Meteor Fall Master in the 'Starry Abyss'
Chapter 769 - 378. Bonfire (4k)

Chapter 769: 378. Bonfire (4k)

"Come with me for a moment," said the blacksmith, pulling N4 aside. He briefly laid out the situation.

"...Huh, didn’t expect that, another one of those incidents," N4 said with a slight surprise as she crossed her arms, responding to the blacksmith’s explanation, "If what you said is true, then someone from your family must’ve traveled to Dragon Satellite through the portal a long time ago—has anyone in your family disappeared?"

"My... Li Aozi’s father," the blacksmith recalled the details before responding, "Li Mingji, male, 46 years old at the time of disappearance, average build, worked at a fertilizer factory. When the factory downsized and he was laid off, he had to take out a loan for training and went to work in the south—and then he lost contact. The time of his disappearance was exactly two years before I went to Mingji Humanity."

"Li Mingji... that’s a pretty common name," N4 shrugged.

"Doesn’t your own company also go by the name Mingji Heavy Industries?" asked the blacksmith.

"It’s different, it’s for blending into the Frost Plated Market," N4 reasoned while resting her chin on her hand, "The timing of the disappearance and the portal’s activation line up too well to be a mere coincidence—did your father have any particular distinctions?"

"None at all," the blacksmith shook his head, "He was a very ordinary worker, plain in appearance, reticent, not fond of social interactions, and his work was just at the level of a common laborer."

"So why are you so beautiful?" N4 asked.

"...That’s a good point," the blacksmith suddenly realized there was something amiss upon N4’s remark.

Originally, when Li Aozi was still a mortal, his "Charm" started as high as 13.

What does that mean?

Girls like Yawen, who lead pampered lives, need makeup and meticulous dressing to maintain a score of 11, without any labor on their hands and dressed very fashionably.

Without any props or makeup products, Li Aozi’s bare-faced score of 13!

Just by looks, he surpassed ninety-nine percent of ordinary people.

With just a bit of smooth-talking and the right connections, Li Aozi wouldn’t need to labor for a living, and he could live a very comfortable life based on his looks alone.

According to Li Aozi’s memories, although his ancestors included a high-ranking official in Frost Plated, his grandmother was just an average person, and his parents were farmers with rough appearances, not at all considered attractive.

Yet, when it came to Li Aozi’s generation, his elder sister was beautiful, surrounded by boys since she was young, and his younger sister spoiled by both boys and girls, dropped out of high school without finishing and mixed with other free-spirited young ladies in the society, with companions eager to give her money and food.

Li Aozi was just unlucky; his Outer World characteristics were too obvious, his skin deathly pale, facing discrimination when seeking employment, but among the three children, he had the best features.

Such noticeable changes in appearance convinced their mother that their generation had undergone a genetic mutation.

But now that he thought about it...

"If Li Mingji himself hid his true appearance, then it explains why you were born so beautiful," N4 said, teasing him, "I thought you were really a hero from the common folks, but it turns out it’s more of the ’like father, like son’ scenario. Seems no one can really escape the debate over lineage."

The blacksmith fell silent for a moment, then, struck by a thought, asked, "Could it be possible that the portal wasn’t placed by Li Mingji?"

"You’re suggesting..." N4 prompted.

"The Void," the blacksmith guessed, "The Void could have been planning and infiltrating everywhere from the start, aiming to invade Layer Abyss, and Azure Star might be the next target."

N4 pondered this idea briefly.

"All I can say is, it’s possible," N4 didn’t immediately reject the notion, "Whether the Void is the chief culprit, or if your father ’Li Mingji’ was a target chosen by the Void is also possible. But what the outcome will be isn’t certain yet. Just like before Lord Entropy, the Four Nations thought the global sky dome was the result of technology abused by the Ancients."

"It doesn’t matter, I wasn’t close to him anyway," the blacksmith said indifferently.

This wasn’t an attempt to disassociate himself; in his previous identity as Li Aozi, his relationship with his family was already not great. His mother favored his sisters and didn’t allow him to take the college entrance exam, his sisters treated him like a cash machine, and he hardly ever had a conversation with his father over the years, the only decent relationship being with his policeman grandfather.

After Li Mingji mysteriously disappeared, the family’s impression of him worsened; a family that was already not wealthy became utterly destitute.

Of course, things changed dramatically with the rise that came after transcending, and with Li Aozi’s dissatisfaction with his birth family and his individualistic supremacy, he never took part in investigating what happened afterward.

As for the issue with Li Mingji—if N4 hadn’t brought it up, the blacksmith probably would have needed over an hour just to think of the name.

"Let’s talk about this another time."

The blacksmith didn’t possess Li Aozi’s keen insight or long-term vision, those were attributes of the soul.

In other words, most of Li Aozi’s finer qualities could almost be found in Polina.

But the blacksmith never wanted Polina to get involved in these complex matters. Li Aozi was already fractured; best to let him dissipate completely, and for them who inherited his abilities and memories to continue living a peaceful life away from the world’s strife.

In the blacksmith’s view, Polina was just capricious; once she returned to a comfortable life, she would regret her impulsive naivety and find it laughable within days.

Young people are always like this, their minds change faster than mountain weather, sunny turning to cloudy to storms then back to sunny in an afternoon.