Norton: Get Out of My Way! Let Me Operate

Back then, Old Tang had startled even himself, but he wore a smug look on his face, smirking as he said, "Heh heh, I've had my eye on your superpowers for a long time. I've been racking my brains trying to awaken my bloodline, but it turns out all my genius talent is concentrated in cultivation, hahaha..."

In truth, Old Tang himself had no idea what happened. He was a dropout who hadn't even finished high school, and complex meridian theory gave him a headache. The Zhou family members were all steeped in traditional classical education, so learning it came naturally to them, while he was left dizzy and bewildered with a pained expression.

When Shirou taught him to open his circuits, he told him to imagine a "switch" inside his body. Shirou said it wasn't about creating circuits—just visualizing it in his mind, like "pressing a button on a circuit board" or "a knife stabbing into your heart"... Use whatever visualization works for you.

As a result, Old Tang spent the whole night brooding over it, his nerves wound tight, but he couldn't manage it no matter what. Finally, he exhausted himself and fell asleep, only to have a nightmare.

In the dream, Old Tang vaguely heard a deep, commanding voice angrily cursing him: "You idiot, you can't even do something this simple! Let me handle it!"

So when Old Tang woke up, he found that he had opened his Magic Circuits.

Old Tang chalked up this utterly absurd experience to "I'm clearly blessed by great fortune" and so on, strutting around so arrogantly that even Shirou started avoiding him whenever he saw him.

Wa Lord clearly knew about this situation too, and teased, "I didn't expect results this fast. Well, now when we roll out the cultivation system promotion plan later, we'll rely on you two success stories to add some persuasiveness. After all, those Mixed-Blood Families aren't easy to fool..."

Even though they planned to use this to scheme against the Chen Family by getting other divine clans on their side, it wasn't that simple. At least until they saw the Real Stuff and got tempted, those families wouldn't be eager to stir.

"Is it really okay for you to be so blunt about fooling them?"

"If they can taste the sweetness, what does it matter if it's a trick? That's called venture capital!"

Wa Lord had been diligently working on family system reforms lately, and her vocabulary was increasingly aligning with international standards. The little girl would casually toss out terms like gold futures, cross-border settlements, and IPO stock offerings. If Satoshi Nakamoto ever came up with Bitcoin and blockchain in the future, she'd probably want to get in on that too.

Wa Lord got up from his back and stretched, "Enough about that. Today, I'm showing you something good!"

Shirou was wondering what this was all about when he suddenly saw Zhou Yuxuan approaching from the side, holding a brocade box in both hands. When opened, it revealed two bronze short swords, their blades gleaming sharply, one bright and one dark in color, radiating an extraordinary aura as Noble Phantasms.

Each sword bore five lines of inscription, which together read:

The crane's wings do not fall short; my heart is firm as bedrock.

Heart and technique reach Mount Tai; strength pierces through mountains.

Heart and technique cross the Yellow River; Sword Intent severs the flowing water.

Fate has reached the Palace of Departure; only the name is left to heaven.

Existing together like crane wings; two heroes, each with a separate fate.

"Could these be..." Shirou had a guess.

Wa Lord tapped his head, "They're the Ganzhiang and Moxie twin swords you've been looking for."

So that's what they were. Shirou initially thought they looked completely different from the Ganzhiang and Moxie that Red Archer had projected in his memory, so he wasn't sure.

But thinking about it carefully, those black-and-white short knives of Red Archer's didn't look anything like the original Spring and Autumn period forged versions. Red Archer might never have seen the real Ganzhiang and Moxie either—he probably just gathered information and used projection techniques, filling in the gaps with his own imagination.

What he had before him now were the true original Noble Phantasms.

Shirou happily accepted the gift, but the consequence was that he immediately got hit with a new request from Miss Wa Lord:

Take her shopping.

For an ordinary woman, this wouldn't even be a request—it might even be a date invitation. But Wa Lord was a special case. If she went out looking half-human, half-snake, she'd scare people to death. This really was a problem.

The moment she appeared in public, someone with weak nerves might faint on the spot, and then Xiangyang would be buzzing with sensational news about a "beautiful snake woman" or "Snake Demon" on the loose.

Since he was now the Zhou family's chief strategist, Shirou couldn't shirk this task. It had him frowning like a bitter gourd. He asked Zhou Yuxuan, who just shook his head and said Wa Lord had never made such a request before. She rarely went out, and when she did, she traveled in a sedan chair, with all her needs handled by the family procurement.

Shirou Emiya suddenly had a thought.

Although this girl had thrown off the Family Elders' control and turned the tables, as if pulling off a glamorous transformation and picking up Wu Zetian's script, her past life was like something out of a palace drama—maybe even a step-by-step thriller version.

She'd once said she wanted to go for a drive, wear different clothes, even fall in love... Maybe these were all real desires she'd had but couldn't fulfill.

Things that, to other normal girls, wouldn't even be considered out of reach.

At a loss for ideas, Shirou opened a certain employer chatroom he hadn't visited in a while.

Genius Girl Charlotte was currently chatting excitedly with a new member named "Chips." Shirou was wondering why anyone would name themselves Chips when he saw Charlotte laughing and boasting with the newcomer, her joy practically radiating through the screen:

"...That guy hasn't been online in ages. He must be feeling guilty, haha. I knew it—how could anyone buy swords online and forge Alchemical Weapons? Reinforcement Magic? Doesn't exist. It's all fake!"

Oh dear. Shirou's eyes widened slightly. After not seeing her for a while, this young lady's mindset had changed so much—she was starting to deny reality... Could it be that her grandfather had piled too much homework on her again?

The newcomer Chips timely raised a doubt: "But the world is so big. There's always someone better out there. There's bound to be a few geniuses who defy common sense, right?"

"Impossible! Absolutely impossible!"

Charlotte denied it vehemently. Would she admit that after being crushed by Shirou, she'd gone to her grandfather for confirmation, only to get caught sneaking online during study time, and then get lectured with, "Other people's kids are already doing X, how can you still be so lazy?"

The Governor of Gaul, with high emotional intelligence, pointed out, "Ma'am, the truth is one thing, but look at Charlotte's ID—you'll see what she needs is a sense of identity."

She'd dubbed herself a genius girl, so when a real genius showed up in the group, the imbalance in her mindset was predictable.

"Makes sense. You really understand her psychology?" Chips was taken aback. Was this guy some smooth-talking playboy?

"Thank you. I, the Governor of Gaul, live for no one's approval—except women."

Shirou Emiya quietly slipped into the conversation, "Newbie question: How do you take a girl who can't go out in public shopping?"

The chatroom suddenly fell into an eerie silence.

Everyone seemed to be trying to parse the logic in that contradictory statement.

Seeing this, Shirou took his hands off the keyboard. It looked like he'd accidentally become a conversation killer again...