Chapter 211: The Enigmatic Path Remains Enigmatic
[Path: Abundance -> Enigmata]
Having witnessed the apocalyptic descent of that falling meteor, Feixiao understood the sheer magnitude of what had just transpired. There was absolutely no way a strike from the Emperor's Bow—a light arrow meant to obliterate all impurities—could leave behind such a gentle, thriving aftermath.
"Just who exactly are you?" she asked, her gaze piercing through the lingering dust.
To think this eccentric outworlder could be so highly regarded by the Emperor's Bow, granted the right to wield the divine authority of The Hunt itself. The Reignbow Arbiter was the ascended hero of the Xianzhou, a god who watched over their people with generous protection. Yet, the selection of Generals and Emanators was notoriously strict, akin to a grueling civil service examination where one's character, martial prowess, and absolute conduct had to be flawless.
If one possessed such overwhelmingly high qualities, they might indeed qualify as an Emanator of The Hunt. But the entity standing before her pushed the boundaries of logic to an absurd degree.
After a long moment of internal conflict, Feixiao finally gave a slow nod. "Fine. I understand. In that case... you are not an Abomination of Abundance. You are an ally of the Xianzhou."
The people of the Xianzhou Alliance did not simply execute every single entity touched by the Abundance on sight. If a Pathstrider of that domain proved willing to cooperate and harbored no malicious intent, peaceful coexistence was entirely possible. It was only the unconstrained, cancerous spread of the Abundance that earned the title of abomination. After all, one of the core driving forces behind The Hunt was the concept of absolute constraint.
"Can you at least put away this... getup of yours?" Feixiao gestured vaguely at his majestic, branching horns and divine aura.
"I cannot." Rekka offered a perfectly polite smile. "I am sorry."
"Sigh..." Feixiao rubbed her temples, feeling a headache brewing beneath her skull. "Regardless of your wardrobe issues, what exactly is the deal with this Ambrosial Arbor growing right behind me on the Jingfeng Ship?" She pointed an accusatory finger at the massive, lush tree radiating brilliant golden light across the deck.
"Ah, that." Rekka adjusted his posture, speaking with a serene, almost scholarly elegance. "That particular Ambrosial Arbor is a great tree grown directly from a tiny sprout I plucked from my own horn. I fed that sprout to Hoolay to ensure he would overestimate his own regenerative capabilities and vastly underestimate the combined might of your forces. Now that he has been thoroughly eradicated, I naturally retrieved the residual energy and planted it as a decorative tree."
"You..." Feixiao opened her mouth, then snapped it shut. She stared at the man who treated the most dangerous biological hazard in the galaxy like a packet of instant seeds. Facing someone who could casually munch on the Ambrosial Arbor as if it were a mid-day snack, she found herself completely devoid of the vocabulary required to criticize him.
Rekka was speaking with remarkable elegance today. Yet, beneath that refined tone, his words were the absolute ravings of a divine eccentric. His actions were so thoroughly chaotic that one had to wonder if his underlying logic was secretly fueled by the Path of Elation.
In reality, his underlying logic was simply the pure, unadulterated spirit of the Trailblaze.
"Was this entire disaster your layout from beginning to end?" Feixiao asked, her voice dangerously calm.
"No, bumping into him was purely a coincidence," Rekka corrected smoothly. "Hoolay craved a spectacular death worthy of a Borisin Warhead's status. I simply provided the venue. What he truly desired was the sheer thrill of the slaughter itself. Victory or defeat were merely the byproducts of that violence. What he feared most was not losing his life, but rotting away in absolute silence within a prison cell. He willingly consumed a sprout of the Abundance, and so, naturally, he had to receive the purifying light arrow of The Hunt. Cause and effect. Give and take."
"You make it sound so incredibly simple." Feixiao realized she felt neither anger nor the urge to arrest him. Instead, a deep sense of helplessness washed over her. "Do you have any idea how much sheer chaos this stunt has caused?"
Rekka blinked, his expression the picture of innocent confusion. "Oh. I am sorry about the mess. But look on the bright side, no innocent people died, and I successfully dragged every single hidden Borisin out into the open."
She ran the numbers in her head. There were zero innocent casualties. No irreparable structural losses had occurred, aside from a few scorched deck plates. Sigh. How was she supposed to argue with that? As difficult as it was to swallow her pride, his absurd method had indeed resulted in the absolute optimal solution.
"I understand," Feixiao sighed, crossing her arms. "Just... next time, please give us a heads-up before you orchestrate a divine orbital strike. Go to the Seat of Divine Foresight and give your official statement to Jing Yuan."
As for the terrifying crimson moon phenomenon that had manifested inside Hoolay... well, the beast had swallowed it himself. Forget it. It was not a massive problem anymore. In fact, compared to the glaring reality of a brand-new Ambrosial Arbor taking root on a Luofu flagship, a swallowed crimson moon was a remarkably minor administrative issue that could be safely pushed to the bottom of the paperwork pile.
The atmosphere inside the Seat of Divine Foresight was incredibly heavy. Or rather, it was heavy with a distinct, suffocating layer of lingering awkwardness.
"What exactly do you mean..." Jing Yuan pinched the bridge of his nose, his usual sleepy demeanor entirely shattered. "...you planted an Ambrosial Arbor? How, pray tell, did you plant it?"
Rekka studied the General's exhausted face. He assumed Jing Yuan was simply dissatisfied with the current location of the giant tree on the ship. After pondering the issue for a brief second, Rekka reached up, casually snapped off a small, glowing section of his own branching horn, and unceremoniously shoved it into the dirt of a decorative potted plant resting on the General's desk.
"Probably something exactly like this." Rekka dusted off his hands. "Oh, General, please feel free to treat this one as a desk bonsai." He waved his hand with a modest, accommodating smile.
Jing Yuan stared blankly at the desk.
Within seconds, the expensive, newly purchased decorative plant mutated, its leaves turning a brilliant, radiant gold as it rapidly transformed into a miniature, ornamental Ambrosial Arbor right before their eyes.
"...Rekka," Jing Yuan whispered, his voice dangerously hollow. "Do you have any concept of what the Ambrosial Arbor means to the people of the Xianzhou?"
"I know." Rekka nodded, his tone deadpan and completely serious. "That is precisely why planting it directly on the General's desk is the safest tactical option. I was genuinely afraid it might be stolen by petty thieves if I left it outside in the courtyard."
A sudden, barking laugh echoed across the room. Huaiyan slapped his knee, thoroughly entertained by the sheer audacity on display. Jing Yuan, meanwhile, looked entirely at his wit's end, his soul seemingly attempting to leave his physical body.
"You know what it means to the Xianzhou," Jing Yuan muttered, staring at the glowing bonsai. "You know that the massive Arbor you just planted on the Jingfeng Ship is currently surrounded by three battalions of heavily armed Cloud Knights. You know that the Artisanship Commission is holding emergency overnight meetings just to figure out how to safely contain the perimeter. You know all this, and yet..."
"This old man has just one thing to ask you." Huaiyan cleared his throat, reigning in his amusement as he stepped forward. "It is a simple question. Why exactly were you blessed by the Abundance? And how, in the name of the stars, can you simultaneously act on behalf of The Hunt?"
"I honestly do not know." Rekka offered a perfectly practiced look of innocent bewilderment. "It seems the Aeon of Abundance has simply always been watching over me. I have no idea why they find me so fascinating."
The truth about his bizarre interactions with the Aeon of Abundance and the Aeon of Destruction was highly classified information. Only his found family aboard the Astral Express knew the actual depths of his chaotic reality. If these high-ranking outsiders found out the truth, the resulting galactic panic would be entirely unmanageable.
The man's mouth was full of runaway starskiffs—there was not a single word of truth in his explanation. Jing Yuan, Huaiyan, and Feixiao were all absolutely certain of it.
"Since you claim you do not know, then this old man shall not press the issue." Huaiyan stroked his beard, his sharp eyes glinting. "As long as you do not use the branches of this Ambrosial Arbor to bring harm to our people, you shall remain an honored guest of the Xianzhou Alliance."
"Rekka, you truly are..." Jing Yuan exhaled a long, defeated breath. "...extraordinarily capable."
"It was just a fluke," Rekka replied smoothly. "Just a bit of good luck on my part."
A fluke? Jing Yuan eyed the glowing bonsai tree on his desk. If summoning an orbital strike from their god and casually growing the most cursed plant in their history was just a stroke of luck, exactly how much luck did this man possess? Was he carrying the weight of some grand, beyond understanding destiny?
"Well, now that the internal and external threats have been thoroughly removed, the Luofu should hold proper celebrations to wash away the foul luck of these past few days," Jing Yuan declared, forcing his posture straight. "It seems the Martial Arts Ceremony can proceed as originally planned. We will just have to relocate the venue away from the Jingfeng Ship."
After all, there was currently a massive, glowing, divine tree occupying the main deck.
Rekka returned to his quarters and enjoyed a phenomenally good night's sleep.
When the morning light filtered through the windows, his daily chaotic lottery spun once more. Today's Rekka was aligned with the Enigmata. He felt incredibly mysterious.
"Good morning, Rekka!" March 7th bounded into the room, her pink hair bouncing with her energetic steps. She stopped, leaning in to inspect him from head to toe. "Wow. You actually look like a completely normal person today."
"Yeah," Rekka stretched his arms, feeling the blessed absence of heavy, branching horns. "I am finally acting like a normal person today."
March 7th circled around him like a curious cat, checking for any hidden tails, extra eyes, or glowing appendages. Finding none, she finally nodded with deep satisfaction. "Let's go, let's go! Come on, let's head out and practice some swordplay!"
"Practice swordplay?" Rekka raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah, let's go practice out behind the Palace of Astrum." March 7th's cheerful tone dipped into a whisper of genuine concern. "Mainly because I think Yanqing's state of mind seems a bit... off today." She recalled the sight she had stumbled upon earlier—the young prodigy desperately clutching the hilt of his sword, weeping silently into the metal. He had looked absolutely pitiful.
"Then let's go check on him," Rekka agreed, grabbing his coat.
A short walk later, they found the young lieutenant exactly as March had described. Upon hearing their approach, Yanqing scrubbed his eyes, looking up with a mixture of grief and confusion as Rekka casually dropped a bombshell.
"What do you mean, my Sword Spirit Teacher isn't dead?" Yanqing choked out, his grip tightening on his blade.
"...Uh, well, he was actually just tricking you before," March 7th quickly stepped in to comfort the devastated boy, shooting Rekka a mild glare. "The 'Sword Spirit' was actually just an artificial intelligence program he wrote using code. It's just that the internal speaker and the holographic projector hardware got smashed during the fight. The core data containing the memory of your time together is perfectly fine. The voice, the image, the personality, and all her memories are completely intact."
She patted the boy's trembling shoulder. "Look on the bright side, Yanqing! At least your teacher didn't actually have her soul scattered to the winds. As long as we replace the broken hardware parts, she can live again."
"Hey, even if she is just written in code, data that runs continuously for a long time can absolutely evolve into a real person," Rekka protested, defending his digital creation's right to exist.
Yanqing's tear-streaked face snapped up, a desperate spark of hope igniting in his eyes. "Then... can I see her again right now?"
"Yes," Rekka smiled, his Enigmata-aligned mind already calculating the necessary hardware modifications. "As long as we change her vessel."
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