"Flying Witch" and "Star Fairy"

It was a wizened old woman with thick, gray hair. With her milky eyes set in an eerie stare, she looked rather creepy.

"Elder Yi," Shen Li quickly got to her feet and cupped her fists respectfully. The old lady was not unfamiliar to her.

The internal hierarchy of the Universal Council was based on an authority system of ranks, from the lowest to the highest.

Noble.

Exalt.

Elite.

Prime.

Supreme.

These ranks were progressive and came with extra privilege and increased authority access within the Council. As it was, Elder Li was a high-ranking member of the Council of the Exalt rank.

At the moment, Shen Li, Fang Ao and Chen Qingke were only reserve members of the Council at the moment, not even qualified for the Noble Rank yet. To ascend ranks, one would have to meet some criteria, including reaching a certain power level and making a tremendous amount of contribution to the organization.

Shen Li was a subordinate under Elder Yi in the Council. As a matter of fact, this mission was authorized by her.

"I received your report," Elder Yi frowned. "But just for clarity, tell me what happened exactly again."

Shen Li recounted the details. Elder Yi nodded when she was done; it was almost the same as the report.

"Your original task aside, this discovery will earn you a huge amount of contribution points," Elder Yi intoned grandly. "After this, I'll send an application to the superiors about elevating you three to the Noble Rank in the Council."

Shen Li's cold expression vanished and she smiled excitedly, "Thank you, Elder."

"Don't thank me, this is your good luck," Elder Yi waved her off. "Also, since I'm here now, I'll see to the mission myself." With these words, she vanished.

Shen Li's smile did not fade even after she left. This was an unexpected windfall; with this, her position in her home sect would improve drastically.

"I should tell Chen Qingke and Fang Ao," she thought, spreading out her Divine Sense to send them qi transmission.

In the process, her radar swept past the main cabin and she noticed one of the mortals there was exuding a faint spiritual aura, indicating that the person had already stepped into the path of cultivation.

"Ehn?"

*****

Elder Yi randomly appeared in the sky somewhere in Central Beijing.

"It's the same coordinates but looks so different. Everything has changed so much," she muttered with fond reminiscence as she gazed at the bustling landmarks below.

Many millenniums ago, when Elder Yi was a fourth stage cultivator, she was involved in a spatial accident and landed on Earth in a very weakened state. A mortal lady, who later turned out to be the famed Empress Wu of the ancient Tang Dynasty, was the one that found her and nursed her back to health.

The two, a cultivator and a mortal, formed a friendship, and the former even helped pave the way to the latter's rise to power. But Elder Yi eventually left the planet and returned to hers.

Part of the reason she was following this mission closely was because of this little association she had with the planet.

That aside, Elder Yi extended her Divine Sense and sensed the uniqueness of the mortals below; there was an arcane energy present in each of their bodies. By her deduction, they could indeed trigger this energy to exhibit special abilities.

Ignoring everybody else, she flew down straight towards the most eye-catching person in sight, a pretty girl who was dancing in front of some gear; a glowing circle ring with a rectangular object secured at the center.

"Where does the Empress stay now?"

Zhu Lan ignored the voice. She was on a livestream and mostly focused on looking at the comments on her phone screen, not paying attention to what was going on around her. If she did, she would have noticed the minor pandemonium in the background caused by Elder Yi's sudden appearance.

But all of a sudden, goosebumps appeared on her skin and the hairs on her neck stood on end. At the same time, her eyes shifted involuntarily to the area above her head and she saw a flying old lady.

"Arghhhh!" Zhu Lan stepped back in shock and almost knocked over her ring light and phone.

Elder Yi sighed impatiently and landed, retracting her aura. Without skipping a beat, she repeated the question.

"Empress?" Zhu Lan picked herself up and stared at the lady, feeling confused and creeped out at the same time.

Actually, since the global light explosion nicknamed Pandora Bomb by netizens, almost everyone on the planet had awakened one special ability or the other, so the fact that an old woman was flying wasn't altogether shocking. What made it creepy was how she looked dressed in black robes and her hair flying wildly in the wind; all she needed was a spooky staff to fit the picture of an evil witch.

"Yes, the Empress of this territory. Or her descendants at least," Elder Yi felt her impatience grow, but she stopped herself from directly performing a Soul Search to get the answers she wanted.

"We don't have an Empress, we have a government," Zhu Lan said, also stifling her impatience. The lady was ruining her livestream but she didn't want to appear rude as her followers were watching.

She glanced at her phone, where multiple comments were flooding the screen.

"@purpleevan: I only went offline for ten seconds. Who the hell is the ugly hag Star Fairy is talking to?"

"@user64ui replying @purpleevan: It's a flying witch that suddenly popped up asking weird questions. Don't ask further, we're just as confused."

"@biggestsimp01: Wasn't Star Fairy going to make a big reveal about her special ability in two minutes? Don't tell me it's the ability to summon monstrous apparitions?"

"@starfairybiggestfan: Gifting 9000 red packets 'cause Star Fairy looks so cute helping an amnesic lady."

"@simlysimpint: Gifting 12000 red packets 'cause Star Fairy is kind...."

"@griffin: Gifting 15000 red packets 'cause the old lady ain't bad tbh...."

"..."

"Star Fairy" Zhu Lan saw the bullet gifts and was pleasantly surprised. Her viewers liked this?

"Where's this government you speak of?" Elder Yi looked disappointed. But then again, it was only logical that her friend's reign had ended. With hundreds of centuries having gone by, she had no illusions that Wu Zhao was still alive, but she had been hoping to witness what remained of her legacy.

"The government officials stay at Zhongnanhai. It's not far from here, everyone knows where it is," Zhu Lan's attitude took a 360-degree turn and she suddenly became super 'helpful.' She decided to go a step further even. "As for this Empress you speak of or her descendants, you could always check the Internet. It's the best place to find people."

Zhu Lan figured that the old lady was probably clueless about what the Internet was and considered giving her a crash course. Elder Yi spoke before she could start.

"I'll get to that later. For now, let's see," she reached forward and tapped the girl's forehead. Almost instantaneously, an arcane energy was triggered in Zhu Lan's body and she started to glow with an intense fluorescence.

"Oh, the Luminous Star Physique?" Elder Yi was pleasantly surprised. "She's rather lucky."

This physique granted its bearer innate mastery of nine spells, a 900% boost in cultivation speed and a genius-level aptitude in comprehending light-based spells. Even in the grand cultivation world, this kind of physique was very rare. Elder Yi instantly made a decision.

"I'll take you in as my disciple," she said when Zhu Lan opened her eyes. "But first, you'll take me to this Zhongnanhai place. I'll have a chat with the government about the future of your planet."

"Who wants to be your disciple?" It wasn't just Zhu Lan, the excited viewers watching the livestream also felt the lady was definitely crazy. "Also, how did you do that?" As far as she was concerned, she only found out that she could activate this special state this morning. Just how did it get triggered when the woman touched her head?

Elder Yi frowned, "I don't have time for this." She made a grasping motion and Zhu Lan found herself in the woman's grasp.

"Y-you....what are you doing?" The girl panicked.

"You know the way, right?" Elder Yi said nonchalantly. Holding Zhu Lan in an iron grip, she took to the sky. "I'll fly us, you'll give directions."

"Wait, my phone!!"

The viewers of the livestream heard Zhu Lan shriek before the two vanished from the camera's line of sight.