The Water Demon Lord.
One of the former Four Heavenly Kings of the Demon King’s Army.
Now he looked like a regular fisherman who’d just clocked out from the docks.
“Hey, what do you two want now?!”
The Water Demon Lord glared at them.
“Isn’t the War over already? I’m still raising kids! My baby just hatched seven years ago, and I’m busy teaching them how to fish!”
Lu Xien studied his outfit, pondering for a moment.
“Let’s set aside the illegitimate child thing for now. Over on my side, someone said they saw one of the Four Heavenly Kings at the Training Ground.”
The Water Demon Lord looked completely baffled and confused.
“I dunno about that!”
Lu Xien turned to the Demon King.
“Demon King, put down your book. Something’s not right here. Come with me. Once we figure this out, I’ll buy you double the books next time, whatever kind you want.”
The Demon King hesitated.
“If I go out, won’t it trigger a war?”
“So change your appearance! You haven’t learned a single Disguise Magic in all these years?”
The Demon King went off to change clothes reluctantly.
The Water Demon Lord immediately raised his hand.
“So can I go back now?”
“Wait.”
Lu Xien looked at his raincoat, straw hat, fishing bucket, and slippers, and his eyes suddenly lit up.
“You’re coming too.”
“Me? Seriously? I’m not even wearing armor!”
“That’s perfect. It fits better than armor.”
“How does it fit better?”
“You look like an ordinary fisherman you’d see anywhere on the street.”
“You’re saying I look like a beggar?”
“No.” Lu Xien said without changing his expression. “You look like a handsome guy girls would come up and talk to.”
The Water Demon Lord narrowed his eyes.
“What kind of talk? A 190 cm little girl?”
“Right.”
“Or should I go to the Western Regions to find some mysterious muscle-bound barbie who can kill a flying dragon with one punch?”
“Wrong. And speaking of muscle-bound barbies, there’s one right here in the Demon King’s Castle.”
Just then, the Demon King came out after changing.
A linen shirt, a short skirt, a cloak. She looked like a village girl.
The Water Demon Lord looked at the Demon King, then at Lu Xien, and suddenly patted Lu Xien on the shoulder.
“Good luck.”
“What?”
The next second, Lu Xien was lifted up by the Demon King with one hand.
“Who were you calling a muscle-bound barbie?”
Lu Xien: “I said the Water Lord here is a handsome man—”
BAM!
He was punched so hard he nearly threw up his breakfast.
“I was complimenting her, damn it…”
“Scram.”
The Demon King said coldly.
Afterwards, the three of them passed through a space gate, heading for the Trial Grounds.
On the other side.
Wei’erna hid behind a tree, turning off the Crystal Ball that had completely stopped working.
{Why did the communication cut out at a time like this…!}
He looked at the Map and found that he’d been dropped into the Northwest Forest, with bodies lying haphazardly all around him.
Wei’erna performed a Divination.
The result was just one word.
Disaster.
“A bizarre scene, and today’s fortune.”
He muttered while looking at the result.
“Thanks for the heads-up…!”
He tried to find footprints, drag marks, or the scent of Demon Beasts.
He found no clues at all.
And those bodies, just as he’d guessed, looked like they’d all been assassinated with surgical precision at the exact same moment.
Just as he was about to relocate, a flying knife shot out from the fog.
Wei’erna immediately sidestepped upon hearing the sound.
He watched the knife graze past his face and sink into the trunk of a nearby tree.
“Who’s there!”
He immediately began a Divination on the direction of the enemy’s attack.
In the image inside the Crystal Ball, the person was to his right, watching him.
Without hesitation, Wei’erna drew his Ring Blade and hurled it.
The clang of weapons rang through the Forest. When he rushed over to grab the deflected Ring Blade, he saw a familiar figure.
It was the Border Count.
Tate Cape.
The man who was supposed to have died at the Border Town.
Wei’erna’s eyes darkened. He drew his backup sword, struck first, and ran it straight through the man’s throat.
Then he used the Ring Blade in a spinning arc to sever his legs.
He watched Tate collapse, not even putting up a fight.
{A war hero Count dying that easily…??}
Realizing something was wrong, Wei’erna immediately created distance.
Sure enough, the body quickly turned into a pile of rotten vines.
“A substitute?”
The real Tate slowly stepped out from behind a tree.
Wei’erna attacked again with the Ring Blade, but Tate simply raised his sword slightly and deflected the strike.
The recoil sent a numbing shock through Wei’erna’s arm. He tried to attack Tate’s lower body this time, but Tate simply stomped down on the Ring Blade, crushing his attack with pure strength.
{I can’t beat him head-on… I’ll have to feint…}
Afterwards, Wei’erna turned without hesitation and ran toward the deeper Forest, trying to shake him off.
But the sound of a bowstring being drawn came from behind.
He turned to look and found a massive steel arrow being guided by Wind Magic, chasing after him like a living thing.
Wei’erna swung his Ring Blade to block, but the arrow shattered his weapon outright, then actually changed direction.
By the time he noticed… the arrowhead had shattered the Crystal Ball.
{No… if I keep dragging this out, something bad’s going to happen… I need to run fast}
He raised his hand and cast Earth Magic, raising a forest of rock spears and massive stone walls to block the path, briefly stalling Tate’s pursuit, then he fled without looking back.
After spending quite a while escaping that treacherous stretch of woods, Wei’erna spotted a Priest.
The Priest wore black-red priest robes, soaked through with blood, and looked completely exhausted.
Wei’erna was instinctively wary.
{A trap…?}
But without the Crystal Ball, he could no longer confirm through Divination.
To be safe, he decided to fire a Signal Flare to call for help first.
The moment he pulled out the flare gun, his wrist was grabbed.
The Priest had opened her eyes at some point.
“President…”
Her voice sounded weak.
“Don’t fire that Signal Flare…”
Wei’erna stopped and stared at the Priest.
“What do you mean?”
“Otherwise… you’ll die.”
Behind the Priest, pitch-black wings slowly unfurled.
Wei’erna’s pupils shrank.
{Celestial Wing Tribe?}
{No… that’s wrong… the Celestial Wing Tribe should have white wings.}
The Priest stared at him, her gaze unfocused, yet carrying a deep, profound hatred.
“No. 37 will kill everyone.”
“No. 37?”
Wei’erna drew his sidearm.
“What is that?”
“Kill… No. 37. Please. Otherwise we’ll…”
She didn’t finish.
Her body crumpled to the ground, unconscious.
Wei’erna fell silent.
“Me? I’m a desk worker.”
He looked at the Priest, then toward the depths of the Forest.
Only knowing a name.
Not knowing what the enemy looks like, not knowing their abilities, not knowing their objective, not even knowing if it’s human.
How do you fight an enemy like that?
He sighed, hoisted the unconscious Priest onto his back, and started walking toward the border.
“I’ll just focus on getting back alive.”
He hadn’t walked far with the Priest on his back before he spotted three people.
He squinted and recognized Lu Xien, but the other two looked like some fisherman bringing his daughter out to fish, a strange sight.
Lu Xien looked awful.
The Demon King’s Space Magic might have been far stronger than his own Teleportation spell, but the images flashing by at high speed inside it had made him desperately nauseous.
When Wei’erna saw him, he finally let out a sigh of relief.
“You…”
He paused, then said:
“Remember to pay for my Crystal Ball. And dinner.”
Lu Xien ignored that remark, his gaze landing on the Priest on Wei’erna’s back.
“Who’s this?”
“Oh… a victim I picked up just now.”
Lu Xien walked closer, his brow gradually furrowing.
“A Celestial Wing Tribe with black wings…”
The Demon King also looked at the Priest, her expression grave.
“I’ve never seen one like this.”
The Water Demon Lord pressed down his straw hat and muttered:
“Ah… I want to go home. My kids are still waiting for me.”
Wei’erna handed the person to Lu Xien.
“She said there’s something called No. 37 in the Forest.”
Lu Xien: “One of the Four Heavenly Kings?”
“No idea.” Wei’erna spread his hands. “She probably meant Tate. He smashed my Crystal Ball.”
Lu Xien was silent.
“Is there someone named Tate among the Four Heavenly Kings?”
The Demon King immediately retorted:
“Of course not!”
Wei’erna looked at this black-haired girl with confusion.
{Wait… isn’t she overreacting a bit?}
Lu Xien glanced at her too.
“You head back to school first. We’ll handle the rest.”
“Okay.”
Just before he was teleported back, Wei’erna made sure to add:
“Don’t forget dinner!!!”
Lu Xien pretended not to hear.
After Wei’erna disappeared, Tina looked at the unconscious Priest.
“Alright, I’ll take the injured one back first. Afterwards, I’ll use Magic to identify her.”
“Fine, fine, hurry up then.”
Lu Xien waved his hand.
The Water Demon Lord immediately raised his hand.
“So can I go back now?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
Lu Xien looked toward the depths of the Forest.
The fog there still hadn’t lifted, and deeper inside, there was a natural fluctuation of Magic.
“Don’t go back yet. Come with me to check out what’s going on… and that aura feels like Forest Prism’s…”
He paused, lowering his voice.
“And… just who the hell is No. 37, and why does it have that person’s (Forest Prism’s) aura.”
The Water Demon Lord sighed.
“Ugh… I knew it.”
The Demon King lifted the Black-Winged Priest and left through a space gate.
Lu Xien and the Water Demon Lord remained where they were.
Lu Xien gripped the Blue Magic Stone Brooch, and for once, the usual careless look had vanished from his eyes.
“Let’s go.”
He said.
“This time, it really doesn’t feel like something we can just slack off and muddle through.”
The Water Demon Lord slung his fishing rod over his back.
“If my kids ask why I didn’t come home to teach them fishing, you’re explaining it for me.”
“Deal.”
“What are you planning to say?”
“That you were forced to go fish for a certain trash fish named Tina to save the world.”
“Then I’m pretty sure my grave will have three feet of weeds on it by tomorrow, you lunatic.”
“Then I’ll say you fell into a great rift and spent seven days climbing your way out.”
“Scram!”
Afterwards, the two of them walked into the fog one after another.