Yuhua Mavis smiled as she watched the two girls bicker. “Alright, you two, give me some quiet.” 

“Right, Sister Yuhua needs to go to the Astral Tower, so she can’t be disturbed. Lulu, you should go,” Grandini said gently as she clutched Yuhua Mavis’s arm. 

Lulu showed her teeth. “Why don’t you go? I won’t!” 

Yuhua Mavis helplessly said, “You can both stay. Tell me more about what you two experienced outside. The academy? Wasn’t it interesting? Did you meet anyone you like?”

Lulu quickly said, “Sister Yuhua, I captured a giant tortoise during the apocalypse on a planet called Earth. It’s really, really big!” 

“Don’t brag. How could it be bigger than our ancestral tortoise?”

“Are you trying to annoy me? It’s an Explorer! It hasn’t matured yet.”

“You’re too noisy.”

***

In the Neoverse’s western region, at Smoke-Eater Peaks, Gu Xiao'er had a stunned expression on his face, and he looked a bit like an idiot. 

A ray of sunlight shot through the smoke, and his father, Gu Laogui, appeared with a smile on his face. “Xiao’er, you can come out now. Rest for a bit. Then, we’ll head to the Mountain and Seas Zone.”

Gu Xiao'er looked up, shocked. “I- I can go out now?” 

Gu Laogui nodded.

Gu Xiao'er shouted, “You’re lying! I won’t go out! You’re trying to hurt me.”

“Xiao’er, Father has been doing all of this for your own good. Think about it—if you can become one of the Cosmic Five, then won’t all of those ladies from...