"What are you doing?"

To cover his inner panic, Bazarian asked aggressively, like a stray cat with its fur standing on end.

"Anzi, are you hiding something from me?"

"No."

"There's no one else here, just be honest."

"About what?"

She turned her gaze to the other side. According to Ethan's experience, there wasn't much difference between a goddess and a human when it came to a guilty conscience.

"Is your butt frozen again?"

This was a serious issue even Ethan didn't dare to think about deeply—the worst case was that Anzi had been frozen here for up to three days, but since she had no friends in Oasis City and used an illusion spell, no one came to help her. Her strong pride also made it impossible for her to actively seek help from Lindong and Little Dark.

Because her butt was frozen by an ice block, she had to sit under the jewelry store's display window for three whole days. Ethan thought if this story got out, Bazarian's believers might very likely switch to Mary's side.

"No."

"Then get up and let me see."

...

They stared at each other, deathly silence spreading across the street.

"It's not ice."

The standoff lasted nearly twenty seconds, and Bazarian admitted defeat.

"Then it's...?"

"Grown together."

Ethan saw nothing but darkness before his eyes. He had never seen such a situation; he couldn't even imagine what Anzi had done to grow herself like a plant together with the steps of a jewelry shop in the Lower City. This challenge was much tougher than the Ice Crystal Giant Tree, where he had asked the Ice Elemental Elf to release the detained Bazarian.

But this time?

Ethan didn't know how to pull someone grown on the steps off from them, and if brute force was used, what if a wound was torn open...

Just thinking about it made him shiver.

"A little explanation might help."

"I was very bored."

"I don't see any direct connection between that and your situation."

"That day, not long after you went indoors, I met a magical girl with yellow hair on the street. Her body below the neck was embedded in the ground, looking like a little yellow potato... Does that make sense now?"

"Honestly, not really."

"I told you, I was very bored."

Ethan didn't understand, so he continued prodding, "Did that little yellow potato attack you?"

He was quite sure he hadn't given any such command to the little yellow potato. From what he knew, the little yellow potato, albeit rambunctious and constantly treasure-hunting, was not one to pick fights like the Wind Element Girl and often avoided conflicts with others.

Given its timid lizard-like nature, Ethan couldn't believe the little yellow potato would take the initiative to attack Bazarian.

"No."

Bazarian shook her head.

The situation was becoming more bizarre, even more mysterious than any unsolved case from the past thirty years Ethan had flipped through in the Imperial Library. He only wished cameras had been invented by now.

"She's an Earth Elemental Elf."

"I know, Senzi. Let me ask you a question." 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

Bazarian hesitated a few times before finally taking a deep breath, looking as if she was determined to go for broke, "Seeing her travel so freely, don't you want to try that?"

Once again, a suffocating silence enveloped the two of them.

Bazarian broke the silence herself, "You don't? Is it just me..."

"But you don't know Earth Elemental Magic."

Ethan finally understood the essence of the problem. At this moment, he intuitively grasped the weight of those three words "I was bored." In his perception, Bazarian was never someone who gave up easily. Being unskilled in Elemental Magic couldn't stop her, and with her vision and pure mastery over magic power, she could touch the essence of magic...

"Anzi, we must think positively."

He noticed Bazarian's hollow gaze and tried to console her, "Only the most powerful mages in the world can make their butt grow onto steps. Looking beyond appearances, you've actually succeeded—you deconstructed Earth Elemental Magic with your powers, achieving almost the same effect."

The only problem was Bazarian couldn't burrow and travel underground like the little yellow potato.

"You accomplished in three days what academy professors couldn't in a lifetime!"

Of course, these were high-EQ statements.

The low-EQ detractors would sum up the whole thing as Bazarian digging a hole and then getting herself stuck in it.

"Thank you, Senzi."

Though Bazarian could see that Ethan was speaking a stream of nonsense, it offered her a bit of psychic comfort.

This Senzi was really good at comforting people, "You're a good person."

"Don't worry, I'll go get an expert to help you."

Ethan cleared his throat and shouted into the depths of the night, "Where is the little yellow potato?"

.............

Meanwhile, in an underground tavern.

Laris walked at the front of the group, followed closely by several people in strange attire.

Almost all the residents of the Lower City had been invited to the Upper City. This trial was going to completely change the future of Oasis City. Perhaps justice would finally descend upon the people, but that was ultimately just an illusory facade.

They were the ones who truly saw the essence clearly.

They opened a secret path and proceeded along the hidden corridor behind the tavern's fireplace. The stench of blood mixed with mildew refreshed them as the torches lit the way ahead, also illuminating the flesh-covered walls. The lumps of flesh throbbed like hearts, exuding a sweet, sanguine scent.

"Laris, Mary has set up a department specifically to deal with us, but their recruitment isn't going well."

The sickly pale, tall, thin man bringing up the rear spoke with mockery, "They only have three people, and one of them, Grave, already has one foot in the coffin. It's a pity we didn't get to kill him that day."

They all came from the same place.

The Lower City of Oasis City had been their home since they could remember, living in the dirtiest corners, surviving on moldy, rotten leftover bread from trash bins.

Orphans were common in this city. After all, people were regularly imprisoned for offending officials and nobles.

They banded together from a young age; forming gangs allowed them to grab more food and avoid being bullied by drunks.

And now, although they shared the same objective, their motivations had subtle differences.

"It's a shame Marshall can't see all this."

The sickly man was chatty, never stopping along the way, "Give me that Prison Warden, and I'll personally send him to meet Marshall."

"As you wish."

The always silent Laris suddenly halted, and under the puzzled gaze of the sickly man, tossed him a heart-like pulsating fruit.

He signaled everyone to be quiet, and as the sound ceased, faint footsteps echoed from the way they had come.

A sickly smile immediately appeared on the face of the pallid man as he gripped the pulsating "heart" in his hand tightly and said bloodthirstily, "You go ahead; I'll catch up shortly."

Laris nodded and continued towards the deeper parts of the passageway.

Before heading to the trial venue, he needed to make final preparations.

In truth, these past three days had not been smooth for their actions. Grave's reappearance had shaken many people. Although a small number later accepted the fruits they offered, they used them as a last resort. Laris could see that those people's hearts still harbored unrealistic hopes.

Therefore, he needed more than just a fruit.

Preferably gas that would be dispersed in the Upper City's town hall square, affecting everyone there.

"What you want lies beyond this door."

Alongside him was a person wearing a mask and dressed in a tattered doctor's uniform, marked with mottled blood stains.

He wasn't a doctor, and these stains were left when he dismembered an avaricious, black-hearted doctor from the Upper City.

Turning the fruit into gas was also his idea.

Everyone waited for Laris to continue, and when the door opened, they all held their breath simultaneously.

However, the inspiring scene they anticipated did not appear.

The room was empty; someone had left a small flag in the most conspicuous spot, as if declaring their arrival.

——Your treasure trove has been discovered by me!

——Left by the Earth Elemental Treasure Hunter.