"We didn't—"
The two Vidyadhara Preceptors cried out in protest. When had they attacked a judge?!
Too bad Sylvia had no plans to listen to their excuses. She gave a light wave of her hand, and several Subspace Lances emerged from the void. Once they locked onto the two Vidyadhara, both men knelt in place and shut up.
Only then did Sylvia turn to Huohuo.
"Did you contact Xueyi?"
"I already did."
"Bah, just let me eat these two and be done with it. All this whining's getting on my nerves."
"B-but killing them outright would cause trouble…"
The moment Tail opened his mouth, he started talking about eating people. He just couldn't stand anyone acting high and mighty in front of him. Huohuo didn't object to violence, but she still mumbled a few extra words, hoping Tail would spare her some worry.
"Just hand them over to the Ten-Lords Commission. Why's a Heliobus always thinking about eating people?"
Sylvia gave him a blunt jab. It wasn't as if a Heliobus got stronger by eating people. As for the two Vidyadhara, Sylvia didn't care much about them, and she had no plans to hide anything.
They'd laid hands on a judge of the Ten-Lords Commission. Whether it was true or not didn't matter now. That charge was going to stick.
"But, Sis… won't the Vidyadhara keep coming after you?"
"With their strength? Who's causing trouble for who?"
Sylvia spread her hands. First of all, she didn't live on the Luofu. Second, she came and went by teleport most of the time, so she didn't use the docks. It'd be hard enough for the Vidyadhara to find a chance to catch her.
And if some fool with no sense really did come knocking, Sylvia could promise she'd send every last one of those Preceptors back to Scalegorge Waterscape to reincarnate. The Vidyadhara on the Luofu were useless anyway.
They'd even worked with the Disciples of Sanctus Medicus and taken marrow from their own people. What could anyone expect those Preceptors to get done? Sylvia wouldn't feel bad about moving against them.
The only thing that puzzled Sylvia was Jing Yuan. He still held the criminal who'd sealed things away without permission back then, yet he hadn't settled the score even now. That surprised her.
Surely he wasn't waiting for the other generals to come to the Luofu.
He really could hold back.
Was that what it took to be a leader?
--+--
The two trembling Vidyadhara were dragged into an alley by Sushang to wait for the Ten-Lords Commission to come take them away. Yet when Xueyi arrived, Qingzu had somehow come with her too.
If someone claimed they'd met by chance and arrived together, Sylvia wouldn't believe a word of it. Xueyi was handling a case for the Ten-Lords Commission. There was no way she'd just bump into someone and stroll over with them.
"How does Jing Yuan even know about this?"
"The general only guessed the Preceptors might make a move, so he sent me to pass a message to Miss Sylvia."
"And you just happened to arrive right on time?"
Qingzu smiled and didn't deny it. This part really was a coincidence. She'd only come to find Sylvia, and who would've guessed she'd run into someone from the Ten-Lords Commission too?
Still, it wasn't a problem. Qingzu offered Sylvia an invitation.
"Miss Sylvia, may I speak with you in private?"
Sylvia glanced at the two Vidyadhara, now tied up by the guards, then at the trio giving their statements as victims. After giving them a quick gesture in greeting, she stopped paying attention to that side.
"Let's go."
Sylvia nodded and followed Qingzu away from the crowd.
"What's so secretive?"
"It's a message from the general. Outsiders can't know about it, especially the Preceptors. In a while, the general would like to ask you to look after Lady Bailu on the Express."
"…Who did you say? Bailu?"
Sylvia's head filled with question marks. Did Jing Yuan know what he was saying? He wanted to send Bailu off the Luofu?
Qingzu nodded. She was only passing on the message. She didn't know what Jing Yuan was thinking either.
"What's Jing Yuan planning?"
"Uh, my apologies. The general didn't explain it to me."
Qingzu shook her head. She was Vidyadhara too, but she worked at the Seat of Divine Foresight and had almost no part in internal clan affairs. Add in the sensitive nature of her post, and the clan was rather guarded around her. Qingzu truly didn't know what the Preceptors were thinking.
Jing Yuan also rarely told her about these matters. It wasn't that he distrusted her. He mostly wanted to avoid making things hard for her.
So she could only guess that Jing Yuan likely planned to move against the Preceptors and free Bailu from their control. As for the details, only Jing Yuan himself knew.
"All right, then. I don't mind. Jing Yuan's the one who'll have to deal with the trouble anyway."
Sylvia nodded and agreed. What did she have to worry about?
"Thank you, Miss Sylvia."
Qingzu bowed to Sylvia, then left.
As for Sylvia, she gave a quick farewell and headed off too. She still had to go shopping with Mei. From Fyxestroll Garden to the Alchemy Commission, she'd been dragged all over the place for half the day. It was absurd.
The Luofu really had no shortage of problems.
--+--
She called a starskiff and went straight to Exalting Sanctum. At the pier, Sylvia found Mei at once. She stood out far too much.
"Sorry for the wait. Why'd you come all the way to the pier?"
"I didn't have much interest in anything else. Watching the starskiffs here is more relaxing."
Mei gave a small nod toward the many starskiffs weaving through the air.
Sylvia took Mei's hand and started walking out.
"You didn't go try Celestial Jade?"
"It's not much fun alone, and the game parlor was too noisy."
In private, Mei did enjoy playing cards with Sylvia. But going to a game parlor alone meant Sylvia wasn't there, and it was loud on top of that. It wasn't appealing.
Mei looked at Sylvia walking ahead of her, thought for a moment, then asked, "How are you planning to deal with the Vidyadhara?"
Sylvia's ability to take dragon form had come from Ruan Mei, who'd taken it from Dan Heng. Add in her Cloudhymn Arts, and after Sylvia had shown her abilities so openly on the Xianzhou, there was no way the Vidyadhara wouldn't react.
"You're worried about that?"
Sylvia turned back and smiled at Mei, but Mei looked a little concerned.
"Of course. What if you get carried away and decide to become a High Elder?"
"That's not happening… I'm not a real Vidyadhara."
Sylvia felt Mei's worry had come out of nowhere. Her current identity let her move through the Xianzhou without issue, and she didn't have to carry any responsibility. Was she so bored she'd go become some High Elder?
Teaching Bailu was enough. Bailu only lacked those dreams of the Progenitor Dragon. Her talent itself was real. Once Bailu mastered the Cloudhymn Arts, she'd be able to bear the weight of a High Elder even without Imbibitor Lunae's memories.
"Compared to that, can't we talk about something more interesting?"
Sylvia blinked at Mei.
"What kind of topic?"
"For example, the Xianzhou's unique holo-dramas."
"?"
Mei tilted her head, looking confused.
"Ahem!"
Sylvia's cheeks flushed a little. She gave a dry cough and explained, "I found some more adult holo-dramas on the forums recently. But since we aren't Xianzhou natives, the seller only accepts offline deals."
"They said it's to stop underage Xianzhou residents from pretending to be outworlders and breaking the rules. Wanna buy some and try them?"
"…"
Mei looked at Sylvia's suggestive smile and soon understood what kind of holo-dramas she meant.
Honestly, she was impressed. Sylvia spent all day on her phone, and this was what she'd been thinking about?
Mei complained in her heart, but she rarely said that kind of thing out loud in public. So she nodded.
"It's a proper store, right? Let's go take a look."
"Of course it's proper."
Sylvia couldn't stop smiling. The corners of her mouth were harder to hold down than a loaded trigger.
This was the interstellar age, after all. Of course they needed to try some adult content fit for a future fantasy. It was only a shame Sylvia hadn't found any similar business in Penacony.
Penacony's sweet dreams seemed much more suited for messy nonsense like that. She didn't know whether they hadn't set it up, or she just hadn't found it. Once the Charmony Festival ended, she could spare some time to look around.
--+--
Penacony.
Old Oti was asking about the work at his base.
"Has the news leaked?"
"It's been leaked without issue. Aside from the keyword 'Emanator,' we released three different versions. It should spread across the galaxy soon."
After hearing his subordinate's report, Old Oti nodded. The Dreammaster had already sent word that there was no problem with the mask, so Old Oti had begun to act.
If they were going to hold an auction, then of course they had to make it grand.
If Penacony declared outright that they planned to hold an Emanator auction, the first response from other factions would surely be doubt.
But if the news had leaked "by accident" due to the Family's negligence, and then other factions dug it up as intelligence, they'd believe the Family had something real in its hands.
After all, Old Oti truly was preparing an auction. All he had to do was relax security a little and add a tiny bit of carelessness. As long as the other factions sensed something was wrong, that would be enough.
Everything was true. No matter who came to investigate, they couldn't prove the Family was lying. Naturally, there'd be no flaws.
By then, it wouldn't be the Family inviting others. Outsiders would be begging to attend the auction.
"Good. In a few days, leak a few more false leads. Hohoho."
Old Oti chuckled as he gave a few instructions about the details.
"Oh, right. Feel free to let a few more invitations reach the IPC, if they want to come."
"Yes, sir."
The IPC was powerful, but its problem was that it wasn't united. Even the Family, a faction that followed the same Path, had to deal with internal traitors of Order every so often. There was no need to mention other great powers.
"What about the two Masked Fools?"
"Miss Sparkle's whereabouts are unknown. Mr. Sampo, on the other hand, has been wandering around Golden Hour. He says he's trying to get first-hand information."
Old Oti nodded.
Two Masked Fools had come running over, saying they wanted to discuss cooperation. That was quite amusing.
Yet it was those two Masked Fools who'd persuaded Iris and Oak. Because of those two Masked Fools, Nightingale had also been able to regain the project to rebuild the Penacony Grand Theater.
"Our Miss Robin truly does have some skill. Let this old man see how far you can go."
To be honest, Old Oti felt something was wrong with Sunday. He even had a vague feeling that the Dreammaster's recent sudden appearance wasn't right either.
That was only his personal instinct. He had no proof. His earlier struggle with Nightingale had also been a tacit act of cooperation between the heads of both families. After all, judging by the result, Oak had become the greatest winner.
That made Old Oti suspect Sunday. By extension, he also began to suspect the former head of the family, the Dreammaster.
Before he could probe any further, Robin had made her move first. That was fine too. This Charmony Festival should reveal who in Penacony had a problem.
Old Oti only wanted to make money. He didn't want to bother with those messy disputes over ideals.
--+--
The Xianzhou.
Mei stayed with Sylvia in the room for the whole night, trying out the absurd holo-dramas they'd bought.
All that could be said was that they really were rather interesting. They lacked a bit of realism, but they made up for it with rich imagination.
Mei herself would've found it hard to imagine things in that direction, so for her, it counted as quite a fresh experience.
Sylvia, meanwhile, grew curious. These holo-dramas were legal and proper. As long as someone proved they were an outworlder, they could bypass the Xianzhou's age restrictions and get the goods without issue.
March 7th liked holo-dramas so much. Had she ever seen this kind of thing? Or did she secretly hide in her room and watch them alone without telling anyone?
After they finished, Sylvia took Mei back to Separius and told her about her idea along the way.
"Well… I think the Family's way of handling the Stellaron is interesting. You know my core can load external objects, so maybe I can use this method to take the Stellaron for myself."
Mei felt that while the method was risky, it was possible. But she was more curious about something else. It wasn't as if they didn't have someone nearby with a Stellaron buried inside them. And the Stellaron Hunters clearly knew how Stelle had done it.
Why not just ask the magical Elio?
Faced with Mei's question, Sylvia said that was a good point. But Stelle clearly couldn't control that power on her own, which didn't match Sylvia's expectations. The Family's method still seemed better.
"In short, I should spend the next few days studying at Dreamflux Reef. Are you coming?"
"I am."
Mei thought it over and decided she had to keep watch. Sylvia always liked taking risks. If Mei didn't see it with her own eyes, she couldn't feel at ease.
--+--
After making the decision, Sylvia went to find Himeko and the others to explain the situation. The Express crew was still resting at the estate.
March 7th was scheming about how to coax the little creature she'd taken a liking to onto the Astral Express.
It was also possible that Pom-Pom wanted to move one of the nanny bugs from the two trains onto Himeko's train, but March 7th had trauma when it came to bugs. So she might've been trying to find a replacement and make the conductor drop that terrifying plan.
As for Stelle, she had fallen in love with those flying draconic descendants, so she wasn't at the estate. As for Dan Heng, Sylvia had no idea what he was thinking.
Somehow, in the blink of an eye, he'd become Ruan Mei's assistant and was helping collect data on those draconic descendants. He didn't seem afraid that Ruan Mei might make another move on him.
Himeko, however, came to Sylvia on her own and brought up something.
"Yesterday, a rumor came out of Penacony. It concerned an Emanator, and within a single day, it spread to many factions."
After Himeko heard that intelligence, she quickly connected it to Sylvia's plan.
"Penacony?"
Sylvia also thought of her plan, but matters over there were currently being stirred up by Sparkle. It was probably either Sparkle's work or the Family's.
--+--
T/N: If you want advance chapters, you can find it at [email protected]/AspenTL