Before He Lin could examine the package when he got a hold of it, he received a notification from Elsa. “My Lord, Mister Ji Jingze has paid a visit. Would you like to meet him?”
‘Ji Jingze?’
He Lin glanced at Fei Tuo standing beside him. “Have you found Master Wen Tai?”
Ji Wen Tai was the paternal grandfather of Ji Jingze, the sole Level 9 pharmacist across the entire Ziyou Federation. He could even be called an existing national treasure at this point. However, he had already withdrawn from the business for seven years.
Fei Tuo cleared his throat. “Zog indeed found Master Wen Tai, but has never received a definite reply.”
He Lin nodded once, stopped asking, and instead ordered Elsa to invite Ji Jingze in.
Ji Jingze bore a handsome appearance, with a posture straight as a ramrod, and an innate high-positioned nobility together with his icily arrogant mien. He became a Level 5 certified pharmacist at the age of twenty-five, with a spiritual level of B, and was viewed as the successor of Master Wen Tai.
“How are you, Lord He Lin?” Ji Jinze bowed his head slightly toward He Lin.
“Drop the formalities. Sit.” He Lin asked, “How is Master Wen Tai recently?”
“Thanks to the Lord’s fortune, everything is well.” Ji Jingze swept his gaze onto the man in front of him, trying his utmost to probe his mental power subconsciously. But he was blocked by immense coercion that he was unable to move even the tip of his finger.
He Lin looked at him, still as calm as ever. “Ji Shao is here this time for…?”
Ji Jingze sucked a cold breath as his facial expression went rigid. He then masked up and took out a small case from his arms. “Grandpa entrusted me to bring something to Your Excellency.”
Fei Tuo took the box and passed it to He Lin after examining it.
“This is a pseudo-divine pill made by grandfather himself. It is a 3-star top grade.” Ji Jingze explained, “After taking it, you can temporarily ‘recover’ your mental power to its peak state.”
The so-called ‘recovery’ was not even a real recovery, rather a special disguise. The main effect of it was to make the damaged mental power appear the same as usual.
After some explanation, Ji Jingze added, “Although Grandpa is a great pharmacist, he cannot develop medicine to cure an S-level’s mental power injury in a short period of time. He can only settle for the second-best and refine a pseudo-divine pill, hoping Your Highness survives through the difficulties.”
“Master Wen Tai is indeed considerate. This He shall come to visit him later for thanks.” It could not be said that this pill did not solve He Lin’s fire between the eyebrows¹ and neither knew how Zog persuaded Master Wen Tai to help.
“For surefire, I won’t leave the city soon, so Your Excellency can look for me at all times for questions.”
Ji Jingze’s tone was full of respect and unconcealed pride for his grandfather.
He Lin chatted with him for a while, then asked Elsa to see them off and arrange a comfortable place for him to stay. Through this brief contact, He Lin’s encapsulation of Ji Jingze was only eight words—youthful, vigorous, and determined to reach the limit.
Fei Tuo could not contain his excitement. “With this pseudo-divine pill, you need not worry about Tikaman.”
‘Don’t worry?’ He Lin looked at the box in his hand in contemplation.
The pseudo-divine pill was indeed the most suitable emergency medicine at present, but it was still unperceived whether the matter could be concealed from Tikaman.
Lately, the popularity of Huahua World had declined. The reason was a certain shop owner was not doing his job properly and had been missing for several days in a row without any news. On top of that, most of the medicines were empty. The flower friends expressed their dissatisfaction, and after a series of protests, they all wilted away and vowed never to buy anything from Huahua World again. Any! Thing!
As a loyal fan of Huahua World, Mi Duo habitually visits the store’s webpage. Her eyes flitted across randomly and halted.
‘Free new products every month?’
Seeing this newly-posted independent space, Mi Duo trembled as she went in only to see a deserted area with nothing inside.
‘Oh, it was not there was nothing. The leader left an announcement.’
[Starting this month, a NEW DRUG will be on the shelves monthly and are only sold in limited quantities. A free trial gift will also be given randomly.]
Mi Duo glanced at today’s date—the 28th. ‘There are only two days left in this month. What about the promised medicine?’
As she organized her message preparing to complain, another line of words popped up in the space.
[Tomorrow at 10 o’clock, the new product will be live broadcasted. So, stay tuned.]
‘Ao! 10 p.m. o’clock tomorrow!’
In one tight breath, Mi Duo hurled to post the news on the Tianfu forum.
The flower friends all felt as if the dark, arctic ages was now yesterday’s matter, then the excitement died down, only for them to express disdain in grandeur and noble manner. They swore not too long ago to never buy things from Huahua World anymore. ‘How could they change their mouths as one wishes? It was just a new product. Were they dewy-eyed to be exploited? The leader must have thought how irresponsible he is!’
[Hmph. New products are available every day, not bad for the Huahua World!]
[Yes, I am enraged about the leader’s long-term out-of-stock behavior. The consequences are serious.]
[Leader, I have given up treatment and decided not to take medicine anymore!]
***
All kinds of condemnation and complaints shoot up to the tall building like lightning strikes in speed. And the deep grievances of flower friends seemed to be felt through the screen.
At 10 o’clock in the evening the next day, not many people came to watch the live broadcast—merely around twenty to thirty people.
An Xian was oblivious to the situation in the live broadcast room. She was standing on the top of a literal tall building, looking down below at the traffic passing by and the flickering of various lights.
It was out of her plans to show it in person, but this new drug was a bit special and required high levels of balance and control. Without practice, ordinary people would find it difficult to exert its effect.
She took her time as she stretched her arms, revealing the round receptacle inlaid on the wrist. The container held lustrous golden liquids sparkling with slight fluorescence that seemed to move on their own like two clever gems.
That was right. An Xian’s about-to-be-released drug — Feixing Dose². A special medicine that was controlled and volatilized by mental power.
[Does the Anchor choose to broadcast live on the roof to pretend to be B³?]
{T/N: what’s a B? p.s. to answer is to be blessed by An Xian}
[Although I don’t see the face, I give 98 points for his figure.]
[Anchor, let’s have a close-up!]
[What kind of potion is this? Anchor, please explain already!]
Everyone was ignorant that the anchor was the Leader of Huahua, just as another person who unknowingly got a free trial.
An Xian cared little to explain at all. With a thought, a speck of golden liquid lithe out of the container. With a single stride, the figure leaped high off the building and dived down fast.
[Ah ah ah, the anchor jumped off the building!]
[Fuck, completely unprepared. Scared the baby to death.]
[What’s going on?]
*WHOOSH*— In the black, empty screen, two streams of lights flashed past and streaked across the pitch-black skies. Soon, a slender silhouette stood in the air, with an endless starry sky above its head and high-rise buildings under its feet. The two beams hovered and interweaved at the wrist, changing adventitiously, with a mesmerizing cadence that attracted everyone’s attention.
Not waiting for everyone’s reaction, the figure spread its arms again and darted forward at high-speed. The two beams of light danced along with it, leaving two golden afterimages behind it.
[Fuck, fuck, fuck! Your mother is flying! ! !]
[Mom, come and see this man fly!]
[Blinded my 24k titanium alloy dog eyes!]
Fly!
It turned out to be flying!
The live broadcast room exploded in an instant.
Flying could be said to be the dream of most human beings. Although various flying gadgets have been invented in this era, such as flying boards, monoplanes, hang gliders, and etcetera, there were more or less certain limitations. Either the flight altitude was lacking, not flexible enough, or too inconvenient to carry—genuinely flying was impossible all along.
But a flight mode emerged before them. No extra gadgets needed; you could fly across the sky with a single potion.
‘It’s so cool!’
During the live broadcast, An Xian’s flight exhibition was just about to commence.
She took a breath and controlled her mental power—soaring in the air like a harrier unbridled with no worries, passing high-rise buildings in a fleet, and passing through laneways and corridors. The surrounding scenery had long turned into hazy lights and shadows, flying past her eyes one by one.
The figure swooped down with hands close to the body, drilled into a forest garden at low altitude, then rushed out from the other side, bringing up pieces of fallen leaves in its wake.
Not far away, a silver-haired man was setting up the table to eat skewers when his senses perked up for an upcoming danger. But it was too late. Sudden gales and clouds of dust rushed up, leaving the man’s suit unruffled and dusted.
‘Fuck!’
The silver-haired man shot up, his seat toppled over behind him. He threw away the contaminated skewers in his hand and kicked the flying board beside him. He was about to do his utmost to catch up, yet stood there blankly as the perpetrator had already disappeared without a trace.
‘What the hell? That was cheating!’
An Xian was like patrolling the territory. You could shuttle through the city at will, or slide against the wall, perhaps chase cars and shadows, or skim the water surface by the fingertips, or possibly pierced through the skies… Flying higher, faster, and farther—and every encumbrance in the world was abandoned. Embrace what the world has to offer, and it would seem incomparably small.
After flying recklessly, An Xian slowed down, stretched her arms, and hovered steadily in the air. Her eyes closed, living up to the comfort of the cold night breeze.
Whether it was natural, unrestrained, and vigorous just now or the coziness and pleasantness of the moment, it roused the fervor and overwhelming emotions of the people.
Unrestrained, carefree, excited, resplendent — everyone could not wait to experience the pleasure of flying like her.
An Xian landed gently on the tip of a high tower, standing tall and strong, as she overlooked the land below in silence.
Then, to everyone’s surprise, she turned her head and faced the live camera for the first time.
A handsome face filled the screen and caught everyone off guard.
[Ai ma, my heart!]
[Handsome, handsome, handsome, handsome, handsome!]
The corners of An Xian’s mouth rose slightly. She stretched out her arms, leaned back, and fell from an altitude of more than 600 meters in a free-falling posture.
[Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…]
Everyone in the live broadcast room exclaimed in alarm.
500 meters, 400 meters, 300 meters… The wind rushed past, and the failing figure did nothing at all but fall. The 90-degree vertical live view made everyone’s hormones surge.
[Anchor, don’t take the medicine yet! Don’t take off!]
[Anchor, it’s less than 100 meters!]
[Anchor, don’t die! ! !]
Noticing there were merely a dozen meters away from the ground, everyone either cast, squinted, or covered their eyes instead of watching. This was more than six hundred meters high. Even if the body was reinforced of steel, the chance of it breaking into pieces was high!
10 meters, 8 meters, 5 meters, 3 meters, 1 meter!
The force of falling jolted a piece of dust.
The two streams of light lashed, interwoven into two wings, propping An Xian steadily.
A neat turnover with feet stable on the ground, the golden beams spread out and returned into the container like a snake.
Chic, dashing, and valiant.
[…Anchor, let’s talk about life.]
[Anchor, why didn’t you fall “handsomely” to death just now?!]
[That pretentious B should have been struck by lighting, ah, Anchor!]
[MD⁴, who was also a man, was accidentally slapped just now.]
***
Anxian ignored everyone’s madness and shut down the live broadcast on the spot.
Footnotes:
[1] rán méi zhī jí (燃眉之急) — lit. the fire burns one’s eyebrows (idiom); fig. desperate situation
[2] fēi xíng jì (飞行 剂) — fēi xíng means to fly or aviation and jì means dose (medicine)
[3] 装 B — 装 means “to pretend” in this context. B is used here as a simplification for “Niu Bi” (Chinese “牛逼”), which is defined here as very good at something. It implies that An Xian was just pretending to be flying or good at flying to seek other people’s attention.
[4] MD — “damn, fuck”