I don't want to conquer witches anymore.

"what?!"

Cecil's pitch suddenly rose several keys.

“I was definitely joking, otherwise wouldn’t I be self-destructing in front of you?” Duke seemed even more confused. “If I had betrayed Amber, would you, the righteous Cecil, have chased after me with your sword? I thought you knew I was joking.”

If it were the old Guangbao, and a scumbag like him did this, she might have really chased after him with a sword, interrogated him about his thoughts after catching him, and given him a beating if his answer was slightly off.

But now, Cecil not only didn't kill anyone, she even agreed... so Duke can only assume she knows he's joking.

Logically, Duke felt that there wasn't a single problem with his thinking!

"Oh... well, it's alright then."

Cecil looked away somewhat guiltily.

Through Duke's review, she immediately realized that she had been deluding herself. What "Duke's expression wasn't a joke"... Damn, she had forgotten that she had no ability to read people's expressions at all, otherwise she wouldn't have been fooled so many times.

Honestly... how can you tell what someone is thinking just by looking at their face? What's the difference between this technique and mind reading?

To change the subject, Cecil asked a question she didn't really care about: "So, why did you run away? And why did you drag me along?"

Guangbao wasn't particularly interested in the question; she just did whatever Duke told her to do, and using her brain wasn't her thing. But since the question had been brought up, she looked at Duke with some concern.

“I have a few things to do. I just finished the first one, otherwise I’d suffer from indigestion for the rest of my life.” Duke sighed and rubbed his temples helplessly. Even though he was in a soul state, he still maintained his habits from when he was alive. “Also, I need a body.”

Talia's soul shattered during the process of saving the world. Her injuries were too severe, yet she was still greedy and wanted to save everyone, ultimately dying the moment she opened the Anywhere Door.

Her obsession was entirely driven by self-satisfied individualism; she was willing to sacrifice herself to achieve her goals, even when no one asked her for help. Therefore, when she rescued people, she even used her legendary destiny to hypnotize them all before bringing them over.

After Talia's soul shattered upon death, Duke was reborn from the remnants of her soul. Due to the weakened state brought by Nine Lives, he devoured the fragments of Talia's soul during his rebirth.

For Duke, the fragments of a legendary soul were like a super tonic, the kind that could replace ten years of arduous training. However, due to Talia's obsession, morbidity, and extremism, to digest her soul fragments, one had to get rid of her obsessions.

But the specific approach depends on Duke's own ideas.

For example, in this rescue, he could either help Talia finish the remaining work as he is doing now, or he could simply destroy the Anywhere Door and shatter Talia's obsession from the opposite direction.

Faced with the choice between saving tens of thousands of innocent people and extinguishing the hope of survival for tens of thousands more… Duke wouldn’t allow himself to choose the latter, even if that option might lead to unpredictable consequences.

Of course, aside from this matter, Duke has more flexible options for other obsessions, such as what to do when he goes back to face the Tower faction: should he let it live or destroy it?

Duke wants to completely devour the fragments of Talia's soul. To do this, he must relive or erase all traces of what she cared about, was persistent about, and insisted on in the floating city.

This process will take a considerable amount of time, but in the meantime, Duke also has another task to complete.

Searching for the saint, Megan.

Anne has been found and is most likely rescued, but Megan is still nowhere to be found. Duke has basically determined Megan's whereabouts based on Talia's fragmented memories... but getting Megan back will be troublesome, and even Duke will need to plan carefully.

In addition, there is body reshaping.

But the most disgusting thing is that in the process of resolving his obsession, Duke cannot cooperate with or even contact people from the floating city, such as Carol.

Talia loathed the management of the floating city, so this cooperation would cause drastic changes to the fragments of Talia's soul, resulting in great pain and damage to her soul.

According to Duke's probing, the witches of the floating city were all within range, even Amber and the others... but Cecil seemed to be an exception.

After all, who doesn't like the innocent (and gullible) Guangbao? Even the vicious Talia is no exception.

So Duke eloped with Cecil... well, in short, he'll probably only have Lightbear for company for the foreseeable future.

Duke looked Cecil up and down for a while, his gaze lingering on her unfortunate chest for a few moments, before he sighed with regret.

Guangbao: "?"

Guangbao got impatient: "What do you mean by sighing! I'm warning you, explain yourself clearly!"

……

"Sister Eve, is he really beyond saving?"

Amber bit her pale lips, cradling Duke's cold body, and asked, word by word, "I don't believe Duke is dead!"

“Don’t worry.” Eve sighed and touched Duke’s body again. “This body has no soul…maybe his soul is still alive and kicking somewhere.”

When the Witch of Wishes makes a wish unintentionally, her words often come true. However, neither Amber nor Eve herself knew that her words were actually true.

“Trust Duke. That kind of scumbag can live well anywhere.” Carol leaned closer and comforted him with very malicious words. “Don’t worry, he’s still alive. I can see him returning home safely in the future.”

Carol tapped her eyes, signaling to her future vision, and assured Amber, putting Amber at ease.

"Isn't Talia the more crucial one now?" Carol's expression changed slightly as she said this, and she cursed viciously, "She's really something! She brought tens of thousands of people from another dimension and then just left them here unattended?! What does she take the floating city for? A public sanctuary? Someone she can come and go as she pleases?!"

"...What should we do with those tens of thousands of people?"

"Isolate them first, lest they still carry some unpredictable extradimensional rules or living viruses that could affect the floating city. We can make arrangements later; we can't just stand by and watch them die, can we?" Carol waved her hand and then announced fiercely, "I'm issuing a warrant for Talia's arrest!"

None of them knew that Talia was dead and thought she was the one who did all these things. They had no idea that the arrest warrants and manhunts for Talia would eventually cause Duke a lot of trouble.

Chapter 177 The Shadow Walker

The floating city has undergone many changes recently, the most obvious being that it has suddenly gained tens of thousands of people.

The Sleeping Beauty world is not small. In the alternate dimension connected to the floating city, this world is not small in terms of either area or population. Before Duke took action to save people, the tragedy of the world's destruction had only occurred for a short time.

The sudden natural disaster easily destroyed the vast majority of living beings, leaving only tens of thousands of lucky survivors who arrived at the floating city through the spatial gate presided over by Duke.

Tens of thousands of people from another dimension transmigrated here. Before this happened, no one knew about it, no one made any contingency plans, and no one knew whether these people from another dimension carried any uncontrollable rules or even viruses from that dimension. Even if there was nothing, with tens of thousands of people appearing out of nowhere, what would they eat, and where would they settle down... these were all unknowns.

It's easy to imagine the immense administrative pressure these tens of thousands of people placed on the floating city!

Carol was almost driven crazy by work in the past few days, but after several days of working herself to the bone, she suddenly realized something: she absolutely could not give up on these tens of thousands of people!

In the legends of heroes in the ancient magical empire, there are people called "sages." They are extremely knowledgeable and are all-round talents who often play a crucial guiding role in the growth of heroes.

And these tens of thousands of people, to put it in a slightly exaggerated way, are tens of thousands of "sages"!

Since the beginning of creation, these people have been slumbering in dreams, passing through countless lifetimes. These people were merely mortals and could not remember the memories of those lifetimes, but the knowledge they possessed has unexpectedly survived and accumulated.

Perhaps few of these sages are geniuses, capable of reaching the pinnacle in any particular field, but their dream-like existence has made them all-rounders.

No city is without talent, especially tens of thousands of versatile talents who are ready to be used at any time.

"Damn it, even if we start expanding the floating city right now, we have to absorb these tens of thousands of people!" Carol slammed her hand on the table, her eyes red as she gave the order to her think tank. "Compatibility with the rules of the other dimension? Risks of viral infection from the other dimension? Discontent among the original inhabitants caused by immigrants? These are the problems you need to solve. I only have one requirement: get these tens of thousands of people into the floating city, make them members of the floating city, understand?!"

And so... Carol's proposal at the meeting was indeed put on the agenda—the floating city that had been flying in the sky for thousands of years would be temporarily moored above a certain city for expansion.

Compared to this, nothing else seems to be a "big deal".

However, although the tens of thousands of talents from the Sleeping Beauty game made Carol work herself to the bone with a mix of pain and pleasure, she showed no intention of lifting Talia's wanted status.

"A good outcome doesn't mean everything is good. A madwoman like Talia deserves the death penalty; she should be hanged!"

In short, the floating city and almost all the witches in it were busy because of the sudden arrival of tens of thousands of new residents and the expansion plan of the floating city. Even the holding of witch games seemed to have slowed down.

Once the witches get busy with their work, they don't care about anything else. And during the gap between the preparations for the expansion and the start of the formal expansion, many people belatedly realize that some things they had taken for granted have not happened for a long time.

Cecil the Radiant Witch...it seems she hasn't gone out to right wrongs for several days now.

This is big news!

Of course, the witches who were closer to Cecil would realize that it wasn't that she hadn't gone out to fight for justice, but rather that she simply hadn't returned home at all.

"What month is it? Has Cecil gone out to be a monster hunter so early this year? That's strange."

Because Cecil had a history of suddenly leaving the floating city for several months in previous years, most people were not even aware of the problem.

They had no idea that Cecil was still in the floating city, and they were even less aware that Guangbao, who always presented himself as a well-behaved child, had been led by Duke into the dark side of the floating city.

……

Where there is sunlight, there will inevitably be shadows.

Behind the vibrant exterior of the floating city lies a dark side, a vast and complex entity composed of adventurers, witches, believers in the mute, and many other more intricate elements.

In the few months that Duke had been in the floating city, he had rarely encountered the shadows behind it, and the naive Cecil had never been exposed to such things in years.

This time, Cecil followed Duke into this world without any psychological preparation. He couldn't stand anything and was ready to take action against everything he saw.

To put it bluntly, her personality isn't suited to dealing with this kind of thing. If it weren't for Duke being there to keep her in check, who knows what kind of trouble Cecil could have gotten into in those few short days.

"However, we've been lurking in the shadows of the floating city not to assimilate it. Don't worry, Guangbao, we'll give you the chance to do whatever you want."

Three days ago, they discovered that a certain "drug" had begun circulating in the floating city, first becoming popular in the shadows.

That's how Duke calmed the furious Cecil, and he kept his promise, finding the source of the "drug" in less than three days. Then, with the near-legendary Radiant Witch, he stormed the enemy's lair.

"First, try not to reveal your identity. If some people find out about the Radiant Witch's involvement, they will most likely move away quickly."

"Secondly, don't hold back. Just leave one alive who looks like the leader. The others... are all scum involved in drug trafficking. Just kill them to silence them."

"Finally, take care of yourself, Cecil."

Guangbao, who said "I understand," clearly took Duke's words to heart, and she carefully followed Duke's instructions.

Everything went very smoothly, and they quickly fought their way to the enemy boss's lair.

Cecil kicked open the door to the room and then casually broke the leg of the enemy who was trying to escape, rendering him unable to run away.

"Who...who are you people?!"

The terrified and pained enemy lay on the ground, struggling and begging for mercy. If Cecil hadn't stepped on his back, he probably wouldn't have been so ruthless and self-destructive... Perhaps it was because the masks Duke and the others were wearing had an effect, allowing him to speak boldly about the situation.

"Who we are is unimportant." Duke leaned close to the enemy leader who was being trampled on the ground and casually threatened, "The question is... where did you get this drug?"

Chapter 178 What Changed Your Aesthetic Sense? Was It Azur Lane?

For those living in the shadows of the floating city, the coming and going of people, the birth and death of people are all very normal things. In the black market, things like double-crossing and counterfeit goods are commonplace, and bullying men and women, prostitution and theft are not uncommon.

Here, there are many people who are purely evil.

However, recently there have been rumors that a duo is living a very successful life in the dark world of the floating city, disregarding the unspoken rule of not interfering with each other.

They were a man and a woman. The man was a spirit, seemingly a cat-like orc with cat ears on his head and a constantly wagging tail. The woman was also tall and voluptuous, never using magic, and carrying a cheap knight's sword; she seemed to be a pure warrior.

Both men wore childish masks and spoke in an awkward Common language that didn't sound like a dialect but rather like they were deliberately using this strange way of speaking to cover up their good upbringing.

This male-female duo, known in the industry as the "madman duo," has done many unpredictable acts of charity... For people who are used to risking their lives and doing things against their conscience, Duke and Cecil's restraint is enough to make them seem like madmen.

I've seen people who don't care about money but only about justice, but why have you all fallen to the dark side of living in the floating city, yet still pretend to be noble while suffering for the sake of saving face?

They couldn't understand why people like Duke and Cecil would enter this cruel world. On the contrary, in Duke's view, the people in the so-called dark side of the floating city were all madmen.

If it weren't for the need to digest Talia's soul, he wouldn't want to stay in this filthy world at all; out of sight, out of mind—but that didn't comfort Cecil.