Sunny hated this already.
He walked with his hands in his pockets, shoulders slightly hunched, eyes fixed straight ahead as if that alone might prevent reality from inconveniencing him further. March bounced along beside him, humming under her breath, blissfully unaware — or deliberately ignoring — the tension radiating off him in quiet waves.
Welt followed a step behind, unhurried, cane tapping softly against the floor.
And leading them was Tingyun.
Sunny tried not to look.
He failed.
The Foxian walked with a natural sway that felt engineered rather than accidental, long ears flicking subtly as she glanced back over her shoulder. Her smile was warm and inviting.
Which was dangerous.
Sunny's eye twitched.
He had been a fox once.
Herta's Simulated Universe had made sure of that.
He'd worn the ears. The tail. Played the part of something clever and predatory, only to learn exactly how disposable such things became when faced with violence.
He did not trust foxes.
At all.
"This way."
Sunny grimaced.
Great. She talked, too.
They passed beneath a series of suspended arches, the environment gradually shifting from open plazas to dense industrial walkways. Massive mechanical frames loomed overhead, starskiffs docked along rails like slumbering beasts.
Stargazer Navalia was their destination, and supposedly, it had went up in flames.
Metaphorically… probably.
Jing Yuan's plan replayed in his mind, and the more he thought about it, the worse it sounded.
Two Masters.
One random old guy.
Against a Saint.
Sure.
Why not throw in a cursed spoon and call it strategy?
Sunny glanced back at Welt.
The man looked… normal. Calm. Mildly interested in the surroundings.
Which somehow made it worse.
Sunny suspected — strongly — that Welt was not weak. But 'not being weak' was a wide spectrum. It could go from being an Awakened bum that hasn't seen a fight in decades, to a literal diety. Sunny didn't believe that either side encompassed Welt perfectly, but the man was probably somewhere between the two extremes.
Where? Who knew?
Sunny sighed.
There was no point complaining.
There never was.
If Fate wanted to shove him into a catastrophic conflict with Stellaron's and lunatics and tree people, it would do so whether he protested or not.
Might as well save his breath.
'…Damn it.'
"…Hey."
Tingyun slowed just enough to glance back.
"Yes?"
Sunny gestured vaguely ahead.
"These Mara-Struck. How did those guys end up like that? What's with the leaves?"
Tingyun's smile softened, just a little.
"Ah. That."
She turned her gaze forward again as they walked.
"The non-Awakened people of the Xianzhou are… fragile, in a way outsiders rarely consider."
She folded her hands behind her back.
"Their bodies are blessed by the Path of Abundance. Xianzhou natives, Foxians — we possess lifespans far beyond ordinary humans. Centuries. Millennia, in some cases."
Sunny blinked.
"…What?"
She continued smoothly.
"But the soul is not so easily extended."
March slowed.
"What does that mean?"
"It means that when their souls begin to decay — which they eventually will — there is nothing left to anchor the mind."
Tingyun's voice remained gentle.
"The Abundance fills the void. Mutates the body. Twists it into something that can continue living… without truly being alive."
She glanced back at him.
"That is Mara. Technically, we are indeed immortal in the sense that we cannot die of age, but Mara will eventually provide us with a Fate worse than death. It is one of the downsides of being associated with something beyond human comprehension."
Welt leaned in Sunny's direction, whispering as Tingyun turned back to continue walking.
"The Xianzhou Alliance follows The Hunt, which is the sworn enemy of the Abundance. As far as I know, it seems like they want to cleanse themselves of their immortality. It also happens to be a taboo to research it."
…The man must have sensed Sunny's confusion, and decided to try and explain matters to him.
Unfortunately, what really confused Sunny was that anyone was immortal in the first place!
'They… they did it before I was even given a chance… before I was even born!'
Sunny clenched his fist in disappointment. He had expected Jing Yuan to have lived for a while, considering that he was a Saint. Normal humans, however? He hadn't even thought of it.
They all seemed so… normal.
Except for the Foxians. Those fluffy tails couldn't be considered normal…
And the soul seemed to have its own seperate lifespan, detached from the body. One that seemed to stretch on for much longer in most cases, while the people of the Luofu had bodies that lasted infinitely longer.
Instead of the soul being destroyed as usual, leading to an empty husk of a body, reaching the end of the soul's lifespan led to madness and degradation.
And under the influence of Paths, the body would change to become a proper vessel for them.
The Path of Ascension seemed to be the only way to properly extend the lifespan of one's body and soul, ensuring that madness only remained a possibility, and not an inevitability for the people of the Luofu.
'What an infodump… I still have to fight Kafka, though. Sucks to be me…'