Polka Kakamond, Loyal!

"Hmm." Fu Xuan closed his eyes, refusing to meet Jingxing's gaze.

Yaoguang smiled. She stood up and led the two to another courtyard in the mansion. The lights in the mansion were already on, Mingke Guards on night patrol walked past them with lanterns, none of them glancing at the three of them. When they reached the gate of a small courtyard, Yaoguang stopped. "This one is empty. You can choose any room you like."

She finished speaking and left, her figure quickly disappearing into the corridor pillars.

Only two people remained in the courtyard. A few leaves lay on the stone steps, Jingxing bent down to pick them up—his fingertips touched them, and the leaves were pinched up.

Fu Xuan glanced at the leaf. "So now we can touch them, but they can't touch us..."

"That sounds like cheating." Jingxing had already imagined what would happen on the battlefield.

"This is the best guarantee of safety for you," Fu Xuan said, taking a step forward. "And for me too."

After she finished speaking, she went into the east wing and closed the door.

Jingxing entered the remaining west wing, closed the door, and the world fell silent. The room was simply furnished: a wooden bed, a small table that had been moved under the lamp, and some clean furniture.

With nothing to do in the room, he took out the Cloud-Washing Ink-Tracer again and then took out drawing paper from the sachet, intending to draw something casually.

However, while drafting the manuscript, Jingxing felt as if there was a gaze fixed on him from behind—at first he thought it was just his imagination, after all, apart from Yaoguang, no one else could see them here, so who could be watching him?

But even after he put pen to paper, that gaze remained like a thorn in his back, and there was even a faint sweetness in the air.

After thinking for a moment, Jingxing decided to try and probe the issue.

He looked up. "Come out, Miss Polka Kakamond. I know you're here."

The wind on the window frame paused for a moment. Then, a candy-colored shadow flipped across the window and gently landed on the windowsill, its skirt swaying like a handful of spilled fruit candies.

"Your nose is quite sharp," Polka Kakamond with a smile, sitting on the windowsill and swinging her legs. "Looks like your persuasion didn't work. I was watching from outside and almost wanted to help you convince them."

"So the fourth seat in the Genius Society is a peeping tom?" Jingxing raised an eyebrow. "Oh dear, then we'll have to figure out a way to block your senses when we're washing up later."

"Forget about the pink-haired girl next door," Polka said, pursing his lips. "You should know I came here specifically to see you. To see how you're going to handle this—you promised me you'd bring that general back, but he doesn't want to go now. You can't keep your promise to me, so what are you planning to do?"

Speaking of this, she smiled broadly, "Your rules on the Xianzhou are that a promise is worth a thousand pieces of gold, right?"

Jingxing's fingers curled slightly on his knee.

"So what if I break the contract? I'm not Xianzhou native." He said frankly, "Besides, we've never had a friendly relationship to begin with—since we're not friends, it's not impolite of me to test my skills here, is it?"

He held the Cloud-Washing Ink-Tracer in his palm, tip pointing downwards, the ink heavy in the lamplight, poised to strike.

Polka Kakamond's smile remained, but she lightly leaped down from the windowsill. "Offending the Emanator of Erudition is not something a smart person would do."

"I'm not a smart person," Jingxing shrugged. "If I were truly smart, even the Nous would look down on me, wouldn't they?"

The room fell silent. A troop of night-patrolling Cloud Knights passed by in the distance outside the window, the jade ornaments on their armor jingling for a while before disappearing into the distance again.

Until the footsteps outside the window disappeared, Polka Kakamond's gaze slid from his face to the pen in his hand, then stopped in mid-air.

"Fine, I won't fight you." She suddenly sat back down on the windowsill, laughing again. "There's something about you that I don't understand. I won't fight you until I figure out what it is."

"The fact that you can crack my Omniscient Domain is enough to annoy me." Polka Kakamond. "I've dealt with other guys who tried to manipulate Worldline, but you're the one that bothers me the most."

"Oh, what happened to the others before them?" Jingxing asked. "You didn't kill them all, did you?"

"The blood on my hands is not innocent." Polka Kakamond swung his leg on the windowsill. "They tried to interfere with the calculations of the King of Myriad Machines, tried to interfere with the future of the universe, tried to lead everything into chaos and disorder. What's the point of keeping such people around?"

Jingxing was silent for a moment, then tentatively asked, "So if Fu Xuan and Yaoguang hadn't interfered with Nous's calculations, you wouldn't have made a move, right?"

"You could say that," Polka Kakamond readily admitted, "But can you be sure their attempts to alter history won't interfere with His calculations?"

Jingxing's fingers tightened. He really couldn't confirm it.

"Alright, I doubt your blockhead could figure that out either." Polka Kakamond spread his hands. "Allow me to kindly remind you—that general and her junior sister have absolutely no chance of changing the calculations of the Nous."

"After all, He has already anchored the Worldline, and even if the Emanator forces, they have absolutely no chance of shaking the Aeon's decision." Polka Kakamond seemed to have a hint of sympathy in his tone. "Perhaps it can change the temporary fate of one or two people, but these are insignificant variables to His calculations."

Jingxing paused, his hand holding the pen still. "A temporary fate?"

"The trajectory of fate is entirely within His calculations." Polka Kakamond turned to look at the starry sky. "Whether you are someone who can travel back in time, or a visitor with power from outer space—everything you can move is something He allows you to move."

Jingxing suddenly recalled those two lines from the Yuque Council Hall— Huaiyan asked, "Aren't we just wasting time like this?" and the Marshal replied, "So what?" At the time, he only thought it was the Marshal's determination and statement regarding rescuing Yaoguang. But now, after meeting Polka Kakamond, he understood what that statement represented.

"And what about their master?" Jingxing shook his head, clearing his mind of the memories, and asked again, "If it's a temporary fate, does he have to die in this war?"

"I don't know," Polka Kakamond said. "I'm not the King of Myriad Machines."

"You're not number four in the Genius Society?"

"So what?" Polka Kakamond said. "I'm only responsible for one thing—ensuring that the Nous can proceed smoothly. I'll pave the way where necessary and clear away any obstacles. As for what the calculated Worldline will be, I don't know. But I believe it will be the best answer to allow the universe to continue."

Well, Jingxing had to admit that this seemingly normal woman in front of him might be the most fanatical follower of the Nous.