Max Level Return—I'll Protect That Fragile One

Ye Mingluo didn’t even look up, and he said, "Wait a moment, I’ll try it myself once I peel it. If it’s good, I’ll peel some for you guys."

Huo Wen’an chuckled and remarked, "You’re quite clever."

Ye Mingluo thought Huo Wen’an was praising his way of peeling chestnuts. He picked up the chestnut from the ground with some pride and boasted, "You didn’t know this, did you? This is an ancestral secret for peeling chestnuts."

Shaking his head, Huo Wen’an said again, "Not very clever, but you did hit the key point." Huo Wen’an looked up at the smoking pipe on the bookshelf and murmured, "Fishing is something to pass the time. As an old smoker, Grandpa ought to take the pipe with him."

Huo Wen’an asked Xu Xingguang, "That day, didn’t Grandpa take this pipe?"

Hearing this, Ye Mingluo realized what Huo Wen’an was really praising about earlier.

Ye Mingluo hurried into the bedroom and asked Xu Xingguang, "Master, did I find an important clue?"

Xu Xingguang nodded, "It seems so."

"I told you, nothing works without me!" Ye Mingluo stood on tiptoe to take down the pipe and presented it to Xu Xingguang like a treasure, saying, "Master, look, is there something unusual about this pipe?"

Xu Xingguang took the pipe, sniffed it carefully, and said, "People who have smoked for years will have a faint smell of smoke on their fingertips. This pipe my grandpa used all his life, should have a smoky smell too."

Ye Mingluo hurriedly leaned to sniff the pipe, frowning, and said, "There’s no smoky smell here, instead there’s a faint medicinal scent."

Xu Xingguang suddenly laughed and asked Ye Mingluo, "Can you tell what kind of medicinal scent it is?"

Ye Mingluo tried to discern it carefully, but found no answer.

Xu Xingguang passed the pipe to Huo Wen’an, saying, "You have a smell."

Huo Wen’an sniffed it carefully, his expression changed, and he said, "This seems like An Shen Wood."

"That’s right, it’s An Shen Wood, more accurately, An Shen Wood Resin." Xu Xingguang squinted her eyes, speaking in a cold tone, "An Shen Wood Resin can anesthetize Corpse Centipedes."

Hearing this, Song Chi and the others’ expressions changed dramatically.

Ye Mingluo exclaimed, "Master, are you saying that your grandpa might have contracted the Corpse Centipede virus? He smoked for years, not because he had a strong addiction but to secretly absorb the components of An Shen Wood Resin to anesthetize the Corpse Centipede?"

Ye Mingluo was pure, not dumb, and immediately grasped the key information.

"Very likely." Xu Xingguang said perplexedly, "In our world, An Shen Wood only appears in the ’Ancient Medicine Transmission’. Where did my grandpa get this stuff?"

Huo Wen’an said unexpectedly, "Divine Martial Realm."

Xu Xingguang caressed the jade mouth of the pipe, staying silent.

Huo Wen’an said, "Our world doesn’t have An Shen Wood, but that doesn’t mean the Divine Martial Realm doesn’t."

He continued to analyze, "Assuming the man smoking dry tobacco in the photo with my grandpa is indeed your grandpa, then your grandpa’s longevity is unusually extended. Moreover, your grandpa’s surname is not Mo, but Grandpa Xie said he bore the surname Ying, I think he might be intricately connected to the Ying Family."

"Therefore, I boldly guess that your grandpa should be someone from the Ying Family who visited the Divine Martial Realm."

After analyzing, Huo Wen’an looked at Xu Xingguang and asked, "Do you think my analysis is reasonable?"

"What you said makes sense." Xu Xingguang pondered and proposed another possibility, saying, "I think there is also a second possibility."

"What?" Everyone looked at Xu Xingguang.

Xu Xingguang said, "Maybe Grandpa is not someone sent by the Ying Family to the Divine Martial Realm; he might be someone originally from the Divine Martial Realm."

"Do you remember the hypothesis about the world being a prison?" Xu Xingguang asked them, "What is a prison for?"

Ye Mingluo blurted out, "For criminals, of course."

"That’s right." Xu Xingguang said, "We don’t know of the Divine Martial Realm’s existence, but the people of the Divine Martial Realm surely know of our existence. If our people commit a crime, they are put in prison. In that case, if someone from the Divine Martial Realm commits a crime, is it possible they are exiled to the Mortal World?"

"I think my grandpa might be someone from the Ying Family who visited the Divine Martial Realm, or it could be that he was exiled by the Divine Martial Realm to the Mortal World for committing a crime. As for what the truth is, I still don’t know."

"I think the boss’s analysis also makes sense." Song Chi said, "I always felt Grandpa was full of doubts; he didn’t seem like an ordinary person."

Zheng Lie remained silent.

Before, he was just a spy, dealing with national conspiracies.

After being taken by Huo Wen’an to Divine Concealment Island and becoming a free man, he thought he could live a simpler life. Now, he realized he’s facing a conspiracy between worlds.

This life is getting more and more thrilling.

"By the way." Ye Mingluo thought of something and said, "I think we should leave here soon." He said with a chill down his back, "I think there might be some fierce beasts in this forest."

He told Xu Xingguang and the others, "Earlier, when I was picking chestnuts in the tree, I always felt like there was a gaze watching me. Curious, I looked around and found that behind the mountain where the dry tobacco field is, there seemed to be a terrible beast."

"It’s dark and indistinct, I don’t know what it is. I was a bit scared and just hid back inside." Ye Mingluo is a doctor who has dissected countless creatures; he would not be afraid of mere insects.

He was actually frightened by that beast.

Zheng Lie said, "This place is close to the No-man District of the Kunze Mountain Range, and it’s normal for beasts to roam here. However, we indeed should head down the mountain soon; the later we go down, the more dangerous it gets."

But Xu Xingguang asked Ye Mingluo, "Did you see a beast with glistening black fur, a strangely formed beastly face, and a pair of pitch-black eyes?"

Ye Mingluo was shocked, nodding repeatedly, and asked Xu Xingguang, "Have you seen it?"

Huo Wen’an examined Xu Xingguang intently and said thoughtfully, "Previously, on the suspension bridge, what you saw, was it that?"

"Yes." Xu Xingguang caressed the pipe, speaking with some sadness, "I have a natural spiritual connection with animals. From the way it looked at me, I felt a sense of familiarity and sorrow."

"I have a bad feeling." Xu Xingguang looked at Huo Wen’an, speaking solemnly, "Huo Wen’an, perhaps all our previous guesses were wrong. My grandpa, he’s not been kidnapped, nor did he drown. He..."

Xu Xingguang lowered her eyes, her pupils quivering slightly, and stammered, "Maybe he’s mutated."

With those words, silence enveloped the bedroom.

Crack--

Outside, there suddenly came the sound of branches being snapped by a large animal.

Xu Xingguang, with ghostly speed, sprinted to the kitchen within a few blinks and leaped out, chasing after the black beast.

Seeing this, Huo Wen’an, who was panting while climbing the mountain earlier, surprisingly dashed out after her.

His speed was not slower than Xu Xingguang’s.

Seeing this, Zheng Lie and Song Chi intended to follow the chase, but Ye Mingluo quickly grabbed their arms and shouted, "No, you can’t catch up anyways, better stay here with me."

"I tell you, Huo Wen’an is very powerful, you guys are no match for him. You guys stay here and protect me!"

Song Chi and Zheng Lie glared furiously at Ye Mingluo, but in the end, they didn’t give chase.