PGVCW 80

 

Playing God in Various Catastrophic Worlds

Chapter 80: The Celestial Maiden of the Cosmos

Aboard the rescue vessel, every individual sat in a state of absolute, dumbfounded astonishment.

If the probability of encountering a starship accident in open space and being rescued by a benevolent savior stood at a meager 0.06%...

Then the probability of that savior operating entirely in human form without adopting a beast-form, successfully effecting a rescue, was definitively zero.

And now, a monumental layer had been added on top of that absolute impossibility.

This savior had produced something unimaginably precious—a natural plant specimen existing solely within historical archives.

No one doubted its authenticity. In their beast-forms, Yunxing citizens possessed an acute, hypersensitive affinity for natural flora. The moment the green plant emerged, the contingent of Yunxing personnel, who had previously been struggling against uncontrollable psychic agitation, were instantly enveloped by an extraordinary sensation of profound solace.

It acted as a celestial panacea.

To the people of Yunxing, natural flora functioned like a deep-seated genetic remedy.

Even without ingestion, merely beholding its verdant hue and inhaling its fragrance induced instant psychological serenity.

Yet alongside the inner peace, an instinctive, primal voice erupted within their consciousness, screaming ravenously: Consume it! I must consume it!

The sensation mirrored pre-cataclysm individuals attempting weight management while staring at a steaming pot of braised pork belly served with steaming rice, accompanied by an ice-cold carbonated beverage.

However, before their inner desires could overwhelm them, the clouded eyes of the frenzied feline beast that had just tasted the natural foliage cleared instantly.

It chewed the botanical matter with near-greediness, refusing to spit out a single fragment despite sneezing repeatedly from the strange, exotic "aroma".

Standing nearby, Xia Wang'an seized the opportunity to reach out and stroke the feline beast's fur.

Although Yunxing citizens suffered from severe psychological instability, their physical constitutions were uniformly exceptional. In beast-form, their coats possessed a lustrous, silky texture, feeling precisely as though one's hands were sinking into a cloud.

Tactile feedback: magnificent, Xia Wang'an noted inwardly.

The Projected Persona

While she thoroughly enjoyed petting the cat, the perspective of the surrounding Yunxing observers was entirely different.

Xia Wang'an currently harbored seventy billion units of pure faith energy, entirely devoid of any dark impurities. While she remained personally oblivious to the shift, those in her immediate vicinity could clearly perceive that her ethereal aura was undergoing a gradual transformation.

Put simply: she was growing increasingly immortal-like.

Her facial features remained unchanged, yet the elevation in her presence rendered her entirely distinct.

While modern attire suited her well enough, the moment she donned a light, flowing celestial flying dress, simply standing upright inspired profound yearning mingled with reverent awe.

To the eyes of the Yunxing citizens, she could be characterized by a single verse: A celestial maiden dancing in gossamer silks, enchanting as the moonlit radiance.

Every utterance, every subtle movement appeared subtly enhanced, as though enveloped in cinematic filters that divorced her entirely from mortal existence.

Moreover, her gentle gesture of caressing the beast, combined with the profound compassion and sanctity radiating from her expression, evoked a sense of universal mercy.

Every Yunxing person present experienced her profound benevolence, yet instinctively recoiled from intruding, harboring a superstitious dread that their presence might profane the chaotic rescue vessel.

This was the collective masterpiece engineered by the wardrobe, makeup, and prop divisions working in unison.

Indeed, upon assimilating the Yunxing geopolitical background, operational planners had debated extensively before establishing this exact persona for Xia Wang'an.

The people of Yunxing were immensely powerful. Even amidst an interstellar theater swarming with stellar beasts, they remained an unflinchingly militant faction; this pervasive power had bred profound self-confidence. Had Xia Wang'an approached merely under the banner of a traditional Daoist cultivator, she likely would have failed to command sufficient respect.

From their perspective, while cultivators could move mountains and drain seas, advanced technology achieved equivalent feats; cultivators practiced sword-flight, whereas Yunxing citizens piloted starships across the cosmos; cultivators achieved penance through inedible sustenance, while Yunxing maintained high-density nutritional vials where a single drop sustained a week; cultivators enjoyed extended lifespans, but Yunxing citizens matched those years through cybernetic and biological longevity; and where cultivators possessed formidable martial might, Yunxing technology could obliterate minor planets with casual ease.

Precisely for this reason, to underground operatives like You Mo, Yunxing represented an extraordinarily perilous domain.

Ubiquitous stellar beasts, Yunxing citizens plunging into perpetual manic frenzies, and the terrifying escalations accompanying those frenzies created an exceptionally volatile ecosystem.

In historical dimensional incursions, a cultivator's identity invariably exercised total subjugation over native populations.

Yet before Yunxing citizens, a cultivator was merely an alternative technological or mystical system; should they desire it, their technological infrastructure could replicate a cultivator's lifestyle on a one-to-one ratio.

How was such replication achieved? That question belonged to the special effects division back on Blue Star.

Naturally, in a direct kinetic engagement, Yunxing citizens would unquestionably fall to Xia Wang'an; however, headquarters required them to sincerely and genuinely believe in Xia Wang'an, thereby yielding pure, unadulterated faith energy.

If brute force resolved the assignment, all prior precautions—meticulously shielding Xia Wang'an's psychological environment, curating her external sensory inputs, and deploying coordinated measures to ensure every native she encountered projected absolute goodwill—would have been rendered entirely futile.

Consequently, prior to departure, headquarters issued precise operational parameters to Xia Wang'an:

【Locate a genetic-frenzy Yunxing citizen, feed them natural flora, refrain from verbal communication, and immediately depart via flight. If monitoring matrices are detected, conceal your presence utilizing spiritual qi.】

【Remember, do not speak initially, and ensure the green botanical specimen is extracted directly from your storage pendant, Wang'an.】

Xia Wang'an executed the directive with absolute thoroughness. She watched the feline beast-man completely consume a massive stalk of scallion, thoroughly indulged in her cat-stroking compulsion, and verified that the feline had quieted down without a trace of frenzied agitation. Then, uttering not a single syllable, she soared gracefully toward the exterior.

The Vanishing Maiden

The Yunxing crew had failed to process the sequence; the majority remained hypnotized by the lingering fragrance emitted by the natural flora.

The rescue vessel's captain reacted with relative promptness, instinctively lunging forward in an attempt to detain the abruptly manifested maiden.

Yet her outstretched fingers brushed merely against the trailing hem of the celestial dress, the light, silky textile sliding effortlessly across her palm. The captain remained frozen in her extended posture, staring blankly toward the ethereal silhouette gliding smoothly through the vacuum of space.

Illuminated by the exterior searchlights of the rescue craft, the maiden was seen gracefully clearing countless drifting meteorites. Beyond her soaring figure, the distant contours of stellar bodies materialized faintly as she continued climbing higher into the void, ascending until she surpassed the reach of the starship's luminescence.

She vanished from their field of vision.

The surrounding sector resumed its mundane equilibrium: a distant starship flashed with the characteristic "clack" of hyper-spatial jumping, the rescue vessel maintained its stationary berth, and auxiliary craft swept their illumination across the void.

"Hey! Are you folks the starship featured on Yun-Broadcast?"

Everything proceeded with orderly routine; the maiden who had materialized so abruptly and departed with equal suddenness seemed never to have existed at all, resembling a collective dream shared by the occupants.

Only the residual botanical "fragrance" lingering within the vessel's compartments, alongside the feline crew member who had miraculously regained clarity, shaken off its frenzied psychosis, and was presently wobbling back into human configuration, served to remind everyone of reality.

It was no dream; it was authentic.

Within the cosmos, there existed an "apparent human" capable of breathing freely within open space without adverse trauma, bearing genuine natural flora, and unhesitatingly feeding it to an individual undergoing genetic collapse.

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