"Hehehe, Aha seems to have heard someone calling Aha's name."
Within the spacious command ship, as the voice faded, a grand, inexplicable power manifested before everyone's eyes, filling their hearts with immense joy and ease.
A figure appeared, styled as a gentleman with a hat and mask. Upon landing, THEY began to shout and laugh in a peculiar, almost demonic voice.
THEY unabashedly raised THEIR hands high, movements bizarre, laughter demonic.
Jing Yuan, present on the scene, stood stiffly. Although the image was unfamiliar—even the Xianzhou didn't have much detailed knowledge of this particular Aeon—the undisguised, self-proclaimed identity, along with the overwhelming sense of reverence THEY inspired...
Undoubtedly, this was... Aha, the Aeon of Elation!
He looked towards [Qingque] with disbelief. Fu Xuan also stared blankly... You actually summoned Aha?!
Alright, although the conditions for this Aeon of Elation to appear seemed less strict than most others, comparing THEM didn't change Aha's sublime power as the Aeon of Elation.
And such an existence was summoned by a minor diviner under her command...
"Unaware of Your Excellency, the Ever-Joyful Heaven Lord's arrival... Jing Yuan offers his apologies!" His lips twitched uncontrollably, but Jing Yuan tried his best to maintain the dignity of the Xianzhou General, trembling slightly as he bowed with clasped fists to Aha.
"Never imagined an existence like Your Excellency would be willing to aid the Xianzhou... The Alliance is truly indebted..."
"Master Diviner Fu Xuan misspoke earlier. We hope the Ever-Joyful Heaven Lord will be magnanimous and not take offense..." Remembering Fu Xuan's earlier actions, he hastily tried to smooth things over and apologize.
Fu Xuan herself was sweating profusely, wanting to say something.
Perhaps due to youthful impetuousness or her personality, she could be stubborn, but Fu Xuan never imagined... Qingque, this girl, actually managed to summon a big shot she had never seen before and absolutely couldn't afford to offend...
However, before Fu Xuan could speak, [Qingque], present on the scene, spoke first, and her words immediately made scalps tingle: "Why is it you? I didn't call you."
This statement left Jing Yuan and Fu Xuan stunned, unsure of what to say. Fu Xuan felt a sliver of relief—Oh, so Qingque didn't summon this big shot. Then it must just be an accident. Though a low probability event, it surely doesn't count. My vow doesn't count either.
But like Jing Yuan, she felt apprehensive about [Qingque]'s astonished and 'disgusted' tone. Hey, so what if you didn't call THEM? Look who THEY are! How dare you speak to an Aeon like that? Did you get your guts wholesale?!
As her superior, fearing Aha might get angry and take it out on others, Fu Xuan quickly interjected, "Ahem, Ever-Joyful Heaven Lord, this Seat... Qingque's words are due to my lax supervision... We hope Your Excellency will be magnanimous... Qingque, you say less too!" While speaking, she didn't forget to reprimand Qingque in a low, extremely annoyed tone.
"Waaah~ Aha feels rejected~ Aha has no face" Aha whined theatrically. "But it's okay Aha doesn't mind! Hehehe, where there's fun, there will always be Aha~"
"Compared to these stubborn folks, Aha likes you more~"
"Showing up uninvited like this, what are you talking about? Can't you see my General and Master Diviner are extremely nervous because of you?"
Amidst Jing Yuan and Fu Xuan's dumbfounded silence, [Qingque] waved her hand dismissively, as if shooing away a fly, saying with great disdain, "Go away, go away~"
"There's no fun for you here."
"If you don't leave, I'll find someone to shoot you in the butt!"
The half-threatening, lazy words made Jing Yuan and Fu Xuan's faces turn green. ...You dare to shoo THEM away? And you want to shoot THEIR butt... Shoot the Aeon of Elation's butt? Fine, why don't you just summon the Reignbow Arbiter while you're at it?!
However, Aha didn't get angry. Instead, THEIR mask seemed to morph, switching between a crying face and a happy face. "Waaaaah~ Aha is so hurt! It seems Aha isn't welcome here at all~ Aha likes this feeling very much~ Aha is very happy~"
"So Aha has decided! Aha will grant your wish~"
"How about it? Aren't you happy? It's okay if you're not happy, Aha thinks it's very fun anyway~"
"By the way, you can't refuse~"
"Of course, it doesn't matter if you refuse~ Aha will definitely fulfill it anyway~"
"You're so annoying... Alright, alright, you then... Go dismantle that piece of junk." Hearing these words, sticky as taffy, [Qingque] couldn't help but curl her lip.
Noticing Jing Yuan and Fu Xuan's stares, she shrugged helplessly. "Can't be helped, this guy is too clingy... It's all pretty much the same anyway, so let's just make do."
...Make do? Question marks floated above Jing Yuan and Fu Xuan's heads.
"Hehe~ Dismantling things? Aha loves dismantling things the most~ Akivili~ Akivili~ Aha misses the fun times we had together~"
"Wooo~ Look what we have here! A living planet~ Guess what will happen to it next~"
"Aha bets you it will become very fun! Because Aha has thought of a great prank~"
"Like this—"
"Boom~"
The next moment... The massive living planet erupted in brilliant activation, then exploded like a firework. The explosion encompassed the entire star system the living planet occupied.
A mournful cry, an unparalleled, magnificent firework display, as brilliant as a supernova explosion.
The only problem might be that the shockwave was so intense that the nearby Xianzhou Cloud Knight fleets, and even the Xianzhou flagship itself, were impacted, experiencing violent turbulence.
"Wooo~ See? Isn't it fun" Aha cackled demonically. "The wilting of life is truly brilliant and magnificent Aha is quite mesmerized."
"You and that guy under Nanook called Zephyro would surely have a lot in common."
"That lunatic? Aha is certain his underlings are just as boring as him~"
"Alright, the fun here is over... And the rest has nothing to do with Aha~ Heehee~" In a brief moment, before Jing Yuan and Fu Xuan could even recover, everything was over.
The hatted figure wearing a mask vanished instantly without a trace.
"...That living planet, just like that... disappeared?" Fu Xuan stared blankly at the observation results from the Divination Commission, her expression dazed, finding it hard to believe.
In response, [Qingque] shrugged. "Hey now, though it's not exactly THEIR specialty, THEY are still an Aeon. Dealing with such a small trinket is naturally easy peasy~"
"Just that having someone wait so long only to get queue-jumped feels kinda bad." The girl glanced in a certain direction, scratching her cheek, her tone somewhat helpless. "Sigh... Aeons are like that, no manners at all."
"..." Jing Yuan's smile stiffened. Clearly, [Qingque]'s casual commentary on an Aeon's actions, even for him, a former member of the High-Cloud Quintet, was a bit too stimulating.
"Alright~ Since things here are mostly resolved, I'm heading back to the Divination Commission. The rest is up to you, General and Master Diviner. After all, I'm just a humble little diviner, can't get involved in such big matters~"
"Also, the Alliance fleet better leave this area quickly too, otherwise things will still get very troublesome~"
Jing Yuan clearly didn't understand what that meant. Until...
"General, where the living Planet used to be, a void seems to have appeared..."
[Qingque] wasn't surprised. His gaze fell towards the distant location of Tunyu Yinghuo. It was as if space itself had caved in, constantly collapsing, like a large hole appearing.
And within it, abundant Aether energy surged... In this world, more commonly known as 'Memetic.'
However, unlike the Memetic often mentioned by the Garden of Recollection, this Memetic was primal, chaotic.
Because causality had been disrupted, the extended timeline vanished, transforming into Memetic energy rolling back into the past—undoubtedly, this was why Xipe and Qlipoth had specifically sought out [Firefly] earlier.
And that living star, which shouldn't have appeared in the original history, was essentially a 'self-correction mechanism' spontaneously generated due to the altered timeline.
Imaginary Correction. Tunyu Yinghuo (Imaginary Paradox)—it possessed the ability to devour things, grow infinitely, and alter reality.
When it consumed everything, this 'singularity' that caused the Memetic Gray Tide due to the 'distortion' would be dealt with, and everything would return to its original state.
Normally, Tunyu Yinghuo should have inevitably completed its predetermined mission. Once it completed its initial growth, not even an Emanator could contend with this Abundance paradox machine carrying the mission of correction.
It would become a disaster more terrifying than the Antimatter Legion, more terrifying than the Swarm.
However, it just happened to run into one of the few beings it couldn't handle: an Aeon who had achieved self-convergence and mastered the power of their Path.
This absolute power was sufficient to destroy the corrective force from the Tree of Existence (Imaginary Tree).
Normally, though, Aeons wouldn't interfere in such situations. The reason? Meaningless.
THEY were gods walking their Paths, not guardians maintaining the world... Some Aeons might even consider such correction a righteous act. Only Aeons with special natures like Xipe and Qlipoth would specifically intervene.
Of course, Aha did it too. Don't ask why—just assume THEY found it amusing and really wanted to smash that living pearl.
And this led to the consequence that, after the corrective force was destroyed, the Aether tide, previously suppressed by the Imaginary, was completely unleashed.
"Really troublesome..." [Qingque] sighed. "Good thing THEY at least left me something when THEY ran off."
Jing Yuan didn't understand what the former was muttering about. However, the next moment, his eyes nearly popped out.
"Poof!" As if performing a magic trick, appearing from nowhere, [Qingque] held an arrow in her hand.
Though it looked ordinary, even crude by Xianzhou standards, Jing Yuan, as an Emanator of the Hunt, recognized its essence instantly.
"The Reignbow Arbiter's... Light Arrow...!" he gasped, stunned.
The Xianzhou were all too familiar with this—after all, in their fight against the Denizens of Abundance, the Xianzhou had also been hit by their own boss's arrows. The Fanghu was nearly shot down last time.
But the Light Arrows the Xianzhou encountered were usually either already fired, or fragments left after being fired—these remnants were top-tier forging materials. Jing Yuan's own treasured formation saber was a top-tier Xianzhou weapon crafted incorporating Light Arrow embers.
As for an unfired one like this... forget a middleman Emanator like Jing Yuan; likely even Marshal Hua hadn't seen one firsthand...
"Lady Qing... where... did you get this arrow?" His mouth felt dry as he asked, forcing a smile.
"Someone gave it to me. Just one, stingy fellow." If a certain wheelchair user heard this, he'd probably want to curse. After all... this Light Arrow wasn't quite like the normal ones.
If normal Light Arrows were condensed from the power of the Hunt Path... then this one... was condensed from the entire Hunt Path.
Its nature was practically equivalent to the full-power strike of an Aeon. Giving you one should be enough! You want them all? Should I switch to kicking that Holy Mother with my feet instead?
...Someone gave it. Hearing this, Jing Yuan's mouth twitched. He couldn't even imagine where [Qingque] managed to procure such a thing. Recalling her earlier words, a bold idea formed in Jing Yuan's mind, making him break out in a cold sweat.
Though he had a thousand things he wanted to say, just thinking about how stimulating this whole affair was made the General of the Divine Foresight peacefully give up thinking.
This General position... is getting harder and harder to hold... I should really abdicate and pass it on soon...
At the same time, however, his expression towards Fu Xuan became somewhat peculiar.
---||---
While [Qingque] brandished the 'miracle wheelchair' obtained from goodness-knows-where...
In the Glamoth star system, Jiang Qiao, who had been preparing something within the constructed Tower of Babel, seemed to sense something and slowly opened his eyes.
He glanced tiredly at a certain despicable fairy who had launched a sneak attack while he was distracted, trying to pry her off... However, her grip, like octopus suckers or hydraulic clamps, felt welded on; the more he tried to remove her, the tighter she bit—the latter even wore a provocative expression, licking her lips.
She seemed to be saying, Hmph, trying to escape? Once you enter my Elysia's Fairy Fun Cave, don't even think about getting out easily!