Inside the Divination Commission, the light of the Ten Directions Reflecting Dharma Realm slowly faded.
Those images, those monologues, those nearly six hundred years of waiting and sacrifice—all of it had now settled into silence, pressing heavily on every heart.
No one spoke.
Jing Yuan stood in the center of the hall, his gaze fixed on the curtain of light that had finally gone still, without moving. His mind was still replaying everything he had just seen, over and over again.
As the Divine Foresight, Jing Yuan had weathered storms, survived chaos, and borne burdens enough for several lifetimes. Of all things, what he hated most was precisely this sort of parting between the living and the dead.
People who knew him often said he was good under pressure, that he could carry enormous weight and keep walking.
But now Jing Yuan realized that the pressure he had endured might not even compare to what that Crimson Kite General had borne.
Because Luofu, back then, had merely fallen into silence. It still had a future.
Yuanqiao, however, had none.
Beside him, Feixiao was much the same.
She said nothing, but her clenched fists gave away the turmoil in her heart.
She had seen countless ways people died on the battlefield—heroic deaths, tragic deaths, silent deaths.
But Yuanqiao's death was unlike any of them.
It was not the glory of dying in battle, nor the grandeur of a warrior wrapped in horsehide and returned from the front.
It was a silent sacrifice, one no one would ever know of. A sacrifice so complete that not even the name would remain.
"Tch."
The sound escaped Feixiao's teeth, low and sharp.
No one blamed her loss of composure.
After another stretch of silence, everyone finally remembered Mobius.
Remembered that the last survivor of Yuanqiao was standing right here beside them, having watched the end of Yuanqiao together with them.
Jing Yuan hesitated, then stepped over.
He crouched down in front of Mobius so that their eyes were level.
His lips parted, as though he wanted to say something.
He wanted to say, Your master was an extraordinary person.
He wanted to say, Don't be too sad.
He wanted to say, You still have us.
But in the end, every word died in his throat.
Because he suddenly realized he had no right to say any of them.
He had not lived through Yuanqiao's five hundred and ninety-three years. He had not endured the corrosion of Nihility.
He was only a bystander. A fortunate bystander who had watched everything from the other side of a screen.
What right did he have to comfort Mobius?
His lips moved slightly. In the end, he only managed one sentence.
"Miss Mobius…"
"I…"
"Ah, ah, ah—!"
A voice suddenly dropped from the sky.
It was bright, lively, and profoundly irritating—like someone laughing at the one moment in which no one in the world ought to laugh.
Jing Yuan's pupils contracted sharply as he looked up.
Above the Divination Commission, the sky that had only just calmed began to churn once more.
The starlight twisted. Space folded. A figure slowly emerged from the void.
Aha.
Still lounging half-reclined against nothingness, one leg thrown over the other, looking as casual as if this were a private outing.
"To all the viewers in front of their screens!"
Aha's voice rang out, dripping with delighted mischief.
"Did you really think the performance was over?"
The god tilted Their head, sounding like a child thrilled by a prank.
"Hehe. I'm in a good mood today, so I've decided to add an encore."
The expressions of the generals changed all at once. Weapons were already in hand.
And Jing Yuan, without hesitation, stepped in front of Mobius.
"What do you intend to do now, Exalted Elation?" Jing Yuan asked, his eyes locked on the figure suspended in the heavens.
Aha lowered Their head and let Their gaze sweep slowly across everyone inside the hall.
Then They spoke, unexpectedly serious for a moment.
"Don't be so tense. I'm not here to smash the stage."
"I, Aha, may enjoy a good spectacle, but I do have standards."
"As for the people of Yuanqiao—and that Crimson Kite General, well…"
"Even I have to admit, I admire them a little."
For once, there was sincerity in Aha's voice.
"This isn't a joke."
"This is… heroism."
The word sounded absurd coming from Aha's mouth.
But no one laughed.
Then Aha's tone turned light and cheerful again.
"So—to show my respect for General Crimson Kite, I've decided…"
They raised a hand and pointed toward one corner of the hall.
"…to let the whole galaxy see how the child she protected with her life is doing now."
Jing Yuan's pupils shrank.
He turned sharply, following the direction of Aha's finger.
It pointed at Mobius.
The starry vault above the Divination Commission twisted again. Countless points of light gathered together and formed a vast new image.
And the subject of that image was Mobius.
The current Mobius.
Every expression she made, every motion, every blink, was projected into that immense image in perfect clarity, for every corner of the galaxy to see.
Jing Yuan's face darkened instantly.
"Aha!"
He said the name outright this time, his voice heavy with anger.
"You—"
"What about me?" Aha tilted Their head, looking innocent.
"I only want the whole galaxy to see what the child General Crimson Kite protected with her life looks like."
"What's wrong with that?"
Feixiao had already drawn her blade.
Its cold gleam pointed directly at Aha in the sky.
Aha glanced down at her, then laughed.
"Oh dear, this general is awfully fierce."
"But really, I suggest you put the knife away. You know it can't hurt me."
Feixiao's jaw tightened hard enough to ache, but she said nothing.
Because Aha was right.
The gap between a mortal and a god was not one a blade or an arrow could bridge.
Huaiyan stepped forward. The cloudy old eyes of the Zhu Ming general were now cold as tempered steel.
"Exalted Elation, Mobius is only a child."
"Only a child?" Aha repeated, sounding amused.
"Old sir, that's not quite right."
"She isn't an ordinary child. The whole galaxy ought to know she exists."
"The whole galaxy ought to know that though Yuanqiao is gone, Yuanqiao's spark yet remains."
Again, Aha's voice turned serious.
"Isn't that the greatest tribute to General Crimson Kite?"
Jing Yuan stood unmoving before Mobius, his mind racing.
Why was Aha doing this?
Why make the whole galaxy see Mobius?
What did They really want?
Was this truly just an encore?
Or was this, as always, merely the prelude to something else?
Aha fell silent for a beat, then smiled again.
"Xianzhou general, you're right. Exposing her to the whole galaxy will bring danger to her."
"But do you really think General Crimson Kite would have wanted her disciple hidden away?"
"She was the one who said, Let hope be left to Mobius."
"She wanted that child to live."
"She wanted that child to be remembered."
"She wanted that child to become the proof that Yuanqiao had once existed."
"And now—"
Aha spread Both arms wide, as if embracing the entire universe.
"The whole galaxy will remember her."
"The whole galaxy will remember that, in one forgotten corner of the stars, there was once a Xianzhou ship called Yuanqiao, and there were once heroes from Yuanqiao."
"Isn't that a hidden kind of happy ending?"
To be fair, what Aha said did make a certain kind of sense. More than that—if not for Aha, the Xianzhou Alliance might never have learned what kind of price Yuanqiao had paid in exchange for the peace they now enjoyed.
But Jing Yuan still felt that something was wrong.
The words of the Aeon of Elation could never be trusted completely.
Even when every word was true, the most dangerous part was always what Aha had not said.
"All right, all right, don't be so tense." Aha waved a hand carelessly.
"I'm not going to do anything to her. I just want the whole galaxy to see her face."
"See her eyes. See her horns. See that little face of hers."
"What's the big deal?"
Then Aha's smile widened extravagantly.
"Little Mobius, do you have anything you'd like to say? Right now, the whole galaxy can hear you."
Jing Yuan's heart lurched.
He turned immediately to look at Mobius.
The tiny figure was still standing in the corner of the hall, small and slender beneath the gaze of all the generals.
Since the beginning, she had remained silent.
And why?
Well… simply because Mobius had not particularly felt like talking.
Though if she were being honest, she had been tempted to say something dramatic. Or maybe just some grand, arrogant nonsense.
But by the logic of the role she was supposed to be playing, right now she really ought to look at least a little devastated.
Jing Yuan parted his lips, intending to say something.
But before he could, Mobius had already moved.
If Aha was handing her the stage, then naturally she would perform.
So she took a step forward.
She stepped out from behind Jing Yuan, out from under the watch of the generals, out from the shadows of the Divination Commission itself.
Step by step, that tiny figure walked into the center of the hall, into the light cast by the Ten Directions Reflecting Dharma Realm.
Her pace was steady—too steady for a child of three.
There was no fear in her green eyes. No hesitation. Only a calm utterly out of place for someone her age.
She stopped in the very center of the Divination Commission and lifted her face toward the sky.
Toward the figure hanging in the void.
Toward all those unseen people watching.
At this moment, the gaze of the whole galaxy rested on her.
Mobius was quiet for a moment.
Then she spoke.
"My name is Mobius."
Her voice was soft, still carrying the natural innocence of a child.
And yet under the power of the divine projection, every word spread clearly across the galaxy.
"I am the Jade Sovereign of Yuanqiao. I am the disciple of General Crimson Kite, Fu Hua."
She paused. A light flickered in her green-blue eyes.
"My master… my previous life… and everyone on Yuanqiao—they locked themselves inside a cage for five hundred and ninety-three years in order to protect the galaxy."
"They endured the corrosion of Nihility. They endured loneliness cut off from the world. They endured a wait with no visible end."
"And in the end, they used their own destruction to buy the survival of six other Xianzhou ships."
Her voice remained even, but the light in her eyes only grew brighter.
"They are gone. Yuanqiao is gone."
"But I will live on."
She drew in a slow breath and let it out.
"I will live on in my master's place. I will live on in the place of every person on Yuanqiao."
"I will remember them. I will remember Yuanqiao. I will remember what happened there. I will remember what they gave up for the sake of the galaxy."
"So long as I am alive, Yuanqiao has not truly vanished."
The expressions of the generals shifted.
And Mobius kept speaking, her voice carrying a firmness it had never held before.
"I don't know whether the Witch of Nihility is watching this right now, but I want to say this—"
She lifted her head higher and stared directly into the endless night, toward that enemy she had never seen but who might be lurking somewhere in it.
"I will find you."
"And I will kill you."
"Not for revenge."
"Not because of anger."
"But because as long as you're alive, there will be a second Yuanqiao, a third Yuanqiao. There will be more people swallowed by Nihility, more people dying in forgotten corners where no one ever hears them scream."
"My master failed to kill you. Yuanqiao failed to kill you."
"But I will."
Her voice echoed through the Divination Commission, through the galaxy, through the ears of every living being watching this spectacle.
It was a small voice. A child's voice. The most ordinary sort of voice a three-year-old might possess.
Yet each word landed as though sharpened and forged.
The entire galaxy fell silent.
And then—
Aha laughed.
The laughter poured down from the sky, out of the void, from every direction all at once.
It was not mockery.
Not derision.
It was genuine, delighted, delightedly unrestrained laughter.
"Good! Good! Good!"
Aha lowered Their head and fixed Their gaze on Mobius.
"That's the kind of child I like—tiny little thing, and yet you speak with that much force."
"General Crimson Kite didn't raise you in vain. Yuanqiao didn't wait for you in vain."
There was no disguising the admiration in Aha's voice now.
"Three years old. You're only three."
"At three, children ought to be at home playing in the mud. They ought to be cherished, protected, growing up without a care in the world."
"And yet here you are, standing before the whole galaxy and declaring that you'll kill the Witch of Nihility."
Then Aha's voice softened, almost becoming a sigh.
"What a pity."
"A child this young, carrying a fate like this."
"It's too bitter. Too heavy."
"Far too… unjoyful."
They tilted Their head. Through the slit of Their narrowed eyes flashed something deep and strange.
"Mobius, little one—have you ever thought about…"
"…letting all of this go?"
The air inside the Divination Commission froze solid.
Jing Yuan's pupils contracted again, and his hand had already gone to his weapon.
But Aha continued.
"Forget those troubles. Forget that hatred. Forget the Witch of Nihility."
"Come join Elation."
"Become one of my Fools."
"You won't have to carry anything. You won't have to remember anything. You won't have to live for anyone else."
"You only have to laugh."
"Laugh for the whole galaxy to see. Laugh for the dead of Yuanqiao to see. Laugh for that Witch of Nihility to see."
"How wonderful."
"How easy."
"How… joyful."
At those words, all the generals changed expression at once.
Now they understood.
Aha wasn't just stirring up trouble.
Aha was poaching.
"Exalted Elation," Jing Yuan said, voice low and controlled.
"Miss Mobius is the Jade Sovereign of Yuanqiao, the disciple of General Crimson Kite, and family to the Xianzhou Alliance."
"If You wish to take her, You should ask us first."
Aha tilted Their head.
"Ask you?"
"Ask you what? Whether you approve?"
They laughed, light and dangerous.
"Xianzhou people, have you misunderstood something?"
"When I, Aha, decide to take someone, I do not ask permission from anyone."
Jing Yuan said nothing.
But around him, golden radiance began to rise.
The Hunt's divine manifestation—the Spiritus of the Reignbow Arbiter's general.
"That's right," Huaiyan added, stepping forward.
"Mobius is Yuanqiao's child. She is the child of the Xianzhou Alliance. She is the child of the Hunt."
"Exalted Elation—if You mean to take her away, You may first ask whether the Reignbow Arbiter's arrow consents."
At this, something finally shifted in Aha's expression.
"The Hunt's child?" They repeated, sounding amused.
"Old sir… are you certain?"
Aha extended one finger toward the tiny figure at the center of the hall.
At this moment, something was faintly glowing from Mobius.
A green radiance.
Permanence.
Aha's voice drifted lazily down.
"What flows through little Mobius is the power of Permanence."
"The Path of Permanence. The authority of Permanence. The inheritance left behind by that long-dead dragon."
"And that is what you're calling a child of the Hunt?"
The hall fell into dead silence.
The generals' eyes all went to Mobius, to that small body wrapped in green light, and for a moment no one could answer.
Because from one perspective, Aha was right.
Mobius was not truly a child of the Hunt.
At least—not entirely.
Jing Yuan's brows drew tight, for he suddenly realized he had no perfect grounds on which to refute Aha.
What flowed through Mobius was indeed the power of Permanence.
Her connection to the Hunt existed only through Fu Hua, through Yuanqiao, through those five hundred and ninety-three years of waiting.
That was a bond of feeling—not a bond of Path.
Aha could disregard feeling.
Aha was an Aeon. Before an Aeon, only Paths truly mattered.
The inheritor of Permanence, by her nature, belonged to Permanence.
Permanence might be dead, but that did not mean Mobius was therefore obliged to belong to the Hunt.
She could choose another road.
She could choose to leave.
To let go.
To laugh.
The generals looked at one another. Every face showed the same thing:
Reluctance.Anger.And more than anything else… helplessness.
They could refuse.They could resist.They could fight to the bitter end.
And then what?
Aha was an Aeon.
The Aeon of Elation. A being on the same level as the Reignbow Arbiter.
If Aha truly wanted to take her, they could not stop it.
No one could stop an Aeon.
The tension inside the Divination Commission dropped into something like frozen despair.
Jing Yuan stood in front of Mobius, still wreathed in golden radiance, though that radiance now looked like little more than a final stubborn stand.
Aha glanced down at the silent generals, the smile on Their face only deepening.
"Mobius, little one—come with me."
"I'll show you the funniest spectacles in the galaxy. I'll take you to find that Witch of Nihility. I'll let you…"
"…do anything you want."
Suddenly, Aha's voice became gentle.
Gentle in a way completely uncharacteristic of a god of chaos—more like some elder coaxing a child.
"You won't have to carry anything. You won't have to remember anything. You won't have to live for anyone else."
"You'll just have to be yourself."
"Isn't that what General Crimson Kite wanted?"
Mobius did not answer.
Her face remained calm, revealing nothing.
Jing Yuan wanted to turn around, to say something to her.
But his feet felt rooted to the floor.
Because he had realized, with painful clarity, that he had no right to say any of it.
The Xianzhou Alliance already owed Yuanqiao too much. They could not ask for more. They could not bind that child with fresh obligations.
If Mobius wanted to go, then perhaps all they had the right to do was bless her.
And just then—
An arrow of the Hunt came streaking from the deepest reaches of the stars.
It made no sound.
There had been no omen, no warning, no visible path.
It simply appeared—
From the void.From the end of the star sea.From some dimension beyond the reach or understanding of mortals.
Its tip pointed straight at Aha.
Aha: !!!!
"You stinking centaur—attacking by surprise?!"
Join here to read ahead.
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