Dusk was falling on Changle Avenue, a commercial street far larger than any on Earth.
At a restaurant named "Good Taste," a waiter in a short Pongee silk uniform trotted over to the outdoor seating, acknowledging customers' calls as he balanced a tea tray.
"Coming through! Freshly brewed double-scented jasmine in a gaiwan. The fine tea dust has settled to the bottom, and the aroma is to die for!
You've got to sip this one hot from the edge of the bowl. The sweet aftertaste will shoot right to the back of your head! Enjoy, everyone. Just give a shout if you need anything!"
The waiter spoke with familiar ease, but then noticed the patrons at the table had suddenly fallen silent. He looked up, puzzled, and saw them all staring somewhere with astonishment.
The waiter instinctively turned his head to look and froze.
It was a very strange combination.
Two beautiful, identical-looking young women with long gray hair, dressed in ornate black and purple Western-style dresses, wearing berets adorned with purple lilies.
One of the young women was standing on the other's shoulders, forming a human ladder, and a gray-haired young man was standing on the shoulders of the girl on top.
It looked like they were performing acrobatics.
"You wretched brat, making the great Herta do something like this!" The Herta puppet on the bottom, No. 5, gritted her teeth, baring her little white teeth in annoyance.
"Gravity parameters abnormal... recommend immediate offloading..." The eyes of No. 6, whose shoulders Caelus was standing on, glowed with a faint red light.
"Whoa! The young man is climbing up to the sky on the girls' shoulders!"
A diner saw the gray-haired man at the very top leap forcefully from the girl's shoulders, reaching for a palace lantern hanging from the corner of the inn's flying eaves.
"Sir! Sir, what are you doing?"
The young waiter immediately ran over to ask.
What was with these three?
"Me? Just getting something."
With a jingle, he opened the treasure chest shaped like a baoxianghua flower and reached inside for 3 clear crystals.
"Hidden pretty well, disguised as an ordinary palace lantern. I almost missed it."
"Done. On to the next one!"
As the many diners and the waiter stared, dumbfounded, he called to his two generals, No. 5 and No. 6, turned, and strode away with an audacious swagger.
Only after Caelus had walked a good distance away did the waiter snap out of it.
"Stop, thief! Someone's stealing the lantern wick!? No, wait, they're robbing it!"
This wasn't stealing anymore; it was a brazen robbery, committed in broad daylight in front of everyone.
Where did this outworlder come from, to so flagrantly disregard the Luofu's public order?
"Huh? Robbing a lantern wick? Me?"
Amidst the strange expressions of the diners, Caelus pointed a finger at himself in confusion.
Seeing this, the diners' expressions grew even stranger. This handsome guy didn't seem too bright, did he?
"How is this a lantern wick? It's clearly something tasty!"
Caelus held up the azure crystal, showing it to the crowd.
As the diners stared, mouths agape, Caelus, in a slow motion that everyone could clearly see, swallowed the crystal in one gulp.
System interface, top right corner, crystal count +3.
"!!!"
"???"
"He swallowed it? He really swallowed it!"
"Amazing!"
"How did he eat that!"
A normal adult, even with their mouth open as wide as possible, cannot swallow their own fist, yet Caelus had just swallowed a "lantern wick" of equal, or even slightly larger, size.
Gasps rose one after another, and some people began to applaud and cheer, clearly treating Caelus as a street performer.
"Hey buddy, which platform are you streaming on? I'll give you a follow."
Someone looked around, searching for nearby cameras.
The inn waiter was stunned by Caelus's stunt. By the time he came to his senses, the trio of one man and two women had vanished into the bustling crowd.
So, what about the lantern wick?
"Interesting. How on earth did you eat that?"
Herta No. 5 stared at Caelus's mouth. Her personality was programmed to be closer to the real Herta; she was a research-type puppet.
She had been observing the entire process with the scanning equipment linked to her eyes but hadn't detected any anomalies. It was very strange.
"This? It's called 'oral skills'!"
Caelus put his hands in his pockets and glanced sideways at the Herta puppet, who was a head shorter than him. "No. 5, want to give it a try?"
"No, thanks."
Having been messed with by Caelus for a long time on the Express, she knew that the 'oral skills' Caelus was talking about were probably not what she was thinking of. With Caelus in control, she'd have to have a virus to even consider trying.
"Alright, then you two can go back."
Caelus recalled No. 5 and No. 6 into his space inventory. As purely intelligent puppets, they could be stored in a storage ring without issue.
"Let's continue."
Caelus clapped his hands and headed towards another lively district.
Although the number of crystals in each chest wasn't large, the Luofu had far more chests than Belobog!
Pine wood food stalls lined up like a long dragon. When a steamer lid was lifted, white steam billowed several meters high. The sweet scent of osmanthus sweet fermented rice drifted into Caelus's nose, and he followed the aroma.
While negotiating with a vendor, he squatted down, lifted a bluestone slab from under a board, popped two stones from beneath it into his mouth, and then pressed the slab back into place.
This series of actions left the surrounding passersby completely bewildered, their faces a mixture of confusion and horror. Some subconsciously took a few steps back, wanting to distance themselves from the lunatic.
"Hope March is okay."
After admiring the smooth, jade-like crystals for a moment, Caelus put his hands together as if in prayer.
"With that goofball Stelle's way of doing things, she's bound to cause trouble while opening chests. March isn't there to have fun with her; she's there to clean up her messes."
"Hm?"
Moving forward with the dance steps from the staircase scene in "Joker," Caelus suddenly stopped his feet and body, then retreated step by step as if on rewind.
He saw a familiar shock of gray hair, but not the energetic tuft of pink hair.
Caelus used the bustling crowd and buildings to hide his figure, silently approaching Stelle from behind.
Unfortunately, just as Caelus was two or three meters away from launching a surprise attack, Stelle seemed to sense the impending danger. Her golden eyes sharpened, and she whipped her head around with a gaze as sharp as a sword swing.
"Caelus-cub, what do you think you're doing?"
Stelle grinned, but it was a humorless, menacing smile.
"Nothing, just wanted to give you a little surprise."
Caelus wore a Tom Cat grin.
"As if I'd believe you!"
Stelle lifted her little head, letting out an arrogant huff and giving him a disdainful look that said, 'Who are you trying to fool?'
"Where's March?"
Caelus looked around.
"Uh... March, she... hehe~!"
Stelle scratched her head in frustration. "I just opened a chest that was pinned under a stall, and then somehow the owner's cart broke. He accused me of taking off his wheels..."
"Falsely accusing someone in broad daylight! How could I tolerate that? I was clearly just taking the crystals!"
"March is arguing with the stall owner now. She told me to leave first so I wouldn't get beaten up."
"My baseball bat isn't just for show!"
Stelle puffed out her chest, put her hands on her hips, and looked as adorably naive as ever.
"Oh," Caelus nodded in understanding.
March really got dragged into a mess. She's probably apologizing to the stall owner right now, huh?
But it's not a big deal. There's nothing that can't be solved with credits. If there is, just add more!
"Caelus-cub, how many crystals have you found?"
The little gray-haired raccoon sidled over with a grin, looking just like a best friend asking about your score after an exam.
"I went first last time, so you go first this time." Caelus poked his finger at Stelle's approaching cheek, getting ready to squish it away.
Then, the moment his finger touched that fair cheek, Caelus froze, his pupils contracting for an instant.
He stared intently at the fingertip resting on her cheek, his attention focused on himself.
There was... no shared sensation!
Caelus's brow furrowed. He moved his right hand down and reached out, pressing it directly against Stelle's chest and grabbing the planet.
"Hey, wait!"
The gray-haired girl hastily swatted Caelus's hand away, covering her chest as she took a small step back, her eyes wide:
"We're in the middle of the street! What are you doing all of a sudden?!"
Her indignant shriek, though her voice softened towards the end, still attracted the curious or strange gazes of nearby passersby.
Anyone who saw Caelus and Stelle could tell from their matching outfits and identical, silky gray hair that they were close relatives.
On the Xianzhou, few would immediately assume they were brother and sister; father and daughter or mother and son were also possibilities.
Assuming one only considered their appearances.
From the tone of their conversation, it was obvious they were peers.
Ignoring the stares of the passersby, Seele and Li Sushang, residing in the "background" of his body, instantly dropped what they were doing. Together with Caelus, the tri-core, three-thread processor kicked into gear.
Grasping the planet, there was still no shared sensation.
One glance is all it takes. Identified as a fake Stellaron spirit!
One hundred percent fake!
So the question was, who was under this gray-haired skinsuit?
Phantylia the Undying?
This was the first suspect that popped into Caelus's head, since she had replaced Tingyun.
During his stroll, Caelus hadn't felt anything unusual with his own body.
In other words, the real Stelle wasn't in danger, so Phantylia had no reason to do this. She could be ruled out.
Before Caelus had made direct contact with "Stelle," he hadn't noticed anything off about the gray-haired girl. Her expression, movements, speech, and even certain detailed habits were identical to the real thing.
If not for the existence of their shared sensation, he really wouldn't have been able to tell.
Such masterful acting had to be the work of either The Self-Annihilators or a Masked Fool.
Add to that the ability to change her appearance to match theirs, and the answer was obvious.
The question was, what was she doing on the Luofu?
Caelus vaguely remembered that "Big Sis Sparkle" was supposed to make her debut on Penacony.
Yet here she was on the Luofu, and she had even approached him... As his thoughts raced, Caelus quickly guessed the reason.
It wasn't difficult.
He and Silver Wing had used Sparkle's name to trick Sampo back on Belobog. As someone who lives for amusement, it was perfectly logical for Sparkle to come looking for them.
Still, she was incredible!
Caelus praised her in his mind.
As expected of Sparkle!
To be able to perfectly act out Stelle's bratty, goofy, and cute sides in such a short time, and she even knew about the crystals and March... How did she know? Did she make it up?
Didn't seem like it.
By putting himself in her shoes, Caelus could guess a few possibilities, though he couldn't rule out a special ability of Sparkle's mask.
The tri-core processor spun at high speed, and a slight curve formed at the corner of Caelus's mouth.
Since you want to play it this way, let's have some fun~!
"Stelle."
Under the gazes of the surrounding passersby, Caelus took the gray-haired girl's slender, fair hands in his, took a deep breath, and spoke with great solemnity:
"Actually, there's something I've kept buried in my heart for a long time, something I've always wanted to tell you."
"What?"
"Stelle" looked at Caelus with an expression that said, 'What are you up to?' If it had been the real Stelle, she would have reacted similarly.
Taking a treasure from his space inventory, Caelus knelt on one knee amidst the shocked uproar of the crowd.
"I love you. Even though we're brother and sister, I still love you. Marry me!"
"Oooohhhhh!"
The atmosphere on the scene instantly exploded!
At first, only a dozen or so passersby had been paying attention, but after he spoke, the crowd of onlookers had already formed a three-deep human wall.
The uncle from the barbecue stall abandoned his post to squeeze into the front row, his grease-stained apron still dusted with chili powder. The Foxian girl from the fortune-telling stall next door simply climbed onto her divination banner pole, pulled out some melon seeds hidden in her sleeve, and started cracking them.
"..."
The gray-haired girl was completely dumbfounded: "?"
Sparkle was stunned.
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