Underground

"The goddess isn't up there—she's right here."

Hearing Olen's muttering, Xia Lun couldn't help but complain inwardly.

However, Aina suddenly taking action did catch him off guard.

"It almost got away, Xia Lun," Aina explained.

Xia Lun shrugged. To him, whether this chimera escaped or not made no difference.

Aina then flicked her fingers at the chimera, and a magic core tore through its flesh, flying into her grasp.

Xia Lun asked curiously, "What do you need that for?"

Having seen the Demon King's treasury, Xia Lun knew that a magic core of this grade was no different from cabbage on the roadside to Aina.

"Taking it back for Little Lan to eat... The cores I have on hand are all too high-grade for her," Aina said plainly.

Xia Lun blinked. Feeding a slime a magic core... Now that was extravagant.

"And this one is safe for her?"

The chimera’s rank was leagues above a slime’s.

"That ice crystal I fed Little Lan earlier wasn’t for nothing, Xia Lun," Aina wagged a finger. "She’s no ordinary slime anymore..."

"Oh?"

"Once she digests the ice crystal, she’ll be a slime with exceptional endurance," Aina said seriously. "We can’t always be by Mo Lini’s side. It’s best she has some means of self-defense."

Xia Lun stroked his chin. Aina had a point.

"Um..."

Olen finally spoke up, utterly lost. How had the conversation suddenly shifted to slimes?

"Just who are you two...?"

Aina’s fingertip glowed faintly, and Olen’s gaze gradually turned vacant.

"Such a convenient spell, memory erasure," Xia Lun remarked.

"You know, Xia Lun... Back then, I spent ages learning how to freely manipulate others’ memories," Aina murmured, her eyes tinged with reminiscence and pain.

"You’ve worked hard," Xia Lun said softly, his gaze gentle.

In Xia Lun’s memories, aside from the blank void, fragments had also surfaced—memories from after his death. It was as if an invisible hand had pieced his existence back together.

"Xia Lun... I’ll bring you back, no matter what it takes..."

"No! Xia Lun’s memories... They’re slipping away!"

"With just these fragments... It’s not enough... I need to find more... Everything Xia Lun ever touched..."

The flashes in his mind made Xia Lun’s breath hitch, his face twisting in pain.

"Aina..."

"It’s alright, Xia Lun. It’s all in the past now," Aina said, her smile returning as she playfully chided, "Just behave from now on."

Xia Lun took a deep breath. "As you command, Demon King."

Aina pointed at the collapsed ground where the chimera had emerged.

"Let’s take a look, Xia Lun. What’s down there?"

Without hesitation, Xia Lun leaped into the pit.

His feet soon met solid ground.

Aina floated down after him—and then perched on his shoulders, her legs snug around his neck. She was absolutely doing it on purpose.

"Aina..."

"What’s wrong?" Aina hugged his head, leaning forward like an upside-down bat until her hair curtained his vision.

It was a precarious position, easy to topple forward, but Xia Lun stood firm.

Xia Lun paused. "Can I turn my head now?"

"No!"

"Ah, never mind then." He sighed regretfully before scanning their surroundings. "But there’s nothing here."

The walls were just packed earth, strewn with rubble and nameless roots—utterly ordinary, just torn-up ground.

Yet the chimera had undeniably burst out right before his eyes.

As if it had materialized out of thin air.

"There’s a trace of spatial distortion," Aina noted.

"Someone teleported the chimera here? What’s the point?" Xia Lun couldn’t help but ask. If someone wanted chaos, why not send it straight to the square? Buried underground made no sense.

"Maybe they messed up the teleportation array?" Aina tilted her head, equally baffled.

The earlier tremors were likely the chimera struggling beneath the earth.

Teleporting something underground... What kind of move was that?

Xia Lun looked at Aina. "Can we trace it?"

Aina closed her eyes, then frowned. "The source... seems to be nearby?"

"Huh?"

"That chimera was probably teleported here—from somewhere close by," Aina said, sounding unsure herself. "How odd."

Xia Lun’s expression darkened. If even Aina found it strange, this was seriously uncanny.

Finding no further clues below, Xia Lun leaped back to the surface.

Aina slid off his shoulders.

Olen and the priests still stood dazed in the square until Aina snapped her fingers, clarity returning to their eyes.

Before they fully awoke, Xia Lun had already left.

"What... happened?"

Olen stared blankly at the chimera’s corpse before him.

"Governor Olen, you were incredible!"

"You defeated such a powerful monster!"

Cheers erupted around him as the fabricated memories took root—of him unleashing divine magic to slay the beast.

Yet doubt nagged at Olen. Had he really been that strong?

...

"Xia Lun! Where were you? There was a huge commotion outside—it scared me half to death!" Liyana and Mo Lini rushed over as soon as he returned to the guild. "What happened?"

"Nothing much. A monster somehow got in, and Aina took care of it," Xia Lun waved it off. Aina tossed the magic core to Mo Lini.

"This is...?" Mo Lini stared at the core in her hands.

"For Little Lan," Aina said flatly.

"R-Really? Thank you, Aina... Little Lan, say thank you too."

Mo Lini nodded, the slime on her head bouncing twice.