Paladins, the special knight force of the Church, had a much better image among the commoners than in the Void or Church itself. Thanks to the glorious image that the Church carefully crafted for them, most people would think that paladins were some kind of mysterious, enigmatic protector or vigilante of sort. Unfortunately, it was the total opposite in real life. Of course, a Church that had a holy and noble front would certainly need someone in the dark to do the dirty works for them. That was why the special force was formed in the first place.

  When Baiyi was busy talking with Charlemagne, the rest of the paladins divided the workloads and surveyed the battle site. They found a few charred demon bodies, cause of death was death from powerful magic, and recorded the runes array found in the middle of the town. They even interviewed the townspeople and after they had obtained all of the necessary informations, they declined Lord Nolan’s invitation to stay for dinner and speedily left the scene.

  How efficient!

  In the next few days, Baiyi helped repair the damaged houses with his Mana and waited patiently for some news. After five days had gone by and there was still no sign of the judicial paladin at all, his heart was finally set at ease that the barrier did indeed seal off the fluctuations of his Void Energy.

  Those five days were also the last five days of Mia’s vacation with her parents. Yet, somehow, the little girl seemed to be a little moody especially when she was faced with Baiyi. She would easily blush and fidget when she saw him, there was no more hugging or snuggling up to him as well. It looked like she was concerned about the rumour that was flying around wildly in town.

  Ah, why are these people so nosy? Just freaking look at her! She’s still so young, come on! How could she possibly marry at this age?

  “Don’t mind the rumor,” Baiyi stroked Mia’s head gently, “You’d have to face this kind of rumor in the future eventually. Right now, you need to learn how to ignore them, or even sympathize with them. You know why? It’s because there are not many things in their lives that could bring them joy that’s why they need to resort to such a thing to brighten up their lives.”

  Mia nodded her head not fully comprehending what he meant. Slightly frustrated, she buried her face into the belly of the hammerhead shark plushie and shook her head a little, her two ponytailsbouncing around in front of Baiyi’s eyes.

  Before they left, Lord Nolan once again took hold of Baiyi’s hands (he had finally accepted Baiyi’s initial gift of jewelries) and in a very serious manner, as if he was entrusting a major responsibility to him, he solemnly said, ” Please take care of Mia on my behalf!”

  As for Lady Nolan, she had sewn a green cloak in the past few days and earnestly placed it in his palm.

  Er…… You guys aren’t treating me as your son-in-law now, are you? Hmm, somehow a child wife does sound appealing to me…… Baiyi immediately dismissed the thought. After all, his good conscience would never allow him to do something like that. Not mentioning the fact that there was still a woman that was waiting for him in the Void. Her jealousy could get very ugly at times!

  Even though now she’s sleeping from being too tired after playing her empire game, she would still wake up one day and I really don’t want to imagine what she would do if she finds out! It’s better that I don’t take any risks! Baiyi thought to himself.

  And what is this green cloak? Oh, goodness! No wonder you two are mother and daughter! The two of you have the same weird taste.

  By the time Baiyi and Mia arrived at the mansion in the luxurious whirlicote, Tisdale, who was dressed skimpily hopped out to meet the two of them by the door. Attie, on the other hand, hid behind the kitchen door with both her hands holding on to the door frame and her head stuck out peeping at the two of them. Coupled with the cat’s ears on her head, she looked like a curious kitten staring at Baiyi.

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  “What are you doing hiding over there?” Baiyi waved his hand at Attie, “Come out.”

  With a flushed face, she lowered her head as she slowly walked over to Baiyi to have her cheeks suddenly pinched by him.

  “Haven’t I told you many times before I left? You can wear this embarrassing cat’s ears all you like and I don’t mind if you want to go barefooted BUT what did I say about wearing only apron in the house? Why do you keep forgetting this? Is the weather really that hot here? Aren’t you afraid of being seen by other people?”

  “O–OOOOUUCHHH! I-It…… It h-hurts!!” Attie yelled out in pain. No wonder she did not dare to welcome Baiyi earlier. Seizing the chance when he was not around, the girl had taken off all her clothes again and she was wearing just a plain white apron. It looked like she really did detest wearing too many layers of clothes.

  Letting her cheeks go, Baiyi turned to look at Tisdale before asking sternly, “You did not follow her example, right?”

  “No, no! No! Absolutely not!” Colors crept up onto her cheeks, “T-That is just too bold……”

  Phewww, that’s good! Tisdale’s absolutely the more obedient one. Baiyi approved inwardly but a set of images suddenly flashed across his mine. Two beautiful girls, one dark and one fair, wearing absolutely nothing but an apron and cat’s ears meowing at him with their hands put up like cat’s paws……

  F*CK! He didn’t dare to imagine it any further. The image was too erm…… stunning!

  After chasing Attie off to change her clothes, Baiyi began to get busy with his work. There were too many things waiting for him to do. The first thing that he needed to do was to take out all the potted plants and let them get some sunlight. After that, he had to process the materials that he obtained from the dead devils, although most of the devils were all completely eradicated by him, there were still some intact ones left from the hammerhead shark’s attack.

  Unfortunately, a certain unprofessional Walker particularly loved to attack the devil at its vital point, the heart, which was also the most valuable part of its whole body. He could only find three intact hearts after looking through the large pile of dead bodies.

  However, he did manage to get his hands on some other materials like the Minotaur’s horns, Calydonian’s fangs, and so on. Still, the materials were not very valuable so Baiyi did not feel satisfied. Although devil’s blood was quite precious as well, but by the time he made his way to the woods to retrieve them, the blood had already run dry from the dead bodies.

  In short, this time, he did not manage to get too many valuable items from the battle. But of course, that was not the point. His biggest gain was none other than the barrier that could shield the Void Energy. Right now, many of the Walkers who were proficient in magic were trying to crack the mysterious barrier, striving to construct it in the mansion.

  Regardless of the portability of the barrier, at the very least, he could do whatever he wanted if he had it activated at the mansion. Er…… wait a minute, there were another three girls living here so the word ‘whatever he wanted’ sounded a little wrong. What he meant was that he could now break the law of the Church without having to worry about being hunted down.

  Without wasting another second, Baiyi used his magical furnace to refine the three hearts, engraving multiple formations on the surface. It was to ensure that the power that was released from the heart would be a pure one instead of some evil devilish Mana.

  After he was done engraving them, he placed a heart inside the furnace so that it could boost the furnace’s power and the second heart was put underneath Tisdale’s formation in the basement. With the consumption speed of that formation, the middle-level devil’s heart would extend it’s life span for at least five years. It would no doubt help Tisdale save a lot of cost.

  As for the last heart, he temporarily kept it by his side, he planned to use it on the barrier.

  Now that everything was settled, he went to the material store early in the morning the very next day and bought the materials that the barrier needed. Phantom’s Dust, Banshee’s Tear and more. By the time he walked out of the store with two big bags filled will all the materials, the pouch that was originally filled with gold coins were only half full! The materials were too expensive!

  Worse, the materials that he bought were not necessarily enough! After all, what they were doing was a reverse analysis of the barrier. Even if the Scholar was the one who personally presided over the study, there was no 100% guarantee that they could be completely correct. For that reason, they would mostl likely encounter a lot of trial and error and it was a bottomless pit that could last forever.

  For a moment, Baiyi regretted handing Godsfall’s information to the Church so generously. He should have asked for some money as a reward in the first place.

  With no other choice left, he decided to meet Undine ahead of time. Originally, he intended to wait for Undine to come find him on her own so that he would have the upperhand when they negotiate. Now that the situation had changed, it was all he could do to find her and try to sell his glider to her.

  Fortunately, during the period when Baiyi was gone, the Dole family was idle so they had the time to discuss Baiyi’s plan. Right now, they had agreed with his plan and had also started their market research in the Northern Kingdom. The initial plan was to sell high-end luxurious goods from one side to the other side interchangeably

  Baiyi had no comment on their plans, he was not their business advisor nor was he Undine’s relative. In truth, if they were to ask for his opinion, he would surely choose some alchemical products of higher values because according to his understanding, the alchemy development in the Northern Kingdom was not very good.

  So, for their first trial operation, the Dole family planned to procure ten gliders to test it out. Baiyi generously handed over the glider’s blueprint to Undine and asked her to look for a carpenter to build it themselves. As for the two necessary formations, he peddled with her and his initial asking price was 500 gold coins each, it amounted to about 30% of the profits that the Dole family would make from the sales of the luxurious goods.

  To his surprise, Undine mercilessly offered only 50 gold coins for each formation. The Dole family refused to accept such a high shipping cost.

  Immediately, the two of them started to quarrel and accuse each other of being an unscrupulous merchant. Undine, whose merchant nature was exposed, did not back down at all from Baiyi. Her face turned red with anger as she was filled with indignation.

  Finally, because of their friendship, Undine decided to take a step back and offered him 250 gold coins each.

  “Do you know, Master Hope? Your image in my heart is now completely ruined!” Undine snapped as she took the parchment containing the formation from Baiyi.

  “Well, the same goes for you! And I thought that Miss Undine is a generous person!” Baiyi retaliated bluntly.

  Somehow, after the bargain, or more aptly, argument, their relationship seemed to have move forward and they were closer than before.

  After that, Baiyi went back home and helped Attie write a letter for her clan, saying stuff like she was leading a good life and Baiyi was really nice to her so there was nothing that they should be worried about. She also added that the Dole family would set up a commercial route with their territory being the transit point and so their clan would be required to actively cooperate with them.

  And finally, she ended the letter with her own clan’s mark, proving her identity to them.

  With the prestige of Baiyi and Attie that was still deeply enrooted in the barbarians’ mind, coupled with the fact that her clan was interested in setting up the commercial route from the very start, the letter would be more than enough to convince them.

  By the time Baiyi had successfully taught the Dole family on the piloting methods of the glider, his task was finished and Mia’s new semester was finally about to start again.