After calmly and unhurriedly answering Wanwan,
Orsaga watched as she relaxed.
His previously straight back slowly bent forward.
Leaning over in a posture that overlooked her, he extended a hand and gently stroked Wanwan's upturned face as she gazed at him.
Feeling the power concealed beneath her flawless, snow-white skin,
Orsaga gave a fairly satisfied assessment:
"It seems you haven't neglected your cultivation during this time."
"My trip here wasn't in vain, then."
Upon hearing that,
Wanwan rubbed her soft cheek against Orsaga's palm, like a pet currying favor with its master.
Her formerly expressionless face immediately blossomed into a smile.
"Could it be that you came here this time just to praise me?"
Over the years,
unknown forces would occasionally seize people from the outside world and bring them here.
Thus, Wanwan and many others clearly understood that this composite spacetime, formed from the convergence of countless times and spaces, might possess boundless territory, but in essence, it was merely a huge cage.
A cage whose purpose nobody knew!
Countless victims, baffled by this situation, instinctively felt deeply uneasy. They endlessly speculated over what the powerful beings who had captured them here, only to make no further move, truly intended to do—and whether their lives would be endangered.
Among them,
Wanwan was the calmest, owing to her many past interactions with Orsaga.
She had even,
without a sound or notice, begun to regard herself as a prison warden of sorts.
She wanted to help Orsaga keep watch over this unruly bunch.
Now,
facing Wanwan, who wanted his praise, Orsaga first smiled casually. Then, with a casual tug, he pulled her into his embrace.
With an utterly leisurely expression, he explained with a smile:
"Praise?"
"That was merely incidental."
"The situation here is about to enter its next stage of