Honkai Star Rail: My Death Feeds Their Madness — Chapter 111

Chapter 111: Master, Look, I’m Very Obedient

After retiring from the Yaoqing, Kagashi departed the ship and relocated to the Luofu permanently. He purchased a sprawling hot spring villa to manage, naming it Qingxin Residence.

The estate sat halfway up a misty mountain, its architecture nestled smoothly against the steep slopes and overlooking a serene expanse of water. It was a place entirely severed from the clamor of the mortal world.

In the quiet hours of the early morning, Kagashi would occasionally walk up to the spring source on the back mountain. He checked the water temperature with a practiced hand, pausing to prune the overgrown foliage along the stone paths. In the languid afternoons, he sat in the central courtyard to bask in the pale sunlight. He watched the clouds drift lazily over the Luofu while flipping through ancient, yellowed texts. Sometimes, he would personally brew a pot of fine tea, or pour a cup of warm Plum Blossom Wine for a particularly honored guest.

There were no piercing combat alarms here. No endless, bloody battle reports. There was only the gentle gurgling of flowing water and the soft rustling of wind weaving through the bamboo groves.

The flow of customers was steady, though hiring a handful of employees was more than enough to maintain orderly operations. Everyone who crossed the threshold of Qingxin Residence found a rare, deep serenity.

The secret did not lie solely in the mineral-rich hot springs. During their relaxation, guests were served a cup of fine wine infused with the delicate, lingering fragrance of winter plum blossoms. The liquid was crystal clear, catching the light like liquid amber. It carried a subtle sweetness and an impossibly long-lasting aftertaste. With a single cup down the throat, the heaviest of worldly worries would quietly dissolve—like fresh snow meeting the morning sun. It put both mind and body at absolute ease. It was nothing short of miraculous.

When winter finally arrived and the red plum blossoms bloomed defiantly in the snow, their subtle fragrance wafting through the freezing air, Kagashi would personally ascend the back mountain. He picked only the freshest petals to brew his wine.

Initially, this vintage was merely a limited-supply courtesy gift for his guests. But before long, rumors that one could completely and utterly cleanse their mental fatigue at Qingxin Residence spread like wildfire across the Luofu.

There were countless entertainment venues on the Xianzhou designed to relieve stress and elevate the mood. However, after experiencing those mundane pleasures multiple times, a person’s threshold for relaxation naturally increased—a curse particularly common among the Long-Life Species. Qingxin Residence was different. Every single visit struck the soul with the exact same potent, euphoric relief as the very first encounter.

As the legend grew, business boomed to terrifying heights. The reservation system crashed three separate times, and the waiting list soon stretched thirty years into the future. High-ranking officials and wealthy merchants brandished briefcases of Strale and millions of Credits, begging for just a single room and a single cup of wine.

This overwhelming trend eventually caught the attention of the Interstellar Peace Corporation. Charlie Death, a P-43 senior business supervisor, arrived at the mountain villa in person.

“Mr. Kagashi, it is an absolute pleasure to meet you. I am a business supervisor operating directly under Obsidian of the Ten Stonehearts.”

Charlie reached across the low table, spreading his five fingers wide, his eyes burning with corporate greed. “I am prepared to pay this exact amount to buy out the recipe for your Plum Blossom Wine.”

At the mention of the title ‘Obsidian’, a few fragmented memories flashed through Kagashi’s quiet mind.

That person had told him before leaving: The position of Obsidian among the Ten Stonehearts is quite special. Barring any unforeseen accidents, the successor is always chosen, recommended, and cultivated by the predecessor. On the surface, the decision of who inherited the Obsidian stone was made by the IPC’s supreme supervisor, Diamond. In reality, it was a direct lineage—an inheritance—unless the current Obsidian died an unexpected, violent death.

Kagashi took a slow, light sip of his tea. His expression remained perfectly placid.

The flat refusal resting on the tip of his tongue shifted into a slightly different angle.

“Buying the recipe is useless,” Kagashi said softly. “Only I can brew this wine to achieve this specific effect.”

Charlie froze for a fraction of a second. His eyes darted around the room, calculating variables, before his face split into a flawless, practiced smile.

“Then let’s cooperate! How about providing the IPC with a hundred jars a year? I can use the Corporation’s elite channels to package it as a top-tier luxury consumable! A million Credits per jar is absolutely not a problem!”

“A million?” Kagashi’s tone was non-committal.

“The forget-worry plum blossom brew is a consumable curio. I can provide a hundred jars, but that price is not nearly enough to tempt me into a partnership with your company.”

“A curio?!” Charlie nearly launched himself out of his chair.

If the wine actually qualified as a curio, the moment that official label was slapped onto the bottle, the price wouldn’t just double—it would skyrocket into the stratosphere.

After a grueling hour of bargaining, the two finally settled on a staggering profit-sharing ratio. Charlie practically floated out of the villa with the contract clutched to his chest, his eyes glazed over as if he could already see oceans of Credits waving at him.

Kagashi withdrew his gaze from the retreating executive. A faint trace of nostalgia surfaced in his dark eyes.

Time flowed on, indifferent to the affairs of mortals.

Mianxue and Qinghan had not yet chosen to retire. Instead, they, along with Jingliu, submitted formal transfer applications, moving from the Yaoqing to the Luofu to serve as Cloud Knight Vanguards.

General Teng Xiao had never expected that even after Kagashi retired, the man’s legacy would still deliver such a massive boost to his military forces.

Over the passing years, the fame of that Valiant Guard from the Yaoqing—the white-haired swordswoman named Jingliu—had spread across multiple Xianzhou ships. Her swordsmanship was peerless. She had hunted down countless Abominations of Abundance, carving a path of blood and racking up illustrious military merits. With a Cloud Knight Vanguard of her caliber on the front lines, Teng Xiao’s role as General became significantly easier.

As for the sisters, Mianxue and Qinghan, having lost their official status as Kagashi’s personal guards, they relied entirely on their own martial prowess. They shone brilliantly in the Luofu’s Cloud Knight Martial Arts Examination. Both were swiftly promoted to Valiant Guards, each leading their own elite troops to continue the endless campaign against the Denizens of Abundance.

Yet, no matter how brutal the warfare became, the moment they returned to the Luofu in triumph, they always headed straight to Qingxin Residence.

They had their own exclusive hot spring rooms waiting for them.

Naturally, Jingliu had one as well.

Every time they returned from the void of space, washing away the stench of blood and the bone-deep exhaustion in the warm, mineral-rich water was their only true solace.

Jingliu finished a grueling two-year expedition. The moment she was cleared from her mandatory check-up at the Alchemy Commission, she bypassed her own quarters and headed straight for the mountain.

The Foxian girl at the front desk of Qingxin Residence immediately recognized the famous swordswoman. When Jingliu asked about the boss’s whereabouts, the receptionist shook her head, her ears drooping slightly as she admitted she hadn’t seen him all day.

Jingliu didn’t mind.

It was currently the hour when humans were active at night. Her Master was a creature of habit; he was either reading in his study or soaking in the private springs.

Stepping into the secluded bath area—a restricted zone where only four people in the universe had access—Jingliu’s footsteps suddenly halted.

The sliding door to the exclusive hot spring used by Qinghan was lit from within.

Resting neatly on the wooden floorboards outside the door were two pairs of shoes. One small. One large.

The large pair—she could never mistake the size, nor the careful way they were aligned—belonged to her Master.

The bathhouse was heavily soundproofed, but Jingliu’s five senses were honed by centuries of slaughter. Through the thick walls, she could hear the faint, rhythmic sloshing of water. She heard low, intimate conversation. She heard…

Clearly, she had encountered this exact scenario many times before. So why did it feel infinitely more agonizing every single time? Why, instead of growing numb to it, did the pain only sharpen?

Jingliu stood frozen in the dim hallway. Her slender body trembled violently. She closed her eyes, utterly powerless against the dark tide rising in her chest.

Why could they?

Why was she the only one who couldn’t?

Her Master had never once set foot in her private bath area.

Jingliu stared fixedly at the glowing paper screen of the door. The light in her crimson pupils rapidly receded, replaced by a hollow, sickening dizziness.

Jealousy coiled around her heart like a viper, sinking its fangs deep into the muscle and flooding her veins with bone-eroding venom.

She wanted to rush in. She wanted to draw her blade, smash that door into splinters, and scream her questions at him. She wanted to tear down the entire villa, to slaughter every single living soul who dared to touch her Master’s skin.

She wanted to lock him away in the dark. She wanted to chain him down so his eyes could only reflect her face, so his hands could only touch her, forever.

Jingliu took a ragged, shuddering breath, forcibly crushing the violent emotions threatening to consume her.

She knew… she couldn’t do that.

Master was already over a thousand years old. He belonged to a high-risk demographic; his mental state was fragile, far less stable than the younger Long-Life Species. The slightest bit of extreme emotional stimulation could become the final straw that broke his mind.

If she angered him, if her madness triggered his mara affliction… then she would truly lose him. Completely. Irreversibly. Forever.

The sheer, paralyzing terror of that loss vastly outweighed the venom of her jealousy. She could not fathom a universe without Kagashi. A world without her Master was a world not worth breathing in.

Even if she could only watch him from the shadows. Even if she only ever received a meager, pitiful sliver of his charity-like attention. It was infinitely better than watching him succumb to the mara.

Jingliu’s nails dug so deeply into her palms that warm blood began to drip onto the wooden floorboards, leaving dark, crescent-shaped marks in her flesh.

Endure.

Endure.

Only by finding Hoolay, only by severing that Borisin wolf’s head from its shoulders and catching up to the legendary heights her Master had once reached, could she finally prove her worth to him.

She turned away from the glowing door. Dragging her heavy, exhausted legs, she walked step by agonizing step toward her own empty bath area.

Master, look. I’m very obedient.

Your disciple doesn’t make a scene. Your disciple doesn’t cause trouble for you.

As long as you are still here, as long as you are safe and well… even if your tenderness doesn’t belong to me right now, your disciple is willing to keep watch over you from the dark.

I will watch over you until the very end. Until the day your disciple also turns into a monster.