Chapter 553: Uninvited Guest_2

The Trial World was not entirely devoid of life. Just like the Material Realm, it had humans and various ordinary creatures.

In fact, the Saints of old were tormented by their decision to teleport the Fallen Divine Servants, the Witch Demon King, the Undead Knights, and others to this world. They knew this world also teemed with living beings. However, after considering that it was a Magicless World, among other factors, they ultimately decided to proceed with the plan.

Later, they sent Holy Knights to help the natives cleanse the world of evil. Unfortunately, a great upheaval occurred several thousand years ago, and this place was completely abandoned.

This world was divided into five major regions, one of which was the Boundary Land. Each region was about the same size as the Northern Territory of Debei.

Moreover, this was truly a world with a round sky and a square earth. But the sun in the sky was no different from the one in the Material Realm. If one had to point out a distinction, it would be that the sun here was as large as a carriage wheel, seeming close enough to touch.

This was one reason the Lord was starting to believe the Holy Light Church’s claim that this world was created by the Holy Light Goddess. It was a display of unimaginable power.

…

Heading east, two tigers with upward-slanting eyes and white foreheads—subdued by the Lord with “reason”—served as mounts, trekking across the land. Everything here was so primitive that some areas had no roads at all, making their progress slow.

Levi and Fatir had been traveling through the Boundary Land for seven or eight days.

Along the way, they hadn’t seen any more of the monsters they encountered at the start. They occasionally ran into some familiar beasts, but after a sincere inspection by his stomach, they were confirmed to be just ordinary animals.

This led the Lord, who possessed a normal level of intelligence, to suspect that thing had been specifically guarding the Teleport Anchor Point, ready to ambush anyone who came through. It just didn’t expect to run into an absolute badass like him and ended up getting killed off on the spot.

In fact, it died so quickly that Levi didn’t even get a sense of its strength. It felt no different from any other low-life he’d killed before.

But for now, none of that mattered. At the edge of his vision, a magnificent structure had faintly appeared. According to Fatir, that was Zijing City of the Boundary Land, named for the *zijing* flowers that grew all around it. Most of the humans in the Boundary Land lived there.

They would be meeting people soon. Whether it was for better or for worse, the thought eased the hardships of the Lord’s journey—it meant he could finally ask someone about the situation in this world.

Besides, he had no clues about the so-called “trial.” Whenever he asked Fatir, he got the same old speech about how the Goddess would provide guidance when the time came.

Frustrated by this, the Lord often took to teasing the Goddess’s Saintess along the way, a form of collecting a little interest from the Holy Light Goddess herself. It wasn’t that Levi was trying to be a pervert just because they were a lone man and woman in the vast, empty wilderness.

It was more that she often flirted back, but it was all talk. When it came to actually doing anything, she’d chicken out.

Frankly, if Little Buji weren’t around, he would have already made his move, afraid of corrupting the kid. He would have shown Fatir exactly why the flowers are so red.

Zijing City stood on the highest point, and a statue of the Goddess—hands held to her chest, her face full of compassion for the world—was gradually coming into view. But as they drew closer, their hearts sank.

The setting sun cast a golden glow, but it couldn’t bring a single trace of life to the ruined city before them.

The city, with its dozens-of-meters-high walls, was in a state of utter decay. Thick vines crawled over every corner. Tall buildings had collapsed everywhere as if from an unimaginable war, with very few still standing.

“Worri! Where the hell did everyone go? Don’t tell me they all turned into Undead!!!” Levi cursed out loud.

“Levi, it’s almost night. Don’t talk about the Undead!” Fatir’s faint voice sounded.

Looking at the decaying Zijing City, the Lord couldn’t help but shiver and quickly changed the subject. “Let’s find a clean spot inside to set up camp. We can look for clues while we’re at it. I refuse to believe a city this big has nothing left!”

The two of them walked in through the city gates. Indeed, few things can withstand the power of time. Most of the wooden houses had weathered away, but they eventually found a relatively intact Tudor-style house built of brick and stone.

The house was located at the highest point of Zijing City, offering a rough overlook of the entire area, so they chose it as their campsite.

The furniture inside had weathered into dust, but fortunately, the Lord was prepared. He took a special-made tent directly from his item inventory and placed it in the center of the house.

For the past few days, this tent had been their salvation for camping in the wild, allowing the three of them to get a good night’s sleep together.

Actually, the Lord had two tents, but he claimed they were being “frugal,” saving the other as a backup in case the first one got damaged.

So, he and Fatir had been sleeping in the same tent this whole time. Of course, they didn’t do anything else. They just slept.

“This is your reward.”

With nothing else to do, Levi tossed half a bear carcass in front of the two plump tigers with upward-slanting eyes and white foreheads.

He had run into these two on the road. When he saw the character for “king” () on their foreheads, he felt an instant kinship and subdued them with “reason,” making them his Left and Right Guardians.

They not only served as mounts to save him the trouble of walking, but also stood guard while he slept.

After all, Magic couldn’t be used in this world, so the beasts’ keen senses were more than enough to serve as sentinels.

The two tigers, each at least one and a half meters tall at the shoulder, were clearly a male and a female. They let out a low growl, a hint of resignation in their eyes, but began tearing into the plump bear meat on the ground.

If, at first, they were merely forced to follow this two-legged beast, now they were on the verge of puking from being overfed…

By now, the sun had just sunk below the horizon, and the sky had grown dark. The Lord took out a grill right outside the wooden house, preparing for a barbecue party.

Heaven and earth are vast, but eating is vaster. No matter the problem, one needed a full stomach to have the energy to solve it.

Skewers of meat sizzled over the charcoal, dripping with fat. As Old Li sprinkled on his secret spices, a fragrant aroma filled the air. Little Buji clutched its stomach, drooling. Its little white feet stomped restlessly on Levi’s shoulder as it kept asking:

“Father, can we eat yet?”

“Not yet.”

“Father, ca-can we eat now?”

“Still not ready.”

“Father, ca-ca-can we eat now?”

“Now you can.”

“Yay!”

The three of them ate with gusto. Even Fatir forgot her manners, her mouth glistening with grease.

“*Hic.*” The Lord let out a satisfied burp after downing a bottle of malt liquor. ‘A little barbecue at night, life is pretty damn good.’

But just then, an inopportune sound broke the silence.

GURGLE GURGLE~

The three of them exchanged glances. It was clearly the sound of a hungry stomach, but all three had eaten their fill. There was no way the sound came from them.

“Levi, it couldn’t be… an Undead, could it?!” Fatir whispered.

“Do you think Undead get hungry?” Levi retorted, exasperated. Then he bellowed a line from a Far East stage play: “What cowardly rat hides in the shadows? Show yourself!”

The person hiding in the darkness obviously knew they’d been discovered and immediately fled. Sounds came from two different directions at once.

“Levi, let’s split up and chase them!” Fatir drew her Longsword in a flash, ready to give pursuit.

The Saintess showed an indescribable decisiveness.

“Split up? Like hell! That scumbag is trying to pick us off one by one.” Levi swept her up by the waist and chose a direction to pursue.

Splitting up was always the dumbest thing the hero’s party did in Knightly Novels, especially when it involved a beautiful girl like Fatir. The Lord, a connoisseur of *Ah Bin*, wasn’t falling for that trick.

As the Lord sprinted at full speed, the fleeing figure ahead got a firsthand taste of what “inhuman” meant. Even though it had a head start and was more familiar with the route, it was about to be overtaken in the blink of an eye.

“Gotcha!”

Suddenly, a ferocious laugh that could scare a crying child into silence came from ahead of it.

It turned around, stunned, only to be grabbed by the neck—the neck of its destiny—and lifted into the air.

“This…” Looking at the small figure before him, the Lord’s brow furrowed.