Just like Wang Xiaole said, a person’s energy is limited. You can’t take care of everything at once.

It was after realizing this that Cai chose to support the man she liked in “messing around with other girls.”

As for why she supported it, it was exactly like she said:

“The less time Lord Xiaole spends on me, the more I feel like you don’t like me anymore. And the me who still loves you… will be tormented on a mental level…”

As she said that, the blush on Cai’s face deepened noticeably. She lowered her head in embarrassment, the tip of her shoe sliding back and forth on the floor.

Seeing her like this, Wang Xiaole couldn’t help thinking:

Maybe compared to them, I’m the one who’s really abnormal. That’s why I keep attracting all these weird girls around me.

Birds of a feather flock together, after all.

“After saying all that, I just wanted to tell you this: no matter what you’re going to do, I’ll support you to the very end. Please go out without any worries.”

Cai needed only a short time to gather everything Wang Xiaole needed to take with him, pack it into a bundle, and hand it to him.

Her personality wasn’t exactly great, but she really was reliable.

After soothing Cai, Wang Xiaole went to check Bai Meow’s reaction.

Bai Meow didn’t want “Big Brother” to leave.

But Bai Meow also knew:

In the past, “Big Brother” had already said temporary goodbyes to the older sisters on her account, and gone off to foreign lands.

Now, it was her turn to do what the sisters had done. Bai Meow felt there was no reason she couldn’t do it too.

“……”

That silence meant:

I don’t want us to be apart, but since “Big Brother” has something important to handle, I won’t be selfish;

I’ll stay at home, be a good girl, and wait for you to come back!

These two girls who caused no trouble at crucial moments took a lot of weight off Wang Xiaole’s mind, letting him leave home with peace of mind.

“I’m heading out.”

The moment he turned around, he squared his shoulders, as if endless energy burst inside him, and strode toward the door.

“Right, there’s one more thing.”

Just when the mood in the room was still pretty good, Cai suddenly spoke and cut it off, slowly bringing up something:

“Ever since Miss Bai Meow and I came back from the street yesterday, we haven’t seen Lady Freya. Even now, she still hasn’t returned home.”

“Freya’s missing?”

Wang Xiaole froze on the spot. He didn’t turn back, but the slight panic in his voice was obvious.

Before this, he hadn’t gone out of his way to ask about Freya. He’d just assumed that if the goddess wasn’t in her room, she’d probably gone into town for snacks or to check out some new food shop.

“She’s not missing. Lady Freya left a written note. It seems she went out on a trip. Thinking about it now, she only used writing to explain things to you alone, Lord Xiaole. She clearly had no intention of telling Miss Bai Meow and me in particular.”

“What’s that idiot thinking? Going out alone at a time like this… is she just waiting for some bad guy to snatch her off the street and sell her?”

With his palm pressing into his scalp, fingers digging into his hair, Wang Xiaole seriously considered:

Should I go find Freya first, then go rescue Flora?

The next second, Cai told him there was no need to change the original plan.

“Lady Freya hasn’t run into trouble. Look.”

Cai handed him a crystal orb. A scene was playing on its surface, seemingly outdoors. The figure walking along a path in the wilderness was someone he knew all too well.

“The crystal’s showing that idiot, and what’s around her… Cai, this is your handiwork?”

“Don’t praise me like that. I was only worried about Lady Freya’s safety, so I installed some micro surveillance tools on her a long time ago.”

“That’s absolutely not okay. But thanks to you doing that, we can relax now. I owe you one.”

While praising her, Wang Xiaole turned back and stepped to Cai’s side, whispering in her ear:

“Just to be safe, let me ask: do I or Xia and the others have anything like that installed on us?”

(Quietly) “Well, no worries, you definitely don’t. As for the mistresses… whether they do or don’t…”

The look on Cai’s face was practically asking him:

Do you really want to know that badly?

So of course, Wang Xiaole’s answer was:

“I don’t want to pry into a girl’s secrets all the time. But I do have a job to ask of you.”

“Please say it. Preferably something so hard I’ll have to walk through fire and blades.”

“Depending on how things go, it might turn into something like that. Cai, while I’m away, you need to keep a close eye on Freya. If she runs into danger, find a way to save her.”

“You’re really asking the impossible. The tools I set up only let me peek. They can’t auto-locate her.”

“You’re backing off just because it sounds like a pain?”

“On the contrary. It’s only on missions this hard that I can really shine…”

The smile Cai turned on him now was different from her usual one. Because this time, it was about a friend.

“Back then, Lady Freya worked pretty hard to keep me here. I didn’t actually manage to help her much, but if I get the chance, I really want to repay that favor.”

“So you’re saying I can leave Freya’s safety in your hands with no worries?”

“Please understand it this way: you have to give this mission to me.”

Without anyone else noticing, a rare friendship had already sprouted between these two girls.

Since that was the case, there was no reason at all for Wang Xiaole not to carefully protect this “flower of friendship.”

Because that was what she wanted, he told Cai:

“Freya’s safety is yours. Don’t let her down.”

Leaving those words behind, Wang Xiaole flicked his sleeve and turned, this time getting a few steps closer to the door than before.

Just like last time, right when he was about to actually step out, Cai added what she hadn’t finished saying earlier:

“There’s one more thing. Lord Xiaole, you’ll probably need this when you go out this time.”

After calling him back, Cai handed him a tiny glass vial, about the size of a fingernail. There didn’t seem to be anything inside.

“What is this, a potion only smart people can see?”

“No. Please take a closer look, Lord Xiaole.”

Under her insistence, he examined the vial a second time.

This time, he did notice something—a tiny black dot.

He touched it and realized the speck wasn’t stuck to the outside. It was inside the bottle.

“What’s this black spot? Dirt that didn’t get washed out?”

“That’s the medicine. The whole black dot is the pill this bottle is meant to hold.”

“That’s it? It’s that small?”

He was stunned on the spot, but after a moment’s thought, he realized that giving him a pill with an absurd size fit Cai’s usual style perfectly.

Last time, Cai had taken out a pill bigger than an egg.

This time, she’d given him a pill as small as a sesame seed. To keep it from getting lost, she’d even prepared a special container—the vial.

“Don’t you have anything that’s, I don’t know, a normal size?”

“I’m sorry, I’m not some so‑called ‘medicine collector.’ I can barely scrape together enough ingredients for most things.”

“What does this one do?”

“Secret. Anyway, once Lord Xiaole sneaks in to rescue someone, this pill will definitely come in handy.”

From Cai’s vague answer, Wang Xiaole formed a very wrong conclusion:

On the rescue mission, I’ll need to avoid the guards’ line of sight. That’s when this will be useful…

Could it be… this pill makes you invisible?

That idea was completely wrong. Precisely because she knew it would lead to misunderstandings like that, Cai deliberately refused to explain.

Cai had said it before: she would never lie to Wang Xiaole.

So any time she needed to hide something, all she could do was guide him into drawing his own wrong conclusions.

That way, she got the result she wanted without breaking her promise.

With no idea what was really going on, Wang Xiaole slipped the vial into his pocket and decided to use it when the time came.

Only then would he discover what kind of experience this pill would bring him.

After letting Cai neaten his collar, Wang Xiaole made his third attempt to leave. This time, he was smarter about it, and simply stood there looking at her.

The meaning was obvious: if you’ve still got anything left to say, just spit it all out now.

Under that “expectant” gaze, Cai didn’t disappoint him.

“One more thing! I have a friend. She hopes that when Lord Xiaole comes back, you can find some time to meet her.”

If it were just some ordinary friend, he didn’t think Cai would bring her up at a moment like this.

The fact that Cai was willing to spend precious time talking about this friend meant only one thing:

In Cai’s heart, that friend held a very special place.

“What is this friend to you?”

Curious, he asked, sincerely hoping this friend wasn’t male.

He was worrying way too much.

In all her life, Cai had never had a male friend. Even among women, she only had two.

Of those two, one had already been dead for years. The other was still alive and had been around ever since Cai’s days as a nun.

Just like this Holy Maiden had said:

“Without her, I wouldn’t be who I am today. She’s like family to me… But Lord Xiaole, you don’t have to overthink it. Whether you meet her or not, just follow your heart.”

“Then I’ll see her. When I come back, I’ll set aside some special time for your friend.”

As he spoke, his words drifted through the open doorway while he walked straight from the room to the outside.

Because of the angle, he didn’t see it himself:

The moment he agreed, the joy on Cai’s face was more obvious than ever before.

Aside from Cai, no one else knew that at that very moment, a willowy, silver‑haired woman was setting out from demon territory, leading a big, powerful hound.

The two of them were crossing seven hundred years of waiting, braving mountains and rivers, just to see that face which had grown a little blurry in their memories.

Their destination was Dibiles.