The next day, after Qingque got up and washed, she joined in the morning's activities.
This time, she was officially interacting with these outsiders.
As a member of a Path, Qingque naturally possessed considerable combat strength.
What she didn't know was that Noldrei and the others had already categorized the Xianzhou as a vassal civilization of the Aeons.
In Noldrei's eyes, this entire universe was already completely subordinate to the civilizational structure of the Aeons.
The construct of a civilization wasn't about what language you used, what clothes you wore, or even what decorative symbols you had.
It was like how various European nations and America were all capitalist countries, all bourgeois civilizations.
A civilization's form was determined by its internal hierarchical structure.
The internal structure of the Xianzhou was entirely dependent on the hierarchy of the Paths. In Noldrei's eyes, it was, of course, a vassal of the Aeon civilization.
It was best to just keep such thoughts to himself; Noldrei wasn't foolish enough to say it out loud.
He could criticize some minor aspects that could be changed, but he would never attack the systemic class hierarchy.
The former would make people think it was normal, while the latter would make them wonder if he was an outsider sent to cause trouble.
Noldrei had seen plenty of these typical problems on Earth. He never expected to encounter the same old issues again after leaving home, almost as if he had returned.
Miss Fu Xuan came again today. This time, she didn't flee in a panic.
Even without the aid of the Matrix of Prescience for the time being, it didn't mean she had completely lost her ability to divine. After confirming that she wouldn't be struck by any misfortune today, Fu Xuan decided to take the offensive and see what Noldrei was made of.
But Fu Xuan never could have imagined that the moment she walked in the door, she would hear the clattering sound of tiles.
"Pong!"
The familiar word immediately told Fu Xuan what these people were doing first thing in the morning.
"Qingque! You're playing tiles this early in the morning?!"
Fu Xuan felt a flare of anger and asked, "Don't you have any other form of amusement?"
Qingque, who had just excitedly picked up a tile, flinched. She complained to her leader, "It's not like I wanted to start playing tiles first thing in the morning."
For Qingque, playing tiles was a very useful form of entertainment.
But when that entertainment was tied to work, it wasn't so much fun anymore.
Coincidentally, Noldrei didn't feel like going out today; he just wanted to rope Qingque into playing tiles.
Thus, playing tiles had become Qingque's 'job' now. How was this slacking off? She even had to be careful when talking to Noldrei, not daring to reveal anything unnecessary.
"Master Diviner, this wasn't my idea either. I'm just keeping our guest company... he insisted on playing with me."
Qingque didn't want to be dragged into playing tiles every day. It would ruin her favorite pastime.
"You... sigh..."
Fu Xuan seemed to understand Qingque's predicament.
She couldn't say too much about Xianzhou matters, nor could she be too far away from them. That left only one option...
Join them in playing tiles!
"Our guests from afar, would you like to go for a stroll around the Xianzhou?"
Fu Xuan still had to wait for the Artisanship Commission to repair the Matrix of Prescience; her job was to make the final adjustments.
"Thanks to you all, the Divination Commission is having a rare holiday. We didn't have much work to begin with, and now people from other commissions are making snide remarks behind our backs. They're all saying that the people from the Divination Commission have it too easy with their credits."
"They're even saying behind my back that I can't divine anything. That I can't even foresee the fate of my own commission, so what's the use of a Master Diviner?"
Fu Xuan's words were tinged with complaint. After all, this wasn't something she had wanted to happen.
Noldrei understood. He looked at the young woman with some pity.
He said, "I can't believe something like this happened! That's just awful! How about this: you take us out on the streets, we'll have a good time, eat well, and every now and then, we'll just happen to pass by their workplaces and piss them off!"
Qingque was amazed that this man could be so vicious. "Wouldn't the Master Diviner be hated to death by them?" she exclaimed.
Noldrei looked at Senti and asked, "Little Mei, how about you? Do you want to come out with us?"
"No, I'm using this." Senti had more important work to do. She held up the 'phone' in her hand and said, "I need to take a good look at what's on this network. It would be best to get a handle on the news here. You guys go ahead and look around."
"When did you buy that?"
Noldrei hadn't even known. He hadn't brought a 'phone' with him.
"I brought that one back. We can just get two more when we go out. I checked, they're not that expensive. We can just exchange some valuable items for them," Elysia said with a grin. "I sold some of the Honkai Energy crystals we brought to the local researchers."
Who knew Ely had such a head for business.
Noldrei was genuinely worried that if the Honkai Energy leaked and corrupted the locals, it would be dangerous if it triggered some special Mara-struck state.
'Are we really going to become alien invaders?'
"Let's go. We'll have the Master Diviner show us around."
Noldrei temporarily pushed these thoughts to the back of his mind. He decided to first probe the depths of the Xianzhou before considering anything else.
Fu Xuan breathed a sigh of relief. She had been worried it would turn into a repeat of yesterday.
Now it seemed that these outsiders were even easier to communicate with than she had imagined.
"Then I'll first take you to see the most important place on the Xianzhou, the Starskiff Haven. Everyone who comes to the Xianzhou has to pass through here."
The Xianzhou was composed of numerous individual grotto-heavens.
The Starskiff Haven served as a major transportation hub, and every visitor who settled here had to go through the procedures.
People like Noldrei, who landed directly at the Divination Commission, were a true anomaly.
"That largest building is the headquarters of the Luofu's Sky-Faring Commission. The pilots and navigators work there, responsible for maintaining the comings and goings of the Starskiff Haven. The Xianzhou's prosperity is largely thanks to their round-the-clock work."
Fu Xuan was quite proud when she introduced these things.
Ely glanced cautiously at Noldrei, only to see him nodding with a look of admiration, agreeing with her views.
The scene was a bit much for Elysia to handle.
In Academy City, flying devices were everywhere, and Stigma battlesuits dashed about all over the place. Even so, Academy City was already stretched to its limits.
The prosperity of a bustling city, as commonly understood, was completely insufficient to meet the demands of the new civilization Noldrei had created.
Yet, the current Xianzhou still allowed for leisurely strolls, and traffic violators were still being caught by the naked eye. In Academy City, even the cameras couldn't keep up; they had to rely on the Stigma battlesuits to manage the entire city's traffic.
It wasn't a matter of good or bad planning, but simply that it had reached an incomprehensible order of magnitude.