In an instant, the generals' gazes all converged on Yaoguang—while Yaoguang herself still looked as though everything were under control, unhurried and unflustered.
She swept her eyes across the group and said:
"Based on the current Grand Observation Array divinations, we've reached a consensus: we will, for now, name the being that is forcibly climbing toward the seat of an Aeon as—[Heavenly Lord of Reflected Hearts]."
"Heavenly Lord?!" Yaoguang had barely finished when Feixiao blurted it out first, her voice full of shock and suspicion.
"Not True Lord?"
Xuanquan and Huaiyan's expressions also turned grave. Even Fu Xuan—who already knew part of the information—couldn't stop her pupils from tightening.
By Xianzhou tradition, titles for the highest existences in the cosmos were strictly distinguished.
Among the Aeons: Arbiters preside over mortal life and death; Heavenly Lords are of uncertain good or evil; Calamity Progenitors are the source of myriad catastrophes.
As for the Aeons' Emanators, they were typically honored as True Lords.
Now Yaoguang had skipped over "True Lord" entirely and named an existence still mid-ascension as a Heavenly Lord—the implication alone was enough to make anyone who understood the stakes go numb at the scalp.
Yaoguang, as if she hadn't noticed the sudden shift in everyone's faces, continued:
"The Heavenly Lord of Reflected Hearts already possesses an Aeon-level mass of existence—but it… comes from beyond the heavens."
She paused, emphasizing the point:
"Rather than saying it's climbing to become an Aeon, it's more accurate to say it is lowering its own rank, forcing itself into the rules-framework of our universe."
At those words, Feixiao, Xuanquan, and Huaiyan all straightened, their expressions sharpening. Fu Xuan's fingers clenched a bit tighter.
All except Jing Yuan.
He still wore that relaxed, painterly smile. In the projection, he even lifted a cup of hot tea and leisurely blew on it.
"Generals," he drawled, "let's not alarm ourselves."
"Leaving aside the fact that the Reignbow Arbiter has issued no edict to this day—and the other Aeons whose concepts overlap with the Reflected-Heart Heavenly Lord have likewise made no move—this very calmness is proof that the situation remains within a controllable range. Think about it: are they the kind of beings who would fall silent and back away just because something cannot be done?"
Jing Yuan's words loosened the tight string in the other generals' hearts—if only a fraction.
Their greatest fear had been this: such a cosmos-shaking event, and yet the Aeons collectively kept silent—was it because the outsider from beyond the world was so overwhelming that even Aeons chose to avoid its edge?
Jing Yuan pointed out the key: an Aeon that embodies its Path has never had "avoidance" as an option.
"So…" Feixiao turned back to Yaoguang again, unable to hold herself back, urgency blazing in her eyes.
"What exactly is the situation now? What should we do?"
Yaoguang spread her hands helplessly.
"Regrettably, General Feixiao—this matter has exceeded the limits of the Grand Observation Array. No matter how great its compute is, it is still grounded in the laws of this universe, while the Reflected-Heart Heavenly Lord comes from beyond the world. So after the Array's divination hit its ceiling, I attempted to seek answers by paying homage to the All-Knowing Heavenly Lord."
Her expression grew a little strange.
"And on the way to the All-Knowing Heavenly Lord's domain, I… happened to run into Ms. Herta."
Herta Space Station—the instant galactic time stopped.
Herta herself had just returned to reality from the illusion. Then, with keen interest, she looked out through the station's floor-to-ceiling windows at the black square mirror spanning star systems.
After seeing through its essence at a glance, Herta clicked her tongue, her small nose wrinkling slightly.
"So… blunt and brutal. Not an ounce of aesthetic."
She had zero interest in whether [Mirror] could successfully ascend.
In her view, any existence with normal logical reasoning could deduce the inevitable conclusion: it would fail.
Even granting a one-in-ten-thousand chance—if this thing relied on its raw, Aeon-surpassing "base mass" and the high rank of an outsider to squeeze into the Aeon ranks, it would still only be forcibly "compatible" with the Path system by leveraging the cognition of countless beings across the cosmos.
That was nothing but numbers-based violence—no technique, no innovation. For her research into the mysteries of apotheosis, it was basically worthless.
What truly interested her—as Genius Society member #83—was [Mirror]'s nature as an artifact from beyond the world.
At this moment, [Mirror] forcing itself into the Honkai: Star Rail universe—whether it ultimately succeeded or failed—would inevitably expand the borders of Nous's Knowledge, forcibly widened by an existence from outside reality.
Even if Nous stopped computing the universe's secrets, and even if Polka Kakamond kept cleansing away geniuses who might brush the boundary, it would no longer matter.
The omniscient domain sustained by them together was destined to be broken.
With that thought, Herta decided immediately: she would go to meet Nous right now.
Not to ask about [Mirror]'s origin, motives, or impact.
Purely so she could arrive first—and mock Nous to its face.
And as an Emanator, Nous couldn't simply ignore her.
Serves you right for endlessly sabotaging Lady Herta's experiments with all sorts of bizarre "accidents"!
When Herta reached the star region where Nous resided, an encrypted request came in.
"Hm? The Xianzhou's Rongtao General—Yaoguang?"
Herta raised an eyebrow, reading the request to travel together.
She was in an excellent mood. In her eyes, Yaoguang's request was icing on the cake—more spectators to watch her laugh at Nous? Even better.
She approved almost instantly.
On the other side, the moment Yaoguang's divination reached the Array's limit and she formed the intention to pay homage to Nous, she casually cast a hexagram.
The omen came up—great fortune.
Meaning: no matter what answer she might receive from Nous, the goal of "successfully meeting Nous and receiving some form of response" itself had extremely high odds.
Sure enough, on the way to Nous's domain, she ran into Genius Society's Ms. Herta. With Herta's Emanator-level access, meeting Nous was effortless.
Even more unexpectedly, Ms. Herta seemed absurdly pleased, and without a word, readily agreed to travel together.
Herta and Yaoguang arrived before Nous.
A colossal, eyeball-shaped stellar computer floated in the void—this was the body of the Aeon of Erudition, Nous.
In the entire star-sea, Nous was also the only Aeon whose whereabouts were clear, quietly sitting in one place and letting people come to pay homage as they pleased.
Of course—whether it would respond was another question.
Herta stepped forward. Her crisp, ringing voice—packed with provocation—echoed through the space.
"Nous! Is your omniscient domain still intact?!"
Behind her, Yaoguang's breath caught. Cold sweat nearly beaded at her temples, and even the composed smile she'd maintained stiffened.
She stared at Herta's back in disbelief.
This is how an Emanator of Erudition normally "talks" with Nous?!
Well then—Nous is… very approachable, huh!
Nous remained silent. The red glow in its pupil-like core flickered; it thought for a moment.
A few seconds later, the reply came.
No voice—only invisible ripples in spacetime spreading before them, forming rows of Morse code.
To Herta and Yaoguang, decoding it was like reading a clear line of text—effortless.
Yaoguang focused and read:
[The remnant shell of Mirror; Suiyang parasitic attachment.]
What?!
Suiyang?!
How could this have anything to do with Suiyang?!
Yaoguang's flippant air vanished without a trace. Her pupils shrank to pinpoints.
Wait! Her mind raced.
The core of the Reflected-Heart Heavenly Lord's patched-together fake Path is the human heart—the aggregate of emotion. Isn't that exactly the perfect host for Suiyang, which feeds on the seven emotions and six desires of sapient life?!
Yaoguang was genuinely drenched in cold sweat now. The Xianzhou Alliance and the Suiyang—if not sworn enemies since birth, then at least locked in a feud that ended only in death.
She looked urgently toward Herta's back, her gaze so fierce it felt like it could bore holes through Herta's clothes:
Ask! Ask which Suiyang it is! The missing Sui Sovereign? A fragment split from the Wildfire? Or—worst of all—that one… the Lord Ravager Phantylia?!
But Ms. Herta was completely unmoved.
Nous tossing out the Suiyang topic clearly hadn't diverted her at all.
And Yaoguang's almost tangible pleading stare was utterly ignored.
Herta planted her hands on her hips, chin lifted, and burst into an even louder laugh—openly gloating:
"Hahahaha! Why won't you answer my question head-on? Trying to dodge it, are you? Where's Kakamond? Is she so busy her feet don't touch the ground—busy killing idiots to save your omniscient domain?"
Then she dramatically covered her mouth.
"Oh—I forgot. In this crack between times, nobody can be killed. Senior Kakamond must be crying in a corner over her own uselessness, huh?"
As Herta spoke Kakamond's name, the surrounding space seemed to warp—an eerie hue flashing and vanishing—but Kakamond still did not appear.
Nous answered again, still as Morse code formed from spacetime ripples:
[Everything is meaningless.]
Herta arched a brow. Her little face put on an exaggerated mask of surprise.
"Oh? What's that supposed to mean? Nous—did your omniscient domain get punctured, and the blow was so big you switched straight to nihilism? Trying to learn from IX, that big black ball, and just lie down and rot?"
Immediately, her honeyed tongue began rattling off old grudges:
"Don't think I don't know! Last year my interferometer mysteriously crashed and all the data vanished—that was you, wasn't it?"
"And last month, the core biopsionic dataset got contaminated from some unknown source—also you! And the most ridiculous one…"
She jabbed a finger at Nous's body.
"You made an ordinary, boring particle in my lab turn into a miniature antimatter bomb the instant it was observed! You blew half my lab to pieces! Nous—seriously, how did you even come up with that?!"
Faced with Herta's machine-gun accusations, Nous fell completely silent, as if it had become a truly cold mechanical planet, utterly indifferent to Herta's taunts.
Yaoguang looked at that hands-on-hips figure chattering away at an Aeon, then at Nous—seemingly "offline"—and felt her worldview taking a direct hit like never before.
She understood: no further information about Suiyang was going to be squeezed out.
Yaoguang drew a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the turmoil and anxiety in her heart, and decisively took her leave.
"Ms. Herta, thank you for traveling together. Yaoguang will take her leave first—there are urgent affairs on the Xianzhou."
She had to transmit the earthshaking words "Suiyang parasitic attachment" back immediately.
Herta didn't even turn her head. She only waved casually, attention still locked on the playing-dead Nous.
Yaoguang didn't hesitate again. Her figure vanished from the spot.
Luofu Xianzhou.
Yaoguang reported the entire audience with Nous to the five generals' projections, holding nothing back.
Now Jing Yuan couldn't smile either. His face was grim beyond measure.
Suiyang + Mirror?
Who would think up such a venomous combination?
"Should we, the moment the Reflected-Heart Heavenly Lord fails its ascension, immediately seal its remains and prevent the Suiyang from seizing the chance to take it?" one general asked.
Jing Yuan slowly shook his head.
"I'm afraid… it won't mean much. The moment anchored by the All-Knowing Heavenly Lord cannot be changed. Though the information may have been spoken merely to divert Ms. Herta, I believe this outcome is already unstoppable."
He paused, voice resigned.
"We can try to stop it—gather our forces, fortify tight defenses—but… do not cling to results. Don't add meaningless casualties."
Behind him, Fu Xuan's eyes dimmed for an instant.
Feixiao's fist clenched until it crackled, her voice carrying unwillingness.
"Then doesn't that mean another possession disaster? And this time the root of the calamity is a Suiyang fused with the power of an Aeon's remains! I'm afraid only the Reignbow Arbiter personally acting could erase a catastrophe like that, right?"
"If a Suiyang truly possesses the Reflected-Heart Heavenly Lord's remains, then yes—the Reignbow Arbiter's intervention would be inevitable." Jing Yuan first affirmed Feixiao's judgment, then his tone turned.
"But… Nous has already indicated the result: Suiyang and the remains will merge into one. Have you considered—after the fusion, who will be the one in control?"
"What do you mean?" Feixiao pressed.
"Don't forget: the Reflected-Heart Heavenly Lord climbing toward godhood right now is nothing more than a chess piece pushed onto the board by a mastermind behind the curtain. Its ascension, its failure, even its remains… are likely all within that mastermind's plan."
"And if a Suiyang is indeed lured here, trying to devour this feast—calling it 'walking into a trap' may not be unfair."
"Hiss…" The generals all drew in a sharp breath at the same time.
"Jing Yuan! What are you saying?!" Feixiao snapped, alarmed. "Why does it get scarier the more you talk? What do you mean 'walking into a trap'? If the Suiyang controls the remains, and there's also the mastermind's power behind it, wouldn't that—"
"No." Yaoguang—who had been quietly listening—spoke up at last. "By the Strategist General's analysis, it's quite possible that… nothing happens."
"Nothing happens?" The generals stared.
"Yes." Yaoguang organized her thoughts quickly. "We still don't know the mastermind's purpose in pushing out the Reflected-Heart Heavenly Lord. But judging from everything it has done so far, it seems to have no intention of causing a shock too violent to the current order of the cosmos."
She paused and added, "And the appearance of the Suiyang may be an accident—perhaps even something the mastermind itself never anticipated."
"Tch." Feixiao clicked her tongue. "So we're supposed to pin our hopes on the mastermind's mercy?"
Jing Yuan picked up her point, explaining for Yaoguang.
"They aren't within the Path system. We can't predict them the way we predict Aeons—by analyzing a Path to infer intent and next moves. Worse still, there is no other Aeon stepping in to oppose or check them."
Yaoguang nodded. "But we also don't need to panic excessively. After all, the beings with both the capability and the standing to deal with power from outside the world—the Aeons…"
Her gaze swept across the generals.
"They still haven't acted."
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 150)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 115)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League (Chapter 110)
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter105)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter100)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter69)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter100)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 65
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 70
From Junkman to Wasteland 60
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 40
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 60
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 50
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 50
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass 50
The Way the Umamusume Look at 31
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 26
Naruto: Weaving the Future, Be 26
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