Dan Heng: Welt Asked Me to Pass You a Message.

"Your face... is quite literary. Yes, very literary."

Dan Heng said so without smiling.

When the Stellaron Spirit found a mirror in bafflement, what she saw was not a monkey in the reflection, but words written all over her face...

"...Sorrowful Wind."

March 7th read it aloud with a laugh. She had wanted to do that for a while.

March 7th!

Stare~

March 7th silently retreated behind Dan Heng, laughing awkwardly. "Well, I didn't do it, and I think you might actually like it. It really suits your temperament!"

March, we're not number one in the world anymore.

Belobog had gained a heartbroken Stellaron Spirit. The adult world was too cruel.

Dan Heng watched the scene. "..."

Why are you "..."ing?!

Xing glared at him. "Why did you only tell me after the fight was over and I'd stepped off the ring?"

Dan Heng silently looked away. "I thought you liked it. It suits you."

March 7th widened her eyes. "Hey!"

Don't "hey" me! Let me "hey" you!

Xing was so upset she wanted to elbow someone. The adult world was too cruel. Belobog had gained a Stellaron Spirit who wanted to do something.

Gepard stood there like a transparent bystander without saying a word.

He had thought it was some custom of people from beyond the stars. Tattoos were not unusual, so writing on one's face seemed even less so. Now that he knew it was not, he did not know what to say.

Come on, let's elbow that deep-blue handsome guy... What kind of deep blue are you?

In the quiet street behind Fight Club, in the dead-end alley where there was no turning back, Xing struck and won a great victory.

"Spill it! Where's the Stellaron? Spill it!"

"Buddy, sister, family, I'm just a lousy merchant. A Stellaron or whatever... Stop hitting me, my butt hurts... Wait, I'll point you toward another lead. Go find Underworld Fire, find Underworld Fire..."

Another ticket introducing them to 'Underworld Fire' burst out of the weeping, begging Sampo. He said that, to show his sincerity, he would first introduce them to Underworld Fire. No matter what they wanted to find underground, they only needed to ask them!

Could they find the Stellaron too?

"Absolutely."

Sampo swore solemnly, "Something that sounds that powerful could only have clues at Underworld Fire."

Dan Heng had been cold-faced the entire time, and now his expression grew even colder. "Didn't you tell me before that we could only get clues by winning the Fight Club championship?"

"Uh... uh, right, right. Once you win the championship, you'll be famous. Once you're famous, Underworld Fire will be willing to see you. Nothing wrong with that."

So they beat Sampo up again. That was the style of Nameless Ones encountering Masked Fools.

What followed was another round of Sampo leading them into the village, looking for Oleg, looking for Seele... The latter had been taken away by someone.

"What? She went with Fang Jie!"

The Stellaron Spirit's gaze immediately sharpened.

She had grown. She had learned that some matters must be settled!

So she volunteered to wait for the hare by the tree, awaiting the right moment...

Dan Heng, meanwhile, wanted to verify a few things. There had been reports that Bronya had also fled to the Underworld and was looking for Gepard.

They decided to split up. One team would look for people, while the Stellaron Spirit would remain here as a team of one. It was definitely not because he had been having a hard time holding back his laughter whenever he looked at Xing.

March 7th was not the reason either, even though she had been laughing the whole time.

Damn it!

At last, Xing waited without even wiping the words off her face, preserving the evidence. She waited until it was nearly dark. Even though it was nearly dark in the Underworld too, she did not go to the Goethe Hotel in the Underworld to rest. She stayed at the place where that 'Seele' usually patrolled and waited bitterly. Finally—

A familiar figure appeared before her.

P.S. Good morning, good afternoon, good evening. Though I'm not doing well, damn it, it's so cold... This chapter was written during those days when the temperature dropped. My hands were shaking from the cold while typing. I really wanted to catch fire. Anyway, I hope everyone has a happy day (?o?o)??

Dan Heng: Welt asked me to bring you a message.

When Fang Jie happily returned to the Underworld in a cool pose, carrying Seele on his back as if she had just cast Explosion Magic, this was the scene he saw.

The Stellaron Spirit had knocked down Bronya, who was far more well-built than Seele. She had even opened her bloody maw and leaned close to the soft, helpless Landa Duck's moist, smooth cheek. That face was full of a victim's helplessness and accusation—

The culprit was...

"Wait, listen to me! She fell over on her own!"

Xing had something to say. Her wanted poster was still in Fang Jie's hands, but her dignity could no longer endure being falsely accused.

She worried too much.

The good news: Fang Jie did not consider her a criminal, so there would be no false accusation.

The bad news: Fang Jie did not consider her human either, so there would be no innocence.

"Xing, I'm personally quite willing to believe you, but whether my good brother believes you is another matter. Let me introduce her—Seele, Underworld Fire's Lady Butterfly. Don't be fooled by how she looks like she can be pushed around without resisting right now... If she wants to catch you, she can blind you in seconds!"

Fang Jie calmly introduced them to each other while taking Seele's elbow strikes.

"Your turn, good brother."

She had already been eaten clean and had no learning value left, so she had been reduced to a good brother.

Seele merely treated this thing as inhuman. She silently exhaled, inhaled, then turned her head from Fang Jie's back to look at the other one—the terrifying Stellaron Spirit whose face was covered in Sorrowful Wind.

"What are you doing?"

"CPR!"

Xing, her face full of the intimidating power of knowledge, spoke righteously. Using CPR on unconscious people was part of her experience.

"She wouldn't wake up, so I thought maybe I should save her. What about you? Fang Jie, why are you carrying another unconscious person?"

Xing spotted the blind spot.

"I'm not unconscious."

Seele refused to accept the slander and weakly retorted, "I'm just a little tired. I'll be fine after some sleep."

"You need to eat something too. You're dehydrated."

Fang Jie knew a little medicine as well, though he had not expected Pathstriders to become dehydrated too...

The Stellaron Spirit scratched her head too. That was outside her area of knowledge.

In any case, neither side accused the other of committing a crime. They carried all the injured people and headed toward... Natasha's clinic.

Perhaps this would expose that she was Underworld Fire's true leader, but it did not matter. Fang Jie watched the energetic Xing bounce along with Bronya on her back, then began bouncing along himself, earning sustainable angry elbows from Seele.

That was not important.

Seele herself had accepted reality. She kept adjusting her posture and shifting her body to find a more comfortable position.

A good brother was still nice, especially one who talked tough. Teasing him was particularly fun.

A liberated Fang Jie could play like this for an entire year.

"So, A-Xing, are you getting used to your first Trailblazing Journey?"

He bounced along while sidling up to the other girl, wearing an insidious expression that seemed to ask whether he should add more burdens to her shoulders and drag her into the Rin faction.

Become a righteous person, Xing!

"Of course I am. Adventure makes me happy! Stop talking for a second. I keep feeling like you're trying to trick me?"

"How can you think that? Look into my eyes. Aren't they crystal clear?"

The Stellaron Spirit said nothing. She merely raised a thumb, seeming to offer praise.

She continued bouncing along too, making people want to praise her happiness.

Fang Jie jumped as well. "Fine, fine. An unreasonable instinct, so I won't invite you to do great things... Where are the others? Why are you alone?"

I'll invite March 7th... Forget it, I'll invite Dan Heng instead.

Stare~

For some reason, the cheerful Xing suddenly stopped and looked over with resentment in her clear, wide eyes.

"You didn't sneak out alone, did you?"

Fang Jie accused her of behaving like a child who had left her team behind.

Xing continued staring~

Fang Jie acted as if he did not see the literary splendor she could not hide across her face.

Seele had seen it long ago. She could not punch through this thick-skinned brute, so she resentfully complained to the other lunatic. "You're so strange. Why write on your face? So you can copy notes more easily during exams?"

Seele, don't expose the fact that you never went to school. Who writes cheat notes on their face? Sacrificing yourself for the sake of others? That would just mean getting caught by the proctor immediately and sacrificing yourself for nothing.

Xing was still staring~

"Don't you have anything you want to say? Fang Jie!"

This guy's skin really was thick. She could not expect him to admit his mistake.

"It's all in the milk tea. Here, try some Tree Sap Milk Tea."

Fang Jie gave a thumbs-up and flashed a brilliant smile as he handed Xing a can of the Underworld's new specialty: milk tea.

Refreshing and delicious, nutritious and exquisitely tasty, it contained carbohydrates essential to the human body and easy to absorb, amino acids, organic acids, various inorganic salts, fragrant essential oils, betulin, saponin compounds, cytokinins, and more.

It could be called the water of life. That was right. Although Fang Jie called it tea, it was actually a kind of natural beer.

But that did not matter. There was enough sugar to cover the alcohol taste, and he handed it to Xing to drink.

More wonderfully still: what Xing drank was also a kind of Stellaron.

Xing drank it and felt a little cold. "Why is it chilled?"

"It's beer. It tastes better chilled."

Did you just reveal something?

Forget it, it wasn't important. I'm an adult!

Xing drank happily, her eyes curving with delight as her resentment vanished—Little Fang, this lord likes it. Remember to offer tribute regularly. Whatever you want to say can be discussed.

"..."

Fang Jie was taken aback by her shamelessness and even wanted to punch her. "Who did you learn that expression of 'I'll live off this secret for the rest of my life' from?"

Xing said nothing. She merely slurped the milk tea loudly through the straw.

Say whatever you want to say already. Don't say I never gave you the chance.

Unfortunately, such hints were still too advanced for humans. Fang Jie missed the opportunity.

By the time they returned to Natasha's clinic, it was already late, but the doctor was clearly still awake. She looked worriedly at the girl who had sat down to rest. "Seele?"

"I'm fine, Nata. I'll be fine after some sleep."

Seele clearly did not want Natasha to worry, so she explained on her own initiative. "Today was pretty fun. This guy's quite capable. Even the weather outside got much warmer."

That made the Stellaron Spirit curious about what they had done.

"Have I never mentioned it? Hmm, then I'll make a long story short."

Since they were both outsiders, Seele was quite friendly toward Xing. "There used to be many mining areas underground, but in recent years, an erosion called the Fragmentum has spread beneath the earth. Monsters appear from time to time, and many mines have suffered. They can't be worked anymore."

She reported the situation while trying not to expose Natasha, keeping it brief and clear.

"So today, the two of us killed all those monsters."

Seele wore a satisfied expression. Compared to that, her fatigue was nothing.

Natasha became somewhat uncertain. "What do you mean by 'killed them all'?"

"At least the area should stay peaceful for a few days. Before those things grow back, we can arrange for people to scavenge there."