HIK CH 51-67 (Patreon)

HIK CH51-60

Chapter 51: Mining Crisis

As soon as they walked to the door of the club, they heard the gossip from the people nearby.

"I heard that a black-haired guy came to the club, and he was invincible. Who is this guy?"

"I heard that this handsome guy is a master of the Silvermane Guard. He is very capable!"

"Nonsense! The Silvermane Guard has already withdrawn from the underground. How could one of them suddenly come back?"

"..."

Listening to the gossip from the people nearby, Stelle and March looked at each other.

"It seems that Dan Heng is here."

"Yes, let's go in and take a look."

After paying for the tickets and opening the door, the noisy clamor broke into their ears. This was the shouting of the organizer, "Dr. Dig Dig." Stelle looked in the direction of the ring, where an acquaintance they were very familiar with stood.

"Brothers and sisters! The next match will be the most exciting, thrilling, and shocking duel of the day!"

"The serious and powerful super rookie - the 'Cold-faced Little Green Dragon!'"

"And his opponent is the emotionless, flammable, and explosive machine team! Praise to Boss Svarog!"

"Oh! Wait, this is... an unexpected situation has occurred! Two audience members have broken into the octagonal cage! They seem to want to team up with the 'Cold-faced Little Green Dragon!'"

Dan Heng: "..."

Noticing March and Stelle rushing onto the stage and standing behind him, the corners of his mouth twitched but soon returned to normal.

"Awake?"

"Yeah."

"Ilu has something to discuss with us. Let's talk in a place where no one is after we get off the stage."

"Okay."

Stelle took out a baseball bat with arc light from the folding space, smashed the iron sheets of the robots in front of him amid the enthusiastic cheers of the audience, and easily won the ring match.

"Let's go, let's leave here."

"Wait a minute, I think I saw him..."

"?"

"It's Sampo; he's there!"

Inadvertently noticing Sampo leaving the club with a dark face, March, who had just left the ring, took the lead and chased after him, followed by Stelle and Dan Heng. They soon caught up with him in an empty alley.

"That... brothers and sisters, let's talk this over. Even if you want to fight, don't hit my handsome face."

Finding that his front and back exits were blocked, Sampo's face suddenly fell, and he quickly begged for mercy.

"Who wants to fight you? We are here to ask you for information."

March 7th put her hands on her hips and said unhappily.

Although she wanted to beat up the annoying guy in front of her, after all, he was the one who had taken action at the critical moment to bring them to the lower area, and she couldn't just beat him up without saying anything.

"Uh, what news do you want to inquire about?"

Knowing that the three people were not there to seek revenge on him, Sampo was stunned for a moment.

"About the news of 'Wild Fire.' You are a local... You are very familiar with this place. We hope you can help us introduce the leader of 'Wild Fire.'"

Dan Heng took out a business card from his pocket expressionlessly and handed it to Sampo. "In addition, we need your help."

"Who is this?"

Taking the business card handed over by Dan Heng, Sampo blinked in surprise at the cute silver-haired girl's head portrait on it. "She is so beautiful! Is she a big star in the galaxy?"

"She is our companion, named Ilu."

"Ilu? But I haven't seen her with you guys before..."

"That's because you show up soon after she leaves every time."

Dan Heng stared into Sampo's eyes, trying to discern something. "I don't know if this is a coincidence or if you're avoiding her on purpose. After we meet the people from 'Wild Fire,' we hope you can go to the upper area and bring her down."

"Ah? But I finally escaped from the capture of the Silvermane Guards. If I go back, I might get caught by them..."

"Don't worry; with Ilu here, the Silvermane Guards can't catch you."

March 7th smiled and said, "She's the best fighter among us. She can fight a hundred Silvermane Lieutenants alone!"

Sampo: "..."

I understand what you mean. You want me to bring a dangerous person down from above?

You guys always care about yourselves and don't consider other people's feelings. If I bring such a dangerous person down, once she gets into trouble down there, then I, Sampo, will bead the grudge of 'Wild Fire.'

"Okay, I, Sampo, understand that we should help people to the end, but... well, you know, if that person gets into trouble underground, don't say that I brought her down."

"No problem. You helped us; we will definitely not cheat you."

"Well, I will take you to see the people of 'Wild Fire' now."

After receiving repeated assurances from everyone, Sampo led them to search for traces of "Wild Fire" in Rivet Town. Soon, they met a group of wanderers on a street, and Bronya was surrounded by them.

It seemed that because of her Silvermane Guard costume, she was targeted by this group of wanderers—of course, the more important reason was her rude words. This naive young lady did not seem to understand the situation in the lower area and said some words that could easily raise people's blood pressure in front of these wanderers.

For example, "Why not eat meat?"

"So arrogant! Don't blame us for being rude!"

The wanderer cursed and raised his gun at the silver-haired girl in front of him. Bronya's face flashed with panic, and she subconsciously wanted to dodge, but the other party pulled the trigger much faster than her reaction time.

"Bang!"

At this critical moment, several sharp purple lights with butterfly shadows flashed, cutting the bullets aimed at Bronya into pieces.

In the astonished eyes of everyone, a beautiful blue-purple figure appeared in the air, looking at the group of wanderers who tried to shoot and hurt people with an angry expression.

"Dare to attack in our territory? Do you want to fight a few more rounds?"

"Oh no! Run!"

Recognizing the identity of the person, "Wild Fire," the wanderers were scared out of their wits and immediately fled in a panic.

"Heh, a bunch of scum who bully the weak and fear the strong." Seele watched them leave with a look of contempt, as if she were looking at non-recyclable garbage. Then she turned her head to look at Sampo, who was standing by with his hands on his waist and posing inexplicably, and raised her eyebrows impatiently. "And you, Sampo, stop grinning... 'Wild Fire' has a lot of troubles to deal with now. Something happened before the issues in the mining area were settled. Do you have to cause trouble for everyone at this time?"

"Ah... What happened in the mining area again?" Sampo asked in confusion.

"Alas, you may not believe it." Seele sighed with a melancholy expression. "They dug out magma in the mine."

Sampo: "???"

---

---

Chapter 52: Troubles Come One After Another 

Did we dig out magma in the mine?

After hearing Seele's words, the onlookers showed disbelief, and a few drops of sweat appeared on Sampo's forehead.

"How is this possible?"

"Mining can actually dig out magma? How deep can it be?"

"It sounds incredible..."

Listening to the nearby onlookers' discussions, Seele waved her hand impatiently, signaling them to leave as soon as possible.

"Okay, don’t gather here after watching the excitement. Those who should go shopping, continue shopping, and those who should go to work, go back to work. Wild Fire will handle this matter; you just need to do your own things."

It was clear that she was not in a good mood.

But this was also understandable. After all, bad things were happening one after another, and no one's mood could be very good.

"Magma was dug out from the mine..."

After pondering Seele's words several times, Stelle's brows became more and more furrowed. She looked at Dan Heng and March 7th beside her.

Ilu had told them before that the remnants of "Ashen Sun" did not dare to show up on the surface for some reason but quietly ran underground to build nests.

The Geomarrow deep in the underground mining area of Belobog was the most important energy source for this city. Such a huge heat source would undoubtedly attract the attention of the swarm.

It seemed that Ilu's judgment was correct. There were indeed traces of the swarm in the underground of Belobog. Since the miners in the lower area could dig out magma in the mine, it meant that the swarm was close to Belobog.

They had to find the leader of [Wild Fire] as soon as possible and inform them of the results of Ilu's investigation.

"Huh, finally everyone is gone..."

After dispersing the irrelevant people, Seele glanced at the remaining Express Crew members, and her gaze finally landed on Bronya. Looking at the familiar appearance of the Silvermane Guard, she raised her eyebrows slightly.

"I heard that there is a Silvermane Guard who ran to the lower area. Is that you?"

"It's me. What is your intention in kidnapping me underground?"

Bronya's tone was still as tough as before, maintaining a posture of 'even if I fall into your territory, I will never surrender.'

However, in Seele's eyes, her behavior was akin to that of an unsophisticated rich lady, possessing a kind of beauty that had never seen the world. She immediately sneered, "Are you kidding me? You asked us what our intentions were. Do you think we are kidnappers? Do you still think you are the lady above?"

"You..."

"Is it comfortable to stay on the ground? Do you know what has become of the underground? Have you ever considered the lives and deaths of the lower class?"

"The Silvermane Guard has never been comfortable on the ground. We have been fighting the enemy and protecting Belobog from the rift monsters. You are also under the protection of our Silvermane Guard underground."

"Hehe, that sounds good. Do you want to see what you are protecting?"

The two confronted each other, neither willing to back down, and in the end, no one could convince the other.

"Anyway, you have to come with me now. Chief Oleg wants to see you. He still has many questions to ask."

With that, Seele reached out and grabbed Bronya's wrist, ready to take her away by force.

Seeing this, Sampo quickly intervened and said slyly, "Well, Miss Seele... I have something to discuss with the leader; why don't we go together?"

"Tsk, find a place to cool off. Who wants to go with you..."

Hearing this, Seele glanced at Sampo with disdain and then looked at Stelle and March 7th standing behind him. "Also, I just wanted to ask, who are these people?"

"We are his friends."

"His friends... I advise you to break up with this guy as soon as possible; otherwise, more than half of the underground will become your enemies."

"Ah? Is it that serious?"

March 7th blinked in surprise.

"Ahaha~"

Realizing that his reputation in the underground was not very good, Sampo smiled awkwardly. "It seems that I have caused a lot of trouble... But these are not important. Miss Seele, these people are the talents that Oleg urgently needs; I plan to let the boss meet them."

"Oh?"

Hearing Sampo's high praise, Seele immediately became interested in the Express Crew before her. "It is quite rare for you to give a talent evaluation."

The lower-level area was now like a ship with leaks everywhere. All "Wild Fire" could do was plug the holes as much as possible, but as more and more bad things happened, the number of people in "Wild Fire" was dwindling, leading to the current troubles that couldn't be handled.

Not to mention talents; even manpower was in urgent need. Otherwise, Sampo, a bastard with a bad character, would not be appreciated by the boss. After all, this guy was someone who could really get things done.

"Miss Seele, we are here to find something called the 'Stellaron,' which is the cause of most disasters. And the mine you just mentioned that can dig out magma—we suspect it was the remnants of 'Ashen Sun' who did it..."

Noticing Seele's gaze on her, March 7th immediately seized the opportunity to explain why they had come here, but before she could finish, Sampo interrupted her anxiously.

"Hey! I say, sister, don’t tell everyone about such a big thing. Oleg is the boss. Seele has never been to school. She can't understand these complicated words you're telling her."

Seele clenched her fist, her face darkening. "..."

Her fist was hardening.

Who hasn't been to school?! I just went to school for fewer years, and my educational level is a little lower; it's not that I haven't been to school at all. You are slandering me!

No, this place can't be stayed in anymore; she has to leave.

---

---

Chapter 53: Ilu: I Never Take Detours

"Stop talking nonsense; the boss is still waiting. Take her to the entrance of the big mining area to find me."

Thinking this, Seele shot Sampo a glare, tossed Bronya aside, and turned away. She disappeared into the purple-black shadow of a butterfly, leaving everyone looking at each other and whispering.

"Big mining area?"

"It sounds like... it seems to be the place where the accident happened, and the people of 'Wild Fire' seem to be there."

"The situation is urgent. Let's go there quickly. We have to tell the miners not to continue digging. I have a bad feeling about this," March 7th said with concern.

"Wait a minute; I'll send a message to Ilu... Okay, let’s go."

Soon, everyone in the Express Crew reached a unanimous agreement to take Bronya to the big mining area to meet with the contact personnel of "Wild Fire" to see what had happened there.

However, just as Sampo was about to catch up with Stelle and March 7th, Dan Heng, who was walking at the back, suddenly called out to him.

"Sampo, you stay here. Don’t forget what we told you: go and bring Ilu down as soon as possible."

He said this seriously. They were about to enter a more dangerous area, and for safety's sake, he decided to let Sampo fetch Ilu first.

If there were any unexpected situations, she could handle them in time.

"Oh! By the way, I almost forgot about that... You go ahead and meet Miss Seele first; I'll catch up," Sampo said with a smile, waving his hand as he turned to walk in the direction he had come from.

Ilu?

Bronya who was walking in front was slightly taken aback when she heard that familiar name.

Why does this name sound so familiar, as if I've heard it somewhere before...

Wait, isn’t that the person who asked me to post a bounty in the city?!

Recalling what had happened on the surface, Bronya’s eyes widened, and she stopped, turning to look back at Dan Heng, meeting his gaze.

"Excuse me, Miss Bronya?"

The black-haired young man crossed his arms and said expressionlessly, "If you have no other questions, just follow us. There are spies from 'Wild Fire' around here, and you don’t want to be targeted by them."

"No... nothing."

Bronya shook her head gently.

She was just a little concerned about what Ilu had said. Since that person would also come down later, she could save her questions for then.

After personally visiting the lower-level area, she found that this place was completely different from the happy and healthy lower-level area described by her mother.

The people here were short on supplies, and even basic needs like food and warm clothing became a problem. This made Bronya wonder how much her education had been deliberately beautified.

Additionally, she had heard from the people on the Astral Express about the two disasters threatening Belobog: the "Stellaron" and the "Ember Remnants." Cocolia had never taken the initiative to tell her about any of this, which concerned her the most.

Could it be that even her mother had been deceived, or...?

Some extremely troubling possibilities flashed through her mind. Bronya took a deep breath and wiped the cold sweat from her forehead. If things were really as Ilu had said, then she might need time to slowly accept the reality. She found it hard to believe that the Supreme Guardian, who was supposed to care for the people and was dedicated to saving Belobog, would deceive her own daughter.

When she returned to the upper district, she must find Cocolia and ask for clarification.

---

In the Belobog Administrative District, in an unnamed alley blocked by the Silvermane Guards due to the spread of the Fragmentum, Dan Heng arrived at the agreed meeting place according to the address he had been given.

Sampo spotted the silver-haired girl standing next to a trash can not far away who was playing with her mobile phone and eating popsicles. He couldn’t help but raise his eyebrows. "You are really taking it easy, Miss Ilu."

"Hehe, what’s the use of being anxious? Thanks to Cocolia's micro-manipulation, this planet is almost hopeless."

Throwing the remaining sticks into the trash can, Ilu turned to look at the young man with dark blue hair and said meaningfully, "But you, Mr. Sampo, why are you still here? Do you want to see a colorful fireworks display?"

"Uh."

Hearing Ilu's description, Sampo's mouth twitched slightly but quickly returned to normal.

Her way of describing things always reminded him of a masked fool with a bad reputation.

Ordinary people might suffer a big loss upon encountering such a difficult opponent, but Sampo had rich experience in verbal sparring and would not easily be outdone. Without overthinking, Sampo smiled and asked in return:

"Since your Astral Express has not left, it means you have a way to solve the crisis on Jarilo-VI. Why should I leave in a hurry?"

"How can you be sure that I'm not here to take Stelle and the others away, but instead to go down and solve the crisis?"

Ilu was unwilling to back down.

So far, the main storyline of Jarilo-VI had undergone tremendous changes. She needed to understand Sampo's position to better formulate subsequent plans. If this guy ran away halfway, it would mean losing a very powerful combat force.

"Hey, I think we can end the test now. Your answer is written all over your face."

Hearing this, Sampo sighed, spread his hands helplessly, and said in a matter-of-fact tone:

"Just think about it: you have already embarked on the path of 'trailblaze.' Do I still need to guess? You just want to ask if I am willing to stay in Jarilo-VI to help. Of course, I am willing. I am so eager to help friends who have supported me. Can’t I stay here to help?"

"Uh..."

Just as Ilu was about to retort, she suddenly realized that what Sampo said was correct. She was indeed on the path of "Trailblaze" now, so she changed her words.

"Okay, then I won't continue to argue with you. Take me to the lower city now."

"Okay, come with me... By the way, I met several teams of Silvermane Guards on the way here. Remember to avoid them."

"Why take a detour? It doesn't need to be so troublesome."

A dark blue Iron Cavalry Transformation Sheath slowly emerged in Ilu's hand. "The situation is urgent now; let's just push forward all the way."

When she had assassinated the Ashen Sun Swarm King, she hadn't taken a detour. It was just a group of Silvermane Guards. She could walk in a straight line.

Sampo: "..."

Given this girl's style, if she claimed that she would be honest and not cause trouble after going down, he would never believe it.

He just hoped she wouldn't turn the entire lower area upside down.

---

Chapter 54: The Increasingly Chaotic Situation

Lower district, large mining area.

The Express Crew asked for directions along the way and soon found the entrance to the large mining area. When they arrived, they found Seele standing at the entrance with her arms folded, waiting for them.

"You came quite quickly... huh? Why are there only four of you? Where's Sampo?"

"He just left for something."

"Forget it, forget about that guy. He always comes and goes without a trace. Follow me."

The girl looked at the face of the newcomer and didn't see Sampo. She couldn't help but feel a little confused, but she didn't care too much. She waved her hand to signal everyone to follow her.

While walking, Seele introduced to everyone how serious the problems currently facing the lower city were. It sounded like she was talking specifically to Bronya, but for the three members of the Express Crew, this information about the large mining area was also very critical. The big mining area can be said to be the most important place in the entire lower area. In fact, there was more than one mining area underground, but because the erosion of the fragmentum has begun to spread underground, many mines have also suffered and can no longer be mined.

Because of this, the miners who originally worked in other mines lost their jobs and became wanderers wandering in the lower city. Among them, a group of people came to the big mining area to settle down.

Since then, there have been many fights in the big mining area, and "Wild Fire" has been worried about the increasing conflicts between miners and wanderers, fearing that a large-scale conflict will suddenly occur one day.

"Okay, we are here. Just in time to let you see the chaos happening underground now."

Not long after entering the big mining area, everyone encountered a group of people who were arguing and confronting each other. Unlike the previous quarrels in the big mining area, the ragged party had weapons in their hands that could kill, which shows how intense the conflict between the two sides is.

"These are the wanderers who lost their jobs. They occupied a settlement in the big mining area. It was nothing originally, but yesterday, they dug out magma in the mine in their territory and asked the leader of the miners to arrange a new territory for them; otherwise, they would cause trouble."

Seeing this scene, Seele couldn't help but sigh. Many of these people were people she knew, but in order to survive, these desperate wanderers chose to fight against their compatriots. In this tense atmosphere, they were only a fuse away from a large-scale conflict. What happened in the mine yesterday may have ignited this fuse.

"Wait a minute, are they going to do it..." Looking at the wanderers who were getting more and more excited not far away, March 7th had a bad premonition in his heart.

Soon, this premonition became a reality. These wanderers who had a hard life but made things worse finally couldn't hold back the evil thoughts in their hearts and chose to raise their weapons to attack the miners.

"We can't start a fight. Let's go and stop them!"

"Yes!"

Stelle didn't hesitate and immediately took out a baseball bat, rushing up with Dan Heng. In a few seconds, she knocked down the group of homeless people who started the fight, resolving the conflict at lightning speed.

"Natasha, I didn't expect you to come too. Where is Oleg?"

Seeing a familiar figure in the crowd treating the wounded, Seele's eyes lit up immediately, and she hurried over to greet Natasha.

"Hi, Seele..."

Scanning Seele's face, Natasha noticed Stelle, March 7th, and the others standing behind her. It was they who stopped the riot of the homeless people in time, preventing any large-scale bloodshed. Standing not far away, she saw it all.

"And the guests of Sampo, thanks to your help just now; otherwise, the number of wounded would have increased significantly."

"No, no, this is what we should do!"

March 7th said with a smile.

It is just a common thing for the Express Crew to help others when they see injustice.

"Anyway, you did help us a lot."

As she spoke, Natasha stretched out her hand and pointed in a direction for everyone: "As for Oleg, I didn't see him just now. The miners said that he took a group of people to the mining area where the accident happened. You should be able to find him if you follow this road."

"Thank you very much! We will go there now!"

After learning Oleg's location, everyone did not stay here for too long. They moved forward into the depths of the large mining area without stopping. They also met many miners' families along the way.

From these people, they learned an important piece of news. There are not only wanderers and mining teams in the mining area where the accident happened, but also a group of robots that appeared from nowhere. These third-party forces, suspected to be under Svarog's command, have also joined this chaotic situation. The entire large mining area is now in disarray.

……

At the same time, in the real world——

"Hi, hi, hi, my family, I'm back again!"

Due to her low level, Jiahun was unfortunately stuck in the main quest to the big mining area yesterday. She had no choice but to do the side quests to improve her level.

After completing the side quests, it was already very late in the real world. She was so sleepy that she had to choose to go offline and rest.

After a night of repairs, Jiahun's live broadcast room finally started broadcasting again.

"Children, I'm back." (Black Mamba Smiley Face.jpg)

[Look! It's the imprisoned Jiahun! Go and push the main quest! The plot is so exciting!]

[Don't spoil! Don't spoil!]

[Idiot Jiahun shouldn't have peeked at the plot later, right?]

"Don't worry, I went to bed right after the Livestream last night. I don't know what the plot is, so you can rest assured."

Jiahun waved her hand righteously, saying that she never did that kind of thing, and spoke to Jasmine, who had just entered the live broadcast room: "Housekeeper, kill the spoiler comments directly when you see it; don't let any of them escape."

[No problem.]

"Okay, then let's continue to push the main line."

After receiving Jasmine's reply, Jiahun picked up the mouse and controlled the Trailblazer to walk deep into the mining area. Soon, she encountered a burly iron robot in front of her, and behind it stood a smaller white-haired girl, with red eyes looking at them worriedly.

"Seele: Svarog?! You are the one who caused the robots to be here. What on earth do you want to do?"

"Svarog: In order to prevent unnecessary conflicts, I have to intervene."

"Seele: I don't want to listen to your nonsense. Quickly remove the scumbags under your command, or don't blame me for being rude."

This robot named Svarog looked like he doesn't want to see the underground people scheming for the resources of the mining area, so he chose to send robots to join the fight. However, he didn't know that doing so would make the already chaotic lower area even more chaotic.

-------

---

Chapter 55: Magma and Sting

"Humans who attempt to subvert the calculation results are a threat to the survival strategy of the lower area. The calculation is complete, and the conclusion is clear: using force to make 'Wild Fire' and its accomplices obey is the most efficient solution."

"Sure enough, we still have to fight..."

The negotiation failed as expected. Adhering to the principle of "fighting if you can't win the argument," Svarog chose to summon two grizzly robots to suppress the crowd with force before leaving the scene with Clara.

While everyone dealt with these difficult grizzly robots, Svarog vanished without a trace. However, the leader of "Wild Fire," Oleg, appeared nearby at some point.

"Seele, don’t look for me; I'm here."

"Boss..."

Seeing Oleg and the members of "Wild Fire" behind him, Seele was slightly stunned. When the Express Crew heard her address, they immediately realized that the man with the gray hair and beard was the leader of "Wild Fire."

"Haha, you did a good job."

Scanning his gaze over everyone’s faces, Oleg smiled.

"We heard a conflict outside and were about to investigate the situation, but we were suddenly stopped by a group of robots that appeared out of nowhere. If you hadn't come over, we might have been held back by them."

"But I don’t think I’ve seen these companions of yours before..."

"Oh, they are outsiders brought by Sampo, who said they are rare talents and want to introduce them to you." Seele suddenly faltered in her speech.

After considering it, she decided to let the three members of the Express Crew explain their purpose.

"As for why they want to find you... well, let them explain it themselves."

There was no other option. As Sampo had said, her education level was not high. Although she was more than capable of being a thug, it was really difficult for her to understand these complicated matters.

"Well, Mr. Oleg, we have an urgent matter to discuss." Finally seeing the owner of "Wild Fire," March 7th couldn't suppress the impulse in her heart and decided to tell Oleg about the "Ashen Remnants" in person. The crisis concerning the "Stellaron" didn't seem as important at that moment.

"Regarding the issue of you extracting magma in the mine, our companions on the ground have already investigated what happened..."

"Oh?"

Hearing this, Oleg's eyes immediately sharpened. "Tell me; I’m listening."

"It’s like this: when our companion Ilu was investigating the 'Stellaron' on the ground, he accidentally found a Sting nest filled with 'Ashen Sun' Insects..."

Soon, through the explanations of March 7th and Stelle, even though the old leader of "Wild Fire" had never heard of these new terms before, he could grasp their meaning.

He might not understand what they were saying, but if it was implied that these negative occurrences were likely orchestrated by the Supreme Guardian, he would immediately understand. This old man may not comprehend what a Stellaron or Propagation Sting Swarm is, but no one knows better than him what a liar Cocolia is.

No one noticed Bronya's increasingly dark expression as everyone discussed the future of the lower area—and even the entire Belobog—and denounced Cocolia's inaction.

"If what you said is true, then the situation in the lower area is already very serious. We need to send someone down to see what’s happening." Oleg stopped hesitating and waved his hand, signaling everyone to follow him to the location of the incident.

The group hurried to a closed mine. They could see "Wild Fire" members guarding the entrance and wounded individuals lying on stretchers, waiting for treatment not far away.

"This is it. Not long after the accident, our people blocked this mine, but there are still some wanderers inside who are unwilling to leave..."

Looking at the seriously injured lying on the stretchers, Oleg couldn’t help but sigh. "These people were wandering and mining inside on the day of the incident. Look at the burns on their bodies. This is not something our current medical methods can treat."

"How miserable. If only there were more 'Abundance' pathstriders here..."

"It’s all Cocolia's fault. When we return to the surface, we must find her to settle accounts."

"..."

Bronya remained silent.

No one knew what she was thinking.

Perhaps at this moment, she had already begun to consider the idea of becoming a filial daughter.

"Let’s go; let’s take a look inside."

After receiving the heat-insulating suit with the blessing of "protection" from the members of "Wild Fire," Oleg continued, "Oh! By the way, it’s very hot inside, and there is still a lot of lava that hasn't been cleaned up in time. Remember to take proper precautions and don’t touch it."

"Don’t worry! With me here, the lava can’t burn us at all!"

After listening to Oleg’s reminder, March 7th immediately created an ice shield around everyone present. With the protection of the eternal ice, the temperature around them immediately dropped significantly.

"It’s so hot here; it’s almost like a crater. How dare those wanderers stay here?"

"Maybe their relatives are among those who died..."

"Anyway, let’s get them out first and save as many as we can."

Not long after entering the mine cave, which was so hot it felt like an oven, the group encountered several wanderers who had fainted from the heat. Oleg signaled the "Wild Fire" members who followed to carry these wanderers out.

Soon, the group descended to the deepest part of the mine and arrived at a cavern with a diameter of about 20 meters. Standing on the edge of the cave and looking down, they could only see a bottomless expanse of red, which seemed to be flowing lava, emitting a terrifying heat.

"Boss, you’re back."

"Well, what’s the situation? Can you investigate the source of the anomaly?"

"Um... it seems that’s not possible. The several automatic robots we sent in were all burned by the high temperature. Even the traffic lights blessed by 'preservation' can only float on the magma."

"Tsk, it really doesn’t work."

Hearing this, Oleg frowned and spat. He took a sip of the melted ice water in his cup, pursed his lips, and said, "You go out and hand over to others first; I’ll take charge here."

"Understood."

After receiving the leader's orders, the "Wild Fire" members who stayed behind immediately prepared to evacuate. At that moment, the sound of something flapping wings suddenly echoed from the cave behind them.

"Chichi—"

Hmm?

What’s that noise?

This strange sound immediately attracted everyone's attention. The members of "Wild Fire" who were about to leave stopped, turned their heads, and looked behind them, confirming their confusion with each other.

"What’s that noise?"

"Did you hear it too?"

"Yeah, it seems to be coming from below."

Oh no!

The faces of the Express Crew who heard the sound instantly became grave. They naturally knew what terrible creatures were lurking beneath the ground of this mine. The three of them exchanged glances and almost simultaneously drew their weapons.

"Go! It’s dangerous here; don’t stay!"

Realizing the seriousness of the situation, Oleg was also anxious. He quickly waved his hand, signaling the members of "Wild Fire" who remained to leave quickly.

However, before they could walk far, the ground suddenly shook violently. Magma gushed from a nearby cave, and it seemed that something was brewing beneath the surface.

"Crack-bang!"

Accompanied by the sound of something breaking, a red-colored coleopteran bark beetle surged from the hot magma pool, flapping its elytra in the shocked eyes of the onlookers. It soared into the sky, colliding with the red-hot rocks and producing a sharp explosion.

---

---

Chapter 56: The Swarm Disaster Reappears (Cave version)

"Be careful!"

Seeing that the closest "Wild Fire" member was chosen as the target by the young ember-sun insect that suddenly emerged from the ground, March 7th drew her bow and shot an arrow without hesitation. The pink-blue light gathered into an arrow emitting a deep cold breath and flew straight toward the diving Sting.

"Crack!"

The pink-blue ice arrow, with a gorgeous arc of light, accurately hit the insect's head, condensing thick frost around it. The frost instantly spread to the elytra, which were vibrating at high speed, but the magma on its shell quickly melted it, rendering her attack ineffective.

"Oh no! Ordinary ice doesn't seem to work on this guy!"

March 7th tried to fire another ice arrow, but it still had little effect, merely slightly slowing down the opponent's speed.

"The truth of life and death, revealed in an instant!"

At this critical moment, Dan Heng rushed over with a spear in his hand. He stepped on the protruding rocks and jumped above the Juvenile Sting insect of the Ashen Sun. The spear in his hand gathered the green power of the path and pierced through the body of the Sting insect with majestic momentum.

"Solved?!"

Watching Dan Heng descend from the sky and stab the Juvenile Sting insect emitting hot breath into the ground, the latter's breath gradually weakened. Oleg couldn't help but ask in surprise.

"No, not yet!"

Recalling that Ilu mentioned the "Ashen Sun" insect swarm had the characteristic of self-destruction while they were shopping before, Stelle hurriedly shouted to the black-haired young man standing on the back of the Juvenile Sting insect: "Dan Heng, leave there quickly; be careful that it will self-destruct!"

"Huh?"

Hearing Stelle's reminder, Dan Heng did not hesitate; he immediately drew out his spear and jumped up.

The next second, the body of the dead insect pierced by the spear began to tremble violently, emitting terrible light and heat, like a heavy bomb in a mine hole eroded by lava, causing the rubble to collapse. Fortunately, everyone had moved away to a safer place.

"This guy... is the young 'Ashen Sun' Sting you mentioned before?"

Oleg gasped heavily, and when he thought he was almost affected by the explosion, he couldn't help but curse.

"This guy is really fierce. It took more than ten people to subdue him when he was alive. I didn't expect that he would explode after he died. Only hopeless idiots think that this thing can save Belobog."

Although the old leader of the "Wild Fire" did not name the person, everyone present knew who he was scolding. The group quickened their pace and left the mine cave that could collapse at any time, beginning to discuss urgently how to deal with the current crisis.

"Since one bug has escaped, it won't be long before other bugs find this way, so what should we do now?"

"Block this mine cave... Well, this approach seems a bit unrealistic. No matter how you look at it, this hole is a bit too big. If those bugs run out when it is half-filled, the casualties will be too heavy."

March 7th racked her brain but couldn't come up with a suitable solution. When she finally thought of one, she would immediately reject it.

Compared to the troubles caused by these bugs, the rift creatures and cold waves brought by the Stellaron seemed so friendly and lovely. At least there were ways to fight against the latter.

"It seems that we can only wait for Ilu to come and slowly think of a solution..."

Looking at the helpless expressions of everyone, Stelle sighed helplessly.

As Ilu said, Jarilo-VI is already terminally ill and incurable.

All they could do was try to remedy the existing holes as much as possible, but the crisis would erupt sooner or later. If the Ashen Sun True Sting had not been resolved by then, the planet would probably be doomed.

After some discussion, Oleg decided to evacuate the civilians in the large mining area and assemble the armed forces of "Wild Fire" to guard the cave where bugs could emerge at any time. Some wanderers who were unwilling to leave also took up arms and joined the team, rushing to transport stones to block the entrance of the mine.

What surprised everyone was that Svarog, who had not been on good terms with "Wild Fire" before, took the initiative to send a large number of automatic soldiers to support the battle after hearing about this and moved rocks together to build a defense line.

"The underground is our common home. In order to implement the will of 'preservation,' we will fight the invaders to the end."

There was no need for March 7th and Stelle to go over and persuade them. In front of the common enemy, the various forces in the lower district quickly set aside their past grudges and jointly established a united front to resist the invasion of the Swarm.

The only thing missing was the Silvermane Guard on the ground...

Oh, that's not accurate, because a Silvermane Guard also joined the front to fight against the Swarm. With Oleg's guarantee, Bronya served as deputy staff officer.

For Bronya who served as the commander of the Silvermane Guard on the ground and had rich experience in leading troops in combat, mobilizing different units to fight was foundational. This task was given to her as a professional counterpart.

Soon, Bronya managed the originally messy "United Front" in an orderly manner. Although there was still a big gap between them and the well-trained Silvermane Guards on the ground, they were no longer as scattered as before.

Her outstanding performance naturally attracted the attention of some people, especially Seele, who had no expectations of this young lady from the upper class.

At this time, she looked at Bronya as if she had seen a ghost.

"Uh..."

Noticing Seele's strange eyes, Bronya couldn't help but feel a little scared. Finally, she couldn't help but ask, "Why are you looking at me like this? Is there something wrong with me?"

"No, you did a good job, much better than I expected."

Seele shook her head, looking hesitant, as if she were thinking about what words to use. Even her tone of voice became awkward.

"You Silvermane Guards... well, you are quite capable. Maybe my prejudice is too deep. I apologize for what I said before. I hope you don't mind it."

Hearing this, Bronya was a little flattered. It was the first sentence of recognition she had heard from the natives of the lower district. Her face immediately turned red.

"No, the one who should say sorry is me—my mother... the Supreme Guardian. She failed to fulfill her responsibilities and deceived everyone. I am just atoning for her to the people of the lower district. These are what I should do."

The two of them reached a historic reconciliation at this moment. March 7th, who was not far away, couldn't help but pull the corner of Stelle's clothes after seeing this scene and whispered:

"Hey! Stelle, look at them..."

"What's wrong?"

"They were fighting to the death not long ago, but now they're fine. Women are so fickle."

Stelle: "..."

When you first met Ilu and me, you reconciled much faster than they did.

"Boom boom—"

Just then, the ground beneath everyone's feet suddenly shook violently, as if something was about to break out of the mine hole that was blocked by stones.

"Be careful; something is coming!"

Dan Heng clenched the spear in his hand and looked in the direction of the mine hole with a serious expression.

The next second, the pile of rocks that everyone had transported to block the entrance of the mine hole was destroyed by a hot lava ray. There was a violent explosion, and dark yellow gravel carrying hot magma swept toward the joint defense line not far away.

------

---

Chapter 57: Ask Ilu to Come Over!

"Bang!"

Raising the rifle specially sent by the members of "Wild Fire," Bronya aimed at the largest rock and pulled the trigger. The wind-controlling bullet smashed through the rock with unstoppable momentum, creating a strong storm vortex centered on the impact point.

The fierce wind attracted all the splashing gravel toward the eye of the storm, causing it to dissipate rapidly. The stones, now devoid of wind restraint, fell like raindrops and did not harm the people in front.

Not far away, the creature that had destroyed the rock pile revealed its true form: a Juvenile Sting insect with a red body.

"Chichi—"

As if sensing the people waiting outside, the Juvenile Sting insect did not rush to leave the mine but increased the frequency of its elytra flapping, causing its body to tremble violently, as if it were about to give birth.

Although the process was different, the final result was the same.

In the few seconds that everyone stood stunned, the Juvenile Sting insect split into a bug exactly like it. The main body rushed toward March 7th and the others, while its copy headed in Bronya and Seele’s direction.

"To protect and defend—crush them!"

Without hesitation, Bronya immediately used the power of the path to bless all the combatants present. Even Stelle, who was far from her, could feel her physical abilities strengthened to a certain extent, as if her body were filled with energy.

"Okay, okay! Stelle, Dan Heng, I’ll cover you two, and the three of us will take down this bug!"

"Yeah!"

Hearing this, the gray-haired girl brandished her baseball bat and swung hard at the attacking Juvenile Sting insect.

...

At the same time, in the real world.

"Crack!"

Accompanied by the sound of the screen breaking, Jiahun entered the battle interface with the Ember Young for the first time. Although only a small insect was flapping its wings in front of her, she felt very nervous.

"Don’t worry, let me see its weaknesses."

"Well, weak to quantum, weak to ice, high fire resistance, immune to burning... Wait, how does it also have freezing resistance?"

Jiahun opened the details panel of the Ashen Juvenile and saw that it actually had both weak ice and freezing resistance. She couldn’t help but widen her eyes in shock. "My God, how can there be a monster that is afraid of ice but not freezing?"

[Jiahun, look carefully; it only has 50% freezing resistance, not complete immunity. If the effect is improved, it can still be frozen. It’s a pity that it can’t be penetrated in the early stages.]

[It should be because of the high temperature, but it has a weakness to ice, so it’s not a big deal.]

[This insect’s self-explosion is very powerful. Each time it explodes, it will stack a layer of burning on us, but if we exploit its weakness or kill them while frozen, they won’t explode.]

[This battle has an attack power buff given by Bronya, making it particularly easy to fight. Use March 7th to break the shield. After paralysis, there’s high vulnerability.]

"Okay! I understand; watch me blow it up easily!"

Jiahun said, and her mind absorbed the information as she entered the actual battle.

Twenty seconds later, she looked at the second brand new Ashen Sun Juvenile Sting that had split from the low-health Juvenile Sting on the screen and fell into deep thought.

"Just now, shouldn’t I have let March 7th put on that shield... Well, it’s just a small mistake; we should still be able to beat it."

A minute later, Jiahun stared at the five Juvenile Sting insects on the screen, along with her own team that had all been reduced to half health, and felt completely overwhelmed.

"Aaaaaa! How can these guys split while fighting? So disgusting!"

"I should have saved March 7th’s ultimate move!"

-----------------

"March, seize the opportunity and freeze these bugs before they replicate themselves."

"I’m trying... Ah, they’re all covered in magma; they can’t be frozen at all!"

"Damn it! This guy splits when he can’t be beaten. Why do they keep multiplying the more we fight?!"

In the lower city, deep in the large mining area, March 7th, who was battling the Ashen Sun Juvenile, faced the same problem—or rather, a situation that made her feel even more disgusted.

After all, in a game, the logic dictates that to adjust the difficulty, these Juvenile usually split into one per round and then another after a certain number of rounds. Upon death, they act as traitors and self-destruct in a chain, allowing them to be cleared all at once.

In reality, however, there’s no need to talk about logic. These Juvenile Sting insects can propagate into clones anytime and anywhere, and can even replicate themselves while engaged in battle, evoking a sense of déjà vu reminiscent of "wildfires cannot be extinguished, and spring breezes bring them back to life."

Initially, the team was only dealing with one Juvenile Sting insect, but soon they had to contend with three, each equally strong as the original.

What’s worse, more insects were emerging from the depths of the mine. In less than a minute, the mine was overtaken by this group of continuously breeding insects.

The united front formed by various forces in the lower area could only fight and retreat, evacuating from the outermost line of defense to the second line in the rear. They relied on automatic turrets powered by Geomarrow to suppress the swarm of insects with firepower. For a time, the sounds of turrets firing and swarms erupting filled the air.

"Captain Oleg, do we really have this good stuff?"

"This thing consumes Geomarrow. I usually don’t want to use it, but I can’t afford to be choosy right now."

"Tsk, it still doesn’t seem to be working... The number of these insects is growing exponentially. If this continues, we’ll lose this place!"

"It’s a bit helpless dealing with them. The reproduction speed of these guys is too fast."

The fire support from the automatic turrets only offered a brief sigh of relief to everyone present, but it didn’t solve the problem. The splitting speed of the Juvenile Sting insects far outpaced the rate at which the turrets could kill them. Although the scene suggested that "Wild Fire" had the upper hand, the number of insects was increasing rather than decreasing.

"What should we do? Dan Heng, do you have any good ideas?"

Seeing that the second line of defense of "Wild Fire" was also in danger under the onslaught of the insect swarm, March 7th began to worry. "If it really doesn’t work, should we consider using hidden power?"

If this continues, it won’t be long before the entire lower area falls. There are still many unarmed people in the rear; she could guess what would happen with her eyes closed.

"Stelle, send a message to Ilu; I’ll cover you."

After dispatching another insect, Dan Heng said to the gray-haired girl beside him with an expressionless face.

He wasn’t sure whether Sampo had gone to the upper area to find Ilu, so he needed Stelle to confirm with Ilu in person.

In this situation, he had no better option except to summon this "insect removal expert" to come over.

---

---

Chapter 58: Look, It's a Cavalry! 

"Yeah!"

Stelle nodded heavily, then picked up the phone and sent a text message to Ilu as quickly as possible.

"Stelle: A large number of insects appeared in the large mining area; come to support quickly!"

Less than three seconds after the message was sent, the other party replied:

"Ilu:?"

"Ilu: Let everyone evacuate; I'll be there soon."

"What's up, Stelle? What did she say?"

"Ilu said she'll be here soon. Let everyone evacuate as soon as possible; don't fight the swarm at close range."

After saying that, Stelle hurried over to Bronya, who was cooperating with Oleg in commanding the battle not far away. In the latter's somewhat puzzled eyes, she quickly repeated Ilu's words to Bronya.

"I know!"

After learning from the gray-haired girl that the strongest fighter of the entire Jarilo-VI was about to go to the battlefield, Bronya's eyes lit up immediately. She used her power of destiny without hesitation and controlled the wind to relay the order of retreat to the ears of every combatant.

"Everyone, leave the second line of defense as soon as possible. Do not engage with the swarm; cover each other alternately and evacuate to the third line of defense in an orderly manner!"

"——Repeat again! Everyone, leave the second line of defense as soon as possible. Do not engage with the swarm; cover each other alternately and evacuate to the third line of defense in an orderly manner!"

"Ah?"

"You can obviously hold on for a while longer. Why retreat?"

"It's the order from the superiors; let's retreat."

Hearing the retreat order issued by Bronya, the combatants who were fighting the swarm on the front line couldn't help but feel confused. After hesitating for a while, they still obeyed Bronya's order, covering each other alternately and evacuating backward, leaving this devastated second line of defense to the swarm.

"Bronya! What are you doing? Why did you retreat suddenly?"

Seeing that all her companions around her had evacuated, Seele rushed over from the front line and asked in a hurry.

"Because she's here."

Bronya glanced at Seele and said meaningfully, "If you don't want to die with the insect swarm, you'd better stay away."

"She? Who are you referring to? Please explain it clearly!"

Seele felt that she was about to burst into tears. Just as she was about to ask Bronya for clarification, she suddenly heard a cry from behind:

"Wow! What is that?"

"Meteor?"

"No, how can there be a meteor underground? It looks like a person!"

Before everyone could react to what was happening, a silver figure with a faint blue tail fell from the sky like a meteor, landing in the center of the fire insect swarm, and suddenly bursting into a dazzling blue light.

"Ding——"

The next second, an extremely low-temperature cold wave erupted with her as the center, freezing the ground with red insect pulp flowing around it and the Juvenile Sting insects on it into ice, and spreading in all directions at a speed visible to the naked eye, freezing more than 90% of the insects in an instant.

"???"

Seeing this scene, Oleg's eyes widened in shock on the spot, and his heart, which was not very good to begin with, skipped a beat.

Wait, so many insects, all destroyed in an instant?

And they didn't explode yet?!

He has lived a lifetime and has seen all kinds of scenes...

Uh, sorry, this scene is really the first time he has seen it today.

Even the knowledgeable Oleg is like this; let alone Seele, who rarely leaves the underground. At this moment, her brain seemed to have lost connection, and her mouth was wide open in astonishment. This scene was obviously beyond her understanding.

Seeing Seele's stunned expression, Bronya's mouth corners slightly raised, and a confident smile reappeared on her face.

"Look, it's an Iron Knight! The situation is favorable to us!"

When she was in the upper area, she had seen how terrible Ilu's fighting power was, but now it seems that Ilu at that time was still deliberately letting go and had no intention of fighting seriously with the Silvermane Guards led by her.

Freezing the blazing sea of Ashen Sun Insects in an instant, this may be the real strength of that girl.

"Sizzle--!"

The arrival of the Silver Iron Knights made the remaining Ashen Sun Juvenile Sting insects extremely frightened. This was the fear engraved in their DNA, and they instinctively flew away from her.

However, due to the frost condensing on their bodies, their movements were too slow, and they no longer posed a threat at all. They were quickly eliminated by the "Wild Fire" combatants who came to their senses.

Under Oleg's command, the group soon regained the second line of defense. Noticing the frost on the ground and the cold air blowing around them, the soldiers in the lower area couldn't help but cast awe-inspiring eyes at the silver-white cavalryman in the distance.

"Buzz--"

Raising her right hand and aiming at the entrance of the mine in front of her, Ilu activated the power of destiny of "Remembrance" in her body, and the palm of her right hand suddenly burst into a dazzling blue light, completely sealing the entrance of the mine with solid ice.

After doing all this, she returned to the Express Crew and asked about the three people with concern.

"Are you all okay?"

"We are fine; where is Sampo?"

"Sampo..."

Hearing this, Ilu lowered her head and pondered for a while, answering in a more euphemistic way, "I came here in a hurry just now and lost him on the road."

In fact, after meeting Sampo, she rushed to the lower area without stopping and ignored the Silvermane Guards she met along the way.

If someone who didn't know what was going on caught up with her, she would knock them out and let them rest on the ground for a while. It didn't take a few minutes to run from the upper area to the lower area.

The reason it took so long to come here was actually that Sampo was too slow. When he came from the lower area, he deliberately took several detours to avoid the Silvermane Guards. By the time he got here, the lower area had already become a mess.

That's why, after receiving the message from Stelle, she grabbed Sampo's collar and drove him in at full speed. In order to avoid accidentally hurting him when landing, she threw him down when she reached the top of the large mining area.

Calculating the time, Sampo should be here soon.

"Really, Sampo didn't expect that he would be able to fly one day..."

As Ilu finished speaking, a young man with dark blue hair appeared behind the crowd, holding his head with a wronged look on his face, and looked at the silver-haired girl with resentment in his eyes:

"Sister, can you tell me before landing? If I hadn't brought a paraglider with me, I might have crashed just now."

The girl said sorry to him halfway, and before he could react to what was going on, she threw him down from mid-air.

If he hadn't been agile and opened the paraglider to adjust his landing posture, he would probably have turned from Sampo into Sampo(sauce) now.

---

---

Chapter 59: Final Plan

"What are you afraid of? You won't die from the fall with your ability."

"Even if I don’t die from the fall, it will still hurt, okay..."

"Okay, Sampo, I understand what you mean. I'll compensate you with some benefits when the time comes. Now, we should discuss how to deal with these insects hiding under the mine."

As Oleg and the others approached, the silver-haired girl's gaze swept across everyone’s faces before finally resting on the insect swarm in the mine nearby, which was spewing insect pulp in an attempt to melt the ice. She slowly said,

"Before I came here, I went to the Express to look for Himeko and Uncle Yang and informed them of this matter. This morning, they contacted the official personnel of the Interastral Peace Corporation and learned a lot of information about the insect swarm."

"So Uncle Yang and the others can't come down yet. They are dealing with people from the IPC. If there is any latest news, they will notify us immediately."

"These remnants of the Ashen Sun have not only appeared on the planet Jarilo-VI, but they have also emerged in various galaxies in recent years. According to the IPC's investigation, these bugs will drill into the interior of the planet and replace the magma with the high-temperature magma they eject."

"As the proportion of magma gradually increases, the interior of the planet will be transformed into a structure similar to that of the True Sting insect. If this is not stopped, the planet will become a huge True Sting insect, turning into a mobile insect nest that deviates from its predetermined periodic orbit, attacking other uninfected planets."

Ilu said in a serious tone, "By then, the IPC will destroy it at all costs. This is the worst result that can be imagined at present."

"What?!"

Upon realizing that the target of the Ember Insect was to transform Jarilo-VI into a planetary-level True Sting Insect, the faces of those present changed suddenly.

They had just seen with their own eyes that this Iron Knight killed hundreds of Juvenile Sting insects in one fell swoop. With such outstanding strength, no one doubted what she said.

"Is there really no way to deal with these damned insects?"

"There is a way..."

Listening to everyone’s discussion, Ilu paused and continued, "Transforming a planet into a planetary-level True Sting Insect is not something that can be done casually. This process must involve at least one Ashen Sun True Sting Insect."

"In other words, as long as we can find the location of the Ashen Sun True Sting and kill it, we can prevent Jarilo-VI from being transformed into a bug nest?"

Stelle quickly understood the hidden meaning of Ilu's words. Since she stayed here and did not choose to take everyone away from Jarilo-VI immediately, it meant that this planet should still be saved.

"Yes, as long as we kill the True Sting insect, Jarilo-VI still has a glimmer of hope."

Ilu nodded gently and revealed the information she knew to everyone.

"The most important thing is the attitude of the Interastral Peace Corporation. The assessors they sent will conduct risk assessments on planets with Swarm disaster alarms."

"Once the assessor finds the True Sting insect, the IPC will not hesitate to start the final killing procedure and send a fleet to launch a comprehensive siege on the planet occupied by the True Sting insect."

"If we can kill the True Sting insect before the IPC's assessors arrive, the danger level assigned by the assessors will decrease."

There are too many star systems invaded by the Insect. If the IPC sends a fleet to clean up every planet the Insect visits, then its actions may be no different from the "Voracity" of the past. This behavior, which violates the value of "preservation," will undoubtedly be punished by Qlipoth.

For this reason, after receiving an alarm about the Swarm Disaster, the IPC will ask the assessor to arrive at the planet as quickly as possible for an on-site investigation, then decide whether to sell insect-killing services, such as "insect repellent packages," to the local survivors or to go all out and blow up the entire planet along with the Insect.

"What is certain at present is that there is indeed an Ashen Sun True Sting on this planet, but we cannot determine its location now because it has been hidden by Cocolia." Ilu sighed helplessly.

"What? The Supreme Guardian actually did such a thing?!"

Knowing that the Supreme Guardian, who ruled the upper area of Belobog, was actually an accomplice of the bugs, some members of the Wild Fire who did not know the truth could not help but exclaim, then scold the stupid behavior of the Supreme Guardian:

"She hid the bugs underground in our lower area. It is obvious that she does not want us to be well!"

"I doubt if her brain was eaten by the bugs."

"Cocolia not only betrayed Cunhu, but she also betrayed the humans on Jarilo-VI. She is a sinner who cannot be listed in history!"

"Huh..."

Looking at the crowd's indignation, Bronya, the daughter of the person involved, took a deep breath, hesitated for a moment, and strengthened her resolve. She raised her hand and told Ilu her thoughts.

"Miss Ilu, I want to try to convince the Supreme Guardian to tell her the hiding place of the Ashen Sun True Sting."

Her mother's actions had completely disappointed her and the people in the lower district. Everyone was right to scold her. This was a blatant betrayal.

That is why she must go up and meet the Supreme Guardian. If Cocolia is still unwilling to reveal the information about the Ashen Sun True Sting, then she, as a daughter, must personally correct the mistakes made by her mother.

"Oh? You want to go up and persuade her?"

Hearing this, Ilu was slightly startled. Recalling the conversation between her and Cocolia in Klipperburg yesterday, she spread her hands helplessly.

"I met her yesterday. Her mental state... well, how should I put it? She doesn’t even listen to the words of the Stellaron now. If you go there now, you will probably be arrested and put under house arrest by her."

Cocolia's will is still quite firm, but her firmness seems to be used in the wrong place, which is really difficult to hold.

Alas, it can only be said that the Stellaron picked her, which is truly unfortunate for eight lifetimes.

"No, I won’t give her this opportunity."

Bronya shook her head and showed a determined look: "I plan to go with weapons to persuade her to see if I can make her tell the secrets of the Stellaron and the Ember True Sting Insect."

She deliberately emphasized the word "persuade." Anyone could hear that this filial daughter intended to use military force to convince Cocolia.

"Stellaron?"

"I remember the people from the Astral Express mentioned that the cold wave and the rift outside were all caused by the Stellaron..."

"Oh my God, our Belobog really found a genius."

Knowing that the Supreme Guardian was inextricably linked to the Stellaron, everyone exchanged mixed feelings.

Is Cocolia the Supreme Guardian or a Lord Ravager? How come all the bad things are related to her?

-----

Chapter 60: What, is this one of our own?

"Well... since you've decided, let's give it a try. It's better to take action than to do nothing."

After agreeing to Bronya's military remonstration plan, Ilu held her chin with one hand and fell into deep thought. Her eyes swept across the faces of everyone present, and she had a clear plan in her mind.

"However, Cocolia has the power of the 'Stellaron,' so don't be careless about this... March 7th, Stelle, Dan Heng, can you go back to the ground with Bronya? I'm worried that she will be in danger if she goes alone."

"Of course, no problem!"

March 7th patted her chest, indicating that this matter was hers, and said confidently, "We promise to make her honestly spill the whereabouts of the Ashen Sun True Sting!"

"Add me; I'll go over to help too!" Seele volunteered.

"No problem."

Ilu naturally welcomed those who were willing to help. She looked at Oleg and assigned the task of guarding the mine to the soldiers in the lower area to prevent Juvenile Sting insects from suddenly emerging from the ground.

"What about me? What should I do?"

Sampo pointed at himself and asked curiously.

"You..."

Ilu glanced at him and said, "Just do whatever you want. I believe you won't let us down."

Sampo: "?"

I just want to do whatever you want?

So I am dispensable?

"The last and most important task."

Ilu put the Iron Cavalry Transformation Sheath in her hand on her chest and said in a sonorous voice, "I am responsible for killing the Ashen Sun True Sting."

There should be a hot little song here. Although there is none, it does not prevent her from summoning the Snow Firefly Armor here.

-----------------

"Ah! Finally back!"

After leaving the dark and depressing lower area, the group returned to the sunny upper area. March 7th greedily took a few breaths of fresh air and couldn't help but sigh, "I've been fighting those hot bugs for so long; I almost forgot what fresh air smells like."

"Where are we going now? Should we go directly to Cocolia?" Seele looked at Bronya.

"Well... let's go to the hiding place that Sampo gave us first and discuss countermeasures."

Bronya pondered for a while and said, "The Supreme Guardian has the power of the 'Stellaron.' If we can't take her down for a while, when the main force of the Silvermane Guards surrounds us, things may become unfavorable for us. I plan to take you to find Gepard first to see if I can get his support."

"However, you have to keep a low profile now."

She glanced at the three people except Seele: "You should know that the three of you are still wanted. There are portraits of the three of you everywhere on the street."

"Oh, is this what you are talking about?"

Hearing this, March 7th pointed to the wanted poster on the wall and whispered, "I feel like they might not be able to recognize you."

"Uh..."

Seeing the abstract masterpiece on it and glancing at the three people in front of her, Bronya couldn't help but fall into silence.

Well, thanks to Gepard's abstract painting skills, it seems that the wanted poster is indeed unrecognizable.

That's fine.

After confirming the next action plan, everyone came to the perpetual motion machine house of Serval.

"Welcome, guests... Uh, why are you here?"

When Serval saw the leader of the Silvermane Guard, Bronya, walk in, her heart skipped a beat. When she saw the three Express Crew members who followed closely behind her, her eyes widened on the spot.

Were you caught by the Silvermane Guard, or did you betray me? Why did you bring the leader of the Silvermane Guard with you?

"Don't worry, Serval, we are all allies."

"Allies..."

After hearing Stelle's words, Serval looked at Bronya with suspicion, still feeling a little uneasy. It was not until March 7th and Stelle explained what happened in the lower area that she believed that Bronya and the current Cocolia were not the same kind of people.

I didn't expect that you, with thick eyebrows and big eyes, would also betray.

"In other words, in order to find the leader of the bug and save Belobog, you are going to coerce Cocolia to tell you the location of the bug?"

"Well, that's probably what it means. Even if we can't get the location of the True Sting from Cocolia, we can't let her leave here and cause trouble elsewhere."

"Huh... This is really unfortunate. I heard that she ran to the north not long ago. If you want to find her, you must go to the northern snowfield and pass through the front-line restricted area guarded by the Silvermane Guards."

Serval's eyes swept across the faces of the three wanted people and finally stopped at Bronya.

"I guess Cocolia has noticed the movement underground, so she is ready to execute her plan in advance. The Silvermane Guards in the restricted area should have been given a death order. Are you sure your words can convince them?"

"So we need your help, Ms. Serval Landau."

Bronya looked into Serval's eyes and said seriously, "We know your relationship with Gepard Landau. If you are present, we will have a higher chance of convincing him."

-----------------

"What? Serval is actually Gepard's sister!"

After learning about the relationship between Serval and Gepard from Bronya, Jiahun couldn't help but widen her eyes. She recalled Gepard's appearance and compared it with the blonde woman in front of her.

Obviously, if it weren't for those personalized highlights, the two really looked like a brother and sister.

[Jiahun, there is a four-star light cone called "Landau's Choice"; you can take a look.]

[Serval and Cocolia had a close relationship in the past, but they parted ways because of ideological issues and have not been in touch for a long time.]

[No wonder Serval is so well-informed; it turns out that a brother has been telling her about Cocolia's movements.]

Glancing at the barrage in the live broadcast room, Jiahun interacted with the fans while clicking the mouse to continue to advance the plot.

"Serval: Although that's what he said, without hard evidence in his face, he will never question Cocolia's order."

"Stelle: Don't worry; we have evidence in our hands. As long as we can get Gepard to put down his weapons and communicate, we will be able to convince him."

"March 7th: That's right! We took a lot of photos underground, and these are all evidence of Cocolia's guilt!"

"Serval:... In this case, let's set off now and go to the Silvermane Guard restricted area to stop Cocolia's plan. I don't want her to continue to be crazy like this, which will destroy her and the world together."

Seeing that Jiahun was about to enter the climax of the entire Belobog plot, the number of people in the livestream room began to grow rapidly at a speed visible to the naked eye, and the comments in the upper left corner of the screen also increased.

Some of them were spoilers from other livestreams.

[Where's the chopping man? Get ready to start.]

[It's time to fight the Boss; looking forward to Jiahun's reaction.]

[Jiahun, do you know? There is a level trial of Ilu later, which is very exciting!]

[Where is the housing manager? Why not kill them and save them for the New Year?]

"Why are you in such a hurry? How can we kill all these comments one by one..."

Outside the screen, Jasmine wiped her sweat with a wet towel and began to frantically click the mouse to delete the comments that involved spoilers.

Because she slept too late yesterday, she didn't have time to follow the main storyline of Star Rail. She saw all the comments that involved spoilers, which made Jasmine feel indescribably uncomfortable, just like eating a piece of bitter chocolate without any sweetness.

After all, she was really spoiled, and she had to read every comment carefully to prevent omissions. No one except her could understand this feeling.

Thinking of this, the girl was about to cry out of grievance: "Damn it! Such a wonderful plot, I am the only one who was spoiled in the end!"

---

HIK CH61-69

Chapter 61: Encounter with Cocolia

With the addition of Serval and Bronya walking in front to lead the way, the group arrived at the Silvermane Guard restricted area without encountering any obstacles along the way.

As Serval said, this area severely eroded by the Stellaron Corrosion is heavily guarded and traces of the Silvermane Guard can be seen everywhere. It is basically impossible to force a passage through here.

"The front is a military stronghold; no idle people are allowed to enter!"

Seeing a group of people walking straight toward the restricted area, the stern-looking Silvermane Guard immediately stepped forward to block the way.

However, when they noticed that the people leading were Bronya and Serval, their attitudes instantly changed 180 degrees.

"Wait, this is... Hey, Sister Serval, long time no see."

"Oh my god, Commander Bronya is here too! You guys hurry up, stand up straight, salute Commander Bronya."

Hearing this, several Silvermane Guard members standing guard nearby stood at attention instantly.

"Let's go; let's go in."

Bronya and Serval looked at each other, signaling the people behind to follow, and the group passed through the Silvermane Guard's blockade and entered the restricted area.

Not long after walking, they encountered the second checkpoint.

"I know some of you are lazy and think that being a reserve guard means just being idle and waiting to die. I tell you, this idea is totally wrong!"

"In this restricted area, there are fragmentum monsters in front of us, and we have to beware from conspiracies of gangs infiltrating the city. No matter how blind you are, you must not let these infiltrators get away with it in front of you!"

A silver-maned lieutenant were to be scolding the recruits. When he noticed Bronya and her group walking toward them, he stood at attention and saluted, smiling and motioning everyone to pass the checkpoint.

"It turns out to be Commander Bronya; please come in, please come in quickly—"

"Uh... I always feel that it is much smoother than expected."

March 7th couldn't help but complain in a low voice, "I thought we would be stopped and questioned."

"After all, Bronya's identity is here. Even if someone in the Silvermane Guard recognizes us, they will regard us as suspects captured by Bronya," Dan Heng explained.

Although the Silvermane Guards they met at the checkpoint did not stop them, to reach the front line, they had to repair some mechanisms and inevitably encountered some broken copper and iron obstacles on the way.

Soon, these obstacles were forcibly cleared by Stelle with a baseball bat.

"Is the man in front... Gepard?"

"Yes, it's him. It seems that he knew we were coming and waited here on purpose."

"Let's go over and explain the situation."

Looking at the blond young man who led dozens of Silvermane Guards to block the road in front, everyone stopped where they were and discussed countermeasures with each other before walking toward Gepard.

"I didn't expect it was you."

Recognizing the identity of people, Gepard's face showed a mix of emotions.

As the chief of the Silvermane Guards who personally issued the wanted order, he naturally couldn't forget what the three people in the Express Crew looked like.

But seeing his sister standing with them...

Uh, wait, why is Bronya here too?

What's going on? Why is it different from what the Supreme Guardian said before?

"Gepard, no more explanations; just look at the evidence yourself."

Knowing from Serval that her brother only cares about evidence, March 7th simply skipped the effort of talking and directly handed him a few sets of photos she took in the lower city.

Instead of discussing the connection between Cocolia and the "Stellaron," it is better to directly present the most direct evidence to prove the necessity of their coming here.

These photos record the sufferings of the people in the lower district and the Ashen Sun Disaster, which is particularly deadly to the entire Belobog. It is undoubtedly ironclad evidence.

"As for the witnesses, they are also here. If you have any questions, just ask."

"This is..."

Seeing the picture of Bronya leading the "Wild Fire" warriors to fight bravely against the swarm of insects, Gepard's pupils trembled.

When he learned that the underground of Belobog had become the nest of these insects and that the mother of this insect was hidden by Cocolia as a secret weapon to "save" Jarilo-VI, he chose to make way without hesitation and support everyone's actions.

There were some vague memories in his mind. Someone told him that there were swarms of insects under the planet a while ago.

That was why he made the decision so quickly.

"Brother..."

Obviously, even his sister Serval didn't expect him to be so quick to understand. She opened her eyes wide in surprise.

"I need to stay here to guard the tunnel caused by the fragmentum. I can't go with you for the time being, but if you need me, please call me. Everything is to prevent the disaster that may happen in Belobog."

After that, Gepard looked at Serval and said in a serious tone, "Sister, it's dangerous ahead. Don't go there. Stay with me."

He could guess that the reason the Express Crew brought Serval was to create an opportunity to negotiate with him. Otherwise, with Bronya, they didn't need to bring his sister.

"Uh..." Serval looked at the people nearby.

"Serval, you stay here. Leave the things ahead to us," Stelle said.

"Well! Then do your best. I'm waiting for your good news."

Walking to the side of Gepard, Serval smiled at everyone.

...

After saying goodbye to the siblings of the Landau family, everyone left the Corridor of Fading Echoes and headed toward the direction of Everwinter Hill without stopping. The cold wave here is colder than before. Even the blessing of "Preservation" cannot resist this severe cold. Countless frozen Voidrangers can be seen along the way.

Just then, Stelle suddenly felt something. She raised her head and cast her eyes toward the huge mechanical creation covered in ice and snow in the distance.

"What is that?"

"It looks like the palm of a big robot..."

Hearing Stelle and March 7th's questions, Bronya looked at the mechanical creation hovering in the air and slowly answered, "That is the Engine of Creation, which was left by The Architects in the past. It symbolizes the will of 'Preservation.'"

"Let's go; Cocolia is just ahead."

"Well!"

"Wait! Look, that's..."

The group went deeper into the Everwinter Hill against the cold wave and soon saw a "Stellaron" emitting a cold breath, along with a blonde woman standing beside it who seemed to have been waiting for them for a long time.

"Heh, I thought this blizzard could bury you, but I didn't expect you to come after all."

Having already sensed the arrival of everyone through the raging snow, Cocolia glanced at Bronya standing next to the star and couldn't help but sigh, disappointment evident in her tone: "You know? Bronya, you disappoint me very much..."

"As long as we abandon the lower area that has lost its value, we can obtain inexhaustible energy (Insects). But you are just for this insignificant gain and loss in front of you. You chose to stand with this group of outsiders. What a stupid act."

----

Chapter 62: Trial Character: Ilu

Abandon the lower district.

This kind of disregard for human life is undoubtedly an act of betraying "Preservation."

However, Cocolia is accustomed to it and even speaks proudly of her salvation plan in front of everyone.

"Bronya, from childhood to adulthood, I have never forced you to obey my will."

"In any case, you have always had room for choice. It was so in the past, and it is still so now—choose to stand with these outsiders or witness the birth of the new world with me. Make a choice, my daughter."

Bronya never thought she would hear such words from her mother.

Is this still the Supreme Guardian who cares for the people she knows?

At that moment, she felt a rebellious fire burning in her heart.

Gripping her rifle tightly, Bronya looked into Cocolia's eyes without fear and spoke.

"Lord Cocolia, thank you for raising me. I will never forget this kindness."

"But today, please forgive me for not being able to stand with you like before. This is the choice I made. As a warrior, I will fight for those who are in desperate situations and ignored by you, instead of leaving their fate to those evil seeds."

Goodbye, mother, and my cowardice.

Even if I can't change the outcome, I have to decide the process to reach that outcome myself.

Bronya has made up her mind.

Hearing her choice, Cocolia fell silent. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

"Well... it seems there is no room for compromise between us, Bronya."

When she opened her eyes again, her gaze toward Bronya was much more unfamiliar, as if she were looking at a stranger she had never met.

Cocolia's gaze swept across everyone’s faces, and her cold tone was mixed with a hint of madness.

"You have grown up. I will respect your choice, but at the same time, you will also pay the price for that choice. There is no such thing as the best of both worlds. Some people will be happy, while others will be sad."

"It's a pity there is no place reserved for you in that beautiful 'new world.'"

As she spoke, Cocolia slowly raised her right hand, and a spear covered in ice and snow appeared in her grasp.

"The fate of this city has been determined, and its future will unfold in my hands. Anyone who stands in my way will become the cornerstone of the 'new world.'"

"As the Supreme Guardian, I command you to rise—Engine of Creation!"

As her voice fell, the ground began to shake violently, and roars echoed from afar.

Everyone looked behind Cocolia, following the source of the sound.

The giant mechanical creature buried in the ice and snow slowly stood up under Cocolia's control, swinging its massive fist toward them.

"She has awakened the ancient machine of The Architects! Everyone, be careful!"

Seeing this, Bronya quickly warned.

Of course, she didn’t need to remind them. Everyone present found ways to escape and evacuated to safety before the iron fist fell.

"What a big robot! It’s ten thousand times bigger than Ilu!"

"Uh... I don’t think it’s as strong as Ilu, but its size is definitely more oppressive."

"Hey, hey, hey! Don't be distracted—watch out for its laser!"

As the red light flashed in the eyes of the Engine of Creation, March 7th quickly conjured a thick ice shield, narrowly blocking the sudden laser sweep.

"Buzz—"

Just as the Engine of Creation raised its left arm to elbow the people below, a blazing fire from the sky interrupted its attack, temporarily paralyzing the engine's left arm.

There was no doubt that this attack came from Himeko, who was monitoring the battlefield from the Astral Express.

Due to the insect crisis on Jarilo-VI, someone had to remain on the Express to keep in touch with the "IPC." Though she couldn't disembark for the time being, that did not prevent her from providing remote support.

"March, cover me!"

Realizing that the manipulator behind the scenes must be eliminated to stop the Engine of Creation, Stelle looked up at Cocolia, who was floating on the shoulder of the Engine of Creation, and made a resolute decision, rushing toward the paralyzed left arm of the Engine of Creation at top speed.

"No problem! Everyone, come and help!"

Hearing March 7th's call, everyone began to assist Stelle in turn. March 7th's ice shield protected her from the long-range harassment of the fragmentum creatures, Bronya’s bullets cleared obstacles on the way, and Seele and Dan Heng propelled Stelle directly toward Cocolia.

Then—

"Puff!"

Stelle was unfortunately struck after being pierced through the chest by the ice spear shot by Cocolia.

---

Lower area, deep in the large mining zone.

While the Express Crew followed Bronya to the upper area, Ilu also cleared the ice blocking the mine entrance and swiftly dealt with the nearby Juvenile Sting insects using a mantis blade.

For these ordinary insects that have left the magma environment, the equipment that comes with the Snow Fyrefly Mech can easily handle them even without utilizing the power of "Remembrance" at all.

After proceeding deep into the mine for a while, she arrived at a cave with a diameter of about 20 meters.

Standing at the edge of the cave and looking down, she could only see a bottomless expanse of red. The flowing lava exuded a terrifying heat, and she could faintly hear the sound of the insect swarm flapping its wings.

"Plop!"

Without any hesitation, Ilu jumped directly into the magma, splashing a shower of sparks.

Gazing at the red and green lights floating on the lava, she couldn’t help but marvel at the strong vitality of the creatures and then dove into the depths of the magma pool with full concentration.

The information provided by the IPC could not have been limited to just that. As a universal enterprise spanning countless galaxies, the Interastral Peace Corporation had extensive information about the Ashen Swarm, including how to locate the True Sting insects hidden inside the planet in the shortest time.

This method is very simple—throw high-temperature-resistant exploration equipment into the magma pool and follow the magma downward until reaching the highest temperature.

If one can see a huge insect here, then congratulations, you’ve won the prize.

Although Ilu did not have any high-temperature-resistant exploration equipment, her presence was enough. When it comes to exterminating insects, she is the real expert.

Let alone any exploration equipment; a Glamoth Iron Cavalry alone is enough to defeat the IPC’s entire fleet. Although she has never seen other brothers and sisters since she was born, Ilu believes they should possess such strength.

Not long after delving into the magma pool, she entered a nest occupied by dark red insect magma, where countless red coleopteran bark beetles came into view.

"Found the swarm of insects; starting Hunting Mode."

Seeing this scene, Ilu activated combat mode without hesitation. However, the cold air emitted by the core of the mecha caused the magma to solidify quickly upon contact, greatly hindering her movements.

Ilu instantly realized that she might not be able to kill these insects as effectively as before. The elytra behind her could not fully unfold, and the mantis blade embedded in her arms was unusable.

It seemed that hunting mode would not work here, so she needed to change her approach.

With this in mind, Ilu switched back to stealth mode and activated the swarm mimicry again, swimming toward the direction of the insect swarm.

"Ding!"

With a faint sound, a dazzling blue light suddenly blossomed from the palm of her right hand. This was the power of "Remembrance," but as long as Ilu did not give it a physical form, it would not freeze the nearby magma.

After swimming close to a Juvenile Sting insect, Ilu punched it on the head.

The sudden burst of coldness filled the Juvenile Sting insect's brain with frost, and it was instantly chilled.

"Well, it seems to be effective."

She conducted an experiment with a small insect and confirmed that the power of "Remembrance" could be used normally in the magma environment, which reassured her.

After glancing at the thousands of Sting dormant in the insect nest, Ilu decided not to deal with them for the time being. After using "Remembrance" to freeze the entrance of the insect nest, she moved deeper underground.

Magma is often described as terrifying in various films, television shows, and games, leading many to have the misconception that its temperature is extremely high.

However, it is merely rock melted by heat, and the temperature cannot be excessively higher.

Compared to the temperature emitted by the surface of a star, magma's heat is almost negligible for her while wearing the Snow Fyrefly Mech.

The only thing that affected Ilu was the resistance she felt while swimming in the magma.

"Shhhhhh!"

As the temperature of the surrounding magma continued to rise, Ilu noticed that the nearby scene was gradually becoming strange. The surrounding rock walls no longer appeared as solid rock, but rather resembled the organs of some living creatures, rhythmically moving at a certain frequency, making her feel as if she had entered the body of a giant insect.

Tsk, didn’t Cocolia say that she would come here every three months to reinforce the seal? It looks like she hasn’t been here for at least half a year.

According to the activation progress provided by the IPC, this clear appearance of insect body tissue is already very dangerous, marking the second stage of planetary nest activation.

Perhaps in a few months, the entire Jarilo-VI will transform into a planetary-level True Sting insect. If the Stellaron falls into its hands, the outcome will be so dire that people will dare not look at it.

It is likely that only Emanator-level combat power can deal with it.

"I can feel a strong presence here. That guy should be nearby..."

After activating the detection radar for the insect swarm, countless flashing red dots appeared on the small map in front of Ilu. She began to quickly search for her target among these high-frequency flashing red dots.

The principle behind this technology is quite simple. These Juvenile Sting insects are captured by the detection radar as soon as they vibrate their elytra, and what she wants to find is the red dot with the fastest frequency and the strongest reaction.

"Found it!"

Suddenly, a fleeting anomaly was detected by Ilu's keen observation. Her sight locked onto a specific coordinate on the radar map, where a short and unique frequency had just appeared.

Through the wisdom core installed in the Snow Fyrefly Mech, she quickly reconstructed a 3D topographic map of this lava cave in her mind, pinpointing the location of the anomaly—the bottom layer.

Now that I see it, don’t even think about escaping!

A blue arc of light burst from the elytra behind Ilu, propelling her at full speed toward the target location.

Wherever she went, the originally hot magma instantly cooled and solidified into rock, rapidly spreading to the bottom of the lava tunnel.

---

At the same time, in the real world...

"It's over. I can't seem to beat her."

After much effort, she finally climbed onto the shoulder of the Engine of Creation, only to find that only the protagonist had entered the battle. Jiahun was completely baffled.

Before she had even fought a few rounds, she was pierced in the chest by the ice spear thrown by Cocolia.

"Puff--!"

As the gray-haired girl fell uncontrollably from the air, Jiahun's computer screen suddenly went black, soon switching to an underground space filled with magma.

The entire screen glowed red, as if the whole world were on fire.

"Ah? Wait, where did this come from?"

Caught off guard by the scene in front of her, Jiahun felt disoriented. It wasn't until the camera switched back from a distant view—completely opposite to the Eternal Winter Ridge—that the main perspective returned to the character in the center of the screen, making her realize the seriousness of the situation.

"Wait! Ilu?!"

Seeing this scene, Jiahun's eyes widened, and she was so shocked that she almost leaped from her chair in excitement.

The main control character that appeared in the center of the screen was a silver-white Iron Cavalry mecha, and only a silver-haired girl avatar with a faint blue aura appeared on the character column on the right, indicating the driver of the Iron Cavalry—Ilu herself.

Additionally, there was a line of small words beneath Ilu's avatar—"Temporary Character."

"No way! Really, can I play as Ilu in her own character?!"

Excitedly controlling Ilu to walk around nearby, Jiahun found that she was now standing at the entrance of a tunnel shaped like a sphincter gate. She could see that the nearby walls would occasionally writhe, resembling some kind of living organ, which was particularly unsettling.

Just as Jiahun was about to approach the sphincter gate, she suddenly heard a girl’s voice in her headphones.

"Ilu: That guy is behind this sphincter gate. I can feel the strong and hateful presence. There’s no doubt that it is a Ashen Sun True Sting, and it is my hunting target this time."

"Ilu: But... this door is so disgusting. Do I really have to get through here? (disgusted.jpg)"

-----

Chapter 63: Unprecedented Double Boss Battle

"Ilu: Damn! There seems to be no other way around here. Is this the only way?"

"Wow, she's so cute!"

Hearing this, Jiahun's eyes lit up, and he couldn't help but control Ilu to return to the original place and walk to the sphincter gate, but this time he didn't trigger the voice that just sounded again.

Okay, it seems to be a one-time...

[I really want her to scold me with such a disgusted tone.]

[I didn't expect Ilu to be so weak and girly; love it.]

"Uh..."

Jiahun glanced at the livestream room. Since the spoiler comments had been basically killed, it was mostly filled with some worthless crazy quotes, so she quickly shifted her attention back to the game.

"I heard from Ilu that the Ashen Sun True Sting is in here. Let's go in and take a look."

She controlled Ilu to walk into the sphincter door. The twisted and squirming stone wall seemed to sense the identity of this uninvited guest and tried to tighten the passage to prevent her from entering.

"Ding!"

Just then, the screen in front of Jiahun suddenly went black, except for the secret skill below, which was still highlighted in azure blue with an exclamation mark on it.

When she picked up the mouse and clicked it, a text appeared on the screen:

"Secret Skill: Frost Nova"

"Description: Click the secret skill to summon the Snow Fyrefly Mech/cancel the transformation without consuming secret skill points; long press the secret skill to drive the power of frost to freeze everything around and grant it an ice attribute weakness for 3 rounds after entering the battle, with a 100% basic probability of adding a freezing effect to the enemy, which lasts for 1 round."

"Can you actually switch forms by clicking?"

Jiahun curiously pressed "E," and then a prompt popped up on the screen: the transformation cannot be canceled in the current state.

"Strange, why can't I change back..." she asked in confusion.

Little did she know that the audience in the livestream room was almost laughing at her confusing operation.

[Silly Jiahun, do you want to see where this is first?]

[If you cancel the transformation here, Ilu will probably become a charcoal-grilled wife cake.]

[Ilu: Why do I feel like the King of Hell is calling my name just now?]

[I'm laughing to death, running into the lava and removing the protective gear; this is indeed something that only a fool can do.]

"Ah... Oh, right! This is under the lava, and we can't take off the mecha."

Reminded by the barrage, Jiahun looked at the lava flowing around her and immediately realized what a stupid thing she had done. She coughed twice, as if nothing had happened: "Okay, okay! Let's continue to push the main line."

"Kacha——!"

As Jiahun pressed the secret technique, Ilu, in the center of the screen, raised her right hand, and a dazzling azure light burst out from her palm, instantly covering everything around with dark blue frost. The sphincter door that was about to tighten was frozen by a layer of solid ice and stopped squirming.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, Jiahun immediately controlled Ilu to rush into the lava tunnel and came to an extremely spacious underground space.

What came into view was a scene resembling a hellish scroll.

Countless red coleoptera were dormant on the rock wall below, covered with flame patterns, densely packed into a large area, sometimes flapping their elytra to make a harsh buzzing sound, while many lay motionlessly.

At the end of her sight, located in the core area at the bottom of this underground space, a dark red giant insect with a body length of nearly 50 meters was constantly spewing dark red high-temperature insect pulp.

It used these viscous liquids with biomass components to change everything around it, and after cooling, it turned into a solid cocoon shell that tightly wrapped it, like a beating heart, constantly transfusing blood to the planetary-level True Sting that was about to be born.

"Ilu: Hey, bug, your days of using bug pulp to transform Jarilo-VI are over. Leave your life to me."

"Ashen Sun True Sting: Chi Chi--!"

The dark red giant bug recognized the identity of the silver iron cavalry at a glance, and it would not let Ilu approach it so easily.

Instantly, the entire insect nest began to stir, and the Juvenile Sting bugs that were originally dormant on the stone wall flapped their wings in the direction of Ilu, intending to stop her actions.

"Crack--!"

Accompanied by the sound of the screen breaking, Jiahun quickly entered the battle interface, and what came into view were five young Ashen Sun Stings flapping their elytra.

This was her second battle with the fire Stings. The lesson from her last disastrous defeat at their hands was still vivid in her mind, and this time she believed that she would not repeat the same mistake because she was now controlling the most powerful trial character so far—Ilu.

"Don't worry, family, let me take a look at the skills first."

Jiahun clicked into the details interface of Ilu and quietly read the detailed settings of this character that had not yet been implemented.

"Well, it's an ice-attributed Hunt character, which is the same as I thought before."

[It's a Hunt character? I thought it would be a control-based Nihility character.]

[Ice Nihility can't hit DOT, right? And mechas playing control always feel a bit out of place.]

[It can hit direct damage, like Uncle Yang.]

[Maybe Nihility is a later form.]

After seeing Ilu's Path in the game, the comments in the livestream room also began to discuss it. Jiahun glanced at the comments and clicked the mouse to continue looking at the skills behind.

"Well, it's a single attack normally; nothing much to say..."

"Her combat skill is to enter the Hunting Mode, consume 2 combat skill points, and increase the speed in the next 3 rounds, converting the normal attack into a single attack with a high multiplier and toughness breaking value. If the opponent is killed, Ilu's action will be advanced by 50%. If the opponent is not killed, the opponent's action will be delayed by 34%."

"Wow! This skill is so powerful!"

Seeing Ilu's skill mechanism, Jiahun couldn't help but brighten up and couldn't wait to click on the finishing move. However, the system prompted her that the skill has not been unlocked yet, which made her wonder: "No, it can't be used as a big move?"

It was not until then that she noticed that Ilu had no energy bar on her body, and the release of the Ultimate Skill were lacking some necessary conditions.

"Okay, but it doesn't matter. To deal with these bugs, combat skills are enough."

Jiahun pressed the combat skill to let Ilu start the Hunting Mode. With a gorgeous transformation animation, the blue light wings unfolded from the elytra behind the Snow Fyrefly mecha, and the mantis blade hidden in her arms also popped out. The ice blades emitting a chilling aura easily tore through the swarm of bugs in front of her.

"Hahahaha! Killed in one second! I'll bully you now!"

Seeing that the Ashen Sun swarm that had beaten her to a bloody mess was easily killed by Ilu with one blade, Jiahun felt an indescribable sense of refreshment in her heart. The frustration of being bullied by the swarm had disappeared at this moment. She smiled like an 8-year-old child.

[The previous fight was not in vain; Ilu helped us vent our anger.]

[Damn, Seele is going to retire just after she came out?]

[In the previous one, Seele's reappearance triggers an extra turn, while Ilu's action is 50% earlier, or Seele's mechanism is stronger.]

[The one who should be worried is Yanqing. We are all Ice Hunt; why is there such a big gap?]

[Yanqing: Huh? I beat Ilu; is it true?]

"Brothers! I won! I only lost more than 200 blood points to kill all these insects!"

Relying on Ilu's mechanism to restrain the Ashen Swarm, Jiahun cleared all the Juvenile Sting insects on the scene as easily as cutting melons and vegetables. The latter could not release their self-explosion in the frozen state of the weakness, so even Ilu's HP bar did not drop much.

As the battle ended, she entered a CG cutscene.

She saw Ilu condensing the azure light symbolizing "Remembrance" on her fist, punching the attacking Juvenile Sting insects one by one.

However, the swarms of insects coming from all directions increased, and her response became increasingly weak.

At this critical moment, some unknown existence glanced at this place, and the originally aggressive swarm of insects instantly fell into a state of extreme fear.

They even ignored the attack order of the Ashen Sun Zhenzhe Insects and immediately flew towards the rock wall below like torrential rain, hibernating in the boiling magma again.

"What?"

"What?!"

Ilu and Jiahun, on and off the screen, were shocked by the scene.

Why did these insects suddenly become so scared? What happened?

Soon, as the camera switched back to Everwinter Hill, Jiahun's main perspective returned to the gray-haired girl.

-----------------

"Hmm..."

When Stelle opened her eyes again, she found herself in a strange but extremely familiar mysterious space.

Is this... the narrow space of Paths?

Stelle had an impression of this place. It was here that Nanook glanced at her the last time.

No, she has to leave here as soon as possible.

When Stelle thought of her companions still fighting outside, she realized that she had to find the exit of this mysterious space as soon as possible to fight against Cocolia with March 7th and the others.

"Wait, what is that?"

Just then, she suddenly noticed the flames rising into the sky not far away. It appears to be a flame spear surrounded by flames, and next to the flame spear, there was a girl whose face could not be seen clearly.

When Stelle walked forward curiously and prepared to ask the other party how to leave, she suddenly heard an ethereal voice in her ears.

"We heard the sound of the city crying. The power of 'Preservation' is fading, and this planet is gradually becoming strange and terrifying."

The girl turned her head and looked into her eyes.

"We can feel the 'Preservation' will in your heart. You want to save the world. This is why we can meet here. In order to fight against their erosion, we don't have much time left..."

"Are you the guardian of Belobog?"

Guessing the other party's identity, Stelle asked but received no response.

The guardian's will had disappeared. In the silent fate, only she and the flame spear not far away, as well as the remaining echo of the guardian, were left—

"Touch the light of amber, Trailblazer, and see if your firm will can attract THEIR attention."

...

"Ah--!"

The gray-haired girl gritted her teeth and pulled the flame spear, which symbolized the will of 'Preservation,' out of the ice.

In a distant place in the universe, the giant hammer of the Amber Lord also fell quietly at this moment, signaling the beginning of the next Amber Age.

"Ah!"

In the dark, Stelle felt that something was glancing at her. She suddenly opened her eyes and found that she was falling from a high altitude. The ice spear that had pierced her chest disappeared, replaced by the blazing flame spear in her hand.

"Boom boom!"

Feeling the call of the "Preservation" will the Engine of Creation which had been silent, started up. It slowly stretched out its huge mechanical palm toward Stelle and caught her in mid-air.

"She's fine!"

"That's great!"

Seeing the gray-haired girl stand up from the palm of the Engine of Creation unscathed, everyone on the ground was surprised, and Cocolia showed an expression of disbelief.

How could this be possible? The flame spear was obviously frozen; why could she pull it out?!

"Boom!"

Before she could react to what was going on, the Engine of Creation's paralyzed left arm suddenly raised high, aimed at Cocolia's position, and punched her mercilessly.

With a deafening roar, this punch knocked Cocolia from the air to the ground—just like slapping a fly.

"Ahem!"

After being hit by the iron fist of the Engine of Creation, Cocolia felt her blood boiling. If she had not merged with the Stellaron, this punch might have killed her.

No, why did the iron fist hit me?!

After coming to her senses, Cocolia looked at the Engine of Creation she had summoned to deal with the Express set in shock and anger. She did not expect that this big machine would turn against her and punch her.

"This is impossible!"

"The will of 'Preservation' has made a choice."

"No... no! Everything I did was for Belobog. You are just outsiders who have just arrived here and know nothing about the plight of this world!"

Cocolia was completely broken. She went mad and used all her strength to drive the power of the Stellaron. The blizzard around her became more and more violent. However, the people behind the Flame Spear did not feel the slightest cold. Stelle had already blessed everyone present with the blessing of "Preservation."

"Come on! Cocolia, let's end it here!"

-----------------

"Oh my god, this music! I feel like I have goosebumps!"

As the prelude of "Wild Fire" sounded, Jiahun entered the boss battle with Cocolia, the Mother of Illusion. Seeing that the Path of the protagonist changed from "Destruction" to "Preservation," she was even more excited and couldn't wait to try the skill set of the Fire Lord.

"Reducing damage and taunting, using the strong to support the weak—this skill effect is too cool!"

Soon, Jiahun knocked off the first tube of Cocolia's health and entered the second stage of the boss battle.

"We've made a choice. Go fight against your fate!"

At this moment, a passionate human voice suddenly entered with the original prelude of "Wild Fire," and with Cocolia's hysterical lines, this already wonderful boss battle performance was pushed to the climax.

"Cocolia: The power of the Stellaron is with me. You are just the dying struggle of the old world before it collapses—I will create a great new world with my own hands!!!"

"It's so awesome! This is it. I am so excited!"

While listening to the exciting song and beating up the boss, Jiahun's heart began to beat wildly. Although Cocolia's skills were powerful, they did not hurt the shield of "Preservation."

"Cocolia only has 6% of her health left. Watch me summon the Engine of Creation to take her away with one punch!"

Jiahun pressed the support skill with great expectation. As the Engine of Creation raised its right fist and smashed it down, Cocolia's health bar was locked at 1%.

Jiahun: "???"

She didn't die from this punch?

No, why did Cocolia's health get locked?

She looked at the livestream room with a puzzled expression. The fans appear to have expected this situation.

At this time, the livestream room was filled with comments, so many that even the room manager couldn't keep up.

[It's coming! It's coming!]

[The progress bar is only halfway through; why rush?]

[Don't forget that there is a True Sting insect underground. What do you think Cocolia will do when she is desperate?]

[Fuck! She is not going to give the Stellaron to the True Sting insect, is she?]

[Bingo! Correct answer!]

Realizing that there might be spoilers in the  comments, Jiahun quickly looked away and focused her attention back on the game.

"Cocolia: No... It's not over yet. I still have it. Even if I can't have it, I can still play with it. I will never give up easily, even if I witness the new world with my own eyes!"

"Seele: Wait! What is she going to do?"

"March 7th: Damn, she seems to be going to find the Ashen Sun True Sting. We must stop her and never let her meet the Ashen Sun True Sting with the Stellaron!"

"Dan Heng: Let's catch up!"

Seeing Cocolia dragging her body toward the direction where the Ashen Sun True Sting was, Jiahun quickly controlled the Trailblazer to catch up. When she left Everwinter Hill, the screen suddenly went black and then entered a cutscene.

The camera of the screen switched back to the underground space deep in the lava tunnel, and a familiar silver cavalry was confronting the Ashen Sun True Sting in the air.

"Shhhhh!"

As if frightened by the glance that the Amber Lord had just given it, the dark red giant insect dared not continue to assimilate Jarilo-VI. It took the initiative to break the cocoon that bound it, broke away from the rock wall, and made an angry buzzing sound toward Ilu not far away.

"Crack!"

The screen shattered again, and Jiahun entered the combat interface once more. This time, the enemy in front of her was the [Ashen Sun True Sting (weak)].

Because most of the energy was used to transform Jarilo-VI, and there were still some injuries left by "Remembrance" on its body, the resistance of all attributes of this Ashen Sun True Sting Insect was reduced, and the attack power was greatly weakened, with the ice attribute resistance even at -50%.

"5 rounds until Cocolia arrives."

"That means we must defeat it within 5 rounds..."

Jiahun took a deep breath, and she controlled Ilu to launch a swift attack on the dark red bug in front of her. However, due to the lack of a big move, she could clearly feel the lack of damage. The opponent had a total of 2 health bars, and she attacked for 3 consecutive rounds but only knocked down one health bar.

"Oh no! The number of rounds is not enough; is Cocolia coming over?"

Jiahun didn't know if there was a problem with her operation or if the plot was originally developed like this. At this time, her palms and backs were all sweaty. As the round count returned to zero, she entered a cutscene again—

…

"No, it's not over yet... As long as I can reach that place, my plan will be complete."

Leaving everyone behind, Cocolia dragged her bruised body toward the hiding place of the Ashen Sun True Sting Insect.

Just as she flew over a snowfield and was about to disperse the frozen ice and snow below, a crude smoke bomb suddenly flew up from below and exploded in her face with a bang.

Boom!

Choked by the paralyzing smoke, Cocolia was shocked and angry. She immediately used the power of the Stellaron to drive it away and then looked down at the man with dark blue hair standing under the ruins.

"Who are you?!"

"I'm sorry, Madam Cocolia. For the future of this planet, I can't let you go like this."

Noticing Cocolia's gaze, Sampo showed a harmless smile and spread his hands, saying, "Don't worry, my friend will act quickly. I won't keep you for too long. When she's done, I'll let you go. I won't stop you if you want to leave."

"What?"

Hearing Sampo's words, Cocolia was slightly stunned. She quickly looked around and found that she was actually locked in a container shaped like a glass cover.

"Why are you in such a hurry to get out? Just stay inside for a while and consider it a contribution to this planet."

Seeing the cracks appearing on this treasure that he had cherished for many years under Cocolia's attack, Sampo felt a little distressed, but when he saw the Trailblazers rushing over from a distance, he raised his heartless smile again.

"Hey, since you are here, I will leave this place to you. I have something to do and must leave first. Bye~"

At the same time, the battle deep in the lava cave was also coming to an end.

[Hunting mode has been activated; executing frozen earth operations——]

"Swoosh——"

The light wings blooming behind her cast a lonely blue light in the air as she rushed toward the frightened Ashen Sun True Sting in front of her. Then it suddenly unleashed a dazzling azure light at the moment the two sides came into contact.

"Goodbye, bug."

The next moment, an extremely low-temperature cold wave erupted in the depths of this lava cave, freezing the ground covered in red insect pulp and the Juvenile Sting insects hiding in their nest into ice, spreading in all directions at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Is it over?

No, not yet.

Although the Ashen Sun True Sting Insect had been killed by her, Ilu could feel the huge energy bursting from inside the solid ice, which meant that this creature would explode soon.

The power of "Remembrance" only delayed it for a while. Once the body of this True Sting insect exploded, everything within hundreds of miles would turn into a sea of fire.

Reaching out and grabbing the frozen Ashen Sun True Sting, Ilu drove the elytra behind her at full speed and kicked the top rock wall directly from bottom to top.

The collision between the steel body and the rock erupted with a rumbling sound.

After breaking through this layer of rock, she encountered the snow and ice set by Cocolia, but this still could not stop her from moving forward.

"Bang!"

After breaking through the hard ice, Ilu returned to the ground with the body of the True Sting. She glanced at the Express Crew, who had just dealt the final blow to Cocolia not far away.

She flew farther without hesitation until she reached the vast expanse of space, throwing the Ashen Sun True Sting Bug, which was about to break through the "Remembrance" ice, out with force.

"Boom!!!"

...

"Boom boom boom!"

The horrifying explosion of the Ashen Sun True Sting after its death could be seen clearly even by everyone on the ground of Jarilo-VI.

Looking at the sky, which was almost covered by flames, they couldn't help but feel a little scared.

If this creature had exploded underground just now, everyone present would have been blown away. This was much more powerful than the destruction ray of the Doomsday Beast.

"This Trailblazing journey is truly full of dangers..."

Standing in the observation car of the Astral Express, Himeko naturally saw the massive explosion that occurred over Jarilo-VI and couldn't help but sweat for Ilu.

As if she had thought of something, she looked at Welt, who was sitting on the sofa, and asked, "By the way, how is the contact with the IPC going?"

"The people at the IPC said that they had sent a debt collector to recover the debt owed by Belobog for hundreds of years not long ago."

Welt pushed the frame of his glasses and continued, "After learning that there was a Propagation Swarm in Jarilo-VI, the IPC assigned her a new task to assess the danger level of the swarm in Jarilo-VI."

"Who is that person?"

"Her name is Topaz; she is a senior agent of the 'Strategic Investment Department' and a member of the 'Ten Stonehearts.' However, for some reason, she can't get to Jarilo-VI for a while."

"What about the contact work?"

"This can only be handled by the people of Jarilo-VI themselves; we can't help much..."

Just then, Welt's mobile phone on the table suddenly rang. He picked up the phone and glanced at the screen. His frown relaxed, and his tone became a little relieved and satisfied.

"Dan Heng just sent a message that the holder of the Stellaron has been dealt with. We can go down to seal the Stellaron."

"Okay, then we should set off."

...

The wind and snow were fierce and difficult to stop suddenly.

Although the Stellaron problem of Jarilo-VI has been solved, the cold wave and the cracks all over the planet will not disappear suddenly. Although the bugs underground were trembling under the deterrence of "Preservation" and dared not leave the ground easily, their existence was still a disaster for Jarilo-VI.

"We have solved the biggest crisis for them. Whether they can survive the last darkness before dawn depends on themselves."

As he said this, Dan Heng turned his head to look at Bronya and Seele who were communicating with each other.

The main purpose of the Astral Express's visit this time was to solve the Stellaron. After that, they would leave. Jarilo-VI cannot develop the habit of relying on outsiders.

After all, they have to make their own decisions.

"Boom-Boom!"

There was a loud noise in the sky, and a silver figure with a dark blue tail fell from the sky like a meteor.

When it was less than 20 meters away from the ground, it braked and slowed down, landing steadily in front of everyone and stirring up a flurry of snowflakes.

The newcomer was Ilu. After confirming that the Ashen Sun True Sting Insect was completely dead, she flew back to Jarilo-VI to meet everyone.

"Has it been resolved?"

Ilu glanced around. The snowy plain was full of traces of battle. There was no sign of Cocolia, only a Stellaron emitting a chilling aura floating behind everyone.

"Well, are you injured?"

Stelle came forward and asked with some concern.

"No, the True Sting was very weak. It was indeed easy to kill it. Cocolia did not lie about this."

The silver-haired girl replied with a smile.

Although she did not lie, she also omitted some key information.

While it was easy to kill the Ashen Sun True Sting, in order to make it self-destruct in a safe place, Ilu needed to constantly inject the power of "Remembrance" into it, which made her feel as if her weight had become much lighter, and her whole body felt light and fluttering. If she took off this armor, a gust of wind might blow her down.

Because of this, Ilu chose to meet with the Express Crew as soon as possible to leave a good impression. Next, she planned to let Bronya hang her photo in Belobog for a while, and then follow Bronya around the city to get some "memories" from the residents of Belobog to help her heal her wounds.

If the Express Crew forgot about her halfway and drove the Express to the next warp point, she would have no place to complain.

Two days later, in the morning—

In a room at the Goethe Hotel in the upper district of Belobog.

"Huh, it's basically invisible this time..."

Ilu took off her clothes and checked her body. After confirming that the memory cracks on her body had mostly disappeared, she couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

The night before, at the moment she removed the Snow Fyrefly Mech, she almost thought she was about to fall apart. There were dark blue memory cracks all over her body. Wherever she walked, she would freeze everything into ice. She also fell several times on the flat ground, which scared Stelle and March 7th.

"Knock, knock!"

There was a knock on the door. Ilu put on her clothes and stepped into the corridor, where she saw March 7th looking worried.

"Hey... March 7th, uh, why are you holding my arm?"

"Don't move; let me see how you've recovered!"

As soon as the door was opened, March 7th hurriedly grabbed her right arm while checking the cracks on it. She didn't breathe a sigh of relief until she confirmed that Ilu's injuries had mostly healed. She looked into the eyes of the silver-haired girl in front of her and whispered.

"I seem to have forgotten something about you last night. I had to come to you to confirm what I forgot; otherwise, I won't be at ease."

"You have looked for me 29 times in the past few days..."

Ilu held her forehead helplessly. "You knocked on my door six times last night alone."

"I'm worried about you!"

Suddenly thinking of something, March 7th asked curiously, "By the way, how many times did Stelle look for you last night?"

"She only looked for me once last night, not as many as you did."

"Only once?"

"Yes, because she stayed in my room afterward."

“????”

----

Chapter 64 Simulated Universe·Jarilo-VI

"If I had known, I would have slept in the same room with you last night..."

Knowing that Stelle actually slept with Ilu last night, March 7th couldn't help but complain in a low voice, "I always feel empty when I wake up in the morning these two days, afraid that I have forgotten something. If I could see you when I woke up, I wouldn't be like this now."

Damn it, Stelle took such a big advantage and didn't tell her.

Humph, she will remember this grudge.

"Okay, okay, next time you want to live with me, tell me in advance, and I will agree to it."

Looking at the childish pink-haired girl in front of her, Ilu said helplessly, "Also, remember to bring your own bedding when you come. My quilt was frozen hard by the residual cold the night before, and it is now hanging outside in the sun."

Stelle and March 7th have been like this for the past two days. Obviously, she only needs to contact her on the phone like Uncle Yang and the others, but she has to run over to see her every few hours.

"Really?"

"Of course, it's a deal."

Ilu said with a smile.

She has been used to sleeping together these days. Anyway, with the purity of their relationship, nothing will cross the line.

"Ding--!"

Just then, Ilu's phone suddenly rang. She picked it up and took a look. It was a message sent by Uncle Yang in the group chat:

[Astral Express Family]

[Welt: @Stelle @Ilu @March 7 @Dan Heng, the recovery of the Stellaron has been basically completed. The Express can set off at any time. If you are ready, please gather at the square in the administrative district.]

[Welt: I have told Bronya, the current acting guardian of Belobog, about the "IPC." She will handle the rest. You don't need to worry too much.]

"It seems that the Express is ready. We can go back at any time," Ilu said. "Well, before we leave, let's go say goodbye to Bronya and the others."

After putting the souvenirs bought from Belobog into the folding space, Ilu and March 7th left the Goethe Hotel together and came to Klipperburg in the center of the administrative district.

After the Silvermane Guard reported, the two entered the meeting hall and found that Stelle and Dan Heng had already arrived. They were discussing with Bronya about handling the subsequent crisis of Jarilo-VI.

"...In other words, the influence of the Stellaron Corrosion has taken root too deeply. Even if the core is sealed now, there is no way to stop the blizzard immediately?"

"Well, not only that, the Ashen Swarm has also built a nest underground in Jarilo-VI. Although the death of the Ashen True Sting has greatly reduced their reproduction rate, their threat is still there. You still need to be careful, especially in the lower areas."

Dan Heng paused and continued, "Uncle Yang has currently observed at least 60 Sting nests underground, half of which are frozen by Ilu, and the other half are still active. The IPC may come to deal with them later."

"I know about this matter. Mr. Welt has told me everything about the Hive and the Interastral Peace Corporation. If Jarilo-VI wants to rebuild, it must clear these hidden dangers lurking underground, but it may incur a huge loan again. Alas..."

Thinking of this, Bronya put her hand on her forehead and couldn't help but sigh.

The reconstruction of Jarilo-VI is a hot commodity, and the "IPC" will naturally not miss this opportunity. However, now the "Architects" still owes the "IPC" hundreds of years of debt, and the underground Ashen Swarm swarm also needs the "IPC" to help deal with it.

Even if Jarilo-VI gets rid of the crisis in the future, it will become part of the "IPC"'s power.

Forget it, don't think about things that far ahead. For Belobog, being able to survive this disaster is a blessing in disguise.

No matter how unwilling she is, as the acting Supreme Guardian, she must give priority to the safety of the lives of the people of Belobog, and then talk about independence.

As soon as she looked up, Bronya noticed Ilu and March 7th coming out of the door and immediately stood up from her seat. "Ilu, March 7th...you are here."

"Well, we are going to leave Jarilo-VI. Before boarding the Express, I came to say goodbye to you," Ilu said with a smile.

"Are you leaving? I will be the Supreme Guardian in a while. In fact, I hope you can stay here for two more days..."

Knowing that the Astral Express was about to leave Jarilo-VI, Bronya couldn't help but show a somewhat regretful expression. After thinking about her wording, she took a deep breath and said to everyone present with a serious expression.

"But your journey cannot be delayed too much, and Jarilo-VI cannot rely too much on you. I wish you a smooth journey in the name of the Supreme Guardian Belobog. I hope we can keep in touch like today in the future."

"Well, we will," Ilu nodded. "It's finally time... Alas, saying goodbye is really sad."

After leaving Klipperburg and walking on the clean and tidy streets of the administrative district, March 7th looked at the street scenes around her and couldn't help sighing.

"All good things must come to an end."

Dan Heng glanced at her and said, "When we get back on the Express, your sadness will have almost disappeared."

The Express has said goodbye to many planets so far, and March 7th hasn't been obsessed with any of them. If she had to say it, it was those planets where she once caused big trouble. Once someone mentions them, she will jump up like a kitten with its fur blown up.

...

They found Welt at the square in the Belobog administrative district and boarded the Express again. As soon as they entered the observation car, they saw Himeko standing in front of the sofa, waiting for their triumphant return.

"Welcome home. It was not easy along the way, but you still successfully completed this 'Trailblazing journey.'"

Sweeping everyone's faces and finally stopping at Ilu, Himeko paused for a moment and then continued, "Before going to the next destination, according to the agreement, we may have to go back to the Herta Space Station first."

"Well, I have no objection."

"Me too."

Ilu and Stelle looked at each other and nodded at the same time.

Himeko told them not long ago that she would bring back what the Astral Express saw and heard during the journey to the Herta Space Station to help the genius female scientist of the Azure Star improve the progress of the "Simulated Universe."

As a member of the "Simulated Universe" project, Ilu also needs to hand over information about the "Ashen Sun True Sting" and the swarm encountered during this trip to the Herta. Stelle is required to bring back information about "Cocolia, the Mother of Deception" to improve the "Simulated Universe: Jarilo-VI."

"Since there are no questions, I will go to Asta to make an appointment now. Let's go back to the carriage and rest for a while. After waiting for the two systems, the Express will start to jump. The Express conductor will remind you through the radio at that time."

"Yes!"

Jarilo-VI is not far from the space station. For the Astral Express, this is a distance that can be covered in a single jump, and it doesn't take much time at all.

Soon, the group returned to the Herta Space Station.

Due to the special nature of this return, Himeko only took Ilu and Stelle off the Express, while March 7th, Welt Yang, and Dan Heng stayed in the carriage.

"Everyone... uh, who is this?"

Knowing that everyone on the Astral Express was about to return, Asta was waiting on the platform early. When she saw the silver-haired girl getting off the Express with the others, she couldn't help but be stunned.

She felt a slight familiarity with this person in her mind, but she couldn't recall who it was.

"I'm Ilu. Hello, Station Master Asta."

Ilu was very familiar with this situation. She took the initiative to wave to Asta and immediately introduced herself, easing the awkward atmosphere.

"Oh! It's Miss Ilu! Hello, and welcome to the Herta Space Station. Ms. Herta is waiting for you in the office~"

Although she still couldn't remember when she had seen the person in front of her, Asta didn't care too much. She silently committed the name Ilu to memory and then led the three of them to the door of Herta's office.

"Come in, Ilu and Stelle."

"Are we the only two going in?"

"Yes, this is what Madam Herta ordered... As for Sister Himeko, please follow me to the main control section; Madam Herta is waiting for you there."

"Okay."

...

"Hi, you're here~"

As soon as Ilu and Stelle walked into Herta's office, they saw Herta standing next to a huge device emitting blue light, waving at them:

"Himeko sent me the information about Jarilo-VI the night before yesterday. After two days of preparation, the new 'Simulated Universe: Jarilo-VI' test version is ready. You are the witnesses of this incident. No one knows what Jarilo-VI is like better than you. Come and test it and see where the design is wrong!"

"Test version?!"

"Don't worry; there won't be any serious glitches this time. I didn't add any Aeon, so you can play with confidence."

"Okay, okay."

Under the guidance of Herta, the two lay down in the immersive game experience cabin not far away. Herta then began to control the program and initiated the deduction of "Simulated Universe: Jarilo-VI."

[First, you arrive at the snowfield outside Belobog and encounter the Fragmentum Monsters that emerged from the Fragmentum. After defeating these Fragmentum Monsters, you find the nest of the Ashen Sun Swarm.]

As Herta's narration sounded, Ilu slowly opened her eyes and found that the scene around her had transformed into a dark and frozen snowfield. The blizzard that swept across the entire planet felt like a blade scraping against her face.

In the distance, she could see a towering steel city.

"Uh... The natural environment of Jarilo-VI doesn't seem so bad, right?"

Stelle who stood beside her also woke up. Seeing this hellish scene, the corners of her mouth twitched. "Did you get the environment of this planet wrong?"

[Heh, do you think I would make that kind of low-level mistake?]

[Let me give you a little hint. What I am deducing is 'Jarilo-VI without the participation of the Astral Express.' If you visit that planet a few months later, what you see will become what it is now, and the entire surface of the planet will turn into a barren wasteland.]

[As for why it hasn't become an active planetary nest, the data collected so far is insufficient. If I can obtain the data of a planetary-level True Sting from the IPC, maybe I can update this information.]

[Don't worry; you won't feel the slightest bit of cold. Move forward. I have set up many surprises for you along the way.]

"This is really scary."

Standing up from the snow, Ilu trudged forward through the fierce blizzard. The gray-haired girl pulled out a baseball bat from the folding space and closely followed Ilu.

Not long after, they encountered a group of red Sting wandering on the snow, and Herta's narration echoed in their ears.

[Very good! You encountered the Juvenile Stings emerging from the ground. Destroy them!]

"But it seems these insects won't leave the underground..."

Looking at the swarm of insects playing and fighting on the snow, Stelle muttered softly.

"The reason they don't leave the underground is that 'Preservation' is still in effect."

Ilu took out the elytra transformer from the folding space. With a flash of azure light, she summoned the Snow Fyrefly-V Mech and slowly raised her right hand to aim at the swarm of Juvenile Sting insects nearby.

"Once the power of 'Preservation' completely disappears, they will no longer need to hide underground."

As her voice fell, a barrage of blue light bullets fired from her palm, landing directly in the center of the insect swarm.

The impact unleashed a chilling, piercing light, freezing an area of dozens of meters nearby into solid ice.

The bodies of the Sting were vividly encased in the ice, resembling a massive piece of ice-blue amber. If placed in a museum, it might be considered a fine work of art.

[Oh! Our Sting killer took action. She defeated dozens of young Ashen Stings with just one blow! What powerful force!]

[Unfortunately, you are no longer playing the role of 'The Trailblaze' Akivili. No Aeon here will cast a glance at you, so you cannot receive any blessings... Wait, it seems there’s a bug. 'The Preservation' Qlipoth actually glanced at you?!]

Herta's tone was laced with unmistakable shock.

Before she finished speaking, Ilu suddenly realized that her body was enveloped in amber light, and all her attributes surged to an indescribably overwhelming level. She now felt as if she could easily punch through the surface of the earth with a single blow.

No... not only could she punch through the surface of the earth; if she wanted, she could even use this power to obliterate the planet.

"Hey! Herta!"

Realizing something was wrong, Ilu quickly asked Herta, "What's going on? How did you adjust this value?"

[Ah? Let me check... Tsk, this is a significant problem. He actually granted you power close to that of an Emanator. Does he want you to deal with this dying planet that is being 'bred' and transformed?!]

[Hey! Be careful to save your strength; don't blow up Jarilo-VI with one strike!]

----------------

At the same time, Jiahun in the real world also accepted the invitation of the Herta and came to the Herta Space Station to test the beta version of "Simulated Universe: Jarilo-VI."

"Well, I can only use the protagonist and Ilu as two trial characters... Wait! I get 100 Stellar Jade after playing it, so I must go in and play!"

Seeing that the simulated universe has added a new Equilibrium Level and there are 100 Stellar Jade in it, Jiahun entered the game without thinking.

After using Ilu to quickly deal with the Fragmentum Creatures and Stings that blocked the road, her screen suddenly flashed with golden light, and a rough amber Aeon's portrait appeared in front of her, giving her a colorful and shining special blessing.

"Qlipoth's Favor—In this simulated universe, your defense will be increased by a certain amount, and the defense will be converted into health/attack power/speed/break special attack/increase injury/critical hit rate/critical hit damage according to a certain ratio."

"What is this?"

After seeing the introduction of this special blessing, Jiahun felt a little disappointed; she couldn't help but grumble in a low voice: "This colorful blessing doesn't seem to be as strong as she imagined. It seems that only the Fire Lord can use it, and Ilu can't use it at all..."

[This is not necessarily true]

["A certain degree"]

[You have to try it to know how powerful this thing is]

[Just because of this blessing, I can play this simulated universe for a whole day]

"Is that so? Then I'll try it."

Looking at the various meaningful prompts in the barrage, Jiahun realized that things didn't seem to be as simple as she imagined, so she simply entered the next Boss.

The opponent was a Frigid Prowler that had run out of the fragmentum, which players called "Ice Fatty" for short.

This is an elite monster that can summon the Everwinter Shadewalker, known as the "Welt" of the fragmentum's biological clock. It can continuously slow down and delay its own characters so that players can never reach the action round. It can be said to be a dung monster among dung monsters.

But—

"Oh my god!? 20 million!"

For a monster of only level 50, how much psychological damage a blade with 20 million HP can cause is something no one except the victim knows.

Jiahun only knows that this elite monster that had disgusted her for a long time before was killed by her with a blade that had high ice resistance.

"No, no! It's too cool; I have to find a few more monsters to try the damage!"

-----------------

"Rider Kick——!"

Ilu kicked the fat body of the Frigid Prowler with a flying kick from the sky and landed on the ground of Jarilo-VI with the remaining momentum.

"Boom boom!"

The mighty 'Preservation' force caused a deafening roar from the frozen ground, and the solid ground was instantly shattered. Stelle felt the earth shaking, and the terrifying earthquake cracks spread for several kilometers before stopping, almost affecting Belobog not far away.

[I told you to hold back a little; you almost kicked Belobog apart with this kick.]

"I'm already holding back..."

Listening to the Herta's low complaints, Ilu glanced at the avalanche in the distance and said helplessly, "It's mainly because Jarilo-VI is not very strong. It became like this with just a stomp."

The basic value of the Snow Fyrefly-V armor was ridiculously high, and it was enhanced to an extremely terrifying level after receiving the blessing of the Amber Lord. She couldn't control such powerful force for a while, and the occasional leak of 'Preservation' power could make the ground shake.

[Okay, I don't think you can control this power.]

[I put a Cocolia and an Ashen Sun True Sting in Belobog in front of you. You two go to meet them. Remember to save some strength... Forget it, just have fun, go and have fun~]

"Okay!"

Knowing that Cocolia and Ashen Sun True Sting were waiting for them in front, Stelle followed Ilu's footsteps with a flame spear.

The two of them rushed to Belobog impatiently. The monsters that dared to intercept them along the way were directly crushed into slag by the light of "Preservation," and soon they entered the city of Belobog.

[Emergency: Dreams of Ice and Fire]

[After defeating the monsters that intercepted them on the road, you entered Belobog. Now it is covered with ice and snow, and no one survives. The blizzard covering the ground of this planet and the hot insect pulp flowing under this planet together build the "new world" that the Supreme Guardian expects in her heart—Is this really what she expected? Maybe only she knows.]

[Encountering the leader enemies: "Cocolia·Mother of Deception," "Ashen Sun True Sting·Complete"]

"Ilu, look, they are just ahead."

After walking forward for a while, Stelle saw a familiar figure not far away. It was Cocolia, who was defeated by them in the snowfield a few days ago.

At this time, the Supreme Guardian was fighting a dark red big insect with flames all over its body. The two sides seemed to have an irreconcilable contradiction and fought fiercely.

"Let's go; let's go meet them."

Looking at the scene in the distance, Ilu decided to go over and persuade them to stop fighting: "Stelle, go find Cocolia, and leave the bug to me!"

"No problem."

The gray-haired girl was eager to fight and rushed towards Cocolia not far away with a flame spear.

Ilu followed closely behind, and the elytra behind her burst into a faint blue light, carrying her like a meteor to crash into the Ashen Sun True Sting that was confronting Cocolia.

"Flame Spear---- Charge!"

Under the blessing of "Qlipoth," Stelle was shrouded in amber flames like a god of war, and the ice and snow around her melted in an instant. She held the flame spear in both hands, her knees slightly bent, and the terrifying power caused the brick and stone-paved ground to crack layer by layer.

On the other side, Ilu also revealed the mantis blade hidden in her arms. The cold air spread and condensed blue frost around her, which was clearly distinguished from Stelle, who was shrouded in amber flames beside her. Qlipoth's protection made her frost stronger than the Architects's wall. Now she could cut the True Sting into pieces without worrying that it would explode here.

"Flame spear—charge!!!"

"Fragmentation—shatter!!!"

Actually, Ilu also wanted to shout a line to correspond to Stelle, but Stelle used a finishing move, and she didn't seem to have any skills that could be called a finishing move, so she could only shout a line like this to get by.

"Boom—!!!"

Frost and fire engulfed the entire Belobog, accompanied by the sound of something crashing. Ilu and Stelle only felt that their eyes went black, and then they urgently left the simulated universe.

"Okay, okay, as expected, Jarilo-VI was blown up by you two."

Looking at the two people who woke up from the immersive game experience cabin, Herta showed an expression of "I knew it would be like this."

"Ah? How come it exploded so easily?"

For the simulated universe test just now, Ilu was a little reluctant: "What a pity; I haven't played enough..."

You should know that the simulated universe is very random, and you may not encounter such a cool situation as today next time.

"Tsk, two 'Preservation' Emanators, one ice and one fire, launched attacks at the same time, and two completely opposite forces collided together. I can't think of any test site that can withstand such an attack."

After saying that, Herta sighed helplessly: "It seems that when the official version of 'Simulated Universe Jarilo-VI' is launched in the future, we must avoid letting 'The Preservation' participate."

"Okay, the test is over; you write this experience report, and then go wherever you want. I will update the 'Universal Swarm Disaster' module in a while, and then I will call you to come and play."

---

Chapter 65: Arriving in Xianzhou

The gameplay test related to the simulated universe ended quickly. After filling out an experience report on this simulation, Ilu and Stelle said goodbye to Herta, left Herta's office, and walked toward the Astral Express.

"How was it? Did you have fun?"

"Yes, very much. I’m now curious about the Universal Swarm Disaster that Ms. Herta mentioned."

Turning to look into Ilu's eyes, the gray-haired girl asked curiously, "What did the Universal Swarm Disaster look like in its heyday? Ilu, have you seen it?"

"Well..."

Hearing this, Ilu pondered for a moment before answering Stelle's question:

"This question is not easy to answer because the era when I was born was already the end of the Universal Swarm Disaster. The death of 'The Propagation' involves the secrets of the Aeon. Perhaps only the 'Simulated Universe: Universal Swarm Disaster' of Herta can answer your question."

Not to mention the heyday when 'The Propagation' Tayzzyronth still existed, even during the era when he had fallen, the remnants of 'The Propagation' could still give the Glamoth Galaxy a hard time.

Although she had not personally experienced the heyday of the Universal Swarm Disaster, Ilu had seen a Swarm King of the Emanator level, along with the hundreds of millions of Stings it led.

The existence of that Swarm King turned an entire galaxy into a nest for breeding Sting insects, and it was finally destroyed by a bullet containing so many "Remembrance" that she got from nowhere.

No... wait, it seems she has overlooked something important!

Is that Swarm King really dead?!

"Could it be that—"

A certain possibility flashed through her mind, and Ilu suddenly opened her eyes wide. Thinking of what she had learned from the "IPC" not long ago, she felt a chill run down her spine.

The information provided by the IPC showed that the Ashen Sun True Stings scattered throughout the universe were gradually thawing.

Once they were completely free from the constraints of "Remembrance," they would seek out nearby planets and transform them into planetary True Stings, controlling these activated planets to move in a certain direction like a marching fortress.

Since even the Ashen Sun True Stings was not completely dead, the Ashen Sun Swarm King would not necessarily be destroyed by the "Remembrance" bullet.

Perhaps the bullet merely froze the time of that galaxy, which had not thawed until now.

"No, I have to report this to the 'IPC' quickly!"

Regardless of whether it is true or not, she needed to report it first, just in case it really had resurrected.

As for whether to confront it again in a fateful duel...

Unless absolutely necessary, Ilu would not take such a risk. If the sky were to fall, there would be tall people to support it, and there was the "IPC." She didn't need to kill a Propagation Emanator; at that point, the "Preservation" Emanator would take action.

"Sister Himeko, Uncle Yang, I have something to tell you..."

Realizing that the Ashen Sun Swarm King aho was powerful enough to destroy a galaxy might have been resurrected, Ilu shared her guess with Himeko and Welt as soon as she returned to the Express.

"A Propagation Emanator that may be revived is indeed a significant threat to the universe. Even if it is discovered later, it may lead to the destruction of billions of lives. It is crucial to alert them."

After listening to Ilu's description, Himeko understood the seriousness of the matter. She turned to Welt and asked, "Welt, what do you think?"

"Hmm..." Welt adjusted his glasses, resting his chin on one hand as he thought for a moment before looking up into the silver-haired girl's eyes.

"Is there any conclusive evidence or key clues?"

"No, it’s just a guess at the moment." Ilu shook her head.

"I see..." Hearing this, Welt expressed some regret. "Although I agree with your opinion, it will be difficult for us to get the 'IPC' to take action without key evidence."

This universe lacks everything except those who are playing the resurrection match—Welt knows this well. After all, he is someone who has spent time in a coffin and has seen all kinds of scenarios.

As a master of the resurrection match, he is willing to believe Ilu's speculation. However, the problem is that there are too many old-timers playing the resurrection match lately.

Not to mention the Propagation Emanator, many people are spreading rumors that 'The Propagation' Tayzzyronth may also be resurrected, yet there has been no significant action from the "IPC."

Unless a key clue is found indicating the location of the Propagation Emanator, the "IPC" is unlikely to expend a lot of manpower and resources searching for something that may or may not exist in every corner of the universe based on mere speculation.

After some discussion, the Express Crew decided to send information about the suspected resurrection of the Propagation Emanator to the "IPC's" beacon mailbox through an anonymous email.

Whether the "IPC" chooses to believe it is their business.

"Okay, it's getting late. Let's head back to our rooms and rest, or take a break in this carriage and have a cup of coffee. After a good night's rest here, we will head to the next planet."

Himeko smiled and added, "Tomorrow morning, we will hold a route meeting in this carriage. Don't forget to attend."

Hearing this, Stelle couldn’t help but be curious: "What will the next planet look like?"

"Secret—I’ll keep it a secret for now. I’ll officially announce it during the route meeting, so you can look forward to it."

"Yeah!"

...

"Huh, I didn’t realize it was so late. I won’t play on my phone today; I’ll go to bed early."

After leaving the observation carriage and returning to her room, Ilu was about to lie on the bed for a good rest when someone suddenly knocked on her door.

Hmm?

It’s so late. Who is knocking on the door?

Could it be that...

With some doubt in her heart, the silver-haired girl put on her slippers, got out of bed, and opened the door. What came into view was a pink-haired girl wearing loose pajamas. She held soft bedding in her arms and looked very excited.

It was March 7th.

"According to our agreement, I will sleep in the same room with you tonight, okay?"

"Uh, come in..."

Seeing the other party's complete preparation, Ilu naturally couldn't refuse. She yawned sleepily and waved her hand to let her enter the room.

"Can I lie here?"

"Whatever."

After being disturbed by March 7th and Stelle knocking on her door for two consecutive nights, Ilu was really sleepy this time. Even if March 7th lay behind her, she didn’t react at all; she just wanted to close her eyes and sleep peacefully.

"Ah... she fell asleep so soon?"

Looking at the silver-haired girl who had collapsed onto the bed and lost consciousness, March 7th who had intended to chat with Ilu for a while, couldn't help but pout in disappointment, causing the hair on her head to droop down.

Damn! She apparently have come at the wrong time. She didn’t expect Ilu to be so sleepy... Alas, there’s no way; she can only sleep first.

Of course, since she came, she wouldn’t leave empty-handed. She chose to hug Ilu and sleep together.

March 7th knew that her sleeping posture was not ideal. Instead of turning into an octopus and entangling with Ilu while sleeping, it was better to embrace her now.

That way, when she woke up, she could confidently say, "Yes, it was me," instead of hesitating and not daring to admit it.

Who doesn’t like a cool pillow?

"Dongdong—!"

Just then, there was another knock on the door, which caused March 7th, who was about to hug Ilu to sleep, to lose all her sleepiness immediately.

"Who?!"

The pink-haired girl sat up abruptly from the bed like a frightened rabbit, a big drop of sweat trickling down her forehead.

Could it be Stelle coming over?

Oh no! I’m still in Ilu's bed. How can I explain this?!

After hesitating for a moment, March 7th quietly got out of bed and opened the door, meeting the gaze of the gray-haired girl in brown pajamas holding a quilt.

"Hey, why is it you..."

Seeing that the person who opened the door was March 7th, Stelle was a little surprised and almost thought she had come to the wrong room.

"Sh... No, since she's fine, I'll go back."

Stelle's skin was not thick enough, after all, but before leaving, she activated the 'Deathrattle' skill and dragged March 7th down with her. "What about you? Are you going back to your room too?"

"Of course."

To make up for the lie just now, March 7th naturally couldn't stay in Ilu's room.

The plan has changed, and now she has to go back to sleep.

Alas, it seems that she can only wait for the right opportunity later. Anyway, Ilu has been there all the time, so it doesn't matter if she stays here for one night.

-----------------

After several system hours, in the observation car—

"Everyone should be here... Strange, why didn't Dan Heng come?"

After counting the people sitting around her, March 7th noticed that Dan Heng was absent, which left her feeling a little confused.

"Ah, it's okay."

Himeko was not too surprised by Dan Heng's absence. She slowly explained, "Dan Heng is always punctual. If he is late, he must have his own reasons. You don't need to worry about him."

"I just saw Dan Heng. He doesn't look good; it seems he had a nightmare last night. I can see dark circles under his eyes."

Stelle, on the side, said with some concern, "I asked him if he was uncomfortable, but Dan Heng didn't explain the reason. I hope he will be fine..."

"Dear passengers! The jump route meeting officially begins!"

As the time approached the hour, the Express conductor Pam reached out and knocked on the table, announcing the start of the route meeting.

"First of all, we have to thank all the anonymous guests for their contributions. Thanks to you, the crisis at Belobog Station has been resolved, and the Express can continue to run on the star rail."

"Next, this Express conductor will announce the name of the next station—"

"Zizi—"

Just then, accompanied by a harsh electric sound, a blue projection appeared out of thin air in the observation car, instantly alerting Himeko and Welt. They cast a vigilant look at the uninvited guest.

"Long time no see, everyone on the Astral Express. I am Kafka..."

The mysterious woman holding an umbrella raised her head and glanced at the people present, her eyes lingering on Ilu's face for a second longer.

"The timing is pretty good. Everyone is here at this time. Well, everyone seems to be..."

Seeing the familiar face of the silver-haired girl in front of her, Kafka's eyes revealed a hint of surprise, but soon she regained her previous elegance and calmness, continuing with a smile.

"I'm sorry to interrupt your gathering, but I believe that after hearing my request, you will understand my presumption."

"What request?"

"I would like to ask you to change the destination—"

...

"You mean, 45 system hours ago, a Stellaron exploded on Xianzhou 'Luofu'?"

"Well, the location of Xianzhou 'Luofu' is very close to you, just a distance that can be covered in two or three jumps."

"Then, your companion Blade was captured there?"

"Yes, he was taken away by the Cloud Knights. The crime was related to the 'Stellaron,' but he just happened to be there and for some reason became the scapegoat of the mastermind behind the scenes."

Transforming the projection into a blade, Kafka explained slowly: "I hope you can bring him back, resolve this Stellaron crisis, and clear us of suspicion."

"It has nothing to do with you? Who would believe that!"

March 7th put her hands on her waist, looking very unfriendly, like a kitten with its fur bristled.

The Stellaron Hunters were wanted criminals with a high bounty from the IPC. They are not good people at first glance. She would not believe Kafka's words.

To save an unknown wanted criminal, she would be involved with Xianzhou that symbolizes "The Hunt," which would put everyone in danger.

"Of course, you can stay out of it, but in time, this star rail will be blocked again. I can tell you what the future will look like—if you don't go to Xianzhou 'Luofu,' the Stellaron will eventually contaminate the entire ship, and at least half of the residents onboard will die."

Kafka knew that the Express Crew would not believe her words, so she simply put the stakes on the table. "I have sent you the coordinates, and everything is up to you to decide. Although our goals are different, the orbits of the stars will eventually intersect."

"Okay, let's stop here for business. I have to go..."

After saying that, Kafka looked at Ilu, who was sitting on the sofa beside her, and spoke in a meaningful tone.

"When I need to contact you, I will send an email to your beacon address. Don't forget to check the message at that time, Miss Himeko."

As her voice fell, the sizzling sound of electricity disappeared completely, and Kafka's projection vanished with it.

Ilu: "..."

Kafka, was she talking to me just now?

She lowered her head and took out her mobile phone to check. There was indeed a mysterious contact named "???" in her friend list.

As expected, it is related to the Stellaron Hunters...

"March, go find Dan Heng."

After receiving Himeko's summons, March 7th left the observation car, followed by Stelle. Only Ilu and the two elders of the Express Crew remained in the observation car.

"Ilu, do you remember the two people you met in the 'Herta' space station before?" Welt suddenly asked.

"Well, of course I remember... The woman who just appeared and called herself Kafka is one of them. She and the short man used the names of Blade and Sam."

There was no need for Ilu to hide this information. After the Doomsday Beast incident, she and Dan Heng had explained to Uncle Yang about their encounter with the Stellaron Hunter in the containment section, confirming the connection between the "Stellaron" and Stelle.

"In that case, you should know that they have a companion named Sam."

"Well..."

Ilu nodded gently, already understanding what Welt wanted to say.

Sam and Snow Fyrefly Mech... Although they look very different, to outsiders, they actually look similar.

Just like people who don't watch Ultraman can't tell which one is Mobius or Zoffy, even if they have watched them all, they may not be able to distinguish clearly. The same is true for the Glamoth Iron Cavalry Knights.

"We are getting closer. Soon, I collected Sam's information. I don't know whether it's good or bad, but he is probably a Glamoth Iron Cavalry with the same roots as you."

"Sam?"

Ilu pretended to be surprised, widening her eyes and speaking in a hurried tone, "I remember this name; it should refer to the Strategic Assault Mech of the Fyrefly model."

"I see..."

After considering his wording for a moment, Welt said in a deep voice:

"Our destination this time is likely to be Xianzhou 'Luofu.' Unlike the Jarilo-VI we visited before, Xianzhou 'Luofu' has many people and eyes. Not to mention that the Stellaron crisis has erupted now, the locals are vigorously searching for 'Stellaron hunters,' which naturally includes Sam."

"So, before gaining the trust of the locals, you'd better not summon the Snow Fyrefly Mech in front of them; otherwise, it is likely to cause a lot of unnecessary trouble."

Although everyone in the Express Crew knew that Ilu was not the notorious wanted criminal, others might not. If someone with ulterior motives deliberately spreads rumors and exploits the situation, the Astral Express could become a scapegoat for this Stellaron crisis, which is what they want to avoid.

"It doesn't matter. Even if I don't use the Snow Fyrefly Mech, I can deal with most crises with my own strength."

As she spoke, Ilu clenched her right hand, and a deep blue light burst from her palm. That was the Path power of "Remembrance."

"Your power is very special. Don't use it unless it's absolutely necessary. Leave the combat-related work to everyone else..."

Welt glanced at Stelle and March 7th, who had just returned from the guest compartment, and Dan Heng, who followed them. He coughed twice and shifted the topic back to the route meeting.

"Okay, now that everyone is here, let's decide on the next destination for the special event that just occurred."

...

"Four to two; it seems that our destination has been determined."

Looking at the voting results, Himeko quickly decided on the next stop for the Express: "Then, the Express Crew agrees to go to Xianzhou by a majority vote."

After saying that, she looked at the black-haired young man who was folding his arms across his chest, his head lowered in thought: "What do you think, Dan Heng? Are you going to stay?"

"Well, I won't go this time."

Dan Heng nodded gently.

If it were another Xianzhou flagship, he could go, but "Luofu"...

According to its rules, he could never set foot there.

"Then I can only ask you, Welt. Seeing that you have been rubbing your hands for a long time, I believe you have already made preparations."

"Of course. After staying on the Express for so long, it is time to get off and stretch your muscles." Welt pushed up the frame of his glasses, his tone remaining calm.

[The jump is about to start. 3, 2, 1——]

With the destination of this Trailblazing journey officially confirmed, the Astral Express began to jump to the coordinates given by Kafka. Everyone took their seats in advance, waiting for the Express to arrive above Xianzhou.

"Is this Xianzhou? It looks so big!"

As the Express jumped, March 7 was the first to be astonished by the spaceship in front of her, which was larger than Jarilo-VI.

"This is the Astral Express. Repeat, this is the Astral Express. We have arrived in the airspace of Xianzhou and have requested landing permission from the ground... or the 'deck.'"

"Zizi... Please wait patiently for the connection..."

Himeko sent a message to Xianzhou, but the latter kept repeating this sentence like a recorder.

Just when everyone was confused, the signal suddenly returned to normal, and someone opened the door to Xianzhou for them:

"——The Jade Gate is opening. On behalf of the 'Xianzhou Alliance·Luofu,' I welcome guests from afar. Please follow the instructions and dock in an orderly manner—"

"Uh... Why do I feel it's a little weird?"

Listening to this voice, March 7th always felt that something was off.

"Don't worry about it for now. Just pull the ship over... No, drive the Express over first."

Worried that the other party might suddenly regret closing the Jade Realm Gate, the Express Crew unanimously decided to drive the Express to Xianzhou first.

Soon, the Astral Express arrived near a dock full of containers. Ilu followed Welt off the Express. The group walked through the gaps between the large containers. Looking at the empty scene around them, they increasingly felt that something was wrong.

"This should be the port where Xianzhou unloads goods. Why can't I see a single person? It's really creepy..."

March 7th couldn't help but mutter under her breath.

"First, we need to find out who opened the Jade Realm Gate for us. If that person is a staff member, we can ask what happened."

Welt, who had always been mature and steady, offered his advice: "If this person has ulterior motives, it will save us trouble."

"Wait, look over there! It seems to be a wounded person!"

Just then, Stelle who was walking in front noticed several injured figures lying not far away. She immediately waved to the Express Crew to come forward and check.

"This outfit should belong to the Cloud Knights of Xianzhou."

"But how could they end up like this...?"

"This person is seriously injured. March 7th, use six-phase ice to stop the bleeding and stabilize the injury."

"No problem!"

After temporarily treating the injury of the Cloud Knight member, everyone continued to move forward along the road. They saw that wounded people lay everywhere along the roadside, indicating that a fierce battle had taken place near this port. The civilians had been urgently evacuated, leaving this group of Cloud Knights to handle the crisis.

Now it seemed that their condition was not very good. The Stellaron crisis that had erupted in Xianzhou appeared to have caused significant trouble.

"Ilu, you stay here. We will deal with those monsters."

Looking at the creatures that resembled humans among the apricot-yellow leaves and dead branches nearby, along with the Cloud Knight surrounded by them, Welt signaled for the silver-haired girl who could not easily use her powers to stay in a safer place.

Then, he took March 7th and Stelle and rushed toward the Mara-struck soldiers in the distance, resulting in a fierce battle between the two sides.

"Ding—"

Just then, Ilu's mobile phone suddenly rang. She picked up the phone and looked down to see a message from "???."

[??? : Finally, I have some time. I have something to ask you, Miss Ilu.]

[??? : If I'm not mistaken, you should know Sam, right?]

Seeing this message, Ilu was slightly stunned.

Kafka actually sent me a message at this time. Isn't she being hunted by the Cloud Knight...?

Without thinking too much, Ilu edited a message and sent it back.

[Ilu: Yes, what's wrong?]

[??? : That's right. I want to ask for a friend how you managed to leave the "treatment cabin" for so long.]

After seeing Kafka's reply, Ilu realized that Kafka was looking for a way to treat Firefly's Loss Entropy Syndrome.

After thinking for a moment, she decided to be honest and tell Kafka the truth:

[Ilu: Just fight with the perfect Propagation Emanator.]

[??? : Ah? Really?]

[Ilu: Of course it's true. I don’t need to lie; it's not good for me.]

It appears that Kafka was a little unconvinced by her statement.

But there was no way around it; she had indeed fought the Ashen Sun Swarm King and survived until now after winning the resurrection match.

[??? : Okay, thank you for the information you provided. I will convey it to her truthfully.]

[??? : Ah, the Cloud Knight is chasing us. I’m leaving first. You should pay attention to your safety.]

【——The other party is offline】

"Strange. Why does she want me to pay attention to my safety? She should know that my fighting ability isn't weak..."

Looking at Kafka's last message, Ilu felt a bit confused, but she didn't dwell on it. She just assumed it was concern from the Stellaron hunter.

Even though she was still in danger, she was always thinking about the safety of others. She was truly worthy of being called "Mom" by people; she was too gentle.

How could such a gentle person be labeled as a bad woman?

After putting her phone in her pocket, Ilu walked toward Welt and the others who had just dealt with the Mara-struck soldiers nearby, and the fox girl who had just been rescued by the Express Crew and was standing in the corner.

At this time, the two sides had negotiated several rounds and were now aware of each other's identities.

The person rescued by the Express Crew was Tingyun, the ferryman of the "Xianzhou" Luofu Sky-Faring Commission.

"Oh?"

Seeing the silver-haired girl approaching from a distance, Tingyun was slightly taken aback. "Could this person also be..."

"Her name is Ilu, and she is our companion."

"Hello, Miss Tingyun."

Although it was unclear whether the fox girl in front of her was the real Tingyun or a replacement, the Express Crew had just arrived and needed a local who was familiar with the area to lead the way. Ilu had no intention of pulling the fox's tail.

"Well, since everyone is here, let's set off for Starskiff Jetty."

Similarly, Tingyun did not sense any threat from the silver-haired girl in front of her. She turned her head to look at Welt, the leader of the Express Crew, and smiled.

"Regarding the matter of the 'Stellaron,' I am truly powerless. I will take you to see Madam Yukong of Luofu's Sky-Faring Commission, and let her decide the matter for all my benefactors."

After deciding on the next leg of their journey, Tingyun led everyone through the container terminal, defeating the Mara-struck Soldiers that blocked their path, and arrived at a Starship floating on the sea of clouds.

"Look, this is the ship I mentioned earlier."

When they approached the Starship, Tingyun breathed a sigh of relief. She turned her head to look at her tail, a bit of regret in her eyes.

"Although there were many dangers along the way, fortunately, nothing went wrong in the last section. It's a pity that a lot of my tail hair was rubbed off. Alas, my beautiful tail..."

"Uh... Can this ship really be driven?" Stelle asked, a little worried.

"Don't worry, benefactor. As a ferryman, steering a Starship is a necessary skill for our business."

Seeing the concern on the gray-haired girl's face, Tingyun took out her driver's license and showed it to everyone present. Seeing her confident demeanor, everyone felt not reassured but more anxious.

These days, people who fall from the sky are generally experienced...

"Is this ship powered by the energy of 'Abundance'?"

As soon as she got on the ship, Ilu noticed that the engine of the Starship appeared to be made of a piece of wood that constantly turned to provide power for the Starship.

"This benefactor guessed correctly. The Starship can indeed sail in the sea of clouds with the blessing of 'Abundance.'"

While fiddling with the joystick, Tingyun addressed Ilu's concerns: "Not only the Starship, but all the mechanical objects of Xianzhou, big and small, basically rely on the blessing of 'Abundance' to operate normally."

"What happens if it breaks down?"

"Haha, you’re joking, benefactor. Unless someone deliberately tampers with it, how could the starship suddenly break down?"

"But it seemed to have suddenly stopped just now. Is this really okay...?"

"?"

-----

66

"What? You said the Starship's engine stopped?"

Hearing Ilu's answer, the smile on Tingyun's face disappeared instantly. She quickly turned her head to look at the location of the Starship's engine and found that the wooden ring that should have been rotating at high speed had stopped. Her face turned extremely pale.

This is equivalent to a helicopter flying halfway and the propeller suddenly stopping. Everyone knows that something is wrong, but whether it can be repaired is another matter—being able to drive a Starship does not mean being able to repair it.

"Miss Tingyun, what should we do now?"

Watching the speed of the Starship gradually return to zero and even show a tendency to fall, March 7th was also panicked. She didn't want to encounter a rare crash on her first trip on the Starship.

"Not good! This is the first time I've encountered this kind of situation. This time I need the help of the Lords to find a solution."

Tingyun tried to adjust the direction of the Starship's fall by controlling the pull rod and re-mooring it at the Ship of Liuyun Ferry, but due to the loss of power, turning the Starship became extremely difficult.

Why is this happening?!

The Abundance power contained in the Starship comes from the Ambrosial Arbor of Xianzhou, so there is no way there could be a problem unless these "Abundance" powers were sucked away by something.

After being a ferryman in the Sky-Faring Commission for so many years, Tingyun was sweating profusely when she encountered the engine failure of the Starship at the most inappropriate time.

For her now, why the Starship failed is no longer important. The most important thing at the moment is how to land safely. If she can't land back on land, then everyone on the Starship will be in danger.

"Transform!"

Seeing the critical situation and the possibility of a serious traffic accident with the Ship destroyed and people killed at any moment, Ilu took out the Iron Cavalry Transformation Sheath from the folding space without hesitation and summoned the Snow Fyrefly Mech.

Under Tingyun's shocked gaze, the silver-haired girl, whose whole body was shrouded in azure light, jumped out of the Starship, and the next moment she turned into a silver-white Iron Cavalry and caught the Starship that was about to crash with both hands.

"Going to the Starskiff Haven, right? Sit tight, fasten your seat belts, I'm going to start accelerating."

Carrying the not-so-heavy Starship on her shoulders, Ilu cast her eyes on the Starskiff Haven not far away, and the elytra behind her slowly opened, blooming a pair of dark blue light wings.

She once created a record of flying through dozens of systems in outer space continuously. At that time, there were billions of insect swarms intercepting her on the way. Even so, she finally arrived at her destination safely.

In terms of flying skills, she is actually not inferior to anyone.

"Wait a moment, benefactor!"

Just after she recovered from her shock, before Tingyun could finish her words, she felt that the Starship beneath her seemed to have regained its power.

No, it was not restored; there was an extremely strong external force pushing it forward.

She felt a bad premonition, and this premonition would soon become a reality...

"Swoosh—"

The next second, the Starship she was on suddenly rushed out like an arrow from a bow, flying straight toward the direction of the Starship Sea. The other Starships she encountered along the way were shocked upon seeing this scene.

"It's going too fast! So fast?!"

"Is this definitely speeding?"

"With such exquisite control over the Starship and such amazing speed, could it be some talented flying boy who did this?"

"He is really a man of great skill and courage. I didn't dare to go so fast when I was young. Let me have a sip of soda soy milk to calm my nerves..."

However, not long after, they saw several Starships with the Luofu Sky-Faring Commission mark also fly past along the track left by the speeding Starship. They couldn't help but put their hands on their foreheads and feel sorry for the death of this genius.

Sure enough, the Luofu Sky-Faring Commission would not ignore the serious speeding violation of the Starship. If nothing unexpected happened, this unknown flying genius might have fallen.

From then on, only a legend would be left in the world.

----------------

"Miss Tingyun, do you mean that it was the people who were speeding, not the starship?"

"Well, when we set off, we happened to encounter the engine failure of the starship. Fortunately, a passenger took action at the critical moment and sent us to the Starskiff Jetty safely; otherwise, my life might not have been saved."

"Is that so? That was really thrilling..."

After listening to Tingyun's explanation, the navigation officer who came to investigate the speeding incident of the starship did not know how to punish him for a while, so he had to put away the ticket in his hand and leave in dismay.

After all, the speeding accident this time was caused by the engine problem of the starship. It should be the responsibility of the Luofu Sky-Faring Commission. It was their failure to do a good job of maintenance, which allowed the criminals to take advantage of the opportunity. The self-rescue behavior taken by the passengers when they encountered a crisis was completely in line with the provisions of the Xianzhou Law.

"Huh..."

When all the inspectors from the Luofu Sky-Faring Commission left, Tingyun couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

Looking at the silver-haired girl with an expression of "I know nothing" not far away, she couldn't help but complain in a low voice.

"My benefactor, you just went too far. There are clear regulations for the steering of the Star Chariot, and it must not exceed a certain speed. But you just exceeded the speed by more than three times and almost caused me to lose this month's wages."

Unlike the flattery and courtesy before, this sentence was completely sincere from Tingyun. If it weren't for this clever tongue, she successfully transferring the responsibility to other places, and her already small wages might have been deducted because of the speeding just now.

"There's nothing we can do about it."

Ilu spread her hands, indicating that she had to do this.

She still remembered what Uncle Yang had said before: to avoid exposing the Snow Fyrefly Mech in front of others as much as possible.

However, this time, in order to avoid a plane crash, she had to send the ship to the Starskiff Haven.

In order to avoid being photographed, Ilu could only speed up to make herself visible to passersby for a short time. This was the best solution she could think of.

"Anyway, it's safe to get to this place."

Tingyun turned the topic back to business after sweeping her eyes across the faces of the people in the Express Crew.

"I should have taken everyone to visit the beautiful places in Starskiff Jetty so that I could fulfill my role as a host, but now is an extraordinary period, so we should go to Palace of Astrum first and report to Madam Yukong about your purpose."

...

Soon, the group arrived in front of Palace of Astrum.

While Tingyun went in to report to Yukong, the people in the Express Crew began to discuss the accident that had just happened on starship.

"The Starship's engine failed. Is it really such a coincidence?" Welt pushed his glasses and expressed his opinion: "The identity of the person who opened the Jade Gate for us is still unknown. Miss Tingyun's attitude towards us is ambiguous. I think there may be something fishy about this matter."

"Could it be that someone framed us?" March 7th guessed.

"It's unlikely. This method is a bit too low-level," Welt denied. "If Ilu hadn't been so anxious and acted later, I would have used gravity to make the Starship float. If it were coming for us, that preparation alone wouldn't be enough."

"Maybe it was just an accident?"

"This possibility can't be ruled out."

"Hmm..." Listening to the conversation, Ilu hesitated for a moment before swallowing back what she wanted to say. She placed her hand on her chest, feeling her throbbing heart, and reflected on her thoughts.

The wooden ring with the power of "Abundance" seemed to have stopped turning the moment she boarded the Starship.

After that, she felt a vitality flowing into her body, filling an indescribable gap.

She didn't know whether it was a coincidence or... well, if possible, she didn't want to be associated with "Abundance," especially in Xianzhou.

"Sorry for the wait. Madam Yukong is ready for you in the Palace of Astrum. I have reported your situation to him. I won't be going in," Tingyun announced, returning to the group with a smile on her pretty face. It was clear that she was very happy.

The Express Crew exchanged glances and followed the Cloud Knight Army into the Palace of Astrum, arriving at a cyan-gold hall with a strong sense of technology.

"Hello, guests of the Astral Express," greeted a blue-haired fox woman, Yukong, the helmsman of the Sky-Faring Commission.

"Tingyun has already informed me of your purpose. Originally, my duties do not include meeting passengers, but for certain reasons, I must meet with you and decline your invitation in person."

"Alas, it's happening again. It was the same last time at Jarilo-VI," one of the group members muttered.

This somewhat familiar scene reminded everyone of their experience in Klipperburg, when Cocolia, the holder of the "Stellaron," had said the same thing.

Although this fox woman named Yukong was most likely not connected to the Stellaron, her response had likely been discussed and decided by the top leaders of the Xianzhou.

It seemed they were unwilling to let the Astral Express intervene in this matter.

In this case, they were prepared to leave.

"No, you can't leave now," Yukong suddenly called out, her tone serious. "It's only been a few days since the 'Stellaron' was found on Xianzhou. The Starskiff Haven is completely closed, and no one has left. How can you predict the future? How can you be sure that all of this is related to the 'Stellaron'?"

"I just checked the entry and exit records of the Starskiff Haven. Not long ago, someone hacked into the system, opened the Jade Gate, and guided a ship into the port. That was you—the Astral Express."

"That hacker even deliberately left a stamp, as if to provoke—Silver Wolf, a member of the 'Stellaron Hunter.' It is hard not to question your connection, especially since one of you..."

"Zi—"

Just then, accompanied by an inaudible sound of electricity, a dark blue projection appeared out of thin air in the Luofu Sky-Faring Commission hall, instantly capturing everyone's attention.

"Hehe, Yukong, don't be so fierce. If this gets out, the Galaxy will laugh at the Xianzhou Alliance for not knowing how to treat guests," said the newcomer. It was Jing Yuan, the general of the Cloud Knights of the Xianzhou "Luofu."

Although he wore a careless smile, he exuded a non-hostile and approachable demeanor, giving everyone the impression of a sleeping lion—once awakened, he would deliver a thunderous blow to his enemies.

With Jing Yuan's arrival, he and Yukong began to play good cop and bad cop, swiftly tying the Astral Express to the common interests of Xianzhou "Luofu" while leaving the opportunity for the group to "prove their position."

"Just a few days ago, we captured a Stellaron Hunter named 'Blade' who trespassed into an important area of Xianzhou."

"During his interrogation, the department responsible for intelligence and deduction on Xianzhou successfully intercepted communications from his companion, 'Kafka,' who was hiding on Xianzhou. As for the object of the communication..."

"In short, I believe you will not side with the Stellaron Hunter, but it takes time to quell this disaster, and the main force of the Cloud Knight Cavalry is required for success. Now, Kafka is hiding on Xianzhou. After all, this is a disaster that must be prevented."

"Since it was the Stellaron Hunter who led you to Luofu, we can just go with the flow. As a general, I will grant you the authority to act as you see fit on Xianzhou, to draw out the missing Kafka and capture her in one fell swoop. This way, you can also clear your suspicions. What do you think, everyone in the Express Crew?"

Hearing Jing Yuan's well-crafted words, Welt couldn't help but fall into deep thought.

After a discussion among the Express Crew, they ultimately agreed to Jing Yuan's proposal to stay on Xianzhou for a few more days to lead out the Stellaron Hunter lurking behind the scenes.

Then, Jing Yuan spotted Ilu who was about to leave Palace of Astrum. "Miss Ilu, please walk slowly; I have something important to discuss with you."

"Oh?"

Hearing this, Ilu stopped and turned to look at the wise and resourceful General.

"Is this photo of you?" Jing Yuan took out Sam's wanted poster.

"This is not me."

Ilu shook her head.

"I don't think he is you either." Jing Yuan put away the wanted poster, changed his serious expression, and smiled.

"Not long ago, Divination Commission intercepted several long-distance communications. Based on the content of the messages and the photos taken by Luofu Sky-Faring Commission, they determined that you are 'Sam,' an accomplice of the Stellaron Hunter hiding on Xianzhou. I thought, how could this be possible? You two look different."

Ilu was silent.

Sure enough, it was very difficult to hide one's identity under the watchful eyes of the people from Xianzhou.

"Glamoth Iron Cavalry—it's really a very old name. Even a small Xianzhou ship general like me has heard of the Glamoth Swarm Frontline..."

After exchanging a few polite words with Ilu, Jing Yuan suddenly changed the subject and got to the key point of his question: "But that huge empire has disappeared now. I am very curious about how you resist the erosion of time and still remain sane?"

After hearing his question, Ilu realized that Jing Yuan was looking for a cure for the Mara. If she could maintain her sanity after the power of "Abundance" went out of control, the Mara would no longer be a nightmare for the people of Xianzhou.

After thinking for a while, she decided to be honest. Just as she had told Kafka about the method of Loss Entropy Syndrome, she shared the truth with Jing Yuan.

"Fight with the Propagation Emanator."

"Ah?"

Even though the Divine Foresight was well-informed and strategic, he did not expect the silver-haired girl in front of him to provide such an incredible answer.

It seemed she had her own way of combating the side effects of longevity. In this case...

Thinking of this, Jing Yuan changed the subject again. "Ilu, what do you think of 'Abundance'?"

"'Abundance'?"

Ilu shook her head. "I'm not familiar with them."

Although she hated death and wanted to live longer, she had no intention of asking The Abundance for help, fearing she might wake up one day transformed into a Mara-struck creature that everyone wanted to destroy.

"You must have heard that the people of Xianzhou enjoy infinite lifespans and are free from the three sufferings of old age, illness, and death. This is the blessing bestowed by 'Abundance'..."

Jing Yuan took out another photo, displaying the devilish soldier that everyone had encountered before. He pointed out the details of the figure to the silver-haired girl and continued:

"But such blessings can also be curses for the people of Xianzhou. If their lifespan exceeds the natural limit, their bodies undergo many magical changes, falling into Mara and transforming into a Mara-struck."

"You seem to be unaffected by 'Abundance.' This is a physique that many in Xianzhou envy. I would like to personally entrust you with investigating the forces hidden in Xianzhou to see what they intend to do during the chaos surrounding the Stellaron. I will ensure you are handsomely rewarded afterward. Your Excellency, please accept my invitation. What do you think?"

Oh?

Ilu rested her chin on her hand and lowered her head in deep thought.

It was clear that Jing Yuan wanted her to investigate the group of Abundance believers who constantly chanted "Merciful Medicus."

This was an extremely dangerous job for someone from Xianzhou. Once infected with the blessing of Abundance, they might transform from undercovers into true believers. This task could only be entrusted to outsiders who were not from Xianzhou.

Currently, the only external force allied with Xianzhou was the Astral Express.

By assigning this task to her, Jing Yuan not only demonstrated Xianzhou's trust in the Express but also devised a strategy to have the Astral Express resolve the two major issues of the Stellaron Hunter and the Abundance force simultaneously. They would only need to focus on addressing the problems brought about by the Stellaron.

It could only be said that he was worthy of his position.

Thinking of this, Ilu quickly replied, "I have no objections."

Although she didn't know what Divination Commission had discerned through divination that made them trust her so much, since Jing Yuan had respectfully entrusted her with investigating the Disciples of Sanctus Medicus, she would certainly seize this opportunity to establish a good relationship with Xianzhou.

Moreover, there would be a substantial reward from Xianzhou afterward.

With the contractual spirit of the Xianzhou people, once they made a promise, it was virtually impossible for them to break it.

"That's good. Here is my beacon address, which you can use to exchange information. Also, this is the beacon address of Fu Xuan, the person in charge of Divination Commission. You can add her as a friend; if you have any questions, you can ask her first. Fu Xuan can answer most of your inquiries."

After receiving the contact details for Jing Yuan and Fu Xuan, Ilu left Palace of Astrum with the commission to investigate the Disciples of Sanctus Medicus and rejoined the Express Crew waiting outside.

"Ilu, what did the General of Xianzhou say to you?" March 7th blinked curiously.

"It's like this—"

In response, Ilu recounted her conversation with Jing Yuan to everyone. Upon learning that Ilu had actually received a private commission from the General of Xianzhou, everyone present was taken aback.

"I didn't expect Ilu's identity to be recognized so quickly..."

"Investigating the 'Abundance' forces hidden within Xianzhou? Could it be that this Stellaron crisis was caused by those 'Abundance' believers?"

"This possibility cannot be ruled out, but our current primary goal is to find Kafka, which is the prerequisite for the Astral Express to remain in Xianzhou and participate in this Stellaron incident."

Welt adjusted his glasses, glanced at the fox girl waving at them not far away, and said, "Miss Tingyun has arranged a place for us to stay. Let's go take a look first."

"That is to say, we need to split into two groups now. The three of us and Miss Tingyun will investigate Kafka's whereabouts, while Ilu will go to the territory of the 'Abundance' believers alone?" Stelle asked curiously.

"The current division is like this. As expected of the Divine Foresight's Strategy, General Jing Yuan seems to know our situation very well."

Speaking of this, Welt sincerely praised, "Not only did he choose Ilu who is the best at infiltration among us to deal with the most difficult 'Abundance' forces, but he also predicted that our next action would definitely succeed. I have only seen this kind of confidence on another man's face in the past."

"It feels like he treats everything as a chessboard, and we are just the chess pieces..."

Knowing that Jing Yuan had not spoken well of them in Palace of Astrum not long ago, but was instead cooperating with Yukong to play the roles of the white cop and the red cop, March 7th, who had originally been eager to confront the Stellaron Hunter, suddenly wilted. "I thought he was a good person who just wanted to help us before. It's not that serious. Even if we were to deal with the issues in Xianzhou ourselves, we would start with Kafka and the 'Fengyu' forces."

Seeing that March 7th looked apprehensive, Ilu took the initiative to explain for her: "General Jing Yuan just established cooperation with us in another form. He gave us a legitimate reason to interfere in the internal affairs of Xianzhou while ensuring that the Xianzhou 'Luofu' would not allow outsiders to intervene. He also provided us with a lot of key information, and we have the right to leave Xianzhou at any time."

"Ilu is right. The general's intentions and actions are good, which is fundamentally different from Cocolia." Welt nodded in agreement. "As a general of Xianzhou, he has to consider not only us but also listen to the internal voices at all times. He mentioned before that Divination Commission did not trust us. I guess he felt pressured to allow us to stay in Xianzhou."

"Well, Miss Tingyun just sent me a message..." Looking at the message from Tingyun on his phone, Stelle raised her hand and suggested, "Why don't we set off now?"

"Well, it's getting late. Let's go meet her." After saying this, Welt looked at the silver-haired girl who was about to get up and leave. "Ilu, you must be more careful over there. The dangers hidden on this ship are not just from 'Abundance.' I suspect that the Stellaron Hunter named 'Blade' has also escaped the control of Xianzhou. If you encounter him, it's best not to engage with him."

"No problem."

---

“Ding—”

After leaving the Inn, Ilu looked down at the message on her phone, which was from Jing Yuan:

[Jing Yuan: According to the intelligence compiled by the Realm-Keeping Commission, this 'Yaoshi' force that has been lurking inside Xianzhou and taking advantage of the Stellaron crisis to quietly expand may be the 'Secret of the Merciful Medicus' that has been lost on Xianzhou for a thousand years.]

[Jing Yuan: This group of Yaoshi believers is dedicated to discovering forbidden elixir recipes and reviving the so-called secrets of the immortal way. They usually target the weak and chronically ill barbarians as the first victims of their deceptive missionary work.]

[Jing Yuan: You can try looking for it in the Exalting Sanctum area. I have something else to do next. If you find anything, you can contact the specialist from the Realm-Keeping Commission.]

“Exalting Sanctum…”

Following the address given by Jing Yuan, Ilu soon arrived at the Synwood Pavilion in Exalting Sanctum. From a high vantage point, she could still vaguely see the ancient traces of "Ambrosial Arbor."

Looking down at the bustling square, she scanned the faces of the crowd, searching for anyone who might be suspicious and potentially a member of the Disciples of Sanctus Medicus.

"Hey! Little girl."

Just then, Ilu felt someone pat her shoulder. She turned back with a puzzled expression and met the eyes of a mysterious man in a green robe.

"Tsk, tsk, I was right not to be mistaken..."

As if he had encountered a rare treasure, the green-robed man looked her up and down, then clapped his hands. "Your blood is thin, your life is rough, and your hair is white at such a young age. You are undoubtedly a textbook case of a short-lived person. I can't believe I've met such a rare talent!"

"Who’s short? Get out of the way."

Ilu glanced at him, clearly unimpressed, and was about to leave.

"Shh!"

However, the green-robed man didn’t seem inclined to let her go. He raised his index finger to signal silence, then glanced around with a sly expression. Seeing that there were no members of the Cloud Knight or the Realm-Keeping Commission nearby, he whispered:

"Don't be in a hurry to leave, little girl from a foreign land. Do you want to know the meaning of life? Do you want to rid yourself of the three sufferings of old age, sickness, and death and achieve true immortality?"

"You are..."

Hearing this, Ilu immediately realized that the strange man in front of her might be a believer in the "Disciples of Sanctus Medicus" she was looking for. She paused and pretended to be intrigued, opening her beautiful eyes in disbelief and asking in a surprised tone, "Really? Can you live forever?"

"Of course it's true! I think you will die soon. I suspect you have some strange disease. In this case, no one can save you. The only one who can save you is the great, kind, and generous 'Merciful Medicus!'"

"The great, kind, generous 'Merciful Medicus!'"

"Uh, sister, you are really smart. You understood the core concept of our 'Disciples of Sanctus Medicus' so quickly... But it’s better to keep your voice down to avoid attracting the attention of the Cloud Knights nearby; otherwise, we might end up in jail."

The green-robed man made a silent gesture again and then waved for Ilu to follow him. "Come on, follow me. I'll take you to a place more suitable for discussing these matters."

...

"We're here."

Following the green-robed man into an alley, Ilu saw a few barbarians in strange costumes standing in a corner nearby. They appeared to have been bewitched by the followers of the "Disciples of Sanctus Medicus." It was also possible that some sincerely sought immortality.

After all, these short-lived immigrants to Xianzhou were very envious of the immortal residents. The "Disciples of Sanctus Medicus" exploited this weakness in their nature, easily deceiving these outsiders.

"Let me introduce myself again. I am a practitioner of the Disciples of Sanctus Medicus, codenamed 'Green Hibiscus.'"

After avoiding the eyes of the Cloud Knight all the way back to his territory, the green-robed man no longer hid his identity and took the initiative to reveal it to Ilu, smiling. "It wasn’t convenient to disclose my identity in Exalting Sanctum before, but now I can tell you boldly."

"Why is it in such a small place..."

An outsider who was attracted by the prospect of immortality appears a bit dissatisfied, feeling that he might have encountered a fraud.

"Please forgive me. As the Disciples of Sanctus Medicus gradually grows, it has also attracted the attention of those Reignbow believers. If we don’t act carefully, the consequences will be disastrous."

"Disciples of Sanctus Medicus?"

"Hehe, the Disciples of Sanctus Medicus is an organization that regards the 'Merciful Medicus' as the true faith, and 'Disciples' is what we followers call ourselves. To become a Disciples, you need to pass some small tests."

Green Hibiscus gestured for Ilu and the other foreigners to enter the adjacent yard. There was a row of white food stall chairs and a long wooden table. Seeing this, Ilu couldn’t help but be slightly taken aback. "This is..."

"Let all who seek it receive it! The Merciful Medicus is broad-minded and will not refuse anyone’s prayers. So, our entry test for the Disciples of Sanctus Medicus will not be too arduous... Just copy the 'Thousand-Handed Merciful Medicus' Salvation' on the table 500 times. Let the brothers and sisters see your sincerity, and then you can become a Disciple."

"Ah?"

Hearing his words, the foreigners present were all dumbfounded. They looked at the handwritten scriptures on the table with disbelief on their faces.

"How much? Copy it 500 times?!"

"What, are you not satisfied?"

Green Hibiscus crossed her arms and said arrogantly, "This is the fundamental sutra of our Merciful Medicus. It is your honor to copy it. You should not only write it with a pious heart but also memorize it. I’ve copied it 50,000 times! The more I copy, the stronger I become. The more I copy, the happier I am. This kind of good fortune won’t tire you out, no matter how much you do it!"

After hearing her words, everyone exchanged glances, realizing they had no choice but to copy the sutra 500 times.

"Really? I haven't written anything in a long time..."

Sitting on the white food stall chair, Ilu looked at the white paper and the "Thousand-Handed Merciful Medicus' Salvation" on the table. She picked up the brush, dipped it in ink, and quickly began to write.

"Once, the Thousand-Handed Merciful Medicus traveled through all realms, and ninety-nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine people who planted trees all stayed under Rahu and preached."

"..."

"The Merciful Medicus is compassionate; the Ambrosial Arbor tree grows; the planters are of one mind, and they all ascend to paradise."

"When these words were spoken, the ninety-nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine tree planters all cut off the sufferings of birth, old age, sickness, and death."

"Do I really have to copy this thing 500 times? I feel so bored I could grow her..."

After completing the first copy, Ilu rubbed her sore hands, thought for a moment, and decided to continue.

"The Merciful Medicus is compassionate; the Ambrosial Arbor tree grows; the planters are of one mind, and they all ascend to paradise."

As she copied it for the third time, those words began to echo in the girl’s heart, but she didn’t think too much about it.

Heh, who didn’t write shameful things in large texts when they were young? If you copy too much, you’ll feel like this.

"The Merciful Medicus is compassionate; the Ambrosial Arbor tree grows; the planters are of one mind, and they all ascend to paradise."

When she copied it for the fifth time, Ilu felt something was off, as if something was watching her.

Who is staring at me?

Ilu looked up and glanced around at everyone present. Seeing that they were all focused on their own writing, she lowered her head and continued.

"Hmm?"

Just as Ilu copied it for the tenth time, she suddenly felt an itch in her arm, as if something had grown there.

She pulled it out and saw it was a silver leaf.

Ilu: "..."

Fuck the Merciful Medicus! I'm not copying this nonsense anymore!

-------

---

Chapter 67: Building Trees and Proliferation, Heaven and Earth Vision

"Snap!"

After confirming that the silver leaf had grown from her body, Ilu put down the pen in her hand without hesitation, stopped copying the scripture, and turned to check her body.

She didn’t breathe a sigh of relief until she confirmed that there was nothing like a branch growing from her. She looked at the book Thousand-Handed Merciful Medicus' Salvation on the table with a bit of fear.

No, there are leaves growing on my body. I can’t copy it anymore.

If I continue to copy, my head will probably explode...

Ilu knew what kind of Aeon "Yaoshi" the Medicine Master was. They are the "Merciful Medicus," known for responding to every request, never refusing prayers, and unable to bear the sight of decline and illness.

If you dare to ask them for something, they will give it to you.

If you dare to ask them for as much as you want, they will give it to you.

Even if you just silently recite their name in your heart, this benevolent and generous Aeon will respond to your expectations and grant "Abundance" nectar to their faithful or unfaithful believers.

"What’s wrong? Why did you stop suddenly?"

Seeing the silver-haired girl abruptly throw her pen on the table, the green-robed man who was "invigilating" nearby approached with a puzzled look.

"Huh? This is... Merciful Medicus' Compassion! Am I seeing this right?!"

When Green Hibiscus noticed the ginkgo leaf in Ilu's hand, his face suddenly changed, and his voice trembled: "What’s the matter with you? You just copied the Merciful Medicus’s scriptures a few times, and you got the ginkgo leaf given by them?!"

His words attracted the attention of the other foreigners nearby.

Knowing that someone had received the Merciful Medicus’s gift, everyone turned their eyes toward Ilu.

Feeling the envious and jealous gazes directed at her, Ilu felt a bit uncomfortable.

Why are you staring at me all the time? If you want this broken leaf, just copy it slowly by yourself. They aren't refusing to give it to you.

"Wait! Why is this ginkgo leaf faded?"

When Green Hibiscus saw that the ginkgo leaf had changed from golden to silver-gray, he looked at Ilu as if he had seen a ghost.

Although ginkgo leaves are usually green or golden in different seasons, if a person's ginkgo leaves have faded, there is usually only one possibility...

"Faded ginkgo leaves... what’s wrong?"

Seeing Green Hibiscus’s shocked expression, Ilu realized that things weren’t as simple as she thought.

"You don’t know what faded ginkgo leaves mean? Tsk, damn, I forgot you were a newcomer who just joined Disciples of Sanctus Medicus."

Realizing that the silver-haired girl before him hadn’t officially joined Disciples of Sanctus Medicus, Green Hibiscus’s heart became even more unbalanced. He took a deep breath to calm himself and then looked into Ilu’s eyes, slowly saying.

"Every cultivator who joins Disciples of Sanctus Medicus will be blessed by the Merciful Medicus to a greater or lesser extent, and some strange changes will occur in their bodies, such as the growth of ginkgo branches and leaves, which are all symbols of longevity."

"As for the faded ginkgo leaves, Disciples of Sanctus Medicus has only heard of them for thousands of years but has never seen one. It is said that this indicates a serious loss of 'Abundance' power, which only appears when the gap is large enough."

"Do you know what this means? This shows that the Merciful Medicus did give you a certain amount of 'Abundance' power just now, but this power failed to eradicate the stubborn disease in your body, resulting in the 'Abundance' power contained in the ginkgo leaves being lost and turning into an empty shell with only a good appearance."

"Is that so..."

Listening to Green Hibiscus's explanation, Ilu quickly figured out what was going on with the faded ginkgo leaf. She immediately recalled her unusual physique of being 'easily forgotten by others.'

The reason The Abundance looked at me just now was that they wanted to cure my illness?

Then she really misunderstood their kindness.

"In short, you have passed the entrance test of Disciples of Sanctus Medicus and officially become a cultivator. You don’t need to participate in the following tests. Come with me, and let’s leave here."

Green Hibiscus signaled to the believer of Abundance to put away the writing brush, ink, paper, and inkstone from her table, then led Ilu away from the alley occupied by the Secret of Merciful Medicus.

Although the other barbarians were envious, they could not say much. They could only bury their heads and continue to copy the Thousand-Handed Merciful Medicus’s Savior, looking forward to the Merciful Medicus’s blessing.

"Since you have faded ginkgo leaves on your body, it is very likely that the Merciful Medicus will take more care of you in the future. I can’t make my own decisions on this matter; I have to take you to see the top leaders of the Secret of Merciful Medicus."

As he spoke, Green Hibiscus stopped and looked Ilu up and down, temporarily giving her a code name: "Before we go over, I need to give you an internal code name... Well, let’s call you 'White Lily of the Valley.' How does that sound?"

"No problem."

Nodding absently, Ilu was lost in thought. She already had some clues about the earlier situation.

Even The Abundance's glance couldn’t cure her illness, and the ginkgo leaves that symbolize the power of 'Abundance' withered and fell off.

It seems that as Jing Yuan said, 'Abundance' has little effect on me. As long as she doesn't actively ask The Abundance for the power of 'Abundance,' there shouldn’t be a problem.

...

On the other side, relying on the listening device borrowed from the Industrial and Manufacturing Division, the Express Crew quickly caught up with Kafka along the trail she left.

However, not long after the two sides clashed, a pink-haired girl who called herself Divination Commission Leader Fu Xuan fell from the sky and easily captured the criminal.

Uh... or rather, Kafka had no intention of resisting at all. After the impatient Master Diviner appeared, she threw her two submachine guns on the ground and surrendered voluntarily.

"You mean we should take the prisoner to Divination Commission for interrogation?"

Knowing that Fu Xuan planned to take the Stellaron Hunter to Divination Commission for interrogation, March 7th glanced at Kafka, who was smiling at them not far away, with a wary expression, and whispered:

"Can’t we interrogate her on the spot? The Stellaron Hunter is so cunning; what if she runs away again?"

"Hehe, with me here, she can’t escape."

Fu Xuan crossed her arms across her chest, her face full of confidence, as if everything was under her control: "The method that can pry open the mouth of the Stellaron Hunter and make her tell the truth can only be effective in Divination Commission."

After saying that, she looked at Tingyun, the only person present who could drive the Starship, the Luofu Sky-Faring Commission ferry envoy: "The auspicious time has arrived; we need to leave, everyone—please."

---

"No problem."

This time, the Starship journey did not encounter serious accidents, such as crashes and speeding, like before. Tingyun safely delivered everyone to a bustling square.

"..."

Looking at the lively crowd, Fu Xuan fell silent.

Although she usually stayed at home, she recognized what the place looked like. This couldn't be Divination Commission.

"Hey! What road are you taking?"

Fu Xuan turned her head to look at Tingyun and asked sternly, "Open your eyes and take a good look. Is this Divination Commission?"

"Oh, Master Diviner, calm down! The Qiongyi is out of order. It's not easy to locate the entrance to the cave. I also want to work more efficiently, but right now, the only place where the Starship can dock is here. Look, Exalting Sanctum—you can tell it's a safe place at a glance. Let's take a few more steps to reach our destination."

Listening to Tingyun's explanation, Fu Xuan closed her eyes and pondered for a moment, mumbling something under her breath.

After a few seconds, her brows furrowed slightly, as if she had come to a conclusion. The girl slowly opened her eyes and sighed helplessly. "I just made a divination, and the results match the current situation. It seems we have to take a long detour."

After a brief discussion, Fu Xuan decided to prepare for the inquiry and sort out the internal affairs of the Master Diviner Division. Then she took Kafka away from the scene.

Tingyun also had other matters to attend to and temporarily separated from everyone, leaving only the three members of the Express Crew looking at each other in the Exalting Sanctum.

"Hey! Look, over there!"

Just then, Stelle suddenly noticed a familiar figure standing not far away.

Welt and March 7th followed her gaze and saw a petite silver-haired girl standing in front of an alley, seemingly waiting for someone.

Although they could only see her blurry back, the two recognized her identity immediately—it was Ilu, who had parted with them at the Inn not long ago.

"If I'm not mistaken, that should be Ilu."

"Didn't she go to find the 'Abundance' forces? Why is she here?"

"Well... her presence here means there are many Abundance believers in this place called Exalting Sanctum. We should also be more cautious when we act later and try not to interfere with her work."

The three of them briefly discussed and decided not to approach Ilu to avoid exposing her "undercover" identity.

But since they were here, it would be unreasonable not to explore Exalting Sanctum.

"Hmm?"

Feeling someone watching her, Ilu's mind stirred slightly. She turned her head to look in the direction of the gaze and saw the Express Crew strolling through the Exalting Sanctum.

Uncle Yang and the others had also come to Exalting Sanctum. It seems that Kafka should have been captured...

"White Lily, this way."

Just then, a familiar voice came from the alley behind Ilu. She turned and looked behind her, seeing the gardener named Green Hibiscus walking toward her with a man in a luxurious purple robe.

"This is Master Mauve Moon. He is the person in charge of Exalting Sanctum."

After introducing the purple-robed man's identity to Ilu, Green Hibiscus turned and said respectfully to Mauve Moon, "Master Mauve Moon, this is White Lily, whom I mentioned to you before... White Lily, please take out your faded ginkgo leaf and show it to Master Mauve Moon."

"Yes."

Ilu took the ginkgo leaf from her folding space and handed it to the purple-robed man. He examined it for a moment, his eyebrows slightly raised but soon relaxed.

"Well... it is indeed a faded ginkgo leaf. This cannot be faked."

Returning the faded ginkgo leaf to the silver-haired girl, Mauve Moon nodded thoughtfully, then waved for the two to follow him to a nearby teahouse. "Let’s go; this isn’t a suitable place to talk. We should go to the teahouse to chat."

Following the footsteps of Mauve Moon and Green Hibiscus, Ilu soon arrived on the second floor of the teahouse.

The purple-robed man seemed to be a regular here. After seeing the three of them, the owner of the teahouse enthusiastically prepared a private room for them and served them tea.

"Huh, slightly bitter with a hint of fragrance; the tea here still tastes the same..."

Picking up the teacup and savoring the mellow, warm tea, Mauve Moon cast a sharp look at the silver-haired girl sitting opposite him and suddenly asked, "To become a member of Disciples of Sanctus Medicus, there must be many steps. White Lily, do you know why you were able to pass the test without actually taking it?"

"Because of this ginkgo leaf?" Ilu answered tentatively.

"Yes, but not entirely; this is just the superficial reason." Putting the teacup on the table, Mauve Moon showed a confident smile and continued, "The more important reason is that you need the help of 'The Secret of Merciful Medicus,' and 'The Secret of Merciful Medicus' also needs you, as the destined daughter of 'Merciful Medicus,' to complete some tasks for us that ordinary Fengzao believers cannot accomplish."

"What do you mean?" Ilu raised her eyebrows.

"A task that is difficult for us but very simple for you." Mauve Moon crossed her hands, leaned forward slightly, and raised a wicked arc at the corner of her mouth. "That is to kill Jing Yuan for the brothers and sisters of 'The Secret of Merciful Medicus.'"

"Ilu: ? ? ?"

What the hell? Let me kill Jing Yuan?!

Do you want to listen to what you're saying? She still has Jing Yuan's contact information on her mobile phone.

Believe it or not, I will play the recording of your words for him right now!

"I kill Jing Yuan? No, no!" Thinking of this, Ilu refused without hesitation. "He is the Luofo General and the Emanator of 'The Hunt.' I can't afford to offend him. When I see him, I want to hide away."

"No, you are completely wrong. The Emanator of the Reignbow Arbiter is nothing for you." Looking at the silver-haired girl's eyes, as beautiful as fireflies, Mauve Moon appear to see the beautiful scenery of the realization of the grand plan of 'Disciples of Sanctus Medicus.'

His eyes became more and more blurred, and his tone became extremely excited: "Do you know, White Lily, with your qualifications, as long as you are willing to take the initiative to call 'Merciful Medicus,' They will cast their eyes on you and generously give you the power of 'Abundance.' Even if the Reignbow Arbiter Emanator comes, they will not let him gain any benefit."

"Why are you so sure?"

"Because you have a 'terminal illness.'"

Hearing Ilu's doubt, Mauve Moon smiled and said, "This alone is enough. Only by throwing yourself into the arms of 'Abundance' can you survive. We originally planned to give you a prescription and let you take it to cut off the shackles imposed on you by the demon bow and gain ultimate power and freedom. But after discussing it, the organization felt that there was a more suitable task for you... Let me tell you this: we now have a grand plan. If this plan succeeds, the entire 'Luofu' fairy ship will become the territory of our 'Abundance' believers, and the 'Merciful Medicus' will tolerate everything."

"And the biggest obstacle to this plan is the man named Jing Yuan. As long as you can attract the 'Merciful Medicus' to destroy him... or prevent him from taking action, our plan will be unimpeded. By then, you will be the saint of our 'Disciples of Sanctus Medicus,' an existence above all others."

Okay, okay, you're starting to make promises, right?

Ilu is well-informed and not easily fooled. She recognized at a glance that this was Mauve Moon's rhetoric to trick people into going to their deaths.

So this guy wants her to be a time bomb to explode with Jing Yuan.

After thinking about it, Ilu decided to gather more information before leaving. "So, can I meet the leader of 'Disciples of Sanctus Medicus'? I think it's necessary to discuss this with him."

"Hehe, the leader is currently executing that plan. If you want to meet them in person, kill Jing Yuan first. Then the leader will naturally show up and help you..."

"Of course, this matter is not urgent. You can also stay in 'Disciples of Sanctus Medicus' for a while to get familiar with the way brothers and sisters interact or accept some foreigners as new believers. Okay, it's almost time. I have something else to deal with. Please think about this carefully. I'll give you the leader's contact information. If you have made up your mind, use this beacon address to contact her. I will not be responsible for handling your affairs."

After Ilu left, Mauve Moon got up and left the teahouse, and Ilu and Green Hibiscus returned to the square of Exalting Sanctum.

"You just heard what Master Mauve Moon said. The organization is not forcing you to die. Even if you don't take action, the organization has a way to deal with that person. He just wants to see the moment when the power of 'Abundance' falls on you."

Glancing at the bustling crowd around, Green Hibiscus continued, "I know you don't fully trust the organization yet. After all, your connection with the organization is still too shallow, and you don't regard everyone as real brothers and sisters... How about this: you accompany me here to accept a few foreigners and develop a few more subordinates. Maybe your thoughts will change by then."

-----------------

Meanwhile, two days had passed in the real world.

During these two days, Jiahun encountered a problem that she had to solve: levels.

She had basically completed the side quests of Jarilo-VI and Herta Space Station, but she still needed a little experience to unlock the next main quest. To accumulate this experience, she had to do every quest she saw on the way.

"Let me see if there are any quests I can do. It seems that I have already done them all..."

After flipping through the empty quest list, Jiahun returned disappointed. Just when she was about to end the broadcast with regret, a barrage suddenly reminded her:

"Oh! There seems to be a secret quest of the Merciful Medicus in the new map Exalting Sanctum. Why don't we go over and look for it!"

[Disciples of Sanctus Medicus? I remember Ilu was there too.]

[Well, this side quest gives a lot of experience, just enough to level up.]

[You have to go to Qingzu in the Alchemy Commission to accept the quest first. The Mara-struck we fought when we rescued Tingyun dropped a letter. Give this letter to trigger the quest.]

According to the prompts in the barrage, Jiahun came to Alchemy Commission and successfully accepted the series of quests "Venom Brews, Immortality Looms," and then she returned to the square of Exalting Sanctum and began to search for suspicious people who were bewitching foreigners in the vicinity.

Then——

"Hey, this is... Ilu?"

Controlling the Trailblazer to approach Ilu, Jiahun glanced at the cute and beautiful silver-haired girl in front of her and then looked at the weird green-robed man next to her. She decisively chose to talk to Ilu.

"Green Hibiscus: Do you see this gray-haired girl? Come on, it's her. Tell her the truth about the Reingbow Arbiter!"

"Ilu: This foreign guest... please, please stay!"

"Green Hibiscus: Speak louder. What are you afraid of? Say the words I just taught you."

"Ilu:... (Looking at Stelle, her face slightly flushed) You, do you want to know the essence of immortality?"

"Puff!"

Seeing Ilu's threatening eyes signaling that she must not tell this to anyone, Jiahun outside the screen couldn't help laughing. "She's so cute! Even the side story of pretending to be a follower of the Merciful Medicus is so cute. I can't imagine what her highlight story will be like then."

[You were seen by your roommate when you were handing out flyers outside, and you did this too.]

[This is not being seen; this is putting the flyer in your roommate's hand, and the other party is looking at you with a teasing face, waiting for you to read out the shameful lines.]

[Hahaha, Ilu-chan is dead.]

-----------------

"Forget it, let me do it."

Looking at the silver-haired girl hesitating, Green Hibiscus sighed helplessly. He took the initiative to step forward and continued the previous conversation, showing Stelle a confident and mysterious smile: "My friend, do you want to know the truth about the Reingbow Arbiter? Do you desire immortality?"

Stelle shook her head. "No, I desire power."

Since Ilu is here, there is no need for her to disturb her undercover mission, so she'd better refuse this guy.

"Power?"

Obviously, he had not expected such an unconventional answer. Green Hibiscus's brain crashed for a moment.

After a few seconds, he came back to his senses and forced himself to make amends: "I understand! You mean you want immortality, right? After all, immortality is also a kind of power!"

"No, I just want pure power."

Stelle shook her head again, showed her clenched right fist to the green-robed man in front of her, and smashed the vase beside her. "Just like this, the power to crush everything."

Green Hibiscus: "..."

No, sister, you've made me lose it.

"Haha, you're really interesting. To be honest, we can only provide opportunities for immortality to foreigners... People like you, well, are more suitable to join the Antimatter Legion, where there should be many like-minded people like you."

"Then I'm leaving..."

---

Hearing this, Stelle turned around and was about to leave. Just then, she noticed Ilu’s look, as if she were asking her to stay.

"Do you want to ascend to the immortal path together?"

Noticing Stelle's gaze, the silver-haired girl asked in a low voice.

"The immortal path?!"

Stelle feigned surprise in response.

"Yes, the immortal path!"

Seeing that Stelle understood what she meant, Ilu nodded gently and then turned to the green-robed man beside her. "Green Hibiscus, let me take care of this person. What do you think?"

"Uh..."

Green Hibiscus looked at Stelle with a strange expression and whispered to Ilu, "I have no problem with it, but I can't shake the feeling that this person isn't quite right in the head. You need to be cautious and not let her cause any trouble for you before 'Merciful Medicus' heals her mind."

...

"We're here. It's here."

Soon, Stelle followed Ilu and Green Hibiscus to a remote alley.

"Let me introduce myself again. I am a cultivator of the Disciples of Sanctus Medicus, codenamed 'Green Hibiscus,' and she is the quasi-saint of our Disciples of Sanctus Medicus, codenamed 'White Lily of the Valley.'"

After avoiding the eyes of the Cloud Knight Army on their way back to their territory, the green-robed man introduced his and Ilu's identities to Stelle, smiling as he said, "It wasn't convenient to reveal my identity in Exalting Sanctum before, but now I can tell you boldly."

"This is..."

Seeing a row of white food stall chairs in the yard and more than a dozen foreigners writing scriptures, Stelle was slightly stunned by the scene.

"Normally, if you want to join the Disciples of Sanctus Medicus, you have to copy 'Thousand-Handed Merciful Medicus' Salvation' at least five hundred times."

As she said this, Green Hibiscus glanced at the silver-haired girl beside her. "Since 'White Lily' thinks highly of you, you don't have to go in and copy. The next entrance examination will be under her charge, and you just need to follow her."

"The next entrance examination?" Stelle asked in confusion.

"Yes, follow her and kill a Cloud Knight soldier to prove that you truly want to join our 'Disciples of Sanctus Medicus.'"

Green Hibiscus smiled and continued, "As for your code name, if you can kill a Cloud Knight soldier, let 'White Lily' choose one for you."

"Let's go."

Ilu glanced at Stelle, then grabbed her wrist and led her away from the alley. The two returned to the square of Exalting Sanctum.

"They said you are the quasi-saint of the Disciples of Sanctus Medicus. What's the matter?" Stelle asked curiously.

"There are spies of the Disciples of Sanctus Medicus around here. Let's go over there to talk."

"Oh... okay, I understand."

It wasn't until they arrived in an uninhabited area that Ilu explained to Stelle what had happened earlier. Although Stelle was confused, she realized that Ilu's infiltration appears to have had some unexpected changes.

"How about we just notify General Jing Yuan to wipe them out?"

"I have sent a message to Jing Yuan. The Cloud Knight Army stationed nearby will be here soon. None of them will escape. I have even discovered the location of Mauve Moon, their person in charge in Exalting Sanctum."

"Ah?"

"Why else do you think I took you away..."

After saying this, Ilu paused for a moment before changing the subject. "Of course, there's another reason for calling you here. I think you’ve seen Kafka, right?"

"Yeah."

Stelle nodded in reply. "Fu Xuan has taken her to Divination Commission, and we will go there later."

"Then we will meet here. I have completed my work as an undercover agent in Sanctus. Next, I can act with you."

"Great! White Lily!" Stelle clapped her hands with a smile.

"Call me Ilu!"

"Yes, White Lily."

"Ilu:..."

She have a feeling this nickname is going to follow her forever.

-----------------

Not long after, Ilu followed Stelle to find the receptionist of the Divination Commission, a fortune teller named Qingque, who was playing cards with others.

When everyone from the Express Crew arrived, they headed toward the Divination Commission.

After defeating the Mara-struck soldiers who blocked their path, they soon met Fu Xuan and helped repair the talisman of the Matrix of Prescience.

"You did a good job. I have sensed that the talisman of the Matrix of Prescience has been re-lit."

After checking the now-normal Matrix of Prescience, Fu Xuan said with satisfaction, "Next, I will interrogate Kafka. You just watch from the side. Don't go to the center of the formation without permission to avoid being impacted by the formation."

"Understood."

Everyone nodded and stood outside the Matrix of Prescience, waiting for Fu Xuan to provide the result of the divination.

"What!"

However, Fu Xuan suddenly widened her eyes in shock and exhaled sharply. The Matrix of Prescience, which had completed the deduction, fell silent again. Kafka, in the center of the formation, wore a confident smile, as if everything was under control.

"How about it, Master Diviner? Did you see the picture you wanted?"

"You...just for this?"

"Yeah."

"Unbelievable."

As the Divination Commission of the Divination Commission, Fu Xuan knew that the deduction result of the Matrix of Prescience could not be wrong.

The truth is just as Kafka had said: the Stellaron Hunter had nothing to do with the disaster of Xianzhou. Someone else had brought the Stellaron onto Xianzhou.

"Heh, I didn't expect it to be... It's ridiculous. There is this kind of thing. I must report this to the general immediately. I'm sorry I can't accompany you. If you want to know more, just ask her."

Fu Xuan glanced at the people on the Astral Express. It seemed she didn't want to say more. She hurriedly took the Divination Commission members and left the Matrix of Prescience, leaving everyone staring at each other.

"Go, Stelle, ask what's going on."

"Yeah."

Stelle walked to the center of the Matrix of Prescience and began to consult Kafka about her doubts. However, when they were halfway through their conversation, a loud rumbling sound suddenly erupted from the distance.

"Boom boom boom——!"

The Ambrosial Arbor grew, and the world descended into chaos.

The once-dead tree became emerald green and began to grow at an extremely terrifying speed, stretching out new branches.

In just a few minutes, a magnificent giant tree stood tall, casting shade over the entire fairy ship.

"Everyone, see you again if we are lucky... Let's go, Blade. We still have two places to visit."

While everyone's attention was focused on the rapidly growing Ambrosial Arbor, Kafka quietly broke free from her restraints. Under the escort of a black-clad swordsman who suddenly appeared, she jumped out of the Divination Commission.

The black-clad swordsman, who had kept his eyes closed from the beginning, followed closely behind and left the Express Crew's sight with Kafka.

"Ding!"

Just then, Ilu's phone received two completely different message notifications at the same time:

[Leader: White Lily, the time has come; it's time to leave. If you have made up your mind, come to Alchemy Commision to see me.]

[Jing Yuan: Ilu, Xianzhou is in need of people now. We need your help. Can you go to Scalegorge Waterscape?]

"Hmm..."

Looking at these two messages, Ilu rested her chin on one hand and fell into deep thought.

She could go to Alchemy Commision with the Express Crew to kill the leader, or she could go directly to Scalegorge Waterscape.

So, how should she choose...

"What's wrong, Ilu?"

March 7th cast a curious look.

"Nothing, it's just... we may have to separate again for a while."

Ilu shook her head and sighed softly. "Jing Yuan is calling me over; I may not be able to take care of you here."

After making her decision, she planned to go to Scalegorge Waterscape first. After all, this was Jing Yuan's request. Moreover, Dan Heng and Blade would probably meet there soon. If she went now, she should be able to catch the excitement.

Just like she had said before in the Herta Space Station—if Dan Heng and Blade had a conflict one day, she would be the first to rush in to help Dan Heng beat Blade.

"It doesn't matter."

Glancing at Ambrosial Arbor standing in the distance, Welt said slowly, "Let us handle things here. You can go there without worry."

"Okay, then I'm leaving. You all pay attention to your safety... especially those around you."

"Well, you should be more careful too."

---