Honkai Star Rail: My Path Changes Every Day! — Chapter 207

Chapter 207: The Most Righteous Scapegoat

“…Yes. Rekka ate it. He said he was hungry.”

Stelle shifted her weight, hesitating for a moment. She recalled the absurd image of the little blue bug—Rekka’s form at the time—and the shameless instructions he had left them with before vanishing.

“If anyone from the Xianzhou asks who made the Ambrosial Arbor disappear, just say I ate it.”

“Rekka ate it…”

Jing Yuan’s usually placid expression fractured into something deeply complicated. Even though the Divine Foresight had braced himself for a bizarre explanation, hearing it stated so bluntly from Stelle’s lips still summoned a familiar, throbbing ache at his temples. Wasn’t taking the blame a little too blatant here?

“Ate… it?” Feixiao blinked, completely derailed by the thunderous absurdity of the statement. Her mind struggled to process the concept. Ate the Ambrosial Arbor? The immortal, planet-strangling tree?

“Just him alone?” she pressed, leaning forward.

“Just him alone,” Stelle nodded solemnly.

“He ate all of it?”

“He ate all of it.”

Feixiao crossed her arms, seriously trying to visualize the logistics of a single person consuming a divine tree. Was this guy walking the Path of Voracity? Truth be told, two actual fragments of Voracity were currently sealed safely aboard the Astral Express. Yet, to the three Xianzhou generals standing there, the situation felt entirely different. It felt as though the Ambrosial Arbor had simply been pocketed, and a massive, universe-sized scapegoat sign had been slapped directly onto Rekka’s forehead to balance the books.

Rekka was truly a ‘righteous’ soul. His own pet bug had gnawed the tree into oblivion, yet he insisted on claiming that his personal appetite was just too massive, and that he’d simply starve if he didn’t munch on a couple of divine trees before breakfast.

“I’d sooner believe he’d appear before me right now with two branches sprouting out of his head than believe such a ridiculous thing,” Feixiao muttered, rubbing the bridge of her nose.

Her skepticism, however, was violently interrupted. Alarms blared, flashing crimson light across the room. The Shackling Prison was rioting.

Excellent. The generals’ immediate objective violently shifted from investigating a missing tree to handling a catastrophic jailbreak of high-priority convicts. Conveniently enough, this saved all three of them from the headache of figuring out how to continue the absurd Ambrosial Arbor conversation. The heavy, awkward atmosphere was instantly swept away by the call of duty.

“I shall take over command, then.” Huaiyan stepped forward, the metal tip of his cane striking the floor with a resonant clack. A low chuckle rumbled in his chest. “These old bones have sat on the Zhuming for two hundred years. It is high time for some exercise. Besides—”

The old general’s sharp gaze shifted toward Dan Heng, then drifted over to Stelle and March 7th. “Didn’t you young Trailblazer friends mention earlier that Rekka went out early this morning?”

March 7th blinked her vibrant pink and blue eyes. “You mean…”

“I simply feel that, based on what Jing Yuan has shared with me… with that young man’s particular style of doing things, he likely won’t miss out on such a grand spectacle.” Huaiyan stroked his thick beard, his eyes gleaming with amusement. “Perhaps they are currently lacking someone down there who can hold the fort.”

Stelle and March exchanged a knowing look.

“Yeah… if it’s Rekka, he’s probably already down there causing chaos,” Stelle deadpanned.

“Without pulling stunts, one cannot survive!” March cheered, perfectly mimicking Rekka’s usual chaotic philosophy. She immediately drew her twin bows, the icy blades materializing in her grip. “Then what are we waiting for! Let’s go get him—”

“Wait.” Dan Heng stepped into her path, his polearm manifesting with a swirl of green leaves. “March, the Shackling Prison is highly dangerous. This is no joke.”

“I know! That’s exactly why we have to go—”

“You stay up here and provide support. I am far more familiar with the layout of the Shackling Prison than you are.”

March opened her mouth, her brow furrowing as she searched for a counterargument, but she couldn’t find the words to refute his logic.

Long Night Moon, help me out. You can follow along with a little jellyfish.

“That makes sense,” March finally conceded, closing her eyes. She focused her breathing, drawing upon her newly acquired sword arts. With a soft shimmer of light, several translucent, pink and blue jellyfish manifested in the air, floating gently beside Dan Heng. “Dan Heng, take my jellyfish down with you. They’ll be able to help keep you safe.”

Deep within the Shackling Prison.

The heavy, reinforced gates of the facility—designed to suppress countless evils, villains, and abominations—had been blown wide open.

“What in the world is this…”

A massive humanoid imprint was cratered into the reinforced titanium wall, surrounded by a spiderweb of deep, jagged cracks. The shape was enormous, looking exactly like the indentation left behind when something incredibly heavy was swung and smashed violently against the bulkhead.

Glancing down at the shattered remains of a face-covering torture device and a few scattered tufts of coarse white hair on the floor, it was painfully clear who this giant imprint belonged to.

Hoolay.

The old wolf had escaped his chains. But Rekka was nowhere to be seen. Where could the chaotic Trailblazer possibly be?

Meanwhile, in an inconspicuous, quiet courtyard hidden somewhere within the Luofu.

Rekka floated lazily in the air, legs crossed in a meditative sitting posture. With his current aura, he looked even more like a terrifying envoy of a Lord Ravager than Phantylia ever did in her disguises.

“Compared to the so-called Prophet you speak of, I would much rather believe that this one is the true envoy of Destruction.” Hoolay scoffed, his deep, gravelly voice dripping with disdain as he dismissed the Borisins who had originally come to rescue him.

Standing off to the side, Jiaoqiu was no longer trembling with nervous tension. The pink-haired Foxian healer even found the leisure to quietly observe and analyze the shifting dynamics between these Borisins and Rekka.

“I can see that the current generation of Borisins is almost beyond saving,” Hoolay growled, stepping directly in front of the floating Trailblazer. “I agree to the terms you proposed earlier. But you must keep your promise.”

Rekka merely smiled. He reached up, casually snapping off a fresh, glowing green sprout from the small branch growing out of his head, and tossed it down to Hoolay.

The old wolf caught it and swallowed the sprout without a single second of hesitation.

Instantly, the sprout dissolved, transforming into a second crimson moon that throbbed violently within his chest. Hoolay gasped, his muscles bulging as he felt himself being completely reborn. His coarse white mane grew at a terrifying rate, spreading rapidly from the back of his neck down to his shoulder blades, hanging on both sides like twin, blood-soaked battle flags.

He looked down at his massive claws. The keratin had darkened to a pitch-black hue, shimmering with a layer of eerie, unnatural blue luster.

“New power is only the beginning,” Rekka’s voice echoed, calm and carrying a strange, otherworldly weight. “I hear your heart’s desire to fight your old rival again. The primal call for slaughter… Since you have accepted my gift, you must now face your destiny. If you can pass the test, you will naturally earn the qualifications to leave.”

Pass the test?

At this moment, Hoolay was overflowing with an intoxicating, unmatched confidence. Even though it had only been a single, tiny sprout, he was absolutely certain that his current, empowered self could crush the Jingliu from hundreds of years ago. He calculated a full seventy percent chance of absolute victory.

“Pups. To be completely honest, you have disappointed me utterly.” Hoolay turned his massive head, glaring down at the trembling Borisins who dared not utter a single sound. “Look at yourselves. Weak. Cowardly. Cunning… you act exactly like those pathetic Foxians. But you aren’t entirely beyond saving.”

He raised a claw, his voice booming like thunder across the courtyard. “Follow behind me, pups! Reclaim your bloodlust! Reclaim your wildness! Reclaim what rightfully belongs to the Borisin! What are you waiting for? Strip off those disgusting skins of lowly beasts!”

At his command, the Foxian illusions began to melt and peel away from the disguised Borisins. Coarse manes erupted from their skin, their muzzles protruded, and their eyes snapped into pairs of vertical, beastly slits. They howled in pure ecstasy. Receiving a direct order meant the Warhead finally valued them.

Jiaoqiu swallowed hard, glancing up at Rekka.

Rekka met the healer’s gaze and offered a subtle, reassuring nod, signaling for him not to worry.

Jiaoqiu nodded back slowly. Honestly, compared to the bloodthirsty Borisins howling in the courtyard, he felt that the calmly floating Rekka was infinitely more terrifying.

Back on the other side of the Luofu, Hoolay’s combat strength had just received a terrifying, unnatural enhancement. So, what about his destined opponent?

“I smell a very dangerous scent on the wind,” Feixiao murmured, her brow furrowing deeply.

The situation was rapidly deteriorating. It was completely impossible to determine exactly how many Borisins had infiltrated the Luofu under the guise of Foxians. If they all decided to riot at the exact same moment…

Beside her, Stelle suddenly tilted her head back, staring into the sky.

“What are you looking at?” Feixiao asked, stepping beside the gray-haired Trailblazer and following her line of sight.

What is that?

“A shooting star,” Stelle pointed.

“…I see it too,” Feixiao whispered, her eyes widening.

High above, two spectacular streaks of brilliant purple light pierced through the atmospheric canopy, trailing long, blazing wakes behind them as they plummeted toward the Xianzhou.

The Rekka of the past had shot these two Light Arrows directly into the present.