Baiheng stood there with her mouth hanging open, one finger trembling as she pointed inside. Her tail was ramrod-straight in midair—like she'd just seen a ghost.
"Y-you… you two… what is this?!"
Jingliu's hands stopped.
She lifted her head toward the doorway where Baiheng had petrified, her expression as cool and even as ever—as if the scene in front of them was the most ordinary thing in the world.
She even gave a small nod, a simple greeting.
"Baiheng."
That level of calm choked Baiheng into silence. Her brain fully crashed.
Jingliu, unfazed, simply returned to the work at hand. She finished the last steps with meticulous care—so considerate she even helped Wei Qing back into his shoes and socks.
Only after she'd completed the "procedure" did Jingliu look back at the doorway, where Baiheng looked like she might fracture into pieces.
A faint note of confusion entered her voice.
"You've been standing there for a while. What happened? Weren't you in a hurry?"
Baiheng still didn't answer.
But inside, a tidal wave had already hit her—an earth-shattering mental storm that churned through ten thousand possibilities.
When the storm finally passed, only one thing remained:
towering regret.
Jingliu… my best friend…
I'm so sorry…!
A few days ago, Dan Feng had pulled her aside with that suspiciously secretive tone and told her—very seriously—that Jingliu had "unusual feelings" for Wei Qing.
Baiheng hadn't believed a word at first. She'd been sure Dan Feng was messing with her.
But Dan Feng had sworn it over and over again—so much that he even invoked the Reignbow in an oath.
And Baiheng, at last, had accepted it.
As Jingliu's closest friend, Baiheng knew Jingliu's age really was… a bit up there. If she was finally blooming now, like an iron tree producing flowers, then Baiheng was absolutely, wholeheartedly supportive.
Old cow eating young grass?
Spare her. Pure slander.
If their wise and mighty Sword Champion had taken a liking to Wei Qing, that was Wei Qing's multi-lifetime fortune.
In fact, Baiheng had already built countless "assist plans" in her head—romantic chance encounters, targeted gifts, step-by-step tactics with absurdly high success rates—
Only recently delayed by the chaos around Phantylia and those Genius Society visitors.
But now—
Now she realized she'd caused a disaster.
Because in Baiheng's eyes, what she'd just witnessed was obviously part of Jingliu's own plan. Jingliu had gone this far for love.
And right when the mood was perfect, the plan advancing smoothly—
she, Baiheng, the blind and ungraceful lamp in human form, had barged in at the worst possible moment.
Bestie, I ruined your big moment…!
"Wei Qing." Baiheng's brain was still smoking, but Wei Qing finally prompted her, because this was getting ridiculous. "Aren't you the one who said you had something urgent?"
Baiheng ignored him completely.
Instead, she rushed forward, grabbed Jingliu's arm with both hands, and clung to her like a drowning person.
"Wuwuwu—Jingliu, I was wrong!"
Jingliu staggered half a step from the sudden pull. She turned her head slightly, genuinely puzzled.
"What do you mean? Weren't you here to find Wei Qing?"
Clearly, she hadn't received a single pixel of Baiheng's elaborate internal fanfic.
"It's all the General's fault!" Baiheng launched directly into scapegoating, trying to justify why she'd appeared at this exact wrong time. "He had a perfectly good jade communicator, and he still made me run over in person!"
Then she wiped at tears that didn't exist, leaned in close to Jingliu's ear, and shot a fierce look at Wei Qing as if he were a criminal on trial.
"Bestie… you're really going all-in. That sincerity—if Wei Qing dares not appreciate it, I'll be the first to skin him alive!"
Wei Qing's scalp went numb under that gaze. He cut in immediately before Baiheng could keep "casting spells."
"…Baiheng. You said my master was looking for me?"
Only then did Baiheng snap back to reality. She slapped her forehead hard.
"Oh—right! Almost forgot! The General has an urgent summons. He wants you at the General's residence immediately!"
"An urgent summons?" Jingliu's expression sharpened at once. "Do you know what it is?"
She returned to her usual cold composure in a blink—asking as she casually put away the jar of salve, as if nothing unusual had happened in this room at all.
Baiheng's face sobered too.
"The messenger said the Wasteland is acting up. There are signs of large-scale Abundance spawn activity—this doesn't look like routine harassment."
"The Wasteland…" Jingliu repeated under her breath, her brow tightening.
That was the wreckage zone beyond the Luofu—an area once utterly razed by the Abundance's followers. Complex terrain, plenty of hiding places. If the spawn were gathering there, it was not a small matter.
Wei Qing's expression grew heavy as well.
Abundance spawn moving abnormally…
If he did the math on the timeline, was this finally the beginning of Shuhu's move?
Before he could respond, a long-silent voice rang out in his mind—bright and intrusive as a notification.
[Ding! Detected: an evil general is plotting to assassinate the host.]
[Based on big-data analysis, this Abundance movement is a joint scheme by the evil General Teng Xiao and the Annihilation Lords Phantylia and Xing Xiao—intended to lure the host away from the Luofu's safe zone, then eliminate the host!]
[Side quest issued: Take the initiative. Engage head-on. Shatter their evil plan!]
Wei Qing stared into the middle distance, utterly speechless.
Evil General Teng Xiao cooperating with an Annihilation Lord, plus another Annihilation Lord…
That lineup was so abstract it circled right back into comedy.
The system had been quiet for days. The moment it woke up, it started writing fanfiction again—this had to be Aha's script.
Still—idiotic as it was, the system's "warnings" were usually built on some warped sliver of reality.
The Wasteland activity was almost certainly real, and likely tied to the larger Abundance unrest.
Teng Xiao—his master—was absolutely not colluding with an Annihilation Lord.
But Phantylia, though repelled for now, might still have lingering influence… and Xing Xiao—the one rumored to mirror Harmony—would be even harder to read.
So the real question was:
Is there another Annihilation Lord's shadow behind this Abundance surge?
And if so… what's the target?
The Xianzhou?
Or—
Him?
Not… seriously. Was Phantylia that petty? One setback and she's staging a whole revenge production?
Wei Qing kept all of that behind his eyes. On the surface, he simply followed Baiheng's report, voice low and steady.
"Abnormal movement in the Wasteland. How bad is it?"
"The signs are obvious," Baiheng replied, fully serious now. "Not small-scale. The General wants you there immediately to discuss the response."
Recently, the Alliance hadn't been peaceful—every Cloud Knight knew that.
The Abundance's followers hadn't made any decisive strike yet, but their traces were appearing more and more often.
Maybe the brief calm was ending.
Maybe war was about to return.
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 90)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 95)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League (Chapter 80)
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter70)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter70)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter50)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter60)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 20
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 20
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