[Xiaobai, take notes!!!]
While Di Cangli was still slightly dazed, Mofeng tried to take the opportunity to slip away. But unexpectedly, Di Cangli recovered much faster than he had anticipated.
Before he could make his escape, just as he had turned over and crawled a few inches, he felt his scruff grabbed by a soft, delicate hand. He was promptly lifted into the air. Di Cangli held Mofeng aloft, her eyes narrowing as she studied the tiny creature in her grip. "Something’s not right."
Having regained her focus, she had spotted the little Mofeng stealthily turning over and trying to crawl away. She snatched him by the back of his neck and brought him face-to-face with her. Her alluring, fox-like eyes narrowed, filled with suspicion and calculation.
As she voiced her realization, Di Cangli looked at the little flesh-ball Mofeng in her hand and said with a mocking, cold smile, "So, you’re the little thief who’s been stealing my spirit herbs?"
"Tell me, how exactly did you evade my divine sense? How did you manage to remain completely undetected?"
"No wonder the Red Fox Guard couldn't find a trace of you despite all their patrols."
Little Mofeng, held firmly in Di Cangli's hand, widened his eyes in shock the moment she called him a "herb thief"!
!!!∑(Дノ)ノ
Σσ(Д；) *I, I, I didn’t do anything!!!* As soon as Di Cangli spoke, Mofeng knew he was in deep trouble.
So, when she questioned him, Mofeng blinked his large, watery, impossibly cute "Kazarlan" eyes at her, looking utterly innocent. He let out a series of "iya, iya" baby sounds, his eyes filled with such naive, wide-eyed confusion that it seemed as if he truly didn't understand a word she was saying—he was essentially turning on the charm to win her over.
"Little thing."
Watching the adorable little tot in her hands trying to play cute, Di Cangli’s eyes narrowed slightly.
"Iya~"
"Iya!"
"Aba~ Aba~"
Mofeng saw the way her eyes narrowed and sensed things were going south. He stretched out his short, stubby arms and gestured frantically in front of her, trying to convey that he knew nothing and understood nothing.
In reality, Mofeng was panicking internally.
*What to do? What to do?* Just as Mofeng was spiraling, the voice of the Sacrifice System echoed in his mind once again.
？？？
"Delayed reward: innate soul weapon 'Myriad Sword Box' delivered."
"Myriad Sword Box: Contains supreme swordsmanship, the ultimate Dao of the Sword, and stores ten thousand blades."
"Capable of absorbing any legendary sword to nurture and refine within."
"Sword Box special effect: Forced stun. Ignores power gaps, forced stun."
"Maximum stun duration: ten seconds."
*The stronger the target, the shorter the stun duration.* Unfortunately, Mofeng ignored this line of fine print, too busy feeling delighted as he read the description of the Myriad Sword Box.
When the system’s voice chimed in, Mofeng was momentarily stunned, his eyes full of confusion. But that quickly turned into wild ecstasy.
*Hot damn, the gear finally arrived.* What he valued most was that stun effect—a forced stun that ignored level gaps.
Looking at the soul weapon that had appeared in the depths of his consciousness, Mofeng blinked. *You call this thing a sword box? Isn't this just a big, black brick? Damn it, whatever, as long as it stuns.*
Thinking this, Mofeng held his soft, white, stubby hands out in front of Di Cangli.
Di Cangli, still holding him, stared at the empty space between his tiny hands and paused, confused.
"You little one, what are you doing?"
Seeing that he had successfully captured her attention, Mofeng continued his "iya, iya" babbling.
Then, under Di Cangli's puzzled gaze, a pitch-black, barren-looking brick suddenly materialized in his small hands.
"Hm?"
Di Cangli stared at the black brick, caught off guard once more.
*Bang!* The moment the brick appeared in his grip, Mofeng lunged forward and slammed it hard against Di Cangli’s forehead.
With that strike, the light left Di Cangli’s eyes instantly, and her hand went limp, releasing him.
*The Myriad Sword Box is reliable after all! A hard stun—if it lasts more than three seconds, that’s enough for me to get out of your sight. Once that happens, I’ll be like a fish in the deep sea, a bird in the vast sky!*
The moment Mofeng hit the ground, he scrambled away with all his might. In just one second, he had crawled twenty or thirty meters, picking up speed as he went. By the second second, he was already over sixty meters away from Di Cangli.
As he was fleeing, he suddenly felt his body lift off the ground and float into the air.
？？？
Watching his body rise a meter off the ground, Mofeng flailed his tiny arms and legs in the air—a style of swimming that even a dog would have to call a "doggy paddle." He turned his head mechanically to look back at Di Cangli.
She was standing where she had been, her right hand reaching out as if grabbing him through the air, a cold, mocking smirk on her face.
*Damn it! Didn't it say hard stun? Ten seconds max, how did it end after just two?* As Mofeng cursed the Myriad Sword Box in his heart while watching Di Cangli regain her senses, he finally spotted the fine print at the bottom: *The higher the cultivation realm, the shorter the control duration.*
*My god! Couldn't you have made those words bigger?! You old fox of a system, you deserve to be deleted!*
If the Sacrifice System knew what this other "old fox" Mofeng was thinking, it would have surely taught him a lesson in its own way.
Watching Mofeng from afar—suspended in the air and still struggling to escape—Di Cangli felt a mix of shock and fascination regarding this mysterious little boy who had appeared in her Spirit Herb Garden.
In truth, the Myriad Sword Box hadn't held her for two seconds. She had only been stunned for one second before regaining her clarity. The reason she waited a second longer to act was that the sheer shock of Mofeng's sudden appearance and his various oddities had frozen her for a moment before she snapped out of it.
After all, this little thing couldn't be detected by her divine sense, so she absolutely could not let him slip out of her sight. Otherwise, catching this little creature again would be harder than reaching the heavens. Unless, of course, she destroyed the entire Spirit Herb Garden and buried him along with it. But that wasn't what she wanted.
After all, a little creature as interesting as Mofeng, combined with all his peculiarities, made Di Cangli feel, for the first time, a flicker of reluctance to kill him.