Chapter 716: One Thousand

Heimu's mouth corner twitched, her finger pressed her own temple and rubbed it forcefully.

Then she exhaled slowly, crouched down, and lowered her gaze to be level with the two little ones.

The expression under the brim had returned to Calm, only a faint trace of red remained on her cheeks, and her voice softened.

"What on earth happened? Why did it turn out like this?"

Ti Bao lifted her eyes to glance at her, then lowered her head again, her two small hands twining the hem, her lips moved several times before forming a full sentence: "I don't know... it's just, from being one tall one, it turned into... turned into many."

"Many?"

Ti Ning, standing nearby, poked Ti Bao's elbow with a finger; Ti Bao gathered courage and spat out the remaining half-sentence, her wording erratic, grammar fragmented, but Heimu could roughly understand: the previously recovered Da Ti Bao had been stable, but at some point each time she turned around she found another copy of herself beside her. At first there were two or three, then seven or eight, then dozens, and now she could no longer control it at all.

And each of these little selves, once emerged, ran off, scattering wildly across the world.

The reason she and Ti Ning remained here was simply because they fell behind.

Good fellow, truly Ti Ning.

Heimu's gaze flicked back and forth between the two little heads.

Ti Bao was the one with eyes exposed, Ti Ning the one whose eyes were hidden by petals.

That's easy to tell.

Heimu lifted her head, her eyes scanning the floating entry boxes above the two little ones' heads.

First entry—"Split, Split, Split (1000 Grand Slam)".

Second entry—"Wa Junior Sister (Mom!)".

Third entry—"Brat".

Heimu was silent for a moment, then raised her hand, ready to erase those entries outright.

Her finger just touched the System Panel when a prompt popped up on the screen: Insufficient number of associated entities detected for the entries.

Currently collected: 2/1000.

Need to gather 1000 objects before batch deletion can be executed.

Heimu stared at that line for several seconds, her mouth corner twitching slightly.

One thousand.

In other words, she must locate all one thousand of them before she can erase the entries.

Then she thought of something even more off.

She had passed through a garden, bathhouse, market, corridor, and almost traversed half a circuit of Yunshi Tian Gong Upper Level.

A thousand Ti Bao, even if scattered, shouldn't be that none could be seen, right?

Even if most ran farther away, there should be at least a few drifting near the main passage.

Yet she hadn't seen a single strand of red hair along the way.

This is off.

Heimu lowered her eyes, her gaze returning to the two little lolis before her, ready to continue questioning.

Then, using her keen sight, she caught a fleeting mischievous glint flickering deep within little Ti Bao's eyes.

It wasn't an illusion; it lit up clearly for a moment, then withdrew, a surface blink while the whole set of slyness was tucked under the eyelid.

An alarm rang in Heimu's mind instantly.

She associated it with the third entry—Brat.

Since it was personally chosen by Aha, it must be sufficiently delightful.

It couldn't be a simple brat.

Whatever lies beneath those three characters could be more troublesome than all the entries she'd seen today combined.

Then a gradually rising heat surged from her soles upward.

It wasn't from the surrounding environment, but from directly below.

Heimu looked down and saw ultra‑fine white smoke seeping out of the cracks in the green stone tiles at her feet, growing denser and faster, the air gaining a faint scent of saltpeter.

Before she could act, a massive white plume of smoke exploded outward from beneath her feet.

The thick, acrid burnt smell instantly engulfed the whole path.

Then—

Boom!!

A shockwave burst from directly beneath her soles, stones scattering, air rippling, the surrounding laurel branches shaking wildly with a rustle.

The smoke was so thick you couldn't see your hand, and a few white birds that had been perched on the branches startled into frantic flight.

The shockwave's force was just right to perform a human cannonball.

Heimu stood at the exact center of the shockwave, her feet not moving a fraction.

She raised her right hand, gently rubbing thumb and middle finger together.

Snap.

The crisp finger‑snap rang through the smoke, a faint violet‑black light pattern spreading outward from her fingertip in all directions.

All the still‑rolling white smoke, the saltpeter dust floating in the air, and the outward‑spreading shock remnants were all compressed back to the origin in a single instant, then vanished silently, as if someone hit reverse.

The path before her returned to exactly the same quiet neatness, even the tiny white mushrooms still grew properly in the cracks.

Heimu lifted her gaze.

At the far end of the path, at the edge of the distant forest, two tiny red silhouettes were sprinting away at great speed.

Four short legs ran swiftly, the red hair flashing two shimmering arcs under the golden sky.

Ti Bao ran ahead, a stray tuft pressed backward by the wind into a small hook, Ti Ning followed behind, arms tucked at her sides, her stride shorter than Ti Bao's yet no slower, clearly the two had already marked a spot at the far end and pre‑planned their retreat route.

Heimu stood where she was, watching the two red dots run farther away, her mouth corner slowly lifting.

Good fellow, playing this round, huh.

First pretend to be aggrieved to lower her guard, wait until she crouches to ask a question and detonate the pre‑set trap, then slip away under the cover of smoke.

The entire sequence flowed like clouds and water—acting, planting the trap, and retreat—all executed in one breath.

Brat?

This is called a brat?

Since that's the case, let's have some proper fun.

Heimu extends his right hand, the five fingers forming a grasp in the air at his side.

Violet‑black magical light particles gather from all directions in the air, coalescing and elongating in her palm, and a Magic Staff taller than a person appears in her hand; the staff's tip lightly taps the stone‑slab floor, emitting a muffled "dong."

The staff's shaft is covered with fine violet‑black patterns flowing across it; the gem at the tip glows faintly, resembling a half‑open eye.

She lifts the hem of her skirt, sidles onto the Magic Staff, her ash‑gray long hair sliding from her shoulders to her back; the staff levitates, carrying her to chase after the two little ones fleeing.

She doesn't plan to use high‑level authority; even dealing with children would require invoking authority, and she'd find it shameful to say so.

Since they want to play, she'll see it through to the end.

In the forest ahead, two intertwined children's voices came, crisp yet breathless, gasping for air while urging each other as they ran.

"Mom's catching up!"

"Run, run—!"