But in the very next second, Angel did something that left everyone dumbfounded.
Angel reached out and tapped directly on the Maneater Flower’s core. With a powerful Energy Blast, a hole was punched straight through the flower from its core.
The Maneater Flower, so vivid and lively just a moment ago, died instantly. Its fiery red petals and swaying posture withered at a speed visible to the naked eye, then slumped down on the Infant Spirit’s head, and finally... completely turned to powder and scattered into nothing.
Everything about this made it clear the Maneater Flower was utterly dead, with no chance of Resurrection.
Before this, when everyone saw the Maneater Flower being so close to Angel, they had already gone numb and felt no surprise at all; but now, watching Angel "turn on the flower" in an instant, they were all stunned.
A second earlier, Angel had been gently stroking the Maneater Flower, like petting a soft little kitten; the next second he said, "That’s enough," then changed his face and mercilessly "crushed the flower with an iron hand."
Anyone who saw such a switch in Angel would probably be startled. After all, this kind of shift could easily be interpreted as a kind of mental and psychological "perversion"—and this "pervert," in everyone’s prior impression, had always been mild and scholarly.
The honest man turning into a flower-destroying fiend—just thinking about it sent chills down their spines.
Not only were the others startled, the Infant Spirit was frightened too. It scurried up along the Weaving Net to a higher spot and stared at Angel in utter fear.
Watching the Infant Spirit’s reaction, Angel muttered inwardly: had Shaya still not explained the situation to the Infant Spirit?
Forget it, whether there was any explanation or not doesn’t matter. What matters more right now is—
"Hey, if you want to hop away and leave, I won’t stop you. But don’t forget, these nets still haven’t been undone yet."
Angel spoke to the Infant Spirit, a gentle smile on his face.
Angel’s gentleness wasn’t an act; he genuinely felt it was a pity for the Infant Spirit to be exiled to the Sea of Void Mirror just like that. But he had no other way to save it. All he could do now was be a little gentler to it before it set off.
However, the gentleness Angel thought he was showing only looked more perverse and twisted in everyone else’s eyes.
What he said was basically: one hand stabbing you with a knife, the other using a "gentle" tone to get you to open the way yourself.
This was straight-up psychological perversion!
The way Angel’s behavior was being interpreted was drifting further and further off track... and no one had any intention of asking him about it.
In their view, maybe Angel had just been repressing himself for too long, so this sudden shift appeared?
And there were plenty of such cases in the Wizards’ Realm.
Including the Black Earl himself, who was perverse most of the time and only occasionally normal.
So... respect.
Everyone tacitly kept silent, while Angel continued, in a gentle tone, coaxing the Infant Spirit like he was really soothing a baby.
A few seconds later, the Infant Spirit timidly poked its head out. Under Angel’s "encouraging" smile, it took the initiative to let go of the Weaving Net.
From that point on, every remaining Weaving Net snapped from the middle, no longer posing any obstruction.
It was enough for them to reach their destination for this trip—the Qingkong Poetry Room—safe and sound.
Angel gave the Infant Spirit a thumbs-up, then turned around and said to the Black Earl: "See? I said it no longer wants to block us."
Looking at the smile at the corner of Angel’s lips, the Black Earl... had nothing to say.
The doubts in the Black Earl’s heart grew deeper and deeper, but he also knew Angel wouldn’t answer. Since that was the case, he shut his mouth—no asking, no answering.
Angel didn’t care about the Black Earl’s silence either. Getting through this final hurdle so easily made him rather pleased.
His goal this time was the Qingkong Poetry Room. Now that all obstacles before it had been swept away, the road ahead was wide open. How could he not be happy?
He had taken the Maneater Flower’s will and stored it inside the Nightmare Realm; even if it was only a temporary lodging, it was still an unexpected bonus. Maybe he could get some information about the wall out of this Maneater Flower’s mouth.
Especially that one question he’d wanted to dig into before, but hadn’t asked because of the circumstances: the light.
What exactly was that light leaking from the crack, and what were its traits?
But all of that would have to wait until the Maneater Flower’s will had recondensed into shape before he could ask.
Going by Nightmare Realm creatures’ traits, once they returned to a space rich in Nightmare Realm aura, they should recover very quickly, right?
Thinking this, Angel stretched out his right hand. His gaze passed through the leaping green Patterns, looking at the Luxury Nightmare Realm hidden beneath them.
Angel had just been planning to check whether the Maneater Flower’s will had reformed, but when he focused, he froze on the spot.
Inside the Luxury Nightmare Realm, the blood-red Maneater Flower had already taken root. It had occupied the spot where the piano had been placed, turning that several-meter-square stage into a Sea of Flowers of Maneater Flowers.
He had already seen the Sea of Flowers before, so Angel wasn’t surprised by that. What surprised him was... why was Shaya in there?!
Yes, that very same black Maneater Flower floating in midair.
It seemed extremely satisfied with the Luxury Nightmare Realm. At the moment, it was swaying in midair along with the few remaining members of the Teacup Band, dancing to the music.
Shaya danced and danced, drifting above the fiery-red Maneater Flower. Vines intertwined, branches and leaves bursting into a glow.
Looking at this entangling scene, Angel suddenly remembered that Shaya had said before that its will was bound together with the Maneater Flower outside.
So that means, by bringing the red Maneater Flower’s will into the Nightmare Realm, he had effectively issued Shaya an entry permit as well?
Shaya hadn’t mentioned that at all before, and Angel hadn’t thought in that direction either.
The result was that what was supposed to be just a temporary lodging for one Maneater Flower had now also let the smarter one sneak in on its own.
This was outright smuggling in private goods, hey!
Angel was mentally yelling that he’d invited a wolf into the house, and even had the urge to immediately open the Nightmare Realm and drag Shaya out.
But timing-wise, that was clearly inappropriate right now.
Angel could only forcibly swallow his helplessness, withdraw his gaze from the Nightmare Realm, and say to the Black Earl: "Uh, so now we should... oh right, we continue forward."
After saying they’d continue, Angel suddenly thought of something: "No, wait, we should bring Dox and the others over first."
Although the Weaving Net had split open, the red wax on the ground hadn’t disappeared.
The others didn’t have Domain Field protection; there was no way they could make it across. So Angel still had to go back once.
The Black Earl watched Angel suddenly space out, then suddenly get a bit flustered, even speaking in a disjointed way. With some confusion, he asked: "What’s wrong with you?"
Though he couldn’t see the Black Earl’s face, Angel could sense from the Black Earl’s emotions that he was genuinely concerned about him.
Angel was silent for a moment, then sighed softly: "It’s nothing, I just suddenly feel like I shouldn’t have wiped out the Maneater Flower so quickly..."
"Why?"
Angel thought for a moment: "Honestly, it looked pretty good growing on top of the Infant Spirit’s head."
It was rare for Angel to proactively bring up his earlier actions, so the Black Earl naturally wouldn’t let the opportunity slip: "Since you think the Maneater Flower and the Infant Spirit were such a good match, why did you eliminate it?"
Angel: "An unintentional mistake or a helpless move. Pick one. Which do you think it is, Lord Black Earl?"
Black Earl: "The latter." Previously, the Black Earl might still have believed Angel had "suddenly changed temperament," but now that Angel had given him a binary choice, there was no doubt it had to be the latter.
An unintentional mistake was absolutely impossible.
From start to finish, all of Angel’s actions were within the Black Earl’s sight; he never acted blindly. Killing the Maneater Flower seemed absurd, but if there was more to it, it might be understandable.
Angel only smiled and didn’t answer.
The Black Earl: "Since it was a helpless move, can I take that to mean that even though the Maneater Flower is dead, it actually survives in another form?"
After all, the Black Earl didn’t believe there was any Maneater Flower that would proactively seek death.
Angel shrugged: "Maybe."
With that, Angel stopped talking. But the amount of information he’d already revealed was plenty—enough for the Black Earl to mentally fill in quite a few stories...