Xueyi

One of the judges of the Ten-Lords Commission on the Luofu. She is in charge of "detention" among the four judges of detention, interrogation, incarceration, and punishment. With iron chain and Mara-Sunder Awl in hand in tireless pursuit of recidivists, she will forthwith ensnare and subdue them all. The mortal coil of her past being has been reduced to ashes. She is reanimated via a puppet body. For each villain she captures, she gets in return half a day in the world of the living.

"Ten Lords perceptual, Karma perpetual." Dressed as white as the driven snow, the Judge strolled out from the dim street, obscuring his final escape. The man drew closer, but the shrill tremble in his voice betrayed his fear: "How... is catching them not enough?" It may have started with a "How," but not as a question, rather as a rhetorical one. The semantic analysis goes back and forth in the mind, and there's no other intel other than "the target clearly knew who the accomplice was." She decided to execute the mission assigned to her straight away. The eyeballs, forehead, chin, heart, the Core Esse, and the lower abdomen... With a glance, she marked off all the parts that might make for a single effective strike. Despite Foxians being known for their quick reactions, her opponent had left himself wide open and one round... two rounds, max, should be enough to take care of things. But this blow missed. The Judge looked at him with an air of curiosity. The man's body seemed to move like scurrying mice, with muscles undulating, and his eyes sparkled with the gleam of a well-executed plan. He panted violently as though suffering from a critical illness, and during a burst of uncontrollable pain his body shot out large swathes of fine hairs as his limbs and body swelled and tore open by some invisible force. Under the glow of moonlight within the delve, a monstrous werewolf stood up. In the view of the Judge, the sanguine silhouette enveloping its body had burned up into a wildfire. "You... are seeking death." She has an urge to sigh out of habit, but her body no longer has that function. "The partaking of the Disciples of Sanctus Medicus' concoction will only hasten your demise." The man's gaze barely wavers at all. "The second I was discovered by you, I only ever had a few more days to live." The Foxian grabs the medicine pouch, and pours out more pills into his mouth as though it were candy. "You are a tool that sheds no blood and cry no tears. You could never understand — I have my reason for leaving here!" A huge fist suddenly expanded, filling up the entire field of vision, and the Judge barely had any time to react. Shaking her arms, the chain she clutched whipped into a circle as she tried to lasso the fist. The fist punched into her chest with astonishing force, splitting cracks into the ground like cobwebs and creating a crater beneath where the white-robed Judge was standing. There was no pain, only the gentle ringing of damaged ingenium parts. The white-robed Judge was left befuddled.

"Madam Xueyi, this body of yours is beyond salvation. I... I have to move you into a new puppet now. This process may leave you a little confused. Please bear with me." Similar conversations had been exchanged between her and Huohuo the spiritfarer over and over again. She responded the same as always, "Thank you. This time, please pick something sturdy." She saw Huohuo's foxy ear twitch — was it out of frustration? She knew not. Her eyes could see, but they had no capacity for recognizing emotion... And maybe this was through no fault of her eyes. "I've packed all the best, hardest, and most flexible parts into Madam Xueyi's body, but your rates of injury and damage are still the highest in the division... The craftsmen of the Interrogation Division have started to grumble." "Once you put me together, I will..." "... Just give each of them a 'light' tap on the head, okay?" A familiar voice came beside her as she lay at sixes and sevens."They are still flesh and blood, and cannot stand your jokes." Long hair drooped down to cover her face, and a disturbance signal emitted from her artificial skin. The woman's face looking down had each independent feature combined into a new one that was both extremely familiar yet also kind to her. "Sister, having an ingenium body will always lull you into a false sense of invulnerability. However, I have to use the remaining days of reanimation to offset premature damage to this body of yours. I hope you can remember during your next mission that you've still got a sister out there who cares about you." "I remember." "Otherwise, you'll have to get Huohuo to write this line into your mind... Ah, just kidding, Huohuo. No need for that. I trust my sister can remember it." "So Madam Xueyi, let's begin." She felt herself being sliced open, copied, split into a thousand pieces, and uploaded into millions of circuits housed at the Ten-Lords Commission. When... In a flash, she shuffled through countless documents inscribed in the Hall of Karma and then, after a fleeting glimpse at all the souls of the Xianzhou, the memory vanished. Moments later, she entered the body of a nearby aurumaton spectral envoy, feeling both the strength of the metal body alongside the unshakable will of the jade abacus. She has one thousand pairs of eyes, watching over the people of Starskiff Haven with the wings and sight line of a cycrane... She has one thousand ears, scanning the changing waves and pitches among the infinite possible frequencies... Her one thousand hands write handwritten judgments on the spiritfarer's body, and her one thousand feet give chase over unfamiliar avenues... She knows that she's only inside the jade abacus circuitry of the Ten-Lords Commission, but she feels as though she were everywhere and gradually fading away... "Sister... sister!" A familiar voice rang out again beyond the waveform of the voiceprint, and she was trapped fast inside a memory. The white-robed judge was left befuddled.

"Sister... sister!" She was shocked to discover herself beneath an azure sky, surrounded by lush undulating waves of wheat growing. She smiled as she braided together the twigs and flowers she'd picked up earlier, placing this wreath on the tiny head of the little girl in her lap. The girl turned back to look at her, smiling even more brightly than the flowers. She held onto this face tightly, vowing to eternally protect this delicate, fragile face — vowing to do many, many things for her. "Sister... sister!" As soon as she was distracted, this face relaxed and grew broader. There was no trace of weakness in those gorgeous eyes that needed her care — only perseverance. This face once walked side-by-side with her, boarding starskiffs together and cruising out beyond the borders. Sandstorms, frost, mud marks... Time has left behind much dirt upon this face. But these hands will always gently and meticulously wipe away everything. Just like herself, her sister has grown and matured. She shouldn't always wipe her sister's face clean in front of everyone like an anxious mother. But how could she ever just let go of things? She vowed to protect this face forever — vowing to do many, many things. "Sister... sister!" She looked up from the blood and fire of the scorched earth. On the ground lay thousands of familiar but lifeless faces, including that of her sister. But she couldn't find her own face. "I can save her. I can save all of you. All it takes is a wave of the branch and I can teach flesh to regrow from the mere bones or let petals rise up out of the dust to the flower once more. You know very well I can." Underneath her, a strange tree with a thousand faces spoke to her, and to everyone. They waved their branches, penetrating deep into the earth. "I am Shuhu. I am eternal. From me, you shall gain true immortality." Sobbing, she closed her eyes, incapable of providing any resistance. At this moment, she was just an insignificant fruit upon this giant tree, powerless against mighty roots. A colossal, blazing sword plunged down from the heavens, scorching away the sweet yet putrid atmosphere. A towering figure in formidable armor crashed onto the battlefield like a meteor, bellowing at the towering tree. The strange tree blossomed once more like a perennial flower, its golden branches growing ferociously to tightly entangle the enemy. "Each time you overcome death, I am beyond overjoyed. Like them, your flesh and blood are insignificant, but your pain is something that pleases me." The branches laughed shrilly, letting each head speak one word on their behalf, stringing together a sentence, "Teng Xiao, what do you plan on using to kill me this time? I'm curious." "With myself." The man replies calmly. Behind him, the golden illusion plunges the colossal blade straight down into the ground from high up in the sky. "Sister... sister!" The cries grow more urgent. She could feel herself being once again filtered, deleted, merged, and stuffed into a narrow and limited self. "These so-called Judges of the Netherworld and envoys of the Ten Lords truly amount to nothing." Like everyone who jolts awake from a dream, she returns to her body but has forgotten the momentary dream. The judge dressed in white feels befuddled.

The raspy laughter of the Foxian next to the judge's ears sounds like the howling of a wolf. The man took away dozens of the most valuable pellets in the organization. Now, it appears that he is simply lacking in combat experience. Ingesting just one pellet is already enough to easily crush the judge before him. "At the end, ingenia have their limits... They are nothing compared to the immeasurable potential of the bodies of us long-life species." The Foxian chuckles and tries to retrieve his arm, only to find several chains entangling it. The chains are interlocked and intertwined over his skin like spider silk. The judge's eyes are glowing through the gaps in her long black hair, which cascades down her face. Her expression reminds the Foxian of a predator that had smelled blood. "My ingenium organ, 'Deities of the Five Organ Senses,' has been damaged. The part responsible for my sympathy has been reduced." "...That's ridiculous!" As the Foxian curls his fingers into the shape of a claw and powerfully slams it down, a three-pronged spike pierces through his palm. He shrieks in pain. "I originally wanted to let you undergo interrogation in the Shackling Prison with your body intact, but you have shattered my sympathy." "Just drop your act! Have you forgotten that I'm tied to you through your chain?" The wounded beast caught in the trap starts struggling. The Foxian pulls the chain and drags the white-robed judge into his arms. Every inch of his massive muscles contracts like coiled ropes in response to his anger. The unsettling sound of bones sliding out of their sockets and becoming misaligned pops loudly in the air. "Just like how you put it, our body of flesh and blood holds unfathomable potential... But it has a crucial setback. It feels pain." The white-robed judge's voice hums as the man's agonizing screams resonate in the night sky. She props her shattered right arm up. Her broken iron bone protrudes out like the sharp tip of a spear, stabbing into the Foxian's jaw that already appears like a wolf's. The twisted fugitive scrambles in all directions but fails to break free from the judge's relentless pursuit. He rolls around on the ground in excruciating pain, finally losing consciousness and going limp like a puddle of goo. "You say I am a tool that sheds no blood and cries no tears?" The judge, now dressed in a bloodstained robe, slowly rises from the massive body of the criminal. "It's Abominations of Abundance like you... that have shattered my sympathy." She tries her best to push her skull, spine, and patella back to the correct positions, then fastens to her waist the severed arm that cannot be re-attached no matter what. What will her sister and Huohuo say about this time? A habit slumbering deep in her mind makes her want to heave a sigh, but her body no longer has that function.

I am Xueyi, a judge of the Ten-Lords Commission. By decree of the Commission, I come to the world of the living to enforce its will. Tell me what you want. I haven't got much time.

It's good we could be acquainted. I rarely have the chance to come to your side of the world.

My wakespan for today is running out — I must return to my coffin. Take care.

"Xueyi" is a type of white-feathered bird. It also refers to the white pieces of a chessboard. It is a fitting alias — I often move first, though it is the Commission that decides where to dispatch me.

You are talking to a puppet, not a living being. The Commission gifted me this body. The real me has already been reduced to ashes.

My sister may not strike you as an extrovert, but when I have wakespan to spare, her eyes light up. We'll wander around and do silly things together. It's good to keep her company.

As per my arrangement with the Ten-Lords Commission, for each criminal I take into custody, I will be granted half a day of wakespan. It might not seem much to you, but I cherish every second of it.

In my living years, it appears I was stricken with mara and committed terrible crimes. The Commission offered me the chance to atone for my sins by working for them.

I used to enjoy many things: walking around the markets, reading novels, and watching immersia. Now, I can only relive those moments during my wakespan. When I return to my coffin, my memories don't follow.

Annoyances are a luxury to me.

When asleep in my coffin, I often experience the memories of criminals in my dreams. But when I awake, I don't remember anything... People say the Ten-Lords Commission can perform dream divination. I wonder if that's what I'm experiencing.

"An Unsuitable Job for A Puppet" — have you read that novel? The story is based on my life. I wonder who wrote it. Could it be one of my colleagues?

My sister is tasked with the karmic interpretation of people's memories. She works relentlessly in the Hall of Karma — it's a thankless job with no "rest days..." I can see the dark circles around her eyes.

Only 38 years have passed since Huohuo joined the Commission as a spiritfarer, but she's already become a judge. The speed of her promotion is unheard of. As per the Commission's rules, it would have taken anyone else at least 500 years.

When I was alive, Dan Feng's reputation preceded him. To witness him now — an ousted criminal under a different name... How the world changes.

The general has proved to be a staunch ally of the Ten-Lords Commission. His loyalty will be rewarded.

As an outsider capable of mending my mechanical body, he's far from typical...

Just like me, she carries the burden of guilt. But, unlike me, she doesn't have the chance or need to atone for her wrongdoings, which has led her down a dangerous path.

Back then, I tried to dissuade Hanyaher from her actions. But now, I can see how it provided the Ten-Lords Commission with many opportunities.

Serving under the Ten Lords, as a judge of souls, I come to the world of the living to enforce their will.

Very well, out with the old and in with the new.

Though puppet in form, I'm fully functional.

I shall carry out the decree of the Ten Lords.

Quite unexpected. You're also going on this mission?

We meet again, a pleasant surprise.

It's you, how fortunate. This new look of yours must surely stir up trouble, does it not?

The Ten Lords will surely repay your assistance with kindness, General.

Huohuo, just stand behind me and do what you can.

You could've surrendered.

That's it?

It's time.

Do you admit this crime?

I can't spend my wakespan waiting...

Yield!

Execution.

No amnesty... for the Mara-struck.

You can't hurt me.

So what if it hurt?

By order of the Ten-Lords...

Execute the Mara-struck!

Forgive me, sister...

Death has yet to claim me.

Motor function restored.

Spirits be gone.

A few more days to my wakespan...

Interesting, show it to that silly child.

It's not every day you see something like this.

This will make her happy for quite some time...

Was it this easy the last time I was awake?

Next time we could pick up the pace.

Careful, there is evil ahead.

I'd like to take in something new before returning to the coffin.