Chapter 89 - Aha: Blowing Up the Arbor? Let Me Help!

Before long, two cargo starskiffs, escorted by a patrol skiff, quietly docked beside the Ambrosial Arbor. Yanqing was the first to leap down, turning to beckon the Cloud Knights who came with him.

"Unload everything."

After instructing the Cloud Knights, Yanqing jogged over to Fu Zhu.

"Teacher Fu Zhu, I have all the items for you. Would you like to inspect them?"

Fu Zhu glanced at the two cargo skiffs with some surprise. "Yanqing, my boy, you're surprisingly efficient!"

Yanqing puffed out his chest with a bit of pride. "The commerce on our Luofu is very developed. While we can't compare to the IPC, which specializes in business, many alien merchants still come to our Luofu to trade. Although the items you requested were a bit… strange, Teacher Fu Zhu, I was still able to find many similar items for you."

"Mm, let's go take a look then."

Fu Zhu and Yanqing walked over to the Cloud Knights who were in the process of unloading. Seeing the items being moved off the cargo skiffs, Fu Zhu eagerly went forward, took out various tools, and began to strike them, causing them to turn into dropped items that were sucked into his inventory.

Yanqing and the nearby Cloud Knights were completely stunned by this feat. A block of iron one cubic meter in size was extremely heavy!

Yet Fu Zhu had collected it instantly, and not just one, but dozens of them, without showing the slightest sign of strain.

Yanqing couldn't help but marvel from the side. "I never thought that besides your superb swordsmanship, your strength would be so astonishing, Teacher Fu Zhu… No wonder the Grand Astrologer said I was no match for you…"

Despite saying this, a fighting spirit ignited in Yanqing's eyes. He had already decided: after Teacher Fu Zhu destroyed the Ambrosial Arbor, he would find some free time to ask for a few pointers!

In the end, Fu Zhu ended up snatching the job from the Cloud Knights. They could only stand by helplessly, watching as Fu Zhu swung his pickaxe and axe, striking the cargo on the skiffs here and there and packing it all into his inventory.

It wasn't that Fu Zhu enjoyed stealing others' work; it was mainly seeing the Cloud Knights struggle to move the various items that left him feeling rather helpless.

It couldn't be helped. He had specifically requested that Yanqing procure items that were about one cubic meter in size. And regardless of the material, anything of that size would become incredibly heavy. The Cloud Knights' efficiency in moving them was extremely low.

For this mission, Jing Yuan had demanded that the Ambrosial Arbor be destroyed before Phantylia could make her move. They couldn't use any large machinery to assist in the transport and had to rely on the most primitive form of manual labor. Naturally, their efficiency was far lower than Fu Zhu handling it himself.

After striking all the items into dropped form and packing them into his inventory, Fu Zhu crafted a wooden chest on the spot, placed it to the side, and then stuffed all the things that wouldn't fit in his inventory inside. Only then did he slowly begin to inspect whether the items met his requirements.

"Mm… it's all here."

Fu Zhu took a look around. Although there were some items he had never seen before, they could still be converted into what he needed. It seemed Yanqing had been very diligent in selecting these items, saving him the trouble of a second supply run.

With the materials gathered, the next step was quite simple.

Fu Zhu placed down a Crafting Table and began to stuff various materials into it. First, he used sand and gunpowder to make the most critical component: TNT. This was the core of the TNT duplicator.

The only other things he needed to craft were auxiliary blocks like detector rails.

After busying himself for just a few minutes, Fu Zhu had finished making everything he needed. This was the convenience of the JEI Item Management Mod!

He just had to search for the item he wanted to make, and the mod would automatically display the recipe. He didn't even need to place the materials himself; he just had to take the synthesized product from the output slot on the right.

"Alright, Yanqing my boy, fly me to the top of the Arbor."

Fu Zhu checked his inventory, confirmed he had everything, and then called over to Yanqing, who had been watching the show from the side.

"Right away, Teacher Fu Zhu."

Yanqing responded, then formed a sword seal with two fingers of his right hand. His sword automatically flew out of its sheath and hovered steadily on the ground.

Yanqing stepped onto the flying sword first, then prompted Fu Zhu, "Teacher Fu Zhu, please come up. You'll need to maintain your balance. If you can't, just hold onto my shoulder."

Fu Zhu stepped confidently onto the sword and said with a smile, "The words 'lose balance' do not exist in Steve's dictionary!"

"Ah? Steve? Teacher, isn't your name Fu Zhu?"

"My surname is Fu, given name Zhu, courtesy name Steve. Is there a problem?"

"No… it's just that Yanqing finds it a bit of a mouthful, so I asked. Well then, Teacher Fu Zhu, we're off."

Yanqing focused his mind, controlling the flying sword to carry them swiftly towards the peak of the Ambrosial Arbor.

At first, the sword's speed was rather slow. But after Yanqing glanced back and saw Fu Zhu standing perfectly still on the tail of the sword, he increased the speed. In just a few moments, the two arrived and hovered at a position three meters from the top of the Arbor.

"Teacher Fu Zhu, will this position do?"

"Perfect. Wait for me to place a helper block."

Fu Zhu glanced down, then jumped directly off the sword. Just before landing on a branch of the Arbor, he perfectly placed a bucket of water, negating any fall damage.

Yanqing, standing on the sword, looked down and rubbed his eyes in confusion.

Was he seeing things? For a split second when Fu Zhu landed, it looked like a puddle of water appeared at his feet.

While Yanqing was still wondering if he'd seen wrong, Fu Zhu had already started pillaring up on the branch of the Arbor.

After all, the blast radius of TNT was quite large. He had to build the TNT duplicator in a place far from the explosion, otherwise, the duplicator he worked so hard to build would be blown up by the duplicated TNT in the next second, and his own mood would explode right along with it.

In a short while, Fu Zhu had pillared up to a height even greater than where Yanqing was hovering on his sword. Only then did he pull out the slime blocks and other materials needed to build the TNT duplicator and began to assemble it step by step.

(The shape of a TNT duplicator is hard to describe with words, so to help everyone understand, a picture is included here. If the image doesn't display, please try refreshing the page.)

Yanqing watched as Fu Zhu stood atop the pillar he had built himself, his posture slightly undignified with his rear sticking out, piecing together the strange materials he had gathered earlier.

Especially when Fu Zhu took out a green, slimy-looking block and pieced it together horizontally, then pulled out a blocky explosive that was bright red and thoughtfully labeled "TNT," Yanqing finally couldn't hold back anymore.

"Teacher Fu Zhu…"

"What is it?"

Fu Zhu didn't stop what he was doing, asking without even lifting his head.

Yanqing pointed hesitantly at the giant block of TNT and couldn't help but ask, "Teacher Fu Zhu, why did you pull out such a big explosive… Aren't we here to destroy the Arbor? I heard the General say you can craft a particularly powerful axe that can cut down the Arbor in a single blow. Why aren't we using that?"

Hearing him say this, Fu Zhu couldn't help but lift his head and give Yanqing a peculiar look.

Since building the TNT duplicator was a bit boring, he decided to chat with him.

"Yanqing, my boy, let me ask you: how do you define the word 'technology'?"

"Ah?"

Yanqing didn't understand why Teacher Fu Zhu would suddenly ask such a question, but as his senior on the path of life, he felt there must be a reason for the question. He thought about it seriously for a moment before giving his answer.

"Yanqing believes that technology is a tool researched and developed by intelligent life to serve themselves and to save their own time."

"A good answer."

Fu Zhu gave Yanqing an appreciative glance. That was much more brilliant than the answers he used to give his teachers back in school.

Fu Zhu continued along his line of thought, "You're right. Technology emerged to serve intelligent life. Just like when intelligent life first appeared in this universe, they initially developed hammers to make it easier to get the meat from shells."

"To get wood to survive the harsh winters, they developed axes. Over the long years, they continuously climbed the tree of technology, step by step evolving the tools in their hands, which eventually became what we have today."

Hearing Fu Zhu's words, Yanqing frowned. He vaguely grasped a key point, but he still couldn't quite understand what Fu Zhu was trying to express.

Yanqing scratched the back of his head, a little embarrassed, and said with a sheepish smile, "Teacher Fu Zhu, Yanqing doesn't quite understand what you're saying…"

Fu Zhu stood up straight on the newly completed TNT duplicator and pointed a finger at the TNT block beneath his feet. "My point is… since I have a more efficient, labor-saving technology, why would I personally wield an axe to chop down a tree?"

"A tree this big, only a psycho would chop it down with an axe, cut by cut!"

"Ah?" Yanqing blinked, completely baffled. A bad feeling began to sprout in his mind.

Fu Zhu grinned and made a fist, then suddenly splayed his five fingers, making a "BOOM" sound with his mouth.

"A tree this big is so inefficient to chop with an axe! Didn't Jing Yuan say so? No limits on the methods. So let's just blow the Arbor sky-high!"

Yanqing's eyes widened in terror. Blow the Arbor sky-high?!

What about the Luofu, where the Arbor's roots are planted? Won't it get blown sky-high along with it?!

Just as Yanqing was about to try and persuade Fu Zhu not to do this, a burst of laughter suddenly echoed by his ear, as if every microorganism in the air was laughing in unison.

In that instant, his body felt as if it had been paused. Only his eyeballs could still move. The rest of his body was completely motionless, no matter how hard he tried. He couldn't even force a sound from his throat, only a strained chuckle.

Fu Zhu also heard the laughter that had erupted all around. He turned his head towards Yanqing and asked subconsciously, "You're laughing so happily, little Yanqing. You support my plan too?"

But when he turned his head, all he saw was Yanqing standing frozen in place, only his terrified eyes darting around.

Fu Zhu instantly realized something was wrong. He calmly pulled the Godfall Sword and the Unnamed Sword [Kugutsu] from his inventory.

Suddenly, countless masks appeared around Fu Zhu, each with a different design, but with one thing in common: every single one wore a smile.

"You, who are blessed by Abundance, actually want to blow up the Arbor on that humorless fellow's turf? Hahaha, what a great idea, kid!"

Fu Zhu watched the masks flying around him with vigilance. He glanced impassively at his minimap and found that he was surrounded by a large circle of yellow, neutral markers. And every single one of those markers shared a single name.

[Aeon of Elation - Aha]

"You're Elation?"

Seeing Fu Zhu suddenly call out his name, Aha couldn't help but burst out laughing again.

"Ahahaha, you really are a great kid! No wonder all those boring fellows have their eyes on you. And I actually can't see what you're thinking. Fun!"

Fu Zhu felt a headache coming on when the other party didn't deny their identity at all.

If it were any other Aeon, he wouldn't have such a headache. If they were hostile, they'd fight! If they were friendly, they'd talk.

But the one who had appeared was Elation, an Aeon who, in a sense, walked the same path as Steve.

Just as Aha couldn't see what Fu Zhu was thinking, he couldn't guess what the other party was planning to do either.

After laughing for a good while, Aha suddenly fell silent. The countless masks all turned to look at Fu Zhu, but when he spoke, you could tell he was holding back laughter.

"Kid, I'm a renowned dream investor throughout the cosmos. I'm very optimistic about your idea of blowing up the Arbor! Let me give you a hand and speed up the Arbor's flight!"

A black-and-white smiling mask flew out from the pile of masks and landed in Fu Zhu's palm. At the same time, a system prompt popped up.

[Acquired Path of Elation Power Level 1]

[Path of Elation Power: Touch reach increased by 10 blocks, can use air blocks as a base block.]

Aha's sudden blessing was a pleasant surprise for Fu Zhu, but it also left him speechless.

Couldn't he have been like Nous and the others and summoned him to the Path-space for a discreet blessing? Did he have to appear right in front of him? His loud laughter had probably been heard by everyone on the Luofu, including the lurking Phantylia.

"Ahahaha, kid, although I can't see what you're thinking, your expression right now… let me guess, are you complaining that my appearance was too conspicuous? Hahaha, relax, Aha is waiting for a good show!"

The group of masks surrounding Fu Zhu began to disappear one by one like bursting bubbles, but his voice still lingered in Fu Zhu's ear.

"No one knows I appeared except you and the kid in front of you. Aha is waiting for you to translate for the Luofu what a real surprise is! Hahaha!"