Descending upon the Heaven Dou Crown Prince's Residence, the Gentle and Refined Xue Qinghe
Passing civilians and low-ranking Soul Masters shrank back at the sight. None dared step forward and meddle.
Despair and humiliation surged through Mona's heart. She bit her lower lip hard, closed her eyes, and prepared to ram the pointed crown of her hat into the bridge of his nose.
Crack! A bloodcurdling scream like a pig being slaughtered suddenly exploded across the quiet street corner!
"Ah!! My hand! My hand is broken!!"
Mona opened her mint-green eyes in a daze.
A tall, upright young man in a white long robe patterned with gold had appeared silently in front of her stall, with no telling when he had arrived.
The young man had not even used a martial skill. With a casual sweep of his sleeve, he sent a surge of golden Qi, formless and intangible yet heavy as ten thousand weights, smashing into the bald brute's right wrist and breaking it.
Immediately afterward, the beautiful purple-haired girl beside him, her hair in twin tails and her body wreathed in icy violet lightning, gave a cold snort. Her long, shapely leg, clad in a deep-purple stocking, swept out like lightning.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Three whip kicks, swift to the extreme, brought forth three blinding arcs of lightning. Before the bald brute and the two young Soul Masters could even summon their Martial Souls, all three were sent flying more than ten meters, their bodies charred black and foam spilling from their mouths.
It was clean and decisive: three Soul Grandmaster thugs dealt with in the time it took a rabbit to spring and a falcon to swoop.
Only when gasps of shock rang out all around him did Chu Yuan turn and look down at the young astrologer, who was staring blankly up at him.
At close range, both Mona's distress and her allure were laid bare.
The backlash from forcibly channeling Elemental Power had left fine beads of fragrant sweat on her jade-white temples, and her full breasts, encased in her skintight outfit, rose and fell sharply with her hurried breaths.
The instant Mona met Chu Yuan's gaze, the water Vision within her, which had been raging and churning under the world's constant rejection, miraculously fell quiet. It even gave a soft hum of longing, as though eager to draw closer to him!
"Th-this aura of fate, high above the stars... Y-you are..."
Mona's pupils contracted sharply. As an astrologer skilled in Hydromancy, she was far more sensitive than ordinary people to auras and the workings of fate.
In her eyes, the black-haired young man before her had no destined star or path to speak of, because he seemed to be the very laws of the entire starry sky itself!
And then there was the purple-haired girl beside him, who had just withdrawn her leg.
"Wait, that purple hair and Electro Vision... You're the Yuheng of the Liyue Qixing, Miss Keqing?!"
Mona recognized Keqing and cried out in surprise.
Keqing's formerly icy expression softened, and she gave a slight nod.
"That's right. Miss Mona, I didn't expect you to have fallen onto this continent in the Abyssal upheaval as well."
"It really is the Liyue Qixing..."
Mona breathed a sigh of relief, but the hunger in her stomach and the weakness from the elemental backlash swept over her again. Another soft gurgle echoed clearly in front of the quiet stall.
Her cheeks flushed crimson with embarrassment. Wishing she could bury her head in her pointed hat, Mona stammered:
"Ahem, ahem! Thank you both for helping me... Actually, even if you hadn't stepped in, I, the astrologer, was only preparing an enormous Hydromancy spell just now. It definitely wasn't because I was too hungry to have any strength left..."
"All right, Miss Great Astrologer. If you keep preparing it, I'm afraid you'll become the first scholar to faint from hunger by the roadside in another world."
A gentle smile curved Chu Yuan's lips. He bent down, took Mona's slender, slightly cool hand in his right hand, and pulled her up from the low stool.
Her legs were weak, and as he pulled her up, she lost her balance. With a soft cry, she fell face-first against Chu Yuan's solid chest.
"Ah...!"
Through her thin, skintight bodysuit, the soft fullness of Mona's breasts pressed against Chu Yuan's warm chest. The scent of Primordial Divine Power about him, to which her Vision was so deeply drawn, enveloped her nose.
Chu Yuan caught her slender, supple waist with his left hand, then swept up the star-chart velvet cloth and brass water basin from the ground with his sleeve and tucked them into his robes.
"My name is Chu Yuan. We can talk later about this world's laws rejecting you and reshaping the Vision within you. For now, how about we go to the restaurant next door and have a filling meal?"
At the words "a filling meal," Mona swallowed. Though being held so intimately around the waist by a strange young man made her heart race and her face flush, the temptation of good food and the deeply reassuring presence about him instantly shattered what little scholarly pride she had.
"S-since you've invited me so sincerely, it would be rather ungracious to refuse... I suppose I'll reluctantly accept your hospitality!"
Mona lowered the brim of her hat and let Chu Yuan half support her by her weak waist. Moving her long, shapely legs, clad in torn black stockings, she followed the two of them with halting steps.
A quarter of an hour later, in a private room on the second floor of the Golden Goblet Restaurant, the most luxurious establishment at the entrance to the night market.
More than a dozen signature dishes, as pleasing to the eye and nose as to the palate, covered the entire round mahogany table: honey-glazed crispy roast leg of lamb, steamed silver-scaled fish, jade shrimp, cream of mushroom soup, and an assortment of delicate pastries.
After the door closed, Mona initially tried to maintain the ladylike restraint expected of a great astrologer, using her chopsticks to pick at the dishes in small bites.
But when she put the first piece of roasted lamb in her mouth, crisp outside and tender within, rich with fat, its savory aroma set her taste buds alight. Her mint-green eyes instantly shone like two little stars, and the speed at which she ate visibly multiplied.
In less than half an hour, she had swept through the roast leg of lamb and more than half the dishes like a gale scattering the clouds, leaving them spotless.
"Ahh... I'm alive again..."
Mona set down her soup bowl and leaned back against the padded chair without a care for appearances. She gently rubbed her slightly rounded belly with both hands; it looked rounder and cuter than ever, while a glistening trace of oil remained at the corner of her rosy lips.
Keqing sat nearby holding a teacup. Seeing the satisfied look on the astrologer rumored to be eccentric and proud, she could not help smiling.
Chu Yuan, seated beside Mona, casually picked up a clean silk handkerchief. Leaning over naturally, he wiped the trace of grease from the corner of her lips.
"Mm!"
Mona's body stiffened slightly. Looking at the handsome face so close to hers and feeling the warmth of his fingertips gently brushing the corner of her mouth through the silk, her brain, which had begun working again after she had eaten and drunk her fill, went a little blank.
"Ch-Chu Yuan... Thank you for the meal."
Mona drew her neck in shyly and fidgeted with the torn edge of the starry black stocking on her thigh. In a low voice, she said:
"This meal must have cost a lot... I don't have any Mora on me, or any of this world's currency, but I'll definitely find a way to pay you back! It's just... the water Elemental Power in my body has been suppressed and worn away by some force in this world since last night, and the Vision at the back of my waist is still aching faintly..."
At that, Mona looked up at Chu Yuan, her clear, lovely mint-green eyes full of confusion and hope.
"When you caught me at the street corner just now, I could clearly sense a supreme power in you that could completely soothe this rejection by the laws... What exactly is going on?"
Chu Yuan set down the handkerchief and looked at the astrologer before him, who seemed especially charming with her slightly tipsy blush and shyness. Slowly, he opened his right hand.
An illusory crown appeared beneath the private room's soft lamplight. Seven-colored elemental light flowed around it, and four diamond-shaped wings spread from its sides.
The water Vision at the back of Mona's waist suddenly let out a jubilant hum, and her breathing grew hurried and hot.