Volume One, Chapter 87: Stewed.

“Stop! I said stop, didn’t you hear me?” Kasa pushed to the front, speaking in a flustered voice.

The old Daoist waved his hand and said, “Go back, go back. This path is closed.”

Seeing the situation, Semir realized the old man before them was no ordinary person. She slowly retreated and spoke softly, “Old man, we’ve never wronged each other, neither in the past nor recently. We just want to return home. Please let us go.”

The old Daoist chuckled, “I never expected a foreigner like you to be so eloquent. But letting you go is not up to me. You’ll have to ask my disciple—he should be on his way here right now.”

Skarl whispered, “We can’t give up just because someone stands in our way. Let’s test his strength first. What’s there to fear from an old man?”

Kasa nodded, and the six wings on his back suddenly unfurled.

Lin Mo, standing aside, saw a radiant light soar into the sky.

Once, he had seen such a sight on television, but he never imagined that the angels, symbols of justice, would one day kidnap them and try to kill his sister.

His worldview was being completely overturned.

Television had left him with a stereotypical impression, but that image had been utterly shattered.

The light radiating from Kasa, the six-winged angel, was blinding, yet the old Daoist didn’t react at all.

“Not bad—locking you up on Mount Longhu will save us a chunk on the electricity bill,” the old Daoist said, tugging the young disciple aside and tapping him lightly.

In a flash, the young disciple appeared a hundred meters away.

“Die!” Kasa uttered a single word, and the brilliance around him intensified, so fierce that even the withered grass on the ground began to burn under the sunlight.

The smell of scorched earth spread across the clearing.

Kasa turned into a blazing red meteor and dove down, the old Daoist gazing up at the searing heat with an expression of mild admiration.

He truly hadn’t expected that, after so many years, the angels as a race had made no progress at all. Other than flinging themselves skyward, they hadn’t learned a thing.

“Suppress!”

With a sudden snap, without any warning, the streak of light in the sky truly fell like a meteor, crashing into the earth.

Kasa clawed his way out of the ground, his face filled with disbelief.

“What was that? How could you control me from so far away?” he asked incredulously.

No matter what kind of monster they encountered, the angelic race could always put up a fight. But now this frail old Daoist had knocked him from the sky with nothing more than a word—where was the logic in that?

The old Daoist continued, “Go back the way you came. I’m not here for you; someone else will be waiting for you. I’m just urging you to turn around.”

Skarl frowned. “Maybe he can only control one at a time, can’t split his focus. Let’s rush him together—let’s see what he does then!”

Kasa nodded. “Alright!”

Suddenly, the two shot forward as meteors—one white, one red—crossing paths as they charged.

Yet the old Daoist didn’t move a muscle. He simply said, “Bind!”

Thump, thump—

As the two streaked low over the ground, moving at breakneck speed, they suddenly felt clear tremors beneath their feet.

“What’s happening?”

“No idea! Let’s just keep going!”

With a sputter, the earth split in layers. Kasa was startled to find his speed sharply reduced, and his feet seemed entangled by something.

Both of them were yanked down, dragged unceremoniously as branches snared their feet, refusing to let go, tossing them about in the air as if they were nothing.

The old Daoist spoke quietly, “This is your punishment. Next time it won’t be so mild. Whether you turn back is up to you.”

This was by far the most disastrous battle the two had ever fought. Even on the battlefield, when wounded, they at least knew why. Now, they hadn’t even gotten close to the old Daoist.

This revealed a chilling truth: their true strength was nowhere near that of the old Daoist before them. In fact, this seemingly idle old man could snuff out their lives with ease.

“Smart men don’t court disaster. Let’s fall back for now. Old Daoist, just wait for our return!” Kasa snapped the branches around their ankles. With a thud, they crashed to the ground, eating dirt.

Sensing danger, Semir quickly led her people in retreat, but curiously, the old Daoist did not pursue.

Still, none of them dared relax. The old Daoist’s strength was far beyond theirs; it was best to escape his sight as soon as possible to be safe.

The old Daoist breathed a sigh of relief. The young disciple ran up and asked, “Master, can Senior Brother handle all this alone?”

The old Daoist patted his head. “Don’t worry. Your senior brother is a genius not seen in ten thousand years. If he can’t handle three little angels, that would be the real embarrassment.”

The young disciple, barely ten years old, asked anxiously, “So should we go back now? Don’t we need to check on him?”

The old Daoist peered into the distance. “We’re going back. Right now, in Daxia, I can’t leave Mount Longhu. Too many eyes are watching me. I only left today because your senior brother needed it—otherwise I wouldn’t have risked it.”

The young disciple, hearing this, helped support his master. “Master, you praise Senior Brother every day. Will I be as strong as him one day?”

The old Daoist stroked the boy’s head, his voice earnest. “Of course. But your goal isn’t just to be as strong as your senior brother—it’s to protect him. His burdens will only grow heavier. He’ll need more and more helpers.”

The little disciple didn’t quite understand, but he knew one thing: whatever Senior Brother said, he would do, just as Master instructed. Everything else was unnecessary.

The three fled at high speed, soon leaving the old Daoist far behind and finally relaxing.

“I just don’t get it—did that old Daoist really come all this way just to give us a hard time?” Kasa carried Lin Mo through the air, deeply puzzled.

“Their plan is clearly much bigger than this. Our priority now is to get out of the country. This place is only getting more dangerous. If we stay, we may never make it out alive,” Semir guessed, her unease growing.

“Let’s move. We don’t have much time,” Skarl said.

Before the three could even leave, they saw a young man sitting on a stone in the distance, as if he’d been waiting for ages.

“Well, you three really are slow. What a waste, giving you those wings. Why don’t you take them off and let me stew them?”