Chapter 147

Bai Lu was a little stunned by Bai Heng's nervous demeanor, but her attention shifted quickly; she blinked and promptly turned her interest elsewhere: "Oh… Miss Bai Xing, where will I sleep tonight?"

Sleep in my room! Of course, sleep in my room!

Bai Heng grabbed Bai Lu's hand and, without a word, led her down the corridor to the room marked "Bai Xing," saying in an exaggeratedly enthusiastic tone as they walked, "My room is so comfortable! The bed is big and soft! And there's a skylight to watch the stars… uh, the Starry Sky Projection!"

She almost half‑pushed Bai Lu to her own doorway, took a deep breath, and twisted the doorknob.

The door opened.

The scene inside the room came into view.

Bai Heng instantly exhaled—a relief; this time it was "normal."

A typical bedroom with personal style.

It wasn't large, but it was tidy and cozy.

Against the wall was a single bed with plain sheets, and beside it a small desk holding some ledgers, an Interstellar Navigation Device, and a few tiny mechanical tools.

The wall displayed several holographic photos of Xianzhou scenery, and a corner rack held a few change‑of‑clothes garments.

The overall tone was warm, and the air carried a faint hint of dried‑flower spice.

Everything was reasonable, fitting the setting of a traveling merchant's dwelling.

But Bai Heng's nerves, having relaxed for less than three seconds, tightened again.

Because that damned sense of "familiarity" returned.

It wasn't familiarity with the "Bai Xing" identity, but rather… another, more intimate familiarity.

The angle of this bed… was almost identical to the bed she remembered from a scene deep in her memory, on the train.

The desk's placement, the composition of the view outside the window, even the style of the corner storage box for odds and ends…

(This layout… why does it look so much like my room on the train?)

Her heart gave a thud, and an absurd yet plausible guess rose in her mind.

"Wow! Miss Bai Xing's room is so tidy!"

Bai Lu, already excited, ran in, touching here, looking there, especially interested in the mechanical tools on the desk, "Are these for repairing the Star Chariot? So impressive!"

"Ah… yes, some small tools."

Bai Heng replied absentmindedly, but her gaze scanned each corner of the room like a scanner.

The more she looked, the more the "stitched" feeling became evident—some details were exquisitely realistic, yet other spots (like the seam between wall and ceiling) had a vaguely overly smooth, unnatural feel.

She forced down her doubts and tried to play the host role: "Miss Bai Lu, take a look around first, get familiar. I'll step out and say a few words to Xi Tong Jie, and be right back."

"Sure!" Bai Lu, already holding a gear‑shaped little part in her hand, replied without looking up.

Bai Heng left the room, gently closed the door, and turned to look down the corridor.

System Miss still stood at her own doorway, hands clasped in front, posture as upright as a human mannequin, her face still bearing that flat expression of "everything under control."

Bai Heng hurried over, lowered her voice, tone laced with disbelief and a hint of collapse: "System Miss… that room just now… my room… was also 'created,' right?"

System Miss nodded, unreservedly: "Based on the 'most familiar and reasonable living‑space template' in your subconscious—namely the Starry Sky Train Cabin Data—a partial replica and environment‑fusion algorithm generated it. Some details were simplified or had textures reused due to localization and data‑integrity constraints."

Bai Heng: "…"

She felt the muscles at the corner of her mouth twitch uncontrollably.

(So… there was never any "pre‑prepared Safe House," nor any "Black Curtain Lady's vast powers acquiring property in the Luofu Core Area"…)

(This house, this courtyard, everything in this room… all temporarily "molded" from data?!)

(I mean, how even the kitchen appliance manual pops up exactly when I need it!?)

(All the content is freshly compiled!!!)

A deep sense of helplessness swept over her.

She pressed a hand to her forehead, feeling her temples throb.

"So… this whole courtyard…" she asked weakly.

"Real‑time computed scene simulation."

System Miss calmly gave the final answer, "Generated and maintained dynamically based on the Xianzhou Luofu Architectural Database, environmental parameters, and Task requirements. Energy consumption is controllable, flexibility high, and it facilitates 'Data‑driven Evacuation' when needed."

Bai Heng no longer even had the strength to complain.

She could only dryly summarize, "So, our current 'home' is a… large‑scale immersive holographic projection?"

"More like a high‑precision, interactive temporary data reality."

System Miss rigorously corrected, "Texture resolution, physics‑engine simulation, and NPC behavior logic have all been set to the highest level allowed by current resources; theoretically it won't be detected by conventional means."

(Theoretically… )

Bai Heng no longer wanted to probe how much water was in that "theoretically."

She merely let out a long sigh, feeling that the amount of information she'd taken in tonight dwarfed everything of the past several hundred years combined.

"Then… over at Jing Liu…" she suddenly thought of a more terrifying question.

"The First Floor Cabin is an independent simulation unit; its environmental parameters have been fine‑tuned to match a reasonable 'Long‑term Idle Cabin' state."

System Miss replied, "The target individual is currently showing no abnormal perception feedback."

Bai Heng let out a slight sigh of relief, but her mind remained uneasy.

Would the perception of the Former Sword Leader truly be completely fooled by this "high‑precision simulation"?

She shook her head, temporarily setting aside the anxiety‑inducing issue.

She needed to settle Jing Liu quickly.

She said to herself in her mind.

Bai Heng walked down the stairs again.

Her steps on the hyper‑realistic simulated wooden stairs made her unable to help but listen closely to whether the creak was too regular—damn, as the system said, everything she now sees looks like code and textures.

The lighting in the First Floor Living Room was a bit dimmer than when she left.

The intelligent dimming system seemed to have automatically switched to night mode according to the time, leaving only a few wall lamps emitting a dim yellow warm glow, barely outlining the furniture's silhouette.

Then Bai Hang's steps stopped at the stairwell entrance.

She saw it.

On the hardwood chair by the window, Jing Liu remained seated, her posture seemingly unchanged from when they had left, spine straight, side profile stern.

But…

In her hand, at some point, an object had appeared.

It was a flat metal flask with a simple shape.

The flask's spout was now aimed at Jing Liu's pale lips.

She tilted her head back slightly, and a barely perceptible movement rolled in her throat.

The clear, cool fragrance of the liquor silently diffused through the quiet living room, mixing with the original sandalwood scent in the air to create a peculiar atmosphere.

(Liquor?)

Bai Hang froze.

(Where did the liquor come from? There clearly wasn't any just now!)

She instinctively glanced at the small bar in the corner of the living room—it was completely empty.

When Jing Liu entered, she had also confirmed that the other person was carrying no luggage.

This flask… seemed to have appeared out of thin air.

And Jing Liu… was drinking liquor?

Bai Hang's heart inexplicably skipped a beat.

She suddenly recalled some vague memories—on a night after a victory banquet, the moonlight was splendid, that ever-stern Sword Leader seemed to also be sitting alone in a quiet corner away from the noise, holding something similar in hand, facing the moon, sipping sip by sip, so quiet as if isolated from the revelry.