Recap
It is a self-defense robot made by dwarves.
The hunter murmured: “How could they move…”
An aircraft came from afar.
After landing, a man came out, handsome with a straight back, black boots stepping on the scorching yellow sand.
Only one person came to reinforce the Hunters Association.
“Don’t panic, everyone, they have no malicious intentions,” he said, “it’s just a dwarf who wants to go home, on a whim, wants to try if these things can still move. The beast frenzy is coming, we have to leave as soon as possible.”
The people in the chamber of commerce were still a little terrified: “So, is it only you who came to reinforce? Our goods were accidentally damaged, and it will take some time to sort and transport them.”
“Yes, only me. I happen to be nearby.” He showed the hunter badge to the people in the caravan, “I am the chief hunter Shen Chaomu, and I will escort you to the defense line.”
The robot’s eight spider legs retracted, replaced by wide tracks that propelled it effortlessly across the sand. As the salvaged goods were loaded, the caravan workers noticed a distant cloud of dust signaling the approach of the frenzy.
Shen Chaomu scanned the horizon. No thunderstorm this time. He messaged Yang Zhiming: The robot seems operational.
Yang Zhiming and a team of mechanics had accompanied Buck back to the pyramid. The underground city, a marvel of engineering, was still functioning, though its energy reserves were dwindling. In ten hours, it would fall silent.
They had repaired the defense robot’s control panel and reactivated the main communication array. Though few robots remained operational, they were enough to deter the strange beasts. Yang Zhiming, bribed with five bottles of vintage tree brew, had even managed to extract the location of the dwarves’ hidden city from the grumpy Buck.
“Don’t forget our agreement!” Buck had reminded him, his beard bristling. “Buck wants a spaceship!”
“Of course, of course,” Yang Zhiming had replied, wiping sweat from his brow. “But aren’t you taking Xijia?”
“No. It was damaged. And our ship was overloaded.”
“But isn’t it your deity?”
“We’ll just build another one.”
Yang Zhiming had stared at him, incredulous. “Your beliefs are that casual?”
“We’re not like those sentimental orcs,” Buck scoffed. “Our gods are our own creations. If they break, we replace them. They’ve probably built a new one by now.”
Yang Zhiming, speechless, could only gape.
“You seem fond of it,” Buck had said, gesturing toward Xijia. “Try fixing it after Buck is gone. Maybe you’ll succeed.” He drained his drink and bellowed a laugh. “It’s rare to find a human with such passion for machines! Buck will give you the key to the garden. Keep yourself busy!”
Now, the robot stood sentinel in the desert, its weapons a blur of motion as it decimated the approaching horde. Lasers and bullets found their marks, and a specialized barrier grounded the flying snakes, rendering them helpless.
Shen Chaomu escorted the caravan back to the association, then returned to his tent.
“Why were you gone so long?” Long Shiyu asked, looking up from his card game.
“The caravan was attacked. We had to transfer the cargo from their damaged aircraft. It took some time.”
“Are you going out again?”
“To another defense line. There’s a handover and other matters to attend to.”
“I want to come.”
“Alright.”
After all, he had been disqualified just days prior. Speculation ran rampant, but ultimately, the position was his.
Shen Chaomu, unconcerned with the association’s justifications, focused on the task at hand. He spent the next few hours reinforcing the defense line. The thunderstorms had ceased, the skies eerily calm.
That night, Long Shiyu, freshly bathed and munching on a peach, asked, “Why did they suddenly make you chief?”
“Qiu Ruowen offered me a deal,” Shen Chaomu replied casually, reviewing reports on his terminal.
“A deal?” Long Shiyu looked up, surprised. “What kind of deal? I haven’t heard anything about this.”
“It’s a private agreement. Just between us.” Shen Chaomu scrolled through the documents. “She only gave me a one-year term.”
“Why?” Long Shiyu swallowed the peach pit.
“Peach pits aren’t edible,” Shen Chaomu reminded him.
“They’re not poisonous. I’ve eaten worse.” Long Shiyu rubbed his tail against Shen Chaomu’s leg. “But why only one year?” He gasped suddenly. “Is she a witch trying to harm you? I’ll defeat her!”
“There are no witches or princesses involved.” Shen Chaomu paused, then said, “She believes I lack certain qualifications. But the situation is dire, and I’m the best candidate, so they made an exception. They might reconsider after a year, depending on the circumstances.”
“That’s not fair,” Long Shiyu protested. “They’re using you. Pulling you in like this, only to give you one year.”
Shen Chaomu smiled. “It’s not like that. It’s my duty. I was a candidate, after all.”
“But you deserve better,” Long Shiyu insisted.
“I agree.” Shen Chaomu leaned closer, a playful glint in his eyes. “So why haven’t I even gotten a kiss?”
Long Shiyu blushed, flustered by his sudden proximity. “I kissed you before,” he stammered. “In the garden.”
“A kiss on the cheek doesn’t count.”
“But that’s how it is in fairy tales.”
“What fairy tales have you been reading?”
“The ones you gave me.”
“I gave you fairy tales?”
“Yes. A long time ago, at the elf wedding.”
The light rain’s magic surfaced another fragmented memory, a hazy scene. Perhaps, as Long Shiyu had said, he needed to experience the full downpour to remember. He had no recollection of giving Long Shiyu any fairy tales.
“After I learned Alliance Standard,” Long Shiyu explained, “I tried to read some books, but they were all about princes and heroes. So I asked you for bedtime stories. You finally agreed, but you didn’t want to tell them yourself. You just gave me some books.”
“Is it the story of the princess and the prince, or the princess and the dragon?”
“Of course it’s a dragon!”
Shen Chaomu rubbed his brow bone, and suddenly admired his former self for being able to find even this kind of fairy tale book.
Long Shiyu said: “But the stories in those books are intermittent, and I don’t know what happened. I told others these stories, but no one has heard of them.”
The more Shen Chaomu listened, the more suspicious he became: “What kind of stories are written in these fairy tale books you mentioned?”
“There is the story of Sleeping Beauty being kissed awake by the evil dragon, and the story of Snow White and the seven little evil dragons… To be honest, some of the stories in it are a bit scary to read, and there are hints at the end of each fairy tale, like What [Born as a dragon, you have to be kind], what [Call the police in time when you encounter fraud], what [Stupid birds fly first, silly dragons eat less].”
Shen Chaomu: “…”
Shen Chaomu: “…………”
The more he listened to these magically modified fairy tales and the quite educational proverbs, the more they sounded like his style.
… Could it be that the fairy tale books that the silly dragon read since childhood were written by him?
No wonder there are only pure scenes of kisses on the cheek.
The more Shen Chaomu thought about it, the bigger his head became. It turned out that nearly a thousand years ago, he was trying to educate the silly dragon about common sense.
Common sense education failed miserably.
Now it has pitted himself.
Long Shiyu said: “So, if you want me to kiss you again, it’s not impossible.”
Before Shen Chaomu could react, he smacked him on the cheek, then buried his head back in the quilt.
This is not enough.
Shen Chaomu smiled helplessly and turned off the light. He said again: “The wildfire in the Eastern Hemisphere has basically been suppressed. According to past experience, the monster frenzy comes suddenly and ends very quickly. Maybe when we wake up tomorrow, it will be over.”
“Where are we going after that?” Long Shiyu said muffled in the quilt, “You are the chief, you must have a lot to do.”
“Well, but there is still time to find a planet, after all, that is your treasure house. And I have to give Buck a small spaceship.”
After a few seconds, Long Shiyu said: “What is ‘my treasure house’, that, that obviously belongs to Akasa Mo.”
“Really, then I was wrong.”
Long Shiyu hummed twice in the quilt again, and soon fell asleep.
In the following days, the monster frenzy subsided. The thunderstorms vanished, but the threat of Royasno lingered. The defense line held strong, the reactivated robots bolstering their efforts. The desert returned to an uneasy peace, the black pyramid silent under the moonlight, the sky garden drifting silently above.
Shen Chaomu, busy with the handover process, worked late into the night. He encountered Bai Yiyi occasionally, their interactions strained. But one day, as he prepared to depart for the front lines, he caught her watching him, her expression a mixture of envy and resentment. It was a brief glimpse behind her carefully constructed facade, a flash of vulnerability quickly replaced by her usual polite smile.
“Be careful, Mr. Shen,” she said, her voice laced with a subtle bitterness. “I await your triumphant return.”
The water-red leaves of her hair tie fluttered like a butterfly’s wings.
Despite his new authority, the association’s files contained no mention of Project High Wind. Qiu Ruowen and the others were still wary, but Shen Chaomu no longer cared.
Finally, with the wildfire contained and the defense lines withdrawn, he had a day free.
“Want to go somewhere with me?” he asked Long Shiyu.
“Where? Is there delicious food?” Long Shiyu’s eyes lit up.
“Not this time. We can have a feast when we return. Our starship departs the day after tomorrow. Perhaps we’ll have time for another Tabu barbecue.”
They boarded the aircraft.
Half an hour later, a tall, white tower materialized on the horizon. It stood at the edge of the desert, its observation deck sealed off. A sheer cliff face loomed nearby, the ground at its base scarred by past battles.
The Tower of High Wind.
The aircraft stopped a little further away, and Long Shiyu followed Shen Chaomu to the bottom of the tower.
Looking up, the white color has not changed for many years, and under the scorching sun, it is almost dazzling.
The two ignored the seal and walked up the circling stairs.
There are no windows in the tower, after a long climb, push open a creaking wooden door, and suddenly the eyes open up——
The boundless desert, the cracked earth, and the endless horizon. Two gray birds flew overhead, the sky was blue.
This sightseeing platform is extremely spacious, with benches in the corner, and the telescope for tourists is covered with dust.
Shen Chaomu said: “The High Wind Project is named in this way because it was first proposed here. The proposers were the elites of several major dragon hunting families. At that time, they had just solved a monster frenzy, and this tower was not so dilapidated. They gathered here and held a not-so-formal meeting.”
Nearly a thousand years ago, there was the same wind and the same sky on the tower. The heat wave was rolling outside, but the inside of the tower was cool and pleasant. The nameless king had just ascended the throne, and the young and vigorous elites gathered together, their boots still covered with mud and blood from the frenzy.
They were talking and laughing loudly, hammering each other on the shoulders, and drinking heavily to celebrate the victory. With blood boiling, one person shouted: “The throne should belong to the alliance forever!”
So a plan spanning thousands of years was born here.
Now that the plan is still there, the white tower is so dilapidated that no one visits it, and it is left at the end of history.
Shen Chaomu said again: “You know about the High Wind plan, right? You know they want the throne.”
“Probably know.” Long Shiyu said, “I heard someone mention it before.”
In the beginning, the confidentiality of this plan was far less than it is now. The years are long, he has met many people and seen many things, even if he never deliberately inquired, he still knows a general idea.
He doesn’t care much.
Just like many other things in life.
The golden light flakes lifted a bench to the middle and swept away the dust.
The two sat down side by side, looking into the distance. In the distance, caravans of aircraft and off-road vehicles passed by. After the frenzy subsided, they continued to search for machinery, minerals and business opportunities under the yellow sand. This place will soon return to its original appearance.
Shen Chaomu said: “Sometimes I feel quite accomplished.”
“Same,” Long Shiyu said, “Except when collecting jewelry, I never feel this way… Maybe it’s because I don’t have any fellow clansmen to protect. We used to kill each other, and then they slowly disappeared. They are probably all dead.”
“Maybe they haven’t disappeared.” Shen Chaomu smiled, “Although it’s a bit strange for me to say this in my capacity, maybe they are still in some corner of the sea of stars like the dwarves. After all, this universe is so big, everything is possible, isn’t it?”
They chatted casually.
Finally, Long Shiyu yawned: “So, why did you suddenly come here?”
Shen Chaomu was silent for a long time this time.
Then he said: “Because I think this may be where everything started…not your story, but my story.”
But the young man beside him didn’t answer. His shoulders were heavy, Shen Chaomu turned his head to look, Long Shiyu had already fallen asleep, leaning on his shoulder, a few soft black hairs tickled his chin, and the smell on his body was like the wilderness after the rain.
So Shen Chaomu just smiled silently, and leaned back against the back of the chair. The wind was blowing very comfortably, and gradually there was a bit of lazy sleepiness.
Buck told the coordinates of the treasure house, which is in the Kahala galaxy. They will be heading there soon.
There, the hunters tried to find the skeleton of the ghost whale.
___
The author has something to say: Daily whimper (2/1) What does his Akasa Mo’s treasure house have to do with my Long Shiyu! Today is a princess cult fairy tale from nine hundred years ago
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