Chapter 1379: 137. A Kind Teacher and a Filial Disciple

"Thank you."

Peles lowered her eyes, her long eyelashes trembling slightly. Even the hazy body formed from smoke could not conceal the beautiful radiance flowing through her every glance.

"No need to thank me. I just happened to run into him." Muen smiled slightly. "Honestly, I never expected it to be such a coincidence. When that guy first came looking for trouble, I thought he was some mess caused by a certain unscrupulous bastard."

"I didn't expect it either. Just not long ago, I was still talking to Ariel about this." Peles covered her mouth and laughed softly as well. "Who would have thought that in the blink of an eye, you would completely resolve the matter?"

"Then this coincidence really is astonishing."

Muen scratched his head and sighed.

"Looks like fate doesn't always have it out for me. At least this time, there was a pretty good result."

"Indeed. But......it was dangerous, wasn't it? That man's strength is no joke."

A light flashed through Peles's beautiful eyes. Her gaze swept over Muen again, carrying a hint of worry and urgency.

"Do you need me to examine and treat you? My healing magic......is quite good too."

"No, no, no, there's no need. I wasn't injured."

Muen hurriedly waved his hands. "And actually, it wasn't dangerous at all. That guy's strength certainly can't be underestimated. After all, he's a genuine Truth-Rank Grand Mage. But from the very beginning, he misjudged the situation, took me for your disciple, and arranged everything entirely around methods meant for dealing with mages."

"And the result......well, you saw it. Although my magical talent is extraordinarily outstanding, I'm not particularly afraid of methods specifically meant to deal with mages, so after using a few little tricks, he ended up falling into my hands."

Muen gestured animatedly again.

Although even he himself had no idea whether anyone could understand this random nonsense he was gesturing, the person opposite him had already let out a silvery laugh.

"I can roughly imagine what happened."

Under just the right amount of sunlight, the hazy smoke became soft and dazzling. Peles still covered her mouth with reserved elegance, but her graceful body trembled slightly with her laughter, as though she had returned to the green days of her youth and heard some exceptionally funny joke. Everything about her was so pleasant and beautiful.

"But just to be safe, it would still be better to examine you."

Peles suddenly became serious. "I understand that man's personality better than you do. He may have secretly used some insidious technique somewhere you didn't notice. If we fail to discover it early enough, things could become troublesome."

"Is......is he really that scary?" Muen asked in surprise.

"It's not as though there haven't been cases in this world where a Crowned One was secretly killed by someone at the Truth Rank. Although such cases are extremely rare, you still can't afford not to guard against it......not to mention, you're not even a true Crowned One yet, are you?" Peles said seriously.

"That......is true."

Muen nodded.

No matter what, there was nothing wrong with being a little more cautious.

"Then I'll trouble you."

"It's no trouble at all. You've helped me so much. If I only use such a small matter to repay you, I'm already being shamelessly thick-skinned."

Peles moved her fingertips slightly.

The sensation of the Void Eye reached her soul directly, without the slightest obstruction.

That wound, so old it had almost begun to rot, had suddenly healed at this moment, giving her a sense of ease unlike anything she had ever experienced before.

And now that she had almost completely lost all of those burdens, for some reason, when she looked again at the man before her whom she had once found somewhat irritating for stealing away her disciple, she suddenly felt something different.

"Lift up your clothes."

"Huh? That......that doesn't seem very appropriate." Muen suddenly became somewhat flustered and embarrassed, instinctively taking two steps backward.

"What's inappropriate about it? Don't tell me you actually think an old auntie like me has some strange thoughts about you?"

Peles scolded him coquettishly. "I've already seen everything there is to see. Hurry up, take it off. The effect will be better this way."

"This......all right."

Muen thought it over and felt that what Peles said made sense. She was a great senior. What improper thoughts could she possibly have about him?

So he gritted his teeth and lifted his clothes.

His strong, well-built body was fully exposed before Peles's eyes.

Her beautiful eyes flashed again.

Just as she had said, as Ariel's closest teacher, she had already seen this body many times while being forced to watch certain unavoidable situations.

The first few times, she had not felt anything particularly special. After all, she was already several hundred years old. It was not as though seeing a naked man would do anything to her.

But this time, ripples inexplicably spread across the lake of her heart.

Those solid pectorals......those sharp V-lines......and those textbook eight-pack abs......all looked very nice. They would probably feel very comfortable to touch.

Ah......

So it turned out she actually liked this kind of thing quite a lot.

"Are you ready? I'm going to start."

Suppressing the stirring in her heart, Peles took a graceful step forward. With a trace of shyness even she herself had not noticed, her hazy jade-like hand reached toward Muen's body......

"Stop, stop, stop!!!"

The atmosphere that was gradually becoming strange was abruptly interrupted.

Ariel turned herself into a sword and, like Heavenly Fire being drawn from its sheath, shot directly between the two of them.

A single tuft of hair on top of her head spun back and forth as though receiving some kind of electromagnetic signal, repeatedly pointing toward the two people who had somehow grown closer and closer while talking.

Beep——beep——alarm——alarm——man-stealer detected!——man-stealer detected!

"What are you two doing?!"

Ariel ground her little canine teeth, her gaze wary and dangerous.

"Doing what?"

Muen looked puzzled. "An examination. Senior Peles is kindly offering to help me. How could I have the nerve to refuse?"

"Does an examination require taking off your clothes?!"

"Of course it does."

Peles said seriously, "Ariel, what did I teach you before? When facing an enemy this cunning, you must eliminate every possible source of danger. Otherwise, the consequences may become extremely serious."

"Fine......I can understand the examination. I can understand being thorough with the examination too. But......"

Ariel waved both hands in a full three-thousand-six-hundred-degree, all-angle, no-blind-spot flourish, vividly demonstrating the increasingly tangled and complicated relationship between the two of them right now......

"What is with this lovey-dovey atmosphere right in front of me? Do you seriously think I don't exist? You're already like this while I'm here. If I weren't here, would the two of you immediately start hugging each other? Maybe even directly do something that crosses the line?"

"Ariel, don't misunderstand me."

Muen hurriedly crossed his arms defensively over his chest and said with a completely serious expression, "I'm a devoted good man. How could I possibly have any strange thoughts toward a senior?"

"Exactly, exactly......"

Peles chimed in, but as she looked at Muen's solemn posture, that strange radiance became even clearer in her eyes. "How could I possibly have any strange thoughts toward a junior? Ariel, you're showing far too little respect for your teacher. Besides, I'm only a soul body right now. Talking about anything that crosses the line is really far too early......"

"Compared with respecting you......I respect the intuition I've trained through battle after battle even more!"

Ariel shoved Muen and ordered, "You. Turn around. Put your clothes back on. I'll examine you myself later."

"......Oh."

Muen shrank his neck. The current Ariel looked like a little hedgehog with all its spines standing on end. Not daring to resist, he obediently turned around.

"As for you, Teacher......"

Ariel threw herself forward, grabbed the smoke, and fiercely stuffed it back into the ring. "You go back first and have a nice reunion with that senior brother of mine. Leave the examination to me."

"Mm......no! Muen helped me so much. I have to examine him personally!"

Peles hurriedly struggled.

"Don't worry. I'll examine him very thoroughly and repay his kindness at the same time. Teacher, you don't need to worry." Ariel stuffed even harder.

"Damn it......Ariel, I am your teacher! How can you treat me so roughly? Don't tell me you also intend to deceive your teacher and destroy your ancestors?" Peles cried out coquettishly, trying to use her status to stop Ariel.

Damn it. How had she never noticed before that this disciple of hers was so unfilial?

"It's precisely because you're my teacher that I absolutely won't allow something this shameless to happen!"

Ariel remained completely unmoved.

She kept stuffing while gritting her teeth tightly, never slowing her hands for even a moment. Even though Peles was nothing more than vague, intangible smoke, she still could not escape Ariel's palms.

There were already enough man-stealers.

They were already troublesome enough.

She absolutely would not allow another one to appear.

Not even if it was her teacher!!