Chapter 740: Not Fully Awake

The veteran sitting nearest the door was the first to lose composure.

He jabbed the person beside him with his elbow, lowering his voice to a level only the two of them could hear, his lips almost touching the other's ear as he said, "You felt it just now, didn't you."

The younger man who was jabbed had a face under his helmet still glistening with unfinished cold sweat.

He nodded, the movement minuscule, as if making some clandestine deal.

"Felt it. Absolutely felt it."

He paused, his Adam's apple rolling up and down, "What exactly was that? In that instant, my legs just stopped obeying me. It was like…"

"I've served in the Cloud Cavalry for so many years,"

The veteran's voice dropped even lower, "When General Jingyuan led a personal campaign, I stood at the front line. That level of pressure, only a few people in Luofu could emit. That instant was exactly the same as standing beside the general."

"Isn't she the Diviner of Tai Bu Si?"

Another young Cloud Cavalry member stepped forward, his face full of bewilderment as his worldview was being upended, "Qingque, who doesn't know? The Diviner of Tai Bu Si is famously a master of slacking, the best at finding a quiet spot in all of Luofu. The last time I delivered documents to Tai Bu Si, she secretly set up a card table at her workstation and managed to play for three hours without moving. How could someone like that—"

He didn't finish his sentence.

Because he suddenly realized his mouth was still open, yet his vocal cords could produce no sound.

A weight pressed down on him.

It entered from the crown of his head, spread down along his spine, squeezing the air out of his chest completely.

He tried to take a deep breath, only to find his lungs unresponsive; the lung lobes seemed grasped by an invisible hand, forcing him to gasp shallowly, each inhalation just enough to avoid fainting.

All the Cloud Cavalry inside the Star Chariot simultaneously felt the weight.

The veteran's eyes widened, pupils contracting to the size of needle points.

The young Cloud Cavalry member's mouth still held the shape from his earlier words, but his lips were already turning pale.

The fourth person, who had been sitting in the corner and not participated in the discussion at all, now pressed both hands tightly against his knees; the knuckles, strained from exertion, glowed a bone‑white, and his fingernails dug into the leather of his knee guard, leaving several deep crescent‑shaped dents.

Tracing the source of this aura, they gradually shifted their gaze, focusing on the petite girl opposite them.

Qingque opened her eyes.

The pair of emerald‑green eyes were open, but the pupils were unfocused.

The iris's base remained that clear emerald green, yet within the pupils floated several cyan‑colored light specks drifting slowly, each rotation dragging a filament‑thin trail.

Her expression was blank.

Suddenly, she blinked.

The Cloud Cavalry members shivered in unison, realizing that the pressure before and after her blink did not diminish; instead, it grew with each opening and closing of her eyes, rising like successive waves of tide.

They dared not move.

They dared not speak.

They dared not shift their gaze from her, nor continue to stare.

They could only freeze in place, their hearts pounding in their chests so loudly each could hear it themselves.

Qingque's eyelashes fluttered twice more.

The light specks in those eyes began to slow their rotation, shifting from rapid spin to near‑stasis, like an engine gradually dying out.

Her brows twitched slightly; the skin at her glabella formed two shallow folds, then relaxed.

Her eyeballs started to move.

She first lowered her head to look at her hand.

Her fingers were pale and tender, with no golden threads flashing beneath the skin.

She turned her hand over to examine the back, then lifted a strand of hair hanging in front of her shoulder and pulled it to her eyes.

Brownish‑tan.

Her attire: the Tai Bu Si uniform, a short teal waist‑fitted jacket, a black knit shirt exposed at the collar, and red tassels tied at the waist.

"Um…"

Back?

A muffled hum rose from Qingque's throat.

Her gaze sluggishly scanned the surroundings: the rivets on the Star Chariot's cabin wall, several Cloud Cavalry members on opposite seats sitting so rigidly they resembled statues, and the drifting cloud layers outside the window.

She tilted her head, her expression spelling four bold characters: Not Fully Awake.

The Star Chariot gave a gentle shudder, the engine's hum dropping from cruising pitch to idle.

Outside the cabin door came the clack of docking latch teeth engaging.

Outside lay a platform paved with blue stone slabs, with several wooden signposts at the edge, each bearing directional guides of Luofu.

Arrived.

One Cloud Cavalry member summoned all his willpower to barely stand, his knees trembling; he could feel his knees shaking, the pant leg beneath his armor damp and clinging to his calves, but he couldn't afford to think about it now.

He walked to the cabin door, pressed the handle with his left hand, and stiffly extended his right hand toward the interior, assuming the standard salute he had practiced a hundred times after being scolded by instructors at the military academy.

"Please… please…"

His throat was as dry as sandpaper; the first "please" came out hoarse. He swallowed and tried again, "Please. Arrived."

Qingque stood up in a daze.

The movement was driven purely by muscle memory; as she rose, her body swayed, and her shoulder nearly struck the cabin wall.

She staggered to the cabin entrance, brushed past the Cloud Cavalry member struggling to maintain the salute with trembling fingers, and as she stepped over the threshold her toe caught the sill, sending her stumbling forward a step before she kept swaying onward.

The few Cloud Cavalry remaining inside the Star Chariot watched her exit, and only after the petite silhouette drifted several dozen meters away did they collectively exhale as if a restraint had been released.

The young Cloud Cavalry member lowered his head to glance at his hand, his fingers still trembling.

The veteran leaned against the cabin wall, removed his helmet, and revealed a hairline soaked through with sweat.

"I request leave."

The silent Cloud Cavalry member in the corner suddenly spoke, his voice hoarse as if he had just been crying.

Everyone turned their heads to look at him.

He expressionlessly pointed at his own pant leg.

Dark water stains spread from the top of his thigh down to below the knee, covering an area too large to conceal.

"That pressure just now surged, I couldn't hold it. I request to go back and change my pants."

No one laughed.

Because everyone could understand.

Qingque walked down the street, her eyes still vacant.

Her mind hadn't fully come online yet; the dream she just had was so long that her consciousness seemed to have been soaked in an entire lapis‑blue sea for an indeterminate length of time. Now, after finally surfacing, the water's surface is shrouded in fog, and she can see nothing clearly.

She walked with a wavering gait, the soles of her boots scraping the stone pavement and producing a rustling sound; each step bore a dangerous tendency to topple forward, yet she couldn't fall.

Her body itself was keeping her balanced, purely by instinct.

Occasionally, pedestrians passed by on the street; seeing her vacant eyes and pale complexion, they instinctively gave her a wide berth.

Seven Cloud Cavalry troops followed her at a distance neither too close nor too far.

They kept a distance that would let them rush in to aid her at any moment, yet they dared not get too close.