Chapter 701: The Shanghai Alice Fantasy Orchestra

"Got it." Su Lin gazed intently at Kaguya, clapping his hands: "You've got a dead child hidden inside you too."

Years later, Su Lin never expected this middle-school-second-year-specific "blood sorrow" would still be chasing him—it was truly a blast from the past.

First it was Patient Zero, Lu Mingfei; then it spread to Kaguya; now it's showing signs of infecting me.

"Did seeing someone from your hometown trigger something?" Su Lin's eyes suddenly grew clear, as if enhanced with special effects, his lips curving into a warm, gentle smile:

"We can talk properly. Don't worry—I and Meng Qi are both professional psychologists."

"Hmm, let me think… perhaps I recalled something Klyne once said. He's always been right, isn't he?" Kaguya smiled.

Perfect. Let's go kill Klyne.

Not far away, Klyne's true body lay on a sofa in the historical fissure, drinking cola, while his projection wandered around chatting with humans and yao, boosting his Historical Projection Gacha pool with SSRs.

But the next second, he caught Su Lin staring at him, face beaming—and his spiritual sense screamed a frantic warning.

"It's not entirely about Klyne," Kaguya said slowly. "It's just that recent experiences have given me some thoughts."

"Should've just skipped the movie and gone straight to the extreme." Su Lin turned his gaze away. "What thoughts?"

Kaguya pointed at herself: "Am I not incredibly resilient?"

"And then?" Su Lin spread his hands.

Kaguya said: "Old Master Zhong also has high defense and is incredibly resilient."

"Hmm, roughly…"

Su Lin crossed his arms and fell into thought—after all, both shield and HP were thick, with built-in healing.

"Pizi Long is also incredibly resilient."

After being betrayed from head to toe by Chen Nan's entire family during his first rebellion against heaven, he still barely survived, reincarnated as a dragon—his life force is truly stubborn.

"What exactly are you trying to say?"

"I'm done being human."

Perfect. Condition stable.

Su Lin made his diagnosis, waved dismissively, and turned to leave—better to have no traitors, let's hear a Devourer joke.

"Perhaps everyone in the group is just someone who survived to the end, which is why we're all gathered together?" Kaguya smiled.

She glanced at Yuyin Yonglin, then swept her gaze over Hong, who had just arrived at the shrine, scowling and itching for a fight.

【Even if Gensokyo is destroyed, you won't die. Even if the outside world and the entire universe reach their end, you will be the only one who survives.】

【If even the people of Penglai cannot survive a disaster, they'll surely leave the chance of survival to you…】

Recalling the offhand words spoken during idle chats with the Sage of Demons

"Maybe everyone in the group isn't the strongest, but they're all probably as incredibly resilient as I am." She remained silent on the surface, merely waving a greeting, but continued messaging Su Lin:

"For example, Ge Xiaolun has strong recovery; Han Li and Li Changshou are masters of survival; oh, Song Shuhang dies a lot, but he always survives."

"Yi Leina is also quite formidable—she constantly grows stronger and finds a way out whenever danger strikes, as the protagonist should."

"Without the chat group, the vanished Lu Mingfei could still survive across all worlds."

Su Lin's expression froze. Slowly, he turned his head toward her.

"Perhaps in the Marvel universe, which was heading toward a destruction ending, Loki was the one who survived to the end. In that sense, I'm the one who survived after Gensokyo's destruction."

Kaguya tilted her head with a cheerful smile: "Similar, right?"

Enough. Shut up. Stop talking.

Su Lin pressed his palm to his forehead—this was going to trigger his hard-won relief from anxiety again.

"I suggest you go outside more, and stop consuming so many dark, deep, and cruel works. Those guys' future people are always watching your screen."

This is a blind spot.

Kaguya thought for a moment, then said: "Perhaps it's a more distant future, or an inaccessible layer—or maybe the past as depicted in the movie."

Aminos!

"." Su Lin's face stiffened: "You'd better not mention this in the group."

"Why?" Kaguya frowned, her fingers frozen halfway through typing a message in the group chat.

Su Lin looked again at Klyne within the historical fissure: "He really might get eliminated by the others."

At this very moment.

Klyne in the historical fissure suddenly felt impending doom, as if a dark cloud had settled over his head—only to vanish the next second.

Klyne: "?"

Do you think I'll really follow superstition and say you're marrying into the Eternal Pavilion?

"Master," Watazumi Fengji looked at the two who hadn't spoken a word but seemed to be communicating through glances and body language:

"We misunderstood about the wedding—but is what's printed in the newspaper really false?"

Yuyin Yonglin fell silent for a moment.

"More real than gold."

"Fake! All fake!"

"Who says it's fake? My dice never lie!"

"So funny~~~"

Ding ding dong dong, hua la la

Beside them, the Moonfolk soldiers, grouped in fours, were playing mahjong at tables, simultaneously pushing up their single monocles on the right eye socket.

One of them grinned, revealing a neat row of eight teeth: "Big Sister Watazumi Fengji, when do we return to the Moon Capital to deliver the good news?"

Watazumi Fengji: "."

Don't return yet.

Watazumi Fengji and Yiji, both simultaneously holding this thought and pondering how to resolve the current situation, were suddenly surrounded by silence as laughter and noise vanished.

This kind of feeling of an individual detached from history.

"Kaguya?"

"The Moon King's orders have already been issued, and not carrying them out would be quite troublesome."

Kaguya looked toward Houki and said with a smile: "Are the two elder sisters very troubled?"

"Have you found a new backer and come to mock us?" Houki's face showed puzzlement.

"Underneath that pretty skin, the inside is still as nasty as ever." Yuyi's gaze gradually cooled.

"It's a misunderstanding. This one merely wishes to ask Elder Sister Houki for a favor; in exchange, I will obediently return with you."

The two did not answer, more out of a kind of wariness.

Though all three were Princesses of the Moon, their relationship was not very good, and they rarely communicated. Especially because of Kaguya, the teacher they liked, Yuyin Yonglin, had not returned to the Capital of the Moon for a thousand years.

"Don't worry, for Houki it's a very simple matter."

Kaguya tucked both hands into the sleeves of her pink Japanese-style coat, her bangs swaying along:

"Could you return to the Capital of the Moon, to the Broad Cold Palace where Chang'e resides, and fetch some things for me from the container where the moon rabbits pound medicine?"

The surface of the stone steps was covered in moss, each stone slab bearing marks carved by the erosion of rainwater.

When Meng Qi rode the ox back to the shrine again, it was already evening, and along the way he had also encountered some youkai joining in the excitement.

"Where did some wild ghost or youkai drain you dry?" Su Lin glanced at Meng Qi with curiosity.

He had been staring the whole way at the Investiture of the Gods in his hand, its bronze patina clearly visible, yet the man himself looked somewhat thinner, weariness between his brows.

"If it weren't for getting entangled in karma again, this poor Daoist wouldn't have gone to the Heavenly Realm to seek information." Meng Qi sighed.

The number of immortals in the Heavenly Realm was sparse, and the Celestials were divided into several types—some were still departed souls who had ascended, most having severed the seven emotions and six desires, like an old cadre sanatorium.

He did find some Celestials who liked collecting books, but after a painstaking search, information about the 'divine beings' was pitifully scarce—better to just go listen to a history lecture from Teacher Huiyin.

How to use the gathering function of this Investiture of the Gods that collects 'authority' drifting through the world—even Tai Gongwang didn't quite understand.

After all, the Investiture of the Gods had never been initiated in this realm; the age of myth had quietly drawn to a close.

"What a lively scene."

Even though Chaldea's massive army of Servants had been placed inside a small world, the shrine, now folded and expanded, still gathered a crowd of people.

Some were unfamiliar faces, some were family and friends brought along in advance by the group chat friends.

It was a formal occasion after all—cave heavens and small worlds all needed supporting formations to prevent drunken rampages and killing, so quite a few helping hands were needed.

"How do you plan to arrange the food and drink?"

"The immortal chefs have already arrived, and there are also Emiya Shirou sub-species requisitioned from Alaya—if it really won't work, go buy some pre-made dishes at Tiancheng."

The number of Heroic Spirits across the entire history of civilization was still too exaggerated, and only one Emiya Shirou possessed cooking skills that could make people burst out of their clothes, hallucinate, and give birth to gourmet cells.

"But these past two days they've all been eating the big pot meals from their warships, so it's still manageable."

"Then how did Emiya Shirou end up like that?"

In response to Su Lin's words, Meng Qi pointed at Emiya Shirou—his face withered, his whole body seeming to have burned out and lost its color, not even reacting when Dada Liya tried to tempt him with mana transfer.

"I thought he cooked for all the Heroic Spirits."

"That, well—"

Su Lin's eyelid twitched, and he suddenly fell silent.

He led Meng Qi into the Hakurei Shrine covered by a barrier, its true interior impossible to see clearly. When they stepped past the third crossbeam of the vermilion torii, ripples appeared in space.

"Give me one serving of steamed phoenix claws, sautéed green flood dragon segments, braised fire sparrow tongues, roasted fierce tiger kidneys, stir-fried wild ox tripe, braised luan liver, clear-stewed hundred-flower sparrow, red-braised transformation Lei Jie clouds, sweet-and-sour inner demon obsession balls, iced forget-worry water, cold-dressed fate grass, dry-fried higanbana—slurp~—roughly these."

Shi Hao sucked down the leg-bone meat of an unknown fierce beast, while handing a filled-out menu to an immortal chef whose eyes looked even more hollow than those of the puppet Ruhua.

"Excuse me." The blue Saber among the Artoria legion wiped the corner of her mouth, grabbed Ruhua beside her: "Please give me the same, plus an extra black pepper steak."

"What's black pepper? Sounds good, add one for me too," Shi Hao said.

"Same here!" Yukari raised her hand.

In three directions, forming a tripod stance, the mountain of piled food and plates blocked each other's line of sight, but upon hearing what dishes were being served, the others would copy the order.

Crackle-crackle-pop!

Archer Emiya in the kitchen cave heaven suddenly dropped to his knees, his overburdened Spirit Origin collapsing, dissolving into ether particles in the air: "This is hell."

"Mr. Emiya?!"

Bie Xue Xianji and the others looked on with envy.

"Damn it. How despicable, running off first!" Sengoku Muramasa's face went pale, but soon golden radiance also began emanating from his body: "Phew—"

The excitement had just lit up in his eyes when his body steadied.

"I have Fighting Continuation?!"

Despair returned, and a wail rose from the hellish kitchen.

Su Lin explained to Meng Qi, whose eye corner was twitching wildly: "The one outside was scrapped at noon, the ones inside just took over for dinner. They originally wanted to find Huaisi too—oh, Huaisi, you're back."

"Please, please pretend you didn't see me."

Huaisi's legs trembled uncontrollably. Seeing that the speed and manner in which food disappeared from the table exceeded the limits of what his naked eye could observe, the thought actually flashed through his mind that solidifying might not be a bad option.

He glanced at Emiya Shirou, who was attempting to resurrect his Noble Phantasm, shifted his target, rose on tiptoes, restrained his aura, and inched step by step toward where Lu Mingfei was.

"Senior Xiao Ying, I heard about it—are you alright?"

"I'm not."

Lu Mingfei's eyes held an inexpressible melancholy.

Huaisi felt that the Lu Mingfei before him was clearly sitting in a scene of clamor and splendor, surrounded by the glow of many immortal lanterns and spirit fires, yet he looked like an orange soaked moldy in a rainstorm, the streetlamp overhead only able to illuminate his dishevelment.

He didn't know how to comfort him. Putting himself in the other's shoes—if he were the one in Lu Mingfei's situation—

Maybe he'd pop champagne to celebrate that the White Prince's affection route option could finally be unlocked.

"Huaisi."

"I'm not thinking anything weird!"

Huai Shi snapped to attention and quickly gathered his wits: "Senior, you still have to look forward."

"Look forward? That son of a bitch borrowed in my name — cultivation loans, spirit-stone financing, Ye Zhetian gold bars, Yu Xiaoman, Divine-Demon Punch, and even turned on password-free payment."

Lu Mingfei raised his head and gave a bleak smile: "They said the whole bill is on my head."

Damn it.

This one is past ordinary beast.

Huai Shi suddenly felt that his own eighteen years of life hadn't been that miserable. He fished a gift box from his pocket and handed it to Lu Mingfei.

"A small token — congratulations on the wedding."

It was a limited-edition set of the Nordic-line Eternal Tarot.

As for how he got it, the bad woman said she'd called in some old friends for a special release.

"The Reversed God-King · Odin?" Lu Mingfei stared at the card on top, a little dumbfounded — it was a black-haired, one-eyed girl with golden eyes.

Huai Shi: "?"

No. This is that, uh—

Huai Shi tried to explain, but he found Lu Mingfei muttering: "This should sell for a decent price, right?"

"."

Crap, there's this weird illusion of swapped roles.

Huai Shi decided to let Lu Mingfei cool off on his own, and he himself needed a break too. Every second on the way back had been at peak concentration, dreading the next moment someone would bang on the door shouting, "Open up, the Astronomical Society!"

But now he didn't have to worry, because he'd just brought the whole house along when he ran.

【Sister didn't lie to you or screw you over this time, right? Sister even gave herself to you, and you still keep guarding against me — that really hurts.】

You do know it's only this time?

Huai Shi stared blankly for a long while, and finally couldn't help but let out a breath of relief, brushing aside the possibility that the crow might be digging a pit for him.

The atmosphere at the Hakurei Shrine was lovely now. The little monster girls and shrine maiden girls drifting in one after another let his taut nerves relax a little.

This moment, this scene—

—was perfect for pulling out the Myriad Worlds Common-Sense Talisman and going live with a performance to recover some sanity.

Location: Hakurei Shrine

Song: Flowers Bloom in Glory, Then Scatter

The lilting melody drifted away, the music spiraling up softly. Huai Shi immersed himself in the two-dimensional world, not noticing how many eyes the song had drawn.

Until the piece ended and three little loli fairies popped up before him.

The Poltergeist Sisters — the Prismriver sisters.

"Want to form a band with us?"

"What band?"

"Shanghai Alice Densetsu!"