Chapter 77: Jailbreak
"How is it, how is it? Any harvest?"
Seeing Takatsuki withdraw his hand from Green Hibiscus's head, Bailu asked impatiently. Although Stelle did not speak, she also looked on with some anticipation; after all, she still had a mission given by the Seat of Divine Foresight.
"Don't worry, let me take a look first."
What he had manufactured this time was not a Disc, but a memory slice—a Light Cone. Pressing it against his forehead to read the memories within, Takatsuki then set it down.
"Let's name this Light Cone 'Ingratitude'."
The memories recorded within this Light Cone detailed the process of a Cloud Knight named Zhixin being discovered, urged to surrender, and subsequently defecting to the Leader of the Disciples of Sanctus Medicus.
"Their Leader is named Danshu. She is the Chief Alchemist of the Alchemy Commission."
The moment Takatsuki finished speaking, Bailu stood up abruptly. "It's actually Danshu?! How could she..." Bailu wanted to say something, but thinking about it carefully, she wasn't actually all that familiar with Danshu.
Although Danshu was the Chief Alchemist and known to everyone in the Alchemy Commission, Bailu had never interacted with her very deeply. She was usually looked after by other physicians—which, in reality, just meant they were watching over her to keep her from running around blindly.
"Can you give this to me?" Stelle looked at the Light Cone in Takatsuki's hand. With this, it would be much easier to report back to the Realm-Keeping Commission.
"Of course, it's useless to me anyway. Just don't tell anyone I made it." Handing the Light Cone over to Stelle, Takatsuki suddenly remembered something. "Speaking of which, I should thank you, Stelle. If you hadn't gone to that Messenger from the Garden of Recollection for help, I probably would have slept for several more years."
Stelle knew Takatsuki was referring to her going to find the Messenger of the Garden of Recollection. The Messenger had also come out to assure her of his safety, but hadn't given specific details. Hearing Takatsuki bring it up, she blinked her eyes. "What exactly did you experience back then?"
"To use an analogy, it was just like training in a dream. You couldn't leave until you trained to a certain level. The Messenger helped accelerate my speed of thought and sped up the flow of time within the dreamscape. Although I only slept for a few days, I already spent several years inside the dream. It was true torture."
Stelle nodded, understanding only half of it. In her mind, Takatsuki already possessed many methods and was much stronger than her, yet even he had trained for several years...
Recalling the speed that erupted on the plaza earlier and the method used to suppress that group of Mara-struck without making any physical contact, Stelle was suddenly filled with immense confidence regarding this excursion on the Luofu.
"Then I'll head over to the Realm-Keeping Commission." Stelle wasn't very good at lying, so she resolved not to hand over the Light Cone just yet. If the other party truly refused to believe her, she would produce it then.
"This lady wanted to see exactly what was so impressive about this organization causing chaos on the Xianzhou, but it turns out they only amount to this much?" Bailu said to Takatsuki after seeing Stelle leave.
"It's not that they are too weak, but rather that the Trailblazer is too strong. After all, she is a Nameless traveling across various worlds." Takatsuki forcefully rubbed Bailu's small head. "The current chaos on the Xianzhou is entirely the handiwork of the Disciples of Sanctus Medicus, and they have infiltrated every corner. You certainly can't say the Xianzhou is weak."
"Takatsuki... what exactly is happening on the Xianzhou right now..." Although Bailu was somewhat carefree and paid little attention to the state of affairs on the Xianzhou, the recent surge in patients made her realize that the Xianzhou was currently facing a massive crisis.
"Simply put, some bad guys brought a very dangerous item inside." Takatsuki thought of the Ambrosial Arbor he had seen earlier at the Artisanship Commission. Xueyi should have reported this up. The Xianzhou was unlike Belobog, where the Fragmentum an Fragmentum monsters could be seen everywhere.
That meant the Stellaron hadn't caused any large-scale impact yet, but that was clearly impossible. From the database records in the Data Bank, it was known that once a Stellaron was unleashed, it would continuously generate Fragmentum. The fact that there was no impact right now meant that the Stellaron's power was being restricted by something.
And the most probable candidate was... the Ambrosial Arbor.
A divine miracle that had been dead for many years suddenly reviving—it was hard not to overthink it. Although Bailu was a Vidyadhara High Elder, firstly she was not an adult, and secondly she held no actual authority. Thus, even with the Luofu falling into such chaos, she had no solutions available; after all, she was just a physician who knew how to heal, unable to even perform instant burst healing like in a game.
To prevent Bailu from causing accidents by running around blindly on her own, Takatsuki escorted Bailu back to the inn where they were staying. However, just as the two walked onto a certain street, two figures appeared right before them.
...
Rewinding time to one hour ago.
After Fu Xuan took Kafka away, she discovered that the navigation routes were currently locked down. She couldn't immediately bring Kafka back to the Divination Commission for interrogation, so she could only temporarily borrow the detention cells of the local Realm-Keeping Commission branch to confine Kafka for the time being.
Although her captive was the world-renowned Stellaron Hunter, as the Master Diviner of the Divination Commission and the candidate for the next General, Fu Xuan naturally believed the other party possessed no capacity to escape from her hands.
Just look at the situation earlier: the Astral Express crew had fought Kafka for a long time without capturing her, yet the moment she herself stepped onto the scene, Kafka surrendered without a fight. Was that not sufficient proof? Therefore, after placing energy handcuffs on Kafka and leaving a few instructions, she departed.
Even while trapped in a cell, Kafka didn't display a shred of panic. She sat serenely upon the bunk inside the cell, an easy smile still playing at the corners of her lips. The script had long since been written. What they would encounter next had already been completely mapped out in Elio's script, and they were merely actors upon the pages of that script. Kafka leaned against the wall to doze off, but then caught a hint of static ringing beside her ear.
"What's wrong, Silver Wolf? It isn't time for our scheduled contact yet, is it?"
The faint voice drifted from Kafka's mouth, but it went entirely unnoticed by any of the Cloud Knights guarding the outside of the cell. On the other end of the transmission was the Stellaron Hunter named Silver Wolf. Although Silver Wolf had not officially appeared during this operation, she had contributed a massive amount of effort to the behind-the-scenes tasks.
"Things have gone south, Kafka. There's a problem with Elio's script." A crisp yet slightly listless voice echoed by Kafka's ear.
"Elio's script doesn't make mistakes. Where exactly is the issue?"
"The jammed communications were restored by someone. That guy from the Express who plays with lances is currently rushing toward the Exalting Sanctum."
Kafka, who had her eyes closed, opened them as her tone became deeply solemn. "Who did it?"
"The newcomer on the Express named Takatsuki. Furthermore, he somehow resolved the Ambrosial Arbor's root system at the Artisanship Commission. The revival time of the Ambrosial Arbor might end up being delayed."
"..." Listening to Silver Wolf's words, Kafka slowly closed her eyes once more. "What does Elio say?"
"Elio says he is someone outside of destiny. The process doesn't matter, but the conclusion absolutely cannot change. He will add the other party's existence into destiny to recalculate it, but it will take time."
"Outside of destiny..." Kafka opened her eyes once more, though her gaze had now become thoroughly resolute. "Silver Wolf, help me contact Blade. Tell him to come to the Exalting Sanctum. There is a change in plans."
"OK—"
After terminating the transmission, Kafka looked toward the two Cloud Knights guarding the door. Exerting a sudden burst of strength, the restraints fixed upon her hands and feet shattered instantly into pieces.
"You two..." Kafka spoke toward the door. The two individuals who had shown zero reaction to Kafka's conversation just a moment ago turned their heads in a flash.
"Listen to me—"