Twilight crouched by the entrance of the Shackling Prison, observing her acquaintances. It wasn't the Express crew this time, but Blade and Jingliu.
Indeed, since these two could intercept the Express crew, they must have arrived earlier—but watching these two stand there awkwardly, facing each other without speaking or fighting, Twilight found it quite amusing.
Turns out, even behind the coolest, grandest scenes, sometimes it's better not to delve too deep; who knows what happens behind the scenes of those handsome poses...
Without directly knocking them out, Twilight patiently waited for the Express crew. And just as she expected, it wasn't long before those Xianzhou destroyers rushed towards the Shackling Prison at breakneck speed.
Phantylia should be hidden inside the box containing the Borisin heart on Caelus right now... Sorry, Phantylia. Although we spent a few hours in the same body, barely counting as 'one day together, hundred days of grace', who asked you to be a villain planning bad deeds?
Her mom told her not to play with bad kids—though she didn't have a mom.
"Dan Feng, you've come—"
Just as Blade, following the original timeline's progression, glared deadly at Dan Heng, preparing to unleash a torrent of abuse, Twilight struck without a moment's hesitation.
It wasn't even an instant. No one present even saw clearly what happened. Everyone was already on the ground, while Twilight stood before the Express crew, silently holding the box snatched from Caelus's pocket. Without even glancing inside, she crushed it, along with the Borisin heart within, into fine powder.
As for Phantylia inside, she naturally couldn't escape this fate of destruction either. But since she, as a Lord Ravager, had committed far too many evil deeds—if not heinous, then certainly too numerous to record—Twilight's action didn't count as slaughtering the innocent.
This way, she wouldn't become Little Abundance, and likely wouldn't attract Lan's pursuit either—Wait, but isn't she already Little Abundance now?
And in this timeline, what state was her ghost consciousness, the one that wandered around spectating, in now? Time is really complicated...
"You, who are you?! What have you done!"
Caelus, who had been knocked down, seeing Twilight crush the box, nearly went berserk. Forgetting even to consider what had happened, he stared incredulously at Twilight, roaring in anger.
That was the item prepared to revive Twilight! What if Twilight's resurrection failed later precisely because this thing was missing?!
"Caelus, don't worry..." Twilight shook her head gently, patiently explaining, "Phantylia was hiding inside; she's a bad guy. Besides, this... isn't needed anymore."
"What do you mean, not needed?! Twilight still—"
Caelus's voice caught. He stared fixedly at Twilight's face, his expression shifting from fury to disbelief. Finally, scrambling up on all fours, he rushed in front of Twilight, examining her with a tightly furrowed brow.
Similar, too similar... The person before him gave him an intense sense of déjà vu, so strong that he was certain he knew this face and had a deep impression of it. But what frustrated Caelus was that no matter how hard he searched his memory, he couldn't recall who the person before him was, like words perpetually on the tip of his tongue but suddenly forgotten.
Seeing Caelus's reaction, Twilight looked thoughtful. She hadn't deliberately used her power to influence Caelus's perception like Xiangzi did back then, so there must be another reason hindering his recognition.
Could it be because her body, in a sense, was an existence born from the future, yet to be born at this current point in time, thus Caelus couldn't successfully recognize someone who hadn't appeared in the world yet?
But such things didn't matter now. Twilight chose to reveal her identity directly. If he still couldn't recognize her normally even then, she'd think of another way—fortunately, things weren't that troublesome.
"I am Twilight. I was revived later..."
Although it sounded ridiculously like one of those scam messages "[I am the Luofu High Elder, I revived, send me 100,000 credits and I'll make you a Preceptor]", the moment Caelus heard these words, it was as if a fog lifted from his mind, instantly understanding everything.
Yes, the person before him, whether appearance, voice, or tone, wasn't it all clearly Twilight? Why couldn't he remember...?
But none of that mattered. The important point was, how was Twilight here before him now...?
Caelus subconsciously glanced back at Dan Heng, who understood immediately and took out Twilight's sealed body.
"You... Are you really Twilight? What exactly is going on right now...?"
*Okay, story time!*—Twilight really wanted to cheer this internally, then start frantically embellishing her actions, telling the Express crew a story of how she endured countless hardships for them, willingly sacrificed herself to protect them, only to awaken her ability after death and return to the past.
But considering the player friends outside who might be watching right now, Twilight regretfully abandoned this idea and honestly explained the previous events—omitting, of course, much information about herself.
Without Lan hanging over her head like the Sword of Damocles, Twilight felt much more relaxed, chatting leisurely with the Express crew.
Anyway, they hadn't raided the Shackling Prison yet, so they weren't technically criminals. Given Jing Yuan's personality, he would likely turn a blind eye, probably wouldn't lead an army to apprehend them like last time. But if he did still bring soldiers looking for trouble, Twilight could only knock him and those poor Cloud Knights down first...
By the time Twilight finished explaining everything, quite some time had passed. She had won again this time. As the saviors of the Luofu, as long as the Express crew didn't do anything too outrageous, Jing Yuan would mostly turn a blind eye.
March 7th, in contrast, wasn't calm at all. Before Twilight had even said much, she had already excitedly hugged Twilight tightly, refusing to let go. But what made Twilight slightly uneasy was that March 7th's strength didn't seem as formidable as she remembered from a few hours ago, as if her buff had worn off...
And what concerned, even annoyed, her more than March 7th was—why wasn't she harvesting any wool?!
While recounting her previous experiences, although the Express crew members showed great concern as she spoke, Twilight didn't receive a single point of energy... If their expressions weren't faked, then there was only one answer.
The path of using time travel to madly farm favorability was likely blocked...
Was it because this time period had already been experienced once? She could only try again later and see the specific situation.
Anyway, time was short. If she remembered correctly, now was roughly the time Lan's arrow killed her. After this would be a completely new future.
Looking around at the calm surroundings, wondering what would happen next—
Suddenly, a hair-raising sensation instantly engulfed Twilight entirely. She subconsciously looked back up towards the sky and saw something that left her completely stunned.
It was a light arrow—an arrow shot by the Aeon of The Hunt, the same one that had claimed her life once just hours ago!
Seriously, bro?!
This time, before Twilight could even react to block, the entire Xianzhou Luofu dissolved into nothingness within the light.
Twilight died, again.
The next moment, she opened her eyes on the Xianzhou.
Twilight didn't speak immediately, just silently glanced around, confirming this was the place she had just revived in today. Although the Xianzhou didn't suffer Phantylia's chaos this time, the Luofu was still gone, vanished under the arrow personally shot by Lan.
Was it because she was now Abundance, thus still attracting the Aeon's attention?
But Twilight felt no joy, because she had an even worse suspicion. Being a woman of action, Twilight didn't hesitate, immediately starting again.
Several hours later, she refreshed again at the spawn point, then repeated the cycle... After dozens of repetitions, Twilight finally had to admit her dreadful suspicion had become reality.
Her little life seemed to be marked by Lan. As long as that time point arrived, no matter where she was or what she was doing, that light arrow would always appear behind her like a haunting ghost, sending her to the western heavens!
It was as if causality itself had locked onto Twilight's death at that exact moment...
Damn Lan! She hadn't even gotten to NTR Him yet!