"I'll be damned, Tianzhen, you really are something else!" Fatty, after some extreme mental gymnastics, exclaimed with admiration, giving a thumbs-up. "Quick, quick, ask the question! Fatty has a whole basket of plans to get rich that I need to discuss with this Zhangliu Shen!"
The Zhangliu Shen, unsure of its own mental capabilities, discreetly shuffled back a bit upon hearing Fatty's lewd voice.
It was to no avail. It was quickly yanked back by Fatty's paw, its entire wooden face seemingly etched with the words "Big Sucker."
"Alright, I'll try," Wu Tianzhen held his breath, his heart pounding. He rescued the puppet from Fatty's plump hand, patted off some imaginary dust, and said, "...Zhangliu Shen, please tell me, is the Jie Lianhuan we are looking for still alive?"
As soon as he finished speaking, both of them fixed their gaze on the puppet's face, fearing any bad news.
One second, two seconds, three seconds...
The puppet smiled innocently, showing no reaction, as if it were just an ordinary, worthless puppet.
Fatty: ...
He grabbed the puppet again and made as if to smash it on the ground: "Fatty feels like this thing is useless. I'm going to soak it in water to calm it down and teach it a lesson about the immensity of the heavens and the depth of the earth!"
The suddenly airborne Zhangliu Shen: ... Can you please be a human?
"Wait, wait, wait," Wu Tianzhen stopped Fatty's sacrilegious act. He seemed to have suddenly figured something out, a sheepish grin spreading across his face. "Uh, I think the way I asked the question was the problem..."
"The Zhangliu Shen can only discern past and future events. My previous question was about whether the 'current' Jie Lianhuan was alive, which is outside its scope of work."
"Holy crap, what kind of idiotic thing is this?!" Fatty's face was a mixture of emotions. He sighed and placed the unlucky puppet back on the table. Then, he turned around and gazed affectionately at his optical computer.
"Good heavens, Fatty will never call you an artificial idiot again," he caressed the optical computer with emotion. "Indeed, there's always someone better, and there are so many things more idiotic than you!"
Optical Computer: Are you sure you're praising me?
The optical computer spirit pondered for a long time, unsure how to interpret these complex and bizarre human emotions. It finally responded in its usual, stiff, emotionless manner to praise:
"Thank you, you too~"
Fatty: ??? Are you insulting me?
Wu Tianzhen coughed to suppress his laughter and saved the optical computer from imminent beating: "Alright Fatty, let's focus on the main task."
He glanced at the date on the optical computer: "Today is Blue Star Calendar Year 3202, November 12th. So—"
Wu Tianzhen's gaze instantly sharpened.
"Zhangliu Shen, please tell me, on November 13th, 3202, is this Jie Lianhuan we are looking for still alive?"
"Click—"
With a soft click, the puppet slowly turned its head to look over. The painted smile on its face gradually curved upwards.
...The hands it had been covering its ears with loosened slightly.
Although this loosening was momentary, and the puppet soon returned to its original state, it was enough to indicate the answer—
At this very moment, Jie Lianhuan was indeed still alive.
Wu Tianzhen's tense body instantly relaxed. He let out a long sigh, a relieved smile gracing his face: "That's great, that's great! Did you see that, Fatty? Jie Lianhuan is still alive!"
"Xiao Hua will be very happy when she knows," Wu Tianzhen said, then suddenly remembered something. He casually took down the bag from his back. "We should probably take this Zhangliu Shen to Xiao Hua. That would be the safest."
"Damn it, there's no rush for this! Who knows if Hua Ye and the others have already completed their journey west and obtained the scriptures!" Fatty, seeing the puppet's little face about to disappear into his backpack, panicked and snatched the puppet out again.
"Fatty hasn't even started his path to riches yet, so let's take it slow and let me have a look!"
"Ah?" Wu Tianzhen didn't react immediately. The two tugged and pulled, lifting the poor puppet into the air, turning it into a tug-of-war rope.
Zhang Qiling had not participated in their research activities. In fact, ever since he saw the two numbers representing lifespan appear on the puppet, his heart had inexplicably fallen into a strange melancholy.
This sense of loss was inexplicable. Regardless, living to over seventy years old was already a normal lifespan, and perhaps many people didn't even reach that age.
...So why was he so pained?
His mind went blank again, like a cruel joke.
Zhang Qiling leaned slightly against the stone wall, looking up quietly at the ceiling.
From the cracks in the rocks, water droplets were slowly dripping, like broken pearls, hitting the water surface with a fixed rhythm. The flashlight beam shone on the water, reflecting light onto the stone ceiling. Combined with the original white light of the flashlight, it looked like silent fireworks blooming on the ceiling, or shattered glass lamps.
This scene might have been beautiful. Zhang Qiling watched calmly and slowly closed his eyes.
"Holy crap, what the hell is this?!" Fatty's gruff voice suddenly erupted in the otherwise quiet waterway.
Zhang Qiling's eyes snapped open. The confusion that had been hidden in his eyes was forcibly suppressed, replaced by his usual cold demeanor.
He instinctively gripped the Black Gold Ancient Saber, but as he looked forward vigilantly, he was met by a pair of strange eyes—
During the struggle for the puppet, Fatty and Wu Tianzhen had jumped back and forth, and somehow, the puppet was now facing Zhang Qiling directly!
The Zhangliu Shen, which had been swung around and fought over, instantly tensed up. Wu Tianzhen and Fatty let go, and the thing actually kicked Sir Isaac Newton out of his coffin, defying gravity as it floated in the air.
Its patterns began to spin furiously at this moment, at an extremely high speed. Wu Tianzhen glanced at it, his mind a mess, like looking into a blurry, flashy kaleidoscope.
"Damn it, looks like it's about to cause trouble!" Fatty instinctively took two steps back, his hand already deftly pulling out explosives.
The Zhangliu Shen had been as normal as could be when it shone on them, but now it was causing such a commotion, it was no wonder the unknowing duo thought it was about to unleash its malevolence.
Wu Tianzhen also became wary, influenced by Fatty, but his eyes couldn't help but linger on the patterns in front of the Zhangliu Shen.
...He hadn't considered having Zhang Qiling shine his light on it.
When Wu Tianzhen was taking care of Zhang Qiling in the hospital, his optical computer automatically pushed many inexplicable messages to him.
He opened and read a few of them. Most were spam advertisements, but a few were deeply etched into his mind—
For example, "Didn't You Know? Forcibly Practicing Virgin Cultivation as a Child Despite Physical Limits Leads to a Short Life!" or "Shocking! After a Person Escapes Death, They Die Within Three Years Due to Damaged Bodily Functions!"... and so on.
He couldn't describe his feelings after carefully studying these things. In fact, the moment he discovered the Zhangliu Shen, he instinctively used his own body to shield Zhang Qiling behind him more securely.
If it really turned out that way...
At this moment, the Zhangliu Shen's patterns were still changing. Wu Tianzhen stared intently, but gradually realized something was wrong.
For some reason, amidst this transformation, a faint expression of pain began to spread across the puppet's previously smiling face.
"This... Fatty, do you think the Zhangliu Shen's expression looks a bit strange?"
Fatty followed Wu Tianzhen's gaze and happened to meet the Zhangliu Shen's eyes.
The black dot eyes now seemed to have gained sentience, vividly conveying a hint of pleading.
Fatty froze, and just as he was about to reply to Wu Tianzhen—
"BOOM!!!"
With a loud explosion, the Zhangliu Shen puppet actually exploded from within!!!