"…Waaaah, it's so touching!"
Stelle listened with tears streaming down her face. She unconsciously hugged March 7th beside her. "The disciple trains the master's survival skills before they part, even if it means creating a rift between master and disciple… Waaaah! Old Jing, you're truly great!"
Jing Yuan also gave a bitter smile. He voluntarily released his hands that were clamping the ice sword. His voice was low and carried a trace of sorrow. "…Master, now you understand the painstaking effort I put in back then, right?"
"This was the only way."
"I knew that doing this might make you resent me, might create a tragic thick barrier between us."
"But I couldn't let someone as pure and innocent as you leave alone. Remember what I said earlier? I never planned to hand you over to the Ten-Lords Commission. Sending you away from the Xianzhou is the last thing this disciple can do for you."
Jing Yuan covered his chest, his voice sincere. "If I could do it all over again, I wouldn't choose anything else. If sin must be borne, then let me be the sinner."
"Because compared to this world, you are more important!"
"Come on, Master. If you still want to take revenge on me, go ahead. I guarantee I won't—"
Whoosh—
Jingliu's hand rose and the blade fell. Almost on pure muscle memory, Jing Yuan clamped the blade between his hands. The whole set of movements was smooth and fluid.
"Heh, keep making it up. Keep spinning your story."
Jingliu's expression showed no emotion at all from Jing Yuan's speech. "I'm just Mara-Struck, not senile. And during the day I'm just slow to react, not stupid."
"I told you to repent, not to add extra drama. If you don't tell the truth, be careful—I won't even give you this last chance."
Jing Yuan's face stiffened. After a few seconds he said dejectedly, "…Fine, I admit it. At that time I just purely wanted to tease the idiot."
Stelle: ...
Stelle: "Old Jing, if Jingliu cuts you down, I won't sympathize with you at all."
Even at this point, Jingliu had no intention of letting Jing Yuan off. She just calmly urged, "Continue."
Continue… When Stelle heard those two words, her eyes widened: It's not over yet?
Jing Yuan smiled awkwardly and continued his confession:
...
Star Calendar XXXX, Jingliu's final moments quietly passed. According to the Ten-Lords Commission's regulations, judges would come to collect the body at this time and send it to the Hall of Rebirth for handling.
Night.
Knock knock knock—
Click.
Jing Yuan opened the door. What greeted his eyes were two Ten-Lords Commission judges, one on the left and one on the right—Huohuo and Tail.
(At this moment Stelle went "Hm?" and said Huohuo probably hadn't been born yet at this time? Jing Yuan said he only knew these two judges and was just using their names and appearances as substitutes. Don't pay too much attention to the details.)
"Ahem, General Jing Yuan, by order of our superiors, we have come to collect the body." Tail cleared his throat and said.
Jing Yuan looked puzzled. "Collect the body? Collect whose? Mine?"
"We wouldn't dare say that." Tail gave a bitter smile. "General, we know the person who reached their final days is your Master, but… once someone falls into the Mara-Struck State, all past events are severed. What remains is merely a sinful thing possessing the original shell."
"And after a long time, even the shell cannot be preserved. So… please don't make things difficult for the two of us."
Huohuo said weakly, "Yeah, don't… make things difficult. We still have over a hundred more to collect today…"
Hearing the two of them, Jing Yuan immediately showed a troubled expression. "You two, it's really not that I'm unwilling to cooperate. It's just that this morning I wasn't paying attention and actually let that Jingliu slip away… I really can't cooperate."
Tail: "It's fine. We've seen this situation many times. Please let us in to collect some of Miss Jingliu's life traces and information. We'll upload the data to the Jade Abacus, and specialized judges will be responsible for the pursuit."
"Mm… alright. Please come in, you two."
Click—
Jingliu's room was already in complete chaos. The window was open, and fierce wind made the curtains flap loudly. It was obvious that Jingliu had escaped through the window.
(Of course, that was what the two judges thought.)
In reality, Jingliu was currently tied up tightly by Jing Yuan and hanging from the ceiling, her mouth sealed with tape so she couldn't make a sound.
At this moment, Jingliu's scarlet eyes were filled with murderous intent: This damnable rebellious disciple actually dares to treat her with such disrespect. Die die die die die…
Jingliu's current condition was already very bad. Objectively speaking, the Mara-Struck symptoms of her nighttime personality were very obvious.
"Hm?"
While Huohuo and the others were collecting biological information, Tail suddenly let out a puzzled sound. He pulled a sword out from under the blanket and asked, "Why is there something like this on the bed?"
Jing Yuan smiled slightly. "My Master is the Sword Champion of the Luofu. It's normal for her to have something like this, right?"
Tail went "Oh."
After a while, Huohuo pulled out a large bag of compressed food from under the blanket. "Eh? Then why is there something like this on the bed too?"
Jing Yuan: "Oh, my Master is a well-known directionally-challenged person even in the Luofu. She gets lost easily even in her own room and has no survival skills at all. If I'm not home, she could easily starve to death. So I prepared a little emergency food for her. That should be reasonable, right?"
Huohuo: "But the amount of compressed food here is enough for one person to eat for several years."
Jing Yuan: "You don't understand. She usually exercises a lot, so of course her appetite is big. She eats like a pig, hahaha."
Huohuo nodded, seemingly believing Jing Yuan's explanation.
But after another while, Tail pulled out a stack of bank cards from under the blanket, looking very puzzled. "Then why are there these things on the bed too?"
Jing Yuan: "Uh… My Master is very money-conscious and likes to squeeze her disciple. I guess this is the money she saved for her retirement. Now that she's going to die, all this money is mine, hahaha."
Tail nodded and believed him again.
After yet another while, Huohuo pulled out a ship ticket from under the blanket. "Star Rail Company Business Class Lifetime Ticket. Holders of this ticket may board any ship of the Interastral Peace Corporation and enjoy the highest level of treatment… Ohhh! I've heard of this!"
"This seems to be the gift the Interastral Peace Corporation gave the General upon taking office… Wait, why is the General's item on Miss Jingliu's bed?"
Jing Yuan was silent for two seconds. "Sigh, to be honest, in the last few days my Master's Mara-Struck symptoms were already very obvious. Her intelligence had regressed to that of a child. She wouldn't sleep without me coaxing her. Just understand, understand."
At that moment, Tail pulled out the last item from under the blanket. "Interstellar Traveler ID Card, Name: Jingliu Liu?"