Volume 4, Chapter 0.1 – Prologue (Part 1)

Within the Lingyuan family estate,

After repelling Zhulan, the second-in-command of the Vassals of Sky, Ailiya returned to the estate together with Luo Fei. Due to fighting too fiercely with Zhulan, Luo Fei was covered in wounds and had nearly lost half his life. After giving Ailiya a few instructions, he was carried by a group of Lingyuan family doctors to the intensive care unit.

Obviously,

Luo Fei, who had fought with Zhulan for so long, had reached his physical limit.

Compared to Luo Fei, Ailiya was in relatively good condition.

Although her body had also suffered injuries in multiple places, perhaps because she had been supplementing essence from Lian for years, Ailiya’s body had gained certain characteristics of the Terrabond Lineage.

Namely, strong vitality and fast recovery.

Therefore,

After returning to the Lingyuan family, the wounds on Ailiya’s body had basically healed. As for the corrosive aura from Zhulan’s chains? That had no effect on Ailiya whatsoever.

However, while her body was fine,

Due to constantly overusing her Augury Force and employing illusions, the silver-haired girl’s mental state was quite exhausted.

After handing her father over to the doctors, Ailiya weakly leaned against a tree in the courtyard, pressing her temples and breathing heavily.

“Hah…”

While trying to recover her strength, the girl couldn’t help but cast her gaze around.

Although the threat from the Vassals of Sky no longer existed, the entire Lingyuan family was still in a tense and oppressive atmosphere. The reason was simple – the lady of the house, Madam Lianna, was still missing…

Led by Naro, the servants were frantically searching everywhere for Bai Lianyue.

Worried that their mistress might be kidnapped by ill-intentioned people during the chaos, Naro and others were extremely anxious.

Hmm,

That’s right,

After spending some time together, the Lingyuan family servants who deeply understood their mistress’s nature had already accepted the outrageous fact that their mistress could potentially be kidnapped at any time.

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“Madam!! Where are you?”

“Madam, please come out, we’ve prepared the latest blueberry cake!”

“Madam, we won’t force you to handle official duties anymore – you wouldn’t handle them anyway.”

“Could it be that Madam is hiding somewhere taking an afternoon nap again?”

“The Vassals of Sky just attacked us, how could Madam sleep?”

“That’s Madam Lianna we’re talking about? She could sleep in front of cages holding Corrupted Beasts. An attack from the Vassals of Sky on the northern territory is nothing… honestly, I feel like even if the Vassals of Sky killed their way into the estate, Madam could still sleep.”

The servants exchanged words while doing their utmost to search for traces of Bai Lianyue.

After taking in the conversation content of the maids and guards, even little Ailiya, who always wanted to maintain a cold expression, couldn’t help but twitch her eyebrows slightly.

“…”

Considering that after Lianyue came to the Lingyuan family,

She had done all sorts of strange and outrageous things…

Ailiya had once thought the Lingyuan family members would become suspicious? But in the end, nothing happened?

In the eyes of many Lingyuan family servants, Lianna had been affected by the enormous psychological pressure during her time in The Veiled Domain, causing some mental issues that made her become the current adorable yet somewhat childish version.

Although not being exposed was a good thing…

But being treated like a child…

Well,

That’s fine too~

Waving her hand, Ailiya sighed in resignation.

Just then, an elderly man in a suit with white hair and a monocle hurriedly came to Ailiya’s side:

“Young miss, we still haven’t found Madam. Do you have any clues? Places where Madam might go?”

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The anxious person making the inquiry was none other than Naro, the butler.

Seeing this,

Ailiya’s heart trembled.

As the evil god miss’s ‘adopted daughter’… although Bai Lianyue hadn’t told her anything before this operation either, she had already guessed where Bai Lianyue had gone.

She had definitely gone to the Kingdom of Qingyun to deal with the Celestial Blight.

After all, according to Sister Yelena, over the past thousand years, every time the Celestial and Abyssal evil gods tried to invade the human world on a large scale, they were stopped by Lianyue.

The method of stopping them was also simple—

Beat them back…

However, although she knew Lianyue’s true whereabouts, Ailiya naturally couldn’t tell Naro. So the silver-haired girl had to suppress the guilt in her heart and put on a thoughtful expression.

“As for Mom, could she possibly be at Aunt Potter’s coffee shop? Mom has been talking about the sweets there recently.”

“Coffee shop?”

Raising his hand to grasp his chin, Naro immediately nodded,

“I understand, that does sound like a place Madam would go. Miss Ailiya, please don’t worry, we will definitely find Madam!”

After making his promise to Ailiya,

Naro led several attendants rushing toward the estate’s exit.

“Phew~”

Seeing this, Ailiya breathed a slight sigh of relief.

However,

A trace of worry still inevitably appeared on Ailiya’s pretty face.

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Ailiya believed Lianyue could defeat the Celestial Blight.

Eight years ago, while protecting them, Lian had been able to repel Ulutiel. Now without any worries, Lianyue would definitely be able to smoothly deal with Ulutiel.

But…

The opponent was after all a terrifying existence on the same level as Lianyue. For Lianyue to win, she would have to unleash her curse power.

But once too much curse power was unleashed, Lianyue’s condition…

Thinking of this, Ailiya couldn’t help but anxiously clench her fists.

And at that very moment,

“Rustle~”

Some strange sounds quietly emerged from the nearby bushes.

“Hmm?”

Raising an eyebrow, Ailiya hurriedly cast her gaze to the side.

In the next moment,

A white Saint Bernard slowly emerged from the bushes.

Of course, this dog was Zhouyu in transformed form.

Ailiya had long grown accustomed to Dog Bro’s strange hobby of changing dog breeds every time he transformed into pet form. She was more curious about why Dog Bro had suddenly come here.

However,

As a peculiar bellflower fragrance entered her nostrils, Ailiya instantly realized something.

?!!

Then, under the silver-haired girl’s somewhat startled gaze, this white Saint Bernard, while emerging from the bushes, was also carrying a certain figure by the back of her collar, slowly dragging her out from the bushes. This figure was none other than the family head’s wife that the entire Lingyuan family was desperately searching for – their own little Lian!

“Eh?!! Lianyue?!”

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Although the scene of Bai Lianyue being dragged out by Dog Bro was quite absurd, Ailiya didn’t have time to focus on this point. Instead, she directly knelt beside Bai Lianyue, concernedly checking the evil god miss’s condition.

Strong unease uncontrollably spilled from the bottom of Ailiya’s heart. She had just fought the Celestial Blight, and now she was lying here unconscious? Was she severely injured? Or what was happening?

“Dog Bro, what happened to Lianyue? Why did she suddenly fall unconscious?”

The girl inquired with extreme anxiety.

Dog Bro naturally guessed what Ailiya was worrying about, so the dog quickly shook his head:

“Don’t worry too much, Ailiya. Big sister is fine. That Ulutiel didn’t cause any serious harm to big sister.”

“Then why is Lian unconscious?”

“Strictly speaking, it’s not unconsciousness… Big sister is just sleeping,” Dog Bro corrected.

“Sleeping?”

“Yes.”

The dog nodded.

“According to Yelena, this time in order to drive away Ulutiel, big sister completely exhausted all the energy reserves in her body, so she had no choice but to consume large amounts of soul power to suppress the curse power erosion within her body to ensure her consciousness remained clear. The result is that big sister’s soul power is also depleted, so she has to temporarily enter a dormant state. After all, you know, if she continued staying awake, big sister might become very dangerous.”

“So that’s how it is. This is the protective dormancy that Lian explained before…”

Ailiya sighed with complex emotions.

“Dog Bro, did Sister Yelena say how long Lian will sleep?”

“Not too sure, but she might sleep for quite a long time…”

“Quite a long time?”

“If it’s short, a few months. If it’s long… several years, or even decades are possible.”