Night was ink-black. The Luofu lay quiet, broken only by the occasional patrol of Cloud Knights.
Huo Linfei was escorted in silence by two guards to a secluded courtyard. At the center sat a stone table with a pot of hot tea, steam curling gently upward. Jing Yuan stood with his back to Huo Linfei, holding recent campaign dossiers on the suppression of the Abominations of Abundance.
The scene felt familiar… and yet everything had changed.
"Lord Jing Yuan, the person has been brought," a Cloud Knight reported with clasped fists.
"Mm. You may withdraw." Jing Yuan's voice was still warm and unhurried. He turned to Huo Linfei, smiling faintly. "Do you know why I summoned you here?"
Huo Linfei forced a relaxed shrug. "Summoned in the dead of night… what is it, my lord? Impressed by my recent achievements and planning to promote me to a centurion?"
Jing Yuan chuckled and shook his head.
"You, of all people… you know exactly why I called for you, yet you insist on circling around it."
He closed the dossier and looked straight at Huo Linfei.
"You and I can be frank. Why bother with detours?"
Huo Linfei fell silent for a moment, then scratched the back of his head. "Yeah… I figured I couldn't hide it from you."
"Hide it from whom, exactly?" Jing Yuan's tone stayed mild, but his words landed like hammer blows.
"Using the alias 'Huo Linfei.' Red hair. Only competent with basic chopping swordwork. You can command fire. When you were unconscious, a phantom image of red armor manifested…"
Jing Yuan turned fully to face him.
"The red-haired youth disappears, and a 'Super Beast Warrior' shows up on the Luofu. Yingxing spends all day in the Artisanship Commission. The war situation is tense. Baiheng and Jingliu rarely interact with new Cloud Knight recruits. Dan Feng is constantly vexed by the Dragon Elders and their filth…"
He paused, eyes amused.
"You truly believed that kind of crude disguise would fool anyone?"
"..."
Seeing Huo Linfei's face go red as he clamped his mouth shut, Jing Yuan pinched the bridge of his nose in resigned disbelief.
"My apologies. I overestimated you." Then he added, lightly, "Though you didn't intend to hide it for long anyway, did you?"
He tapped the dossier in his hand.
"Your high-profile behavior looks almost intentional—meant to draw someone's attention. The High-Cloud Quintet… and perhaps… me?"
"Hah…" Huo Linfei finally let out the breath he'd been holding. "It's hard to get close to you guys using this identity. Before, when I was Baiheng's little brother…"
"Get close to us," Jing Yuan echoed. "Meaning the High-Cloud Quintet… and the General?"
"Yeah." Huo Linfei met Jing Yuan's gaze. "Information about the Emanator of Abundance—Shuhu."
He spoke slowly and clearly:
"I'm from the future."
Jing Yuan lifted his chin slightly, then gestured for him to continue.
"In the future, someone brings a Stellaron and causes the Ambrosial Arbor to revive," Huo Linfei said in a low voice. "And I… was set up by Doctor Primitive, the sixty-fourth seat of the Genius Society, and sent to this era."
"As far as I know," Jing Yuan said evenly, "those geniuses have not mastered time travel. How did you do it?"
"Because my power is… special." Huo Linfei gathered Ability Energy in his palm. "Once this power reaches a certain threshold, it can warp spacetime."
After hearing it all, Jing Yuan did not look shocked. He simply rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
"So that's how it is."
Huo Linfei, instead, looked surprised. "You… don't doubt me?"
"Doubt what?" Jing Yuan smiled. "The energy in your body is completely unlike Xianzhou martial arts or the Blessing of Abundance. Your close-quarters combat techniques are equally unfamiliar… I've long suspected you came from some unknown faction."
He paused, a hint of playful menace in his eyes.
"Besides—fortunate you confessed to me first. If it were your bargain-basement 'master,' Jingliu…"
Huo Linfei's mouth twitched. "Uh… what would she do?"
Jing Yuan made a gentle sword-swinging gesture, smile widening.
"You'd get a thorough beating, for one. Then you'd be tied up and interrogated for three days and three nights. Baiheng might hear and plead for you, though."
"..." Huo Linfei went stiff.
Jing Yuan lifted the teacup again. His expression turned slightly more serious.
"So. What is your objective?"
"Objective…" Huo Linfei thought for a moment. "At first, I just wanted to go back. But after these days…"
His eyes hardened.
"I only want to send Shuhu flying."
"PFF—!"
Jing Yuan sprayed a mouthful of tea straight onto the ground—thankfully not at Huo Linfei. He wiped his mouth, sweat beading faintly on his forehead.
"'Send Shuhu flying'…" he repeated, half incredulous. "Do you have any idea how long General Teng Xiao has been tangled with Shuhu? And you—barely a month in the Cloud Knights—already dreaming of punting the enemy commander?"
"It's just… what I started thinking after killing Abominations these days." Huo Linfei nodded stiffly. "The Abundance's power is what gives them the confidence to expand without restraint. So I kill their boss—no way they don't get scared."
Jing Yuan listened without interrupting. In his eyes, Huo Linfei looked, for a moment, like the likable kid Baiheng had once taken in.
"And there's one thing," Huo Linfei said suddenly, pausing.
"Hm?"
Huo Linfei spoke again, voice calm—yet the resolve inside it was unmistakable.
"I can't accept… knowing my friends might die, and doing nothing."
His tone was flat, but Jing Yuan saw it—something unbreakable in his eyes.
"So…" Jing Yuan rose and began to pace, hands behind his back. He looked up at the star-filled sky for a long moment.
"You intend to be the first 'arrowhead' to strike down an Emanator?"
At last he said:
"I can help you conceal your identity."
"You're not going to tell them?" Huo Linfei meant the other four of the High-Cloud Quintet.
"If you were merely of unknown origin, I might consider it," Jing Yuan said, turning his head slightly, gaze deep. "But if you truly come from the future… the fewer who know, the fewer variables we invite."
He paused, then smiled.
"Besides—if Baiheng learns you're alive, she'll likely tie you up and drag you home to raise you as her little brother. She wouldn't let you near a battlefield again."
Warmth rose in Huo Linfei's chest—followed by a bitter smile. "Even looking like this… she'd still treat me like a brother?"
"To long-lived peoples, appearances matter little." Jing Yuan's smile faded into a quiet sigh. "She believes you died in the last Abomination raid. Over this past month, she's been fighting harder than ever."
Huo Linfei clenched his fist, silent.
"Alright." Jing Yuan patted his shoulder, tone returning to easygoing. "Since we've decided to cooperate, starting today you'll be a 'special piece' under my command."
Then, with a pointed look:
"But next time you use that Ability Energy, rein it in a little. Don't make me clean up after you again."
"...Understood."
Far away, the Luofu's energy shield drew a faint line of pale gold through the void, like a fish gliding through the cosmos.
No one noticed a grain of dust quietly attaching itself to the barrier—so minuscule that not a single detection formation caught it.
Yet the instant it touched—
That "dust" abruptly swelled.
Countless roots exploded outward like a storm, spreading in all directions.
The fish was parasitized. Branches gathered and fused, growing into a lush green tree. Roots crawled over the Luofu's surface completely, battering the energy shield again and again.
That dust…
was a seed.
And it was the true body of the Emanator of Abundance—Shuhu.
Join here to read ahead.
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Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 80)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League (Chapter 80)
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter50)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter50)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter50)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter50)
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