Translated by XephiZ

Edited by Aelryinth

The little girl's cry had completely taken Mo Fan by surprise. Mo Fan was pulling her with enormous force, since he had assumed the young Medusa was trying to set him up. If he was a little crueler, he might even have torn the little girl's arm off. Luckily, he was not that violent.

However, the little girl was in great pain. On top of that, she was not wearing anything. If anyone witnessed what had happened, they would assume Mo Fan was trying to do something unforgivable to the innocent little girl!

"I'm really sorry, little girl, can you stop crying? Please trust me, I'm indeed not a good person… no, that doesn't sound right, but I'm not the kind of bad person you think I am. I thought you were the young Medusa. I didn't expect to stumble into a beautiful girl like you in a place like this. It was much more likely that you were a demon creature," Mo Fan tried to apologize.

Luckily, the little girl was able to calm down quickly. She held back her tears and stared at Mo Fan with huge teary eyes. Mo Fan immediately blushed, while feeling extremely awkward.

"Good, don't cry yet. If you didn't lie to me, I promise I'll bring you out of here, but you have to tell me where the real young Medusa is. Are the bad guys with her still?" Mo Fan asked.

"I...I don't know. The young Medusa went to the lake to drink water. The Mages left after bringing me here," the little girl said.

"What's your name?" Mo Fan said softly. He was afraid that the girl would burst into tears again.

"Apas," the little girl said.

"Oh, where are you from?" Mo Fan asked.

"I'm from Karagana Island. The people on the island plant herbs as a living. The herbs are sold to Egypt and Greece. The chief of the island doesn't allow the people to leave. I was very interested in becoming a Mage, so I went against her will and was tricked by these people," Apas said.

Mo Fan had heard of Karagana Island before. It was an island that did not belong to any country, located in the Aegean Sea between Greece and Egypt. The island was protected by the Shoreline Alliance and was populated by religious people that did not interact much with the outside world.

Mo Fan heard Xinxia mention a few times that the Karagana Island was a gorgeous land of herbs. It did not have a single flower, yet it was even prettier than the sea of flowers in Provence. Unfortunately, Xinxia was busy preparing for the election. She did not have time to spare to travel to Karagana Island as their honeymoon trip.

Mo Fan was more convinced that Apas was not lying when she mentioned Karagana Island.

As a matter of fact, it was unreasonable for such a pretty little girl to show up out of nowhere in a place like this, but both the little girl's appearance and her explanation of where she was from did not have any problem at all.

"Cover yourself with this and follow me; we'll go look for the young Medusa first!" Mo Fan took off his jacket and gave it to her.

The jacket was huge for the little girl; she could wrap it around like a dress to cover herself. On a side note, Mo Fan had also seen something he was not supposed to, which further convinced him that he had stumbled into an actual human instead of a snake demon!

"Thank you..." Apas slowly lowered her guard after sensing his friendliness and chagrin. Her dirty face had an anticipating smile now that she finally had the chance to leave this place.

"Is this the right way?" Mo Fan asked.

"Mm, it is!" Apas nodded. She followed behind Mo Fan with quick little steps.

Mo Fan would occasionally turn around to look at the little girl. For some reason, he was still a little bit worried that Apas would extend poisonous fangs from her tender lips and bite him on the neck while he was not paying attention to her...

But the truth was, Apas was not a Medusa. She was just a weak little girl. Her body might be slightly stronger than ordinary girls since she had Awakened her first Element, but she was still completely helpless on her own!

---

Mo Fan followed Apas' instructions and soon came upon a lake.

The surface of the lake was overgrown with weeds. If its surface had not been shining in the moonlight, one might even assume it to be a grassy area.

A soft noise came from the lake... the hissing sound of a snake.

Mo Fan turned around once again to look at Apas.

Apas' eyes were wide open. She was biting her pale lips to stop herself from making any sound, and was very cautious with her breathing, too.

"She's here, I can smell her," Apas said softly.

Apas seemed to be sensitive to odors. The women on Karagana Island, who were constantly dealing with herbs, might have developed a special ability...

Mo Fan went a little closer and also noticed a rotting odor.

"Stay here, I'll call my friends over," Mo Fan said softly.

Mo Fan parted the bush and saw a long silhouette around a hundred meters away. It was lying on its side atop a boulder, moonbathing beside the lake.

The moonlight was shining on it. Mo Fan saw a slim upper body and the reflective scales of its extremely long lower body. It extended from the boulder to the ground and further curled up in a half-circle!

Its upper body did resemble that of a young woman, but the lower body of a snake was utterly terrifying. It seemed to be very fond of its own looks. It kept pouring water on itself from its hair to its stomach, then its firm snake's body...

A young Medusa!

It was really a young Medusa. Mo Fan no longer had to worry about Apas lying to him.

He must have read too many stories and watched too many movies. Apas did not have anything that resembled a snake. She was clearly not the cunning young Medusa!

"My friend's blood must have gotten on her. She's not too fond of being covered in blood..." Apas said with a trembling voice.

Apas had the urge to break into tears again as she recalled her friend that had been eaten!

"Don't worry, I will avenge your friend. However, this creature is very fast. There are a lot of Silver Snake Warriors only two kilometers away. I'm not confident enough to catch it on my own. Hang on, I'll call my friends over," Mo Fan said.

"Do you have a lot of friends?" Apas asked.

"Mm, quite a few of them, and they are all experts," Mo Fan nodded.

"That's great!" Apas was even more convinced that she was safe now.

---

Mo Fan had already told Zhao Manyan about his plan. His Dark Material could be used as a signal for help.

Zhao Manyan could follow the Dark Material to find him. Mo Fan was not sure if the Mages that were helping feed the young Medusa were around. He had asked Zhao Manyan to bring along the people of the European University Institute as a safety precaution!

"They will be here soon." Mo Fan kept staring at the young Medusa while talking softly to Apas, helping her overcome the fear in her heart.

To his relief, not only was Apas a beautiful girl, she was very disciplined, too. She did not bring any trouble to him.

Mo Fan heard movements behind him, and sensed his Dark Material approaching.

"Mo Fan," Zhao Manyan whispered, suppressing his voice. He sounded like a vengeful spirit.

"Keep it down!" Mo Fan signaled.

"Wow... Who's this gorgeous little girl?" Zhao Manyan came up to Mo Fan and saw a little beauty kneeling beside Mo Fan. She was wearing some revealing clothes, and a man's jacket was wrapped around her legs like a dress, revealing her slender legs and alluring body. Zhao Manyan, who had a slight fetish for little lolis, could feel blood running in his nose!

Jerk, Mo Fan was seriously a jerk!

"She was kidnapped to be fed to the young Medusa. I happened to save her from the bad guys. You idiot, can't you just keep quiet? If you alert our target, I'll chop you up and feed you to the snakes instead!" Mo Fan grunted.

"Oh, why do you always have the good things to yourself? Little girl, come here, you are safe with me..." Zhao Manyan said with a harmless face.

Apas promptly moved closer to Mo Fan in fear. After what she had been through, she subconsciously relied on the first person that had provided her with a sense of security. In Apas' eyes, Mo Fan was the only good guy, and everyone else was a bad guy!

"Ask the people of the European University Institute to flank her. We can't afford to let her escape. The young Medusa might not be stronger than us, but she's pretty good at running away," Mo Fan said.

Even as Mo Fan was talking, his Dark Material was slowly weaving through the weeds. The young Medusa enjoying her bath under the moonlight was totally unaware that she was slowly being surrounded by Mo Fan's Dark Material.

"They already went ahead. They shouldn't mess it up," Zhao Manyan said hopefully.

Everyone's life was currently tied to the same string. None of them wanted anything to go wrong at a time like this!

"The moment we make our move, the young Medusa is going to scream and alert the Silver Snake Warriors. It will take them less than two minutes to reach here, which means we must catch her in a minute and a half and figure out the right way to escape," Mo Fan said.

Mo Fan was not an idiot like Zhao Manyan; he wanted to make sure everything was sorted out first!

Catching the young Medusa was not difficult, but as soon as they showed themselves, the Silver Snake Warriors in the Sunset Shrine and further away were going to converge on them like a fierce tide. The Silver Snake Warriors could easily devour them down to their last bone before their hands grew warm from touching the young Medusa!

Therefore, the key to the plan was how they were supposed to leave the place after getting their hands on the young Medusa!

"Head southwest, there's a long tunnel there. It will lead us out of the Sunset Shrine. We'll then clear a path from there." Mu Bai had already found the best escape route. He had even marked the path with a fluorescent powder so they would not miss it!