Compared to the gloomy atmosphere of the Schicksal Council meetings, the atmosphere at the Divine State's Anti-Honkai Council was quite sunny.
The vast conference hall had a high, broad dome. Soft lighting cascaded down, illuminating the rows of tiered seats clearly.
Situ Qinghong, who was presiding over the meeting, stood behind the foremost podium. Her golden twin-tails seemed ready to leap out of the halo of light.
"I know you all dislike wasting time in meetings like this. Coincidentally, I feel the same."
The young girl's clear voice spread throughout the hall via the amplification system, carrying an undisguised impatience.
"So let's skip the pleasantries and cut to the chase." She pressed her hands on the podium surface, leaning forward slightly, her gaze burning like torches. "I've gathered everyone here mainly to brief and discuss five agenda items."
As soon as her voice fell, whispers drifted from a corner.
"Calling it a discussion of agenda items, isn't it just a formality to notify us..."
"Exactly, exactly. Everyone knows big matters are decided in small meetings, and small matters in big meetings. Specifically calling so many people to the conference room means the agenda clearly isn't important."
The voices weren't loud, but they were clearly audible.
"Yunli!"
Situ Qinghong slapped the podium and glared angrily at the spectator seats in the corner.
Yunli, who had come just to join the fun, stuck out her cute little tongue and continued to lick the candied hawthorn in her hand with gusto, her bare, snow-white feet swinging back and forth.
"Miss Yunli, the meeting is still necessary."
A mild, scholarly voice took over the conversation. The speaker was a tall, pink-haired man.
His name was Jiaoqiu, a military strategist representing the Bubble Universe Yaoqing.
Compared to the twitching fox ears atop his head and the large, fluffy tail swaying leisurely behind him, what drew the most attention were his eyes covered by a white cloth, and the super-sized split hot pot bubbling with red oil and clear soup on the conference table in front of him.
As the heat reached the perfect level, a rich aroma mixing beef tallow, spices, and the fresh scent of mushrooms dominated the air.
Quite a few attendees gathered around Jiaoqiu, each holding a porcelain bowl. Chopsticks dipped into the boiling pot, skillfully fishing out meat slices, tripe, or shiitake mushrooms, dipping them in oil saucers, and sending them into their mouths.
Their movements were so practiced it seemed as if this wasn't a serious conference room, but a bustling Chongqing hot pot restaurant.
"Hey, slow down, slow down! Leave some tripe for this lady!"
Among them, the one eating most vigorously was none other than the current Pot Cauldron Master of the Luofu and the Vidyadhara High Elder, nicknamed the "Healer Lady," Bailu.
The High Elder, who had grown into the appearance of a young girl, had a face shiny with oil and cheeks stuffed full. Her happy dragon tail unconsciously tapped the leg of her chair, and by her posture, she looked ready to tip her head back and down the entire pot of soup.
"Tch!"
Looking at these "hidden dragons and sleeping phoenixes" (geniuses) below the stage, Situ Qinghong felt her temples throbbing and couldn't help but rub her forehead and sigh.
There was a piece of common knowledge on the Honkai side: the vast majority of ability users were relatively simple in character.
The reason was simple: there weren't that many geniuses in the world, and people didn't have that much energy to focus on extraneous things.
Just becoming stronger required many to give their all, which was why those City Gods had been traumatized by Fuli earlier.
—But no matter how simple you are, what the hell is with setting up a hot pot in my conference room?
And it's a split pot! Don't you know I despise those things the most?!!
Hanging out with these bastards who eat clear soup, how can we possibly manage the Divine State's Anti-Honkai cause well?! Death penalty for all of you! Death penalty!
Just as her veins were popping and her rage was about to become uncontrollable, a wisp of elegant, lingering tea fragrance mixed with a faint scent of tobacco drifted perfectly into Situ Qinghong's nostrils.
The golden-haired girl glanced sideways and saw a small rabbit-shaped beast formed of smoke squatting on the edge of the podium, blinking its ruby-like eyes at her.
Looking around, sure enough, she saw Lingsha sitting next to Yunli, winking at her and pointing at Bailu, who had jumped onto the conference table to fight for food.
Fine.
Situ Qinghong, understanding her old partner's meaning, took a deep breath, forcibly suppressed the urge to flip the table, and pulled the topic back on track. "First, regarding the warning from the Masked Fool Sparkle, and the declaration by that bastard Shuhu that he intends to cause trouble at the Wardance Ceremony, what are your thoughts?"
Eating was eating, and playing was playing, but the crowd below certainly spared a thread of attention for the Chief of Staff on stage.
As soon as these words came out, many gazes invariably turned toward Bailu, who was squatting on the table, stuffing a slice of marbled beef into her mouth with chopsticks.
The latter instantly lost her appetite. Swallowing the beef, she put down her bowl and chopsticks, waving her small fists in loud protest. "What? What! Just because the appearance is a bit similar? It was that bastard Shuhu who turned into me! It was her who turned into me!"
Regarding the relationship between Bailu and that legendary pilot of the High-Cloud Quintet, Baiheng, some people had scoffed in the early years, thinking it was pure fabrication.
However, as the High Elder grew up day by day—leaving aside other things—just based on that face, which if not identical to Baiheng was at least ninety percent similar, many people realized something was wrong.
This naturally included Bailu herself. Because of this, the person most disgusted by Shuhu strutting around all day wearing Baiheng's face was the girl herself.
"Hmph."
Situ Qinghong smirked. That was exactly what Lingsha's hint had meant.
Who decided the order of the five agenda items? Since Bailu ran out to cause trouble, she'd use Shuhu's matter to ruin her appetite first.
Below the stage, seeing his Luofu colleague unhappy, Yanqing coughed lightly and stepped forward to diffuse the tension. "As a large-scale event surpassing even the traditional New Year celebration in liveliness, this year's Luminary Wardance Ceremony will officially open on September 1st and continue until the end of the National Day holiday on October 7th."
"The time span is a full month, and coupled with the Luofu's vast territory and complex flow of people, trying to completely prevent the chaos the opponent might create is, frankly speaking, basically impossible." His sword-like eyebrows furrowed slightly, showing some gravity. "Therefore, all we can do is—"
"Sharpen the horses and feed the weapons... wait, feed the horses and sharpen the weapons, sleep on spears awaiting dawn, and strive to nip all threats in the bud, right?" Yunli interrupted impatiently. "We're all acquaintances here, why the bureaucratic talk?"
She looked at Situ Qinghong again, her tone relaxed but certain. "Don't worry, Chief of Staff! For this Luminary Wardance, my grandfather and General Feixiao will personally come to the Luofu to take charge. With them here, let alone one Shuhu, even if a hundred come, they'll be obediently beaten down!"
"A hundred still wouldn't work."
Lingsha took out a handkerchief and wiped Yunli's stuffed cheeks clean. "But things being as they are, we can only respond to changes with constancy, strengthen our guard, and watch for developments."
"Miss Lingsha is right."
The attendees all nodded. No one was worried that Shuhu would make a feint to the east while attacking the west, turning to attack the Yaoqing or Zhuming while top combat powers like Feixiao and Huaiyan were absent.
An organization or country that ceased to function properly upon losing one or two high-end combatants was unqualified to begin with.
The Luofu's core concern lay in the openness of the Luminary Wardance itself. The inevitable mix of characters gathering for the event would make the local forces a hodgepodge, increasing the difficulty of defense geometrically.
In normal times, who would dare attack a large Bubble Universe armed to the teeth?
Situ Qinghong nodded, acknowledging this preliminary consensus. "Then, the second agenda item. What I am about to say next, you must not be afraid."
Her expression suddenly became serious. Her sharp gaze swept over the audience below, especially those few still lingering by the hot pot, and her voice lowered.
"We just received news. The Far East Pantheon has been annihilated."
The girl on the podium enunciated each word clearly, spitting out terms that made hearts race. "Takemikazuchi, Kagutsuchi, Omoikane, Amenotokotachi, Yasomagatsuhi... whether they were Amatsukami with known titles, or those Magatshukami and Kunitsukami wandering the Tokoyo, not a single one remains. All destroyed."
"And the culprit," she emphasized her tone, "was only one person."
Jiaoqiu stopped swishing his enoki mushrooms.
Bailu forgot to chew, eyes widening with food still in her mouth.
Even though they had long mentally prepared themselves with "we are professionals, we won't be afraid," the moment they heard the news, quite a few people present froze.
Immediately after, the sound of bowls and chopsticks dropping onto tables or the floor rose and fell.
"Aiya! Burned me to death!"
Interspersed were the wails of a few people.
Of course, that wasn't important.
Lingsha's lovely brows furrowed deeply. "Who did it?"
Compared to the widespread global influence of Far Eastern ACG culture, the actual combat power of their local pantheon wasn't considered top-tier in the assessments of major powers.
Did anyone really think looking at anime made the prototypes of fictional characters worthy of faith?
Locals in the Far East might have some, but in other countries? Laughable. You couldn't even find a place to worship, let alone setting up a shrine at home; you'd be pointed at and called a mental patient.
Didn't you see that when the Herrscher of Thunder was born earlier, none of these counterfeits occupying the magpie's nest showed up? Even if the Herrscher of Thunder's combat power far exceeded a conventional S-Class, it was enough to gauge the strength of the Far East Pantheon.
However, no matter what, that was still a pantheon.
To silently annihilate the other side...
Situ Qinghong shook her head, her face also showing a trace of disbelief. "The culprit did not voluntarily leave an identity."
Yunli, having come to her senses, also shouted, "Why does this person do good deeds without leaving a name?"
"What is currently known is that the other party's code name is Acheron, and her appearance—"
Situ Qinghong tapped the air a few times, pulling up several processed, slightly blurry surveillance images and projecting them in mid-air.
In the image, a tall figure, white as snow, stood quietly holding a sword. The background was the burning wreckage of Takamagahara and rolling dark clouds.
A gale blew, lifting a few strands of deep purple hair from her forehead, revealing a small portion of a breathtaking profile.
And that face—
"Raiden Mei?!!"
Several attendees who had cooperative relationships with Raiden Ryoma cried out in shock.
Yes! That face in the surveillance footage—whether it was the brows and eyes, the shape of the lips, or the contour of the face—this god-slayer code-named Acheron was especially similar to the Hyperion's second-in-command, Raiden Mei!
This similarity was even greater than that between Bailu and Baiheng; it was almost just a subtle difference brought about by temperament and age!
Yanqing's fingers unconsciously rubbed the hilt of his sword. "If this really is the Hyperion's handiwork, then the previous conjecture..."
Clearly, just as Asta and others in the Schicksal Council could faintly sense that someone else had slain the Herrscher of Thunder, with so much time having passed, the Taixu Front, possessing a vast intelligence network, had also vaguely perceived the truth of the Third Eruption event.
This was especially true for the Luofu. After all, their current General was unmatched in the Divine State when it came to divination.
"No, it shouldn't be."
Situ Qinghong shook her head at Yanqing, both signaling that some words were inappropriate to speak here, and denying the connection between this matter and Raiden Mei.
She raised the documents in her hand. "According to intelligence sent back by my reliable informant planted within Anti-Entropy, the terrifying Honkai energy released during the outbreak of the Third Eruption accidentally awakened or attracted more than one deceased soul slumbering in that ancient land. And one of them was the peerless Sword Saint who traversed the Warring States period of the Far East and created the Hokushin Ittō-ryū—Hokushin · Wanshuu no Kami · Mei."
She paused deliberately, letting this terrifying amount of information sink into everyone's mind.
"Although this ancient Miss Mei remained unmarried all her life, she passed on the Hokushin Ittō-ryū she created to the descendants of her cousin. The family formed by the continuation and evolution of this bloodline in modern times is the current Raiden family."
Jiaoqiu's fox ears twitched slightly, looking thoughtful. "Does the Chief of Staff mean that Miss Acheron, who annihilated the Far East Pantheon, is very likely this resurrected ancient Sword Saint?"
There are always living beings on earth who dare to face the might of thunder?
There are always gods in heaven who dare to face the edict blade of Acheron!
"It's only a possibility," Situ Qinghong emphasized cautiously. "But regardless, the stance and movements of such a top-tier powerhouse capable of single-handedly annihilating a pantheon deserve our high attention, and we should actively strive to win her over. As for the method—"
Yunli muttered, "Nothing more than treating her to a meal, beheading her, or taking her in as a dog."
Situ Qinghong was speechless. The words are rough but the logic isn't... but that's way too rough.
"Don't talk nonsense!" She glared at the girl snappishly. "We have no need to force such a top-tier powerhouse to the opposing side. If she is interested in the culture and scenery of the Divine State, we sincerely invite her to visit. If she has no intention of doing so, there is no need to force it. Establishing a normal, stable communication channel would be a victory."
The current situation of the Taixu Front was delicate.
With the divine office buffs provided by "Project Southern Heavenly Gate," they were almost invincible when fighting on home soil.
However, once they left the Divine State's territory, their high-end combat power would be slashed by at least half, and they would be extremely vulnerable to joint targeting by Schicksal and Anti-Entropy.
Against this backdrop, the importance of an individual powerhouse like Acheron, who was unrestricted by geography and whose strength was unfathomable, was naturally self-evident.
"Send Nangong. Her spatial arts are suitable for this task. At least if talks collapse, she can run away."
"I think that works, but she needs to bring someone from the Court of State Ceremonial (Ministry of Foreign Affairs). That girl's mouth is too toxic."
"Let's decide on that for now."
Seeing that everyone had no major objections to the preliminary contact policy, Situ Qinghong didn't immediately announce the third agenda item. Instead, with a swipe of her slender finger, the holographic projection in the center of the conference hall instantly switched.
Buzz—
The screen lit up, and the earth-shaking sounds of killing and the sharp clang of clashing blades instantly filled the entire conference hall.
In the video, a black-haired boy wielded a long sword, his figure moving like a ghost through a tide of enemies.
Every swing of his blade precisely dismantled his opponents using their own signature moves, launching a reverse massacre against an enemy force that vastly outnumbered him, like a sprite dancing amidst flashes of blades and shadows of swords.
"Stop!"
A cool voice cut off the video, and the intense images and sounds came to an abrupt halt.
"This is the third matter I want to discuss."
Situ Qinghong's gaze, sharp as a knife, this time stabbed precisely toward a relatively quiet corner of the venue.
Sitting there were several top combatants, including Yanqing and Bailu.
"When the City Gods launched their attack, why did you few just watch at the time?!"
And their only common point was that when Fuli was showing off his might at the Lianshan Cemetery that day, they had all been on the scene, aggressively eating melon (spectating)!