Mm. Something’s fishy. Either this person’s spiritual energy armor is really, really weak, or squirrels are just abnormally strong. I couldn’t do anything to the law enforcement chief’s toad armor, but this Disciple Gu’s spiritual energy fell apart in a couple of punches. I didn’t even have to use a weapon! Ah? Maybe he’s going easy on me because I’m the ruler’s disciple. If he hurts me, he’ll face the ruler’s wrath afterwards. In that case…, why did he pick a fight with me? Eh, whatever. No matter what the reason, the outcome doesn’t change! Since his spiritual armor is gone, I think one more good punch will render him incapable of fighting back. “Vermillion Squirrel-Flame Armor Punch!”

Ooh, that felt pretty solid. Judging by the sound my fist made, that was a direct hit. Huh, he smells a bit like roasted meat. Wasn’t he from the Blazing Sun Sect? With the huge sun in the sky and all the golden flames burning around me, I thought he would’ve had some kind of resistance to burning. Speaking of the huge sun in the sky, why can’t I do something like that? Then again, seeing as it didn’t do anything to me, isn’t that technique a little useless? All it can do is draw attention.

“Disciple Gu!”

Ah? There’re people heading over, and they’re all wearing the same kind of robes as the one I removed from this person for my own protection just now. Should I run away? There’s a lot of them and only one of me. Mm? The ruler’s here with me? Well, she said she wasn’t going to help me fight, so I’m basically alone! That settles it then. I’m going to—

Something bumped my waist. It was the ruler’s tail hidden underneath her robes. “You’re not thinking of running, are you?”

Thinking of running? I thought the ruler could read minds. “What do you mean? I’m absolutely thinking of running!” In fact, let’s do it now. I’ll leave this person behind and teleport away! There’s no helping it. If I bring a holy child with me, there’s no doubt the rest of the sect won’t stop chasing me. I already took all his stuff, so it’s not too much of a loss if I don’t take his memories too. There’ll always be more people to Soul Scour; I saw so many of them waiting to come in.

“You’re really running?”

“I might be a bit of a scaredy-cat, but that doesn’t mean I’m a liar. If I said I’m running, then I’m running.” That’s right. I don’t know why the ruler has to double-check when it’s clear I’m fleeing as fast as I can. I’m teleporting so much, but the ruler’s still able to keep up with me. How does she do it? Mm, her divine sense probably has a super-wide range. Since she’s so amazing and all that, I bet she can see everything happening in the whole ancient ruin.

“They’re not chasing you,” the ruler said.

Mm? They gave up pretty quickly. Weren’t chases supposed to last much longer? I remember back in the pocket realm when that crazy mage chased me through a forest. …Ilya set my tail on fire back then, didn’t she? I forgot about it, but I definitely remember now! I never paid her back for doing that to me. Anyways, where am I? I teleported multiple times in a random direction because everywhere looked the same kind of gray, but somehow, I ended up at some sort of crumbly building. “Where are we?”

The ruler beamed at me. “You’ll have to figure that out for yourself,” she said. “You shouldn’t expect me to help you find out what happened to Atlantis unless you don’t want the reward anymore.”

The ruler’s not here to help me fight, and she’s not here to help me figure out what happened in the ruin. Doesn’t that mean she’s only here to help me capture a void dragon? Judging by the way she’s acting, I think she’ll make me capture one by myself too. Alright, well, I don’t need her help anyway. I might not know exactly how to figure out what happened to Atlantis, but I know where to start: with this building right here. It looks awfully strange. It’s pretty tall, and instead of being made of wood, it’s made of some kind of stone and lots of glass.

I might not have seen a building like this before, but that doesn’t mean I can’t figure out where the entrance is. …Right? Alright, I’m not seeing anything that looks like an entrance. The building only has four sides, but they’re kind of long, and I’m a bit too lazy to check more than one side. So, since there’s no entrance here, I’ll just make one! “Breaking Fist!”

Now that there’s a hole in the wall, all I have to do to widen it is tear it apart a little. Entrance acquired! Wait a second. There’re already people inside? How’s that possible?

“Are you insane? The door is right there! Why would you punch a dilapidated building like this!? Are you trying to make it collapse?”

Purple skin. Red eyes. Are these people demons? I think they are! Unfortunately, not every demon is as smart as Ilya; they’re like humans. There are smart ones and dumb ones. Luckily for me, this demon used a word with five whole syllables just now! He must be smart considering it looks like he’s the leader of this group of demons. I just noticed. Everyone has a group they’re traveling with except for me. Why didn’t the ruler bring more squirrels here? It feels like I’m forgetting…, oh. “Teacher, did we leave Slayer Junior behind by himself?”

“He’ll be fine,” the ruler said. “Our boat has an invisibility function, remember?”

Invisibility function? What? I wasn’t aware of that.

“It’s why people only approached us after I summoned the branch of the world tree,” the ruler said. “As long as Slayer Junior doesn’t leave the boat, which he won’t because he’s terrified of heights, he won’t be in any danger.”

The ruler has a good point. There’s no way Slayer Junior would try to get off the boat by himself. I should worry more about myself first!