At dusk, the setting sun wove a painting in the sky.
Tourists wove through Exalting Sanctum like fabric; the bustling neighborhood seemed to have blown away the shadow of the Stellaron.
In reality, the common people were currently completely ignorant of the Stellaron matter. The people here lived and worked in peace, chicly enjoying a rare moment of rest after their busy schedules.
"Barbecue, deep-fried treats, desserts—we have it all! Passing customers, don't miss out~"
"Boss, this one, this one, and this one too. Give me two skewers of each."
A gray-haired raccoon pointed this way and that.
"Ornaments and decorations, purely handmade, honest prices for young and old~"
"Caelus-cub, I think this one is not bad. Do you think we should buy one as a gift for Himeko?"
Hugging a bag of steaming hot gourmet food, Stelle dragged Caelus to the handicraft stall next door.
"I think that works. Just charge it to the mission funds and ask Jing Yuan for full reimbursement later."
"As expected of you, Lord Caelus!"
The sturdy bestie bond between Little March and Hachi-Stelle was being tested in the face of victory or defeat in their competition.
Faced with Little March's betrayal, Stelle was heartbroken and determined to win the competition, vowing to use the undeniable rights of a King to utterly dominate Ah Qi!
The five of them had divided into groups: Team Sea-Seven and Team Star Rail, splitting up to act.
Aside from the grouping, they also had to consider the distribution of clues.
The intelligence Caelus had extracted from the Xianzhou woman's brain using Fenghuang Down was quite detailed and easy to start with.
The intelligence Jing Yuan provided was too broad, making the investigation somewhat difficult.
When discussing who would choose first, having mixed with the Astral Express crew for so long, the once innocent and cute Little March had also started to learn how to be bad.
"Give it to me~ Give it to me~"
March 7th had directly turned her head and hugged Caelus and Stelle's arms, activating her Talent Skill: Beautiful Girl's Privilege. Hit by the follow-up attack of acting spoiled, the two painfully lost the initiative.
Little March successfully snatched the simple investigation clue and immediately set off with Little Duck and 'White' Seele.
Caelus and Stelle leisurely arrived at Exalting Sanctum and began their mission, currently executing the 'eat, drink, and be merry' phase.
"Nom, nom."
Finishing a chicken roll in two or three bites, Stelle did a cat walk along the curb, her arms spread wide to maintain balance, ensuring she wouldn't fall off the edge.
Sensing Caelus-cub's gaze, Stelle turned her head and explained with a serious face:
"My feet cannot touch the ground, otherwise I will die."
"Childish."
Caelus scoffed with disdain and strode forward with large steps.
Seeing this, Stelle's brows twitched. "Why do you take a giant step every few paces?"
Caelus pointed at the ground and answered with a serious face, "My feet must step on the core position formed by four floor tiles, otherwise I will die."
In the interval of replying, Caelus momentarily lost focus and accidentally missed a step. He paused, then continued forward as if nothing had happened.
"That didn't start just now; it only starts counting now."
"Childish!" Stelle looked at him with contempt.
"You're the childish one!"
"Bounce back!"
"Super bounce back!"
"I call this being innocent and romantic." Stelle put her hands on her hips, quite narcissistic.
"This is called the cerebrum not developing at all, and the cerebellum developing incompletely."
Caelus pointed and criticized with disgust, "For a kid like you, even if cured, you'd still drool."
"Audacious!"
Stelle held the bag in her mouth, rolled up her sleeves, and wanted to suppress this rebellious Caelus-cub with one hand.
"Heheh, Ah Xing, times have changed!"
Equipped with 'Knight Does Not Die with Empty Hands,' Caelus easily blocked Stelle's attack.
Stelle frowned slightly, knocked the bag into her spatial equipment, and got serious. Her hands alternated, launching a Meteor Chain Strike.
"Ora ora ora!"
"Muda muda muda!"
Unwilling to show weakness, Caelus reached out to counterattack.
The two fought faster and faster, just like two cats brawling.
Their horseplay by the roadside made passersby cast envious glances.
Couples exchanged knowing smiles, thinking of the childish actions during their own passionate periods, and held hands tighter.
Elderly people sighed with emotion, "Being young is truly great. I recall back then I also..."
The only ones injured were the single dogs, who had to swallow their teeth in silence after they soured from envy.
The conflict between the Star Rail duo always came quickly and went quickly. In just a moment, the two shook hands and made peace again, and then...
Slap~!
On the steps of a corner with fewer people, Stelle slapped away Caelus's hand that was groping towards her chest.
"Caelus-cub, have you found the clue or not? I don't want to lose to Ah Qi."
"Let me touch once and I'll tell you."
Caelus activated the ultimate technique Stelle used to use often in the past: Great Desolate Heaven-Imprisoning Hand.
"Don't you dare!"
Stelle dodged nimbly, avoiding this move.
In fact, she had long been desensitized to planet-kneading level attacks. Even if she blushed, it was just a physical reaction, not true shyness.
The reason she dodged was naturally because Caelus's target wasn't the 'planet' at all, but the planet's defensive outer layer—her white T-shirt. Caelus-cub was attempting to use her T-shirt to wash away the curse left after slaughtering living beings—grease.
"Here, take it, take it."
After dodging a few times, Stelle helplessly pulled a tissue from her skirt pocket and threw it to Caelus.
"Can't you think about how to search by yourself?"
Caelus caught the tissue and wiped his hands.
"Nope!"
Stelle spoke self-righteously, "If we lose, it's all your fault."
Exalting Sanctum was vast, with countless streets and alleys. Finding a clue when they didn't know where it was amounted to looking for a needle in a haystack!
"Caelus-cub, I'm not trying to lecture you, but you even fell for Ah Qi's honey trap?"
Stelle gritted her teeth, her tone full of disappointment at his failure to meet expectations.
"You say that as if you didn't fall for it."
After a short pause, the two voiced their excuses in unison.
"We are good besties, understand?"
"We are good breast-ren, understand?"
Bickering as they went, Caelus and Stelle swapped milk teas to taste each other's flavors, weaving through the streets and alleys of Exalting Sanctum.
The two played in Exalting Sanctum for half the afternoon, tentatively familiarizing themselves with the roads in this area.
It wasn't that they didn't care about the mission. Even the Disciples of Sanctus Medicus probably wouldn't recruit people in broad daylight in such a place; they would definitely wait until night to show their heads.
While playing, Caelus had deliberately noted the locations of desolate alleys within Exalting Sanctum to use as baiting spots for 'fishing' at night.
This is called 'sharpening the axe does not delay the woodcutting'!
In a slightly desolate alley at a street corner, Caelus suddenly stopped. He turned around, pinned Stelle against the wall with a kabedon, and lowered his head slightly to kiss those pink, moist cherry lips.
The sudden action caught Stelle off guard. However, given their direct physical contact, their tacit understanding was telepathic.
Stelle understood. Her hands slowly wrapped around Caelus's neck, responding.
To outsiders, the two looked just like a couple in the heat of passion.
The only two passersby in the alley, whether out of envy or lamenting the moral decay of public morals, quickened their pace.
Then, a Xianzhou man wearing a pale green long gown walked into the alley. His age couldn't be determined from his appearance.
The man saw the young couple embracing and wet-kissing passionately in the alley. He didn't see their faces, only the back of the gray-haired young man's head.
His footsteps paused. The man hesitated for two seconds, but ultimately didn't walk in, continuing forward.
After the man left, Caelus let go of Stelle.
The long French kiss caused two patches of crimson to appear on Stelle's flawless white face. Her lips parted slightly, panting gently.
"That guy just now had a problem?"
"Yeah." Caelus nodded.
He hadn't been wandering the alleys aimlessly; he had kept Fenghuang Down active the whole time, allowing him to sense the consciousness fluctuations of people nearby to a certain extent.
"What do we do next? Knock him out, then you search for intel?"
Stelle pulled out her bat, ready to cosplay Gin at any moment.
"Why do you only know fighting and killing? We need to infiltrate—a proper infiltration, do you understand!"
Directly knocking out a member to get a clue—would the reward even reach 10 Crystals?
Caelus was definitely striving for 180 Crystals.
"Learn from Big Brother. We need to be technical players."
"The moment I realized something was off with that person, I used my body to block you. That person shouldn't have seen our faces. Come, let's go change clothes first."
Caelus beckoned to Stelle, and the two climbed over a wall into the backyard of some unknown shop or residence.
Caelus put on a Persona Mask and summoned a raccoon Stelle to stand guard around them. Then, from his spatial ring, he took out the clothes bought that afternoon and handed them to Stelle.
There was no shyness between the two; they stripped and changed right there.
Caelus used the disguise skills learned from the legendary hitman, Silver Wolf of the Urals, to apply simple makeup to both of them.
Not long after, Caelus-Gin and Stelle-Vodka in black suits made their grand entrance.
"From now on, I am Gin, you are Vodka. You have to call me Big Brother, understood?"
Caelus tied Stelle's tie and put a black hat on her.
"Don't understand."
Stelle puffed out her chest and put her hands on her hips. "I suspect you're abusing power for personal gain and trying to 'casting couch' me. Why do you get to be the Boss? I'm the minion."
Appearance-wise, the long-haired Stelle was indeed more suitable to cosplay Gin. Unfortunately, her temperament was a hundred and eight thousand miles away from Gin's.
Unless Stelle became completely mute, perhaps there would be a few points of resemblance.
"It's fine if you want to be the Boss. Then everything after this is up to you, and if we lose, you take the blame."
Caelus didn't care.
Stelle's expression stiffened, and she compromised at light speed.
"Then you do it."
Stelle had a very good grasp of herself; in terms of swindling and bluffing, she was indeed inferior to Caelus-cub.
She noted this grudge. She would claim it back in bed later!
"Vodka, you hold this."
Nodding with satisfaction, Caelus took out a black suitcase from his spatial ring and threw it to Stelle.
Although spatial folding equipment was widely used in the interstellar era, ultra-small portable spatial equipment like the custom ones from Herta were still possessed by very few people—none of whom were ordinary.
"What is this?"
Stelle caught the black suitcase Caelus threw with precision. It wasn't heavy. She curiously placed the suitcase on the head of a little raccoon shadow Stelle, flicked the latch, and opened the case.
Inside lay two exquisitely packaged items.
"Flowers? Fruits? You're planning to use these to scam people? Will it work?"
"Ahem, what are you saying? How is it scamming? These are genuinely flowers and fruits possessing special powers."
Caelus delivered a knife-hand chop to Stelle's head.
These were props prepared by Seele beforehand, flowers and fruits created using the Black Abyss White Flower to accelerate growth, possessing condensed power of creation.
Because it was only the power of a Divine Key and not the Authority of the Herrscher of Rebirth, the flowers and fruits couldn't maintain the state of condensed creation power for a long time.
But for a short time, passing them off as ordinary Abundance Immortal Fruits was no problem.
"Let's go, let's go play around a bit~!"
The corners of his mouth hooked up in a pleasurable arc. Caelus took Stelle's hand and, together with the surrounding raccoon Stelles, sank into the shadows.
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