Chapter 81: Enemy Attack

Chapter 81: Enemy Attack

In mid-December, the Embers base was shrouded beneath heavy clouds that hung low in the sky, pressing down so hard it felt hard to breathe.

Tendou sat atop a mountain ridge, quietly gazing at the dark mass of clouds overhead.

Although his eyes were covered by a black blindfold, his vision seemed completely unaffected as he patiently waited for the coming “storm.”

“Tendou, why did you run all the way out here by yourself again?”

A soft, sticky-sweet voice accompanied the words.

A “purple-headed missile” suddenly shot out from the side of the mountain, wobbling slightly before coming to a stop beside Tendou.

Looking at Jing Liuli, who was sitting atop the Dreamy Illusionary Pillow, Tendou smiled and said, “Staying in the base is boring, so I came out to get some fresh air.”

“Is that so?”

Jing Liuli shifted into a duck-sitting position on the Dreamy Illusionary Pillow, tilted her head, and said, “I think you just got bored because Caroline has been staying in the quantum space this whole time, so you ran out here, didn’t you?”

Tendou didn’t refute her words.

After all, it is true that with Caroline absent from the base, staying inside alone felt pretty dull.

So he figured he might as well wander around more.

Seeing Tendou fall silent again, Jing Liuli suddenly pulled out a vividly rainbow-colored candy from the pocket of her pajamas like a magician.

“Here.”

Looking at the Beautiful Dream Candy in her hand, Tendou asked in confusion, “What’s this? Why didn’t you ask for a processing fee this time? Not planning to charge me?”

Hearing that, Jing Liuli pouted unhappily.

“Hmph, who said I’m not charging you? I’m just giving it to you first. I’ll collect the fee later—with interest, principal and all.”

“And don’t underestimate my business sense, Tendou. It’s only because I’m stuck inside the base and can’t go out to show my skills.”

“If I could, I’d already be the richest woman in the world!”

Jing Liuli put her hands on her hips and proudly lifted her small chin. The little ahoge on top of her head swayed left and right in the wind as she spoke with great self-importance.

What she didn’t know was that, looking into the clear light-purple eyes she had at that moment, Tendou saw none of the sharpness a future billionaire should possess.

Instead, what he saw was the unmistakable glow of a premium-grade leek—lush and green.

Thinking that, Tendou couldn’t help teasing her. “Liuli, since you say you’re going to collect interest later, why don’t you tell me how much interest you’re planning to charge?”

“Huh?”

Jing Liuli froze. Her small face went blank, the ahoge on her head stopped moving, and her brain instantly crashed.

Then, sitting on the Dreamy Illusionary Pillow, she frowned and began counting on her fingers like she’d just run into the problem of the century.

The way she moved was so amusing, she looked exactly like a little squirrel hoarding nuts for the winter—yet completely unable to keep track of how many it had.

At this point, asking Tendou to believe she’d become the world’s richest woman someday?

He’d rather believe that he would become a god in the future.

No—on second thought, the odds of him becoming a god might actually be higher than Liuli becoming the world’s richest woman.

“1, 2, 3…”

Watching Jing Liuli clumsily calculating her so-called interest, Tendou had to exert a tremendous amount of effort to keep himself from laughing out loud.

Unfortunately, his struggle didn’t escape her notice.

“Tendou! What do you mean by that? Are you laughing at me?!”

Honestly, Tendou had almost managed to hold it in.

But the moment she said that, he inevitably broke.

“N-no, I’m not—I’m not laughing, really—pfft!”

“What do you mean ‘not’?! You literally laughed out loud!”

“Misunderstanding, this is absolutely a misunderstanding, Liuli! Trust me, I’m definitely not laughing at you. I just… just ate a Beautiful Dream Candy and thought of a lot of happy things, that’s all.”

“That’s impossible! You’re obviously laughing at me!”

Oh, so you’re pressing step by step now?

Fine. I won’t pretend anymore!

“Alright, fine, I admit it—I was laughing at you, hahaha!”

“Seriously, Liuli, have you been daydreaming too much? How did you end up fantasizing about becoming the world’s richest woman? You’re clearly not cut out for it, okay!”

Crack

Her fist clenched—hard.

“Yah! I’ll fight you to the end!”

Flushed with embarrassment and anger, Jing Liuli leaned most of her body off the Dreamy Illusionary Pillow, baring her teeth as she launched what she proudly believed to be her overwhelmingly powerful ‘Dream Butterfly Tortoise Fist’ at Tendou.

However, Tendou merely extended a single finger and lightly pressed it against her forehead, effortlessly neutralizing the attack.

Because of her short stature and even shorter reach, no matter how hard she swung her arms, she couldn’t touch Tendou at all.

“Ughhh—!”

After struggling in vain for a while, the exhausted Liuli was forced to give up her revenge.

She collapsed lifelessly back onto the Dreamy Illusionary Pillow, completely drained, her tongue hanging out as she panted.

But as the saying goes—lose the fight, not the spirit.

Even though she had suffered at the hands of Tendou, she absolutely refused to keep taking losses forever!

“Tendou, just you wait! Sure, I’m like cotton—you can tease me however you want, kick me however you want—but Caroline is not!”

“Just wait! As soon as Caroline wakes up in a few days, I’m going straight to complain to her! When that happens, you’re as good as dead!”

Faced with Jing Liuli’s childish if-I-can’t-beat-you-I’ll-tell-the-teacher routine, Tendou seemed to have his attention drawn by something else entirely and completely ignored her threats.

And that reaction—or rather, the lack of one—only made Jing Liuli even angrier.

She loudly accused Tendou of having no conscience at all: she had come out of kindness to comfort him, and instead he bullied her!

Just as Jing Liuli was about to unleash even harsher threats, determined to make him understand that this future richest woman was not someone to be trifled with—a deafening roar suddenly erupted from within the thick cloud layer above them.

BOOM—!

Accompanied by a blinding flash of lightning, the dense clouds were violently torn open by something unknown.

Before Jing Liuli could even react, Tendou suddenly grabbed the back of her collar and yanked her backward with force.

At the same time, his arm swept past the tip of her nose as he threw a punch straight toward where she had just been.

Bang!

In Jing Liuli’s shocked, fleeting glimpse—a massive boulder, twice the height of a person, shattered explosively under Tendou’s punch.

Countless fragments of rock and clouds of dust mixed with the rain falling from the sky, splashing all over her cute little bear-patterned pajamas.

Jing Liuli stared blankly upward.

Hundreds of enormous boulders were piercing through the clouds one after another, hurtling ferociously toward the Embers base below.

The rock that had nearly hit her was merely one among those hundreds.

If Tendou hadn’t pulled her away just now—

The realization hit her late.

The innocence and cheerfulness she usually wore vanished completely from Jing Liuli’s face, replaced by indescribable panic and terror.

Under this sudden rain of stone, the quiet, peaceful Embers Island she remembered had already turned into a nightmarish human hell.

Explosions rang out everywhere. Screams echoed without end.

She had once believed her daydreams could go on forever.

But staring at the catastrophic disaster descending upon the base—

Jing Liuli understood.

Her daydreams… had shattered.

“Tendou…”

As she looked at the devastation before her, not only was her body trembling—her voice was shaking as well.

In response, Tendou lifted his head, gazing into the thick cloud cover above, as if looking at something far beyond it.

At some point, the blindfold on his face had already been removed.

Within his deep azure pupils was reflected a terrifying, apocalyptic scene in the sky.

“Liuli, go notify everyone.”

Before Tendou could finish speaking, another massive boulder came crashing down, precisely aimed at him and Liuli.

Tendou casually flicked his hand.

In the next instant, the boulder veered off the moment it touched his palm, smashing into an empty patch of ground nearby instead.

“…Tell them we have ‘guests.’”

“Uninvited ones.”

“Okay!”

Liuli nodded heavily. At once, countless star patterns on the pillowcase beneath her lit up brilliantly.

The very next second, the Dreamy Illusionary Pillow—originally only about two meters long—began to expand rapidly.

In an extremely short time, it transformed into a gigantic pillow five meters in length, completely enveloping Jing Liuli from every angle, leaving no blind spots at all.

Dreamscape Traversal · Full Activation!

As Jing Liuli pushed the star energy within her to its limit, the Dreamy Illusionary Pillow enveloping her instantly transformed into a streak of white light, shooting toward the base below at a speed that left one breathless.

During the descent, Jing Liuli repeatedly evaded the boulders raining down from the sky at utterly unbelievable angles.

Just as she was about to reach the base, two massive rocks suddenly appeared at the same time, crashing toward her in a pincer attack that left almost no room to dodge.

In response, the Dreamy Illusionary Pillow abruptly softened and deformed, allowing Jing Liuli to flow like liquid through the narrow gap between the two boulders, slipping through unharmed and returning safely to the base.

Seeing this, the corner of Tendou’s mouth lifted slightly—clearly pleased with Liuli’s performance.

After all, although Jing Liuli usually acted rather silly, as if she had no aggressiveness whatsoever, her overall strength among the Thirty-Six of the Stars ranked second only to Tendou, Chen Xing, and Caroline.

Among the 36 Children of the Stars, she was the strongest beneath them.

Her No. 3 trainee ranking was well deserved.

Her so-called innocence and simplicity were merely her nature, not a reflection of her potential.

Because if one looked solely at her star energy cultivation speed, Jing Liuli actually surpassed Chen Xing.

After all, she was someone who spent most of her time sleeping or slacking off, only occasionally finding time to train—yet still managed to secure second place in the Base Star Energy assessment.

Most people only knew that Tendou possessed maxed-out innate star energy.

What they didn’t know was that Jing Liuli—the girl who seemed to be sleeping and loafing around all day—was also a monster with maxed innate star energy.

If not for the fact that her personality was ill-suited for training and combat, the seat of second among the Children of The Stars might land on her.

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