"So what exactly were you shouting about in front of the Stone Tablet?"
They watched as the Snakefolk tossed the Deep Pit Lord, who had been kneeling on the ground and sobbing, onto a hide stretcher. Those with healing abilities had no choice but to treat the Pureblood Snakefolk who had once enslaved them, ensuring that the coalition's fighting strength would not suffer.
Curious adventurers gathered around Tang Qi, wanting only to know why the situation had taken such a dramatic turn in those few short minutes.
Tang Qi closed his journal as he answered, "Ever since a python was born, it had heard about its father's glorious achievements, so it had always looked up to him.
"But its father had disappeared before it was born. All the python could do was keep following in its father's footsteps, spreading its own name by imitating him, hoping that one day it would meet its father.
"Then one day, while imitating its father, it met a lion. It noticed that the two bloody holes in the lion's leg matched a snake's fangs perfectly, so it asked whether the lion had seen its father.
"The enraged lion grabbed it, swung it like a whip, and slammed it against the ground until it was weeping.
"The python cried out, asking why the lion was treating it like that. Can you guess what the lion said?"
The adventurers understood at once. "The lion said its father had bitten him, and now he was taking revenge on the python?"
Tang Qi shook his head. "The lion said—don't go poking your nose into things you shouldn't know."
"—Screw you! Fine, we won't ask!"
Despite the adventurers' eye rolls and silent curses, Tang Qi ultimately did not write the Aboleth's memories in the Journal.
Instead, he recorded only