"Bang!!!!"
A sudden loud noise echoed through the once relatively calm ruins.
And as the loud noise ended, the colossal creature that had attacked Stelle from behind twitched and crashed to the ground.
If it hadn't been wearing a mask, Stelle felt she might have seen an expression of disbelief on its face.
After all, Stelle's reaction speed was simply too fast; it was almost instantaneous.
With a Hilichurl's intelligence, it probably couldn't understand why the prey that was facing away from it a second ago could instantly turn around and kill it.
Stelle swung her bat, which still had some monster blood on it.
However, this bat was no ordinary item. As one of Ms. Herta's curios, its self-cleaning ability was also top-notch.
Stelle merely swung it, and all the bloodstains on the bat disappeared, making it look brand new.
Now, looking again, the one lying before her was a Mitachurl. This fellow had emerged from who knows where, holding a huge axe, poised to strike Stelle.
Fortunately, besides being unable to dodge when facing girls, Stelle had maximized all her other dodging skills.
It was just a simple sidestep, followed by a head-on blow. The Mitachurl had no power to resist, and even fell to the ground still holding its axe in an attacking posture.
A moment later, the Mitachurl's corpse gradually vanished, and a purple horn and a black package suddenly appeared on the ground.
Stelle raised an eyebrow. A Black-Gold Horn? She was familiar with that. It was an alchemy material occasionally dropped by Hilichurls, and it could sell for a good amount of money.
But what was with this package? She had never heard of Hilichurls dropping human items... Wait, could this be the artifact Precious Baby had lost?
This Mitachurl was actually carrying it with him?
Stelle felt a bit confused, then walked forward and picked up the package.
She weighed it slightly; it still had some heft.
Stelle squatted down, placed the package on the ground, and opened it. Inside was a square box, adorned with what looked like expensive cloud patterns.
It looked valuable, and it seemed to match the description of the item Precious Baby had lost.
Of course, she couldn't be 100% sure that this was the artifact Precious Baby had lost. Anyway, she would take it to Precious Baby later to confirm.
One thing was for certain: this item was definitely a valuable treasure.
Stelle wasn't planning to open it now. Since the item was already here, it wouldn't be good if she opened it privately and caused some problem.
After all, she knew nothing about archaeology or artifacts.
Stelle packed up the item, then walked back the way she came.
The direction Precious Baby had gone wasn't far from her current location. If she walked a bit faster, she should be able to find Precious Baby.
Logically, that should be the case.
But in reality, this place was simply too vast and complex. If Precious Baby had gone somewhere else, she would be truly difficult to find.
This made things a bit difficult, as they hadn't agreed on a meeting point, so now it was hard to rendezvous.
Stelle sighed slightly, deciding to follow the path Precious Baby had taken earlier and search slowly along the way.
"That Precious Baby, saying the artifact was lost... Could he be trying to keep it all to himself?"
In a dark corner, two suspicious individuals were whispering.
Their gaze was fixed on a woman not far away. The woman seemed to be deeply engrossed in studying the ruins before her, completely unaware that many people had quietly surrounded her from behind.
"Hmph, that's probably it. That person is as cunning as a Weasel Thief... We'll deal with him later. First, let's capture this girl. We can get as many artifacts as we want from these ruins," another person said in a low voice, his eyes dark as he looked at the Sumeru-dressed woman in front.
For the Treasure Hoarders, stealing and reselling artifacts from ruins was a common occurrence.
However, for these uncultured individuals, truly locating valuable items within the vast ruins was no easy feat.
After all, grave robbing was ultimately different from archaeology, especially in such ancient ruins spanning thousands of years. One wrong move could not only mean failing to get the artifacts but also losing their lives.
Therefore, the artifact they had accidentally found earlier had excited them so much, but they hadn't expected that after only a few days, before they even had a chance to sell the artifact, Precious Baby had accidentally lost it.
It made them so angry they almost turned on Precious Baby on the spot.
But since they and Precious Baby were only in a cooperative relationship, and they were also somewhat wary of Precious Baby's status among the local Liyue Treasure Hoarders, they hadn't acted rashly.
Fortunately, when one door closes, another opens. They had just happened to hear that a Sumeru scholar named Soraya was studying in Liyue, staying at Wangshu Inn, and would come to these ruins for research.
After many days of staking out, they finally found an opportunity.
As long as they captured this man, with his knowledge, it shouldn't be difficult for him to help them locate some artifacts.
"Tell the men below, prepare to move," the leader turned and said to his subordinates behind him.
"Yes!" A person stealthily left.
"Boss, he's just a weak, unarmed man. Is all this fuss necessary?" the thin man beside him asked.
"Hmph, you haven't been in this line of work long, you lack experience," the leader sneered dismissively.
"Don't think that people who look weak are easy to bully. He might be a Vision wielder, or have some special abilities."
"To be safe, you can never be too careful."
As they spoke, their subordinates gradually surrounded him.
Even Soraya, who was immersed in the ancient history of these ruins, noticed something was wrong.
He quickly turned to look at the several people rushing towards him.
Soraya's expression was as calm as ever, as if he didn't even put these people in his eyes.
His demeanor couldn't help but make the Treasure Hoarder members hidden behind him, and those rushing towards him, feel a tightening in their hearts.
Could it be that this seemingly frail man truly had something special about him...?
Everyone's hearts couldn't help but tense up.
A moment later, Soraya finally made a move.
He took a deep breath, then clasped his hands over his head and slowly squatted down.
"Help!"
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