After leaving the dungeon, he had run into the traveling merchant and his daughter, and then heard news of Blackcreek Town and Zane from Colin.
An inexplicable urge had drawn him to Blackcreek Town.
Although he was new to this world and hadn't faced any brutal trials yet, he had still maintained his vigilance toward this unfamiliar environment.
He thought he had been careful enough, yet he had still fallen into Kami's trap, faced the trials of the dungeon, sealed the Grand Duke, obtained the covenant pendant, and met Phoebe...
In the end, he had even died once, leading up to this very moment.
He had told himself it was just bad luck, but looking back now, perhaps it wasn't.
“I am nobody. Stop asking,” Bai Xuan said, a trace of irritation rising in his chest.
Alexia stared at him for a few seconds, her eyelids drooping slightly as she muttered to herself, “Every generation of Heroes has possessed a similar ability to plunder mana, but none of them could match even a tenth of yours.”
“Could you be a Primal Individual? But your essence is so different from a Hero's...” She did not press closer, nor did she launch another attack. She was entirely lost in her own confusion.
Bai Xuan kept a tight grip on his staff. Now was not the time to start a fight. The enemy's level had increased after reviving, and her true combat strength was unknown.
It was still unclear whether killing her would cause her level to rise indefinitely. If she grew to a point where he could no longer handle her, things would get extremely troublesome.
Moreover, this was merely an avatar. Her trait of infinite revival meant that a prolonged struggle was pointless. To break this deadlock, he had to use non-violent means, just as he had done with Julia before.
He raised his head, looked at Alexia, and suddenly spoke.
“I am not the one taking your power,” he said slowly, his brow furrowing as his expression turned serious.
Alexia tilted her head, her smile fading slightly.
“It is the higher existences lurking in the shadows. When you attack me, they notice you. What happened to you just now—being drained completely—was the result of that.”
He looked directly into her eyes. “If you act rashly again, next time it won't just be a portion of your life mana that gets devoured.”
Alexia's pupils contracted slightly. She stared at Bai Xuan, trying to find some crack in his facade, but his expression remained entirely blank.
“You came to me because you want to know who devoured your mana,” Bai Xuan continued, steering the topic away from the mysterious entities. “I can tell you. But not right now.”
“Then when do you plan to tell me?” Alexia's voice dropped, carrying a hint of suppressed tension.
“Everything comes with a price. Do something for me. Once it is done, I will give you your answer.”
Alexia fell silent. She had met countless living beings and toyed with the minds of countless powerful experts, yet this was the first time she could not read the human before her.
The secrets this man held surpassed her understanding. She had only sent an avatar to this region for some amusement. If she ended up drawing the gaze of unknown entities because of it, the losses would far outweigh the gains.
“Hehehe, you are very interesting. No human has ever tried to negotiate terms with me before,” she suddenly burst into laughter.
“Then I will be the first human to negotiate terms with an avatar of the Archduke of Desire.” Bai Xuan's tone was flat, his demeanor calm and entirely devoid of fear.
Hearing Bai Xuan directly expose her identity and the nature of her avatar, Alexia's pupils shrank violently, and a deep wariness finally flooded her eyes.
“Your combat strength rose slightly after you revived, but the increase was very limited,” Bai Xuan continued to dismantle her reservations.
“You don't dare to increase your avatar's power too much because you're afraid of alerting the continent's major Transcendent factions. If the Archduke of Desire appeared in the inland regions, even as an avatar, it would immediately trigger a continent-wide crusade to hunt you down.”
“You have planted Magic Soul Seeds all over the continent, a grand scheme that must have taken countless years to set up. Once your avatar's identity is exposed, all your hidden arrangements will be traced and dismantled one by one.”
“You wouldn't want all that painstaking effort to go down the drain just because of a single impulsive moment, would you?” Bai Xuan gave her no time to pause and think.
“I can kill your avatar over and over again, and I can also spread the word of the Archduke of Desire infiltrating the inland to every Adventurer's Guild and church.”
The wariness in Alexia's heart grew even stronger. In front of Bai Xuan, all her secrets, concerns, and schemes were laid bare, as if she were completely exposed.
She could not comprehend how he had managed to pierce through all her secrets.
“Who on earth are you?” she asked.
“Just a passing traveler,” Bai Xuan said, planting his staff directly into the soil beside his feet. “But if you ever raise your hand against me again, we will be enemies until death.”
Alexia stared at him, remaining silent for a long time.
Far away, at the breach of Calais Town's damaged wall, several adventurers poked their heads out to watch, not daring to make a single sound.
Behind Bai Xuan, the Chocobo lowered its head to peck at the wild grass by the roadside. The atmosphere was incredibly tense.
The corners of Alexia's mouth slowly curved into an enigmatic smile.
“Interesting.” She slowly raised her head. “I agree. What do you want me to do?”
Bai Xuan did not let his guard down for a second. When negotiating with a creature of Desire from the abyss, even the slightest lapse in vigilance could invite a fatal backlash.
“I haven't decided yet,” he said. “But until I seek you out, stay far away from me.”
Alexia let out a soft laugh and said nothing more. She turned around and walked toward the depths of the forest, the wind catching the corner of her gray robe.
After a few steps, she suddenly stopped. As if remembering something, her shoulders tensed slightly before she slowly turned back around.
“Oh, right.” Her voice carried a lazy nonchalance. “How do I find you? Or rather, how do you find me?”
This question caught Bai Xuan completely off guard. He had only wanted to send this dangerous entity away, the further the better.
As for how to find her in the future? He had absolutely no intention of ever looking for her.
Proposing a task was merely a temporary stall tactic, intended to sever ties with her forever. But now that he was being asked to his face, he was momentarily at a loss for words.
Alexia tilted her head, watching Bai Xuan's expression. The corners of her mouth slowly curled upward, and she let out a soft chuckle before reaching into her robes to pull something out.
It was an irregular, dark gemstone the size of a thumb. Fine, pinkish-purple veins wound across its surface, glowing with a soft radiance in the twilight.
Alexia tossed the gemstone toward Bai Xuan, who caught it steadily.
The gemstone was ice-cold to the touch at first, but within a few short seconds, it slowly warmed up. He could clearly feel a fluid-like mana continuously circulating inside it.
“Just channel your mana into it to activate it. No matter where I am, I will instantly sense it and come to you,” Alexia said casually.
“Keep it safe. I don't want to spend another two months searching for your trail over such a vast area.”
Bai Xuan gripped the gemstone, glanced down at it, and stored it inside his Space Ring before looking back up at her.
“There's one thing I don't quite understand. Why did you protect this town? Humans shouldn't be your friends, right?”
Hearing Bai Xuan's question, Alexia's eyes narrowed slightly, the right corner of her mouth curving upward.
“I'm not telling you~”
With that, she turned around. The hem of her gray robe fluttered gently in the wind as she finally vanished into the forest.
Rate on N.U.
