In this cyberpunk era, why are you still playing the traditional villain?

"Master, Master...that's not what I meant..."

"Then what do you mean?"

Xia Xiaomao didn't care about her, "What unhealthy thoughts are you having, huh?"

"You're punished to copy the sect rules, one hundred times, one hundred times!"

"No, Master!"

Pan Feng let out a wail. If it were just physical labor as punishment, that would be one thing, but making her copy some sect rules would be the death of her.

Oh dear, who would have thought that she would be the one punished in the end?

I'll never be a smart aleck again...

(End of this chapter)

Chapter 280 If it were Xu Shi, it would be normal.

2023-10-02

"Hey, tell me honestly, are you really bisexual?"

"Hey, that's enough already."

Faced with the Second Madam's question, Xu Shi, sweating profusely, replied, "Your apprentice is a little fool, so are you a little fool too?"

From this perspective, it's not Pan Feng who has unhealthy ideas; it's clearly her seemingly respectable master.

"I'm not a little fool!"

Xia Wuyou absolutely refused to admit it. Although she knew that her silly apprentice didn't think before she spoke, she was still a little annoyed to hear her say that.

You know, it's one thing for this scumbag to be a womanizer, but if he develops other hobbies, she'll really have a hard time accepting it. (omitted)

"Okay, okay, you're not, you're not."

Xu Shi nodded. "But speaking of this, I have something to ask you. Have you ever heard the story of a smart person saying yes, and a little fool saying no?"

"No... Xu Shi!"

Xia Xiaomao subconsciously shook her head, but realized something was wrong halfway through her sentence, "You just know how to set me up! You weren't satisfied with bullying your apprentice, so now you're bullying me, aren't you?"

Xu Shi raised his hands in surrender, thinking to himself, "You can still fall for such an old trick? You're not stupid."

Besides, bullying a silly disciple and bullying a kitten feel completely different, okay? Although Pan Ling has now learned to fight back instead of simply being submissive, she is not as furious as Xia Wuyou in front of her, which is quite amusing.

Of course, if you're talking about who you get the most fun bullying, it has to be Xie Qingyan.

"Humph."

Xia Wuyou wouldn't really hold it against him; they were an old married couple, so a symbolic little fight would be the end of it.

But she was genuinely curious, "What were you talking about just now?"

In terms of mental strength alone, she might not be higher than Xu Shi now, and since she hadn't paid any attention, she naturally didn't know what interesting things had happened earlier.

Xu Shi didn't hide anything from her and told her the general story.

"……So this is ah."

Xia Xiaomao listened with great interest and gave a similar evaluation, "Looking at it this way, Xiaoling has indeed made great progress. If she really goes to the City of Night Sin in the future, she will be more than capable of taking over your job."

"How did you know I wanted her to take over my job?" Xu Shi raised an eyebrow.

"Otherwise what? Are you going to let that little empress take over your position?"

Xia Wuyou rolled her eyes at him, "Besides, I discovered a long time ago that you are inherently lazy and will never bother yourself with things that can be delegated to others."

As the second most diligent member of the team after Jiang Chengcheng, Ms. Xia Wuyou, the head of the "Snake Ring" field operations department who has been working in the City of Night Sin for ten years, expressed strong contempt and condemnation for this.

Lying down isn't shameful... Xu Shi didn't even bother to argue, because he genuinely had that thought.

Pan Ling's silly apprentice is truly a treasure. She's diligent, eager to learn, and quite capable... Through this period of subtle nurturing, both her supernatural abilities and personal skills have made a qualitative leap. With such a good child, I can rest assured that I'll entrust the company to her in the future.

Is this irrefutable proof that everyone around the protagonist is exceptionally talented? Although we haven't discussed similar topics in a long time, this principle seems to apply universally.

However, even so, this matter is still far from being settled. Not to mention that the mess in the Hualan Empire has not yet been cleaned up, the environment in Night Sin City is also worlds apart from here. If they really want their foolish apprentice to take over, that will be a long time from now.

Well, it seems my plan to retire at 26 is out of the question. *crying*

"But to be honest, you really value that Lu Baiyan."

Xia Wuyou continued, "I've never seen you so interested in the other people here... Are you interested in his abilities?"

"...My wife understands me best."

Xu Shi smiled, thinking to himself that after so long, someone had finally noticed this blind spot.

Pan Ling's previous analysis was actually correct. Lu Baiyan's identity, his personality, and the impact of successfully winning him over were indeed very attractive.

But if that's all there is to it, it's really not enough for me to take the initiative to try and win him over. The reason I did that was because of his rather special ability.

"Time Reversal"

Despite the many limitations of this ability, such as it only works on inanimate objects and the rewind time is only half an hour, it is still a top-tier superpower that is one in a million.

First of all, abilities involving time and space are already rare, especially time-based abilities, which are even rarer—after all, his own "threshold space" and Gu Yi's "consciousness datafication" can both be considered within the space-based domain. Once you see them often, you won't find them particularly rare.

However, the time-related superpower has only been seen in Lu Baiyan so far, making it even more precious in comparison.

"Now that you mention it, it does make sense."

Xia Wuyou remained noncommittal. It has to be said that recently everyone's mind has been focused on outwitting the royal family and the papacy, and their thinking has inevitably become a bit rigid. When faced with any situation, they will first consider the pros and cons, or other strange things, and subconsciously ignore their own abilities.

However, this also demonstrates Xu Shi's remarkable ability to manipulate people's hearts. Regardless of how you look at it, you're the one who brought this up...

Fortunately, things had come to this point. If Xia Wuyou still didn't understand, she would truly be a fool. After a moment, she looked up in surprise, "So, you want to use his ability..."

Xu Shi did not deny it, and nodded calmly.

Neither of them explicitly stated what they intended to do with Lu Baiyan's abilities, but it was an unspoken understanding.

That is, to completely remove the "rust fog".

To be fair, the ultimate goal of all the effort people put into going to sea is not to outwit and outmaneuver each other in unfamiliar lands—expanding territory is certainly a good thing, but the core purpose is always just two points.

First, uncover the "natural law"; second, clear away the "rust fog".

The effects of "Rust Fog" are felt throughout the world, and they are not good anywhere—it can indeed help people activate superpowers, but the pollution it brings and the pressure it puts on the living environment are equally significant.

Although the Hualan Empire may seem unaffected, Xu Shi had already astutely noticed from his previous browsing of the local history books that this experimental field, which was slightly larger than the City of Night Sin, was also experiencing a gradual population increase as history progressed. For example, several hundred years ago, the Hualan Empire had twenty-four counties, but now only ten remain, with everyone converging on the central main city.

It's easy to analyze that in another ten or twenty years, this place will become like the City of Night Sin, with excessive population concentration leading to a scarcity of living resources. Whether it will become a totalitarian regime is still uncertain, but it certainly won't be any better.

This is certainly not something to be happy about, especially for someone like Xu Shi who has memories of his past life stored in his mind; his tolerance for such a situation is even lower.

Putting everything else aside, if you flirt with a girl and say you'll take her to see the stars, her first reaction won't be to say yes or no, but to ask you if there really are stars. It's just so cringeworthy.

Therefore, his obsession with this matter is actually much deeper than that of others. Now that he has seen Lu Baiyan, who can be called a hope, he will certainly not let him go.

"But it seems like there's not much room for him to develop this ability..."

Xia Wuyou understood her husband's thoughts, but she couldn't help but express her concern.

Based on the information they have, Lu Baiyan's abilities, when converted into their system, are already around S level. Yet, this level of ability can only reverse half an hour of time, and the scope of influence is not very large. It is a perfect example of theory being stronger than reality.

"What kind of question is this?"

Xu Shi wasn't worried at all. "The strength of the ability isn't important. What's most important is finding someone who has that ability."

"His abilities are insufficient, but we can develop them using our technology, not to mention we also have methods for implanting superpowers... As long as we are willing to do it, there is always a possibility of achieving it."

Especially the level of the squinty eyes ability—in a sense, S-level is actually a very subtle level, and there can be a qualitative leap between it and A-level. But whether it is him, Xia Wuyou, Xie Qingyan and others who have already made the leap, they all have a certain experience.

That is, there have been leaps, but not as many as one might imagine.

The most obvious example is probably Xia Xiaomao. She is the traditional type who simply levels up without unlocking any new tricks. If you ask her to talk about any earth-shattering changes, she will be embarrassed. The situation is similar for others.

Xu Shi did remember that when Xia Wuyou was forced to the brink of defeating the Sea God, he had a moment of glory when he broke through his limits and was infinitely close to SS level under the blessing of "Suwei". The ability he showed was similar to "collapse" and was definitely not comparable to the previous "gravity manipulation". That was a real world of difference.

Therefore, the matter of superpowers is very mysterious. The ability may not be obvious now, but who knows what the next level will be like?

In conclusion, Lu Baiyan's abilities are worth their effort, and the Night City's research in this area is far more in-depth and far-reaching than that of the Hualan Empire.

Since he's so interested, why not experience it for himself?

"Of course, this is based on the premise that he is really willing to be friends with me."

Xu Shi added, "I've told him everything that needs to be said. If he still wants to be a fence-sitter, then... hmph..."

Xia Xiaomao rolled her eyes; she knew all too well what a "bad man" meant.

What he valued was Lu Baiyan's ability, and they also had the technology to extract supernatural abilities. As long as they had the ability, they didn't care about the person.

So he's a big bad guy, right? But if it's Xu Shi, then it's normal.

She was even more surprised by Xu Shi's unconventional imagination. How could he come up with so much from such a superpower? To be honest, she knew what Lu Baiyan's situation was, but she never thought of combining the two.

Well.

"Then... what's the first point?"

She didn't dwell too much on ethical or moral issues, but instead asked about something more important to her: "What are your thoughts on 'natural law' now?"

Compared to clearing away the "rust fog," "Heavenly Principle" is the one with whom she truly harbors deep hatred. The reason she didn't mention it before wasn't because she had forgotten or let go of it, but simply because she couldn't find a solution in the short term.

Or perhaps she has now entrusted this matter to Xu Shi and is willing to cooperate with his ideas... Now that he has brought it up, it would be good to discuss it.

"Well... not yet."

Unfortunately, Xu Shi's answer was not optimistic: "At least for now, I haven't figured out who the 'observer' of 'Heavenly Justice' is, buried within the Hua Lan Empire."

This is not something that Mr. Xu could resolve instantly with his wisdom and resourcefulness. If he hadn't been careful beforehand, he might still be in the dark... But even so, the information they had was very limited.

"Then what are you going to do?"

Xia Wuyou asked.

"Right now, I think we should only test the waters a little bit."

Xu Shi sighed, "Perhaps when the time comes, they will inevitably jump out on their own."

That makes perfect sense. Or rather, everything they are doing now is a test of the bottom line of "natural law"—as the masterminds behind the scenes, what level of behavior can they accept from the people on a test field?

Did they expose the "inspectors" instead, or did they break through the barriers and infiltrate another new testing ground? Or perhaps...?