The disciples of the Sanctus Medicus surged forward like a tide—green robes billowing, eyes blazing with a sick, feverish zeal. At their head, a man raised a blue-green talisman high above his head. His voice was hoarse, but ecstatic.
"Merciful Medicine King—grant us undying longevity!"
The moment his words fell, the talisman ignited. It didn't burn like paper—it dissolved into a thread of blue smoke, slipping straight into Bailu's mouth and nose.
"Mm—!"
Bailu clapped a hand to her throat. Her pupils shrank violently as the clear amber in her eyes clouded over, flooded with a murky teal light. Strange markings crawled along her horns. Beneath her scales, blood vessels bulged like roots, and deadwood patterns surfaced across her skin.
"Bailu?!" March 7th lunged forward—
—and Black Swan caught her wrist and yanked her back.
"Don't touch her. They're not trying to capture her…" Black Swan's voice was tight with alarm. "They're activating something inside her!"
Huo Linfei was already moving. "Then we take her and run!"
But the instant his hand made contact—
BOOM!!
Bailu's body swelled grotesquely. With a wet, violent rupture, withered flesh burst outward—then twisted, layered, and re-knit into something enormous. In seconds, a colossal monstrosity took shape: part plant, part dragon skeleton, crowned with warped horns and plated in blue-green scales.
It threw its head back and roared.
The shockwave alone caved in buildings along Xianzhou Luofu'sCentral Starskiff Haven streets—stone and wood collapsing like toys.
Huo Linfei had just enough time to shove March away.
Then the spreading mass of blood and vine swallowed him whole.
"Huo Linfei!!"
March's scream was the last thing he heard before the world plunged into black.
A grotesque pulse erupted from within Bailu's transformed body—an anomalous vibration that snapped like a hook through Huo Linfei's mind. His vision twisted, folded, and tore. His consciousness was dragged into a memory that wasn't his.
…What is this place?
When the distortion cleared, he found himself standing on the streets of Central Starskiff Haven again—yet the architecture, the signage, even the air itself felt subtly wrong. Familiar, but out of sync. Like a painting copied from memory, then repainted by someone who'd never seen the original.
"March? Black Swan? Bailu?!" he shouted.
No one answered.
A cold mechanical voice chimed in.
[System analysis in progress…]
[Temporal-spatial anomaly detected.]
[Current coordinates: Xianzhou Luofu · approximately 800 years ago.]
[Status: ETERNAL CYCLE (temporal overlap induced by resonance between extranormal energy and "Permanence").]
Huo Linfei's eyes widened. "I got isekai'd again?!"
[Correction: You have not traveled through time. Your consciousness has been pulled into a "real" historical fragment.]
[Note: This phenomenon is highly similar to the Eternal Cycle event recorded in the Super Beast Armor system.]
"Say it like a human!"
[Simply put—]
The system's tone turned grave.
[You are currently positioned on a timeline shortly before the invasion of the Luofu by the Abundance Emanator "Shuhu."]
"Can I get out?" Huo Linfei didn't yet understand what an "Emanator" truly meant—he only cared about reuniting with his friends outside.
[Method 1: Locate the singularity point within the memory.]
[Method 2: Wait until Bailu stabilizes in the external reality.]
[Method 3: Die.]
"…Strike option three." He inhaled sharply, probing his body's state. "Why is my extranormal energy not moving? Is that me, or you?"
[Answer: You.]
[Your extranormal energy is currently sustaining the stability of the Eternal Cycle.]
[Until you exit the Eternal Cycle, Super Beast Armor deployment is unavailable.]
Huo Linfei pinched the bridge of his nose, about to curse—
—when a clear, bright jingle of bells drifted through the street.
"Hey, little one. Are you lost?"
He turned.
A foxian woman with pale violet hair was leaning down to look at him. Her expression was lively, her posture relaxed—but there was a sharpness in her presence, the kind that came from hard travel and harder battles. A bow hung at her waist. Silver bells adorned her hem, chiming softly as she moved.
And she had eyes and brows—uncannily similar to Bailu's.
Huo Linfei blinked.
Foxian… like Tingyun's people?
Or—no—don't tell me that's just an adult version of Bailu?!
He snapped into survival mode and put on the most pitiful face he could manage.
"Big sis… I can't find my home."
The foxian woman's expression melted instantly. She rubbed his head with open sympathy.
"Another war refugee, huh?" she said gently. "Come on. You'll come with me first. We'll figure it out."
Before he could protest, she scooped him up with one arm—effortless, as if he weighed nothing—and marched down the street at a brisk, confident pace.
"Wait! I can walk—"
"Don't be shy!" she laughed. "You're light as a feather!"
Huo Linfei went rigid. "…Am I really that light?"
A courtyard came into view.
The foxian woman kicked the gate open with a heel.
"Jing Yuan! Look what I picked up!"
Inside, a young man was mid-sip of tea. He startled so hard he nearly choked.
"Cough—cough—Baiheng, you can't just keep bringing home random things…"
He lifted his head—and froze when he saw Huo Linfei.
"This is…?"
"A lost kid!" Baiheng beamed, setting Huo Linfei down on a stone bench. "The fighting's been nasty lately. Lots of children displaced."
Huo Linfei studied the young man in front of him.
No General's composure. No leisurely, unshakable authority. There was a trace of youth in his features, a softness at the edges.
But those golden eyes—
Those were unmistakable.
So… this is Jing Yuan when he was young?
"I'm Huo Linfei," he said quickly, extending a hand. "Temporarily… homeless."
Jing Yuan took his hand, grip steady. "Jing Yuan. Cloud Knight lieutenant."
A system window flickered.
[Notice: Member of the High-Cloud Quintet.]
[Current era members: Jingliu, Jing Yuan, Baiheng, Yingxing, Dan Feng.]
"The High-Cloud Quintet?!" Huo Linfei blurted.
Baiheng's eyes widened. "You even know that title?"
Jing Yuan's expression cooled by half a degree—subtle, but unmistakable.
"Where did you hear that name?"
A chill crawled up Huo Linfei's spine.
He forced a shaky laugh. "A storyteller! On the street! He said the High-Cloud Quintet are the Luofu's strongest five—like… a legendary squad!"
"Storytellers exaggerate everything!" Baiheng threw her head back and laughed.
Jing Yuan seemed to accept it, though his gaze remained sharp. "And your parents?"
"I… don't know." Huo Linfei dropped his head, hiding his face.
Baiheng immediately hugged him tight, voice full of outrage on his behalf. "Poor thing! Then from now on, this is your home!"
Huo Linfei was pressed into soft warmth and bell-scented cloth, stuck between not knowing whether to feel grateful… or dangerously lucky.
Then the courtyard gate opened again.
"Jing Yuan. The sword blank you ordered is finished."
A low voice carried in.
Huo Linfei looked up.
A gray-haired craftsman stood at the entrance, holding an unfinished long sword. His build, his face, the contour of his eyes—
Huo Linfei's body jerked.
"Oh hell—Stellaron Hunter!"
The craftsman's gaze slid to him. A faint frown appeared.
"What's this?"
"A new little brother," Baiheng said cheerfully. "Huo Linfei, this is Yingxing—the best craftsman on the Xianzhou!"
Yingxing gave a restrained nod and handed the sword to Jing Yuan. "Try the balance."
"Huo Linfei!!"
March 7th's shriek drowned in the roar of surging flesh outside.
The petite Bailu was no longer visible—only the monstrous "draconic abomination" that enveloped her: a horror of deadwood and blood, plated in blue-green scales. Where Huo Linfei had been swallowed, a twisted radiance pulsed—red and blue interlaced like a wound trying to heal itself.
Black Swan lashed out with memory-silk threads, trying to hook his consciousness and pull it back—
—but the rampant power of Abundance severed every strand.
"No," she said, voice low with strain. "I can't reach him. His mind has been taken."
When Stelle arrived, the first thing she saw was the abomination throwing back its head and howling toward the sky. Its body coiled across the entire plaza, and from its surface, more Abundance spawn split off in writhing clusters.
Stelle's gaze locked onto the pulsing core at the creature's chest.
"That… is that Huo Linfei's extranormal energy?"
Join here to read ahead.
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