"Sister, while that person's identity is exceptional — if we simply let them keep streaming, the strange occurrences in Fyxestroll Garden will inevitably draw an enormous amount of attention…"
Silver thread-fine strands of hair cascaded like moonlight refined into frost-silk, twin crimson crow horns thrust diagonally from her temples, and indigo flame-patterns shifted like living currents through her silver eyes.
Deep azure ruqun robes bore afterlife patterns traced in gold thread, snow-white skin encased in the faintly translucent sheen of black silk, and the twin peaks of her chest rose like cream cake draped in chocolate gauze.
"This matter still has loose ends. I must go and give further instructions to prevent any oversights."
Having silently photographed the limited new look with her Jade Abacus, moved the photos into a hidden album several gigabytes deep, and tucked the Jade Abacus away without a flicker of change in expression — the venerable elder's words never once faltered from beginning to end.
The Artisanship Commission's most prized treasure, the Creation Furnace, had been damaged during the earlier disaster on the Xianzhou. In the chaos, those Heliobus sealed within — the Artisanship Commission's unpaid 007-tier workforce, ahem — had seized the opportunity to escape, and the Ten-Lords Commission had been ordered to recapture them.
Fyxestroll Garden harbored a great many Heliobus in hiding; their presence smoldered like shadow-fire scorching the sky, not to be taken lightly.
"Little sister, I'll go with you."
Piloting the Herta vessel, Xueyi's features were exquisite and utterly still — a touch colder than that old hag, yet far more adorable.
"Huo Huo."
"…Ah? Here, here!"
"You're coming too."
"…Yes!"
Spindly ankles clad in one long and one short pair of bubble socks trembled. Huo Huo gulped and hurried after her two senior Judge colleagues.
...
"D-don't come near me!"
Li Sushang's face drained to chalk white as a strangled half-sob tore from her throat.
Sword Qi erupted with each sharp breath, exploding into a thousand threads of silver radiance. Two hundred and seventeen phantom swords materialized from the void like water given form — yet not in their usual orderly constellation. Instead they resembled a chess piece container kicked over by a mischievous child, dragging scrambled hexagram patterns as they crashed into the eerie green ghost-fire.
"What the heck?! A bit much, don't you think, lady?!"
It was just a little Heliobus!
So thoroughly terrified that its fireball had gone pointed at the tips, the little Heliobus didn't dare spare a second glance. It whipped around, plunged into the shadow of the bamboo leaves, and fled in a wild panic, shooting toward the depths of Fyxestroll Garden.
Sword shadows tore through the bamboo grove, leaves raining down in cascades. Hundred-year-old locust branches were sheared clean off, and an old wall exploded apart with a resounding crack.
Flying swords rang against roof tiles. By the time the last phantom sword buried itself in the garden's ornamental rockery, there was not a single intact brick or tile left in the vicinity.
Only Guinaifen remained, shrieking her head off.
"Is it gone?"
Little Gui clutched her well-developed, generously endowed chest, still trembling from the shock.
"It seems to have… left."
Li Sushang's cheeks were ashen.
"Shangshang, Shangshang! Are you okay?!"
Guinaifen crouched down and shook her best friend — who was holding a full lotus meditation pose — vigorously, stuffing the serene, Buddha-ascending soul back into its body.
Like a drowning person finally drawing breath, Shangshang gasped hugely, sat up, and looked around in a panic:
"The ghost? Where's the ghost?!"
"Sister Sushang scared it off."
Guinaifen hauled her best friend to her feet.
"Just dumb luck. A human's sword can't slay a vengeful ghost — only a ghost can deal with another ghost. I must have stumbled into avoiding its targeting mechanism by pure accident."
To be honest, the reason the little Heliobus got to escape safely was at least two-thirds Caelus's doing.
If Moonscar hadn't told Li Sushang that ghosts can't kill, and that only a ghost can suppress another ghost, she'd have sent every single phantom sword flying at it without a second thought.
The Xianzhou's reserve of unpaid high-quality laborers would be down by one — nothing left but dust.
Round it up, and Caelus had saved a life… saved a Heliobus's life. Another seven-story pagoda of good karma built.
"Little Gui, what should we do? How about we just get out of here now?"
Shangshang, huddled against her older self, gripped Guinaifen's arm and began beating the retreat drum.
Run, bail, get out, scatter!
"Right, right, let's go—"
Guinaifen picked up the phone that had fallen to the ground. The words died in her throat, her expression going gradually, quietly still.
"Little Gui, what's wrong?"
Li Sushang asked, puzzled.
"Emmmmm, I think that since the ghost has already left, we're probably safe right now, and staying a little longer shouldn't be too big a problem, right?"
Sure, there were bullet comments along the lines of 'Were those ghost effects made with a fifty-cent budget?' — but the viewer count and engagement her stream was pulling, unlike anything she'd ever seen before, didn't lie. Guinaifen had to consider whether this might be her one and only chance, through sheer ability, to make it as a big-time streamer.
"?"
"?"
Both versions of Sushang put a question mark on Little Gui's sudden change of attitude.
"That bone-deep chill, that inhuman trajectory drifting through the air — that was absolutely one hundred percent genuine ghost!"
Guinaifen rallied her nerve: "We're going to expose the existence of ghosts to everyone in the stream!"
"Aren't you scared?"
Shangshang, close to tears, asked in a trembling voice — and that adorable quiver earned the stream yet another wave of gifted donations.
A flood of comments egging all three of them on to press deeper filled the feed, with most viewers dying to see the usually composed and mature Sister Sushang scared out of her wits.
"Of course I'm scared!"
Little Gui said, matter-of-fact — then turned serious:
"But on the road of growing up, everyone's curiosity about the unknown gets worn away bit by bit. And I — I cannot accept becoming that kind of dull, boring adult."
"Do ghosts haunt here because of unresolved grudges, or is it a sign that calamity is about to descend? Aren't you even a little curious?"
Shangshang and Li Sushang exchanged a glance: "C-curious, sure, but what about the danger?"
"Heh heh, this is exactly when I use the secret technique my Master passed down to me."
"What secret technique?"
Shangshang blinked curiously.
"The Trailblazer school's ultimate supreme art — calling for backup!"
At the speed of light, Guinaifen opened her contacts, sent Caelus the stream link, and — to avoid losing face in front of her Master — employed a brain operating at three full tiers of processing power above Sushang's to pre-cook a perfectly reasonable excuse.
No matter what kind of education you'd received in the first half of your life — science, magic, faith in whatever you pleased — when a third-rate internet celebrity sends you a junk message claiming she's run into paranormal ghosts in some abandoned garden, your reaction is:
1. Nice, I can snuggle up with her!
2. What new-model scam text is this — block and don't look back.
3. Obtuse angle.
4. Very interested.
Because said third-rate internet celebrity was more or less his disciple, Caelus naturally chose option four.
[Fusion is a Man's Romance: I'm very interested.]
Caelus's knowledge of the Star Rail plot was limited to a rough overview of the main storyline and fan-made content. He hadn't connected any of this to the Heliobus, and assuming the streaming trio had genuinely run into a ghost, he found himself hooked.
Seeing Caelus's reply, Guinaifen's eyes lit up and she hurriedly sent over the coordinates.
[Little Gui Guinevere: Come quick come quick — with Master making a guest appearance, this episode's video is guaranteed to blow up in views!]
[Fusion is a Man's Romance: Unfortunately, though.]
Caelus hadn't opened the coordinates. She — Moonscar — had been part of the discussion when choosing the stream location, so she naturally knew the trio was in Fyxestroll Garden right now.
[Fusion is a Man's Romance: I'm busy at the moment.]
[Little Gui Guinevere: What could possibly be more important than conquering the streaming world together with your adorable disciple? Oh right, Shangshang and Sister Sushang are here too, you know.]
[Fusion is a Man's Romance: But Master has to go catch a ghost.]
No reports of widespread chaos anywhere yet, but Caelus couldn't just leave the newly hatched demon beast unattended, could he? After all, the thing had come into this world because of him.
[Little Gui Guinevere: Huh? Catching a ghost? Master, you ran into a ghost too? What kind of ghost?]
Both Sushang and Li Sushang widened their eyes as they read the chat between Little Gui and Caelus.
[Fusion is a Man's Romance: Yep. A vampire.]
"..."
"?"
The three exchanged looks, each face wearing a different expression.
"What's a vampire?"
Li Sushang, having grown up in ancient Shenzhou and never having woken in the modern era to be baptized by Earth's information age, indicated she had never heard of this species of ghost.
"It's a kind of ghost that feeds on human blood."
Sushang explained blankly.
"Feeds on human blood? Isn't that just a jiangshi?"
Speaking of jiangshi, Li Sushang wasn't afraid at all. A jiangshi had a physical form, and a physical form meant an HP bar — something you could cut down!
"Whether vampire or jiangshi…"
Sushang blinked those big, pure eyes, innocent and unsullied by any corrupting knowledge:
"Aren't those just made-up things from foreign movies and TV shows?"
Guinaifen forwarded both Shangshang's and her own doubts to Caelus, then thought it over:
"Well, since the Xianzhou already has paranormal ghosts showing up, it's entirely possible that a 'fictional' vampire might actually be real too, you know."
[Little Gui Guinevere: Master, where is the vampire? Should you consider doing a livestream while ghost-hunting? Also, do you actually know how to catch ghosts?]
A vampire on the Xianzhou would be a rare novelty indeed. If one truly existed, streaming it would pull a massive wave of traffic — though it might also attract Realm-Keeping Commission enforcers and Alchemy Commission physicians.
Given just how gloriously chaotic Caelus's antics tended to be, Guinaifen maintained healthy skepticism toward the second half of that sentence.
[Fusion is a Man's Romance: But of course. I have a professional magical girl specialist on my team — handles all manner of demons, ghosts, and tentacle monsters, vampires included.]
[Little Gui Guinevere: ...]
Called it.
There it was. The abstract nonsense had arrived.
How did magical girls even get into this?
Demons, ghosts and tentacle monsters don't belong in the same aesthetic, you hear?!
[Fusion is a Man's Romance: As for where the vampire is, I'm still looking myself. Probably somewhere in my vicinity… within a thousand kilometers or so.]
[Little Gui Guinevere: ?]
That was certainly very nearby of it.
If Master didn't have time to come over, did she still need to press deeper into Fyxestroll Garden for the stream? What if they actually ran into a ghost that even Sister Sushang couldn't handle — that'd be it!
Mid-thought, Guinaifen suddenly rubbed her shoulders: "Come to think of it, Shangshang, Sister Sushang — do you feel like the air just got a bit colder all of a sudden?"
"I think so, actually."
Sushang opened her Jade Abacus: "Strange — the weather forecast for Fyxestroll Garden doesn't show temperatures this low."
Weather forecasts on the Xianzhou were uncannily accurate.
The entire Exalting Sanctum was controlled by the Torch Dragon System's Zhongshan Meteorological Sphere — rain or snow was decreed first, and only then was the forecast issued accordingly.
"No… something's not right."
Li Sushang's brow furrowed slightly as her gaze shifted toward the depths of Fyxestroll Garden.
She could faintly sense it — a creeping, bone-deep chill.
Rustle-rustle-rustle!
The sudden noise made all three girls jump. They snapped their heads around — and at the base of the wall, dozens of crimson pinpoints of light blazed to life all at once, black shapes erupting upward in a fluttering swarm.
Sushang and Guinaifen dissolved into another bout of shrieking chaos. Li Sushang, by comparison, was the calmest of the three:
"Don't panic. Just a colony of flying mice."
"Flying mice… what, bats? Nearly scared me to death."
Sushang patted her Little Pillow.
The bats hung inverted, their wings beating in a dense drumbeat rhythm as they poured in a great flock toward the depths of Fyxestroll Garden.
"Come to think of it, aren't bats the inspiration behind vampires?"
Guinaifen raised her phone and snapped a photo of the bat swarm, then sent it to Caelus.
The next second.
Li Sushang's body gave a small jolt, and inwardly she greeted her other self.
[Awake now~]
[Mm.]
Caelus looked at the photo on his phone. Moonscar smiled in response to Li Sushang, while simultaneously gazing out toward the depths of Fyxestroll Garden, her perception spreading inward.
She felt it — a faint thread of dark power, similar to yet distinct from the Will of the Abyss's dark god.
[Fusion is a Man's Romance: Wait for me. We'll be right there.]
The newly hatched demon beast was in Fyxestroll Garden!
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