Chapter 257: The Thousand‑Star Voyage PV

Teyvat, Liyue.

"Oh? Isn't this Miss Xueyi?" Hu Tao instantly laughed, finding the gloomy atmosphere quite fitting; this place of mountains, waters, and pervasive yin qi doesn't feel like a Spirit Vessel, but rather like Teyvat.

"Looking at Miss Huohu's reaction, this must be the scene from her first day on the job, right?" Zhongli said from beside.

"…So this is the Ten King Office?" Hu Tao widened her eyes. "No way? I imagined the Ten King Office would be a gloomy place, but building it here is just too terrifying!"

"Hehe… Hall Master, there's something you don't know."

Zhongli sat on a pear‑wood chair, holding a teacup, and said leisurely: "When Miss Huohu was holding the compass to locate the position earlier, I took a quick glance. The Ten King Office's Kán position is by the abyss, its Gèn palace missing a corner, and the mountain shape resembles a dragon's spine split by a sword. In feng shui there is a concept called 'Dragon‑cutting Momentum'; the Ten King Office was sited here to specifically counter lingering resentful souls."

"Ah dear Guest Minister, you know feng shui so well… What else in this world could you possibly not know?"

Hu Tao looked at Zhongli with admiration; honestly, she couldn't figure it out either. Though the Guest Minister didn't look old at all, spending his days either walking birds or listening to operas, never seen him study, yet when he spoke his words came in complete sets, as if he knew everything about astronomy and geography.

"Hall Master, you overpraise me; feng shui is vast and profound, I only know a little bit."

——

"Are you okay?"

"I'll help you up…"

A hand suddenly reached toward Huohu; she lifted her head dazedly, only to meet Hanya's pale‑as‑paper face, and was instantly terrified, her soul scattering as she cracked open on the spot—

"Aaaah—!!"

Huohu sprang forward from the spot, scrambling to flee, but after passing the mountain gate she paid no attention to the steps beneath her and tumbled down the slope with a gurgling sound.

Huohu rubbed her head, climbed up from the ground, and saw an ancient, simple gate before her. The doorpaper was already tattered, swinging feebly in the wind, making a "pat‑pat" sound as if something was gently tapping.

"Dong‑dong—!"

Behind the door, something was indeed tapping; the fragile wooden door could no longer bear the impact, and with louder "dong‑dong" sounds, Huohu's pupils tightened into tiny black dots from terror.

Until… the gate was suddenly ripped open, and a blue phantom surged out, flying straight toward Huohu!

"I'll devour you—!!"

Huohu was so frightened she tipped her head back and fell straight off the sofa; amid Weiba's "hahaha" laughter, the soul with clasped hands floated up gently.

Looking at the color‑faded Huohu on the ground, Weiba laughed with tears welling up: "You yourself asked me to tell a horror story to train your courage, and this is literally your first day on the job experience. Scared that much? Sigh…"

Seeing Huohu's soul drifting in midair, Weiba bumped it with his body, sending it back into her.

"That concludes today's courage training!"

Regaining consciousness, Huohu grasped the remote, about to cut the screen, but Weiba snatched it in one bite: "That's where it is, let me continue!"

——

Demon Slayer.

"Aaaaah—!!"

"So so so cute!"

Shanyì suddenly sprang up from the sickbed, his whole body curled like a boiled shrimp, emitting an indescribable screech, as if pink bubbles were sprouting from his head.

"If I could, I would protect her for a lifetime!!"

The entire Butterfly House shuddered. Xiao Kui, who was hanging out the sheets, twitched his hand, and the freshly washed sheets fell to the floor.

"Huh? Your words have made my ears grow calluses," Yizhu said with a scowl, "Just you? If you two encounter a demon and get scared unconscious, I won't carry you back."

"Th‑that's just an accident…!" When mentioning his own fainting from cowardice, Shanyì's face instantly flushed a pork‑liver hue, "And why are you so sure I'll definitely faint?! I'm not that cowardly! Besides, after I faint, when I wake up the demons are already dead! And I have a lot of wounds now! I have no idea what happened!"

"Shanyì…" Tanjiro laughed awkwardly twice; although he himself knew nothing about it, as a companion Tanjiro understood his fighting habits well—compared to the awake Shanyì, the fainted version was more reliable.

——

"After a few days of playing on the Spirit Vessel, Xing suddenly received a message from Pam: the train was about to head to Wash Car Star, telling her to finish her outdoor play and return early for a big cleaning."

"After returning to the train, Pam noticed a slight deviation in the forward direction, something almost impossible for Pam, who is always precise in navigation."

"Saying that, Pam intended to go to the control room to check, but at that moment the train suddenly jolted violently, the carriage lights went out for an instant, and when Xing got up from the floor, she suddenly saw a huge dark silhouette flash outside the window."

"When Sanyueqi leaned on the window to look, the dark silhouette had already vanished, replaced by a red cosmic vista outside the window."

"Why did the train's window become… like this? All red… what's happening?" Sanyueqi scratched his head in confusion.

"Fell into the third dimension?"

"Third dimension?" Sanyueqi was even more bewildered, "What are you talking about… you don't expect me to understand, do you?"

"Dan Heng rushed over quickly, indicating that the train's progress was now blocked; the earlier commotion caused a chain reaction, a spacecraft rear‑ended the train, and after the collision two guys approached the train."

"While speaking, Dan Heng pointed to a red‑haired man muttering to a potted plant not far away."

"The man was clad in silver armor, looking like a medieval knight, while the other seemed to be his attendant. This pairing… for a moment Sanyueqi really couldn't tell whether they came for trouble or something else."

"Xing and Sanyueqi approached them, and the train's lights suddenly dimmed, then a beam struck the red‑haired knight's head."

"Shimmering universe, the other side's anomalous state blooming like paint—" the knight bowed slightly, his voice low and gentle, slowly raising his right hand; his armored fingers hovered before the potted plant as if it were a noble lady.

"You… are truly beautiful.""