Seat of Divine Foresight · Inner Hall
The atmosphere was subtly quiet.
Wisps of steam rose from the Xianzhou-style tea set, and the exquisite snacks laid out on the table remained untouched.
[Bai Heng] sat in the guest seat, her usually vibrant fox ears drooping, and her Tail twitching uneasily in small movements.
Every now and then, she would sneak a glance at the silver-haired General calmly sipping tea in the main seat, only to quickly look away, feeling as guilty as a student caught skipping class.
Jing Yuan seemed completely unaware of her discomfort, leisurely taking a sip of tea with movements so elegant and standard they could be printed in an etiquette textbook.
Yet, the faint smile at the corner of his mouth always made [Bai Heng] feel a chill down her spine.
Finally, [Bai Heng] couldn't help it anymore. She cleared her throat, attempting to break the silence: "Um... Jing Yuan... do you... have nothing you want to ask me?"
Her voice was several degrees lower than usual, carrying clear signs of guilt.
Jing Yuan set down his teacup and looked up at her. A glimmer of mischief flashed in his golden eyes as he retorted, "Ask what? Do you want me to ask—'Bai Heng, how did you survive the battlefield from so many years ago? Did you use some immortal technique? Or did you receive the favor of some Aeon?'"
His tone was calm, even carrying a hint of a joke, but every word felt like a small hammer striking [Bai Heng]'s heart.
"Uh..."
[Bai Heng] was choked up and could only scratch her head with an awkward laugh, the tips of her ears turning red.
She couldn't answer that question!
Welt sat to the side, calmly pushing up his glasses, and spoke: "It seems, General Jing Yuan, you already have your suspicions, or perhaps... you have already reached a conclusion."
He was referring to the true nature of these "old friends."
Upon hearing this, the smile on Jing Yuan's face faded, replaced by a complex expression mixed with exhaustion, realization, and a hint of imperceptible bitterness.
He sighed softly: "Ha... perhaps. But I would prefer... that I had guessed wrong."
His gaze swept past [Bai Heng], as if looking through her to see memories from even further back, stained with blood and fire.
Knowing they were "fake" might be less painful than facing an inexplicable "real" one, but it was equally helpless.
Just as the atmosphere fell into a subtle heaviness once again—
"Then let's just be straightforward and flip the table!"
A voice that carried clear exhaustion, helplessness, and a hint of "going for broke"—a voice Jing Yuan found incomparably familiar—came from the closed doors of the Seat of Divine Foresight.
Before anyone could react, the door creaked open from the outside.
Looking exactly like the General in the main seat, but more casual, with a haggard expression from a long journey and continuous shocks, and even slightly messy hair, [Jing Yuan] walked in while rubbing his temples.
Behind him followed three companions with an equally "disheveled" style:
[Jingliu] remained expressionless, but the hem of her white clothes seemed to have some dust on it, and her aura was slightly chaotic.
[Yingxing] had a look of "this world is too crazy," utterly listless, with a few withered leaves from unknown origins hanging on his artisan clothing.
[Dan Feng] was still relatively calm, but upon closer inspection, one could see that his Vidyadhara elder demeanor was slipping, with the corner of his eye twitching slightly.
Jing Yuan watched these four "uninvited guests" file in, especially [Jing Yuan], who looked exactly like him. The hand holding his teacup froze imperceptibly.
His golden eyes slowly widened, his gaze moving from [Jing Yuan]'s face to [Jingliu]'s, then to [Yingxing], and finally to [Dan Feng].
A conjecture, utterly absurd yet seemingly perfectly explaining all the anomalies, formed in his mind with a roar.
The High-Cloud Quintet... were actually gathered here in this form?
Even with the composure and insight of the General of the Seat of Divine Foresight, the shock brought by this scene was enough to leave him briefly speechless.
"Jing Yuan? Jing Yuan? Are you okay?"
Seeing the original Jing Yuan staring blankly with a subtle expression, [Bai Heng] stepped forward in concern and waved her hand in front of him.
"I-I'm fine... I'm fine..."
Jing Yuan snapped back to reality, set down his teacup, and raised a hand to press against his forehead, his knuckles slightly tense as he tried to physically press down his throbbing temples and his churning thoughts.
He pulled out a smile tinged with bitterness and absurdity.
"It's just... the amount of information is a bit much, and I need... to digest it."
His gaze eventually crossed over [Bai Heng] and landed on Stella, who was cowering behind Welt and trying to lower her presence.
This gray-haired girl had been wearing an "it's none of my business, I'm just background scenery" expression since just now, but she had clearly become the focus of attention.
"Miss Stella."
Jing Yuan's voice returned to stability, but carried an unavoidable inquiry.
"They... including this 'me', as well as Master, Yingxing, Dan Feng... were all...'summoned' by you, right?"
He used a relatively neutral word, but the meaning was clear.
"Huh?!"
Like a startled rabbit, Stella suddenly poked half of her head out from behind Welt, her face full of shock—"How did you know?!"—and panic—"It's over, I'm exposed!"
She had clearly hidden very well... right?
Her completely self-incriminating, bewildered expression made the originally complex and heavy-hearted Jing Yuan unable to hold it in—
"Pfft... Hahahaha!"
He actually laughed out loud, not the polite or calculating laughter he usually used, but a rather hearty laugh filled with helplessness, relief, and the feeling that it was simply too amusing.
This laugh seemed to dilute much of the heavy atmosphere in the room.
After laughing for a while, Jing Yuan wiped the corner of his eye (from laughing), and explained: "My scouts, near the docks and on the way to the Seat of Divine Foresight, were not entirely inactive. They saw you... um, 'retrieve' that lively 'High Elder' young lady (referring to Bailu) out of thin air. Combined with some other intelligence, it wasn't hard to deduce."
Stella: "!!!"
A miscalculation! I was only focused on the visible Cloud Knights and forgot about the hidden scouts! The Xianzhou General is truly terrifying!
"Haha... um, that's right!"
Stella let out two awkward laughs, feeling her cheeks burning, and hurriedly changed the subject stiffly, turning to the exhausted [Jing Yuan] who had just entered.
"Why did you suddenly come over? Weren't we... supposed to split up?"
She signaled desperately: Come help me out! Say something else!
[Jing Yuan] plopped down into an empty chair nearby, picked up a snack, shoved it into his mouth, and complained:
"Don't even mention it! We were originally following the plan, wanting to go find those sneaky Disciples of Sanctus Medicus to 'practice' and collect some intel on the side."
He swallowed the snack, his expression even more dejected: "And what happened? First, we were almost slashed by Blade, and just as we caught our breath, we ran into Master (Jingliu)! Her Mara-Struck symptoms flared up, and she spent ages pouring out her emotions to us four 'hallucinations,' almost 'purifying' us as inner demons! We only survived by playing dead and pretending to be weak!"
The more he spoke, the more agitated he became. He picked up Jing Yuan's teacup (not noticing whose it was), took a gulp, and continued ranting: "What will we encounter next time? Huh? Will we run straight into a Lord Ravager?!"
These words were meant in anger, but heard by Jing Yuan, the smile on the General's face instantly vanished, and his golden eyes suddenly sharpened like knives!
"Disciples of Sanctus Medicus?"
Jing Yuan sat up straight, his voice dropping.
"And... Master, as well as a Lord Ravager?"
He precisely caught the name that [Jing Yuan] had just let slip.
[Jing Yuan] set down the teacup and nodded, his expression also turning serious: "Yes, according to our... um, information from certain 'channels', the Lord Ravager skilled in causing civilizations to rot from within and destroy themselves—Phantylia, that's her—is the one who brought the Stellaron to the Luofu. The unusual movements of the Disciples of Sanctus Medicus are just the prelude."
"Also, Master is on the Luofu. I won't mention her goal; it's a bit too complicated."
The air in the inner hall of the Seat of Divine Foresight, with the disclosure of this explosive information, instantly shifted from the slightly comical chaos of just a moment ago to a true heaviness concerning the survival of the Xianzhou.
Jing Yuan's fingers tapped lightly on the table, his eyes deep as he fell into rapid thought.
While Stella looked at her [Jing Yuan] with a face full of despair:
I told you to get me out of trouble! Not to throw an even bigger bomb, hey! Now there's no way to escape!
Welt pushed up his glasses, feeling that things had indeed developed in the most complex direction.
March 7th and Stelle stared with wide eyes, digesting the terrifying title of "Lord Ravager."