Chapter 126: Niuniu Arrives

“Uh... Niuniu? Come here, give me a kiss!”

Only after roaring in fury did Kent turn around and notice the bizarre pair standing behind him.

Niuniu was carrying Big Nose, whose body was several times larger than her own. The sight was so absurd that it was almost impossible not to laugh.

But the moment Kent realized that the newcomers were Niuniu and Big Nose, excitement surged through him.

He had always known that Niuniu was far from an ordinary familiar, but he had never imagined that she would actually be able to make her way all the way down into the underground world.

Overcome with relief and happiness, Kent grabbed Niuniu and planted a kiss on her cheek.

Bang!

Niuniu had been completely distracted by the priceless high-level materials scattered around the altar and had never expected Kent to launch such a surprise attack.

By the time she recovered from her shock, Kent had already moved on and was enthusiastically tormenting Big Nose.

A glistening smear of Kent’s saliva still remained on Niuniu’s cheek.

Her little face instantly darkened.

Furious, she raised a tiny fist and punched Kent straight in the face.

Even so, Niuniu knew better than to use her full strength. She merely intended to teach him a lesson.

At most, she expected to give him a bloody nose.

“Hah! You little thing, you still think you can bully me?”

Kent only felt a faint itch in his nose.

That sensation immediately reminded him of the miserable days he had once spent under Niuniu’s supervision.

Back then, Kent’s life had been little different from that of an elementary-school child. He had practically possessed no freedom—or dignity—whatsoever.

Even so, he was deeply grateful to Niuniu.

She had done far too much for him over the years for him ever to forget it.

So when Kent saw Niuniu momentarily frozen in surprise, he reached out, grabbed her, and kissed her over and over again.

After all, his current body was nothing like the weak one he had possessed before.

Nearly ten bottles of dragon blood, combined with countless priceless magical plants and rare materials, had been used to temper his flesh.

If all that had failed to produce extraordinary results, there truly would have been no justice in the world.

“AAAAAAAAH!”

Realizing that she was now practically covered in Kent’s saliva, Niuniu let out an ear-piercing scream.

She waved one small hand.

A gigantic hammer of radiant light instantly materialized above Kent’s head and smashed downward.

BOOM!

BOOM!

BOOM!

BOOM!

Several thunderous impacts shook the chamber.

At last, the enormous hammer shattered into countless motes of light and vanished.

Kent, however, was still standing exactly where he had been.

The only visible result was that the obsidian beneath his feet had cracked apart in every direction.

“I’ll kiss you again! I’m telling you, I’m going to kiss you no matter how hard you hit me!”

Kent pulled both legs free from the shattered obsidian and immediately reached toward Niuniu again, threatening her with another round of kisses.

“AAAAAH!”

Niuniu was on the verge of losing her mind.

The spell she had just used was no ordinary attack.

It was the Holy Light Hammer, a Level Eight single-target Light spell.

Even a Level Seven magical beast would struggle to endure more than a few direct hits from it.

Yet the Level Three mage standing in front of her had taken the entire attack as though nothing had happened.

When Niuniu saw Kent reaching for her again, she hurriedly flew upward before he could grab her.

“What happened to you? Don’t tell me...”

Only then did Niuniu finally notice the enormous altar.

Her gaze swept over the dozens of empty bottles and jars scattered everywhere.

Then she suddenly remembered all the priceless materials she had just collected.

Understanding dawned on her face.

Meanwhile, Kent tugged awkwardly at the robe hanging from his body.

It was far too large for him, and he had no idea where the mask-faced creature had stolen it from.

He had been too tense earlier to notice, but now that he had finally relaxed, the oversized robe suddenly felt uncomfortable in every possible way.

As Kent adjusted it, he began recounting everything that had happened since he entered the underground world.

Niuniu listened with her mouth hanging open in astonishment.

In truth, the soul contract between her and Kent only allowed them to sense whether the other was in mortal danger.

At such a great distance, almost nothing else could be transmitted through the bond.

When Kent mentioned Pick, the little pig, Niuniu’s eyes immediately lit up.

And when he spoke the words “Angel’s Heart,” the very same heart suddenly appeared in Niuniu’s hand.

Her small face instantly filled with excitement.

“You little glutton. How did you manage to get this fat? And how is Dailis doing?”

Kent stroked Big Nose’s smooth fur and plump, fleshy body.

Big Nose, however, was far too busy with the ruined magic array on the altar to pay much attention to him.

The array had originally been engraved with large quantities of rare magical metals. Now that the entire formation had been destroyed, those materials were essentially useless for their original purpose.

Big Nose clearly did not see it that way.

He was enthusiastically gnawing away at the shattered remains of the magic array.

Hearing Kent’s question, he merely glanced sideways at him with his tiny eyes, nodded once, and then lowered his head to continue eating.

Kent was left thoroughly speechless.

“Didn’t you say there was also a ring? Where is it?”

Seeing that Kent no longer seemed intent on tormenting her, Niuniu finally gathered enough courage to perch on his shoulder.

Unfortunately, the very first thing she asked nearly made Kent jump.

“Sorry, but I’m only keeping it safe for someone else.”

Kent immediately tightened one hand around the spatial ring.

Then, with his other hand, he held out his staff toward Niuniu and pointed to the pale mist trapped within the Life Stone at its tip.

“See? The owner is right here.”

Niuniu glanced at the trapped soul, then suddenly put on an unusually tempting expression.

“Would you like to advance to the next level quickly? I happen to know a very good method.”

The little devil’s wings seemed almost to spread behind her as she tried to lure him in.

“No.”

Kent rejected her without the slightest hesitation.

“I’d rather cultivate properly on my own. It’s safer that way.”

Kent might look like a teenage boy on the outside, but in truth, he had once been a perfectly experienced homebody from an age overflowing with information.

How could he possibly fail to understand what Niuniu was trying to do?

Niuniu was furious.

The problem was that she genuinely had an important use for that spatial ring—one connected to her own race.

But she could not explain the matter openly.

After thinking for a moment, she tried again.

“I only want to look inside and see whether there’s a certain material I need. I’ll trade you a bottle of dragon blood for it. I promise I won’t take your spatial ring, or anything else inside it.”

“The dragon blood was mine to begin with,” Kent immediately protested. “And so was that Angel’s Heart. And there was also—”

“Everything else is negotiable.”

Niuniu cut him off before he could finish.

“But the Angel’s Heart is absolutely, positively, under no circumstances going back to you.”

Her answer was firm and decisive.

She even puffed out her cheeks and glared at Kent as though daring him to argue.

“In that case, return everything else first. Then we can discuss the rest.”

Kent immediately demanded an outrageous price.

He knew perfectly well that Niuniu was a tiny miser when it came to treasure.

There was no way she would surrender everything without a fight.

“Fine! Take them!”

Niuniu was so angry that she wanted nothing more than to beat the infuriating bastard in front of her until he could no longer take care of himself.

Unfortunately, even the Level Eight single-target Light spell, Holy Light Hammer, had failed to knock Kent unconscious.

There was little point in trying anything weaker.

With an irritated wave of her tiny hand, most of the treasures she had collected earlier suddenly appeared in front of Kent.

“All right.”

Kent looked over the returned materials with satisfaction.

“You can examine the ring. But you have to tell me what you want it for.”

He was also extremely curious about what Niuniu intended to do with the Angel’s Heart, so he immediately added another condition.

“Fine.”

Niuniu gritted her teeth.

“Anyway, the two of us are bound by a soul contract, so I suppose there’s no point hiding it from you.”

She paused.

“I’m going to use the Angel’s Heart to resurrect an angel.”

“Resurrect...”

Kent blinked.

“Resurrect an... an angel?”

Bang!

His eyes rolled back, and he collapsed straight onto the floor.

His face met the ground with a heavy thud.

Niuniu stared at him blankly for a moment.

Then her eyes lit up.

“Oh! My ring!”

Without the slightest concern for the unconscious Kent, she immediately pried open his tightly clenched fingers and snatched away the spatial ring forged from Star Sand.

“Yes!”

The moment Niuniu laid eyes on the ring, however, her excitement turned into astonishment.

Her eyes widened dramatically.

According to the inherited memories of her race, Star Sand was an extraordinarily valuable material even in the Divine Realm.

And the entire spatial ring in her hands had been forged from it.

Kent stared at Niuniu and, for a moment, felt as though he were looking at a complete stranger.

Just now, Niuniu had explained the matter of resurrecting an angel to him—or rather, she had dismissed the entire subject with a single sentence.

“It’s a secret of my race. Knowing too much won’t do you any good. Besides, even if I explained it, would you understand?”

“How much longer will it take before the resurrection can actually succeed?”

It took Kent quite a while to recover from that answer before he finally asked.

“We already have most of the essential materials. What we lack now is a place where Light-element energy is extremely concentrated.”

Niuniu spoke while staring intently at the soul creature trapped inside Kent’s staff.

“There is one place that would be perfect. The only question is whether you have the courage to go there.”

“Forget it. My life is more important.”

The moment Kent heard that tone, he instinctively shrank back.

With that, he turned around and started walking away without hesitation.

Niuniu’s cheeks immediately puffed up in anger.

She glared at Kent’s retreating back and shouted,

“Don’t forget that you and I are bound by a soul contract! If I die, you die too!”

Strictly speaking, Niuniu’s statement was not entirely accurate.

Under a soul contract, if the party with the stronger soul died, the weaker party would indeed die as well.

However, if the weaker party died first, the stronger soul would usually survive.

But survival did not mean escaping unharmed.

The stronger party would still suffer severe damage to the soul itself. Such an injury could have disastrous consequences for future cultivation and could even drastically shorten one’s lifespan.

That was precisely why soul contracts possessed such terrifying binding power.

Kent stopped.

His shoulders sagged.

After a moment, he turned around with a miserable expression.

“Fine. What place?”