"Is he from the Church of Eternity?" Kafka asked again.
Silver Wolf shook her head. "Impossible. No one in the Church has as much free time as he does. Those lunatics..."
She seemed to recall something unpleasant, and her face turned somewhat pale.
"You've dealt with people from the Church before? You never told me."
"Yeah." Silver Wolf blew a bubble with her gum. "I only call them crazy because they can't understand a word anyone says. They just repeat one line."
"Something like 'Whatever we do is Eternity'?" Silver Wolf wasn't quite sure.
"As expected of fanatical believers in Eternity," Kafka said with a smile. "Oh, right. Garbled text appeared in Elio's script. We should proceed cautiously this time. Be careful."
The final outcome of Elio's script would never be wrong. It was just that the process... would have a few twists and turns.
"Relax. I know what I'm doing."
Silver Wolf looked back at her phone, reading the last message Ye Yan had sent her.
She had better stop cheating in games for a while. If she really got banned like Ye Yan said, that wouldn't be any fun.
"Ah~"
The Alchemy Commission, Xianzhou Luofu.
"Lady Dragon, my lower back aches, my back hurts, and my legs keep cramping. Is there any treatment for that?"
"You're here pretty early today." Bailu tilted her head up to look at Ye Yan. "Hey! How am I supposed to take your pulse like this? Sit down!"
Bailu gritted her teeth. Every time this guy visited, he had to show off his height in front of her! It made her so angry that all she could do was jump up and hit his knees.
"My diagnosis is too much time on your phone. See yourself out." Bailu waved him away.
"Hey... at least write me a prescription."
"Watch your nutrition and keep a balanced diet. Eat more meat, drink less water, and have a few pieces of candy if you can."
"Is that really a healthy diet?"
This time, Ye Yan had come to the Alchemy Commission genuinely hoping Bailu would prescribe him some medicine and give him a sick note. Then he would have a legitimate reason to slack off.
Slacking off without preparation wasn't the best way to slack off!
"To tell you the truth, Lady Dragon... I have a terminal illness."
"Huh?"
"I have a disease where I'll die if I don't come chat with Lady Dragon every day. I'm about to die." As Ye Yan spoke, he took out a bottle of Immortal's Joy Tea.
Whatever else, he had a way with children.
Bailu understood what Ye Yan meant. "Are you going away?"
"Yeah."
Ye Yan took out another dozen or so bottles of Immortal's Joy Tea, worried Bailu wouldn't have enough to drink.
"That's too much, too much! I can't finish all that!"
"Drinking more of this makes you taller. I tested it myself. It works."
After making sure there were no guards around, Ye Yan furtively pulled out a storage bag filled entirely with Bailu's favorite snacks.
"Huh?!"
The dazzling assortment of sweets left Bailu dumbfounded. She was also amazed by how much the bag could hold.
"Shh. Lady Dragon, behave yourself over the next few days. Try not to run outside too much. I'll bring you some local specialties from other planets and take you out to have fun while I'm at it."
Ye Yan narrowed his eyes and glanced into the distance.
"Oh, right. Miss Huanxi has some family matters to attend to lately... What a shame. She might not be able to serve as your maid anymore."
"Mm... I really haven't seen her these past few days. I hope she's safe."
Bailu's eyes lit up as she ate the candied hawthorn Ye Yan had brought!
"This is so good!"
"Have some more, then." Ye Yan looked at Bailu with a smile.
He would leave those dragon preceptors alone for now and let the Stellaron gremlin practice on them later, but Ye Yan had to ensure Bailu's safety in the meantime.
Especially with her maid Huanxi at her side, who was up to no good at all.
Getting rid of unnecessary trouble was always a good thing.
Leaving the Alchemy Commission, Ye Yan strolled down the street with his hands in his pockets, thinking about what to do next.
"I should head back and contemplate Eternity."
At the Sleepless Earl teahouse, Mr. Xiyan flicked open his folding fan and spoke in a ringing, forceful voice.
"We've grown tired of the old tales. Today, I'll tell you all a new chapter."
"This time, our tale is 'The Author of the Ember's Desolation's Fierce Battle with the Heavenly Lord of the Eternal World'!"
"The conflict between these two gods arose solely because a planet whose civilization had just been born was destroyed. Was the truth behind it a collapse of an Aeon's morals, or a distortion of divinity? Stay tuned..."
Meanwhile, Ye Yan stood before a little fox-eared girl and patted her head.
"Boss, get me a cup of Immortal's Joy Tea."
"Dear customer, if you keep patting my head, I'll jump up and hit your knees."
Mengming took a bottle of milk tea from the freezer, inserted a straw, and handed it to Ye Yan.
It was extremely unhealthy junk food, but the strange thing was that everyone who drank it would get a mysterious smile on their face.
"Don't drink too much of that. It's high in calories."
"It's fine. It was just frozen, wasn't it? The cold cancels out the heat. Besides, it has L-carnitine in it."
Ye Yan gave a healthy smile. With an Aeon's body, he could even sprinkle some lethal poison from the Disciples of Sanctus Medicus into it.
He had never heard of an Aeon dying from drinking milk tea.
"Come visit my shop when you have time. All the tea and drinks are free."
"You'd have to open for business first!"
Mengming complained. Right now, she handled everything in and around the teahouse herself, in stark contrast to that shabby milk tea shop across the way.
She had heard from her father that the shop had been there for ages.
But... it seemed the shop had never opened since it was built, and its owner was buying milk tea from her.
He looked rather handsome. How could he be so lazy?
If he grew a pair of fox ears, perhaps the saying "Foxians are born merchants" wouldn't be so fitting anymore.
"Fair point, but I'm going traveling in a few days. I'll bring you some local specialties when I get back, boss."
"There's no need to bring me anything. Your own safety is the most important thing when you're away from home."
Mengming gave Ye Yan a few safety tips, and he patiently listened to all of them.
Back at the milk tea shop, there had still been no visitors during this time, leaving him with plenty of peace and quiet.
Ye Yan had always wondered what had caused him to ascend to become the Aeon of Eternity.
Logically, Ye Yan should have ascended from a human body to become an Aeon, much like Nanook and Lan.
But considering how long he had drifted through the universe without needing to breathe...
Hmm. Food for thought.
So many years had passed. Who still cared about that sort of thing?
As for his own Eternity, it wasn't as though Ye Yan had never analyzed his Path.
Perhaps Eternity could devour other Paths.
There was a reason for saying so. Even Aeons were bound by their Paths, walking along them day after day without end. Wasn't that a form of Eternity too?
Nanook the Destruction forever walked the road of destruction. He couldn't answer every plea and heal everything like Yaoshi the Abundance.
Likewise, Yaoshi the Abundance couldn't pursue a target forever until they died, as the Hunt did.
If those two really met, Yaoshi might even throw Lan a few heals during battle to restore his HP.
As for Aha the Elation...
It was hard to say. Who knew what that god of amusement would do in a fight?
One second, he might be helping you fight the enemy, and the next, he might stab you in the back.
That was something Aha was capable of doing.
"Is that really what you think of me?"
The laughing mask appeared before Ye Yan again. He even sounded a little sad.
"Am I wrong?" Ye Yan asked back. "You were actually crazy enough to pour all your power into a bug."
"You have the nerve to talk?!" A crack appeared along the mask's edge. He looked furious. "You locked that bug in your black hole space, claiming it was to let it contemplate Eternity. How is that any different from what I did?"
"I suppose that did happen..." Ye Yan looked thoughtful.
"Haha, exposed at last! You're nothing but a hypocritical Aeon! You don't understand Eternity at all."
"Wrong!" Ye Yan slapped the mask away. "Whatever I do is Eternity."
"If you ask me, you should let me be the Aeon of Eternity. Aha has never experienced being one of his fellow Aeons."
"Didn't you say you were going to the Astral Express in a few days? Why not take me along? I still miss the days when the two of us were Nameless."
"Oh? You want to blow up Akivili's train cars again?"
"It's been so long. Poor Akivili." The mask sounded sad again. How had a perfectly fine Aeon just died like that?
With him dead, he could never again be the strongest Emanator of the Trailblaze! What a shame.
By the same token, he had also lost his strongest Emanator of Elation.
"You can't be an Emanator of the Trailblaze anymore, but you still have me!" Ye Yan spread his arms toward the mask. "I hereby declare that you are now the strongest Emanator of Eternity!"
"Not interested. Aha doesn't want to be an Emanator of Eternity!"
"Then you..."
"Aha wants to be the Aeon of Eternity!"
"..."
Ye Yan admitted that he couldn't outdo Aha when it came to absurdity.
"I've never heard of an Aeon who could preside over two Paths."
"True... Then if you pass the position of Eternity to me now, wouldn't Aha nominally be an Aeon walking two Paths?"
"Makes sense." Ye Yan had successfully been assimilated.
"Say..."
"I've noticed you've been asking a few too many questions lately."
Ye Yan interrupted the laughing mask. "With all these questions, are you sure you aren't that pile of knowledge-seeking scrap metal?"
"There's no rule in the universe saying Aha can't replace Nous as the new Aeon of Erudition. So Aha's current persona is the new Aeon of Erudition, curious about all things and ready to seek the truths of the universe!"
"..."
He really couldn't keep up with Elation's train of thought.