"So Miss Yunli has stepped into the Path of Causality. In that case, it's not unjust that I lost…"
Yanqing smiled bitterly while scratching his somewhat messy hair, his heart filled with bitterness.
The Path of Causality… He suddenly felt a bit envious of that guy. If he could also master the power of this Path, then maybe…
Thinking of this, a trace of obsession flashed across Yanqing's face. Soon, however, he shook his head vigorously, throwing these sudden thoughts out of his mind.
"Master, I—cough cough!"
Yanqing stood up, intending to continue speaking, but that very movement seemed to have accidentally pulled at his wound.
'Hiss—!'
A heart-piercing pain came from Yanqing's chest. Feeling the pain, he laboriously lifted the clothes at his chest.
Without the cover of clothing, Yanqing easily saw his injury—or more precisely, the small footprint on his chest.
Because a certain young lady usually disliked wearing shoes, what was imprinted on Yanqing's chest right now was a complete footprint, not a shoe print.
Five toes and an arch were vividly engraved on Yanqing's chest.
"Hahaha…!"
The boy had not avoided his master, so the small footprint naturally fell into Jing Yuan's eyes. Immediately, the Divine Foresight General, who usually acted without restraint, could not help but burst into loud laughter.
Just imagine the scene: a handsome young man staring at the footprint on his own chest with a distressed face.
"Master, stop laughing! This isn't funny at all!" Yanqing's face flushed red. After straightening his clothes, he shouted at his master with a face full of black lines.
"Hahaha! S-sorry, this really is a bit… hahaha!"
Yanqing: '...…'
Too angry to speak, he simply ignored his master. Resolutely, he stood up, endured the pain, and walked out of the training grounds.
"Eh? Yanqing, it's Master's fault. Wait for Master!"
...
Penacony, the Dreamjolt Hostelry in reality…
The door to Black Swan's room was suddenly pushed open gently from the outside. A woman dressed entirely in purple-black attire, with a light purple gauze veil on her head, slowly walked in.
"That guy really isn't here. Looks like I came at just the right time."
Looking at the empty room before her, the corners of the woman's mouth curved into a smile. Her gaze carefully examined the room.
"Unexpectedly simple. These real guest rooms are worlds apart compared to those in the dreamscape. Or should I say, this Miss Black Swan is unexpectedly simple?"
Thinking this, the woman's gaze wandered around the room. Finally, in a rather remote corner, she found what she had come for.
It was an antique music box, composed of gold and brown colors overall. The base was a brown copper block, while its chimes were golden vertical tubes.
"Obtained without any effort. This music box should be the invitation letter received by those madmen from the 'Annihilation Gang,' right? Heh, I really don't understand why the Family would send an invitation to that coded fellow."
The woman shook her head lightly, then gently touched the music box's chimes with her finger. Feeling the hidden power within, she murmured to herself:
"I hope I can obtain some useful information from it. The means of Remembrance are enough to make the dead speak."
"After encountering you, those guys from the Annihilation Gang have had no further news. Let me see what exactly happened during your encounter with them…"
With that, a mysterious Path power erupted from the woman's body and slowly seeped into the music box in her hand.
Under the guidance of the Path power, the "memories" hidden within the music box sprang up like bamboo shoots after rain, eagerly emerging and easily captured and read by the woman.
'Twelve o'clock… twelve dreamscapes… I offer it to you…'
'…well done… no matter where they flee… Annihilation will eventually visit…'
"This voice is… Is this the voice of that fire demon? And the other is his offspring? No, the sound is still unclear. It's too vague to obtain useful information like this."
The woman murmured to herself. A fluctuation of Path power flashed in her beautiful purple eyes. Immediately afterward, an even more massive Path power was drawn from within her body and poured into the music box.
"This segment of memory… should be right after the music box was delivered. Next should be…"
'…they hid in dreams… seeking peaceful slumber not…'
'…flame's offspring… this shall be yours…'
'…not her turn to appear… one person is enough…'
Purple-haired woman: "...…"
What are these things about? Couldn't this Ifrit speak in something easier to understand? Speaking in such a convoluted way, these fragmented memories are really hard for people to comprehend!
Though she felt somewhat speechless inside, she still calmed her mind and continued listening to the subsequent memories.
'［...…］'
"What's going on? Why is the memory after this completely blank? This music box fell into Black Swan's hands and was brought by her to Penacony—this is an indisputable fact. But why have the middle processes disappeared…"
The woman's brows furrowed deeply, her beautiful willow-leaf eyebrows almost twisting into a braid. As a Memokeeper of the Garden of Recollection, she was very confident in her abilities and techniques. In theory, such a situation should not occur.
'［...］'
The woman continued trying to read the memories in the music box. As expected, the following memories were still a blank segment. Unlike the intermittent fragments earlier, this was a complete and utter blank, as if…
"As if it had been deliberately erased…"
'［...］'
'［...］'
'［...You… are...who…］'
Suddenly, a questioning voice rang out from the bottom of the woman's heart. This sudden change startled her mind.
"This is…! No, this isn't a memory…"
'This ability… a Memokeeper… from the Garden of Recollection, or those from the Burning Engineers…?'
The voice from the memory echoed in her heart. What surprised the woman was that although this voice originated from the memory, it could interact and communicate with her like an independent entity.
"Who are you?" The woman frowned slightly, her tone somewhat cold as she questioned that voice.