Mars Mining

Xiao He now realizes that the Superpower of the Dragon Country's Mutant are actually quite strong; it's just that they either haven't found the most suitable way to fight, or they can't bring themselves to be ruthless.

For example, Xiao He and Xia Yu both belong to the latter category. If they used their full strength, they would not be suitable for "competition," as that would result in death.

Xia Yu, Xie Haining, and Qin Weize retreated off the field together. As soon as they left the field, Cui Man went up to them and took off her gloves.

Only then did everyone notice that Xia Yu's hands were badly mangled, with the skin worn away and the red muscle tissue exposed, a rather shocking sight.

"Oh dear, you silly girl!" Xiao He felt a pang of sympathy. "Why are you pushing yourself so hard?!"

"It's okay, Brother Xiao," Xia Yu said with a smile. "It will shed its skin in a while, and then the injury will heal. This is a characteristic of Peacock Mantis Shrimp; they also molt to replace damaged claws."

"But it still hurts! Silly girl..." An Xiuru patted her head tenderly, "Sigh, if I were on the field, I could give you a boost... This must hurt so much."

Xiao He now understood why Xia Yu didn't use this enhancement method easily; it was a double-edged sword. Even with those special shock-absorbing gloves, Xia Yu had already suffered such wear and tear; otherwise, he probably would have been worn down to just bone.

"Actually, level 1.5 enhancement would be enough. You could have the hard shell of Peacock Mantis Shrimp, and this situation wouldn't occur," Xia Yu said with a smile. "But that would greatly improve physical constitution, and with a hard shell covering your fists, you could kill someone..."

"That kind of person deserves to die," Xiao He replied nonchalantly.

"Alright, that's all for today's matches." Cui Man clapped her hands and laughed. "Let's all grab some late-night snacks and discuss the various combinations we discovered today, and the possibilities they might lead to."

So the group started discussing while eating their late-night snack.

"The combinations we discovered today can be categorized into three types," Cui Man said, turning to Han Tianyu and An Xiuru: "The first is the 'two-protect-one' combination of Bixi and Black Tortoise. Your combined support has multiplied the strength of a certain Mutant several times over. Therefore, you two will be temporarily paired together as a combination from now on."

Then, Cui Man turned to Zhang Ming: "The second one is based on the Mirage Dragon, combined with powerful Mutant like Yinglong and Qiongqi, using their Dog-Relying-on-Man Style. This can maximize the power of the Mirage Dragon illusion."

"Couldn't you have chosen a nicer name...?" Zhang Ming complained softly, a little dissatisfied.

Finally, Cui Man looked at Xie Haining and Xia Yu: "Lastly, there are those with excellent individual combat abilities, like Yinglong, Candle Dragon, and Gluttonous Beast. As for you two..."

Cui Man turned to Qin Weize and Li Xue: "It's still a bit dangerous for you two to fight against LV5 right now. You need to find a way to develop your Superpower during this time. There's still room for improvement in your Superpower, so take advantage of this Mutant Competition to study them carefully."

The crowd responded, Cui Man finally turned to Xiao He: "The first round of group matches and arena matches are all over, and we are currently in a commanding lead in points. Your appearances in the upcoming matches will be reduced."

Xiao He patted Ye Wanqing's head and nodded.

After saying that, Cui Man clapped her hands. "Alright, everyone, you've all worked hard today. Go back and rest. Remember to come watch the match the day after tomorrow to confirm the M Country Team's lineup for the group stage."

"Shall we go?" Xiao He turned to Ye Wanqing and said softly. Ye Wanqing smiled and nodded.

After bringing Ye Wanqing home, Xiao He collapsed onto the sofa, while Ye Wanqing clung to his back.

"I always feel like I'm a bit... aimless," Ye Wanqing muttered, gently nuzzling Xiao He's face. "I wish I could fight alongside you on the field... but I can only watch from the sidelines."

"It's because of you that I can fight." Xiao He lifted her off his back, then hugged her and kissed her. "Without you, I'm nothing, barely even a Level 1."

Ye Wanqing looked at him and smiled sweetly, "Are you hungry?"

"It's alright, but if it were you, I could still eat it," Xiao He said softly, stroking her cheek.

"You only know how to bully me..." Ye Wanqing pouted and complained pitifully.

"The more you act like this, the more I want to tease you..." Xiao He kissed her lips. "Want to take a bath together?"

"No," Ye Wanqing huffed, "That kind of 'bathing' takes too long, my legs are getting weak..." As she spoke, Ye Wanqing pushed him towards the bathroom. "You go take a shower first, I'll make you a midnight snack, you can eat it when you come out."

When Xiao He came out of the bath, a steaming bowl of wonton noodles was placed in front of him.

"Eat up," Ye Wanqing said with a smile, sitting opposite him.

The smile on her face reminded Xiao He of the dream he had during the day, and he felt a warm glow in his heart, even warmer than if he had eaten wonton noodles.

"I love you." Xiao He reached out and gently stroked her face, then lowered his head to eat, while Ye Wanqing sat opposite him, resting her chin on her hand and watching him eat.

Xiao He glared at her. "Why aren't you going to take a shower? It'll be your turn after you finish your midnight snack."

"Oh dear, let me see you eat," Ye Wanqing said coquettishly. "You didn't seem to enjoy your food at the cafeteria during the day."

At this point, Ye Wanqing raised an eyebrow. "Old Xiao, how about I cook for you and bring it over from now on? I'll prepare it at home while you're competing, and you can eat it during halftime."

"Sure," Xiao He said with a smile, patting her head. "That way, we'll fight together."

"Mmm!" Ye Wanqing nodded happily, rubbing her little feet against his leg under the table, and said with a slightly shy smile, "I'm going to take a shower, you can eat slowly, okay?"

After finishing their meal, Xiao He and Ye Wanqing engaged in a fierce battle that lasted an hour, his longest fight of the day.

"Hehe, my Old Xiao is so amazing..." Ye Wanqing said sweetly, and kissed him on the chest.

"Hmph, of course, I am 'Yinglong'." Xiao He appeared smug, but inside he was panicking: Oh no! This girl's skills are becoming more and more proficient, and I'm almost no match for her anymore.

Ye Wanqing's physical attributes were already good; if her technique also becomes more and more proficient... what if she surrenders after only ten minutes next time?

"Old Xiao, I'm a little sleepy..." Ye Wanqing rubbed her little head against his face and mumbled weakly.

Xiao He gently patted her head. "Go to sleep, go to sleep, we can talk about it tomorrow."

"Mmm..." Ye Wanqing responded, then let out a comfortable hum, and fell asleep without even saying goodnight.

Xiao He breathed a long sigh of satisfaction, looked down at Ye Wanqing, who was fast asleep, seemingly dreaming of something, her face filled with happiness.

"Silly girl..." Xiao He gently stroked her cheek and kissed her forehead. "Sweet dreams."

The next morning, Xiao He felt a slight itch on his face, so he opened his eyes and saw that Ye Wanqing had kissed him.

"Naughty... You need a good scolding so early in the morning?" Xiao He turned around and hugged her, pinching her bottom and feeling the gentle sway, then let out a satisfied sigh.

"Ugh..." Ye Wanqing slapped him lightly, then lowered her head shyly and muttered, "It's all because of what you said to me yesterday... that I had the same dream as you last night."

Xiao He was stunned for a moment, not quite understanding. "You had the same dream as me? What dream?"

Ye Wanqing shyly counted on her fingers and said, "That's right! We got married, and then had a son and a daughter, and lived happily here..."

Xiao He snapped out of his daze and exclaimed in realization, "Ah, so that's how the 'Dreamweaver' Superpower works! He weaves the dream in advance, and then the person whose dream is being woven will have that dream after they fall asleep."

"That means we're on the same wavelength," Xiao He said with a smile, hugging and kissing Ye Wanqing.

"Shameless..." Ye Wanqing smiled, her face full of happiness.

Looking at the girl in front of him, Xiao He made up his mind to start preparing to propose: such a good girl, he would feel more at ease if he could win her over as soon as possible.

"Hmph, Old Xiao... you're mine." Ye Wanqing nuzzled his face with her little head and snuggled into his arms like a cute little kitten.

Xiao He knew that the dream must have made her even more eager for their future together, and he, too, longed for that future.

Therefore, after breakfast, Xiao He brought Ye Wanqing to the competition venue.

Everyone seemed to be in good spirits, except for Yue Feng, who looked a bit listless.

"Hey, what happened?" Xiao He asked curiously. Yue Feng covered his head and said, "Don't even mention it. I had a nightmare last night. I was being haunted by a bunch of little ghosts at an amusement park... It's left me with a lasting trauma."

"Ah, hahaha..." Xiao He laughed sheepishly, "Having such a dream, it's really unlike you..."

Then, Xiao He handed the breakfast he was holding to Ye Wanqing and said with a smile, "Little Pufferfish, why don't you give the coffee to everyone?"

"Okay!" Ye Wanqing responded cheerfully and went over to serve coffee to everyone.

"Sister Man! I have something to discuss with you!" Xiao He said impatiently, "I want to propose to Wanqing, but diamonds are too cheap and don't do her justice. So... I want to go to Mars and get her a diamond ring made from Mars gemstones."

"Pfft!" Cui Man spat out all the soy milk she had just drunk, then glared at him, both amused and exasperated. "Should I call you romantic, or just a clueless guy? I think a diamond would be perfect."

"Everyone says that kind of thing isn't good enough for my Xiaoqing," Xiao He frowned. "I'll bring back a large sample. Have the Research Department extract a beautiful gemstone from it to make a ring. They can use the rest for research."

"Those old guys are going to be ecstatic..." Cui Man said with a dry laugh.

Xiao He muttered to himself with worry, "Just in case, I'll bring back a piece of Moon Rock. But Moon Rock aren't that rare, and I'm afraid the samples we get from Mars won't have any pretty gems... Anyway, let's make plans for both possibilities."

"You weren't happy about pretending to be a couple back then, but look at you now? You're even willing to go to Mars to mine for them..." Cui Man teased from the side, "You should make sure you're safe first, lest you get stuck on Mars and never come back."

"No, once the Perfect Cube is summoned, it will remain as long as I don't cancel it. As long as I'm alright, Remote Trigger my Superpower is just a matter of time," Xiao He said confidently. "So, can you arrange something for me? I can fool Wanqing while I'm gone."

"Alright. I'll pretend to assign you a task." Cui Man nodded. "What about the proposal date?"

"Of course it's 520." Xiao He smiled smugly. "There are still more than two months to make a ring, is that enough time?"

"Probably." Cui Man nodded, then took out her phone and sighed, "I'll talk to Old Wu, he should arrange all the details for you."

Then Cui Man went to the side and made a phone call to discuss the details of the matter with Wu Changchun.

At this moment, Ye Wanqing returned, and Xiao He quickly explained, "Wanqing, I have a mission later, so I might have to leave for a while."

"What other tasks are there at this time?" Ye Wanqing asked curiously.

After finishing the call, Cui Man explained with a smile, "It's nothing. There are a few guys at the prison who haven't been behaving themselves lately. I had him go over and give them a talking-to to prevent them from causing trouble."

"That's it. I'll be gone for an hour. Be a good girl here, okay?" Xiao He kissed Ye Wanqing on the forehead.

"Mmm!" Ye Wanqing nodded obediently with a smile.

After Xiao He left, Ye Wanqing immediately turned to Cui Man: "Sister Man, I have something to discuss with you. You can't tell Old Xiao, okay?"

"Is it a marriage proposal?" Cui Man asked, raising an eyebrow.

Ye Wanqing blushed and said angrily, "No! Isn't Old Xiao's birthday on the 18th of next month? I checked and it's a Thursday. I've already told everyone we'll celebrate with him and give him a surprise. Sister Man don't you come too? Old Xiao would definitely like you to be there."

"No problem, I'll arrange the time in advance." Cui Man nodded with a smile.

"Great! I'll go and coordinate with the others to make sure they don't let anything slip. It just so happens that Old Xiao has a mission today, so I don't have to send him away..." Ye Wanqing said happily.

Cui Man rolled her eyes. "These two brats, are they trying to force-feed me dog food? I was the one who set them up, they're so ungrateful..."

Xiao He arrived at the headquarters of the Special Response Department, where Wu Changchun had been waiting for a long time, carrying a backpack.

Clearly, after Cui Man relayed the plan to him, he immediately began preparing for the operation. As for the purpose...

"I hope to go to Mars with you." Sure enough, Wu Changchun's first sentence made his attitude clear.

"Whatever you want, but I'll make it clear beforehand that I don't have much time. If you want to work on any additional projects, I can't help you with that, but we can consider it later when you have more time," Xiao He replied.

"It would be worth dying for to go to Mars," Wu Changchun said, looking like he was about to die a heroic death.

"I have no intention of dying," Xiao He frowned, then held out his hand. "Where are the photos?"

"These are photos taken by our Mars lander last month. I wonder if the resolution is acceptable?" Wu Changchun handed the photos to Xiao He.

Xiao He looked at it and memorized the image. He first imagined Chen Ting's image in his mind, and then used Perfect Cube to protect him and Wu Changchun inside.

"Minister, please be careful! The future development of our country's aerospace industry depends on you!" the people who came to see him off said excitedly.

"Isn't it up to me?" Xiao He wondered to himself, then instructed Wu Changchun, "Grab my shoulder."

Wu Changchun took a deep breath, placed his hand on Xiao He's shoulder, and replied, "I'm ready."

"I've arrived, Mars..." Xiao He murmured to himself, then activated the Dimensional Walker and imagined the Mars surface in the photograph.

The next moment, the surrounding scenery shook, and Xiao He found himself on the surface of Mars.

If no one had told him, Xiao He would have thought this place was some desert, with soil somewhere between desert and rocky desert. The whole world was bathed in the red glow of the setting sun, and all around were sand and stones.

"Oh my god! Am I dreaming?! I've actually become the first human to land on Mars! I could die happy!" Wu Changchun excitedly stretched out his hand, as if wanting to touch the beautiful scenery in front of him.

"Don't run around!" Xiao He grabbed him. "You can get out of the Perfect Cube, but you should know better than me what will happen if you do, right?"

"Can we go out?!" Wu Changchun asked excitedly, then immediately opened his backpack and threw out some instruments in one go. He then began to check the data. "Temperature -97.5 degrees Celsius! Much lower than the information we got from the M Country. Is it winter on Mars? The carbon dioxide concentration is so high, but the air pressure is so low..."

At this point, Wu Changchun turned to Xiao He and said, "You don't need to worry about me. Just do what you need to do."

"Sigh, scientists..." Xiao He shook his head and sighed. But it is precisely because of such a group of people that science and technology can progress.

Then, Xiao He raised his hand and pointed it at the surface of Mars.

Wu Changchun cautiously said behind him, "If possible, please be sure to collect as many Mars Rock samples as possible. This will not only make it easier to find rare gemstones to make diamond rings, but also..."

But at this moment, Xiao He gently turned his hands and dug out a giant stone sphere about thirty meters in diameter from the surface of Mars, lifted it into the air, and then turned to Wu Changchun and asked, "Do you think this many samples are enough?"

"This, this..." Wu Changchun looked like he was about to have a heart attack. "Rare ores are usually found deep underground, so I think it's safer to dig deeper..."

"That makes sense..." Xiao He thought for a moment and nodded, then came to the edge of the deep pit he had dug and raised his hand as if to pick up a bag of fruit from the ground.

Xiao He took a deep breath, gathered his strength for a moment, and then suddenly raised his hand upwards.

With his movements, a stone pillar with a diameter of more than 20 meters was pulled out of the deep pit with a "boom!" Then Xiao He continued to pull the stone pillar upwards until the rock layers hundreds of meters underground were pulled out, and then he cut off a stone block more than 20 meters high from the bottom.

"Is this enough?" Xiao He turned to Wu Changchun and asked.

"That's enough, that's enough! Absolutely enough! Not to mention a diamond ring, we could even make a set of heirlooms for you and White Marsh, including bracelets, necklaces, and earrings!" Wu Changchun nodded repeatedly.