"The furnace! My furnace!"
Master Gongshu's eyes widened. He stared at where the Creation Furnace had originally been — now completely empty. Unable to process it, his eyes rolled back, and he nearly fainted.
"Master Gongshu! The furnace— the furnace is in the sky… move!"
A sudden shadow loomed overhead. March 7 instinctively looked up.
What came into view was the Creation Furnace… falling straight down toward their direction.
Only god knows how "Kevin's" attack managed to blast the furnace into the air without actually damaging it.
Kevin flickered forward and pulled March 7 and Stelle back, while Welt dragged Master Gongshu away.
BOOM!
The Creation Furnace crashed down heavily with a dull thud.
Welt set down the half-fainted Master Gongshu, who immediately jolted awake and rushed toward the furnace to inspect it.
Welt, meanwhile, never took his eyes off Kevin.
Staaaaare—
Hiss… that look… that micro-expression!
If Kevin hadn't suddenly erupted in radiant light and transformed back into Xun yu the next second, Welt might have seriously suspected this "Kevin" was the one from his memories.
Xun yu, who had been watching Welt's expression closely the entire time, couldn't help grinning.
Plan successful. Phase Two — start.
"Ehehe, didn't let everyone down."
Xun yu placed a hand on his hip, then casually tossed a set of items toward Stelle — the Ascender device and the corresponding badge he'd used earlier.
Seeing this, Welt shifted his gaze to Stelle.
He opened his mouth to say something, but Stelle had already pressed the button.
In the next instant, she zipped into the little transformation chamber at light-speed.
"Access granted."
"'Trailblazer' — 'Kevin parallel body'"
"Fusion Ascension!"
"Fusion error…"
"Alternate Ascension…"
A thunderous explosion echoed across the sky, and stelle-kiana made a sparkling debut!
Welt nearly blacked out on the spot.
Damn it. Did he accidentally awaken the Authority of the finality Herrscher?
Did he… actually never pass through the Star Rail into this universe?
Was everything fake?!
March 7 stared curiously at the drastically transformed Stelle.
But why wasn't she moving or talking?
Driven by curiosity, March poked her.
That one poke made Stelle tremble violently — then transform back to normal.
"H… help…"
"Wah! Stelle! Are you okay?!"
Seeing Stelle looking like a dried corpse nearly made March's eyes pop out.
What happened? She was perfectly fine a moment ago! Why did she turn into… that?!
Holding a manual thicker than a dictionary, Xun yu walked over calmly.
"aeon of elation says that after each use, this thing needs a long cooldown. If you use it again during that period, it starts draining the user's strength…"
"Don't worry, the worst it can do is leave the user completely exhausted. No life-threatening danger."
March was speechless.
What do you mean "no life-threatening danger"?!
First this guy shows up waving some weird bat like a loan shark, and now Stelle ends up like a shriveled mummy after using his gadget…
He sure is a piece of work.
"Xun yu… next time you should say this kind of thing in advance."
"Uh… is it possible I just… hadn't read that part of the manual yet?"
Listening to them bicker, Stelle opened her eyes with a dead look of despair.
She was never using Xun yu's stuff again…
Welt hesitated for a moment, then chose silence.
Tingyun, who had been hiding far away ever since the encounter with the abundant ebon deer bud, finally returned to the group.
Master Gongshu was still checking the Creation Furnace.
"You heroes truly live up to your reputation. Even from afar, I could tell that abundant ebon deer was no easy opponent—yet you still defeated it~"
Interesting ability on this one… but still not emanator-level. At best, a slightly larger ant.
Still… even an ant could disrupt my plans. Better find a chance to get rid of him later.
(Phantylia: I'm gonna get rid of Xunyu.
Nanook: You? Get rid of who?)
"Well… actually, it was mostly Xun yu's doing. Right, Stelle?"
Stelle refused to speak and simply closed her eyes.
The Stellaron was steadily restoring her strength — she would recover from her "completely drained" state soon enough.
And just like that, Xun yu successfully left a deeply traumatic impression in the heart of the Stellaron baby.
Welt seemed to ignore the earlier flashes of "Kevin" and "Kiana" appearing out of nowhere.
Truly an old man — unbeatable mentality.
But if I play the "Luocha card"… how will he handle it then?
I recall that Sunday's ring paired pretty well with Luocha… mm, I'll add that later.
And once we reach Penacony, there's also "Raiden Bosenmori Mei" using the alias "acheron".
Tsk tsk. Will Welt feel like he's finally returned home?
He probably will.
Especially if a face identical to Otto appears before him.
Xunyu is 99.9% certain Welt would instantly heat up, go fully feral, and zero-frame black-hole-slam him in the face.
Why so confident?
Because Xunyu once transformed into Otto, and personally experienced what a black-hole-to-the-face feels like…
That was his first time messing around, and also the first time becoming a harbinger of chaos…
Thinking back, time really flew by.
The Xianzhou main story was almost over.
Once he was done dealing with phantylia, he'd have to find something new to do.
The scenery of the Xianzhou, its enticing stories, delicious food, and… the creepy worms hiding in the dark corners.
Passing through the Artisanship Commission, the crew arrived at the Alchemy Commission.
On the way, Xun yu bought some supplements for Stelle.
She was a fellow crew member after all — he couldn't be too heartless.
…Meaning, when he wasn't acting like a human, that was fine.
Cough! Shaking off the weird thoughts, the group went to find Fu Xuan for updates.
The Alchemy Commission's "discples of sanctus mediscus" business should've been resolved already, yet Cloud Knights were still everywhere — many even injured.
Reaching Fu Xuan, they finally learned what happened.
"What? The enemies not only refused to surrender — they're fighting back?!"
"'Dreams layer upon dreams, illusions overlap illusions'… everyone, look over there."
Fu Xuan pointed at a massive cauldron shrouded in swirling mist.
"This is where ancient alchemists demonstrated the path of immortality. They built their furnaces here, drawing power from the Ambrosial Arbor and turning imagination into reality. Because the smoke within never ceases, it is called the 'evemist mansion.'"
"The name may sound poetic, but in warfare it's a kill zone. As long as the furnace stays burning and the mist remains, we cannot advance even a step."
Thinking back to the odd behavior of the Cloud Knights earlier, the group immediately understood.
"So this is why the Cloud Knights lost control and turned berserk?"
Fu Xuan nodded.
"Exactly. Within the mist that has spread throughout this cavern, 'discples of sanctus mediscus' mixed their pills that induce the mara-struck state."
"The leader of the disciples of sanctus mediscus and her remaining subordinates are also hiding somewhere within…"
"Unless the army can march without breathing, they collapse before fighting. No one knows when their own comrades might fall into the demon-yin state. And what destroys morale faster than suspicion?"
Fu Xuan laid out the entire situation clearly.