Ah, how desolate.

The girls of The Azure Longsword, upon entering the space rift, found themselves at a loss for words at the sight before them.

In everyone's impression, Fire Island, surrounded by blue waters, with towering mountains, lush forests, and fine sandy beaches, was what Heaven Mountain should look like.

However, what appeared before them now was a lonely island, surrounded by vast seawater.

No trees, no grass, even the land itself was ugly saline-alkali soil, with white salt grains shimmering in the dirt.

Ah, is this not Heaven Mountain? Could it be Hell Mountain? Did we take the wrong path?

The girls walked on the saline-alkali soil, looking around helplessly, when they saw Aske walk forward and dig out a dirty ancient book, soaked and softened by seawater, from the ground.

Everyone: ......…

"Miel." Aske waved Miel over, "Can you pull this book back to its intact state in the past?"

"I can." Miel nodded, then used her ability to make the ancient book look brand new.

[Mirror Image Duplication] is different from [State Covering]. Mirror Image Duplication pulls people and objects from parallel worlds (after reaching Demigod Rank, it can also send people and objects from this world to parallel worlds). Since these things wouldn't normally appear in this world, both the pulling action and maintaining their existence consume Spirituality.

State Covering, on the other hand, adjusts time forward or backward based on people and objects in this world, so only the covering action consumes Spirituality, and it doesn't consume after the covering is complete.

However, Miel was a bit worried Aske saw her as an all-powerful tool, so she quickly added:

"Squad Leader, if you want to transform this entire Heaven space back to its past state, I don't have enough Spirituality."

"Of course not." Aske responded strangely, "Why would you want to transform it back? What if you also restore the things the 'Dream Heaven' people left here before, like defense arrays or counterattack mechanisms? Wouldn't that pose more trouble?"

"Eh, that's true." Miel mused thoughtfully.

"In any case, I originally wanted to directly merge the two spaces." Aske sighed, "But it seems we need to first deal with the saline-alkali soil. Otherwise, once merged, Fire Island would look quite unpleasant."

"Saline-alkali soil, huh." Nora pondered, "I suggest using a large amount of water to wash it, dissolving the salt in the soil and sending it to the deep soil layer."

"Speaking of a large amount of water, my [Heavy Rain] seems to be the only option." Thira chimed in from the side.

So everyone climbed to the mountain top, watching Thira perform the law skill.

Before long, dense dark clouds gathered over Fire Island, followed by heavy rain pouring down relentlessly.

"This is much smaller in scale than the heavy rain at Hero Harbor last time." Sigrdrifa commented, looking down the mountain.

"Of course, do you expect me to compete in level with the Beast of the Endless Bottomless Stomach?" Thira replied calmly.

Just the heavy rain took about half a week, until the island's soil was loosened and dissolved samples were taken, ensuring no high salt concentrations were detected.

Next came the "merging of the two islands", estimated to take about 3-4 months. The reason, of course, was that with the mansion already built on Fire Island, fitting another island in without destroying the structures required extremely precise operations.

After summoning Fire Island into this space, everyone could only reside in Fire Island, taking turns manipulating the two ancient books placed together, indirectly controlling the gradual transition from "sticking" to "merging" of the two islands.

Thus, they returned to the routine of "training in the morning", "training at noon", "resting in the evening", a rhythm increasingly less like a mercenary group and more like some nine-to-five boosting workshop.

One night, Medea finally seized the opportunity to quietly find Miel.

"So what exactly is going on with you?" she asked bluntly, "Didn't we agree to jointly conceal our levels? How did you suddenly promote to a Demigod? Do you also want Aske to leave?"

"I seem to have told you, the Squad Leader's departure is unstoppable." Miel sighed, "Instead of futilely trying to stop him from leaving, why not think of how to create something for him to miss here, ensuring he will return in the future."

"I don't believe it!" Medea gritted her teeth.

Seeing her so angry she lost her sanity, not even understanding her hints, Miel couldn't explain more, so she shrugged and said:

"Then feel free to try. If you can truly keep him here, I'd welcome it."

Seeing Miel's unchanged mind, Medea left angrily, taking a walk outside the mansion, finally suppressing her anger.

Miel and the others can no longer be trusted, damn it... It seems I need a new ally.

After re-analyzing the team members, Medea quickly found that Nora had promised to wait for Aske for ten years, and Eleanor, with her straightforward nature, only followed the Squad Leader's lead. If Aske told her to leave, she would obediently do so; these two were definitely unreliable.

Miel had shifted her focus from "how to keep the Squad Leader here" to "how to ensure he'll return after he leaves", which in Medea's view was sheer nonsense! It's like not putting energy into "how to prevent a husband from cheating", but focusing on "how to make him come back obediently after fooling around", a victim's mindset through and through.

First stab yourself, then pray you won't die, that's downright passive!

Mia is Miel's echo, and Medea didn't think she could control her over Miel, so she ruled that out. This left only Peggy and Thira in the team.

Peggy, of course, was a great choice, she seemingly listened to everything Aske said, but often went her own way. Previously, when Aske briefly left the team, Peggy immediately lost control, and none of the other girls could restrain her.

If a brief absence caused such a reaction, finding out the Squad Leader planned to leave for good, she might very well destroy the world.

However, Medea soon remembered, Peggy had one fatal weakness.

Too naïve.

She couldn't keep things to herself, all her thoughts were written on her face, too pure. If Medea told Peggy today, by tomorrow, Peggy would likely rush to confront Aske, trying to keep him by force.

Most likely, Aske would coax her with sweet words, leaving her dazed and bewildered. Soon, Aske would know it was Medea stirring up trouble in his own little harem...

No, I can't go to Peggy! Looks like I'll have to talk to Thira.

With this thought, Medea quietly approached Thira's bedroom door.

There was light coming through the crack, she must still be awake.

So she gently knocked on the door.

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