The attention of the two Heliobi fell onto Nero, but Nero had no time to deal with them.
He had already figured out most of the paper talisman and inscriptions Huohuo had given him. To what extent exactly?
Roughly speaking, he did not understand them, nor did he know the principles behind them, but he could use them.
"So why do the Heliobi want to challenge the generals?" Stelle suddenly asked.
"A reason? Do you really need a reason?" Cirrus looked at Stelle. She seemed to be the same type as Nero, doing whatever came to mind,
"If you want a grand and proper reason, the Xianzhou imprisoned the ancestor of the Heliobi in a cage and used it to power the Xianzhou. Is that enough?
"If you want a simple and direct one, we just want to fight a general and see what the Xianzhou people are made of.
"We Heliobi originally lived carefree lives. It was only after coming into contact with humans that we caught the disease of humanity."
"It's all humanity's fault. Your emotions and desires are so intense that we've never been able to return to our former pure state of mind."
"So I want my freedom back! I want to return beyond the skies! Lord Tail, don't you want to reunite with the fragments? Don't you want to stop being a tail forever? Why not come back beyond the skies with me?"
"Tch... Sounds better than it is." Tail glanced at Cirrus with disdain.
Huohuo also turned toward the phantom Cirrus had formed and said, "Bad guy, don't even think about trying anything. Lord Tail is sealed by the judges of the Ten-Lords Commission. He can't escape... and neither can you."
At that moment, Nero suddenly spoke, "You should've said earlier that you wanted to return beyond the skies. I can help you."
As soon as Nero finished speaking, everyone looked at him.
Nero's face showed no expression, as though he genuinely wanted to help Cirrus return beyond the skies. Then he raised a hand, pressed his index and middle fingers together, and lightly drew downward through the air in front of him.
The next moment, a green energy began swirling like wind and gathered at Nero's fingertips. Then, following his movements, it spread out and formed patterns and inscriptions.
As Nero continued moving, more and more inscriptions appeared in the air. Then he flicked his hand and closed his fingers, grabbing all the inscriptions into his palm. They gathered there, glowing green before quickly disappearing.
Tail and Huohuo, who had spent a long time in the Ten-Lords Commission, immediately recognized those inscriptions.
They were the same ones written on the talisman Huohuo had given Nero to study, and also the same ones written on the talisman given to Stelle.
These inscriptions were commonly used to suppress Heliobi.
However, the ones Nero wrote seemed slightly different.
Noticing the confusion on Huohuo's and Tail's faces, Nero explained, "Since my goal is to pull Cirrus out of Stelle's body, I wanted to make some changes to these Heliobus-targeting inscriptions. Although I don't really understand this stuff, I don't think there should be any problem."
"That's way too casual of a decision and method..." Tail said.
"Nero, if they haven't been tested, it's better not to casually change or use inscriptions and spells. There could be some safety risks..." Huohuo also advised.
"I think it'll be fine."
Nero smiled, then turned toward Stelle.
More accurately, he was looking at Cirrus, who was possessing Stelle.
Although it looked as though Nero was looking at Stelle, at that moment Cirrus suddenly felt a chill, as if she had truly been targeted.
Even the phantom she had manifested outside trembled before quickly dissipating.
At the same time, Cirrus's voice came from Stelle's body.
"What are you trying to do? I'm warning you, don't come over here!"
Watching Nero slowly roll up his sleeves, Cirrus's voice became more and more panicked.
"Kid, don't do anything stupid. Let me tell you, I'm one with this gray-haired girl. Aren't you afraid she'll get hurt too?"
"What are you scared of?"
Nero looked at Cirrus in confusion and gave her no chance to continue speaking.
He directly placed a hand on Stelle's stomach, then made a motion as if grabbing a rope and yanked outward.
Accompanied by Nero's familiar "Gotcha," countless inscriptions intertwined together and were actually pulled out like a rope.
At the end of that rope of inscriptions, ripples spread like water waves, and Cirrus's giant eyeball was dragged out like a yo-yo before being grabbed by Nero.
Cirrus, "!??"
'What just happened? How did he pull me out in one move? Are you even human!?'
Being pulled out so easily by such a bizarre method, Cirrus was completely stunned.
The expression on Tail's face twitched unnaturally, and he silently backed away.
Now that Cirrus had fallen into this kid's hands, her life was basically over.
Meanwhile, Stelle and Huohuo both showed relieved and happy expressions after seeing Cirrus really get pulled out by Nero.
Nero turned his hand slightly so that his palm faced himself, making Cirrus's front face him as well.
Narrowing his eyes slightly, Nero looked at Cirrus and smiled.
"Although I did say I'd help you fulfill your wish of returning beyond the skies... before that, we still need to settle some accounts."
"But you don't need to worry too much. I'm not a bad person, after all."
"You possessed Stelle without permission, used her to threaten me, and even made Huohuo cry. I won't punish you or anything. Just go to work. Go work at my factory."
"After learning about your Heliobi race's ability to absorb emotions and memories, I realized your race is very suitable for my factory."
"Although factory workers can be replaced when they become useless, staying in a depressed mood and environment for long periods isn't good for work efficiency. You can help ease their troubled hearts and act as a psychologist."
"This way, you've left the Luofu and received the punishment you deserve. I think it's pretty good."
Nothing Nero said sounded particularly wrong.
And Cirrus, whose "experience was limited," could not hear anything suspicious in it either.
Although this was not what Cirrus wanted, the situation was stronger than she was right now. There was nothing she could do. For the moment, she could only listen to what this white-haired kid had to say.
It was just that, for some reason... Why did her back feel cold?
Could a Heliobus even experience a chill down its spine and a feeling of dread?
Unlike Cirrus, Tail knew exactly what Nero's Fragmentum Factory was like inside, what kind of workers it had, what sort of work system it maintained, and what kind of oppressive and gloomy atmosphere covered the entire factory.
After hearing Nero's decision for Cirrus, he trembled slightly.
He knew that Cirrus's life was basically over.
Even Lord Tail did not want to imagine what kind of inhuman torment Cirrus would experience inside that factory. Just absorbing emotions and memories? That was thinking far too simply.
During his visit to the Fragmentum Factory, Tail could clearly feel countless emotions, gloom, pain, depression, exhaustion, fear, madness, and more, filling every corner like thick fog covering the sky.
Those emotions were like darkness swallowing light, or vague shadows hidden within the darkness, letting out horrifying shrieks and dreadful tremors.
On the Xianzhou, if one asked what kind of memories and emotions Heliobi hated most, the answer would undoubtedly be Mara-struck people.
Even though Tail had never actually tasted what a Mara-struck person was like, judging from their behavior and the scent coming from them, he was certain it was not something delicious. A Mara-struck body was not a pleasant place to be.
Yet at this moment, Tail had a feeling...
Compared to those numb workers in Nero's Fragmentum Factory who were like walking corpses, even the Mara-struck were nothing more than a minor case beside a major one.