Chapter 1344: 102. Bluffing

"Colluding with an Evil God?"

"That's right!"

"Who's colluding with an Evil God?"

"You are!"

"Colluding with what?"

"Colluding with an Evil God!"

"Who colluded with whom?"

"You colluded with an Evil God! The Enhancement School colluded with an Evil God!"

The middle-aged mage at the front flew into a rage and growled:

"Stop playing dumb here! This is a serious matter. Hurry up and come with us!"

"......"

Muen leaned back slightly, feeling a suffocating pressure like the depths of the sea crashing straight toward him.

Just ten seconds ago, he'd thought the pit that ancient brat had dug for him was already outrageous enough.

Reviving the school, spying for intelligence, digging out the Evil God hidden behind the Origin Tower, as well as whoever was colluding with it...... Every single one of those tasks was an ultimate-level headache in its own right.

But apparently, there was no such thing as the hardest difficulty, only something even harder. Beneath this hellish difficulty......

There was actually an expert among experts?

And the first thing they did was slap the charge of colluding with an Evil God onto him?

Goddess above, Muen Campbell was completely innocent. He had always conducted himself with righteousness, caution, and prudence, treating himself as the embodiment of justice and saving countless pitiful young women. When had he ever colluded......

All right.

He really couldn't deny the part about colluding with Evil Gods.

Considering the enormous pile of Evil God derivatives currently on his body, if he really got caught and they carefully investigated everything, then escalated the matter as far as possible, "colluding with an Evil God" would probably count as the most insignificant charge among them.

The big one was probably something like being an Evil God's scion!

Help! I can't breathe!

At that thought, Muen immediately turned a pleading gaze toward Ariel.

Ariel shrugged, indicating that there was nothing she could do, then turned to look at Old Ide.

Old Ide glanced left and right, silently crouched down, hugged his knees with both arms, and muttered:

"Boss Alva, protect us. Boss Alva, protect us. Those damn people are here again......"

"......"

Useless teammate!!

"What? Nothing to say anymore? Looks like this so-called Master really does have a guilty conscience."

The middle-aged mage sneered.

At his silent signal, several mages had already formed an encirclement around them. Powerful magical auras surged, making it obvious that the moment Muen and the others refused to cooperate, they intended to violently take them down on the spot.

"Hiss......"

Faced with the increasingly unfavorable situation, Muen sucked in a cold breath.

What should he do?

He definitely couldn't just surrender.

This wasn't the academy, nor was it the Church. Matters involving Evil Gods were genuinely difficult to explain, and besides, he wasn't the kind of person who liked handing the initiative over to someone else.

Except in bed.

So......

Fight back and resist arrest?

But if he openly clashed with the Origin Tower like this, there truly would be no coming back from it afterward.

After all, opposing Evil Gods was the absolute highest priority no matter where you went.

Doing this would essentially mean choosing to become an enemy of the entire Origin Tower. At that point, perhaps only the ancient brat personally coming here could fish him back out.

But then everything would go up in smoke, and there would be no chance of continuing the operation.

Both paths contradicted each other, and either choice was wrong.

It was a complete dead end!

Damn it, wasn't this difficulty a little too high?

Even if that shameless bastard ancient brat wanted to screw him over, she shouldn't have......

Hm?

Wait......

A flash of inspiration suddenly crossed Muen's mind.

Right.

This wasn't right.

It didn't make logical sense.

The miserable condition of the Enhancement School earlier was understandable. After all, a school on the verge of collapse was much easier for him to use as an opening to infiltrate the tower.

You could say that the ancient brat had her own reasons for doing things this way, or that she had some other hidden objective behind it.

But now he had suddenly been branded as someone colluding with an Evil God, and might even be imprisoned by the Origin Tower......

That made absolutely no sense.

It completely contradicted the ancient brat's purpose in sending him here.

Which meant......

"The current situation isn't a pit that ancient brat left for me.

It's an accident!"

Most likely, even the ancient brat couldn't have predicted that the moment they arrived, they'd be treated as targets suspected of colluding with an Evil God!

And from her perspective, they shouldn't have been treated as targets suspected of colluding with an Evil God the moment they arrived either.

Just look at this miserable school.

Before he and Ariel arrived, there had only been one crazy old man and a dried-up corpse!

How were they supposed to collude with an Evil God?

By selling their misery until everyone else's psychological defenses collapsed?

In that case......

Muen's thoughts turned rapidly.

His gaze swept across Old Ide beside him, and he suddenly realized something.

Using the mithril hand on his staff, he lightly poked the old man, pulling him out of his crazed muttering.

"Let me ask you something. The Origin Tower doesn't forbid people from fighting each other, right?"

"Fighting?"

Old Ide raised his head blankly.

"Fighting is mostly forbidden within a school, but between different schools...... as long as nobody dies, nobody launches a sneak attack, and both sides agree to the fight...... then it's merely competition."

"Competition? I see. I understand."

Muen rubbed his chin.

Then he forcefully pressed his mithril staff downward.

The tip of the staff struck the ground with a crisp clang, instantly drawing everyone's attention toward him.

Then he raised his head.

A profound, unfathomable smile befitting a master curled at the corner of his lips as his gaze swept across the mages who were still pressing closer.

"Gentlemen, you've got quite a lot of nerve."

"What do you mean?"

"Nothing much. It's just that although I haven't returned to the Origin Tower for a very long time and have forgotten many things about this place, I never imagined that there would actually be people bold enough to borrow this sort of pretext for the sake of achieving some unspeakable objective."

Muen's tone was weathered, his gaze distant, as though he were recalling a past from long ago and recounting trivial matters lost within the vast span of his life.

In reality, he was merely recalling someone's graceful figure from last night, along with her embarrassed cries.

Of course, precisely because he was genuinely reminiscing, the expression couldn't possibly be fake.

"You......"

The middle-aged mage was momentarily intimidated, but quickly recovered and shouted:

"Nonsense! What unspeakable objective? Every word and action of ours is for justice, and everything we do is for the bright future of the Origin Tower! You, on the other hand, have committed such a grave offense and still refuse to repent? What, judging by your expression, you even intend to resist? I don't know whether you're really some kind of Master or not, but think carefully. If you resist us, you'll only confirm the charge that your school is colluding with an Evil God!"

Accompanied by his furious rebuke, the terrifying magical pressure pushed closer and closer.

Dazzling lines linked together through the air, forming complex patterns.

The attack had not yet arrived, but the oppressive momentum alone was enough to make someone tremble.

If it were anyone else, they might already have dropped to their knees.

For example, Old Ide, who was shivering beside them.

But Muen merely shook his head and said casually:

"The fact that you can say something like that only makes me even more certain that you aren't the proper personnel responsible for handling this sort of matter."

Was whether someone had colluded with an Evil God really determined like this?

Refusing to confess meant colluding with an Evil God?

Ridiculous.

Since when had matters involving Evil Gods become this childish?

And then there was the way these people were handling things......

At first glance it seemed airtight, but in reality it was riddled with holes.

For example, although they had immediately surrounded the area, it looked more like they were trying to prevent anyone from escaping or stop the commotion from spreading outside.

Where were the barriers for sealing Pollution?

Where were the instruments for detecting mental Pollution?

And when facing people who might be Evil God believers, instead of suppressing them immediately, they were actually standing here threatening them with words?

With this much time, a real believer could have stabbed you twenty times already, then used Pollution to thoroughly toy with every single part of your body......

Who the hell wasted time talking nonsense with those mentally abnormal lunatics?

Learn from the Silent Bureau.

They didn't say a damn word when they arrived. First they made you so miserable that you couldn't resist, then while they were at it they'd slap any passing dog, shake the yolks loose inside every egg, and dig the earthworms out of the soil just to split them vertically down the middle.

In short, everything about these people from beginning to end radiated three words:

Completely unprofessional!

Extremely unprofessional!

At this level of incompetence, if they encountered actual Evil God believers, they'd probably become the other side's *** in no time.

And they still wanted to arrest people?

"If you're going to cause trouble, at least come up with a decent excuse......"

Muen looked at them with pity.

"Otherwise...... you just look stupid."

"Shut up! Still spouting nonsense? I don't believe you really dare resist."

The middle-aged mage's face darkened as he ground his teeth.

"You'd better think carefully about the consequences of resisting us!"

"You're the ones who should think carefully about the consequences."

Muen couldn't be bothered saying anything more and waved his hand.

"My dearest student Alice, it's your turn now."

"Eh?"

Ariel blinked and asked in an extremely adorable manner:

"Is this really all right?"

"It is. Didn't Old Ide just say so? This is competition. Perfect timing, too. You can let them see...... this brand-new Enhancement School!"

"Wonderful! So many annoying things have happened lately that I've been holding myself back until I'm about to burst!"

Ariel skipped forward, looking extraordinarily cute and perfectly maintaining her sweet and adorable persona.

Of course, she also didn't forget to cast several enhancement spells on herself in order to display her identity as the little princess of the Enhancement School.

"What kind of joke is this......"

When he saw Ariel walking toward them, the middle-aged mage's face twisted into a vicious expression at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Recently, rumors that someone within the Origin Tower was colluding with an Evil God had been spreading everywhere, throwing everyone into a state of panic.

And one of the Masters from his school had indeed recently been given responsibility for organizing a search throughout the entire Origin Tower.

So in a sense, he really did possess the slightest bit of relevant authority.

After all, that Master had personally instructed them to pay attention to whether there had been any recent "abnormalities" within the tower.

He'd originally thought that under circumstances like these, a tiny Enhancement School on the verge of collapse could simply be manipulated however he pleased.

But......

How had they noticed?

And how did they dare?

This newly arrived Master Enmu......

Could he really be someone extraordinary?

No......

That wasn't right.

There was no possible way the Enhancement School could still produce anyone particularly impressive.

That point had already been proven long ago.

Otherwise, how could such a once-enormous school have fallen into its current miserable state?

Their school's previous so-called Master hadn't even reached the minimum standard required to open a classroom—

Ascension Rank!

Perhaps this old bastard really did possess some knowledge, but his strength couldn't possibly be high.

Faced with their encirclement, he was merely putting on a fierce front while being weak inside.

In reality, he was probably already panicking beyond belief!

The fact that he'd become so confused that he was sending such an innocent and adorable little girl out to fight was proof enough!

"Fine. You brought this upon yourselves anyway. I originally wanted to settle this using gentler methods, but since you're insisting on suffering...... then I suppose we'll have no choice but to satisfy you."

A confident smile curled across the middle-aged mage's lips.

He tightened his grip on his staff and aimed it toward the slowly approaching Ariel.

Enormous magical power surged around him, whipping up a violent wind.

Just to be safe, he did not have the others withdraw.

Instead, they maintained the encirclement.

Whatever kind of monster you are—

Eight against one.

The advantage is mine!

"Heh heh. This adorable little girl's skin is so delicate, and even her fists look soft. One glance and you can tell there's no strength in them. Don't blame me, Scarlet Flash Habakaya, for being ruthless when I beat you until—"

......

......

"I'm sorry!"

One minute later.

Although neither Muen nor Ariel had ever heard of him, Scarlet Flash Habakaya, who was apparently somewhat famous within the Origin Tower, was kneeling on the ground with his face swollen and bruised, tears streaming down his cheeks as he wailed:

"I'm trash! I'm **! I was too arrogant! I was blind! I admit defeat...... Please, Miss Tyrannosaur...... Miss Ultimate Super-Adorable Beautiful Girl...... stop hitting me!!"