“You.”

I raised my head. Lucia’s bodyguard was pointing at me. I didn’t do anything attention worthy, so why is she calling me out?

“Come with us.” Lucia’s body guard turned around and walked to the jet’s wall opposite the one with the open door. She opened a drawer, the one located below the interspatial prison, and took a glance at Lucia before hopping inside.

Lucia’s face had a grim expression on it when she met my gaze. She teleported next to me and slapped my shoulder, snapping a tendon located within my arm. “You heard the woman,” she said and walked ahead of me towards the open drawer. “Let’s go.” Lucia raised one arm and called out to Senior Mu, “I’m going to go learn for a bit. Keep an eye out for the void dragons and that plant I was telling you about.”

“Of course, Boss,” Senior Mu said, adopting the speech patterns of a lowly gangster. Her spirit animal must’ve been a chameleon because she seemed comfortable in any role. “It’ll be a lot easier to find the Spiritual Blood Vine with that scumbag’s memory.”

Lucia gave Senior Mu a thumbs-up before jumping inside the drawer. The instant Lucia disappeared, Senior Mu’s expression changed to a deadpan one, and her eyes shifted to make eye contact with me. “What? Do you want me to throw you inside that drawer, or are you going to go in by yourself?”

“I’m going.” I wouldn’t put it past her to really throw me inside. I went up to the open drawer and leapt inside, vaulting myself over the edge. The shift between the jet and the interior of the drawer was jarring compared to entering the jet’s prison. The prison had the interior of a plain, white cube. This drawer’s interior was a sprawling plain of grass, and the ground was unusually soft, almost as if I were standing on the surface of a swamp.

In the sea of green, the only thing of note I saw was Lucia bouncing up and down, causing ripples to flow through the ground every time she landed. Beside her, her bodyguard was standing with her arms crossed. Despite the ground moving her up and down, her hair and clothes remained stationary relative to her body. The ruler glanced at me, and suddenly, it felt like I was being stared down by a beast’s gaping maw. Whatever the reason she asked me to come, Lucia’s bodyguard was up to no good.

“So, why did you bring him here? Is he going to help me learn my escaping technique?”

Is that why I was brought here? To help Lucia learn a new skill? That doesn’t seem too bad; it’s not like she’s learning an attack skill capable of killing me. I shouldn’t suffer if I partake in this activity.

“He’s going to help,” Lucia’s bodyguard said with a bright smile, “but probably not in the way you’re expecting.”

I don’t like the sound of this.

“What do you mean?” Lucia asked and tilted her head. “Am I going to attack him and watch how he escapes? You’re always making me learn by watching other people.”

“Watching other people usually is the best way to learn,” Lucia’s bodyguard said before shaking her head. “However, this time, he’ll be helpful in another way. He’ll be your comparison. I’ve noticed you don’t really have a good grasp of your own abilities compared to other people, so to encourage you, I’m going to teach you and him the escape technique. Then, when you see how poorly he performs compared to you, you’ll inevitably feel much better about yourself, and you’ll likely enjoy training more.”

I’m insulted. I might’ve obtained my position as a holy child of the Blazing Sun Sect by achievements—returning to the sect with the legacy of a supreme immortal—rather than with my talents, but I’m still a holy child with the knowledge of an old demon! Why does Lucia’s bodyguard think I’ll do poorly compared to Lucia? As far as I know, Lucia’s forte lies in her overwhelming strength, not her learning abilities.

“And you,” Lucia’s bodyguard said, looking directly at me. “If you can prove yourself to be better than Lucia at escaping, I wouldn’t mind helping you advance in your cultivation by a minor realm or two depending on your performance.”

I thought all squirrels were unreasonable, but it seems like this one still has a conscience. “What if I don’t do better than her?”

“I won’t punish you or anything, but for your sake, I hope you do.”

Like all old people, Lucia’s bodyguard speaks in riddles. Regardless, I’m in a situation beneficial to myself. As long as my skills are better than Lucia’s, my cultivation will get a boost. There’s no reason to turn down such a great opportunity to get stronger.

“Do I get anything if I do better than him?” Lucia asked, pointing at me. “How about a reward? Like, uh, a hint to finding out why you destroyed Atlantis. I’m sure that’ll encourage me a lot more than seeing him fail!”

“If that’ll encourage you to learn, then sure,” Lucia’s bodyguard said, agreeing rather easily to Lucia’s demand. From the way the white-haired woman is speaking, Lucia’s a slow learner. Beating her in learning shouldn’t be an issue; after all, I’ve already mastered the Blood Dispersion escape technique, a technique infamous for its ruthlessness on one’s self. No matter what, all escape techniques have a similar core concept, and it’s already been ingrained in my bones.

“Alright,” Lucia said and bounced across the ground to my side. “Let’s start! The faster I learn this, the faster I’ll get a mountain!”

Lucia’s bodyguard smiled. “Sure,” she said. “Let’s start. First things first, you have to learn the right posture for this technique. Copy me.” With that, the bodyguard’s torso fell forward as her knees slightly bent. Before her arms could hit the ground, spiritual energy extended out of her elbows, coating her arms and hands, and extended past, forming two glowing claws that acted as a pair of front legs. “Well? What are you waiting for? Assume the squirrel form.”

I’ve been tricked.