Hanya, one of the judges of the Ten-Lords Commission, was Huohuo's senior and superior, and also the one who had personally sealed Tail within Huohuo's tail.
Some time ago, Lucian reviving the victims of Jingliu from the past had become common knowledge throughout the Ten-Lords Commission, leaving a profound impression on everyone who had heard of the event.
He was publicly acknowledged as the Arbiter-General of the Xianzhou Cangcheng, General Teng Xiao's sworn brother, General Jing Yuan's close friend, and the husband of the former Sword Champion and Master Diviner Fu Xuan.
A man of such status had a haunted home?
Give her a break.
What ghost would dare go anywhere near his home?
Wouldn't it get beaten into a pulp within seconds?
In Hanya's eyes, Huohuo had always been an exceptionally timid girl, so it was only natural that she assumed the young foxian had mistaken what she saw out of fear.
"All right, I understand. I'll investigate it myself."
Hanya spoke in a calm, gentle voice, patiently reassuring Huohuo, though the reassurance she offered was somewhat undermined by her naturally gloomy expression.
With the heavy dark circles beneath her eyes and her pale complexion, she looked almost identical to a White Impermanence. Even though her tone remained composed and gentle, her calm words somehow carried an unsettling air that made them sound eerier than intended.
"O-Okay... If Madam Hanya is handling it, then I won't be so scared..."
Upon hearing Hanya's reassurance, Huohuo finally relaxed completely, largely because the Ten-Lords Commission was filled with experts who specialized in hunting demons, monsters, and evil spirits, making it one of the safest places on the entire Xianzhou Luofu.
Only after Huohuo had completely departed did Hanya quietly let out a soft sigh, finally revealing the exhaustion she had been concealing behind her gloomy expression all this time.
"For that person's peace of mind, I should find some time to investigate it myself."
Even though she believed Huohuo had most likely frightened herself, Hanya still decided to personally look into the matter.
It couldn't be helped.
If there truly was something unusual, it would be best to resolve it before it caused unnecessary trouble.
===
Meanwhile, as soon as Huohuo stepped out of the Ten-Lords Commission's building, Tail immediately emerged once more, his familiar voice breaking the silence.
"I bet there's only one ghost in the entire Luofu, and that's you! You scaredy-cat!"
Hearing his words, Huohuo puffed out her cheeks in protest.
"It'd be great if I really were the only ghost!"
"I already told you that wasn't a ghost! It was..."
Tail suddenly fell silent, and his expression stiffened ever so slightly.
He couldn't help it, because no matter how hard he tried, he could no longer remember what that thing had actually been.
"Hm... that's weird. What did we just see? Why can't I remember it anymore? Scaredy-cat, do you remember?"
"Uhh, I can't remember either..." Huohuo slowly shook her head, her ears drooping. "I only remember that it floated over while flashing, then suddenly appeared behind me..."
Even Tail began to doubt himself.
'Could it really've been a ghost?'
If it had been a heliobus, there was no way he wouldn't have sensed it.
If it had been a living person, he would have smelled their emotions long before they ever got close.
Yet now, he couldn't even remember what he had seen.
No matter how hard he searched his memories, everything beyond a few fragmented impressions remained completely blank, as though something had forcibly erased that part of his recollection.
Such a vague, indescribable feeling only made the entire incident far more terrifying.
"Damn it, did we really run into something supernatural?" Tail muttered, frowning deeply. "Hopefully, Lucian's really as strong as the rumors say and can take care of that ghost."
As soon as Tail finished speaking, Huohuo immediately turned around and glared at him with puffed cheeks.
"Tail, if you say there's a ghost again, I'll really get angry."
"Hah? You're acting all tough in front of me now? You're scared of a ghost eating you, but you're not scared of me eating you?"
"Wah! You only ever bully me! I'm going to ask Madam Hanya to seal you inside a furnace!"
"Tch! Once I recover my strength, I'll burn the entire Ten-Lords Commission to the ground!"
Just like that, the two bickered back and forth as they walked, their familiar quarrel quickly dispersing much of the tense atmosphere from earlier.
Poor Huohuo, however, still had no choice but to continue her street patrols through Fyxestroll Garden, but this time, she deliberately avoided Lucian's residence. Whenever her patrol route brought her anywhere near that part of the district, she would quietly take the longer way around instead, not daring to go anywhere close to the house.
===
Not long after Huohuo's ghost incident, an unusual rumor quietly began spreading across the Xianzhou Luofu's network.
Many people claimed that a mysterious figure had approached them out of nowhere and asked all sorts of questions about Lucian's deeds, reputation, and the countless stories surrounding him.
Strangely enough, after the conversation ended, none of them could remember who had questioned them or what the mysterious person had looked like. They only remembered that someone had indeed asked them questions and that they had answered every one of them.
Had it happened to only one or two people, no one would have paid much attention to it. However, when dozens of completely unrelated people reported experiencing the exact same phenomenon, it quickly became a case the Ten-Lords Commission could no longer afford to ignore.
As a result, Hanya and Huohuo were assigned to investigate the increasingly bizarre incident.
Meanwhile, the true culprit had already left the area and quietly made her way to Starskiff Haven.
Standing beneath an umbrella as people continuously came and went around her, Evernight intercepted Tingyun before calmly asking another question.
"In your opinion, what are Lucian's strengths?"
Tingyun blinked in mild surprise upon hearing the question.
In her eyes, the young woman standing before her looked exactly like the girl named March who had accompanied Lucian that day. Except for their eye color, there was virtually no difference between the two, from their faces to their figures.
Perhaps the only difference was their temperaments.
March was lively, cheerful, and expressive, while the woman before her possessed an indescribable tranquility, as though nothing in the world could disturb the calmness in her eyes.
Assuming she was simply another one of Lucian's companions, Tingyun naturally smiled and began chatting with her.
"Lord Lucian's strengths? He is incredibly handsome, speaks so pleasantly, is gentle, powerful, and holds an extraordinary status... Oh my, I couldn't possibly list them all."
"And what about his weaknesses?"
"Weaknesses...?"
Tingyun lowered a finger against her chin and thought seriously for a moment before giving an apologetic smile.
"I'm sorry. I don't know. I've only met Lord Lucian once, so I don't know him very well. If I had to guess, perhaps his only flaw is that there are simply too many women around him?"
"Hmm, that's true... You have good judgment."
Evernight gave a small nod and softly praised Tingyun before turning around and quietly leaving without another word.
After questioning so many different people, Evernight had gradually formed a far more complete understanding of Lucian.
The memories she had inherited from March through the Path of Remembrance had never been enough for her to truly understand him, because they were, after all, merely one person's perspective. Left with no better option, she had chosen to verify those impressions in the most direct, albeit troublesome, way possible.
Only after comparing countless memories and opinions that all arrived at remarkably similar conclusions did those impressions finally become reliable enough for her to place her trust in them.
Now, Evernight could finally feel at ease about allowing March to continue traveling alongside Lucian.
In the end, Evernight quietly disappeared into the endless sea of people beneath the bustling streets of Starskiff Haven, vanishing without attracting a single glance from anyone around her, as though she had never been there in the first place.
Tingyun watched Evernight's departing figure until it completely disappeared from view.
However, the moment she turned around, Tingyun suddenly froze.
"Huh? Who was I just talking to? I remember someone asking me about Lord Lucian's strengths and weaknesses, but... that's strange... why can't I remember who it was?"
Tingyun closed her eyes and pondered for a long moment, carefully retracing her memories. Yet no matter how hard she searched, the conversation felt like a blank space in her mind.
A moment later, she suddenly froze before opening her eyes in surprise.
"Hold on... my case is exactly like the strange stories online... so they were actually true..." Tingyun muttered helplessly. "Running into something like this right before I'm about to leave on a business trip... My luck doesn't seem very good today..."
Even so, after only a brief moment of hesitation, she ultimately decided to continue with her business trip.
She had important commercial duties to fulfill, and as the head representative of the merchant guild Whistling Flames, postponing the journey simply wasn't an option. Countless agreements, deliveries, and negotiations depended on her arrival.
"Ms. Tingyun, the starskiff is ready for departure."
"Mm. Let's go. Hopefully everything goes smoothly on this business trip."
After one of her guards informed her that the starskiff was ready, Tingyun immediately boarded it and retired to her private room to rest while the attendants completed the final preparations.
Soon afterward, the merchant convoy fleet departed from the Xianzhou Luofu. Following its scheduled trade route, the fleet gradually sailed away from the bustling ports and entered the vast, mist-like cosmos embraced by the endless void.
Inside her private room, Tingyun took out her jade abacus and logged onto the network to check the news. However, upon remembering the strange incident from earlier, she decided to report everything to Hanya immediately.
[Tingyun: Hanya, I suspect that mysterious figure is one of Lord Lucian's fans. All the questions it asked were about him.]
A reply arrived not long afterward.
[Hanya: Mm. Our investigation points to the same conclusion. That's why I'm planning to meet Lord Lucian and exchange information with him. Maybe he knows something.]
Reading the reply, Tingyun closed her jade abacus and sighed.
"Hahh... fans these days really are capable of anything..."
Just to chase after Lucian, they were willing to go to unbelievable lengths.
Tingyun truly couldn't understand such irrational behavior, nor could she help looking down on people who would go so far over mere admiration.
Even so, as soon as that thought crossed her mind, Lucian's gentle smile unconsciously surfaced in her thoughts. Immediately afterward, she remembered the calamity he had warned her about, along with the method he had given her to survive it.
Opening her contact list, Tingyun looked at the only emergency contact saved there, her gaze lingering on the single name displayed on the screen: Lucian.
'We only met once, yet he's already become my only emergency contact... Fate really is mysterious. But I'm just an ordinary head representative. What kind of disaster would require someone as powerful as him to save me?'
Tingyun couldn't help but smile wryly.
As a merchant guild, the Whistling Flames possessed enormous financial resources. Every guard assigned to protect its convoys was an elite chosen through rigorous screening and years of experience, so one guard defeating ten ordinary opponents was nothing unusual.
Moreover, whenever Tingyun traveled on business, no fewer than a thousand escorts accompanied the convoy. With such overwhelming protection, even notorious interstellar pirates usually chose to steer clear rather than provoke a heavily guarded merchant convoy fleet.
Things had always been that way throughout the years, and Tingyun had never encountered any danger that wealth, influence, or capable guards couldn't resolve. Precisely because of that, she found it difficult to imagine what kind of catastrophe could ever force her to rely on someone like Lucian to save her.
'So what exactly is this calamity?'
'I'm only a little representative. There's no way I'd offend some major figure, right?'
'Could it be that an Emanator would actually make a move against a tiny nobody like me?'
'There probably isn't an Emanator shameless enough to do something like that... right?'
As that absurd train of thought crossed her mind, Tingyun couldn't help but find it amusing, and a faint chuckle escaped her lips.
However, without her or anyone else in the fleet realizing it, troops of the Antimatter Legion lay concealed far ahead along their route within a remote star system, silently waiting for their prey to arrive.
Leading them was Lord Ravager Phantylia, who had deliberately chosen that location to intercept one of the Xianzhou Luofu's merchant convoys.
Her objective was simple: to assume the identity of a native resident traveling with the convoy.
Ideally, the target would possess enough status to gain access to important institutions while remaining insignificant enough to avoid attracting Jing Yuan's personal attention. With such an identity, she could infiltrate the Xianzhou Luofu herself, move about freely, and verify the many unbelievable reports that had recently surfaced.
Teng Xiao's resurrection.
Jingliu's return.
And the miraculous reappearance of the Xianzhou Cangcheng.
Every one of those events sounded too outrageous to be true, yet the intelligence gathered by the Antimatter Legion consistently pointed to the same conclusion.
Just as fate would have it, Phantylia soon found the perfect candidate.
A foxian who served as the head representative of a merchant guild and regularly interacted with government officials. Someone influential enough to move freely throughout the Xianzhou Luofu and come into contact with important figures, yet insignificant enough that the Arbiter-General himself would never bother paying special attention to her.
For Phantylia, it was the ideal disguise.
Now all she had to do was wait for the little foxian to arrive. As soon as the unsuspecting foxian stepped into her carefully prepared trap, Phantylia would seize her identity and make that foxian's appearance her own.
In fact, this was a method Phantylia had mastered long ago.
Whether they were high-ranking officials, wealthy merchants, or influential natives, everyone whose identity she stole had shared the same fate: not a single one had ever survived.
'Hm? My ears feel like they're burning. Who's talking about me?'
Phantylia suddenly noticed something strange about the body she was currently using.
For some unknown reason, her ears had become unusually warm. Yet no matter how carefully she examined herself or how thoroughly she searched for the cause, she couldn't determine what had triggered the strange sensation. Perhaps this vessel simply couldn't withstand the overwhelming power of Destruction much longer.
Given that countless people cursed her name every single day across the universe, there was no reason for today's insults alone to have produced such an unusual reaction.
Regardless, she had no intention of dwelling on something so trivial.
For now, she needed to accelerate her plan to seize the Ambrosial Arbor as quickly as possible before any more unexpected variables could appear and disrupt everything she had painstakingly prepared.
===
[A bonus chapter for reaching 300 Power Stones]
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