"Ow!"
Qingque clutched her forehead, instantly dropping the exaggerated act she'd been putting on for show.
Rubbing her brow, she said helplessly, "Lady Fu Xuan, let's talk this out reasonably. I'll do it, I'll do it! You should just go and enjoy your vacation."
Qingque was well aware of Fu Xuan's lifestyle as a total workaholic. Thus, she was actually quite happy to see Fu Xuan finally get some proper rest.
It would just be better if she wasn't the one stuck with the overtime!
Unfortunately, this was all very sudden. Distributing these tasks to others would take far too much time, and judging by the Boss's attitude, she didn't plan on giving Fu Xuan much time to breathe.
Qingque let out a long, heavy sigh. Things had already come to this; she was out of tricks.
Besides, what else could she do? Looking at her big boss's usual workaholic state made her feel like she was suffocating just by proxy.
Now that Fu Xuan finally had a chance to rest, Qingque couldn't exactly just say she was quitting.
Moreover, the Boss had been very good to her over the past few years. Even though the prospect of overtime was soul-crushing, she could only weep for herself and move on.
With literal tears in her heart, Qingque silently accepted the mountain of work Fu Xuan handed over.
As for whether completing all this work by herself would expose her true professional capabilities...
Ever since the Boss "sold her out" back then, her secret had been laid bare for all to see.
By now, Qingque had long since shifted her original goal: from "slacking off through life" to the wish of "absolutely never becoming a Xianzhou General."
However, Qingque had heard recently that because Fu Xuan had become the Boss's Emanator, there was some controversy regarding her future succession to the position of General of the Luofu.
Such rumors weren't widespread, circulating mostly among those in the know.
Although it felt a bit wicked to think this way, Qingque figured that if the Master Diviner failed to get the promotion, she herself—as the head of Celestial Sparrow Entertainment—theoretically wouldn't be able to take the post either.
And even if the Master Diviner defied all odds and actually became General, the Reignbow's Seven Arbiter-Generals wouldn't allow two General seats to be held by two followers of another Aeon.
No matter how capable Qingque was, it simply wouldn't make sense.
So, no matter how she looked at it, Qingque felt she was destined for a total win!
In short, Fu Xuan felt relatively at ease leaving the work to Qingque. Once she saw Qingque seriously take up the mantle, she followed 'Finality Kiana' and left the Divination Commission.
However, even though she was supposedly out on vacation, Fu Xuan paced around, unsure of what to actually do with herself.
"Um, where are you taking me?"
"Don't you have anywhere you want to go?"
'Finality Kiana' had pulled her out, but she hadn't intended to drag Fu Xuan to Celestial Sparrow Entertainment to play games with Silver Wolf and the others.
With that Third Eye open, what game could possibly challenge her? Even the best cheats couldn't compete with her future sight.
But Fu Xuan's problem seemed more serious than she'd imagined. The woman didn't even know how to spend her time off.
'Finality Kiana' let out a helpless sigh.
"You really need to figure out how to relax. No wonder Jing Yuan was hesitant to give you his seat. With the way you operate, forget him—even I'm worried that one day the power of Permanence won't be enough to suppress your Mara-struck transformation."
"..."
Fu Xuan pursed her lips, wearing an "I am not amused" expression. She wanted to argue, but unfortunately... she couldn't. At this point, she no longer said things like "rest is useless."
"Speaking of which, have you played on the Originium platform?"
"The one from Celestial Sparrow Entertainment? Every time a new game is launched, I log in to review it. I suppose that counts as playing."
"Review?? Are you working as a part-time reviewer for Celestial Sparrow Entertainment too?"
'Finality Kiana' was stunned by the answer. But Fu Xuan shook her head in denial.
"It's not a part-time job; I just do it myself. Since Celestial Sparrow Entertainment is your faction, as your Emanator, I have an obligation to help Qingque keep an eye on the content being released."
"..."
'Finality Kiana' was genuinely shocked.
This meant Fu Xuan hadn't just denied herself vacation time; she had burdened herself with an entirely unrelated, extra job—and one as tedious and fussy as content review, of all things.
You really don't know until you ask. Just how much work had Fu Xuan been secretly hoarding for herself? Even with the power granted by an Aeon, this lifestyle was unsustainable.
'Finality Kiana' didn't say anything more. She'd nagged enough already.
"That's not playing; that's working. I want you to kill time with a relaxed mindset, so your brain stops constantly dwelling on work."
"...I'll try."
Fu Xuan opened her mouth to reply but didn't quite know how to commit. 'Finality Kiana' realized she wouldn't be able to fix Fu Xuan in one go, so she planned to just distract her for a few days first.
She brought Fu Xuan to the headquarters of Celestial Sparrow Entertainment.
They saw Qingque there, but Kiana and Silver Wolf were nowhere to be found.
According to Qingque, those two had gone to tour the company to track down the legendary "retirement-tier" game design masters.
The headquarters had expanded several times over the years. Almost all the land surrounding the original building had been deeded to Celestial Sparrow.
The company's scale had grown exponentially; this was just the Luofu headquarters, and there were hundreds of branch offices scattered across various star systems, scouting for all kinds of different game designs.
Because of this massive scale, the Originium platform was no longer the sparse environment of a few years ago.
If Fu Xuan personally checked every single game that went live, it was no wonder she was drained.
'Finality Kiana' didn't rush to find a game for Fu Xuan or give her a task.
Instead, she grabbed some free Immortal's Delight from the company lounge and sat with Fu Xuan in a tastefully decorated courtyard, doing absolutely nothing.
In the center of the courtyard stood a peculiar-looking Originium Tree.
The entire tree was made of Originium, looking like a crystalline sculpture, yet it had been slowly growing over the years. It even sent out offshoots to take root in every branch office.
As a divine miracle of an Aeon, the thing was displayed quite openly for every employee to see. Most new hires would marvel at it on their first day, though they eventually got used to it.
Fu Xuan didn't know why she had been brought here. Was she just supposed to stare blankly into space?
She found it hard to believe, as she rarely wasted time like this. It actually made her feel quite restless. The shift was too sudden for her to adapt.
'Finality Kiana' saw her struggle and decided to give her something light to do.
"Fu Xuan, come help me look at the wish records from the past few years."
"Huh?"
"The Originium Tree."
'Finality Kiana' pointed to the miracle she had left behind. Originally, it hadn't looked like this, but as the company expanded, it had been designed with botanical features.
In the future, if it grew large enough, it might even replace the spectacle of the Ambrosial Arbor that the Xianzhou had lost centuries ago.
"You know this tree carries the 'Universal Wish Machine' I promised to every player. I have a general idea of how many people have used it, but I haven't looked at the details. Since we have time, look through them with me."
"...Very well."
Fu Xuan hesitated for a moment before nodding in agreement. Many stories of these wishes circulated on the interastral network, but many people kept their wishes secret.
Among them were absurdly funny requests, but surely some were more ominous. If she could grasp this information...
"Fu Xuan, stop instinctively thinking about work. Come on, take my hand. I'll take you inside."
'Finality Kiana' took Fu Xuan's hand, pulling her back from her thoughts, and led her into the interior of the Originium Tree.
The tree itself was Originium, but logging in from this location was equivalent to gaining Administrator privileges.
One could directly manage all player data, game data, and the power 'Finality Kiana' had left within. Not even Qingque could come here; only 'Finality Kiana' could bring someone in.
Bypassing the technical admin logs, 'Finality Kiana' found the wish list.
As the years passed and the platform expanded, the number of players eligible for a wish had increased annually.
Theoretically, there shouldn't be that many wishes yet—though in a few decades, the directory would surely be massive.
In 'Finality Kiana's' memory, the tree had responded to exactly 450 wishes.
However...
"Why is the list numbered all the way up to forty thousand?! That's a hundred times more than it should be!!"
'Finality Kiana' was floored. Her Aeon-level system had been exploited by someone. Someone had bypassed her and squeezed out over forty thousand extra wishes?!
Dammit!
Who was that wicked? To break through the firewall she'd left behind, they would theoretically have to be someone nearing the level of an Aeon.
Someone like that would usually want the tree itself; who would care about the power of forty thousand wishes? It wasn't even enough to create a single Emanator.
As 'Finality Kiana' scrolled through the entries, she realized that many of the "wishers" weren't even users of the Originium platform.
Theoretically, the only person capable of pulling this off was an Aeon who was particularly skilled with the power of Elation.
'Finality Kiana' already had a culprit in mind. Especially when she touched the wish list and scanned the entries with her mental strength—the conclusion became undeniable.
--+--
T/N: If you want advance chapters, you can find it at [email protected]/AspenTL