Chapter 161: Midnight Teleportation and the Queen's Flash-and-Ult Combo

After the celebratory hotpot, Su Wan and Xia Lian said their goodbyes and headed back to their dorm upstairs.

The two sisters finished washing up and retreated to their respective bedrooms. Celeste had just clicked her door shut when she heard her sister’s voice ring out, full-throated and brimming with excitement, from across the hall.

“Sister! Do you think the name ‘Quantum Battleship’could still be improved? For example, what about’Superluminal Quantum Jump Star Destroyer’?”

Celeste rolled her eyes in the privacy of her room. ‘Good lord, she’s still going.’

Thank goodness she had her own room. If they were still sharing, she wouldn’t get a single moment of peace tonight.

She decided to ignore her sister, who was clearly still riding a hyperactive high, and closed her eyes, feigning sleep. Her body was still, but her mind was clearer and more alert than ever.

She wanted to make a trip to the Elven Royal City.

For one, she needed to see if that ‘time-mark anchor’ actually worked as advertised. For another, she wanted to say a proper goodbye to Elaniel. She had left in such a hurry before, only managing to entrust Eldara with a message. It felt far too rash, and frankly, a little rude.

She listened patiently, her senses tracking the sounds from the other room. Finally, the restless energy from Selene’s bed subsided, and her breathing settled into a long, even rhythm.

She was asleep.

Celeste sat up, a silent shadow in the dark. She moved with a practiced softness, her bare feet making no sound as they met the cool floor.

First, she set a new ‘time-mark anchor’ beside her own bed.

[Ding! ‘Time-Mark Anchor No. 2’ set successfully!]

[Current anchor name: Tianshu University, Tingzhuyuan, Room 206.]

Celeste nodded, a flicker of satisfaction in her eyes. With this, no matter what strange world she wandered off to in the future, she could always return home with a single click. A personal hearthstone.

After setting the anchor, she didn’t put away the ancient book. Instead, she turned to another page, where the names of five potential anchors lay in quiet, elegant script.

[Time-Mark Anchor No. 1: Elven Royal Palace, Queen’s Bedchamber]

[Time-Mark Anchor No. 2: Tianshu University, Tingzhuyuan, Room 206]

[Time-Mark Anchor No. 3: Not set]

…

Celeste’s gaze was glued to the first entry. Her heartbeat, moments ago calm and steady, suddenly picked up an erratic, thumping cadence.

‘Go… or not go?”It’s the middle of the night. Elaniel has to be asleep. What if I just pop in and give her a heart attack? That’d be bad, right?”But… I haven’t even tested the cross-world teleportation function of “as i have written” yet. What if there’s a bug? What if it doesn’t even work? I have to test it, don’t I? For science!”Right! It’s just a test!’Celeste had found the perfect, unimpeachable reason for her late-night excursion.’I’m doing this to better use my equipment in the future! I’m conducting a rigorous, scientific, and absolutely necessary performance test! This has nothing to do with anything else! At all!’

The last shred of hesitation in her heart was utterly washed away by this flawless excuse.

She rubbed her hands together, filled with the same nervous excitement as someone about to open a limited-edition blind box. Reaching out a single finger, she gently tapped the line that read ‘Time-Mark Anchor No. 1’.

[System Prompt: Preparing to teleport to ‘Time-Mark Anchor No. 1’. Target anchor security level: Extremely High. Confirm teleportation?]

‘Security level extremely high?’

Celeste raised an eyebrow. It seemed that after she left, Elaniel had layered more than one safeguard over that anchor point.

“Confirm teleportation.”

[Preparing for teleportation. Estimated time: 10 seconds. Please do not move.]

Beneath her feet, a pale golden magic circle bloomed into existence without a sound. Countless arcane runes swirled upward around her legs like a swarm of startled, luminous fireflies.

‘Not bad. This teleportation loading bar has a pretty solid sense of ceremony!”Wait, what if someone interferes while the loading bar is active? Will I get teleported into a wall or some other weird place? Classic clipping glitch.”Why do these ten seconds feel as long as a century?”1… Teleportation commencing!’

While her mind was racing with a dozen different what-ifs, the countdown finally hit zero.

The scene before her began to twist and stretch, like thick ink dropped into clear water. The world dissolved, rapidly spreading and bleeding into a chaotic, starless void. The sensation of weightlessness was dizzying but lasted only for a moment.

When Celeste’s feet touched solid ground again, a familiar, intoxicating floral scent aggressively filled her nostrils.

She was back.

It was still that enormous indoor garden, still that colossal, ancient tree emitting a soft halo of life. But as Celeste took in her surroundings, her eyelid began to twitch violently.

She was standing inside a hemispherical shield forged from pure, condensed moonlight.

Outside that shield was a second layer: a dense barrier of vines, flowing with emerald-green life runes. A few delicate, unopened flower buds even hung from the thorny tendrils.

And beyond the vine barrier was a third layer: an arcane ward that shimmered with a deep purple, mystical light.

Three layers of high-grade defensive magic were wrapped around her teleportation spot, protecting it like a priceless cultural relic in a national museum. The plain-looking Moonstone beneath her feet was currently glowing faintly, the ‘time-mark anchor’rune she had carved into it now shining with a clear, steady light.’Holy crap! How many layers of insurance did she slap on this thing?!’Celeste complained frantically in her head.’With this level of defense, forget an assassin. If a mosquito tried to fly in here, it would probably get electrocuted to ash by the chain reaction from these three shields!”Just how scared is Elaniel that my “permanent ticket” is going to get torn up by someone else?’

Just as she was mentally cataloging these extravagant fortifications, the air directly in front of her suddenly rippled like the surface of a pond.

The next second, a figure materialized out of thin air, standing silently before her, separated only by the shimmering shields.

The sudden appearance made Celeste jolt. She took a sharp half-step back, her shoulders slamming solidly against the unyielding moonlight shield with a dull thud.

“You came?”

A lazy, silken voice, laced with an irrepressible thread of surprise, sounded from just beyond the barrier.

Celeste looked closer, and her heart skipped a beat.

It was Elaniel.

She was wearing only a thin, silk nightgown. The ambient moonlight passed through the delicate fabric, turning her mature, voluptuous curves into a hazy yet deeply impactful silhouette. Her long silver hair was draped over her shoulders like a liquid moonbeam, and a trace of lingering sleepiness still softened her features. She had clearly just been woken up by the commotion of the teleport.

But her wine-red eyes were filled with a bright, almost overflowing joy that was impossible to miss.

“I… I just came to test the teleportation function,” Celeste blurted out, flustered by the Queen’s sudden, ghost-like appearance and that undisguised, scorching gaze. “Did I disturb your rest? I’ll leave right away.”

“Leave?”

Hearing this, Elaniel’s lips curled into a heart-stopping arc.

She lightly raised one fair, slender hand. The three layers of seemingly impregnable magic shields dissolved silently, popping like soap bubbles in the quiet air.

The next second, Celeste’s vision blurred. A rich, fragrant breeze rushed toward her.

Before her brain could even process what was happening, a warm, soft embrace, tinged with the coolness of the night, had already enveloped her completely.

Once again, with unerring and terrifying precision, Celeste’s face was pressed firmly into that suffocatingly soft, warm, and elastic expanse.

‘Here we go again!’Celeste’s mind went completely blank, submerged in a tidal wave of rich floral and milky scents.’Why does Her Majesty the Queen love to use this move whenever she gets excited?!’

Standing barefoot on the cool Moonstone floor, Elaniel held her in a crushing hug, applying enough force that it felt like she wanted to knead Celeste directly into her own body. That delicate frame, which always carried the unshakable majesty of a monarch, was trembling slightly, as if she were embracing a lost treasure more precious than her entire kingdom.

“You really… you really came back…”

The Queen’s voice, thick with a nasal tone and a hint of an almost imperceptible grievance, sounded right beside her ear. The warm breath ghosted across her earlobe, making it tingle and go numb.

“I thought… I thought you would at least take a few days to come…”

“I even thought that was just you trying to comfort me…”

Celeste froze completely.

Her thoughts ground to a halt.

Her nose was filled with the unique, intoxicating scent of Elaniel.

Her ears were filled with the Queen’s trembling breaths and the frantic, hammering rhythm of her heart, each beat sounding as if it were striking directly against her own.

Through the thin silk of the nightgown and her own clothes, she could clearly feel the impossible warmth and softness of the woman holding her.

‘Damn it!”This script is all wrong!”Shouldn’t it be “Why are you here?”, followed by a few polite words, and then I go back? A nice, clean in-and-out mission!”Why did the opening move start with a Flash-into-face-check followed by a grapple-ult?! This combo is completely illegal! It doesn’t follow the rules of the game at all!’

Celeste felt like her brain was about to overheat and shut down.

She just wanted to test a function, and maybe, just maybe, say a quick hello to her new friend.

How did things immediately jump to the ambiguous, thrilling stage of a late-night, emotionally charged embrace?

[Elysian’s Note: Having a good time with the story? Every single bit helps immensely: