Chapter 39: Clean Up the Battlefield Properly!

Stepping into the teleportation array, Miss Vilyric and Little Dragon Daughter, as expected, were sent to another unknown location through spatial magic.

It was still a rocky cave, but clearly different from the previous one.

“This place… Wow!”

As soon as she arrived, Miss Vilyric was greeted by a small surprise.

Two humans dressed in simple leather armor, probably guards, were executed with the same method used in the underground black market, their headless bodies sprawled on the ground, blood splattered everywhere. As the Priestess accidentally kicked one of the unfortunate souls’ rolling heads right after stepping out of the teleportation array.

“Ah, goodness… I can’t take it! If you’re going to kill, at least tidy up the bodies as you leave, right? So elegant, isn’t it…”

Casually tossing out holy flames to reduce the rolling heads at her feet to ash, Vilyric turned her gaze towards the only exit of the cave ahead.

This place was clearly the interior of a rather well-built stronghold. The rocky cave with a teleportation array had not only a one-way exit but also torches burning on either side of the path.

Crossing over the two headless guard corpses, the two girls continued down the corridor.

The place was quite complex, with the roads branching out like an anthill. A faint scent of blood lingered in the air, indicating that there had been quite a fierce battle, not just at the cave with the teleportation array.

Although she didn’t know the way, Vilyric saw plenty of corpses along the path marked with the Ghost Thieves insignia. Following the direction of the blood aroma would surely be correct.

These victims hadn’t all been decapitated; many had died in all sorts of messy ways—pierced hearts, broken necks, and some even looked like they had killed each other in internal strife?

It seemed the invaders had numerous members and methods at their disposal.

After tracing the signs of battle for a long time in the intricate caves, Vilyric had already seen at least a hundred bodies of Ghost Thieves members. Those bastards were merciless; every poacher they encountered along the way was already dead.

At that moment, Vilyric’s ears perked up, and she turned towards a particularly bloody passage.

A lot of rapid footsteps were approaching them quickly.

“Master, the scent is mixed. Should we strike first?”

Little Dragon Daughter, who also picked up on the noise, stepped in front of Vilyric first, her sharp golden slit pupils alert as she stared anxiously at the dimly lit passage under the flickering torchlight, seemingly ready to spring into action at any moment.

“Not yet, let’s observe for a bit. We need to see what’s going on first.”

“Understood.”

Clap clap clap clap…

The sound of running became clearer. What concerned Vilyric was that the noise sounded very chaotic and heavy, as if whoever was running had no control over their balance or posture, and many of the sounds were close to the ground, indicating they weren’t wearing shoes.

Thinking about this, the black-haired girl couldn’t help but glance at the blonde girl in front of her, who had her back turned. The delicate, exposed feet wrapped in translucent ribbons were on full display.

Little Guang didn’t wear shoes because dragonfolk typically had no such habit. Plus, she disliked the constricted feeling of having her foot entirely wrapped. With natural protection from her dragon scales, it didn’t matter, but ordinary beings could easily injure their soft soles when doing so, especially given that she had seen those Ghost Thieves members all wearing boots.

Which means, could these be…

At this moment, the figures charging towards them from the dim tunnel finally revealed themselves to Vilyric’s view.

“Eww!!”

Accompanied by a series of timid cries, those girls, wrapped in thin fabric and many without shoes, relied solely on their delicate bare feet to scamper across the stone road. They braked to a halt about ten meters away from the two girls, showing expressions of fear and confusion.

Indeed…

They were magical creatures caught by poachers.

These girls looked bizarre in countless ways. Some sported cow-like curved horns with hoof-like feet, some had four slender arms, others had butterfly-like wings and antennae, and some had patches of fish scale-like markings on their bodies, with teardrop patterns at the corners of their eyes.

There were even those whose entire bodies were translucent, light blue, appearing to flow like liquid, yet with a humanoid form.

But no matter which, according to human aesthetic standards, they were all exceedingly beautiful.

While Vilyric observed these magical girl creatures, they were also clearly shyly sizing up the two beautiful girls who suddenly appeared and blocked the path. Despite their obvious numerical advantage, the larger group seemed to be in a more vulnerable position.

As they stared at each other speechless for a moment, finally, one of the magical girls, with four petals of pink butterfly wings on her back and pink hair, mustered up the courage to step forward.

“Sisters, are you… also magical lords sent from the mountains?”

Magical lords?

Vilyric blinked for a moment before recalling that this seemed to be an alternative name the magical creatures used for demons. After all, while humans might think these creatures evolved to imitate them, in reality, it was an instinctual evolution toward a higher form.

The true origin of the demon form, which the Priestess was likely aware of, probably pointed towards Xi Fu Lin—one of the original gods of all creation—or to a specific deity.

Since this little butterfly mentioned “magical lords,” it seemed that the ones who charged into the Ghost Thieves’ lair were undoubtedly demons from the Mountains of Ten Thousand Demons.

Although it might have been the best choice to cooperate and try to extract more information, Vilyric felt it unnecessary, especially given the curiosity she had harbored for some time.

“How did you know we’re not humans? Human-shaped butterflies… Do you know Tiyelu?”

“Tiyelu? Huh! You don’t mean the Holy Ancestor, do you? Even the Holy Ancestor’s companions are intervening this time?!”

For some reason, upon hearing that title, the pink-haired, pink-winged butterfly girl suddenly became very agitated, as if the name Tiyelu held a sacred and esteemed significance in her mind.

After all, she was merely a somewhat arrogant and childish silver butterfly…

“You still haven’t answered my question.”

It seemed that mentioning Tiyelu turned out to be an unexpectedly useful icebreaker.

The fear and hesitation on the little butterfly’s face faded almost instantly, and she led her group of magical girls—almost a hundred of them—tentatively closer, scratching her head shyly at the short antennae-like feelers on her head.

“Well, it’s nothing much. Our Spirit Butterfly Clan’s Holy Ancestor is exactly the Tiyelu you just mentioned. It’s said that she once followed the great God of Magical Beasts and was enlightened by him. All of our Spirit Butterfly Clan descendants gained a talent called 【Spirit Sensing】.”

“This ability lets us roughly sense the goodwill or malice of our targets, as well as the essence of their species. Although I’m still quite immature, I can at least tell that both of you are not humans…”

“【Spirit Sensing】, huh…”

Vilyric nodded knowingly. No wonder that little butterfly named Tiyelu was so adamant that they were not human; it turned out she had such a peculiar talent. Quite intriguing.

However, this pink butterfly didn’t consider that if the Priestess really were who she thought she was—the companion of Tiyelu—then how could she not know about the skill 【Spirit Sensing】? A normal person would have reacted to such a question much sooner.

It felt silly and adorable, and indeed, it was no wonder they had ended up in the clutches of poachers.

   

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