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To maintain sufficient vigilance and responsiveness, Baiming pulled out the Evoltruster and directly canceled the Ruan Mei impersonation. Her vision vanished for a split second, but this time was vastly different.
Baiming could clearly feel the light within the Evoltruster—a weak but stable connection. The brilliance instantly surged into Baiming's body, transforming her into a human-sized version of Nexus.
With the basic abilities of a Giant of Light combined with the powers of Destruction and Elation, Baiming was confident she wouldn't lose to an Emanator. Her vision cleared rapidly.
Simultaneously, the reward settlement screen appeared before her:
[Character Impersonation System] [Name: Baiming] [Lifespan: 300 Years] [Available Transformation Characters: Great Herta (Ready), Acheron (Recharge: 89.1%), Star-shatterer (Recharge: 48.9%), Ruan Mei (Recharge: 13.4%), Jingliu] [Available Draw Count: 0 (55.1%)] [Reward Settlement: Impersonated Ruan Mei, successfully led the birth of the Aeon of Hope and opened a brand-new Path. Large amount of Emotional Value collected. Host can acquire nearly half of Ruan Mei's talent.]
Talents belonging to Ruan Mei were already causing her wisdom to undergo a metamorphosis. But at this moment, Baiming couldn't afford to focus on that. In the form of Nexus, she faced the Arbitrator directly.
"Why has an Arbitrator appeared? Shouldn't you all remain hidden in the shadows?"
The Arbitrator expressed understanding toward Baiming's wariness and spoke:
"Yes, I should be. But you... are very special. If I hadn't stepped forward to speak with you, perhaps you would have already escaped by now."
The Arbitrator also found this situation troublesome. The Aeon of Equilibrium's interest in Baiming was much higher than he had imagined. Furthermore, Aha's attention was equally intense. Combined with the fact that this person seemed able to borrow the wisdom of geniuses, if he didn't appear in person, this "accident" wouldn't have hindered her for long.
"So, what are you intending to stop me from doing?"
"We have no intention of becoming your enemy. However, following His will, I must intervene here to prevent you from introducing too many variables into the universe in too short a time. Additionally, I am here to help you avoid an assassination attempt by the Mourning Actor—Polka Kakamond."
"...I've gone too far recently? So HooH wants to 'shadowban' me for a while? And Polka Kakamond really wants to kill me, huh."
The Arbitrator nodded. The possibilities embodied by the person before him were beyond the ordinary. In just a few short months, she started by influencing the Blue Planet. Then she killed Shuhu, who logically shouldn't have been completely eradicated yet. Then she turned around and cooked up a non-existent Lord of Ravager, not only providing Nanook with new ideas but also introducing the possibility of Harmony to the Galaxy Rangers.
Now, she had even created a brand-new Aeon capable of changing the very outcome of the universe's Finality. In terms of causing trouble, which lunatic in the cosmos could compare to her? Even the geniuses weren't this good at stirring the pot...
Even with the Arbitrator's vast experience, he had to admit he had never seen a specimen like Baiming.
And HooH of Equilibrium had, of course, noticed Baiming. How could He not, when she had practically manufactured a colleague for Him? He had quickly made arrangements. However, He had no intention of negating Baiming's existence entirely—otherwise, He wouldn't have left a gift for Noah earlier.
HooH also knew that Baiming was currently hard to touch. Aha was openly watching her, and Noah cared deeply for His creator. Nanook had clearly left something behind as well. So HooH didn't plan to do anything extreme. Strictly speaking, He was simply preventing Baiming from bringing too many variables to the universe in such a short window.
He had to maintain balance. If He let her go like this, it would be like trying to knead dough—He'd just get it even when Baiming would dump in a bucket of water. It was endless. The frequency was just too high; heaven knows what else she might pull.
So, an Arbitrator stood before Baiming.
"The balance of the universe must be maintained. Your existence is indispensable, but your weight exceeds expectations. Please accept this."
As he spoke, the Arbitrator produced a small black-and-white chessboard from his robes and handed it to Baiming. In the center of the board were two rotating spheres that looked very similar to HooH.
"This is?" Baiming took the board, inspecting it curiously.
"You need a zero-sum battle. Victory or defeat matters not; you only need to fight. When it ends, I will send you back."
"So this world was specifically created by you to trap me?"
"Merely borrowed. A power exists here that maintains its balance."
"..."
"Of course, if you feel aggrieved, I can personally trade blows with you to help you vent."
The Arbitrator's words left Baiming speechless. What can you say to someone who says, "Feel free to hit me"? Furthermore, the party was actually protecting her to some extent; she didn't know whether to complain or say thank you.
In any case, it didn't look like HooH was trying to elbow her to death. Baiming knew far too little about the Path of Equilibrium and didn't want to deal with them yet. And if she remembered correctly, Arbitrators were directly commanded by HooH—a rare case of Pathstriders being directly puppeted by an Aeon.
The only thing was, if they really fought, how much time would pass in the outside world...? She tried the Phase Flame; no surprise, it was being jammed by some power. Likely HooH's doing.
But just then—
"Hahahaha—!"
A burst of laughter erupted from Baiming's ring. It was the mask left by Aha. Although Baiming didn't seem to be in mortal danger, Aha wasn't willing to let the universe lose Baiming for too long. If the Arbitrator had his way and let Baiming fight here, who knows what era it would be by the time she got back?
He, Aha, had just "hit the follow button." If you "shadowban" her for a thousand or several thousand years, where is His fun going to come from? How is He supposed to live!
So Aha made His move. Although it was the second time in a short period, Aha was quite happy to do it. Unlike Nanook, who ignored her as long as she wasn't dying, if you wanted a "man of the people" among Aeons, you had to look to Aha.
Baiming had barely reacted when a massive surge of Imaginary Energy converged. The Arbitrator seemed to want to stop it, but the mask flew directly out of Baiming's ring. Carried by a burst of manic laughter and immense energy, it turned into a streak of light that no one could dodge and slammed hard into the Arbitrator's face.
Boom—!!!
The pure impact destroyed all of the Arbitrator's defensive measures, turning him into a shooting star. Laughing all the way, he was knocked flying toward the black hole.
Then, in the blink of an eye, the black hole before Baiming vanished. In its place was the Xianzhou Luofu, floating in the void and pausing its voyage.
"Aha~"
Aha whispered a laugh in Baiming's ear and then vanished with a flourish. Simultaneously, the sound of the Arbitrator's wild laughter came from the chessboard:
"Hahahaha—! Perhaps we shall meet again in the future, hahahaha—!"
"..."
It seemed the side effects of being harassed by Aha hadn't worn off yet. It sounded like he wouldn't be able to catch up anytime soon, and he wasn't in a hurry either. But from his tone, it seemed like the next time they met, they'd have to have a proper fight...
What a pain. She'd have to look up more info on Arbitrators later.
And wow, she didn't realize Aha was watching her this closely. Between that, the power Nanook left in her, and HooH's chessboard... being marked by so many Aeons, she didn't know if it was a blessing or a curse.
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