Jingxing: Am I Going to Be Put Under Sealing Designation Too?

Herta's office was in the quietest section of the space station.

Jingxing followed the puppet down the corridor, feeling more and more that something was off. The doors on both sides were all shut, the lights were a few degrees dimmer than elsewhere, and even the ventilation system's hum had been greatly muffled by noise-reduction measures.

How could he put it? The farther he went, the more uneasy he felt, as though he were heading into an abyss.

The Herta Puppet, meanwhile, walked ahead with her hands behind her back, humming an aimless tune. Her steps were as light as if she were strolling through her own garden.

"We're here." She stopped in front of a gray-white door at the end of the corridor. It slid open with a hiss.

Jingxing first caught a very faint metallic smell. Once his eyes adjusted to the light, he got a full view of the "office." Rather than an office, it was more like a monitoring room combined with a laboratory.

Dozens of holographic screens floated along the four walls, streams of data cascading down them like waterfalls. A silver-white examination table stood in the center, surrounded by suspended instrument arms of all sizes, like a sleeping mechanical spider.

But on closer inspection, the room looked entirely different.

Every screen, every instrument arm, every inch beneath the floor was saturated with dense Imaginary Energy. Confined within intricate conduits and circuits, it flowed quietly.

Jingxing stood in the doorway, the burning pain in his eye sockets growing steadily worse. This was the heart of the entire space station, where the energy concentration was more than an order of magnitude higher than on the observation deck.

"What are you standing there for?" The Herta Puppet tipped her chin toward the examination table. "Sit on it."

Jingxing didn't move. "You're not going to take me apart, are you?"

"It's not like I'm Ruan Mei." The Herta Puppet rolled her eyes. "Hurry up. Once I'm done with you, I still have to get back to working on my metaverse."

Jingxing took a deep breath and lay down on the table.

The examination table was even colder than he'd imagined. As soon as he lay flat, a ring of lights descended over his head. The white light grew steadily brighter, shining straight into his face, and a sore, swollen feeling immediately welled up deep in his eye sockets.

"Don't close your eyes."

Jingxing obediently did as he was told. Squinting against the glare, he saw the mechanical arms above the table move slowly, beams of different colors sweeping over his face in turn. They weren't ordinary lights. Wherever the beams passed, the skin beneath them tingled as though it were being "read."

On the holographic screen beside him, the data streamed faster and faster.

"Interesting." The Herta Puppet stood beside the examination table and suddenly chuckled.

"What did you find?"

"Your eyes are naturally sensitive to Imaginary Energy." Herta didn't look up. "It doesn't look like Idrila modified them afterward."

Herta had made a wrong judgment, but that was only natural. After all, Jingxing hadn't told her about his connection to Idrila.

The Herta Puppet swiped twice across the screen, bringing up a structural diagram Jingxing couldn't understand.

"To put it in terms you can understand, these eyes gained the ability to observe the essence of all things after you stepped onto the Path of Beauty. They hurt because you haven't learned to control that ability properly. Of course, you could also say it's because your flesh-and-blood body isn't worthy of those eyes yet."

The burning pain kept coming in waves, the soreness making Jingxing's eyes stream with tears. He had no capacity to respond.

Then the data stream on the holographic screen suddenly stalled for a moment. Herta noticed it, her finger stopping in midair as her brow creased almost imperceptibly.

It was the expression of someone who had seen something that "shouldn't be here."

"What is it?" Jingxing asked.

Herta stared at the string of data for a full three seconds, then swiped her finger and closed it.

"Nothing," she said, her tone returning to its usual languor. "Just some data that's no use for anything."

Lying on the examination table, Jingxing looked up at the ring of lights. He didn't press her, choosing instead to ask another question. "Can I... turn this ability on and off at will?"

"Sure." The Herta Puppet finally turned around, revealing a cloyingly sweet smile. "Just swap out your eyes. I guarantee I can give you a pair that's not much different from the originals."

Jingxing shot upright. "Kindhearted Ms. Herta, please stop teasing me."

Seeing his reaction, Herta gave a satisfied hum. "Relax. I'm not that Ruan Mei."

With her hands behind her back, she paced a couple of steps around the examination table. "Eyes that can observe the flow of Imaginary Energy are something countless people can only dream of. If you can take them out, I could add them to my collection and study them to see how to improve my metaverse."

"I'm honored by your fondness for my eyes, Ms. Herta, but my body and every part of it are gifts from my parents, so please allow me to refuse again." Jingxing shook his head repeatedly.

"All right, look how nervous you are." Herta waved a hand. "As for a simple solution, it's not that there isn't one. But first—go outside and wait."

"How long?"

"Depends on my mood." The puppet had already turned toward a concealed door at the back of the room and didn't look back.

The employees' work area and Herta's office were like two different worlds.

As soon as Jingxing turned into the corridor, he was engulfed by voices, footsteps, and electronic notification chimes. He found a bench against the wall, sat down, and closed his eyes to rest.

But just then, he became aware of someone watching him.

He couldn't pinpoint where it came from, but a gaze was fixed on him from somewhere neither too far nor too close. There was no hostility in it, but no warmth either, as though someone were observing a specimen.

Jingxing opened his eyes and looked around. People came and went in the corridor, all of them in a hurry. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

He got up and walked toward the other end of the corridor, but the gaze continued to follow him.

Jingxing hurriedly quickened his pace and rounded two corners. The footsteps behind him remained unhurried, keeping the same distance. His heart began to race. He remembered the commotion he had caused on Vesna IV.

If those people have already tracked me to the space station...

There was a security post ahead. Two uniformed guards stood beside it, one of them drinking water from a cup.

Jingxing hurried over. "Someone's following me. Could you two take a look?"

The guard with the water put down his cup and glanced behind Jingxing. Then he froze. His colleague turned around as well, and the two exchanged a look before both promptly looked away.

"Uh." The guard cleared his throat, his gaze wandering. "You're Mr. Jingxing, right? We're... changing shifts. Please wait a moment."

"Changing shifts?" Jingxing frowned. The two had clearly seen something, yet both were pretending they hadn't.

The next second, a soft female voice sounded behind him. "There's no need to trouble them."

Jingxing spun around. The woman before him had a slender figure and an air of detachment, as though she were cut off from the world. A peculiar scent surrounded her, the sweet fragrance of pastries mingling with the cold aroma of medicinal herbs.

Her long, dark teal hair was half pinned up and half loose, setting off a delicate face as fair and flawless as creamy jade. But her eyes and brows were exceptionally clear and cold, as deep as an ancient glacier.

Could she be a Pathstrider of the Path of Beauty? Jingxing's thoughts raced.