Chapter 934: Acting with Utter Immersion

Pa Duo's voice echoed through the maze corridor, and after being reflected by the black high walls it layered into a vague hum.

Heimu walked ahead, listening to the chattering ramblings of the three‑colored chubby cat behind, his steps never pausing.

Once Pa Duo's mouth starts moving, it's hard for her to stop, a trait she shares across species with Kaluoer; putting Pa Duo and Kaluoer together would push the team's noise‑pollution index straight past the Alert Line.

Heimu thought of that, lowered his head, and glanced at the teammates' real‑time positions on the System Panel.

Kaluoer was wandering erratically in the southeast corner of the maze, her movement trace drawing an extremely standard sine curve.

Ge Lei Xiu's position hadn't shifted at all; her signal was slowly yet steadily converging toward Kaluoer's direction, slow but precise, apparently intending to retrieve the little one that got lost.

Sakura's signal has already moved to the western edge of the maze, conducting a systematic search along the outer wall.

Kesi Mo— the wall in front of Kesi Mo had been torn down three times, and each time it regenerated within three seconds; during the pause before the fourth demolition he finally stopped, and the warm orange pattern on his mask flashed extremely violently.

Heimu broadcast a brief life‑confirmation signal on the panel, then switched back to the navigation interface and confirmed the shortest route to the maze's central area.

The maze's spiral structure was rotating slowly at a speed invisible to the naked eye but detectable by the system, with the core area roughly three hundred meters straight ahead.

Wei Er Wei was most likely right there, sitting in the director's chair waiting to evaluate the program effect of this "great adventure."

Perspective shift.

Changletian.

The Giant Tree's silhouette silently pierced the sky in the distance; the street lights were all on, the shop signs flashing, the three characters "Ming Xiang Ju" written in Xianzhou ancient script alternating between teal and magenta, with a scrolling line of small text below: Today's special – Osmanthus‑infused rice balls – second bowl half price.

There were many people.

The Giant Tree Rebirth caused widespread unease, but Luofu folk have a composure of "even if the heavens collapse, we must finish dinner first," so they shop when they should shop, and drink tea when they should drink tea.

Sai Fei Er walked half a step to the left‑front of Jing Liu, her white long hair fluttering gently in the evening breeze, her fluffy fox tail swaying behind in a lazy arc.

She held a bowl of freshly bought fermented rice balls, a porcelain spoon stirring intermittently inside, the balls rolling in the osmanthus broth; she scooped one, shoved it into her mouth, her cheeks puffed as she chewed twice, and her Fox Ears trembled to the chewing rhythm.

"This place's rice balls are good."

She mumbled the appraisal, then handed the bowl toward Jing Liu, "Want to try one? The osmanthus flavor is quite strong, not too sweet—oh right, you don't like sweets."

Sai Fei Er pulled the bowl back, scooped another for herself, and naturally continued, "You never liked sweets before; every time you handed out candy cakes you shoved them on me, and Ying Xing told Bai Hang you eat so many sweets to watch out for cavities—his own teeth are the bad ones, it cracked me up."

She laughed as she spoke, flicked her fox tail, the fluffy tip brushing Jing Liu's back of the hand.

Jing Liu gave no response, yet did not move her hand away.

Sai Fei Er kept walking forward, her steps light as if dancing to a rhythm only she could hear.

She passed a stall selling silk flowers, crouched to pick up a white little fluffy blossom and waved it at Jing Liu's temple corner, squinting and studying it for a second before setting it down, remarking that the color was too plain to bring out your temperament. Passing a fortune‑telling stall, she dragged Jing Liu to sit and demanded a reading; the old diviner squinted at Jing Liu for ages, twitched his beard and said, "This young lady's destiny is too rigid, I cannot divine it." Sai Fei Er laughed hysterically, thumped the table and said, "Her fate is indeed rigid, so rigid that even Abundance, when it sees it, takes a detour."

She was speaking, laughing, performing the whole time, and performed with extreme immersion.

Dan Heng's trust granted her nearly all of Bai Hang's memory data; every detail was absurdly precise. She could recount Jing Liu's midnight sword‑practice mishap where duty soldiers mistook her for an enemy raid, she could narrate Ying Xing's first drunken moment hugging a pillar and shouting "This wine is poisonous," and she could describe the scene of Jing Yuan as a child secretly wearing Jing Liu's coat, the sleeve growing a length that dragged on the ground.

These memories, as she spoke them—the tone, rhythm, comedic timing—were all in Bai Hang's style.

So when Jing Liu suddenly opened her mouth to speak, Sai Fei Er still thought she had performed so well she had completely fooled the other side.

"Bai Hang."

Jing Liu stopped beneath an old locust tree by the road; the tree's shadow fell on her face, overlapping with the black Eye Mask's shade, making her expression hard to read.

She said, "Do you still remember that cold year? Jing Yuan hadn't officially enlisted yet. Ying Xing had just arrived in Luofu not long ago. Dan Feng was that time soaking in the archive room every day, refusing to come out."

Sai Fei Er's Fox Ears twitched, and she quickly scanned Bai Hang's memories; Dan Heng had previously believed what she said, and Deceitful Divine Authority had already restored about ninety‑five percent of Bai Hang's information, so the "cold year" fragment fell within the completion range.

She smiled, her eyes curving into two crescents, and casually continued, "How could you forget? You kicked the archive room's door and dragged him out; Ying Xing beside you said 'well kicked,' Jing Yuan hid at the doorway, too scared to enter for fear of Dan Feng's scolding. Later the five of us went to that old shop for lamb hotpot, you remember? Dan Feng didn't eat lamb, sat there with a face blackened the whole meal, Jing Yuan offered him dishes he refused, and he went back hungry to gnaw cold steamed buns."

"His face was blackened the whole meal."

Jing Liu repeated the sentence, her mouth corner seeming to move.

Sai Fei Er didn't mind much, kept walking, adding details as she went, "Back then you also said my eating manners were ugly, that Bai Hang, if you keep eating like that you'll never get married. I said I won't marry; I'll pilot the Star Chariot across the whole Star Sea, and when I can't fly any more I'll return, and then you said—" she deliberately elongated the tone, turned to look at Jing Liu, waiting for her reply.

"Then I said, when that time comes I'll come fetch you."

Jing Liu nodded.

Her voice was steady, as if reciting a line she'd long memorized.

Sai Fei Er blinked, gave a thumbs‑up and a little backward flick, "Right, right! Your memory's great! That's the line!"

She smiled brightly, yet internally wondered whether Jing Liu's tone was too flat when she said that.

Sai Fei Er tossed the thought to the back of her mind.

Probably just an illusion.

They kept walking forward.

The night market in Changletian grew livelier the later it got.

Sai Fei Er tugged Jing Liu through the crowd, picked up a white‑background red‑patterned fox mask at the mask stall and held it up to Jing Liu's face, saying it suited her, and once worn it would match her usual cold expression; then she grabbed a black‑background gold‑patterned ghost mask, held it to her own face, saying it suited her, and that the two together made a perfect "fox borrowing ghost's might," or "ghost borrowing fox's might"—or something like that.

She laughed happily herself.

Jing Liu didn't take the mask, nor did she smile.

She simply stood quietly in front of the stall, the mask's shadow falling on her face, together with the Eye Mask's shade fragmenting her expression.

"After that year."

Jing Liu spoke again, her tone still that same flatness, "You never came back after that."

Sai Fei Er's hand holding the mask paused in mid‑air for a moment, her fox tail froze for a fraction of a second, then quickly resumed its normal swing.

She keenly caught a detail in that sentence; its tone was exactly the same as before.