Jué Gone Mad

"What... They looked pretty intimidating, but they really are just a bunch of grunts." Lu Guan put the last remnant into his terminal before turning back to check on Yangyang's situation.

"How are you? Can you still move your body?"

"I... I'm fine..." Yangyang shook her head. She didn't want to show her weakness in front of others, especially Lu Guan.

"Then stand up!" Lu Guan bent down and squatted down, looking at his cousin's disheveled appearance, and revealed a carefree smile. "Were you so scared by my dashing figure just now that your legs went weak?"

"... You're so unreliable." Yangyang rolled her eyes at him, tried to stand up, but her legs gave way and she slumped into Lu Guan.

"He's groping him! He's molesting him! Someone's raping a respectable man!"

"Shut up!" Yangyang reached out and pinched Lu Guan's soft waist fiercely. "If you keep talking nonsense... I'll..."

At this point, she suddenly stopped speaking, because at that moment she felt a healing power within her, clearly Lu Guan was treating her injuries.

"So what if you did that?" Lu Guan chuckled as he smoothed her disheveled hair. "I just saved your life, after all... Yangyang, you can't possibly repay kindness with enmity to your own cousin, can you?"

Yangyang was slightly taken aback. She hadn't expected her cousin, who was like a demon pill, to have such a gentle side. He was sharp-tongued, but in reality, he hadn't stopped treating her injuries for a moment...

"... Thanks."

"Hmm~ That's not enough to show sincerity!"

"Sincerity?" Yangyang felt a little uneasy. "What kind of sincerity do you want?"

"It's said that birds will give their feathers to their benefactors. How about you give me some feathers from the tips of your hair? Or give me back that fan..."

"So you still have your eye on my feathered hair, don't you!" The girl's face flushed red, more than words could express her feelings. "I knew you had ulterior motives!"

Lu Guan shook his head regretfully and picked up Yangyang in a princess carry.

"Wait... Ouch... What are you going to do?" Yangyang tried to struggle, but the wounds on her body that had not yet fully healed made her feel a tearing pain with every movement.

"I'll take you back to camp." Lu Guan patted her bottom helplessly. "Behave yourself and don't move around, or your wound will burst and it'll hurt like hell."

Upon hearing this, the flush on Yangyang's face faded considerably, leaving only a faint blush, and she replied softly, "I... I understand..."

"Oh? Why are you suddenly acting like a naive little girl? You weren't like this when you chased me for two blocks with that wooden sword..."

"Lu Guan, will you die if you don't talk?" Yangyang gritted her teeth in anger. Her cousin was actually good in every way. Although he was a bit of a devil in personality, he was a good person at heart... except that he had too much of a mouth.

And for some reason, he always appears knowledgeable, polite, and refined in front of outsiders, but he always speaks to his cousin in this attitude and tone...

"That won't do... I feel itchy all over if I don't speak for a day, like someone is deliberately tickling me with a feather."

"Are you implying something?"

"Don't take this personally, I'm definitely not talking about some narrow-minded woman with black hair and a deep Tac Tacet Mark right in the middle of her forehead..."

"... Next time, you might as well just give me your ID number." Yangyang sighed helplessly, "I'd feel better if I heard it..."

"That won't do. I consider myself to be quite polite; I could never do something like opening a box..."

As Lu Guan was speaking, a blue butterfly landed on his shoulder and used echo energy to make a question mark "?".

"Ahem... Anyway, let's go back to camp first." Lu Guan coughed twice to ease the awkwardness, and then held Yangyang's body more securely again.

"Wait... that hat..." Yangyang pointed to the spot where she had been before Lu Guan picked her up, "Could you pick it up for me?"

"Hmm..." Lu Guan pondered for a moment, then revealed a wicked smile, "That's not the attitude you use when asking for favors, Cousin Yangyang..."

"Then... then what do you want?"

"At least you should speak softly... Please, please, help poor Yangyang!"

Yangyang looked at Lu Guan with a dark expression, struggling to get down. "Put me down... I'll go get it myself!"

"Sigh... just stay put." Lu Guan pursed his lips. So the mysterious letter-writing woman really wasn't interesting at all; she couldn't stand being teased...

If it were her older sister, she would definitely say those words in a sickeningly sweet, cloyingly sweet voice, and then stare at Lu Guan with those big, watery eyes, trying to make Lu Guan break down before she herself felt nauseous...

Having said that, Lu Guan swept his aura around and rolled up Yangyang's hat, placing it on her head...

Yangyang immediately let out a sharp screech. "Dust! At least brush off the dust! My hair is covered in dust from the ground!"

"Hehe... I don't care..."

"General, Yangyang Pioneer lost contact ten minutes ago."

Jiyan looked up at the sky. The Sea of Stars, composed of dense echo energy, was much darker than before, like black clouds pressing down on the Desorock Highland.

He sighed, "Hopefully nothing unexpected happens... The entire Vanguard, order—speed up the march!"

"General, look ahead, isn't that Yangyang Pioneer?"

Jiyan looked intently in the direction his subordinate was pointing, and saw a tall, white-haired figure carrying a girl slowly walking towards them.

"Halt!" Jiyan raised his right hand, giving a "halt" command to the soldiers behind him. "All personnel, stand by!"

Having said that, he gripped the cyan spear manifested by his resonance ability and charged towards the two people not far away.

"You..."

Before Jiyan could utter a complete sentence, the white-haired man asked first, "Is that you... General Jiyan of the Midnight Rangers?"

"Indeed... Who are you? And why are you here?"

"Me... I'm just an ordinary student passing by..." Lu Guan shook his head. "I saw a beautiful lady in trouble on the road and just helped her out..."

"General Jiyan..." Yangyang pinched Lu Guan's waist, her face flushed, and said, "Don't listen to this guy's nonsense. His name is Lu Guan, he's my cousin who studies at the Stardust Academy..."

"I see..." Jiyan wasn't stupid either; he knew some information about Lu Guan, and after Yangyang reminded him, he immediately recognized Lu Guan's identity.

"Sigh... boring woman." Lu Guan pouted in dissatisfaction and asked Jiyan, "May I ask, General Jiyan, where is the military camp? My cousin is seriously injured and needs to rest."

"A serious injury?" Jiyan's expression turned serious. "Miss Yangyang, what are the specific details? Have you taken any emergency measures?"

"... It's alright, General Jiyan," Yangyang explained. "My cousin has healed most of my injuries; I'm just a little immobile now..."

"He also dealt with those Tacet Discord..."

"So that's how it is..." Jiyan pondered for a moment, then nodded. "This isn't the place to talk. Let's go back to camp."

The Norfall Barrens, where the stone statue of the Jué is located.

A slender, green-haired woman dressed in the style of the Fractsidus was tightly bound by a circle of purple chains. Her exposed skin was covered with wounds of various sizes, and Resonance Power was constantly emanating from these wounds, being collected by a container nearby...

Shockingly, even after suffering such persecution, the green-haired woman did not faint. Instead, she stared intently at the illusory figure in front of her with calm, indifferent eyes.

"Not bad..." The illusory figure's voice was neither male nor female, but it carried a hint of excitement. "Your resonance ability is truly remarkable. With it, I can perfectly control all the soldiers under my command..."

"It's a pity you're unwilling to join the glorious evolution. If it were possible, you could become my first commander."

"Heh... so you were still easily taken care of, weren't you?" The green-haired woman's face was expressionless, but her words carried a hint of sadness. "In my opinion, your so-called evolution is just so-so..."

"Shut up... What Fractsidus know?" the illusory figure retorted. "With the guidance of the divine artifact from the upper realm, I can break free from the limitations of the Threnodian and truly become a transcendent being!"

"Jinzhou is merely the first step in my grand scheme..."

"Mengzhou, Yuezhou, Chongzhou, Ming Court, and even the entire Huanglong will become the breeding ground for 'war'..."

"Then Rinascita, Ashihara, the New Federation..."

"My grand undertaking is beyond the comprehension of you rats hiding in the gutter, the Fractsidus... absolutely not!"

The green-haired woman watched the illusory figure's performance silently, her heart unmoved, or perhaps her heart had died long ago in the meteor shower 500 years ago...

Now, she is pondering a question:

Why would the ever-cautious and Jué of the Formless suddenly go berserk? Could it be that thing called "The Desolation" by the Black Shores truly possesses power strong enough to intoxicate Him?

What if... they possessed the power to resurrect the dead?

"But given my current situation... I'm afraid there's nothing I can do," the green-haired woman chuckled inwardly. "I need to figure out how to escape first, then we can talk about the future..."

She never expected that simply coming to Norfall Barrens according to plan would result in her being besieged by countless Overlord Class Tacet Discord, defeated and captured, and then taken here by the Jué to extract her resonance ability...

Even for someone who is immortal, being used as a power bank to drain her energy must be very uncomfortable...