Chapter 674 - 672: Didn’t I Tell You Not to Cause Me Trouble?

This is the Mirror World of the underground Corruption Zone, but without any corruption.

Looking out from the node, it’s still a maze of passages in all directions; you can’t judge the size of the Subspace.

Hilia needs someone to help investigate, to see if, besides this giant monster in front of them, there’s anything else here.

And whether there are any treasures, or a way to leave.

If this team is unlucky enough to actually find some treasure, Hilia will figure out a way to make them obediently spit it out.

After she issued the exploration orders, the Elf squad exchanged glances. The captain pondered for a moment and said, "We can help, but we need someone to accompany Miss Xi."

"You don’t need to worry about my safety. I’ve got way more exploration experience than you; it’s you lot who should be worrying about yourselves."

Hilia waved her hand dismissively.

But no matter what she said, the captain remained adamant.

In the end, Hilia could only point to the sole female Elf. "Fine, let her come with me."

The captain let out a breath of relief. "All right. Her name is Lanna. She will definitely protect Miss Xi’s safety."

Lanna stepped forward and gave a formal bow. "Hello, Miss Xi. From here on I will be responsible for protecting you. If you need anything, you may order me as you wish."

Hilia curled her lip. "No need for that. Just protect yourself and don’t cause me trouble."

A trace of disdain flashed through Lanna’s eyes, but she didn’t let it show. She nodded seriously. "All right, I will."

She was a Tier Five Mage. The Elf Race is long-lived, and the years had left no mark on her face; she looked like a human woman in her early twenties.

Of course, she still looked a bit older than Hilia.

Of the five who had rushed down, two were Tier Five, three were Tier Four. Lanna and the captain were Tier Five, and the three Tier Fours all faintly looked on the verge of advancing.

Basically, they were an elite force of the Elf Royal Court.

Normally they were stationed inside the Holy Tree, guarding the Holy Tree and the Elf Royal Court.

They were all geniuses among the Elf Race.

Lanna, naturally, was as well.

As a Tier Five, protecting Tier Fours, even lower-tier mages or ordinary people, was something Lanna usually didn’t think twice about.

But being told by a mage one tier lower than herself not to "cause trouble"—even if her expression didn’t change, she was somewhat offended inside.

She made up her mind that if Hilia ran into danger, she’d make sure the girl got a good look at the difference between Tier Four and Tier Five.

She was going to show Hilia what it meant to feel safe!

After parting ways with the captain and the other three, Lanna was practically yearning for danger to appear—so that this Miss Xi, who looked down on her, would fall into peril, and then she’d intervene, easily resolve the crisis, and earn "Xi’s" gratitude.

Hilia had no idea that Lanna, who was following her with a blank face, was internally rehearsing all sorts of ridiculous crisis scenarios.

After examining the giant monster, Hilia started walking in one direction.

She glanced at Rose beside her and spoke inwardly, "Lord Rose, this is a Subspace Mirror World, and normally the things inside are copies of the outside. But can things belonging to Gods be copied too?"

"That depends on whether that God wants them copied." Rose smiled faintly. "You’re trying to ask whether that heart is also a copy, aren’t you?"

Hilia nodded.

"Yes and no. In truth, that is also Haroldias’s heart. Rather than calling it a copy, it’s better to say it’s a part Haroldias left behind.

"He used most of his body as components of the Array outside, but he’s still a Main God. There’s no way he’d just hand his body over to others without any resistance. Even if he couldn’t resist, he would definitely leave himself a fallback, and this is it."

Rose reached out and stroked the tunnel wall beside them, continuing, "He secretly left parts of his body behind, a little bit from each part, then shifted them into the Subspace, into the Land of Sleep where his soul slumbers, forming a mirrored Array of an independent ’body.’ This way he wouldn’t have every last bit of himself corrupted and eroded. Once the corruption and Demons outside are cleared to a certain degree and his soul is awakened, he can use everything here as a catalyst to slowly purify his physical shell and reclaim his body."

Hilia blinked. "Lord Haroldias... isn’t he afraid that ’Evil God’ will notice?"

"That’s something I’m very curious about too. The Elf Forest isn’t comparable to the Golden Apple Stone Forest. Any disturbance here is bound to be known by the Evil God. I can’t tell whether he’s that confident, or just desperately trying anything that might work..."

Rose shook his head.

"We’ll know when he wakes up. No need to speculate."

Hilia asked curiously, "Is Lord Rose on good terms with Lord Haroldias? You sound like you’re hoping he wakes up."

Rose thought of Ethel, whom he’d dragged into the Sealed Land, and an odd look flashed across his face.

"I wouldn’t say we’re on good terms. You could call it a life-and-death grudge. But even with an enemy, I don’t want to see him end up this pathetic. After all these years, I’d rather like to catch up with him."

"Um..."

Hilia didn’t really understand Rose’s way of thinking.

She spoke as she moved forward slowly.

But this place was much smaller than the Array outside.

She hadn’t gone far before she realized she’d reached another node.

And this node didn’t look any smaller than the heart’s node.

In the center of the node was another giant monster, also contracting and expanding, but it didn’t make a sound.

Rose gave it a glance and said, "This should be Haroldias’s lungs."

"His lungs?"

Hilia walked forward curiously, just about to take a closer look when a blast of air sprayed out from the giant monster.

Along with that blast of air came a bunch of bizarre-looking creatures, like Slimes in all kinds of strange shapes.

These creatures carried no aura of corruption at all; instead they were filled with fluctuations of life and death. As soon as they emerged, they charged straight toward Hilia.

Hilia was about to do something when a voice came from beside her.

"Miss Xi, watch out!"

With that shout, Hilia saw Lanna rush over, looking almost excited, and step in front of her.

Before Hilia could say anything, Lanna cast Natural Magic. The earth sprouted masses of vines and all sorts of strange flowers.

These plants crashed into the onrushing creatures.

The next instant—

All the vines froze for a heartbeat, then turned and surged toward Lanna. Before Lanna could react, they wrapped her up tight.

Lanna was stunned on the spot.

Her connection to these conjured constructs hadn’t been severed.

But the constructs birthed by her own Magic had ’betrayed’ her.

She had never encountered anything like this before and was completely unable to process it for the moment.

Hilia pressed a hand to her forehead. "First rule of exploration: when facing unknown danger, don’t open with Attack Magic or large-scale, high-intensity spells."

As she spoke, Hilia stepped forward and lightly tapped out. Life Elements flowed through the Magic Puppet and bloomed at her fingertip.

The vines slowly withdrew, releasing Lanna.

"Didn’t I tell you not to cause me trouble?"

Lanna: "..."