After their discussion, Himeko asked for Yuki's opinion on the matter.
Ultimately, all three Express members agreed to help the planet's natives reclaim their home from the Denizens of Abundance.
March and Himeko needed absolutely no convincing—both were Nameless, cosmic rangers overflowing with a profound sense of justice.
Yuki? He didn't mind either way. As long as it didn't violate his own personal principles, stepping in was fine by him.
"Then it's settled!"
"First, we need to contact the native leadership. Then we can coordinate our move," Himeko decided firmly.
"Assuming they even exist," March pointed out.
"They do," Jingliu interjected quietly.
"On my way here, I passed a northern wasteland. There was a massive battle raging. It was likely the native forces fiercely resisting the Abundance aberrations." Jingliu shared this crucial piece of intelligence.
"Thank you, Miss Jingliu. That's incredibly helpful." Himeko's golden eyes lit up.
Jingliu shook her head slightly—it was nothing.
"A battlefield means there is organized resistance. Which means there's likely a commander—probably a central leader. That makes our next steps much, much easier," Himeko smiled.
Resistance meant these natives still had the will to fight and were truly worth saving. If they had completely given up like the decaying, hollow city Jingliu had passed through earlier, things would be infinitely harder. Organized resistance meant local leadership still existed. That would drastically simplify post-war governance. Simply defeating the Denizens of Abundance would be useless if the planet immediately fell into lawless chaos afterward.
"Let's go. Tonight. We leave this city and find the resistance," Himeko packed her things decisively.
"Got it!" March eagerly followed suit.
"Walking to the northern wasteland from here will take a long time—even if we manage to avoid detection," Jingliu warned them.
"That's a problem," Himeko paused, thinking it over. "Could we take the train?"
Jingliu knew the Express was docked nearby, but getting it out of a hostile city unnoticed would be nearly impossible.
"No need! Yuki can take us! He's our personal transportation," March waved the concern off casually.
"Hey, idiot March. What exactly do you take me for?" Yuki rolled his eyes at her.
"Hehe... a very handsome taxi?" March grinned cheekily.
Yuki shot her a flat look but didn't actually refuse.
Himeko suddenly remembered his casual use of teleportation during their very first meeting.
"How will we do it?" Jingliu asked, genuinely curious.
"Hehe, Miss Jingliu, just watch! You'll be amazed," March chuckled confidently.
Once Himeko finished packing, Yuki saw they were ready. With a casual wave of his hand, he tore open the fabric of reality, creating a swirling portal that shimmered like a deep, starry sky.
"Go through. The resistance battlefield is right on the other side."
Himeko and March stepped through the portal without a second of hesitation.
Jingliu hesitated, utterly amazed. "A spatial portal?"
Portals weren't exactly rare in the Xianzhou Alliance; they had highly advanced spatial technology. But opening a stable portal with bare hands—without any mechanical devices, jade abacus formations, or physical mediums? That was entirely new.
Only an Emanator of a specific Path could potentially do that. Their power was fundamentally beyond that of mortals.
"Yuki, are you an Emanator?" Her crimson eyes, bright as cut rubies, stared at him with intense curiosity.
"No," Yuki shook his head calmly.
He reached into the corner of the room and pulled out a crystalline, azure greatsword made of pure, unmeltable ice.
"Your sword," he said, returning it to her.
She blinked in surprise, then quickly took the heavy blade. "Thank you."
With that, she finally stepped through the portal, following Himeko and March.
Yuki was just about to step through himself when a strange, absolute cosmic power suddenly locked onto his exact coordinates.
An ancient, sacred, and profoundly solemn aura filled the empty inn room. Something unfathomable had arrived—not in physical reality, but in the higher dimensional space just beyond it.
No one in the fanatical city, nor anyone on the entire planet, noticed that a cosmic supreme being had quietly descended upon their world that night.
But these dimensional tricks meant absolutely nothing to Yuki.
He stopped, turned slowly, and gazed directly into the void. His eyes suddenly blazed with an overwhelming, terrifying golden light.
That light pierced effortlessly through the boundaries of reality, reaching into that higher dimension, and fell heavily upon the supreme being.
Instantly, the entire universe erupted with violent anomalies.
Cosmic radiation indices skyrocketed across galaxies. Massive cosmic ray storms raged without warning. Countless ancient powers and hidden factions took terrified notice, desperately trying to calculate what was causing the fabric of the universe to scream.
Yuki coldly withdrew his gaze.
"Heh. I hope you learned your lesson. Do not ever meddle with me again."
"Next time, you will be permanently erased from this universe."
His absolute warning carried clearly through the void. Then, he stepped into the starry portal without looking back, and the rift snapped shut.
The supreme being that had descended was HooH, the Aeon of Equilibrium, who was woven into the very concept of the universe itself.
They had come, deeply displeased that Yuki had so casually revealed absolute cosmic truths to mortals—like the true origin of the mara curse. They had intended to negotiate, to formally ask this catastrophic anomaly to leave Their universe to preserve the balance.
But Yuki wouldn't even listen. He made his stance brutally clear with a single, overwhelming action: Do not interfere. Next time, you die.
After that golden glare, HooH did not dare meddle ever again.
The Aeon of Equilibrium had experienced his transcendent power firsthand. Just one look from those golden eyes had made the conceptual god feel true, absolute death countless times over in a fraction of a second.
Now, They were utterly terrified of Yuki.
HooH immediately retreated to Their highest domain, completely sealed off all cosmic perception, and resolved to never, ever involve Themselves in the affairs of the universe again—lest They accidentally cross paths with that monster.
From that night onward, HooH, much like IX the Nihility, embraced absolute isolation and did absolutely nothing.