On the scorched earth of the northwest district of South Wantina, pure rising air currents constantly made the flames dance, as if casting ripples in the silence of the night, and the man's voice followed.

"You want to fight me?"

Like a soft murmur, yet also like a thunderous decree.

Lan Qi's otherworldly, compassionate gaze swept over Salomon, and then looked at the decayed alchemy beast, seemingly not taking them seriously at all, merely observing the flow of the wind, and speaking his mind.

In either sense, the only certainty was—

Whoever fought him would have the same result.

"No, Loren, you can't kill me..."

The magic of Salomon, the Holy Son of Destruction, ceased, as if wanting to completely conceal his aura and existence, his face gradually turning gloomy.

He looked at the battlefield.

The eighth-order decayed alchemy beast created by Farmer, the Decayed Bishop, was slightly stronger than that gray-haired eighth-order woman, and although he was far from being her opponent, supplementing the decayed alchemy beast with control made it quite fatal to her.

After the fight just now, the decayed alchemy beast's energy had been consumed by a good portion, and he had taken several eighth-order curse counter-attacks, so his condition was already very poor.

If it were just another ordinary eighth-order opponent, he might not dare to fight to the death.

But Loren, that monster, could handle three decayed alchemy beasts without any problem!

The only one who could contend with a Great High Priest was a Cardinal in full condition!

"Let's make a deal. Don't let those Destruction High Priests in the city-state kill innocent people. Withdraw them all, and I won't pursue you anymore."

Lan Qi sighed, with a hint of distress and weariness. Even when facing the Holy Son of Destruction, he wanted to use love to redeem him; his love was limitless.

"But if you challenge me, I guarantee you will die miserably in South Wantina today, and even experience far more fear before your death than a Destruction Bishop could ever give you."

Lan Qi's eyes seemed to see far into the distance, and he was also saying that he did not want this scene to happen.

"What are you talking about?"

The eyes of Salomon, the Holy Son of Destruction, darted back and forth.

He didn't understand why Loren seemed to have seen through their plan, nor did he understand what Loren's ambiguous slang meant.

But at this moment, Salomon actually felt that Loren wasn't lying to him, but was sincerely doing it for his own good, or declaring his impending fate.

The noble Great High Priest of the Church of the Goddess of Fate wouldn't do something like bullying a Holy Son; otherwise, Loren would have personally annihilated the Holy Sons and Holy Daughters under the command of the Cardinals of the Southern Continent long ago.

The fact that an eighth-order powerhouse of the Great High Priest's status would painstakingly personally kill Holy Sons and Holy Daughters would only lead the Cardinals to begin frantically and unscrupulously hunting low-level priests.

This was, to some extent, the balance and compromise that Loren had chosen.

Salomon understood this.

Although every half-second of hesitation reduced his chances of escape by several percent, he also had to consider whether he really had a chance to escape.

At this moment, he had two choices: either use the means of confrontation to buy himself time to escape with the decayed alchemy beast, which could hold Loren off for a while, and those High Priests could also indiscriminately kill in the city and would self-destruct at any time, which Loren couldn't ignore, all of which would buy him plenty of time to escape.

Or, he could believe that Loren would really let him run, give up resisting, and run directly.

If he chose the former, although the initiative was in his own hands, Loren wouldn't care about anything anymore and would go all out. It was he, Salomon, who had initiated the challenge first, so Loren couldn't be blamed for bullying the weak if he retaliated and killed him.

At this point, Salomon's eyebrows trembled slightly, as if he had understood something.

"The Great High Priest's words... won't be broken, right?"

Salomon swallowed and dared to ask.

He had heard that Loren was a kind person to the point of being almost foolish, a point that even the Destruction Bishop and the Decayed Bishop laughingly agreed with.

"Of course. Just don't let that alchemy beast move anymore."

Lan Qi nodded.

The gaze he directed at Salomon was still so calm, as if he had never regarded a mere Holy Son of Destruction as an opponent; it was the gaze of a god looking down on insignificant humans.

"Good."

The chill coming from his spine made Salomon twist his body and escape from this scorched hell at the fastest speed, breaking through the gale and quickly blending into the night.

A long time later.

He had distanced himself by several kilometers.

Salomon landed in the dark alleys of South Wantina, restrained his magic, turned into an ordinary pedestrian, and walked forward alone, not giving Loren a chance to sense him.

At this moment, Salomon was certain that he had successfully escaped.

"Thank you, Great High Priest Loren..."

Salomon murmured sincerely.

In the shadows.

The corners of his mouth kept twitching, almost unable to hold back his laughter.

No matter how he thought about it, running first was the more appropriate choice. Once he was safe, he would order those High Priests to start indiscriminately killing in the city-state, at which point Loren couldn't ignore it.

Once Loren was foolishly lured away, Miss Hyperion would no longer have that eighth-order woman protecting her, and her life-saving trump card would have been used up, and she would fall into true danger under the lights.

Loren was just an intruder as the guardian of the Kingdom of Houton, not Hyperion's exclusive guardian. For him, the safety of the people of the Kingdom of Houton was the most important thing.

At that time, as long as the High Priests launched another surprise attack, Miss Hyperion would be doomed.

Salomon's wildly beating heart told him that, fortunately, his opponent today was a foolishly benevolent person like Loren, not some perverted psychopath.

Unfortunately, benevolence came at a price.

Tonight, he would give Loren a lesson.

The tuition.

Would be something that Loren would remember for the rest of his life.

Salomon's eyes gradually darkened.

Finally, he let out a laugh.

…

Northwest district of South Wantina, the Path of the Guardian, the surrounding residences were all shattered, as if they had just experienced a war.

After a long time.

"..."

Lan Qi looked in the direction where the Holy Son of Destruction, Salomon, had fled in panic until he completely disappeared, and a faint smile appeared on his face.

"Meow meow meow! Tata!"

Cat Boss instantly emerged from the shadows and flew over to slowly heal Talia. Although it couldn't figure out why Tata was so strong, reaching the eighth-order, it couldn't care less. Even with its magic power bottoming out, it was desperately casting healing spells on Tata.

Lan Qi was relieved to see that Tata was still awake.

Originally, if he hadn't intervened, Hyperion and the Duke's family would have all died, and Tata might have turned to the dark side and obtained the Ancient Demon artifact, the Compassionate Poems, becoming a terrifying ninth-order Great Demon in a distant timeline.

But now, she seemed to have been spoiled and hadn't obtained her biggest cheat, the Compassionate Poems. In a year's time, she hadn't shown any signs of becoming stronger, and the only change might have been that she had gained a little bit of weight.

"..."

Talia lay on the ground, looked at Lan Qi, tilted her head and glanced at him, but didn't have the strength to say anything, so she simply lay flat.

"You finally scared him away, that was close..."

Hyperion leaned against Lan Qi's chest and held her breath for a long time, finally daring to breathe a sigh of relief.

She knew that Lan Qi was playing psychological warfare again, taking a risky step to scare away the Holy Son of Destruction, Salomon!

"Huh? I didn't scare him."

Lan Qi looked down at Hyperion in confusion.

"Huh?"

Hyperion also stared at Lan Qi in a daze.

"If he dared to fight me just now, he would really be dead."

Lan Qi replied matter-of-factly.

"..."

Hyperion suddenly understood a little.

The Three Illusory Demons should be on Lan Qi now. After discovering the Destruction High Priests in South Wantina, the first thing he did was to summon the three Great Demons from Yikelite.

Wait.

Then, according to Hyperion's understanding of Lan Qi, he was guaranteed to win no matter what, and he had even induced Salomon to choose to escape, so what was waiting for Salomon next?

"Lan Qi, you shouldn't be doing anything that loses a lot of merit today, right... I haven't accumulated much merit recently..."

Hyperion was clearly very close to Lan Qi, but her timid voice was so soft that he could barely hear her.

(End of this chapter)