Star Rail: The Aeon Hunters

Cloudford has always been one of the busiest places in Xianzhou. It's one of the main hub for import and export, interplanetary delivery, and even sometimes place to welcome guest. Hundreds of workers, aurumatons, and cloudknights usually roam this place.

Today however, Qingni noticed, seems to be the exception and she has never felt so unsettled.

"Man... with long blonde hair... carrying a large box behind him," the girl muttered to herself, recalling the instruction Aunt Tingyun gave her. She stepped up some stairs and walked around gigantic crates and giant boxes filled with who knows what.

Along the way, she'll find some Cloudknights patrolling, but she managed to stay out of sight. Decades of experience of sneaking out from work and renting Starskiff without her mom knowing really helped her. Though, she does wonder, why can't Miss Tingyun just do it herself? Isn't she like, the Amicassador? Delivering and Getting items is literally her job description.

Qingni sprinted behind a patrolling cloudknight, until finally, she found her target.

It is a man sitting calmly at the edge of Cloudford, with a huge white box the size of a person beside him. She stopped near the man and started tiptoeing towards him, as she gets closer, she can hear the man speaking to himself.

"Windswept Wanderlust called upon me on this next journey," he spoke in a strangely melodic manner, as if practicing a poem. "From the depths of time, I stood at the precipice of infinity," he put a hand on his chest. "Such is the nature of an ant gazing upon the monument of humanity,"

The man turned towards Qingni and the latter froze.

"Don't you agree?" he asked with a gentle smile.

"Uhhh... Umm... Yea?" the foxian hurried towards him. "Are you, Luocha?"

"Yes, I go by that name, are you the Amicassador's courier?" Luocha asked.

"Yes! My name is Qingni," the girl cleared her throat. "I'm here to take a packet she asked."

Luocha smiled and nodded kindly. "Of course,"

At first, Qingni thought that the man would open the strange box behind him. But instead he motioned her to follow him to a corner, where a small chest is sitting. "Here it is, bring this chest to the Amicassador," he smiled at her. "And I suppose it goes without saying that you shouldn't open the chest, unless you wish to take responsibility for what's inside it."

Qingni gulped a little. "Right, don't worry, I'm a girl of my words," she picked up the chest and found... something strange. At first it felt heavy, but the she noticed that the chest tried to stay in place. If she let of the chest, it fell very slowly.

"Huh..." the girl held the chest with both hands. "This is... weird... what's..." she caught herself. No, don't ask what's in this, just be a good girl and deliver this chest to Miss Tingyun. The price is an entire Starskiff, an entire Starskiff. Let's not screw this up.

"Thank you!" Qingni exclaimed before quickly running back to where she docked her borrowed Starskiff.

"Save travels," Luocha said with a wave of his hand.

[LINE BREAK]

Qingni turned around the corner towards the dock where she put the borrowed Starskiff.

"Shit!"

The girl quickly turned tail and hid when she saw two figures waiting near her Starskiff. One of them seems to be a Cloudknight, while the other. She doesn't know the uniform, but she swore she's seen a Xianzhou Official wearing it. She then closed her eyes and listened closely.

"-here, got it! Don't worry miss Xueyi, this Starskiff is not leaving this place," a girl spoke.

"Stay alert, Sushang, be ready to retreat if I tell you,"

Qingni clicked her tongue. Xueyi, Sushang, she has no idea who those people are. But one thing is certain, she's not getting out of here with them there. "Should I..." she glanced around. Stealing another Starskiff would lead her to more trouble, should she just... Bring herself in? Maybe they'll understand if she tells them that the Amicassador asked for it.

Loud footsteps appeared from a distance. She looked at another side of the dock and saw a Gatekeeper Aurumaton walking towards her Starskiff. She can hear the Cloudknight and the other girl cursing at the sight of it. Though, personally, Qingni hoped that the Aurumaton would shoo them away.

"Tch, I'll distract it, stay here and guard the Starskiff, miss Sushang!"

Qingni hid back and watched from a corner as one of the girl ran straight to the Aurumaton. Chains burst forth from her sleeves, trying to grapple the construct, but it easily broke through and summoned goldfish ingeniums.

A wave of fire burst forth from the goldfish, Qingni hid herself from the flames. When it all dies down, the girl and the aurumatons already left, leaving Qingni alone with the Cloudknight.

"Just a Cloudknight..." Qingni sighed, chest pounding. "Any other Aurumaton wanna help out?" she whispered.

After a moment, the girl decided to just bet on her luck. She stepped out of her hiding place and start walking towards the Starskiff. The Cloudknight girl who saw her raised her hand, a stern look on her face.

"Halt!" Sushang exclaimed. "I am under express order to stop anyone from using this Starskiff."

"I was under order to return this Starskiff to the Amicassador,"

Sushang smirked and folded her arms. "Ha! As if I'm stupid enough to believe that, the Amicassador was ki..."

"Sushang," another voice called out.

The two turned to the source of the voice. A young boy is walking towards them, with seven swords floating around him. Though his expression is stern, his eyes seemed to be glazed. There's also some strange green ghostly glow around him.

"Lieutenant?" Sushang took a step back. "What are you doing here?"

"Looking for you, I couldn't find you at your post, what are you doing here?" Yanqing folded his arms. "Stop slacking off, follow me,"

"Wait, Lieutenant, Miss Xueyi from the Ten Lords Commission ordered me to guard this Starskiff," Sushang tried to say. "She said the Master Diviner saw something and..."

Yanqing raised an eyebrow and turned to Qingni. "Oh, I see, no worries, Miss Xueyi simply wishes to make sure that this courier managed to deliver the packet safely," he walked closer to Sushang. "Come now, your job is done, don't disturb her from her work."

Sushang narrowed her eyes. "Huh... but I could've sworn..." she shook her head. "Ah, whatever," the girl followed Yanqing away from the Starskiff.

Qingni sighed in relief and quickly hopped on to the Starskiff. She activated the Starskiff and close her eyes, calming her nerves. For a moment there, she thought she was caught doing smuggling of illegal product. But yeah, of course not, there's no way her aunt would make her do it.