The performances soon reached their finale: Wanmeng and Qi Tianque's act.
"That child truly is a Halovian prodigy. With the divine artifact the Arbiter of Life gave him, he's bound to become a pillar of the Xianzhou in the future."
Yao Gao stroked his beard, watching Qi Tianque play below with an appreciative gaze.
People were never stingy with their admiration for geniuses, especially when the genius was one of their own.
Wanmeng danced gracefully onstage while Qi Tianque accompanied her. The gentle song and beautiful dance drew cheers from the audience below.
Immersed in the music and dance, the audience lost track of time. They didn't even notice when the two left the stage through the backstage area.
It was more than ten seconds after they left the stage that the crowd finally came to its senses and began cheering their names.
"Sister Wanmeng, your dancing was gorgeous! I bet your male fans will multiply after this!"
Wanmeng tilted her head back, reached out, and flicked Qi Tianque on the forehead.
"What goes on in that little head of yours all day? Come on, Qingzhu and the others are waiting for us."
"Sister Wanmeng, don't hit my head. You'll knock the sense out of me."
Qi Tianque covered the spot Wanmeng had flicked with one hand and teased her. Wanmeng pursed her lips. "You're plenty smart. A little knock won't make you stupid."
The two made their way to the judges' room. When they pushed open the door, they saw Qingzhu, Xiahou Chan, Yao Gao, and Ayinai.
"A-Arbiter of Life!"
Wanmeng was startled to see Ayinai sitting in her seat. The Arbiter of Life had appeared in person, and she was sitting in Wanmeng's seat!
Ahhh!!! I have to put that chair in the best spot in my collection room! Somewhere I can see it as soon as I open the door every day!
"Mm, it was a lovely performance."
Ayinai nodded, offering her praise freely. Qi Tianque and Wanmeng looked up in delighted surprise at her words.
The Arbiter of Life had praised their performance!
Ayinai looked at Wanmeng and held out the robe in her hand. Wanmeng looked at it. That style looked familiar.
Ayinai said, "I made some improvements to your old robe. Don't you like it? If you don't, I can change it back."
The Arbiter of Life altered this robe herself? With her own hands?!
At Ayinai's words, Wanmeng abruptly came to her senses and took it without hesitation. "I like it. I love it! Thank you, Arbiter of Life!"
Wanmeng hugged the robe tightly to her chest and eyed Ayinai warily. This was the first thing the Arbiter of Life had given her. She wouldn't give it back even if the Arbiter of Life asked. A gift was a gift; who took one back? Surely the Arbiter of Life wouldn't mind such a small thing.
Seeing Wanmeng clutching the robe like someone guarding her food, Ayinai nodded, then stood and left. The moment she departed, projections of Ayinai appeared all across the Xianzhou.
As the Aeon worshipped by the Xianzhou Daiyu, Ayinai's appearance was nothing less than the high point of the entire New Year's Eve celebration.
Ayinai's projection looked down at the people of the Xianzhou without speaking. She simply watched them in silence before disappearing.
"The Arbiter of Life appeared in person! As expected, our Xianzhou Daiyu is the true orthodox inheritor of Existence!"
"Exactly! The Garden of Existence can go eat rocks. What makes them think they can compare to us?"
Outside the Xianzhou
Ayinai floated there, her eyes fixed on the pitch-black universe beyond. She slowly spoke. "Come out. Aren't you tired of circling the Xianzhou?"
Ayinai's voice echoed through the universe. No one answered, but she was in no hurry. She simply stared at a certain spot until water-like ripples appeared there, and Aha emerged.
"Oh my, staring at me so openly like that? You'll make me blush."
Ayinai said nothing, merely watching him in silence. Finding it no fun, Aha stopped fooling around and floated closer to her.
"Hey, speaking of which, I quite like that little Emanator of yours. How about... you let me have her?"
Aha rubbed his hands together like a fly, grinning as he spoke. Ayinai's gaze turned cold, and she swept her right hand from the lower left to the upper right, slicing through Aha's body.
Aha's body instantly split in two, then rapidly rejoined within a second. "Oh, why such a temper? If you won't give her to me, fine! You even tried to erase my existence. So violent! No Aeon will want to be friends with you!"
Ayinai watched him silently. Aeons, making friends? Did he even believe what he was saying?
"The other Aeons are their own business. Look, we're the two most human Aeons, so we're the perfect match!"
"How boring. I really should send you to Qlipoth and let you have another taste of his hammer."
Aha obligingly shuddered, then vanished in a flash.
"Qingzhu, just now, something unusual turned up in the divination."
Wanmeng pushed open the doors of the Palace of Existence in the Sky-Faring Commission and rushed inside.
The relaxed expression on Qingzhu's face immediately turned serious. Whatever could make Wanmeng this anxious couldn't be simple.
Only four months had passed since New Year's Eve. During those four months, they had established cooperative ties with quite a few frontier planets, and quite a few Pathstriders of Existence had joined them along the way.
Those Pathstriders believed that the Garden of Existence's way of Existence did not accord with their own, so they had chosen to distance themselves from it and had been preaching the way of Existence on frontier planets.
After hearing from the inhabitants of those planets that a massive ship following the will of Existence was sailing through the universe, they had asked for directions and hurried after it.
They had initially intended to test the waters and see what the massive ship was like, only to discover that it was a Xianzhou-and one with two Emanators of Existence at that!
This immediately convinced them that the way of Existence here must be purer than the Garden of Existence's! After learning about the Xianzhou Daiyu's history, they became even more certain that this was the place they had longed for.
And the person who had come in with Wanmeng was a Pathstrider of Existence skilled in divination.
"When I was puzzling over that divination result just now, she suggested that 'metal things running amok' might refer to the aurumatons and ingenious creations on the Xianzhou.
I thought it was worth a try, so I performed another divination along those lines, and sure enough, I found something. The divination showed that ingenious creations would gain self-awareness at some point-and that it would happen soon."
Qingzhu frowned. Ingenious creations gaining self-awareness could very well endanger the Xianzhou, but many aspects of daily life now depended on them.
"Keep an eye on them for now. Notify all residents of the Xianzhou to watch the ingenious creations at all times. They may destroy them if necessary. The Artisanship Commission will handle reimbursement afterward."
Qingxin accepted the order and left the Palace of Existence to find Xiahou Chan. Under these circumstances, the army would have to be more careful on patrol. They absolutely could not let their guard down.