Into the Cosmos (Star Rail SI, Chaos Gacha) (Patreon)

Chapter 46: The Ambrosial Arbor

The silence lasted for a moment longer before it was broken by Fu Xuan, who finally pulled her gaze from me and let out a sigh, then held her head as a small groan escaped her lips.

“Can things get any more ridiculous?” she whispered to herself, but since I could read lips I was able to understand what she said.

Fu Xuan then looked at me again as she cleared her expression. “I learned some shocking things if I’m being completely honest, and the most unbelievable was that their reason for being here is actually you.”

“Me?” I asked, going along with the flow of things as I pointed at myself and dumbly blinked.

“Yes, you can question Kafka yourself, take as long as you wish. Now please excuse me, I must report what happened to the general immediately,” Fu Xuan replied calmly before dismissing herself.

I turned to the others for their opinion on what to do next, noting silently that Tingyun had gone back to her regular expression before Welt spoke up.

“…Caelus, you go ask her. I know you still have many questions for Kafka yourself,” Welt suggested reassuringly.

“Just don’t fall for her tricks,” March chimed in next.

“Thanks, Mr. Yang, and I won’t,” I nodded politely at him before stepping forward toward where Kafka was still restrained and who was looking at me calmly.

“Hi, Caelus,” Kafka immediately greeted as I stood in front of her. “…You’ve changed so much. I’m sorry you have to see me in such a sorry state.”

Now aware that my MS was still active, I looked Kafka straight in her pretty eyes and transmitted a small message to her through the use of genjutsu.

“Let’s meet later in private. I have some things I want to share with you.”

Proving that she was a professional, the only reaction I received from Kafka at invading her mind like that was her form stiffening for a second before her lips curled even further, letting me know she understood.

“Are you alright?” I asked softly out loud, never once removing my gaze from her own.

“Hmhmhm, you’re concerned about me even though you just went through such an experience?” Kafka asked playfully as her eyes closed for a moment before reopening. “Maybe you haven’t changed too much after all.”

“Anyways, I’m fine. The Xianzhou is always courteous with its captives. Now, we should move on to the questioning, don’t you think? We don’t have much time left thanks to that little show from earlier,” Kafka reassured me before moving the conversation along.

“Since Elio can’t see my future anymore, what did Fu Xuan see?” I asked, truly curious to know how much things had changed from what I remembered.

“Fufufu, straight to the juicy parts, huh? As I explained earlier back on the Express. While you are now a blank spot for Elio and I’m guessing every other being out there, that doesn’t hold true for your little friends. Well, most of them at least,” Kafka explained, obviously referring to my Familiars Virgo and Aries.

“From what I was informed, your presence at the moment hasn’t caused the future Elio carefully orchestrated to go too much off track. Though I admit, Nous’s gaze took me by surprise since that had never been a possibility in Elio’s script,” she went into more detail, sounding pleased at experiencing such a turn of events.

“Moving on, Fu Xuan learned three things from me a while ago. That the Stellaron Hunters are not the enemies of the Xianzhou. Two, someone else brought the Stellaron to the Xianzhou and activated it — a result of internal unrest and external aggression. Traitors of the Luofu and enemies from outside want to overthrow the Xianzhou,” Kafka explained calmly, her gaze turning to the people gathered somewhere behind me as she mentioned traitors before turning back to me.

When she saw my non-surprised face, she smiled wider before continuing. “And lastly, something that the Xianzhou Alliance would have never guessed in their wildest imaginations. If the Stellaron Hunters aren’t the cause of all this, then why are Bladie and I even here?”

“For me,” I answered before she could, getting a small approving nod from her.

“Correct. Our main goal was to bring you, the Astral Express crew, to the Xianzhou. While the future is now muddled thanks to your mere presence, Elio still felt that the power of The Hunt would be important in the future. That’s why the Astral Express crew had to come to the Luofu and achieve something important to the Xianzhou.”

“With the Xianzhou owing you a favor, in the future you could call upon them if the opportunity was critical enough,” Kafka said with a small laugh.

Then she went on explaining a few more details that weren’t too important, but since we were definitely being heard by the others and monitored by the Xianzhou, Kafka kept up with her act the whole time.

‘I see. Nothing too major has changed then. Probably due to the fact that all of those events were already happening anyway with or without our intervention. Going forward, though, that will no longer be the case. At the most, I can only expect for the big things to remain the same,’ I inwardly pondered to myself with crossed arms.

“…In the future, will I still end up facing against Nanook the Destruction?” I asked as I brought my gaze back to Kafka, who blinked in surprise at my knowledge before nodding her head.

“I’m surprised you know that, but yes. That clash will eventually happen, since I doubt you will let your friends face Them alone,” Kafka revealed, her face turning extremely serious for a moment, detailing its importance.

“Not a chance in hell,” I stated just as seriously, getting Kafka’s look to soften again.

“Thought so, though I’m afraid that’s all the information I know. As you are now, though, I must confess that I find myself a lot more confident for our future,” Kafka muttered, looking at me with a knowing look.

Smirking confidently, I puffed out my chest. “Praise me more!”

“Fufufu, at least your attitude hasn’t changed,” Kafka giggled in fond amusement.

Just as I was about to ask her something else, Kafka’s gaze shifted to the distance, and turning I saw it. The huge dead tree we had seen before suddenly started growing at a rapid pace, with golden veins in its roots and yellow petals in its branches.

It was as if it had been revived.

“Fufufu, it’s begun,” Kafka murmured before turning back to me as her restraints suddenly were broken and she landed on the ground.

“Til next time, Caelus~” Kafka said as she started walking to the side without a care in the world as I stood rooted in place.

The next moment, Blade suddenly appeared between me and Kafka with his blade pointed at me, causing me to raise an unimpressed eyebrow at him.

“You really want to fight me?” I asked, summoning Ryūjin Jakka to my hand and immediately being engulfed in flames.

“Let’s go, Bladie,” Kafka interrupted before anything could happen, causing me to inwardly pout since I wanted to spar with Bladie for a bit. “We have two more places to visit.”

“Hmph.” That was all Blade said, dismissing his sword but keeping a curious and wary gaze toward my blade as he followed behind Kafka.

With one last gaze thrown my way by Kafka, she turned her back to the edge of the platform before letting herself fall backwards with another chuckle, with Blade doing the same a moment later.

“…That was cool. I’m definitely copying that,” I muttered with stars in my eyes as I dismissed my blade as well, just in time for March to arrive.

“Did Kafka escape?” she asked incredulously before groaning into her hands. “How are we going to explain it to the Master Diviner!?”

“If everything she said is true, we won’t need to explain anything,” I said with a smile as I patted March’s head in an attempt to get her to relax.

“…Hey, why are you speaking in riddles? Did she brainwash you!?” March exclaimed as she slapped my hand away and looked at me closely for any obvious signs of manipulation.

“Of course not, such methods don’t work on me,” I said with a scoff.

Moving my gaze away from March, I focused on Tingyun, who was currently looking out into the distant tree by herself and seemingly muttering to herself.

Elbowing March in the side gently, I caught her attention along with Welt’s and then pointed with my head in Tingyun’s direction and whispered lowly so only they could hear.

“Follow me and be on your guard.”

March’s eyes widened, clearly remembering my words from before about being wary of Tingyun, before narrowing and nodding at me as she silently followed behind me.

Welt just tightened his grip on his cane, doing the same.

As we neared her location, we caught the end of what the fox woman was muttering to herself.

“Amazing, absolutely amazing! Even the long-lived might not witness something like this in their lifetime! I’m so lucky!” Tingyun muttered with a somewhat crazy tone in her voice, revealing some of her true self.

Even more wary of her now, we silently looked at each other before letting Welt take the lead while I pondered my options.

‘Should I take her out? If I’m fast enough, I just realized I could maybe transport us into my Kamui dimension where I would be able to go all out without risk of harming anyone,’ I heavily debated as my fingers twitched for a moment before remembering Kafka’s words and also personally recalling that if we wanted the Xianzhou to owe us a favor, I had to wait for a more opportune moment.

With Tingyun being somewhat known and still trusted from what I was able to gather, I would be seen as an enemy if I suddenly attacked her out of the blue.

‘I need to have a private conversation with General Jing Yuan and share my suspicions about Tingyun. I’ll just let him decide how to best handle this matter.’

With a plan in motion, I relaxed as I focused back on the conversation and caught Welt explaining that the cause of the dead tree seemingly reviving was due to the Stellaron.

Not dawdling any further, we made our way to where Fu Xuan and Jing Yuan were speaking and arrived just in time for the latter to turn to us with a smile that meant trouble.

“Let me guess, more errands?” I asked with a groan before I winced as March’s elbow dug into my side.

Jing Yuan then went on to explain his plan of going after the Ambrosial Arbor, what they were calling the big glowing tree, with us going in ahead of Fu Xuan through a secret path.

He and Fu Xuan argued for a bit about the laws and secrecy and a bunch of nonsense before it was eventually settled with Jing Yuan accepting our help officially in the sealing of the Stellaron.

Before we moved on our way, I coughed into my fist, bringing his attention. “General, might I borrow a few minutes of your time? I wish to speak to you privately.”

Raising a curious eyebrow at me and seeing my serious expression, Jing Yuan nodded, and we waited as everyone went ahead with March and Welt giving me subtle nods before we were finally alone.

“Now, what is it that you wanted to speak to me about and couldn’t be said in the presence of the others?” Jing Yuan asked calmly with crossed arms.

“General, would you mind if I be frank?” I asked instead.

“Please, go ahead. I would prefer it, in fact,” he said with a nod.

“Thank you. The guide you assigned to us, Tingyun, I have reason to believe that she can’t be trusted and might possibly be involved in what’s happening currently,” I declared, getting straight to the point.

Raising the other eyebrow and joining the other at my words, Jing Yuan stared at me for a moment in silence before letting out a sigh and then smiling a hollow smile.

“So, you were able to see it too,” he said, surprising me a bit that he was aware that something might be off with the fox woman.

“When I found out we could be dealing with internal traitors, I didn’t want to believe that Miss Tingyun could betray us, so I kept it to myself for this time. That was the reason I asked Yukong to assign her to you and your friends, so you could keep an eye on her,” Jing Yuan revealed, making my eyebrow twitch a bit since the bastard literally assigned us a nuke, but I let it go a moment later with a sigh.

“I know it was a risk, but I had belief in your capabilities to deal with her should something happen,” he tried to reassure, to no effect.

‘That’s a fucking Lord Ravager you’re talking about,’ I thought, wanting to scream it at him in frustration, but it would just look shady as hell if I knew that, so I kept my mouth shut.

“Throughout our small time with her, I’ve seen some worrying signs about her and have debated to myself more than once whether I should run my sword through her heart, but held back in an attempt to not cause trouble here,” I revealed with a small click of my tongue.

“I thank you for your restraint. If you had acted in haste, I’m afraid others might have been pulled into the conflict and I would have been unable to shield you from the consequences,” Jing Yuan commented calmly, giving me a thankful nod.

“I’m not that dumb. I have an ability that lets me forcibly transport others into a personal dimension of sorts by touch. If I did something, I was thinking of pulling her there,” I revealed, feeling a bit reluctant to share that information with someone who was not a member of the Astral Express or the Stellaron Hunters, but needs must and all that.

“A personal dimension, you say? Fascinating,” Jing Yuan muttered, suddenly looking deep in thought before snapping out of it and looking at me with a tilted head.

“Esteemed guest, would you mind listening to me for a moment? I believe you have just given me a wonderful idea,” Jing Yuan muttered, suddenly all smiles.

“Sure, what is it?” I shrugged calmly, honestly relieved that the man had actually listened and had not dismissed me.

For the next few minutes, we discussed a plan that left me blinking in a bit of awe of the man at how simple but effective it was if pulled correctly.

“What do you say, young man? Do I have your cooperation? The plan relies heavily on you after all.”

“Heh, no wonder they call you the Divine Foresight,” I scoffed playfully before extending my hand with a grin. “I’m in.”

“Hahaha, excellent. Now you should catch up with the others before they start to worry,” Jing Yuan said as he gave my hand a firm handshake with a smile of his own.

Just like that I quickly made my way to where March, Welt, and Tingyun were waiting for me, with the former immediately zeroing in on me with a frown and hands on her hips.

“What took you so long, mister! The Master Diviner already left,” March exclaimed, but I could tell it was for show since her eyes didn’t have the usual annoyed expression she would usually get when she was angry at me.

“It’s fine, March, let us be on our way,” Welt interrupted as he gave me a small nod, probably already aware of what I had discussed.

“Follow me, benefactors. The Alchemy Commission is not far,” Tingyun said with a smile, already standing next to the starskiff.

Smiling at her, we quickly got on board and were on our way as Tingyun told us some details of our destination.

‘It won’t be long now,’ I thought privately, looking at the smiling face of the fox woman in disguise from the corner of my eye for a moment before looking forward again.

Using the time I had available, I decided to roll the tickets I had been saving.

[Rolling…]

[Divine Gaming]

|Mythical Skill|

You are godlike at all kinds of games, chess, video games, gambling, bottle tosss anything of the sort. You are nigh unbeatable at any game unless it is against another godlike being of a similar domain.

[Skill Ticket]

|Epic Item|

A ticket that acts as a 6x Advantage Platinum Skill Gacha Ticket

[Roll Skill Ticket? Yes or No?]

Looking at the rolls I got, a smile grew on my face at the insane rolls I had just gotten.

‘Huhuhu, wait until Wolfie hears about my new skill,’ I laughed evilly while rubbing my hands as if I was some supervillain, getting weird looks from the others that went ignored.

 ‘Roll it!’

[Rolling…]

[Master Fine Arts]

|Epic Skill|

You have the skills of a true Master Artist. Having incredible, almost supernatural skill in most fine arts, Drawing, Painting, Sketching, Sculpting, Engraving, etc., and in general, the art of making things more aesthetically pleasing comes naturally to you. Given some time and inspiration, you can produce masterpieces; you instinctively know what kind of aesthetics appeals to what kinds of people, how to pour your thoughts and emotions into your works, and create art that can shake the hearts of even the sternest art critics. You would most likely be renowned as one of the greatest in art history. And you are the exact kind of person they speak in legends of gods being pissy about mortals beating them in a game of skill and cursing them.

[Or]

[Meditation]

|Uncommon Skill|

You are well-versed in the art of meditation, which is calming down and clearing your mind of distractions. While in a meditative state, your energy recovers slightly faster.

[Or]

[Expert Discipline]

|Elite Skill|

You have a mind made of iron. Your focus is sharp as a blade, if you do not want to be interrupted you won't be, if you know you need to keep going, you will. You can endure the toughest of training, even if your body starts breaking down you can force it to keep going for longer. You are very resistant to mental influences and effects.

[Or]

[Caryll Runecraft]

|Elite Skill|

The Outer Ones beyond the stars whisper to you, and allow you to catch glimpses of their knowledge in the form of runes. You can memorize the runes of the Outer Gods to acquire some boons. But you will have to study to memorize the runes given to you. You can only have three runes active at a time List of Runes: https://bloodborne.wiki.fextralife.com/Caryll+Runes

[Or]

[Reduced Earth]

|Rare Skill|

Type Moon - Reduced earth is a special movement technique that allows the user to cover a short distance with a single extremely fast movement through a mix of practiced breathing, footwork, and exertion. But this technique is quite exhausting to use.

[Or]

[Master Conceptualization]

|Legendary Skill|

Conceptualization is your ability to understand what is below the veil of base reality. You are able to comprehend and understand arcane mysteries and Outer concepts like it is second nature. You are able to understand, dissect, learn and develop magic and mystery to a level that far outstrips most mages. You could hold a conversation with the old ones and even translate their words into runes with training if you were to ever hear them or use their words to break the minds of others.

‘…Damn. There are some nice rolls in there. Decisions, decisions.’