A sense of worry crept into my heart. Zhu Tang and Spirit Snake still hadn’t returned, and Lan Yin had gone out as well. Things were looking grim.
“You needn’t worry about that, Ethan Zhang. Lan Yin’s strength is considerable—he’s even stronger than the upper-ranked Saints.”
I was startled, glancing at Azure Dragon in surprise.
“However, he’s always had an unresolvable knot in his heart, lingering between despair and hope. You’ve likely never seen his true power. There’s a reason he’s called the strongest in the Hades Circle.”
I gave a quiet response. At that moment, Azure Dragon walked over to my side. With a wave of his hand, a small blue-white dish appeared on the table beside me, filled with a bright, fragrant liquid.
I tasted it lightly; a bitter flavor hit me at first, but soon my tongue grew sweet, and my mouth filled with lingering fragrance. Swallowing it, warmth immediately spread through my body.
“Before we established a bond of faith with the people of the Hades Circle, we relied on the beliefs of the common folk and the practitioners. Our power was limited. In other words, at best, we could only drive away ghosts below the level of vengeful spirits. Unless someone from the practitioner world used rituals to draw out our strength, we couldn’t deal with higher-level ghosts.”
“What exactly did you mean just now when you said those Forsaken were nothing but shameful invaders?”
Azure Dragon glanced at me thoughtfully and spoke.
“It seems the Forsaken you encountered have already told you some things. This land was originally our homeland. They are the true anomalies invading this world, even causing its imbalance. To protect this last piece of pure land, we chose to return home.”