"Ahem, it's all right. Although young Amo hasn't set foot on a Path, he should still be able to kill enemies with your help."
Xiahou Chan had no choice. None of them had the ability to help an ordinary person set foot on a Path. Those with such power were called Aeons; they were merely people who had set foot on an Aeon's Path.
Hearing this, Xiaohe lifted her little head proudly. "Of course! Before we came here, we wiped out an entire squad of cyborgs on our planet all by ourselves."
An entire squad. Xiahou Chan nodded. Although cyborg squads weren't very large, Amo had managed to kill them as a mortal with Xiaohe's help. Xiaohe had made up for the difference in strength, but the fact that a newcomer to the battlefield hadn't been shaken by the bloodshed was enough to prove he had nerves of steel.
With a little training, combined with Xiaohe's concealment ability, he would make a top-class assassin.
After learning about the two of them, Xiahou Chan suddenly grew somewhat awkward, and his expression turned embarrassed.
Wanmeng noticed Xiahou Chan acting strangely, but before she could speak, he spoke first. "Well, Xiaohe, you see, you two are so close to Lady Arbiter of Life. The next time you meet her, if you can, could you get an autograph for me while you're asking for yours? A photo would be fine too."
At Xiahou Chan's words, Wanmeng and Qi Tianque both turned to Xiaohe, making no attempt to hide the hope and pleading in their eyes. They wanted one too! As for maintaining their dignity as seniors? What the hell was that worth? Could it get them Lady Arbiter of Life's autograph? Or a photo of her?
The corners of Xiaohe's mouth and her eyes twitched. In the end, she agreed under the assault of the three's eager gazes. Who would have thought that the three people standing at the pinnacle of the Xianzhou Daiyu were actually the goddess's die-hard fans? Xiaohe couldn't help thinking of the Daiyu's Helmsman.
Could the Daiyu's Helmsman be the same?
After arranging accommodations for the two of them, Xiahou Chan slumped back into his chair.
Wanmeng frowned. "Keeping Xiaohe's identity secret is our highest priority. We absolutely cannot let anyone else know she exists."
They naturally understood how important Xiaohe was. Who wouldn't want someone capable of artificially creating Emanator-level combat power?
After the three discussed the matter, a special squad was formed to secretly protect Xiaohe and Amo. Each of the three assigned one person from among their own subordinates to protect them in secret.
Over the next few days, Xiaohe could clearly sense that people were constantly watching them. If the Halovian among them hadn't sent a friendly signal, she would have dealt with them in the middle of the night.
Being watched all the time made her uncomfortable at first, but she gradually got used to it and stopped caring. After all, with her outstanding looks, plenty of people usually approached her, though she chased them all away.
Garden of Existence
Dong Tian sat at his desk, watching footage sent back from the front lines. The longer he watched, the more cracks spread across the cup in his hand.
Finally, when he saw Xiahou Chan descend from the sky and turn the battle around with a single blow, the cup in his hand could bear the strain no longer and shattered.
"Emanator of Existence! Another Emanator of Existence! Why?! Why does that lousy ship get two Emanators, while my vast Garden of Existence doesn't have a single one?! Why?!"
After that brief outburst, Dong Tian took a deep breath and forcibly suppressed the anger in his heart. He then pressed a mechanism on the desk, turned around, and entered a pitch-black passage that had opened in the wall behind him.
"So what if they're Emanators? Once my miracle is complete, even gods will have to bow at my feet! Hahaha! Hahahaha!"
The wall slowly closed, concealing Dong Tian's voice behind it, along with his ambition.
"Lady Arbiter of Life, why don't we just break out? I've been putting on an act for these Abominations of Abundance all day, and I can barely keep it up anymore. This little Ambrosial Arbor gives off a weaker aura than the sapling you planted. Our Xianzhou Daiyu could smash right through it. Even I could break it while using Utopia, so why are we wasting time acting for them?"
Qingzhu lay sprawled across the table, idly fiddling with an ornament on it, her grievance plain to see.
She could clearly deal with these Abominations of Abundance all by herself within a day, yet Lady Arbiter of Life had suddenly told her to pretend she was trapped in the Ambrosial Arbor's Abundance barrier and struggling to resist. It was so frustrating.
Ayinai, who was sitting properly on the other side and drinking tea, took a small sip. "It's precisely because you can deal with them that I want you to pretend you're struggling. You don't need to go to the Ayinai System. If you did, I might lose an Emanator."
Qingzhu's eyes widened in shock, her face full of disbelief. "Lady Arbiter of Life, don't you believe in me? How could I possibly die at that traitor's hands? I'm your first Emanator!"
She proudly puffed out her chest as she spoke. Ayinai shot her a subtle glance. "You have quite an imagination. But I didn't mean you. I meant your future new colleague."
Ayinai took another sip of tea. Mm, the flavor's not bad.
"A new colleague? Lady Arbiter of Life, you're recruiting another Emanator!"
Qingzhu's voice was full of excitement. Another colleague! If it really happened, then with all three great Emanators of Existence together, who could stand against them?
Qingzhu had already begun imagining herself doing whatever she pleased across the universe. Just thinking about it felt great.
"Mm. That kid has a good temperament, and Xiaohe thinks highly of him too. I think he's a good fit."
An Aeon had always been the one to grant the position of Emanator, so Ayinai could give it to whomever she wanted. Of course, she had her requirements: someone she liked and someone who believed in Existence. Those two were enough, though the first was naturally the most important.
Meanwhile, in the Houyhnhnm settlement of the Denizens of Abundance that had surrounded the Xianzhou Daiyu, a towering centaur held up his cup and laughed, his voice full of arrogance and contempt.
"Hahaha! What a joke that so-called first Emanator of Existence is. She's nothing special after all, trapped in there by Lord Yaoshi's divine miracle of Abundance.
"If her Emanator is this weak, then that so-called Aeon of Existence probably isn't much stronger. If she faced my lord, my lord could easily kill her with a flick of a finger! Hahaha!"
As he spoke, he drank the wine in his cup, his face full of delight and excitement.
For years, they, the Denizens of Abundance, had been hunted by the Daiyu. Who knew how many Denizens of Abundance had died at the hands of the Xianzhou Daiyu? In particular, the Xianzhou Daiyu's Helmsman had been spoken of as an almost godlike figure. Now, it seemed she was nothing special either.
If he killed the Xianzhou Daiyu's Helmsman, wouldn't his name become famous far and wide? Besides, he had heard that the Xianzhou Daiyu was a creation of an Aeon. No matter how he looked at it, it had to be far better than the lousy ship beneath his feet.