"Ahri?"
Sora stared at the face beneath the hood and, before he realized it, froze.
Because the one the Bai Ze couldn't read at all—the "impossible to assess" figure—was Ahri. Ahri, who'd been missing for a while.
He really hadn't seen that coming.
Ahri had stayed on the Cangyan and hadn't followed him around the Xianzhou ships to promote the movie.
And after the chaos began, the Cangyan—under Feng Liqi's protection—had slipped into the boundless universe and vanished without a trace.
Sora had assumed Feng Liqi would hide.
Honestly, with her skittish personality, it would've been strange if she didn't.
The first time he'd met her, she'd been like a hamster holed up in a cave.
She'd even pulled off the stunt of hiding so hard her butt was still sticking out.
So if Feng Liqi chose to lie low, Sora wouldn't have been surprised in the slightest.
What he hadn't expected was to see Ahri here.
"It's me, Sora-gege."
Ahri wore a soft, bright smile. She looked genuinely happy to see him.
"We'll talk later—somewhere quiet."
But this wasn't the time to catch up.
Right now, everyone nearby had been knocked down by Sora alone.
Ahead, aside from snapped horns, there was blood everywhere.
And with Phantylia still watching like a tiger ready to pounce, this was the worst possible place for small talk.
So Ahri dropped to one knee and said clearly, "As for the commander leading the assault on the Xianzhou Yuque—I acknowledge you as the one fit to hold that post!"
To outsiders, it looked like she'd lost the upper hand in a duel and was conceding on the spot.
Sora understood immediately.
He turned and looked into the distance, at Phantylia seated up high.
No need for words. A single glance said everything.
All the clan leaders present had already been beaten flat.
By the Denizens of the Abundance's law of the jungle, there was no one left to command but Sora.
Phantylia didn't stir up trouble. She accepted his status cleanly, then ordered him to take these people and set out as soon as possible.
"I'd love to see the faces the people of the Xianzhou Yuque make when they see you."
The smile on Phantylia's lips was unmistakable. She was eager to see what kind of impact Sora's appearance would have.
After all, his current "identity" was that of a Vidyadhara traitor—and the Vidyadhara were allies of the Xianzhou.
Now the traitor had joined the Denizens of the Abundance and turned around to attack the Xianzhou.
Would the Xianzhou fracture from within?
For Phantylia—who loved watching organizations rot and collapse from the inside—it was a scene worth savoring.
With the commander decided, Phantylia called people in to clean the place up.
She was, after all, the leader of the Abundance coalition.
What kind of look was it for her residence to reek of blood and slaughter?
The weaker Denizens of the Abundance who came to clean couldn't help feeling their scalps prickle when they saw the battlefield.
Normally, they avoided these clans like the plague. And now those terrifying figures were sprawled like dead pigs—some on their backs, some face-down, some embedded in the walls.
It was satisfying… and it also made them curious.
Who on earth had done this?
By then, Sora had already left with Ahri.
Guided by Bai Ze, the two found a place that felt genuinely safe.
"Didn't expect the little guy to be this useful…"
Ahri kneaded Bai Ze's chubby cheeks, surprised that something this cute could be so handy.
"D-don't mess around! My face is only for Lord Longzhang to—mmph, mmph—!"
Bai Ze's resistance was, naturally, powerless against Ahri's hands.
He could only be pinned there, cheeks squished and kneaded mercilessly.
"Alright, alright. Back to business."
Seeing that, Sora hurriedly dragged the conversation back onto serious matters.
Ahri got it and finally let Bai Ze go.
Freed from the devil's grasp, Bai Ze immediately scurried behind Sora.
Even if the woman in front of him didn't feel "dangerous," Bai Ze—staying close to Sora—still knew exactly how dangerous she was.
She definitely wanted to take him home and knead him.
Ahri then told Sora what happened after Feng Liqi took them away.
Just like before, Feng Liqi transformed into a heaven-mending stone barrier and wrapped the Cangyan completely.
That stone wall was no ordinary thing—it was formed after Feng Liqi fused with Buzhou's stone.
Its self-healing speed was so absurd it practically couldn't be broken.
So she grabbed everyone and, in the blink of an eye, fled to a safe place.
Of course she wanted to lie low and survive quietly. But after so many years of hardship, she'd come to understand one thing:
Hiding only works for a while. If you want the right path, you have to solve the problem at its root.
"No force can extinguish the Cangyan's radiance! No voice can drown out the roar of rage!"
"From the fireworks, the seedlings of revival are born—survival must be wrested from death!"
"We'll raise torches in the dark night. We'll make people know there are still those walking at the front!"
Sora could hardly believe those words had come from Feng Liqi.
"Hard to believe, right? But Feng Liqi-jiejie really said it."
Ahri smiled at him. "Sometimes she's still like she used to be—but she's fundamentally different now."
She wasn't the coward from back then who always wanted to hide.
Because Feng Liqi knew that if she hid, sooner or later someone would be left to walk ahead alone.
Once, because she hesitated too long, that person disappeared for hundreds of years.
If she'd decided sooner. If she'd done something. If—
But there are no ifs.
That pain had cut too deep; she could never go back to who she was.
And if she were still the same as before, no one would accept her as a real leader.
From every angle, she wasn't that person anymore.
Sora hadn't expected Feng Liqi to change like this. A quiet, inexplicable warmth flowed through his chest.
No. No.
What was with this "proud dad" feeling?
Sora hurriedly kicked the weird emotion out of his head.
Ahri added, almost like she remembered it late, "But you can relax, Sora-gege. Feng Liqi's still the same as ever when it comes to how she treats people."
Her beliefs had changed, but it didn't mean her personality had been replaced.
So being with her didn't require you to treat her any differently than before.
After explaining why she'd come, Ahri also explained how she'd gotten here.
"I came with the Borisin from Danlun Temple."
The Borisin were one of the Denizens of the Abundance's main forces. Their clan was currently working with the Xiangliu clan to keep the Xianzhou Yaoqing tied down.
So with Danlun Temple's Borisin in the lead, no one here would stop them—and Ahri slipped in among them.
But when she said that, her expression turned a little strange.
Because it wasn't Danlun Temple's Borisin she'd gone looking for…
"More precisely," Ahri said slowly, "they came to me."
That's right. The Borisin from Danlun Temple had taken the initiative to find Ahri—not the other way around.
They'd been discussing with Feng Liqi how to infiltrate and sabotage from within, when the other side conveniently handed them a ready-made step.
Sora found it strange too.
Was someone pulling strings behind the scenes?
"But Danlun Temple's patron AEON is the EQUILIBRIUM. We've never had any dealings with The Arbitrators…"
"Wait. Who?!"
Sora caught the familiar term and froze.
The AEON of the EQUILIBRIUM—wasn't that the one whose "head" he'd left a footprint on?
Ah, this…
A sudden absurdity hit him. And after he pressed for confirmation again and again, it turned out the truth really was exactly what he feared.
Danlun Temple's AEON was HOOH—the one he'd kicked.
Back then, he'd shattered THAT AEON'S divine body with a single blow.
Sora knew THEY weren't dead. He'd also known THEY would come looking for him sooner or later to settle accounts.
He just hadn't expected THEM to help him at a moment like this.
Were THEY really that kind?
Sora put a huge question mark on it.
Still, at least for now, THEY seemed to be on his side.
Fine. He'd accept it for the moment.
With the cause and effect cleared up, Ahri explained what she'd come here to do.
"What I need to do is map out their personnel distribution—so Feng Liqi and the others can prepare to strike this place."
At that, Sora couldn't help glancing at Bai Ze behind him.
Personnel distribution?
Well, wasn't that perfect.
"Eh?! L-Lord Longzhang, y-you, you, you—!"
Bai Ze suddenly felt something very, very wrong and started inching backward.
Too bad Sora was faster. In one swift motion, he scooped Bai Ze up.
"Come on. I trusted you enough to bring you here, didn't I? Cooperate with her for a bit."
In an instant, Bai Ze's face became a masterpiece of emotion—an expression change most actors could only dream of.
He looked at Sora. Then he looked at Ahri's smiling face.
He swallowed.
Then, with the solemn expression of someone about to sacrifice himself for the greater good, he declared, "I-I understand! I won't disappoint Lord Longzhang's expectations!"
So what if it meant being kneaded? He'd do it!
Sora chuckled and patted Bai Ze's little head. "Then it's a promise. I'll bring your whole clan home safe."
Then he looked at Ahri. "I'll leave the little guy to you."
Ahri nodded. With a mysterious smile, she gathered Bai Ze into her arms.
...
With the assault on the Xianzhou Yuque confirmed, Sora quickly issued a general muster.
They were all Denizens of the Abundance—don't try to fob him off with "my injuries haven't healed."
He needed to rebuild their communications network as soon as possible, so the Alliance could launch a counterattack.
Some clans tried to gang up on him and beat him down.
So Sora answered with wave after wave of star-red torrents, ripping through the ground and carving fresh ravines into the land.
After Sora's thorough "physical assembly," the rabid Abundance coalition finally set off under his relentless urging.
Ahri stayed behind to consolidate intelligence and lay groundwork for Feng Liqi's coming strike.
She kept cross-checking information with Bai Ze, doing everything she could to make sure fewer people got hurt when the time came.
And with so few clans left on this planet now, she should have been able to lie low for a while.
But just as she thought that, a raucous noise dragged her attention away.
Ahri would never forget that day—nor the figure that descended from the sky onto the planet.
It was someone bringing down a massive frozen Borisin, sealed inside a crystal.
The Borisin within the crystal was named Hoolay—the Borisin Warhead, the one Bolue had often spoken of.
He had launched more than two thousand wars of aggression, and enslaved Foxians for ages, refining medicine with their blood.
He was also a key reason the Xianzhou Alliance had allied with the Foxians: the Foxians demanded that Hoolay suffer the punishment of the Forest of Swords forever—without pardon.
Put plainly—
He was the object of every Foxian's hatred.
And now, he was here.
Only frozen in crystal.
And the one who had brought him…
"HAHAHAHAHA!"
With a wild, arrogant peal of laughter, a woman descended from the heavens.
She laughed loudly, as if nothing in the world was worth placing in her eyes.
"I am the god of war who brings you victory! I'm here to become your spiritual totem!"
Yes.
The one who brought Hoolay here was Titania.
Jing Yuan had fulfilled the promise he'd made her, allowing her to come here as well.
The price of her joining the Denizens of the Abundance was delivering Hoolay—who had been held in the deepest depths of the Xianzhou Luofu's Shackling Prison—to this place.
Nothing else would have been enough to let Titania infiltrate successfully.
As for bringing Shuhu's flesh and blood?
Jing Yuan wanted victory, not Shuhu's resurrection.
So he chose Hoolay instead—dangerous, but not unmanageable.
Besides, Hoolay's existence pulled on far too many threads.
Forget everything else—just his status as Borisin Warhead was enough to shift the situation on the Yaoqing front.
The moment the Borisin fighting the Yaoqing heard he was here, they'd come back to confirm it themselves.
When that happened, the pressure on the Yaoqing would drop dramatically.
If the coalition still wanted to keep the Yaoqing locked in a prolonged fight, they'd have to mobilize other clans to replace the Borisin.
And once other clans were pulled in, the pressure on the other Xianzhou ships would ease a great deal.
Titania could infiltrate—and the burden on many Xianzhou ships could be reduced.
All for the price of a single Hoolay.
As for whether the alliance with the Foxians would be affected once Hoolay was "released"…
Please. This was a war.
What were the Foxians going to do—break away now?
Were they trying to die faster?
And if they won in the end, Hoolay would most likely be captured again anyway.
The alliance could continue as normal.
A single stone, multiple birds.
And just as Jing Yuan predicted, the moment Hoolay arrived on the planet, it caused an uproar.
Hoolay had been imprisoned for less than a century—nowhere near long enough for the stronger Denizens of the Abundance to forget.
Which meant his image rampaging across the cosmos still lived in countless minds.
After all, this was the one who had planned 2,123 wars of aggression—plus an uncountable number of additional crimes.
When he moved through the universe, no Denizen of the Abundance had dared ignore his "brilliance."
His capture had once filled countless Abundance followers with regret.
Yet now, here he was again—
Only frozen in crystal.
Ahri didn't feel anything special toward Hoolay. But she faintly sensed something… different about him.
His heart might be something useful to her.
Once she reached nine tails, she would inevitably fall into Mara.
Everyone had tried all kinds of methods for her sake.
Yu Yi—running across the cosmos as a Galaxy Ranger—had searched not only for Sora, but also for her.
Ahri had thought there was no hope.
And yet, on this war chief's body, she'd found an answer.
Her gaze locked onto Hoolay.
The desire to live surged up from the bottom of her heart—only to be forced down again.
"Finish what's in front of us first," she told herself. "Then we'll talk about everything else…"
If Feng Liqi's assault went wrong because the intel didn't match…
Ahri didn't think she could ever forgive herself.
So in the face of survival, she chose restraint.
The news of Hoolay's arrival was something Phantylia had to verify personally.
She'd been planning around him already—she just hadn't expected he'd be delivered to her doorstep.
So Phantylia approached and examined Hoolay closely, feeling out every detail.
In the end, she confirmed it.
This was the real thing.
Phantylia's conclusion left the Denizens of the Abundance in open shock.
"Wasn't Hoolay imprisoned on the Luofu? How was he suddenly rescued?"
"Yeah—breaking through the Luofu's defenses isn't easy, especially with Jing Yuan stationed there."
"But it's right in front of us. Are you saying it's fake?"
One voice after another piled on, disbelief stacking higher and higher.
In the end, their eyes all turned to Titania.
Only the one who brought Hoolay here could explain how this had happened.
At this moment, she was sitting atop the crystal that imprisoned Hoolay, looking down on the Abundance followers below.
They stared up at her the way one looks up at a god made flesh.
Titania smiled.
"Why should I explain myself to you?"
With Sora and Fenille not here to restrain her, she had no need to justify anything she did.
Who were they, to dare question a god?
For a heartbeat, the Abundance followers fell silent, staring up at Titania in disbelief.
They couldn't understand why she could be so brazen.
Then humiliation rose hot in their bodies, and the anger boiled over.
"Bastard! Who do you think you are?!"
"Talking big on our turf—sounds like it's time you learn the rules of this place!"
"Hmph. We'll use you to test our blades!"
Shouts erupted in a wave, all aimed at Titania.
She just reached up and picked at her ear.
"So noisy."
Then she sprang down from the crystal—
...
The sudden uproar made it impossible for Ahri to focus, and the ground's constant tremors made her feel like someone might rush her at any moment.
Enemy territory meant one thing: caution.
Bai Ze, too, curled into a little ball from the ceaseless noise.
Seeing that, Ahri understood she couldn't keep hiding inside the house.
She needed to see what happened.
But when she reached the source of the shaking, she found the area in utter ruin.
Some of the Denizens of the Abundance who'd only just recovered were sprawled on the ground again.
The wounds on their bodies looked like they'd been carved open by twin blades—flesh split and torn.
And even those whose injuries had already healed had eyes dull and ashen, as if their will to fight had been snuffed out.
Ahri stared at the wreckage, unable to piece it together—
Until a whimper drifted in from the side.
"Waaah… this place is terrifying. I want to go back to our planet…"
For the first time, they'd tasted what it meant for there to always be someone stronger—always a higher sky.
In a short span of time, the entire Abundance coalition stationed here had been challenged—solo—by two different people.
They started wondering if this coalition even needed them at all.
Why did it feel like those two, working together, could flatten every Xianzhou all by themselves?
There was no room for them to contribute. They were nothing but trash squatting on a tiny patch of the cosmos.
Otherwise, why could anyone who showed up just stomp them twice?
Watching that scene, Ahri was struck by an absurd thought.
If Feng Liqi and the others didn't come soon—if they just let Sora and Titania keep wreaking havoc here—
Maybe this crisis would pass on its own.
She didn't know where the thought came from.
She just… believed it.
After asking around, Ahri learned where Titania was.
She was talking business with Phantylia.
Phantylia naturally welcomed Titania's sudden desire to join them.
Whether it was the "gift" she'd arrived with, or her combat power—either one was enough to earn Phantylia's acceptance.
But before anything else, there was one crucial question Phantylia wanted answered.
"Why do you want to join us?"
Phantylia asked with genuine curiosity.
She didn't know which Path this Emanator walked, but with strength like that, she should have had countless choices in the universe.
Why her?
"Because I want believers, of course!"
Titania answered with shameless honesty. "And I heard the best way to get believers is to raise your profile."
"And you're in a war with the Xianzhou. Isn't this the perfect stage for me?"
To be honest, any normal person would find that reason hard to swallow.
It was too flimsy.
But Phantylia wasn't normal. She was Heliobus—she could sense what Titania truly thought.
And wasn't that exactly what Titania wanted?
She genuinely wanted believers, so she'd come here.
Besides—Jing Yuan had promised her that if they won, he'd have a statue built for her in the busiest place in Starskiff Haven.
A statue!
Her statue—treatment even Sora didn't get!
And according to what she'd heard, a statue could, in its own way, carry a spirit.
Meaning: once that statue was raised, she would definitely get a belief that was hers alone.
That was why Titania had come.
After sensing it, Phantylia understood Titania's purpose really was just that simple.
It delighted her. It shocked her.
An Emanator-class powerhouse—picked up for free, for a reason this trivial.
Her luck was outrageous.
And with that, Phantylia couldn't help drifting into dreams of the future.
A future where she sat with two great generals at her side.
On her left, Lord Longzhang—bearing the dual power of PERMANENCE and ABUNDANCE.
Once he struck, the stars themselves ran red.
On her right, Titania—strength at the level of a top-tier Emanator.
Where her gaze fell, crystal frost sealed everything.
And she would sit between them, accomplishing one glorious act of destruction after another across the cosmos.
Surely NANOOK would be pleased—surely NANOOK would be happy—to see her working so diligently.
Then there would be no room left for the other Lord Ravagers.
She would become NANOOK'S one favored servant.
Just imagining it made her a little excited.
"Good, good, good! Then stay by my side. I'll make your name resound across the starry sea!"
"For now, get some rest. Once the Abundance followers you defeated recover, I'll have you take the Yaoqing!"
And so, Titania temporarily joined the Abundance coalition.
...
Sora had no idea Titania had successfully infiltrated the Abundance coalition.
At this moment, he was leading countless Denizens of the Abundance to the vicinity of the Xianzhou Yuque.
On the surface, his objective was to seize or destroy the Yuque's Cloudpeer Telescope—the Cloud-Viewing Mirror.
In truth, it was to rebuild the communications network between the Xianzhou ships.
So he had to find the right moment to make contact.
But as soon as he arrived, the clans following him couldn't help complaining.
"The Master of Immortality makes it sound easy, but the dangers we'll face are way, way too many."
"Exactly. If I remember right, the clan pinning down the Yuque is the Jishu clan, yeah?"
The Jishu clan had once been a fairly large Denizens of the Abundance clan. But after taking some inexplicable blow, they'd "slumped."
If you thought "slump" meant they'd declined into nothing, you'd be mistaken.
Their slump was measured against their own peak.
Even weakened, they were still a top-tier clan.
Because the Jishu clan possessed something no other clan had—
Rahu, Devourer of Worlds.
A supreme weapon born when a VORACITY titan beast—one with the qualifications to become an Emanator of the VORACITY—was "Abundance-fied."
Its body was unimaginably enormous. Planets were nothing but feed.
There were even tales it had once swallowed an entire Xianzhou ship.
So while the Jishu clan had weakened, Rahu still made them one of the strongest forces among the Denizens of the Abundance.
Rahu was currently tying down the Yuque, and they were supposed to seize the Yuque's Cloudpeer Telescope.
One mistake, and Rahu could swallow them whole—leaving not even bones.
And if word got out—
They didn't die fighting the Xianzhou. They died in Rahu's mouth.
How ugly would that be?
"If only we could get Rahu to stop."
But—
A message from the Jishu clan leader came back sharp and contemptuous. "You weak little clans are telling us how to do our job?"
That arrogant line crushed their wish on the spot.
"If Rahu stops just because you say so, where does that leave the Jishu clan's face?!"
Ever since that prior blow, the Jishu clan had become sensitive.
Unable to return to their former glory, they were obsessed with saving face.
So even if the coalition was assaulting the Yuque, they wouldn't stop Rahu's feeding.
The answer was exactly what everyone expected.
All eyes turned to Sora.
But thinking of him as "the newcomer," they didn't hold much hope.
Meanwhile, the Jishu clan leader stood atop Rahu's head, watching the Yuque struggle to break free, and laughed coldly.
"It was our accomplishment in the first place. You're here just to bask in our clan's glory."
"Do what you're supposed to do, you little nobodies. Dying in Rahu's mouth is an honor!"
The taunts made everyone clench their fists, but there was nothing they could say back.
They could endure it—
Sora couldn't.
"What did you say?"
He snapped immediately. "Say it again. Let me hear it."
"I said a nobody's still a nobody. If you die in Rahu's mouth, that's your own problem."
"Oh? Oh? Oh. Interesting."
Inside the beastship, Sora laughed—brightly, happily.
If that was how they wanted to play it, then fine.
"Then I'll see whether your Rahu has the guts to swallow me."
With that, ignoring the other clan leaders trying to stop him, he walked straight out onto the beastship's exterior.
Space was cold—utterly without warmth.
For Sora, it was nothing.
He stood on the outer hull and looked at Rahu ahead, jaws wide as it sucked at the Yuque.
Sora's appearance was seen clearly by the Jishu clan, but he didn't care. He only offered a light reminder.
"If you die, don't blame me."
He stood atop the beastship and drifted closer and closer to Rahu.
The Jishu clan leader couldn't be bothered. He wasn't stopping Rahu. If this guy wanted to come out and die, that was his problem.
But the leader's indifference didn't mean Rahu itself was indifferent.
Suddenly, the Jishu clan leader felt Rahu's suction weakening.
The Yuque… was starting to pull away.
W-What was this?
Before the operation began, he'd starved Rahu for a long time. It should never have given up a Xianzhou ship packed with energy.
So why was it stopping—slowly, bit by bit?
"Keep sucking! Don't stop! You want to go hungry?"
The Jishu clan leader urged Rahu on, but the colossal beast didn't move.
Instead, it drew all its presence inward, hiding it—
Even trying to curl up.
To the Jishu clan leader, that movement looked like…
Playing dead.
Yes. Like an animal with nowhere left to run—so it played dead in front of a natural enemy.
From Rahu's behavior, the leader read the meaning.
"What—what happened?! What are you doing?!"
He kept pressing Rahu, but it remained utterly still.
Then, suddenly, the Jishu clan leader felt something else.
"You're saying… it hurts?"
Rahu clutched at a wound on its belly, sending him a single message:
Pain.
Rahu had been born for a thousand years. It had devoured countless planets.
But there was one memory it could never forget.
Once, a tiny creature—no bigger than a grain of rice—had taken an axe and split its belly open.
And that wasn't the end.
That creature had chatted with some passersby, then turned around and pummeled it with fists and kicks.
Rahu remembered that creature's aura.
And today, it had sensed it again.
So it chose to play dead, praying that creature would leave quickly.
The Jishu clan leader went blank.
What kind of ridiculous—
And just then, a beastship slid past him.
On the ship's top stood a red figure, looking at him with open mockery.
"So you're the 'little nobody,' huh. Tsk, tsk, tsk."
The Jishu clan leader's face flushed red in an instant!
W-Where did this red bastard come from?!
---
T/N: SOBBING
uhhh will need to put this on a small break to stock up on patreon chaps, because you know im greedy and give me money and yeah
NO POWERSTONE REWARDS FOR NOW (BONUS CHAPS)
...
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