Chapter 1167: Sleeping Beauty
As a Spirit Swordsman, Rhode couldn’t be more familiar with spirits. After all, Spirit Swordsmen were able to summon the spirit of the dead to conclude a contract with it. Even if the target was a stone, magic crystal, or broken sword, traces of the wielder’s spirit might possibly be left behind in them. But Rhode had never seen a living creature and yet, failed to detect its spirit. This was totally unprecedented… It was clear that a dog biting a human wasn’t news, but a human biting a dog was unheard of. Rhode had even worked with Erin to cast several brain-scanning spells on the woman, but was surprised to find that her mind was completely blank with no records at all. Her head was as clean as a reformatted hard disk.
“How strange…”
Rhode circled the woman and couldn’t recall with any similar incidents after racking his brain. Not even the man-made humans created by Marlene back then were this troublesome. Even though they were man-made, they had their own consciousness and couldn’t possibly create such a perfect body. But after pondering for half a day, Rhode couldn’t find any clues. Gazing at the distressed Rhode, Bubble No. 2 curled her lips boringly.
“Why are you thinking so hard for, Leader? Since she’s dead and unresponsive, why don’t you have a go at her?”
“What?! We aren’t acting in an adult animation! What nonsense are you spouting!”
Upon hearing the projection’s voice, the real Bubble jumped up like a cat who had its tail stepped on and glared at her ‘younger sister’. Facing the fierce glare of the real Bubble, Bubble No. 2 remained calm, shrugged dully, and spread her arms apart. She presented a cheeky smile and winked at the real Bubble.
“So what? Whether we’re acting in an adult animation or not, it is still a good animation as long as he can do it with the woman. It’s better off than watching naked young ladies running away from a useless piece of trash who covers his pee-pee like an eunuch, right!”
“Alright, shut up, both of you.”
Rhode glared at them. He made up his mind to check their computer hard disk and remove any ‘unpleasant’ files, in order to prevent them from leading Christie astray. Unlike Mini Bubble Gum, Christie was a pure, innocent young lady. If she were to view them, perhaps she might come up with some inappropriate thoughts.
“What are your thoughts about this?”
After some hard thinking, Rhode resolutely gave up on the idea of wasting anymore of his brain cells. He lifted his head and gazed at everyone. Even though he was considered top notch among players, there were many secrets that only NPCs knew. Before Rhode transmigrated, he didn’t dare to boast that he knew all secrets in the Dragon Soul Continent, Therefore, since he didn’t have any findings, he might find some surprising results from asking the natives.
“Apologies, Your Majesty Rhode.”
Upon hearing Rhode’s question, Lydia and Erin pondered for a few moments before shaking their heads. They couldn’t be blamed. Even though they more or less knew the secrets in the Dragon Soul Continent, this place was outside their territory, so it wasn’t surprising that they didn’t know any of them, not to mention Mini Bubble Gum and Canary. The secrets that Rhode wasn’t aware of, these two young ladies basically wouldn’t know either. Although Marybelle had more knowledge about this territory than them, she wasn’t all that familiar with it either. In an instant, everyone was at a loss for words. Of course, they knew that the power in the mysterious woman was amazing. However, the fact that she didn’t have a spirit was the strangest phenomenon of all.
Rhode and Lydia used their spiritual powers to a.n.a.lyze her body, but were shocked to discover that there wasn’t even a single remnant of spirit, not to mention an entire spirit. This was almost impossible because living beings could only grow with the fusion of the spirit and flesh. Even if one were dead, one’s spirit would leave a mark on one’s corpse. That was also why the Country of Darkness was able to use undead spells to reawaken the dead and imprison their spirits inside their bodies. But now, this corpse seemed to be completely separated from its spirit. She didn’t look like a living being, but more like a robot made to simulate humans. According to Erin’s a.n.a.lysis, it seemed like any spirits could enter and successfully take control of this body.
From a certain aspect, this body had a complete lack of integrity and would refuse no one…
“What a headache…”
Rhode couldn’t help but let out a sigh at this fruitless result. If it weren’t for time-constraints, he would have returned to where the woman was discovered to search for clues. But now, it was no longer impossible. Even if the door of the fantasy world weren’t closed, based on the intelligence he received, that tribe was surely trounced by those incompetent trash already, where perhaps he wouldn’t find any vital information even if he were there… Oh!
“Marybelle, get BoBo here. Ask him if he knows who that woman is.”
Even though Rhode felt like that primitive man wouldn’t possibly know too much, it was still worth a try.
Upon hearing his command, Marybelle nodded and went out of the tent. Shortly after, she led in the anxious BoBo, who wore a short hide. Rhode didn’t leave this primitive man who was responsible for leading the way behind, but brought him along in their escape instead. Even though BoBo felt incredibly tense to be brought to this unknown place forcefully, he behaved calmly and didn’t scream like a hysterical madman. After Marybelle brought him inside the tent, she spoke to him in their common language. Upon hearing her question, BoBo nodded in somewhat of a fl.u.s.ter before hurrying to the mysterious woman and sizing her up. His expression changed abruptly. He knelt on both knees and raised both arms as though he were wors.h.i.+ping her. Not only that, but he also mumbled under his breath.
“What’s going on?”
Rhode wasn’t too surprised by BoBo’s behavior as primitive men seemed to always have the habit of wors.h.i.+ping strange presences. Along their way here, Bobo had knelt down to wors.h.i.+p several times whenever he witnessed the spells from Lydia and the rest. That was why Rhode wasn’t surprised by his abrupt reaction. On the other hand, Rhode heaved a sigh of relief as it seemed like BoBo had some knowledge about what sort of existence that woman was. If not, BoBo wouldn’t have acted so solemnly. He also wouldn’t wors.h.i.+p things that he wasn’t aware of and might be even more cautious around it.
Indeed, after some wors.h.i.+ping, Bobo stood to his feet, gesticulating as he spoke to Marybelle. Even though the others couldn’t understand his ‘nonsensical’ screams’, judging from his expression, they knew that they were discussing something important. At that moment, Marybelle’s calm expression turned peculiar. After Bobo finished expressing himself, Marybelle returned to her senses. She let out a rather awkward cough and turned to Rhode and the others, who were looking at her in antic.i.p.ation. After a few moments of hesitation, Marybelle spoke.
“Erm… Your Majesty Rhode, he said… that woman grew from the ground.”
Pfff!
Mini Bubble Gum, who was coincidentally drinking a mouthful of water, spurted out the liquid. She opened her eyes wide and stared blankly at the woman before her.
“Grew from the ground? What does that even mean? So if I bury a ‘loli’ in spring, am I gonna have a bunch of ‘lolis’ in autumn? Why doesn’t he say that she’s Sun Wukong who was born from a stone? I would rather buy that story! If she was really born from the ground, how about we bury her back and see if we yield any results?”
“That is indeed what he said.”
Facing Mini Bubble Gum’s criticism, Marybelle spread her arms apart with a helpless expression. It was apparent that even though Marybelle also didn’t believe BoBo’s words too much, she conveyed his ‘gibberish’ to everyone in full detail. It was due to this reason that Rhode’s group received new information about this woman.
“According to BoBo, that woman seems to have appeared in one of the tribe territories a dozen years ago. The tribe found a white… crystal and discovered a human inside it. Back then, she was just a child. But as days pa.s.sed, she grew larger inside the crystal and became what she is today. Of course, in their legend, this woman is possibly a savior of their tribe or something… though there isn’t any meaning behind it now.”
“A child who grew inside a crystal?”
Mini Bubble Gum curled her lips.
“Could she be the female version of Sun Wukong? After all, she doesn’t need to consume food and water and was able to grow. She is just like that legendary monkey who abstracts the spiritual influences of heaven and earth. In this case, I think we are better off not rescuing her. I don’t want us to get into more trouble when she suddenly wakes up and screams ‘I’ll beat the h.e.l.l out of you’! There is no Mount Five Fingers or Band-tightening Spell here to subdue her for us.”
“Hmm?”
Rhode initially treated Mini Bubble Gum’s remarks as a joke. But after hearing the sentence ‘abstracts the spiritual influences of heaven and earth’, his heart skipped a beat. At the same time, he heard the voice of his younger sister in his head. It was apparent that they realized something from this casual remark of Mini Bubble Gum, but were unable to capture its essence. This left Rhode feeling anxious. This remark from Mini Bubble Gum made him feel like he was only one step away from finding out that woman’s true ident.i.ty. But it was this one step that he couldn’t figure out!
What exactly is it? d.a.m.n it, we’re so close!
Forget it. I suppose we’ll have the chance to figure out her true ident.i.ty later.
At this thought, Rhode shook his head. He was so close to finding out the truth, but for some d.a.m.n reason, he just couldn’t figure it out. Now that the best opportunity was gone, the only thing he could do now was to remember this remark from Mini Bubble Gum. It was apparent that since this sentence was able to stir up the feelings of his younger sister and himself, it had hit a crucial point. As long as they had enough time to figure things out, they would eventually find the answer.
“Ooo———!!”
At that moment, an emergency siren sounded and threw everyone into confusion. Even though they set up security measures in the surroundings when setting camp, that was more like going through the motions. After all, there weren’t any worthy enemies in Fiery Plains. Back then, the Creator Dragons ordered the deity wardens to manage the Seven Fantasy Boundaries, so it went without saying that they held the highest authority here. With Marybelle around, Rhode refused to believe that any creature would break through the defenses and stirr trouble with him. Due to this reason, the group was taken aback when they heard the siren. They left the tent immediately and headed to where the security was breached.
Boom!
The instant they stepped out of the tent, they heard a ma.s.sive explosion and spotted a fierce battle ahead. The soldiers who were guarding the periphery were battling against a shadowy figure. But what surprised Rhode was that the soldiers didn’t have the upper hand.
That’s right. Even though the strength of these soldiers wasn’t as powerful as Rhode, they weren’t weaklings either. But even so, they failed to resist the intruder’s attack. Rhode witnessed a fully-armored swordsman raising his sword and flouris.h.i.+ng it at the enemy in a stunning blade ray. But facing that attack, the shadowy figure turned around swiftly and lashed out a long whip to strike the soldier away. Looking at this scene, Rhode narrowed his eyes. At the next moment, he dashed ahead in a string of afterimages. A s.h.i.+mmering sword appeared in his hand as he aimed straight at the target!
As soon as Rhode launched his attack, the shadowy figure seemed to detect his presence. Rhode heard the lash of the whip and before he knew it, a long whip had emerged in front of him. The seemingly-conscious whip blocked off his retreat like a deadly viper. However, Rhode wasn’t fl.u.s.tered at all. Instead, the sword in his hand shook and at the next moment, the sky was filled with sparkling stars that clashed with the fluttering shadowy whip head-on.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
The instant their attacks met, they swayed and took half a step back. At that moment, Rhode heaved a long sigh of relief. He withdrew his sword and gazed helplessly at the smiley young lady ahead, clad entirely in a black cloak.
“Miss Stefania, I didn’t expect to meet you here.”
“I’m surprised too, Your Majesty Rhode.”
Upon hearing Rhode’s words, Stefania grinned and waved her hand. Then, the innumerable number of whips retracted into her sleeve silently.
“Frankly, I didn’t expect to find any humans in the Fiery Plains. I thought of introducing myself here, but was attacked before I had the chance to say hi… These guys sure gave me a fright. Of course, I admit that if I didn’t show up all of a sudden, this battle wouldn’t have occurred…”
“Ugh…”
Upon hearing Stefania’s comments, Rhode was at a loss for words. He understood the reactions of his subordinates. After all, people rarely visited Fiery Plains and for someone to sudden appear, it was rather impossible for one to not instinctively retaliate…
Come to think of it…
“Miss Stefania, what are you doing here? I thought you already left the Dragon Soul Continent a long time ago.”
After ordering the surrounding subordinates to back down, Rhode held his forehead helplessly and asked the young lady. After their previous trip to h.e.l.l ended, Rhode and Stefania parted ways. After all, Stefania was a plane merchant and it was her job to move around as she pleased. However, Rhode didn’t expect them to be brought together by fate to actually meet each other in this G.o.d-forsaken place.
“Ah, about that.”
Facing Rhode’s question, Stefania was apparently honest about it.
“I thought of leaving this place earlier, but it seems like the s.p.a.ce outside of the Dragon Soul Continent is sealed and it is hard for me to find an exit. That was why I tried finding one from another place, which was why I tried my luck in the Seven Fantasy Boundaries…”
“The s.p.a.ce outside of the Dragon Soul Continent is sealed?”
After hearing her remarks, Rhode was taken aback slightly. Facing his doubt, Stefania nodded in response.
“That’s right. Hmm… it seems to be related to Chaos as it disrupted my s.p.a.ce channel. I was still hoping to return home to my warm, adorable kittens. But it seems like I will need to postpone it for now. Well, it isn’t rare for plane merchants to face accidents during their journeys, after all.”
Upon hearing Stefania’s remarks, Rhode forced a smile and shrugged.
“In that case, I’m afraid you’ve taken the wrong turn, Miss Stefania. We just arrived here and the door is already sealed off, so I don’t think you can exit from the Seven Fantasy Boundaries. Besides, even if you do, there is a gap between Order and Chaos out there. I suppose you can’t leave from there.”
“I see. That is so bothersome.”
Stefania sighed and swirled her eyes. Then, the corners of her lips perked up tightly into a cunning smile and she gazed at Rhode.
“By the way, Your Majesty Rhode. As a Creator Dragon, you should have some ways around it, right? Logically, even though a plane merchant wouldn’t have more than one transaction with the same customer, if you help me get out of this world, I don’t mind tweaking the rules and dealing with you again. I guarantee that this time, you will be satisfied.”
“Fine by me.”
Rhode nodded in response. Then, a thought cropped up in his head.
“By the way, Miss Stefania. I would like you to meet someone,” Rhode said.