For some reason, Lin Yi always felt that he had a peculiar affinity with shiny things.
He seemed to acquire objects with this sort of glittering appearance rather often.
By now, Lin Yi had already clashed with Shi and Mana. Inside the Garden of Recollection's own stronghold, Memokeepers were simply far too mobile. Getting caught while fighting on enemy territory was only natural.
And after mistakenly concluding that their operation was about to end, Lin Yi had no intention of continuing to tangle with them.
Using an ordinary human body to hold off two Emanators was genuinely exhausting.
There was absolutely no room for error.
Seizing an opportunity, Lin Yi grabbed the dazzling crystal he had spotted and immediately withdrew.
This time, he truly left.
He escaped Shanjian Heaven altogether.
This was something Lin Yi, The Herta, and the others had agreed upon while planning the operation.
If either Lin Yi or Screwllum encountered enough danger that they could no longer continue stalling, they were to retreat immediately.
Likewise, if one side detected that something had gone wrong with the other, they were also to withdraw at once.
Once the commotion caused by both groups subsided, The Herta and Ruan Mei, who had infiltrated deeper into the Garden, as well as Stephen, who was acting independently, were to leave immediately.
There was certainly no need to worry about communication difficulties.
The disturbances caused by Lin Yi and Screwllum were both enormous.
"Stop!"
Shi cried out in alarm when she saw what Lin Yi was doing.
"Everything else can be overlooked!"
"But desecrating the Heavenly Father's divine body is absolutely forbidden!"
They had fought for so long, and no matter how much damage Lin Yi caused throughout Shanjian Heaven, Shi had remained perfectly calm.
This was the first time genuine anger appeared on her face.
Clearly, this crystal was special.
Even the Phase Walker couldn't remotely store it.
Lin Yi had been forced to use the Phase Walker to teleport himself directly beside the crystal and physically pick it up.
Then—
He spun around and slashed with his sword, severing the incoming attack.
Immediately afterward, he activated the Phase Walker again and teleported himself away together with the crystal.
In the final instant before disappearing, Lin Yi heard Shi shout those words.
The Heavenly Father's divine body.
Lin Yi was stunned.
A fragment of the divine body of Fuli, the Aeon of Remembrance?
And such a huge piece?
This might very well be the greatest prize he had obtained during this entire expedition.
Keep it.
He absolutely had to keep it.
Share?
Impossible.
Besides, this thing probably couldn't even be divided.
According to the agreement they had made beforehand—
First come, first served.
Lin Yi disappeared.
Shi stared at the devastated surroundings, looking somewhat aggrieved.
"Sister Mana... why did the Heavenly Father stop me just now?"
"Little Shi, you were born only recently and are still young, but you must learn to conduct yourself with greater composure."
"Your every word and action strongly represents the God of our Pure Land."
"You must not display such an attitude in the future."
"Others will look down upon you."
"As for why THEY stopped you... I don't know either."
"But if an Aeon personally intervened, then THEY must have THEIR reasons."
"Wasn't I stopped by THEM last time as well?"
"Besides, THEIR divine oracle was far too obscure."
"I still haven't fully deciphered it."
Mana paused.
"Perhaps the God of our Pure Land will deliver another oracle shortly?"
Stars immediately appeared in Shi's eyes.
"Really?!"
"We can see the Heavenly Father?"
Literal stars.
Shi had no inherent form.
Her thousand faces were shaped by the heart; the consciousness of countless beings possessed no fixed appearance.
The only reason Shi appeared before others in this form was because Mana had been the first intelligent life-form she saw upon being born.
Of course, meeting an Aeon wasn't something that happened simply because one wished for it.
Mana had only been trying to comfort her.
Then—
An oracle descended.
[Before the appointed hour, obey and endure. The end that follows the end has changed. Fortune and calamity remain undecided. Preserve what must be preserved, continue what must continue, and protect the most difficult newborn. For now, return. Restrain the vermin. Await the appointed moment. Welcome the new god. Remember. Entrust. Continue. Go.]
Mana: They really do come whenever called?
Zhili: My lines...
Shi's eyes lit up with excitement.
"Heavenly Father!"
But Fuli had already vanished.
Only that single oracle remained.
To be fair, the things Fuli said were qualified to compete with Terminus for the title of Most Incomprehensible Divine Messages in the Universe.
Fortunately, Fuli rarely delivered oracles.
Most of the time, THEY merely observed and recorded in silence.
Otherwise, the Garden of Recollection would probably need an entire department dedicated solely to translating Fuli's words.
Fuli's appearance officially began drawing the curtain on this entire operation.
In truth, Aha had secretly started watching the fun back when the geniuses were still discussing their plan to rob the Garden of Recollection.
Watching alone apparently wasn't entertaining enough.
So Aha had invited Fuli, the Aeon of Remembrance, to watch alongside THEM.
Thus, from beginning to end, Fuli had personally observed and recorded the entire process—
The geniuses discussing how to infiltrate Shanjian Heaven.
Their plans to loot the Garden of Recollection.
And finally, the actual robbery itself.
No one knew exactly what Fuli thought about the whole affair.
Yet not only did THEY make no attempt to stop the geniuses from burglarizing THEIR home...
THEY even quietly provided a little assistance while recording everything.
As for the cooking pot and the fragments of Tayzzyronth's divine remains that Screwllum had salvaged—
Those were leftovers from many years ago.
Back then, Akivili and Aha had cooked pieces of Tayzzyronth's shattered divine flesh together.
(The pot appears in Penacony's 100,000-Credit Memory Bubble. See that for details.)
What happened back then was roughly this:
Aha: "Akivili! My dear friend Akivili! Look what I found!"
Akivili: "Tayzzyronth's divine remains? Aha, why did you pick that up?"
Aha: "Propagation is already dead. Leaving all this lying around would be such a waste."
"So I secretly collected some."
"I want to find out what an Aeon-level bug tastes like."
Aha leaned closer.
"Want to try it together, my dear Akivili?"
"You know me. Whenever I find something good, I always think of you."
Akivili answered without the slightest hesitation.
Akivili: "I've never eaten one before."
"Now that is Trailblaze!"
Aha: "Just looking at it tells me this is going to be hilarious."
"Now that is Elation!"
And just like that, the Aeon of Trailblaze—who had always proclaimed that THEY could tolerate the unknown but never accept the unknowable—effortlessly joined Aha in committing mischief.
But that wasn't all.
The Trailblaze Aeon Akivili then committed an even more heinous crime.
THEY stole the Astral Express conductor Pom-Pom's cooking pot.
Because of that, Pom-Pom had no pot to cook with.
Poor Pom-Pom went hungry for several meals and was forced to eat the junk food they usually wanted but normally restrained themselves from eating.
As a result, Pom-Pom even gained several pounds.
Boohoohoo~
How tragic~
Pom-Pom: "The conductor did NOT gain weight! DID NOT!!! ☄ฺ(◣д◢)☄"
No one knew exactly what Tayzzyronth's flesh tasted like.
But Pom-Pom's cooking pot was lost in Shanjian Heaven.
It disappeared without a trace, sinking deep into the sea of memoria where all evidence of the crime vanished with it.
And for the terrible offense of stealing the Express's cooking pot and causing Pom-Pom to go hungry—
Akivili paid a devastating price.
Pom-Pom sentenced THEM to clean the entire Astral Express for two months.
Meanwhile, Aha laughed at Akivili from the sidelines...
Then spent several years hiding from Pom-Pom.
Along with the cooking pot, some leftover pieces of Tayzzyronth's divine remains were never retrieved either.
They sank into Shanjian Heaven's sea of memoria together.
And the reason Screwllum had managed to salvage all these bizarre objects today?
Naturally—
Aha had secretly helped.
THEY had stirred up all manner of strange junk buried deep within the sea of memoria, things left behind by countless people throughout the ages.
In particular, Aha dug up everything THEY and Akivili had abandoned back then and deliberately sent it drifting toward Screwllum for him to salvage.
Otherwise, with the painfully slow efficiency of Screwllum's ridiculous "toilets," who knew how many years it would take before they happened to suck up any of this stuff?
As for why Aha would secretly help Screwllum dredge up all this bizarre garbage?
Obviously—
Because it was just way too much fun~