gained a little say in some of the Spirit Pagoda's internal technical committees and external cooperation projects. It's just..." A sly, expectant glint flashed through her eyes. "If I really want to shake up the situation, I'll have to wait until Dark-Gold Heavy Industries flies a little higher. Hehe."

As though she had suddenly remembered something, she pulled a card with a faint blue metallic sheen from beneath her pillow and casually tossed it toward Na'er without even looking. "Here, take this. There's credit on it. Buy several portions and stock up on snacks or midnight food if you want. You can use it to buy whatever you feel like eating too. My treat." It was an allowance card for senior technical personnel within the Spirit Pagoda, and both its authority and credit limit were considerable.

Na'er caught the card in a fluster. It felt slightly cool to the touch. What concerned her more was Gu Yue's previous remark. "Y-you're going to expand into maritime business? It won't be easy dealing with sea soul beasts. They..."

"The sea?" Gu Yue scoffed, picking up her communicator again. As she logged in, she replied carelessly, "Your perspective's too narrow. I'm not messing with the sea." She put on her soul-conducting headphones, and just before the deafening game effects drowned her out, she tossed out one last earth-shattering statement.

"I'm going—to heaven."

With that, she immersed herself in the world of Containment Records once more, her fingers flying as she began muttering skill names again—things like "Elemental Burst" and "Meteor Fall"—as though her bold declaration just now had been nothing more than a casual weather forecast.

Holding the blue card, Na'er stood there and stared at the Silver Dragon King before her, who was "addicted to games and claiming she was going to heaven." She felt her worldview take another subtle blow. Shaking her head, she decided not to dwell on it for now. Filling her stomach first was more practical.

Meanwhile, in the outskirts of Eastsea City, within a massive valley shrouded in layers of soul-conducting barriers and illusion arrays.

This was the most highly classified research and testing ground of Dark-Gold Heavy Industries. At that moment, the colossal object parked within the valley made everyone who saw it catch their breath.

It was a battleship. But its scale far exceeded that of any known civilian aircraft or non-top-tier military craft on the Douluo Continent.

It was nearly three hundred meters long, its entire body a profound dark gold. This was not paint, but the natural luster of the metal itself after special forging and energy infusion. The sleek lines of its hull were extraordinarily smooth, like a metal leviathan lying in wait, or an elongated dragon fang brimming with power. Its bow was sharp and slightly upturned, while long, powerful wing-like structures extended backward from both sides. They were not intended for atmospheric flight, but for energy channeling and spatial stability adjustment. The hull was covered in dense, orderly scale-like patterns. These were not decorations, but visible manifestations of soul-conducting arrays that reinforced defense and energy flow.

Even sitting there quietly, it exuded a suffocating pressure—the natural majesty born from the union of immense size, mass, and highly condensed cutting-edge technology. Special high-intensity lighting soul devices in the valley cast their beams across its smooth hull, reflecting a cold and mysterious gleam.

"Well? Huo Yuhao, isn't it awesome?" The Dark-Gold Dragon King, Dark-Gold, stood on a raised platform in front of the battleship with his arms crossed, chin slightly raised. His face was full of undisguised pride and satisfaction. Today, he wore a neat dark-gray engineer's uniform, still marked with traces of metal dust and energy dye.

Huo Yuhao looked up at the massive vessel. Light flowed through his Spirit Eyes, allowing him to "see" the incomparably intricate energy circuits, structural supports, and perfect integration between its systems. He slowly nodded, his voice carrying heartfelt admiration. "A breathtaking sight. This has surpassed the scope of a mere means of transportation. It's more like a... mobile war fortress and scientific research outpost. Its overall energy fluctuations are stable and restrained, and the pre-activation resonance of the propulsion system is nearly perfect."

"Ha! Of course!" Dark-Gold grew even smugger. "The preliminary ground-hover and low-power propulsion tests have passed. There wasn't any structural vibration at all. But there's still a 0.3% residual fluctuation in the airtightness and energy shielding of some internal sections, so those need further adjustment." He rubbed his hands together, excitement gleaming in his eyes. "Now we just don't know whether it can really break through 'that membrane' and fly somewhere we want to see."

"Impressive." Standing beside Huo Yuhao, the Golden Dragon King, Jin, had unusually put away his carefree expression. With his arms folded and head tilted up, he stood there dumbly for several seconds with his mouth slightly open before finally raising a thumb and offering that brief assessment. He could sense that Dark-Gold's toughness, ferocity, and a trace of the Dragon Clan's unique affinity with laws had been integrated into the battleship's metal shell.

"Hahaha, eighty percent of the core architecture for the air circulation and internal ecological maintenance systems was handled by my team!" Myriad Demon King stroked his chin. Today, he had taken the form of a refined middle-aged scholar wearing gold-rimmed glasses, and his voice was full of confidence. The system he led cleverly combined various rare purifying plants, soul-conducting filters, and elemental conversion arrays, creating an almost natural ecological cycle within the battleship. Its theoretical air purification efficiency was as high as ninety-two percent, and it could continuously convert and supply breathable gases.

"The main issue is that this is our first attempt at spaceflight on this scale, so the propulsion system and primary protective barrier consume too much power and take up part of the internal space," Dark-Gold added, though there was no dissatisfaction in his tone. "Still, it's our first time. Safety comes first. We need enough redundancy."

"Ahem!" Bear Lord, who stood over two and a half meters tall and resembled an iron tower in his semi-beast form for the sake of displaying his strength, pounded his thick chest with a fist, producing a dull boom. "I put plenty of work into the main alloy framework of the hull and the additional layered armor around key sections! The alloy was smelted with my origin demon power and several extreme earth-element materials. Its resistance to pressure, extreme temperatures, and energy impacts is guaranteed to let this thing move through those messy meteor belts as easily as if it were at home!" The sound of him slapping the hull was like striking a giant bell, demonstrating its astonishing sturdiness.

"The main operating platforms, command seats, life-support interfaces, and some of the movable structures were handled by the team from the Deep Space Dragon Domain under my lead," Di Tian said succinctly. Dressed in black combat attire, he had a composed bearing. In terms of precision machinery and user-friendly interactive design, he truly had unique insight.

"Hehe, and me too!" Demon Spirit floated forward like a happy butterfly, pointing at several inconspicuous sections along the side of the battleship where faint streams of data light flowed. "The primary navigation control system, the fire-control calculation core, if it's needed in the future, the soul-conducting network monitoring the entire ship's condition, and the underlying programming for all the automated doors, lighting, and environmental controls were all solutions provided by my Demon Spirit Gameworks! I guarantee the response speed is even faster than the Spirit Pagoda's main control tower spirit!" Her little face was full of pride.

"As for the three of us," Crimson King said through his middle head. Today, he had taken the form of a sharp-looking, well-dressed middle-aged man with three eyes, while the phantom images of his other two heads flickered behind his shoulders. Bi Ji, in a gentle green dress, and Zi Ji, in a seductive purple gown, stood on either side of him. "We were mainly responsible for securing funding, material channels, and the most troublesome parts—political permits and secrecy for the testing ground." Crimson King's tone carried both helplessness and achievement. "There was no way to secretly test something this huge without the Federation and major factions finding out. Fortunately, thanks to the connections and 'influence' we've built in our respective fields, we barely managed to cordon this place off and register it as a 'new soul-conducting agricultural meteorological research platform' and a 'high-end materials extreme-environment testing center'... Though I doubt the people above completely believe it, as long as the paperwork is in order, they can't be bothered to investigate too deeply for now. The 'sponsorship fees' and 'technology-sharing commitments' we offered are attractive enough."

Bi Ji and Zi Ji smiled and nodded as well. One relied on Emerald Court's close ties with the aristocratic class, while the other depended on Violet Dragon Pavilion's enormous influence in the entertainment and fashion worlds. They had indeed cleared away many potential troubles for this project and brought in quite a few "strategic investors."

"Hey, hey, hey!" Hearing this, Jin finally could not hold back any longer. He lowered his folded arms and spread both hands dramatically, his face practically screaming speechless as his gaze swept across the soul beasts and Huo Yuhao. "So after all that, everyone contributed a ton to this insanely cool project, and everyone has glorious achievements to brag about—except! The! Two! Of! Us! We're just here to watch the fun?" He placed special emphasis on "the two of us," trying to pull Huo Yuhao in as an ally.

Huo Yuhao rubbed his nose and said nothing, though amusement filled his eyes.

"Who said that?" Dark-Gold jumped down from the platform and strode over to Huo Yuhao, giving his shoulder a hard slap that made Huo Yuhao bare his teeth. Then he turned toward Jin with a smile that clearly said, We've been waiting for you. "We still need one critically important role—a god."

He pointed at the towering battleship. "Without God Rank spiritual power serving as a long-distance navigation beacon, and without the keen perception and intervention ability a God Rank existence has toward spatial fluctuations, it'll be easy enough for this thing to fly out. But finding stable coordinates in the vast and dangerous outer space, then returning safely? We'd be completely in the dark. We need a safety rope that can catch us when it matters."

"And you, my dear Golden Dragon King," Dark-Gold continued, walking over to Jin and slinging an arm around his neck like they were best buddies. It took some effort, since Jin was taller than him. His tone became deeply tempting. "Not only are you a god, you're also the thickest-skinned, toughest, and theoretically least likely to get killed by an accident among us! Look at those engines. What if they overload and explode?" He pointed at the enormous nozzles at the rear of the battleship.

"You mean—" Jin's eyes slowly widened. He shook off Dark-Gold's arm, stepped back, and pointed at his own nose, his voice rising by an octave. "You want me to be the test pilot?! And the kind of expendable test pilot specifically responsible for taking explosions head-on?! Oh, come on, Boss Lady!" His final sentence was shouted at Demon Spirit, who was quietly snickering.

"Uncle Jin~" Demon Spirit instantly put on her sweetest smile, skipping over and grabbing Jin's arm to shake it. "How can you call yourself expendable? You're the strongest Dragon Clan king here! If this ship really explodes, our little bodies will definitely be reduced to ashes in an instant, but you're different! You just stand there with divine light protecting you, invulnerable to all laws. A tiny explosion definitely won't even scratch a single dragon scale!" She blinked her large eyes, sounding utterly sincere.

"Exactly!" Bear Lord immediately chimed in gruffly. "Boss Jin, that body of yours is so tough that even if this old bear pounded on you with all his strength for half a day, you wouldn't budge! What's an explosion?"

"Brother Jin's strength is beyond doubt. This test flight can only be done by you. The safety factor will be at its highest." Di Tian nodded with a solemn expression.

"With the Golden Dragon King overseeing things, the success rate of this experiment will increase by at least seventy percent." Myriad Demon King pushed up his glasses and expressed the same meaning in academic terms.

Bi Ji said gently, "Jin, please. Only you can truly put all of us at ease."

Zi Ji threw him a flirtatious look. "Handsome, it's time to show your true manliness."

All three of Crimson King's faces wore earnest expressions at once. "Brother Jin, the bigger picture comes first!"

Even Huo Yuhao held back a laugh as he patted Jin's shoulder. "The greater the ability, the greater the responsibility. Jin, please."

Jin was drowned beneath the endless flattery, pleas, and moral pressure. Listening to those exaggerated praises about "blowing up stars with one punch," "using his aura to intimidate the Void," and his "indestructible, immortal Dragon God body," he suddenly felt an intensely absurd sense of familiarity.

This feeling... wasn't it exactly the same as when he had spent his days shouting, singing, and causing trouble in Huo Yuhao's spiritual sea until Huo Yuhao could not get any peace, and Huo Yuhao and Demon Spirit had tried every possible way to placate him and find something for him to do?!

What goes around comes around!

"Stop! Stop, stop, stop!" Jin raised both hands in surrender, his face full of resignation. "Fine, fine, I'll go! I'll go, okay? You bunch... you really got me!" He finally understood that this group of soul beasts, Huo Yuhao included, had dug this pit long ago and waited for him to jump in. There was no escaping the job of test pilot and "human insurance policy."

"But!" He abruptly changed course, extending one hand with his palm open as a sly smile appeared on his face. "I have a condition!"

The soul beasts and Huo Yuhao exchanged looks, then said in unison, "Say it!"

Jin cleared his throat and raised his head. One hand slipped into his pocket while the other stretched straight out, thumb and forefinger rubbing together in the classic gesture for money. "A top-tier black card from Dark-Gold Heavy Industries—give me one! The kind with no spending limit, priority access to every service, and the ability to call up the latest vehicles anytime!"

The scene fell silent for a moment.

Then...

"Here." Di Tian was expressionless as he became the first to take a black card from his chest pocket. Its edges were inlaid with dark-gold dragon patterns, and it was made from an unusual material. He placed it in Jin's hand.

"Here, you can borrow mine for now too." Zi Ji smiled as she handed him another.

"My card's authority is decent. Take it." Crimson King was equally straightforward.

Bi Ji, Myriad Demon King, Bear Lord, and even Demon Spirit all smilingly pulled out similar black cards. In an instant, Jin's outstretched hand held a thick stack of at least seven or eight black cards representing the highest status and authority!

Every one of these cards was enough to cause a sensation in the outside world, symbolizing the highest level of friendship and recognition from Dark-Gold Heavy Industries and the alliance behind it. Yet now, they were casually stacked in Jin's hand like playing cards.

Jin looked down at the heavy, cool stack of black cards, then looked up at the obviously restrained laughter behind the "sincere" expressions of the soul beasts around him. At last, he understood—they had prepared this all along! They had been waiting for him to ask! They did not care whether they gave him the cards or not. They were enjoying the process of "coaxing" him onto the ship!

"You—people!" Jin's face instantly flushed red with anger. He clenched the stack of cards in one hand and pointed at his shameless companions with the other. "You're messing with me, aren't you?!"

"Hahaha! He figured it out!"

"Run! Boss Jin's about to lose his temper!"

"Who told you to be so easy to fool... I mean, so reliable!"

The soul beasts scattered in every direction at once. Bear Lord howled as he charged behind a piece of heavy equipment. Myriad Demon King transformed into a mass of vines and shrank into a corner. Crimson King turned each of his three heads in a different direction, as though he wanted to flee separately. Bi Ji and Zi Ji giggled as they hid behind Huo Yuhao. Demon Spirit had already nimbly leaped onto the battleship's gangway. Di Tian calmly stepped back a few paces, though the upward curve of his lips was unmistakable.

Jin shouted in fury, waving the stack of black cards around. The gesture had absolutely no intimidation factor as he began chasing his laughing companions around the valley. "Stop running! Stand right there! Nobody's leaving until we settle this today!"

The vast secret testing ground was instantly filled with cheerful chaos and a scene of utter pandemonium. Their footsteps thundered against the sturdy alloy floor, mixed with laughter and Jin's furious roars.

Huo Yuhao did not join the chase. He walked to one side and watched the lively yet warm scene, a truly relaxed smile appearing on his face for the first time in a long while. After Jin had run a full lap and finally stopped, panting as he leaned against the battleship's landing gear and glared at them, Huo Yuhao slowly walked over and handed him a bottle of iced drink.

"All right, enough fooling around." Huo Yuhao smiled, then paused. His voice was gentle and clear. "To thank our brave and fearless Lord Golden Dragon King for graciously agreeing to serve as our test pilot... the grilled fish restaurant tonight is on me. Unlimited ingredients, unlimited drinks. Whatever flavor you want, I'll grill it for you. How about it?"

Jin, who had been preparing to continue denouncing everyone, immediately stopped. His ears twitched slightly, and the anger on his face visibly faded, replaced by a satisfied expression that mixed pride, anticipation, and Now that's more like it. He accepted the drink, gulped down a large mouthful, wiped his mouth, and snorted.

"Now that's more like it... I want ten fish! No, twenty! Spicy, numbing, garlic, honey-glazed... I want every flavor!"

"Fine, whatever you want." Huo Yuhao agreed with a smile.