Fu Xuan's face was dark with exasperation. "General, is this really the time for such jokes? Don't you think you're being a bit too optimistic?"
If I truly believed in Elation, would you even dare tease me like that? And would I still get mad when Qingque sneaks off to slack?
She looked up at the enormous shadow in the sky, tension creeping through her chest despite herself.
The Aeon's countless masks scattered and whirled across the air, leaving behind long trails of dazzling light.
Is It… weaving a cage?
Seeing that Fu Xuan wasn't in the mood to play along, Jing Yuan's expression shifted in an instant. He chuckled and said lightly, "Wherever the Joyseeker walks, there is laughter—rarely blood. Though I can't guess THEIR purpose, I'd say our safety is assured. In fact, there's no safer place in all the cosmos than right here."
That was… not unreasonable.
Fu Xuan nodded slightly. Her face remained taut, but her heart eased a fraction.
Although Aha acted without inhibition, there were no records of THEM harming anyone directly. Despite THEIR apparent frivolity, THEIR power was among the most formidable of all Aeons.
Who would dare cause trouble under Aha's gaze? They'd become the biggest joke in the entire Amber Era.
"Not necessarily," Feixiao said, still wary. She placed one hand on her hip and the other beneath her chin, her tone grave. "Many Borisin nobles share a taste for cruelty—they wound their prey but refuse to kill, letting them flee, bleed, and scream until, at the final step before escape, their claws pierce the heart."
Jiaoqiu flicked his feather fan, his expression dark. "Worse still—some build monuments to flaunt their power. They gather the severed heads of their enemies and stack them into pyramids. Those faces—bloodstained, frozen in terror…"
He didn't continue, but the mere image chilled the air.
Tilting his head upward, Jiaoqiu spoke in a low, steady voice. "And if THEY'VE recently taken up a similar hobby?"
It wasn't impossible.
And yet…
Such an image clashed wildly with everything known about the Joyseeker. Still, given Aha's erratic nature, who could say for sure what THEY wouldn't do?
Though the possibility seemed remote, that faint thread of uncertainty tightened their hearts.
If Aha had gone mad… what power could they possibly wield in defense?
This was an Aeon—one of the most powerful in existence!
The group fell into tense silence.
Feixiao's fingers twitched toward her weapon, but as she felt the overwhelming pressure radiating from the shadow above, she froze.
It was useless. Against an Aeon, they didn't even qualify to fight back. The gap between mortal and god was despair itself.
After a brief pause, Jing Yuan said, "At this point, our only recourse is to try communication."
He sighed softly. It hardly counted as a plan, but in this sealed void shaped by Aha's will, no other option existed.
He took a step forward, performing a formal Xianzhou salute—whether Aha understood or not—and spoke with utmost respect. "We greet the Joyseeker. To what do we mortals owe the honor of this summons?"
His voice echoed across the emptiness. But Aha did not respond.
The masks' light trails thickened, weaving together until they formed a complete sphere that enveloped them entirely.
Then the masks drifted back into the Aeon's vast shadowed hand.
At last, THEIR second message thundered directly into their minds—unrestrained, irreverent, utterly at odds with the divine majesty one might expect.
"Woo-hoo! Finally done—gods, that was exhausting!" The shadow mimed wiping sweat from Its brow, laughing gleefully. "Now then—those other fools won't be ruining my fun anytime soon!"
What did that mean?!
The group exchanged alarmed looks. This prismatic barrier—was it meant to block other Aeons? For what purpose would Aha go to such trouble?
Clearly, the Aeon's attention was on Fu Xuan. But why her? Why would a pseudo-Emanator without even a true Path be worth such effort?
Before anyone could make sense of it, the vast shadow—brimming with unfathomable might—suddenly vanished.
They looked around frantically. No trace of Aha remained.
"Ahhh!!"
A scream tore through the silence.
"What happened?!" Jing Yuan spun toward Fu Xuan—only to see a mask plastered tightly across her face.
Fu Xuan struggled desperately, pouring all her newly gained Emanator power into tearing it away—but it was useless.
Aha's voice rippled through their minds, brimming with mischief. "No~ need to panic, no need at all! I'm just taking a peek, that's all—seeing what trick slipped past the Aeons to push your Path so far!"
"What is this?!" Fu Xuan cried.
Her consciousness lurched—her mind felt severed from her body as memories surged like a flood, roaring beyond her control. She wanted to resist but could only watch helplessly, as though sitting in a theater seat, powerless before the reel of her own life flashing before her eyes.
The mask was reading her memories!
Images flickered past faster than her Third Eye could track—a blur of time, sensation, and thought.
By the time the others rushed forward, only a few steps away, the mask had already finished its extraction.
Before they could touch her, it peeled away from her skin.
"—Hah! Hah…"
Fu Xuan gasped as if she had been choking. Her eyes widened; her breathing came quick and ragged.
The rapid dredging of her memories had left her mind feeling suffocated—the discomfort so intense she could barely focus.
The mask drifted upward into the hand of a reappearing black silhouette.
Aha burst into unrestrained laughter. "Woo-hoo! So, it was alchemy! Fascinating! To think that the essence of the Imaginary Tree's sap, refined through special combinations of ingredients, could mimic actual cosmic laws! And mortals can absorb it directly?! Unheard of! Absolutely delightful!"
THEY twirled gleefully in midair. "Can you imagine a greater joy? Mortals discovering how to use the laws of the universe before we—the Aeons THEMSELVES—ever did? Hah! What an embarrassment! What a delicious, glorious embarrassment!"
Using the laws of the universe… before the Aeons themselves?
Those words detonated in Jing Yuan's mind like thunder.
Impossible—who could know the universe better than an Aeon?
It was madness. Unthinkable.
No being in existence surpassed the Aeons—unless one counted the abstract laws of the cosmos itself.
But that was myth, the sort of nonsense street philosophers muttered about—like some "Way of Heaven." How could such a thing truly exist?
And yet…
The silence among them was heavy. Each looked to the other, recognizing the same grim realization in their eyes.
Aha had no reason to lie.
So, this was the true nature of the elixir's formula? Then what kind of being could have created it?
And the man who so casually sold those memory bubbles—Sylvester—just what was he?
Jing Yuan felt a chill trace down his spine. That absurd rumor—"Sylvester, the hidden Aeon"—no longer seemed absurd at all. In fact… it might have been too conservative.