Chapter 1238: Clinging
Seeing Celestial Serpent casually take a chair, sit down in front of her, and adopt a contemplative expression, Xiao Ran only felt herself growing even angrier.
"Are you just going to sit down by yourself?" Xiao Ran asked.
"Hm...?" Celestial Serpent didn't understand Xiao Ran's meaning. "Am I preventing you from sitting?"
"Attitude!" Xiao Ran said. "The main thing is your attitude! First of all, I'm a guest, coming to your room as a visitor. Secondly, I represent Azure Dragon, here to deliver his orders. In terms of both courtesy and reason, you should have offered me the seat first."
Celestial Serpent stared at Xiao Ran's eyes for a long moment, feeling that the situation was indeed difficult to fathom.
Because this woman genuinely thought this way. She didn't feel like she was bluffing, nor did she show any signs of nervousness that would accompany lying.
Celestial Serpent had read countless minds, but this one was far too unconventional. Although she had lied just now, she had now inexplicably begun to be consistent in her words and actions, leaving him unable to get a read on her.
"I don't... I mean, I don't have this habit of yielding precedence." Celestial Serpent answered ambiguously. "Sit down yourself."
Xiao Ran grudgingly dragged over a chair and sat down, then crossed her legs and folded her arms over her chest.
"Come on, give me a report." Xiao Ran said.
"A report...?"
"Yes, a report on what you 'Celestial-level' people have been doing that's made Azure Dragon so irritable." Xiao Ran said, frowning. "We're all on the same side now. To deal with those 'rebels' outside, we must unite."
"Oh, I just... wait... 'rebels' ?"
Celestial Serpent paused, quickly scanning through Xiao Ran's vision for the information he needed.
Soon enough, he discovered that the situation was even more bizarre than he had imagined.
What 'rebels'... Essentially, all this woman remembered were a group of 'natives' who had just gained their freedom.
Because Vermilion Bird had died, a large number of 'natives' had regained their sanity. Then, someone who looked like an old swindler had goaded them, sending them onto the 'train' in a confused state.
That was 'rebellion'...
As absurd as the situation was, there was no need for it to alarm Azure Dragon. Surely sending out a few 'Earth-level' personnel would be enough to handle it, right?
These were a ragtag bunch of scattered soldiers, easily broken. Just kill ten or twenty of them at random, and the rest would flee in panic.
Because they lacked enough conviction in their hearts to drive them forward, and they had no clear goal to make them fight 'until death.'
The only issue that needed to be resolved was, besides creating a duplicate of Black Tortoise, they also needed to create a new Vermilion Bird.
"So you saw someone 'rebelling'..." Celestial Serpent pushed up his glasses, looking at Xiao Ran with some suspicion, "and came to inform on them to Azure Dragon... so Azure Dragon assigned you to me?"
"Pretty good guess." Xiao Ran smiled. "Now do you see why Azure Dragon values me so much?"
To be honest, Celestial Serpent didn't know.
Given Azure Dragon's temperament, he should have torn this woman apart on the spot.
But why was she still alive and well? Surviving from Azure Dragon's hands with this attitude... how incredibly impossible was that?
Wait... no, that's not right.
Celestial Serpent pondered for a while. He felt that Azure Dragon must have already heard about someone 'rebelling' on the train. Even if he was too irritable to notice, Celestial Hound would have reported it long ago.
So Azure Dragon sending this woman to him was definitely not because she had rendered meritorious service by informing. It had to be for some other reason.
"Your 'Immortal Art'..." Celestial Serpent paused after speaking. "I mean... what is your 'Echo'?"
Since Celestial Serpent hadn't detected anything related to 'Echo' from Xiao Ran's eyes, he couldn't help but ask.
If this woman's thoughts were chaotic, her usefulness minimal, and she was acting clever—yet Azure Dragon still sent her to him—it could only mean her 'Echo' was enough to compensate for all these shortcomings.
"'Echo'...?" Xiao Ran's eyes darted around briefly before she quickly composed herself and said, "What business is that of yours? Right now, you're supposed to be taking orders from me, yet you're interrogating me. Do you believe I'll go to Azure Dragon right now and complain about you?"
Hearing this, Celestial Serpent fell silent again.
Because he discovered that this woman still wasn't lying.
She genuinely intended to go to Azure Dragon and 'speak well' of him with exaggerated embellishments. Moreover, her mind even conjured up a scene of Azure Dragon confronting him.
If she didn't have an absolute trump card... why would she be this confident?
"In any case, just do what you're supposed to do." Xiao Ran lowered her head, disdainfully picking at her nails with a contemptuous expression. Having spent so many days at Earth Serpent's place, her whole body was filthy, even her nails filled with grime.
"But what exactly am I supposed to do...?" Celestial Serpent asked in confusion, since he hadn't read any instructions from Xiao Ran's memory.
"Oh, right." Xiao Ran looked up and said, "Now I'm giving you your first order. Go tell the other 'Celestial-level' who are still active to lead the 'Earth-level' to suppress those rebels. After you've delivered the message, come back here. I'll be waiting for you."
While Xiao Ran was speaking, Celestial Serpent kept his eyes fixed on hers, checking. He found that Xiao Ran still wasn't lying—these words truly came from Azure Dragon.
This meant the matter couldn't be delayed. He had to immediately go notify the other 'Celestial-level' personnel.
Celestial Serpent felt that his 'Mind Reading' hadn't reached the pinnacle of mastery. If the other person wasn't actively thinking about the matter, he couldn't capture it.
Fortunately, it wasn't too late yet. He hadn't delayed Azure Dragon's orders.
"In the future, please say such things earlier." Celestial Serpent muttered softly, then turned and walked out the door.
Seeing how effective her orders were, Xiao Ran sat in Celestial Serpent's room and smiled.
This situation was far more wonderful than she had anticipated.
Although Celestial Serpent's room was also stinking and filthy, at least he seemed a bit cleaner than that foul Earth Serpent.
Now, she had transformed from a mere 'participant' into someone who could command 'Celestial-level' personnel. This feeling was absolutely intoxicating.
Reflecting on her experiences in this filthy place, they had been full of ups and downs and countless hardships.
She had initially thought to latch onto a brain surgeon, hoping to keep in touch after getting out and recover some financial and social losses. But that surgeon had proven useless, unable even to speak up for her. Later, she had set her sights on Qi Xia. Although he seemed hard to approach, everyone else seemed to regard him as the leader. If she could cling to Qi Xia, she would be able to boss the others around. Unfortunately, she never succeeded in the end.
Later, whether it was 'Heaven's Mouth,' 'Zodiacs,' or 'Natives,' her good days lasted only a short day or two. Whenever she felt she was about to succeed, some reckless fool would always interfere with her happy life.
But now, everything was looking up.
She had latched onto the biggest figure here—Azure Dragon.