Plane Invasion?

Su Ming cut off Miao Xin's view and found the scholar frowning as he looked at the book in his hands.

"What's wrong?" Su Ming asked.

"I found the original data on the technology of 'settling down' (or 'disappearing households'), and it's very different from what it was three hundred years ago," the girl replied. "From a technical perspective, this technology has undergone at least three iterations."

Technological upgrades inevitably involve large-scale implementation, but no zombies have reappeared in the other world in recent years, except for this sea monster incident.

"Take a look." She handed the book to Su Ming. "The theoretical system is quite complete, and it's completely different from the mainstream style of our world."

Su Ming took it; it was a handwritten copy with a cover made of two very thin stone slabs and leather covering the edges. He opened it and read a passage, finding the writing style and word choice strange.

He had already read a great deal about otherworldly texts and quickly made a judgment, "Translation style?"

"That's the feeling. Either it comes from some unknown tribe, translated from a very niche language, or—" Zijin pointed at Su Ming, then paused.

"It was brought from other worlds by transmigrators like myself, and then translated into the language here," Su Ming finished speaking.

Galio's ability to construct dimensional teleportation arrays implies that others might also possess this ability, or that someone from another dimension might have arrived here.

"There's a line on the title page that's been blacked out. Can you see what it is?"

Su Ming turned to the title page, activated his pupil technique, and easily saw through the crossed-out content underneath. It was a date copied in Arabic numerals, in the same format as the one he had seen on the sea monster. After crossing it out, the copyist changed it to the normal writing style of the other world.

"Yexiya's spirit only revealed that it was a common number in their language," Zijin recounted last night's interrogation.

This statement contains a lot of information; "How credible is her statement?"

"One hundred percent, a lie told by the soul can be seen through," Zijin explained, adding that she also mentioned the reason for slaughtering all the prisoners the previous night.

The idea of devouring souls was clearly not a good thing, Su Ming was very puzzled. "Are you sure what you have in your hand is the genuine Divine Favor Scepter?"

Could it actually be some kind of evil god?

"Absolutely certain!" the scholar affirmed. "I can sense his pure will, faint yet undeniable. Besides, it has already saved you once and a half times; you should feel some gratitude."

"Huh? When?" Su Ming asked.

"You know my healing spells are terrible, so when you were seriously ill before, it was basically the Divine Favor Scepter that cured you." Zijin stretched out her hands, and the pure white scepter appeared between the two of them, radiating a holy and gentle light. "The scepter's strongest feature is its healing properties, so it's a waste that I'm wielding it."

Zijin either uses its indestructible nature to fight people with swords, or it uses it as an unburdenable container to fill with magical elements and set off six-pointed firecrackers.

"And the other half?" Su Ming asked.

"Your shoulder has a comminuted fracture. If it weren't for its healing effect, I would have had to work on it for at least another half hour last night. That's practically a death sentence, isn't it?"

Su Ming immediately clasped his hands together and kowtowed to the scepter, saying, "I was wrong, I shouldn't have doubted you!"

Returning to the topic, Zijin offered her conjecture, "Su Ming, is it possible that the Plundering Clock, like you, also originated from Earth?"

Su Ming shook his head in denial, "The Plundering Clock doesn't possess technological power—at least if the principles are known, a steam engine can be manufactured! If they were from Earth, Yexiya wouldn't have misjudged the White Triangle's abilities, wouldn't have been hit by a sniper rifle, and wouldn't have been severely injured by an industrial superhard blade."

"What if this happened before the development of technology on Earth? Your Industrial Revolution was less than two hundred years ago, wasn't it?"

Su Ming pondered for a moment, "That's true, but there's no history of magic on Earth—this assumption can't explain the emergence of zombie technology."

A technology cannot be created out of thin air; it must go through a development process.

But there are no traces on Earth, and the match with Taya doesn't exist either.

The two later confirmed that the characters Su Ming did not recognize were not from the Taya Plane.

Of course, after searching with AI, Su Ming concluded that it was not from Earth either.

"So there really is a third party?" Su Ming murmured. "Is this an organized, dimensional invasion?"

"It's hard to say. Let's first sort out this part of the data," the scholar said, frowning.

"Um."

"By the way," Su Ming suddenly asked, "You cleared out so many people, how come Saenieka is still here?"

"Oh, it seems like keeping him around to do odd jobs isn't so bad," Zijin replied. "I erased a few hours of his memory."

Zijin used her Omniscient Vision to look around, "Why is she lying on the ground? Is the side effects of the memory erasure too severe?"

Su Ming didn't pay much attention, but then he suddenly remembered something, "Just wondering, how many days has it been since you fed him?"

Zijin looked up in confusion, "Didn't you arrange the food?"

****

An hour later, Su Ming stopped working. He had been working all day, and had lost a lot of blood in the battle last night; he was exhausted.

Poor Saenieka wept with overwhelming gratitude when the skeleton servant brought her the thin porridge.

This made Su Ming soften her heart, and she decided to keep him for a few more days.

However, it was still early for bedtime, so he went to get a few raw eggs and a bunch of tweezers and other tools, and carefully began to peel the eggshells.

Zijin glanced at him, "Relieve stress?"

"I guess so."

Neither of them spoke again after that. The sound of the storm outside gradually subsided, and it was unclear when it calmed down.

Under the soft light inside the cabin, Su Ming used tweezers to carefully remove small pieces of the eggshell, leaving only the soft, thin inner membrane. If too much force was applied, the membrane would break.

Su Ming switched to another one and continued. Half an hour later, he successfully peeled the first whole one. He stretched his arm, rubbed his palms, and felt that all those years of playing FPS games hadn't been in vain; his talent was actually quite good.

"I'm going to sleep now, goodnight."

"Goodnight. I'll probably go to sleep around 1 or 2 a. m., and I'll synchronize my sleep schedule with yours tomorrow," said Zijin.

****

Su Ming woke up a little late the next day. When he opened his eyes, he found that it was already past eight o'clock.

He woke up feeling better. He realized he should eat more after the injury, so he decided to have a different breakfast.

He bought a seven-hole pot online a few days ago, and broke quite a few eggs yesterday, so he'll make some meat and egg burgers.

Zijin also woke up a little late today, probably because she stayed up too late studying last night. Su Ming prepared the minced meat and stirred the eggs, then handed the batter to the girl, saying, "Let it ferment."

The girl turned around, dipped her finger in the liquid, and was about to put it in her mouth when Su Ming grabbed her hand.

"Hey, I told you not to eat raw food!" Su Ming said angrily.

Zijin stuck out her tongue. "I'm used to it."

She quickly completed the spell, returned the fermented dough to Su Ming, and stood beside him watching him begin making it.

Su Ming first fried the eggs; the oil sizzled and bubbled, and soon the aroma of eggs filled the air.

"Why don't you like fruit juice, but you're interested in raw dough?" Su Ming asked her.

"Because I was often forced to drink fruit juice by Xiwo when I was little," Zijin admitted. "Fruit juice was my childhood nightmare."

"When you were little, did you only eat meat and not vegetables?" Su Ming flipped the egg over and then spread the meat filling on top.

"Huh? How did you know?" The girl raised an eyebrow. "Did Xiwo tell you?"

"No, I was just guessing."

Pour the batter into the pan, press the Su Ming egg and meat filling into it, then flip it over and add more batter until both sides are fragrant and bouncy. Remove from the pan.

"Thanks!" Zijin took the plate; the meat and egg burger on the plate was steaming hot.

The girl took a bite, but it burned her a little.

A flash of icy light appeared, and the previously soft and bouncy egg burger shrank to a cold hardness. The grease solidified into a white frost, covering the surface.

Now that it wasn't too hot, the scholar took a big bite, the crisp sound of ice shards crackling faintly filling the air. "Mmm, delicious!"

Su Ming nearly broke the shovel in his hand. He felt that if these meat burgers had any life, they would surely be dead.

Next time, I'll make her Stargazing!

****

Beianqi's condition was quite stable, so Su Ming settled her back in her own room and used equipment to monitor her heart rate, respiration, and blood pressure, alerting her if anything was abnormal.

Su Ming prepared the medicine in the workroom, ready to begin today's injection.

When Su Ming entered the room, he found Zijin already inside. Seeing him come in, she pulled up Beianqi's clothes and covered her with the blanket.

"What are you doing?" Su Ming asked, puzzled.

Zijin shook her head. "Look at Beianqi." She answered absentmindedly, seemingly deep in thought, and left the room.

Su Ming frowned, picked up the IV set, and began to give Beianqi an injection.

The girl was unconscious, so Su Ming needed to stay with her for a while to observe whether there were any adverse reactions to the intravenous injection.

He sat down on the edge of the bed and began to think carefully about what had just happened.

Although it was only for a moment, he did see Zijin lift up Beianqi's shirt and touch something.

This is strange—if she was wiping Beianqi's body, she wasn't holding a towel!

If it were a massage or nursing session, Zijin would be grateful if she didn't kill the person—this former dragon had always lacked the understanding of how to care for others, including herself.

Besides, the nursing and massage were done by White Skull. To be fair, Bai Lou's technique was excellent after the training, and Su Ming often had it massage his shoulders and legs.

A thought suddenly popped into Su Ming's mind: Could it be that the scholar lady has feelings for this mechanic girl?

More things came to light. Beianqi had mentioned that Zijin barged into the bathroom while she was taking a shower.

On her laptop, Zijin only looked at the study materials for girls. That night, she and Beianqi...

We chatted until late into the night, and finally went to sleep together.

Going back further in time, after her battle with Yexiya, the girl paid special attention to the spirit mechanic. When she met him on the Molten Iron Mountain Range, she clung to him without any sense of boundaries.

No, that could also be explained, Su Ming pondered, trying to find a way to excuse herself. Zijin had lived in a nunnery before, and such interactions between girls living in a communal setting were understandable.

But he quickly realized that those girls were sending him love letters one after another!

So, is it possible that he accepted so many love letters from the same sex because of a particular inclination?

Su Ming became uncertain. He had only ever seen these things on screen before; this was the first time he had experienced them in reality.

[Miao Xin, how much do you know about lilies?] Su Ming decided to ask her from outside the venue.

[Huh? Who?] Miao Xin had successfully eliminated the star and was counting the cash in the house, bundling it up and putting it into brown paper bags.

"[It's Zijin.] "Su Ming said, "[I think I've discovered something.]"

[Is there some gossip?] Miao Xin's soul fire flared up, and the faint Nether Sea around her disappeared completely.

After listening intently to Su Ming's question, Miao Xin blinked her non-existent eyelids, [I can't judge either.]

"Aren't you a girl?" Su Ming questioned.

[I've had a crush on a guy who was a teacher, and I also like being close to my female friends.] Miao Xin replied, [How do you think that should be counted?]

[So you also shower with other people?]

"No, that hasn't happened," Miao Xin denied. "But people from other worlds share the same origin as us, so it's not surprising that there are such people."

[It's not that it's strange. Beianqi should be a normal straight woman. If that's true, then it's very troublesome.] Su Ming found a reason.

"Why do I feel like you're not very happy?" Miao Xin asked, puzzled.

"No, I was just worried about Zijin," Su Ming explained.

Whether in her dragon life or human life, Zijin has only just begun the initial stages. Her physical defects and the gaps caused by repeated sealing and prohibition of copper have left her lacking in many experiences.

Su Ming, who had been unraveling the mystery, noticed that this intelligent scholar was, in some ways, a complete novice.

"[I just want to protect Zijin from harm.]" Su Ming concluded.

****

After observing Beianqi in the treatment room for a while and confirming that she was perfectly fine, Su Ming had his skeleton servant take over. He set an alarm for a scheduled patrol and then returned to his workroom.

The scholar had already spread out a pile of materials on the Truth Cult of the Plundering Clock and was studying them.

Su Ming couldn't help but glance at her a few more times, Zijin quickly noticed, "What's wrong?"

He hesitated for a moment, but ultimately didn't speak. If he guessed wrong about this, the embarrassment would be beyond words.

"You're so casual when you're only with me," Su Ming changed the subject.

Because it was far from the Southern Hemisphere, the temperature began to drop. The girl was wearing a thin cotton loungewear set, and her hair was not combed and was casually tied with a hair tie.

Thinking back to when she had just recovered from a serious illness, she would always get up early and take meticulous care of herself. And now, the initial experience card has already ended.

Moreover, when Beianqi is around, she will still take better care of herself. But as soon as the spirit mechanic falls into a coma, she immediately lets loose.

Is this what they mean by "a woman adorns herself for the one she loves"? Su Ming's thoughts wandered.

Zijin didn't answer; she looked at herself and only then realized the problem.

"No, no, I'm just chatting. Please feel free to do as you please," Su Ming quickly said. "The more comfortable you are, the better."

Actually, he preferred to see Zijin in a more relaxed state; after all, her looks were stunning, no matter what.

The scholar thought for a moment and decided to move on from the question. She waved the documents in her hand, "Octopuses are truly strange creatures."

"Oh?"

"Suicidal reproduction, one child for life."

Octopuses have short lifespans. Females will not eat or drink after laying eggs and will guard them until they die, while males will also die shortly after mating.

Therefore, the rune system of the Truth Cult of the Plundering Clock includes a part that suppresses the octopus's mating season.

"This looks like a point we can exploit." Su Ming read the spell in the sea monster runes. "Targeted removal of this part..."

Octopuses are prone to going out of control and die rapidly after mating.

"Um."

Previously, the massive Federation was completely at a loss when faced with the sea monsters, until the White Triangle arrived and the situation turned around. Now, with the intercepted data, the seemingly invincible sea monster system has collapsed in an instant.

Su Ming didn't understand why the octopus acted this way, and could only attribute it to the whimsical whims of the Creator. Reproduction is always the most important component of life, and even the most powerful groups that cannot survive will be mercilessly wiped out in the long river of time.

Thinking back to debates I had with classmates about same-sex relationships, some people said that it's not hereditary and is a biological protection mechanism of the species.

Su Ming's thoughts were racing. But then he suddenly realized, maybe not!

This is another world!

Su Ming recalled the picture book he had recently read that had left a deep impression on him. He looked up at the scholar again, and the vaguely similar eyebrows and eyes overlapped with those of the woman in the picture.

Man and Dragon?

So, it is both a dragon and a human?

That's actually possible! Su Ming narrowed his eyes.