Sisyphus was the founder and king of Corinth.
According to legend, he once kidnapped the God of Death, causing death to disappear from the world for a time.
So, if nothing unexpected had happened, that old brother was most likely the mastermind behind this kidnapping case.
And according to the original trajectory of fate, his dirty business would eventually be exposed.
After consecutively offending Father Zeus, kidnapping the God of Death Thanatos, and deceiving Hades, the King of the Underworld, he would ultimately receive eternal punishment in the Underworld.
Anyway, getting caught and punished was only a matter of time.
So, brother, just make a small sacrifice.
Having successfully diverted the disaster elsewhere, Lorne muttered silently in his heart, then offered a few seconds of insincere silence as repentance.
There was no helping it.
Better a dead fellow Daoist than a dead poor Daoist.
"Yoho! That woman finally left!"
An excited cheer interrupted Lorne's thoughts.
Having successfully escaped, Circe stood on her tiptoes and vigorously patted her disciple's shoulder, loudly praising him.
"Well done! I knew raising you all these years wasn't a waste!"
Lorne smiled as he removed Circe's claw from his shoulder, revealing a rather calculating expression.
"Teacher, helping you with such a big favor, just saying empty words doesn't seem quite enough, right? Where are the benefits?"
"Yes, yes! Everyone gets something!"
Circe nodded repeatedly with a bright smile, immediately pulling out several small cakes from the basket and stuffing them into Lorne's and Astraea's hands.
Looking at the delicate pastries in her hand, shaped like piglets, gray wolves, white rabbits, and other animals, with a sweet aroma wafting up from them, Astraea instantly found them hard to put down.
"So cute!"
"Hehe! Not bad, not bad. You have good taste!"
Facing the praise, Circe's pretty face showed a satisfied expression as she proudly lifted her head.
"In order to make these shapes, I even created special molds. And inside, I added different fillings like apples, figs, grapes, and many other flavors. You definitely won't get tired of them!"
Hearing this, Astraea swallowed unconsciously.
Her eyes sparkled as she almost wanted to bury her head and take a big bite out of the small cake in her hand to taste it.
However, a hand that reached out from the side pressed down on the Justice Goddess's lowering head.
At the same time, the owner of that hand, Lorne, looked at his witch teacher with a suspicious gaze.
"Besides being tasty, there isn't anything else, right?"
"There is!"
Circe nodded heavily, placing a hand on her rather flat chest and solemnly declared.
"That would be the goodwill of the witch Circe toward you! Just like the Underworld Moon that circles the sky, my gratitude will always accompany you!"
Feeling the corner of his clothes gently tugged by little Medea behind him, Lorne narrowed his eyes and looked at Circe's chest, which was practically equal to nothing in terms of "conscience." And let out a bright smile, then handed the small cake in his hand to her.
"No need for gratitude. Here, help me eat these first. I've been avoiding sweets lately."
"Eh...? Uh... th... this..."
Circe instinctively stepped back a few steps, speaking vaguely.
Then she glanced at Astraea, who was swallowing her saliva nearby.
Her eyes suddenly rolled, and she took the small cakes before immediately passing them to the Justice Goddess.
"My appetite hasn't been very good lately either. You can eat them all!"
"Okay!"
Hearing that such a good thing existed, Astraea nodded excitedly and opened her mouth, ready to taste one first.
"Bang!"
However, just as the greedy Justice Goddess raised her hand, a dull crashing sound came from the War God Mountain, followed by billowing dust.
Noisy voices and chaotic commotion rose one after another.
"This is bad! Two pigs have rushed into the sacrificial ground and are causing chaos!"
"Pigs? Where did they come from?"
"They just ran out of Lady Stheno and Lady Euryale's room. Pink and purple fur, and they even have snake scales underneath! Are they... the two ladies'... pets?"
"Forget about that for now. Quickly, deploy suppression spells and capture nets. Catch them first!"
"Wait, the suppression spell isn't working? What's going on? Goddess above! They can actually fly!"
On the War God Mountain, two small pink and purple piglets spread the golden wings on their backs and dashed around like lightning.
The priests and temple officials who surrounded the square and attempted to intercept them were knocked down one after another.
Hearing the wails and cries for help, Astraea immediately put down the small cake that had almost reached her mouth, her sense of justice bursting forth.
"I'll go help!"
"It's fine, it's fine. It won't cause much damage. Judging from the situation, things should calm down soon."
Circe stopped Astraea and waved her hand casually, smiling as she comforted her.
"Besides, there are so many priests and temple officials up there.
They will definitely solve it. You should eat something first and fill your stomach..."
"Bang!"
Before Circe could finish speaking, another dull explosion sounded from the northeastern courtyard of War God Mountain.
"This is bad, this is bad! Pigs! Pigs! There are pigs here too!"
"They ran out from behind Lady Hestia's house. A golden one, very small, but incredibly fast!"
"Oh no, it's heading toward the temple!"
"Defensive formation! Quickly activate the defensive formation and drive it toward the uninhabited northern area!"
With his excellent eyesight, Lorne looked through the spreading dust and saw three somewhat familiar piglets on the sacrificial ground.
An ominous premonition suddenly arose in his heart as he pointed at the small cakes in the basket, and asked quietly.
"Who exactly did you give these things to?"
Circe blinked and thought for a moment.
Then began counting on her fingers and answered casually.
"First, there were two purple-haired twin brats who spoke rudely and aggressively."
"There was also a little brat with a golden braid and wings on her back. She even dared to say that the color of my wings wasn't as pretty as hers. How annoying!"
"Finally, there was a centaur with golden-brown hair and green eyes.
He was actually quite nice and told me there were many guests down the mountain, so I even gave him a few extra pieces for free..."
As the witch listed the three groups of customers she had served, another heavy crashing sound came from the mountain.
A giant wild boar with golden-brown fur, several meters tall, stood up from a collapsed wooden house and looked around in confusion.
And on its body, it seemed to have a pair of horse ears and a tail.
"That's right, it's this one!"
Seeing this, Circe turned her head and excitedly clenched her fists, letting out an enthusiastic cheer.
"Yoho! A huge success! The Kykeon Version 7.0 works amazingly!"
"What effect?" Lorne asked quietly.
"This Kykeon is a formula I painstakingly experimented with.
It can skip language suggestion and directly inject the animal traits I want into the food. And ordinary poison resistance or potion resistance simply won't work!"
Circe proudly introduced her latest academic achievement.
Looking at the four pigs running wildly around the mountain, the corners of her lips curled up in delight.
"It really is impressive. Even gods cannot avoid being affected," Lorne said after taking a glance, unable to help but praise sincerely.
"It is not perfect either," Circe said modestly in response to the compliment, regaining the seriousness of a researcher. "Although Kykeon Version 7.0 can temporarily alter even divine traits, the effects it produces and the duration are not very stable. It still requires further research."
At this point, she looked somewhat dissatisfied.
"At first, I took the original Kykeon porridge Version 7.0 to that so-called Academy of Athens and asked people to taste it.
But once those guys heard about its effects, every single one of them frowned and shook their heads in refusal. Not a bit of spirit of dedication to magic. How rude!"
"So you used it as filling, made small cakes, and came to sell them on the War God Mountain?" Lorne asked.
"Exactly!"
Circe nodded repeatedly.
Then she looked at the basket, which still contained more than half of the small cakes, her eyes filled with regret.
"Unfortunately, only four bought my cakes. The experimental data seems a little insufficient."
Immediately, the witch cast an eager gaze toward her beloved disciple and the Justice Goddess standing in front of her.
After hearing Circe's explanation, Astraea suddenly felt that the small cake in her arms was somewhat hot to handle and she quickly stuffed it back into the witch's basket.
Only now did she understand why Lorne beside her had repeatedly stopped her from eating those cute-looking snacks.
"Hey, hey, don't do that! The ones
I gave you have the smallest side effects. No matter how much you eat, it will be fine. I guarantee you will not end up like them. Just try one, come on!"
Circe picked up a small cake and still unwillingly tried to sell it to the two people in front of her.
Astraea and Lorne firmly shook their heads.
At the same time, they silently blocked the front and back of the mountain path, staring gloomily at the unscrupulous witch selling her shady products.
Immediately, Circe, who was trapped between them, shivered and hugged her basket tightly as she shrank back.
"By the way, why are you looking at me with such terrifying eyes?"
"What do you think?" Lorne asked through gritted teeth.
"Alright, alright. I know I was wrong."
Circe quickly raised her hands in surrender, lowering her head in defeat.
Lorne continued to press her.
"What exactly did you do wrong?"
Circe thought for a moment before answering cautiously.
"I should not have only tested it on those four on the War God Mountain. I should have expanded the sample size and chosen some control groups?"
"..."
Even though Lorne knew Circe's nature well and had mentally prepared himself, he still found himself speechless at such a genius-level answer.
"There is no saving her..."
Astraea shook her head at the side, her gaze gradually turning cold.
A person this stubborn was no longer someone who could be corrected through persuasion and education alone.
Heavy punishment was necessary.
The Justice Goddess, who had almost been dragged into trouble, cracked her knuckles while angrily raising her itching fists.
Circe sensed the intense resentment coming from the other side and immediately shrank her head, hiding behind her beloved disciple, pushing him firmly in front of her as a shield.
"Waa... waaah! Lorne, save me!"
"You want my help? I have not even settled the score with you yet!"
Lorne mercilessly pried Circe's claws off him and pushed the shameless witch, who was trying to use him as a shield, to the front.
"You heartless brat. I worked so hard to raise you! After you ran away, I was constantly worried about your safety!"
But Circe clung to him like sticky candy, tightly grabbing onto this lifesaving straw while crying out in accusation and putting on a tearful expression.
"I truly love you! I genuinely care about you! If I had known, I would never have brought you home... wuwuwu..."
Facing Circe's crying, making a scene, and threatening act, Lorne, who had been tricked dozens of times since childhood, had long become immune.
He first expressionlessly peeled the sticky candy off his body, then pointed toward the War God Mountain behind them where waves of violent auras were rising into the sky and sneered.
"Begging me is useless. If you want to run, you should at least ask whether the victims behind you agree."
At this moment, as the chaos gradually settled, streaks of light shot through the air from the sacrificial ground above the War God Mountain and rushed toward the foot of the mountain.
Angry shouting and resentment-filled curses echoed in all directions.
"Catch that woman selling the small cakes! Do not let her escape!"
"I will pluck every single one of her feathers!"
"Tie her wings into knots and cover them with tree resin!"
"..."
Hearing those vicious punishments and seeing the dangerous streaks of light approaching from the mountain, Circe instantly realized the situation was bad.
She immediately released Lorne, opened a magic formation, and quickly pulled out two full-body cloaks of a previously prepared style.
"Medea, put this on quickly. Those guys are chasing us!"
At the same time, the unscrupulous witch's eyes rolled as she stuffed the basket full of small cakes into little Medea's arms.
"Here, take this as well. Stay close to him. We will split up and run. We will contact each other later!"
With that, Circe abandoned her confused little niece and rushed forward, attempting to escape the scene before the sealing barrier of the War God Mountain completely covered the area.
"Smack!"
However, a hand that landed on her shoulder held her firmly in place like an iron hook.
At the same time, a quiet voice came from behind her.
"Circe..."
"Hey, what are you doing? I am trying to escape! Ugh...!"
Circe instinctively turned her head and was just about to complain when a hand instantly dislocated her jaw.
Immediately afterward, the furious Lorne grabbed a basket full of small cakes and stuffed them all into the mouth of the shameless witch in front of him.
Not only did she sell out her disciple, she even sold out her own niece.
This woman was beyond saving.
"Mmmph!"
Under that immovable force, Circe, with her mouth stuffed full of small cakes, could only let out helpless cries while desperately swallowing and suffering the consequences of her own actions.
A moment later, as a burst of light flashed in front of them, a pink little piglet crawled out from a pile of scattered clothes, snorting and looking around in confusion.
At the same time, several streaks of light landed on the ground.
Stheno, Euryale, Nike, and several other familiar figures rushed forward, grinding their teeth while looking around for the culprit who had caused them such embarrassment.
In the end, their gazes, half stunned and half pleasantly surprised, fixed on the figure ahead.
"You are back?"
Lorne smiled and nodded.
Then he grabbed the back of the neck of the little piglet in front of him, lifted it to eye level, and spoke righteously.
"Witch Circe, you are suspected of selling dangerous food, abducting a young girl, and framing others to escape responsibility.
In the name of the Athenian magistrate, I hereby formally file charges against you. From this moment on, everything you say will become testimony presented in court. The Justice Goddess Astraea will deliver a fair judgment on your crimes!"
"Oink? Oink!"
Hearing this, the pink piglet that had been arrested suddenly felt darkness before its eyes.
Amid a miserable cry, it fainted "happily."
(The End of the Chapter)