As Izroth and his party traveled towards their next destination, Ying Yue stuck close to Izroth and gazed at him with sparkling eyes.
Luna gave a helpless smile. Ever since they began walking, Ying Yue had stuck close to Izroth like glue.
However, Izroth did not mind Ying Yue doing so. After all, he understood her reason for doing so and she was also just a child. Would he, Izroth, bully a child by telling her to move away? The answer was obviously no.
Zi Yi, on the other hand, was curious to find out more about Ying Yue. So she began to ask her a few questions. Of course, she tried not to get too personal with the questions she asked.
"Ying Yue-"
"You can call me Little Yue, big sis Zi Yi." Ying Yue said with a smile on her face.
Zi Yi nodded, "Then, Little Yue, how did you join the team that entered inside of the Chaotic Dogma Realm?" Zi Yi was curious as to how a group of elite players would allow a child to join them on an SS-ranked quest.
Ying Yue blinked a few times with a slightly confused look on her face. She then shook her head, "Big sis Zi Yi, I invited them along with me on this quest. That's why..." She could not help but frown after being reminded of what happened to the members she invited.
Ying Yue felt that if she had never invited them along, then they would not have experienced an existence wipe and lost all their hard work.
'Oh?'
One had to know that everyone who picked an individual to represent them was all legendary characters within RML. Therefore, one of those legendary characters obviously saw something within Ying Yue, despite her young age.
Everyone was shocked when they heard those words. Ying Yue was the original quest holder for the SS-ranked quest? Didn't that mean that she was, at the very least, a top level player? It would seem that they should not underestimate her based on her appearance alone.
When Luna saw that Ying Yue was saddened, she tried to comfort her. "You should not blame yourself, Little Yue. I'm sure that no one blames you. In fact, I'm positive that they are grateful that you even gave them the chance to accompany you on this SS-ranked quest. They must have been aware of the potential dangers, therefore, you should not be too hard on yourself."
"Yeah! If anyone deserves the blame then it would be that Silent Step fellow and his party." Halls said with a hint of disdain in his voice. Halls believed that real men would not resort to such underhanded tactics. From all he had heard regarding Silent Step and Fatal Touch, Halls already had a bad impression of them.
"One will find that karma always has the last laugh. It may not be now or tomorrow, but eventually, he will not be able to run away when karma arrives to collect its debt." Izroth said with a carefree expression on his face.
Ying Yue happily nodded. She felt much better after listening to everyone's words.
"I'm curious, I did not see you back at the area where all the teams were gathered together. How did you enter into the Chaotic Dogma Realm without the help out the vortex?" Luna asked.
Everyone else was curious about this fact as well. Ying Yue would have stood out in the crowd and been quite hard to miss. However, on the off chance that everyone else missed it, Izroth should have not done so with his monstrous sense of perception.
"Ah, you mean..." Ying Yue's body was engulfed in bright white light. A few moments later, she had a completely different appearance! She was now just as tall as Luna and even her clothing changed.
Everyone was shocked by Ying Yue's sudden change in appearance. She was now wearing a long robe with a hood pulled over her head. Her overall appearance was very discreet and one was unable to make out any of her facial features.
She would indeed how gone unnoticed by most people, however, Izroth remembered seeing her at the gathering by the vortex.
After realizing that everyone was staring at her, Ying Yue immediately ended her transformation and returned to her true appearance. "It's a skill attached to a trinket I found called Alter. It allows me to temporarily change my appearance..." she said with a soft voice.
"What a cool skill!" Halls said with a bit of envy in his voice.
"So that's why we did not see you at the vortex. But, why would you hide your true appearance?" Zi Yi asked.
Ying Yue fiddled with her fingers a bit as she said, "My party members believed that our party would be looked down on if the other teams found out that I was the one leading them. So, they thought it would be best if I used the skill attached to my trinket. At least until we entered into the Chaotic Dogma Realm."
Everyone could understand the reasoning behind that. After all, who wanted to be led by a child? But, that did not mean that they necessarily agreed with her party members.
'However...'
Izroth still had this vague feeling that this was not the thing that bothered him. He was sure that he had come across Ying Yue somewhere else before and it was definitely not at that moment in the Amaharpe Palace.
Izroth and his group continued towards their next destination. So far, they had not yet run into any monsters or traps laid out by the Chaotic Dogma Realm. It was strangely peaceful the closer they moved towards the tower.
During this time, Ying Yue once again had her attention set on Izroth. When she thought back to a certain moment in her life, she ended up muttering her thoughts.
Ying Yue muttered quietly to herself. However, to Izroth who possessed such heightened senses, he heard what she said as if she practically shouted it out loud.
Izroth stopped, which caused a chain reaction and everyone else halted their steps as well. Everyone wondered why Izroth had suddenly stopped walking. Could it be that they had reached the next location already?
Izroth turned to look at Ying Yue. "What did you just say?"
Ying Yue was startled. She had spoken without thinking and ended up speaking her thoughts out loud. Everyone was currently staring at her with a curious look on their face which made her even further embarrassed by the situation.
"I-It was nothing." Ying Yue playfully fidgeted with her fingers and looked down at the ground to avoid direct eye contact.
Izroth furrowed his brows as he sunk into deep thought. There was complete silence and no one had any idea what was going on.
It suddenly dawned on Izroth where he had seen Ying Yue once before. Or to be more precise, where Jin had seen her once before!
'It's her...! That explains why the feeling that we have met before is so vague.'
Although Izroth had a perfect memory, in the end, a mortal's mind remembered things differently than that of a cultivator's mind. To put it in simple terms, the majority of a mortal's memory was similar to the bokeh effect on a camera. So even though Izroth had those memories, he still had to decipher some of the more hidden parts that were not so memorable.
This girl was indeed one he had run into before, however, to be more accurate it was someone Jin had come across before without even realizing it himself! But, thanks to the power of Izroth's soul and the fact that he was now completely fused with Jin, he was able to find where he had met Ying Yue before within his memories.
It was one day around six years ago that Jin's father visited him when his mother, Reilei, was out at work. He had actually come there to, in simple terms, ask Jin to sign a contract that pretty much said that he would not take any legal action to try and gain any of his wealth if something were to happen to him. Also, he would not make contact with his new family.
He wanted to leave everything to his new family and have absolutely nothing to do with them! To him, Jin and his mother was just a stain on his past life.
Jin was absolutely infuriated by how shameless that man was and never understood how his mother could fall for someone so slimy. Even more so, he was ashamed that such a man was his father. After arguing for a while, Jin signed the contract and told him to never come around there again.
Jin understood that even though that man was a scumbag, he could still make his and his mother's life even worse than it already was. Jin did not care about what happened to himself, but he could not and would not allow his mother to suffer any more than she already had been.
However, unbeknownst to Jin, inside of the black tinted window car in the back seat was a young girl at around the age of five. This young girl looked extremely innocent as if the wickedness of the world had never touched her. That young girl in the car bore a striking resemblance to Ying Yue!
In fact, that girl was most definitely Ying Yue! The reason Izroth had such a challenging time remembering was due to the fact that Jin himself was unaware of her presence in the car on a conscious level. However, he still picked it up on a subconscious level.
Izroth did not want to jump to any conclusions. There were various possibilities and until he had more information, it was best not to let his imagination run wild.
However, there was one absolute truth out of all of this. Jin had indeed "met" Ying Yue one day six years ago, even if he was completely unaware of it.
...
Guan Yu frowned as he looked towards Qi Jiguang and said, "Hey, you're moving too slow. The time for this quest will be up before we manage to reach the tower if we keep moving at this pace."
Qi Jiguang almost coughed up blood when he heard Guan Yu's words. What did he expect him to do?! His agility stat had been reduced by 75%. Of course, there was no way that he would be able to keep up with this strangely agile plate user. For a plate user, Guan Yu was incredibly quick.
Even with his agility reduced, Qi Jiguang was still confident in keeping up with a plate user, but Guan Yu was proving otherwise.
Qi Jiguang had a gloomy look on his face. "My weakened state is almost over. When it ends, I won't trouble you any longer." Since Guan Yu was currently his benefactor, he maintained his calm just as he was taught by his master.
BOOOOOOOM!
Guan Yu and Qi Jiguang were startled and immediately went on full alert when they heard and felt an explosion nearby. It was around thirty meters away from their current location.
"That explosion sounded really powerful!" Guan Yu said as he scanned his surroundings. He quickly discovered the direction of some smoke that was filling up the atmosphere.
"We should go take a look." Guan Yu said as he started to head in the direction of the smoke.
"I'm still in a weakened state. We should at least wait until I fully recover before going." Qi Jiguang responded.
"What? Are you a man or not?! If someone's in trouble, then we should help them. What happens if we wait too long and we arrive too late? Besides, if things get too tough for you then I'll just protect you." Guan Yu said with a voice full of confidence.
"You-" Qi Jiguang was being asked if he was a man or not. How could he not be angered? Even if Guan Yu was his benefactor, he could only take so much.
"Are you coming or not?!" Guan Yu shouted as he did not halt his steps.
"Of course I'm coming along too!" Qi Jiguang's manhood was just called into question. How could he ever suffer that kind of humiliation by standing back and doing nothing? Even if he was in a weakened state, he would not allow for his pride to also weaken.
When Guan Yu and Qi Jiguang reached the area where the explosion took place, they saw a crater that was at least 15 meters wide and 1.5 meters deep.
"Someone is there." Guan Yu said as he noticed a figure hidden away by the smoke. He could hear the sound of constant coughing as the smoke slowly began to clear away.
"Another failure!" A voice sounded out from within the smoke. It was one that Guan Yu instantly recognized. He put away his guandao which surprised Qi Jiguang who was still on guard.
"You can relax. This is someone I came to the Chaotic Dogma Realm with." Guan Yu said.
Qi Jiguang frowned, "Someone you came here with? What are they doing inside of that crater?"
Guan Yu shrugged. How should he know the answer to that question?
"Oh? Is that Guan Yu? Have you come to heroically rescue me?" The voice at the center of the crater said as the smoke finally cleared away.
The individual who stood at the center of the crater was none other than Valentine!
"Save you? How am I supposed to save you from yourself?" Guan Yu shook his head.
When Qi Jiguang saw that the two of them really did know each other, he relaxed his guard a bit. However, he was still wary of the unknown player before him, even if they were a friend of Guan Yu.
Valentine eyes darted away, "Ah, were you separated from everyone else as well? That Chaotic Shift sure is troublesome." Valentine then set his gaze onto Qi Jiguang. "Oh? Boyfriend?"
"Boyfriend your head! I told you that I like women! Women!" Guan Yu had an ugly expression on his face.
Qi Jiguang facial expression immediately darkened at that remark. If he were not in a weakened state, he probably would have instantly made a move. However, even if he was in a weakened state he could only endure so much before defending himself. "Do you dare to repeat that?!"
Valentine chuckled at their responses as he said, "A joke, just a joke." He did not expect them to take it so seriously.
"I wanted to test a few more things but... Ah well." Valentine let out a small sigh as he mumbled to himself.
"Then, shall we meet up with the others?" Valentine said with a small grin on his face.
Guan Yu was shocked by Valentine's words. Meet up with the others? Was that even possible?
"You have a way of finding them?" Guan Yu asked.