Jingliu rushed to the spot where Lucian had just been standing, hoping to find even his slightest trace, but unfortunately, she found nothing—there was no sign of him at all, as if he had never existed.
"No... No... Master! You must be teasing me!"
"You're still angry at me, right?!"
"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have gotten angry with you! It's my fault, please forgive me!"
Jingliu, with tears in her eyes, searched for Lucian like a madwoman, shouting relentlessly.
Baiheng, watching her best friend's frantic behavior, had a bad premonition in her heart, feeling that something truly was wrong this time, especially with her sharp intuition—it told her that Lucian really was gone.
'No way... Where did he go?' Baiheng thought with worry, her face looking anxious. 'Or could he have met with misfortune?'
In the end, she began searching everywhere with Jingliu, looking for Lucian's tracks in the Xianzhou Luofu.
Teng Xiao, who was busy helping the injured due to Shuhu, was confused by why the two women were running all over the Xianzhou Luofu, turning it upside down.
Soon, upon learning that the two were actually searching for Lucian, he was rendered speechless.
In the end, to prevent the two, especially Jingliu, from causing further chaos in the already chaotic Xianzhou Luofu, he had someone fetch them to him and, when they met, immediately reminded them.
"Why are you searching for him here? I mean, his here-one-moment-gone-the-next ability probably means he returned to the Cangcheng, right? Why are you two turning this place upside down?"
Upon hearing Teng Xiao's reminder, the two women suddenly clung to it like a lifeline.
"Yes, that must be it, Master went home..." Jingliu, with a somewhat lifeless gaze, muttered to herself, comforting her restless heart. "When I return, he'll definitely be sitting in the courtyard, basking in the sun, then smiling at me like always..."
===
[Script: Jingliu, complete.]
As this message appeared inside his mind, Lucian's vision narrowed, and the scenery before him shifted back to the outskirts of Belobog—it was the same place he had stayed over a thousand years ago when he lured Nous here for Herta.
No, that was not quite right.
Yes, in Jingliu's script, he had lived through over a thousand years, but in reality, only a little more than twenty hours had actually passed.
"Hahh..." Lucian let out a deep sigh—his expression looked complicated. "After staying in the Cangcheng for so long, suddenly coming back feels a bit strange..."
Just as he was adjusting to the familiar surroundings, a voice suddenly called out from behind.
"Mr. Lucian!"
Hearing this, Lucian turned around and saw a sultry, voluptuous woman approaching him with a group of people following behind her.
It was none other than Jade, the IPC's cooperative representative.
"Well, well, who do we have here... Jade the sharp-eyed investor, huh..." Lucian remarked with a slight smile.
Surprisingly, yet not surprisingly, his handsome, calm, magnetic smile was enough to make even the aloof Jade freeze for a brief moment.
"...Thank you for the compliment." Jade smiled and bowed her head slightly after a brief pause. "If not for a keen eye, I never would've made it this far."
Lucian nodded calmly before glancing at the group standing behind her.
"So... what are you doing here with a bunch of IPC staff?" Lucian asked, raising his eyebrows.
"I saw the Aeon of Erudition focus THEIR gaze on this location." Jade replied in a very polite manner. "So, after gaining permission from Ms. Cocolia, I came here to investigate the aftermath."
For the IPC, this kind of opportunity was obviously never something she would pass up.
Besides, as a professional, and after being entrusted personally by Diamond, she was determined to do her best to please Lucian.
Jade was naturally a kind woman—as long as others treated her with respect, then she would do the same.
Yet because Lucian had been personally named by Diamond as a collaborative partner, and because he also held powerful connections with the members of the Genius Society, she unconsciously showed him extra courtesy without even realizing it.
"Alright, I'll look around too."
Lucian also wanted to know if Nous's projection had left behind any treasures.
If that were the case, he could not afford to let the IPC swoop in and snatch them.
Jade naturally did not refuse and even invited Lucian to sit and have tea with her while they waited for her subordinates' investigations.
Right after sitting on the sofa Jade had prepared, Lucian opened the System.
[Host: Lucian]
[Ability: Disarm, Absolute Hit, Godly Bandage, Immortal Kneel]
[Follower: Tribios 1, Mortis 1, Feixiao 1, Yueyu 1, Castorice 1, Polyxia 1, Jingliu 1, Baiheng 0]
[Script: 0]
[Revive Follower]
'Baiheng isn't affected by the script, huh...'
Lucian couldn't help but sigh with pity.
'Good thing she became my follower, or I couldn't revive her.'
Baiheng was, without a doubt, a good and kind woman who could ease one's depression just by being near her—a woman who didn't deserve such a tragic end.
He naturally could never bear to let her remain in eternal slumber—even if she was not always at his side, just knowing she was alive and well gave him some peace.
In the end, with this thought in mind, Lucian immediately clicked 'Revive Follower' with his will, and soon, Baiheng's status shifted from 0 to 1.
'Maybe I should head back to the Xianzhou Alliance. I wonder if the Cangcheng will survive like Koolur...'
*Beep-Beep!*
As Lucian was deep in thought, pondering when to go to the Xianzhou Alliance, something buzzed inside his clothes.
Lucian groped through his clothes, then pulled a buzzing item out.
It was a jade abacus—or more precisely, the Xianzhou Cangcheng's unique jade abacus.
[General, where did you go?! We have arrived at the coordinates, ready to aid the Luofu, but there's nothing here!]
It was none other than the voice message from Chief Counselor Xuanlian.
Lucian was surprised as he heard Xuanlian's voice.
Evidently, just like Koolur, the script's effect on reality this time had also brought out the Xianzhou Cangcheng.
Did that mean he had gained yet another title?
Supreme Guardian of Jarilo-VI, Savior of Koolur, Acting Arbiter-General of the Xianzhou Cangcheng...
[Well, it's complicated, but the war is over because some changes occurred. Anyway, come to the coordinates I will send you and meet me there.]
Lucian sent this voice message along with Jarilo-VI's coordinates to Xuanlian.
Needless to say, the three civilizations needed to get acquainted with each other, and with one, same leader, there would be no risk of them clashing and destroying each other.
===
Meanwhile, on a planet occupied by the cobrakinds, inside a certain house, Jingliu, who had fallen asleep after slaughtering countless cobrakinds, suddenly opened her eyes from a dream.
"MASTER!"
Jingliu shouted with intensity, reaching out her hand in desperation toward the ceiling before abruptly sitting up.
"Where... am I..."
Absent-minded for a moment, Jingliu soon remembered—this was one of the cobrakinds' lairs, and she had fallen asleep here to recuperate.
"I was supposed to find Master and apologize to him... Wait, Master?"
Jingliu was taken aback by what she had just said.
She remembered that after the Xianzhou Cangcheng was destroyed and she evacuated to the Xianzhou Luofu, it was a woman clad in heavy armor who taught her swordsmanship—she was her master.
Yet she also clearly remembered that when the Xianzhou Cangcheng was about to be destroyed, Lucian came and saved it by slaying the Devourer of Worlds, Rahu, and it was he who then taught her swordsmanship and aura, becoming her master.
As Jingliu reorganized her messy memories, the second memory gradually grew clearer and clearer.
Ever since she was mara-struck, many of her memories had already been eroded, leaving her with only fragments of important moments.
Yet the second memory that suddenly resurfaced contained even the smallest details—like how, on October 12th, Year 6609 Star Calendar, at five in the afternoon, she ate a tofu pudding with Lucian.
Heavenly Ascendant, Baiheng, kissing, and even... having sex with her own master...
However, right after, her master suddenly disappeared, leaving behind only the words 'goodbye'...
"Right… it was because I threw a tantrum that Master left me... He must be angry..."
Jingliu's crystal-clear second memory immediately took over her mind, making her first and original memory pale in comparison.
Her already limited original memory, eroded by mara, had now become secondary, while what she experienced in the dream, her feelings for Lucian, filled her completely and became primary.
However, this caused a wave of sorrow to well up inside her.
She regretted her recklessness, her misunderstanding of her master, and the fact that she lost him because of it.
Soon enough, tears flowed uncontrollably from Jingliu's eyes—she lifted her hand over and over to wipe them away, but they refused to stop.
A cold and emotionless woman who had shed rivers of blood without ever crying now found herself brokenhearted because of a single man.
In the next moment...
"AAAAAAHHH—!!!"
Jingliu screamed hysterically as grief, regret, sorrow—countless negative emotions engulfed her mind.
Her light-red eyes turned deep crimson, golden branches began sprouting from her head, while wooden markings spread across her limbs.
Clearly, her violent emotions had reawakened the mara that Luocha had suppressed.
However, just as she was about to lose herself to full mara corruption, a green glow suddenly bloomed from her lower abdomen.
In that instant, an overwhelming power of Abundance, stronger even than Luocha's, surged through her entire body, stripping away the mara afflicting her and restoring her to her normal self.
"Mas... ter..."
As soon as Jingliu regained her composure and sanity, she touched her lower abdomen and muttered in disbelief, realizing it was none other than her master's blessing of Abundance.
After all, only her master had been inside her, so who else could it be?
Besides, she still remembered clearly that she had even forced his 'thing' to remain inside her as he unloaded that night, locking him in with her legs and keeping it there herself.
However, this only proved that everything that had happened between them had truly happened, not just some dream or illusion.
"Hiks... Master... You... You saved me again..." Jingliu muttered softly through sorrowful sobs. "In the end, everything you did was always for my sake..."
As she thought about how much her master had done for her, yet how she had thrown a tantrum and broken his heart over a mere misunderstanding, her chest ached painfully.
In an instant, Jingliu decided—she needed to hear her master personally say he forgave her, and only then could the painful ache that tortured her heart be healed.
===
[A bonus chapter for every 500 Power Stones.]
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