Chapter 133: Cleanup and Return

"You still have the nerve to come find me." Old Lu glared; he was sitting at the top of the Dawn Hall right now, though of course there wasn't much power left in his body—after all, his physical form had been taken back by Lu Mingfei.

"Boss, you haven't paid me yet." Su Lin set the little golden statuette trophy beside Old Lu and sat on the eaves as well, looking at the sky over there.

Old Lu was silent for two minutes without speaking, and finally still pulled out a white crystal and tossed it to Su Lin.

"Boss is generous." Su Lin said with a smile; he didn't rush to inspect it either, just tucked the crystal away.

"That divine spark of yours…what exactly is its origin…" Old Lu gazed at the fiery red stream of light on the horizon and asked, "It doesn't look like some indigenous god from an ordinary planet."

"I don't even know myself." Su Lin pulled a crystal covered in fine cracks from his inventory: "Maybe a reject from industrial technology?"

"Help me see if it can be repaired?"

Su Lin handed the divine spark over; Old Lu took it, looked at it, and tossed it back to Su Lin. "Basically can't be repaired."

"Is that so." Su Lin wasn't disappointed either—the system said it couldn't be repaired, so most likely it couldn't be, "I thought I'd at least have to unleash my big move twice."

"Thought it through?"

"Thought through, my ass." Old Lu spat, looking at Su Lin with contempt: "If it weren't for you son of a bitch making such a mess, next week I'd have at least maxed out the affection of three people."

"When the time comes, just toss him over to Jiude Mayi…hehehe."

"This kid can't appreciate the charms of a mature one. If Mayi-chan really gets going, then it's simply, sigh."

Old Lu rubbed his own chin, his face full of nostalgia.

"I thought I was going to have a real-man 1v1 showdown with you. I was all ready to use the Divine Spark card plus the Sword Immortal card fused to summon the Light Sword Immortal." Su Lin tapped at his phone, and background music began playing across the whole city: "You didn't even resist at the end, leaving me standing there in deep thought for several seconds after I finished my big move."

"You went through three transformation stages up front, then pulled this stunt at the end—I was completely thrown off."

"You think I'm stupid? Anyway, there'll be chances later. Once you lot of cross-world shit-stirrers go back to your own world, won't he be at my mercy?" Old Lu's expression was displeased.

Su Lin sighed and said, "Jörmungandr's stubbornness must be hereditary."

He suddenly thought of something, felt he'd grasped the key point: "Think about it carefully—Old Tang loves playing games, and his loser vibe is exactly the same as yours."

"Jörmungandr is stubborn-mouthed, likes watching anime, is an otaku, and likes playing raising-sim games."

"Pompeii, a stud—just like you."

"You…"

"Shut up!" Old Lu roared.

"But regarding what you said about us stirring things up for you, I have to rebut." Su Lin took out the contract and said, "When I first came to this world I only wanted to stir up some trouble. It was you who wanted me to do things for you."

"Then your brother came to find me, and I just took on one more job. To put it bluntly, it's actually just that you and Lu Mingze had a falling out and each hired a few thugs to come fight."

"I'm so stupid, really." Old Lu sighed, as if the root of everything was his own impatience: "I shouldn't have come to find you. Wouldn't it have been fine to wait until you got tired of playing and went back?"

"Right, the most important thing is…" Su Lin paused, "the you from the past didn't want to either."

Su Lin pulled out his phone; there was a message Lu Mingze had sent him: "Back then, in the submersible in Japanese waters, he explicitly said he wasn't going to run a harem."

"To me, his opinion is the least important. It's just that Hui Liyi's possessiveness has always been pretty strong." Old Lu looked at the two people kissing over in the sky and changed the subject: "But she's actually easy to coax."

"Not easy to coax anymore now." Su Lin said.

"Isn't that all because of you bastard!"

"For that you have to blame Baidu. She asked me what love is, but how would I know? I just read off whatever the search turned up."

"You've never been in a relationship?"

"No."

"Ooooh~~~." Old Lu gave him a pitying look. "Can't blame you, little virgin egg."

Su Lin gave Old Lu a strained smile. If it weren't for the Sword Immortal character card having expired, I'd have given you a couple of moves for sure.

If it weren't for having practiced Gu Tianwang, and the fact that I don't have those thoughts right now, a urban-novel male lead like me living a few hundred years would inevitably end up with a harem of three thousand.

"The last question Hui Liyi asked you—why didn't you tell her?" Su Lin turned off the global livestream on his phone. That was enough; the little couple was happily gnawing on each other.

"No point." Old Lu's expression eased slightly, the corner of his mouth unconsciously curving into a smile: "Would I tell her that Hui Liyi is a silly girl?"

"Even Zero falling for me was because I used to be Zero."

"The other girls falling for me was also because I made different changes in other worldlines, making me less of a loser."

"Only this silly girl…"

Old Lu shook his head and smiled: "Let her be happy for now. Once I've coaxed her into being happy, then we'll talk about other things."

Setting aside the matter of Zero—if not for the memories from the future, on this worldline, how would those girls have fallen for him?

Old Lu was quite self-aware on this point. Human feelings are both very strong and very fragile. With those memories in place, even the most rational girl would have a base affection level of friend-tier; a little effort and it'd be above friends. Those memories always laid the groundwork for the relationship between the two, let alone for an empathetic type like Su Xiaoqiang.

But Hui Liyi didn't need memories. No matter how many times it was repeated, that embrace in the deep sea became the fate destined between the two.

Watching the crimson fade over the horizon, Old Lu stood up and dusted off his clothes and pants.

"The days are still long." A look of disdain appeared on Old Lu's face: "That kid used Lu Mingze's body. I don't believe he didn't recall Zero's memories. Let's see how he faces Yi Leina."

Old Lu's eyes curved into crescents, a triumphant smile tugging at the corner of his mouth: "With these things, once there's a first time, there's a second. Yi Leina's offensive is extremely fierce."

"Heh, men." Su Lin said disdainfully, but then suddenly remembered something: "I think I used to ship Lu-Zero too."

"Stop shipping, please just go home. Go back for New Year and find a girlfriend—two is fine too." Old Lu pressed his palms together in entreaty.

"The immortal path is long; how could I slack off because of feelings?" Su Lin asked Old Lu: "What do we do tomorrow?"

He was referring to the fact that the world had already been left in this state.

"He will one day wear the Wang Guan." Lu Mingze walked out from behind, a head of long black hair draped over her shoulders, her cute little face slightly flushed. She wore a black dress, black stockings, and small leather shoes on her feet. "Before that, let me and this brother here handle the cleanup."

"......"

Su Lin turned his head to look at Old Lu, only to find that guy also wearing a face full of shock.

"What's wrong?" She tilted her head in confusion. "I saw you sitting here like a loser dog, brother, with only a backstabber beside you, so I deliberately dressed up like this to soothe your fragile little glass heart."

"Doesn't it look good?"

"Then I'll change back." After a shroud of mist, that elegant little boy appeared in place again. He bowed apologetically to Su Lin: "My apologies—being sharp-tongued is that me's trademark."

"Then, brother and Su Lin, let's discuss the cleanup together."

"Falling leaves carried a message: on the other side of the fog, in our homeland's borderland, Lu Mingfei has become king of the Human Federation. Under his rule, people would probably describe it like this..."

"It was an era of prosperity."

The morning breeze blew gently, carrying the scent of the sea. Miss Kelaien stood atop the Statue of Liberty, reciting in a low voice.

"Prosperous, my ass..." Su Lin yawned. He hadn't slept all night, having spent the time helping with the aftermath — casting a mass resurrection in the divine kingdom, which chipped his divine spark a little more.

Afterwards, at Lu Mingfei's request, he spent a few hours browsing Taobao in his own system shop.

"Look at that loser — after kissing her at dawn, he dragged Hui Liyi off to an internet cafe and gamed all night."

"You can't really blame him for evolving from a little white rabbit into a carnivore." Miss Kelaien wasn't surprised in the slightest. "Where's Lu Mingfei? Isn't he attending today's assembly?"

"When he heard he had to appear before the whole world, his legs were shaking."

In the end, Old Lu and Lu Mingze fused and stepped out, modifying the memories of everyone on Earth. The vast majority only knew that the Supreme had won; no one now knew who the Supreme was or what he looked like. To avoid unnecessary trouble, Hui Liyi's appearance in their memories was altered as well.

"Speaking of which, when did our group chat get a wall-hacker, a shameless bastard, a good-for-nothing woman, and a rogue scoundrel?" Su Lin was scrolling through last night's chat logs.

"You know all of them?" Miss Kelaien asked.

"I know all of them." Su Lin had stared blankly for several minutes when he saw Song Shuhang's name. Now, going to his world as a hanger-on — in two years, can I work my way up to a Heavenly Dao?

"It seems Zhang Chulan's world also has works related to some of the group members," Miss Kelaien said. "Over there it seems to be '01."

"There should be works about the Purple-Gold Divine Dragon too, but that kid Zhang Chulan didn't say a word. Sigh—why couldn't it have been the cute little dragon baby who joined the group? That little guy would've gotten along perfectly with me," Su Lin said regretfully. "Zhang Chulan's still fine—he may be scheming, but he has at least some boundaries. As for that rogue dragon, everyone better watch out—he's a thoroughly rotten dragon through and through."

"Send me the work later. When I was traversing… no, I should say when I was still in the modern era, I had some impression of that guy—I think I saw him online," Miss Kelaien said. That guy's arrogant, domineering personality in the group chat was a bit much, but Miss Kelaien never judged a person by appearances—after all, the personalities displayed by the Transcendents in the world of Secrecy might just be roles they needed to play.

"Alright." Su Lin squinted at the rising sun over there, turned, and left first.

To maintain order in the short term, Old Lu called Zhongli and Su Lin over to lend their names — putting humanity's faith to use as well.

Su Lin still had to make an appearance later and give an interview — a trivial little favor.

Actually, calling it "rule," Su Lin felt it was more like establishing a central hub for Earth, used to uniformly maintain Earth's order and allocate resources. Estimated at the fastest one year, the slowest two and a half years, the technologies once displayed on Dawn Island could be普及 across Earth. Of course, it wasn't like humanity could just sit back and enjoy it — there were all sorts of details involved, and if Su Lin had to elaborate on them his brain would overload.

In the afternoon, Su Lin found Old Lu at Dawn Palace.

"You haven't gone back yet?" Old Lu lay sprawled in the leather chair. "I'm very busy — if you've got something, just say it."

Su Lin took something out from his system backpack — a book glowing entirely red, with several strange characters written on it in silver lettering.

"A gift for you." Su Lin handed the book to Old Lu.

【Nancy's River】Price: 100,000 points. Effect: Stasis (You can't step into the same river twice in life, so I froze the river — making sure I can step into it again next time. — Nancy)

Old Lu took the book, glanced at it, and opened it. Feeling the change in his body, he was silent for a moment, then smiled and said, "You've got all sorts of weird stuff over there, huh. You actually have this thing."

"It can freeze my spirit-body. Take it back — I appreciate the thought."

This book wouldn't affect Lu Mingfei's absorption of other powers within the Dao Fruit — it's like a plate of stir-fried pork with green peppers where you only eat the meat and not the peppers. That way, the power Lu Mingfei obtained wouldn't be complete; his spiritual power is also a quite important part of it.

"Lu Mingfei asked me to give this to you." Su Lin didn't take the book Old Lu handed back, but said seriously, "He told me to tell you — if one day he can reach the level of Ye Fan's future strength, he'll restart your world and kick you, this dragon-sower, back to your own world with one foot."

"Before that, clean up this mess here." Su Lin thought for a moment and said, "Roughly, he wants to be Crown Prince for ten thousand years."

Old Lu was a little surprised. He slowly withdrew his hand, ran his fingers over the book's cover twice. The afterglow of the setting sun poured through the floor-to-ceiling window into the room, falling on the profiles of the two men, casting long shadows on the red carpet on the floor.

"Even I can't do it — what makes him think he can?"

"Maybe he'll be stronger than you." Su Lin shrugged and turned to leave. Zhongli and Xiao Yan had already finished fusing with their Authorities and departed; Miss Kelaien was still getting familiar with his newly acquired Dragon King Authority of Sky and Wind.

'The original mission was to stop him from ruling the world or building a harem.'

'Although he did rule the world, the harem dream is only temporarily shattered — that counts as your mission accomplished, right?' That's what Lu Mingze said. In Su Lin's view, his emotional intelligence was maxed out, because when the contract was signed there was actually only the one condition: stop him.

The group friends had come all this way, so Su Lin wasn't going to let them leave empty-handed — especially Zhongli, who even had an extra Spear of Destiny in hand. Su Lin was green with envy, and shamelessly asked Lu Mingze for an imitation disposable version.

"This thing should still be quite valuable — a rarity." Old Lu watched Su Lin's back and called out, "Can he afford the payment?"

"It's a gift for you all." Su Lin waved his hand breezily. The 1/cause-and-effect Lu Mingfei had provided during this period, converted to points, was more than enough — there was even surplus.

Through experiments and comparisons during this period, he roughly figured out how to maximize points.

Just showing off in front of enough people wasn't enough — if he could simultaneously affect those people's fates, the points given would be far more than from a single public appearance.

This time, what was involved was the racial fate of an entire planet's humanity.

Su Lin glanced at his current system points: points.

Heh, going home for the New Year~

Su Lin stepped through the teleportation gate in a cheerful mood, leaving the Dragon Race world.

Old Lu watched the door close behind Su Lin, then made a phone call to the newly established Federation Center.

"It's me."

"Prepare a thousand tons of steel for me, and a big enough site."

After hanging up, Old Lu pulled up an image on the holographic display screen.

"Let's make a unicorn first."