Chapter 142: Immortal Life

Chapter 142: Chapter 142: Immortal Life

"..."

Leon hid the thoughts in his heart, revealing not a trace of emotion.

Suddenly, three figures appeared beside him.

The light was blocked. Leon looked at Phoenix and Evelyn who had just approached, the corner of his eye catching Lucius, who had snuggled up next to Jeremy at some unknown point.

"What are you doing?"

He flicked the bloodstains off his hands, stood up, and looked at the group.

Evelyn’s face was expressionless, her voice flat: "Didn’t you need to be comforted? I’ve thought of the words."

Unclear if he was touched or not, but Leon almost couldn’t react in time.

What the hell was "thought of the words". It wasn’t like they were acting in a comedy.

But was this a belatedly awakened compassion?

This scene was very bizarre. But what was even more bizarre was that he was truly a bit curious about what Evelyn would say next.

Leon’s gaze swept across her face.

Both her tone and demeanor didn’t seem like she was joking. Her expression remained as calm as usual.

Evelyn’s personality had nothing to do with the word "enthusiastic", but she wasn’t the type to be afraid of communication either.

Aside from Phoenix, she was the second most taciturn and composed person in the team.

Simultaneously also a cultivation addict; her level of madness in training was no less than Jeremy’s, sometimes even more.

He didn’t expect her to have such a... novel side.

Leon waited a long while but still didn’t see her open her mouth.

He couldn’t hold back: "Say it then. Didn’t you say you’ve thought of the words?"

Evelyn replied matter-of-factly: "Suddenly forgot them."

Leon: "...?"

Right as he was doubting whether he heard wrong or was being teased, a bouquet of flowers tied with a white ribbon was held out in front of him.

Leon instinctively lowered his eyes to look.

The flower’s color was dark blue like the seabed, but the stem bore a deathly silver-gray hue.

Like the only remaining spring on a parched land, struggling to revive beneath the dying sun.

"The Corpse Bone Flower symbolizes immortal life. Freedom heading towards death for rebirth." Evelyn’s voice was faint, offering no further explanation, just dropping a sentence: "A gift for you."

"..."

Leon’s expression went blank for a moment. Tens of thousands of things churning in his chest were pushed to the peak right at that instant.

He slowly lowered his eyes, his eyelashes casting a faint shadow beneath his eyelids, hiding a rare fluster.

He opened his mouth intending to say a word of thanks. But his throat felt as if choked by invisible vines; not a single syllable could escape.

"Not accepting it?"

Right as Evelyn was about to retract her hand, Leon reached out and grabbed her wrist.

His voice choked up inexplicably: "...I didn’t say I wasn’t accepting it."

His usual arrogance and laziness vanished cleanly, leaving only an imperceptibly hoarse tone, along with emotions he couldn’t hide.

Evelyn said nothing, her gaze pausing on her tightly gripped wrist.

Being touched made her slightly uncomfortable. She originally intended to pull back, but the corner of her eye caught a detail: the fingertips covering her wrist were trembling very faintly unconsciously.

Perhaps because he was trying to restrain his strength, the blue veins stood out clearly.

Looking closely, from the fingertips up to the wrist seemed to be dyed with a layer of flush.

"?"

Allergic to her?

Evelyn looked up at Leon, only to see his face, earlobes, and even his neck were flushed red.

...A mental state pushed to a certain threshold truly would cause an instantaneous burst of functional disorder.

Evelyn pulled her hand back and shoved the bouquet into his hand.

Phoenix, standing nearby, waited until the two finished talking before pushing a dark gray ancient book in front of Leon.

Leon cast a sealing spell on the bouquet, stored it in his spatial ring, then accepted the book and skimmed through it quickly.

The pages only contained a few lines of obscure ancient text. But during the first semester, Griffin had crammed them with ways to decipher all kinds of languages, so reading comprehension wasn’t difficult.

The contents were all related to primordial divine beasts.

But why pull this out out of nowhere? Divine beasts couldn’t possibly appear in a minor secret realm like this, let alone primordial divine beasts.

While Leon was still puzzled, Phoenix’s pale finger pointed at the bloody magic array in the middle of the page, speaking succinctly: "If you find a primordial divine beast covenant, you might be able to use the soul pact to forcibly sever the blood pact’s backlash."

Primordial divine beast...

The corner of Leon’s mouth curled up slightly.

Although very grateful that he was willing to put in the effort, the underlying meaning of that sentence was: the probability of finding a primordial divine beast covenant is even higher than the probability of you beating Kathy.

It probably meant that.

Leon chuckled, following his words: "Thanks. I’ll try to find it."

The last time a primordial divine beast appeared was ten thousand years ago. And even if they did show themselves, they chose their masters with absurdly strict requirements.

The astrologers of the Magic Tower had also calculated the time for the divine beasts’ next descent. Roughly a hundred thousand years from now.

This point hadn’t been publicized yet. But there was no need to lay his cards on the table at this moment.

Leon returned the book to Phoenix.

Regardless of the outcome... everything that happened today, he engraved it all.

Jeremy, standing nearby, took in the interactions between the two entirely.

A few months ago, they were thrown into a detention cell because of fighting — or standing by and watching without intervening. Now, managing to reach this step could be considered a spectacular turnaround.

He stood up, summoned a stream of water to wash his bloodstained hands, threw another cleansing spell on himself, then finally looked at Lucius beside him.

His condition these past few days was truly very strange.

Since the blizzard at the glacier river that day, he would occasionally fall into absentmindedness.

Still clinging to him as always, but recently much more well-behaved — at least there wasn’t much physical contact anymore.

Like right now, for instance.

He had walked over beside him a while ago, but didn’t snuggle up immediately as usual, merely standing there.

Furthermore... he was clearly spacing out again.

Jeremy stepped in front of him, waving his hand: "Your condition recently isn’t right. Are your internal injuries still not fully healed?"

As the voice rang out, Lucius snapped back to reality.

The coldness in his eyes faded. When he looked up, they were already dyed with a smile, his eyes curving: "...Nothing. I just purely hate this place. I’m very afraid of the cold."

Very afraid of the cold...

His pale complexion was indeed very persuasive.

Mages reaching the fifth tier would possess a certain degree of immunity to the environment. But the group’s current realm was only at the Intermediate Stage; their temperature adaptability was merely slightly better than ordinary people.

Aside from the forest they first entered, which had a decent temperature, everywhere else in this secret realm was extremely cold.

Even though the ice and snow had melted, the temperature was still around negative twenty degrees.

To conceal their identities, they didn’t wear uniforms but casual clothes.

And Lucius, up until now, was still only wearing a thin white shirt. It would be strange if he wasn’t cold.

Jeremy took a thick fur cloak from his space and handed it over: "Put it on."

The exit of the secret realm still hadn’t opened, proving the Caelum Jade at the bottom of the sea still hadn’t changed owners.

During this period, who knows what other dangers might strike. If he got sick from the cold, it would be troublesome.

While Jeremy was busy justifying his actions, Lucius looked at the white fox fur cloak in front of him. His tail unconsciously wagged. But his face put on a forced expression:

"I am a fox now. How could the captain give me this."

Jeremy: "?"

Without waiting for him to reply, he continued: "Besides, the captain is much shorter than me. It probably won’t fit."

After speaking, he even raised his hand to measure their heights.

The expression on Jeremy’s face vanished cleanly. The sliver of affection that had just kindled extinguished in an instant.

He retracted his hand, mocking: "Just freeze to death and be done with it. Besides, you’re not that much taller, skinny as a stick insect."

Lucius: "?"

A feeling of disbelief surged up. A feeling of indignation churned in an instant. He gave a cold snort, stepping closer.

He took the fox fur cloak from Jeremy’s hand, draped it over his own shoulders, then grabbed Jeremy’s hand, pressing it flat against his own abdomen.

Then he smiled, his fox tail wrapping around Jeremy’s waist.

"Am I a stick insect?"