Heat period three

Li Jia accepted the system's suggestion and activated its assistance function, but the system did not tell her what kind of assistance it would provide.

The system only told her that heaven's secrets could not be revealed, and that it had a clever plan of its own.

That night, Li Jia was drawn by a fragrance identical to the scent on her wrist. She climbed out of bed. The space to her left was empty.

She had gone out.

After waiting a while without seeing her return, Li Jia seemed a little petulant. She put on her shoes, draped a gauze robe over herself, and followed the fragrance outside.

The closer she drew, the stronger the fragrance became. Li Jia's mind was already beginning to disobey her, turning to mush, while her body grew increasingly uncomfortable and restless.

Clinging to her awareness, she searched for the source of the fragrance, but could not find it no matter how she looked. Without realizing it, she reached the Light Vortex at the top of Wave Capital. The fragrance was coming from here.

Li Jia saw a little mermaid girl, who swam over to her and said sweetly, "Big sister, could you do me a favor?"

Li Jia felt her body growing hotter and hotter. The little girl smelled wonderful too. Her words made Li Jia nod before she knew it and ask, "What do you need me to help you with?"

"Help me put this cap rivet onto the Light Vortex. I was playing around and accidentally loosened one of the halo's cap rivets. If it isn't put back soon, the halo will fall, and all of Wave Capital will plunge into darkness."

As she spoke, the little girl began crying in fear. Li Jia had wanted to ask why she did not find an adult from her family or another mermaid to help her, but there was no one around. She was the only one there.

"All right, then. Give it to me, and I'll go put it back for you, but I might not be able to get it all the way in."

Li Jia soothed the little girl, took the white cap rivet from her hand, and headed toward the center of the Light Vortex.

The halo at the center of the Light Vortex was gentle, yet contained immense energy. As she approached, Li Jia felt a faint stinging on her skin, but the strange, restless heat inside her seemed to intensify, overpowering the discomfort.

Li Jia tightened her grip on the cool, translucent white cap rivet and searched in the direction the little girl had indicated for the supposedly "loose" connection.

The halo's structure was intricate. As its light flowed, countless nodes flickered in and out.

Li Jia's consciousness grew increasingly hazy. She acted entirely on instinct and the guidance of that fragrance.

Feeling her way along, she finally spotted a tiny gap at the edge of a swirl where the light seemed slightly dimmer.

"Is it here?"

She turned to ask, only to discover that the little mermaid girl had retreated some distance at some point, concealing herself in waters where the halo's illumination was weaker. Her little face seemed to bear a nervous, expectant expression at odds with her age.

Li Jia had no time to think it over. The burning agitation inside her urged her to finish this as quickly as possible.

She rose onto tiptoe, reached out, and tried hard to align the cap rivet with the gap.

Just as the cap rivet was about to touch the Light Vortex, the white rivet suddenly burst with a powerful, cold, eerie light.

At the same time, the Light Vortex itself seemed to sense this foreign energy filled with malice. Its once-gentle light abruptly turned blinding, releasing a deep, thunderous sound like an angry hum.

An immense repulsive force erupted from the center of the Light Vortex, sending Li Jia flying!

Bang!

Li Jia crashed heavily onto the icy surface of the water, the blood and qi churning in her chest. The impact seemed to weaken the fragrance on her wrist a little, granting her muddled mind a moment of clarity.

To her horror, she saw the cap rivet braced firmly against the Light Vortex's barrier like a living creature, its tip constantly trying to bore inside. The cold, eerie light it emitted clashed fiercely with the Light Vortex's own golden glow, producing a teeth-grating sizzle.

The light in the small patch of the Light Vortex under attack was becoming unstable at a visible rate, flickering on and off. Faint cracks even seemed to be spreading.

This wasn't repairing it at all!

This was destroying it!

Li Jia whipped her head toward the little mermaid girl.

The sweet, pitiful expression on the little girl's face had long since vanished, replaced by a strangely excited smile of triumph.

Her figure began to blur and distort in the rippling waterlight, as though she were merely an illusion.

"You..."

Li Jia instantly realized she had been deceived. The little girl had used her hands to successfully disrupt the Light Vortex's order.

Anger and lingering fear swept over Li Jia in an instant, making her forget the abnormalities in her body.

Just then, a cold, familiar voice abruptly sounded in her mind, carrying a barely perceptible hint of...

Satisfaction?

System: Assistance function activated. Crisis data has been generated. Master, please wait calmly for the conquest target to arrive.

Wait? Crisis data?

"Yes. To create a deeper bond between Master and the conquest target, I had no choice but to resort to this ovo"

The system even acted cute after speaking.

Li Jia: ...

This was what you called "assistance"?

The system had not told her directly what its assistance would involve. Instead, it had led her step by step into a data-driven plot, making her move along with its content.

That sinister cap rivet was still attacking the Light Vortex.

The Light Vortex's humming grew louder and louder, and the light throughout Wave Capital began flickering unsteadily.

At last, urgent splashes and cries of shock and anger rang out. Clearly, the commotion here had finally alerted Wave Capital's guards.

The illusion of the little mermaid girl gave Li Jia a mocking smile filled with malice, then vanished completely into the water.

Li Jia sat all alone on the cold ground. Before her was the Light Vortex being destroyed; inside her were unresolved, restless heat and churning blood and qi.

It was over. Everything was over.

In the distance, guards were rushing over. Now, even with the truth on her side, she could not explain herself.

The system's "assistance" had dragged her into the heart of an even deeper vortex.

What should she do?

Now, even hundreds of mouths would not be enough to explain herself.

The approaching shark guards made Li Jia tremble all over. The facts were right before their eyes. No one would believe her.

Seeing the damaged Light Vortex and the light about to fall, the merfolk chief's angry voice echoed through the open sea, carrying unquestionable sternness. "Guest from afar, what have you done to the Light Vortex?"

"It wasn't..."

"I..."

Listen suddenly vibrated on her wrist. It was Hera.

Li Jia took off Listen and held it to her mouth, her voice trembling. "Your Majesty, I'm at the center of the Light Vortex. The Light Vortex has cracked... I'm the only one here..."

The person on the other end of Listen quickly understood what Li Jia meant. Hurried footsteps sounded, and she reassured her, "Don't panic. I'll be right there."

A minute later, a slender figure with golden hair and red eyes passed the guards surrounding her.

Hera had returned to her temple attire, radiating an icy, haughty air. Her gaze swept over the crowd before finally settling on Li Jia's pale face.

The woman walked straight toward her and enclosed her hand in her palm. That searing warmth instantly steadied her.

It was a sense of security and dependence Li Jia had never felt before.

"I am this girl's guardian. She is my sole attendant disciple."

Hera waved her divine power, and divine markings flashed at both her and Li Jia's collarbones. This was the most direct and effective proof of their relationship.

Hera's tone was steady as ice. "Until the truth comes to light, no one has the right to go over my head and interrogate my attendant disciple."

The merfolk chief froze. "Your Majesty, Goddess of Marriage, the evidence is right before us. Who else could it have been?"

Seeing the Light Vortex gradually going out, with all of Wave Capital about to plunge into darkness, a shark guard said furiously, "So what if you're the Goddess of Marriage! Does being a god mean you can shield a criminal?"

"Are you questioning me?"

The deity's whisper was like a venomous snake flicking its tongue.

The air abruptly froze. The curtain of seawater surged backward, and scarlet liquid seeped from the eyes of the stone statue in the center of Wave Capital.

Her oppressive might became an invisible hand clamped around the questioner's throat. It struggled as though suffocating, its fins digging into the cracks between the stone slabs, then dropped stiffly to its knees, the pressure snapping every vertebra in its body.

The deity's voice seeped into every pore, turning into millions of icy spikes that pierced the marrow. The questioner's scales began peeling off one by one, exposing the festering flesh beneath.

"I said."

"It wasn't her."