"Stelle, look! She really does have a hidden form!"
March 7th lowered Splendid Annihilation and pointed at Dan Heng with excitement. Then, she gave Stelle a suspicious look.
"Tell me, do you have some kind of powerful hidden form too?"
March 7th puffed out her cheeks, trying to see something in Stelle, but...
Clearly, little March was overthinking it. She stared for a long time, but aside from looking a bit dorky, Stelle didn't seem to have any hidden abilities.
"???"
Stelle scratched her head, confused by March's disappointed look.
What a mess. Is a hidden ability even good? Isn't the power Kiana gave us enough?
Setting aside God Ki, even spirit crystals are quite practical. Is there really a need for some hidden form?
"Forget it, let's go help Dan Heng. That Stellaron Hunter is always chasing our Dan Heng like some creep, we have to drive him away."
"Yeah, okay..."
Stelle nodded, then instinctively looked at Kafka, who was standing elegantly by the High Elder Statue with her arms crossed, watching them.
Kafka waved at Stelle with a smile on her lips and then made a "please" gesture.
Stelle nodded and then quickly followed March 7th to the base of where Dan Heng was.
For some reason, by some strange impulse, Stelle looked up.
So white, so long... this kick could strike right into my little heart, and...
Cough, see no evil.
With her cheeks slightly flushed, Stelle withdrew her gaze and looked back at the crazed Blade.
"Stelle, what did you just see? Why is your face suddenly so red?"
"It's nothing. Maybe I've just been a bit heated lately. A fight is just what I need to let off some steam."
Stelle pointed the fully deployed obliteration at Blade and spoke calmly, but then she felt a warm current flow from her nostrils.
"Maybe you should go back to Mr. Yang and rest for a bit..."
March 7th saw Stelle bleeding and spoke with growing concern.
Stelle must have been injured during the chaotic battle just now—and an internal injury at that!
No, I have to send her back.
Thinking this, March 7th wanted to pull Stelle back to Welt. She could just come back and help Dan Heng on her own later.
Now that March 7th had the empowerment of God Ki and spirit crystals, she felt terrifyingly strong!
"I'm fine, I can do it."
Stelle wiped away the 'loyalty' in one go and then spoke to March 7th with a solemn face.
Seeing Stelle's persistence, March 7th had no choice but to agree for now, deciding to keep a close eye on Stelle once the fighting started...
Up above, although Dan Heng's expression was calm, the tips of her ears were slightly flushed. Perhaps her heart was far from as peaceful as she appeared on the surface.
With her keen senses, Dan Heng had noticed Stelle's gaze long ago. To avoid embarrassment, she had to pretend she hadn't seen anything.
Facing Dan Heng, the madness in Blade's eyes gradually faded as he stared intently at her.
Had he... really recognized the wrong person?
Would Dan Feng, the former High Elder of the Luofu and the renowned Imbibitor Lunae, ever show such a girly demeanor?
Even if transformed into a female, he should still maintain the dignity of a High Elder at all times.
Jingliu, who had already removed her blindfold, was also somewhat silent. She felt that Imbibitor Lunae had indeed changed.
Although Dan Heng had been denying her identity as Dan Feng, she had never denied the crimes Dan Feng committed.
Denying the identity, but not evading the responsibility...
Moreover, the other's heart's knot had already been unraveled during their previous encounter and conversation.
On the other side, Jing Yuan stood with his arms crossed, watching Jingliu, Dan Heng, Bailu, and Blade with a hint of nostalgia in his eyes.
Instinctively, Jing Yuan hallucinated them back into their former appearances.
The former High-Cloud Quintet...
Which had long since vanished into thin air...
The appearances of the group gradually returned to their original forms in Jing Yuan's eyes, causing him to shake his head slightly and sigh softly.
"General...?"
Yanqing, who had been standing behind Jing Yuan, showed a look of confusion upon hearing him sigh.
"It's nothing. I just recalled bits and pieces of the past and felt a brief moment of sentimentality."
Jing Yuan waved his hand, his tone slightly wistful, yet his eyes still held a lingering attachment to the past.
He was getting on in years, and his time before becoming Mara-Struck was running out. If only, before then, they could all...
What exactly am I thinking...
Jing Yuan laughed at himself and shook his head to cast the unrealistic thoughts out of his mind.
Times change and people pass; with the passage of time and their past sins, returning to those days was already a luxury.
To be able to have the High-Cloud Quintet gather again in this form was enough to settle one of Jing Yuan's concerns.
The tense atmosphere of the three-way standoff gradually dissipated, leaving March 7th somewhat bewildered.
"Eh? What's going on all of a sudden? Are we not fighting?"
March 7th watched with a dumbfounded expression as Blade, who had been chasing Dan Heng with his sword like a madman just now, also put away his weapon.
Dan Heng also slowly drifted down. After landing, she gave Stelle a brief, subtle look of reproach.
Kafka went over to Blade's side, feeling a bit surprised that he hadn't completely fallen into Mara-Struck as expected.
"Let's go, Blade. Although the script was disrupted, overall it's still nearly perfect."
"..."
Blade nodded and then looked coldly at Dan Heng.
"Of five people, three must pay the price. Stop trying to escape, Dan Feng."
As Blade spoke those last two sentences, a red light flickered in his pupils. His tone was heavy, as if he were warning Dan Heng.
But what Blade didn't know was that Dan Heng had long since stopped evading Dan Feng's responsibilities; it was just that Blade never gave her a chance.
He wouldn't listen even if she spoke. Blade—no, Yingxing—was simply trapped in an endless hatred for himself, believing she was evading responsibility and that only by killing her could he end his curse of immortality.
Dan Heng gave Blade a look of pity.
The obsession of one who seeks death but cannot find it for 'release' had already turned into madness.
As Blade followed Kafka to leave, he took a deep look at Dan Heng, Jing Yuan, Jingliu, and Bailu.
"It seems this farce is over... uh..."
As Jingliu spoke, a flash of crazed blood-red light suddenly appeared deep in her eyes. Even her aura became deep, cold, and filled with evil intent.
"Mas..."
Seeing this, Jing Yuan instinctively wanted to call out 'Master,' but he restrained himself in the next second. He then shouted to the people around him with a grave voice:
"Everyone, please leave Scalegorge Waterscape. What follows..."
Jing Yuan's eyes flickered slightly before becoming firm as he looked at the Mara-Struck Jingliu.
"...is the Xianzhou's private business."
With that, Jing Yuan held his Array Glaive horizontally at his side and stared solemnly at Jingliu.
She had long since fallen into a Mara-Struck state; he just didn't know how she had managed to suppress it to this extent for so many years.
But now, Jingliu had clearly been triggered into Mara-Struck again because of too many memories of the past.
Facing a Mara-Struck Jingliu, Jing Yuan had to treat the situation with the utmost gravity, or the Luofu, which had just resolved the Stellaron crisis, might suffer heavy losses.
Just then, Kiana's voice came through—
"The Jingliu here is Mara-Struck too? It's fine, this young miss has experience in dealing with this!"
"Back then, I was just a Cloud Knight Vanguard. I happened to run into it while on patrol."
Mei recalled the scene from back then, her tone sounding somewhat wistful.
Eighteen years had passed since then. By the standards of a normal human, that was already a significant amount of time.
To the side, Bronya raised an eyebrow slightly.
So it turns out only she and Kiana don't have many past memories on the Xianzhou?
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