Chapter 130: The All-Knowing Sprite

Catwoman helped Ye Ran reconnect the tendon in his foot.

There was nothing she could do about this reckless fool. As she treated his wounds, her face was filled with helpless exasperation.

“Lilia, can you get in touch with Grusburg?”

Ye Ran leaned against the trunk of a tree, rifle in hand, savoring the cool shade beneath its branches.

Lilia was Catwoman’s name, which Ye Ran had only just learned.

She shook her head. “Grusburg and Stormflow City rarely communicate. I don’t have any influence with Hidden Dragon either. Boy, are you planning to do something dangerous again?”

“No. I just want to clear up a few things.”

Lilia plucked a leaf that had drifted onto Ye Ran’s head and applied medicine to his ankle. “I’ll be leaving soon. Boy, you should take better care of yourself from now on.”

“I know,” Ye Ran replied.

“Lilia, thank you. I only want to… build a temple, so Freya will never have to wander from place to place again.”

He leaned against the trunk and closed his eyes.

Lilia’s fingers trembled faintly. Looking at his stern face, she sighed. “You didn’t have to take things this far.”

“Perhaps not. Or perhaps even this is still far from enough.”

…

Lilia soon departed with her medical kit. Ye Ran rested against the tree with his eyes closed, and by the time he woke, it was already noon.

When he opened his eyes, he saw Freya sitting in front of him.

A black cotton robe covered his body. The sight of it seemed to draw his thoughts far away.

He suddenly remembered Pandora and Gong Ziyue. He remembered the tender moments of traveling with Pandora, and how, while crossing the Wall of Despair, the two of them had pretended to be husband and wife. He had even disguised himself as Bei Yuming’s elder brother, Bei Yuqing…

Bei Yuqing.

A thought suddenly struck Ye Ran, and he sprang to his feet.

Seeing that he had ignored her, Freya bounced up and waved at him.

Ye Ran drew a breath, patted her little head, and smiled. “Freya, did you bring me this robe?”

Freya nodded and scribbled on her drawing board:

“I found it on Ah Ran’s bed.”

“Thanks to you, I just remembered something,” Ye Ran said.

It was neither a major matter nor a trivial one. Yet its consequences might be immense.

Freya smiled especially brightly and wrote on the board:

“Ah Ran, Freya will take you to see the little fairy.”

The little girl loved to sleep. When Ye Ran had returned at dawn, she had still been in bed. After waking, she had seen the minotaurs busily building little houses, and then she had caught sight of that proud little fairy.

Ye Ran laughed helplessly. “What is there to see? I was the one who brought that little fairy back from the Green Demon Forest.”

Freya’s joyful expression fell. She pouted, tugged at his sleeve, and shook it while gazing up at him pitifully.

“All right. My business isn’t urgent anyway. Let’s go see the little fairy first.”

Ye Ran could never resist that pitiful look.

Freya immediately brightened and pulled him southward by the hand.

The minotaurs’ thatched huts were concentrated in the northern part of the settlement. The broad, empty southern grounds had originally been reserved for hay, which served both as their food and their favorite bedding.

After the little fairy Mandy arrived, the good-natured minotaurs gave the land to her. Now, in the vast open space, only Mandy’s delicate little house stood.

To build Ye Ran’s temple, Bannell had nearly emptied his savings. The money spent on this small house was practically the last of his wealth, yet he had not begrudged it in the slightest. He had furnished Mandy’s home with the finest furniture and even built a temporary little garden outside the door.

Freya led Ye Ran to the window and eagerly pointed inside, gesturing for him to look at the little fairy who lived there.

But a sudden ache rose in Ye Ran’s heart. He remembered how, back in Stormflow City, Freya would stare through the windows of toy shops whenever he took her out. In the end, she could only cling reluctantly to his hand and leave.

Over time, she had developed this habit. Whenever she saw something she liked, she would gaze at it through a window, as though terrified that someone might notice.

Mandy, who was lying on her bed eating snacks, naturally saw the pretty face beyond the glass. At first, she looked disdainful, but then her eyes lit up.

“A member of the divine race?”

The wings behind her suddenly unfurled. She flew over, opened the door, and looked Freya up and down.

The girl before her was only nine years old. She wore a little sleeping robe and a hair clip, and a faint milky fragrance lingered around her. With her soft, rosy features, she looked no different from an ordinary human child. Yet in the little fairy’s eyes, she possessed an aura entirely unlike that of humanity.

Freya held Ye Ran’s hand and blinked her large eyes curiously at the little fairy.

The astonishment on Mandy’s face quickly vanished, replaced by arrogance. Folding her arms, she snorted. “What is this? A member of the divine race sealed so that she cannot grow? This must be another one of that old Zeus’s masterpieces.”

“Miss, what are you talking about?” Ye Ran asked, baffled.

Freya seemed to ponder the matter. She wrote on her drawing board:

“Little fairy, why don’t you live in the Divine Realm?”

Mandy snorted. “The Divine Realm is full of arrogant people. It isn’t fun at all.”

The “arrogant people” she referred to were naturally the gods of the Divine Realm.

Looking down at Freya from her lofty position, she said, “Little girl, you’re better than them, but your situation is far worse. So, out of the goodness of my heart, I’ll point you toward a way forward. Build good relations with the dwarves and elves. Before the Dusk, they were ‘demigods,’ and they can accomplish things the divine race cannot.”

Before the Dusk?

Demigods?

Her words contained a wealth of information. Ye Ran asked, “Miss, could you explain what you mean? About the Dusk and demigods?”

As far as he knew, human demigods were currently far stronger than dwarves and elves.

The little fairy shook her head arrogantly. “I’m not telling you. I hate humans most of all.”

With that, she clasped her hands behind her back, hummed a little tune, walked into the house, and locked the door from within.

Ye Ran turned to find Freya looking as though she understood only half of what had been said. He helplessly waved a hand.

“Forget it. We’ll come back when she’s in the mood to talk.”

At dusk, three unexpected guests arrived at the minotaur settlement.

Lois, Gerlandon, and Grey Wolf from Frostfall City, along with Hidden Dragon from Stormflow City.

All four were renowned figures. Their sudden visit left Bannell flattered and overwhelmed.

Ye Ran, however, was not surprised in the least. He led them to the settlement’s crude kitchen and served them a basin of egg-fried rice.

The four visitors nearly stared their eyes out.

“Ye Ran, who made this?”

“Labrador,” Ye Ran replied, then added, “I taught it how.”

“Don’t be shy. Eat more. You must all be exhausted. I know dealing with Roning is no easy matter.”

The four exchanged glances.

Damn that miser. Who could possibly have an appetite for an entire basin of egg-fried rice?