Turtle Shrinking

Aise had never imagined that right after resurrecting into this world, before he could even adapt to this brand-new vessel, he would encounter such a situation.

Logically speaking, there should have been a buffer period after his resurrection—time for him to slowly adapt to this body, gradually familiarize himself with the surging power within, and then calmly lay out his plans to step by step reshape this world into his ideal vision...

But reality caught him completely off guard.

No, it seemed that he himself had noticed his mother's aura, which made him instinctively chase after it before he could even think things through.

That was it. At that time, his memories were fragmented, and he wasn't even entirely clear on who he was. Having found a clue, he naturally clung to it. It wasn't until the moment he laid eyes on his father, Xia Lun, that the memories sealed away for a thousand years flooded back into his mind like a tidal wave.

Furthermore, even if Aise hadn't lost his memories, he would have naturally assumed that Xia Lun was already dead.

Who could have expected that a thousand years later, Xia Lun, as a human, would still be alive and well, and even this powerful.

This was simply too unreasonable.

Holding a flaming sword, Xia Lun slowly walked toward Aise, every step feeling like a heavy hammer striking against Aise's heart.

The leaping flames on the blade illuminated Xia Lun's cold, stern face. There was not a shred of joy for their reunion in those eyes, only an icy resolve.

"Although I don't know how you managed to survive..." Xia Lun's gaze darkened, pressing down on Aise with a tangible weight. "Aise... it really is better if you just disappear."

When a normal person died, their soul would naturally dissipate and return to the cycle of the world.

Even necromancers merely manipulated corpses like puppets; they could never truly summon back the souls of the deceased.

Only some extremely special entities might leave behind a trace of their soul, but after losing their memories, they would only turn into monsters like ghosts or specters.

An exception like Aise... Xia Lun had never seen before.

Even Xia Lun himself was only able to return to the mortal realm because his wife, Aina, had spared no cost to carefully collect and piece together his already dissipated soul fragments. Even today, there were still unfillable blanks deep within his memories.

Then what was going on with Aise?

Obviously, at the exact moment of his death, someone had intervened and taken his soul away intact.

And at that time, both he and Aina had been right beside Aise, yet they hadn't noticed a single thing.

The one with the ability to do such a thing... the answer was already glaringly obvious.

Xia Lun's expression was somewhat complicated.

Originally, his impression of the Goddess had been quite good. She was essentially his direct superior, had taken good care of him, and had given him guidance and protection on many occasions... But after his resurrection, the truth he heard from Aina's mouth began to fracture his image of the Goddess.

At first, Xia Lun maintained a half-believing, half-doubting attitude toward Aina's words. After all, he only believed what he saw with his own eyes, and even his own wife could be swayed by her emotions... From Aina's perspective, Xia Lun could understand why she said those things to him.

It wasn't the first time Aina's little jar of jealousy had tipped over. Xia Lun didn't mind it; in fact, he found it incredibly endearing, always smiling as he pulled her into his arms and let her grumble and complain.

The relationship between Xia Lun and the Goddess was completely pure and innocent, so naturally, he had nothing to hide and no reason to fear accusations.

Therefore, no matter what Aina said in front of him, Xia Lun always maintained an objective and fair attitude, never slandering the Goddess just to please his wife.

But now, Xia Lun had to re-evaluate everything. Various details from the past began to string together into suspicious clues; some things that hadn't felt right were starting to show their true colors. Beneath the Goddess's mask of benevolence, there seemed to be a hidden scheme he had failed to see.

There was no time for Xia Lun to dwell on this right now; the battle in front of him was the most important thing.

Undeniably, over this past millennium, Aise had transformed into something incredibly powerful. If he let him escape, the consequences would be unimaginable.

The flaming sword parried Aise's attack, and before the other could react, it pierced straight into his chest.

"Father!"

Aise let out a mournful roar. The burning flames felt as if they were trying to completely purify his soul, but enduring the agonizing pain, he still swung the longsword in his hand at Xia Lun.

Xia Lun did not respond, lightly dodging Aise's somewhat desperate and reckless counterattack.

The current Aise was like a beast trapped in a cage, making his final futile resistance and struggles, but the outcome seemed already set in stone.

"Rest in peace, Aise," Xia Lun finally spoke, his voice deep and exhausted. "You shouldn't have come back."

He raised the flaming sword, the inferno condensing at the tip of the blade, transforming into something as dazzling as a miniature sun. This was the final strike, meant to thoroughly purify this soul that shouldn't exist.

There was not a trace of fear of death in Aise's eyes, only madness and bloodlust.

"You'd better be careful with your strike, Father."

Aise grinned and closed his eyes without putting up any resistance.

Xia Lun's sword edge ultimately stopped steadily right in front of Aise's brow.

Mian opened his eyes in confusion, the blood-red color that belonged to Aise fading completely from his pupils.

Seeing the blazing longsword mere inches away, Mian was clearly terrified. His pupils shrank, and letting out a cry of alarm, he fell flat on his backside upon the ground.

"Wh... what's going on?" Mian stammered in panic. "Mr... Mr. Xia Lun?"

Xia Lun silently withdrew his flaming sword but remained constantly on guard against Mian, not knowing if there were any conditions for Aise to emerge.

If the other party could easily seize control of Mian's body at any time... things would undoubtedly become quite troublesome.

"Do you remember what happened earlier?" Xia Lun asked Mian in a deep voice.

"I... I remember Teacher Enlaisi asking me to help him draw a magic circle... then I suddenly lost consciousness..." Mian tried hard to search through his recent memories. "And when I woke up, I was here."

A blue light flickered in Xia Lun's pupils. His Eye of Insight told him that Mian wasn't lying, and that the soul currently present was indeed Mian's, not Aise putting on an act.

Aina walked over to Xia Lun's side.

Mian swallowed hard. Aina's icy gaze made him feel quite uncomfortable, as if she were looking at prey and might swallow him whole in the very next second.

Aise had retreated into his shell.

Before there was any threat, he probably wouldn't come out again.

He was certain that Xia Lun wouldn't do anything to an innocent like Mian... He knew his Hero father all too well: selfless, righteous, and naive...

He also understood his mother just as well. Xia Lun was Aina's biggest weakness; she would do anything for Xia Lun.

Aise was smart enough not to make too much of a fuss.

If things developed to an uncontrollable point, Aina would likely ignore Xia Lun's pleas and strike to kill him directly...

And now, a bizarre balance had been struck once again.