Chapter 628 - Race Against Time (Patreon)

Early the next morning, the children were told that they would be returning home without their father.

Their mood dropped sharply. The bright energy they had carried for the past two weeks seemed to vanish in an instant. They had enjoyed so much fun and spoiling while spending time with him, yet it still felt far from enough. None of them were ready for it to end.

Leylin, as usual, kept his feelings tightly controlled, though his expression had grown noticeably quieter. The twins’ eyes were already glistening, and they looked as if they might start crying at any moment. Leywini, however, refused to hold anything back. She scrambled up onto Leyvi, wrapped both arms and even her legs around one of his arms, and clung to him with pure panda-like determination, pressing her face against his sleeve and refusing to let go.

“Look, Anda. You have a successor,” Leyvi joked as he gently tried to free the arm that had been completely claimed.

“Shouldn’t you be comforting them instead?” Anda chuckled.

“Listen, everyone.” Leyvi clapped his hands twice to draw their attention.

The four children looked up at him with wide, innocent eyes.

“Do you like this city?” he asked.

They all nodded. They had truly enjoyed themselves here.

“Do you like our Bara City?”

They nodded again, a little more firmly. That was their home.

“You don’t want these places to disappear, right? You still want to come back here someday, and you still want to keep living happily in our city, don’t you?”

The children quickly shook their heads at the thought of anything disappearing, then nodded at the rest. Of course they wanted those things.

“Our continent is in danger right now, and the people here need Daddy’s help. You kids already know that Daddy is someone important, don’t you?”

They nodded once more, their earlier sadness mixed with a budding sense of seriousness.

“That’s right. If Daddy doesn’t stay and help, all the cities could disappear. Not only this city, but our own city and many other cities you haven’t even visited yet might be gone. If those places vanish, how are we supposed to travel around and have fun together in the future? Don’t you want to visit all of them with Daddy someday when everything is safe again?” Leyvi asked gently.

“Wini wants! Wini wants! Wini wants to go everywhere with Daddy!”

“Yana too!”

“Yini too!”

Leylin nodded seriously, though his usual composure looked a little strained.

Leyvi smiled. “Then don’t be sad. Daddy is doing this so we can go have fun again later.”

“Really? Daddy promise?” Leyana and Leyina asked together. Their eyes were still glistening, and neither of them looked ready to let the matter go so easily.

“Hahaha! When did Daddy ever lie to you? I might lie to strangers I can’t trust, but how could I ever lie to my own children?” Leyvi replied with a light laugh.

“Daddy, you still didn’t say you promise.” Leywini, who was still wrapped tightly around his arm, gave it another insistent shake. Her voice carried a clear note of stubbornness.

“If you have to force Daddy to promise, that means you don’t trust me.” Leyvi let his shoulders droop and put on an exaggeratedly gloomy expression. “Sigh… Daddy is sad…”

“No! Daddy doesn’t have to promise. We believe you!” Leywini reversed her stance at once, looking almost panicked at the thought of making him sad.

Anda giggled quietly to herself. By now, it was obvious that Leywini’s greatest weakness was her father. Even Nala could not make the girl change her mind this quickly.

“Leylin, I’m counting on you to take care of your sisters,” Leyvi said as he turned to his eldest.

“Y-yes, Dad! I’ll do a better job!” Leylin answered, his voice a little tighter than usual.

Leyvi chuckled and patted his shoulder. “What are you talking about? It’s not a job, and I’m not forcing you. Just remember what I told you. If you ever need help, ask. I’ll be there.”

Leylin nodded with a serious expression. The two weeks spent with his father had elevated his view of him to a much higher level. It made him want to live up to Leyvi’s expectations even more.

...

After the children finally forced out their reluctant goodbyes, Anda gathered them and left Ultima City, heading home. 

For the first time in years, Leyvi stood alone and felt a quiet but distinct sense of loneliness. The lively voices and constant presence of his family were suddenly gone, leaving the surroundings feeling emptier than they should have.

The last time he had felt this way was during the Mystic Realm expedition, when everyone had ended up separated from one another.

Watching the airship take off, Leyvi felt not the slightest worry for Anda and the children. With the Universe Airship protecting them, they were not merely safe. They were in the single safest place in the entire world. No ordinary threat, and likely no extraordinary one either, could reach them while they remained aboard that vessel.

Traveling at the maximum speed of a normal airship, the journey home from here would take them roughly two months, more than enough before the hunting operations would fully begin.

After all, this would be an unprecedented mobilization. The entire continent would have to move together at the same time, coordinating forces, resources, and information on a scale that had almost certainly never been attempted in Cloud Continent’s recorded history.

Organizing something so vast would take considerable time before everything could truly be set in motion.

At first, the announcement would undoubtedly shock the entire continent, filling people with questions, hesitation, and worry.

Leyvi was not certain how many would be willing to join the hunting operations.

While some people were truly righteous and ready to risk their lives for the sake of humanity, he knew very well that the vast majority were not.

He also placed himself firmly in the non-righteous category. His first and foremost priority had always been his family. The reason he was doing everything he could to help was not because he saw himself as a savior of the continent, but simply because his family lived here. Their safety and future were tied to this land.

The moment the situation became truly unsalvageable, he would take his family, leave for a new place, and start over without hesitation.

In his view, people who acted mainly out of self-interest were not automatically evil. Most of them were simply protecting what mattered to them, the same as he did. To him, it only crossed into evil when someone intentionally harmed others for personal gain. Apart from that, he felt no need to look down on them.

Even if people were told that these operations existed to save humanity, Leyvi doubted many would fully believe it. Others would simply assume someone else would handle the crisis and see no reason to put their own lives at risk.

Forced conscription was not a real solution either. They lacked the manpower to supervise every conscripted cultivator and keep them under control. If large groups began to feel oppressed, they might unite and resist. An internal conflict of that kind would be disastrous at a time when the continent could least afford division.

That left only one practical path, offering substantial benefits and rewards to attract willing cultivators from every region. The cost of such incentives would be astronomical. It was no surprise Jade had spent the entire night sighing over the numbers.

Fortunately, the Treasure Pavilion, which had accumulated wealth and resources across many generations, would also shoulder part of the burden and ease the financial pressure on the overall operation.

The scale of the task itself was immense. The continent was vast, and the hunting operations could not stop at the edges of human settlements. Teams would have to push deep into the many humanless regions as quickly as possible to eliminate the infected beasts at their source.

Those regions were the domains of powerful ordinary demonic beasts. Invading them meant the hunters would almost certainly have to fight those native beasts in addition to the crazed ones.

Fierce battles would break out across the entire continent. Even with careful planning and strong precautions, deaths were inevitable.

Because of that unavoidable danger, Leyvi remained concerned. No matter how generous the rewards, many cultivators might still decide the risk was too high and refuse to join.

The hunting operation truly needed manpower if they were going to win the race against time.

Fewer people meant a significantly slower hunting rate. A slower rate meant far more crazed demonic beasts left alive, which would allow the woman apparition to regain her power that much faster. Every delay in the hunting campaign directly shortened the window the investigation team had to work with.

In the end, all of these efforts existed for one purpose: to buy enough time for the investigation team to locate her.

If they could find and eliminate the woman apparition quickly, the hunting operations could be stopped early. That single success would save a great number of lives and an enormous amount of resources.

The two missions were tightly bound to each other. Success or failure in one would immediately affect the other.

“Done saying goodbye? Don’t worry. Your Big Sister Jade will personally arrange for someone powerful and reliable to go to Bara City. They will listen to Anda without question.”

Leyvi turned around and saw Jade standing at the city gate.

The guards froze for a moment, clearly stunned by her sudden appearance. Their shock deepened when she casually referred to herself as “Big Sister.” Several of them exchanged quick, disbelieving glances.

Is this young man actually her younger brother?

“Sister Jade, do I have to attend the next meeting?” Leyvi asked as he walked toward her.

“Not really. Your role is already decided, after all. Why?” Jade replied.

“Then take me to the vault where the ancient texts are stored right now. I’ll begin immediately. The sooner I start, the sooner we might find what we need. We truly don’t have time to waste,” Leyvi said, his voice steady and completely serious.