Chapter 168: Aunt Yang is Truly Incredible

Caelus’s eyes fluttered open, her vision slowly bleeding from a hazy blur into sharp focus.

She found herself lying on a large, relatively flat stone surface. With a jolt, she pushed herself into a sitting position and scanned her surroundings, her heart thumping against her ribs.

Not far away, Ms. Welt stood with her cane planted firmly on the ground, her expression grave as she observed the center of the stone platform.

March 7th knelt beside her, one hand gripping his bow so tightly his knuckles were white. His other hand was unconsciously tugging and twisting the corner of his shorts, his youthful face etched with undisguised worry.

On the opposite side, Dan Heng stood with her arms crossed, her gaze fixed calmly on the same spot. Only the thin, tightly pressed line of her lips betrayed the turmoil churning beneath her stoic exterior.

Their collective attention was focused on the center of the platform, where two figures lay perfectly still.

One was General Jing Yuan.

Her eyes were squeezed shut, her face a deathly pale canvas slicked with a fine sheen of cold sweat. Her brow was deeply furrowed, as if she were trapped in a nightmare, enduring some immense and unseen pain. Most alarming of all were the faint, dark-gold patterns snaking across her exposed skin. They looked like the roots of some malevolent plant, slowly, inexorably crawling over her flesh and pulsing with a sinister aura.

The other person was Chen.

He lay a short distance from Jing Yuan, his eyes also closed. His expression, however, was far calmer. His brows were knit, not in pain, but in concentration, as though he were deep in thought or straining to listen to something only he could hear.

“Caelus! You’re awake!”

March 7th was the first to spot her, and he immediately scrambled to his feet and jogged over, relief washing over his features.

“That’s great! Are you okay? Do you feel unwell anywhere?”

Caelus shook her head, her gaze glued to Chen’s still form. “Chen, he…”

“He hasn’t woken up yet,” Dan Heng said, walking over to join them. “March and I were both pulled out of the illusion by him. But even though we’re awake, he himself…”

“Aunt Yang said,” March 7th chimed in, gesturing toward Ms. Welt, “that based on what happened to us, Chen must be trying to find a way into the General’s illusion right now. But the General…”

March 7th’s gaze drifted back to Jing Yuan, and his face fell. “The General’s condition looks really, really bad. Aunt Yang said Phantylia must have used most of her power to take down the General. She’s also using the power of the Ambrosial Arbor to… to force the General into a Mara-Struck state.”

Ms. Welt approached, giving Caelus a small, reassuring nod. “It’s good that you’re awake. How do you feel?”

“I’m fine,” Caelus answered curtly, her mind already racing. She immediately pressed, “Can Chen wake the General?”

Ms. Welt fell silent for a long moment, the quiet stretching out uncomfortably. She reached up and adjusted her glasses with a deliberate slowness.

“General Jing Yuan’s will is far stronger than that of any ordinary person,” she finally said. “Logically, she should not have fallen victim to such a mental assault. But Phantylia has been carefully calculating this time, using the Ambrosial Arbor as a catalyst to strike at the deepest vulnerability of the Xianzhou’s long-life species… The situation is not optimistic. For now, all we can do is place our hopes in Chen.”

Her words hung in the air, making the already heavy atmosphere feel crushing. Even Dan Heng’s brow furrowed a little deeper.

March 7th looked from the unconscious forms of Jing Yuan and Chen to the solemn face of Ms. Welt. As if trying to puncture the suffocating bubble of worry, he couldn’t help but ask in a hushed voice, “Aunt Yang… what about you? What did you see in the illusion? How did you manage to wake up on your own?”

The question seemed to catch Ms. Welt off guard. She paused, and for the first time, a visible crack appeared in her unshakable, calm expression. A flicker of something unreadable crossed her face, and she turned her head away, avoiding their gazes.

She raised a hand, her fingertips gently pressing against her temple as if to soothe a sudden, sharp headache.

The gesture lasted for only two or three seconds, but it felt like an eternity.

When she finally lowered her hand and turned back to face March 7th and Caelus, her composure had been carefully restored. Her voice, however, was a shade lower, the words emerging slower than before.

“…Just some… past events I would rather not experience again.”

She offered no further explanation, but the momentary, deep weight she had revealed was enough. March 7th immediately snapped his mouth shut, not daring to press the issue. Even Dan Heng subtly looked away, as if sensing the gravity behind that silence and respecting the boundary that had been drawn.

Caelus looked at Ms. Welt, her gaze then shifting back to Chen and Jing Yuan, who were waging their silent war on the cold stone platform.

She knew there was nothing more they could do. All that was left was to wait.

To wait, and to hope that the guy who always managed to bring surprises and miracles out of thin air could pull it off one more time.

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