# 598
**Chapter 599: Encounter**
“Hello! All desserts are 30% off today—would you like to take a look?”
“Sorry to bother you, but desserts are 30% off, thank you!”
“Welcome to the Lovelive Maid Café, ladies—right this way~”
“Hi there! Are you interested in maids and sweets?”
Outside the glittering maid café, a figure in a pink cat mascot suit stood on the sidewalk, politely handing out flyers to two passers-by.
“Xiao Lin, it’s a maid café! Should we go in?” A blonde beauty, also dressed as a maid, stared at the restaurant with sparkling eyes.
“Forget it. We haven’t been paid this month—no money for restaurants. And they don’t even know what a real maid is. Listen, being a maid isn’t just about…”
Beside her, a dead-eyed office worker in glasses carried a plastic bag and rambled as he walked away.
Watching the pair leave, Lin Qiye—still inside the pink cat suit—sighed.
He approached another pedestrian.
“Hello! Care to learn about our maid-themed restaurant?”
“No, thanks—”
Ding—!
Before the words finished, a faint wind-chime echoed overhead.
The pedestrian’s face changed instantly.
He leapt back, dropped to his knees before Lin Qiye, pressed his forehead to the asphalt, and trembled.
The sudden kowtow left Lin Qiye frozen, flyers in hand.
“Uh… it’s just a flyer, no need to apologize like that…”
His voice died.
Not just this man—everyone on the street had knelt the moment the chime sounded. Even customers and maids poured out of the café, prostrating toward the same direction.
In seconds, the only thing still standing on the street was the pink, fluffy cat.
Lin Qiye followed their gaze. Among the frozen traffic, a white-robed man strolled forward, hands in pockets.
Neon signs flickered across the wet pavement, painting the night in colored blotches. The man’s snow-white robe reflected every hue.
He lifted his head. A white ring spun in his left eye, locking onto the pink cat.
His gaze narrowed.
“Found you, intruder.”
The cat reached up, pulled off its oversized head, and Lin Qiye tucked the fuzzy helmet under his arm, frowning at the stranger.
He didn’t know who the man was, but the crowd’s reaction said it all: someone above every law—and he’d come for Lin Qiye.
“Who are you?”
“Pure Land’s Third Oracle Envoy.”
Oracle Envoy?
Lin Qiye had never heard the title; literally, it meant “emissary of the gods.”
Since he’d been spotted, he might as well fish for information.
“I think you’ve got the wrong guy. I’m no intruder.”
The Oracle Envoy sneered.
The white ring in his eye brightened, projecting several photos onto the road: Lin Qiye walking along the coastal highway.
“You released aura, provoked divine wrath, left psychic traces on the beach—wasn’t that you?”
“Not me,” Lin Qiye answered flatly. “I wasn’t wearing my cloak.”
He patted the pink mascot suit for emphasis.
Oracle Envoy: …
Lin Qiye never expected the man to believe him; he just needed the reaction. At first he’d guessed the gods had some auto-tracking mark on him, but the surveillance photos told the real story—
They’d simply checked the cameras.
He’d underestimated this “lost” nation; he hadn’t dreamed the gods would use CCTV to hunt him.
Knowing their method calmed him a little.
“If it wasn’t you, why didn’t you kneel when you saw me?” The Envoy gestured at the prostrate crowd.
“Why should I?”
“I am an Oracle Envoy.”
“An Envoy—so a god’s agent?”
“Agent?” The man frowned, unfamiliar with the term. “I convey the gods’ will and govern the mortal world on their behalf.”
A governor, not an agent… Lin Qiye’s mind raced.
“My arrival is divine decree. Where I walk, the gods are present. The gods arrive—why don’t you kneel?”
“Why should I?”
The Envoy studied him, then gave a cold laugh. “You invaders… all the same.”
“You plural?” Lin Qiye’s eyes lit up. “Who else have you caught?”
“Once I seize you, you’ll meet them.”
The Envoy lifted a finger and pointed. The ground exploded open; an invisible, titanic blade of air screamed toward Lin Qiye’s throat.
He couldn’t see it, but his psyche screamed in pain just sensing it—so lethal it wounded mind itself.
Ghost-quick, he flung himself aside. Forbidden Ruins were off-limits, yet the senses of Mortal Divine Realm and the physique of Starry Dancer were baked into his body, drawing no unwanted gaze.
Rip—!
Even at full speed he barely dodged; the blade shredded the pink suit. From the tatters he drew a snow-white straight blade and slashed at nothing—
White Slash ignored space, aiming for the Envoy’s neck.
Clang—!!
The edge met flesh like iron, leaving only a pale scratch.