(MC POV)
"What are you doing here, Akari?" I asked after the red fox had returned to her fox just so that she could hang on my shoulder to cuddle my face.
"Ehehe~ We got some newcomers the last few weeks and a few of them need Divine energy to grow. This one in particular seems to have been born here and needs to absorb the energy here periodically."
I blinked at her a few times, turning to see Cai Hong riding on the Qilin's back with Iris while the beast strutted about the clearing to give them a ride like it was the most natural thing in the world.
"This Qilin was… Born here?"
"At least that's what we understood. It's still a baby so someone needs to accompany it here and today just so happens to be me~ I'm so lucky that Master is also here! Sister is going to be so jealous~"
"I'm more concerned that no one is even questioning that this mythical creature just popped into existence in my backyard…"
Akari tilted her head, "Why would that be surprising? It's Master after all, right? This is already normal."
I actually don't have anything to refute that with.
"So what is Master doing now? Last we heard, those disciples had been trying to get you back from her," Akari pointed one of her tails at the loli form of Iris.
"Eh? Didn't I tell Benjamin that everything was fine?"
"Mmhmm, but that was to lure them to Master's new World or something, right? We thought Master was still over there."
Oh yeah… I didn't tell them I came back… My bad. I guess I should pay them a visit later just to check on how they're doing as well.
"Well… Yeah… It's ok now actually. Everything's back to normal and my disciples would be taking part in a competition later this week. For now, I'm just enjoying some time off with the little ones."
"Little ones? Last I checked, that woman was plenty scary and most definitely not little."
I chuckled and waved my hand, "Oh she's fine now. You don't need to be scared of her anymore."
Akari simply did what looked like a shrug before going back to cuddle the side of my face.
The Qilin also chose that time to trot up to me, giving my other arm a nudge with its snout.
It was cute, so I went ahead to pat its head too, causing it to make a sound akin to a purr.
"Papa! Papa! Horsey bring Papa to fun place!" Cai Hong squealed excitedly.
Eh? The Qilin wants to bring us somewhere?
I looked at it and the Qilin seemed to understand my silent question as it nodded its head before gesturing to its back with its snout.
"I thought you said it was only just recently born? Why does it seem so mature?" I asked Akari.
"I dunno, it just came to us one day and we took it in. We don't know much about it either and it doesn't talk much. We just know that it knows Master for who Master is."
Ok… Deciding to just roll with it, I climbed on its back and it doesn't seem to be bothered by the weight of all of us either.
Cai Hong quickly sat herself in front of me while Iris chose to revert herself back to her adult form, just so that she could hug me from behind.
"Ufufufu~ Master's back is so warm~" She whispered sultrily in my ear while her hands roamed around my chest.
Please behave yourself, Iris…
"Ufufufu~ No promises~ Hugging you like this is already so blissful, Master. I may just… Lose myself~"
This woman…
Before I could warn her again, the Qilin trotted forward and suddenly leapt into the air, only to splash into the river that we had been playing in just now.
But instead of stopping at what should have been knee deep waters, we actually sunk all the way into the river, revealing a depth that should have been impossible.
The Qilin seemed to have made a barrier that protected us from being wet and none of us have trouble breathing underwater so that wasn't an issue.
Cai Hong was busy looking around in wide eyed wonder while Akari and Iris were busy cuddling against me. Meanwhile, I was just wondering where the Qilin was taking us.
The Qilin continued diving even deeper into the water until we spotted a light at the very bottom of this unusually large river.
It swam even faster towards it and when we reached the wall of light, it suddenly leapt out onto dry land on the other side.
I looked back and I realised the light was actually the surface of another body of water, leaving us in a place I have never seen before.
We were next to what looked like a lake in the middle of a forest clearing, except the trees here did not look like the trees that I know of. They were all weirdly shaped and its leaves were coloured orange and red instead of green.
"Umm… Where are we?" I asked no one in particular.
Iris looked up and scanned our surroundings, "It seems it has brought us to another World, Master."
What the heck, why?
I looked at the Qilin and it simply sat down on the ground, as though it didn't just leap through space to transport us to another World.
Just as I was about to ask omniscience what the Qilin intended for it to send us here, something fell out of the sky and crashed into the trees a short distance away from us.
I quickly erected a shield around us and made us invisible.
Just in case, I also got ready to remove the Origin of whatever that was and to turn back time if Cai Hong gets disturbed by it.
The dust slowly cleared up to reveal an adult Qilin laying amongst the broken trees with wounds all over its body.
Two figures then descended from the sky, one of them holding a straight sword that was coated with the Qilin's blood.
"Hmph… Pathetic beast that doesn't know how to give up. Just lay down and accept your fate quietly."
Ok… Is this a World where Qilins are being hunted down and this young Qilin brought us here to save them?
If it is… Why does it look like it doesn't care that there's a dying Qilin in front of it?
All I did was take a stroll in the forest, how did I end up in another World?
Is it really so hard for me to just have some chill time with my girls?
