Looking at the location in the group chat that was drawing ever closer to her, Stelle's heart jolted, and she immediately began scanning around tensely.
Unlike Qingque and the others, Stelle hadn't seen this version's Hoolay up to now, and naturally didn't know that Hoolay's original form had been conditioned into the Xianzhou's shape (and now it had become Cirrus's shape again). Thus, her impression of him was still that of the original tyrannical beastly hero.
Stelle had always thought that if Honkai: Star Rail weren't a 12+ game, the plot segment where Jiaoqiu fell into Hoolay's hands back then—Jiaoqiu wouldn't have had any chance of surviving.
"Stelle, don't be scared."
March 7th, who had also seen Hoolay's position closing in, gently patted Stelle's shoulder in comfort: "Don't worry, I've got your back."
Stelle movedly grasped March 7th's hand: "March, you're the best!"
In reality, March 7th's inner thoughts:
Come on quick, Hoolay—come be the missing piece in my play with Stelle~ As long as I take you down all pretty-like right in front of Stelle, tonight I'll have an excuse to have her attend to me in bed, heh heh heh...
On the side, Dan Heng's inner thoughts:
"Hoolay..."
Dan Heng pondered for a moment, and the memories from his previous life quietly surfaced in his mind: Back then... how had they captured him again?
Oh oh oh, right—it seemed they found some unlucky sap as bait to lure Hoolay over, then the other four rushed up for a round of punches and kicks... Yeah, that's the process.
Should he recreate it? Tsk, but without Blade, who could serve as the bait?
On the other side: Sunday's inner thoughts:
Hoolay? Borisin warlord? Hiss—why does this name feel so familiar? Have I heard it somewhere? No, it's not just heard—feels like I've seen it too.
Tsk, but that can't be right... The group chat says Hoolay's a prisoner locked up on the Xianzhou for nearly a millennium, the strictest death row inmate. How could I have seen him?
But it just feels so familiar...
After racking his brains for a few minutes, Sunday finally remembered: Oh right, almost forgot—he used to eat special-supply meat cutlets that seemed to come from some Borisin warlord, and the origin turned out to be here on the Xianzhou... Better ask the family chef later.
Sigh, shame I can't recall clearly—mainly because stuff at that level really isn't worth burning brain cells over. Unless it's meat fallen from the Voracity Aeon's body, it just doesn't have that chew.
Among the group, only Yanqing was seriously pondering countermeasures. He gripped the flying sword Yunli had just gifted him, eyes scanning all directions and ears alert to every sound, constantly vigilant for any Borisin in his field of view acting strangely or abnormally.
But right now was during the Rite of the Hunt, and Borisin across the Xianzhou had multiplied over tenfold as an event feature. Looking around, Borisin were everywhere, which undoubtedly increased the difficulty of Yanqing's reconnaissance.
It was just as Yanqing was on alert that Cirrus, who had been hidden in the shadows and sprinting all the way, quietly arrived here.
His plan was quite cunning: At first, Cirrus had agreed to cooperate with Mok Tok for the sole purpose of retrieving the rest of his power from the "Creation Furnace" (the Luofu's container for confining Heliobi, also the Artisanship Commission's industrial furnace) amid the chaos on the Xianzhou. But once the operation began, he discovered a "deviation" in his plan.
The prisoners in this Shackling Prison were way too weak!
He had been in the Shackling Prison before too, listening to these inmates boast every day about how awesome they were—and he'd actually naively believed them!
For example, take that dark green dragonman who appeared first—he was always yelling stuff like "This world is my kingdom" and "I am a noble dragon, also a demon wizard"... Don't blow your slogans too loud!
And what happened? Cirrus had watched with his own eyes as the guy got beaten until his gear exploded off, dropping a little stone, and turned into a statue on the spot, his precious treasure.
Then that blond vampire—in the Shackling Prison's sunless darkness, he was indeed super active, always claiming he was immortal. But in a fight, he just stood there like a post, not even twitching, until someone hit him with an ultimate and he went down all inexplicably.
And that purple potato spirit—among such a huge crowd, he was the biggest braggart, saying crap like "Oh, my ideal is to wipe out half the universe's life for cosmic prosperity"—makes you wanna laugh, you know?
Bro, if you weren't locked in the Shackling Prison, everyone would think you're an Emanator of Equilibrium or something. Wiping out half the universe's life? Why don't you go be the Lord Ravager of Destruction?
In summary, Cirrus's "muddy the waters and fish in troubled times" plan had gone bust. Not a single one in the whole Shackling Prison could fight!
All a bunch of good-for-nothings, all his precious rice buckets.
So Cirrus planned to first take this "Hoolay" body and flee the Xianzhou. After all, the original owner of this body had no chance of resisting him anymore—it counted as extra help. Wait a bit until the Xianzhou fell into disarray over Hoolay's disappearance, everyone up and down in a frenzy, then he'd sneak back in and retrieve his fragments.
By then, with the dual boosts of a great Heliobus spirit and Hoolay's flesh body, even the Xianzhou's Generals might not take him down—haha!
So Cirrus had now come to Central Starskiff Haven, the Luofu's most direct passage to the outside world. He could even see ships taking off sporadically from the starport. As long as he slipped onto any one casually, it would be freedom under the vast sky—no one could catch him again.
(Sniff sniff)... Hm?
At that moment, Cirrus's heart stirred, and his gaze suddenly met Yanqing's not far away. Even from dozens of meters apart, he could still detect a familiar scent on this yellow-haired kid.
This guy... seems to have had contact with that batch of Luofu Generals? Cirrus had a bit of an impression of the white-haired youth in that group—seemed to be the former Luofu General, Jing Yuan.
Though Cirrus didn't know Yanqing's identity, his intuition told him this kid was absolutely connected to that Jing Yuan!
But Yanqing's gaze merely glanced at Cirrus before quickly shifting away.
"Heh... pretty lucky."
Cirrus licked his claws. He'd thought snagging a powerful body was already great, but unexpectedly, on his way out, there was this bonus surprise.
If he could capture this acquaintance of the former Luofu General, it would surely create rifts and tensions between the former and current Generals, right? The situation would become even more chaotic then— all the more advantageous for him.
Do it!
With that thought, Cirrus adjusted his state, pretending to be a harmless Borisin pet, and trotted lightly toward the group.
Fifty steps.
Thirty steps.
Ten steps.
Just as Cirrus entered attack range and was about to pounce with full force, Stelle beside him suddenly exclaimed, spinning around to block in front of him and shouting: "Look, Hoolay's location seems to overlap with ours! He wouldn't be digging an escape tunnel underground, would he...!"
!
Feeling the sharp pain from her butt, Stelle's words cut off instantly, her eyes widening, little face trembling.
Cirrus: ...Damn it!