Tilia's anxious eyes moved, examining Liam from head to toe as if expecting him to suddenly crumble into dust despite his reassurances. But when she felt the steady pulse of his mana and saw the calm in his eyes, her tense expression finally softened.

Liam chuckled at her cute reactions. "Say, do you know how to unlock something that is encased in some sort of divine blood or divine liquid or whatever this thing is?" He fished out the divine droplet and showed it to Tilia.

The fairy's eyes quickly widened. "Where did you get this from?" She stared at the droplet unblinkingly, bringing her slender finger towards it in a trance. However, as soon as she went near it, she took her finger back in a rush as if she got burned.

"If I am not wrong, only someone with a high divine affinity, like a ridiculously high divine affinity, should be able to analyze it and see how the restrictions can be undone." Tilia paused and then added with an odd expression on her face. "Maybe your red-headed wife can decipher it for you."

Liam laughed. "You mean Alex? What? Are you guys fighting?"

Tilia puffed out her cheeks, her wings flaring slightly in indignation. "We're not fighting. I just don't like how she treats me sometimes. She is just rude to me for no reason. It's infuriating. I-" She stopped suddenly, realizing that she had gone overboard.

Liam's grin widened as he crossed his arms, leaning against the nearest wall with a relaxed posture. "Go on," he said, his tone teasing. "Don't hold back on my account. Tell me all about how terrifying Alex is."

Tilia turned beet red, her wings fluttering erratically behind her. "She's not terrifying! She's just… smug. And loud. And she always acts like she knows better. Even when she does know better!" The fairy huffed again, then turned away, her voice dropping to a grumble. "It's hard to argue with someone who's always charging into danger and still somehow pulling everyone out of it."

Liam let out a soft chuckle. "She does have a talent for chaos," he said, then glanced at the droplet still faintly pulsing in his hand. "Let her come back, and I will see what she can do about this."

His mind, however, briefly went back to what that paladin had said. Was there really some danger to the elites of this world? Or perhaps the man was simply spouting nonsense, knowing he had already fallen for the trap?

He had already asked his soul avatar to focus on this, but it would take some time to get some meaningful information. Would it then be too late to warn them about it?

Liam then thought of something. What if they were already in danger? "Tilia. Tell me what you know about this treasure hunt event. Has it started already?"

Tilia blinked, her brows furrowing as Liam's tone shifted from playful to serious in an instant. "Hold on, I'll check." She tapped her fingers on the system screen. "

"It has started," she said, voice clipped. "In fact… It's already two phases in. And—" her expression darkened, "I'm detecting energy surges way beyond what's allowed for the current tier of players."

Liam's eyes narrowed. "What kind of surges? What are you talking about? Isn't a system event supposed to be tampering-proof?" Even as he was saying it, he did not believe it since he had personally witnessed how crazy a system event can be, but he still hoped that it was not true. "Can you tell me anything more at all?"

Tilia shook her head. "All I can see is that this event was supposed to be restricted to awakeners, and yet there are two transcendents inside the event at the moment. There are two more hours left. We cannot do anything about it. No one can enter it. No one can exit it. No one can do anything about it. I am sorry."

Liam clenched his fists. He did not like this at all.

"They took your legendary pets with them. They are well prepared, and they have all made tremendous progress in their paths. You have to trust them."

Liam remained silent for a while before nodding. He then walked over to the main guild base, Luna popping out of him as they reached it. She immediately tried to hog Liam's ears, but several guild members recognized her and came to pay respects to her, keeping her very busy.

Liam quietly went to his room and lay on the bed. He closed his eyes and restarted his soul cultivation for his second constellation.

He then stopped and took out the soul minion of the first guy he had encountered in the desert world, the guy who kept trying to stick a soul mark on him again and again. He couldn't help but wonder if he could do something similar and tag his personal soul mark on someone else.

He then thought of something even ridiculous. What if that soul mark was enough to temporarily form a small and dispensable soul minion? Could he trade places with such a soul minion?

Liam's mind raced with ideas. He closed his eyes to contemplate the new idea. Sure, there might be legendary pets and they might have become more powerful, but when it came to family, it was simply not enough. It would never be like he was personally guarding them.

At the same time, he couldn't do anything openly. If they knew that he was always on standby to rescue them, their growth would be hampered. The only option here was to stick a soul mark on them without their knowledge so Liam could keep an eye on everything that was going on.

Sure, some might call this controlling and paranoid behaviour. But fuck them. He did not care what it looked like. He just did not want to feel this helpless again. It was not their fault that he kept making enemies everywhere he went.

"One more hour…" Liam waited patiently, and soon, the time was here.

His heart raced as he instantly teleported to the system shop to find out what was going on. The first thing he saw was the grim expression on Rey's face as he slowly walked out. Something was wrong. Something had gone terribly wrong.

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