Honkai Star Rail: Destiny Card System of the Multiverse — Chapter 67

Chapter 67: The Obscure 2D Horse’s Fanfiction and the Arrival of the Astral Express

Meanwhile, Baiheng and Himeko stepped out of the inn, their hands linked comfortably together. Pulling out the customized mobile phones Kazuki had configured for them earlier, they quickly hailed a starskiff. The sleek vessel carried them swiftly through the sky, heading straight for the bustling heart of the Exalting Sanctum.

The two women chatted incessantly during the ride, their voices light and cheerful. Upon arriving, they found the streets of the Exalting Sanctum packed shoulder-to-shoulder with pedestrians. The rich, savory scents drifting from the roadside snack stalls wafted through the air, almost making them dizzy with hunger.

As they handled the vibrant crowd, Baiheng’s gaze was suddenly captivated by a modest headwear stall tucked by the side of the road. The display racks were adorned with all sorts of fluffy accessories—fox ears, rabbit ears, cat ears—each looking so incredibly soft that one couldn’t help but want to reach out and stroke them.

“Wow! These are so cute!” Baiheng exclaimed, her eyes sparkling as she pulled Himeko over to the display.

The stall was tended by a warm, smiling elderly woman. Standing quietly beside her was a young girl with shoulder-length, light brown hair, dragging a genuine, fluffy fox tail behind her. The girl kept her head lowered shyly, and the pair of fox ears perched on top of her head looked just a bit crooked and unnatural.

“Feel free to take a look, ladies,” the young girl greeted them softly, her voice timid. “These are all neuro-controlled. Once you put them on, they sync with your thoughts. They move whenever you want them to, just like real ears.”

Himeko’s eyes lit up with genuine curiosity. “That’s amazing! Can ordinary people use them too?”

“Yes, anyone can use them,” the girl nodded gently. “Though it usually takes an average person three to five days of practice to get the hang of the neural feedback.” As she raised her hand to nervously tuck a strand of hair behind her ear, a stray lock slipped down.

Baiheng, possessing the sharp eyes of a seasoned warrior, immediately caught a glimpse of a faint, jagged scar hidden beneath the girl’s “fox ears.” She also noticed that a small section of the girl’s actual ear rim was missing and crooked.

Instead of rushing to pick out a colorful headband, Baiheng paused. She looked at the girl and asked in a soft, gentle tone, “Are these fox ears of yours also headwear? Seeing how naturally you carry them, you must have been wearing them for a very long time, right?”

The girl’s body stiffened for a fraction of a second. Then, with a quiet sigh, she generously pushed her brown hair aside to fully reveal the scarred tissue. Her tone was remarkably calm, as if she were recounting the story of a stranger.

“Yes, I’ve been wearing them for almost three years now. I used to be a pilot for the Cloud Knights. But during a mission to eradicate the Abominations of Abundance, my starskiff was forced to moor directly on the battlefield. I wasn’t fast enough to dodge a monster’s claws. More than half of my right ear was sliced off, and a chunk of my left ear was torn away too. When the remaining parts healed, they grew back twisted and mangled. I was so afraid of scaring people that I never showed them again.”

Baiheng immediately waved her hands, her expression full of earnest empathy. “How could that ever be ugly? You look especially beautiful right now.”

The girl offered a fragile smile and continued, “It was really hard back then. I felt like a hideous monster and didn’t even dare to step out of my house. Later, Grandma found me. She gave me my very first pair of these neuro-headbands and told me, ‘It doesn’t matter if your real ears are gone. If you wear fake ones, you can still hold your head high and live happily.’ Eventually, I came out here to help Grandma tend the stall. After wearing them for so long, they just became a part of me.”

The elderly woman standing nearby let out a heavy sigh and gently patted the girl’s back. “This child used to be so wild and free, taking her teammates flying through the skies every single day. After the incident, she locked herself in her room for half a year. But she’s finally recovered now.”

A deep warmth swelled in Baiheng’s chest. She reached out and picked up a pair of vibrant purple fox ears from the stall, perfectly matching her own hair color. She looked at the young girl with absolute sincerity. “I’ll take these. Your grandma is absolutely right; as long as you’re happy, whatever you wear looks wonderful.”

After paying for the accessory, Baiheng eagerly slipped the headband onto her head.

The moment the neural sensors made contact, the pair of fluffy purple fox ears swished and stood straight up. They shook happily, twitching slightly in the breeze, looking for all the world as if they had naturally grown from her skull.

The young girl suddenly raised her head, her eyes shining like brilliant stars, and couldn’t help but exclaim, “Wow! You’re amazing, miss! You can move them so perfectly on your very first try! Ordinary people need at least a week of frustrating practice just to barely make them twitch!”

Baiheng offered a sheepish, knowing smile. As a High Elder in her own timeline, she already possessed dragon horns. Her nervous system was intimately accustomed to controlling extra appendages on her head; syncing with a simple commercial headband was a piece of cake.

The two women chatted a bit more with the resilient girl and her grandmother before bidding them a warm farewell and continuing their stroll.

Baiheng played with the pair of purple fox ears the entire way down the street. Sometimes she held them straight up to look highly alert, sometimes she let them droop down to feign a pitiful, aggrieved look, and sometimes she twitched them rapidly in quick succession, enjoying herself immensely.

Eventually, their leisurely walk brought them to the grand entrance of a local shop named “Sanyu Bookstore.”

The collection of literature within the shop was staggeringly complete. The towering shelves held everything from serious, heavy volumes of Xianzhou historical records and biographies to messy theatrical scripts, whimsical travelogues, and trashy gossip tabloids. It had almost everything one could imagine.

The two spent a long time browsing the quiet aisles. In a dusty corner, they stumbled upon a heavy tome titled Xianzhou Annals: Summary of the Cloud Knights’ Campaigns. Flipping through its pages, Baiheng discovered the tragic history of the High-Cloud Quintet in this specific universe. Near the end of the book, detailing the bitter duel between Jingliu and Jing Yuan, there was even a somber poem titled “Bitter Short Night.”

Baiheng felt a sharp, stinging sourness in her nose as she read the historical account. It was clearly the exact same five people, so how could there be so many vastly different, heartbreaking endings across the multiverse?

In this world, she had died alone, leaving the remaining four to suffer in agony for a lifetime.

What about her own world, then? ‘Of five people, three must pay a price.’ Wasn’t it ultimately the same cruel fate?

She stood there, lost in a sea of melancholic thoughts.

Just then, Himeko noticed a group of giggling young girls huddled together, holding a brightly colored book. It was a massive hit from the romance column, penned by an elusive author under the pen name “Obscure 2D Horse.” The title blared in bold, scandalous lettering: Luofu: The Divine Strategist Secretly Meets a Beautiful Maiden.

Himeko quickly tapped Baiheng on the shoulder, breaking her out of her stupor. “Baiheng, Baiheng, look at this!”

Baiheng leaned in to squint at the title. Her eyes widened instantly, and she almost shouted right there in the quiet bookstore. “What?! Jing Yuan will fall in love?!”

Driven by morbid curiosity, she flipped the book open to a random page and began reading it out loud in a hushed, disbelieving whisper:

“According to the secret records of the Memokeeper, Master Diviner Jing Yuan’s feet were born exquisitely; the five toes are like [CENSORED], glowing with a pale pink hue like blooming begonias. The skin on the instep is like [CENSORED], and the ankle turns like [CENSORED]…”

She swallowed hard, her eyes scanning the next scandalous paragraph.

“Whenever there is a closed-door military council, removing [CENSORED], General Fu Xuan’s throat always tightens. Her gaze remains fixed on that pair of [CENSORED] resting restlessly upon the green jade mat, sometimes playfully curling, sometimes impatiently rubbing against the mat’s cool texture. What’s most fatal is that [CENSORED], right on the [CENSORED], inside the third toe, appearing and disappearing with the rise and fall of his breath…”

After reading that singular, cursed paragraph, Baiheng’s face drained of all color, turning a ghastly shade of pale. The book in her trembling hands almost slipped and crashed to the floor. She felt a massive lump lodge in her throat, her mind completely short-circuiting as she failed to recover for a long time.

She simply couldn’t imagine it. Even if she were beaten to death, she could never picture the perpetually scheming, lazily smiling Jing Yuan being written in such a submissive, scandalous state!

And yet, after finishing the page, even she—someone who loved to tease him—felt a bizarre, twisted sense of relief that someone had finally knocked him down a peg in fiction.

Meanwhile, far away at the Jade Gate, the Astral Express had been securely docked at the port for a full system hour.

March 7th stomped her foot, shouting with visible frustration. “Ahhh, this girl can’t take it anymore! Why does the customs inspection take so incredibly long? We’re here to help them, after all!”

“Don’t be impatient, little March. Every new journey always has a new beginning, and everything that happens along the way—even the waiting—is part of the story,” Welt comforted her quickly, his voice a steady, calming rumble. “If you’re still feeling anxious, why not go explore another planet via the Space Anchor, just like Stelle did?”

March 7th pouted, crossing her arms over her chest. “Hearing you say that, Uncle Yang, I guess I’ll just wait a bit longer. Maybe some unforgettable things will happen next! You might even meet some unforgettable people, Uncle Yang.”

Welt simply adjusted his glasses, a slight, knowing smile playing on his lips.

How could it possibly be such a coincidence to run into them one after another across the vast cosmos? Bronya and the others back on Belobog must have just been a rare exception.