Echoes of the Past

Chapter 32 Suiyue, you need to keep your distance from Cora.

If Nanan had to choose the trait he disliked most about a teammate during his six years as an adventurer, he would probably answer "emotional".

The team needs to spend a long time together to complete the bounty mission. People of different races and faiths live together day and night, and even the smallest differences can be magnified and evolve into conflict.

"Understanding differences, respecting differences, adapting to each other, and doing our best"—this may seem like a simple sentence, but in reality, it tests a person's comprehensive educational background, moral character, and intelligence and emotional intelligence.

His entire body is a forbidden zone; a careless word or a glance can precisely hit his G-spot. He usually keeps his dissatisfaction to himself, his face is gloomy, and the atmosphere is as cold as ice.

Just when you think everything is calm, he'll blow something big at the crucial moment.

Therefore, Nan'an likes Suiyue very much. Even though she is a chatterbox and a bit stupid, she has a strong mentality, stable emotions, and a lot of potential for being trained.

Similarly, he also enjoyed dealing with Pirion.

Even if he received a negative answer, he would still discuss the auction of the antlers in a clear and logical manner, and explain in detail the reason for not giving money but only goods—to avoid suspicion.

"Old man, let me remind you..." Pirion turned back and glanced sideways as he was about to leave, "The Living Eclipse is more troublesome than you think. Don't be too arrogant, or Suiyue will die."

He grinned as he watched Pirion disappear around the corner in his wide robes.

Nan'an was not an arrogant person. He agreed to the deal with Corella because he discovered a strange phenomenon—the power of the Nightmare God had no effect on him.

When he faced the aging demonic eye, Almarhern, in the black mist, he had no concept of the eye's power.

By cramming on the knowledge from the manual left by Erlu, Nan'an belatedly realized that the rating system for Living Erosion actually has 6 levels. Level 4 Living Erosion is already the pinnacle of Living Erosion, and in Erlu's eyes, Level 5 is no different from Divine Nightmare.

Almahern's magic eye could not affect him in the slightest from beginning to end.

In today's battle against the Living Eclipse, the opponent also exclaimed that his ability had failed and was forced to switch to magic.

Nan'an didn't think it was related to the special nature of the summoned creatures; otherwise, the Nora people would have realized this centuries ago.

At this moment, Nan'an became increasingly curious about what exactly had happened to him.

A resurrection without warning; a bizarre continuation in the form of a heroic spirit; an empty, purposeless space of consciousness; a cube that has been around him since he regained consciousness, capable of devouring and purifying the black mist; and "Dream Resistance" of unknown strength, yet undeniably real.

Each of these items, taken individually and handed over to the scholars of Solitz and Onser, would likely be a major research topic.

At this moment, however, they all appeared on him.

"interesting."

Nan An smiled and shook his head.

There are too many doubts, like a tangled mess of threads. Right now, the most practical thing is to get enough start-up capital to help Suiyue improve her combat strength.

When Nan'an returned to the restaurant, he saw Suiyue chatting enthusiastically with Corella.

The two girls huddled together, and Suiyue was gesturing and talking.

Coralina rested her chin on her hand, a faint smile playing on her lips.

Nan'an casually dragged over a chair, smoothly placed himself between the two, and sat down.

The sound of chair legs scraping against the stone floor brought the conversation to an abrupt halt.

Clara, feeling bored, picked at the steak on her plate, chewed a few times, and then looked up to ask, "Still have concerns about our cooperation plan?"

"I need to make sure you can afford the price," Nan'an said bluntly. "How old are you?"

"18..." Coralina raised an eyebrow. "Are you questioning my ability to pay?"

"I have no doubt about your family background," Nan An smiled, "but the money in your family isn't your money. In other words, those illustrious surnames you mentioned can't be directly converted into cash for me. I want cash, I don't support installments, and I don't want to have to personally travel to Shuangmian City to collect the remaining payment from your parents after I've already paid you off."

"The bodies were bought through crowdfunding by the five of us." Coralina put down her fork, her tone calm. "We'll take as many as we can get; you can rest assured about that."

As she spoke, she used the tip of her fork to poke at a few beans on the edge of her plate, explaining to Nan'an the other four people involved in the "Didi murder".

They are all daughters of well-known families in the Tearfire Academy, five in total including her.

She was the undisputed leader and backbone of this small group.

Suiyue asked curiously, "Clara, was your family very wealthy? Everyone else has illustrious titles and ranks, but you seem to be just a magic family with a longer history. How do you manage to control them?"

Suiyue had already witnessed the power of small groups while she was in the orphanage.

Children without parents are often precocious. Once they realize the power of banding together, they will show aggression early on to avoid being bullied by the ringleader.

Her intuition told her that Coralina might be the most skilled fighter in the group, having impressed the others with her strength and technique; otherwise, it would be hard to explain why the more prestigious academic ladies were willing to follow her.

Corella simply continued rummaging through the beans on her plate without responding.

"I can transfer the body to the central city of Soliz," Nanan changed the subject. "There's no need to leave it in Kren; it's too dangerous here."

Perhaps the well-preserved Kren, as Pirion described it, existed before their arrival, but after two consecutive attacks by the Living Erosion, all he could report to the Senate in his report was that "the emergency response was in place."

"If it's not dangerous, why are we here?" Corella countered. "Kren is the most populous city-state after the border of Rostarek. Mistbreakers and scholars of black mist research are active here. Our teachers encourage us to head towards the border region to understand the challenges we will face in the future. Besides, there has been a miracle of black mist dissipating here, and we should take the opportunity to observe it."

The dissipation of the black fog has become a hot topic in Solitz and Onze recently.

A high wall has been erected around the Sickle Canyon, and elite fogbreakers from Solitz and Onze are taking turns entering the core area and areas where some spatial distortions still exist, trying to find clues that led to the dissipation.

To this day, Nan'an still doesn't know what the wallpaper-like darkness that Suiyue tore off the ground was.

The Rubik's Cube was swallowed whole and immediately transformed into a giant celestial globe that rotated in the sky, looking like... a great tonic?

Seeing Nan'an pull Suiyue to get up and leave, Clara hurriedly asked.

"Hey, how did we get in touch with you?"

So poor that he didn't even have a personal communication mascot, Nanan had no choice but to have Coralina contact Pirion.

The governor's mansion has a magic circle that connects directly to the deep cave of Kren—Pirion shouldn't mind, right?

These students from Shuangmiancheng must be under his watchful eye whenever they need to communicate; it's a good thing for their protection.

On the way back to the cave, it was already late at night.

Sparse starlight appeared and disappeared among the thick clouds, and the crystal streetlights on both sides of the stone path cast a dim yellow glow.

Nan An suddenly spoke up: "Keep your distance from Corella."

"Huh?" Suiyue turned her head, her face full of confusion.

Nan'an struggled to find the right words.

"Tsk... It's not that there's anything wrong with her... but you'd better keep your distance."

……

……

The Keren region is a vast mountainous area rarely visited by anyone other than hunters.

The moonlight was swallowed up by the thick clouds, leaving only the mournful howl of the mountain wind as it passed through the jagged rock crevices.

Deep inside a cave half-hidden by vines, a few flickering lights danced uneasily.

The cave was small, barely big enough for four or five people to stand in, but now more than ten people with solemn expressions squeezed in.

"Damn it... damn it!"

The speaker was a gaunt man who slumped to the ground. His robe was torn at the right shoulder, revealing a patch of charred, hideous flesh that had been burned by the high temperature.

"What exactly is that guy... a Nightmare God? The power of the gods has no effect on him. Did you see that? Did you see that? He lunged at my face as I attacked."

"This monster, ah!"

With each curse he uttered, his body would involuntarily convulse, and his teeth would grind together.

"Calm down, Morton," another, relatively calm voice said.

"How can I stay calm?" Morton abruptly looked up, his bloodshot eyes glaring at her. "It wasn't you who lost your hand! Mara, why did you activate the walkers so late? What were you saving? Were you waiting until we were all dead to use them as grave offerings?"

"Nobody knew it would be this troublesome; he's too fast." The woman named Mara leaned against the rock wall, her voice tinged with anger as she faced the accusation. "You didn't tell me he was immune to the power of the Nightmare God when you borrowed the 'Meatball' last time."

"Cough cough... Ugh..." Morton coughed violently and suddenly spat out a mouthful of foul blood mixed with black particles.

He was panting heavily, but his eyes grew even more ferocious: "That minotaur woman... she's just a newly appointed rookie Ereshkigal... her strength lies only in her summoned creature... as long as, as long as we can distract the summoned creature and take her out first..."

"Many of the people coming from Twin Crown City are members of the academy; this is an opportunity we must not miss."

"Yeah, if we catch one or two, we can make them live worms too, hehe~~~~"

"But we've already failed twice," a relatively rational voice said, tinged with worry. "Pirion isn't stupid; they'll definitely be on guard next time."

"Pierreon? He's nothing but an old turtle hiding in its shell." Morton spat out a mouthful of bloody saliva. "Don't overestimate him. As long as our plan is meticulous..."

The living erosions argued fiercely.

"I'm saying..."

A soft, feather-like female voice suddenly rang out from the shadows outside the cave.

The argument abruptly ended.

All the living creatures inside the cave tensed up instantly, looking towards the source of the sound with surprise and uncertainty.

They did not sense the slightest fluctuation of energy.

A shadow began to wriggle.

The darkness, like living viscous fluid, gathered and stretched, eventually outlining a blurry female silhouette.

She seemed to have "slipped" directly from the shadows dragged out by the torches, and stood silently at the edge of the firelight.

"I happened to be passing by and overheard your argument."

It was no coincidence.

Shadow magic, a type of dark magic that conceals its presence and lurks nearby undetected by everyone present, can only be reproduced by a very small number of people specializing in dark magic in the form of low-level magic during the current period of high-level knowledge sealing.

When did she start tracking him?

"Let me introduce myself, I'm Almahern, just like you all..."

She smiled and looked at the gecko crawling on the rock wall. Her magic eyes flashed, and the gecko's body withered and fell to the ground.

"They are adaptors."

Being "of the same kind" cannot dispel concerns; the conflicts between living erosion creatures are even more severe than those with ordinary people.

"Don't worry, I have a common enemy with you," Elmarhen said. "Not long ago, I got beaten up by that evergreen deer and its summoned creatures in the black mist."

"An evergreen deer?"

The group of living erosion creatures looked at each other in bewilderment.

Mara, inside the cave, finally understood: "You mean... that horned, strong woman is the Evergreen Deer?"

"This proves we've encountered the same person," Almahern laughed. "So, interested in collaborating?"

"How do we cooperate?"

"I'll distract the guy named Southampton, you guys deal with the deer," Almahern said. "But I want you to capture her alive."

"Capture alive?" Mara's eyes narrowed slightly.

"Once you knock her unconscious, the summoning ritual will be interrupted. With your numbers, you can't possibly be unable to take down a level 3 kid even if you gang up on her, right?"

"She's only level 3!"

The living erosion creatures cried out in surprise.

"Every spell she uses to summon creatures has the power of high-level magic."

"How did she manage to feed a monster with her meager magical energy?!"

After two failed attacks, they felt something was off during the debriefing – how could there be such a big difference between the first and second engagements?

After much discussion, they could only tacitly agree that Suiyue was deliberately feigning weakness to entice them to act rashly.

Now that they learned that the other party was just a newbie who hadn't even left the beginner rank, the Living Eclipses all blushed.

They felt humiliated!

"What do we get in return?" Mara wasn't blinded by the temptation offered by Elmarhern. "We're taking a lot of risks in this, even though killing Elru was our goal. But... since you can't do it without us, you should at least offer something in return."

"I can help you create chaos and assist you in kidnapping the noble offspring of the Twin Crown City." Elmarhern's lips curled up. "I know what you want to do. Although I don't quite agree with it, as a basis for cooperation, I'm willing to ignore differing opinions."

A brief silence fell between the two sides.

Almahern yawned: "Looks like you don't have the guts, then forget it..."

As she spoke, her body became blurry and gradually disappeared into the shadows.

"Wait," Morton said, extending his only hand to stop him. "We promise you."

Mara hesitated, but seeing the eager expressions on her companions' faces, she swallowed her words.

"That's right. Since you have bigger ambitions, you shouldn't hesitate when doing things," Almahern laughed.

Mara asked, "When will we make our move?"

"No rush, we have to see when our opponents will give us a chance, right?" Elmar Hen grinned. "Don't worry, it won't be long. As far as I know, she's the only E'ru in the entire Rostarek to Kren region. All the other E'ru have been transferred away for unknown reasons. Tsk tsk tsk."