Chapter 921

I never thought... we'd actually make it back...

Following Leon, drenched in blood, through the mist and back into the living world, the three cleaners stared at the familiar sights of the mortal realm, tears welling in their eyes, overwhelmed with emotion.

But before they could thank Leon, the blazing sunlight of the living world struck their souls, instantly igniting vast clouds of invisible white smoke that seared them into screams.

“Zhang Zui!”

Leon, prepared for this, seized the souls of the three cleaners, pried open the black goat’s mouth, and shoved them all inside at once.

“?!!”

“Hold them! But absolutely do not eat them!”

After warning the black goat, Leon still wasn’t reassured—he feared the beast might succumb to the temptation of such high-quality souls and sneak a taste—so he directly threatened:

“Remember this! If even a single speck of these three souls is missing, I’ll send you to the Kingdom of Aulesong to be purified alongside your whip!”

“...”

Hmph, fine, I won’t eat them! Like I even want to!

Faced with the threat of purification, the black goat, which had just been twitching with temptation, instantly grew utterly still, rolled its eyes at Leon, and held the three cleaners’ souls inside its mouth without moving.

As for the three souls now inside the goat’s mouth, they were protected by the “guardianship” provided by the great demon, successfully shielding them from the sun’s harm and allowing them to temporarily remain in the living world. When Alje finally understood what Leon had done, he couldn’t help but exclaim in intense excitement:

“They... they’re...?”

“It’s a bit complicated to explain...”

After glancing at the Dead Gate’s activity and confirming no one had followed, Leon let out a faint breath of relief, then spoke succinctly:

“After I consumed the Death Guard Dog, I inherited part of its authority—I can now refuse to let souls enter the Underworld. But this power has limits: it only works when I’m near the Dead Gate.”

“So I just went to the Underworld, intercepted the three seniors before they reached the Dead Gate, and pulled them back—temporarily, at least.”

“What do you mean by ‘temporarily’?”

“It means they can’t stay here forever.”

Leon said, somewhat helplessly:

“According to the rules of the living world, existence requires both body and soul. Even divine manifestations and true gods must first acquire a physical form.”

“But the three seniors’ bodies are destroyed. Though I can prevent their souls from entering the Underworld, I can’t permanently retain them—eventually, problems will arise.”

“So we still need a way to leave the Kingdom of Krok, or contact the Headquarters. Otherwise, their souls will still be expelled by this world.”

The problem is, we can’t get out right now...

After hearing Leon’s explanation, Alje’s excited expression slightly faded, and he gritted his teeth:

“What if you stay in the Kingdom of Krok, hide with their souls and Princess Filia, and I try to break out?”

“Senior Alje, you’d better not even think about it.”

Leon shook his head:

“I don’t know if your presence has been exposed, but I led the abduction of Princess Filia—so they definitely know I’m here. Since I didn’t show up at the Twin Branch, they know I’m still inside the Kingdom of Krok.”

“Logically, they’ll assume we’re trying to escape, so their defenses will be extremely tight. Your chance of slipping out safely right now is practically zero.”

“Then what do we do? Just wait here?”

“Not exactly waiting—we can still do something.”

After pondering the current situation, Leon mused:

“In raw strength, Director Edward’s team—one Zodiac, one Elite Level One, three Senior Level Two—isn’t weak. From Nicole’s description, they were ambushed, defeated by the enemy’s hidden advantage and lack of intel—not by overwhelming power.”

“Now, if we stay hidden enough, it becomes enemy-visible, us-invisible. We can use this chance to gather the missing intel. If their strength isn’t as great as we fear, we might still have a chance to fight back... Senior cleaners.”

Here, Leon turned his head toward the black goat and asked the three souls inside its mouth:

“What exactly happened at the Twin Branch? Can you describe it in as much detail as possible?”

“To be honest, we’re not entirely sure...”

Hearing Leon’s question, Rubin—now shrunk to doll-sized—hesitated before speaking:

“Actually, there’s not much to say—it was just a massive artillery barrage. Even though the ambush was sudden, it should’ve only thrown us into chaos for a moment—we could’ve handled it.”

“But for some reason, their gunfire was incredibly, incredibly fast. We couldn’t react at all—not even enough time to activate our anomalies. We only saw the walls explode, then we were dead.”

Incredibly, incredibly fast?

Leon’s brow lifted—he recalled the female journalist’s account relayed by the [Hidden Tail].

The journalist hadn’t mentioned the gunfire being fast. In her version, no one except her reacted in time—hence the heavy firepower struck them all.

So... was the gunfire fast, or were they slow? Which was truly correct?

After a brief pause, Leon turned to Alje beside him and asked pointedly:

“Senior Alje, can you react to a close-range firearm discharge?”

“No problem.”

Alje thought for a moment before replying:

“With my reflexes, if someone fires directly at me, I just need to dodge the barrel’s direction—I can see it, so I can avoid it, even if it’s pressed against my face.”

“If it’s a surprise attack, within two or three meters might be tricky, but beyond that, I’d definitely dodge—even if artillery rounds are faster than small arms, I can still activate an anomaly in time to save myself.”

“Mind if I test that?”

As he spoke, Leon pulled out a small-caliber nail gun, flicked the safety open with his thumb, aimed at the ground before Alje’s feet, and calmly warned:

“I might fire at the ground at any moment—when I do, activate your anomaly and block the nail...”

Before he finished speaking, Leon’s finger suddenly pulled the trigger, firing the nail. Alje’s eyes sharpened—his right foot, clad in black leather shoes, instantly unraveled into a cloud of pitch-black threads...

...and perfectly missed the nail.

“This...”

Watching the [Skin Threads] only rush forward after the nail had already embedded itself in the ground, Alje froze. Leon sighed and delivered his conclusion:

“Seniors, it seems the gunfire in the Kingdom of Krok wasn’t fast—it’s your reactions that have slowed down.”