Chapter 102 - A Test of Questions and Answers!
Ling-style killing arts! That was one of the Ling family loyalists' specialised combat arts — why would it appear here in this mission space? Doubt rose in Ling Lan's heart. If it could be said that she wasn't particularly concerned about this legacy mission at the start, now that she had seen this set of killing arts, Ling Lan had no choice but to take it seriously.
Ling Lan did not hesitate — she quickly followed the figure's lead to go through every punch and kick of the Ling-style killing arts perfectly. Having grown up practising these arts in combat training with the Ling family loyalists, Ling Lan had long had it ingrained in her memory.
Once Ling Lan had gone through the full set of the killing arts perfectly, the grey figure dissipated once again. At the same time, Ling Lan felt as if the surrounding fog and mist were gradually melting away, and soon, she could clearly see the scenery before her.
She was standing on a lush and green lawn. In the distance, there were the highs and lows of mountain ranges, circled by clouds and mist; nearby, a stream was trickling, and the air was filled with birdsong and the scent of flowers. A lovely and tranquil mountain valley scene had just appeared so abruptly before Ling Lan's eyes.
Ling Lan had never seen scenery as beautiful as this, which caused her heart to become unbelievably quiet in an instant. At that moment, a sheet of white paper suddenly descended from the skies, drifting down leisurely to float miraculously at her eye level and unfurled itself.
On it was a line of writing. It was a request: This is a beautiful mountain valley, but unfortunately, till now it still has no name. Please give it a nice name now.
Ling Lan had just finished scanning these words when an exquisite Chinese writing brush appeared beside the white paper.
That's strange. Why would such an ancient thing appear in this modern place?
Ling Lan's brows furrowed. Her gaze was fixed on the writing brush — the more she looked at it, the stranger it seemed. This was because the design of the brush actually seemed somewhat familiar to her, but she just couldn't recall where she had seen it before.
The academy? Ling Lan silently shook her head, eliminating this possibility. The academy was too advanced — if you told her that there were some things that defied reality there, Ling Lan might still believe you, but for an almost extinct antique such as a Chinese writing brush to appear there was almost impossible.
In that case, the only possibility was her house.
When and where would she have seen a writing brush like this one in her house? A writing brush would typically appear in a study room, but the study in the old Ling family mansion belonged to her father. Thus, the writing brushes in there were all bold and simple in design — there was no such elegantly exquisite writing brush there, which was clearly meant for women ...
For women? The study? Ling Lan suddenly recalled an incident ... That was back when she had first started learning how to read and write. She had been dragged into the study by her mum to practise calligraphy. Her mum had said that this was a Ling family tradition — every descendant of the Ling family must learn how to do it well. Back then, Ling Lan had been miserable. Her tiny fingers hadn't been able to hold any of her father's large writing brushes in the proper grip. In the end, she could only pretend to be clueless and innocent, and just grip the writing brush as if it were a mop.
Seeing Ling Lan's put-out expression, Lan Luofeng had been giggling with amusement. However, she also knew then that she had been careless, not having prepared a small writing brush more appropriate for Ling Lan. In the end, in order to let Ling Lan grip the brush correctly, she had taken out a small writing brush that she treasured dearly, lending it to Ling Lan. She had also told Ling Lan with a tender look that this was a love token given to her by her father Ling Xiao.
She remembered that she had reflexively complained right then that her dad was really such a cheapskate, while her mum was just too gullible. Lan Luofeng hadn't known whether to laugh or cry, and had knocked her smartly on the head. Still, that little writing brush had really been so pretty and exquisite that Ling Lan had played with it curiously for a good long while that day. But starting from the second day, that delicate little writing brush had once again been secreted away by Lan Luofeng. In its place was an extremely common small writing brush. From then on, Ling Lan had never again seen that love-token writing brush.
Five years had passed since then, and Ling Lan had almost entirely forgotten that event as well as that brush.
Ling Lan suppressed the emotions roiling within her. Carefully, she picked up the exquisite writing brush before her and twirled it in her palms. A phoenix with its wings outstretched in flight was carved on the shaft of the brush. It was exactly like the one she had seen in the past — sure enough, this brush was the one from her memory.
Could it be that this legacy had something to do with the Ling family? Something to do with her dad? Or perhaps this legacy was from her dad?
Ling Lan felt as if she were going mad, otherwise why would she even have these kinds of thoughts? Legacy missions could only be issued by someone at the level of a imperial operator or beyond. And anyone at that level would undoubtedly be a terrifying existence, almost a symbol of immortality. How could that short-lived dad of hers fall into this category?
But what if it were true? Ling Lan's heart started pounding violently ...
Right then, another line of writing suddenly appeared on the paper: You still have one minute to think. The countdown begins now. 60, 59, 58 ...
F*ck! Ling Lan's emotional feelings fled instantly. She started thinking hard on what name she should give to this valley. At this moment, Ling Lan was somewhat regretful that she had gotten distracted by the writing brush, and had not used her time wisely to think about this problem.
"A beautiful valley, an exquisite brush? What exactly is this legacy mission trying to tell me with this imagery?" The CPU of Ling Lan's little brain was whirring at full speed, trying to find any hint she could from her surroundings.
The writing brush was her mum's love-token? In that case, could this lovely valley also have something to do with her mum? Ling Lan began scouring through the conversations she had had with her mum, hoping that she would be able to find some clue there.
43, 42, 41 ... time continued to slip away bit by bit. Ling Lan's forehead began to bead up with sweat — Goddammit, if only Little Four were here.
"Boss, looking for me?" Little Four's voice suddenly rang out from within her consciousness. Ling Lan was startled, "Little Four, you're here?"
"Yup, I've been watching all this time. It's just that I was sealed by an energy force and couldn't talk to you. But when you thought of me just now, that energy just disappeared," replied Little Four.
"Enough about that for now. There's still about 30 seconds left. Quick, help me think, when I talked with my mum before this, did she ever mention a place like this?" Ling Lan was burning with anxiety, throwing out the question hurriedly.
"That's a bit too broad. Are there any more hints?" Little Four also became anxious, and his core processing chip started running in overdrive.
"Whatever location for my parents' engagement, dating, or proposal, or perhaps a marriage spot or a honeymoon destination ... or maybe some country that she has a deep impression of, or even an ideal country to build a home?" Ling Lan ran through anything she could think of — all she could do now was gamble.
"Dating spots ... other than the Ling estates, it was military camps. Your dad is really unromantic!" muttered Little Four. How in the world had Mama Lan been wooed by this? "Engagement? Proposal? Marriage? Honeymoon? Huh?! The family estates? Military camps? Hells, did your dad only know how to run between the family grounds and the military camps?! Did he never even consider exploring other places?!"
Little Four was infuriated. No matter how hard he looked, Ling Xiao and Lan Luofeng's romance history only went back and forth between military camps and the old Ling family estates. There was nothing at all connected with this beautiful valley before them right now.
"Then what about dreams? Or ideals? Didn't my mum have any places which she really wanted to visit?" Ling Lan saw the number on the paper dropping from double digits into single digits, and couldn't help but yell.
"I've got it! It's Belief! Mama Lan most wanted to go to Belief ..." Little Four finally located the place that Lan Luofeng missed the most.
At this point, the countdown had already reached 3. Ling Lan didn't hesitate, quickly writing down 'Belief'. The moment the final 'f' was written, the countdown timer hit zero.
Ling Lan stared blankly at her answer. She honestly had no idea what kind of place 'Belief' was, so she didn't know if this answer that Little Four provided was right or not. Whatever the result, she had already tried her best.
The words on the paper slowly faded away, including Ling Lan's answer, and the paper turned back into a completely white sheet. Ling Lan took in a deep breath and waited for the final determination of the legacy mission.
You Pass! Two words in bold and vigorous cursive writing emerged on the paper. When Ling Lan saw the two words, the tension in her heart eased, and she soon started to feel fatigue settling into her body and mind. The intense pressure and anxiety within that short one minute had really taken a toll on her mental resources.
When the two words disappeared once more, new questions appeared. However, these questions were not at all difficult, because they were clearly a type of self-introduction.
"Name: Ling Lan!"
"Father: Ling Xiao!"
"Mother: Lan Luofeng!"
"Age: 7 years!"
"What does your father like best?" The fifth question made Ling Lan pause. She stopped the brush in her hand, thinking back on what Lan Luofeng had said.
********
"Baby Ling Lan, do you know what your father likes?" Lan Luofeng was hugging Ling Lan, showing her a photo of her and Ling Xiao together, as she asked Ling Lan this.
Ling Lan rolled her eyes mentally. If her mum didn't tell her, how would she know?
"Your father really, really likes mecha. You could even say that, in his life, besides mecha, there is still only mecha. Mummy was sometimes jealous of his mecha, but your daddy was the coolest when he was piloting his mecha. No one else could compare." Mama Lan was starting to get lost in her fantasies again, her face dreamy with recollection. This made the one-year-old baby Ling Lan whack Ling Xiao's charming smiling face in the photo with a small hand.
"You menace!" scolded Ling Lan internally. The moment her dad was brought up, her mum would become unsteady.
"Still, what your dad loved most was me. Did you know that? Your daddy told me once ... if he had to choose between me and mecha, he would abandon mecha without question, and choose me." At this point in her story, Lan Luofeng blushed. "Wait till I meet him again. I will definitely make him throw away his mecha, and accompany me forever ... like he promised."
Ling Lan felt a faint sense of melancholy from these words. Loving so deeply that she just could not accept the other's death ... whenever Lan Luofeng mentioned Ling Xiao, she spoke of him as if he were just on a long journey away, as if he hadn't truly departed.
*******
Wasn't mum the one dad loved the most? This was probably also what her mum wished for ... Ling Lan sighed, and behind the question of 'what does your father like best' , she wrote down 'Lan Luofeng'.
However, the next question gave Ling Lan yet another headache — why were the questions of this legacy mission so bizarre?
"Your mother's sleeping habit?" Ling Lan's face couldn't help but twitch at this question. Without hesitation, she put down 'grinding her teeth'.
When Ling Lan stopped writing, a final question appeared on the paper. "Do you need to modify your answers?"
Ling Lan resolutely wrote 'no'. At the final stroke, the brush in Ling Lan's hand instantly turned into black mist and dissipated into the air. The words on the paper also disappeared once again.
And then, very quickly, a new line of writing emerged on the paper.
"Congratulations on advancing to the next round!"
Chapter 103 - A Heartless Dad?
At the appearance of this line of text, the beautiful valley before Ling Lan's eyes shattered like glass and dissipated. In the blink of an eye, a new scene unfolded before Ling Lan's eyes. She was now in some luxurious hall, a hall which Ling Lan could not be more familiar with. It was the hall of the home she had lived in for a full 7 years —— the Ling family mansion.
Ling Lan's gaze revealed a trace of surprise at this unexpected scene. The cautious Ling Lan did not choose to walk around randomly, but instead stood still where she was. She tapped lightly on her own head as she thought: Was this originally set up this way? Or had the legacy mission extracted this image from her memories to create an impromptu illusion?
She needed to figure this out, otherwise she might make a wrong choice in the upcoming round of tests and fail the mission. Although she had already gone further than any of the other children before her, Ling Lan was still unwilling to accept failure down to her very bones.
Ling Lan decided that she would first investigate the details of this great hall. If this scenery was the original setting of the legacy mission, then it was very likely related to her father Ling Xiao. If that was the case, this mansion drawn from Ling Xiao's memories would most definitely have some differences in comparison to the current mansion. Her father had already been dead for almost 8 years after all. On the other hand, if this illusion was born from an extraction of her memories, then she shouldn't be able to find any differences in her surroundings.
Ling Lan took a careful look around, and very soon, she had found something different. There was an additional woollen army coat on one of the armchairs in the hall, and on the wall behind it, the space beside her parents' wedding photo was empty. It was missing a portrait of herself.
Every year, Lan Luofeng would choose one of Ling Lan's newest photos to convert into a portrait, and then hang it beside their wedding photo in the great hall. The portrait had already been changed seven times without skipping a year. According to Lan Luofeng, she wanted Ling Xiao to keep watching Ling Lan as she grew up.
But in Ling Lan's opinion, Lan Luofeng was clearly just too free and needed to find something to do. Still, to keep her mother happy, Ling Lan was glad to oblige.
"From this, it looks like this scene is definitely not drawn from my memory. From the time I was born, my picture has always been hung here." Ling Lan's lips quirked up in a small smile. Since she had gotten her answer, her following choices would be much easier.
When Ling Lan took her first step, a clear and resounding voice rang out in the hall. "Please choose a room as you wish. The test content of every room is different. Some are easy, while some are difficult ..."
The corner of Ling Lan's lips quirked upwards. This was probably a trap. Ever since she had entered this legacy mission, she had not seen any task that depended purely on luck. This was obviously abnormal if it really was as she thought.
As if sensing Ling Lan's thoughts, the clear voice continued to say, "This has nothing to do with being fair. Sometimes, luck is also a type of strength." Of course, it didn't change the fact that, whether you liked it or not, this was how it would be.
The clear voice had barely faded when the doors of all the rooms facing the hall swung open in unison with crisp sounds. The opened doorways seemed to beckon Ling Lan to enter.
"Isn't this just a misleading trick?" Ling Lan already had an answer in her heart. If this were someone who didn't know the Ling family mansion, they would definitely be tricked by this scene before them. This mission had been silently eliminating all candidates who weren't from the Ling family from the very beginning. This was probably why all the children before her hadn't been able to pass — they were all not Ling Lan.
"Were you waiting for me? Oh, Father!" By this point, Ling Lan could pretty much confirm that this legacy mission had been created by her father Ling Xiao.
Oh dad, what kind of person are you, really? Ling Lan smiled wryly. She really regretted not having looked up information on Ling Xiao, causing her to be floundering in confusion right now.
Ling Lan settled her emotions and then began walking determinedly across the hall. She ignored the stairways curling off to the sides, walking directly to the centre of the corridor.
There were rooms along both sides of the corridor. Right now, all the room doors were already open. As Ling Lan walked down the hallway, she could see the decorations and contents of the rooms. Some of them were the same as their current counterparts, while others were completely different. Was this how it was in her father's memory?
She walked over to stand before a full-length mirror. The mirror was very tall and large, reaching up to 2.5 metres tall and spanning 4 metres wide.
Without any hesitation, Ling Lan pushed her palms against the mirror and something unexpected occurred. The mirror actually broke apart from the middle, folding in on itself in four different directions until it finally disappeared to reveal a hidden passage. At the end of the 4-metre wide passage was a spacious staircase draped with a shaggy white carpet.
Ling Lan had just stepped into the passage when the mirror reassembled itself behind her, returning to its original appearance in the blink of an eye. It was once more a flawless full-length mirror, its fine cracks imperceptible to the naked eye. Modern-day technology was already able to achieve this flawless perfection.
The Ling family mansion was split into two independent areas. The front section was for entertaining guests, though it naturally included a master bedroom for the master, along with studies and other common rooms to fend off spying.
Meanwhile, the hidden back area was where the Ling family head truly resided. Besides the Ling family head, this secret was only known to a few old loyal servants who frequently visited the mansion.
Therefore, even if other students had passed the previous few rounds by chance, once they got here, they would still be unable to find the correct room. Furthermore, even if someone accidentally touched the mirror, it still wouldn't open. This was because the force necessary to open the mirror corresponded to the position touched. If the position touched was different, the force needed to trigger the mirror to open would also be different.
Of course, this did not exclude the possibility of someone being phenomenally lucky, being able to pass every round of the test by sheer luck ... This sort of person would obviously be someone favoured by the heavens, a destined winner in life, the main character of a story — Ling Lan would have no regrets losing the legacy to such a person; it was stupid to try and match an abnormality.
Ling Lan slowly walked up the staircase. For some reason, her heart started pounding dramatically and her palms started oozing sweat. Would Ling Xiao, her father in this life, really appear in that room?
Ling Lan finally arrived at the study. Her mum Lan Luofeng had once said that this study belonged to Ling Xiao. Flipped around, it meant that Ling Xiao also only existed within that study room. The moment Ling Xiao walked out of that study, Ling Xiao was no longer Ling Xiao, but Lan Luofeng's hubby.
Ling Lan had always felt that her mum was rather domineering — she just hid it very deeply. In particular, her soft-touch methods were on a level of its own; tears especially, were one of her sure-win tactics. Many times Ling Lan had surrendered to these methods, and she believed that her father would also have been powerless against them.
Thus, Ling Lan chose the study. Since this was a legacy mission set by Ling Xiao, then he would only be able to pass on the legacy when he was truly Ling Xiao.
Ling Lan took a deep breath and placed her right hand on the door handle of the room. With a strong push, the door easily swung open, and everything within the study was revealed before her eyes.
Abruptly, silent tears fell from Ling Lan's eyes ...
Behind the study desk, a handsome young man was smiling gently as he looked at her. And that man was her father, Ling Xiao.
Only then did Ling Lan notice that, over the span of these 7 years, under Lan Luofeng's daily nagging and bombardment of stories, she had already subconsciously accepted this man before her as her father. It was only because Ling Xiao wasn't physically around that these affectionate emotions had been deeply buried within Ling Lan's heart, and had never been discovered by herself. And now, really seeing her father standing before her, Ling Lan could no longer control the emotions in her heart. The tears could not be stopped as she involuntarily began to cry.
The current Ling Xiao should be a memory-entity from 8 years ago. He was utterly unmoved by Ling Lan's emotional turmoil, only giving her a slight nod before saying, "Being able to get here, you should be my child Ling Lan."
However, he quickly scoffed at himself and said, "Well, not definitely. I believe that the military will not let go of this legacy so easily. Perhaps you all really managed to crack this mission. After all, the previous rounds and questions weren't that difficult." With these words, a cold glint suddenly flashed across Ling Xiao's eyes. Ling Lan abruptly felt a crushing wave of pressure sweep towards her, almost flattening her to the ground. Fortunately, Ling Lan had already been fashioned by the learning space into a little anomaly — she immediately leaked a little essence of Dao to bear the burden of this endless pressure.
Still, just this small taste had told Ling Lan that her father was, as expected, very strong. Anyone who could issue a legacy mission was no ordinary person.
It seemed that Ling Xiao only wanted to posture a little, and he may also be wary in case the one who passed was really his child. Very quickly, he had retracted the pressure emanating from his body.
"If the one inheriting my legacy is not my child, I have only one wish. After you have learnt it, look for my child, and pass these things on to him." Ling Xiao's words made Ling Lan's tears fall even more fiercely; this legacy had really been left for her by her father.
Ling Xiao's attitude gentled abruptly, and he said, "If you want to receive my legacy, there is one more mission you must complete. Find me something I need."
With those words, Ling Xiao said nothing further, only looking straight at Ling Lan with a smile. Ling Lan hurriedly wiped away her tears. This wasn't the time for her to mope and be melancholy; she had to finish this mission first.
Ling Lan asked carefully, "Could you give a little more detail?"
All that answered Ling Lan was still just Ling Xiao's smile. Ling Lan tried a few other things, beating around the bush, but unfortunately, Ling Xiao just smiled at everything. Ling Lan was rather put out by this, a little resentful that her dad had made this legacy mission so complicated.
With no other choice, Ling Lan could only observe the study room closely in hopes that she would be able to locate some kind of clue. Sadly, Ling Lan was quickly disappointed. She noticed that this study was almost identical to the study in her memory. Other than Ling Xiao sitting behind the desk, all the decorations and furniture in the room were exactly the same. It was clear to see how much Lan Luofeng had treasured Ling Xiao's study, unwilling to change any bit of it after his death.
Ling Lan was frustrated. What should she do? What thing could her old dad need? Ling Lan could only take a closer look at Ling Xiao, and hope that she would be able to discern something from his facial expressions and body language.
At that moment, Ling Xiao looked as if he were enjoying the show. His jaw was cradled in his left hand, which was leaning artlessly against the arm of the chair. His right hand was tapping lightly on the surface of the desk as he looked at her with a half-smile.
Dammit, this heartless old man of hers, actually tormenting his own child so ... Ling Lan was full of complaints.
Although Ling Lan understood deep down that the Ling Xiao before her now was the Ling Xiao of 8 years ago who knew nothing of the person standing before him now, and that this sort of irritating attitude was definitely not targeted at her specifically ... she just couldn't help but feel annoyed.
Chapter 104 - The World of Belief!
Also, why did he have to keep tapping his fingers? Didn't he know that all that noise would interfere with her thinking process?
Wait ... tapping noises? Ling Lan suddenly recalled something Lan Luofeng had mentioned before. When her mum had first met her dad, she had been attracted by the noise her dad had made by tapping on a table. It was because of that that they had gotten to know each other, and their love story had taken off and became unstoppable ...
********
Back then, her mum had been a fresh-faced 16 year old maiden who had just graduated from a scout academy. As she hadn't been particularly talented and didn't have good potential, she hadn't managed to get into any of the major military schools of the Federation. However, Lan Luofeng had dreamed of being in the military since young, so she had decisively signed up to serve as a foot soldier, finally succeeding in becoming a common starship JMC 1 female trooper.
After 3 months of training for new recruits, her mum had been assigned to the starship fleet belonging to her dad, finally becoming the second mainship's JMC.
Subsequently, whenever Lan Luofeng had gone out to eat with the other female troopers of the same rank, she would find that no matter where they sat, some mecha fighters would appear by their side. Among them was a young man, who seemed to be their team leader. He appeared especially handsome and powerful, drawing the admiration of many of the female troopers.
However, the sense of hierarchy within the military camps was very strong. Even the most average mecha fighter held the military rank of second lieutenant, not to mention one at captain level. Meanwhile, they were merely some common female troopers of the lowest possible rank. They just didn't have the right to initiate conversation with a mecha fighter. They could only fantasize every day that these mecha fighters would one day greet them first ... Many girls had been willing to become soldiers, largely for the purpose of reeling in a rich and promising husband.
Lan Luofeng was the only girl who didn't think anything of this. She was still very young and hadn't become interested in love yet, which was why she was rather slow when it came to these things. However, even so, Lan Luofeng had also been surprised sometimes, wondering why she would run into that mecha officer so often — no matter where she sat, she would bump into him.
Back when she had first heard the story, Ling Lan had known right away that it was because her dad had already started crushing on her mum. That's why he was using this sort of 'serendipitous meeting' method to increase her mum's impression of him ... he had really been quite desperate.
Just like that, a month had passed by in fits and starts. Then one day, Lan Luofeng had 'unfortunately' ended up alone. The other JMCs in her class had been sent out to carry out various competition missions for the various divisions of the Federation, because the mecha fighter confrontation event had been drawn by the second mainship. Consequently, the second mainship had sent out the main force of their mecha battle squad, and the JMCs in charge of those mecha had to go with them. In the end, only three JMCs were left on the second mainship. Every class of JMCs had had to leave a member behind on duty; Lan Luofeng's class had left the youngest member of their class, Lan Luofeng, behind.
And so when it was time to eat, Lan Luofeng could only go eat by herself. Just as she had sat down to begin her meal, someone suddenly sat down across from her. It was that young and handsome mecha officer who kept bumping into her whom she still didn't know.
Lan Luofeng found it strange that the other would choose to sit at her dining table when there were so many other empty seats and tables around. However, they were in a public canteen — anyone could freely choose where they wanted to sit. Despite the strangeness, Lan Luofeng didn't think too much about it and just continued to eat her food.
Naturally, Ling Xiao, who had worked so hard to create this opportunity, was unwilling to retreat without attempting anything. Let it be known that for the sake of getting some time alone with Lan Luofeng, he had cracked his head to squeeze out every ounce of ingenuity he had. He had purposely volunteered his unit for the mecha confrontation event mission, just so he could send away all those annoying JMCs hanging around.
Yet, he had never gotten to know a girl before, so he was at a loss on what to do next. In the end, he had clumsily chosen to attract Lan Luofeng's attention by making noise.
So, Ling Xiao had used his fingers to knock on the surface of the table lightly. Three long two short. Pause. Followed by another three long two short. Just like that, he started tapping out a consistent rhythm. At first, Lan Luofeng had found it strange, and then her attention had been captured, curious. When she saw that no one else was looking, she quietly asked Ling Xiao what he was doing with this rhythmic tapping.
Smiling, Ling Xiao told Lan Luofeng all the information he had prepared beforehand. Apparently, this kind of knocking was a type of code, called the Duomo code. It was a type of secret code shared between a JMC and the mecha fighter they were responsible for. Back during the warring period, there had been an incident where the communications channel connecting a JMC and their mecha had been hacked and deciphered ... in the end, the enemy had used the information gained from this hacking to set up an ambush, resulting in the complete destruction of an entire mecha troop. Later, a JMC named Duomo had thought up this method of communication. Using the code he thought up, he had helped his mecha fighter to escape the enemy's ambush again and again, completing their missions successfully to return safely.
From then onwards, every JMC would create their own unique Duomo code, to prevent a similar situation from happening ever again.
As a JMC, Lan Luofeng was naturally very interested in this sort of code. She sincerely requested to learn more about this code, but Ling Xiao seemed rather reluctant to say more. However, under Lan Luofeng's repeated pleading, he finally agreed, making Lan Luofeng feel extremely grateful.
Listening to the story up till this point, Ling Lan could only sigh at her mum's naïveté. Her dad had obviously been putting on an act to reel her mum in. Still, her mum couldn't be blamed for getting hooked so easily — her dad had clearly grasped her mum's vital point. Any dutiful JMC with ambition would not be able to resist this temptation. All she could say was that her old man had just been too shameless.
Whenever Lan Luofeng told the story, at this point, she would hold her face in her hands and sigh dreamily. She would marvel at the fact that Ling Lan's dad and her were just so meant to be — because, in their following conversations, she had found out that Ling Xiao was also a mecha fighter of the second mainship, and on top of that, he was one of the mecha fighters she was responsible for. But Ling Xiao later told her that he had known she was the one from the very beginning. Her voice had been different from anyone else's — soft and sweet, so very comfortable to listen to. His heart had imprinted on it from the very moment he had first heard her speak.
When Lan Luofeng told Ling Lan this, Ling Lan couldn't help but stifle a grin. She just knew that her dad had harboured impure intentions, and it looked like he had a voice kink as well.
After spending time alone together, just the two of them, for about half a month, the temperature of their feelings rose quickly. The two of them then agreed to become an exclusive JMC and mecha fighter pair, and together they created a Duomo code that belonged only to them.
Of course, this Duomo code hadn't yet found its way to the battlefield when, after the other JMCs returned, it had begun to be used frequently by them in daily life. Because they were afraid the other JMCs would find out about the two of them (it was primarily Lan Luofeng who was shy — who asked her to be the youngest and yet be the first one to get a boyfriend?), so every time they wanted to date, Ling Xiao would sit at the table beside Lan Luofeng's during meal times and rap on the table with his fingers. In their code, he would tell her where and when to meet, and regardless of whether Lan Luofeng was free, she would always rap back in their code to tell Ling Xiao if she would meet him or not.
At this point of the story, Ling Lan was really speechless. Could this still be considered dating? Why did it seem more like undercover spies trying to meet up? Still, Ling Lan was glad for her mum. Her first love had been so perfect that she had directly gotten married to her dad. It was just unfortunate that her dad had died young ... this should be blamed on this current world, full of war and strife, no peace in sight.
In order to make her mum happy, Ling Lan had expressed great interest in their Duomo code and said that she wanted to learn it. Hearing this, Lan Luofeng had been overjoyed, and had passed everything about this Duomo code belonging to her and Ling Xiao on to Ling Lan.
********
Thinking back on this, Ling Lan began listening closely to Ling Xiao's tapping sounds. One long two short, three long one short, two long one short, four continuous short taps ... Ling Xiao's tapping was very systematic. Four distinctly different sound sections, representing four syllables — posepro kento? kento posepro? token propose? It was 'proposal token' 1 !
Ugh. Dad, how much did you love mum, really? Ling Lan thought back on all the tests she had gone through thus far; they all had something to do with her mother to some extent.
Frankly, Ling Lan was wrongly blaming Ling Xiao. Even before Ling Xiao had left for the death tunnel, he had had a premonition that something would go wrong. However, a military order was absolute — he couldn't not go. So, before he had left, he had condensed his spirit energy to create this legacy mission, in hopes that his child would be able to obtain his legacy.
Still, he knew very well that the upper ranks of the military were greedy for the way he had managed to advance to legendary operator status. Thus, he had not given the legacy mission directly to Lan Luofeng, but had chosen to submit it to his direct superior instead. He had been afraid that Lan Luofeng and Ling Lan would have gotten into trouble for the treasure they possessed, and be targeted and killed by those avaricious people who would do anything to get their hands on his legacy.
However, Ling Xiao had also known, that submitting it to his superior might mean that this legacy would never reach the hands of his child either. Thus, he had made further arrangements. He left a message for the old dean of the Central Scout Academy, hoping that once his child Ling Lan entered the scout academy, the dean would submit a request to the military on his behalf to get the legacy back. So that the old dean would put his back into it, Ling Xiao had agreed to release this legacy to the entire Central Scout Academy. Any child who could pass his tests would be able to obtain his legacy.
Ling Xiao had worked so hard to arrange all this — naturally, he didn't want anyone else to obtain his legacy. So, when creating the contents of the test, he had used a progressive advancement method, which would slowly eliminate any outsiders.
In the first round of tests, he had used the foundational combat arts of the scout academy, to give the impression that he was judging all the children equally. Although this set of combat arts was pretty much general knowledge, this round could successfully exclude all adults. He had set it to be a mirroring test, not just for testing purposes, but also to immediately chase out anyone whose body size exceeded 1.6 metres, eliminating almost all adults. This had caused all the fighters of the military who attempted the mission to fail in the very first round.
Of course, if Ling Lan had grown up before making contact with this legacy mission, she would also have been chased out and wouldn't have been able to obtain the legacy. However, Ling Xiao's legacy was only effective when practised at age 10 and below. After the age of 13, there was basically no chance of training according to the legacy anymore anyway. Ling Xiao could only hope that Ling Lan would be able to enter the legacy tests before she exceeded the age limit.
After ensuring that only children would be able to proceed, Ling Xiao had revealed his true intention from the second round onwards, by using the killing arts of the Ling family loyalists. This move pretty much killed all chances of any other children entering the following rounds of testing. Of course, if the military really wanted to, they could still find a way to get hold of the Ling family loyalists' killing arts and assist other children to enter the third round.
Therefore, in the third round, Ling Xiao had chosen to use a secret base only known to him and Lan Luofeng. Only Lan Luofeng would know how that lovely valley came to be.
Within the military camp, when did they ever have the chance to go out and see those beautiful sceneries? Even if they had entered the virtual world, they would have been stuck inside the 7th Division's world. In order to make Lan Luofeng happy, Ling Xiao had brought her into his mecha <Belief> and let <Belief> create an immersive holograph of that lovely valley scene. In her great delight, Lan Luofeng had playfully named it as the 'World of Belief' ...
1. The original text actually uses this exact acronym without explanation. A JMC's job is to help direct mecha pilots and assist them during launch. (Credits to @somnious for this info.)
2. In Chinese, 'proposal token' is just 4 characters. To keep with the sound clues given, I had to ignore grammar rules. But from this point on, I'm going to refer to the answer as 'proposal token'.
Chapter 105 - The Real Token!
Ling Xiao believed, that Lan Luofeng would definitely tell Ling Lan about how they had met and fallen in love, and about his mecha. (On the second point, he was mistaken. Lan Luofeng hadn't told Ling Lan about his mecha, since Lan Luofeng believed that it was still a bit too early to tell Ling Lan about things to do with mecha.)
Fortunately, Lan Luofeng had once revealed that the place she most wanted to visit was the 'World of Belief', which had been recorded down by Little Four, allowing him to find the correct answer to that earlier question. It had to be said that Ling Lan had passed that test by the skin of her teeth. Still, even if Ling Lan had failed, she could have still gone home to ask Lan Luofeng for the correct answers and attempt the mission again later.
Ling Xiao had not restricted the number of times someone could take the tests, for he himself was afraid that his questions were too left-field that even Lan Luofeng might have forgotten about some of the answers.
Ling Xiao was also afraid that someone would succeed by pure chance, blurting out his mecha's name on a lucky guess, so he had set up another obstacle. If a candidate randomly entered any of the rooms from the main hall, Ling Xiao would let the candidate know the Ling family training methods. If the candidate trained hard with that, he or she would still be able to achieve imperial operator level — his father had trained with that set of methods back in those days; it was truly a pretty good training method.
In this manner, Ling Xiao would be able to pull the wool over everyone's eyes and continue to wait for his child to enter the mission for testing. Because, only his child would know that the Ling family mansion was split between the front and back sections, and be able to find the correct room.
Of the rooms in the back section, such as the bedrooms and other studies etcetera, it wasn't as complicated as Ling Lan had assumed. Ling Xiao only existed within his study. In other words, even if Ling Lan had gone into any of the other rooms, there would be no one there to assign any tasks. Only when she entered the study would she see the holographic image Ling Xiao left behind.
But in the end, Ling Xiao had still been uneasy. After all, the military's strength was truly formidable — he had no way to guarantee that those loyalists from the Ling family mansion wouldn't betray him and leak the mansion's secrets to the military. So, he finally decided to add one last test. The content of this test was truly a secret belonging only to him and Lan Luofeng.
Mind you, Ling Xiao and Lan Luofeng's exclusive Duomo code had never been used on the outside before. In other words, this code was only known to the two of them. As such, the only people who would be able to answer this test would be Lan Luofeng, and one other — who was naturally the person who had personally learned the Duomo code from Lan Luofeng. Without a doubt, this other person could only be his child.
Just as Ling Xiao predicted, Ling Lan used the Duomo code to crack the final test.
Having thought of an answer, Ling Lan decisively turned and left the study. She went to the master bedroom and headed straight for the dressing table to find her mum's jewellery box.
Inside the jewellery box were some luxurious and exquisite accessories. Ling Lan casually pawed through them, but didn't find what she was looking for. She quickly cast it aside and changed directions. She walked to the singular large bed within the bedroom. Ling Lan was very familiar with this bed — she had been sleeping on it from birth. She had only said goodbye to it after she had been able to speak coherently enough to ask for her own bedroom.
During that time, she had found out that Lan Luofeng had a secret compartment to hide her precious things in on this bed. Ling Lan carefully felt along the edges of the bed, touched a spot, and then a small plasma screen suddenly emerged on the smooth headboard of the bed. There was a selection keyboard of 10 number keys displayed on it. Without having to think, Ling Lan directly entered the number code she knew by heart. If Lan Luofeng had never changed it, the code shouldn't be wrong.
After entering the code, it didn't take 5 seconds before the screen suddenly popped out, and an approximately 30 cm by 50 cm drawer appeared just like that before Ling Lan.
As expected, this secret compartment had long been here! The compartment was empty, nothing at all within it, except for an extremely exquisite little box. Ling Lan took out the box and opened it. A large, glittering diamond ring appeared before Ling Lan, shining radiantly under the lamp light. It was the wedding ring that her mum had cherished all this while.
Ling Lan's lips quirked in a slight smile, knowing she had found her target. She closed the box, and holding it in her hand, she made her way back to Ling Xiao's study.
Seeing her return, Ling Xiao asked with a half-smile, "Found what I want?"
Ling Lan just opened her right hand and showed Ling Xiao the box. Without saying a word, she peered intently at Ling Xiao.
The smile on Ling Xiao's lips grew wider. "This is the thing I want?"
Ling Lan still said nothing, only opening the box to reveal the large diamond ring inside it.
"This is your answer?" said Ling Xiao with a raised brow, waiting for Ling Lan's verbal confirmation.
"Lan Luofeng's wedding ring. You gave it to her," replied Ling Lan calmly.
Ling Xiao laughed uproariously. Then, his expression was admiring as he said, "Not bad. You actually found the answer. Could you tell me, how exactly did you figure out that this ring was the answer I wanted for this mission?"
"I only said that this was a wedding ring. I never said that this was the mission answer." Ling Lan's words stopped Ling Xiao's laughter in its tracks. He froze, stunned by Ling Lan's unexpected response.
This time, it was Ling Lan's turn to laugh. Hells, she had finally managed to give her heartless old man a taste of his own medicine! All this while, she had only been helplessly toyed around with by her old man.
Ling Xiao's awkwardness only lasted for a moment. He quickly collected himself, and said with some amusement, "In that case, why did you bring it here to show me?"
"Because, you need it to open the door to get the thing you need." Ling Lan took out the ring and waved it at Ling Xiao.
"Oh? I really don't know what thing I need other than this ring. I'm very sorry, you've failed the mission." Ling Xiao's smile turned cold, and he mercilessly declared Ling Lan's failure. His clearly disappointed expression seemed to tell Ling Lan that she had really been mistaken.
"This is just a proposal ring, not a proposal token. Although it's only different by one word, what's wrong is wrong. Right? Oh, father of mine?" Ling Lan mercilessly tore apart Ling Xiao's lie. "Stop faking. If I were to really choose this diamond ring as my final answer, then the mission would truly be a failure."
Ling Xiao seemed utterly unmoved. He only sighed softly and said, "You've already come so far. If you fail just like this and go back, you'll probably be unable to accept it either. Let's do this. I'll give you one chance. I hope you'll be able to convince me."
Ling Lan knew that this was likely a part of her dad's test as well, and so did not bother being polite. She walked directly to stand behind her father and poked him with a finger, saying, "Dad, please move aside for a moment."
With an indulgent expression, Ling Xiao stood up, cooperatively giving up the study desk. Since he had already chosen to give the candidate a chance, let him do as he will.
Ling Lan brazenly sat down in the chair Ling Xiao had just vacated, and pulled out the middle drawer of the study table. She reached into it with an open palm, palm first, to lay her hand flat against the underneath of the desk surface. After waiting for 3 seconds, nothing changed. Ling Lan abruptly realised that within this memory of Ling Xiao's 8 years ago, the Ling family safe hadn't yet been programmed to recognise her fingerprints.
Moodily, Ling Lan stood up and said to Ling Xiao, "Lend me your palm."
That said, she pulled over her father's palm and placed it against the bottom of the table surface, holding it there for 3 seconds. Then, a soft, almost imperceptible click could be heard coming from a bookcase to the side.
Ling Lan walked right up to the fourth bookcase. The bookcase was already filled to bursting with all sorts of paper-based reading material. This sort of ancient reading method was rarely found anymore in this modern generation. Now, in this world, all existing paper-based reading material were old texts inherited from several centuries up to even a millennium ago. Whenever a typical person saw this type of old texts, they would feel respect well out from within; they wouldn't dare to move around the texts recklessly, much less even try to touch these precious artefacts.
However, Ling Lan's following actions were barbaric. If her actions had been seen by any lovers of old books, she would most certainly be mobbed and critiqued to death.
Ling Lan savagely grabbed hold of one particular book and pulled harshly. The book was torn and a round shaped hole with many facets was revealed.
It turned out that Ling Lan had only torn off a protective back cover on the 'book'. Of course, if she hadn't used her father's palm print to unlock the cover first, even if Ling Lan had used all of her strength, she still wouldn't have been able to peel off this protective covering.
Ling Lan lined up the diamond side of the ring against that multi-faceted round hole, and it fit perfectly. This time, the wait was longer — after about 6 seconds, a 'clack' came from within the bookcase.
The book Ling Lan grabbed this time was just right beside the 'book' with a hole. This time, Ling Lan didn't pull, but pushed it forwards. Following that, the entire shelf of books abruptly disappeared, revealing a square safe about 30 cubic centimetres large.
Apparently, the diamond ring was only the key to open the safe. However, the diamond ring itself was also a test — if a candidate randomly lucked out during the search and found it, he would be tricked by Ling Xiao's earlier words and really take the diamond ring to be the real answer Ling Xiao wanted. In that scenario, what the candidate would receive in the end would still be that set of Ling family training methods and not Ling Xiao's true legacy.
Of course, if this were the real world, Ling Lan wouldn't even have to take the extra step to find the ring. Many times before this, when Lan Luofeng hadn't been around, Ling Lan had let Little Four 'communicate' directly with the A.I. of the safe, opening it easily that way.
However, right now, they were in the mission world, so Ling Lan had no choice but to be a little more careful. She didn't know what the consequences would be if she skipped this step — what if her old man was a stickler for tradition and required everything to follow its proper procedure? If she tried fooling around with any shortcuts in that scenario, she would just be tanking her own chances. Ling Lan decided that it would be better to play it safe. She would rather spend a little more time and make sure this mission was completed properly.
Ling Lan skilfully entered the code to open the safe. Lan Luofeng had never changed the passcode, so the code she knew was the same as the one used here.
Inside the safe were plenty of antiques, along with many strange and rare odds and ends. They had all been collected by the many generations of Ling family heads, including some cool stuff that Ling Xiao himself had found, such as the exquisite writing brush Ling Lan had once used.
Ling Lan desultorily pawed through the items and picked out three from the pile. She placed them in front of Ling Xiao and said, "Dad, this is the proposal token you wanted. All three of them."
All three items looked exceedingly common — a white sheet of paper that could be bought from any road-side stall, a chip that couldn't be more common, and a keychain shaped like a mecha.
Chapter 106 - Vision and Hand Speed!
That sheet of white paper was already filled with writing — it held the marriage vows Ling Xiao had written for Lan Luofeng! Every vow on the paper just proved that Ling Xiao was totally henpecked 1 .
The chip, was the control chip of Ling Xiao's wealth. With this chip alone, Lan Luofeng would be able to forcefully transfer all of Ling Xiao's worldly possessions to someone else's communicator without having to get Ling Xiao's approval.
Meanwhile, that keychain was modelled after Ling Xiao's mecha. What this really represented, or if there was any deeper meaning to it, Lan Luofeng had never told Ling Lan. She had only told Ling Lan that of these three things, the most valuable was actually this keychain, but now it had become just a souvenir ...
Ling Xiao looked at the three items before him with a complicated expression, but he was clearly moved. However, he very quickly managed to calm his almost overflowing emotions and raised his head to smile blindingly at Ling Lan. "Congratulations, Ling Lan, you've passed. You shall receive Ling Xiao's legacy, my legacy ... my child, I'm so very happy today!"
Ling Xiao's smile caused Ling Lan to become awestruck. Now she finally understood why her mum would always lose her mind in fantasies whenever she talked about her dad — her dad's sincere smile was just too stunning. Even in this future world where one could find beautiful men and women everywhere, her dad's looks were definitely still of the godlike legendary level.
Ling Xiao made Ling Lan stand before him. At this moment, he was silent. After a long while, a light trace of loss appeared on his expression, and he said, "Honestly, I don't wish for this legacy mission to appear. Because, its appearance would mean that I'm really gone. If possible, I really want to accompany my wife, and be by your side as you grow up ... I can't bear to let you both go. My child, I don't even know if you're a boy or a girl. I really wish I could see for myself how you look like, whether you resemble me or your mum ..."
Ling Xiao's loss of composure lasted for only a split second; he soon regained his equilibrium and said self-mockingly, "What's with this sentimentality ... is this the result of the wavering of belief? What a terrible feeling."
Ling Xiao recovered his usual smile once more and looked at Ling Lan. The nameless tenderness in his gaze caused Ling Lan's heart to spasm, as all sorts of emotions rose up within her heart.
Ling Lan knew very well that Ling Xiao was definitely not looking at her right now. This Ling Xiao was a manifestation of spiritual energy from 8 years ago — perhaps this affectionate gaze was meant for Lan Luofeng, and maybe included some anticipation for his then unborn child? But for some unknown reason, this scene just tugged at Ling Lan's heartstrings, making her heart ache. She didn't know if it was because she had merged with this body completely, causing her to be unable to control her emotions when faced with this body's biological father.
Ling Xiao said, "I believe that my child is the strongest child. I will entrust your mum to you. You must definitely make her happy! I'm an irresponsible husband, and also an irresponsible father. I've failed you both."
Ling Lan tried to speak, but Ling Xiao made a stopping motion, "Don't speak. Let me hold on to my fantasy a while longer ... you will call me 'Daddy' earnestly, and then say 'I love you'."
That said, Ling Xiao smiled bitterly and said hoarsely, "Isn't that just a useless daydream? An irresponsible person like me ... if I get a scolding, it would already be too easy on me. What right do I have to ask you, my child, to call me 'daddy' 1 ?"
Ling Lan's mouth twitched, but she did not call out 'daddy' in the end. Although she knew that Ling Xiao was her dad of this life, and Ling Xiao was extremely familiar to her due to the constant reminiscences of her mum ... The address of 'daddy' was really quite difficult for the mentally mature Ling Lan to voice out.
Ling Lan could only put the blame on this man across from her — he was just too young, causing her mind to inexplicably rebel against the very idea.
Dejection flashed through Ling Xiao's gaze; those words of his were actually an indirect plea for his child to call him 'daddy'. He didn't dare to ask directly, because he felt he had wronged his child.
Sadly, the truth was really just as he had feared. His child truly hated him and was unwilling to call him 'daddy' — this reality made him feel very hurt. The Ling Xiao of 8 years ago had imagined many possibilities of this encounter, and this was one which he had most hoped not to see ...
Regardless of how dejected Ling Xiao felt, he still began to teach his first lesson.
Ling Lan thought that the first lesson would be Ling Xiao's exclusive physical skills or something along those lines — mind you, the very first lesson she received when she first entered the learning space, and also when she first entered the Central Scout Academy, was physical skills (other than theoretical studies). After all, the basics were the most important.
"Are you wondering why we aren't starting with physical skills?" asked the Ling Xiao of 8 years ago, having predicted Ling Lan's puzzlement.
Since Ling Xiao was the one to ask, Ling Lan naturally nodded without any hesitation, and waited for Ling Xiao to explain.
Smiling, Ling Xiao told Ling Lan that the academy's basic physical skills set was the accumulation of the efforts of countless talents over tens of thousands of years. It was definitely one of the best foundational physical skills set available, so before Ling Lan fully mastered that set of physical skills, he would not teach Ling Lan any other physical skills, including his own exclusive physical skills. Many people, before their basics had been built properly, would already attempt to learn physical skills or spiritual skills of a higher level — this was completely wrong. Think about it. If you try to build a building when your foundations haven't even been settled yet, how would you be able to build a tall building?
Ling Xiao was unsure how the other legendary operators had advanced to their level, but Ling Xiao's advancement was closely tied to his foundations. Back then, Ling Xiao had only wanted to prove himself to his father his own way, and so had refused to learn the Ling family's secret physical skills. Instead, he had trained in the academy's foundational physical skills until he mastered it to its extreme. In the process, he had touched on the most profound meaning of foundational physical skills, which showed him a path to advance to legendary status ...
"What does it mean to fully master it?" asked Ling Lan, puzzled. She already knew the foundational physical skills by heart — could it be that she still hadn't been doing it right?
"When you can execute this set of physical skills without having to think about it, no longer limited to the stances — about then, you will naturally understand," explained Ling Xiao briefly. He didn't want Ling Lan to be impatient — she was still young and had plenty of time.
"Now, what I can teach you is how to improve your eyesight and hand speed. These are things that you cannot lack for either combat or operating mecha," said Ling Xiao. "They are both things that require hard work to train, especially finger speed. That needs to be trained beginning from youth, while the bones of the fingers haven't fully grown yet and are still extremely flexible. Only then can you develop your personal limits to its maximum."
That said, Ling Xiao suddenly lifted up a palm. A clear and translucent round bead was clamped between two of his fingers. And then all his fingers started to dance, causing the bead to tumble freely amidst the five fingers. It started out slow, but the speed gradually became faster and faster — in the end, Ling Lan, who took pride in her eyesight, couldn't even see a shadow of the bead anymore. Ling Xiao's fingers had become mere afterimages in the air, so quick that she couldn't even tell which finger was which ...
Just as Ling Lan was staring as if in a trance, Ling Xiao suddenly folded his fingers to make a fist. The abrupt shift from movement to stillness disoriented Ling Lan's eyes, making them ache, extremely uncomfortable.
"Your vision hasn't reached the level of my hand speed, which is why you feel the strain. Close your eyes and rest for a bit." Ling Lan did as Ling Xiao said, and soon found that her eyes no longer felt stretched and achy. Only then did she open her eyes again.
"That's where the limit of your eyesight is. You feel it now? From now on, you must train your hand speed. At the same time, you must get your vision up to the level of your hand speed. This requires slow and steady training. There is no shortcut," said Ling Xiao to Ling Lan. Legacy missions weren't as miraculous as most people thought — there is no way for someone to ascend to the heavens in one step. To succeed, it all still depended on your own effort to earn it; the legacy mission would only show you how to do so more efficiently, that's all.
"I understand." Ling Lan nodded, heart filled with gratitude for Ling Xiao's mentoring. As he trained her hand speed and vision, Ling Xiao had indirectly been telling Ling Lan that, to become strong, she needed to rely on her own efforts — no one else could do it for her.
"Just now, was that already your fastest speed?" Ling Lan, who was in a great mood, finally displayed the curiosity a 7 year old child should have.
Ling Xiao only smiled silently, but spread out his fingers once more. In his palm was no longer just the one crystal bead from before, but a whole nine beads. Ling Lan found herself tongue-tied with astonishment. Before she could find her voice to ask, Ling Xiao's fingers started moving once more. The nine crystal beads collided with each other within his palm, emitting clear and reverberating bell-like sounds. As they collided with one another, the beads started bouncing irregularly — this was the hardest thing to control, because you had to predict where each bead would go. Ling Lan was sure she could control one bead with no pressure, two if the speed wasn't too fast, but three would be tricky.
However, Ling Xiao easily controlled all nine beads, his fingers flying swiftly to block every single one before they could fall, only allowing them to roll around in his palm.
Gradually, Ling Xiao's speed became faster and faster, until finally, the sounds of the beads colliding meshed into one solid sound, no gaps between collisions. At this point, Ling Lan could no longer see what was going on in Ling Xiao's hand — everything was just a blur.
Ling Lan thought that this was already the limit, but unexpectedly, something even more astonishing happened. Gradually, Ling Lan couldn't even see the blur of shadows anymore ... It was as if Ling Xiao had spread open his palm like a lotus flower, but there was no sign of those beads within it.
Ling Lan knew this was a false impression; Ling Xiao's speed had just reached a frightening level, enough to fool the eyes into registering this illusion, defaulting back into the original setting. This was a misperception, an illusion born of sheer overwhelming speed.
Before Ling Lan could regain her senses, she heard several consecutive clacking noises, nine in total. Following these sounds, Ling Xiao abruptly stopped the motions of his fingers. At this moment, Ling Lan felt a throbbing pain in her eyes, and tears begin to spill over from them in a flood. They had been working too hard to try and see a speed too far beyond their limits, and had finally incurred the backlash.
It took a while, but Ling Lan finally felt comfortable again. She opened her eyes and saw Ling Xiao standing before her with a smile, his right hand in a loose fist.
"I'm alright now," said Ling Lan embarrassedly. She focused her attention on Ling Xiao's right hand.
Ling Xiao slowly opened his right palm. In the middle of his palm, the initially solid crystal beads had been turned into a heap of powder. Ling Xiao shook his fingers lightly, and the fine powder scattered, sifting through his fingers to drift slowly to the ground. Under the refraction of the light, the crystal powder sparkled, sending out countless glimmering rays, immersing the two of them in an illusion of a magical realm.
1. literal translation of original: wife-slave. XD
2. Though Ling Lan already called Ling Xiao 'Dad' in the previous chapter, here LX is asking for the more childish and affectionate full form.
The Chinese forms aren't that different either. The literal translation of the two addresses would be 'old dad' and 'daddy' respectively. I considered using 'old man' for the previous chapter, but that was potentially ambiguous.
Chapter 107 - Transported to the Capital?
Ling Lan wasn't bedazzled by this magical scene; her expression changed slightly in awareness. Although Ling Lan hadn't been able to see what was going on in Ling Xiao's palm earlier, she could tell that Ling Xiao's fingers hadn't been exerting much pressure; he had just simply been blocking the paths of those crystal beads to prevent them from falling off his palm. But it was precisely this sort of forceless pressure that, under the workings of extreme speed, had shattered the crystal beads from the inside out. It was clear to see just how much destructive power it had.
"Looks like, you've understood." Ling Xiao was very pleased with Ling Lan's reaction. He had thought that he would have to explain in further detail, but unexpectedly, Ling Lan had actually grasped the deeper meaning already.
"Yep, when anything reaches a certain limit, a great energy will be created," said Ling Lan carefully, summarizing her thoughts.
Ling Lan was very excited internally, because she had finally met someone she could discuss these things with. In the learning space, her instructors only let her feel things out for herself, never ever telling her much about Dao, causing Ling Lan to feel extremely lost.
"That's right. I didn't expect you to notice that point. I call it 'Shi' 1 , and there isn't just one type of Shi, but many. However, Ling Lan, you must remember not to bite off more than you can chew. More Shi is not always better." Ling Xiao glanced coolly at Ling Lan, rapidly cooling down her initially bubbling excitement.
Ling Xiao's reminder caused Ling Lan to become thoughtful. After that, Ling Xiao didn't let Ling Lan remain for long in the mission space. He only told her that in future, she could access this place directly to find him by using his spirit crystal, with no need to take the test again. Then, Ling Lan was immediately sent back to the login point of the academy's virtual world.
********
"You finally appeared, Boss!" When Little Four saw Ling Lan, he burst out in tears and pounced on her, clearly upset.
Ling Lan reflexively caught hold of Little Four, and cautioned him saying, "You coming out like this, won't it be suspicious?"
Little Four sniffled, "It's no problem, Boss. This is a special space I created. We can see outside, but they can't see us."
"Right, in the mission space, why did you become silent after I arrived at the Ling family mansion?" Ling Lan had thought it strange. If she hadn't been afraid that her dad wouldn't acknowledge it, she would really have liked to just let Little Four open the safe directly. She had originally thought that Little Four would jump out straightaway to critique her dad's pedantry, but Little Four had been surprisingly silent and non-reactive.
Back then, she had been too caught up with the mission, so although Ling Lan was puzzled, she didn't have the mind to go ask Little Four about it. But now, Ling Lan's curiosity was back.
Ling Lan's words caused Little Four to recall his misery, and he started crying once more. Under Ling Lan's consolation, he managed to tell her the reason in between sobs — apparently, when Ling Lan had entered the study and seen Ling Xiao smiling face, what greeted Little Four had instead been Ling Xiao's sharp and cold gaze. That piercing gaze had scrambled Little Four's operations, kicking him right out of the legacy space. This was also the reason why Little Four had been unresponsive — he had been kicked out by Ling Xiao at that point.
Ling Lan frowned, a little worried. Did this mean that anyone with strong spiritual strength would be able to discover Little Four's existence?
Little Four sensed Ling Lan's anxiety for him, and his core chip actually started to heat up. However, this heat was warm and very comfortable, cheering him up immensely. He said then to Ling Lan, "Boss, don't worry. I've met other people before with great mental and spiritual energy, but they never noticed me. Perhaps it was because I entered your dad's legacy space, which is equivalent to entering his spiritual self, that's why he noticed me."
"Hmm, yup, what you say makes sense. Still, please be careful after this. Don't simply go into other people's spiritual self. Let's avoid the risk." Ling Lan felt that what Little Four said made sense, but still cautioned Little Four to be more careful in the virtual world from now on. He shouldn't get too caught up in thinking he was a god.
The two of them talked for a little bit longer. During this time, Little Four was multitasking — he was also controlling the fake Ling Lan he had created to walk out of the library and slowly make its way to the login point. Then, he made the fake Ling Lan go through the motions of logging out.
Due to expending so much brainpower during the legacy mission, Ling Lan was somewhat fatigued. So, she logged out of the virtual world together with Little Four and went off to take a good long rest.
Meanwhile, due to Little Four's thorough arrangements, neither the monitoring military nor the other students entering for the test noticed that Ling Lan had already sneakily obtained Ling Xiao's legacy. To create the false impression that the legacy mission was still uncracked, Little Four left the virtual pocket testing space up. Until one day, it disappeared along with Ling Xiao's legacy mission, throwing the military into disarray, unable to figure out what had happened ...
********
After Ling Lan received her father's legacy, she began practising the bead exercise every day with both hands at the same time. Of course, Ling Lan did not practise with those precious crystal beads, but with sturdy steel beads instead.
Qi Long and the others, who had been hanging out with Ling Lan all this while, saw Ling Lan forever carrying around two steel beads to fiddle with, and was overcome with curiosity. So they asked Ling Lan why she was doing so.
Ling Lan felt that this was not any special training method that she needed to keep secret — Ling Xiao himself had said before that this was just a small technique to train up hand speed, the key was whether one had enough determination to keep working on it without giving up. Thus, she generously told them what she was doing, and explained what benefits the training would bring.
When Qi Long and the others heard this, they immediately had stars in their eyes. Hand speed had always been a troublesome issue for fighters and mecha operators — even though the Federation had also tried to develop some training methods to increase hand speed, the effectiveness of those methods was limited, yielding only slight improvements. The moment one hit a bottleneck, there would be no more effect from then onwards.
The others in the group rushed to follow Ling Lan and train together, and so a trend swept through the Central Scout Academy — several bored students of the second grade Class-A, no matter if they were reading, eating, or chatting, would always be seen fiddling with a small steel bead in their hands, rolling it round and round in their palms ...
Just like that, they trained steadily for several months, and Ling Lan abruptly found that she had not experienced any improvement in an entire month. Every night, using three steel beads simultaneously, her training would break down at the 3.0127 minute mark. For a whole month she struggled and hovered on this time frame, and Ling Lan just knew that she had encountered her first bottleneck.
Ling Lan really wanted to break through this bottleneck, so she specially increased the practise time for hand speed ... but the more impatient she was, the worse the effect. Ling Lan found that after several consecutive days of forceful extended training, her hand speed actually deteriorated to a certain degree instead. She knew then that she couldn't continue this sort of self-punishing training anymore, otherwise, not only would there be no effect, she may even cause some unnecessary problem to appear in her two hands.
Ling Lan decided to rest well for a bit — besides the missions from the learning space which had never stopped, whether it was in reality or within the virtual world, Ling Lan chose to stop everything. Her typically busy life abruptly became free, causing her to feel a little out of sorts.
Seeing his boss's clear discomfort, Little Four thought of a good way to kill time and relax at the same time. He prepared an adult appearance for Ling Lan to use in the virtual network so that she could go explore the virtual world outside and expand her horizons.
Little Four's suggestion touched Ling Lan deeply. After all, she had never been to the real virtual world — the virtual world of the Central Scout Academy, at the end of the day, was just a platform for the students to familiarise themselves with the virtual world.
Immediate action is better than anticipation — that very afternoon, Ling Lan made Little Four get everything ready, and then she logged into the virtual world, prepared for her first foray into the outside world.
Ling Lan entered the login point — it was still the same hall she had first logged into, no changes whatsoever. At first, Ling Lan thought Little Four had forgotten about modifying her appearance, so she said moodily, "Little Four, why didn't you help to change my appearance?" Sigh, a kid was still a kid after all, easily dropping the ball at crucial moments.
Speechless, Little Four made a floor-length mirror appear in front of Ling Lan, presenting Ling Lan's current appearance to her.
"Hehehe ..." giggled Ling Lan in embarrassment. It turned out that Ling Lan's appearance had already been changed. When Ling Lan had logged in, Little Four had immediately modified her brainwaves, helping her into her virtual disguise instantaneously.
Ling Lan's current form was that of a girl around sixteen years old, in the flower of her youth — her looks bore some resemblance to the Ling Lan of her last life, with a steam-bun face 1 and a pair of big lively eyes, extremely alert and adorable.
"This appearance ... isn't it just too 'kawaii' 1 ?" She looked like a total loli 2 ! Ling Lan felt a little awkward. To be honest, she had already gotten used to her shota 3 face of this life that leaned more towards the boyish side.
"This way, no one will ever suspect that you're Ling Lan!" Little Four was perplexed. He had gone to so much effort to create a human appearance that was completely different from the current Ling Lan — why would Boss have any complaints?
"That's true." Ling Lan finally got with the program. If they had fashioned an appearance that had similar qualities to her current self, though the probability of being discovered was still very low, there was always the slight chance she would be discovered. Little Four had really considered everything very thoroughly.
Ling Lan didn't hold back her admiration, showering Little Four generously with praise, sending Little Four straight into a happy daze.
When he heard Ling Lan request to go to the capital, still hazy with pleasure, Little Four didn't look at the name of the planet, choosing a capital quickly and beginning their transportation ...
Cough cough , who asked every planet to have a capital? Little Four had just sent Ling Lan off when he noticed the problem. However, Little Four didn't dare to say anything. He had just received Ling Lan's praise — if he revealed his mistake now, wouldn't that just be slapping himself in the face? Besides, planet Azure's capital was still a capital! His boss hadn't really specified that she wanted to go to the capital of planet Doha ...
At this point, Ling Lan had no idea that her current position was already no longer on the planet of Doha where she lived. Instead, she was now on planet Azure, a planet on the fringes of the Federation several hundred thousands of light-years away.
Ling Lan stood at the transfer point, looking around in shock and surprise at the vintage scene before her. She could almost believe that she had returned to the olden times. "I thought that the capital should be even more advanced and futuristic than the city we live in. Who knew it'd be this traditional?"
"Every city's setting is different. The capitals here all have more traditional settings." Little Four secretly wiped the sweat off his forehead; at least that excuse had sounded somewhat plausible.
1. 势: As far as I can tell right now, it's a kind of 'Force' or like 'Force Potential'. Decided to stay with the literal pinyin for now, like with 'Dao'.
2. round with chubby cheeks. Chinese seem to like describing the face with food comparisons. Another popular one is 'apple face', rosy and round.
3. 'Cute' in Japanese. The author actually sounded out the word here.
4. Japanese slang word that means "little girl" and refers to any female, typically adolescent, with a childlike or youthful appearance. (sourced from Wikipedia.)
5. moe young boy. Basically, the male equivalent of 'loli'.