Chapter 1158 - 1155: Cousin, All In! Show Hand—

"You..."

After transforming into a Nine-tailed Fox, Lin Ying once again entered a brand-new form, and in this new form her face was somewhat androgynous—you could see she was modeled after Master Fuli.

Ansheng stared so hard the whole fox froze; his foot slipped and he almost fell off Lin Ying's now-narrowed shoulder onto the cobblestone ground.

"Master Fuli, why did your foot slip..."

Lin Ying reacted fast; her right hand went behind her back to firmly support Master Fuli's butt, steadying him. She smiled like a blooming flower and said, "Could it be all foxes are slippery sly?"

"Shoo, shoo, put away that old Xia Dong People homophonic pun tradition of yours..."

Climbing back onto Lin Ying's shoulder, Ansheng rather rudely stepped out his forepaw and planted it on Lin Ying's chest, scrutinizing her face with hesitation written all over his own as he said:

"Do you... really not feel anything wrong? Any sense that there's something faintly stirring inside you, or maybe a deep, nagging urge to break free from some kind of restraint?"

"Even if it's just a foreign-body sensation inside you—stuff like that, you need to tell me exactly as it is."

After triple-checking, Ansheng was now very sure Lin Ying was in some kind of genetic transformation state.

Put in plain terms, Lin Ying had been hit by genetic erosion from Master Fuli's flesh and blood, and was in the process of being converted into a part of Master Fuli.

But Ansheng could swear on his own bell that he absolutely had not eroded Lin Ying through flesh and blood.

Lin Ying was so friendly and indulgent toward him; how could he possibly drag Sister Lin Fu into something so unforgivable?

He knew his own situation, but Ansheng genuinely couldn't explain or understand what caused the mutation in Lin Ying. For now he could only focus on figuring out how to treat it.

"There's nothing uncomfortable. This whole time, I've been taking my meds and working out as prescribed."

"Master Fuli, rest assured! I haven't seen you and Ah Qing surrounded by grandkids yet. Before that happens, there's no way I, Lin Ying, am going to end up as some buff corpse..." Lin Ying looked thoughtful, picking her words. Then her expression broke into a grin, and she spoke offhandedly.

Whatever discomfort Master Fuli was talking about, Lin Ying wasn't feeling it.

In this brand-new form, all she could feel was happiness and power, both cranked up to Super Double.

All depression and anxiety were retreating, like she'd turned into a giant super-diode.

[The world's so full of splendor, just endure it a bit]

[Fuck your mother, I'm going nuclear with you]

"You seriously don't feel any discomfort at all!?"

Lin Ying's confident answer made Ansheng, who'd been worried the whole time, freeze up, disbelief written all over his face.

"Absolutely none..."

Lin Ying walked with a light bounce in her step, the corners of her mouth slightly raised. She tilted her face and gently rubbed Huhu with her cheek, teasing:

"If I really have to name some kind of discomfort, it'd probably be in how my face feels."

"If we go out together like this, other people might mistake us for mother and son! After all... we seriously look like we were carved from the same mold right now."

As Lin Ying spoke, she also casually adjusted the belt holes at her waist.

Her original shoes were now too big and kept slipping; the proper knitted top had turned into an off-shoulder dress; even her shorts were about to fall off.

"If we go shopping together, most... forget it." Hearing Lin Ying's teasing, Ansheng reflexively wanted to joke back: if we go shopping, people would most likely mistake us for siblings; but if we say mother and son... that nonexistent dad is gonna end up full of bullet holes.

However.

From Lin Ying's seemingly joking words, Ansheng faintly sensed where the root of the erosion-like assimilation on her might lie...

Most likely... it was tied to the Fuli Network again.

Lin Ying's longing had bonded with the Fuli Network; under Spirit Particle Catalysis, she wasn't just borrowing Master Fuli's power from the shared network—her looks were also subtly being altered by the interconnection.

If they did a blood test now, the hospital's lab report would definitely show a blood relationship.

Lin Ying had tapped into First Epoch power.

"Why'd you stop halfway through your sentence." Lin Ying looked a bit annoyed, raising a hand to tap the little fox on the nose.

"Because... if I really spell it out, that nonexistent dad is probably headed straight for the electric chair."

"And we'd have to take the elevator to go visit him." Ansheng shrugged and snarked.

"That... does kinda make sense..."

Lin Ying paused, lowered her head to look herself over, and said, deep in thought, "If we ever actually ran into that kind of pervert, he'd probably make outstanding contributions to Life Sciences."

"At the very least, we'd finally know whether a normal human or a shark swims faster."

At around one meter forty-something tall, Lin Ying remembered she'd already hit one-forty-something back when she was twelve or thirteen.

Chatting as they walked, Lin Ying had already bounced her way to the eastern forest area of the Fox Immortal Palace.

There weren't any fancy, flower-bedecked buildings here—just a two-story wooden cottage with a floor-to-ceiling window taking up the entire wall.

The cottage was a quiet tea room, meant for relaxing, appreciating the winter scenery, and giving the little fox a date spot.

"...Your aggression level is off the charts."

Ansheng hopped down from Lin Ying's shoulder, looked at her with a slightly odd expression, and voiced his complaint.

After shedding into the Nine-tailed Fox·Immortal Bless form, Lin Ying's speech and mannerisms had become extremely bold, just like that senior Waz.

Though deep down, Ansheng actually strongly agreed with Lin Ying.

He just couldn't bring himself to say it out loud.

"How am I aggressive?"

Lin Ying went to the cottage's fridge, took out two bottles of ice-cold cola, cracked one open herself, and held it up to Master Fuli's mouth, beaming as she said:

"I'm all set on my end. We can start recording the moments of Master Fuli's growth anytime."

"You make it sound like I'm about to consummate a marriage or something." Ansheng rolled his eyes at Lin Ying, clamped the can's straw in his teeth, and took a huge pull of ice-cold cola down his throat.

The icy liquid exploded in his mouth, then ran down his esophagus into his stomach.

"One gulp of cola down the hatch—so refreshing and smooth!" Ansheng opened his mouth in delight and let out a burp.

"Let's do this!"

Ansheng squatted in the cottage, closed his eyes, and sank his will into his mind. "Cousin, time to get to work!"

With Master Fuli's call, the Wish List page slowly unfolded in his mind.

[Physique: 240]

[Wisdom: 198]

[Wish Power: 48]

"198+48=246, that's enough to hit Eight-Tails!"

Ansheng glanced over the Wish List; the numbers on the data page were almost the same as last time, when he checked after the Crab-eating Macaque incident ended.

Because ever since coming back from Crab-eating Macaque Island, Ansheng's main focus had been on optimizing redundant genes, and he hadn't deliberately farmed Wish Points...

Or you could say, in Xia Dong there simply weren't any Spirit Beasts dumb enough to blow up and go against the whole world.

The only one who didn't know his place was that Enchanting Base who'd just moved to Xia Dong from out of town.

By now, he was probably already strapped to a chair at the Security Bureau, being put through some heavy-duty interrogation techniques.

"Cousin! Go all-in on Wisdom! Max it out for me!"

Looking at the (+) sign behind Physique, Ansheng pouted a bit in reluctance, but still steered his mental hand over to Wisdom, ready to crank it all the way up.

Compared to Physique's full-body tingly numbness and the bladder-bursting kind of ecstasy,

Wisdom was ultimately the lame little brother—it only made him sleep really well.

Still...

Almost there. One more Mayflower run and he'd be able to pursue a mutual love with Physique.

"Eee—"

The 48 Wish Points turned into pale blue light, quickly rippling from Master Fuli's spine and sinking into his mind.

Master Fuli let out an "ee" from his mouth, his squatting posture collapsing onto the floor as his hind legs instinctively kicked a couple of times.