【System Weekly Commission completion rate → 100%】
【Detected that all letters sent to Gloomlight Forest have arrived.】
【Ding! Weekly Commission has been completed!】
【Content: Successfully delivered 89 letters to recipients in Gloomlight Forest.】
【Letter Sources:】
【Blackwater City: 53 letters.】
【Stonestrand Town: 9 letters.】
【Longbridge Fort: 5 letters.】
【...】
【Three-Way Junction: 1 letter.】
【Sign-off Progress: 89 letters signed (Current progress: 100%)】
【Distributing rewards...】
【You have successfully delivered 89 letters, receiving random Novice Magic x89.】
【Duplicate magic will be automatically converted into corresponding proficiency.】
【Magic with max proficiency can be cast without chanting.】
【Congratulations, Host, for obtaining:】
【Demon-element Novice Magic: Demon Eyes * 30 → Demon Eyes lv MAX】
(Proficiency full. Chantless casting available.)
【Soul-element Novice Magic: Soul Attachment * 21 → Soul Attachment lv6】
【Spatial-element Novice Magic: Spatial Mark * 14 → Spatial Mark lv3】
【Wood-element Novice Magic: Flower Growth * 14 → Flower Growth lv2】
【New magic as follows:】
【Earth-element Novice Magic: Smoke Spell * 20 → Smoke Spell lv2】
【Extra Reward: Mana Reserve +100】
【Host: Lin Gui】
【Rank: High-tier High Rank mage】
【Mana Reserve: (10000 / 10200) 9800 Mana points away from the next rank breakthrough.】
【Ding! Letter Retrieval beginning...】
【Retrieval time remaining: 7 days.】
【Would you like to end the retrieval early?】
"No,"
Lin Gui replied in his mind.
Currently, he was piloting the flying vessel, speeding toward the direction of Blackwater City.
Eve gently hugged his waist from behind, resting her face against his back.
"Ugh..."
She let out a weak, kitten-like groan.
"I'm so dizzy... and my wound hurts..."
"Mr. Lin Gui, could you please fly a little slower?"
Her injuries hadn't healed yet.
At least, that was what she claimed.
However, Lin Gui strongly suspected that the Holy Saintess was "faking it."
He had plenty of evidence.
First, just moments ago, when Lin Gui decided to set off for Blackwater City.
Eve's reaction was to stare blankly for two seconds.
Immediately after, those purple eyes quickly welled up with a layer of "weak" tears.
"Oh my..."
She instantly clutched her chest, her brows knitting together, her voice becoming as thin as silk.
"My wound... it seems to have suddenly worsened."
"My heart hurts so much, my whole body is in pain."
"I need... Momma Lin Gui to take very, very close care of me... to get better."
That acting was so over-the-top that even Clotina, huddled inside the glass bead, couldn't bear to watch.
Second, Lin Gui noticed something.
Every time he turned around to organize supplies or check the route...
The "sickly" expression on Eve's face would vanish in an instant.
In its place was a cunning smile, tinged with a bit of smugness.
The moment he turned back, she would immediately revert to that "pity-inducing" appearance.
The smoothness of her transitions was worthy of a Best Actress award.
"..."
Lin Gui steered the flying vessel with an expressionless face.
He felt the "weak" force behind him holding him tight.
In the end, he still dialed down the power of the wind pressure cannon slightly.
The speed of the flying vessel slowed.
"Eh?"
Eve raised her head in surprise.
"You really slowed down?"
"Yes."
Lin Gui looked at the churning grey mist ahead, his voice flat.
"Lest a certain critically injured patient... gets airsick and vomits all over me."
Eve blinked.
Then, she buried her face deeper into the back of his mage robe, her heart full of laughter.
The flying vessel skimmed over the wasteland, leaving the bioluminescence of Gloomlight Forest far behind.
Beside them, Clotina's glass bead floated in mid-air.
She watched the grey mist and ruins receding at high speed and couldn't help but exclaim,
"This flying vessel... is so fast."
Soon after, her gaze fell upon Eve, who was holding Lin Gui intimately.
After a moment of hesitation, she asked softly,
"Are you two... a couple?"
Upon hearing this, Eve curled her lips into a cunning smile.
"We aren't~"
She elongated her voice playfully.
"I'm the mistress he's 'kept' on the side~"
Clotina's soul-shadow stiffened instantly.
She whipped toward Lin Gui, her eyes filled with undisguised contempt.
"Scum!"
Her voice rose, carrying the persistent belief in pure love characteristic of elves.
"An elf loves only one person for a lifetime, remaining faithful until death!"
"You actually betrayed your wife to keep a mistress?!"
Lin Gui gave her a wordless glance.
"First, I don't have a mistress."
"The one behind me... is talking pure nonsense."
"Second..."
He paused.
"My wife is also an elf."
Clotina's expression changed.
"An elven... slave?"
"No."
Lin Gui's tone was calm.
"A proper, normal relationship."
Clotina stared at his face suspiciously.
"But you're so ugly..."
"How could an elf be willing to marry you?"
"And even if one were, you shouldn't betray her!"
Lin Gui sighed.
"First, I am not keeping a mistress."
"Second, please do not judge by appearances."
"My elven wife... she was the one who chased me."
"Finally..."
He glanced at the giggling Eve behind him.
"You might not believe this if I said it."
"But she hopes I will 'capture' this one behind me."
Clotina's soul-shadow shook violently.
Clearly, she didn't believe a single word.
"Sigh."
Lin Gui shook his head.
"If you don't believe me, you can go and ask for yourself when we reach Blackwater City."
"Regarding the matter of me and my elven wife..."
His voice betrayed a deep sense of helplessness.
"I expect a certain little fellow with way too much free time..."
"Has already caught every spirit and told them once."
"By now... even your father probably knows about it."
He looked up at the sky, his eyes vacant.
"You cannot imagine..."
"What happens when a ghost who has been suppressed for sixteen years..."
"Encounters such a 'shocking' matter..."
"The terrifying urge they have to share it."
The flying vessel skimmed through a patch of mist as the wind howled.
Carrying with it the traces of Lin Gui's weary voice.
Nine hours later.
Above the high-altitude grey mist, the faintly visible pale sun had completely sunk.
Night once again cloaked the land.
The flying vessel cut through the deepening darkness, returning to the sky above the largest city in the Blackwater Forest—
Blackwater City.
The ruins spread out below, far more massive than Deepwood Outpost or Gloomlight Forest.
Broken buildings resembled the skeletons of giant beasts, crouched silently in the darkness.
Clotina's glass bead pressed against the edge of the flying vessel.
She gazed dazed at the ruins of this unfamiliar, massive city.
Her soul light flickered slightly, revealing a clear sense of...
Apprehension.
Sixteen years.
Was Father... really still here?
What had he become?
Would he... even recognize her?
The closer one gets to home, the more timid one feels.
Even for a soul, this held true.
Lin Gui didn't give her much time to wallow in her thoughts.
He circled in the air for a bit, sweeping with his Demon Eyes.
He quickly located the 7-Copper Post Office • Blackwater City Branch.
The building, constructed by the ghosts themselves, was particularly conspicuous among the ruins.
The flying vessel adjusted its direction and lowered its altitude.
It rapidly glided toward the post office.
Rate on N.U.
