Tingyun and Bailu sat together beneath a quiet pavilion, with Daichi seated nearby.
"Lately, there's been more and more cases of mara-struck incidents."
Tingyun said, propping her cheek against her hand as she watched Daichi teasing Bailu to lift her spirits. She let out a long sigh.
For some reason, in just the past two days, hundreds of cases of mara-struck flare-ups had erupted across the Six Charioteers and the Cloud Knights.
The greatest concentration came from the Alchemy Commission.
And because of that, Bailu had been strictly forbidden from returning to Alchemy Commission by the Vidyadhara elders.
Of course, that didn't stop her from wanting to go outside. One of the Dragon Sovereign's personal attendants had secretly escorted her out—straight into Daichi's care.
As for why Bailu refused to simply stay quietly in the Scalegorge Waterscape?
She didn't want to spend another minute staring at those old geezers' wrinkled faces.
Meanwhile, Tingyun's duties had been suspended due to the crisis.
"Hmm… Could it be connected to that Banxia sister who was arrested?" Bailu asked, nibbling on a skewer of crystalline bird-shaped candy.
"Since she was taken away for interrogation by the Ten-Lords Commission, maybe the Disciples of Sanctus Medicus panicked and decided to retaliate? Like… a last desperate gamble?"
"Don't worry." Daichi said as he patted her small head.
"According to Jing Yuan, most of the people suffering mara-struck were already part of the Sect."
"Most of them…?"
Tingyun raised a brow, surprised.
"So the Six Charioteers and Cloud Knights had already been deeply infiltrated?"
Her folding fan gently tapped the stone table.
"In that case… this widespread outbreak might not be a desperate last move at all…"
She recalled a report from yesterday. A cheerful colleague of hers from the Sky-Faring Commission, someone who always smiled and greeted others kindly had suddenly fallen into a mara-struck frenzy in public.
That person was not the type to collapse due to despair or age-worn spiritual exhaustion. Which meant—
External inducement.
A deliberate triggering of mara.
If the majority of the afflicted were Heirloom members, then this outbreak… might not be an ending move, but a distraction.
A way to redirect the investigation.
Because if the Sect truly meant to burn everything, they would only have done so after being fully exposed—not before.
But if not desperation, then—
What were they aiming for?
Tingyun furrowed her brows.
BEEP—BEEP—
Bailu's jade communicator chimed. She glanced at the message, and her expression darkened instantly.
"What is it?" Daichi asked.
"Mm… Sister Yunyou says someone from Alchemy Commission is looking for me. They want to drag me back to the Scalegorge Waterscape to make up the lessons I skipped when I sneaked out…"
Without hesitation, Bailu turned off the communicator.
Out of sight. Out of mind.
"At a time like this, they still have the leisure to make her study?" Daichi muttered, rubbing her head again.
"I heard the Alchemy Commission was hit the hardest."
He had been planning to lend Jing Yuan his help, but Jing Yuan had refused insisting that the Luofu must handle its own crisis.
Even Jingliu had stepped out personally.
So, with nothing better to do Daichi had meet up with Tingyun who was also currently idle and found the also-idle Bailu.
"That bunch… they're just bored! Absolutely bored!" Bailu complained, wriggling under Daichi's hand.
But just as Daichi was about to tease her again—
A violent tremor swept through the ground beneath them.
No one knew why a ship that sailed among the stars would suddenly shake like an earthquake, but in that moment nearly every citizen of the Luofu saw something unbelievable.
Within every phase-dimensional realm on the Xianzhou, the long-dead fragments of wood ancient petrified remains began to grow.
Roots plunged deep into the soil of the ship, converging toward a single point. Branches arched upward, weaving together… forming the trunk of a colossal tree.
And that tree grew—fast.
Its rise was visible to the naked eye.
Its trunk pierced the heavens. Its boughs unfurled like a canopy that swallowed the sun. In only moments, an eternal towering Ambrosial Arbor stood at the heart of the Luofu.
The entire ship lay beneath its shadow.
Bailu, who had been cowering under the stone table, slowly poked her head out, staring wide-eyed at the sight.
"W-W-What is that!?"
"That… no. It can't be…" Tingyun whispered.
Her voice trembled between awe and disbelief.
"The Ambrosial Arbor… has awakened?"
[That's one big tree.]
X sounded… sincerely impressed.
[The only place I've seen something similar was in myths from certain civilizations I helped… Something like… the Tree of Life?]
He had never seen the real thing, but the stories had stuck with him.
[Though thinking about it… this one has the same level of catastrophic potential.]
Daichi stared at the tree, expression tightening.
The Ambrosial Arbor awakening now made no sense.
If Jingliu was here, then so was he. Which meant the Stellaron had already entered the Luofu.
But the moment the Stellaron arrived, the Sect had already revived the Ambrosial Arbor. That was too fast.
Was Elio not even trying to keep the script stable?
Daichi overconfident in the timeline had overlooked one thing:
Butterfly effects do not wait.
And the butterfly had not merely flapped its wings—It had unleashed a hurricane.
Without hesitation, Daichi pick up X Devizer.
"X it's time to unite!"
[Yeah, let's go Daichi]
Daichi then use his hand to activate the upper switch of the X Devizer.
Inside X virtual space, Ultraman X Spark Doll to appear in front of the X Devizer. Daichi grab it with his other hand and then scans the Spark Doll with the X Devizer.
{Now Uniting with Ultraman X}
Lastly Daichi raised the device high into the air and shouted.
"X!!"
{X United}
Brilliant light burst forth, interwoven with streams of azure data.
And from within that radiance, a giant began to manifest.