Chapter 212: A Foxian Farewell
"I don't understand. Why do you insist on becoming a Pilot?"
"I don't get it either... why don't you understand?" Qingni's voice trembled, thick with unshed tears and years of pent-up frustration. "Anyone in this world can fly a warship, except for the daughter of the Helm Master—what kind of ridiculous logic is that? Just because you aren't willing to fly anymore, are you going to keep me tethered to the ground too?"
The young Foxian girl took a step back, her hands balled into tight fists at her sides. "I am not a bird you can just keep locked in a cage!"
With that tearful shout, Qingni spun on her heel, slammed the heavy wooden doors of the office shut, and stormed down the corridor.
"Qingni, where are you going—!"
Yukong took a hurried step forward, her hand outstretched to give chase, but the sudden sound of approaching footsteps forced her to stop in her tracks. She blinked, her golden eyes widening slightly as Leon, Welt, Stelle, and Caelus stepped into the room from the adjacent hallway.
"I'm so sorry," Leon said, offering a light, easygoing chuckle as he casually stuffed his hands into his pockets. "It seems we've arrived at a bad time."
Internally, he sighed. It was a shame Yukong didn't know the meme; otherwise, she would have perfectly delivered the classic line, 'You've arrived at just the right time.'
This was Leon's first time seeing the Helm Master in person. In the memories of his past life, she was a four-star character whose support capabilities could easily rival low-Eidolon five-stars. Of course, behind those massive damage buffs lay extremely low uptime and notoriously harsh speed-tuning requirements, which meant he rarely bothered including her in his team comps back then.
But gameplay mechanics did nothing to diminish Leon's appreciation for the woman standing before him. Yukong's beauty was entirely different from Tingyun's playful, teasing allure. The Helm Master leaned heavily into a dignified, impressive mature charm. Her posture commanded respect, and that long, flowing dark green hair wasn't a style just anyone could pull off with such natural elegance.
"It has nothing to do with you all." Yukong closed her eyes for a brief second, taking a slow, steadying breath. When she opened them again, the frantic mother had vanished, replaced entirely by the composed leader of the Sky-Faring Commission. "It was my lack of decorum for the setting. Please excuse me."
Watching the lingering tension between mother and daughter, Leon couldn't help but feel a distinct sense of déjà vu. The stubbornness, the overprotective mother, the rebellious heir... it was practically a carbon copy of Cocolia and Bronya's dynamic back on Belobog.
"...I've made a fool of myself before you all," Yukong murmured, turning around to fully face the Express Crew. Her expression had smoothed over into a mask of calm professionalism. "Everyone, on behalf of the Sky-Faring Commission, I thank the Astral Express Crew for everything you have done for the Luofu during the Stellaron Catastrophe."
"Aren't you going to go after her?" Leon asked softly, his gaze drifting toward the door Qingni had just slammed.
Yukong shook her head, a soft, weary sigh escaping her lips. "Qingni only wants to become a warship Pilot, but I insist on her staying in a safe, clerical position... Perhaps to others, I am simply being too arbitrary, too controlling." She paused, her fox ears drooping slightly. "But whenever I think of that scene where she was surrounded by those monsters, I feel so afraid that even my tail trembles..."
"Does a tail really tremble?"
Stelle leaned sideways, peering intently behind Yukong's waist. She blinked her golden eyes, her face a mask of deadpan curiosity as she genuinely tried to inspect the Helm Master's tail.
"Heh... it's laughable, isn't it?" Yukong offered a bitter, self-deprecating smile, ignoring the gray-haired Trailblazer's antics. "Whether it was the Abundance Axis or living celestial bodies, I have faced all kinds of desperate situations in the sky. I truly thought I had long forgotten what fear tasted like."
She looked down at her hands, her voice dropping to a fragile whisper. "It wasn't until I faced the very real possibility of loss that I realized... there are things in this world that can make me afraid after all."
The dejection in Yukong's tone was heavy enough to suffocate the room. Judge Hanya of the Ten-Lords Commission had only recently delivered the grim news regarding Tingyun. Yukong's heart was already weighed down by an anchor of grief, and her adopted daughter's fierce rebellion was only draining whatever little strength she had left.
She had already lost Tingyun. She absolutely could not afford to lose Qingni too.
"It seems Lady Yukong has already heard the news about Miss Tingyun..."
Leon stepped forward, breaking the heavy silence. He reached into his coat and gently pulled out an exquisite folding fan, offering it to the Foxian woman.
Yukong's gaze immediately locked onto the item. The air in the room seemed to freeze. After a long, agonizing moment of silence, she slowly reached out with trembling fingers to take it.
Her thumb lightly caressed the complex ribs of the fan. The movement was incredibly gentle, carrying a trace of imperceptible reverence, as if she were holding something made of fragile glass.
"...She always carried this fan with her," Yukong's voice grew thick, barely above a whisper. "She told me it was a gift from a senior in the guild, and that it always brought her good luck."
She didn't finish the sentence. Instead, she carefully placed the folding fan on the center of her mahogany desk, as if laying a crown upon a pedestal. Turning away, she looked out the massive arched windows at the bustling, neon-lit skies of Starskiff Haven.
"Tingyun... I still find it hard to believe that the battle report wasn't just some ridiculous, cruel joke." Yukong crossed her arms, her knuckles turning white. "The Antimatter Legion appeared on the Xianzhou, and Tingyun was actually a Lord Ravager in disguise... I refuse to believe it."
She turned her head slightly, her golden eyes flashing with a mix of denial and quiet fury. "How could that Tingyun—the girl who worked by my side for over thirty years, who handled the endless affairs of the Sky-Faring Commission with me, who smiled and laughed with us—be a monster in disguise?"
Yukong simply couldn't accept that the Tingyun she knew had been Phantylia from the very beginning. She preferred to believe—needed to believe—that Tingyun had been quietly replaced by the Lord Ravager at some recent point during the crisis. Otherwise, the fact that she had spent decades treating a monster of Destruction like a little sister, or even a daughter, would be the universe's sickest joke.
However... if Tingyun truly was replaced by a Lord Ravager recently, then where was the real Tingyun now?
"Miss Yukong..." Leon spoke up, his voice steady.
He finally understood. The reason Yukong had snapped at Qingni just now... Tingyun's sudden 'death' had pushed the Helm Master's paranoia and fear of loss to its absolute breaking point.
"Sorry... I understand. I understand it all." Yukong closed her eyes, pinching the bridge of her nose to stave off the incoming headache. "It's just hard to accept for a moment... Thank you for bringing Tingyun's relics back to the Palace of Astrum."
She turned to face the Express Crew once more, her posture straightening into that of a leader. "In this Stellaron Catastrophe, we have lost too many compatriots, brothers, sisters, and juniors. I would like to invite you all, as the key witnesses of this battle, to attend the Consolation Ceremony the Sky-Faring Commission is holding for the fallen. I wonder if you would be willing?"
"A Consolation Ceremony?" Stelle tilted her head, her curiosity piqued.
"In the words of the Short-Lived Species, it is a funeral," Yukong explained, her tone turning solemn. "It's just that for the Long-Lived Species of the Xianzhou, 'after-death affairs' has always been a distant, faint concept."
She gestured toward the window, looking out over the sprawling Luofu. "Normally, if signs of the Mara-Struck appear, the messengers of the Ten-Lords Commission will take the afflicted to the Hall of Causality, record their life story, and return them to silence. People here have long been accustomed to using brief, sterile farewells to replace long, emotional funerals."
Yukong placed a hand over her heart. "Only we Foxians, with our limited lifespans, still truly value the ceremonies of death. In this disaster, countless Cloud Knights died in the line of duty or fell into the Mara-Struck state before their time. The Hall of Causality didn't even have the time to record their lives before they passed away."
Her fox ears twitched, catching the distant hum of starskiffs outside. "All these hasty deaths and unfulfilled wishes serve as a cruel reminder to us—the lives of Long-Lived Species are still just brief, limited moments in the grand scale of the cosmos. I want to give the deceased a proper place to rest. In the traditional way of the Sky-Faring Commission, using Foxian funeral rites, we will place their relics on starships and send them out of the Xianzhou... sailing towards the deep dark, to shine alongside the stars."
Hearing Yukong's poetic explanation, Leon nodded thoughtfully. So, in a bit, Tingyun's relics will all be placed in a starship and shot into the void of space...
A faint, imperceptible smirk tugged at the corner of his lips. Never mind. When the time comes, I'll just take matters into my own hands and keep Tingyun's things for myself.
"This is not only to console the deceased, to give peace to those souls who can no longer speak," Yukong continued, unaware of Leon's inner scheming, "but also to comfort the kin, the close friends, and all the people of the Xianzhou who must remain in this world and carry on."
She looked back at the folding fan resting on her desk. "I also hope... to use this ceremony to bid a proper farewell to Tingyun. This is my personal wish. Although she was not a Cloud Knight who died in the line of duty, she was still a vital member of my Sky-Faring Commission and a tragic victim of this catastrophe."
Yukong's gaze hardened, a fierce glint of determination cutting through her grief. "Through this ceremony, I want to completely separate my subordinate... from that vile Lord Ravager who stole her identity and dared to wear her face."
She took a deep breath, her hands resting firmly on the edge of her desk. "Yes... I am still unwilling to accept Tingyun's current whereabouts. I will definitely find out the truth of what happened to her in my own way. But for now, this is... the only thing I can do for her."
"Everyone, could you please... witness this together with me?" Yukong looked at the group, her gaze calm, earnest, and pleading.
"Of course," Leon nodded smoothly, his expression a mask of polite respect.
"I have already instructed Yanqing to assist in organizing Tingyun's remaining relics," Yukong said, a faint trace of relief washing over her features. "I hope you can choose some from among them to place upon the starship."
"We will handle this matter exactly as Lady Yukong wishes," Welt replied, adjusting his glasses with a solemn nod.
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