The Astral Express arrived as swiftly as Sylvia had expected.
She hadn't even made it to the docks when she heard the broadcast from Cloudford—a docking request transmitted by the Astral Express itself.
By the time Sylvia arrived, March 7th, Welt, and Stelle had already disembarked onto the eerily empty port.
"Whoa… why is there no one here? It's kinda creepy…"
March shivered slightly, pulling Stelle along as she hid behind Mr. Yang.
Welt, too, frowned faintly, pushing his glasses up with a thoughtful motion.
As far as he could tell, the docking request had gone through smoothly, without a hitch.
Logically speaking, even with Sylvia acting as an intermediary, the Luofu should have sent a small reception party—or at least a few people to check things out.
But not a soul in sight… that was a bit beyond what he had anticipated.
And besides…
"March, stay alert. It seems a battle took place here not long ago…"
Welt had keenly noticed the traces left behind by Bella's massive creature.
This wasn't like in the game.
Back then, Cloudford had already been sealed, with Tingyun's merchant vessel being the last to depart.
Now, before the incident, the Luofu's port had been bustling with incoming and outgoing ships.
The people from those ships would naturally have to return.
In fact, most of those Bella had rescued were saved in this very area.
And before Bella appeared, this was also where the fighting had been most intense.
"Huh? No way… have Fragmentum creatures already made it this far??"
March's eyes widened as she glanced around nervously. Weren't they just told the Stellaron on the Luofu had only recently erupted?
"Hmm… probably not."
Welt didn't see any signs of Fragmentum erosion, and with the Luofu Alliance's delve technology…
It was hard to imagine they couldn't contain a Fragmentum expansion.
"Let's keep moving forward for now. Just stay alert."
Staying put wasn't going to help. Since the Express's docking request was approved, it meant the Luofu as a whole was still operational.
Maybe something had just happened here at Cloudford.
Just then, March's phone rang.
March jolted in place, then chuckled sheepishly under Stelle's gaze as she fumbled for her phone.
"Aha… scared me for a second. Seriously, who's messaging me now…"
She glanced down at the lit screen and immediately brightened up.
"It's Sylvia! She says she's at Cloudford and asks where we are. Did she come all this way just to meet us?"
March's fingers tapped rapidly on her screen as she replied to Sylvia.
Welt also let out a small sigh of relief.
Having a local contact certainly made things easier. If Sylvia weren't here, in an unfamiliar place, he wouldn't even know where to begin.
The two groups met up without any trouble.
Mainly because the path had already been cleared earlier—Sylvia just had to follow it down.
She smoothly reached the dock area, where she found the Express crew and saw the Astral Express itself berthed nearby.
"Sylvia! Finally, a living person! We haven't seen a single soul this whole way—totally gave me the creeps!"
The moment they spotted her, March dashed over, grabbing Sylvia's hand and heaving a huge sigh of relief.
Stelle, who had been trailing beside her, initially didn't move—but after seeing March's action, she hurried over to Sylvia's other side.
Tucking her bat under her arm, she copied March and latched onto Sylvia's other arm.
"…"
Held by an arm on each side, Sylvia was speechless.
"…Let go of me, you two. What is this, a double act?"
"Aha~ Sorry, sorry."
March giggled, scratching her head.
Stelle also grinned.
"Aha~ Sorry, sorry."
"Hey—don't copy me!"
March planted her hands on her hips, pretending to kick, and Stelle promptly ducked behind Sylvia.
Welt, accustomed to the children's antics, adjusted his glasses and formally greeted Sylvia on behalf of the Astral Express.
"…Speaking of which, what's the current situation on the Luofu?"
Finally seeing Sylvia, Welt couldn't help but ask the question.
But Sylvia just shook her head.
"To be honest, I'm not entirely sure yet. All I know is the Stellaron erupted not long ago, the Ambrosial Arbor stirred, and then I came straight to Cloudford to rescue a friend."
After saying that, Sylvia glanced at March.
"You all arrived just a step too late. When March contacted me, I had just finished evacuating everyone from Cloudford."
"No wonder… I was wondering why such a huge port was completely empty. So it was you!"
March cheerfully poked Sylvia's arm.
"By the way… Miss Himeko and Dan Heng didn't come?"
"Yeah, Himeko decided to stay on the Express. As for Dan Heng…"
Although the others didn't know, Dan Heng's behavior suggested he had some deep history with the Luofu.
"That guy Dan Heng definitely has secrets on the Luofu! Hey, Sylvia, wanna help us dig around this time?"
March was brimming with enthusiasm, and Stelle beside her nodded vigorously.
They both looked utterly gossipy.
"Dig all you want. No one's stopping you."
Sylvia was already turning her thoughts to the Scalegorge Waterscape.
Now, seeing that Dan Heng hadn't disembarked, she suddenly remembered how much he disliked talking about his past life.
It seemed all the Vidyadhara were like that.
But because of the Vidyadhara elders' questionable methods, Dan Heng's molting rebirth wasn't complete—the High Elder's power wasn't passed on to the next incarnation.
Dan Heng was really caught between a rock and a hard place.
So, for Dan Heng, reclaiming Dan Feng's power wasn't something he actually wanted.
Sylvia didn't particularly care whether Dan Heng turned into a little dragon-person or not. After all, whether he did or didn't, the affairs of Dan Feng would still be laid at his feet.
There was no escaping it.
What she was pondering was whether she had a way to break the seal on the Scalegorge Waterscape?
Or, using that as a pretext, maybe extracting some of the High Elder's memories wouldn't be a bad idea either.
They were both followers of the Path of Permanence, after all.
The only difference was that Sylvia didn't know the High Elder's spells.
But… what if she had a Light Cone?
Sylvia considered asking Jing Yuan for some recorded imagery of the High Elder performing spells in the Scalegorge Waterscape.
If she could extract a Light Cone from that, maybe she could replicate a fraction of the High Elder's power?
Sylvia rubbed her chin.
It didn't seem entirely impossible.
Light Cone technology relied on the power of memories to grant abilities to the user.
The key lay in how much memory Sylvia could extract.
And whether she could obtain that imagery in the first place.
There was also another matter.
Phantylia managed to obtain such a powerful physical form using just a single fruit from the Ambrosial Arbor.
The Ambrosial Arbor was a miracle bestowed by Yaoshi.
If she were to just… take the entire tree, could she leap straight to becoming an Emanator of Abundance?
Her Storage Card couldn't store living beings. The revived Arbor probably didn't count, but a severed, rootless tree afterward—would that still be considered alive?
Hmm… worth a try.
But before that, she needed to deal with the Stellaron currently inside her Storage Card.
So Sylvia turned her gaze toward the expert specially tasked with Stellaron recovery—
Mr. Welt of the Astral Express.
--+--
T/N: I have a Patreon! While it may seem empty as of now, webnovel will get 3 Chapters Every Day, and advanced chapters will be uploaded on Patreon.
It may not seem worth it now, but maybe in the future. Who knows!
[email protected]/AspenTL
If you guys wanna check it out.