"Come on, eat up! Why is nobody eating?!"
Caelus bit off a piece of the snack, its surface bearing the patented silky black-stocking texture of Mi Huyou quality. From the glossy dark exterior and the rich, crisp bitterness of the chocolate, you could absolutely call this thing a chocolate bar.
Beyond that, there was the sweetness of strawberry jam — from that strawberry-flavored candy tucked away in Stelle's skirt pocket.
The faint silky-smooth sensation of the material and Stelle's own bodily warmth blended together in perfect harmony, producing a flavor entirely unlike anything else.
One bite of the black-stocking chocolate melted into a warm, sweet current sliding down his throat. The Imaginary energy inside Caelus stirred like a chemical reaction that had just been handed a catalyst.
To put it in gaming terms: energy recovery efficiency increased by 30%.
Lucky him — the synthesized snack came with a bonus buff!
Snack buff potency wasn't fixed. Even using identical ingredients, the resulting effect could differ each time. Taking this batch as an example, the strength of the bonus was tied to the Heliobus's stored energy.
Secondary factors included the intensity and energy tier of the power already inside Caelus — the stronger and higher-tier his reserves, the weaker the effect; the lower, the better.
And the buffs weren't limited to one type, either.
If the second snack he synthesized also came with a positive buff, both different effects could activate simultaneously.
Of course, it wasn't broken enough to stack infinitely. Otherwise this thing would be less a babysitting toy and more a sheep-herding weapon.
Caelus estimated four or five stacked at once was probably the ceiling.
"Nom nom nom~!"
Stelle grabbed one of the black-stocking chocolates and started gnawing away. She obviously didn't mind that her own hosiery had been one of the ingredients.
Besides, Caelus-cub had said it himself — clean and hygienic!
The rich aroma of the chocolate-and-stocking fusion coming through their shared resonance was absolutely intoxicating!
"Ah..."
The two of them were going to town while March 7th stood there with her mouth hanging open.
Her brain felt like it had dissolved into a field of white static. Countless flashes of insight ricocheted around inside her skull, strings of known and unknown equations lining up, compressing, condensing to a breaking point — and then detonating like a Big Bang.
"Wh-what even is this?! Why can black stockings turn into chocolate?! Where's the Heliobus?! One whole Heliobus — where did it go?! What kind of synthesizer can process a Heliobus?! Is that machine actually a synthesizer?! How does it even— Mmph."
Rat-a-tat-tat!
She was mid-rant, firing off questions at machine-gun speed, when she discovered something had been shoved into her mouth. Her cheeks puffed out adorably, and when she looked down she could see the distinctive dark, silky sheen of the chocolate.
March 7th glanced over at Stelle — one leg still in its black stocking sleeve, the other bare and snow-pale and long, left exposed to the open air.
The moment it hit her that the snack in her mouth was made from Stelle's stockings, she immediately tried to push the chocolate back out with her tongue.
The instant her delicate pink tongue made contact with the chocolate, March 7th went very still. Her expression shifted. Her cheeks began to move, like a cute little squirrel, and she mumbled something completely incoherent.
"Mmph, 'iss reewy gwood ac'ually..."
"Tastes good, right?"
Caelus let out a heh-heh laugh.
"Everyone gets a share — Xueyi, Raven, Huo Huo... Tail, do you want a taste too?"
Caelus distributed chocolate bars to the Judge trio, who each wore some variation of "I don't understand what I'm seeing but I am extremely shaken," stunned silence, or outright bone-chilling terror.
"This thing... is it truly refined from a Heliobus?"
Xueyi stared blankly down at the small chocolate in her hand.
As energy-based beings, Heliobus were nearly impossible to truly destroy — which was precisely why Xianzhou had resorted to suppressing them inside the Creation Furnace, and why even capturing escapees could only end in subjugation, never elimination.
Yet Caelus had just casually and completely annihilated one, and the method he used was so... bizarre.
Incomprehensible. Inconceivable.
Raven slowly raised the chocolate toward her lips. She hesitated for two seconds, then tentatively parted her lips and bit off a small piece — and her eyes gradually widened.
"This thing... it clears the head too?"
Among the four Judges — Arrest, Bind, Sentence, and Interrogate — Raven held the role of Interrogate, specializing in reading the karmic sins of criminals. Because her work operated in the form of dream divination, she endured a constant torrent of karmic information from Mara-struck hosts.
It was like pressing your bare hands into a thornbush — do it long enough and you stopped feeling the pain, but exhaustion was exhaustion. She worked from dusk till dawn, day after day without rest.
Every time she finished a session, she had to drain a cup of Oblivion River wine, empty it in one go, just to ease the mental strain.
The chocolate's effect was no match for the Oblivion River wine, of course — but this was just a snack Caelus had thrown together offhand!
Well... factoring in the Heliobus, the cost probably wasn't much cheaper than the wine, but... it was still absurd!
"Wuuaah~!"
Everyone who had watched the chocolate get made — except Caelus and Stelle — was having a somewhat difficult time with it. Caelus forcibly stuffed a piece into Huo Huo's mouth.
He managed it with a firm "Huo Huo, look — Xueyi and Raven both ate theirs. You don't want your seniors to leave you out, do you?"
Huo Huo was just too easy to push around. If he didn't seize the chance, someone else would — and then what would be the point?
He'd be the one losing out.
"Look, I can't eat human food."
Tail swallowed a nonexistent mouthful of saliva and stepped forward to shield Huo Huo.
This wasn't a move born of craving or hunger. The two gray-haired ones had simply scared it.
Tail had seen its own kind get scattered, suppressed, and subjugated — but it had never, not once, seen one get completely annihilated without a single scrap left behind.
And killed by being eaten by a human, of all things. Brutal.
Right then and there, Tail demonstrated exactly what it means to know when to bow your head — it very sincerely lowered both its tone and its posture when addressing Caelus and Stelle.
"I actually thought your reason for refusing to eat would be something like 'I don't eat food made from my own kind.'"
Caelus took a bite of chocolate, raising an eyebrow.
"Ha, what are you on about——"
"Hmm↗?" A pointed uptick in volume. Caelus smiled brightly.
"Ahem, ahem. What are you talking about? Heliobus devouring each other is perfectly normal — powerful Heliobus can absorb weaker ones to grow stronger."
For example, over a thousand years ago, the great Heliobus Ignamar that had battled a certain Luofu General fiercely throughout Fyxestroll Garden.
Great Heliobus Ignamar had itself been formed by absorbing and devouring countless fellow Heliobus — until it was eventually shattered by General Teng Xiao.
And Tail — Lord Tail — was one of the most powerful fragments of Ignamar.
"So why don't you give it a try yourself?"
"I——!"
Tail started to snap back, then stopped: "Already told you I can't eat it... Hm?!"
It had opened its mouth to speak — and Caelus, like someone teasing a dog... teasing a wolf, tossed a piece of chocolate at it. Tail instinctively caught it in its mouth. Its eyes immediately went clear and bright.
It felt its core strength grow — just a little!
Not much, but with none of the resistance from another Heliobus's emotions or consciousness, this meant being turned into food had erased the consciousness entirely, leaving only pure, raw Heliobus energy!
"Ahem. So... any chance I could get two more sticks?"
The flames behind Tail's back condensed into a wolf's tail, its tip scratching sheepishly at the brim of its cap as it looked over at Caelus with a mildly embarrassed expression.
If Caelus fed it every last Heliobus this way, Tail could possess Ignamar's full power — under its own consciousness!
It would ascend!
"Didn't you say you couldn't eat it?"
Caelus looked at that Big Bad Wolf face, and considering the cosmetic surgery patient had not consented to the procedure, tossed another bar over as compensation.
"Just the one, got it."
Caelus dangled a chocolate bar from his lips like a cigarette, eyes drifting over to Leylah, who had the two small Heliobus imprisoned. As the Godhood of the yo-yo, Leylah was fundamentally an energy-based being herself.
Under Tail's intensely jealous gaze, Caelus grabbed a few chocolate bars, walked over to the dark-haired girl, and gave her soft little cheek a gentle squeeze.
"Open up."
"Ah."
Leylah, with all the air of a literary heroine, flushed prettily and obediently opened her mouth, chewing on the chocolate bar he'd placed there.
"How does it feel?"
Caelus asked, full of expectation.
If food made from Heliobus could help Leylah raise her energy tier, he was ready to launch a full-scale Fyxestroll Garden Cleanup Operation.
"Master, I feel like my power is a little more active than before. As for other aspects... I don't notice anything."
There was a buff effect — but he couldn't rule out absorption as a factor, given how small the quantity was.
"Whenever you want more, just say the word. I'll save most of the rest for you."
"Mm, thank you, Master~!"
The girl's smile was radiant.
Caelus smiled back and looked over at Ah Yan and Ah Yu.
"Boss! Boss! We'd like to join your barbecue stand as franchise partners! Clean-energy charcoal, zero pollution — protecting the Xianzhou environment is every Heliobus's responsibility!"
Ah Yu's flame snapped ramrod-straight, the picture of solemn conviction, like someone swearing an oath before the party flag.
Inside, it was crying its eyes out.
If only it had known, it never would have left its last host!
Its previous host had been loaded, had refined taste, and loved staying home — a lifestyle that ticked pretty much every box for Ah Yu. There was just one thing it couldn't stand.
The host had been a Vidyadhara, and the man was obsessed with his beloved Ancient Sea. He'd dump salt into his bathtub every single day and call it "the smell of the ocean." Ah Yu had eventually hit its limit and bailed, determined to find a luckier vessel.
It never dreamed it would run straight into a demon gray-hair who ate Heliobus!
Getting sealed onto a barbecue grill as clean-energy charcoal had to be better than getting eaten by the gray-hair demon!
"Same here!"
As though terrified it would get eaten if it was even one second slower to speak up, Ah Yan leaped up and shouted.
"I knew nobody could resist the call of something too good to refuse. I still like your die-before-you-yield energy — but fine, I'll let it slide this time. Given how much taste you two clearly have, welcome to the Star Rail Barbecue Stand. Once the shop opens, you two will finally get to shine!"
Top-tier employees who needed no food and no sleep!
Caelus turned to Xueyi and Raven with barely contained excitement. "Can you run the same paperwork for these two employees as you did for Tail? No problem there? I guarantee they won't hurt anyone."
Raven: "..."
What was she supposed to say?
Having watched Caelus completely kill a Heliobus — and by eating it, no less — Raven found herself fairly convinced those two little Heliobus's survival instincts were quite credible.
"Fine."
Xueyi nodded in assent. Caelus had done so much for her and for Xianzhou — a small favor like this was no trouble at all.
Besides, rendering a Heliobus harmless was itself a merit.
As for the "clean-energy charcoal" business... that was a bit too avant-garde. Xueyi reserved judgment.
"Everyone — has anyone seen Little Gui and Sushang? They went to the bathroom and they still haven't come back."
Li Sushang emerged from behind the decorative rockery.
"It's happening — the classic horror movie scenario! Someone goes missing, the others go looking for them one by one, and the ghost picks them off individually!"
Stelle swung one black-stockinged leg and one bare snow-white leg and bounced up, eyes gleaming, pointing a dramatic finger.
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