Looking at Nero's rosy face, March felt happy. Hearing Nero's clear and full voice, March felt delighted.
All of this proved one thing, Nero was still that lively and optimistic Nero.
But...
Listening to Nero's matter-of-fact words, March fell into thought.
The others nearby also noticed that Nero had woken up and felt pleasantly surprised, but they didn't rush forward to disturb him.
And March could ask the question they were all confused about.
"But when Mr. Yang checked just now, your body no longer had normal physiological signs. Doesn't that mean you were dead?"
"Of course not." Nero shook his head.
The boy's gray eyes carried a serious expression. He looked straight into March's eyes and said in an extremely earnest and solemn tone, "I didn't die just now. It's just that because of the explosion, my soul accidentally left my body."
After thinking for a moment, Nero couldn't find a suitable word to describe his previous state, so he chose a relatively close explanation.
But what he said made everyone's minds buzz.
Putting aside the fact that the explosion caused his soul to leave his body... can something like a soul leaving the body even happen by accident?
Noticing everyone's stunned expressions, Nero frowned slightly and spoke again, "I need to correct your understanding."
"Death is death, and a soul leaving the body is a soul leaving the body. These are two different things. Just because my soul left my body doesn't mean I died. I was actually alive the whole time."
Everyone, "..."
'It didn't quite feel right, but what he said somehow sounded very reasonable!'
After saying that, Nero ignored everyone and raised his hand to touch the ground beneath his feet.
Although this place was one of the realms on the Luofu, it was still part of the Luofu. After returning to his body, he had lost his connection with it.
He couldn't see how far Luofu had traveled, nor could he know whether Luofu had caught Phantylia. He needed to try and see if he could reestablish that connection.
That being said, this kind of thing was quite mysterious. Nero himself didn't know how far he could go, but he felt it probably wouldn't be a big problem.
Just like how he could quickly master skills he obtained, how he could quickly learn sword techniques just by seeing them, how he could touch Luofu while outside his body the moment he wanted to, and how he could return to his body the moment he wished to...
He didn't need special tools, special conditions, or special techniques. No matter what those abilities required, he could always achieve them, as if skipping the process and directly obtaining the result he wanted.
Nero closed his eyes, imagining what he had done when he was outside his body, imagining the illusory and magnificent galaxy becoming an extension of his divine body's arms, making contact with the Xianzhou Luofu.
As a dull sound exploded deep within his mind, Nero felt as if he had arrived in a starry sky, then spread out through distant stars and darkness, moving forward until, in that deep space, he heard heavy vibrations and the roar of engines.
In the next instant, a flash of light bloomed deep within his mind, and Nero felt everything suddenly become clear.
Right after that came the rhythmic and powerful sounds of machinery in motion, along with the roar of artillery fire. These familiar sounds, carrying a certain emotion, filled Nero's perception.
The world in Nero's eyes began to change. He could see the sea of stars, see the artillery fire, and then he saw the ancient giant ship of the Xianzhou Alliance, Luofu, racing through the starry sea.
In front of it, all the fleeing Mirror Holder ships were being grabbed by mechanical arms extending from openings beneath Luofu's base, then tossed into the pitch-black abyss in front of the warship as if it were eating them.
Who knew where those guys would be sent? And Nero saw the emerald-green flame fleeing ahead. At that moment, his connection with Luofu was reestablished.
This reconnection process might not have taken long. Although it felt somewhat lengthy on a mental level, on the other hand, the fact that Luofu was swallowing those Mirror Holder ships was clearly happening in reality.
At the very beginning, Nero had wondered where those guys would be sent, but almost the next moment, he heard a report received on Jing Yuan's side.
Or rather, he received the report even earlier than Jing Yuan.
———
[In The Shackling Prison]
Through his connection with Luofu, Nero was the first to notice that something had appeared in the Shackling Prison.
Those who had been "eaten" by Luofu were bound by some kind of metal restraints and appeared there out of thin air.
Then Nero heard the flustered voices of the Cloud Knights guarding the prison. After a brief moment of shock, they quickly numbered and detained these uninvited guests and stated they would report the situation to Jing Yuan.
Finally, Nero saw the appearance of the Cloud Knight recording and heard him report everything he had already seen to Jing Yuan.
Right after that, Nero noticed the puzzled expression on Jing Yuan's face.
He felt like he had already seen too many bizarre things today.
Originally, Jing Yuan thought that as the general of Luofu, after thousands of years, there shouldn't be anything he hadn't seen before.
But today proved otherwise, he really hadn't seen these bizarre things.
Not just Jing Yuan, even the people from the Artisanship Commission and the Sky-Faring Commission, and even the ancient people who first built the Xianzhou, had no idea that the Luofu had such a function.
This clearly wasn't an ability the Luofu originally had when it was designed, but something caused by certain influences.
This influence might come from the blessing of the Hunt, or from the favor of Erudition, or perhaps from the influence of Elation... but judging from the current situation, the most likely source affecting the Xianzhou Luofu was Nero.
But these confusing matters should be left for Jing Yuan to handle.
Nero irresponsibly thought that he only needed to catch Phantylia.
So Nero sat on the ground, saying nothing, and began to focus all his attention on controlling the Xianzhou.
Seeing Nero like this, the others didn't disturb him. From their perspective, this child had just "come back from the dead," so it was better to let him rest a bit more.
Meanwhile, Phantylia, who was desperately fleeing, felt like cursing.
She had already heard the roaring sound coming from behind, seen those Mirror Holders being "eaten" by Luofu, and while running with all her strength, realized she couldn't outrun the massive Xianzhou Luofu at all.
As Luofu got closer and closer, Phantylia even had a strange feeling, the Xianzhou Luofu might be a being like her, one that had received the blessing of an Aeon.
Then suddenly, a surge of imaginary energy burst out, and Phantylia realized she had nowhere left to run. She was trapped inside a cage formed by this unknown imaginary energy.
Nero remembered that when capturing the Fright Maze, he had learned about some kind of imaginary energy device used to contain it.
Although he couldn't recall its full name now, nor did he understand the principle behind the thing Herta had developed, he still relied on his vague memory of how it worked to recreate it in a completely unreasonable way, and successfully used it to capture Phantylia.
At the moment she was captured, Phantylia heard the rumbling of the Xianzhou Luofu. Within the heavy sounds of that massive machinery, there seemed to be a kind of joyful emotion.
This ancient giant ship was extremely pleased after capturing Phantylia and felt satisfied with this perfect hunting operation.
Phantylia didn't know whether that feeling was just her imagination, but having failed to escape, she couldn't even bring herself to say anything harsh.
She could only think bitterly in her heart, 'Trying to mess with Luofu was the worst decision I've made in my life.'
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