Glug.
Even Simar, faced with Ye Xu’s sudden question and the endlessly swirling night-purple mana afterimages dancing in his palm, couldn’t help but swallow hard.
The wealth Ye Xu commanded was staggering.
With his seemingly bottomless, terrifying talent and epoch-making ideas that never stopped flowing, countless creations capable of driving the entire continent mad had been born from his hands.
Just as Earth’s technological progress had slowed to a crawl after multiple industrial revolutions due to material and theoretical limits, human civilization on the Delayer Continent now faced the same bottleneck.
Ten thousand years after the birth of the Magitech Knight, research in the field had virtually ground to a halt.
A design that improved overall performance by more than 5% over its predecessor was already considered the blueprint for the next generation of mass-produced machines.
Yet even such modest leaps now required anywhere from a decade to several decades of research—barely keeping pace with the natural evolution of magical beasts and non-human races.
And in that environment, Ye Xu had worked miracles.
The “Night Guard-type Magitech Knight” he designed boasted an average performance increase of 23% over the “Radiant Sun Type-13 Standard,” the current mainstay finalized in Tianluo Year 9923 and used as the baseline by every nation.
On top of that, he had created the nine “Eternal Night-type” machines, each capable of fighting a hundred enemies alone.
Every derivative technology from those projects had earned him astronomical wealth, becoming the greatest economic pillar supporting the steady growth of the rebellion.
Even now, though all related technology had been seized by the Radiant Sun Empire as top-secret, the crystallized fruits of that wealth still lay quietly inside the storage gem at Ye Xu’s neck.
To be honest, Simar was tempted. Extremely tempted.
Whether it was an ocean of money, a personally customized Magitech Knight, or Ye Xu’s help in seizing even greater power—he could refuse none of it.
But…
Cough cough.
“Would it be fair to say… you’re offering to grant me one wish?”
Forcing his gaze away from those seductive mana glows, he swallowed again, then put on the exact roguish grin Ye Xu remembered from the day they first met.
“You can put it that way. As long as it’s within what I can accept, any single wish of yours—I’ll make it come true.”
Ye Xu merely nodded calmly.
“Uh, in that case…”
Simar’s eyes slowly swept over Ye Xu, who was currently lounging lazily on the sofa, then he spoke.
“In that case, let me behold the peerless beauty of Her Imperial Highness the Emperor’s Daughter?”
Ye Xu froze. Then his eyes turned completely dead as he stared straight at Simar.
The other man’s gaze was full of teasing and mischief, but not a trace of lust.
They were old friends; Ye Xu instantly understood what Simar was doing:
He didn’t want their friendship to be reduced to a cold transaction.
So he ended Ye Xu’s grand offer with this seemingly frivolous request.
“Heh.”
Ye Xu couldn’t help but huff a laugh, shaking his head helplessly.
“If Navila knew you were still this much of a degenerate, she’d carve you into pieces.”
He suddenly dropped a name, then used one hand to push himself upright on the sofa, teasing his friend with fond exasperation.
But he didn’t refuse the request.
“HUM~”
Mana flowed. Magical circuits that had been hidden beneath his skin now spread from his forehead across his entire body, glowing with faint night-purple light.
—Ye Xu had cut the mana supply to the spell formulas that had been maintaining his disguise.
Light flashed before Simar’s eyes.
When he opened them again, his breath caught in his throat.
Hair like a cascade of midnight with a faint violet sheen spilled over the sofa and down to her hips. Those eyes—still shaped like a dead fish’s, yet deep and mesmerizing as amethysts—gazed at him in helpless resignation.
Moonlight poured through the window, bathing the girl in silvery radiance, making her seem like the Night God herself descended to the mortal world.
Compared to two years ago, the Ye Lalar before him now no longer wore the hastily tailored clothes that had only barely suited an Emperor’s Daughter.
Instead, she wore a gown custom-made for her current appearance and status—priceless, radiating powerful magical fluctuations.
The dress was primarily black, adorned with intricate, gorgeous purple patterns and gold thread accents, studded with priceless purple magic crystals.
Elaborate and luxurious, yet not the least bit gaudy—it hugged her figure perfectly.
The skirt elegantly slit at mid-thigh, revealing the Night Princess’s long, graceful legs wrapped in lace-topped black thigh-high stockings.
And as Ye Xu transformed into Ye Lalar, two objects flew out from the gem at her neck:
One was the opulent night-purple crown that symbolized her status as heir.
The other was a dark-purple royal mantle that floated at her shoulders, trailing all the way to her ankles.
“So? How is it?”
Ye Lalar spread her hands at the dumbstruck Simar and smiled helplessly.
—No matter how much she despised the blood flowing in this body, every time she stood before a mirror, even Ye Lalar had to admit: this face that perfectly combined her original features with imperial majesty was undeniably breathtaking.
Even she, who had always kept women at arm’s length, had to concede: if this person weren’t herself, she might actually make an exception and pursue her at all costs.
“Well…”
To Ye Lalar’s surprise, Simar recovered from the visual impact in mere moments.
He carefully studied Ye Lalar—who, aside from the finer details and figure, still resembled the old Ye Xu by at least eighty percent—and delivered his verdict.
“See? I told you you’d look killer in women’s clothes!”
“If back then, after every battle, you’d put on a skirt and cheered the troops on, the rebellion would’ve ended ages ago!”
…
Instantly, the room fell deathly silent.
Realizing the atmosphere had taken a nosedive—and that his mouth had run ahead of his brain—Simar broke into a cold sweat.
Ye Xu was actually a girl now. He had forgotten the most crucial fact.
Because of his naturally delicate, almost androgynous features, the old Ye Xu had hated—hated—anyone saying he looked feminine.
Even a casual “you’ve got such pretty features for a guy” would be remembered, and payback would come later.
Now that he’d actually become a woman, with a personality that looked dark on the outside and was pure charcoal on the inside, this was the ultimate forbidden topic.
So right now…
—Simar felt a tangible killing intent instantly flood the entire room!
“Hey… can we still be friends?”
Behind Ye Lalar, a Magitech Knight silhouette was gradually materializing. Just from the outline, it was clearly another monster capable of fighting a hundred enemies alone, radiating restrained yet terrifying mana fluctuations.
Simar’s voice trembled as cold sweat poured down his face.
If he had to sum up his current thoughts in one sentence, it would be:
“Brothers watching from behind the screen—do you think I’m gonna survive this?”
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