Chapter 627: Which Star System

Ilya lowered her head to glance at her ash‑stained pink dress, then raised it again to stare at the Flame.

"I… I'm not from Xianzhou… I'm from Winterwood City…"

"Winterwood City?"

Weiba Daye repeated the name, the Flame's eyes narrowing as if searching its mind, "Which planet is it on?"

Ilya was stunned for a moment.

"Planet?"

"Yes, planet."

Weiba Daye's tone grew a bit impatient, "You don't even know which planet you live on? Or which Xianzhou? Yaoqing? It can't be Zhu Ming, can it?"

Ilya's mouth was open, her eyes full of bewilderment.

"…What? What is Yaoqing? I… I live on Earth…"

Weiba Daye's Flame jumped sharply.

"Earth?"

Its voice rose, "What Earth? Never heard of it. Which star system?"

Ilya was completely baffled.

She stood in the dim room, clutching a clumsy Magic Staff, with a Lapis Flame hovering before her, and that Flame was asking which star system she lived in.

She opened her mouth, closed it, opened again, repeating several times, and finally forced out, "It's… Taiyang Xi…"

Weiba Daye's Flame froze at that instant, like a Flame paused, even the pulsing patterns suspended in mid‑air.

The face burned by the Flame remained there, mouth slightly open, eyes wide, expression frozen in a "what the heck" moment.

"Taiyang Xi?"

Its voice was very light, so light Ilya almost didn't hear, "What place is that? How far is it from Luofu?"

"I don't know…"

Ilya's voice grew softer, "I don't know what Luofu is… I only know Earth… the Moon… the Sun… and Mars and such… the teacher mentioned them in class, but I can't recall clearly…"

Weiba Daye was silent for a long time.

The Flame slowly resumed pulsing, but the expression on that face changed, becoming very complex, as if someone stuffed a jumble of things into a tiny bag, unable to fit them, only bulging outward.

It drifted to a corner of the room, then back, then to another corner, then back, repeating several times, as if confirming something.

"What you mean is,"

Its voice suddenly slowed, each word spaced by a breath, "You're not a Xianzhou person? You don't even know what Xianzhou is? You live in a place called Earth, which isn't in any star system I've ever heard of, and you don't know where Luofu is?"

Ilya nodded, thought for a moment, then shook her head.

"I know Earth, I know Winterwood City, I know Nihong… but the things you mention, I really don't know…"

"What is Nihong?" Weiba Daye's voice was already starting to drift.

"It's… a country… on Earth…"

Ilya's voice grew increasingly weak, she looked at the Flame's expression, suddenly feeling she had said something utterly absurd.

Weiba Daye's Flame froze again.

This time it stayed frozen longer than before, long enough for Ilya to wonder if it had a problem.

She carefully inched forward half a step, extended a finger to poke the Flame, but withdrew just as it was about to touch.

"So,"

Weiba Daye finally spoke, his voice drifting as if Sleepwalking, "I'm now in a place called Earth, in a country called Nihong, in a city called Winterwood City, and in front of me stands a purple‑haired little imp in a pink dress, and this imp says her home isn't in any star system I know of?"

Ilya didn't know how to answer, and could only nod.

Weiba Daye's Flame suddenly burst open.

The Flame expanded several times its size in an instant, lighting the whole room, the face within the Flame twisted and distorted, eyes as big as bronze bells, mouth gaping enough to fit a fist.

"Am I… time‑traveling—?!"

That voice echoed back and forth in the room several times, shaking the dust off the bookshelf and making the locked door panel buzz.

Ilya was startled by the roar, stepped back two more steps, her back hitting the desk, and the ruby in her palm trembled.

Weiba Daye spun several circles beneath the ceiling, the Flame crackling, the expression on that face shifting from shock to confusion.

It halted, hovering in mid‑air, the Flame burning a bit weaker than before, the face's outline also slightly blurred.

"Huo Huo that cry‑bag,"

Its voice lowered, as if muttering to itself, yet also asking Ilya, "How did she get here?"

Ilya shook her head.

"I don't know… I only know a green‑haired little girl ate my ruby, and then I ended up here… the ruby said we might be inside that little girl's stomach…"

Weiba Daye's Flame jumped again.

"Inside the stomach?"

"The ruby said…"

Ilya lowered her head to glance at the Magic Staff in her palm, "It said I might have been swallowed too…"

Weiba Daye was silent for a while, the expression on that face changed again and again, finally freezing in a subtle state—mouth corners turned down, eyes narrowed, the whole face crumpled like it was trying to digest something extremely hard to swallow.

"That little cry‑bag,"

Its voice was very light, with a tone Ilya didn't quite understand, "Now so powerful? Even daring to eat people?"

"Do you know her?"

Ilya hurriedly asked, "That green‑haired little girl, she's called Huo Huo, right? Who exactly is she? Why did she eat the ruby? She—"

"Stop, stop, stop!"

Weiba Daye cut her off, the Flame jumped again, "One question at a time! I'm not your teacher, I can't answer ten questions in one breath!"

Ilya closed their mouth and waited.

Weiba Daye floated around the room, as if organizing speech.

"Huo Huo that girl is just a little crybaby. Her courage isn't much bigger than yours; even when she was bullied in the Ten Kings Office she didn't dare make a sound, just curled up in a corner and cried. That one? Eating people?"

It hummed, and the Flame flickered, "What kind of joke is that? They don't even dare to kill a chicken, yet eat people?"

Ilya blinked, recalling what Ruby had said before.

That expressionless green‑haired little girl who looked like a villainous big boss, and the little crybaby in the mouth of the Flame before me, are they really the same person?

"But Ruby said..."

Ilya lowered their head and looked at the Magic Staff in their palm, "Ruby said the Huo Huo it saw was expressionless, very frightening, and ate it in one bite..."

Ruby shifted slightly in Ilya's palm, and the faint light on the staff's shaft flickered.

"Yes... just like that... very cold... very frightening... didn't say a word... just ate me..."

Weiba Daye's Flame steadied again.