Outside Welt's guest room, the petite Yunli lightly knocked on the solid wooden door that was fully two heads taller than the girl herself.
"Got it, Miss Yunli."
Hearing the shout from outside the door, Welt—who had been somewhat shocked by the information in the group chat—shook his head forcefully, pushed up his glasses, and pulled his thoughts back from it.
After receiving Welt's response, Yunli didn't linger any longer and simply left the front of the guest room door.
"This really is… sigh."
As the sound of footsteps gradually faded into the distance, Welt turned his gaze back to the chat log on his phone screen and let out a helpless sigh in his heart.
It had only been a few days, yet Yun Fan had somehow gained another girlfriend—and this one was even a Stellaron Hunter. It truly left our Mr. Welt feeling a bit overwhelmed.
By common rational standards… wait! Why did that phrase even come to mind?
"Stellaron Hunter SAM is actually a woman, and judging from her appearance…"
Silently opening Firefly's profile picture in the chat group—it was a group photo, a selfie.
In the image, a beautiful girl with silver-white hair was affectionately hugging Yun Fan's arm, striking a 'V' pose toward the camera with a bright, sunny smile on her face. The girl had a pair of lovely eyes, wore a black headband, and had skin as fair and smooth as congealed cream.
"Beautiful girl piloting a mecha… perhaps I can bring this inspiration into a new Houmu manga…"
...…
Xianzhou Luofu… Seat of Divine Foresight…
"Sigh~ Snowflakes flutter, north wind howls, the world is a vast expanse of white…"
In the Seat of Divine Foresight, a song full of melancholy echoed through the somewhat empty grand hall, sounding rather eerie—even downright chilling.
"A single cut of cold plum…"
Following the direction of the singing, one could see our Arbiter-General Jing Yuan currently sitting on the chair symbolizing the position of General with a face full of sorrow.
In front of him was a mountain of documents piled up. Mm… fully three or four meters tall—it could indeed be called a small hill.
"Sigh~!"
After reviewing one document, our General Jing Yuan let out a helpless sigh, a bitter smile appearing on his face.
Although the Luofu had achieved brilliant results in the battle against the Xianzhou campaign—slaying fully two Emanators of Destruction—the Xianzhou had inevitably suffered significant damage in the process.
As postwar reconstruction efforts proceeded in full swing, the workload pressing down on our General naturally increased as well.
In the past, if the position of General was dangling as bait for Fu Xuan's appetite, that Diviner would have unhesitatingly taken over all matters for Jing Yuan. But now…
Who knows what exactly that Samsara Lord had said to Fu Xuan? Nowadays, the former Master Diviner Fu Xuan was no longer so interested in the General's position.
Let alone proactively asking to share some of the workload—even if Jing Yuan personally went to her door to ask for help, she would give him a look of indifference.
As for using his authority as General to forcibly order her… that was simply impossible.
First, our Arbiter-General was not the type of person who would abuse power to bully others; in fact, he deeply detested using authority to oppress people.
Second, given his longstanding friendship with Fu Xuan, he would absolutely feel too embarrassed to do such a thing.
Finally… the current Fu Xuan had been favored by the Samsara Lord and had stepped onto the Path of Causality. Whether for the sake of the Xianzhou or for personal reasons, he simply didn't have the guts to do it.
"General."
Just as our Arbiter-General was furrowing his brows in worry, an official from the Sky-Faring Commission hurried over to Jing Yuan and respectfully saluted.
"Dispense with formalities."
Jing Yuan waved his hand without even lifting his head, signaling the other to rise. Then, after finishing reviewing yet another document in his hand, he finally raised his head and asked the man.
"What is it?"
"General, we have just received a communication from the Zhu Ming Xianzhou. General Huaiyan of Candle Abyss and the representatives from Zhu Ming Xianzhou are about to arrive at the 'Jade Gate'. They are expected to dock at Huixing Port."
"Mm, I understand. You may go for now…"
Somewhat absentmindedly, Jing Yuan gave a casual reply and reached for another document from the nearby mountain of papers, preparing to review it. However, just one second before the brush was about to touch the page, his hand suddenly stopped.
"What did you say? General Huaiyan of Candle Abyss has already arrived at the Luofu?!"
Several question marks instantly popped up above Jing Yuan's head. There was still nearly a month until the Martial Exhibition Ceremony—why had Huaiyan come to the Luofu so early?
Moreover, he hadn't even informed him in advance beforehand. This was clearly meant to catch him completely off guard.
"What is that old geezer up to now?"
After the Sky-Faring Commission official left, our Arbiter-General muttered to himself while pulling out his own Jade Abacus communicator from his coat pocket. After flipping through the contact list for a moment, he finally found a pink profile picture and silently dialed it.
The call connected, followed by a series of beeps…
"Sorry, the number you have dialed is currently busy. Please try again later…"
Upon hearing the system's announcement, Jing Yuan hung up and dialed again—only to get the exact same result.
"Sorry, the number you have dialed is currently busy. Please try again later…"
Jing Yuan: '...'
Seeing that the call couldn't get through, Jing Yuan simply gave up trying and instead chose to compose a message and send it to that contact string.
「Fu Qing, come to the Seat of Divine Foresight immediately. Urgent matters to discuss.」
...…
At the same time, in another part of the Xianzhou Luofu—the Divination Commission…
'Ring ring ring, ring ring ring…!'
A series of phone rings sounded, particularly jarring and piercing in this quiet environment.
"Hm?" Fu Xuan furrowed her brows in slight displeasure, temporarily set aside the comic book in her hand, then took out her Jade Abacus communicator from her pocket. Upon seeing the name 'Jing Yuan' on the screen, the girl decisively pressed the reject button.
She then tossed the Jade Abacus aside and continued reading the comic book in her hand. Looking at the pictures in the book, our Master Diviner occasionally let out one or two exclamations of amazement.
"Interesting, very interesting. It seems this seat was indeed somewhat behind the times. I never expected this thing called a 'manga' to be so entertaining."