Without a second thought, Lin Xiaohe agreed to go with the giant sound whale to find outside help.
This time, there was no need to blow the conch. Her psychic energy could enter Whale Sea directly.
“Hey?! How did I get so big?”
Whale Sea was still as vast and boundless as ever.
Lin Xiaohe stood on the surface of the sea, astonished to find that she was now only slightly smaller than the giant sound whale.
The lead giant sound whale said with a hint of envy, “The Creator really does favor humans. An ordinary baby giant sound whale needs at least several hundred years to cultivate to adolescence. You’ve been at it for less than a year, and your psychic energy is already this powerful.”
Lin Xiaohe stared at her own palms. Both wrists had tattoos of Doudou.
She guessed that she had Fanfan’s tattoo on her legs, and Xiaohong and Tiantian’s on her body.
She just didn’t know where Xiaohei was hiding—on the back of her head? Or on her spine?
“It’s not that humans are favored by the Creator. It’s because I’m this strong. I’m the one and only!”
How annoying.
The giant sound whale blew out a stream of air and sped up.
Lin Xiaohe kept pace easily, even finding time to chat: “What’s your name? I can’t just keep calling you ‘giant sound whale,’ you know.”
“A name? Every giant sound whale has a different psychic signature. We don’t need names.” The whale grumbled. “But if you insist on giving me one, call me Lin Meimei.”
Hehe, same last name as Lin Xiaohe.
Xinbao wasn’t happy about that: “No way! Why do you get to be called Lin Meimei while I’m stuck with Xinbao? I want to change my name—Lin Xinbao!”
That one comment stirred up a whole commotion, and everyone else popped out.
“Lin Doudou!”
“Lin Fanfan!”
“Lin Tiantian!”
“Lin Xiaohong!”
“Lin Xiaohei!”
Lin Xiaohe pressed her forehead and gently soothed her little darlings: “Okay, okay, all of you take Lin as your surname. We’re family.”
Laughing, chatting, and playfully bickering along the way, they soon arrived at the location of the outside help.
A towering ancient tree stood tall, reaching up to the heavens. Even though Lin Xiaohe had grown to about the same size as Lin Meimei, standing on the ground and looking up, she still couldn’t see the top of the canopy.
“Oh, Xiaohe’s here! Did you bring any spicy crawfish?” Aerial roots transformed into a human shape, a smile beaming across its face.
Lin Meimei took a step back, hiding behind Lin Xiaohe, not daring to make a sound. It only dared to gently poke Lin Xiaohe’s back from behind.
Realizing that the outside help was an old acquaintance, Lin Xiaohe relaxed a little.
She sat down on a chair formed by the aerial roots and couldn’t help but ask: “What’s the deal with the crawfish? Why did Chu Huaizhi fall into a coma and suffer a complete breakdown of his body and psychic energy after eating just one spicy crawfish?”
“You gave one to Chu Huaizhi but not to us…” The tone was sour, dripping with envy, jealousy, and resentment.
Just mentioning this made Lin Xiaohe angry: “Can you blame me? I did everything right, but Chu Huaizhi got poisoned, and then the Federation confiscated all the crawfish! This one’s on you.”
But the other party looked completely innocent, feeling wrongly accused: “Don’t talk nonsense. We can eat those crawfish raw without any problem. So why did only Chu Huaizhi get sick? It’s because he’s too weak to handle the energy inside the crawfish.”
Wow—the Federation’s number one combatant, and in this guy’s mouth, he was a weakling.
Lin Xiaohe pressed further: “What exactly are these crawfish? Where did they come from? How can Chu Huaizhi be saved?”
The other said leisurely, “We don’t know where they came from either. One day, a black hole in the Dark Domain suddenly spat out a bunch of crawfish. We tried them, didn’t think they tasted very good, so we just left them alone.”
“As for how to save him, all I can say is there’s no cure. It’s all up to him. If he gets through it, all his ailments will disappear. If he doesn’t, then he’s done for.”
Lin Xiaohe looked at him suspiciously, trying to read his micro-expressions to see if he was lying.
The other said indignantly, “What’s with that look?”
“Why are you being so easy to talk to today? Last time, when I asked you how to help me break through my psychic energy, you wouldn’t tell me until you got your hands on the spicy crawfish. Today you’re being so straightforward—it’s not like you. Are you setting me up?”
The other, annoyed, yanked the chair out from under Lin Xiaohe: “I am a person of my word! Our agreement was that I’d teach you how to solve your crisis, but you solved it yourself, so I have to make it up to you in other ways.”
Lin Xiaohe had finally found someone well-traveled and knowledgeable, so of course she wanted to get to the bottom of everything: “What’s going on with the changes in my body?”
He glanced at her and said casually, “I don’t know much else. All I know is that the little bug on you ate that meteorite and then merged with you. That’s why your physique and psychic energy have been growing so fast.”
Even though he had seen many geniuses, this rate of growth still amazed him.
After asking everything she could, Lin Xiaohe finally stated the real reason for her visit.
“No way!”
He refused outright without even a moment’s thought.
Lin Xiaohe was confused: “Why? You haven’t even heard what I’m offering in exchange.”
“No conditions will work. Since the birth of the universe, whether it’s planets or living beings, their fates have already been planned.”
He said earnestly, “You think you chose to betray the Federation and come to Whale Sea to meet me on your own. But in reality, that was guidance from fate.”
Lin Xiaohe didn’t understand. Was he always this mysteriously superstitious?
“It’s just moving a planet to a different location. The Federation has remodeled plenty of planets.”
He took a clear stance, showing no room for negotiation: “That’s because those planets were destined to suffer those calamities. Take Haige Star, for example. If humans hadn’t appeared, the giant sound whales would never have thought about leaving Haige Star, actively absorbing stardust to evolve into stardust creatures. Lin Xiaohe, give up that terrible idea of yours. You’re doing the work of a creator.”
Lin Xiaohe was speechless. He had an answer for everything. “So you really won’t help me? In my plan, Jiuzhou will become a beautiful planet with four distinct seasons, 70% ocean, and 30% land.”
Her voice was filled with longing, as if she could already see that blue planet. “We’ll plant chili peppers, tomatoes, corn, wheat… It’ll become a paradise for all kinds of plants and creatures.”
Chili peppers = spicy crawfish.
Corn = QQ gummy candy.
He swallowed his saliva. It sounded like a very delicious planet.
“Uh… this… will they actually grow?”
Lin Xiaohe acted as if she had suffered a huge insult, jumping up and down: “Do you know who you’re talking to? Me, the Chosen Agriculturalist! I have rich farming experience, and my theoretical knowledge leads the entire Federation! You’re asking me if they’ll grow?! You should be asking me how high the yield will be!”
“Then… how high will the yield be?” His tone carried a hint of submissiveness that was hard to detect.
Lin Xiaohe puffed out her chest and looked down upon the world: “I don’t dare to promise too much, but a few hundred pounds per acre should be no problem. But you know, plants long for warm sunlight. Light and temperature affect the yield.”
He stood up in a flash, rubbing his hands together eagerly: “Moving just a tiny little planet? I have a way!”
“Not violating fate anymore?”
Without changing his expression, he said, “Jiuzhou meeting you and me—that too is an arrangement of fate.”
