Seeing the vortex passage suddenly appear before him, Su Yuan was momentarily stunned…
What was this supposed to mean?
Why did the phantom soul figure he defeated suddenly turn into a whirlpool passage?
More importantly—where did this vortex lead to?
Could this passage really be the way back to the outside world—the method for him to leave the Kingdom of the Night God on his own?
Su Yuan looked around.
Since there was nothing else worth investigating, he gathered his courage and stepped into the vortex passage…
…
Near Ororon's vegetable garden, the group hid in the surroundings, watching from afar…
"I think… I just sensed the aura of Abyssal power and Eerie power…" Chasca, whose senses were extremely sharp, spoke with concern.
"I suspect Su Yuan has already gotten into a fight. We need to go help him…"
"But we don't have any controllable Eerie-transformed combat power over here. If we go now, we might only make things worse…" Aether said helplessly.
"We can only trust Su Yuan…" Paimon added.
"But if he doesn't return for a long time, he's probably been killed… In that case we'll have to trouble Mavuika to perform another simple Ode of Resurrection ritual…"
Just then, Mavuika suddenly furrowed her brows and looked warily toward the air behind them.
"Everyone, be careful—something is coming!!!"
Following Mavuika's warning, everyone looked cautiously behind them.
In the air, a vortex passage suddenly formed…
Mavuika spoke with a serious expression:
"I can sense the aura of the Kingdom of the Night God on that thing…"
"Could something have gone wrong over there…?"
Under the group's tense gaze, Su Yuan poked his head out of the vortex passage, then rolled out and landed steadily on the ground.
Looking happily at everyone, he said:
"Great! Turns out that passage really was the way back to the living world!!!"
Seeing Su Yuan jump out, everyone finally let out a sigh of relief…
Aether looked at him and asked, "Su Yuan, so you finally found a way to return from the Kingdom of the Night God on your own?"
"Yes. It seems like, after I defeated that phantom soul that attacked me like a mad dog, he turned into a vortex passage—and that brought me out." Su Yuan nodded.
"I see… Such a method is completely unheard of…" Mavuika said in disbelief.
"But wait, Su Yuan—if you returned from the Kingdom of the Night God, doesn't that mean… you died just now?" Paimon asked nervously.
"Yes, that's exactly what I wanted to tell you!"
Su Yuan nodded and began to share the information he had discovered earlier:
"The one who was corrupted by Eerie power wasn't Citlali at all—it was her grandson, Ororon'!!!"
"Eerie Ororon used the bodies and blood of the tribe's warriors… to water his vegetables!"
"That can't be right, Su Yuan…" Chasca looked at him, puzzled.
"The people of the Night-Wind tribe aren't good at combat, someone as ancient as Citlali is a different matter…"
"But Ororon is just a young man with physical defects. How could you possibly lose to him?"
"I saw your Foul Legacy Armament and Abyssal power when you helped us repel the Abyss monsters at the Flower-Feather Clan… You can wield Abyssal power without being affected, and your strength is overwhelming…"
"Ororon's base strength is low. Even if he entered an Eerie state, he shouldn't have been able to defeat you. How did you lose to him?"
"It was probably because I got careless. I thought his Eerie strength wouldn't be too high, but he still knows how to use the Night-Wind's strange spells…"
Su Yuan scratched his cheek awkwardly:
"Ororon seems to have used a substitute-body spell to distract me. Then he deceived and ambushed me from behind, that sneaky brat!"
"And the biggest issue is that I kept thinking I wouldn't really die and that I could just resurrect from the Kingdom of the Night God… So I had no sense of urgency…"
"But this isn't the time to talk about that. We need to figure out how to resolve Ororon's Eerie-state!"
"Most members of the Night-Wind Tribe have eccentric personalities—and Ororon is no exception…"
Mavuika spoke thoughtfully:
"Ororon… he especially likes planting fruits and vegetables…"
"So that means the reason and conditions for Ororon's Eerie might very likely be that Citlali or someone else harmed the vegetables he had carefully grown?" Paimon said.
"There is indeed such a possibility." Chasca nodded as well.
"But there's still one key question I haven't figured out…"
Paimon showed a puzzled expression and continued asking:
"If the one corrupted and controlled by the Eerie power is Ororon, then why did Citlali interfere with Chief Bilan's divination?"
"Perhaps it's because Citlali didn't want others to figure out her location and then come to rescue her…"
Mavuika slowly continued:
"Because when facing something as terrifying and unreasonable as the Eerie, if you don't understand how to deal with it, you'll definitely have to pay a huge price…"
"Citlali was probably thinking the same—so she didn't want others to locate her. With her personality, she'd want to study what the Eerie power truly is, understand how to counter it, and only then send a message asking for help."
"But now that we have Su Yuan, we aren't entirely clueless about the Eerie power anymore…"
Mavuika turned toward Su Yuan and asked:
"So, Su Yuan, how do you think we should solve Ororon's Eerie and return him to normal?"
"If our earlier guess is correct, and Ororon's Eerie was caused by someone damaging the fruits and vegetables he lovingly cultivated…"
Su Yuan thought for a moment and then said:
"Then we can try restoring or saving the vegetables that were destroyed—or give Ororon some entirely new varieties of vegetables!!!"