Chapter 1593: Chapter 1593: The Naughty Kid Knows Everything, but She Just Won’t Say It!

I think it was a huge mistake when I decided to keep that Silly Fox at home; eating for free is one thing, and we already have crowds doing that, adding a Nine-tailed Husky isn’t much. But a creature that insists on causing trouble every three days aside from eating for free is simply intolerable—why does even basking in the sun at the parking lot become troublesome?

When the three of us arrived at the parking lot, the Fox Fairy Lord was still lazily lying on the ground, trying hard to pretend to be a form of transportation. However, her tails, originally curled up beside her, completely crossed the line. Nine tails occupied the two adjacent parking spaces and an entire lane behind her (her tails are longer than her body). A young man in a blue vest was standing three meters away in front of the Fox Fairy Lord, sweating profusely while gesturing, seemingly trying to communicate with the latter. But as for the Fox Fairy Lord, roaming freely in pet centers and old-age welfare institutions across Shadow City, she can’t be easily influenced by a mere parking service attendant. She held her parking card in her mouth and didn’t pay any attention to the attendant.

However, the moment Sandora, Lin Xue, and I appeared in the parking lot, her ears perked up, and if I wasn’t mistaken, the fur on the back of her neck stood up as well... So she does know fear, huh? But if you’re scared like this, why continue pretending to sleep?

"What’s happening?" I stepped forward and patted the attendant’s shoulder, surprising the latter. The young man turned his head and upon seeing me, became slightly nervous. But since the Leader’s entire family roams Shadow City daily, interacting closely with the citizens, our super high exposure rate and usual approachable demeanor (sometimes I wonder if we are too approachable) soon put him at ease. He awkwardly saluted with some unknown gesture and then pointed at the fox: "Your Majesty, this... strange mount is blocking the passage behind. I was helping a customer reverse the car, but got obstructed. I asked her to move but she ignored me, and I can’t tell whose mount it is. I asked her for license plate information for a long time, but she wouldn’t give it..."

The three of us, Lin Xue, Sandora, and I, looked at the sky: "..."

The Fox Fairy Lord indeed often roams around Shadow City, mostly showing herself in human form, so no one here knows where this giant fox that is longer than a private car and larger than a tank when her tails are spread out comes from. As a result, she lying down with a parking card in her mouth was directly mistaken as a real "transportation tool." And actually, this sort of thing is quite common in Shadow City. In parking lots here, there are frames for flying carpets, hooks for magic broomsticks, charging sockets for flying cars, and animal feed for Divine Beasts. It’s normal now. In large parking lots, there are even platforms prepared for Nimbus Clouds. What can you do? Shadow City has always practiced "accept any seemingly odd setup in front of you," so it’s no wonder the attendant thought the Fox Fairy Lord was an Immortal Pet from some celestial cave...

Although understandable, the Fox Fairy Lord does not accept this. It was clear the attendant asked her for her license plate information which triggered her temper. As said before, despite her usually indulging in pleasure and causing trouble everywhere, fighting with dogs, teasing cats, bullying children, and often sneaking buns on Food Street, within her own worldview, she is quite proud. Foxes always believe "if you can win against the opponent, maintain superiority; if you can’t, forcibly boast"...

This time, the attendant greeted her again unsuccessfully, and could only press a few times on his collar to open the communicator, then broadcast it across the parking lot: "Mount owner in parking space A-38-C, please come over. Mount owner in parking space A-38-C, please come over, your Nine-tailed Fox Fairy is occupying the parking lot passage, refuses communication, and doesn’t have a license plate. Please come to help reverse the car..."

I hurriedly stopped the attendant from broadcasting: "Don’t shout, don’t shout, this fox is mine... sorry I didn’t choose a good spot for her earlier, she’s having an upset stomach so her brain is a bit dysfunctional. You go, I’ll handle her."

The attendant was visibly surprised: "Eh? Your Majesty, you changed your transportation recently? Oh, the previous vehicle did need replacing, the door couldn’t close, and this one looks much better than before..."

Lin Xue’s eyes widened immediately: "So much nonsense, be careful, or you’ll get bitten by this fox!"

The attendant quickly shrank his neck, seeing that the giant fox was indeed grinding her teeth viciously with her eyes closed, hurriedly took his leave.

After the attendant walked away, the three of us silently watched the fox still pretending to sleep (she was grinding her teeth just now), her ears couldn’t help but tremble slightly before she parted her eyes, revealing an innocent expression as fake as it could be.

"Still lying down, huh?" I stepped forward and pulled her fur beside her mouth side fiercely, "Do you really want me to help you reverse the car?"

The fox finally stood up slowly and grumbled while shaking herself: "It’s that little human who was rude, I’m the Fox Fairy Lord! How can he ask for my license plate? And he even tried to trick me with a chicken leg—just a mere chicken leg underestimates my millennia of cultivation!"

I pulled at her fur: "Who can you blame for holding a parking card in your mouth?" "Clearly, it was the Family Head who let me lie here!"

I thought it was better not to continue with this topic—it was too out of line with normal perspectives.

When we left the parking lot, we found another thing: parking here isn’t free. The Fox Fairy Lord basked in the sun for half a day costing a total of ten dollars. While she inserted the parking card into the pricing machine at the entrance, she murmured: "Charging a bed fee even for lying on empty ground, these profiteers are really mad for money. This world is cruel to transportation..."

I think this fox’s worldview seems a bit more skewed than before, but it’s not a big deal: her perspectives have always been abnormal.

We returned home while it was still early, not many people were around; perhaps they went shopping or doing something else. The Fox Fairy Lord had roamed outside for half a day and finally dissipated her divine power, returning to her usual lazy blonde girl form. Now she’s lying on the living room sofa watching TV, while I’m at the small table by the window researching a report I haven’t finished yet.

Although it’s boring, it’s work after all.

Maybe it’s because Lin Xue gave herself reassurance earlier, the Prophet’s prediction made me realize the issue encountered by the Startup Terminal isn’t hopeless, its solution might not be as unreachable as imagined, perhaps hiding right beneath our unnoticed eyes, my mood consequently relaxed a bit. Previously, when I first heard Abyss Xyrin talk about the major crisis faced by the Bridge Building project, it truly felt like Mount Tai pressing down on me, but now it doesn’t seem like such a big deal anymore.

After my mood relaxed, reading the report became easier, these troublesome items seemed not as abundant and tedious as usual. I swiftly browsed through the major happenings needing my attention recently, then a freshly uploaded message suddenly appeared before me:

The message was a joint letter from Leaving World Garden and the Void Exploration Project Department, with the Divine Race’s mark at the signature area. The message headline read this line: First group of deep space exploration forces returned, homeland world not found, excluding seventeen percent of suspected coordinates.

Homeland world! I instantly adjusted from a lazy posture, carefully reading the message content, couldn’t help but sigh: Recently, various events have been frequent, and the amount of information is overwhelming. First the Abyss Zone upheaval, then a final battle with the New Army, followed by getting bombed to the Refuge world, discovering survivors at the Abyss Zone’s core, and finding the insane No.2 host, returning to encounter a significant crisis with the Bridge Building project, this sequence of events arranged so densely is dazzling, I nearly forgot about the homeland world!

The message was merely a brief report. While I was halfway through it, the data terminal received a more detailed follow-up report, and then a pile of logs and report books downloaded one after another, all valuable information just sorted from the Information Integration Center. As I read these report books, I recalled events from months ago, gradually understanding the experiences of the first batch of deep space explorers.

The first batch of deep space exploration forces departed two months ago. Unlike any previous missions, this exploration force not only consisted of Imperial Elite soldiers but also quite a number of members from the Divine Race: Xingchen had promised to assist in searching for the homeland world, so when the exploration teams set out, the Divine Race honored their commitment by sending a substantial number of people.

The exploration teams are equipped with the most advanced Void Shuttles and high-speed self-sustaining Mother Ships. The Divine Race has also brought along their powerful long-distance travel equipment. These specialized pieces of equipment allow them to reach the most remote and barren white Zones of the Void, and conduct long-term investigations deep in the unfamiliar and dangerous White Zone. They are tasked with a special and arduous mission. Even during the total assault by the Empire and Divine Race allied forces on the Abyss Zone, the actions of these Deep Space Exploration Teams were not affected— in fact, some of the small teams that ventured into special regions were not even aware of the fierce battle that took place in the Abyss Zone.

Due to the many suspected coordinates of the Hometown World, and the long history making it nearly impossible to distinguish these suspected coordinates one by one, the exploration teams are divided into many small squads. Over the past two months, these squads have ventured into the depths of the Void that no one, not even the Gods, have ever set foot in. The reports sent back mentioned a considerable number of wondrous universes. These explorers discovered a large number of new civilizations, including highly developed Enlightened Races, and even Cross-world Civilizations never recorded before. This is very valuable research material for the Divine Race and the New Empire. It will greatly expand our horizons and include more universes on the Void Cataclysm exemption list (if the Bridge Building succeeds).

However, regrettably, the Hometown World does not seem to be on this "discovery list."

"Hey Dad, what are you looking at?" A crisp and lively voice suddenly came from behind, jolting me out of my thoughts. I looked up and saw a patch of light yellow rushing towards me with the force of a tiger.

This scene has long become a habit for me. I casually grabbed the light yellow figure from mid-air and pressed her onto the chair beside me. Upon closer inspection, it was indeed Xiao Xue: this girl was wearing a light yellow dress just like her mother’s. When she lunged over, I almost mistook her for Lin Xue. But I quickly realized that it couldn’t be: there’s still some time before dinner, and according to Miss’s routine, she should be in the kitchen drooling while watching Anwina cook...

"A grown-up like you should stop being so reckless," I said while helping Xiao Xue tidy up her messy hair that resembled a bird’s nest, "Look at your head, like a bunch of weeds... what happened? Got into a fight with a fox or climbed a tree to chat with a silly bird?"

"Sister Bird is in the yard training her little birds to dance. I was their stage for half an hour," Xiao Xue said as she pulled the grass sticks from her hair, then she noticed the data terminal in front of me, "Wow, Dad is actually working!" 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

I immediately straightened up, "Don’t sound so surprised! Your dad has been diligent and loving for two weeks now, you know!"

Xiao Xue giggled and made a funny face, grabbing my data terminal to study it. Watching her swipe the screen briskly, I realized something: she seems really familiar with this data terminal, she actually knows where I hide my movie novels!

"I played with Dad’s data terminal a lot when I was little. The rules in the Emperor’s family were strict, so I didn’t have many toys when I was a kid. Besides using your data terminal to watch movies, I only had a few battle carriers to play with, so of course I got familiar with it," Xiao Xue mumbled while fiddling with the small device in her hands, "By the way, Dad, your habit hasn’t changed for many years, everything is still in the same place..."

I was speechless, as I was astounded by Xiao Xue’s childhood list of super-capable "toys"... Who in the family was genius enough to let a naughty kid play with battle carriers as toys!

"Speaking of which, the Hometown World hasn’t been found yet..." Xiao Xue lost interest after playing with it for a while and ended up opening the report I was just looking at (the report wasn’t too confidential), "But it will definitely be found one day."

"In ’that time,’ has the Empire already found the Hometown World?" I asked Xiao Xue while looking at her intently, "Is it okay to talk about it?"

"It’s fine to talk about it, I knew what the Hometown World looked like when I was little," Xiao Xue said with a cheerful nod, "I often went there to play back then, it was near the capital and there were several Teleportation Gates leading directly to the Divine Realm. But there’s not much to see in the Hometown World, it’s an extremely, extremely old universe, with nearly all celestial bodies extinguished, and about eighty percent of the outer space composed of artificial structures. The Empire almost ’renovated’ the entire world with external forces, so you can’t tell what it originally looked like. But you can still find relics of the Original Mother Star... oh, it’s probably best not to say any more. Although it may not affect the future, it’s better to keep it secret to save Dad some trouble later on."

Listening to Xiao Xue speaking in such a matter-of-fact tone about things that seemed so distant and surreal to me now, a kind of disjointed feeling of time inevitably arose: at this point in time, we are at our wits’ end dealing with a certain issue, not even sure if there’s a path forward for the future, but Xiao Xue, this naughty kid who stowed away from the future, has already treated those events as solved historical matters, even as "exam points" one might only learn about in school. What a chaotic feeling.

Sometimes I can’t help but wonder, since Xiao Xue hails from a future where everything is "already settled," do our current actions even matter?

Many things seem "destined" to go smoothly, some challenges seem to "naturally" disappear soon. With Xiao Xue making those statements with a face full of inevitable casualness, it’s easy for me to lose motivation...

But that thought flees my mind in a flash because I know that using "destiny" as an excuse to slack off is not an option, at least not for a Void Creature like myself, there’s no room for laziness.

A Void Creature’s "mentality" alone can influence the success rate of all events, even affecting timelines that have already been established, and even the structure and trajectory of the entire Void. So even if Xiao Xue has seen the Hometown World and the successfully constructed Void Long Bridge in the future, if I lose motivation at this point in time, these seemingly destined futures will collapse all the same.

Originally one of the most indolent creatures in the Void, now I must fight my own laziness with all my might. It’s truly... a bit much to ask, I’d love to just be hands-off.

"Dad, what are you thinking?" Xiao Xue’s voice once again pulled me out of my contemplation. I looked up, only to find that this naughty kid had nearly pressed her face to my nose, so I quickly pushed her back a little: "Don’t get so close, you gave me a scare— oh, by the way, let me ask you something, do you know about Abyss Xyrin... um, you know Abyss Xyrin’s relationship with Dad, right?"

"Of course, she’s my sister," Xiao Xue said nonchalantly, "the eldest sister of the family, but she doesn’t hang out with us most of the time. I often heard you mention her when I was little, saying she’s the most troublesome one in the family... hey, looks like Dad you finally know about this now?"

Me: "..."

I knew this naughty kid, Xiao Xue, was always holding back and watching the show from the sidelines! Why didn’t she remind me earlier?

Xiao Xue saw my expression and knew what I was thinking. She immediately spread her hands helplessly: "Even if I reminded you early, it wouldn’t have helped, at that time you were fighting her, even if you acknowledge each other as family, it’s not like you can stop the war, right? You’d still have to continue fighting. Not to mention my eldest sister, she’s an obsessive maniac and would never stop, and Dad, you can’t let go of your duty to the common people for personal family matters, so it would just add more troubles. Alas, the more abilities one has, the more trouble one brings, even though you’re family, when faced with some major issues it can turn into a fight like mortal enemies. Wouldn’t it be nice to be an ordinary person, when a naughty kid stirs up trouble you just scold a bit, but in our position, you must wage war with a resolve to fight to the death—fortunately, my eldest sister came to her senses and drew the line with her madness, otherwise, it would have been another family tragedy, a ruthless father pushing his biological daughter down a road of no return because of a difference in ideology.avi..."

I thought about it and decided I should probably dock this naughty kid’s allowance for next month— her mouth really has no filter!

(To be continued. If you enjoy this work, please visit Qidian (qidian.com) to vote for recommendations and monthly tickets. Your support is my biggest motivation. Mobile users, please go to m.qidian.com to read.)