Chapter 832: Gender: Female

Heimu saw Kesi Mo sit up but said not a word; the cold young man's face was plainly marked with the words "confusion", and he couldn't help letting out a soft sigh.

She raised her hand, and flicked her fingertip toward Kesi Mo.

A faint dark‑purple beam shot from her fingertip and struck Kesi Mo's forehead right at the center.

This was data sync, compressing the basic situation since she met Ying and Ge Lei Xiu up to now, plus the currently known anomalies of Past World Paradise, into the most concise format and sending it over.

Kesi Mo's whole body stiffened.

His warm orange‑tinted pupils briefly lost focus, then refocused.

He looked at Ying again, then at Ge Lei Xiu, but this time his gaze was completely different.

Earlier it was the confusion of looking at a stranger; now it was the shock of seeing a familiar face!

Ying!

The pink‑eyed fox‑ear girl before him was Ying!

Was she always like this?

No, she wasn't like this.

Now this looks like the Ying from high school.

And Ge Lei Xiu!

The girl before them was about 1.6‑something meters tall, a little taller than Ying.

Her ice‑blue hair reached her jaw, and the two strands hanging at the back of her head swayed gently in the sea breeze.

A golden hair ornament glimmered quietly among her hair, while a dark‑blue fabric‑flower hairpin trembled slightly.

A white off‑shoulder uniform clung to her slender torso, a black wide belt cinched her waist tightly, and the short skirt, fading from white to ice‑blue, fell to the middle of her thighs.

White tights covered her long, straight legs, and at the thigh roots the fabric revealed a very pale pink of the skin underneath.

That cold‑white little face had delicate, cool features; the pale‑purple eyes looked calmly, bearing a familiar natural‑dazed aura as they stared at him, a gaze he recognized.

It was the gaze Ge Lei Xiu gave him.

He recognized it completely!

So his whole self was unsettled!

Kesi Mo's expression finally shifted from silence to a sort of genuine collapse.

His lips moved slightly.

"... Ying?"

His voice was a bit hoarse, as if the syllable itself wasn't sure whether it should come out.

Ying nodded.

He looked at Ge Lei Xiu again.

"Ge... Ge Lei Xiu?"

His voice cracked, and for someone who never raises their tone, this reaction was equivalent to someone screaming and jumping up.

Ge Lei Xiu blinked, spoke calmly, her tone light and brief: "It's me, Kesi Mo!"

Heimu's eyebrows twitched.

She turned her head toward Ying.

Ying's fox ears folded down against her hair, and the corner of her mouth twitched slightly.

Very good.

Ge Lei Xiu not only grew up, but also picked up Ying's tone.

Probably she was tinted by Ying's color while fighting side by side earlier, but now is not the time to mention that.

Heimu withdrew her gaze.

Kesi Mo was clearly shaken by the tone of Ge Lei Xiu's words.

So why is Ge Lei Xiu so tall now?

Ge Lei Xiu now looks taller than him; wait, looking again, she does seem a bit taller, but that's not the point!

The point is how Ge Lei Xiu became like this?

Could it be Ge Lei Xiu's older sister?

No, Ge Lei Xiu has no older sister.

She doesn't even have a younger sister.

She is Ge Lei Xiu herself.

But the last time Ge Lei Xiu saw him, she was a tiny thing only up to his waist.

Now this girl...

What on earth happened in between?!

Heimu tilted her head.

"So how does it feel now? Physically."

Kesi Mo slowly stood up.

Fine‑gray trousers were specked with tiny white cubic dust; he instinctively brushed it off with claw‑like fingers. He shifted his shoulders, rotated his wrists, and the black‑orange gauntlets emitted a faint metallic scrape. He closed his eyes, sensed for a few seconds, opened them, and nodded. "... Hmm. It's okay."

Ying watched Kesi Mo's expression; although the young man's face showed little outward change, she knew Kesi Mo— the quieter he was, the more his mind raced with frantic comments.

She whispered, pulling the topic back a bit: "Kesi Mo, do you still remember what happened before? Just what you saw from your perspective."

Kesi Mo's thoughts were pulled back from Ge Lei Xiu to Ying by her voice.

He slightly frowned, pressed his hand to his forehead, and his fingertip brushed the temple before withdrawing.

After a moment of silence, his speech was considerably slower than usual.

"At that time, in the main hall."

He paused briefly, as if gathering his words.

Kesi Mo's speech is always concise, probably because he habitually devotes most of his energy to inner activity, leaving little mental bandwidth when he has to speak.

"Ailixiya, Pa Duo, Su, and I are all here."

Sakura's Fox Ears twitched slightly backward.

"Ailixiya suddenly changed."

Kesi Mo's voice dropped low, "Herrscher transformation. Pa Duo—disappeared. Right beside me, vanished in an instant."

He raised his hand and gestured the situation of Pa Duo.

"And a smiling Mask. I don't know where it came from; it's hanging on the wall. Ailixiya is smiling, but the Mask is also smiling. The two smiles are different."

He touched the back of his head.

His brows furrowed even tighter.

"The scene kept changing. The wall turned into a corridor, the corridor into stairs, the stairs into a huge hall. Then— I can't recall. My mind has many fragments, but they won't piece together."

He shook his head, the dark‑green ponytail lightly swaying at his shoulder, "Then there were many green lights. Finally, just now I opened my eyes and saw you."

Sakura listened to that, was silent for a few seconds, then gently nodded.

"Alright, let's leave it at that for now. No need to force it."

Heimu stood nearby, listening quietly, his fingers silently slicing the air a few times.

A panel that only she could see popped up in front of her, displaying Kesi Mo's bodily statistics.

Vital signs normal.

No pleasure entry.

The only problem is...

Heimu's gaze lingered on a certain field of the panel.

Gender: Female.

She expressionlessly closed the panel, her eyes slowly shifting toward Kesi Mo.

The youth— or rather, the one who looks like a youth— was slightly furrowing his brows, his cool face meeting Sakura's probing.

The boy's features were sharply defined, a clean jawline, without any superfluous soft curves.

Yet that field indeed read "Female."

Heimu withdrew her gaze, lifted her hand without changing expression and adjusted her hat brim.

She wanted to see how things develop first; there was no need to bring it up face‑to‑face for now.

Aha often stuffs strange entries into others' data; the gender field being altered to such an absurd degree would rank only mediocrely.

Moreover, Kesi Mo clearly hasn't noticed yet, and she herself probably feels too embarrassed to say face‑to‑face, "By the way, there's a small detail: you should theoretically use the women's restroom now."

She thought of that, and gently pinched the side of her body with a finger.

That said, Kesi Mo has always had a cold, delicate youth physique; if any change occurred, it would be impossible to discern from appearance alone.

The dark‑green shirt and dark‑gray cloak concealed his body outline tightly, the gauntlets and long boots covered his limbs; the only exposed parts were his face and neck. That face still bore youthful lines, a clean jaw, and a throat knot that she glanced at subconsciously.

Kesi Mo's scarf hung there just right, covering everything without a gap.

Fine.