Inside Jing Yuan's private command tent, Huo Linfei sat cross-legged. Jing Yuan poured him a cup of tea, his expression calm and unreadable.
"So," Jing Yuan said, holding up three fingers, "there are three conditions for leaving the Eternal Recurrence: the memory singularity, the host's awakening, and your own death."
Huo Linfei nodded. "The memory singularity… I'm guessing it's Baiheng's death."
"And the third condition?" Jing Yuan lifted his gaze. "What do you think this 'death' refers to?"
"It's obviously me dying," Huo Linfei scratched his head. "If I die, wouldn't that mean I can't leave the loop?"
[SYSTEM NOTICE: CORRECTION]
The system's voice cut in.
['Death' here refers to the death of 'Huo Linfei within the loop.']
[Your true body remains in the future, inside a berserk Bailu. Your current body is constructed entirely from Ability Energy. If this body dies, the loop's Ability-Energy link will be severed, and you can exit directly.]
Huo Linfei froze. After a long beat, he covered his face with both hands.
"…Damn it!"
Jing Yuan watched him with clear amusement. "So you never considered that approach before?"
"I'm not considering it now either." Huo Linfei dropped his hands. The words sounded deflated, but the light in his eyes didn't waver. "Even if I have to 'die' to go back, I'm dragging Shuhu down with me."
"Then you do know," Jing Yuan said evenly, "that Shuhu is undying—immortal. Even if all that remains is a blood-flesh fragment no bigger than a cell, it can still fully revive?"
"…."
Seeing his silence, Jing Yuan smiled and took a sip of tea. "Enough. Let's talk about your Ability Energy."
"Hm?"
"You said belief is strongly linked to Ability Energy." Jing Yuan set the cup down, golden eyes locking onto Huo Linfei. "But from what you told me, your energy climbed to half a black hole during one battle, and then stopped growing entirely. Correct?"
"Yeah… After the Stellaron fight it just wouldn't budge. Maybe my belief isn't strong enough."
"Perhaps you're thinking about it the wrong way." Jing Yuan tapped the tabletop lightly. "Belief doesn't have to be something lofty like 'protection' or 'revenge'—things that are hard to truly grasp. It can be any intense objective."
Huo Linfei snapped his head up.
"For example," Jing Yuan met his eyes and smiled faintly, "set a small goal first…"
"Kill Shuhu."
Something clicked in Huo Linfei's mind—like a switch had been flipped.
While he stared blankly, Jing Yuan rose, took a training sword from the weapon rack, and tossed it to him.
"Starting tonight, I'm adding extra training for you."
Huo Linfei caught the sword and stood, baffled. "Wait—don't you use a formation blade?"
Jing Yuan drew his own weapon with a gentle smile. "But don't forget—Jingliu is my teacher too… Junior disciple."
A surge of dread crawled up Huo Linfei's spine. Cold sweat slipped down from his red bangs.
Over the next several days, Huo Linfei gained a deep, painful understanding of what "Jing Yuan's extra training" really meant.
The future Divine Foresight General's swordsmanship was every bit as terrifying as his strategy.
"Sword forms aren't dead patterns," Jing Yuan said, weaving technique together with the very nature of Ability Energy. "They're the extension of your will. Your Fire Cloud Art is explosive—but it lacks follow-up variation."
He flicked his wrist. The sword-edge traced a flowing arc like running water. Basic drills, nothing more—yet the combinations carried an elusive rhythm that was impossible to predict.
"Did you see?" Jing Yuan asked. "'Cut' isn't only one thing."
Huo Linfei gritted his teeth and followed. Ability Energy circulated along his blade, but it always fell just short of smooth.
"Too many stray thoughts." Jing Yuan shook his head. "What are you hesitating over?"
"…I'm not hesitating."
"Then why is your sword intent sticking?" Jing Yuan's sword tip tapped Huo Linfei's wrist. "Are you afraid of failure? Afraid of death? Or…"
He paused.
"Do you simply not believe you can win?"
Huo Linfei's breathing caught.
"Listen." Jing Yuan lowered his weapon, his tone turning unusually serious. "If you don't have the resolve of certain victory, your Ability Energy will never advance again. Life-and-death combat is itself a way to harden belief—but there are too few enemies that can truly pressure you."
He pointed toward a wooden training post in the distance.
"Now. Imagine Shuhu is right in front of you."
Huo Linfei inhaled, raised his sword—
"Not 'imagine.'" Jing Yuan's voice pressed down like weight. "It is Shuhu."
Huo Linfei had never seen Shuhu's true form, but he'd heard the body resembled a great tree.
In his vision, roots seemed to crawl from the post, twisting into rope-thick cords, shaping themselves into warped, human-faced plants. The training ground no longer felt like a training ground—it became a surface of living flesh.
Corpses littered the earth.
It was the scene he'd witnessed with his own eyes after the planet "Iron Husk" fell beneath an Abundance invasion.
His blade changed. Ability Energy spread unconsciously to the sword tip.
The sword-light flashed—
The post vaporized instantly.
A trench of molten earth, fused by unbearable heat, scored the ground.
On the second day, Jing Yuan didn't appear at the training field.
Over a sand table, the model of the Xianzhou Luofu was dotted with dozens of glaring red markers—every one a place the Borisin had struck.
"Hulei's target is far too specific," Jing Yuan said.
Beside him, Teng Xiao stood with arms folded, brow knotted. "You're saying they weren't just destroying at random?"
"The Abundance's people are vicious," Jing Yuan replied, "but they aren't stupid." His finger traced the sand table, stopping at the Scalegorge Waterscape. "If their aim were to break the Luofu, their forces wouldn't be spread this thin. They're searching for something."
"The Ambrosial Arbor?"
"Yes." Jing Yuan continued calmly. "The Luofu itself doesn't matter to Shuhu. Its true goal is to seize the Arbor."
Teng Xiao fell silent for a moment. "What's your plan?"
Jing Yuan placed three black stones on the sand table. "The Vidyadhara High Elder holds the Scalegorge and waits for Shuhu to show itself."
Then a white stone fell to the side. "Jingliu acts as mobile support—ready to reinforce at any moment."
Finally, his finger swept across the Luofu's sectors. "All other forces focus on purging Shuhu's outer armies. And then—"
The black stones closed around the central red marker.
"We form an encirclement."
Teng Xiao stared at the table, then suddenly laughed. "Letting the little azure dragon and Jingliu intercept Shuhu? Wouldn't I be better suited?"
"You've fought Shuhu longer than anyone," Jing Yuan said. "You know its methods best. When the time comes, Shuhu will certainly leave pieces of its own flesh somewhere on the Luofu—so it can escape at any time."
Teng Xiao nodded firmly, then narrowed his eyes. "You're still hiding a trump card, aren't you?"
Jing Yuan only smiled.
"Fine." Teng Xiao waved a hand. "If Shuhu truly fuses with the Arbor…"
"Then it exposes its greatest weakness," Jing Yuan said softly. "The Ambrosial Arbor isn't immortal."
Time snapped back to the present.
Huo Linfei laid Jing Yuan's entire plan bare—without caring that Shuhu was listening to every word.
Shuhu laughed.
"Ant. Do you truly think you can shake a divine miracle?"
BOOM—
From the ground beneath the three of them, thousands of vine-whips as thick as bowls erupted upward. Yet in that same instant, the shadows of the three scattered in different directions.
Jingliu's sword intent shifted. Sword aura—like moonlight reflected on water—lashed into the Arbor's root network. Frost spread along the roots like rime and snow, crystallizing everything it touched.
"Ants—!" Shuhu roared, its trunk splitting open into countless fine pores. "All Things, Forest of Myriad Phenomena!"
Puff, puff, puff—!
Spores sprayed into the air in a golden haze, drifting down across the collapsed ruins of ancient architecture.
And then something nauseating happened—
Stone bricks sprouted fleshy tendrils. Veins surfaced across wooden beams. The entire ruin twisted and came alive, transforming into blood-and-flesh monsters that lunged at the three.
"What the hell is this?!" Jingliu cleaved through a stone lion with one swing—only for the cross-section to gush foul, reeking fluid.
Worse still: the liquid writhed after it hit the ground, quickly coalescing into new, smaller abominations.
Huo Linfei rolled aside to avoid a vine strike and re-gripped his short sword.
"Hah…" He drew a deep breath. Ability Energy surged up the blade again.
The living abominations closed in, but Huo Linfei's current output still wasn't enough to sustain the Huanlin Armament.
Whoosh—!
A silver meteor cut through the spore fog.
Star-skiff artillery fire snapped down in precise bursts, detonating amid the flesh-monster swarm!
"Baiheng?!" Dan Feng blurted.
Baiheng's voice came through the communicator jade, smiling even as it rang with battle-bright cheer:
"So—do the three great heroes need some air support?"
Join here to read ahead.
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