Crossing a wide thoroughfare, the two arrived in the bustling commercial heart of Palieu, the Flower Capital of Posen.
"Meow! What a gorgeous street!"
Held in Lanqi's hands, Boss Cat gazed at the morning splendor of the city, its eyes sparkling with wonder as it stood on its hind legs.
"Indeed. Once we cross this street, we'll practically be at Petras Auction House."
Lanqi looked at Boss Cat and smiled.
This Crystal Orchid Avenue was situated along the central axis connecting Parkinson Palace with the New Pilgrimage Gate. Also known as Pilgrimage Avenue, it was one of the three bustling central thoroughfares of the Southern Continent, celebrated as one of its ten most charming pedestrian streets.
Serving as the main east-west arterial road cutting through the Posen capital of Palieu, it spanned a total length of 1,800 meters and exceeded 120 meters at its widest point, starting at Rose Square in the east and ending at Star Square in the west.
Every year on August 24, Posen's grand National Day military parade was held along this very avenue.
"Centuries ago, this was just marshy farmland, but Posen's queen at the time had it transformed into a tree-lined avenue,"
Lanqi pointed toward the distant, expansive high-rises and open squares as he spoke.
For that reason, in that era Crystal Orchid Avenue had been known as the "Queen's Boulevard."
The evolution of Crystal Orchid Avenue was inextricably linked with the history of municipal development in Palieu, the Flower Capital.
According to Posen historical records, its true beginning dated back three centuries, when a royal landscape gardener extended the east-west axis of the royal rose garden westward to Dot Square to broaden the view, giving rise to the embryonic form of the avenue.
"Its foundational planning was remarkably well-conceived, which is how it took the shape it has today. The first section focuses on natural scenery, flanked by flat, park-like lawns that evoke quiet serenity. The final section is a high-end commercial district, where famous brands, boutiques, and perfumeries of the Southern Continent are concentrated—dazzling, opulent, and grand."
"How do you even know all this?"
She had also read the *Modern History of the Kingdom of Posen* provided by Professor Borao, which touched upon the construction of Crystal Orchid Avenue, but it went nowhere near as deep as Lanqi's explanation.
Rather than reading it from a book, much of it seemed deduced on the spot from his own observations.
"If you ever go to the Northern Continent, the latest urban layout of the Protos imperial capital, Herrom, actually features a heartfelt contribution from me."
A hint of playfulness appeared in Lanqi's smile as he launched into his tale.
"Seems you really do have good connections and some real skill."
Talia's words drifted softly to his ear.
It was no surprise that Lanqi knew a bit of everything.
At least when it came to painting, she gave him credit—he had painted her so beautifully.
"They say around five in the afternoon, if you stand on the elevated park, you can gaze down this unobstructed avenue and watch the breathtaking sunset fade below the western horizon."
Lanqi looked toward the layered rooftops on the other side and the ascending urban terrain rising toward the city center.
"Oh."
Talia gave only an offhand reply.
It sounded as though she had heard, yet hadn't.
She offered no indication of whether she wanted to go or not.
Watching the sunset together—something that bordered on romantic—was not something she would ever do with Lanqi.
Unless it was an absolute necessity for building their synergy, that is.
Lanqi narrowed his eyes with a smile.
As if he saw right through Talia's thoughts.
"Boss Cat, do you want to go watch the sunset?"
He stroked the cat's head, looking down.
"If Tata doesn't want to go, we can just go by ourselves, okay?"
"..."
Hearing Lanqi's words, Talia felt a blood vessel throb on her forehead.
She knew Lanqi was doing it on purpose.
"Meow!"
Before Boss Cat could even reply, Talia snatched it right out of Lanqi's hands.
"Boss Cat is coming with me."
Talia's voice was as hard as steel.
Lanqi stood there with empty hands, looking at her in bewilderment.
His expression seemed to ask: *Are you a sore loser or what?*
"You two keep pushing and pulling, but leave me out of the tug-of-war, meow!"
Boss Cat let out a helpless sigh.
The two of them and the cat chatted and squabbled by turns as they arrived at a crosswalk.
Towering plane trees stood along the curb, their leaves glistening in the morning light like emeralds set into the street.
By now the sun had climbed high, turning the sky a soft, gentle light blue.
During the brief wait for the traffic signal to change,
Lanqi noticed Talia gazing across the street.
A bit puzzled, he followed the line of her gaze.
Only after glancing back and forth twice between the opposite sidewalk and her profile did he discern what had caught her attention.
Across the intersection, shop windows displayed everything from haute couture to exquisite jewelry. An impeccably dressed gentleman strolled past with measured, leisurely steps, each stride looking like part of a choreographed dance.
Behind him, a demon dressed in simple yet neat and clean clothes followed respectfully, carefully balancing several gorgeously decorated shopping boxes in both hands.
Though the burden was hardly light, the demon showed no trace of complaint, only deep deference.
The band around the demon's wrist was none other than the mark of servitude.
Lanqi glanced at Talia again and saw she had already averted her eyes, refusing to linger on a scene that reminded her of how drastically the world had changed.
"This actually isn't uncommon in Palieu,"
Lanqi murmured to Talia, watching the traffic light.
As an international metropolis, the Flower Capital Palieu faced the challenges common to modern cities, such as the integration of immigrant populations.
"I know."
She knew full well that times had changed.
It was a reality she had already accepted many times before coming to the Kingdom of Posen.
A standard labor contract was one thing, but seeing demons reduced to slaves of humans still brought an inescapable pang of discomfort.
Yet there was no point in complaining; demons who signed slave contracts were either atoning for crimes or had sold their time and labor for substantial sums of money due to unforeseen circumstances.
Within the Kingdom of Posen, contract enforcement was largely equitable.
The light changed, and the two set off across the street with the little black cat.
"What's wrong, Tata? Do you want me to win you a championship too? Like Duke Mikhail did?"
Lanqi seemed to have read her mind, looking at her with an amused smile.
Though their fundamental motives differed—Miss Efathia simply enjoyed the spectacle, whereas Talia wished to grant demons their freedom—achieving victory would nonetheless liberate a demon of great potential. Once crowned champion, their worth would skyrocket, and nobles would willingly buy out their contract to sign them to far more equitable commercial terms.
"I'm not the sort of woman who needs a man to fawn over her. No matter how you try to flatter me, you won't get an extra smile out of me."
Talia looked at him, her reply even and slightly cool.
On one hand, she was stating facts; on the other, she couldn't stand Lanqi's sly, feigned innocence when probing her.
"True enough. Even when you're clearly happy while I feed you, you never crack a smile..."
Lanqi shook his head. But before he could finish, he clamped his mouth shut, because Tata was already glaring daggers at him.
"There's something I've genuinely been curious about."
Talia knitted her brows slightly, studying him for a long moment before finally speaking up.
She wasn't angry this time, nor did she care to bicker. She was simply, genuinely curious.
"Go ahead,"
Lanqi replied, exhaling in relief.
"Why didn't you brazenly provoke me the very first time we met?"
Talia fixed her gaze on him, as though this question had crossed her mind repeatedly of late.
"Given your personality, I'd have expected you to immediately say things that tested every ounce of my patience. Yet instead, it was as though you foresaw how dangerous I was, altering your entire approach to slowly get acquainted with me first."
Her voice trailed off, but her eyes remained fixed on Lanqi's face.
"Meow."
Boss Cat was intrigued as well.
Having followed Lanqi for so long, it knew that his reckless courting of danger made alcohol akin to poison for him, yet an addictive one he couldn't resist.
And Talia was much the same to Lanqi—something intoxicating that clouded his judgment, perilous yet addictive, which he clearly could not resist.
It was hard to tell whether he had quit drinking because of Talia, or whether he had made Talia his new drink and daily necessity.
"Maybe because that day I happened to stumble into the temple of the Goddess of Fate, and the Goddess granted me a dream that foretold how I should approach you?"
Lanqi recalled the event and met her gaze openly.
Hans had told him that whenever he drank so much he blacked out, he had zero recollection. The day before meeting Tata, he had stumbled into the Church of the Goddess of Fate in South Vantina Territory by mistake and accidentally chipped a gemstone off the goddess statue, causing the priests no small amount of trouble.
Fortunately, the noble and benevolent priests had not held his transgression against him, calling it a form of fated connection.
The divinity the priests believed in posited that whenever the children of mortals prayed to the Goddess of Fate, She gained the power to subtly interfere with destiny. The more devout and prolonged the prayer, the more of their innermost voice reached Her. Oaths made before any deity were never to be uttered lightly; whether those gods still existed or possessed the power to intervene in the mortal realm, karmic bonds could always be forged.
Thus, legend spoke of an amulet known as Samsara Jade.
It could be any stone connected to the Church of the Goddess of Fate; so long as it served as a medium, the deity could exert a faint conceptual influence upon the world.
The Samsara Jade was a gift for the destined. If one prayed devoutly to the Goddess of Fate, She might grant a sweet dream—perhaps a mere coincidence, or perhaps a dream of past lives.
Yet such matters were far too esoteric to verify, and thus were widely dismissed as legends and fairy tales.
According to Hyperion's line of thought, she believed her past life was Miss Witch and Lanqi's past life was the Child of the Sun. Perhaps even before those lives, they had reincarnated in other worlds to experience fantastical intermediate lifetimes—all a blessing from the Goddess of Fate.
Therefore, it was quite possible that accidentally touching the sacred stone in the Church of the Goddess of Fate had imparted revelations, bestowing upon him knowledge potent enough to alter the future.
Of course, what had actually occurred did not matter to someone like him, who held no belief in reincarnation.
He merely saw the Child of the Sun as a flower from tens of thousands of years ago that happened to resemble him, with no direct connection between them. The same went for Miss Witch and Hyperion.
The essence of reincarnation was simply history repeating itself through the world's endless cycles of annihilation and rebirth. After an expanse of time, similar people and stories were bound to emerge.
Believe it, and it exists; disbelieve, and it does not. Whatever you perceived it to be—that was what it was.
"..."
Talia fell silent for a long time upon hearing this.
"Is that so... No wonder you knew about Duke Mikhail's disappearance like a prophet."
Listening to Lanqi's inner thoughts, she murmured to herself.
Hyperion and Lanqi had shared intelligence regarding Duke Mikhail and the Blood Clan with her long ago.
She was certain Lanqi had not lied to them, nor had she ever pryingly investigated his secrets.
Prophets, diviners, and precognition were not unheard of in this world, merely rare among living beings.
[Fate] was a divine domain unreachable by mortals, while [Divination] represented the outer limit accessible to beings graced by the gods.
If a divination-specialized great demon like Pranay had been allowed to mature for a few more centuries, perhaps the demon race would never have lost back then.
If it came from the Goddess of Fate, everything fell into place.
"How do you manage to know so many secrets yet treat their deepest mysteries with such nonchalance? If Hyperion were in your shoes, she'd probably lose sleep worrying and overthinking every single day."
Talia asked again.
She could hear Lanqi's thoughts and see the fragmentary tales recorded within *Caliera's Shadow-Weaving Record*.
"I don't have much interest in theology or history; I prefer philosophy, aesthetics, and ethics. What truly matters is the here and now. The past and the future aren't worth agonizing over."
He offered with an easy smile.
"..."
Though this guy didn't believe in the gods, he often sounded like a charlatan—the sort people called pyramid scheme bosses or cult leaders.
His condition had been at its worst right after returning from the Northern Continent. Lately, he was showing signs of recovery, acting somewhat human again.
"Have you ever thought about visiting the Church of the Goddess of Fate again to truly seek a Samsara Jade?"
Talia suggested, "To see what past lives the two of us might have shared."
She spoke almost inaudibly, like a whisper adrift in the morning mist, soft and elusive.
If the Goddess of Fate had guided them together, perhaps they too shared a special bond.
Her connection with Lanqi might not be any weaker than Hyperion's with him.
"I don't believe in the Goddess of Fate, nor do I pray devoutly like Hyperion. So going to the temple with an ulterior motive would probably be a waste of time anyway."
Lanqi shrugged nonchalantly.
"It's right on our way,"
Talia said flatly.
The Palieu Police Headquarters where they had spent time last night was very close to the famed Notre-Dame de Palieu.
And in the vicinity of Notre-Dame de Palieu stood numerous temples and branches of various churches stationed in the Flower Capital.
Technically, Notre-Dame de Palieu was another must-visit landmark on their itinerary.
It was just that it had been too late yesterday, so neither of them had considered visiting.
"We could visit Notre-Dame de Palieu, but we can go to a temple of the Goddess of Fate anywhere. For instance, there's one right in Ikerite,"
Lanqi reasoned.
"What if we could share a sweet dream? Aren't you the least bit curious what it would be like?"
Talia asked.
"Not curious at all."
Lanqi shook his head, replying with a composed smile.
"..."
Boss Cat listened to their exchange. It felt certain Lanqi was doing this deliberately. The two of them were playing their tug-of-war game again.
Tata kind of wanted to go, though not overwhelmingly so; she hoped Lanqi would suggest they go together to seek an amulet from the Church of the Goddess of Fate. Lanqi, fully aware that she wanted to go, played dumb on purpose unless she outright invited him.
And so, with neither Lanqi nor Talia making their stance clear, the air hung in a stalemate for half a minute.
"Don't you think *Caliera's Shadow-Weaving Record* carries that same sense of present visions woven with past dreams? I feel like obtaining an amulet of the Goddess of Fate could serve as a material during the card-crafting process,"
Talia finally conceded.
As long as it harmonized with the recipe, adding it might not boost the success rate, but it wouldn't lower it either. Besides, a gemstone linked to the Goddess of Fate gave one a psychological sense of being blessed with good luck.
"Uh..."
Lanqi pondered for a moment and realized that actually made sense.
"Then let's stop by the temple later,"
He compromised.
"You two are completely...! Every single time you push and pull to the exact sweet spot, you stop! You know precisely how far to take it so that the other person feels subtly stirred without ever getting disappointed or angry!"
Boss Cat finally snapped, venting its frustration.
"What are you even talking about, Boss Cat?"
Both of them stared blankly at the suddenly exasperated cat.
"..."
Boss Cat felt despair. It seemed the two of them were genuinely doing it unconsciously.
They had no clue how it looked to an outsider; they only knew they were having fun playing off each other.
"Still, I think we might end up making a wasted trip, so don't get your hopes too high."
Lanqi hardly expected that he and Talia would witness any dream akin to the Child of the Sun and Miss Witch.
No demon resembling Talia had appeared in the first three Blood Moon Ruined World Shadow Worlds.
If pressed, only Mist Lord Orion and True Night Lord Esmod bore faint traces of Talia and the Poet of Great Love.
Even if those two great demons had offspring, they might not have even existed before the Child of the Sun died.
At the end of the third Shadow World, those two great demons were still busy calling each other "brother, brother."
Lanqi got a headache just thinking about it.
"It's fine. Understanding how we met and what happened with the temple of the Goddess of Fate from your side is already enough."
Talia had actually passed by the Church of the Goddess of Fate that day as well. She indeed recalled some commotion inside, but hadn't paid it much mind, merely glancing over in silence before moving on.
In truth, her story with Lanqi had already begun on that day.
"I remember it was on that very day that I lost a dark carrier pigeon familiar. But because I had just landed an important job and a turning point in my wandering life with great difficulty, I temporarily set aside looking for it. I wonder if it's doing well,"
Talia murmured reminiscently.
Now, over a year had passed in the blink of an eye. In the past, a single year was merely a fleeting breath to her.
"..."
Boss Cat instantly sensed that while Lanqi's facial expression remained frozen, his heart rate had spiked straight to a hundred and eighty.
He appeared to be straining every fiber of his being to control his thoughts, making sure not a single anomaly showed.
"That dark carrier pigeon stayed by my side for years. Even during my hardest times, when I went days without food, I never once considered laying a finger on it."
Talia continued recounting her past, her expression steeped in nostalgia.
"..."
Cold sweat began pouring profusely from Lanqi's forehead.
"Why are you sweating so much?"
Talia noticed that Lanqi had gone quiet for quite a while without saying a word.
"Palieu's mornings are surprisingly warm. You don't notice it sitting inside, but once you start walking, the heat really hits you."
Lanqi slipped off his light overcoat, draped it over his arm, and forced a smile as he spoke.
"Oh."
Talia nodded.
She retrieved a handkerchief from her small shoulder bag, lifted her hand slightly, then changed direction and handed it to Lanqi.
It was impossible to tell whether she had initially intended to wipe his sweat herself or had only meant to lend him the handkerchief from the start.
"Thanks."
Lanqi took Talia's handkerchief.
"By the way... if—hypothetically speaking—the pigeon has already met foul play, what would you do if you caught the culprit?"
He pressed.
"Heh."
Talia curled her fingers into a fist.
"Whatever the culprit did to my pigeon, I'll do to them..."
Her words were so bone-chilling they seemed to drop the ambient temperature, sending shivers down one's spine.
"Ahaha, don't say such terrifying things! Oh, by the way, look across the street—that dessert shop looks pretty nice! Let's go buy a couple of ice creams!"
His throat tight as if choked, Lanqi dared not pursue the topic another second, hurriedly forcing a laugh to change the subject.
"Which one?"
Talia's gaze was instantly drawn to the direction Lanqi pointed.
The two began chatting intently once more.
"Meow."
Boss Cat looked up at Lanqi in bewilderment.
*Master Lan, why are your hands shaking?*
*If that pigeon really has something to do with you, you're going to be a goner sooner or later.*
Chapter 671