Zhuri took a deep breath, her lips pressing together, relaxing, then pressing together again, as though she had swallowed countless curses.
While she put on her display of [Typing...], Huang Jin and the others had already learned the gist of what had happened from Zai Jiu Xunge.
But after explaining, Zai Jiu Xunge stressed solemnly, "But they definitely aren't the same person. Zhuri is Zhuri, and the Beaver Duke is the Beaver Duke.
"If Zhuri were the Beaver Duke, wouldn't that make the Beaver Duke my item? That's obviously impossible.
"The Beaver Duke might be very powerful, but Zhuri is the future of the Star Sea.
"Right, Zhuri?"
Zhuri slowly lowered the finger blade pressed against the Apprentice's heart, barely satisfied.
Maple Sugar shoved Zai Jiu Xunge several times with her wings, urging, "Quick, blow up a few more Useless Balloons! Hurry!"
Yu Xunge, who was checking whether Zhuri's finger blade had poked a hole in her clothes, said, "..."
She silently composed herself for a good while, then actually used her skill to blow up a few balloons, one for Zhuri and one for herself, one for Huang Jin and one for herself.
She stood there holding two balloon strings without moving. Seeing that she had stopped blowing up balloons, all manner of flower branches, tails, wings, crab claws, and whale tails came swatting at her. Heavy rain fell overhead, and a hand holding a bag of gems reached beside her ear.
Yu Xunge batted all that assorted clutter away, took the bag of gems, and tossed it to Tulan. "Everyone gets one, everyone gets one. Stop hitting me!"
Their platform was lively, but the other platforms weren't much quieter.
In their own worlds, every person here held an exalted position, but here, everyone seemed to return to their