Chapter Fifty-One: Melow the Great Thornball

Chapter Fifty-One: The Great Thorn Ball of Merlo

“Qingxue, that kid Yun might have...” Old Li hesitated, unable to finish his sentence.

Qingxue’s face froze with disbelief as she spoke, “Death God Karl! How could he target Yun Yang?”

Seeing the chair knocked over by Qingxue’s sudden movement, Old Li quickly held her by the shoulders. “Don’t get agitated. Ge Xiaolun said Yun Yang was just attacked by Death God Karl. He didn’t say Yun Yang was definitely dead.”

“But... but even Queen Kaisa fell to Death God Karl’s schemes. How could Yun Yang possibly be stronger than her?” Qingxue sat back down, her voice tinged with pain.

What Qingxue couldn’t understand was why Death God Karl would attack Yun Yang, a super soldier not even at the third god generation. There was no reason for him to act personally.

“As long as there’s no confirmed death, there’s still hope. We have to believe in him, believe that he’ll come back to us.” Old Li lit a cigarette, as if trying to comfort himself.

Who knows how many times he’d appeared near a star by now.

Yun Yang let out a long sigh. Those giant, black-smoke-billowing fish had truly frightened him.

Spotting Kaisa nearby, Yun Yang, still shaken, asked, “That swarm of smoky fish just now, were those the Triangle Entities you mentioned?”

“They should be. But during the Form War, none of them emitted smoke,” Kaisa replied after a moment’s thought, her tone certain.

“They were terrifying. I’d rather not think about them. How far to the Great Bug Bridge?” Yun Yang’s tone was tinged with anticipation, knowing they were close.

Activating the Eye of Insight, he scanned their relative position, a smile curling his lips. “Not far now, just over thirty thousand light-years.”

“Wonderful! At last, no more relay teleporting,” Yun Yang exclaimed in sheer relief.

“Yes, we’re almost home. But you’d better get the angel-level communication relay hooked up, otherwise we can’t even enter the Bug Bridge,” Kaisa added quietly, as if delivering a blow.

“What? You’re saying it won’t work?” Yun Yang turned to Kaisa, stiff with concern.

“I never said that.”

“You did!”

“What I said was, if the angel-grade dark communication isn’t docked, it won’t work,” Kaisa clarified.

“Can you dock it now?” Yun Yang’s hope was palpable.

“I’m working on it…” Kaisa replied in a soft, gentle voice, visibly uncomfortable under Yun Yang’s gaze.

Crack. Yun Yang’s heart broke. This was far too difficult.

Seeing Yun Yang slap his own face, indicating he didn’t want to speak, Kaisa could only try to comfort him. “It’ll be done soon. Writing a program to interface with the Sacred Knowledge Database is easy for me.”

“How long?”

“Two days.”

“When will you start?”

“Right now,” Kaisa replied, giving him a look as if he were an idiot.

“Why didn’t you write the program sooner?” Yun Yang asked helplessly.

“Obviously, I was teaching you. I had no time to write it,” Kaisa said, her tone righteous—never admitting she’d forgotten.

“Fine, blame me then.”

“Of course it’s you. You’re too slow, wasted too much time. You should learn from Little Yi—learn once, and it’s committed to memory,” Kaisa launched into her mocking mode.

“You’re comparing me to an AI? Isn’t that a bit much?” Yun Yang protested. How could a human learn as fast as an AI?

Kaisa’s expression turned awkward. After so long with Little Yi in virtual space, she’d come to see Little Yi as a little God River girl.

“You’re still the slow one,” Kaisa insisted.

“You’re the Queen of Gods. Whatever you say goes,” Yun Yang conceded.

Before them loomed a massive, gate-like structure, its frame formed from two colossal swords. Yet the center was transparent—you could see straight through. It didn’t look like it could transmit anything.

After a few attempts proved it truly couldn’t teleport, Yun Yang turned to Kaisa, confusion clouding his eyes.

“If anyone could use it, our Angel Nebula would be everyone’s backyard,” Kaisa said, pinching her brow in exasperation.

“I just thought the swords looked nice, that’s all,” Yun Yang muttered, feeling like a fool and trying to explain away his embarrassment.

Ignoring his flimsy excuse, Kaisa opened her dark dimension system.

Hello, I am your dark—

“I know. Connect to Kaisa’s Knowledge Vault,” Kaisa interrupted before the system could finish.

Synchronizing...

Synchronization complete.

“I want to use the Bug Bridge.”

Verifying coordinates... Coordinates verified. Bug Bridge now open.

To Yun Yang’s astonishment, a faint blue mist swirled over the previously empty gate frame, giving off an air of mystery.

“Let’s go,” Kaisa said, seeing Yun Yang’s surprise.

With a single step, Yun Yang heard a cold female voice: Preparing for atomic scan...

Target is a non-angel life form...

Please enter authorization code...

Before he could ask, the cold voice spoke again: Authorization successful.

As Yun Yang’s body faded from head to toe, Kaisa too stepped into the Bug Bridge.

Without any special sensation, Yun Yang was whisked by a red beam onto a platform. Looking up, he saw, floating in the empty void, a massive thorn-covered sphere, faint white light shining from its crevices.

Just as Yun Yang was puzzling over this, another red beam appeared beside him. He knew it was Kaisa and asked casually, “Is this Merlo’s Celestial Court? It’s just... a giant thorn ball.”

A returning angelic warrior, hearing this unknown super soldier in dark alloy armor describe Merlo’s Celestial Court as a thorn ball, was immediately incensed.

“Unknown super soldier, here in Merlo’s Celestial Court, you must learn reverence!” Without waiting for Yun Yang’s reply, the angel’s twin wings flared, and he flew off into the distance.

Yun Yang, hearing this unfamiliar voice, felt slightly embarrassed. He’d just ridiculed their home right in front of them. Would they beat him up? Should he fight back or just take it?

Another hum, another red beam landed.

This time, Yun Yang kept quiet, turning to the red glow—out of which Kaisa appeared.

Catching Yun Yang staring, Kaisa snapped, “Still not satisfied after all this time? Want to go on another interstellar journey?”

Yun Yang shook his head honestly, neither satisfied nor eager for more travel.

“Let’s go,” Kaisa said, assuming his nod meant he wanted to see more, and lifted off immediately.

Yun Yang was left dumbfounded as Kaisa flew farther and farther away.

What was this? Had she left him here? He couldn’t fly—was he supposed to jump?

As Yun Yang struggled with this dilemma, Kaisa sheepishly circled back.

“You can’t fly yet. I almost forgot. Sorry,” she said, though her face betrayed not the slightest hint of apology.

Hand in hand, Yun Yang watched as Merlo’s Celestial Court loomed ever larger and couldn’t help but marvel, “This thorn ball is massive. How many Earths would it take to match it?”

Hearing his exclamation, Kaisa’s face darkened. Was he complimenting or insulting it? Still calling it a thorn ball—if you can’t name things, don’t try.

She’d meant to ignore him, but having her Merlo’s Celestial Court called a thorn ball irked her. The more she thought about it, the more upset she became. Unable to suppress her annoyance, she rapped Yun Yang smartly on the head.

Yun Yang glanced at Kaisa but said nothing, though his thoughts mirrored hers. He was already plotting to get back at this former Angel Queen who kept knocking him on the head.

Passing through the crevice into the great thorn ball, they found themselves before a colossal Skyblade ship. Yun Yang couldn’t help but exclaim, “It’s beautiful. I want one!” It was his genuine thought—the sheer size made it look formidable.

“Keep dreaming. In dreams, you can have anything,” Kaisa retorted mercilessly.

Yun Yang fell silent.

Past the Skyblade, they entered a sphere of white light, revealing a planet bearing a seventy percent resemblance to Earth. The difference lay in its surface—aside from the seas, the entire world was lush green.

“How does it compare to Earth? This is our angels’ Merlo Star.”

“Of course Earth is better. Merlo Star has nothing to do with me,” Yun Yang replied. Though Merlo was perhaps a little more beautiful, he was human and had to support Earth.

No sooner had he finished than he saw Kaisa’s left hand raised again. He knew exactly what she intended.

“Don’t hit me! My patience has limits,” Yun Yang shouted hurriedly.

To his surprise, Kaisa did lower her hand. “Alright, I won’t hit you.”

As Yun Yang was celebrating his narrow escape, Kaisa’s sly grin gave him a very bad feeling.

Hovering in midair, Kaisa slowly released Yun Yang’s hand, making a popping sound as she did.

Plummeting through the air, Yun Yang didn’t even scream. He simply flipped Kaisa off—his last act of defiance.

With a thunderous crash, Yun Yang landed on a pedestrian street, the ground showing not the slightest crack despite his impact.

The angels strolling the street all stopped to stare at the man who had fallen from the sky.

Suddenly, a mischievous-looking angel shouted, “A man! Ladies, look!”

Even the angels at a distance noticed and hurried over to see this man who had descended from the heavens.

Clutching his bruised backside in pain, Yun Yang glanced at the ground in surprise and thought to himself, “Angels really are loaded. I fell from that height and didn’t even crack the pavement. The quality is top-notch.”

Finishing his silent critique, Yun Yang looked up—only to see a crowd of stunning young women surrounding him. This was mortifying on a grand scale.

He quickly pulled his hand away from his backside and forced an awkward wave. “Hi.”

The surrounding ladies, obliging, mimicked his gesture and echoed, “Hi.”

“If I say I only fell because I made a mistake, would you believe me?”