"You don’t have weapons, so your combat strength is relatively weak. I’ll give you two Spiritual Soldiers as well."

Li Xiang took out a Flame-Patterned Short Knife and a Profound Ice Short Sword. Both were exquisitely crafted. He handed them to Chiba Asatsuyu and Chiba Yukigiri respectively.

Both of these were Tier Nine Extraordinary Spiritual Soldiers, rewards he had obtained while hunting high-potential Exotic Beasts in North America. They were unparalleled in Sharpness but only had a single Extraordinary Attribute: Luck.

As for Chiba Yuki, whether it was Aoi Monshou or Red Wisdom, she was not lacking in Magical Treasures or methods, so Li Xiang didn’t give her a Spiritual Soldier.

It was the height of the cherry blossom season. Accompanied by the mother and her two daughters, Li Xiang admired all varieties of cherry blossoms, sampled all kinds of local delicacies, and after resting for several days, planned to resume his journey.

"Master, the day after tomorrow is Asatsuyu and Yukigiri’s sixth birthday. Why don’t you stay for two more days?" Chiba Yuki asked, extremely reluctant to see him go.

"Godfather, please stay and celebrate Asatsuyu’s (and Yukigiri’s) birthday!" the two lovely, doll-like little girls pleaded, hugging Li Xiang’s arms from either side.

"Will this affect the hot spring inn’s business?" During the few days Li Xiang had been there, Chiba Yuki had closed up shop, given her employees a few days off, and dedicated herself to serving him.

"It’s fine. Business was quite good before, so we earned a lot." Chiba Yuki wasn’t obsessed with money. Besides, with her and her daughters’ current abilities, acquiring wealth was easy.

So Li Xiang decided to stay. A day or two wouldn’t make a difference.

The mother and daughters cheered.

Chiba Yuki prepared a cherry blossom-themed evening banquet for her twin daughters.

In the center of the courtyard at Snow’s Inn, a hundred-year-old Somei Yoshino cherry tree bloomed like a cloud. Chiba Yuki wore an ink-dyed furisode kimono, her hair done up in a bun and adorned with the Earth Vein Crystal Splendor: Eightfold Cherry Blossom Hairpin that Li Xiang had given her. The twins wore Shichi-Go-San ceremonial dresses, one crimson and the other azure, with a Fire Rat Fur Coat and an Ice Silkworm Belt tied at their waists, respectively.

Li Xiang brought out many precious ingredients, delicacies from the mountains and seas. Chiba Yuki personally cooked them, and every dish was exquisite.

There was a sashimi platter: black gold abalone sliced as thin as a cicada’s wing, revealing an iridescent sheen; bluefin tuna belly, its fat marbled like the snow line on Mount Fuji; and wasabi paste mixed with a cherry blossom and rose honey sauce.

Lava Rock-Grilled Wagyu: Hokkaido A5 Wagyu, beautifully marbled, sizzled on a volcanic rock slab, its fat rendering.

Yukimi Venison Tobanyaki: Sika deer ribs and Black Truffle were slow-roasted in a hinoki wood box. When the lid was lifted, a fragrant, cherry blossom-scented steam wafted out.

Yamata Crystal Sushi: Crushed Spirit Medicine Powder was mixed into the sushi rice, topped with glistening salmon roe and gold foil cherry blossom petals!

And a large birthday cake: "Ice and Fire Twins: Gouyu Birthday Gala."

The main structure was a two-tiered Tai Chi cake. The bottom layer was a molten red velvet cake base, simulating the elder sister Asatsuyu’s tyrannical lava-and-smoke energy. The top layer was a frosty butterfly-pea flower mousse, corresponding to the younger sister Yukigiri’s Ice Crystal Superpower. At the intersection of the two layers, a Gouyu totem made of Obsidian sugar shards was inlaid.

The top was decorated with an exquisitely sculpted, levitating 3D fudge Mount Fuji. Edible LED strips were embedded inside the mountain; when turned on, they displayed alternating effects of flowing lava and ice-blue auroras.

There were even cartoon sugar figures: a transparent spider blown from isomalt, its abdomen filled with glowing popping candy. When it touched the tabletop, it would "crawl" and shimmer with a faint light.

Chibi-style fondant figurines of the twins: Asatsuyu held a Flaming Lollipop, the tips of her hair decorated with red gold edible gold foil; Yukigiri hugged an Ice Crystal Rabbit, her skirt hem encrusted with Hexagonal Frost Flower Candy pieces.

The filling was a mix of Hokkaido Tokachi fresh cheese and cherry blossom honey, with a layer of salmon roe in between.

The frosting was made from French Fafnir cocoa butter mixed with Mount Fuji cherry blossom extract, airbrushed to create a gradient effect of lava patterns and ice cracks.

Additionally, there were chocolate pendants: Gouyu-shaped Pendants carved from 72% Venezuelan dark chocolate, filled with freeze-dried strawberry bits, which Asatsuyu liked, and blueberry jam, which Yukigiri adored.

The tempting cake alone was enough to make one’s mouth water. But there was also a large Spirit Fruit salad that Li Xiang had specially prepared for the twins, containing a full six types of delicious Spirit Fruits. There were other side dishes as well, such as a base of Hokkaido Purple Lettuce, premium cranberries from Wisconsin, and cherry tomatoes from California...

Li Xiang cut two small pieces of the lava-rock-grilled wagyu and fed one to each of the twins, placing them in their small, cherry-like mouths.

"So delicious," Asatsuyu said, her little eyes squinting in pleasure.

Yukigiri simultaneously covered her mouth. "Shared taste is too intense!"

When Asatsuyu took a bite, the scorching sensation of the fat bursting on her tongue made Yukigiri’s neck blush pink. When Yukigiri chewed, the chilled sensation made tiny frost flowers form on the tips of Asatsuyu’s ears.

It had to be said, the Twin Gouyu allowed them to be linked in mind and share senses. Combined with their polar-opposite ice and fire constitutions, they could experience many wonderful things ordinary people never could.

Even Li Xiang marveled at it.

The hinoki wood sake server was filled with chilled Juyondai Daiginjo. Chiba Yuki knelt beside Li Xiang, pouring for him. Her graceful, fair, and delicate body would intentionally-or-unintentionally brush against him. "Master, would you like to try Yuki’s special cherry-pickled radishes? Yuki personally pickled them in snowmelt purified with my Spiritual Power."

...

After the birthday banquet, Li Xiang finally left that gentle paradise and arrived in the perilous environment of South America.

The Amazon River is the world’s second-longest river and has the largest flow by volume. It has 15,000 tributaries spread across a vast area of South America, flowing through countries like Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, Bolivia, and Brazil, before finally emptying into the Atlantic Ocean near Marajó Island in Brazil. Its basin is nearly as large as the entire continent of Australia.

In the past, the river had no single name. Even after the invasion of Western colonists, after 1502, it was simply called the "Great River." In Spanish, it was called "maraña," meaning "tangle" or "confusion."

The river water churned. Clad in the Giant Whale Saint Armor, Li Xiang walked upon the waves, composed and elegant.

Sensing Li Xiang’s power, a group of capybaras that had been gnawing on palm fruits fled in a panic.

These giant rodents, weighing up to fifty kilograms, had meat as tender as lamb. With a wave of his sleeve, Li Xiang collected over twenty adult capybaras into his storage. The Apocalypse Underground City would soon have a new delicacy: "South American Grilled Capybara Chops."

In the Anaconda Swamp, the decaying leaves suddenly exploded as an eighteen-meter-long Jade Anaconda crushed an anthill that would take three people to encircle.

Li Xiang activated his Earth Superpower to restrain its movements. The White Jade Golden Hook Eight Desolations Giant Python Rod, weighing 7,200 kilograms, smashed down on the anaconda’s head with the force of ten thousand jun.

With the CRACK of breaking bone, a Tier Nine Spiritual Medicine, the Dragon Blood Vine, and a piece of Tier Sixteen Extraordinary armor, the Python Scale Armor, were his.

When worn, this Python Scale Armor could freely resize itself, and it increased flexibility by 500%.

Li Xiang felt this Spirit Armor would be particularly suitable for Yao Yao and decided to save it for her.

...

「Several months earlier, in space.」

Hundreds of Meteor fragments, large and small, drifted on the stellar wind.

Within a crevice on one of the inconspicuous fragments, a speck of Black Light faintly shimmered. Hidden inside was an Illusion.

When this Meteor fragment neared a blue planet and was captured by its gravity, the Illusion within the Black Light trembled with excitement.

’How many years have I been drifting? I’ve finally found a place to survive.’

The Illusion quivered, and ancient memories surfaced.

Countless years ago, the mother nest had exploded. It was merely an unhatched embryo, but it was abandoned due to a defective genetic code.

The laws of the Black Mist Star Realm were cold and efficient: larvae unable to survive independently, larvae with genetic defects, were only fit to become stardust.

It was abandoned.

But even ants will cling to life, to say nothing of a being born from a powerful Interstellar Race.

Unwilling to accept its fate, it learned to wrap its fragile body in Spiritual Energy, compressing itself into a chaotic Illusion and lying dormant within the Meteor fragment.

It hibernated and drifted through the cosmos for an unknown number of years.

Suddenly, it discovered the blue-green planet below and scented a rift in the magnetic field’s folds.

Having been skilled in the art of survival through stealth since its birth, it didn’t choose the reckless path of burning up on entry. Instead, it seeped silently into the atmosphere like a ghost, hiding itself within the vaporous mists of the Amazon Rainforest.

The foul stench of the riverbed silt flooded its senses.

An Anaconda—the apex predator of this planet—was scanning the dark currents with its vertical pupils.

The Anaconda noticed the "ghost." Its pupils contracted. It sensed danger and twisted its body to flee, but it was too late.

Spiritual Energy tentacles pierced the Anaconda’s cranial cavity, and a mournful cry echoed as its spine shattered.

’This small? It’s far from enough.’

The Illusion was dissatisfied with the Anaconda’s ten-meter-plus length. It tore apart the Anaconda’s genetic chain, converting its mucus glands into incubation sacs.

The riverbed trembled. The giant anaconda’s thrashing body split ancient trees, and the startled scarlet macaws that took flight became its first spies.

Mucus seeped from the gaps between its scales, sinking to the riverbed like rotten honey.

Algae grew wildly, and schools of fish turned over, showing their pale white bellies. Death was the beginning of the feast.

The first "engineers" rose from the rotting corpses. Army ants gnawed at the roots of trees, clearing out territory. Poison dart frogs leaped into the canopy, scattering neuro-spores toward tribal bonfires.

At night, a Jaguar snatched a sleeping infant and brought it before the Anaconda. Slender tentacles extended from the Anaconda’s mouth, injecting black mucus into the baby’s ear canal.