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Cold sweat was now trickling down Doctor Primitive's face.
A Stellaron Hunter had pulled out an artifact that clearly reeked of Equilibrium, and then proceeded to conjure a duplicate of him. Although the duplicate was obviously inferior to the original—and given enough time, he could dismantle such a thing with a flick of his wrist—the problem lay in the location.
Even though the phantom chessboard's range wasn't particularly large, he didn't have that kind of time, nor did he have any spare energy.
Lingyi wasn't about to play by any rules of chivalry. Seeing Doctor Primitive entangled by the phantom summoned by her mother, she charged in immediately. She started unloading a messy barrage of attacks—Ultra-Slashes, Guillotines, and whatever else she had in her arsenal.
'Jingliu,' who had intended to keep fighting, actually came to a halt. Essentially, the function of this chessboard was to unfold a zero-sum battle for the sake of Equilibrium. Her understanding of that was correct. But the key was that this battle could take place in the physical world; by projecting the board like this, it could be conducted within a specific radius.
Furthermore, as the one who deployed the board, 'Jingliu' could choose who within that range participated in the "Equalized" combat and who didn't. Thus, the scene became quite one-sided.
"This is just me, an amateur, playing with it. If an actual Arbitrator used this, wouldn't they be able to pull off even more exaggerated stunts?"
'Jingliu' felt a bit sentimental. The Path of Equilibrium and its Pathstriders had a bit of a Schrödinger's presence in the universe, but she hadn't expected the power of this Path to be so substantial. If she got into a fight in the future, could she just start by summoning a phantom and then jump into a "righteous" gang-beating every single time?
As the duplicate joined the fray, Doctor Primitive found almost all of his "Wonder Tools" being countered by his own phantom. He was forced into a steady retreat. Within moments, it looked like Lingyi was about to take him down with ease.
Suddenly, a bizarre change occurred!
The phantom Doctor Primitive released a containment device that was supposed to trap the real Doctor Primitive. However, at the moment of release, it suffered a mysterious malfunction. The targeting system failed, causing it to loop around and clamp onto Lingyi instead.
Not only that, the device itself suddenly disintegrated, releasing a burst of pure Imaginary energy. The resulting energy ripple struck Doctor Primitive, turning into a perfectly timed shove. It sent the Doctor flying instantly, hurtling toward the deep reaches of space.
How suspicious!
'Jingliu' immediately realized something was wrong. Two events of extremely low probability happening simultaneously? That wasn't something that happened by simple coincidence.
Despite her confusion, 'Jingliu' wasn't about to watch Doctor Primitive escape without doing anything. Like a streak of flowing light, she appeared almost instantly in the Doctor's flight path.
Her ice condensed into a long blade. 'Jingliu' locked onto Doctor Primitive's trajectory and swung! A slender arc of sword light, carrying a heavy intent of Destruction, formed instantly. That sword light was nearly larger than the satellite itself, and she had no intention of holding back.
As for Doctor Primitive, if he died, he died. If he didn't, Lingyi could take him back. 'Jingliu' was relatively indifferent to his fate.
But at that moment, another accident happened.
The dispersing ripples of Imaginary energy happened to trigger an anomaly. The condensed sword light met a counter-force head-on, causing the energy to detonate prematurely and shatter. The focused power turned into a sprawling storm. In an instant, it swallowed Doctor Primitive whole.
However, precisely because of this "accident," a strike that had a high probability of killing Doctor Primitive outright was transformed into a storm that only left him heavily injured.
"..."
'Jingliu' narrowed her eyes slightly. This feeling... it wasn't quite like Elio's foresight. Instead, it felt more like the "Domain of Silence" belonging to the Lord of Silence—the ability to manipulate low-probability events to disguise every murder as an accident.
While 'Jingliu' was pondering this, Lingyi had already seized the opportunity to completely dismantle Doctor Primitive's remaining resistance.
And she stayed true to her word. She broke Doctor Primitive's limbs and even stripped him of all his clothes and gadgets, leaving him in nothing but his underwear. She successfully shoved him into a transparent containment device.
Lingyi then approached 'Jingliu' and said gratefully, "Mother! Thank you for your help."
"It was nothing. More importantly, do you have arrangements for your return journey?"
Lingyi replied, "I do, but... truthfully, this isn't the first time we've captured Doctor Primitive."
"He has helpers?"
Lingyi nodded, then shook her head. "Perhaps. Every time we escort him, or right before a trial, some very strange accidents occur, allowing Doctor Primitive to escape."
Hearing this, 'Jingliu' had a pretty good idea of what was happening. But why would the Lord of Silence help Doctor Primitive? Those two didn't seem like the type to associate with each other.
Wait... it seemed both Doctor Primitive and the Lord of Silence were deeply interested in Nihility. In contrast, geniuses like Herta and Ruan Mei focused almost entirely on their own research and rarely concerned themselves with the end of the universe. In her memory, the Lord of Silence had founded the "Ninth Agency," and Doctor Primitive was also very focused on IX.
They couldn't have established private contact because of Nihility, could they? It wasn't impossible, though it was quite hard to believe.
Come to think of it, in the original plot, Acheron had mentioned wanting to find the Ninth Agency. Could there be plot developments related to this in the future?
"Be careful on the road. Prioritize your own safety."
"I understand, Mother. As for that Stellaron..." Lingyi turned to look at the Stellaron that was still slowly drifting toward the inhabited planet.
With help from the Galaxy Rangers and Herta, the Land of Light had become its own faction and cooked up a sealing method unique to the Giants of Light. Over the years, they had cleared quite a few star-rails blocked by Stellarons.
'Jingliu' gave Lingyi a smile. "I'll handle the Stellaron. I can't let you waste more time here."
Lingyi beamed. "Being with Mother can never be called a waste of time."
With that, Lingyi stepped closer and gave 'Jingliu' a gentle hug. "Long time no see, Mother. We've all missed you."
Although a Giant of Light could easily live for tens of thousands of years, the Giants in this world were still very young. Lingyi was only a few hundred years old. Being separated from her mother for centuries had naturally left her feeling quite nostalgic.
'Jingliu' returned the hug and said with a smile, "I missed you all too. I was worried about how you were doing, but it seems everything is going quite well?"
Lingyi nodded. "We founded the Land of Light. Although our population is still small—not nearly enough to be considered a full civilization—we've established a firm foothold in this world. Mother, if you have time, please come visit. The other two mothers have already been there."
'Jingliu' smiled and patted Lingyi's shoulder. "Alright, I'll find an opportunity to visit."
As Lingyi departed with Doctor Primitive, the phantom summoned by the chessboard began to fade rapidly, losing its reference point.
But before he vanished, he glanced at the real Jingliu a few times and scooped up a device that the real Doctor Primitive had left behind.
When the phantom finally disappeared, the object dropped right in front of 'Jingliu.'
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