Wude still ultimately failed to defeat that earth dragon. But after several days of nonstop fighting, he had grown much more skilled at controlling his own power and using basic combat techniques.
Alreis estimated that, at this point, Wude should be able to fight a level-six adventurer. His experience might not be as rich as others', but he wouldn't be so green that he couldn't even see through their traps or intentions.
But now, there was a problem.
“Alreis, what’s wrong? Why did you suddenly stop?” Wude looked at the suddenly motionless Alreis, confused. “We’re almost there. I can basically call this going home. Why stop now?”
Alreis didn’t know how to answer. In her spiritual perception, the village that should have been there was now nothing but ruins.
“Um, Master... how about we go somewhere else first?”
Alreis wasn’t good at lying, so Wude immediately sensed that something was wrong. Besides, they were already at his doorstep. Not going back now made no sense.
“Alreis... did something happen to the village?” Wude’s expression turned grim.
“...”
Alreis silently admitted it. She knew she couldn’t lie to Wude at all, but she also didn’t want to see him look unhappy.
The moment Wude saw her reaction, he knew something serious had happened. Anxiety rose in him at once.
“Alreis, take me there!”
Alreis lightly waved her hand. Space shifted, and in an instant, she and Wude appeared in the middle of the village.
“What... happened here?”
The moment he saw the village reduced to rubble, Wude felt as if something had lodged itself in his throat. His voice came out so faintly that one would have to strain to hear it.
Alreis spread out her spiritual power and swept across the village. She saw Wude’s blacksmith shop, and inside it, a place that looked as if it had been corroded by something.
“It should be Lingyue,” Alreis said, voicing her judgment. When she saw Wude look at her with a complicated expression, she continued, “This whole village was crushed down by overwhelming magic power. But inside your smithy, there’s one spot that was corroded away. Lingyue was probably taking back something of hers.”
Alreis reached out a hand toward Wude.
“Come on. Let’s go see what exactly Lingyue took.”
Wude blankly raised his own hand. But just as he was about to touch hers, something seemed to flash through his mind. His face suddenly turned deathly pale.
“Alreis, quick! Use your spiritual power and check the house next to my smithy. Elisa’s house!”
“Okay!”
This wasn’t the time for idle talk. Alreis’s spiritual power instantly pierced through countless obstacles and entered the house, scanning the entire room in a moment.
“There’s no one there.” Alreis checked carefully. “The house has collapsed, and there are small traces of blood inside. Someone was probably injured, but no one died...”
She quickly told the extremely anxious Wude what she had found.
“What about the other houses?” Wude was deeply worried. If Lingyue had really come back, then she should’ve just taken her own things. Why destroy the village too?
Alreis used her spiritual power to investigate again.
But clearly, there were no signs of life. After all, when they first entered the village, Alreis had already taken a rough look.
“No one.”
Alreis guessed that Lingyue probably hadn’t taken the villagers away. There was no point. To Lingyue, these villagers, most of them only level three and the strongest only level five, weren’t even worth using for a blood sacrifice.
Wude looked extremely anxious, though that was only natural. Even if Alreis herself hadn’t really interacted much with the villagers, she had still spent all her time cleaning inside Wude’s smithy. When customers came, she would only hide behind the door and secretly observe them with her spiritual power.
Wude should’ve had a pretty good relationship with the villagers. After all, their farm tools and such were all forged and repaired by him.
Did Wude really care that much about those villagers?
Alreis realized she had never noticed before. Looking at Wude’s anxious expression now, she suddenly wondered what he had looked like back when she was unconscious. Had he worn this same expression then?
Alreis expanded the range of her spiritual detection as far as she could. She believed there being no one here meant the villagers had evacuated on their own, or had gathered somewhere else after their homes were destroyed.
Finally, in the middle of a distant field, Alreis found something.
“Found them!”
She immediately told Wude the news and pointed in one direction.
“There’s a small shed in the field over there. There’s someone lying inside. It’s that guy named Frisi...”
“Frisi!”
The moment Wude heard that, he became visibly excited. He quickly grabbed Alreis’s hand. Alreis instinctively tried to pull away, but immediately gave up and let him hold it.
“Take me there, now!”
“Okay!”
In the next instant, Wude found himself inside a small, dimly lit space. He looked around and spotted Frisi lying on a bed.
Alreis glanced at Frisi. This was the same man who had treated Wude harshly before, and now he was lying here unconscious. For some reason, that made Alreis a little happy.
“Alreis, is he okay?” Wude asked in a low voice. He had no idea what Frisi’s condition was.
“He shouldn’t be in any danger. He is injured, but his unconsciousness isn’t from the wounds. It should be from exhaustion.”
Though Alreis didn’t study life the way Blessing of Life did, an Ascendant Sovereign still had to understand the human body. She accurately judged Frisi’s condition.
When Wude heard that Frisi was probably fine, he let out a breath of relief. At a time like this, Frisi counted as a witness.
And besides, Frisi might be hot-tempered, and not exactly a great person.
But if something really happened, Frisi would never hide behind the villagers. He had always protected this village with the little strength he had as a mere level five.
Once Wude calmed down, a lot of things came to mind. For example, why was the unconscious Frisi here? And why were all the villagers gone? The answers to those questions could all be found through him.
“Someone’s coming!”
Alreis’s spiritual power picked up another figure, a woman walking this way.
Normally, Alreis wouldn’t keep her spiritual power spread out all the time. Even though an Ascendant Sovereign recovered spiritual power very quickly, she could still feel tired. And if she kept monitoring her surroundings nonstop, she might end up seeing all kinds of indescribable scenes. There was no point in that.
But this village was clearly in a very dangerous state right now. Alreis couldn’t be sure whether Lingyue was hiding here, waiting for her and Wude to return. After all, if Lingyue wanted to hide using Darkness magic, then even the slightest lapse in Alreis’s spiritual perception would make her impossible to detect.
“Who is it?” Wude asked, tense.
“This is... Elisa’s mother?” Alreis sounded uncertain. “This woman looks exactly like Elisa. But she’s wearing a hairstyle I once wanted to try, and Wude stopped me. He said that hairstyle was dangerous or something... What’s dangerous about a hairstyle?”
“Really?” Wude sounded pleasantly surprised.
“I’m not completely sure. I didn’t know her before, after all,” Alreis told him. “This woman’s strength is practically nonexistent. And if she really is Elisa’s mother, she looks way too young... But Elisa did say she only had a mother, no other family...”
“Then it’s Elisa’s mother,” Wude said, immediately certain after hearing that description.
He hurried out at once, and Alreis followed behind him.
“Oh my, it’s Wude.”
Elisa’s mother, who looked incredibly young, gave a slight smile. Her head tilted slightly to one side, and her voice was soft and sweet as she greeted him.
Wude stopped in his tracks and smiled as well.
“Long time no see, Yilei... sis.”
Under Yilei’s seemingly gentle gaze, Wude chose to swallow the “ma’am” that had almost slipped out and replaced it with “sis.”
And Alreis, standing behind him, froze.
Isn’t this Elisa’s mother? Then why is he calling her big sis?
And why did the atmosphere between Wude and this woman feel kind of weird?
