Chapter 165: A Gathering of Gods
"Not one, not two, not three... and certainly not four..." Fu Xuan's voice was low and heavy with implication.
"Diviner Fu, are you suggesting..." Jing Yuan's tone was laced with inquiry, but a thread of apprehension tightened in his chest.
Surely not? he thought. Could there truly be more than one divine lord gracing the Luofu at this very moment?
It made no sense. What could the Xianzhou Luofu possibly possess that would attract so many Aeons to descend upon it? The commotion surrounding the Ambrosial Arbor's revival was certainly shocking, but it was ultimately just a lingering trace of a blessing casually bestowed by Yaoshi, the Aeon of Abundance. It was hardly enough to warrant the personal appearance of even one Aeon, let alone several.
Aha infiltrating the Disciples of Sanctus Medicus could be rationalized as the Aeon merely seeking amusement. But the others... they were an entirely different matter. After all, Aha was the Lord of Elation, the most capricious and human-like existence among the gods. The other Aeons were, for the most part, transcendental beings, far beyond the reach of mortal comprehension.
"Correct. It is exactly as the General suspects," Fu Xuan confirmed, nodding gravely. "According to the Matrix of Prescience, and supplemented by the information Elio conveyed through Kafka... there are at least five Aeons currently residing on our Xianzhou Luofu."
Jing Yuan's first reaction was pure, unadulterated disbelief.
Was this some kind of joke? The presence of a single Aeon on the Luofu would be an devastating, inconceivable event. And now she was telling him there were five? It was the stuff of fantasy.
'I don't believe it,' was the thought that screamed through his mind.
"Diviner Fu... is it possible you've been deceived by the Stellaron Hunters' silver tongues?" Jing Yuan couldn't help but ask, grasping for a more logical explanation.
"Heh..." Fu Xuan let out a soft, helpless chuckle. "The Matrix of Prescience never lies."
She, too, wished it were false. But a truth was a truth; it could not be faked.
"And unfortunately," she added, a weary sigh in her voice, "I have had the distinct misfortune of witnessing the avatars of all five of these Aeons."
As she spoke, she traced a delicate finger through the air. A stream of spiritual energy flowed from her fingertip, coalescing into five distinct figures projected from her memory, shimmering in the space between them.
"This one," she began, pointing to a figure clad in a garish yellow suit and wearing the unmistakable Mask of Elation, "is Aha, the Aeon of Elation."
"He is currently using the alias 'Sampo' on the Luofu. According to our intelligence, he infiltrated the Disciples of Sanctus Medicus and was subsequently captured by the Astral Express crew as a minor leader. At this very moment, he should be locked away in the Shackling Prison."
An imperceptible twitch went through Jing Yuan's eye.
"...Has the discernment of our Cloud Knights truly dulled to this extent? The Mask of Elation is worn right on his face, and not a single person found it suspicious?"
"Perhaps they merely thought he was one of the Masked Fools," Fu Xuan countered, shaking her head. "There are many who wear masks, be they Fools or simply eccentric youths. Who would ever leap to the conclusion that beneath the mask was the Aeon himself?"
Jing Yuan fell silent. She was right. Without prior knowledge, who would ever connect a petty leader of the Sanctus Medicus with the divine Lord of Elation? The idea was absurd.
"And this one..." Fu Xuan's finger shifted slightly, landing on the only female figure among the five—a young woman of stunning beauty. "She is Fuli, the Aeon of Remembrance. On the Luofu, she goes by the alias 'Elysia'. According to the Astral Express... it was she who disguised herself as a Cloud Knight and personally escorted Aha into the Shackling Prison."
Jing Yuan's brow twitched again. Fuli? The Aeon of Remembrance, who dwelled within the Sea of Stars and almost never manifested in the physical world? The universe knew precious little about her, only that she was surrounded by her Memokeepers, who tirelessly built a pure land of memories. Some scholars even speculated that the crystalline figure seen in visions was merely an illusion created by the Garden of Recollection, and that her true form had long since ceased to exist.
And now, this paragon of mystery had not only appeared as a woman but had also disguised herself as a Cloud Knight to personally escort Aha to prison? What could she possibly be planning? Was she... filming the scene of Aha being escorted into the Shackling Prison?
A terrible premonition suddenly struck Jing Yuan. It was common knowledge, after all, that Light Cones were the unique creation of the Memokeepers of the Garden of Recollection...
'This Fuli... she couldn't possibly be a troll, could she?'he wondered in alarm.'No, surely not... Then again, besides the Lord of Remembrance, I can't think of any other Aeon who could get along with Aha.'
"Does the Astral Express... know about this?" Jing Yuan asked, spotting a gap in the narrative.
"One of them is aware," Fu Xuan paused. "But we shall discuss that later. Allow me to describe the other three first."
Her gaze shifted to a mechanical figure among the projections.
"This is Nous, the Aeon of Erudition. He is using the alias 'The Omniscient' on the Luofu. Not long ago, he was playing Celestial Jade with Qingque. At present... his whereabouts are unknown."
As she spoke of him, Fu Xuan's tone grew slightly wistful. She had not forgotten that the very Dharma Eye on her forehead, the one that allowed her to peer into the threads of fate, was a gift from Nous.
She vividly recalled the path to opening her third eye. Back then, when she had stepped into the great library to ask her question, the one who had come to her was Nous, in the guise of a blind old man wearing dark glasses and leaning on a cane. The old man could not give her an answer, but he could grant her the question itself, and the vision to see it.
In response to her query, "Is fate destined from the very beginning?", the old man had bestowed upon her the "third eye" that could perceive all. But for the long-life species of the Xianzhou, a body that endured meant accepting eternal suffering. Compared to a tool for seeking knowledge, the Dharma Eye was more like a perpetual instrument of torture.
In the hazy moments after receiving the "eye," Fu Xuan had seen countless past events. She saw herself as a child, sitting upright, never putting down her books. She saw her father affectionately tapping her brow, proudly praising her intelligence and grace. She saw her elders showing her the glorious history of the Fu clan, a distinguished family of Stargazers from the Xianzhou Yuque. And she saw her master, Jingtian, personally agreeing to oversee her studies.
All her pasts overlapped in a mist of probability, seeming both dream and reality, shifting at the very edge of her consciousness and extending into countless futures. She had tried her best to distinguish them, searching through the vast expanse of moments for the day she officially became a Diviner.
That was the path of her eye-opening. Recalling it now, she realized the library had been the Abyss of the Path, and the one who had glanced her way was, naturally, Nous. She had met the Aeon of Erudition in that metaphysical space, but she hadn't recognized him at the time. And now, history had repeated itself; she had once again failed to recognize him.
"The Aeon of Erudition... that's fine. But he was actually playing Celestial Jade with Qingque?" Jing Yuan's eye twitched yet again. Does the embodiment of cosmic knowledge also enjoy a casual game of mahjong? He'd never heard of such a thing.
"This," Fu Xuan continued, pointing to the next figure—a man with a sturdy build and muscles that looked as if they were cast from iron, "is Qlipoth."
"He is using the alias 'Amber Lord' on the Luofu. He also just finished a game of Celestial Jade with Qingque. At this moment... his whereabouts are also unknown."
Hearing this, Jing Yuan felt a strange mix of confusion and relief.
He was confused as to why the Amber Lord would abandon his grand, endless cause of building walls across the cosmos to suddenly appear on the Luofu. And why would an Aeon of his stature be interested in a mundane game like Celestial Jade? Perhaps... he should have the Cloud Knights pay more attention to such folk pastimes.
The relief, however, stemmed from the fact that the Amber Lord, in the eyes of the Xianzhou, had always been a positive deity. If he hadn't been, he would never have been honored with the title "Si Ming"—the Lord of Fate. With him here, perhaps the situation on the Xianzhou wasn't as perilous as she had made it sound.
Seeing the tension in Jing Yuan's expression soften, a hint of subtle, schadenfreude-laced amusement flickered in Fu Xuan's heart.
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