The tattered laboratory, corpses scattered everywhere, and the weakened and pitiful Golden Fairy left Katori and the others speechless.
Should they be treated like this?
Even Katori couldn’t say for sure; the Golden Fairies were consumables, weapons to protect everyone, always regarded as special secret weapons. Weapons, just weapons. Should weapons have their own thoughts, their own ideas?
They never thought about such questions, nor did they have time to think, as they were always fighting, fighting, fighting again.
Fang Zheng reached out his hand, and soon, a beam of Holy Light descended from the sky, landing on the injured Golden Fairies, swiftly healing their wounds.
"Let’s go, leave this place."
Fang Zheng gestured with his hand, then leaped once more from the hole, jumping out. The Golden Fairies were encased in a bubble, following Fang Zheng as they left. Seeing this, the three exchanged glances and hurriedly followed.
As the four of them and the Golden Fairies left the castle, they immediately noticed several airships surrounding them in the sky.
"What are you trying to do, Winged Guard!"
A voice blared from the megaphone, sounding exasperated.
"This is Elpes’s King’s City, for you to intrude like this..."
"Ignore him."
Fang Zheng didn’t even glance at the airship, leading the Golden Fairies away directly. Katori and the other two silently followed behind, even though they initially hadn’t planned to come along. Despite Fang Zheng saying he’d just be quick and return, now they were caught in a troublesome situation. Although the three weren’t well-versed in politics, they knew that such reckless intrusion into another country and causing havoc in the King’s City would surely bring serious consequences.
Nonetheless... what’s done is done; regrets are useless now.
When Fang Zheng and the others boarded their own airship, the Lizard Officer and others approached the deck.
"What exactly happened?"
Seeing Fang Zheng and the others bringing down several Golden Fairies from the sky, the Lizard Officer asked solemnly.
"Elpes violated the treaty!"
Katori was evidently quite furious, not just because Elpes violated the treaty, but also because of the mistreatment of her fellow humans.
"They secretly imprisoned the Golden Fairies and did terrible things to them!"
Katori didn’t know exactly what was being done, but what she saw before was enough for her to give a reasonably reliable answer.
Though strictly speaking, the answer wasn’t entirely reliable.
"So what exactly did you do?"
"We didn’t do anything."
Aetheria was much sharper than Katori in this aspect, quickly waving her hands.
"Little brother acted faster than us. By the time we arrived, he had already crashed through Elpes’s King’s City, rushed in, and rescued the people... um... of course, killed a few people..."
"What people?"
On hearing this, the Lizard Officer frowned.
"A few Pighead Tribe..."
"Were they Elpes’s nobility?"
The Lizard Officer was somewhat troubled, turning to look, but Fang Zheng and Neflen didn’t seem to pay any attention to that side. Those Golden Fairies having endured experimenting had weakened considerably. Fang Zheng first placed them on the deck to allow them to rest and then took out the terminal, conducting scans and assessments, applying Holy Light where needed and Medical Gel where appropriate.
Seeing this, the Lizard Officer initially intended to approach, but he hesitated for a moment and then turned away.
"Proceed according to the original plan, continue advancing."
The Winged Guard’s zeppelin, taking on several Golden Fairies, continued the journey. The Golden Fairies also seemed to have developed psychological shadows from those atrocious experiments, hiding in the cabin afraid to come out, relaxing only when Fang Zheng and Neflen appeared.
Although Golden Fairies have a faint concept of death, it doesn’t mean they don’t understand pain; even if undying and fearless, being toyed on the experiment table still fosters fear.
Honestly, Katori and Aetheria were unfamiliar with such conditions, not knowing what to do whereas Fang Zheng appeared calm, like a head physician, frequently visiting the cabin, conversing and chatting to ease them.
As for Neflen... she followed Fang Zheng like a little puppy, seemingly unbothered by the hassle.
"You seem adept at these things?"
Katori accompanied and observed several times, eventually couldn’t help but inquire, to which Fang Zheng nodded.
"Of course, I’ve been to many worlds, witnessed all sorts of things. Actually, there was a world quite similar to yours."
"Oh? Is that so?"
Hearing this, Aetheria and Neflen snuggled closer.
"Yes, that world was similar, almost on the verge of destruction, humans made reckless decisions leading to the creation of creatures called Intestinal Creatures. The specifics are complex, but you could liken them to beasts. In that world, humans used stones to stave off Intestinal Creatures from cities..."
As he spoke, Fang Zheng opened the personal terminal, displaying the Black World’s information.
Upon learning those stones could repel Intestinal Creatures, the Fairy Soldiers present not only showed a bit of envy.
"It would be great if we had something like that here."
Katori couldn’t help but express, given that in this world, Floating Islands were constructed to keep those flying beasts away, yet exceptions existed, like the Sixth Beast that spread seeds through the air. Upon landing on Floating Islands, they spawned immediately, posing frequent challenges for the Fairy Soldiers.
If there was something that could prevent beasts from approaching, the Fairy Soldiers would be far relaxed.
Additionally, they witnessed the existence and plight of the Cursed Children.
Observing these scenes, the three fell silent, acknowledging the Cursed Children’s plight was akin to the Unmarked Species here but far worse. The Unmarked Species received protection, whereas the Cursed Children... had wholly become the world’s enemy.
"How are those children now?"
After Fang Zheng finished this brief introduction, Neflen suddenly asked, and Fang Zheng shrugged his shoulders.
"Most of them are currently at the Heavenly Dao Palace, living quite peaceful lives, which are also bustling. If you want to see, after all this is over, I will also take you back to the Heavenly Dao Palace to experience it in person."
"So... do you want us to be like them?"
"More or less, if you can live a better life, why sacrifice yourself? Of course, it mainly depends on your own wishes."
Saying this, Fang Zheng glanced at the three of them.
"Aren’t you fighting here desperately to protect those little girls in the warehouse?"
"This..."
Hearing Fang Zheng’s rhetorical question, the three were taken aback, and Fang Zheng chuckled.
"In a movie I watched before, there is a line I really like: ’I didn’t have a choice before, now I want to be a good person’... I think this line suits you well too. You didn’t have a choice before, but now... you can think about what kind of person you want to be, what your happiness looks like."
"Our happiness..."
Hearing this, Katori fell silent, and even Aetheria frowned, deep in thought.
"Ahem."
At this moment, a cough suddenly sounded, and everyone turned their heads to see the Lizard Officer standing in the corridor, looking at them solemnly.
"We just received orders, an emergency situation."
Faced with the Lizard Officer’s words, Katori, Neflen, and Aetheria immediately became serious.
According to the Lizard Officer, they originally planned to go to the second island, but received a report on the way that the salvage team heading for the ground was attacked by beasts. Although they successfully repelled the beasts, the airship was severely damaged and could not be repaired. Because they were on this route, closest to the crashed salvage team, and the only three Fairy Soldiers were here, the Winged Guard high command ordered them to assist.
The so-called salvage team is also a kind of hard job. People on the Floating Island regularly go to the ground to salvage some things from human ruins to use. The Holy Swords Katori and others use were salvaged from the ruins, which is why they are called Relic Weapons. The work of the salvage team is tough and very dangerous. After all, the ground is not like the Floating Island, and although none of the Seventeen Beasts other than the Sixth Beast can fly, it is precisely because of this that the ground has become their territory.
Encountering the Seventeen Beasts is very dangerous.
Moreover, the salvage team has a tradition that the number of people entering the ruins each time cannot exceed seven, or they will surely die.
No one knows where this tradition came from... Of course, Fang Zheng just listens to these things.
Soon, the airship changed its target, began to descend gradually, and the desolate land appeared before everyone.
This land is already dead.
No need for others to introduce it, Fang Zheng could see it at a glance. This land only had a desert left, with no grass, no water, no trees, and the traces of life have almost completely disappeared, leaving only deathly silence everywhere.
This place is even worse than the Chaos Land of the Main World; although it is also eroded by Chaos, at least there are some trees and water there.
But here... it’s like a corpse, dried out with no flesh, no skin, not even flies willing to gnaw on it, only the last bones buried in the sand.
And those ruins are the last remaining bones.
Fang Zheng stood on the deck, looking at the ground below, where an airship had crashed and broken into two pieces. Next to it was a camp set up, and not far away was the human city ruins covered by wind and sand, largely weathered, and the remaining parts were also dilapidated, looking like relics just unearthed by an archaeological team.
Soon, everyone on the airship met up with the salvage team here and began quickly transporting the wounded and supplies. Meanwhile, Fang Zheng also met two other Fairy Soldiers, Landoruko and Novte.
"Long time no see, Landoruko. Seeing you safe and sound is better than anything."
"You too."
Named Landoruko, she was a quiet girl in a blue long dress with dark blue shoulder-length hair different from Katori’s. Novte had short pink hair and looked like a tomboy.
"Also, allow me to ask, who is this...?"
As she spoke, Landoruko turned her head with a cautious and scrutinizing gaze towards Fang Zheng.
"I am Fang Zheng, currently managing the Fairy Warehouse."
Fang Zheng nodded to the two, and upon hearing Fang Zheng’s answer, Landoruko furrowed her brow.
"An Unmarked Species, are you a Man-Eating Demon too?"
"Eh?"
Hearing this, the tomboy Novte immediately became interested.
"Morpheus, are you Nigolan’s husband?"
"Of course not!"
Before Fang Zheng could answer, Katori couldn’t help but retort, while Fang Zheng chuckled.
"I am Human."
"Huh?"
Hearing Fang Zheng’s answer, the two were stunned.
"Human Race? What kind of joke is this?"
"Although I am Human, I am not a Human from your world."
Saying this, Fang Zheng turned his head again, looking at the ruins before him.
"And... it seems I’ve found something good."
In fact, when he stepped on the ground, Fang Zheng felt a presence similar to the Goddess of Order.
Clearly, the Order Node he was searching for was here.

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