Honkai Star Rail: Destiny Card System of the Multiverse — Chapter 62

Chapter 62: The Unbound Anomaly Leaves the Shackling Prison

Perhaps because the Blade and Jing Yuan of this reality had already endured their share of bitter tragedies, they possessed a hardened clarity regarding Baiheng’s death. Unlike the alternate timeline’s Master Smith Yingxing, who had completely lost his composure, these two remained firmly anchored to reality when the Vidyadhara High Elder version of Baiheng manifested before them.

Not long after the revelation, Jing Yuan walked into the dim cell, balancing a polished wooden tray. Several carefully arranged dishes rested upon it, and the rich, savory aroma of Xianzhou spices and roasted meats immediately cut through the damp, stagnant air of the Shackling Prison. The scent wafted straight into Kazuki’s nose, causing his stomach to let out a treacherous, hollow growl.

He quickly manipulated a tiny stream of water to quietly dissolve the bubblegum lingering in his mouth, desperately swallowing back the drool pooling behind his teeth. ‘Once this entire mess is completely over,’he swore to himself,’I am going to force Yingxing to cook me an absolute feast to make up for this.’At the exact same time, the voice of Vidyadhara High Elder Baiheng began spinning in his mind, her tone dripping with intense craving.’Kazuki, I really want to eat… I can’t smell a thing right now, but just looking at the rich, oily glaze on those dishes, I know they must be absolute heaven!”I had severe psychological trauma from the incident where I was forced to consume Dan Feng,’ she continued, a hint of old sorrow coloring her mental voice.’For the longest time, I didn’t dare to take a single bite of anything. My very last thought before I died was actually a joke on myself: I never expected that after living for several extra centuries, I would end up dying as a starving ghost. My only wish at the end was to just eat all the delicious food in the universe.”So, you want to eat now because you’ve finally shaken off that psychological trauma?’ Kazuki asked internally.’Of course! My entire life, right up until the moment I died, was spent doing my absolute best to fulfill Dan Feng’s last wish and protect the Chiming Clan. My life debt is paid in full. Now it is time to live for myself! I used to be a Foxian pilot who traveled to countless worlds just to collect gourmet food. I never mistreated my stomach back then!’

Kazuki was still heatedly chatting with Baiheng in his mind when Jing Yuan stepped fully into the cell. The general set the tray down next to a small pot of osmanthus wine, turned his golden eyes toward the prisoner, and spoke in a smooth, calm tone. “Eat, Your Excellency. Though, I find myself wondering how exactly I should address you.”

Kazuki immediately cut off the mental conversation. He looked up at Jing Yuan and replied with flat honesty. “Kazuki.”

After a deliberate two-second pause, he solemnly added, “Male.”

Jing Yuan blinked, momentarily stunned. A flicker of familiarity crossed his features, as if the name tugged at an old memory, but he quickly recovered his signature placid demeanor. He offered a slow, appreciative smile. “A fine name. The Xianzhou believes that a name shapes its bearer. Kazuki… it carries an innate elegance. In our tongue, it mirrors the concepts of ‘Sui’and’An’—to follow the currents of time with a tranquil heart, and to guard one’s inner peace. It draws from the old sage’s proverb of finding peace wherever one dwells, hiding a broad and resilient spirit. To not contend with the worldly clamor, but to guard the wind and moon by oneself. It is a pure name, timeless, gentle, and kind.”

Kazuki was far too used to hearing endless banter, threats, and bickering. Being praised in such an elegant, cultured manner caught him off guard. The corners of his mouth twitched upward into a genuine smile, a wave of deep comfort settling in his chest.

“I have roughly pieced together your actions in the Scalegorge Waterscape, along with the ins and outs of this entire matter,” Jing Yuan continued, his tone shifting back to business. Recalling the unconscious Vidyadhara High Elders still recovering elsewhere, he added, “The Vidyadhara High Elder is currently not pursuing the matter of your attack. Since that is the case, could you perhaps explain to me why my late friend would appear in the form of a Vidyadhara High Elder? And why… she harbors such deep hatred toward me?”

Kazuki saw no reason to hide the truth. While shamelessly shoveling rice and meat into his mouth—deliberately making loud smacking noises to cut through the heavy, suffocating atmosphere of the cell—he recounted exactly what Baiheng had told him, laying the alternate timeline’s history bare before Jing Yuan and Blade.

Blade, who had remained a silent shadow in the corner this entire time, exhibited a rare crack in his stoic poker face. Extreme shock bled into his crimson eyes. He stared at Jing Yuan in absolute disbelief, as if he were looking at the clever, calculating general for the very first time.

If Blade had known this truth earlier, he never would have kept it from Jing Yuan. If he had been there in that alternate reality, perhaps things would have ended differently.

Jing Yuan was completely paralyzed. He froze in place, his usual relaxed posture stiffening into stone.

He had never, in his wildest calculations, expected that his counterpart in another world would go so far as to personally help Baiheng devouring Dan Feng just to force the continuation of the Imbibitor Lunae’s legacy.

Despite the emotional blow, Jing Yuan did not forget his absolute duty as a Xianzhou General. Cold logic began to override his shock. He started to weigh the severe risks, genuinely considering the idea of forcibly keeping Kazuki locked away in the deepest levels of the Shackling Prison. This young man was tangled in far too many universe-breaking secrets. Letting him walk free was an unacceptable variable.

Just as Jing Yuan opened his mouth to bring up the necessity of prolonged imprisonment, Kazuki read the shift in the general’s eyes.

With a burning, unyielding gaze, Kazuki picked up his chopsticks and tapped them sharply against the porcelain edge of his bowl. “General Jing Yuan, you need to think very clearly about your next move. Is the Luofu truly prepared to go to war with an Emanator?”

He leaned forward slightly, his voice dropping into a dangerous, casual drawl. “I, Kazuki, have no parents or elders above me. I have no siblings or sworn comrades beside me. I have no wife or children below me. I am entirely alone, with absolutely nothing in this universe to hold me back. Does your Xianzhou really want to cross swords with a man who has nothing to lose?”

The moment the words left his mouth, Kazuki slammed his chopsticks directly down into the center of his rice bowl. They stood perfectly upright, piercing the white grains like two unlit sticks of incense.

He was a true anomaly—a man free of all worldly tethers.

If an ordinary Xianzhou citizen possessed this kind of detached, reckless profile, the Balance Commission would immediately flag them as a high-risk threat. But if Kazuki truly had the potential to become an Emanator…

A splitting headache instantly pierced Jing Yuan’s temples. He realized with sinking dread that Kazuki’s veiled threat was even more terrifying and impossible to manage than the Arbiter-General’s famous philosophy of having no worries, no regrets, and no enemies.

If he pushed this boy into a corner and Kazuki decided to drag the entire ship down with him, would the Luofu be forced to suffer another catastrophic tragedy on the scale of the Shuhu Disaster?

Deciding to immediately abandon the conversation with this walking powder keg, Jing Yuan pivoted sharply, turning his authoritative gaze toward the actual Xianzhou wanted criminal in the room: Blade.

After a brief, strict interrogation, Jing Yuan finally extracted the key intelligence he needed. The Luofu was indeed going to face a catastrophic disaster in the very near future. As for the specific details, Elio had deliberately kept Blade in the dark, only instructing the swordsman to pass along a single, vital message to the general: he must trust the Astral Express.

It made perfect sense now. This was exactly why Jing Yuan had placed such heavy faith in the Astral Express at the very beginning of the crisis. Looking back, it was less about believing in the legendary reputation of the Nameless, and far more about trusting Blade as a reluctant guarantor, backed by the terrifying accuracy of Elio’s scripts.

Kazuki sat comfortably on the sidelines, holding his bowl of rice and eating with immense relish. He watched the tense drama unfold before him just like he had back at the Herta Space Station—quietly acting as a background NPC, absorbing hidden plot points that had never existed in the game. It was an incredibly satisfying feeling.

Naturally, he didn’t forget to indulge in his favorite pastime: pulling cards from the system.

But the results of his stealthy gacha pulls nearly made him choke on his food. From Jing Yuan, he extracted [KFC Waiter Jing Yuan]. From Blade, he pulled [KFC Fried Chicken Cook Blade].

These two were truly bound by misfortune across all realities. Disgusted by the useless pulls, Kazuki mentally tossed both cards straight into the deletion bin.

After spending a full day locked up alongside Blade, Kazuki’s physical form was subjected to repeated, exhaustive testing by the Ten-Lords Commission. The final results confirmed that he possessed the completely ordinary constitution of an Outworlder, posing zero inherent biological threat. With the paperwork cleared, he was finally authorized for release from the Shackling Prison.

When the presiding judge reviewed the final medical report, he was left completely dumbfounded.

The Shackling Prison was designed to hold only the most heinous, corrupted criminals in the galaxy. The lower levels were saturated with lingering yin energy and mara-struck malice, creating an environment so harsh that even native Xianzhou residents would fall violently ill just by passing through the corridors.

Yet, a supposedly ordinary Outworlder had been locked inside for an entire day and emerged completely unscathed. It was biologically impossible.

Assuming Kazuki was just a clueless civilian who had accidentally wandered into the crossfire, the judge immediately put on a stern face and marched up to Jing Yuan, scolding the general without a shred of politeness. “General! The Shackling Prison is a highly classified, critical site of the Xianzhou. It is not a playground to be treated as child’s play! I ask that you respect the dignity and danger of this facility. I will be reporting this blatant breach of protocol to the higher-ups!”

Jing Yuan stared at the judge in silence. His headache had now evolved into a throbbing migraine, and he had absolutely no way to voice his grievances without exposing classified secrets.

Before officially parting ways, Jing Yuan reached out and clamped a heavy hand onto Kazuki’s shoulder. He offered a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes, his tone laced with a dangerous edge. “Does our dear Deacon—Your Excellency Chiying, who hails from the Duality Paradise and has casually dabbled with the Disciples of Sanctus Medicus—have anything else he wishes to confess before leaving?”

The boy had caused such a massive, terrifying commotion earlier that he had nearly given the general a heart attack. If it weren’t for the lingering presence of Vidyadhara High Elder Baiheng and the respect owed to the alternate Master Smith Yingxing, Jing Yuan would have already summoned the Lightning-Wielding Thunder-Clapping Spirit to have a very thorough, very violent spar with this brat.

Kazuki simply spread his hands in a gesture of absolute helplessness, his expression the picture of innocence. “Of course not. Do I look like Elio to you? I don’t know everything.”

Jing Yuan released his shoulder, exhaling a long, deeply exhausted sigh. He waved his hand dismissively, signaling the boy to hurry up and get out of his sight. He truly felt like he had brought all of this suffering upon himself.

Two incredibly dangerous people had walked right into the Shackling Prison to be locked up. When interrogated, they either claimed to know nothing, or they simply refused to speak a single word.

Now, Jing Yuan still had to go deal with that stubborn, troublesome council of old Vidyadhara High Elders and somehow explain the chaotic mess that had taken place in the Scalegorge Waterscape.

But what worried him far more than the council was a much darker, looming possibility. If his master, Jingliu, happened to return to the Luofu during this exact window of time… and if she saw with her own eyes that Baiheng had returned as a High Elder through a successful use of the forbidden Transmutation Arcanum… heaven only knew what kind of apocalyptic trouble would follow.

[Elysian’s Note: Sticking chopsticks vertically into a bowl of rice is a major cultural taboo in many Asian countries. The visual closely resembles sticks of incense burning at a funeral altar, making it a symbol of death, bad luck, or a direct curse upon the people present. Kazuki does this deliberately to emphasize his threat to Jing Yuan.]