Ming Dynasty, New Rome, and Infinite Divine Machine

After finishing the dishes, there was still some nasi lemak left over from the main course. This nasi lemak was quite interesting, garnished with a poached egg and sesame seeds, and topped with a small mint leaf. Since it tasted like a dessert and there was only a small portion, he saved it for the end to pair with his drink.

He glanced up and saw that the others hadn't finished yet. Lu Liang and Wen Yuan had both ordered some indescribable red, yellow, and green mush. He had no idea what it was, but it seemed delicious. Han Xingzhi had ordered a large yellow croaker and was slowly eating it. Lu Huaiyang had his own table nearby, and the flight attendant brought him a full plate of spring rolls, as he'd requested, with three dipping sauces: turmeric sauce, red chili sauce, and shrimp paste with lemon juice.

Lu Huaiyang quickly ate half of it. He took out his cigarettes and lighter and said, "I'm going to go out for a walk. You two stay here."

After saying that, he walked out with a cigarette in his mouth, leaving Shangluo and the others to continue eating.

"Ah, I feel better." Shangluo had almost finished eating and looked at the fruit plate in the middle of the table. "By the way, can I eat this fruit plate?"

Wen Yuan, who was standing by, stopped and fell into deep thought.

"I don't know either. This is the first time I've had such a large fruit plate in front of me. How can I make it look like I have it there all the time?" He didn't know either.

"Oh, it's edible." Han Xingzhi, who was standing opposite, took an apple first. "It's put here to be eaten. It would be a waste not to eat it. Come on, I'll eat it first as a sign of respect."

"It turns out that people who really practice Taoism are different." Wen Yuan muttered, and took a banana and started eating.

Shangluo picked a few grapes and put them in his mouth, then leaned back on the sofa.

"Hmm," he silently pulled out his hunting knife. Now that he finally had some free time, he decided to think about it first.

"By the way, could you make it a little lighter first?" he asked Apollonia.

"Yes, I can just overwrite it, but its functionality is limited by my own phlogiston reserves."

As he spoke, the entire hunting knife became lighter, as light as an ordinary knife.

He fiddled with the hunting knife, but couldn't make out anything. It looked like a normal hunting knife, with a reverse blade and a rather rustic design, like something that should be on display in a museum. The blade's light reflected the light, creating a golden glow that was quite pretty.

“So what’s the trick here?”

He was thinking about it when he suddenly noticed a pair of eyes looking at him from the front.

Shangluo was about to eat when he found Han Xingzhi looking at him opposite him.

"Brother."

"what?"

"I have a small request. As my eldest brother, could you do me a small favor?"

"what's up?"

"I don't know how to peel apples, can you help me peel them?"

Shangluo didn't say anything and took the apple.

"Ah! Thanks for looking out for me, big brother! Actually, at home it's always my grandma or my uncle who helps me peel apples. They don't let me touch a knife, so I don't really know how to use one."

"I know, I know. I'll help you peel it."

He took the hunting knife and started to cut.

"Wait, big brother, is that a divine weapon in your hand?"

"Yes."

"Can the artifact peel an apple?"

...

"Can I?" he asked Apollonia.

"I guess so. I don't know what it's used for, but it's a gift, and gifts don't carry malicious intent. And it's a knife, and its power revolves around the concept of a knife. So it must be a knife first, and then something else."

After getting Apollonia's confirmation, he felt relieved: "No problem, you can sharpen it. And it doesn't say not to sharpen it. Otherwise, I wouldn't be able to sharpen it. There's a spear in the cabinet. How about I use it to sharpen it?"

"Forget it then, big brother please."

He held the apple in one hand and a hunting knife in the other and cut it.

"Um?!"

【Um? 】

Almost at the same time, Shangluo and Apollonia both noticed something strange.

[Did you notice? It seems something activated when I cut it.]

"I feel something too... Wait, this apple doesn't feel right."

He squeezed the apple, and the skin lifted up. It was like... like being peeled by a hunting knife.

"Hmm???" Wen Yuan beside him also noticed the change in his expression, "Is there something wrong with this?"

He looked at Shangluo—and then he watched him squeeze the apple hard, like peeling a grape, and peel off the apple skin that had already been separated from the flesh.

The whole apple was in his right hand, the intact apple peel in his left. The apple had completely retained its original shape, even showing tiny veins on its surface, precisely and perfectly separated from the peel. As for the original apple peel, it had become an empty pocket, with some seeping apple juice at the bottom, exuding a wonderful fruity aroma.

"Ah..." All four of them looked at Apple.

...

"Oh oh oh oh oh oh!" Wen Yuan sat up straight. "Super invincible fruit knife! It's worthy of being a divine weapon! It's so powerful!!! Quick, quick, here's a mangosteen, help me peel it! Please!"

“And this passion fruit.”

"Pineapple! Peel this pineapple first!"

Chapter 200 Dragon Roar

"Oh!!"

"Oh!!"

"What the hell are you guys arguing about? I heard you guys arguing in the corridor!" Lu Huaiyang walked in, a cigarette in his mouth. "You're not kids anymore, what are you arguing about?"

"Dad, look! Look!" Lu Liang held up a tray with a strawberry on it. "Do you see what I'm seeing?"

Lu Huaiyang stared at the strawberry for a long time. But it was still a strawberry. Lying horizontally on the plate, it looked a little wrinkled.

"Take it and have a look. Take it."

Lu Huaiyang took the strawberry with a bewildered look on his face. It was hard for him to refuse his daughter's request, so he had no choice but to take the wrinkled strawberry.

As soon as he took it, he found that the strawberry was shaking.

"Hmm???" It was then that he realized that the strawberry was only left with a layer of skin! After the flesh was peeled out, it was stuffed with strawberry jelly.

"This is the legendary. What is the legend?" Lu Liang asked Shangluo next to him. This was the name he came up with.

"This is the Dragon Roar Strawberry."

"Yes, Dragon Roar Strawberries! Isn't it as shocking as a dragon's roar? Dad, look again, there are also Dragon Roar Grapes and Dragon Roar Oranges! Especially this orange! Did you notice it? It's an orange peel with orange segments inside, and orange segments with orange jelly inside. It's simply a masterpiece!"

It took Lu Huaiyang 3 minutes to figure out where these things came from.

"So, that knife can peel the 'skin' off anything it cuts? Hmm. No wonder it's the hunting god's weapon. Hunting knives are used for skinning."

"Dad!" Lu Liang shook his arm. "Is there any other way to get a knife like this? I don't need a magical weapon, just something that can skin people."

"Do I look like a knife to you?"

"Please! Father, this is amazing! And it's so convenient to eat fruit. You can just peel off the skin of anything you touch. Isn't that amazing? I can make Dragon Roar Strawberries! Is there a similar artifact in the warehouse that I can use?"

"Oh, yes. If peeling the skin and stuffing it with something is Longyin, then do you want the knife for peeling the skin and stuffing the grass? You can become the Longyin County Magistrate, or the Longyin of Emperor Taizu Gao."

"Tsk." Lu Liang shook his hand away.

Lu Huaiyang laughed and stood up. "Anyway, don't get too excited. I know this is amazing, but be restrained. Also, don't play with the food! Whoever puts it in gets to eat it themselves. No waste. I'm going to leave first. Shangluo, you take care of this side of things. Don't let her mess around."

"Oh," Shangluo nodded. He'd recently noticed that Lu Liang seemed more lively than he appeared. Wen Yuan, on the other hand, might seem a bit unreliable, but in a pinch, he was actually quite reliable, with the potential to become a "reliable adult." He'd just stuffed a Dragon Roar orange in his mouth and that was enough fun. As for Han Xingzhi, he was quite adept at exploiting others' sympathy, a gift that seemed to come with Xuan Xiu's nature. But he was genuinely calling him "Big Brother," and Shangluo didn't mind using him as a mobile base station.

Seeing that the room had calmed down a bit, Lu Huaiyang raised his cigarette, which had already burned a good bit. He grabbed an ashtray and dusted it off before leaving.

"So, what to cut next?"

"Pineapple." Wen Yuan pointed at the pineapple. "I recommended cutting the pineapple at the beginning, but it hasn't been cut yet."

"Okay, then pineapple." Shangluo wasn't actually playing around—well, he really wasn't playing around.

He was actually testing the knife. Although he had confirmed that the knife's "power" was peeling, peeling also involved many details, and he tried out most of them on the various fruits in front of him.

First, oranges. Orange peels have more than one layer; besides the outer skin, each segment also has another layer. Shangluo tried it, and only sliced through the layer the blade touched. This made sense, since animal skin isn't just the epidermis; the intestines are also covered in intestinal epithelial cells. If a single cut ripped the entire intestine apart, the prey would be useless.

Next up are strawberries. In principle, strawberries don't have a peel structure, as they are aggregate fruits, formed from multiple small fruits combined into one large fruit. Yet, Shangluo still managed to peel off the strawberry's thin outermost membrane, which is actually the outer membrane of a modified receptacle. It follows that peel seems to be a "conceptual" skin, with no unified concept of "peel." Otherwise, the equivalent peel on a fruit like grapes would be the seed coat, those small black dots. Animal hides also fall into this category; the skins of different prey are different, and this knife peels off the outermost layer, the structure that can be defined by the concept of "skin."

Next up is the pineapple. The pineapple's skin isn't just one layer; it has some "nails" embedded in the flesh. Does that even count as skin? At least Shangluo wants it peeled, otherwise it's inedible.

He stabbed the pineapple, cut it open—and then peeled the flesh from the inside out like a banana.

There was not even a trace of "thorns" on the peeled pineapple flesh, only golden flesh.

"Wow!" Even though they had seen it many times, they still couldn't help but whisper in admiration when they saw such a perfect pineapple being peeled.

The pineapple was placed on a plate and divided among the four of us. I have to say, the feeling of eating a pineapple in one bite was really pleasant.

"Well, the next one is..."

"I said, brother."

"Huh?" This call of "Brother" wasn't from Han Xingzhi, but from Wen Yuan. "What are you doing?"

"Can you let me play with that knife? Ah, your super invincible fruit knife is so cool! Can you let me cut an apple? Just one?"

"Well, if you want to play with it, just say so earlier." Because Apollonia didn't live there, it was Shangluo's own thing, so it didn't matter if he lent it to him to play with it.

He handed the knife over. Out of courtesy, he didn't point the tip of the knife at Wen Yuan, but habitually pointed it at himself, just like when passing a pen to himself. In an instant, his hand touched the blade.

Apollonia hadn't even finished her cry when the immense weight returned to the knife. Wen Yuan's hand, still suspended in mid-air, watched as the knife slammed straight down onto the floor, creating a small hole barely wider than the blade, piercing through one, then two layers of floor.

"Why are you out of breath?"

"You're still talking about me! Is your skin made of a city wall? Why did my phlogiston get drained out when I touched you?"

"Where's the knife?"

"It's okay, it's not a big deal. It's tied up, so even if it falls into the sea, we can get it back. But... huh? There's no wind coming in from below, so it seems like it just crashed into the cargo hold. It's strange, though, why didn't it break through? I thought it was going to fall through."

"In the cargo hold!" Shangluo raised his head, and three people rushed out with him, just in time to bump into Captain Chen who rushed out of the cockpit.

Chapter 201 Gathering

"Did you hear it too? Something cracked?"

"Yes, yes, yes." Shangluo nodded repeatedly, "It's okay, it's not a big problem, we can just go and deal with it."

Captain Chen paused for a few seconds to calm himself down. "I'll listen to you. You're more professional than me. Where are you going to handle this?"

"cargo hold."

"Captain Huang!" he shouted towards the stairs, "Take him to the cargo hold!"

"This" is really a big deal for the flight attendant.

"Listen to his arrangements. He is more professional than me."

"Understood." Everything was subject to the captain's orders. Although the faint "bang" just now made her feel a little uneasy, professionals were always trustworthy.

She took Shangluo to the bottom of the stairs, opened the cargo hold door, and waited there.

The hold was also pressurized, allowing direct entry. As he entered, a tall figure was catching a falling hunting knife. Besides the standing figure, two others lay on the ground, seemingly struck by the impact.

"Ah, this." Shangluo realized that he had been helped. If these people hadn't caught it from below, the knife would have fallen under the plane.

To express his apology, he bowed and lowered his head: "I'm sorry, I'm really sorry."

"sorry"

"Huh?" He didn't expect that a voice of "I'm sorry" would come from the other side.

When he looked up, the tall figure also bowed to him and handed him back the hunting knife. The hunting knife was still as shiny as before, but the man's right hand and right arm were cracked, with several terrifying cracks. But the cracks were not the shape of flesh, but more like stone.

When he looked up again, he saw the man's attire. He was wearing a peaked cap and the uniform of Constantinia Airport. Beneath the peaked cap, he saw skin as white as marble.

"You are"

"They are the Dragon Tooth Soldiers!" Han Xingzhi, who followed behind, recognized them at a glance, "They are the Dragon Tooth Soldiers that Mr. Fox brought me to!"

"Yes, Commander." The Dragon Tooth Soldier in the peaked cap also saluted Han Xingzhi behind him. "It was you who gave us life and freedom. We should have served you forever, but unfortunately, the moment we awakened our intelligence, we realized our mission and that we had more important things to do. I didn't expect to meet you here. How lucky! Is your sword okay?"