Chapter 302 - 279: A New Plan Part II

Chapter 302: Chapter 279: A New Plan Part II

Li Ke rubbed his chin, not knowing what to say. If the Spring of Drowned Man were fine, he wouldn’t mind going to take a look, or even messing around with Jusenkyo. But if the Spring of Drowned Man was dried up...

He looked at Ranma, then at Genma Saotome. Suddenly, he felt that if he lost his mind and impulsively went to Jusenkyo with these two, there was a very high probability that—just like in a gag manga—he would fall into some random spring due to all sorts of inexplicable reasons!

And there was a very high chance it would be the Spring of Drowned Girl!

He always followed his instincts, so...

"Ah? The Spring of Drowned Man is out of water? That’s going to be a bit of a problem."

Shampoo blinked in surprise and couldn’t help but speak up.

Only then did Li Ke realize that she had returned at some point, and there were quite a few Joketsuzoku girls standing behind her.

"What’s a problem?" he asked instinctively.

"There are quite a few girls in the Joketsuzoku who like each other and have given each other the Kiss of Death. If there’s no Spring of Drowned Man, they’ll have no choice but to fight each other to the death."

Shampoo crossed her arms, casually dropping a rather shocking piece of information.

Li Ke suddenly realized something.

"In other words... the women of your Joketsuzoku use the Spring of Drowned Man to turn into men?!"

He asked directly, and she nodded in confirmation.

"That’s right. Sometimes, when there aren’t any men who catch our eye, we naturally have to use the Spring of Drowned Man to solve the problem."

She didn’t think there was anything wrong with this. After all, back in ancient times, a bunch of people who missed the age for marriage because of martial arts training had experimented with these springs in all sorts of ways!

Throwing tigers, rabbits, and deer into the springs to turn them into cute girls was a trick that happened all the time back then.

They had also discovered that while those girls were highly feral and quite dim-witted due to being wild beasts originally—making them hard to discipline even with human intelligence—the next generation would inherit the strength of the beasts and become exceptionally powerful. Because of this, certain customs were passed down.

It was only in recent years, as martial arts became less popular, that the practice finally stopped.

Therefore, to the Joketsuzoku, gender wasn’t an issue at all.

"..."

"After all, only the strong deserve to survive," Shampoo continued as a matter of fact. "If you hadn’t defeated me, I probably would have gone to find the Spring of Drowned Man and married a girl from the tribe."

She genuinely looked down on the boys in her tribe because they were just too weak!

They were so weak that she could beat them in a few moves. In contrast, some of the girls in the tribe were actually decent. So if no strong man ever came along to defeat her, she really had intended to soak in the Spring of Drowned Man and find a girl to marry!

"..."

Li Ke was somewhat speechless. But thinking about how people adapt to their environment, it wasn’t entirely far-fetched for the Joketsuzoku to develop such an ecosystem.

Still...

Looking at the backpack on her back, he instinctively asked, "What are you doing?"

Why had she suddenly packed a bag?

Shampoo naturally wrapped her arms around Li Ke’s arm. Her soft chest pressed tightly against his robust arm, causing a faint blush to appear on her fair face.

Yet, she spoke with complete naturalness.

"You defeated me, said you’d make me have your babies, and won our fight. That means I have to marry you now!"

Her words were so effortless, and her demeanor and tone were so completely natural, that everyone present instantly shared the exact same thought:

Oh, so that’s how it works. That makes perfect sense.

Li Ke nodded and unhesitatingly pulled Shampoo into his embrace. Since the girl had already agreed, it would be downright impolite for him not to take the initiative.

"Like hell that makes sense! This is way too casual!"

Misato Katsuragi was completely flabbergasted. Seeing Li Ke’s hand naturally moving to cup Shampoo’s backside, she couldn’t hold back and punched him right in the shoulder.

"Have you forgotten what we came here to do?!"

Her point was simple. They were people who would eventually leave this world. Wasn’t Li Ke just leading this girl on by doing this?

"Of course I know what we’re doing."

Li Ke sensed the surrounding air and shook his head. "But unfortunately, that guy hasn’t shown up."

He had already derailed Ranma’s plot to this extent, yet that monster holding the twisted World Power hadn’t appeared. What else was he supposed to do?

Ranma ? had a lot of central characters, and Shampoo was a highly critical piece of the puzzle. Now that he had openly accepted her, a whole series of events that would have caused trouble for Ranma would never happen. Many crises that were only resolved because of her would no longer take place. Under these circumstances, the original plot was basically gone.

Was he supposed to NTR Akane and all the other girls in the story just to trigger a plot change?

The problem was that many things were already locked in!

Take Ukyo, one of Ranma’s fiancées, for instance. She had been won over by Ranma when they were kids. Barring some crazy anomaly, there was no way Li Ke could get his hands on her.

On the other hand, Akane Tendo and Kodachi might actually be possible...

Li Ke fell into deep thought, suddenly finding Misato rather twisted for implicitly pushing him to steal another man’s fiancées!

"How could he possibly show up just because you’re picking up girls?!"

Misato had no idea what Li Ke was thinking. Because he wasn’t willing to tell her that he knew the plot, it looked to her like he was just messing around without giving a single thought to finding the monster!

"That’s not necessarily true."

Knowing her perspective, Li Ke didn’t argue further. He simply looked off into the distance.

"But since we’re already here, let’s make the trip anyway. I want to see if I can find a way to unclog the Spring of Drowned Man."

If he could, he would change them back and see what happened. If a plot distortion as massive as turning Ranma permanently back into a man couldn’t lure that monster out, then he would truly have to head to Japan to meddle with the rest of the storyline.

After all, if playing out the rest of the plot still didn’t work, there was always an American military base over there. It would be highly convenient in more ways than one.

"Hey, Shampoo, can you take us to Jusenkyo? I sort of know these two, and I want to see if there’s a way to clear the Spring of Drowned Man early."

Hearing his request, Shampoo—being a local—didn’t find it to be a problem at all. She quickly secured an oxcart to carry the group toward Jusenkyo.

Genma and Ranma had no objections either. Even if the chances were slim, they still clung to that tiny shred of hope that they might regain their normal male bodies ahead of schedule. So even if Li Ke hadn’t mentioned it, they would have shamelessly hitched a ride on the oxcart with him anyway.

While riding on the cart, Shampoo, who had been clinging to Li Ke the whole time, finally couldn’t help but speak up.

"Husband! What is your name?! Where do you live?! Would you be interested in living with the Joketsuzoku permanently?!"

She felt a bit embarrassed. She had already decided to be his woman, yet she didn’t even know his name. It was a bit absurd.

"My name is Li Ke. As for where I live, I plan to settle down in Japan for the time being. There are things I care about over there, so I won’t be coming back to live here anytime soon."

Li Ke stretched his arms. He didn’t have any identification documents in this place, which made things quite troublesome.

"Li Ke... it doesn’t sound like a Little Jap... you’re not Japanese."

A genuine smile appeared on Shampoo’s face. She hugged Li Ke happily, feeling that she was quite fortunate. He, in turn, fully felt the softness of her body.

How should he describe it?

It was like holding a cute cat—soft, yet incredibly light. After all, not all cats were completely solid.

Her little habits were especially distinct; while hugging him, she would unconsciously sniff his scent, rubbing her hair and nose against his neck. This feeling really made him feel like he was holding a giant feline!

"So, why exactly do you have to marry him just because he defeated you? You didn’t even know his name a moment ago, right?!"

Sitting to the side, Misato Katsuragi simply couldn’t hold back anymore. Watching Shampoo leaning her entire weight against Li Ke, she let out a loud complaint.

"Isn’t that way too casual?!"

She truly could not comprehend how Shampoo could decide a major life event so lightly under such absurd circumstances.

"Is there anything strange about that? Since I lost to a strong person, it’s only natural that I should marry a strong person!"

Shampoo took it completely for granted. In a formal duel and a legitimate exchange of blows, she had lost to Li Ke’s absolute strength without any underhanded tricks or schemes. Furthermore, before they even clashed, the two of them had already established that she would bear his children if she lost. So now that she had lost, it was only natural to bear his children!

Was there anything hard to understand about that?

Or could it be...

Her gaze suddenly turned fierce, causing Misato to sense an immediate flash of danger.

"Husband, this person wouldn’t happen to be your original wife, would she?"

As she spoke, several throwing knives had already appeared in her hand. If Li Ke said yes, she would unhesitatingly hurl them at Misato. Even if it wouldn’t kill her, it would force the woman to back off and stop disrupting her beautiful life with Li Ke!

That’s right! The people of the Joketsuzoku were exactly this straightforward! If their romantic rival was another woman, they wouldn’t hesitate to use lethal force!

"Did you forget that I already told you I’m building a harem?! Besides, Miss Katsuragi is not my wife!"

Li Ke tapped Shampoo directly on the head, causing her fierce look to vanish instantly. Her face softened into a cute expression as she stuck her tongue out playfully to act innocent.

However, when she looked back toward Misato, her tone wasn’t nearly as polite.

"So you’re not my husband’s wife. Gosh, husband, why are you traveling with an old woman who gossips about our intimate relationship? Honestly, I almost killed the wrong person."

Her words stabbed directly into Misato’s sore spot, especially the phrase "old woman."

"What did you just say, you brat?!"

Misato almost stood up to argue with her. But looking at Li Ke, who was completely captivated by her charms, she thought it over and decided to let it drop.

Li Ke was someone who clearly put women above all else, talking about harems and getting pregnant left and right. If she took this seriously, it might actually cause unnecessary friction, and picking a fight with him wasn’t something she wanted to do.

So, she swallowed her anger.

"You completely tuned out the part where I said ’harem,’ didn’t you?"

Pinching Shampoo’s cheeks, Li Ke looked at her very seriously.

"I am a man building a harem. As my wife, how can you plot against my other wives?!"

He cared deeply about this point and finally understood why his instincts had told him that he absolutely had to play hard to get!

With a girl like this, he had to keep her at arm’s length first; otherwise, things would definitely spin out of control!

Damn it!

Li Ke secretly gritted his teeth.

He had been too impulsive!

His instincts hadn’t sounded the charge just now, yet he had taken it upon himself to rush in anyway. Although he had still successfully claimed Shampoo, training her afterward was almost certainly going to cause trouble!

"Mnn, Husband only needs me... Those other women are just vulgar and ordinary. Shampoo alone is enough!"

She curled up completely in his embrace like a little cat, even pulling her legs up to display her delicate, pale feet in their embroidered shoes right before his eyes. Her hands were also curled up like little paws as she gave him a deeply pleasing look.

"Shampoo, Shampoo can satisfy Husband in absolutely everything! Even if Husband wants to do something right now, I won’t resist at all! After all... after all, I belong to Husband now!"

Without a shred of reservation or hesitation, she directly displayed her soft beauty to him. The demon inside Li Ke almost said yes, but fortunately, the angel in his heart said yes, yes, yes!

"Ugh..."

Feeling as though his heart had sustained a critical hit, Li Ke felt like he was about to lose!

Because just like Seria, this was an absolute, top-tier freebie!

On top of that, she possessed the adorable charm of a cat, and she was a woman who perfectly aligned with his aesthetic preferences!

Of course, she was just one of his aesthetic preferences!

"Damn it, I should have anticipated this..."

Clutching his chest, a fierce internal battle raged within his mind. Should he do this and that with her right now, or should he head to Jusenkyo to resolve the lack of water in the Spring of Drowned Man? These two matters alternated wildly in his heart. However, the priority of heading to Jusenkyo to fix the spring was instantly pinned to the ground and thoroughly beaten by the prospect of doing this and that with her!

Misato Katsuragi pressed her hand onto his shoulder.

"Hey... you aren’t actually going to forget our official business, are you? Besides, Li Ke, don’t you plan to listen to my plan?"

She was truly reaching her breaking point. Previously, she had thought he was calm, collected, steady, and reliable. With such an experienced veteran leading the team, she hadn’t worried about being unable to return.

But why did it feel like...

"True... and you actually have a plan?" Li Ke blinked in surprise upon hearing this.

"No kidding! Am I just supposed to be a mindless follower?"

Misato rolled her eyes. If he could have lured that monster out directly, would she have needed to waste her brainpower?

Besides, did he look down on her capabilities as a commander? She had become the tactical commander for operations against the Angels; how could she possibly not think for herself!

She finally understood why looking at him made her so angry. This feeling of being slighted was truly infuriating!

Li Ke also realized that he had been somewhat impolite, so he let out an embarrassed laugh.

"Apologies. I just felt that you didn’t quite understand alternative worlds..."

Because of this reason, he ultimately managed to restrain himself. After all, official business was still more urgent. Otherwise, if that monster grew too strong, things would become exceptionally troublesome.

For the time being, it was better to search for some significant assistance.

Although her strength was decent, she couldn’t even compare to the Sailor Guardians, let alone modern firearms. If they brought her along, she would very likely become a liability.

Therefore, he looked at her with a serious expression.

"We’ll talk about taking your virginity later, Shampoo. Right now, the task ahead of us is quite important. Miss Katsuragi, what is your plan?"

He was now rather curious about her strategy.

"Then I’ll lay it out. Since Jusenkyo is real..."

Misato looked toward the Saotome father and son. It was precisely the existence of this duo that allowed her to confirm that such springs truly existed in this world.

"...Then we can entirely establish a company to sell the water from Jusenkyo. In this world, there are quite a few individuals who are deeply distressed by their gender!"

A sharp gleam flashed in her eyes.

"The shock this will deliver to human society will be absolutely massive! Mr. Li Ke! You completely overlooked this matter!"