Echoes of the Past

Chapter 4 The Power of Seniority

Suiyue realized something was wrong.

Old Dong from the Gray Star era... uh, summoned creatures...

Okay, she heard Nan An's words clearly.

Not only was it not a dream, but he was also able to hear the outside world through his own ears, and after muttering a few words, he fell silent, as if he could sense her surprise and deliberately hid himself away.

"Demonic Nightmare" was Suiyue's first thought.

The Wind Velvet Potion had already passed the test, and she was now in a special cell that had been treated with the potion.

If there were truly a polluting anomaly that could be almost in sync with her consciousness, the surrounding protective media would not be completely unresponsive.

However, nothing happened.

Even the crows that were right next to them did not show any wariness.

It seemed that no one but her could realize how unusual Nan'an's existence was.

What exactly is the person I unintentionally "summoned"?

Suiyue's thoughts were pulled back by the reality before her.

The status of the Bewitching Raven is also incomprehensible.

The city of Kren is the hometown of many prominent figures in the Senate, and it is said that the powerful Consul Pirion was backed by the strong support of the "City of Two Crowns".

However, this important figure kept his head slightly lowered throughout the entire roll call by the crow, responding with humility, caution in his words, and even deliberately maintaining a subtle distance.

After clearing up the misunderstanding about the meal, Suiyue looked the burly old man, who was always very gentle with her, up and down, and really couldn't understand what was so scary about him.

This is a truly kind person who provides a full meal!

"I will report your actions to the Veterans' Home truthfully."

"There will be a reward? What is it?" Suiyue asked excitedly.

"Without third-party witnesses, the on-site combat residue detection cannot accurately confirm your kill results. Therefore, you will most likely not receive any substantial honors, and material rewards will also need to be reviewed by the Honors House."

Suiyue never dared to dream of a noble title; her expectation was just gold, preferably a dozen or so, so she could enjoy them for a while.

"Haa~~~~"

For some reason, Suiyue felt unusually tired after just waking up, as if all her energy had been drained.

Before leaving, the Crow conducted another round of testing on the Windvelvet Grass. This time, instead of using a potion, it used a dark green crystal contained in an anti-magic crystal box.

When Suiyue was at the Church of Dawn, she saw the bishop wearing a similar object. It was a crystal formed after the Windvelvet Grass potion was highly refined, and its sensing and detection effects were far superior to those of the potion.

The crystals slid down her arm and traveled towards her forehead.

Suiyue was so nervous that she kept swallowing.

"It's alright," the crow said with a smile, trying to comfort her. "Come on, open your mouth."

Suiyue obediently opened her mouth, allowing the dark green crystal to be placed on her tongue.

About 10 seconds later, the crow took it out and held it in its palm, carefully feeling it.

"The cell, the potion, the crystal—close contact with them—did not reveal any divine nightmares or strange phenomena," he said. "There's no need to mention the word 'death.' You will be free."

After the crows left, Suiyue realized her back was soaked with sweat.

It doesn't seem to be entirely due to nervousness.

Her body was like a funnel, slowly and greedily absorbing the surrounding magic.

Just sitting there, fatigue, exhaustion, and drowsiness come in waves.

She found a comfortable position, lay down on the ground, and in the blink of an eye, she fell asleep again.

"Why is it this again... Old Dong... Nan'an, what have you done to me!"

Suiyue fainted in her dream, and she returned to Nan'an's side.

We returned to this eerie environment where the view seemed scenic from afar, but upon closer inspection, it was shrouded in a white mist, making it impossible to discern directions.

Everything about it was strange and incomprehensible, but in reality, she passed the tests and was deemed harmless.

The possibility of a nightmare in Nan'an can be basically ruled out.

The question is...

"What the hell are you?"

"Shh." Nan An raised his index finger, signaling for silence. "Feel it."

The sparse magic in the area seemed to have visible signs of movement, and the magic, which came from nowhere, flowed like a trickle, filling the dry riverbed.

This magic is amazing!

"Amazing! I've never been so generous with magic since I was resurrected so long ago."

While Nan'an was still sighing, Suiyue's brows were already furrowed.

Combined with her experience of collapsing from exhaustion, and her body's inexplicable thirst for magic...

"Are you kidding me?!" She glared at Nan An. "You wouldn't... be using my body to absorb magic, would you?!"

Nan An was taken aback, rubbing his chin: "Now that you mention it..."

Given that Suiyue successfully summoned him and made him active in the form of a summoned creature, it can be concluded that the summoning ritual connected the two parties.

In order to meet the activity needs of the summoned creatures, the summoner must continuously supply enough magic power.

"No, no, absolutely not!" Suiyue clutched her head. "I clearly dispelled it, and the summoning ritual was interrupted long ago, so why can you still absorb my magic power?!"

Nan An spread his hands: "I don't know. Asking someone who doesn't even know how he was resurrected to explain it to you is a bit beyond your capabilities."

Seeing that Suiyue was covering her head and her brain was overloaded, Nan'an offered her an orange.

Thanks to the orange grove in this space, at least he has something to offer as hospitality.

Suiyue raised her eyelids, met Nan'an's helpless and innocent face, sighed, grabbed the orange and sat down cross-legged.

"So, what exactly happened?"

This time, finally no one bothered him, and Nan'an was able to recount his experiences over the past period in their entirety.

Suiyue was stunned by what she heard, and almost chewed up the orange peel as well.

She stood up and looked into the distance: "Is there really no way out?"

"You can give it a try."

Suiyue was a woman of action; she dashed out as soon as she finished speaking.

From Nan'an's perspective, after rushing about 600 meters, a pure white "cotton candy" suddenly appeared in front of her.

Like a greedy child, she rushed inside and disappeared.

About a minute later, on the diagonal line where Suiyue had disappeared without a trace, her figure reappeared.

He looked around, lowered his head to stare at his feet, and then examined his hands and feet.

Their initial reaction was exactly the same as Nan'an's.

She visited the orange grove and casually picked a few more, stuffing them into her pocket.

We also visited the log cabin and were somewhat surprised by its overly simple furnishings.

Suiyue's computing power was clearly insufficient. After returning to Nan'an's side, she remained silent for a long time before finally uttering a sentence.

"So you were trapped here."

Wow, congratulations! You've finally realized that!

That's what Nan'an wanted to say.

But considering that Suiyue is the only living person he can communicate with right now, he decided to be more lenient with this silly child.

"Alas, regardless, Elder Nan'an, your resurrection time was terrible. The Nora Continent is in a terrible state now..."

The child may be slow-witted, but he has a good heart.

He said in a relaxed tone, "It's okay, anyway, my life wasn't too good during the Gray Star era."

"Senior..."

"Stop." Nan An rubbed his temples. "Just call me Nan An, don't add 'senior.' Even if you have to, 'senior' is enough."

"But we're hundreds of years apart."

"You idiot, who told you to calculate it that way? I was only 25 when I died!"

"Oh, I'm only 19... Hello, Uncle?"

Nan'an subconsciously clenched his fists, but Suiyue's eyes were clear and innocent.

Without any teasing or jokes, he tilted his head slightly as he spoke, seemingly troubled as to whether what he was saying was disrespectful.

She really thinks that's how you should shout it!

Damn it, what changes have occurred in the Nora Continent in the past few hundred years? Why should someone who is only 6 years younger be considered an uncle?

"If you insist on calling me that, you can call me 'veteran' if you want." Nan'an decided to give in to the silly Suiyue.

"A veteran of Nan'an?" Suiyue pondered seriously for a moment. "That certainly has an imposing air about it. Is this a popular phrase from the Gray Star era?"

Perhaps it had been too long since they had a proper chat, because Nan'an was genuinely amused by Suiyue Wuxia's goofy nature.

"Also, is 'what does it mean' pronounced like this?"

Oh no, I've only listened to her a few times, how come she can pronounce it so clearly?

Could it be that she has some talent for languages?

Feeling that she had learned the "Gunora language," Suiyue became very excited and started repeating it over and over again, like a newly started tape recorder.

"What does it mean...veteran seniority...what does it mean..."

Human beings are indeed just repeaters.

“Although the reason is unclear, the current situation is that we have formed a kind of subtle connection,” Nan’an proposed. “If you agree, we can cooperate.”

Suiyue blinked: "How do we cooperate?"

"You mentioned high-level magic and the sealing of knowledge earlier. I imagine the pervasive black mist also indicates widespread loss of tradition," Nan'an said with a smile. "Perhaps I can help you improve?"

Suiyue rubbed her hands together, eager to get started, and then stroked her "ox horns".

"I'm a magic warrior, you know."

"What a coincidence, I'm also a magic warrior."

Nan'an was very confident in his magical warrior skills.

At first, he was just a haphazard learner, learning whatever came to him, but under the guidance of that bookworm, he gained systematic power for the first time.

In his final battle, severely wounded and with his magic depleted, he faced a high-ranking troll at his peak.

They killed two and severely injured one.

Thinking about it carefully, if he hadn't shielded Red Rat's men from that disaster that day, probably even more people would have died.

Heaven knows why these high-ranking trolls went berserk and appeared so close to the main road of the city-state.

Nan'an has no regrets.

At first, he didn't even know the local language and could only communicate through gestures and drawings.

Aslipan patiently taught him martial arts and the Nora language.

After the bookworm joined the team, he organized all the knowledge he had learned and tailored a path for him to become a magic warrior.

Once the Red Rat Adventure Team was formed, almost everyone took good care of him, this visitor from another world.

Although they all thought that the story of the "distant homeland" told by Nan'an was full of the exaggerated narrative of a bard.

For example, they don't quite understand what it means to be able to buy everything you need simply by operating a giant flat mirror that jumps with magical arcs of light, and have a magician deliver it to your door at lightning speed.

This is absurd; what kind of magician would do such a thing?

Nan'an actually dislikes time travel. Originally, he could have lived a carefree life in his hometown, where he drank sugary drinks and was extremely wealthy.

Suddenly thrown into a world of swords and magic, a place fraught with danger, where the people and language are unfamiliar and the land is unfamiliar.

Someone was willing to guide him through this unfamiliar world, risking high-level magic to pull him out of a pile of corpses, teach him how to survive, and even pat his chest and say, "I'll protect you"...

If his death helps the whole group avoid disaster, then Nan'an can be considered a competent lucky charm.

"Don't get distracted! Where are your eyes focused? Didn't we say we were going to demonstrate?"

After saying that, Suiyue immediately activated her "Bull Charge" mode.

"I don't respect the elderly!"

Boom!

Glug glug~~

"..."

"..."

In less than 5 seconds, Suiyue opened her mouth, closed her eyes, and lay down at Nan'an's feet.

"Awoo~~~"

She groaned in pain.