Chapter 1183: 170. The Nature of the Mist

"All right."

The phantom image of the clock and the pitch-black color in Muen's eyes faded away once again, and his originally cold and indifferent face also regained its liveliness.

Muen let out a long breath, his face slightly pale:

"Time is no longer an obstacle for us."

The mist was still the same mist, but the greatest obstacle that had prevented Miss Dragon from finding the Tars survivors all these years had already disappeared.

The arrangements and schemes those survivors had prepared over several hundred years ultimately could not compare to the violent dismantling of the supreme Authority of time.

It was still the same question: how were you supposed to play against someone with a cheat?

"Good work," Hamreign replied indifferently.

At some point, she had already transformed into human form. She held Muen up with one hand so that he would not fall directly down.

"It wasn't hard. It was originally my... Hmm?"

Muen's expression instantly became horrified.

What had he just heard?

Good work?

Miss Dragon had actually said good work?

Miss Dragon, who had always only suppressed him, toyed with him, tormented him, and worked him like a beast of burden, had actually... spoken such gentle words to him?

Could it be...

"Now that I have given off the last of my remaining heat, are you going to abandon me?"

Muen raised his head toward the sky at a forty-five-degree angle and said with incomparable melancholy, "Although this experience has been filled with pain and sorrow, this period of time has still been extraordinarily meaningful to me. Miss Dragon, I will always remember... Mmph! Mmph! Mmph!"

Hamreign indicated that she did not want to listen to nonsense. She grabbed the collar of the certain posturing blond man, yanked him over, and at the same time stuffed something into his mouth, forcing him to swallow the rest of his words.

"Millstone! Millstone! This is mur..."

Muen refused to submit even in the face of death and shouted something indistinctly. However, as he continued shouting, his voice gradually became quieter.

Because he realized that what had been violently stuffed into his mouth was not some poison meant to kill the donkey after it had finished turning the millstone and destroy the evidence, but... one of those beads from before that could restore mental power.

A faint coolness spread from the bead. Muen, who had just consumed a large amount of mental power, immediately felt refreshed.

...And at the same time, he became even more shocked.

What was going on? Miss Dragon was actually suddenly treating him so well? She had clearly been so stingy before!

"A last meal?" Muen asked indistinctly.

"I told you before. If you want to die, you may say so directly at any time. I can satisfy you."

Because of that pull, the distance between the two of them was now extremely close. Muen seemed able to sense the faint flutter of Miss Dragon's eyelashes and could even feel her breath, which was no different from that of an ordinary young woman and carried a faint fragrance.

Unfortunately, the most important face was still shrouded in a blur.

Only those dazzling golden eyes remained cold, revealing no emotion.

"Do you want to die?"

"N-No, I don't. Thank you."

For a moment, perhaps because this excessively gentle Miss Dragon had produced some immeasurable effect on his brain, Muen actually looked somewhat dazed.

"No need to thank me."

Hamreign pulled Muen's hand over again and lightly tapped his palm...

Muen's eyes widened slightly as he watched several jade beads being placed directly into his palm.

"Keep them."

"You're... really treating me this well?"

"They are only a few beads. Do you really think I would be stingy to that extent?"

"Th-That's true."

Muen nodded politely, though not without awkwardness.

It seemed that it truly had been his stereotype.

Dragons in stories might be stingy.

But Miss Dragon was a mighty calamity. How could she possibly be stingy?

Just look at such precious things. When his mind had been severely damaged before, that was one thing. But now it had only been slightly damaged, yet she had directly given him an entire handful!

She had given them to him for free, without any reason! She did not even want his estate!

Miss Dragon was far too generous!

Perhaps because he had been tormented too many times before, now that he was suddenly being treated so well, Muen actually felt as though he could not stop tears from filling his eyes.

Let it be stated in advance that he was not some masochistic pervert. He simply felt that this was very nice... Yes, very nice.

"I can sense Priscilla's location. There is no problem."

Hamreign transformed back into her dragon form. Her enormous head lowered as she looked at Muen.

"However, you need to prepare yourself a little."

"Prepare myself?"

Muen, who was still moved, froze.

"Prepare for what?"

"Prepare to enter the mist."

For Hamreign, actions were always faster than words.

Therefore, by the time those words reached Muen's ears, she had already carried him and plunged headfirst into the boundless mist.

"What do you mean..."

Muen scratched his head in confusion.

"Is there something wrong with this mist?"

It did not seem like it...

So many Pioneers in Annabawei had been able to enter the mist and explore it freely. He was so much stronger than those Pioneers. No matter what, there was no way he could be affected by this mist...

"Urgh!"

Wait...

The moment he entered the mist, Muen's eyes suddenly widened.

He took back what he had just said.

There was something wrong with this mist. Something was very wrong.

In terms of physical sensation, this mist seemed to be nothing more than very ordinary mist. It was cold, damp, and filled with moisture. Were it not for the sharp perception he possessed as a martial artist, an ordinary person might not feel anything at all after entering it.

But not long after coming into contact with the mist, Muen sensed movement from within his body.

No. Strictly speaking, it was not his body.

It was...

"The black flames?"

Muen had absolutely no intention of using the black flames, nor did he have any reason to use them. After all, he was merely entering a stretch of mist, not engaging in some desperate battle to the death. Why would he use the black flames, one of his trump cards?

However, although he had no such conscious intention, the black flames seemed to have been stimulated by something and surfaced automatically.

At the same time, the Black Sun within his mental space rumbled into motion. Black flames swept outward with Muen at their center, while the surrounding mist had already begun surging violently the instant Muen entered it...

It was as though a drop of water had fallen into a pot of oil.

CRACKLE! POP!

The mist itself did not seem to contain any particularly powerful force, yet some kind of law that even Muen found difficult to resist seemed to be attached to it.

These pure-white things that had originally appeared harmless to humans and animals in Muen's eyes began frantically "attacking" him.

The mist was rejecting the black flames.

It was rejecting the Black Sun.

Or rather, it was rejecting him.

"This mist..."

Muen was incomparably horrified.

"Is it trying to kill me?"

"Kill you? At present, it has not yet reached that level of intensity. It should be more accurate to call it rejection."

"Why?"

"You should be able to guess its true nature."

"True nature..."

Muen frowned in confusion...

What kind of true nature caused this mist to reject such a harmless little blond man like him so violently?

Could it be...

A flash of inspiration suddenly appeared in Muen's mind.

He remembered the previous "Cthulhu" monster. That enormous monster that had reached out from the mist had been covered in blood and rotten flesh...

At the time, Muen had thought that it was some innate characteristic of the monster itself. But now that he thought about it carefully, perhaps that had not been its original appearance at all, but the result of being "eroded" by the mist.

The mist was rejecting those monsters.

The mist was also rejecting him.

And the only thing he had in common with those monsters was...

That a certain part of both of them was very long?

...No.

Pollution!

The power of Evil Gods!

The mist was rejecting all Evil God power!

"The festering wounds of the world... the land and sea stolen by Evil God disasters..."

Muen suddenly understood.

"This mist is actually some kind of self-repair mechanism belonging to the world itself! It is repairing this shattered region, which is why it rejects every force that does not belong to this world! Especially the chief culprit responsible for reducing it to this state!"

"It seems you are not entirely stupid," Hamreign said. "That is indeed the case. For the past thousand years, this world has continuously attempted to repair this region... However, because the Pollution has already penetrated deep into its 'marrow,' and because the source of the disease still exists, progress has been slow."

"Then why were the people of Annabawei able to enter the mist and explore? Aren't they..."

Halfway through his sentence, Muen figured out the reason himself.

It was because...

The Pollution had not yet erupted.

The people of Annabawei had indeed been Polluted by an Evil God, but the Pollution within them was hidden extremely deeply. Before the Pollution erupted, they were merely ordinary people, so naturally the mist would not detect them.

However, if they suffered severe injuries during an expedition and triggered an Evil God mutation, they would immediately be rejected by the mist.

Therefore, from beginning to end, the Pioneers who explored the mist had only ever faced two possible outcomes.

Death.

Or becoming monsters through Pollution.

Unless someone possessed absurdly good luck like Alan and accidentally found another "Annabawei," otherwise...

There was simply no possibility of ever leaving the mist.

"In that case... perhaps it was fortunate that they never discovered the truth?"

At this thought, Muen actually felt somewhat grateful that they had spent the past several hundred years living in ignorance and confusion.

"Otherwise, it truly would have been far too cruel for them."