"However, as for long-term cooperation, I'm afraid I'll have to pass."
Aglaea politely declined her invitation.
"I will not be staying on the Luofu for too long."
Her eyes were downcast, her ten fingers, as white as jade, intertwined.
"Besides, I have treated my weaving as a business for too long."
As Aglaea spoke, she recalled the years of her past.
"Right now, I'd rather treat it as a beloved hobby."
Weaving. As a high-born lady who knew nothing of the world's hardships, Aglaea had initially regarded it as the art to which she would dedicate her life.
It wasn't until later, when her family fell from grace, that this art took on a more commercial air. She relied on her own two hands to take back everything, bit by bit.
"It seems I was the one being impudent."
Tingyun opened her fan, using it to cover half her face.
The eyes left exposed were still brimming with a smile, betraying no hint of her true feelings.
"It's a pity we cannot cooperate long-term."
Aglaea shook her head and said with a smile, "However, to have met a friend like Miss Tingyun today is my honor."
"In the future, if you wish to have any clothes custom-made, feel free to find me, if you don't mind."
As the long-time leader of Ochema, Aglaea understood well how to conduct herself and build good relationships.
Although she refused Tingyun's offer of cooperation, by framing it as a friendship, she left ample room for both of them.
"Oh my, this is truly flattering for me."
Tingyun's eyes narrowed, the pair of fox ears on her head twitching.
She was clearly delighted.
"Since Miss Aglaea considers this little lady a friend, then I must also show some corresponding sincerity."
Tingyun snapped her fan shut, tapping the folded fan against her palm.
"During your temporary stay on the Luofu, if Miss Aglaea runs into any trouble or difficult matters, you may mention the name of the Whistling Flames."
She said with a chuckle.
In a sense, Tingyun was still trying to extend an olive branch to Aglaea.
After all, if she really did mention the Whistling Flames' name, wouldn't that be a tacit admission that the two of them were on the same side?
With a debt of gratitude established, many things would become much more convenient.
One step at a time; there was plenty of time in the future.
It couldn't be helped. Tingyun was simply too greedy for Aglaea's clothes-making skills.
Truly, from Tingyun's perspective, it was no exaggeration to say that having Aglaea was equivalent to having the secret to wealth in a new era.
Alas, she just didn't know who would be fortunate enough to make her willingly weave clothes and earn money for them.
"I appreciate Miss Tingyun's kind intentions."
Whistling Flames?
Aglaea felt that mentioning Leon's name would probably be more effective.
Though she thought this inwardly, on the surface, she still accepted Tingyun's goodwill.
"May I ask where Miss Aglaea is from?"
Tingyun nodded and began to inquire about her origins.
"I come from a place called Amphoreus."
Aglaea answered truthfully.
"Amphoreus?"
Surprise flashed fleetingly in Tingyun's pupils.
She was a businesswoman, after all, and always paid close attention to changes in the outside world.
"I truly never expected that Miss Aglaea would be someone from Amphoreus."
Amphoreus, Penacony's recently added Thirteenth Hour.
It was an incredibly hot topic in the outside world.
The first twelve Hours were all regions, or rather, small worlds.
But this Thirteenth Hour... Tingyun had heard it was on the scale of an entire world, one capable of matching the first twelve combined.
No one knew how Amphoreus was created.
Logically, to create a world of this scale in Penacony, it would surely require the intervention of an Emanator of Remembrance or The Enigmata. Only then would it be possible.
But if Tingyun remembered correctly, Penacony was a place under the protection of their Eighth Heavenly General.
Which Emanator would dare to cause trouble at the risk of provoking him?
That made the origin of this Thirteenth Hour very intriguing.
"Aglaea, let's go."
Just as Tingyun was lost in thought, a sudden call pulled her back to reality.
She turned her head.
Speak of the Eighth Heavenly General, and he shall appear.
"Heavenly General Chang...?"
Tingyun didn't react for a moment, wondering why he would suddenly appear here.
"We'll see each other next time, Miss Tingyun."
Aglaea nodded towards Leon, then stood up and left after bidding farewell.
It wasn't until Aglaea had departed that Tingyun realized Leon had just called her name.
And Aglaea had followed him after just one call. Their relationship was clearly not a shallow one.
"Oh my..."
Tingyun watched the departing figures of the five people, lightly tapping the fan in her palm.
"That is truly a formidable competitor."
She spoke in a voice only she could hear, simultaneously finding her own earlier recruitment attempt laughable.
Tingyun had excellent judgment, so good that it was on the same level as Heavenly General Chang.
How could Aglaea possibly need the help of the Whistling Flames?
Forget a hundred Whistling Flames; even a thousand wouldn't compare to Leon.
The beautiful flower already had a master.
However, Tingyun felt as if she had just glimpsed the truth behind Amphoreus.
Come to think of it, entering the Luofu required an identity check.
As Amphoreus was a newly emerged entity, many hadn't even heard of it.
By rights, it should have been reported, but the Sky-Faring Commission had received no such news.
Furthermore, without coordinates, very few people would know the Luofu's location.
And then there was Leon's appearance.
Combining these three factors, it could only mean that Leon had brought them here.
From this, one could deduce that Amphoreus was, in all likelihood, single-handedly installed in Penacony by Leon.
This Eighth Heavenly General of theirs was far more unfathomable than he appeared on the surface.
Tingyun lamented in her heart.
"Are you done with your business?"
Aglaea rejoined the group, adding one more to their party.
"I'm done."
Leon grunted in affirmation. "How do you find the Luofu?"
He was happy to see the Golden Progeny getting in touch with the outside world.
So, seeing Cerydra and Aglaea making their own friends on the Luofu made him quite happy.
"It's a world completely different from Amphoreus."
Aglaea tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, giving her evaluation of this place that was far more developed than her homeland.
"There are many novel things."
"I was thinking, after breaking free from the Black Tide, will Amphoreus one day be able to see a landscape like the Luofu's and step into the next historical stage?"
The Luofu was wonderful, but upon seeing these hyper-advanced scenes, what Aglaea thought of was always her home.
"There will be a chance."
Amphoreus had already begun its new development.
Leon believed that in the near future, they too would be able to see the same sights as the Luofu.
The four Golden Progeny walked with him for a distance.
Soon, the group found the fifth Golden Progeny in front of a pastry shop.
Tribios.
She was currently coaxing a little green-haired Foxian girl.
"Here."
Tribios handed her the pastry she had bought.
"Th-Thank you, big sister..."
The Foxian girl had a face that screamed 'pushover'. She accepted the pastry and thanked her nervously in a soft, sweet voice.
"You're welcome."
Tribios smiled, radiating maternal warmth.
"I... I... I'll transfer the money to you!"
The Foxian girl's eyes were spinning in circles. Clearly flustered to the extreme by her nervousness, she fumbled for her Jade Abacus, looking prepared to give Tribios her entire life savings.
Which family's Bocchi-chan is this?
"That's not necessary. This time, it's my treat."
Tribios shook her head, refusing the payment.
"But if you don't even dare to ask the price when you buy things, how do you usually get by?"
She asked curiously.
"S-Sorry..."
The Foxian girl looked as if she was apologizing for being born.
"Hey, hey, I was just asking. I didn't mean anything else by it."
Seeing her like this, Tribios quickly expressed that she didn't mean to blame or look down on her.
"The... The Ten-Lords Commission provides food and lodging..."
Upon hearing this, the Foxian girl replied weakly.
"Hmm... I see."
Tribios nodded, somewhat surprised.
"You're already working at such a young age?"
Does the Luofu actually hire child laborers?
Tribios really hadn't expected that.
"Because of some special reasons..."
As she said this, the Foxian girl's gaze subconsciously fell upon her own tail.
Tribios followed her gaze.
"It's a beautiful tail."
She praised the fluffy, greenish-blue fox tail that burned like a flame.
"But... why is there a talisman on it?"
"Be... Because my tail was eaten by a 'Heliobus'... The talisman was put there by the Judge... It's to prevent Lord Tails from running out..."
The Foxian girl answered the question, stammering.
"Lord Tails?"
Tribios blinked.
Whether it was Heliobus or Judge, as an outworlder, she didn't understand any of these technical terms. It made one sigh with emotion.
The culture of the Luofu was truly vast and profound.
'I'll ask Mr. Chang about it later.'
Tribios thought to herself. A veteran like Leon would surely know a lot.
"But if you always eat according to the canteen's arrangements, don't you ever get cravings?"
She didn't understand Foxian tails, so she could only bring the topic back to the original subject.
The Foxian girl fell silent.
It went without saying that she was having a craving right now.
[You coward! And you had the gall to talk back to me before, saying 'if it weren't for me, you'd be setting up a small stall to beg for a living'! You think you can beg for jack squat with that attitude!]
A ball of spiritual fire with facial features suddenly popped out of the girl's tail.
"Setting up a stall... doesn't necessarily require talking... Electronic payment functions are very advanced now..."
The Foxian girl retorted, refusing to back down.
"Uh, and who might this be?"
Upon first seeing the spiritual fire, Tribios was indeed a little shocked.
But that shock quickly dissipated.
After all, she was someone who had seen her fair share of wonders on Amphoreus.
She just lamented once more in her heart at the Luofu's development, to think they even allowed spirits to gain sentience after the founding of the nation.
[I am the renowned...]
Hearing someone inquire about its name, the spiritual fire immediately began to speak with great arrogance.
"Tails! It's just Lord Tails!"
But before it could finish, its host interrupted its self-introduction.
"Hello there, Tails."
After hearing that, Tribios waved and greeted it.
"Speaking of which, I haven't asked your name yet."
After greeting Tails, Tribios remembered something and spoke.
"Huohuo... My name is Huohuo..."
The Foxian girl mustered her courage and stated her name.
"Huohuo, what a cute name."
Tribios liked her name very much.
Not only did it fit her perfectly, but also because 'Huohuo', like 'Tibaotian...' followed by 997 'Ti'-starting names, sounded full of childlike innocence.
"A-Aren't you scared..."
Huohuo was quite surprised by her calm demeanor.
"Scared of what?"
Tribios was puzzled, not knowing what she was referring to.
Huohuo didn't speak, only weakly raising her index finger to point at the spiritual fire she called Tails.
"Why should I be scared?"
Seeing this, Tribios just smiled.
"Huohuo and Tails are both adorable children. How could I possibly be afraid?"
Ah... this person before me is a woman who could be my mother...
Feeling the radiance blooming from Tribios, Huohuo thought to herself.
[Huh? Cute?]
Tails was not happy to hear those two words.
It, a grand Heliobus, a figure on par with the Luofu's General.
Since when could it be described with the word 'cute'?
[Do you have any idea that at my peak, I could easily crush you like an ant...]
Tails spoke with feigned ferocity, as if it also knew its current appearance wasn't very intimidating.
But before the word 'die' could leave its mouth, the survival instinct rooted in its bones made it immediately shut up.
[What's going on...]
A cold sweat had, at some point, covered Tails' entire being.
['This woman... why does she make me feel fear...']
Tails felt an intense threat from Tribios.
It was just like having a gun pressed against its forehead!
Not even the Luofu's General had ever made it feel such a sense of crisis!
Tails had a gut feeling that if it had really said the word 'die' just now...
—then it itself would have died a miserable death!
['This woman... is no simple character...']
Tails was drenched in sweat, filled with lingering fear.
This was the first time it had felt death so directly.
One must know that energy beings like the Heliobus were very difficult to kill.
Something even the Luofu's General couldn't do, yet this woman could?
"Huh?"
Huohuo noticed Tails's strange behavior.
Lord Tails, who had always been full of himself and arrogantly domineering, had for once, uncharacteristically, held his tongue.
Huohuo even felt a strong sense of...
Fear?
She suspected she was still dreaming.
Lord Tails and fear, were these two things that could really go together?
Something was wrong, nine-tenths wrong!
Not even the Judges of the Ten-Lords Commission could make Tails shut up in such fear.
How did Tribios do it?
"Big Sister Tribios, are you carrying some kind of evil-warding object?"
Huohuo hesitated for a moment before asking.
"No, I'm not."
Tribios didn't know why she would suddenly ask this.
An evil-warding object...
If she had to name one, perhaps it was that Mr. Chang was always protecting her?
After all, the Golden Progeny all existed because of him; the causal connection was quite strong.
"Big Sister Tribios... have you met the Eighth Heavenly General?"
Huohuo hummed, thinking seriously for a moment.
That rumored Eighth Heavenly General, it was said he had slain Phantylia, a Lord Ravager and also a great Heliobus, with a single arrow.
As someone who had personally killed a great Heliobus.
If there was anyone on this Xianzhou who could instill fear in Tails...
Then Huohuo felt it could only be him, right?
____
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