Chapter 911: Luckily, He Could Afford the Repairs
A hint of exasperation touched Li Daoxuan as he observed the scene unfolding within the diorama box.
Without the "focus" function, viewing it with his bare eyes, the locusts appeared as nothing more than a swirling dust cloud inside the box. Yet, their passage brought absolute devastation, leaving not a single blade of grass untouched.
A charming little tree, moments ago vibrant, was instantly swarmed by the insects, its leaves devoured in a flash until only bare branches remained.
He reached out and gave a gentle tap. His immense hand swept through the miniature swarm, clearing a patch of the "flying dust" for a fleeting instant. But it was utterly useless; in a blink, another tide of "flying dust" rushed in to fill the void.
How frustrating!
As he constantly shifted his viewpoint, assessing the full scope of the disaster and ensuring no one had fallen outside his protection, his gaze suddenly landed on his silicone avatar. It stood before the Prince of Fu's mansion, already consumed by the relentless tide of "flying dust."
While the silicone figure was impervious to bites, the sight was still undeniably grotesque.
Li Daoxuan extended his hand, lifting his silicone avatar and carefully removing it from the diorama box.
Meanwhile, within the miniature world...
Suddenly, he watched as Master Swordsman Xiao Qiushui rose straight into the air.
Without the slightest movement, not even a twitch of his limbs, he ascended directly towards the heavens.
The Prince of Fu gasped, "Ahhh! What’s happening to him?"
Eunuch Zheng, equally stunned, exclaimed, "He’s flying?"
In the very next instant, Master Swordsman Xiao Qiushui accelerated with an incredible whoosh, rocketing dozens of yards skyward, hurtling straight into the clouds.
A gap opened in the heavens, as if beckoning him, and Master Swordsman Xiao Qiushui vanished into the cloud cover. Then, the rift in the clouds seamlessly converged, leaving no trace of his passage.
The Prince of Fu was speechless with shock.
Eunuch Zheng gaped, equally dumbfounded.
And the guards of the princely manor who witnessed the spectacle were utterly bewildered.
Li Daoxuan had removed the silicone figure from the box, still covered in clinging locusts. Yet, the instant the avatar cleared the box's boundary, a mysterious force swept over these tiny, dust-like insects, instantly snuffing out their lives.
They tumbled lifelessly from the silicone figure...
And landed back within the diorama box.
The Prince of Fu and his retinue were still staring, bewildered, at the clouds when they saw the very same locusts that had ascended with the silicone figure now plummeting back down, transformed into lifeless specimens.
The Prince of Fu shrieked, "Ahhh! What incredible divine power is this?"
Eunuch Zheng declared, "Immortal magic! It must be the work of immortals!"
Meanwhile, Li Daoxuan was struck by a thought: *Aha! That's right! Living creatures perish the moment they pass in or out of the box. So, dispatching these locusts isn't impossible after all. All I need to do is get them out, and they'll die instantly.*
*What's the easiest way to extract them?*
*Time to put on my thinking cap!*
Click, click, click...
Ding!
A metaphorical lightbulb flashed above Li Daoxuan's head. *I’ve got it.*
His eyes darted, zeroing in on the vacuum cleaner in his apartment.
Mine!
He detached the floor attachment, swapping it for a narrow nozzle. Plugging it in, he aimed the nozzle at the diorama box, slowly inserting it a fraction of an inch...
At that very moment, the Prince of Fu and his retinue remained fixated on the clouds above, their minds buzzing with incredulous thoughts.
The Prince of Fu stammered, "That... that Xiao fellow... *cough*... Master Swordsman Xiao... *cough*... Grand Immortal Xiao! After he flew up, why hasn't he reappeared?"
Three different appellations in a single breath! Such was the chaotic state of his mind.
Eunuch Zheng, wiping beads of sweat from his brow, suggested, "Could it be that he simply... no longer wishes to involve himself?"
Just as they were speaking, the clouds parted once more, and from their depths emerged a strange, milky-white, enormous suction nozzle.
The Prince of Fu shrieked, "Ahhh! What in the heavens is that?"
Eunuch Zheng's eyes widened. "A divine artifact? It must be a divine artifact from the Celestial Realm! I understand now! Grand Immortal Xiao returned to the heavens just now to retrieve this artifact. Now he has brought it forth! My heavens, what kind of divine artifact is this?"
The Prince of Fu admitted, "I don't comprehend it. I've never heard tell of a divine artifact like this."
At that precise moment, Li Daoxuan pressed the power switch on the vacuum cleaner...
And it began to *suck*!
A deep, resonant hum filled the air!
The vacuum cleaner roared to life, emitting a sound like a mighty turbine spooling up.
While this noise was merely irritating to those in Li Daoxuan’s reality, once channeled through the nozzle into the diorama box, it transformed into an omnipresent, terrifying hum – a colossal, booming sound that reverberated throughout the entire city of Luoyang.
Every soul sheltering indoors across the city was rattled senseless by the deafening sound. They clapped their hands over their ears, then peered anxiously toward the sky through window cracks and gaps in their roofs.
Bai Yuan, after a single glance, burst with exultation: "The Heavenly Lord has intervened! The Heavenly Lord is about to sweep away these locusts!"
Fan Shangzheng, Governor of Henan, gasped, "Remarkable! What strange contraption is that?"
The common folk murmured, "Such an enormous tube! Is it roaring?"
The Prince of Fu pondered aloud, "Just what is Grand Immortal Xiao’s divine artifact intended for? Is it merely to frighten away the locusts with its peculiar noise?"
...
All eyes widened in disbelief. They watched as the audacious locust swarm hovering above Luoyang was suddenly, with a resounding *whoosh*, sucked into the enormous "Celestial Artifact."
A collective gasp of "Wow!" escaped the crowd.
With that first successful sweep, Li Daoxuan instantly cleared a patch of sky, his mood lifting considerably. *Oh, this isn't a bad way to handle a locust plague at all. Let's keep going, keep going.*
He adjusted the nozzle's angle...
And so, the people on the ground watched as the enormous, terrifying Celestial Artifact pivoted, aimed itself at another section of the sky, and *whoosh!* — the locusts vanished in an instant.
The Celestial Artifact immediately shifted its angle once more, and *whoosh!* — another swathe of sky was pristine.
The crowd erupted, "Unbelievable!"
The Prince of Fu cried, "Oh, my goodness!"
Fan Shangzheng murmured, "Such... divine might."
Bai Yuan exclaimed, "May the Heavenly Lord protect us all!"
The militia soldiers roared in a frenzy of joy, "The Heavenly Lord’s power is boundless!"
Li Daoxuan, now thoroughly amused, began to play. A sweep to the left, a sweep to the right, forward, then back...
The locust swarms blanketing Luoyang’s sky were swiftly reduced by three-quarters, transformed into lifeless "dust" within the vacuum cleaner’s bag.
But merely clearing the sky wasn't enough; countless locusts still teemed across the ground.
Li Daoxuan experimented, lowering the nozzle a fraction closer to the earth...
The Prince of Fu exclaimed, "Huh? That colossal divine artifact in the sky seems to be descending towards us!"
Eunuch Zheng muttered, "It's drawing nearer."
The Prince of Fu cried out, "Whoa, what an immense wind!"
The vacuum cleaner's immense suction, the closer it approached, exerted an even greater pull on the ground below.
Locusts clinging to the eaves of the Prince of Fu’s mansion were swept away in droves.
The Prince of Fu suddenly sensed that something was amiss. The entire gate tower groaned and creaked, as if the massive structure itself were about to take flight.
Inside the gate tower, the Prince of Fu, Eunuch Zheng, the guards, and the jianghu warriors all blanched with terror. "Quick, everyone! Grab hold of anything you can!" someone yelled.
Every person clung desperately to the nearest pillar.
Then, with a deafening *CRASH!*
With a tremendous roar, the gate tower's roof was torn free, vanishing instantly into the colossal nozzle.
The miniature figures inside were all lifted and swirled around by the powerful draft. Had they not clung to the pillars for dear life, they too would have been whisked away.
The Prince of Fu, scared witless, let out a piercing shriek.
At that instant, the nozzle *whooshed* upward, receding from the ground. The miniature figures, whose lower halves had been floating precariously, tumbled back to the earth with a series of muffled thuds.
Outside the box, Li Daoxuan winced, uttering a soft "Oops." "No good, too close to the ground," he muttered. "It’s damaging the city’s buildings... Good thing it was the Prince of Fu’s manor that got wrecked. He’s wealthy enough to rebuild it, so no big deal. But if it had been the common folk’s homes, that would have been truly terrible."
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