If not for the battle against Shuhu, which had cost the Luofu Cloud Knights eighty or ninety percent of their elite soldiers and officers, along with Tengxiao, one of the Seven Arbiter-Generals of the Emperor's Bow, and Bai Heng, the Celestial Ship Department's prodigy of combat vessels, the Luofu would not still be so far from recovering its strength today.
Then Dan Feng later touched a taboo in an attempt to reincarnate Bai Heng, triggering Abundance's Rebellion. Ying Xing was implicated and bore the Abundance curse, while their master Jingliu completely fell into mara...
The splendor of old had vanished in a single day...
After that, Jing Yuan, then a Cloud Knight General, took over the position of Luofu general. Over the past seven hundred years, he had worked diligently to manage the Luofu and restore its former prosperity. Unfortunately, perhaps the Cloud-Piercer Five had exhausted the Luofu's fortune; throughout those centuries, Jing Yuan had never again encountered anyone as breathtakingly gifted as those few had been.
Only Yan Qing, the disciple he had taken in, possessed some of his master's natural talent for the sword. Yet unfortunately... he did not know whether he himself would live to see Yan Qing grow into the next Luofu Sword Master.
"An unusual move is possible. But... General Jing Yuan, business is business. Even brothers must settle accounts clearly."
"This Alliance Jade Omen is a generous reward, but what the Luofu is about to face is no ordinary matter. The Lord of Annihilation is merely one part of it. One misstep, and the Luofu could face the danger of being overturned."
"What else does Brother Emiya want?"
"Two conditions."
"Go ahead."
"First, after the Astral Express lends its strength this time, the Xianzhou... or at the very least the Luofu Xianzhou, must truly regard the Astral Express as an ally. Should the Astral Express need something in the future, the Luofu Xianzhou... forget that. At the very least, you, Jing Yuan, must stand with the Express crew regardless of the reason or cost."
"If Jing Yuan has not yet perished by then, that is easily done. If Jing Yuan has unfortunately already fallen to mara, then my disciple Yan Qing will certainly act once on behalf of his master."
"Good. As for the second condition, it is a personal request. I, Emiya, have long been known as a timely rain, always happy to relieve others in their hour of need. Yet I dislike being bound by morality, duty, and such things. So... if some major incident occurs on the Xianzhou, you, Jing Yuan, must sincerely send me a commission letter and lay out every detail... especially a certain major matter you are about to discuss with a blonde cosmic merchant. I must lend a hand in that!"
"Who is this blonde Cosmic Merchant?"
"One of the second group of people who secretly infiltrated the Luofu."
As he spoke, Emiya deliberately raised his voice slightly so that a certain old man beside him could hear every word clearly.
"A handsome blonde foreigner, dressed in robes resembling those of a priest, operating under the alias Luocha... Besides that, he has a tongue-twisting real name."
"Who?!"
Chapter 92: Xianzhou Joke.jpg (4/5)
A blonde foreigner.
Priestly robes.
Alias: Luocha.
A tongue-twisting real name!
Holy shit, Void Archive?!
Wait...
Welt pondered for a moment. He knew Emiya had a somewhat nasty personality, but merely mentioning Void Archive should not have warranted such solemn emphasis.
Could it be...?
"Otto? Otto from this spacetime?!"
The old man looked suspiciously at Emiya, inexplicably growing anxious. If it really was Otto from this spacetime... that Otto bastard... then he needed to take out his Star of Eden magnifying glass and thoroughly inspect that man's character. His character, and his character.
Emotion Value from Welt +17
Tch, it was not so easy to make the old man's emotional threshold erupt for that much anymore.
Emiya raised an eyebrow slightly, ignoring the old man's thoughts as he continued speaking to Jing Yuan.
"Besides one Lord of Annihilation, there is also the Medicine Master's Legacy on the Luofu. I imagine the general already knows that. But those two groups have already formed an alliance... perhaps the general does not yet know."
"The Medicine Master's Legacy has allied with a Lord of Annihilation... that is indeed somewhat troublesome. But if that were all, Jing Yuan would not be unable to resist."
"What if there is another force that restrains you?"
"That blonde Cosmic Merchant?"
"Precisely."
"...Could he be an Abundance follower?"
"In a sense. His homeland also has so-called demons, monsters, Netherlings, and the like. They should be inextricably linked to Abundance. Therefore... he is also someone hostile to Abundance."
"If that is the case, then he should be reinforcements. Why does Brother Emiya say he will become a restraint on me, Jing Yuan?"
"He has a companion. That person is enough to make you hesitate, leaving you unable to focus wholeheartedly on the Lord of Annihilation and the Medicine Master's Legacy."
At those words, a grave look emerged in Jing Yuan's eyes.
Someone who could make him, one of the Seven Arbiter-Generals of the Emperor's Bow and an Emanator of the Hunt, hesitate?
Could it be an Emissary of Abundance? Or an Emanator from some other faction?
Yet the only group with a deep-seated hatred for the Xianzhou was the Abundance fiends. Even the Antimatter Legion, that pack of lunatics, could not be said to deliberately oppose the Xianzhou.
With one Lord of Annihilation already having infiltrated the Xianzhou, a second should not appear.
But if it were an Emissary of Abundance, then according to Emiya, that blonde man was hostile to Abundance. Why would he travel with an Emissary of Abundance?
"Could it be someone Jing Yuan knows?"
After considering it again and again, a sharp glint suddenly flashed through Jing Yuan's pupils. He said in a low voice,
"If it is not an Emissary of Abundance, then anyone capable of making me, Jing Yuan, hesitate would either be Xianzhou-born, acquainted with me, or someone whom I cannot directly attack due to their identity. Is my deduction correct?"
"As expected of the General of the Divine March—your wisdom is exceptional. That person truly is an old acquaintance of yours, and someone against whom you cannot raise Stone Fire Dream Body."
"The person you speak of cannot be Ying Xing. But you mentioned Stone Fire Dream Body... could it be..."
Jing Yuan abruptly stood, staring at Emiya with an agitated expression before asking,
"Is it Dan Feng?!"
"No. Dan Feng is on our Express right now."
"...Dan Feng has returned too? Wait, Ying Xing has arrived, and Dan Feng is here as well... Could the person you mean be..."
"The former Luofu Sword Master, your teacher, the Cangcheng native who fell to mara seven hundred years ago—Jingliu, the 'Flawless Light.'"
Master...?
The instant he heard that name, the first thought to flash through Jing Yuan's mind was...
She's still alive?
As his teacher, Jingliu had already been nearly a thousand years old when he himself was still a child. And now... he was nearly ready to suffer a mara episode and report to the Ten Lords Bureau.
So why was his master still out there, alive and kicking?
Master, did you specifically return because you saw that your disciple was about to fall to mara, just to pick a fight and send me on my way?
"...I should retire early and hand everything over to Minister Fu."
Jing Yuan rubbed his forehead and uttered words that would have made the Master Diviner ecstatic. Unfortunately, the short Master Diviner was not present, or she surely would have been unable to hide her delight.
"Hearing that, I suddenly remembered a Xianzhou joke. General Jing Yuan, would you like to hear it?"
"Oh? Let's hear it."
The moment Welt heard Emiya say that, he immediately gave Jing Yuan a sympathetic look. The General of the Divine March had no idea what he was about to face.
"Ahem..."
Mr. Emiya cleared his throat twice. After loosening his voice, he spoke as though imitating someone's tone.
"'Has Sword Master Yan Qing always been this quiet?' 'No, he used to be cheerful when he was learning the sword.' 'Then why is he like this now?' 'Perhaps because the previous general fell to mara... sigh.'"
"?????"
Jing Yuan's eyes widened at once. He stared in disbelief at the man before him, who had suddenly pulled out such a frigid hell joke. How could he so casually make up something so vicious?
"And there's also, 'Has Master Diviner Qingque always been this stern?' 'Why has Senior Sushang always been so cold and distant?' 'Helmsman Qingni...'"
"Stop, stop, stop! If you keep telling these jokes, I'm going to fall to mara right now!"
"That's exactly it. What experience does Fu Xuan have right now? Can she be general? Think about it—if you retire and the Luofu ends up in her hands, something goes wrong, and you hear about it and immediately fall to mara on the spot, then when Yan Qing finds you, you're already completely consumed by mara. Then comes the traditional line, 'Let this disciple repay the kindness of your teachings with this strike,' followed by one sword chopping your clever head into pieces."
"Enough, enough! I won't retire! I absolutely will not retire now!"
Jing Yuan clutched his head and let out a miserable cry. The scene described by the man before him felt far too real. The Luofu's strength was still slowly recovering. Minister Fu was highly capable, but she lacked experience governing one side and was far too upright and kind-hearted; she was not a suitable choice to take over the Luofu at present. Yan Qing and the other younger generation were still growing, too. Letting them fully take over Xianzhou affairs would likely cause enormous chaos.
"That's more like it. We just formed an alliance with you, and you're already planning to drop everything and leave. Then what does it count for if we risk our lives on the Luofu?"
"Brother, I am now over eight hundred years old. In truth, I have long shown signs of mara, though I have been suppressing them. If I continue clinging to the General position, and one day fall to mara and no longer recognize friend from kin, then who on the Luofu could resist me, one of the Seven Arbiter-Generals who inherited the Reignbow Arbiter's divine spirit?"
"How about... I give it a try?"
"Try what? Could it be that Brother Emiya intends to kill me once I become a mara-struck monster?"
"I mean... let me try to see whether I can solve your... mara."
Emotion Value from Jing Yuan +99
Chapter 93: Jing Yuan, Time to Drop Some Gold! (5/5)
"Residual Damage," "Stain," "Wrath," "Othering," "Oblivion."
The five symptoms of mara.
"Residual Damage" represented severe bodily harm inflicted by external forces. However, because Xianzhou Celestials possessed extraordinarily powerful vitality, they instead entered a prolonged and agonizing period of self-healing. That pain could even continue for hundreds of years.
"Stain" referred to a virus reaching coexistence with the body after invading it. According to deductions from Xianzhou pharmacological studies, the cells of Xianzhou Celestials and foxians contained large quantities of pluripotent stem cells. After the body was injured, these cells actively adapted to the body's instinctive needs and transformed into corresponding cells. Viruses, meanwhile, could sometimes become part of the bodily functions recognized by the body, causing pluripotent stem cells to continually transform into that virus and allowing it to coexist with Xianzhou people long-term.
"Othering" referred to physical mutation, the body becoming incapable of steadily retaining a humanoid shape. It was the monstrous form with golden branches that Emiya and the others had seen before. In that form, one had already become an enemy of the Hunt: an Abundance fiend.
Yet beyond the first three physical symptoms of mara, what truly plagued Xianzhou people were usually the latter two mental symptoms.
"Wrath" caused intense joy and sorrow, unstable emotions, agitation and irritability, and even attacks on others.
"Oblivion" caused people to forget their memories, leaving them muddled and unable to control themselves. This in turn made them unable to recognize even family, like walking corpses.
According to certain Xianzhou meditation therapies, the latter two were generally considered to arise because accumulated memories prevented the brains of long-life species from storing such immense quantities of data any longer. Even if some memories were removed, the lingering emotions—however tiny or faint—would unconsciously surface during sleep after accumulating over hundreds of years, triggering mara.
Therefore,
The Xianzhou had Pills of Severing Emotion and Desire to suppress emotions, as well as Dust-Washing Pills that washed away all past memories.
But both went too strongly against human nature and were generally not accepted by the Celestials.
"Which mara symptoms does the general have now?"
"I often feel agitated and angry. Sometimes, while reviewing official documents, I even forget matters from only a few hours earlier."
Jing Yuan sighed softly.
"I have lived for more than eight hundred years. By the average lifespan of Xianzhou people, I am already considered unusually long-lived. Ordinary Xianzhou people begin showing signs of mara around four hundred and fifty years old, while six hundred and fifty is like a fatal trial. Though I do not mean to boast, the fact that I have persisted until today without too many abnormalities is also due to my exceptionally strong will."
"I see. Senile dementia."
"If that is all, then it is relatively easy to treat. In truth, the most troublesome aspect of mara is not its symptoms, but that... it is irreversible."
Emiya raised an eyebrow slightly upon hearing this, immediately understanding what it meant. In fact, the five symptoms of mara would not be much of a problem in worlds with advanced medical technology. But... the Xianzhou people's constitution came from the blessing of Yaoshi of Abundance. Even if an inborn defect were repaired later, that repair would be forcibly expelled.
Using game characters as an example, it was as though their initial settings had been locked. Once a change occurred midway, they would be forcibly reverted to their initial settings.
Unless, like in certain games, there was an "item card" that granted the "permission" to alter one's original appearance again.
And that "permission" existed only in the hands of Yaoshi of Abundance.
"I definitely do not have a method to cure the root cause, but I may have some methods to treat the symptoms."
After pondering for a moment, Emiya spoke to Jing Yuan.
"Back in my homeland, a group of alchemists once forcibly divided the brain's thought processes into multiple equal portions in order to enhance its computational capacity, thereby achieving parallel thought and calculation."
"Dividing thought sounds good, but it merely redistributes the brain's processing functions. The brain's original storage capacity remains unchanged."
"Then... how about trying something from Welt's homeland? It is called a Divine Key. It burns memories as its price, and can even let you unleash explosive power with a single punch."
"The Xianzhou also possesses medicine that erases past memories, but... I am unwilling to make such a choice."
"Now that you put it that way, mara really is rather troublesome."
The capacity of the human brain was surely limited, while many bodily functions of Xianzhou people became fixed after birth. As a result, there was no way to forcibly increase the brain's capacity, and anything foreign implanted into the body would be expelled.
It was like a computer. Its C drive capacity had been permanently fixed. You could neither expand it nor use an external drive. In the end, the C drive would inevitably fill up until it could hold no more, and the entire computer would completely freeze.
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