Chapter 167: Niuniu Returns 2

Kent let out a long sigh.

“Oh, my little ancestor... that place is not something you casually provoke. People call it the Church of Light when they’re being polite. Put less politely, they’re practically a pack of fanatics.”

There was nothing Kent could do about Niuniu now, but the moment he thought about the place she had gone, his heart tightened.

The Church of Light was no ordinary organization.

It was one of the true giants of the continent.

Niuniu, however, seemed completely unconcerned.

“I didn’t steal anything,” she said casually. “I just accidentally damaged one of their magic formations and happened to break something along the way.”

She snorted indignantly.

“And they were so petty about it! Three Legendary experts came after us.”

“Ah... ah...”

Kent stared at her.

“You destroyed their magic formation. Isn’t it perfectly reasonable for them to chase you?”

Then he rubbed his chin.

“Still, your luck really was something. Three Legendary experts at once... that’s quite a welcome.”

In truth, Kent was not nearly as frightened by the three Legendary experts as he sounded.

He had already witnessed firsthand just how terrifying Domain-level experts could be.

More importantly, he was currently deep in the Underdark.

The Church of Light might be enormously powerful, but this place was far beyond its immediate reach.

Niuniu frowned.

Something about Kent’s reaction felt wrong.

“You’re not afraid the Church will come after you?”

She stared at him suspiciously.

“Those were three Legendary experts!”

“Afraid of what?”

Kent immediately puffed out his chest.

“I’m in the Underdark now. I’ve got a Legendary expert on my side too, and I’m not exactly without ways to save my own life.”

Then his expression abruptly changed.

“But seriously... you went all the way into the Church of Light and didn’t manage to bring anything back?”

Niuniu rolled her eyes.

“No.”

Then she added, as though it were nothing important, “But I did smash their divine statue.”

Kent blinked.

He had been about to continue lecturing her, but the second half of that sentence brought him to an abrupt halt.

“You... what?”

His eyes widened.

“You mean the statue of the Lord of Light in the Holy City?”

Niuniu nodded.

Kent stared at her in disbelief.

The colossal statue of the Lord of Light in the Holy City of the Empire of Light was famous across the entire continent.

And she had destroyed it?

Just like that?

Kent suddenly understood the full scale of the disaster.

This was no longer a matter of damaging a magic formation.

Niuniu had effectively slapped the Church of Light across the face in front of the entire world.

Whatever hostility existed between them before had now become an irreconcilable blood feud.

For a brief moment, Kent genuinely wanted to strangle her.

There had to be limits to everything.

As far as he had been concerned, damaging a magic formation was hardly an unsolvable problem.

At worst, they could compensate the Church or repair it.

Kent specialized in precisely that sort of thing.

But this?

The statue of the Lord of Light?

Kent felt his scalp begin to tingle.

The Church of Light had tens of millions of believers.

And now, in all likelihood, every last one of them would be perfectly happy to hunt him down.

Kent no longer knew what to say.

He could only stare silently at Niuniu.

“I didn’t mean to,” Niuniu said, looking thoroughly wronged.

In reality, of course, she had simply found the statue irritating and smashed it on purpose.

There was another reason behind her actions as well.

But that was something Kent was not supposed to know.

Kent waved a hand helplessly.

“Forget it.”

“At this point, maybe we really should just settle down in the Underdark and stay here.”

Then he began counting on his fingers.

“Let me think.”

“Big Nose caused chaos inside the Mages’ Guild Headquarters.”

“You went and turned the Church of Light upside down.”

He looked increasingly aggrieved.

“But those were things the two of you did!”

“What does any of this have to do with me?”

Kent threw up his hands.

“I don’t want to spend the next few hundred years hiding in some sunless hole because of you two.”

Unfortunately, complaining changed nothing.

Niuniu had already signed a soul contract with him.

Even if Kent wanted to throw her away, he could not.

And the more he thought about it, the more wronged he felt.

What exactly had he done?

He had barely caused any trouble himself.

Yet somehow, without even trying, he had managed to offend two of the most powerful factions on the entire continent.

The Mages’ Guild.

The Church of Light.

And worse still, these were not minor grudges that could be settled with a few apologies or a pile of gold.

They were the kind of feuds that could not simply be erased.

Kent could only sit there and wonder how his life had become this ridiculous.

Niuniu’s eyes suddenly lit up when she heard Kent’s complaints.

“Wait. Didn’t you register with the Mages’ Guild Headquarters as a fire mage?”

She looked at him as though the answer were obvious.

“As long as we don’t show ourselves, they won’t know anything. Even if you stood right in front of them, why would they ever suspect you?”

Kent froze.

Then he slapped his thigh.

“That’s right!”

He jumped to his feet, suddenly delighted.

“How did I not think of that?”

“I’m nothing more than a humble second-rank mage...”

He paused and reconsidered.

“Mm. Maybe third rank.”

Then a grin slowly spread across his face.

“And they’re looking for a spatial mage.”

He pointed proudly at himself.

“But I’m registered as a fire mage!”

“Heh heh...”

The more Kent thought about it, the better he felt.

Niuniu was right.

What did any of this have to do with him?

As far as the outside world was concerned, he was merely some young second-rank fire mage.

A mage of that level could probably stand directly in front of those powerful factions without attracting so much as a second glance.

And his age only made the disguise more convincing.

Who would ever imagine that someone so young could be the high-rank spatial mage everyone was hunting?

The thought filled Kent with relief.

Then his gaze dropped to the infant in his arms.

His expression immediately collapsed again.

“But the two of you will have to suffer a little.”

He glanced at Niuniu, then thought of Big Nose.

“And what am I supposed to do about this?”

The tiny girl in his arms was simply too conspicuous.

Those two pairs of pure white wings made hiding her identity almost impossible.

“I don’t know,” Niuniu replied casually.

Then she began edging away.

“I’m going to recover from my injuries.”

Before Kent could stop her, she added, “Oh, and don’t underestimate her just because she looks tiny.”

“She’ll grow very quickly. In just a few days, she’ll already be much bigger.”

Niuniu gave him a smug look.

“We angels aren’t like you humans.”

Kent’s eyes flickered.

But he pretended not to hear that last sentence.

“Wait.”

Niuniu stopped.

Kent reached into his spatial ring.

“I’ve got something interesting. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen one before.”

He pulled out the strange doorway he had brought back from the underground ruins.

As for Niuniu openly referring to herself as an angel, Kent chose not to question her.

He had suspected for a long time that she was no ordinary grass spirit.

Kent had already lived through two lifetimes.

If he still could not tell that Niuniu was profoundly unusual, then those two lives would have been wasted.

But whatever she truly was, she had already formed a soul contract with him.

That alone meant their fates were connected.

As for why a creature supposedly belonging to the divine realms had fallen into such a low-level plane...

It was not that Kent lacked curiosity.

He simply understood that there were some truths he was not yet powerful enough to know.

So he had no intention of forcing Niuniu to explain herself.

And if she had gone to such lengths to resurrect this angel, then she was probably preparing for something important.

That only made Kent more certain that he needed to tell her about the dimensional space.

After all, from the moment they had met, Niuniu had never truly harbored any ill intent toward him.

Niuniu stared at the strange door Kent had taken out.

At first glance, it looked like nothing more than an oddly shaped slab.

But after studying it carefully, her expression changed.

A tremendously complex magic formation had been built into the entire structure.

Niuniu said nothing.

Kent activated it.

A familiar spatial fluctuation immediately spread through the air.

Niuniu’s eyes widened.

“A teleportation array!”

“Exactly.”

Kent nodded.

“I found it by accident.”

“There’s an enormous dimensional space on the other side. But there’s also a puppet inside, and that thing is ridiculously powerful, so—hey! At least let me finish!”

Before Kent could complete his warning, Niuniu had already darted straight through the gate.

Kent cursed under his breath and hurried after her.

The moment he stepped into the dimensional space, he heard Niuniu’s excited cry.

“So many magical plants!”

Kent looked over and nearly rolled his eyes.

Apparently, Niuniu was every bit as greedy for treasure as he was.

She shot into the air and flew rapidly over the surrounding land, circling the area once before descending again.

When she landed in front of Kent, her expression was filled with satisfaction.

“I like this place.”

She pointed toward the distant puppet.

“And that puppet didn’t attack me just now.”

“So I’ve decided.”

“From now on, I’m going to cultivate here.”

Kent raised an eyebrow.

Niuniu continued enthusiastically.

“A dimensional space like this has many advantages.”

“First, it can completely isolate the mental scans of powerful experts from the outside world.”

“And second, look at all these rare magical plants.”

Her eyes gleamed.

“This place is practically perfect for me.”

Then she frowned slightly.

“My inherited memories don’t contain much information about dimensional spaces.”

“But there’s one thing I’m certain of.”

She looked around the vast realm once more.

“Whoever created this dimensional space was no weaker than the divine rank.”