Chapter 81: Is It Good?
Shen San squatted down, retrieved a glowing night pearl from his inventory, and placed it in the center of the boat. In an instant, a soft halo of light finally pierced the pitch-black night.
Lu Yunxi blinked, taking a clear look at her surroundings. She was about to nod in approval when she suddenly noticed something was deeply wrong. Her breath caught in her throat. Before she could fully process the sight, Shen San dropped onto one knee.
He looked at her levelly, carefully placing his large hands on her shoulders. His tone was incredibly grave. “Master, it’s not that I’ve gotten bigger. It’s that you’ve gotten smaller.”
Boom!
It felt as though a bomb had exploded in her mind.
Her neck moved stiffly, her gaze drifting toward the edge of the lotus boat. Originally, the gunwale hadn’t even reached her waist; now, it loomed completely over her head.
Tragically, the nightmare wasn’t over. As she stared at the wooden structure beside her, she realized she was actively continuing to shrink. To her eyes, the boat’s walls grew taller and taller, scaling upward like a rising fortress.
It took a full hour before Lu Yunxi’s height finally stabilized.
“Master… are you alright?” Shen San scrutinized her dazed expression, asking with utmost caution.
Am I alright?
Of course I’m not alright!
She stood frozen on the deck, staring up at the rim of the boat. It now loomed far higher than any city wall she had ever seen. Forcing herself to calm down, she tried to estimate her new proportions. Exactly how tall was she? Was she smaller than a newborn baby? If she were the size of an infant, she would at least be half the height of the hull.
“Shen San, gauge my height for me,” she commanded, her throat tightening with involuntary nervousness.
Shen San knelt silently on the timber. He looked down at her, then carefully cupped his hand, scooping her up into his palm. “Master, you’re currently about ten centimeters tall.”
“Ten centimeters?” Lu Yunxi sat down cross-legged in his palm, her expression incredibly dark.
If she were any smaller, she would practically cease to exist. To think she could actually be held in the palm of someone’s hand!
“Is this a side effect of that toxic mushroom meat?” Shen San gently extended a single finger, carefully tapping her shoulder to offer some comfort. “Look on the bright side, Master. You’ve only shrunk. At least you aren’t in any pain.”
She swatted his massive finger away from her shoulder and pulled up her character status panel, her tiny fists clenching tightly.
Not only had her physical model shrunk, but her combat level had also catastrophically plummeted back to Level 10! Her strength, agility, and mental power stats had all reset to a flat 100 points.
Curse that mushroom!
While Lu Yunxi was frantically brainstorming a solution to this crisis, Shen San was covertly losing his mind.
Master is too cute!
When she was angry, her round little cheeks puffed out; when she spoke, her chubby baby face moved cutely; even the way she sat was incredibly adorable. This was a complete, mind-boggling inversion of her usual elegant, calm, and all-powerful demeanor!
Stealthily accessing his system interface, he toggled the camera function and snapped a picture of her. He vowed to lock this photo away in his private files forever.
Oblivious to her apprentice’s slightly unhinged behavior, Yunxi finished reading the detailed text provided by her Grandmaster-tier analysis. She let out a long, quiet sigh of relief.
Fortunately, the side effects of the sea mushroom were temporary, lasting anywhere from six months to a year. As time passed, her character model would naturally grow, and her original master-level attributes would systematically restore themselves. The only downside was that while she remained in this infant state, her experience bar would remain locked, preventing her from leveling up. On the bright side, the mastery levels of her various life skills remained completely intact, meaning she could leverage this period to grind her crafting experience.
“Master, should we eat first?” Noticing that her tiny brow had finally unfurled, Shen San quickly brought over the wooden bowl.
“Alright.” Lu Yunxi looked at the plate, which now resembled a massive sports stadium to her eyes, and her miniature eye twitched.
She stood up, attempting to march over and grab a slice of raw fish, but she failed to account for the loose folds of her original clothing pooling around her feet. She tripped instantly.
Flump.
She collapsed face-first into a mountain of soft fabric, completely buried. Her cheeks flushed a violent crimson.
Unbelievable! Falling flat on my face in front of my own student is profoundly humiliating!
Her image in his eyes had always been that of an elegant, serene, and omnipotent martial master—not a clumsy toddler who couldn’t even walk without face-planting.
“Ahem. Cough.” An unnatural, strained cough echoed from above.
Lu Yunxi scrambled out of the fabric, desperate to salvage her dignity. Looking up, she noticed her apprentice’s ears were bright red. He had aggressively turned his head away, staring intently out at the black ocean.
Staring at the sea? In the dead of night?
Thoroughly confused, she was about to ask if he had spotted a monster when he suddenly spoke, his voice tight and strained.
“Master… do you want to find a new set of clothes first?” He kept his eyes locked on the horizon, refusing to look in her direction.
A sudden, horrible dread gripped Yunxi.
Lowering her head, she realized that her sudden tumble had caused her oversized collar to slip down her shoulders. Her smooth, miniature skin was completely exposed to the elements, and she could suddenly feel the damp chill of the sea breeze.
She froze for a mortifying second, then frantically yanked the massive sleeve—which felt larger than a winter quilt—around her body, enveloping herself completely. Despite the freezing wind, her face burned like fire.
The master and disciple remained seated on opposite sides of the boat, one facing north and the other facing south. Both stared ahead with absolute, rigid seriousness, as if the blank wood in front of them were hosting a spectacular floral display.
The silence inside the bubble was deafening.
It wasn’t until the cold wind finally cooled the burning heat in her cheeks that Lu Yunxi cleared her throat, breaking the tension. “Hurry up, we still need to eat! Once your associate’s courier arrives with the fresh water, your top priority is to fashion me a garment. I don’t have anything this size in my inventory.”
“Huh?” Shen San instantly forgot his embarrassment, his head snapping around. “Fashion a garment? As in… sewing?”
The next morning, the sky cleared beautifully.
Shen San sat cross-legged on the deck, holding a giant iron needle in one hand and a scrap of cloth in the other. His posture was so rigid he looked as though he were holding a live explosive.
“What is wrong with you? Start stitching,” Lu Yunxi urged, sitting on a crate nearby with her chin resting in her hands. “Why are you just freezing there?”
“Master, please have mercy. This is my absolute first time handling a needle. I don’t have any experience points in tailoring.” He wiped a layer of cold sweat from his forehead, meticulously raising the needle to pierce a small square of fabric he had cut.
He was merely trying to construct a simple tunic, yet his intense focus made it look like he was defusing a bomb.
Yunxi sighed, watching him helplessly. Unfortunately, she currently lacked the raw materials and tools to craft a micro-needle suited for her ten-centimeter frame, so she was entirely dependent on his clumsy hands.
Every few minutes, he would pause to wipe away his sweat, yet the progress on the garment was virtually non-existent. She eventually massaged her temples to ward off a headache. “Shen San, lift me up onto your shoulder.” She cupped her tiny hands around her mouth, shouting at the top of her lungs.
Deeply immersed in his struggle, Shen San took a moment to register the sound. He looked down at her blankly. “Oh, Master? Right, you want to sit on my shoulder. Got it.”
Seeing his thoroughly dazed expression, Lu Yunxi felt a massive headache coming on. If she had known this would happen, she would have forced him to grind his needlework skills months ago.
“Calm down, Shen San. I’m currently wrapped securely in my old coat, so there’s no need to panic,” she said softly, patting his neck to soothe him when she felt his shoulder muscles tighten. “Even if your tailoring fails, we can just commission a seamstress once we make landfall at a coastal town.”
Under her gentle coaching, Shen San’s movements gradually fluidly relaxed, and his stitches began to form with a modicum of efficiency. Lu Yunxi sat perched on his shoulder, adjusting the cloth sheet she was using as a temporary bath towel, occasionally leaning forward to wipe the sweat from his brow.
The painstaking process ground on for three full days. Finally, the crude garment was complete.
“Master, it’s done! Try it on!” Shen San held the miniature outfit out in his palm, his face radiant with a sense of profound accomplishment.
“Wonderful, wonderful.” Lu Yunxi nodded rapidly, a bright smile gracing her face. She snatched the tiny piece of fabric and ducked behind a small privacy screen they had rigged from spare sailcloth.
To ensure that Shen San could actually execute the design, she had been forced to drastically simplify the pattern multiple times over the last three days. Initially, she had requested a basic pair of linen shorts, but the geometric construction was far too complex for his zero-rank tailoring. She had then downgraded the request to a simple tunic skirt, but his stitches were still too crooked. Ultimately, she had settled on a primitive tube-top dress design, explicitly adding a sticky alchemical strip along the seam so she could simply wrap it around her chest and fasten it securely without worrying about it slipping off.
Stepping out from behind the screen, she smoothed down the fabric and smiled. It was a perfect fit! While it looked remarkably like a modern, minimalist tube-top dress—completely alien to the traditional flowing robes of this world—at least she was no longer drowning in a mountain of oversized fabric.
“Shen San, you’re a genius!” Lu Yunxi laughed, running out of her makeshift fitting room. She extended her tiny arms, spinning on her heels to show off the front and back of the dress.
“Well? How do I look?”
