Mystery Paradise: Wishing Power Demon
Chapter 363 - 362 Who am I?

Chapter 363: Chapter 362 Who am I?

With the shelter of the mist gone, billowing green smoke poured from the monster’s gaping mouth, and its swallowing action halted abruptly. It struggled to turn its body, seemingly trying to escape the fog-free zone, but its enormous size was a colossal disadvantage at this moment. As it writhed and inched underground, shedding its smoldering, rotten skin, the retreat of the mist was much faster than its slithering. After several minutes of desperate struggle, it stopped moving, becoming a piece of dead flesh embedded in rocks and earth.

"Are you all right?"

Ailuodi had also arrived beside Chaoyang, grabbing him to prevent him from falling into the fissured earth.

"I’m okay." Chaoyang kept the wishing power flowing and glanced down in his spare moment.

In just a few breaths, the road had changed beyond recognition, with sections of the shattered tracks scattered about. The monster had created a rift underground large enough to accommodate a building, with a vertical drop of more than thirty meters—a fall from the edge could be fatal for an ordinary person.

The train nearby had completely derailed and was now toppled to one side. Fortunately, the civilian experts in the adventure team had already evacuated, leaving behind the Talents who were capable of protecting themselves, so there was no need to worry about the derailment causing them much harm.

"Thank goodness you reacted quickly."

He said to Shi Yin in his heart.

The moment the ground bulged, "Slime" expanded to envelop his feet, and after stepping firmly on the ground, leaped up, reaching four to five meters in the air, sparing his feet from the force of the shock.

"Of course, that’s how great I am. Wisdom and body for you are two contradictory terms, because your lives are so short that you can’t accommodate both, whereas for the Primordial Gods..."

Chaoyang outright ignored its subsequent words.

"Let’s go down."

"Chaoyang..." Ailuodi suddenly called his name directly, "What is that over there?"

Chaoyang followed her gaze... she was facing east, towards the City of Defense. As the mist was dispelled by the red light, the City of Defense, missing from maps for over a decade, gradually revealed its contours. It was a small city primarily known for its fishing industry but since it was located on the border, it also served as a gathering place for Haiwei People, pirates, smugglers, and fugitives, even boasting a larger population than Thistlefort. From the shadows of the dull grey low-rise buildings, one could sense its former "vitality."

However, the problem was the presence of an Obelisk, standing in the middle of the city and visible from seventy to eighty kilometers away with the naked eye—its exceedingly smooth surface and faint glow starkly contrasted the surrounding dingy structures. Even more incredible was that its base tapered to a point as well, as if it weren’t fixed to a pedestal but suspended in midair.

At that moment, Shi Yin suddenly halted the expansion of the red light.

The retreating mist began to gather again.

"Shi Yin?"

"Hurry, I smell it—the scent—" Its voice was still childish, but the sharpness exceeded any previous shrieks, "—it’s the Primordial Gods!"

Almost simultaneously, a verdant light bloomed from the top of the Obelisk!

Chaoyang was startled to see Shi Yin suddenly leap out of his palm, instantly transforming into a huge umbrella-shaped membrane, shielding him. Meanwhile, Ailuodi’s face turned pale as she spread her wings, pulling him back in a quick retreat. There was also Kokomoqi flying towards him, Engfelt standing still and looking up in a daze, and players behind him dancing with their hands and feet pointed at the sun, trying to right the train—Mekefa among them...

Everything was so slow. Everyone’s movements seemed to be a thousand times slower, and he could even see a shocked version of himself reflected in Ailuodi’s pupils...

Then, the green light at the edge of his vision had already swept across the entire forest, enveloping him and everyone else within it. Shi Yin was torn apart in an instant, and in the last moment of consciousness, he only remembered the hand that was tightly holding his own.

...

"Ugh... damn, that hurts..."

Chaoyang groaned, slowly turning over. His head felt as if filled with mercury, burning and throbbing with extreme vertigo; every movement caused his world to spin violently.

The surface beneath him felt somewhat soft, emitting a sour, strange scent, clearly not the smell of earthen soil.

He forced his eyes to open a slit, and indeed, he saw bedsheets and wrinkled blankets. Only the pattern on the blanket was none that he had ever used, indicating this bed wasn’t inside Thistlefort.

Right... the Obelisk and the light.

When this thought surfaced, his body shuddered uncontrollably. Yes... he had been deep within the Misty Forest just before, so how had he ended up lying on a strange bed? Had something serious happened? Had he been rescued?

What about Ailuodi, who had been pulling him back?

And Shi Yin, who had stood in front of him!

Chaoyang silently repeated Slime’s name several times, but the usually slightly verbose response did not come as expected.

This disparity brought his befuddled consciousness back to attention, and his throbbing brain instantly cooled down!

Shi Yin couldn’t possibly survive independently away from him; even if his clone was destroyed, it should be able to instantly move to his main body! Wait... was this body a major clone or a minor one? Or was he the main body?

At this thought, Chaoyang hurriedly propped himself up... yet his arms, no longer as strong as before, shook uncontrollably with the simple act of supporting himself. What shocked him even more was that when his field of vision widened, he saw another person lying on the bed. It was a woman with chestnut curly hair and freckles on her face. Half of her nightgown had been removed, exposing most of her back, with a few swollen red marks vaguely visible.

Scattered around them were several empty liquor bottles.

Chaoyang suddenly realized that the severe dizziness and headache were not due to an injury but to an excessive intake of alcohol. As for the sour smell on the bed, it seemed the liquor had seeped into the blankets and fermented after being covered throughout the night.

He and this woman had most likely gone through a wild night of revelry.

No, that’s not right! Chaoyang covered his face, stay calm. This might just be a delusion! He hadn’t done anything, or perhaps what was done had nothing to do with him.

"Ah..." Perhaps because his sitting up movement was too sudden, the woman also let out a weary moan.

"Hmm?" Her eyes suddenly opened, she touched herself up and down, then lifted her head, and her eyes met Chaoyang’s squarely.

This is not good.

Chaoyang immediately had a bad feeling.

As expected, when the woman saw her disheveled clothing and Chaoyang, who was also shirtless, her face changed dramatically. Her mouth opened as if she wanted to say something, but the anger in her eyes had already overshadowed speech – no words needed to be said, violence was the answer! She pounced fiercely, pinning Chaoyang down while mounting him, her hands clenched and raised high above her head.

This familiar position made Chaoyang feel as though he had suddenly returned to more than half a year ago.

If a violent wind suddenly generated from her hands...

"Ailuodi!?" he called out instinctively.

The woman’s hands stopped mid-air.

She wore a look of disbelief.

"How do you know my name!? Who are you?"

"You don’t recognize me?" Chaoyang touched his own face... wait a second, this face did seem indeed to be thinner.

He stared into her eyes, trying to see the reflection of himself in her pupils.

—— And then he found that it was indeed a completely unfamiliar man.