Honkai Star Rail: Destiny Card System of the Multiverse — Chapter 51

Chapter 51: Recreating the Battle of Wits. Do You Still Remember What Elio Said?

The journey dragged on with an agonizing slowness. Kazuki leaned back against the plush fabric of his seat, his eyes drifting shut. To the casual observer, he was merely resting, but beneath the surface, his mind was a flurry of calculations, running through a mental ledger of forging materials alongside Master Smith Yingxing.

“The Flash still needs The Reignbow Arbiter’s Light Arrow Embers,” Yingxing’s voice echoed in his mind, heavy with the careful weight of a craftsman.

“The Shardsword still requires the Zhuming’s Cold Marrow Jade.”

“The curved bow is useless without the Yaoqing’s Dragon-Sinew Wood.”

“And that Passerby’s Kettle still demands the ancient sea silt from Scalegorge Waterscape. That material is exceptionally precious. Back in the day, I had to dig it up in absolute secrecy, right behind Dan Feng’s back.”

“There is still a glimmer of hope for securing the items above, but what about the Cloud-Piercer’s Orb of the Deep Abyss? That is a sacred treasure passed down through generations by the Chiming Clan’s Imbibitor Lunae. Right now, it rests in the hands of Dan… Dan Heng of this universe. How could he possibly just hand it over to us?”

“If I had known this would happen, I would not have wasted the single one Dan Feng possessed back then. Look at us now, completely starved for materials.”

Kazuki scratched the back of his head, feeling a mild headache forming. The very first terrible idea that surfaced in his mind was straightforward—just rob Dan Heng.

But a second later, he dismissed it. That was entirely too shameless. Even he could not stomach such a blatant theft, and he quickly snuffed the thought out before it could take root.

He could only offer a dry, unconvincing consolation to the grumpy smith in his head. “No worries. There will always be a chance.”

Just then, the system chimed with a crisp, clear tone.

[High-value extractable target detected: Phantylia]

[Current distance: 100 meters]

[Status: Has not entered the optimal extraction range]

Phantylia.

Kazuki snapped his eyes open, the lingering fatigue vanishing as a sharp surge of energy coursed through his veins.

Following the subtle directional marker provided by the system, his gaze landed on a Foxian lady stepping into the cabin. She was draped in a brownish-red antique dress, elegantly accented with gilded accessories and smooth jade bracelets that clinked softly with her movements. She held a delicate folding fan in her hand, exuding an aura that was both noble and effortlessly graceful.

She glided forward with a beaming, picturesque smile.

The first-class cabin, which had been humming with low chatter, instantly fell into a reverent silence.

A group of wealthy merchants who had been loudly debating trade margins immediately snapped their mouths shut. They hurriedly smoothed out the wrinkles in their expensive coats and stood up, their backs rigid and perfectly straight.

An elderly man seated nearby, who had been comfortably resting with his legs crossed, quickly planted both feet firmly on the floor, his weathered face instantly stretching into a highly respectful smile.

“Lady Tingyun!”

“Greetings, Lady Tingyun!”

The chorus of polite greetings echoed one after another as every pair of eyes in the cabin gravitated toward her.

Phantylia maintained her perfectly measured smile, bowing slightly and offering a gracious nod to everyone who called out to her. Her lush tail swayed gently behind her, a picture of Foxian elegance.

Her smile was gentle and entirely proper, yet it carried a calculated touch of polite distance—never making anyone feel outright estranged, but never allowing them to feel overly intimate either.

She walked down the aisle, treating every passenger with the exact same refined courtesy, until her graceful steps finally came to a halt right in front of Kazuki’s seat.

She turned slightly, bowing to Kazuki with a soft twitch of her fox ears. When she spoke, her voice was as melodious and sweet as a warbling oriole.

“You must be Mr. Kazuki, right? I am Tingyun of the Whistling Wind Guild.”

As she spoke, she produced an exquisitely crafted wooden box from her sleeves, offering it forward with both hands.

“A small gift, just a token of my appreciation.”

Kazuki’s eyes darkened for a fraction of a second as his mind raced. He had never expected Phantylia to be hiding within this very fleet. It seemed the real Tingyun had been compromised for a long time, and this Lord Ravager had infiltrated the Luofu’s ranks far deeper than anyone realized.

But why did she seek him out specifically?

Perhaps…

That little swordswoman Yunli had likely been marked as a target long ago. By stepping in and exchanging places with her earlier, he had technically shielded the girl in secret, drawing the predator’s gaze onto himself.

What was the best play here?

He could not afford to draw cards recklessly at such a critical juncture. Doing so might risk getting caught red-handed by Herta again, and dealing with her wrath would be an absolute headache.

Suddenly, a brilliant spark of inspiration ignited in his mind. He immediately looked up, his deep purple eyes locking directly onto Phantylia’s gaze. In an instant, his face mirrored her expression, stretching into the exact same beaming, flawless smile.

“What is this? Sister Tingyun, we are already so close, why be so polite?”

Having been thoroughly nurtured by Herta’s rigorous “Art of Beauty,” his acting skills had long since been polished to absolute perfection.

Hearing that sickeningly sweet “Sister,” Phantylia’s breath hitched imperceptibly.

Damn it, I should not have approached him if I knew he was like this.

How did this little fox know so many people? He was even calling her sister with such practiced ease. Their relationship was definitely not simple.

“Oh, I was merely teasing you, my dear brother~”

Beneath her elegant shoes, her painted toes curled in sheer embarrassment. She was already calculating how to smoothly retract the gift she had just offered.

However, Kazuki had already clamped a firm hand over the wooden box, his radiant smile not fading in the slightest. “Since Sister Tingyun is being so thoughtful, then this brother of yours will gladly accept it. But why didn’t Sister Tingyun call me by my name directly? Are you pretending not to know your Brother Yingxing?”

Inside his mind, Yingxing nearly choked on his own breath and immediately blew his top. “Kazuki, you absolute bastard! When you are acting like a two-faced manipulator to disgust people, can you please leave my name out of it!”

“Ahaha, this is what we call a high-level battle of wits!” Kazuki doubled over with laughter in his mental space. “Besides, whose name should I use if not yours? Using my own would be way too embarrassing! And Yingxing, did you forget your deepest wish? You wanted to feel alive!”

And just like that, following closely in Himeko’s footsteps, Yingxing successfully became the second victim to be ruthlessly persecuted by Kazuki’s antics.

Meanwhile, in the physical world, the flawless smile on Phantylia’s face was dangerously close to cracking. Suppressing the goosebumps rising on her skin, she pushed the gift forward into his hands. “Since Brother Yingxing desires it, how could this humble girl possibly refuse?”

With that forced pleasantry, she immediately turned on her heel, desperate to slip away.

“Hey, wait.”

How could a battle of wits end so easily? Kazuki had zero intention of letting her off the hook.

“Sister Tingyun, I remember you usually never let your folding fan leave your hand. Why is it tucked away in your pocket right now?”

“Sister Tingyun, I remember you cherish your tail more than anything. Why does the fur look a bit dry and frizzy today?”

“Sister Tingyun…”

“Sister Tingyun…”

Kazuki’s mouth fired off like a rapid-fire machine gun, rattling off endless, invasive observations without a single pause for breath.

Let alone Phantylia, even the surrounding passengers were left utterly dazed. They exchanged bewildered glances, muttering in their hearts: Does Lady Tingyun actually have this many strange quirks?

Phantylia forced a painfully fake smile, her polite tone barely holding together at the seams. “I still have pressing business to attend to. Brother Yingxing asks entirely too many questions. This humble girl will take her leave now.”

With that, she turned and walked away at a brisk pace.

The corner of Kazuki’s mouth curled upward. He reached out, his fingers wrapping firmly around her slender wrist, and muttered a single word in his mind. ‘Extract.’

In the very next second, Phantylia forcefully wrenched her hand out of his grip, her eyes flashing with hidden alarm as she quickly backed away down the aisle.

Meanwhile, Kazuki had successfully received Phantylia’s Destiny Card.

With a mere thought, he pulled up the interface to check his prize.

[Masked Fool: Phantylia]

Kazuki stared at the text, having absolutely nothing to say. After mentally complaining that the system had handed him pure garbage, he decisively chose to delete it.

Meanwhile, far away on The Xianzhou Luofu.

Fu Xuan stood perfectly still in the very center of the Matrix of Prescience. Her eyes were locked onto the newly emerged hexagram floating in the air, and she remained silent for a long, heavy time.

“Dui above, Xun below; Lake over Wind. The ridgepole sags and breaks; a withered willow puts forth new shoots.”

“The changing line enters Gen; the mountain conceals its form. No master in the hexagram; the source of disaster leaves no trace.”

“Dui above, Xun below; Lake over Wind. The ridgepole sags and breaks; a withered willow puts forth new shoots.”

“The changing line enters Gen; the mountain conceals its form. No master in the hexagram; the source of disaster leaves no trace.”

The recording diviner standing nearby paused her brush, her brow furrowing in confusion, but she still obediently transcribed the ominous lines onto her scroll.

Jing Yuan stood off to the side, his arms casually crossed over his chest. He glanced first at the notebook in the diviner’s hand, then shifted his lazy gaze toward Fu Xuan. “Minister Fu, what exactly does this hexagram say?”

Fu Xuan closed her eyes. The omniscia embedded in her forehead began to glow with a faint, pulsing light as she rapidly processed the complex variables of the hexagram in her mind. Only after a long, tense silence did she finally open her mouth to speak.

“The first line, translated into plain language, means this: a catastrophic disaster is about to befall the Luofu, and the dead are going to crawl back from the grave.”

She paused, her tone suddenly dropping, carrying a distinct hint of gritted teeth.

“The second line means: if I had not been monitoring a certain someone’s luck every single day to prevent him from slacking off and ruining things, I would never have been able to uncover this omen of death. It was hidden even deeper than his desire to slack off. Even the Matrix of Prescience cannot calculate exactly who is pulling the strings in the shadows.”

With that, she snapped her eyes open, her piercing gaze locking straight onto Jing Yuan.

“General, I am talking about you! And this impending disaster is absolutely, without a shadow of a doubt, connected to you!”

Jing Yuan merely stroked his chin and let out a soft chuckle, still maintaining his usual, infuriatingly carefree attitude. “Minister Fu must have miscalculated the variables. Oh well, I will just treat my visit today as a leisurely stroll.”

He slowly turned around, his posture relaxed as he walked toward the exit. But the very moment his back was turned to Fu Xuan, the nonchalant, lazy smile on his face vanished instantly, replaced by a cold, calculating gravity.

Jing Yuan.