IRM Chapter 32

Silver Moon Spring was the only place in the outer perimeter of Dark Night Forest that hadn’t been covered by dark elements.

It was located in the southwest corner of Dark Night Forest—a pool of crystal-clear open spring water. The spring’s surface area wasn’t very large, estimated to be only a few hundred square meters, exposed so bare and naked in the pitch-black forest.

When Ji Chi and the others arrived at Silver Moon Spring, it happened to be dusk. Most of the setting sun’s afterglow had been absorbed by the darkness of the Dark Night Forest, leaving only a layer of misty, ethereal soft light shrouding the clear spring water.

Evan stepped forward, bent down and cupped a handful of cool spring water. The crystal-clear water droplets tinkled as they slipped through his fingers. “Silver Moon Spring sounds like a place small animals would love. So do we need to search for nightingale tracks around here?”

He straightened up and looked around at the surroundings.

The area around Silver Moon Spring was the same monotonous, endless darkness. If they hadn’t been carrying the star compass that guided their direction, they might have gotten lost in the darkness with just a moment’s distraction.

Brandon looked at the S-level mission scroll again and again. “Nightingale… sounds like a bird that only appears at night. Maybe it will come here to drink water at night? Then we just follow it?”

Evan seemed to remember something, his eyes lighting up. “Ah! Your reminder made me remember—I’ve actually heard legends about nightingales before. The general meaning of that legend is: nightingales sing on moonlit nights, guiding lost souls toward freedom. I think we probably need to wait here until nightfall.”

Upon hearing this, Saintess Coralie’s brow moved slightly, and she suddenly looked at him. “Where did you hear about this?”

Evan frowned in thought, then shook his head. “I forgot… maybe in some record somewhere.”

The bears got headaches listening to these literary riddles. They gave up participating in the discussion between the little mages, gathered in a circle around the spring’s edge, and concentrated intently on using their claws to catch the Silver Moon fish that were scattering and fleeing in the spring water.

In the end, these Silver Moon fish weren’t wasted and became their dinner.

The fish that grew in the clear spring water were a full forearm’s length, completely unaffected by dark elements, each one shimmering with moonlight-white radiance like crescents.

The caught Silver Moon fish flopped helplessly by the campfire, letting the bears curiously poke and prod them.

Bill glanced at the fish under his paw and said what he thought was quietly to his brothers. “Look, doesn’t this fish look like Brandon after running?”

The thoroughly played-with Silver Moon fish looked at them with lifeless despair.

Second, Third, and Fourth: “Hahahaha!”

Brandon flew into embarrassed rage. “Don’t talk bad about me in front of my face!”

Evan glanced in their direction with a shallow smile, then quickly restrained his expression, somewhat worriedly using his peripheral vision to pay attention to Saintess Coralie.

Saintess Coralie hadn’t spoken much throughout this journey. She would occasionally lift her eyes to scan the surroundings, as if keeping watch for something, then silently poke at the campfire with a branch. After a while, she suddenly stood up as if unable to bear it any longer and said to them, “I’ll step away for a moment.”

Thinking she had discovered something wrong and was going out to investigate, Evan immediately stood up as well, asking nervously, “Do you need me to come with you?”

Saintess Coralie looked at him somewhat strangely, lowered her gaze to glance at her hem. “Wouldn’t that be inconvenient?”

Evan was stunned, taking a moment to realize what she was going to do. His face instantly flushed red as he frantically waved his hands. “No, no, sorry, I didn’t mean that…”

He didn’t dare continue watching Saintess Coralie’s figure disappearing into the darkness. He sat down with steam practically coming from his head. But asking the goddess if she needed him to accompany her to handle physiological needs was indeed overly socially mortifying. Evan’s brain felt like it had been trampled and crushed by stampeding bears, buzzing chaotically.

He steadied himself and forced his attention onto that fish that really did look like Brandon.

Evan: “…”

*Young master, I’m sorry, but it really does look like you, hahaha!*

From the campfire, waves of grilled fish aroma drifted over, mixed with a hint of honey’s sweet fragrance. It smelled like the bears had shared their precious honey stores.

Saintess Coralie listened to the distant lively, bustling noise, leaning back against a tree, tilting her head back and closing her eyes to take a deep breath.

She didn’t release light magic to dispel the darkness, nor did the dense dark elements cause her harm. Instead, they gathered around her somewhat intimately.

After waiting a while and discovering no movement, Saintess Coralie pulled out a black scroll from her chest.

The scroll bore the carved patterns of a pitch-black summoning circle that looked like the shape of a nightingale.

She lightly traced her finger over that nightingale, then without hesitation tore it open the next second. Light flashed, and a palm-sized, fluffy brown nightingale flew out. It very spiritedly flew several circles around Saintess Coralie before finally landing on her shoulder, tilting its head to nuzzle her cheek.

Saintess Coralie’s expression softened. She felt the long-missed sensation of fine down feathers and raised her fingertip to rub its little head. “Good, I’ll be counting on you in a bit.”

The nightingale chirped softly, its lively bead-like eyes reflecting Saintess Coralie’s long-missed nostalgia.

When Saintess Coralie returned to the campfire, that fish that looked very much like Brandon was already giving off an enticing charred fragrance, elevated by the bears to the very top of the fire pile for everyone to admire, making the young master so angry his hair stood on end.

Seeing Saintess Coralie return, the worry in Evan’s eyes faded. He didn’t ask her why she had been gone so long, just took a perfectly cooked grilled fish from beside the campfire and handed it to her.

Just as he was handing it over, Evan froze, turning to look toward the depths of the forest. “Did you hear any sounds?”

Ji Chi raised his eyes, his gaze inconspicuously passing over Saintess Coralie to land on a withered branch tip.

On the branch tip, a nightingale was singing melodiously there, its clear melody echoing faintly through the silent forest.

Brandon seized the opportunity to snatch the grilled fish, raising his hand to extinguish the campfire. “The nightingale appeared! Quick! Let’s carefully follow it!”

To avoid frightening the suddenly appeared nightingale, they didn’t even dare release light magic. Evan distributed a light protection charm to each person so they could barely resist the damage from darkness.

Brandon sneakily watched the nightingale fluttering and hopping on branches ahead, puzzled. “Isn’t this just finding the nightingale? Are S-level missions this simple? It’s not even as good as dragon slaying…”

Hearing his chatter, Saintess Coralie pursed her lips.

The S-level mission was just a facade. This was the Church interfering. They only knew that through nightingales they could find the Demon King’s castle. All these years they had spared no effort searching for nightingale traces, but unfortunately… they couldn’t even distinguish real nightingales.

The group followed the nightingale in circles and actually came to a small cliff. The path ahead was cut off by a stone wall covered in green vines, but the nightingale flapped its wings and flew away toward the sky.

Brandon was dumbfounded. “Eh, eh, eh—it just flew away like that? There’s no path here, how do we chase it?”

“Wait, let’s go take a look first.” The keen bears were the first to discover something wrong. They immediately protected the little mages behind them. Bill slowly approached the base of the cliff and used his broad sword to lift the dense vines on the stone wall.

A pitch-black cave entrance stared at them like a skull’s eye socket, looking very demon-like at first glance.

Brandon was startled, somewhat lacking confidence, his small eyes darting left and right. “We… have to go in?”

“Of course, our mission isn’t finished yet.” Ji Chi nodded seriously. He peered into the cave entrance and asked the young master sideways, “Aren’t you happy? Looking at this, maybe we can even slay a dragon along the way.”

Young master: “Hahaha, that… that would be quite good…”

After Ji Chi finished his daily task (teasing the young master), he grew serious and looked at the cave again. He always felt it wasn’t that simple. The Demon King’s castle wouldn’t be low-class enough to this degree. This cave was more like what the Church imagined the Demon King’s castle entrance would be, luring unknowing people to venture inside.

Just as he was speculating, the bears had already taken the lead in crawling inside. Bill poked his head out from the cave entrance to call to them. “Come in, it’s very safe inside.”

The cave entrance looked narrow, but once inside it was quite spacious, allowing three or four people to walk abreast. As soon as Evan entered, he raised his hand to summon a bright orb of light, floating ahead of them.

When the pitch-black space was illuminated, they discovered that this cave’s complexity far exceeded their imagination. Smooth rock extended forward into paths, with unfathomable voids on both sides of the paths. Even if small stones fell down, it would take a long time to hear the echo.

“This… which way should we go…” Evan’s calves trembled. He tentatively took a step forward, confirming that the stone ledge beneath his feet was fairly solid before relaxing slightly. He looked up at the several branching passages ahead—up, down, left, right—and spoke hesitantly.

“That direction. I remember the nightingale just flew toward there.” Saintess Coralie, who had been silent, suddenly spoke up, pointing toward the passage at the front right.

Third made a sound of surprise, scratching his head and pointing toward the left. “How do I remember the nightingale flew that way?”

Fourth looked at him with disdain. “Come on, you can’t even remember names clearly, but you can remember this?”

Third immediately shut up. You make a really good point.

With Saintess Coralie’s guidance, everyone no longer hesitated and shuttled through passage after passage.

Nothing happened along the way—it went too smoothly.

But the team grew increasingly silent, and the atmosphere grew more and more tense. Because the direction Saintess Coralie was leading was truly bizarre in every way. Even the bears gradually realized that this was absolutely not the wild trajectory that a small nightingale could fly.

Brandon glanced at Saintess Coralie several times, finally unable to bear it, and asked, “Saint—”

Saintess Coralie stopped walking, suddenly swung her wand to point at him, invisible magic waves surged forth, striking straight toward Brandon’s throat!

No one expected Saintess Coralie to suddenly attack. Brandon had no defenses whatsoever. He stared at Saintess Coralie in shock, raised his hand to cover his neck, opened and closed his mouth, and found he couldn’t say a word.

Brandon: ?

After silencing Brandon, Saintess Coralie continued waving her wand until everyone looked at her with confused expressions, struck speechless.

Although Ji Chi was immune to her magic, he tactfully remained silent, quietly glanced at her, and was distracted by appreciating his teammates’ expressions of shock lasting ten thousand years.

When the cave fell completely silent, Saintess Coralie glared at them, warning them not to make noise, then slowly pressed herself against the cave’s smooth stone wall, half-closing her eyes and listening intently.

Ji Chi quickly caught on and followed suit, pressing his ear against the stone wall.

Footsteps, muffled groans, and creaking sounds like traps being triggered came faintly through the stone wall.

Evan’s eyes widened as he mouthed a question to Saintess Coralie: Someone is following us?

Saintess Coralie’s face was solemn. She nodded and waved at them, signaling to follow her.

The group silently and quickly reached the end of the passage. There were no more branching paths ahead, only a smooth, flat stone wall. Saintess Coralie stopped in front of the stone wall, raised her wand high, and drew a circle on the stone wall above their heads. A small hidden door appeared silently.

Ji Chi was the last to emerge from the hidden door. When he poked his head out and saw the scene before him, he froze in shock.

Through all their twists and turns, they had actually returned to Silver Moon Spring.

But the current Silver Moon Spring was somewhat different. By now night had fallen, the moon was at its zenith, and pure white moonlight spread across the spring water like a layer of soft canvas.

Saintess Coralie slowly walked toward the center of the spring water. In that moment, the moonlight spread on the water’s surface seemed to take physical form, supporting her steps and sustaining her progress.

Saintess Coralie stood in the center of the spring water, turned back to glance at her utterly shocked teammates, and a helpless smile appeared on her face.

“I’m sorry, I’ve been hiding this from you all along.” Saintess Coralie said gently, her tender voice melodious like a nightingale’s song.

Ji Chi understood something and widened his eyes slightly as he looked at her.

Saintess Coralie raised her right hand. Drops of fresh blood flowed from her palm, falling above the spring water.

The bright red blood intertwined and wound together, forming mysterious nightingale-shaped patterns, making the entire spring look like a teleportation array.

As more and more blood flowed, Saintess Coralie’s golden hair gradually darkened, becoming black as the night, and her transparent blue pupils also became blood-red.

Transformed into a demon, Saintess Coralie turned toward them in the brilliant white moonlight, the red glow of the teleportation array lighting up faintly behind her.

“Will you come with me? I want to take you to see my home—the Demon King’s castle.”