"No, you can't, Yamete, stop!"
Jing Yuan's eyes were filled with deep despair. He watched helplessly as Jingliu, right in front of him, withdrew all his deposits from various banks and transferred them to her own phone. Every single second felt like a knife cutting into his heart.
It was as if… as if the things he had carefully cherished and protected all this time were so easily taken away by someone else.
Those credit points were clearly meant to be used at the most important moment in his life, yet they were just… taken away like this.
"Don't continue anymore! Yamero!"
Jing Yuan's eyes were bloodshot, and faint signs of the Mara-Struck State even appeared. He desperately rushed toward Jingliu, but the latter pressed one hand on his head. No matter how hard he struggled, he could not advance any further.
He could only watch helplessly as Jingliu seized his most precious savings.
"If this continues, I won't even count as a poor person anymore…"
Jing Yuan muttered, collapsing to the ground.
"Hm~ It wasn't a waste saving up all these years. There are actually a full five million credit points."
Jingliu looked at the transfer notification on her phone and smiled with satisfaction. She then tossed the phone back to Jing Yuan like throwing away trash. "Disciple, your Master isn't interested in money. I'm simply helping you safeguard it for now."
Jing Yuan weakly grabbed the hem of Jingliu's skirt. A final trace of hope still remained in his golden eyes. "M-Master, for the sake of our master-disciple bond, please return the money to me. I'll do anything except this, onegai!"
"Jing Yuan, you really only ever think about yourself." Jingliu smiled, then her expression suddenly turned cold. She pushed Jing Yuan aside with one hand. "However, I have never felt any joy in forming a master-disciple relationship with you."
"You're no longer useful. Don't worry, I will make good use of your most precious savings."
Jing Yuan's eyes widened. The light in his face gradually faded, losing its highlights bit by bit until his face turned ashen.
"M-Master, this is all my savings from several hundred years! You can at least leave me half! You take two hundred and fifty thousand, I take two hundred and fifty thousand!"
"Get lost, go be your own two hundred and fifty thousand!"
"No—!"
Jing Yuan knelt on the ground in despair and cried out in pain toward the sky. The surrounding passersby who saw this only shook their heads in confusion and did not give him even a bit more attention.
Perhaps his cries were too miserable. Jingliu, who had originally planned to turn and leave, suddenly stopped. Her agate-like crimson eyes looked her disciple up and down with interest. Unconsciously, the corners of her mouth curved into an arc.
No… this still wasn't enough.
Heh.
...
Some time later, Stelle and the others finally arrived at Central Starskiff Haven. The six of them jumped down from the starskiff one after another and looked around, trying to detect any direction where a disturbance might exist.
Unfortunately, Central Starskiff Haven was still as bustling as usual, with people coming and going. There was no sign of anything unusual.
There was none of the large-scale chaos that an enraged Heliobus would cause.
"There are so many people. If that Heliobus doesn't show itself, how are we supposed to find it?" Fu Xuan asked worriedly.
"Don't panic." Stelle waved her hand. "Don't underestimate my intelligence network!"
"Oh?"
Upon hearing this, Sushang and the other two of Qingque's three capable subordinates immediately cast curious glances at her. Could this Miss Trailblazer from the Astral Express have some special method?
That made sense. The Express traveled across many worlds, so it definitely had some unknown secrets in intelligence gathering. Otherwise, how could they always encounter a major event every time they arrived somewhere… It couldn't be pure luck, right?
Under the gaze of the others, Stelle strode forward, stopped a passerby, and asked with utmost seriousness: "Hello, may I ask if anything unusual happened in Central Starskiff Haven just now?"
Sushang trio: ...
Is this the intelligence network you mentioned? How could you possibly get useful information this way?! This is basically looking for a needle in a haystack…
"Yes, there was!"
The passerby nodded and pointed in the direction of Xuan Ye Street. "Just over there, a master-disciple pair seemed to be having a fight. The disciple knelt on the ground begging the Master for forgiveness and even got sent flying. Sigh, I guess it's another scumbag guy."
A collective question mark popped up above the Sushang trio's heads: There really is something? N-No, this sounds like nothing but gossip?
And how did the word "master-disciple" get connected to "scumbag guy"?
"Ohhh, thank you for the information." Stelle politely thanked him, then turned back to the five others. "Let's go check it out."
As everyone knows, NPCs in Star Rail have a strange setting: no matter how important or secret something is, you can always get a clue from an NPC's mouth.
"Yay!"
Bailu was the first to follow. Her carefree appearance made the Sushang trio's eyelids twitch.
"Is this… really reliable?"
Bailu patted her chest, producing two solid thumping sounds. "Believe in Stelle. She must have her own deep meaning for doing this."
"…Alright then."
Sushang thought for a moment. Since there were no clues right now anyway, they might as well take it one step at a time. Shooting the arrow first and then drawing the target around it was also a valid choice.
"Let's follow."
...
Soon, after inquiring along the way, the group passed through Central Starskiff Haven and arrived at Exalting Sanctum. They finally stopped in front of a martial arts hall. According to the passersby, the master-disciple pair had headed in this direction and should be nearby.
"Eh? Isn't this where I work?"
Bailu looked at the "Dragon Lord Martial Hall" in front of her, somewhat dazed. "Did we go to the wrong place?"
Thanks to the Martial Exhibition Ceremony, she had been on paid leave this whole time. But when she returned to this martial arts hall again, she still could not help trembling slightly.
After all, this place did not hold any good memories.
Stelle shook her head. "According to the passersby, that master-disciple pair came this way. They should be nearby. Let's split up and search. See if you find anything."
The others all nodded. After exchanging glances, they tacitly split into six directions to investigate.
...
After separating from the others, Stelle reached into her Memoke space and pulled out Hoolay. She pointed at the ground and ordered: "Hoolay, sniff around and see if there's any Heliobus scent nearby."
Hoolay: ???
"Ber, Master, I'm a Borisin, not a dog."
"Less nonsense. Right now, Borisin status in the Xianzhou is even lower than dogs. Besides, isn't it all the same? Hurry up and sniff."
"It's not… Heliobi aren't even physical entities. Asking me to smell for a scent isn't that making things difficult for me?" Hoolay said somewhat aggrievedly.
Stelle put her hands on her hips and said fiercely: "Then what use are you? Think of a way. Otherwise, why did the author arrange for you to appear?"
"Master, what are you saying… Fine, fine. It seems I can only use the innate secret technique of us Borisin."
Hoolay sighed. "The reason our Borisin tribe became the fiercest tribe on the plains isn't just because of the generous blessings from Yaoshi the Abundance."
"There is also an innate hunting divine ability! Using this move, we can easily see Path energies, memetic memoria, and even more 'things ordinary people cannot see.'"
"I call it… Elemental Sight!"