"Hmm... if that's the case, then it's a good thing you didn't come with us, Lynelle..."
After hearing Lynelle's description, Stelle couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief.
"You have no idea... oh wait, maybe you do. I ran into so many followers of the Disciples of Sanctus Medicus earlier! They even tricked me into eating some strange elixir, trying to turn me into an Abundance abomination. Luckily, I'm an athlete—just a bit of exercise and I digested that pill..."
[That does sound terrifying. If it were me, I might have caused a mass murder incident on the streets. My body would've drained all the energy around me without hesitation to purge the foreign substance.]
"Don't worry, Lynelle."
Stelle flashed a confident grin. "With me here, I won't let any Abundance power get near you!"
"Heh..."
Meanwhile, Tingyun, walking ahead of them, had already pulled out her fan, lightly covering the corner of her mouth.
After all, laughing too openly might arouse suspicion.
Even though the plan was already set at this stage, if she could keep up the act a little longer, Phantylia was more than happy to continue watching these Xianzhou fools make spectacles of themselves in her Tingyun guise.
As one of the few Emanators of Destruction who excelled purely in psychic prowess, Lynelle's amateurish mental communication couldn't escape her notice.
And Phantylia never expected that while just eavesdropping for gossip to figure out how to best corrupt Lynelle, she'd stumble upon such a juicy piece of intel.
So if Lynelle had this kind of "Abundance intolerance" constitution... Heh, then Phantylia already had an idea how to fill Lynelle from head to toe with the power of Destruction, turning her into a cream puff.
In her new plan, she abandoned the idea of corrupting Lynelle.
After all, Lynelle's personal corruption would only let her savor one person's emotions.
But with this new method, she could feast on the emotional devastation of all Lynelle's companions.
As a seasoned connoisseur of emotions, Phantylia naturally wouldn't hesitate to choose the latter.
Anyway, once it was over, Lynelle would likely be reclaimed by Nanook. Even if she "trained" Lynelle properly, she'd probably just be handing a perfected tool to someone else.
Heh, hehe...
Just thinking about that scene made Phantylia tremble with excitement. She could hardly wait to see the heartbroken expressions on their faces when the time came!
--+--
"Um..."
Meanwhile, elsewhere on the Xianzhou, Yanqing looked at Lynelle, who had suddenly started giggling, with a strange expression.
"Lynelle, you... what's going on?"
Ahem...
Lynelle quickly tried to school her features, but no matter what she did, she couldn't suppress the upward curl of her lips.
After all, successfully tricking an Emanator—especially one who'd been mentally snooping on her the entire way—was immensely satisfying.
And when she thought about how Phantylia would later successfully verify the false intel she'd overheard, both at the Ruins' Storehouse and with the Ambrosial Arbor itself, Lynelle simply couldn't keep a straight face.
Even if the Herrscher of Corruption's authority couldn't match Phantylia in raw psychic power, when it came to the core abilities of "implantation" and "corrosion" itself, Phantylia would never expect a "Rubert III" was hiding here, plotting against her.
The power of Corruption wasn't just effective on machines. Even living beings could be silently eroded, though it took longer.
And for something like the Ambrosial Arbor, which operated on instinct and held a peculiar affinity for her, the corrosion would be so seamless that even Lynelle herself might not spot the flaws.
After implanting a series of commands into the Arbor, Lynelle could confidently declare that even if Nanook himself came, he'd only see the Arbor rejecting her.
As for what would happen once the Arbor truly made contact with her body... Hehe.
"It's nothing, Yanqing. I just thought of something happy."
"Then let's hurry. If we're too slow... and both of us combined can't outperform that Jingliu alone, it would be utterly humiliating."
Yanqing sighed and quickened his pace.
Ever since he'd left at noon, he'd felt his luck was off today.
First, he'd inexplicably run into Lynelle—who had just arrived on the Luofu with the Express crew—during a mission.
Then, she'd forcefully joined his task using "apprehending the Stellaron Hunters is a mission assigned to us by the General" as an excuse.
The most frustrating part was that after he reported it to Jing Yuan, the General actually told her to take good care of him, with no intention of letting him work alone.
It's just one Stellaron Hunter! I, the UltimateSwordmaster123, have fought all across the Xianzhou!
The people I can't beat probably don't even make up 0.01% of the population. How could there possibly be any danger!
But there was no helping it. Since it was the General's request, Yanqing couldn't slack off.
So he had no choice but to call her "Sister Lynelle" all afternoon as they traveled together.
Of course, during this time, his restless spirit led him to quietly probe Lynelle's strength, and then... he realized he probably actually couldn't beat her.
Well, she is the General's guest, so it's normal I can't beat her—His good upbringing allowed Yanqing to quickly let go of his earlier petty pride and start learning from Lynelle.
But that wasn't the end of it.
When evening came, he actually ran into another mysterious big sister, and this suspicious woman was also hiding her true power!
So, it devolved into the current situation... Since the big sister named Jingliu showed no intention of fighting him, and for some reason, Lynelle beside him wore a barely-contained expression the whole time with no plans to intervene, Yanqing had no choice but to patiently accept Jingliu's wager.
The two would compete by hunting Abundance abominations to decide the winner.
"Hmm... Actually, it's normal if we both can't outperform her."
Lynelle sighed and pointed into the distance. "Look, Jingliu is already over there."
"?!"
Yanqing looked closer. In the time it took him to say a couple of sentences, Jingliu had already pulled dozens of meters ahead.
As far as the eye could see, most of the Abundance abominations lay on the ground, killed with a single strike.
"You'd better work hard, little one. Otherwise, even if I gave you a starskiff, you still couldn't catch up to me."
As if sensing Yanqing's gaze, Jingliu turned her head under the moonlight, her voice gradually gaining a hint of... loss of control between sword strokes.
"Darn it!"
Flushed with competitive spirit, Yanqing naturally failed to notice Jingliu's abnormal state and charged straight toward her. Lynelle, however, sighed and started rummaging through her system space.
After all, she hadn't just run into Yanqing by chance while strolling around.
The reason Lynelle was operating on two fronts was actually very simple.
Jingliu's storyline was happening concurrently with Stelle's.
If she followed Stelle and Dan Heng, the Luofu's main story would probably be over before she ever got to meet Jingliu.
So, if she wanted to add Jingliu's character card to her gacha pool, she had to come here in person.
Let's be honest, the former Luofu Sword Champion's prowess was the real deal. Among Lynelle's character cards, she'd rank among the most powerful ones.
Of course, Lynelle wouldn't just "cop a feel" from Jingliu for nothing. As payment, she had prepared a truly fitting reward—the very thing she was searching for now.
"Ha, finally found it... I've had this thing for ages but never knew where to use it. Finally found an opportunity today..."
"Let me see how things are progressing with Yanqing... Oh, this part."
Watching the large pile of Abundance abomination corpses in the distance and Jingliu's increasingly uncontrolled tone, Lynelle, clutching the newly extracted item in her hand, instantly understood the situation.
So, this should be the scene where Jingliu teaches Yanqing that sword technique, right?
Oh, Jingliu's already leaped into the sky... Wait?
If her eyes weren't deceiving her, wasn't the direction her roaring sword was aimed a bit... off?
Holy crap!
Watching the crescent-shaped blade energy split the air, Lynelle's hair stood on end. A pink longbow materialized in her hands almost instantly.
"Black Abyss White Flower Broken Phantasm!"
A stream of black and white light shot from the bowstring, and within mere milliseconds of leaving it, it immediately entered a state of Broken Phantasm.
"BOOM—"
With a deafening roar, sword energy and corrosive black mist spread outwards simultaneously.
However, thanks to Jingliu's earlier competition with Yanqing, the ground littered with Abundance abomination corpses actually ended up helping Lynelle immensely.
These humanoid cockroaches helped rapidly consume the withering black mist generated by the Black Abyss White Flower's self-destruction as it clashed with the Abundance power, preventing it from turning the surroundings into a wasteland like the last time Lynelle used it.
"Your strength... is indeed not as weak as you appear."
Jingliu landed gracefully from the air. After her earlier outburst, her Mara-struck symptoms seemed to have alleviated somewhat, returning her to the quiet big sister from before.
"Hey, hey! You just swing your sword without warning! Aren't you afraid of killing someone?"
"You won't die. Because you haven't gone all out."
Faced with Lynelle's accusation, Jingliu seemed nonchalant.
"The power within your body... I cannot comprehend it fully. But as a martial artist, I can sense the abnormality of your physique—your body is fundamentally different from other outworlders."
"And... why didn't you draw your sword earlier?"
"Draw my sword?"
Lynelle was baffled. "Me? What sword?"
"No need to hide your prowess any longer. I have already sensed the sharp sword intent emanating from you."
"You've hidden your sword under your skirt on the left side, haven't you?... That sword intent isn't particularly sharp, but it is unyielding—which is why I acted on impulse, wanting to test your blade."
"U-under my skirt? Wait, you mean this?"
The corner of Lynelle's mouth twitched. With a flip of her hand, she produced a blazing red feather from under her skirt.
"I see... You've misunderstood. This is something a friend entrusted to me. That sword intent isn't mine."
"Is that so... My apologies."
Seeing Lynelle directly produce the source of her perception, a hint of embarrassment tinged Jingliu's voice. "It seems I have been steeped in Mara for too long, my senses have dulled..."
"It's fine. No discord, no concord, as they say."
Lynelle chuckled. "Besides, I actually have a deal I'd like to discuss with you."
"A deal?"
"While I don't know a cure for the Mara-struck state, I can alleviate your symptoms to some extent by... making some adjustments to your memories. It's a temporary fix, not a permanent cure."
"You traveled all the way to the Xianzhou, yet you choose to blindfold yourself with black gauze to avoid accelerating your Mara. That's no way to live. With my help, you could at least see the Xianzhou in your final days. What do you say?"
"...Did Jing Yuan send you?"
Jingliu asked after a moment of silence.
"Him, yes. But this deal probably isn't something he anticipated."
"...Go on."
"In exchange, I need you to..."
Lynelle's voice hesitated, then she spoke somewhat haltingly, "Let me touch you."
"?"
Though Jingliu wore a black veil and remained silent, Lynelle could feel the intense confusion radiating from her.
"Ahem, don't misunderstand. I don't have any... special preferences."
Lynelle cleared her throat and hurriedly explained. "One of my abilities allows me to mimic, to some extent, the powers of those I touch."
"Right now, the Luofu is in chaos. The Disciples of Sanctus Medicus members who previously controlled the young Vidyadhara High Elder Bailu are doomed to be eradicated."
"So, regarding this young dragon sovereign and the Dragon Taming Art she possesses... which faction would be most interested? I probably don't need to spell it out."
"Since you're already a high-profile criminal of the Xianzhou, you probably don't mind adding a few charges like 'slaying a few dragon elders'. So, lend me your identity to protect Bailu. What do you say?"
"Heh..."
Jingliu was silent for a moment, then suddenly let out a soft laugh.
"Suppress my Mara, protect the dragon girl... You've stated the benefits of this deal for me. So, what is the price?"
"In my opinion, borrowing the identity of a dead woman can hardly be considered a price... Moreover, with the strength you displayed with that arrow earlier, it's unlikely you covet my power."
"Speak. What else do you want?"
Good grief, grandma... My legs were shaking like jelly after firing that arrow! How did you get the idea I'm as strong as you?
Lynelle couldn't help but complain inwardly. However, it seemed Jingliu wasn't willing to accept her favor for nothing.
But if she had to propose another condition... she really couldn't think of one off the top of her head.
She couldn't just say, 'Big sister, I'm thirsting over you, why don't you offer yourself to me,' could she?
"The condition... I haven't thought of it yet. How about we leave it for later?"
"As you wish. I will remain on the Luofu for a while. You can seek me out anytime. As long as I am still free to move, this worn-out body is at your disposal for one task. As for my whereabouts... you can ask Jing Yuan when the time comes."
Jingliu didn't press the matter, simply nodding. "However, do not make me wait too long. My physical condition, I believe you can see it for yourself."
"No problem!"
The blazing red feather in Lynelle's hand began to emit a faint fluorescent light.
"Now then, Fenghuang Down... I'm counting on you."
--+--
T/N: I have a Patreon! Webnovel will get 3 Chapters Every Day, and advanced chapters will be uploaded on Patreon.
It may not seem worth it now, but maybe in the future. Who knows!
[email protected]/AspenTL
If you guys wanna check it out.