The Thousand-Year Watcher

After leading everyone into the study, the woman finally lowered the cloak she had kept herself concealed beneath, revealing her true face to them for the first time.

So beautiful!

Almost everyone drew a sharp breath at the sight of the girl's face. Even Angela raised an eyebrow. Only Li Lin showed no reaction, gazing intently and silently at her beautiful features. Her deep-blue eyes were as clear as seawater, and her shoulder-length golden hair set off her fair, delicate skin, making her look especially lovely. Her small, exquisite lips were a pale cherry pink, and their corners curved up in a reassuring smile. Her slender arms and legs were wrapped in a loose mage's robe, and their seeming fragility, as though they could easily be broken, lent the girl another kind of charm. She looked only sixteen or seventeen, yet her tranquil, indifferent demeanor seemed unlike that of an ordinary person.

"You're still the same as before. You haven't changed."

Li Lin sat across from the girl, gazed intently at her, and spoke.

"But you've changed a great deal..."

Nia looked at Li Lin with a gentle smile, a trace of sadness in her eyes.

"I almost didn't recognize you."

"I've already died once."

Li Lin gave a bitter smile and shook his head.

"Being able to talk to you here now might already count as a miracle."

"A miracle? If it really is a miracle, then that wouldn't be so bad..."

As she spoke, Nia turned her gaze to the two sisters standing behind him and Angela, who was sitting beside Li Lin.

"May I ask who these people are...?"

Li Lin quickly introduced them. The sisters' experiences did not arouse much curiosity in Nia, but Angela interested her. Clearly, Nia was quite curious about this being from another world. She did not say much, however. Instead, she soon gave everyone a slight bow and introduced herself.

"Greetings, Miss Vampire Species from a distant world and your servants. Please allow me to introduce myself again. My name is Nia, and I rank first among the Seven Ring Spirit Envoys. I'm very pleased to see you all here, especially since you've brought me such a surprise."

"Seven Ring Spirit Envoys?"

Hearing the name, Fina spoke hesitantly and a little uneasily.

"But Master said... he was looking for weapons..."

"We, the Seven Ring Spirit Envoys, are Luoxia's weapons."

Nia answered Fina's question with a smile.

"But..."

Fina was still puzzled. No matter how she heard it, "Seven Ring Spirit Envoys" sounded like the name of an organization. Yet Li Lin had said they were his weapons. Was treating humans as weapons commonplace in the Magic Empire? She opened her mouth to ask something, but ultimately held back. In any case, the little priestess thought the "generation gap" between herself and someone who had been alive a thousand years ago was simply too wide.

Paying no attention to Fina's confusion, Nia finished introducing herself and began telling Li Lin everything that had happened afterward.

That day, Nia had gone to Wensains on Li Lin's-that is, Luoxia's-orders to remove the magical restrictions there. But while she was working, she felt her life connection with Li Lin break. Alarmed, Nia immediately abandoned her work and headed for the capital of the Magic Empire. By the time she arrived, however, the war was over. The Undead Barrier Li Lin had cast with all his life force covered the entire city, and even Nia could not enter. She tried several times without success and could only leave in sorrow.

But because she knew Luoxia, Nia did not give up. She knew he was not the sort of person to get carried away and take his enemies down with him. He must have left himself a way out, so Nia settled not far from the ruins of the Magic Empire's capital, waiting for her master and hoping he would reappear one day. Over the following centuries, Nia traveled to many countries in search of the truth about the war's final moments. She even ventured deep into the Underdark and the Nine Levels of Hell, trying to reconstruct what had happened from dead souls or long-lived races. Naturally, she did not stop gathering information on the five nations either. To Nia, they were her enemies as well. In her spare time, she would return to her little house and quietly wait for her master. Once, out of curiosity, she saved a group of migrants being pursued by bandits. She then helped them establish this town and named it Yinkalan, so that if Luoxia returned and learned the name, he might come looking for her here. Nia herself continued gathering every piece of information she could and following leads outside the town. The mercenary group Li Lin had encountered outside the Mist Forest had also been sent by her. Whenever Nia could not get away herself, she hired those mercenaries to observe the situation at the Magic Empire's capital in her place.

And so she waited. Hundreds of years passed, then a thousand, and still she waited, until Luoxia appeared again.

Nia's soft voice echoed through the study, which was filled with books, but almost everyone was struck silent. Even Angela's expression held a trace of admiration. Asked to spend a thousand years waiting for someone whose very existence she could not confirm, she thought that even as a long-lived member of the Vampire Species, she could never have possessed such patience.

"How romantic..."

Fina could not help covering her face and crying out softly. To her, stories like this only appeared in fairy tales and legends. A thousand years did not sound very long, but only someone who had truly lived through it could understand that its hardships could not be summed up as "romantic."

"But, Miss Nia..."

Mina spoke up uneasily.

"If Master never came back, then you..."

"I would keep waiting until my Magic Power was exhausted and could no longer sustain my existence."

Nia's voice was soft and gentle, quiet yet firm.

"I am Luoxia's weapon. I have been at his side since I was born. If he truly could never return, then my fate would be to accompany him on another unavoidable journey."

"B-but you're human... you..."

Mina stammered, not knowing what to say herself.

"No, Miss Mina, I'm not human."

Nia stood as she spoke, her expression calm and serene.

"As I said, I am Luoxia's 'weapon.'"

At that, Nia seemed to sense everyone's doubts. She looked at Li Lin and smiled.

"Luoxia, could I ask you to do it? It's been a long time since I last did this."

"Of course."

Li Lin stood, looked at the girl before him, and took a deep breath.

Then his expression turned serious.

"Reset!"

At Li Lin's low command, an incomparable golden light burst from Nia's entire body. The girl's form vanished in the light along with the staff she held. Li Lin reached forward, and the light immediately gathered in his hand before fading. All that remained in his grasp was a heavy book. Beautiful gemstones and ornate magical patterns adorned its cover. Magical radiance flowed slowly across its surface, and the Magic Power contained within it, sensing its master's presence once more, was finally released.

"This is..."

"Let me introduce her to you again."

Li Lin gently stroked the book's surface, then turned to face the dumbfounded Angela and the two sisters.

"This is one of my 'weapons'-the Eternal Library."

"Master, how did you do that?"

Angela hurried forward curiously, looking at the book's cover and sensing the energy it contained.

"You turned a human into a book?"

"That's incorrect, Miss Angela."

Nia's voice appeared again. This time, however, it came from the book.

"Taking human form is one of our abilities, but we were never human to begin with."

"You turned a book into a human?"

This time, it was the sisters' turn to be astonished. Were mages really that powerful?

"Arcane Mages are omnipotent."

As Nia answered, golden light flashed again, and the girl reappeared in front of Li Lin.

"If we really were omnipotent, we wouldn't have failed."

"That was an accident, Luoxia."

Seeing Li Lin shake his head with a helpless, bitter smile, Nia gently reached out and touched his cheek.

"If we had all been at your side then, you absolutely would not have failed."

"Unfortunately, 'if' means nothing. In fact, I was too careless myself."

Li Lin pondered for a moment, then spoke.

"What have you found?"

"Of course."

Nia took two steps back and quietly regarded everyone before revealing an explosive piece of news.

"The God of Justice is dead."

"That's impossible!"

Mina was the first to recover from her shock and protested loudly.

"How could the God of Justice be dead? He performed Divine Descent through me not long ago. Could it have been Master...?"

"As he is now, Luoxia has no such ability."

Nia shook her head.

"According to the information I have, the God of Justice fell 1,352 years ago, when war broke out in the Magic Empire."

"I hadn't heard that."

Li Lin frowned, carefully recalling what had happened in the past.

"Neither had I."

Nia continued.

"I only obtained this information later in my travels. The God of Justice had already died long before then. For a time, his divine envoys were unable to use their abilities, causing some panic. But the Temple quickly suppressed it, and since the envoys' abilities soon returned, not many people mentioned it afterward. Even within the Temple, only a very few believe that the God of Justice died and another god took his place."

"I see."

Li Lin nodded thoughtfully.

"So that's it. No wonder I always felt there was something not quite right about the current God of Justice."

"Not quite right?"

Angela gave a cold laugh.

"Aren't they just a bunch of justice-obsessed fanatics? Idiots who would even throw away their lives for the descent of their so-called god."

"That's exactly the problem."

Li Lin calmly pointed out the issue.

"The God of Justice is the embodiment of justice. Although justice takes many forms, it is, ultimately, good. The God of Justice would not specifically demand that his followers worship him devoutly, because his power comes from 'acts of justice.' That is very important. People become followers of the God of Justice because they perform 'just acts,' not the other way around, performing 'acts of justice' because they believe in the God of Justice."

"I've also heard a little about the current war between the gods."

Nia continued her report.

"But it has little to do with us, Luoxia. I'm still investigating whether the gods took part in that war, but I haven't found anything significant. The fall of the God of Justice is indeed very strange, though..."

"That's right. The world of the gods is always strange. But I have no intention of changing my objective..."

Just as Li Lin was about to discuss the matter further with Nia, hurried footsteps suddenly sounded outside the study. The door was pushed open, and the young mayor stood before them in armor. His sharp gaze swept over Nia and settled on Li Lin.

"Stranger, for the sake of this lady's honor, I challenge you to a duel!"

"An idiot is an idiot."

Faced with the man's challenge, Angela gave a soft, cold laugh, while Li Lin answered without even thinking.

"I refuse."