Hanya

One of the judges of the Ten-Lords Commission on the Luofu. She is in charge of "interrogation" among the four judges of detention, interrogation, incarceration, and punishment.

She is in charge of discerning the sins of criminals and using her Oracle Brush to write down karmic punishments to be meted out.

Since her daily work relies heavily on oneiromancy, she has been constantly struck by a tremendous influx of mara-tainted karmic information and grown detached from worldly matters.

Only when in the presence of her sister, Xueyi, does she reveal a glimpse of her tender nature.

The colossal coffin, resembling a desolate vessel adrift in a tempest, sways amidst the tumultuous currents of the ocean of consciousness. Waves of anger, longing, hatred, fear, and exhaustion crash upon her like colorless surges, propelling her from one turbulent realm to another.

Like a drowned soul, she finally lets go of her individuality and dissolves into the boundless ocean of chaos...

There was a time when she held the role of an officer in the Realm-Keeping Commission, constantly dealing with mountains of mundane duties, yearning for a promotion. Eventually, after a sharp snap that echoed deep within her mind, she started wandering the streets like a mindless corpse...

In the next moment, burdened with immeasurable grief, she submerged her baby with birth defects in a vessel brimming with starskiff culture medium, despite her and her husband's eager anticipation for their newborn baby...

Once a Cloud Knight, she was ruthlessly struck down by a wolf's twisted paw, her face maimed by its sharp claws, carving a twisted "smile." Whenever she smiled, the wound induced excruciating pain in the years that followed...

Her divination revealed that her life teetered on the verge of oblivion. In despair, she overhauled the Matrix of Prescience's calculation terminal, attempting to access its core to utilize its full power. However, the Matrix's power ravaged her mind mercilessly...

She smashed her meticulously crafted contraption, as well as the foreman who had intentionally made things difficult for her. At that moment, she realized she would never achieve her dream of becoming a craftsman, but what else could she do...?

She became every one of them, all of them. Yet, at that moment, like an ink droplet descending upon her vision, an image swirled and dissipated.

Beneath azure skies, undulating waves of wheat surged and seethed around her. A nimble pair of hands gently crowned her head with a wreath. She allowed the foliage, leaves, and fragrant blooms to encircle her, just as the tender hands had embraced her...

That familiar warmth jolts her from the deluge poised to consume everything.

She realizes that she is not any of them, nor the sum of their forms. In that fleeting instant, she dwindles into a minuscule droplet within the ocean of consciousness. She recalls her name and her duty...

She is a judge of the Ten-Lords Commission, bearing the code name, "Hanya."

Observing her awakening, the aurumaton stationed beside the coffin commenced a rapid flurry of writing, its movements too swift for the naked eye to discern.

The verdict of her judgment has been revealed, and the names that materialized within her dreams are transcribed onto a jade abacus token. As twilight melds into night within the delve, countless souls will bid their final farewell to the mortal realm, unaware that the precise moment of their demise had been recorded by someone within the innermost recesses of the Xianzhou ship. And within a few hours, the woman will no longer retain any recollection of them.

On the opposite side of the coffin, a white-robed judge stared at her with an unwavering gaze. In the absence of smiles, that once familiar face now looked particularly alien. The judge extended their hand, and a golden jug sat in their palm.

Enclosed within the jug is a liquor as green as jade, an emerald eye that glares unblinkingly at her within the dark vaults of the Hall of Karma.

"Is it time to drink again? I almost forgot." She rose from the coffin. "Why are you bringing me the wine instead of Yepo, sister?"

"Yepo... You don't remember, do you?" Her sister's eyelids close halfway. That is how her sister expresses concern — However, the ingenium forming her sister's body lacks the finesse to convey this expression, rendering it instead akin to a gesture of drowsiness."Yepo pursued the Disciples of Sanctus Medicus and suffered fatal injuries. The Ten Lords have granted her permission for demise."

She hurriedly changed the subject."How was the target you pursued today? Were they difficult to deal with?"

"Very difficult. He broke one of my hands and shattered my patella as soon as we met. The scoundrel seems to have knowledge over the composition of ingenia, indicating that he is indeed the skilled craftsman from the Zhuming all those years ago. I have recorded his moves. Through studies and contemplation, I will one day find a way to counter him."

She watched her sister recount that narrow escape from death with apparent indifference, as if discussing the breaking of an inanimate object. "We will have to bother Huohuo again to repair you."

"Well, Huohuo... She was promoted to judge about a dozen days ago. Currently, Shouling is in charge of maintaining the ingenia."

With a smooth and precise motion, her sister placed the golden jug on the edge of the coffin beyond her reach. The wine within the jug sat still, without a ripple.

"Drink this Wine of Oblivion, and you'll forget everything. You don't have to go this far, my dear sister. I should atone for my faults through my own efforts alone." Just like how it is in her dream, her sister's hands were placed on her head in a gentle caress, but she cannot feel even the faintest trace of warmth.

"It's only a minor side effect of drinking the Wine of Oblivion. If I end up forgetting everything about you, then both of us can finally embrace our demise without any burdens. By the benevolence of the Ten Lords, this promise has been recorded in the depths of the Hall of Karma."

"And at that moment, we shall relinquish all and enter eternal slumber." She leans forward slightly, pressing her sister's cold hand against her cheek.

She takes the wine jug from the edge of the coffin and, with effort, consumes the viscous liquid sip by sip. Though called "wine," it lacks all pungent and invigorating flavor. Instead, it tastes like oil drained into the body of an aurumaton.

"But before that fateful moment, please allow me to carry out a few more tasks for you, for the Ten Lords, and for that general."

The wine she imbibes transforms into a dense pill of mercury, coursing through her limbs and bones. Memories she refuses to recall, fragments of her human existence from millennia past, resurface momentarily before gradually fading away...

She saw the crimson star known as "Rahu" suspended high amidst the clouds atop the Xianzhou Cangcheng, pulsating like a beating heart. Slowly, it cracked open, revealing a core composed of rocks, tendons, and branches. It voraciously consumed and gave birth to countless offspring, resembling a ravenous predator feasting or a mother on the verge of delivering.

Beneath the nightmarish moonlight, she witnessed the foxians of the Xianzhou Yaoqing futilely maneuvering their starskiffs, resembling powerless flies attempting to take down an invincible behemoth, only to be crushed and reduced to flickering sparks in the air by borisin beast ships.

A colossal, walking tree approached her amidst the chaos of the battlefield. Extending its myriad branches, it impaled all who stood in its path, including her comrades. As she gripped her fractured sword for a desperate struggle, she suddenly saw a smiling face blossoming upon the tree — a reflection of her sister's face.

"It's me, my dear sister. Don't you recognize me?"

The branches and leaves rustled, and the faces of her companions sprouted like fruits from the treetops, emanating raucous laughter. "Do not succumb to death. Do not grow accustomed to it. Embrace me... become a part of me..."

Flowers burst forth upon her sword, which then disintegrated into rust within a few heartbeats. Nimble branches gently crowned her head with a wreath. She allowed the foliage, leaves, and fragrant blooms to encircle her, just as the tender hands had embraced her...

A colossal, blazing sword pierced through her visions, scorching away the sweet yet putrid atmosphere, almost suffocating her. A towering figure in formidable armor crashed onto the battlefield like a meteor, bellowing at the towering tree with the valor that defined his name. However, not even that valorous warrior could sever the suffocating entanglement wrought by the colossal tree...

Yes, it's that dream again, that recurring dream. No matter how many drafts of the Wine of Oblivion she consumes, she simply cannot escape the nightmare.

She gulps down the wine with visible effort, desperately, until the dream finally transforms into an enigmatic wisp of smoke. All that remains is the solitary thought of a restful slumber, bidding farewell to wakefulness.

On one side of the coffin, a white-robed judge fixes her gaze upon the sealed coffin. Observing her sister's slumber had been routine during her human days.

She can no longer feel pain or any regrets. The consciousness residing within her skull informs her that observing her sister's sleep is an arduous duty, similar to what she once did to herself.

Making karmic judgments and delivering sentences are profound tasks, and such responsibilities must be exclusively entrusted to judges who have detached from the mortal world yet remain attuned to the emotions of people, unlike aurumatons. While she can discern subtle shifts in the tones of human words and detect the tightening of muscles upon sorrowful countenances, none of these can stir even the faintest ripple within her heart of forged steel, and no magic can bring back her emotions as a human. That is why her sister is needed for the Ten-Lords Commission.

An Aurumaton Spectral Envoy approaches her. "A new task?" The white-robed judge turns to the envoy.

"If you wish to remain and attend to Madam Hanya, I can ask other judges to undertake the task instead."

"That won't be necessary. I don't wish to disappoint her. Furthermore, I've reached an agreement with the Ten Lords. For every malefactor I apprehend, I shall be granted the freedom to return to the mortal realm for half a day. She's been inside the coffin for too long, and I'd like to bestow such a chance for her to bask in the sun."

"Then, please prepare your sacred vessels and commence the exorcism, Madam." The aurumaton bows in deference.

The white-robed judge remains emotionless as she peers into the darkness. Within her heart that no longer beats, there resides a simple aspiration, that her sister will dream a tender and blissful dream...

That she will dream of nimble hands gently crowning her head with a wreath.