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***
Thinking of these things, Feixiao exhaled a long, steady breath. The woman who could face seas of corpses and mountains of blood without a flicker of expression actually felt… a little nervous.
Perhaps… she might witness another miracle.
Without carefully selecting, she simply picked up five nearby trash cans.
In the lounge, Jing Yuan and Yanqing sat like immovable statues, eyes fixed on Feixiao's first trash can. They too were eager to see what she might draw.
Clang.
Feixiao lifted the iron lid. A wash of blue light filled her vision.
Recognizing the color, she closed her eyes and waited for the glow to fade, a faint smile already tugging at her lips.
To begin with a blue-grade curio—an auspicious sign.
A palm-sized, disc-like device fell into her hand.
"What's this?"
She turned it over curiously, discovering a button-like feature on its side.
Pointing the flat surface toward herself, she pressed the button. A sudden beam of light shot out.
"Another flash?!" Caught off guard, Feixiao gave a startled cry. Startled, her grip slipped, and the curio tumbled from her hand. But her reflexes were sharp—her high-heeled boot flicked upward, arresting its fall like a makeshift bungee cord. The device spun overhead and dropped behind her.
Feixiao simply shifted her hand back, and the curio landed safely in her palm once more.
Sylvester, watching the silver-haired foxian's fluid motions, couldn't help but exclaim: "What elegant form!"
The kick of her heel paired with the backhand catch allowed her to control the object within a half-meter radius of her body as if it were part of her own reach. Smooth and natural. In a cosmos filled with dazzling divine powers and overwhelming techniques, such martial grace seemed trivial—but to Sylvester, it carried its own unique beauty.
Because raw power could never express the innate aesthetic of a living body's movement.
"Nothing but showmanship," Feixiao brushed it off lightly. "Tell us what this thing actually does."
With more caution this time, she pointed it away from people and pressed the button. The light flared, and a full holographic projection shimmered into being before them.
"Looks like… a projector?"
Beside her, Yanqing hesitated. "It shouldn't be that simple. For a blue-grade curio…"
As soon as he spoke, he thought of his own blue curio, the [Stone of Enlightenment]. He realized immediately—this couldn't possibly be so ordinary.
[Interstellar Probe:Capable of scanning within a radius of five light-years. Provides holographic images of any chosen location, with maximum clarity of 480p at full range.(Note:Hasunlimited energy and is voice-controlled.)]
"It does have projection functionality," Sylvester confirmed Yanqing's suspicion, then continued: "But this is a probe. Projection is merely one of its features. It can view any location within five light-years and display it as a hologram."
"Just with this little disc? This must be the display unit. The actual probe must be somewhere else—like a satellite or floating module, right?"
The Xianzhou possessed plenty of small probes, hardly rare. To Feixiao, this looked like nothing more than a relay device—the true hardware must be orbiting somewhere in space.
But Sylvester only shook his head calmly.
"That is the complete probe you're holding."
"Impossible!" Feixiao gasped. This time not from surprise, but from the shattering of her common sense.
She stood speechless. Sylvester wasn't one to lie—but that only made it more shocking.
No probe modules? Then how could it display these images?
She had at least a basic grasp of science. This wasn't some witch's crystal ball—images couldn't simply appear from nothing.
"How does it work, then?" she asked. The hologram before her showed a sphere half a meter across, filled with glowing dots—mostly blue, with a single red one at the center. She couldn't decipher its meaning.
Sylvester smiled faintly. "Because its maximum radius is five light-years. By default, it compresses the entire five-light-year sphere into this display. Naturally, everything looks this small."
"Five light-years? And it can project… without auxiliary modules?"
Though it had no combat power compared to Yanqing's [Massacre Ruler], if it worked as described, its value might not be any less.
For she was a general of the Xianzhou! And intelligence in war was as vital as steel.
With this device, the enemy would still need to risk scouts and detectors, combing for scraps of information.
But she? She could sit comfortably in a command deck, and with a mere gesture, lay bare every enemy position! Even the most elaborate ambush would, thanks to this, transform into their own snare.
Realizing this, her eyes blazed with excitement, silently urging Sylvester to demonstrate further.
"It's simple—just use voice commands." Sylvester smiled, then announced with theatrical flourish: "Interstellar Probe, expand the projection to half this room. Display target: this shop."
The disc in Feixiao's hand pulsed, then floated upward to the ceiling, casting its light downward.
Instantly, a hologram of the shop appeared—scaled to half size, including Feixiao herself, staring wide-eyed at the image.
She had just opened her mouth to praise it when Sylvester spoke again: "Show me the office of Master Diviner Fu Xuan."
The projection shifted. A pink-haired woman with hairpins sat at her desk, writing furiously. The text on the pages before her was clearly legible.
"Now—show me the depths of the Shackling Prison!"
The image flickered to rows of somber, dimly lit structures. At the center loomed a tall, grim gate glowing with an eerie light—the very cell holding Huohuo's captor.
"That's enough! I understand how it works!" Feixiao quickly cut him off.
It wasn't distrust of Sylvester, but the sheer power of the curio had stunned her into reflex.
The Shackling Prison was the most tightly secured location in the Xianzhou, armored with the finest signal-jamming arrays in existence. No known transmission could penetrate it. Even the Ten Lords' Commission could only use special equipment from within.
Yet this tiny disc had revealed it in perfect clarity.
Beside her, Jing Yuan's face darkened further. He dared not imagine if this curio had fallen into the Vidyadhara rebels' hands instead. His plan of purging corruption and restoring order would have collapsed instantly.
He stared at the glowing disc overhead, then he felt a chill crawling down his spine.