Chapter 160: Indifference

The bustling valley was leveled in an instant, leaving not a trace of the gnolls that once lived there. A huge crater now occupied the original location.

Due to the high temperatures, crystalline formations covered the bottom of the crater, shimmering under the sunlight with golden arcs dancing across them, presenting a stunningly beautiful sight.

At the very bottom of the crater, Muria, having transformed into a human form, hovered in mid-air, looking around with a frown.

"The direction is wrong; this isn't the place.

I used the hair Troy normally sheds as a medium, as the catalyst for this teleportation. Normally, I should have been able to teleport directly to the big cat's side, but now, I can't sense the big cat's presence.

That means the teleportation went wrong.

Was it because of that hand?"

Muria recalled the delicate and slender hand he saw while traversing the dark spatial rift.

It seemed fragile and powerless, and even when it touched the teleportation column enveloping him, Muria felt nothing unusual.

"But..." Muria looked at the massive crater hundreds of meters wide below, "a slap changed my teleportation coordinates, making me teleport incorrectly, yet it didn't harm me in the slightest. Mother, was it you who intervened again? Wouldn't it be nicer to let me easily find my companions?"

...

"Uncle Raymond, I believe what you said just now," the pitiable young Burton said with a pale face and trembling voice, looking at his uncle.

"Heh heh!" The middle-aged man who avoided becoming gnoll dung for the fifth time laughed bitterly, sweating profusely as he looked at the black-haired, golden-eyed youth hovering above the crater.

"Uncle, what do we do now?" Young Burton looked at Muria with trepidation. Even as an inexperienced commoner, he knew that anyone who could fly in the sky was a powerful being, capable of crushing him as easily as an ant.

"Look beside you."

Burton turned his head to see the gnolls that had been carrying him with high spirits now prostrating on the ground, their horned heads tightly pressed against the earth, seemingly trying to bury their heads in the dirt.

The gnolls' small bodies were curled up, trembling visibly, clearly terrified, but they still maintained a kneeling posture towards the young man in the sky.

This scene stunned the young man. Although he didn't feel the kind of pressure from Muria that bards sing of, the gnolls' behavior and the spectacle of Muria's arrival filled him with involuntary respect and a spreading fear.

"What are you staring at?" Uncle Raymond's deliberately lowered scolding voice came from beside him, "Hurry up and pose like these gnolls. If you don't want to die, do it quickly."

"It hurts, Uncle Raymond, I can't pose like that." The young man tried to move, but the wounds from his limbs, broken by the gnolls, sent waves of excruciating pain through him.

"Pose even if it hurts. Even if it kills you, you must kneel. Provoking such a powerful being, a slap from him could kill you outright."

The middle-aged man gritted his teeth, squeezing these words out of his throat as he struggled to kneel like the gnolls. Despite the agony of moving his broken limbs, he endured the pain.

In the face of a being who could easily take their lives, the best choice for the weak is to prostrate in the most humble posture, expressing their utmost respect and begging for mercy.

...

After speculating that his mother might have intervened again, Muria brooded for a while before regaining his composure and began to observe his surroundings.

The low and sparse trees, dense bushes, the painfully low concentration of elemental energy, and the giant crater he had created beneath his feet.

"Hmm!" Looking at the crater below, Muria pondered, "Did I hit anything when I descended?"

"Huh?" That's when Muria's gaze swept over two humans struggling to move, along with a dozen gnolls kneeling beside them, "There are humans here? And gnolls? What's going on? It might be a good idea to ask."

It wasn't that Muria's perception was lacking, but these humans and gnolls were so weak that his spiritual sense automatically classified them as insignificant, overlooking them completely.

Muria took a step forward, and a small ring of soul intent appeared beneath his feet, with faint blue spiritual light flickering and a breeze swirling around him. His figure instantly appeared above the two nephews. This wasn't teleportation but just one of the uses of the ring of soul intent.

Muria's casual action, in the eyes of Uncle Raymond and nephew Burton, seemed unfathomably profound. To them, Muria stepped out and then appeared above their heads. The young man, despite his youthful appearance, fit their fantasy of a powerful being perfectly.

"What are you doing?" Muria looked down at the greasy middle-aged man and the young man struggling below, asking in the common language of the continent with an expressionless face.

"Sir, we wanted to kneel before you, but all our limbs have been broken, so it's a bit difficult," the middle-aged man explained nervously upon hearing Muria's question.

He didn't know what kind of being he was dealing with, but undoubtedly, it was someone far beyond his ability to provoke. So, he desperately expressed his humility, as arrogance was not something a person of his stature should possess.

"Your limbs are broken!" Muria was slightly taken aback. For Titans, a fracture was hardly considered an injury. Even a young Titan could recover in minutes, so what's the big deal?

But these were humans, one without a trace of extraordinary power and the other with a pitifully thin layer of combat aura, making his body slightly stronger than an ordinary person. Their physiques were pathetically weak.

A first-circle spell, Minor Healing.

Muria extended his hand, and two beams of spell light fell on the two humans he initially considered as insignificant, healing their fractures.

"This is... magic!" Raymond looked at the spiritual light enveloping him, his face showing disbelief, quietly breathing a sigh of relief. The powerful being before him, not quite human, was willing to heal them, indicating they were safe, at least from a life-threatening perspective.

"Did I hit anything when I landed?"

"Sir, you flattened a gnoll settlement. At least a thousand gnolls have been erased from this world," the middle-aged man said with awe.

"Just like that." Muria heard about the thousand gnolls he crushed to death, his face showing indifference without any emotional fluctuation. A bunch of chaotic evil creatures, no matter how many die, he wouldn't feel a shred of pity.

"You two," Muria looked at the dozen gnolls trembling at his feet, a smile appearing on his lips, "were you captured by gnolls, intended as reserve food?"

"Sir, you are correct." The middle-aged man, Raymond, laughed awkwardly, not minding the teasing tone in Muria's words, while young Burton blushed with shame beside him.

Being captured by the lowest of monsters was a great humiliation in itself.

"Tell me, where are we?" Muria ignored the kneeling gnolls. Such lowly creatures, accidentally crushing a group of them wasn't worth the effort, so Muria chose to overlook them.

"Sir..." Just as middle-aged man Raymond was about to answer Muria, the black-haired, golden-eyed youth suddenly turned his head, his gaze sharp as he stared at a low and dense bush, "Come out! Why hide like a rat?"

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