"Dropping in unannounced isn't exactly proper guest etiquette."
Ruan Mei's voice stayed as gentle as ever—calm, steady, not a trace of panic.
But was she truly unshaken?
Hardly.
At this moment, the mask called "Yi Qing" had already peeled off Wei Qing's face, leaving only his usual lazy, unbothered expression.
"Lady Ruan Mei. Long time no see." Wei Qing's gaze sharpened as it swept over the little white flower. "You've been thinking about me that much, huh? Even scraps like this—still can't let go?"
The instant he stepped in, he'd recognized the Abundance aura hidden in this room. Familiar. Intimately so.
Ruan Mei didn't answer right away. Her heart sank—just slightly.
Her mind was already running at full speed, analyzing the situation, his intentions, every possible branch of consequence.
Awkward. Extremely.
The Astral Express's "new navigator"—really was Qingzhou.
She had only just dismissed that hypothesis as too absurd to be worth entertaining.
And then he appeared, flipping the board in a single step.
"Even scraps have their value," she said evenly.
Then she lifted her eyes, tranquil and precise.
"Lord Qingzhou—or should I say… Navigator Yi Qing of the Astral Express."
"You went to such lengths to disguise yourself and board the Express. What exactly are you after?"
Wei Qing chuckled, then leaned against the doorframe like he'd wandered in for a casual chat.
"After? Nothing big." He spread his hands. "If I told you I just wanted to find a quiet place to retire and coast, would you believe me?"
Ruan Mei's brows drew together faintly.
"With your capability, there is nowhere in the universe you cannot go. Why lower yourself to playing the navigator of a train on the verge of dormancy?"
"Oh, you don't get it." Wei Qing shrugged. "The Express includes room and board, a dedicated ride, and the job is basically traveling the galaxy. Where else do you find benefits like that?"
He took two steps forward.
Ruan Mei, almost instinctively, stepped half a pace back, watching him with guarded attention.
Wei Qing: "…"
"Come on," he said, amused. "Lady Ruan Mei, I thought after that wonderfully memorable stretch on the Luofu, we were friends."
Ruan Mei paused. Something in her expression softened, as if she'd been forced to recall the truth:
They hadn't truly been enemies.
If anything, they'd cooperated—though it had mostly been her taking and him indulging.
"…My apologies," she said quietly.
She lowered her gaze for a heartbeat, then looked back up, returning to her usual warm composure.
"I lost my poise. You appeared too suddenly, and the shift in identity is… genuinely unexpected."
"So." Her tone regained its steady cadence. "Wei Qing. What brings you here? Surely you didn't come just to reminisce."
Wei Qing didn't answer immediately.
Instead, he asked, "I still don't get one thing. I hadn't even said anything—how did you know I was Yi Qing?"
"If you chose to reveal yourself," Ruan Mei replied, "the conclusion is not difficult."
Her eyes stayed on him. "But your purpose remains unclear."
"Oh, now you're calling me Wei Qing." He clicked his tongue. "A minute ago you were 'Lord Qingzhou' this and 'Lord Qingzhou' that. The way you all talk, I'm basically a world-ending boss."
He tilted his head, mimicking a tone with exaggerated seriousness.
"'Maybe the Destruction of the Four Ends isn't Nanook's Destruction… maybe it's Qingzhou's Destruction.'"
There was a faint irritation in his voice—real enough to sting.
"As a peace-loving youth of the modern era, Lady Ruan Mei, don't you think it's a little unkind to sit around inventing apocalypse fanfiction about me?"
Ruan Mei watched him carefully and answered with calm honesty.
"We only performed inference based on available information."
"And given your position as a Lord Ravager—and your demonstrated potential to qualify as a 'Pre-Aeon' for Destruction—it is not surprising you were included in the Four-Not-Yet analysis."
She paused.
"…If that offended you, I apologize."
Wei Qing sighed theatrically.
"Well, since you put it that way… fine. For old times' sake, I'll be magnanimous."
He strolled to the white flower and tapped it lightly with one finger.
In an instant, the plant bloomed with a surge of vitality. Its Abundance aura swelled severalfold, and faint golden patterns flickered across the petals like living filigree.
Ruan Mei's gaze sharpened with genuine surprise.
"Enough circling," she said. "Wei Qing, what do you want?"
"Are you here to retrieve your arm? Or is there something else?"
"My arm?" Wei Qing stroked his chin. "I already gave it away. A gift is a gift. Do I look that stingy?"
Then his tone shifted—casual, but with an edge.
"Though I did hear someone got very interested in making a clone of me."
Ruan Mei's heart jolted.
Their discussion about cloning had been held under strict privacy protocols.
How could he possibly know?
Wei Qing answered her unspoken question with a lazy half-smile.
"Finality is pretty handy, isn't it?"
"Back on the Luofu—when you two were asleep and I could do whatever I wanted—I didn't exactly sit there staring at the ceiling."
Ruan Mei's eyes narrowed slightly, but her voice remained smooth.
"So the contingency you left behind was more extensive than we anticipated."
She exhaled once—controlled, deliberate.
"And yes, we were curious. As researchers, we can't help it when confronted with an unprecedented specimen."
"Curiosity is a dangerous habit," Wei Qing said.
The air in the quiet lab grew heavier, an invisible pressure spreading like a slow tide.
"I don't want to wake up one day and find some 'work' wearing my face, carrying part of my power, wandering around the universe."
"That would make me… unhappy."
Ruan Mei felt the cold warning beneath his playful tone.
She angled her body slightly, her gaze slipping to the flower now radiating with renewed Abundance.
"As for the cloning concept…" she said, careful and precise. "That was Herta's impulsive idea. I explicitly argued against it. Given your ability, you can judge the truth of that statement."
Wei Qing studied her with mild interest, saying nothing.
Ruan Mei continued.
"We understand it is not a rational choice. Even if the pursuit of knowledge can make us appear extreme, there are boundaries we do not cross."
She met his eyes directly.
"So if you came to confirm this, I can state clearly: the cloning plan was shelved."
"If you came for something else—warning us, or…" She hesitated, choosing her words. "…or to address what role you may play within the Four-Not-Yet prophecy—"
It wasn't an illogical guess. He had joined the Stellaron Hunters under the banner of Finality, after all.
Ruan Mei didn't believe he knew nothing.
Wei Qing laughed.
"Lady Ruan Mei, do I look like the sort of person who'd run over here just to clear my name because of a prophecy?"
"…No," she admitted. "But your behavioral patterns are difficult to model. They were on the Luofu, and they are now—disguising yourself as the Astral Express's navigator."
"My behavior is hard to model? Ouch." Wei Qing sounded almost wounded. "I always thought I was a pretty simple guy."
He stepped closer and—without hesitation—slung an arm around her shoulders.
"My purpose is very simple."
Ruan Mei stiffened for a fraction of a second, then forced her body to relax.
She did not struggle. She simply turned her head slightly and looked at him from the corner of her eye, waiting.
"Cooperation," Wei Qing said.
"A kind of cooperation built on… mutual understanding and trust."
"I don't understand," Ruan Mei replied, frowning faintly. "What foundation do we have for cooperation?"
In truth, she had always wanted to work with him.
But she also knew she didn't have much to offer someone like Wei Qing—nor did she know what she could provide that he would actually want.
"Oh, we do." Wei Qing's tone brightened.
"You're worried about the Four-Not-Yet, worried about Omen Vanguard, worried the universe is going to end. Coincidentally, I also don't want the universe to end—at least not before I finish enjoying my retirement."
Ruan Mei fell silent for a moment, then spoke carefully.
"As a Lord Ravager, to claim you don't want the universe to end… that seems contradictory."
"'Stance' is a flexible thing," Wei Qing said lightly. "Besides—who says an Emanator of Destruction has to walk the road Nanook drew in ink and blood all the way to the end?"
He smiled, casual and dangerous.
"Maybe in the future god-war, Nanook really does die. And when I take the seat—Destruction becomes whatever I say it is."
Ruan Mei's eyes flickered, catching the implications.
She didn't press—she redirected.
"Then how do you want to cooperate?"
"I want you to help me mess with Herta," Wei Qing said cheerfully.
Ruan Mei: "?????"
For once, even Ruan Mei's composure cracked. A trace of genuine bewilderment slipped into her gaze.
She had imagined many possible proposals.
This was not one of them.
"Mess with… Herta?" she repeated, as if verifying she'd heard correctly.
Wei Qing nodded, utterly serious.
"Yeah. Look, from the Luofu onward she's been calling for my head. Just now in front of everyone she kept calling me 'that bastard' and 'that annoying guy,' like I'm some apocalypse demon she personally has to exorcise."
"I'm petty," he added brightly. "And I hold grudges."
Ruan Mei stared at him, trying to find even a single trace of a joke.
She failed.
His eyes were filled with the gleeful anticipation of a prank about to land.
"But…" Ruan Mei tried again, rationally, "with your identity and strength, if you wanted to do something to Herta, you wouldn't need my cooperation."
"That's boring." Wei Qing shook his head.
"Threatening her with violence, smashing the Spiral Nexus—those are brute moves."
"We're civilized. We prefer technique and… entertainment value."
"I want her to take a silent loss—one she can't explode about on the spot."
He leaned in slightly.
"And for that, I need you—one of her closest collaborators—to provide the internal 'knife.'"
"You also want to see her throw a tantrum, don't you?"
No, Ruan Mei very much did not.
She regarded his grin, pictured Herta's reaction, and felt a rare sense of helplessness.
This was childish. Participating would violate her principles.
"Wei Qing," she asked slowly, "are you serious?"
"Completely." He raised an eyebrow. "Life is short. Enjoy it while you can. And watching a genius who always walks around with her chin in the air eat a loss—tell me that isn't fun."
Ruan Mei didn't answer immediately.
Then she took half a step back and gently removed his arm from her shoulders, restoring her usual dignified posture.
"I understand you and Herta may have… personal grievances."
"But I am her partner and friend. Participating in a scheme to mock her for amusement does not align with my principles."
Wei Qing's smile only deepened.
"Principles?"
"You're rejecting me awfully fast. Don't you want to know what I'm offering as payment?"
Ruan Mei's expression remained calm.
"Whatever the payment, humiliating a friend for amusement is not something I will do."
Wei Qing didn't argue.
He simply placed his palm against his own chest—and slowly pushed inward.
A ripple of pale gold spread out from his sternum like a quiet shockwave.
Ruan Mei's breath stopped.
She watched his hand twist inside his chest as though untying an invisible knot.
Then he drew out a heart and held it in his palm—offering it to her.
It wasn't dark red flesh.
It looked like translucent crystal, half-real, half-miraculous.
With each beat, it tugged at the Path energy in the surrounding space, producing a faint, rhythmic resonance.
It didn't feel like an organ.
It felt like a living artifact.
"Well?" Wei Qing's voice pulled her back from the shock. His face showed no strain at all.
"Compared to that severed arm you can only study passively… doesn't this—still beating, and carrying the core of everything I currently am—hold more research value?"
Ruan Mei's gaze locked onto it like gravity.
Unlike the arm, she could clearly sense two additional Paths within this heart.
Nihility.Trailblaze.
Want it.
Want it.
Want it.
Her fingertips trembled. A near-instinctive hunger for knowledge surged up—then she crushed it down with sheer discipline.
She kept her face neutral, but her voice came out slightly dry.
"…Wei Qing. What are you doing?"
"Showing sincerity," he said, as if it were the most ordinary thing in the world. "And the payment for cooperation."
"The arm is the past. This is present tense."
"You can feel Nihility and Trailblaze, right?"
"Fresh. Alive. At their most original state."
He took a step closer and offered the heart nearer to her.
Its steady beat filled the quiet lab, each pulse like a knock on the soul.
Ruan Mei's resolve wavered.
Just as she'd thought earlier—what was happening around Wei Qing was too absurd to be real.
Trailblaze, Nihility… in mere months?
It was as if the Paths themselves were drawn to him.
Was he some kind of Path-seductress?
Ruan Mei's voice trembled despite herself.
"Trailblaze… and Nihility."
Wei Qing watched her struggle and spoke softly, like a devil offering a hand.
"So?"
"Is this payment enough to make you set your principles down… temporarily?"
"You can touch it. Sense it with your own power."
"As someone who studies life and Paths—tell me you don't understand."
"There won't be a second opportunity like this in the universe."
Ruan Mei inhaled, forcing herself to slow down.
She knew he was dangerous—unpredictable.
But the temptation was overwhelming.
She had been Herta's partner for years. She should refuse.
She should.
"…How do you want me to cooperate?" she heard herself ask.
Her reason lost.
She wanted to advance too badly.
Sorry, Herta.
Wei Qing's smile brightened like sunlight through glass.
Several of Herta's puppets were busy scanning. They moved with instruments in hand, inspecting the walls, the floor, even sampling the ambient energy in the air.
Pom-Pom hovered anxiously behind them, tiny legs pumping back and forth.
"Careful, please, careful, please! Don't touch that part, okay, okay?!"
Herta stood at the center of the car with arms folded, brow furrowed, watching the incoming stream of real-time data.
"The inertial decay is worse than expected… structural stress distribution is abnormal… tsk."
She muttered like a craftsman critiquing an ancient relic.
"This old thing surviving to this day is basically a miracle."
"How is it?" Granholm asked softly.
"Not good." Herta didn't look up. "Worse than I thought. This train is like a punctured balloon—patch after patch, but the core pressure keeps bleeding out."
She pointed at the holographic energy map of the train's core. The "furnace-heart" glow was so dim it looked ready to go out.
"Unless you can re-ignite the Trailblaze Path itself, you're stuck with the same answer."
"A long sleep."
Pom-Pom's ears drooped.
"Pom-Pom knows… the train is tired…"
"Crying won't fix it." Herta flicked Pom-Pom a glance, then—unexpectedly—softened.
"But you've done well, conductor. Keeping it running this long is no small thing."
Just then, Ruan Mei returned—walking side-by-side with Wei Qing.
And something about the two of them felt… off.
In the span of a short time, they looked far too familiar with each other.
Ruan Mei leaned slightly toward Wei Qing, speaking in a low voice, the faintest gentle smile on her lips.
Herta immediately noticed.
"Where did you two go?" she demanded. "Ruan Mei, what about the equipment you were prepping?"
"We ran into a minor technical issue and needed to adjust parameters," Ruan Mei answered smoothly. "Navigator Yi Qing assisted me."
Herta narrowed her eyes. "You two seem to be getting along."
"Only discussing routine maintenance details of the Express," Ruan Mei replied, tone serene. "And some of his experiences as an Emanator of Trailblaze."
"A unique perspective."
She sounded perfectly normal—like nothing unusual had happened at all.
Ruan Mei stepped to Herta's side and glanced at the scrolling data.
"How is it?"
"Bleak," Herta said. "Even worse than my model predicted. The Express is running on inertia."
Ruan Mei's gaze sharpened.
"After seeing it directly… there may be another approach."
Herta perked up. "Oh? You found something?"
"Not new data," Ruan Mei said, "but a reverse inference based on information Yi Qing provided."
"If the Express's wear correlates directly with the dormancy of Trailblaze, then perhaps we can attempt to stimulate the Path locally."
"Stimulate the Path?" Herta scoffed. "I said that earlier. Sounds easy. Akivili's been dead for how many Amber Eras? How do you 'stimulate' that?"
"Not fully," Ruan Mei said patiently. "Create a localized activation point."
She pulled up a refined model she'd already built.
"Yi Qing, as an Emanator of Trailblaze, is currently the entity most tightly linked to that Path."
"We can attempt to construct a temporary resonance field with him as the core."
Herta's expression turned serious as she evaluated the model.
"Conceptually plausible. Risk?"
"Even an Emanator is small compared to an entire Path—even a dormant one."
She looked at Wei Qing, unusually grave.
"Hey, navigator. This isn't a joke."
"Ruan Mei's plan turns you into a human ignition key—overclocked."
"You sure you want to try?"
All eyes fell on Wei Qing.
Pom-Pom clutched his pant leg.
"Yi Qing passenger, maybe don't, okay?! The train can still hold on a little longer!"
Wei Qing glanced at Ruan Mei—who looked perfectly calm—and nodded.
"Sounds interesting."
"And honestly, as navigator I haven't contributed much besides existing. Being a human ignition key at least makes me useful."
He blinked at Ruan Mei.
"So what do I do? Need a special pose? One leg up, arms pointing to the sky?"
Ruan Mei's mouth twitched, as if she'd been struck by the sheer nonsense of him.
She coughed once.
"…No. You only need to cooperate. Herta and I will handle the rest."
"Then let's do it," Wei Qing said immediately.
Herta stared at him.
"Tsk. Bold."
And yet—for reasons she couldn't name—she suddenly felt a chill creeping up her spine.
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 178)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 165)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League ( 126 )
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter110)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter220)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter125)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter250)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 65
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 77
From Junkman to Wasteland 66
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 46
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 220
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 65
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 185
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass Volume2/20
The Way the Umamusume Look at 68
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 248
Naruto: Weaving the Future, Be 65
Zenless Zone Zero, but Kamen R 76
Multiverse Crossover: The Perf 66
My Cyberpsycho Girlfriend 65
Uma Musume: The Dark Trainer 230
Uma Musume: A Calamity Born fr 154
I, a Reincarnation-Loop Player Volume4/40
The Violent Girl Group Is Beat 125
Uma Musume: The Horse Girl Who 67
Uma Musume: From Beginner 145
Becoming a Horse Girl, I Will 85
Uma Musume: I Want All 120
I Can Copy Unique Skills 115
Summoning an Evil God, but the 75
Supernatural Multiverse 110
My Harem Is Indescribable 100
Jujutsu Kaisen: Heroic Spirit 105
"I'm just a Valkyrie passing through." 67
Uma Musume: Today Is Another Romantic Battlefield 105
Still playing traditional Honk 80
The Most Filial Son Under Heav 85
What Should I Do After Switchi - Volume2/3
Reincarnated as a Demon, Skill 78
Hell-Difficulty Dungeon? 55
Transmigrated as Sukuna 80
Checking In in Demon Slayer 85
The Reincarnating Trainer of Tracen Academy 100
I Refuse to Become a Heroic 85
My Best Friend Into a Slime? 80
A Saiyan Stands Above Marvel 90
What Do You Mean by Using a Lab Mod to Be the Hero? 75
Tanya Starts from Re:Zero 80
Why did they assign me to Uma 75
MYGO Beauties 70
DanMachi: Emiya the Giant Hero 70
The Gacha Merchant Who Started 80
Honkai's Otherworld? Wait—Who Are You People?! 80
Emiya Shirou, Determined to Slay Every Curse and Evil Spirit 57
The Uma Musume Who Became 55
I'm Definitely Not the King of 60
After Maxing Out Every Class 45
Naruto: I'm Konoha's Local Men 35
Honkai: World Modulation Mode 34
I, the Elden Sword Saint 27
Dio Brando Is Challenging FGO 24
No One Knows Pokémon Better 18
I, Sakazuki, Won't Go Down Tha 20
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