...
"Pa... Pardo?" Hua immediately turned to look at Michael, but he shook his head, indicating he didn't know either.
"What happened? No, how did you get up the mountain?"
"Uh... cough cough cough! It's a bit of a long story... Okay, okay, I'll try to keep it short... But with so many people here, is it really okay?" Pardofelis's gaze swept over the seven disciples before finally landing on Michael's face.
"Mm, let's the three of us talk alone." Michael nodded. In the blink of an eye, the three of them reappeared outside the house.
"Ahem!" Pardofelis removed her hood and cleared her throat emphatically.
For every "Pioneer," life seemed frozen at that moment fifty thousand years ago; time would leave no further mark on their physical bodies. But this was limited to the "physical." Mental wear was inevitable—except for Pardofelis. Only she could live through fifty thousand years of attrition and remain so carefree, to the point where she now needed to force a serious expression just to talk business.
However, even if her expression could be forced, Pardofelis's choice of words remained unchanged:
"Sister Hua, I've got the three-sentence version, the two-sentence version, and the one-sentence version. Which one d'ya wanna buy... uh, okay, fine, the one-sentence version is—there's an abnormal Honkai Energy reaction in Australia, needs someone to handle it."
"Australia?" Hua repeated the place name expressionlessly, then glanced sideways at Michael. She still didn't understand why Pardofelis had suddenly appeared on Mount Taixuan.
Among the former Flame-Chasers, besides Kevin, Su, and Pardofelis herself, she knew for certain that Mobius and Sakura were still active.
According to Michael and the others' usual habits, Pardofelis should have notified Mobius and Sakura first...
As for some abnormal Honkai Energy, honestly, Hua wasn't too concerned. Firstly, Australia was sparsely populated; even if some Honkai Beasts appeared, the damage would be limited.
What if it was a Herrscher? Hua couldn't help but glance at Michael again. She wasn't sure about Michael's current state, but it seemed he still held the Authority of Finality, meaning Herrscher births weren't unrelated to him... Even if a Herrscher did manifest early, Hua trusted Michael's judgment.
Of course, another equally important point—so what if it was a Herrscher? She, Kevin, Su, Mobius, and Sakura—which one of them lacked the ability to kill a Herrscher?
But she quickly shook her head again. Lately, she seemed prone to getting lost in solitary thought like this. What was the actual situation? Couldn't she just ask Pardofelis?
"Time, specific location, Honkai Energy reaction intensity," she squeezed out the three terms.
"Time..." Pardofelis frowned, starting to count on her fingers. After a good two or three minutes, she smiled sheepishly. "Ah... um... Sister Hua, I don't remember..."
"..."
"Alright, let Pardo tell it at her own pace." Even Michael, standing nearby, couldn't watch anymore. Not for any other reason... but Pardo's acting was a bit over the top. Not a major issue, though; it was within Michael's expectations.
"Ahem! Here's how it went!" Receiving Michael's cue, Pardofelis puffed out her chest, tilted her head up, and explained in a dramatic, reciting tone: "That morning, I was heading out to sunbathe like usual, but before I even stepped out, I saw the machine Sis Mobius gave me going crazy..."
"What was the reading?"
"Eight... eight or nine hundred, maybe."
"A Judgment-class Honkai Beast?"
"Probably... yeah? Hey, Sister Hua, let me finish! My first thought was to tell Sis Mobius and Sis Sakura, but I couldn't reach 'em, dunno what's up. And Boss Michael, don't even get me started, haven't seen him in centuries, who knows what he's busy with. I thought, I can't exactly go find Big Bro Kevin... Big Bro Kevin probably still thinks I'm dead. If I suddenly popped up, he might just use the Cleaver of Shamash to send me off to the afterlife!"
Hua's mouth twitched uncontrollably. She had to admit, Pardo's reasoning seemed sound.
"So I thought, the only one I can find, the only one who can handle this, is probably you, Sister Hua! Boss Michael told me you don't come down the mountain often, so finding you on Mount Taixuan would be a sure bet... So here I am..."
At this point, Pardofelis puffed out her chest proudly again. "I gotta say, good thing I learned some other skills besides eating and sunbathing these past few millennia. Flying that plane for hours straight nearly killed me... By the way, Sister Hua, the air quality on your mountain is kinda bad, huh? I tried to land directly up here but couldn't find a spot, everything was too hazy. Ended up having to land at the foot of the mountain! Coming up was tough too, couldn't see the path clearly, and so many forks! Luckily, there was a nice family heading down who kindly brought me up..."
"Plane..." Hua couldn't help but cover her forehead. From the moment she heard "plane," she knew that for a long time to come, legends of flying swords would circulate again throughout Shenzhou...
But it wasn't important, just some rumors. There were plenty of legends about Mount Taixuan already; one more wouldn't hurt.
She quickly extracted the key information from Pardofelis's rambling: "So, the abnormal Honkai reaction appeared just a few hours ago. Location: Australia. But the specific spot?"
"That... I don't have a map... Oh, right! The plane I flew here should have navigation back... Eh, wait, that's just back to my little den in Australia. Where the Honkai Beast actually appeared, I really don't know. But hey..." Pardofelis's eyes darted around quickly, naturally landing on Michael. "With Boss Michael here, that shouldn't be a problem, right?"
Unexpectedly, Michael shook his head decisively. "I don't intend to interfere further in this matter."
Pardofelis already knew this answer, and Hua wasn't surprised. She looked up, her gaze meeting Michael's.
"I made some decisions in your stead, but, Hua, the final choice, their fate, still rests with you."
"You want me to take them to Australia?"
"Mm."
"Um... Boss Michael, Sister Hua, what are you talking about?" Pardofelis rubbed the cat ears on her head. She was just acting out the script Michael gave her and didn't know what had actually happened earlier on Mount Taixuan.
Hua ignored her interruption, closing her eyes in thought for a moment before nodding heavily.
Right. She had taken disciples for so many years. While it wasn't exactly a happy gathering now, perhaps they could aim for a good parting. If their final memory of being with their master was that farcical assassination attempt, it wouldn't be very pleasant.
Besides...
"Was this also part of your plan, Michael?"
"Mm." Michael nodded without hesitation. Hua didn't ask for the specifics of his plan, so there was no need for him to deny it.
"I understand... And you?"
"I want to take a look at the Elysian Realm. Kevin and the others should receive the alert about the abnormal Honkai energy and head to Australia too. Taking this opportunity, I want to visit the Elysian Realm."
"Michael..."
"Pardo will come with me too, and we'll drop Otto off back at Schicksal on the way. Pardo, just leave the plane for Hua. Hua, you haven't forgotten the passwords, have you?"
"Mm, I see..." Hua's eyes flickered. From just these few simple sentences, she could deduce quite a bit...
"Then let's leave it at that. Goodbye, Michael."
"Farewell for now."
The light flickered before her eyes. When Hua came back to herself, the courtyard was empty.
She stood there alone, bewildered, for a long time before finally accepting the reality of being alone once more.
It was strange, really. This solitude had been her companion for five thousand years; she thought she had grown accustomed to it. Yet Michael's appearance had shattered that illusion in just half a day.
Of course, it wasn't like his departure left her heartbroken, desperately wanting to follow him—life wasn't that melodramatic.
It was just a faint sadness lingering around her. The solitude she had previously taken for granted now felt... less than ideal.
The lake of her heart was as clear as ever, free of debris, but upon closer inspection, faint ripples disturbed the surface—the traces left by Michael's fleeting visit.
"It doesn't matter. Time will smooth everything over," Hua told herself.
In another five hundred years, perhaps everything that happened today wouldn't leave much of a deep memory...
If only that could be true, it would be good.
Composing herself, she stepped forward again, entering the small room that had once been fraught with killing intent.
As she reached out to push the door, a strange thought occurred: Could it be possible that everything from the past few hours was just a dream I had last night?
Maybe Michael never came, and everything was just a dream she spun based on the future Michael told her about five thousand years ago.
And now, beyond this thin wooden door, she knew there were seven people, seven swords—the people she trusted most in this era—and their thoughts and intentions were... to kill her.
Just as one can never definitively disprove the "brain in a vat" hypothesis, Hua couldn't prove this absurd thought wasn't real...
No, there was a way to prove it... one way—just push open this door, and all answers would be revealed.
With that thought, Hua applied slight pressure to the door. It swung open effortlessly with a creak.
There was no sharp sword Qi. What met her were seven pairs of complex eyes.
The corners of Hua's mouth lifted involuntarily. It seemed none of it was a dream.
But she quickly forced herself back into the somewhat stern, rigid persona. Besides that, she didn't know how else a master should face her disciples.
"Don't just stand there stunned. Go pack your things. Prepare to leave the mountain."
"Leave the mountain..." Lin Chaoyu, standing at the front, bit her lip, repeating the words.
"Sigh..." Hua knew they would think this way. "Chaoyu."
"Master..."
"Get ready. We're leaving the mountain together."
"Ah—"
"There are demons causing trouble in the South Sea. I'll take you to slay them. After that... we'll go our separate ways."
The light that had just rekindled in Chaoyu's eyes extinguished completely at this moment.
"I understand..." After saying this, she lowered her head silently and led the way out. Su Mei's lips moved; she stepped forward, taking Chaoyu's place, only half a step away from Hua. But in the end, she said nothing, biting her lip and following Lin Chaoyu out.
With the First and Second Senior Sisters obeying, the others naturally had nothing to say. However, as they began to move, they heard Hua speak again: "Ling Shuang, stay behind for a moment."
After what had just happened, no one dared guess the Master's thoughts, let alone defy her decision. But when Hua turned around, she saw that besides Ling Shuang, the sisters Wanxi and Wanru were also lingering by the door.
"What is it?" Hua raised an eyebrow, asking in a low voice.
"Um, Master... this is our bedroom..."
"...Ling Shuang, follow me to the main hall."
The main hall wasn't far from this small courtyard. Of course, time also seemed to have passed slower than Hua expected. When she led Ling Shuang across the smooth stone path and pushed open the main hall doors, she saw the candles inside hadn't completely burned out yet.
Seeing no one else present, Ling Shuang's previously lifeless face gradually showed some vitality. Though she still kept her lips pressed tight, not speaking or asking why Master had called her alone, her eyes darted around freely, taking in every detail of the hall.
Once inside, Hua stood by the bedside, motionless for a long time, naturally saying nothing. Ling Shuang, however, ran around the main hall without reservation.
Seeing her Master show no sign of stopping her, she even suddenly flopped onto Hua's bed. If anyone else saw her like this, "jaw-dropping" would likely be an understatement.
After all, in everyone else's eyes, she was the one whose strength and personality most closely resembled the Master herself—calm and composed at best, indifferent and aloof at worst, hardly behaving like a child.
"Huh?" She grabbed a handful of black hair from Hua's bedsheet. "Is this the hair Master cut off earlier?"
While Hua was preoccupied with other thoughts, Ling Shuang held the pile of hair, ran behind Hua, stared at the cut ends of her hair for a moment, and then said something astonishing: "The cut isn't clean. It shows the swordsman's skill was mediocre, relying only on raw strength and brute force. That doesn't seem like Master's style... Master, did that guy cut it for you?"
"..." Even Hua, who prided herself on weathering five thousand years of storms, felt a flicker of panic at Ling Shuang's question. But she still answered truthfully: "Yes. What of it?"
Ling Shuang tilted her head, pouting. "Master, your taste in men isn't great, huh."
"..."
"Uh, cough cough, Master, I was just kidding! You don't need to pull out the Xuanyuan Sword..." Seeing Hua pull out the Xuanyuan Sword without a word, Ling Shuang, feeling guilty, backed away continuously.
But clearly, no matter how speechless Hua felt, she wouldn't draw her sword over something like this—she flipped her wrist, reversed her grip on the hilt, and offered the sword to Ling Shuang.
"Uh uh, Master, what's this..."
"Your sword broke. Here's a new one."
"Thank you, Master! Uh, so, Master, just how many Xuanyuan Swords do you have?"
"..."
"Uh... Master, um, if there's nothing else, I'll go pack my things now."
"Stay." Hua sighed. "What do you even have to pack? Talk with me for a while."
"Ah... Huh?"
Ignoring whether Ling Shuang agreed or not, Hua continued speaking to herself: "Among the seven disciples, Chaoyu has been with me the longest, Su Mei is the most intelligent, Suyin is the kindest, Yanqing has the best talent for martial arts, but the only one who has mastered the Taixuan Sword God technique and whose sword heart reached the Taixuan realm is you, Ling Shuang. Why do you think that is?"
"Master... You ask me, but I don't know either..."
Hua shook her head; she wasn't really asking. "I will have Chaoyu establish her own sect under the name 'Taixuan Sword School.' Su Mei probably won't ever return to Mount Taixuan. Given Yanqing's personality, he'll likely follow her... Only you, Ling Shuang, I want you to inherit the legacy of Mount Taixuan."
"Huh?" Ling Shuang rubbed her ears, thinking she must have misheard her Master.
After a brief moment of thought, she gave an answer Hua had already anticipated: "I don't want to!"
Hua smiled faintly. "I know what you're thinking. But I've already taught you all the Taixuan Sword Ki. The so-called legacy isn't some technique, nor wealth, just a secret... A buried piece of the past concerning me, concerning many others—You also want to know why Michael seemed to have deviated, yet could maintain his sanity and human form, right? Including that girl who looked like a youkai earlier, and even your Master... myself..."
"But... why tell only me these things, Master?"
"Simple. Because he specifically glanced at you when he was in the room earlier."
"Huh?" Ling Shuang frowned, taking a long moment to decipher that sentence.
"He doesn't act without reason. In the future he desires, you must play an extremely important role, or be connected to someone extremely important. And personally...
"You are, after all, my best disciple. Is there a problem with a master wanting to tell her secrets to her best disciple?"
There was actually a third reason—she didn't know exactly when it started, but an inexplicable premonition had settled over Hua's heart. It wasn't necessarily good or bad, but it felt disturbingly similar to the premonitions she had before using Fenghuang Down's First Power the previous two times...
How could that be possible? There shouldn't be any enemy on Earth now that requires her to unleash Fenghuang Down's First Power...
But regardless, if things truly reached that point, she hoped that before she regained everything, someone could safeguard these memories for her, protect this land of Shenzhou for her...