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"Hey, can you not get so worked up?"
Sam rolled his eyes. "I saved you, you know. And now you're turning on me?"
"…"
It was only now that Liu Erlong noticed something behind where she'd just been standing—a Soul Beast had lunged toward that spot… but now it was nothing more than a frozen popsicle.
"W-what an insanely powerful Martial Soul skill!!!"
Liu Erlong froze, wide-eyed.
Sam: "…So, you heard me say I used my Martial Soul, huh?"
"Phew, done!"
Renard strolled back, stretching and smiling for the first time in a while. "That fight… that was really satisfying."
Everyone looked around at the wreckage.
"O MY GOD!"
"Look at what you did! Sure, you feel great, but this whole place is basically ruined!"
Sam even noticed that two of the nearby mountain peaks had disappeared entirely.
"What's the plan now?"
All eyes turned to Sam.
After all, he was the only Sixth-Level God in the group—and the guild president, no less. If he led, even Renard wouldn't complain.
Though, to be honest, this so-called Sixth-Level status was a little inflated.
"The King of Wisdom has helped me figure out a way to use the Underworld. I'm going to drag all their souls into it, check their memories, and then decide what to do next."
"If we could just find a space rift directly, it'd be easy. If not, at least we should get some clues."
Sam's eyes flickered with a dark light, and he saw the souls drifting from the dead Soul Beasts.
With a lift of his left hand, a rift opened in space. Bathed in eerie light, all the souls and bodies floated inside.
Wu Liuqi scratched his head, puzzled. "You're… collecting corpses?"
A sly grin spread across Wu Liuqi's face. "Mind if I take one? I want to see if I can expand my business beyond beef offal."
Sam: "…Ah, Wu Qi, looks like you really need a proper dose of reality~"
"These bodies carry Void Energy. If we leave them here, it won't be long before they infect other Soul Beasts again," Sam explained, giving Wu Liuqi a sharp look.
"It's better to pull them straight into my Underworld. I can have the King of Wisdom analyze and verify them—or consolidate the Void Energy—so it doesn't endlessly spread to other Soul Beasts and make more work for us."
"Fine, whatever," Renard (human-world name for Kurama) shrugged. "Do what you want."
All it cared about now was dimensional coins, then planning a smooth exit from the seal. After that, it could enjoy life freely in human form.
Hmm… using human form to visit its little buddies later might be kind of fun…
Renard chuckled darkly.
"Oh! And there's that Uchiha guy—Madara, that furball!"
"Ugh, I'm hungry… what to do…"
Wu Liuqi rubbed his stomach. "Should've had breakfast before coming."
Elsa shook her head. "I'm fine. I just had dinner before getting the mission notice."
"Well…"
Wu Liuqi produced his scissors with a mischievous grin. "How about we eat some of these Soul Beasts? What do you think?"
"Relax. I'm Wu Liuqi, master of offal. I'll show you a whole new world of flavors!"
Renard blinked. "Master of offal… are you seriously here to joke around?"
Even Sam couldn't help but groan. "The mission already said there's Void Energy here. If you want to lose your mind, go ahead and try."
"Uh…"
Wu Liuqi quickly stuffed the scissors back in his pocket and whistled innocently, pretending he said nothing.
Sam sighed. Problem children really are hard to manage~
"Uh," Liu Erlong came over. "Sorry about before. I didn't even realize you were saving me, and I…"
Though hot-headed, she was also honest. Mistakes were mistakes.
"It's fine," Sam waved a hand with a small smile.
Under the glow of his absolute protagonist aura, the normally fiery Liu Erlong actually flushed red for the first time.
"Anyway, you couldn't have hurt me."
"If you really feel bad, just give me a little compensation and we're square~"
"…." Liu Erlong's expression stiffened.
She said that, but for some reason, she felt a little annoyed~
Nearby, keen-eared Renard cleared its throat.
"Emmm… I didn't hear anything!"
(¬‿¬)
"So, by the way… where are we?"
Wu Liuqi looked around at the weaker Soul Beasts that hadn't been affected. "And these animals… weird."
"Are these… the animals of another world?"
Elsa's curiosity was piqued as she glanced at Sam. "The wildlife here is… seriously powerful!"
If this were her world, a bunch of Soul Beasts like this would probably be unstoppable.
No, wait—someone could stop them. After all, magic exists!
Elsa thought of that stone golem elder—clearly a powerful mage, though not as strong as herself.
"???"
"....."