Chapter 121: "Only a fool would take a cheap trick! General Jing Yuan must think so, too!"
「 "Let me guess, more errands?" Stelle subtly took a step back.
March 7th spoke in a mournful and helpless tone, as if the light had gone out of her eyes: "I knew it. The moment the General smiles, we're going to be sent on an errand."
"Have a heart! This 'Surprise Squad' is being used way too frequently. Is there really no one else available on the Luofu?" Even Fu Xuan couldn't stand it anymore. 」
「 .....」
〜Zenless Zone Zero World〜
New Eridu, Cunning Hares.
"Boss Nicole, I seriously suspect General Jing Yuan only has this one surprise squad."
"Does that even need doubting, Billy? But this General is truly wicked, just grasping onto Stelle and his crew and relentlessly exploiting them... It's exactly the same style as our Cunning Hares!"
"Uh-huh, er... wait a minute, Boss Nicole, are you praising him or insulting him?"
The pink-haired girl proudly puffed out her chest:
"Praise, of course. If I were the General, even if I had people available under me, I would still use the Astral Express crew to do my work first."
"Huh? Boss Nicole, what kind of logic is that?"
Billy was momentarily stunned.
"Move your quickly rusting brain, Billy."
Nicole raised her hand and tapped Billy's hard skull, producing a crisp "clang-clang" sound:
"I ask you, if we are about to fight in the Void, and there are two weapons in front of you—one is your own, and the other is provided by our employer for us to use freely—which weapon would you choose to fight with?"
"Hmm..."
Billy pondered for about three seconds, and then in the fourth second, he suddenly stood up, struck a Starlight Knight POSE, proudly gripping his two guns.
"Of course I'd use my lovely ladies~ The maintenance oil I use is the Starlight Knight collaboration edition! Naturally, I have to rely on them to deal with the Mara-Struck!"
"—Agh, you're driving me crazy! You idiot, Billy!"
Nicole slapped a stack of shopping lists onto Billy's face with a "smack," wearing an expression that looked ready to devour him:
"It's precisely because we have to support abnormal employees like you that the operating costs of the Cunning Hares are so high! We're constantly running a deficit!"
"In short, only an idiot wouldn't take a freebie! I believe General Jing Yuan is also well-versed in this principle."
—
「 After Fu Xuan finished speaking, Jing Yuan kept staring intently at her.
"You... W-why are you staring at me?" Although slightly flustered, Fu Xuan still reminded him: "Do I need to remind you, general, that the Ambrosial Arbor's access point is a closely guarded secret? Allowing outworlders would be—"
"—violates the regulations." Jing Yuan interrupted her thought.
"I would like to remind you, Lady Fu, that the Xianzhou comes before its rules and regulations. In times of crisis, if the regulations are useful, use them; if they are not, cast them aside."
"Therefore, next, I am going to make a decision that violates regulations. Ah, maybe more than one. Haha, the thought of it is truly exhilarating!"
Having said that, Jing Yuan lowered his head to look at the girl: "Lady Fu, I hereby issue you with the military tally — the Cloud Knights will be under your control. You will act in concert with the other forces in the approach to the Ambrosial Arbor through the Alchemy Commission delve."
"Me? I'm leading the troops?" Fu Xuan wore an expression of disbelief.
Jing Yuan chuckled: "You've been eager to discover for yourself what it is to be a general, have you not?"
Fu Xuan grumbled with a hint of complaint: "Normally, you wouldn't allow it, but this time you suddenly... Understood. I will proceed as you instructed." 」
「 .....」
〜Frieren: Beyond Journey's End World〜
"Steady in action yet unconventional... This Jing Yuan is indeed a talent."
Serie looked at Jing Yuan on the light screen. She suddenly understood why Jing Liu valued him so highly and was willing to teach him swordsmanship privately.
Since before the Demon race started the war, she had seen countless humans of extraordinary talent, yet only a handful ultimately left their names in history. It wasn't that they lacked strength, but that they lacked the courage to break established conventions.
Jing Yuan's approach couldn't help but remind her of Flamme—a disciple she had taken on a whim, whose methods, and even way of thinking, were completely contrary to hers.
When she believed that "magic should be special and should not be taught to the untalented," her disciple actively encouraged humanity to establish research into magic, allowing even ordinary people with the poorest aptitude to learn and master it.
He was clearly acting against her rules... However, when she heard the word "exhilarating" come from Jing Yuan's mouth, Serie held her forehead, feeling momentarily lost in thought.
She raised her head, as if seeing a white silhouette in the flower field outside the window. Under the sunlight, the girl's red hair fluttered in the wind, like a thick, colorful stroke in an oil painting.
"So, this was how you felt back then?... I understand it somewhat now."
—
「 "As for our Astral friends... I hereby formally welcome you all to join our operation to seal the Stellaron." Jing Yuan turned to look at Stelle and the others: "Lady Fu will deploy the Cloud Knights, but I would like you to set off in advance. Take a shortcut through the Artisanship Commission and convene with Lady Fu further down the line."
"The two realms, the [ Alchemy Commission ] and the [ Scalegorge Waterscape ], are adjacent to the Ambrosial Arbor seal. I trouble you all to go there and investigate."
"Speaking of which, what exactly is the Ambrosial Arbor?" Stelle was quite curious.
"That is an ancient artifact left on the Xianzhou Luofu by Yaoshi, the Star God of 『 Abundance 』. It has the power to shape life and subdue death at will. The ancestors of the Luofu people consumed the fruits of the Ambrosial Arbor and gained endless lifespans — thus becoming long-life species."
When discussing the history of Xianzhou, Jing Yuan seemed to sigh: "But the miracle that grants longevity is nothing more than a wishful dream."
"Take the Luofu, for instance. Eternal life seems like a beautiful thing, but it brings with it population growth and resource scarcity. In their struggle to survive, the long-life immortals desired to remain human but could not, eventually degenerating into beasts."
"After paying the price with blood and tears, the Luofu people finally understood that immortality was not a free blessing, but the beginning of a cruel ordeal."
"Because in the eras that followed, other beings that had likewise received Yaoshi's blessings repeatedly attacked the Xianzhou in an attempt to take the sacred artifact as their own. Countless atrocities were committed as a result." 」
「 .....」
〜Marvel Cinematic Universe〜
Somewhere in the Vast Starry Sky.
A purple-skinned, tall, and robust Eternal was watching the light screen with keen interest.
After his army occupied a planet, they would randomly kill half of the living beings on that planet. This slaughter had nothing to do with wealth or status; it depended entirely on fate.
According to him, "killing half the population is for the prosperity of the planet"—and now, General Jing Yuan's words had become the best proof of his actions.
—