Chapter 210: I

Blood-red tentacles fell like spears, slamming into the ground and leaving a deep crater.

After the strike failed, the tentacle did not continue attacking but swiftly retracted into the water.

"This guy is really angry!"

Herbert raised an eyebrow as he stared at the crater left by the tentacle.

Why is this thing so furious?

Wasn't it friendly last time?

Did it take the wrong pill?

At this moment, Fu Leimei jumped down from Herbert's body, retracted her alchemical legs, restored her fish tail, and floated in midair.

She half-closed her eyes, sensing the surroundings, and whispered: "The water elements are agitated—they're angry, they're suffering…"

"It—the water elemental spirit—has been corrupted."

Fu Leimei did not recognize it as the target's divine creation; to her, the tentacle's true form was a legendary-level water elemental spirit.

Elemental spirit.

In this world, elements are divided into earth, wind, water, and fire—the fundamental pillars of the material realm.

In places where elemental power is strong, there is a chance an elemental spirit will be born.

For instance, in a scorching plane saturated with fire elements, fire energy continuously converges and fluctuates; over a long time, it may rapidly give birth to a fire elemental spirit.

This consciousness does not appear out of nowhere but is more like a self-awareness condensed from the fire elements themselves—a unified will born from countless weak fire elements gathering together.

Elemental spirits of different ranks possess vastly different strengths.

A water elemental spirit born in a small stream might be only beginner level, posing little threat to mortals.

But deep within elemental planes, legendary-level elemental elders—or even epic-level elemental lords—can be born!

Each element has its own nature: fire is wild and passionate, earth is steady and reclusive, wind is nimble and curious.

Water, however, is a pure and gentle force, playing a vital role in the world's cycles.

Yet the temperament of water energy is highly variable and easily influenced.

Once affected by external forces, its nature undergoes drastic transformation.

After being influenced by powerful magic or rituals, it becomes like a raging tsunami, brimming with violent power, smashing everything in its path—the Furious Water Elemental Spirit (High-Energy Form).

Or, under extreme high-temperature conditions, the water element's balance is shattered, transforming into another form—the Angry Water Elemental Spirit (High-Temperature Steam Form).

The current situation clearly indicates the water elemental spirit has been corrupted, altering its form.

The corpses of countless ghost wolves have polluted the water; the filthy blood has changed the elemental spirit's nature, plunging it into a bloodthirsty state.

Aggressive, insane, impatient, chaotic…

Fu Leimei gazed at the agitated lake surface, furrowing her brow slightly and sighing with pity.

"Ah, poor thing, you've suffered so much."

As a powerful legendary sea witch, Fu Leimei adored these pure little beings and had signed contracts with multiple water elemental spirits.

But now, seeing the "water elemental spirit" endure such torment, she could not stand idly by.

"Herbert, I want to help it regain its senses. Stay back—you might get hurt."

Herbert blinked at this.

So she's already eager to get to work?

"Uh… alright."

He didn't elaborate, only nodded: "Don't worry, I'll dodge on my own—just be careful not to get hurt!"

"Mm!"

She gently swayed her tail, drifting upward like swimming through water, gazing tenderly down at the lake, and whispered:

"Don't be afraid—I'll help you regain your clarity…"

Yet although Fu Leimei spoke softly, her actions were anything but gentle!

Upon reaching the lake water, her power surged significantly under the water elements' augmentation.

As Fu Leimei had said before, she wasn't just a singer.

She was a powerful spellcaster!

She chanted ancient incantations, and the lake water under her control instantly transformed into sharp ice spikes, hurtling toward the tentacle's true form.

Swoosh—swoosh—swoosh—

Her moves seemed simple and casual, yet each strike reached legendary power.

Boom—boom—boom!

The lake surface exploded like water cannons, shaking the entire lake.

But the ice spikes, upon piercing the water, were shattered before they could touch the true form, struck down by the whistling tentacles.

Crack! Crack! Crack!

In its bloodthirsty state, the Holy Grail was far more aggressive than usual; instead of retreating after provocation, it launched a furious counterattack.

Yet it seemed incapable of spellcasting, relying only on its dozens-of-meters-long tentacles to lash out like whips.

Fu Leimei remained calm; surrounding lake water surged, forming layers of ice walls that effortlessly blocked the tentacles' strikes.

Though the situation appeared to be a stalemate—tentacle and ice wall trading blows—Fu Leimei's expression betrayed her thoughts.

"Heh."

She was smiling—smiling with clear triumph.

The Holy Grail held the advantage of terrain, but Fu Leimei swiftly overrode that advantage with raw power.

"All water elements in this region, by my name—Fu Leimei Kya—I command you: obey me!"

In mere minutes, she had successfully seized control of the water elements in this area.

But after successfully seizing control of this place, Fu Leimei did not act immediately; instead, she called out:

"Herbert, move now!"

"As you wish, Young Lady."

Herbert, who had long been ready, chuckled and shot upward from the ground, flaring his wings as he flew toward the lake's center.

Target—Young Lady Centaur!

While Fu Leimei was locked in stalemate with the Holy Grail, Herbert had not been idle; he had already planned his route.

Taking advantage of the Holy Grail being pinned aside by Fu Leimei and unable to divert attention, he flew straight to the lake's center and seized the floating Centaur's wrist.

"So light!"

Normal horses weigh between two hundred and twelve hundred kilograms; a Centaur, with a human upper body, certainly shouldn't be light.

But this female Centaur was unexpectedly light—Herbert yanked her clean out of the water by her arm.

No more than forty kilograms!

"Hm!?"

The moment he made physical contact with her, Herbert suddenly sensed something was wrong.

Good news: Young Lady Centaur was indeed not dead.

Bad news: She had never… been alive.

"She's a ghost? Or a spirit?"

Though she had tangible form, she emitted no sign of life.

【"More precisely, she is a Heroic Spirit."】

Nie Nasha interjected: 【"A Heroic Spirit who served in the divine realm. At her power level, she's nearly become a Sacred Spirit."】

Swoosh—Crack!

A blood-red tendril lashed out, slamming hard against the water beside Herbert, the massive splash nearly knocking him out of control.

"Wait!"

"Hold on! She's the one hitting you—go after her, don't take it out on me!"

Herbert raised an eyebrow, dodging the increasingly frenzied tendrils as he shot upward: "So, she's your devotee?"

【"Once."】

Nie Nasha did not deny it, but added with regret: 【"Though I no longer remember her."】

"So cold?"

Herbert blinked, smiling: "I thought deities truly remembered every single devotee, as they claimed."

【"Hehe, that's all lies~ Deities are heartless creatures."】

He chuckled softly, murmuring:

【"Besides, so much time has passed—some unimportant things are bound to be forgotten."】

"Forgotten? That's actually good… Hm!?"

As Herbert mused, he suddenly felt the Centaur in his grip plunge downward.

What!!?

He looked down—the tendril had gripped the Centaur's hind leg and was yanking hard, trying to drag her back.

"You're so heavy!"

Herbert strained upward, but he was no match for that force—he was dragged down.

The Holy Grail, even in its frenzy, retained some sanity—it didn't pull with full strength, fearing it might harm the Centaur—allowing Herbert to hold on just barely.

"Tch, such strength!"

Herbert wasn't on land; if he were, he could have used his own strength to pull.

But he was in midair, relying solely on the power of his Sacred Mark.

He was no match.

Feeling his body sinking inch by inch, Herbert gritted his teeth: "Do you know there's a kind of love called… letting go?"

"Fu Leimei!"

Swoosh—

Before he finished speaking, a blade of ice swept past, cleanly severing the tendril's tip.

The taut rope snapped—Herbert, jolted by the sudden release, flew backward, still clutching the Centaur.

As he glided through the air, he heard a pained whimper rising from beneath the water.

"Woo—"

The sound didn't resemble a giant sea creature—it sounded like a young child crying.

Hm?

There was no time for Herbert to ponder further; he glanced once and turned away, flying toward shore with the Centaur.

After its tendril was severed, the Holy Grail still refused to give up, still trying to reclaim the Centaur.

But this time, Fu Leimei blocked it outright.

Creak—creak—creak…

The lake's temperature had somehow dropped below freezing; pale frost drifted across the surface.

"I won't let you hurt him."

Fu Leimei drifted down, landing on the water's surface, her tone calm as she repeated: "No one can."

"Now… there are no more obstacles. I no longer need to hold back."

Did Herbert rescue the Centaur to shore because he was curious about her anatomy?

No, it's not.

Although he was curious too, this time it really wasn't.

It was Fu Leimei who told him to do it.

The purpose was to make sure there were no unrelated people on the lake surface who might be caught in the crossfire.

And once the centaur was taken away, the only living creature left in the entire lake was the water elemental spirit.

Fu Leimei could act without any reservations now.

She watched the tentacles rapidly stiffening under the cold aura, her soft lips parting slightly.

"Sorrowful Binghe!"

Crack—

In just an instant, the entire lake water froze into a block of ice.

Not like the last time the Ice Goddess descended and only froze a single layer on the lake surface — this time the entire lake was frozen solid!

And this was the legendary spell that Fu Leimei herself had developed and named — 【Sorrowful Binghe】!

It was also the source of one of her titles.

She had begun secretly preparing this spell when she flew up above the lake, and only barely finished preparing it at that very moment.

And after finally casting this spell after a long absence, Fu Leimei also looked somewhat weary, and slowly landed on the ice surface.

She stood on the ice surface using her alchemical legs, having reverted to her previously disguised appearance.

"You won't be harmed."

She looked down at the water elemental spirit sealed in ice beneath the surface, and said gently: "Take this chance to rest well."

"When you wake up, you'll be calm again."

Under the effect of Sorrowful Binghe, the ghost wolf corpses in the lake were also all frozen into blocks of ice, and shattered into a pile of ice fragments under slight tremors.

Those ice fragments were swept up into midair, gathered into a compressed ice ball, and then directly hurled by Fu Leimei into the depths of the mist.

The filth had been cleaned away. Once the spell ended, the water elemental spirit would regain its freedom, and by then it would quickly return to its usual gentleness.

Just as she had said before, she had indeed successfully helped the water elemental spirit regain its calm — through the method of beating it soundly first, then forcibly calming it down.

Anyway, the result was good, so don't fuss over these details.

In fact, Fu Leimei herself didn't think there was anything wrong with her approach.

When she signed the contract with the water elemental before, the process had been exactly the same — beat it first.

Once beaten into submission, the other party would willingly and obediently sign the contract with her and become her familiar.

Cases where it couldn't be beaten into submission... so far there hadn't been any.

The water elemental spirit needed some time to regain consciousness, and the spell could last a while longer. Fu Leimei didn't keep waiting around here, but instead turned her head to look at Herbert on the shore.

How was the situation over there?

And with this turn of the head, Fu Leimei's expression froze.

"Hm?"

She saw Herbert staring with a solemn expression at the female centaur's body, examining it up and down nonstop.

"Herbert! What are you doing!?"

Your eyes are about to fall in!!!

In her panic, Fu Leimei tried to rush toward the shore, but forgot that she was controlling her alchemical legs.

"Whoa whoa whoa..."

She was tripped by the ice under her feet. She tried to use magic to float up again, but forgot she had just exhausted all her magic power.

"Oof!"

The entire mermaid flopped onto the ice surface with a thud, sliding forward a good distance on the momentum of her lunge.

One moment ago, the great mage who had been casually controlling the water elemental and freezing the entire lake into ice — the next moment she had become a seal sliding around on the ice surface.

Couldn't stay cool for more than three seconds.

And Herbert, upon hearing Fu Leimei's call, raised his head in confusion and saw her rushing toward him... ah, sliding toward him.

Herbert looked at the Young Lady of the merfolk, who had simply thrown caution to the wind and slid all the way to the shore, and asked uncertainly: "What is this?"

A sudden bout of childlike whimsy?

Or some kind of performance art I can't comprehend?

"Ahem!"

Fu Leimei coughed. Her pride would not allow her to admit to making such a low-level mistake.

Her mouth moved, and in the end she stubbornly said: "Don't worry about it. In any case, this way is faster."

"Oh~"

Herbert gave a meaningful "oh," didn't dwell on the matter any longer, and instead beckoned to her.

"Alright, stop making excuses. Come over here and look at this thing."

"I'm not making excuses, I really do think that way is faster... hm?"

Fu Leimei climbed up from the ground, stubbornly insisting as she walked toward Herbert, and looked at where he was pointing.

"What is this?"

Following the direction Herbert was pointing, she saw a diamond-shaped gemstone embedded in the centaur's chest.

It was also at this moment that she finally noticed the differences about this centaur.

The build was nothing unusual, but it looked more translucent than described in the texts, and there was no aura of life.

She also noticed that the wounds on its body were slowly healing, including its clothing and horse armor, which were slowly growing back.

And this was clearly not something a normal creature could do.

"Spirit body?"

"It's a heroic spirit."

Herbert beckoned Fu Leimei to sit beside him and pressed his fingertip against the gemstone on the centaur's chest.

"And this thing, I suspect, is her soul core."

In truth, it was Nie Nasha who had told him.

"And according to what I've read in the classics, as long as you stimulate a heroic spirit's soul crystal, you can forcibly awaken them."

That was also something Nie Nasha had said.

"Should we awaken her? At the very least, we could ask what happened before."

Fu Leimei hesitated. The other party's attitude was unclear — perhaps she was friends with the water elemental spirit, but now it had been frozen by herself. If she saw this scene…

After a moment of hesitation, she still decided to awaken this centaur.

"Mm, alright… go ahead."

At the very least, she had to figure out her identity first before any further conversation would be convenient.

Besides, the centaur heroic spirit was currently in a recovery state — the longer it dragged on, the stronger she'd become, and the more uncertain factors there would be.

She had already recovered somewhat now, so she could certainly keep the other party firmly suppressed.

If the other party harbored ill intent, then she'd simply destroy her on the spot, not giving her any chance to continue recovering her strength.

So after receiving Fu Leimei's permission, he immediately set to work, channeling a stream of holy power into the soul core.

"Cough…"

Soon, the centaur heroic spirit gave a light cough, her brow stirring slightly, and slowly opened her eyes.

But unlike the reaction Herbert had imagined, after opening her eyes the other party just kept staring at him blankly, making no attempt to flee or be on guard.

"……"

Hm?

Looking at those pure, bewildered eyes, a thought flashed through Herbert's mind.

No way, right?

He hesitated for a moment, then finally asked tentatively:

"Do you… still remember who you are?"

And as for the answer to that question—

The centaur young lady's reply made his heart skip a beat.

"Me? I'm Sophia."

Sophia looked at Herbert and Fu Leimei, thought for a while, and said somewhat blankly:

"But beyond that…"

"I don't remember anything."

Two updates today, ten thousand characters!

Bonus update progress (44/232)

Today is the seventh day of definitely going to bed early!

We're going to win!

Decided to deploy the forbidden melatonin technique…

Tomorrow's update will definitely be on time, and the day after too!

……

Book recommendation:

"The Magical Girls in This World Are Too Brutal"

【No golden fingers/system】 + 【No freeloading】 + 【No romance】 + 【A dark magical world overrun by Miss Xie Shen】

Congratulations! You've transmigrated into a magical world!

But right at the start you're already playing at captivity play?!!

But the god: "I want to have a child with you~"

Every wish has its price, every付出 has its reward. A world of magic and gold coins, welcome!



(End of this chapter)