Thanks to [Qu Zhong Zhi Qu] for the Great Healthcare!
...She would listen to him in everything, but in this one matter, she had to be a rebellious disciple!
"Master..."
Jingliu murmured softly, a sudden surge of madness rising in her crimson eyes.
He was there!
He was locked in a death match with Shuhu!
No wonder... no wonder she couldn't find him no matter where she searched on the Luofu; no wonder he and the Sleeping Snow sisters seemed to have vanished into thin air.
It turned out he had been in the most dangerous place all along.
"Master! Wait for me!"
Jingliu instinctively moved to pursue him on her sword, but just as she shifted, a sharp claw lunged from behind, nearly piercing the back of her neck.
It was a Borisin who hadn't yet retreated; she swung her sword back and cut it down.
More Abominations swarmed her. Although Shuhu had fled, the remaining remnants of the Followers of Abundance were still staggering in number.
If they weren't cleared out, the crisis on the Luofu would not be resolved.
Recalling the absolute orders left by Teng Xiao, Jingliu's footsteps came to a forced halt.
On one side was her Master, whose life or death was unknown.
On the other was the Luofu, riddled with holes and on the brink of destruction.
On one side was personal feeling; on the other was duty.
Jingliu's arm trembled violently, but in the end, she did not choose to give chase immediately.
As the Sword Master of the Luofu and a member of the Cloud Knights, she could not leave as long as a single Abomination remained alive here.
If her Master were here, he would never allow her to defy military orders.
Despair, pain, anxiety, worry... all emotions converged at this moment, forming the most extreme killing intent.
Another cold, full moon rose slowly, instantly enveloping more than half of the Luofu.
"All of you, die!"
"Die faster!"
Jingliu plunged into the enemy ranks like a demon.
Wherever her sword light passed, any Abomination was sliced into fragments and frozen into ice sculptures.
She was racing against time, venting her inner torment with a madness that overextended her every limit.
Master, I beg you... you must wait for your disciple.
Wait for me to finish killing this trash, then I will find you. Even if it is hell, I will go with you!
...In the vast sea of stars, a spaceship was continuously jumping, hurtling toward the Luofu at speeds exceeding light.
Inside the cockpit, Ruan Mei was, quite rarely, personally piloting the ship.
Yu Qintu and Black Swan sat to the side.
Though the relationship between the three women was subtle, at this moment, the emotions on their faces were surprisingly consistent.
Not long ago, on the anniversary of Qi Zhimu's death, Ruan Mei had rushed over right after Black Swan.
The moment she learned news related to Qi Zhimu, that face which had rarely shown expression for thousands of years was instantly swept by a violent storm.
Although Black Swan and Yu Qintu's expressions were slightly better, they weren't far off.
After tracing the memories of that worry-forget plum blossom brew, Black Swan had obtained some broken fragments and heard the voice of past memories within them.
That voice—none of them would ever mistake it.
Though they didn't know why, years after Qi Zhimu's passing, someone with the same name and voice would appear on the Luofu, it didn't stop the three women from reaching a consensus.
—That was to head to the Luofu immediately, right now, at the fastest possible speed.
If the Luofu weren't a major faction where anyone entering without regard for the Jade Gate would be labeled a mortal enemy, they would have used even more convenient means long ago.
Now, in just two more Luofu system hours, they would reach their destination.
Hmm?
The three women suddenly turned their heads in unison, looking in a certain direction.
Was that... the gaze of the Aeon of Abundance?
It was so obvious—even more obvious than when Nous marked a new genius.
"Something is wrong."
Ruan Mei's slender brows furrowed slightly as her fair fingers swiped across the control screen, pulling up the biological detection radar interface.
The dense, almost gapless points of light on the flight path made them quickly realize what was happening.
The Followers of Abundance were laying siege to the Xianzhou!
This wasn't anything new in the entire galaxy.
Any world that had initiated interstellar civilization knew that the friction between these two mortal enemy factions had lasted for thousands of years.
Not many factions dared to lightly provoke the Followers of Abundance, but the three women in the cabin were not among them.
They were already burning with anxiety to reach the Luofu and find Qi Zhimu; now, hearing that the Luofu was being attacked by the Followers of Abundance, how could they stand for it?
Before Yu Qintu or Black Swan could act, Ruan Mei's narrow eyes squinted slightly.
On the radar interface, all the red dots vanished simultaneously in an instant, with no indication of what means she had used.
Yu Qintu had to admit that a genius specializing in the field of life knew better than she did how to decide the survival of billions of lives in a heartbeat.
To Ruan Mei at this moment, these Followers of Abundance were less than weeds.
If that Qi Zhimu... was the AMu she had missed and searched for all these years... then any existence that dared to threaten AMu's safety deserved to die.
"You two, if the situation on the Luofu is critical, I believe there's no need to follow their rules anymore. I'm sure the Xianzhou people will understand."
Ruan Mei's tone carried an undisguised urgency.
Yu Qintu was in no mood to appreciate how Ruan Mei's usually expressionless face had gained a human touch, and she nodded without hesitation.
"I agree."
"Seconded."
"Ms. Black Swan, give me the coordinates," Ruan Mei said.
Black Swan's fingertip pointed toward Ruan Mei's forehead, transmitting a certain coordinate obtained from that bottle of worry-forget plum blossom brew into her mind.
Subsequently, Ruan Mei activated a space-type Curio, using those coordinates as an anchor to open a wormhole that swallowed the entire ship.
After a brief wormhole transit, the ship appeared in the sky above the delve where the Qingxin Residence was located.
The three of them looked down through the portholes impatiently, but they never expected to see a scene of purgatory.
There were no Abominations of Abundance, nor any sign of the Cloud Knights; there were only broken walls and ruins as far as the eye could see.
Black Swan's form turned ethereal, passing through the ship to float down among the ruins of the Qingxin Residence. She meticulously analyzed the memory traces remaining in time and soon locked onto a figure.
Witnessing the hazy face of that illusory figure, tears couldn't help but fall from the corners of her eyes.
"Mr. Qi..."
Though his appearance was different, she could vaguely see the shadow that belonged only to him.
She wouldn't mistake it!
It really was him!
There was no time to ponder why the Mr. Qi she had personally seen off had been reincarnated; the priority was to find his whereabouts.
Yu Qintu appeared beside her, her classical and dignified face full of worry.
"Black Swan, you take charge of tracking the Little Fellow's trail. Intimate form of Ruan Meis name will come with me to help the Luofu break the siege first."
They had come in a hurry and knew nothing more about the Qi Zhimu here.
If he were just an ordinary Long-lived Species, then in this disaster... none of them dared to think further.
That kind of future—finding what was lost only to lose it again before their very eyes—was something none of them could accept.