The atmosphere in the hall stiffened for a moment.
General Teng Xiao's gaze moved back and forth between the two geniuses, as if weighing something.
Just then, a report came from outside:
"General—Lord Wei Qing and Lady Bai Heng have arrived."
"Let them in," Teng Xiao said evenly.
The doors opened. Wei Qing and Bai Heng entered one after the other.
Wei Qing's eyes swept the hall quickly, pausing for an instant on Ruan Mei and Herta. After a brief thought, he decided to give his master some face in front of outsiders. He bowed respectfully toward Teng Xiao.
"Master."
Bai Heng also bowed.
"Good. You're here." Teng Xiao nodded, then introduced them.
"Wei Qing, Bai Heng—these two esteemed guests are from the Genius Society: Lady Ruan Mei and Lady Herta. Ladies, this is my disciple Wei Qing. And this is Bai Heng, pilot of the Sky-Faring Commission."
"If not for the sudden incident involving Phantylia today, Bai Heng would have been the one to receive you properly."
Ruan Mei's gaze immediately fell on Wei Qing—so intent it felt as if she were trying to dissect him inside and out. She inclined her head.
"I've long heard of you, Mr. Wei Qing—blessed by an Aeon in childhood. Seeing you today… you truly are… exceptional in bearing."
Herta was even more direct. She hopped down from her chair, circled Wei Qing twice, and frowned slightly as she muttered,
"Hm… so you're Wei Qing? You don't look all that special…"
Wei Qing felt his scalp tighten.
Yep. Just like I remember. This shorty Herta is really rude.
Unfortunately, the one in front of him was only a puppet body. Even if he punched her right now, she wouldn't cry.
But after seeing their attitude, he was basically certain Bai Heng had been right—these two were here for him.
"And this rude little shorty is a 'genius' too?"
Wei Qing's voice wasn't loud, but in the quiet hall it rang out with startling clarity, as if he were simply asking out of pure curiosity.
So what if she's an Emanator of Nous? My status isn't lower than hers.
Bai Heng sucked in a sharp breath and covered her mouth instinctively.
Even General Teng Xiao coughed heavily.
"Cough—Wei Qing! Don't be insolent before our guests!"
You little brat… usually you're shameless enough, but you dare run your mouth in a diplomatic setting too?!
Yet Herta's reaction was unexpected.
Not only did she not get angry—she stopped studying Wei Qing altogether, put her hands on her hips, and lifted her delicate little face full of displeasure.
"Shorty? Hmph. This is just one of my puppet bodies. If a little kid your age saw my true body, you'd probably be so dazzled you'd lose your mind."
There was no rage in her tone—only that lofty contempt geniuses reserved for "stupid mortals."
Wei Qing pressed on.
"If you've got a real body but you insist on using a doll, does that mean you're into lolis?"
"Ha?!" Herta let out a sharp, piercing scoff.
"Is your head full of cosmic garbage? Where's your logic? My true body is a mature, great, beautiful genius!"
"Using a convenient puppet body—how exactly does that lead to your idiotic conclusion?!"
The more she spoke, the more heated she became. She even stepped closer.
Despite the disadvantage of height forcing her to tilt her head up, her momentum was as if she were looking down on Wei Qing.
"I think it's not just your ability that's questionable—your basic cognitive function needs to be sent back to school for remedial education! Ruan Mei, did you hear that? This is the brain that comes with an 'Aeon's blessing'?"
The hall's atmosphere instantly turned even stranger. Clearly, no one expected a Genius Society member to be so… petty?
Only Ruan Mei stayed calm.
She placed her teacup down with a crisp clink—drawing everyone's attention in a single motion.
"Herta. Mind your manners."
"We are guests. And Mr. Wei Qing is merely… rather straightforward in temperament."
Then she looked at Wei Qing.
"Mr. Wei Qing, please forgive my companion's impatience. Our curiosity about you comes from academic pursuit—there is no ill intent. As we told the General earlier, we came only hoping for some friendly conversation."
Wei Qing raised an eyebrow and met Ruan Mei's eyes.
This woman's level is clearly higher than that hot-tempered little puppet.
Her words were watertight, her posture impeccable—yet the hunger for inquiry in her eyes hadn't diminished in the slightest.
She made it sound light, but their goal was obvious: they wanted to know why he'd drawn the Hunt's blessing.
The Hunt wasn't the Elation—no Aeon handed out blessings as casually as Aha did.
By cosmic consensus, the Hunt's Emanators were almost always "produced and consumed in-house" by the Xianzhou Alliance. Someone like Wei Qing really was an outlier.
Ruan Mei's words had eased the mood for the moment, but Wei Qing still pondered…
Whether he should "go along with it."
Because his true identity was that of a Lord Ravager—one created specifically to target Abundance. In Wei Qing's eyes, that trait was precisely what had drawn the gaze of the Hunt.
If these two geniuses—both once noticed by Nous—were allowed to "study" him, they might actually notice something.
Still, his master probably wouldn't allow them to treat him as a specimen in the first place.
Wei Qing's silence lasted only a short while.
"Just kidding." He shrugged and looked at Herta. "Lady Herta's puppetry is indeed exquisite. That was my slip of the tongue."
Herta snorted, crossed her arms, and turned her head away. She clearly wasn't about to accept an apology that carried basically zero sincerity—but she didn't continue the fight either.
Ruan Mei nodded lightly, then turned her gaze to General Teng Xiao.
"General, I've heard the Luofu's Divination Commission possesses a construct capable of calculating the future—the Matrix of Prescience, the Dayan Qiongguan Array?"
Teng Xiao's eyes narrowed faintly. He had already grasped seven or eight parts of Ruan Mei's intent.
"It exists. The Dayan Qiongguan Array is the Divination Commission's core. Using formation principles, it extrapolates heavenly mechanisms and peers into causality. Lady Ruan Mei, are you interested in it as well?"
"I know a little," Ruan Mei replied with quiet certainty. "The array is wondrous. It may have surplus capacity when deriving worldly phenomena, but if the causal trajectories involved rise to an Aeon's level, it likely falls short."
"After all, Aeons are incarnations of Paths—their traces cannot be fully captured by mortal algorithms."
"And recently, Herta and I have been collaborating on research into deriving the past and future. If we were to take over the array for a time, perhaps we could extrapolate the Hunt's causality upon Mr. Wei Qing."
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 80)
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)
My patreon : patreon.com/queen_sin