Chapter 003: Grudges and Reconciliations

Chenchen walked over to Aldas, took a look, and frowned, saying, “He’s not dead; he’s just unconscious. But the woman in his arms is almost dead. Let me see… She’s been poisoned. It’s a strange kind of poison—I can’t tell at first glance what it’s for. But it seems… this poison gradually drains a person’s life force. If my calculations are correct, this woman will be beyond saving in about three days.”
“Of course, if you act now… neither of them will be saved…”
Du Fan glanced at Chenchen indifferently before suddenly smiling and asking, “Do you have any way to remove the poison from her body?”
“Of course there is…” Chenchen replied. “But what do you plan to do? Can’t resist saving a beautiful woman just because she looks good?”
Du Fan waved his hand. “Alright, she is indeed a rare beauty—I can’t deny that. But which part of me resembles a hero? If people like me were considered heroes, the world would be in chaos long ago.”
“Then why do you still want to save her?” Chenchen stared at Du Fan curiously. “I’ve known you for days now. You never do anything without gaining some benefit… I don’t believe you’d save someone without reason, especially a woman…”
Du Fan pretended to sigh and shook his head. “Sigh… Chenchen… I’m really disappointed… So that’s the image I have in your eyes… Who said I wouldn’t save someone without reason?”
Chenchen stared at him silently.
After being stared at for a while, Du Fan, who had some self-awareness, realized these words wouldn’t work to deceive someone he knew well like Chenchen. He smiled faintly, glanced behind him a few times, then continued, “Alright… It seems you won’t act unless I tell the truth. There’s a reason why I want to save this woman. First, during the exam in the church square, those guys from Roland Academy wanted to devour me, but this woman showed me some respect. Out of gratitude, I can’t just watch her die this time, right?”
“What else?”

“That’s the second part.” Du Fan touched his nose. “I just want to prove something. In a moment, I hope you can not only remove the poison from this woman’s body but also help this man, allowing our Lord Aldas to regain some strength and sanity. But we need to control it well… so he doesn’t die right away nor regain his strength too quickly…”

Chenchen frowned and asked, “What do you want to do?”

Du Fan let out a soft hum, a cold smile appearing on his lips. “We owe them a favor, so naturally, we must settle this account. By removing their poison and ensuring they don’t lose all their strength, we’ve done our part. As for whether they can survive and escape from here, that depends on our genius Aldas… But oh, Aldas… I’m really looking forward to meeting you again… So where will we meet next time? In the capital? Or in hell?”

After saying that, Du Fan didn’t look at them again. He simply made a gesture before slowly stepping aside.

Chenchen sighed. In her opinion, killing those two thoroughly would be best—so they wouldn’t pose a threat in the future. But she didn’t want to disappoint Du Fan too much over such a trivial matter, so she said nothing more.

She waved her hand gently, and several silver-white threads shot out from her fingertips, entering the bodies of the two. In less than a moment, a mass of dark energy was pulled out of Kris’s body, while Aldas let out a slight groan, regaining some of his senses.

After finishing all this, Chenchen shook her head slightly and walked back to Du Fan.

Du Fan glanced in the direction where the statue used to be. Seeing Chenchen approaching, he hesitated for a moment before saying, “Chenchen, it seems you went into that space behind just now. What’s there?”

Chenchen shook her head. “After going in, I saw only darkness. Then I sensed an extremely powerful pressure. I thought it must be some amazing existence, but I never expected it to be just a worthless dragon. If you’re interested, I can go in and take another look.”

Du Fan smiled. “Why go in? There’s surely someone here who knows that place very well. We just need to ask them. If there’s really anything valuable in there, we can go take a look. If not, why waste time?”

As they spoke, Du Fan and Chen Chen exchanged a smile and looked at each other, then both turned their gaze toward the green dragon Isella. Isella was quite clever; she immediately understood what her great masters meant. She hurriedly flew between the two of them and said, “My… great masters… I understand what you mean. You must be asking me about what’s in the place where I sleep, right? Hmm, let me think…” As she spoke, Isella lowered her head thoughtfully, but after a moment, she said confusedly, “But masters… it’s strange… I’ve been asleep there for a thousand years, yet I can’t recall what’s in there at all… Masters… I’m sorry… Isella is useless…” With that, the unfortunate Isella hung her head, knowing that her great masters and their masters would almost certainly not spare her. Yet she dared not resist and simply waited for the thunderous punishment. Unexpectedly, after hearing this, Du Fan and Chen Chen exchanged a glance and fell silent. Although Du Fan had only been studying combat magic for less than half a year, he had spent a long time in the Holy Church and knew a bit about various strange legends. If even a dragon who had slept there for a thousand years had no memory of it, then whether it was safe or dangerous, it was definitely not ordinary. Along the way, the image of the Divine Palace had flashed through his mind countless times, but each time he saw only its surface appearance. Could the true nature of the Divine Palace be somewhere in another dimension? Both of them were shocked. Through their eye contact, they understood each other’s thoughts. For both Du Fan and Chen Chen, it was certain they had to enter that place; otherwise, their trip would have been in vain. Du Fan shook his head slightly. After pondering a few key questions in his mind, he finally made up his mind and waved at Ferre and Tasia. Soon, Tasia and Ferre, holding Nicholas, appeared before Du Fan.

Du Fan glanced at the two of them, then clapped his hands and said, “Alright, Feri, and Miss Tasia… this is the critical moment. As we discussed earlier, the true location of the Divine Palace should be where that useless dragon used to be. But that place is unpredictable—we can’t tell what’s inside right now. It might be filled with treasures with no danger at all, or it could be full of magical beasts and countless traps. So, it’s time for you two to make a choice.”

“As for us, there’s no need to say more. For our faith, we will definitely go in and explore it, even if it means sacrificing our lives. But you two don’t have to do the same. Miss Tasia, Feri, you have two options. First, come in with me, and face whatever’s there together. Second, go back the way you came. There are dozens of Temple Knights in our camp, and with them, it’s not impossible to leave the Northern Ice Plains safely. Well… I, Du Fan, respect your decisions.”

Tasia and Feri hesitated. After all, Du Fan was right—no one really knew what was inside. One wrong move could cost everyone their lives, and by then, it would be too late to regret it.

But after a moment, Feri spoke with determination, “Lord Du Fan… I’ll go with you then.”

Du Fan glanced at him and smiled faintly. “Alright…”

His gaze then turned to Tasia. “What about you, Miss Tasia?”

Tasia’s expression was cold. She casually glanced at Chenchen and said, “Since we’ve come this far… how could I fail now?”

Du Fan nodded. “Very well… I won’t repeat myself. You must be aware of my strength. If you go in, you’ll have to rely on yourselves… If anything happens to you… don’t blame me.”

With that, Du Fan glanced at Chenchen again and said, “Let’s start… we don’t have much time to waste.”

Chenchen nodded. She stepped forward a few paces and waved her hands gently in the air. As she moved, several translucent little dragons appeared in the air. They flew to where the statue had been, slowly spreading out. With their heads tilted slightly upward, they seemed to be biting at something before dispersing further in all directions.