Today, the Divination Commission was as busy as ever.
Fu Xuan had just finished squeezing every last bit of labor out of Qingque before sending her off for yet another round of overtime work.
Recently, Qingque had somehow become the celebrity of the Divination Commission. No matter where she went, people eagerly tried to flatter her and curry favor with her, making her far more popular than ever before.
Naturally, Fu Xuan could not tolerate seeing this notorious slacker getting too comfortable. Under the excuse of 'tempering her character' and 'training her properly,' Fu Xuan kept assigning Qingque additional work and forcing her into endless overtime shifts, leaving the poor girl utterly miserable.
"Hmm, so this is why Lucian usually doesn't handle anything himself—making other people do the work for him is way easier."
Fu Xuan picked up her phone-type jade abacus and casually browsed the net for a while, only for the first thing she saw to be the top trending topic currently exploding across the Luofu:
#Lucian_and_Tingyun_Intimate_Photos_Released
"Huh? What kind of nonsense is this supposed to be? Intimate photos?"
At first, Fu Xuan assumed it was merely some shameless clickbait created by unreliable media outlets to attract attention. However, the moment she tapped on the post, the first thing that entered her sight was a photo of Tingyun and Lucian standing extremely close together with bright smiles on their faces, looking unusually intimate from the angle at which it had been taken.
In that instant, Fu Xuan's hand trembled violently as she held her teacup, and the tea nearly spilled onto the valuable documents spread across her desk.
'It really was Lucian?'
'When did he get here? Why didn't I know?'
'And what was that foxian from the Whistling Flames doing standing that close to him?'
'Completely improper!'
'Even I, his own wife, haven't properly caught up with him yet, but some merchant guild representative has already beaten me to it?'
'And she actually had the nerve to post something like this in public!'
Fu Xuan's mood instantly worsened.
'Damn Lucian, if you won't come find me, then I'll go find you myself!'
===
Almost at the same time, within a quiet courtyard elsewhere on the Xianzhou Luofu, Jingliu was slowly wiping her sword while faint cold air drifted around her body like frost.
At this moment, she had just finished another round of sword practice and was taking a short break.
"Jingliu! Stop practicing already and hurry up, look at this!"
Baiheng suddenly shouted as she rushed out of the room and ran over in a hurry.
"Baiheng, how many times have I told you? You must remain calm when facing any situation."
Jingliu's expression remained completely unchanged, her tone as calm and steady as frozen water.
"One must achieve the state where, even if the Luofu collapsed before one's eyes, one's expression would not change, and even if abominations rose beside one's body, one's gaze would not waver. Only then could one judge benefits and harms, and only then could one face enemies."
"Next time for sure, next time for sure!"
Baiheng replied perfunctorily without the slightest sincerity before quickly placing her phone in front of Jingliu.
"Forget all that for now—just look at who this is."
In that instant, the moment the photo of Tingyun and Lucian entered Jingliu's sight, the motion of her hand wiping the sword abruptly stopped.
At the same moment, the surrounding temperature seemed to drop several more degrees, and even the atmosphere within the courtyard became noticeably colder.
'You returned, yet you did not come to seek me first. Instead, you were laughing and taking photos together with this unfamiliar Foxian woman?'
Jingliu's gaze slowly settled on the photo, where Tingyun was practically pressed against Lucian, while beneath it was a caption that read 'he's even more handsome in person,' accompanied by a 😍 emoji.
In an instant, the fingers gripping her sword tightened slightly.
"It seems Master has found himself another new lover again... Baiheng, you stay here. I'll go take a look for myself."
Jingliu immediately stood up and prepared to leave, but Baiheng hurriedly grabbed her arm in alarm.
"Hey, hey! At least don't bring the sword with you!"
===
"Urp~"
Inside a private dining room of the Whistling Flames, Stelle let out a full burp and patted her stomach with a painfully satisfied expression.
"March, I'm gonna die from overeating, so I'll leave my godfather in your care from now on..."
"Seriously, Stelle, who told you to eat that much? If other people saw you, they'd think the Astral Express couldn't even afford proper meals."
March rubbed Stelle's stomach from the side while complaining helplessly.
"We'll stop here for today since we've still got other things to do. If you run into danger while doing business outside, especially if it's a heliobus or members of the Antimatter Legion, send me your coordinates immediately, understood?"
Lucian waved goodbye to Tingyun while specifically emphasizing that she absolutely had to contact him if she encountered danger.
Long ago, he had already wanted to locate Phantylia, but unfortunately, the cosmos was simply too vast. No matter how overwhelmingly powerful he had become, he still could not search for a needle hidden within an endless ocean of stars.
Fortunately, he knew the general plot and at least possessed a rough target to work with. If Tingyun ever encountered a life-or-death crisis, then there was a very high probability that she had encountered Phantylia.
At that point, he could immediately rush over and capture a beautiful Lord Ravager alive.
A heliobus?
So what if she was a heliobus?
A heliobus simply felt fresher!
"Thank you for your concern, my lord. Tingyun is deeply grateful and will definitely remember your kindness."
Tingyun respectfully sent off Lucian and his three female companions while maintaining her elegant smile.
At the same time, she felt somewhat delighted inside.
How could she not, knowing that this famous general was truly a good man—gentle, attentive, powerful, and incredibly charming?
Moreover, he cared about her so much that he had personally promised to protect her, fearing that she might encounter danger.
How could a man possibly be this perfect?
Unfortunately, Fu Xuan had moved too quickly and already secured him first.
Otherwise, Tingyun truly would have wanted to seriously try pursuing him herself.
"Head Representative, you've just entered the trending rankings! Lan above, the stock prices of all our Whistling Flames businesses are rapidly rising!"
Suddenly, a guild assistant excitedly ran over and reported the news to Tingyun with obvious excitement written all over her face.
"As expected..."
Tingyun remained perfectly calm and composed, gently smiling as she waved her fan.
"Go help me purchase several rare treasures at a high price and prepare them as gifts for our honored guest another day. We're only making money this time because our honored guest chose to support us and was willing to let us drink a little soup spilling from between his fingers."
A major figure like Lucian only needed to casually appear on camera once for the traffic and popularity across every industry under the Whistling Flames to skyrocket dramatically.
Tingyun understood very clearly that he was intentionally showing them favor.
Perhaps it was because she had pleased him enough with her flattery, or perhaps it was for some other unspeakable reason?
In any case, this benefactor was her great patron, so she naturally needed to maintain frequent contact with him.
"Head Representative, but if we do this, aren't you afraid the Master Diviner might misunderstand? If she really does misunderstand, we absolutely won't be able to handle it."
As she spoke, the little assistant looked extremely worried.
It was no secret that Fu Xuan was the second most powerful figure in the Xianzhou Luofu.
Even though the Whistling Flames held considerable influence throughout the Xianzhou Luofu, they still could not possibly withstand the wrath of the Master Diviner.
"Master Diviner Fu Xuan is broad-minded. I merely took a photo together with him and did nothing improper, so nothing will happen."
Tingyun opened her folding fan and gently waved it a few times, still appearing completely relaxed.
Surely it was impossible for Fu Xuan to personally come knocking on her door and gun her down simply because she had taken a photo together with Lucian, right?
"Alright then, I'll go handle the work."
Right after saying that, the little assistant finally left.
Tingyun quietly stood in place and watched Lucian's group disappear into the flowing crowd in the distance. Only after some time had passed did she finally head upstairs alone and return to her office.
However, the moment she stepped through the door, she instantly froze on the spot.
Inside the room, two figures—one blue and one pink—were already waiting for her in silence, looking at her expressionlessly.
The blue figure was the recently famous Sword Immortal of the Xianzhou Cangcheng and former Sword Champion of the Xianzhou Luofu, Jingliu.
As for the pink figure, there was even less need for explanation—the Master Diviner of the Divination Commission of the Xianzhou Luofu, Fu Xuan.
As soon as Tingyun saw these two terrifyingly influential women appearing together inside her office, her tail nearly lost all control while her legs began trembling involuntarily.
Just moments ago, she had been saying that they were broad-minded and would not care, but now it seemed they absolutely cared.
"Where's Lucian?"
Fu Xuan narrowed her eyes slightly as she asked sternly.
"Replying to Master Diviner, he already left... he departed together with the three Nameless..."
Tingyun immediately answered nervously.
"Speak honestly..." Jingliu chimed in, her voice cold enough to resemble frozen ice itself. "When did you get together with Lucian?"
Hearing that, Fu Xuan narrowed her eyes further before asking another question.
"Tell us the truth. How far has your relationship progressed?"
At their sudden questions, Tingyun became so frightened that her tail puffed up completely as she frantically waved both hands in denial.
"Y-You two have misunderstood! Today was the very first time I even spoke with Lord Lucian! Everything between us is completely innocent!"
As she spoke and explained herself, she cried bitterly in her heart.
What kind of situation was this?
It was only a photo together, wasn't it?
Was it really necessary for these two big shots to personally come and interrogate her over something like this?
Jingliu and Fu Xuan exchanged glances before silently communicating through their eyes for a brief moment.
In their minds, it seemed this foxian truly was not lying.
"Mm, since you didn't become sisters with us, then let's just pretend we were never here today."
Just as those words fell from Fu Xuan's mouth, both she and Jingliu instantly vanished from the room, leaving Tingyun standing alone in place and wiping cold sweat from her forehead.
In the next second, she hurried over to the window and carefully checked outside several times to confirm that the two had truly left.
Only then did she finally dare mutter quietly to herself.
"Did I overestimate Master Diviner's generosity too much...?"
If she had failed to explain things clearly just now, who knew what kind of suffering would have awaited her afterward?
Perhaps that cold sword immortal really might have chopped off her tail?
"And what exactly did Master Diviner mean by 'since you didn't become sisters with us'?"
"Could it be that they actually came to become sisters with me? Or were they trying to trick me into confessing something?"
"No way... could two women that domineering really accept Lord Lucian finding other women?"
No matter how much Tingyun thought about it, she simply could not understand it at all, completely unable to grasp the thoughts and logic of such big shots.
===
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