GRMFBS CH145

Zhan Jinli pondered finding someone to palm off this little trouble to.

His parents were definitely out of the question, and his younger brother had school, so that left his younger sister! His sister had too many work orders and was too busy, leading her to not come home and live in her workshop every day. That was simple!

Zhan Jinli immediately withdrew his blessing for her thriving career.

On the other end, after helping his mom win the argument against Xiangliu, Zhan Yan continued to search the gossip system for the situation on the Wan Yao Alliance’s side, trying to find a breakthrough. His dad had just flown back to Qixia Mountain from Shennongjia and hadn’t seen the family group chat.

Upon returning to Qixia Mountain, Zhan Yunkai first listened to the black-necked crane demon, Gong Yun, report on recent events. Gong Yun had managed Qixia Mountain very well; there was nothing that required his extra attention.

Having received praise, Gong Yun, draped in a distinct black and white cloak, raised his chin with great self-esteem.

Besides these matters, the rest were requests from some young demons to His Majesty the Demon King. His Majesty the Chongming King was both majestic and benevolent, often interacting with the younger generation.

Gong Yun: “That little parrot hiding from Xiangliu wants to invite you to join her research project.”

Wu Ying had initially entered Qixia Mountain to hide from Xiangliu. After entering, she had a new idea: it would be great if she could pull the Chongming Demon King in to research with her! Leaving aside the issue of seeking shelter under a big tree, just looking at the research project itself presented a difficulty: how to determine whether an unenlightened creature has the aptitude to become a demon. If a creature couldn’t transform into a demon, then no amount of breed improvement would be meaningful.

Wu Ying had originally planned to use a magical artifact ordered from the Artisan to assist in the judgment. But the Chongming Demon King was born with divine double pupils; wouldn’t his judgment be more accurate than a magical artifact?

Wu Ying boldly approached His Majesty the Demon King with her idea.

Zhan Yunkai patiently listened to her thoughts and said, “There is no need to research this topic.”

Wu Ying: “Gak?”

Zhan Yunkai: “On the path of cultivation, the innate physical gap can be erased. The further one goes, the smaller this gap becomes, to the point of being meaningless.”

Wu Ying couldn’t quite understand. She was a parrot demon who had awakened a slight trace of the Luan bird bloodline through atavism. His Majesty the Chongming King was a divine bird demon from birth. The gap between them was so large that Wu Ying couldn’t even imagine how to close it, let alone erase it.

Zhan Yunkai spread his wings, and his feathers brushed over Wu Ying’s forehead. She felt a peaceful wind blowing through her feathers, making every quill itch, causing her to involuntarily shake her feathers. Wu Ying tilted her head up and let out a cry from her throat.

A vibrant spring vitality was born from this cry. The cry swept over the treetops, and new leaves burst from the branches. The cry brushed over the ground, and green shoots emerged from the earth. The Luan bird is the messenger of spring.

“You have the bloodline of a Luan bird,” Zhan Yunkai said. “I am a Chongming. Your natural talent is not as good as mine.” Tianshi is an ordinary person, without any bloodline. Her natural talent is not as good as yours.
“But if we were to fight, I might not necessarily win against Tianshi.”

Wu Ying’s eyes went wide, her beak gaping, clacking up and down several times. “Wh-wh-why?”

Zhan Yunkai said in a very fashionable way, “Do you play online games or mobile games?”

Wu Ying was a little nervous. “I do play, but I’m not very good.”

Zhan Yunkai: “Let’s put it this way. Assume both Tianshi and I have a mana value of ten thousand. I can output eight thousand, but Tianshi can burst out ten thousand.”

Just as an ordinary person cannot exhaust all their physical strength in one go. A person can carry 30 jin of things ten times in a row to transport 300 jin of things, but they cannot carry 300 jin of things at once. The same goes for a cultivator’s mana. Having ten thousand mana doesn’t mean one can burst out ten thousand mana at once.

Tianshi… if she wanted to, she could even burst out twelve thousand, thirteen thousand, or fourteen thousand. But after channeling the power of heaven and earth so fiercely, it’s not certain whether Tianshi would still exist in this world.

Zhan Yunkai had seen that earth-shattering thunder once twenty-six years ago, and had witnessed a miracle of turning the tide in a desperate situation, a body of lightning.

The divine bird with double pupils explained patiently, “So, you see, natural talent is something that doesn’t need to be researched.”

“If the physical body is not strong, should one re-enter reincarnation until one gets a satisfactory body to start cultivating?”
“Ghost cultivators have no body. Linyuan and Wanyan were both demons before they died and became ghost cultivators after death. Where does their natural talent come from?”
“Look at the cultivators who have reached our level. Are there more with high natural talent than those with low natural talent?”

Wu Ying thought about it, and it was true! Among this group of powerful figures, the ratio of those with high natural talent to those with low natural talent was about half and half.

“I have observed this path with my double pupils and have not seen superiority or inferiority in the physical body, only the brilliance of the soul.” Zhan Yunkai patted her. “Don’t go astray.”

Wu Ying understood and hurriedly went to contact the Artisan.

“Call me Mr. Handsome Wu”: “Are you there? Are you there?”
“Urgent!”
“Have you started on the order I gave you before?”

Zhan Suiru was in her workshop, being worked to the bone by her own butler.

The doll butler: “You have a new message notification.”

Zhan Suiru let out a painful sigh. “Another new order?”

She opened the private message and saw Wu Ying’s message, thinking she was here to rush the order. Zhan Suiru typed a cute request to hand in the work a little later in the dialogue box. Wu Ying’s order was still in the design draft stage. She wasn’t procrastinating. It was just that the instruments Wu Ying wanted to order were almost all one-of-a-kind with special functions, and the requirements were many and specific. Zhan Suiru had to design them from scratch. She wasn’t very inspired in this area, drawing and redrawing, and also had to make prototypes to try out. Zhan Suiru often got stuck painfully.

Whenever this happened, the doll butler would thoughtfully suggest she do something else to refresh her mind and rest, such as the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau s’ orders. When she got tired of the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau s’ orders, she would switch to the Tie Lao Ghost King’s orders for a change of pace.

Very talented as a capitalist.

Zhan Suiru interspersed several different orders to work on. Wu Ying’s order was still being revised, but she had finished the Tie Lao Ghost King’s order first. She couldn’t help it; she was a skilled worker when it came to making dolls.

The cute request to delay hadn’t even been sent out when Wu Ying’s new message arrived:

“If you haven’t started, then you don’t have to.”

“I’m not doing that project anymore, and these instruments are no longer needed. I have to cancel the order.”

 “If you’ve already started, then just finish them normally. I can use them in the future. I’ll pay for these normally.”

 “No need to refund the deposit, consider it my compensation.”

Zhan Suiru was attracted by the words “cancel the order” and was overjoyed.

Oh yeah, finally no more rushing work and overtime!

Zhan Suiru happily canceled the order, her voice floating as she spoke to Xiao Ran, “Change your schedule for me. All the time scheduled for this order, change it to rest time for me!”

The doll butler: “You haven’t been home for five consecutive days. I suggest you go home to rest.”

Home? What home? The others in the family weren’t there, just her brother, that major social phobic who refused to speak a word and insisted on typing.

Zhan Suiru clicked her tongue and poked Xiao Ran’s chest. “You’re not feeling uncomfortable anymore?”

The doll butler was stumped by this question. He raised his hand to touch his chest.

Zhan Suiru looked at him. In Xiao Ran’s pupils, the gears turned hesitantly.

What is a soul? Where does it exist?

The rules of the post-apocalyptic world were different from this world. There were no cultivators there, nor had anyone seen ghosts. No one had researched souls. But in this world, Zhan Suiru had come into contact with some cultivation methods in her capacity as the Artisan. This world had no psychic espers, but what the cultivators called “divine sense” was incredibly similar to her psychic ability.

Cultivators said that divine sense originated from the soul, so did her psychic power also originate from the soul? Did the ability core that supported the operation of her psychic ability contain her soul?

But Zhan Suiru couldn’t be sure of this. Her ability core was destroyed along with the post-apocalyptic world. It was only after she regained her memories in this world that she discovered Yang Ran’s ability core was operating inside her body. Later, she took out this nearly shattered ability core and created the doll butler’s body for it.

If her soul had survived by hitching a ride on Yang Ran’s ability core, then why could she take out Yang Ran’s ability core? Was it because she had been assimilated by the rules of this world, and her soul no longer needed to reside in an ability core?

If the ability core was the dwelling place of an esper’s soul, could Yang Ran’s soul still be residing in this core?

She needed to study souls.

Study… resurrection.

Zhan Suiru withdrew her fingertip and smiled nonchalantly. “Approaching Science still hasn’t delivered the keychain he promised me.”

With no orders, she still had many things to keep her busy.

On the other end, after Zhan Jinli withdrew his blessing for his sister’s career, he began to wait. One day, two days, three days passed, and Zhan Suiru still didn’t come home.

Zhan Jinli decided to tattle!

In the family group chat, Zhan Jinli began to show concern for Zhan Suiru’s work problems.

His sister, a girl, living in her workshop every day, and the environment there wasn’t as good as at home. As her older brother, he was very worried!

Zhan Suiru was caught off guard. She and Zhan Jinli both had their own private lives, and after becoming adults, the siblings had a tacit understanding to cover for each other in front of their parents. This time, being suddenly backstabbed by her own older brother, Zhan Suiru was in a flurry under their parents’ concerned inquiries.

Ji Yueming:

“Whose order is so urgent that they’re making you work through the night?”
“If not, let’s just cancel it!”
“Is the workshop short on money recently? Mom will transfer money to you, we won’t take that kind of treatment!”

Zhan Suiru:
“I’m not short on money, and I’m not working through the night. I get my beauty sleep every night.”
“I sleep nine hours a day!”

Zhan Yan was scrolling through the gossip threads. This was true. His sister subscribed to a lazy, laid-back lifestyle and got her beauty sleep every day, no matter what. And she wasn’t short on money either; she had even transferred a large sum of money to him before.

Zhan Yunkai:
“Did Ji Lele give you an order that’s hard to refuse?”
“If so, you have to tell Dad. Dad can just go talk to him. It’s very easy to solve, don’t be afraid.”

Zhan Suiru:
“Director Ji’s order ended a long time ago. I’m really not that busy.”

Zhan Yan continued to scroll through the gossip threads. This was also true. Director Ji considered Zhan Suiru’s sculptures his muse. He had a lofty and beautiful expectation for art and was willing to patiently wait for the sculptor’s spark of inspiration. His attitude towards Zhan Suiru was very friendly, and he didn’t set deadlines.

However, their parents didn’t believe it.

Ji Yueming was worried her daughter was too embarrassed to say she was short on money. Zhan Yunkai was worried his daughter thought he, an eighteenth-tier actor, couldn’t solve problems brought by a big director. Both of them were afraid Zhan Suiru wasn’t telling the truth and repeatedly tried to persuade her for a long time.

Zhan Suiru: “I’m really not that busy!”
Zhan Jinli: “Then come home to sleep at night.”
Zhan Suiru: …

What was wrong with Zhan Jinli today?

Zhan Suiru rolled up her sleeves, ready to fight her brother.

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