Bailu and Guinaifen knew a little about the mission Jing Yuan had entrusted to Sushang; they were aware that the General had asked Sushang to keep an eye on suspicious individuals who might endanger the Xianzhou.
So, when the three of them followed the Diting to the Artisanship Commission and witnessed the heaven-shaking battle between the Sword Immortal girl and Jingliu, their hearts were filled with shock and suspicion.
They hadn't expected that Miss Jingliu was the suspicious person General Jing Yuan wanted watched. Although they had only met once before, the impression she left was exceptionally deep. For Little Gui, Miss Jingliu and her teacher had taught her the first lesson in abstract arts! Miss Jingliu was the teaching material used by the teacher~
Bailu found it even harder to believe. During their brief interaction earlier, Jingliu's attitude toward her had been exceptionally good, feeling like she was treating an old friend... no, the child of an old friend? That didn't seem quite right either.
She couldn't quite describe the feeling, but Bailu felt that Jingliu was definitely not a bad egg. Bailu was still thinking about hurrying over to ask Sister Sushang what was going on, but when they arrived, she heard Jingliu, with lowered eyebrows and a submissive posture, bowing and calling Sister Sushang "Master."
The Sword Immortal girl even rubbed Jingliu's head with a pleasant expression and replied, "Good disciple."
Bailu's little brain instantly ran out of memory, the loading icon stuttering frame by frame. What the meow was this situation? Ghosts alive, were these two in a master-disciple relationship? No, no, that's not right, that's not right. Bailu shook her head vigorously. Clearly, the two didn't know each other when they met last time, and just a moment ago they were fighting until Sword Qi filled the air and the sky turned dark. How did they suddenly become master and disciple?
Unlike Guinaifen and Bailu, who were full of doubts and surprise, Sushang herself suddenly felt nervous. Previously, her entire mind had been focused on the battle between the two peerless swordsmen, especially that white-dressed girl whose face was so similar to her own. That was simply the version of herself she dreamed of becoming every night! Too cool!
But every time she saw Li Sushang's face, Sushang couldn't help but mutter in her heart: This is too similar! Similar to the extent that it would be unreasonable if they didn't have some special relationship. The thought that the other party might be her long-lost sister made Sushang feel like she had knocked over a spice jar and accidentally eaten all the mixed flavors.
"Yo~ How did you find me?"
Even with Sushang herself right in front of her, Moonscar showed no panic at all. she raised her hand generously and greeted the three of them. She was also Sushang! Who said Honkai Impact 3rd Sushang wasn't Sushang?
Being patted on the head by a young girl, Jingliu felt a long-absent sense of extreme awkwardness and annoyance. The last time someone patted her head was hundreds of years ago, by that white-haired Foxian girl. Dodging Moonscar's hand, Jingliu paused slightly when she noticed Little Pillow, a look of realization flashing in her eyes.
Sure enough, the Sushang she met last time wasn't Sushang at all. What was the relationship between the two? Sisters? The gap in ability was too huge; it didn't look like it. Mother and daughter? That would be even more outrageous.
For a moment, the awkwardness of losing the bet and becoming a disciple was weakened somewhat by Jingliu's curiosity. Jingliu actually approved of her young master's swordsmanship quite a bit; whether in sword art or other fields, she believed in the principle that "the one who has achieved is the teacher." The awkwardness came mainly from the age difference between the two parties.
"General Diting helped guide us~!"
Patting the Diting's dog head, Bailu first answered Moonscar's question before blinking her eyes, which were filled with confusion, and asking, "Sister Sushang, why are there two of you? No, it's not two of you..."
Between the Sword Immortal girl who saved her from the guards the Family's old fogeys sent to restrain her—flying into the sky on a sword and shattering the firmament—and the funny, clumsy, airhead Sushang who performed smashing boulders on her chest, the gap wasn't just a tiny bit.
"What exactly is going on here?" Guinaifen couldn't suppress the doubts in her heart either, stepping forward to ask.
"This, well, it's a long story..."
After a few moments of silence, Moonscar sighed slowly, revealing a look of deep contemplation and reminiscence, as if considering where to start. She was indeed thinking seriously: Which set of lies should I use to bamboozle Little Pillow? Given Little Pillow's IQ, Moonscar had way too many methods to trick her—so many that her decision paralysis was acting up!
While Moonscar was pondering which rhetoric to use, Little Pillow had already walked up to Moonscar in a crooked, swaying manner. Her head was lowered, her eyes dodging and shifting; her shy and coy appearance made her seem particularly cute.
[Emmmmm... Why do I feel that the 'us' of this world is a bit green? Isn't she a long-life species? She must be at least several decades old, right?]
Li Sushang, in the background of the body, looked at the goofy Sushang through Moonscar's vision. After muttering for a while, she asked a soul-searching question.
[Long-life species, you know. Understandable,] Moonscar explained in the tone of Master Xing.
Oh, the Master Xing here isn't the Stellaron spirit, it's Stephen Chow.
[By the way, don't look down on yourself too much. Being able to join the army at least proves that Sushang is an adult, at least 200 years old.]
[200 years old!?... ( ; A ; )]
Li Sushang was numb. Although Moonscar said she had slept for five hundred years, making her physical age 538, her psychological age was only around 16. Li Sushang couldn't imagine what kind of person she would become if she remained awake and active for 200 years.
[Long-life species... truly magical!] Li Sushang exclaimed with emotion.
Not knowing why Little Pillow had such an expression, Moonscar smiled beautifully, blinking playfully. With a bright smile and her eyes, she asked: What's wrong? Even if Sushang's brain could read the message Moonscar conveyed, one could imagine Moonscar's acting skills.
"I-I-I, you... uh, should I call you Elder Sister?"
Little Pillow tapped her two fingers together in front of her chest, stuttering, her speech somewhat incoherent. Obviously, due to Little Gui's previous question and the copy-paste similarity between them, Sushang had preemptively concluded that the Sword Immortal girl before her might be her long-lost sister.
Moonscar was stunned when she heard this. No, little sister, I haven't said anything yet! How did you cripple yourself with your own bamboozling? Is this Little Pillow's world-shocking wisdom? Terrifying, truly terrifying.
Moonscar didn't speak; she just smiled. That smile was gentle, tinged with kindness and joy, like an older sister looking at a cute younger sister she met unexpectedly.
"You can call me that."
Cough, highlight the key point: Moonscar said she "could" be called that, but she didn't admit to anything. She didn't lie, nor did she scam anyone.
Moonscar's gaze made Sushang even more flustered. She was at a loss, meeting those apricot-yellow eyes that were exactly the same as hers. They were shimmering with light, seeming to have countless words to say, yet flowing away like sand through fingers.
Witnessing the change in her eyes, Sushang once again activated her world-shocking wisdom, and her expression gradually began to change.
"Uh... Sister, don't worry, I'll go reason with Mom! Even if Mom beats me to death, I have to make her explain clearly why she abandoned you back then!"
Sushang suddenly summoned her courage, tightly grasping Moonscar's hand, looking as if she were ready to climb a mountain of knives or plunge into a sea of fire. One had to know, in her family, Mom was gentle and kind, but absolutely not to be trifled with! Otherwise, she would be beaten within an inch of her life; Sushang had a profound memory of what happened the first time she skipped class.
But this time was different. Sushang pulled out her Jade Abacus on the spot and drafted a message.
Mom, what exactly happened back then? Why did you a-band... (crossed out) a-bun... (crossed out) a-barn... abandon Sister! Sister has now achieved success in her cultivation; her sword skills are out-standing in the grass, she is the cock of the walk among heroes, she...
She wrote several hundred words in a row. About one-tenth were typos, and another tenth were pinyin. Click, send!
No Signal.
Oh, she forgot that the civilian communication network in the chaotic delve was in a semi-locked state.
Moonscar stood frozen in place, watching Sushang—who was struggling to write on the projection screen, failing to send it, and scratching her head in confusion—then smiled and applauded, thinking it was absolutely brilliant. Glancing at Guinaifen and Bailu, who couldn't wait to understand the details, Moonscar easily diverted their attention.
"Do you want to learn sword techniques from me?"
"Can you teach us?"
"I can learn?"
The graceful figure of the white-dressed girl flying on her sword had greatly increased Bailu and Guinaifen's interest. Whether they could learn or not was another matter; Moonscar's goal of changing the subject was achieved. Only Jingliu's expression looked slightly peculiar.
*
"Speaking of which, if the Miss Tingyun who traveled with us was impersonated by the Lord Ravager Phantylia, then what about the real Miss Tingyun?"
After Phantylia left, although the Mara-struck Voidrangers she left behind were powerful, they were only so compared to ordinary Voidrangers and Mara-struck. Facing the Cloud Knights, who held an absolute advantage in numbers, and the members of the Express crew, they could only serve to delay time slightly and were soon purged by the Pathstriders displaying their magical abilities. They arrested 1,145 Disciples of Sanctus Medicus disciples, including the Head, Dan Shu; the number of those annihilated had not yet been fully tallied.
"According to Phantylia's style of conduct, if Miss Tingyun were already dead, throwing her corpse in front of her old friends would align more with her aesthetics of Destruction. Since we haven't seen Miss Tingyun's body, there are two possibilities."
Welt pushed up his glasses and spoke.
"One is that Miss Tingyun is safe and sound. The second is that her corpse is no longer on the Luofu. The second possibility is greater."
Speaking the second half of the sentence, Welt's tone became heavy. He was speaking relatively euphemistically. The probability of Tingyun's survival was negligible.
"Ah, how could it be..." March 7th lowered her gaze.
Caelus hesitated for a moment, feeling that it would be more fun to give everyone a surprise later, so he didn't reveal Tingyun's current status for the time being. Moreover, if Phantylia learned of this news, she might deliberately target Tingyun.
"Everyone, we should depart."
After instructing the Cloud Knight generals to lead the troops escorting the Disciples of Sanctus Medicus members and follow the Ten-Lords Commission Judge Xueyi to the Shackling Prison for interrogation and other matters, Fu Xuan strode over to the Express crew.
"Phantylia's target is definitely the Ambrosial Arbor! Defiling the Ambrosial Arbor is like stealing the root of the Luofu. In this way, destroying the Xianzhou would be easy. We must go to the delve sealing the Ambrosial Arbor immediately and stop her!"
Saying this, Fu Xuan called for several military Starskiffs. She was actually still very worried: How many pawns of the Antimatter Legion are still lurking on the Xianzhou? But right now, she had no energy to spare for distractions; the matter of the Ambrosial Arbor was the most important!
"Okay."
Welt was the first to step onto the Starskiff.
Among the five members of the Express crew, Fu Xuan requested that 'White' Seele stay behind to help treat the wounded and suppress the Mara-struck, and the kind Little 'White' Seele did not refuse. Neither did Seele; adding her various prop weapons, her current power was fine for dealing with most ordinary Pathstriders, but it was far from enough to fight an Emanator.
So.
"It's time for another wave of Gacha."
Sitting on the swiftly speeding Starskiff, Caelus's consciousness sank into the spiritual world, summoning the System interface.
[System Mission: Let the Bullets Fly for a While (Completed, Completion Rate 0.91%)]
[Mission Reward: Crystals × 294]
Current Crystals: 1836.
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