Vann was awakened from a deep sleep.

"Hey, man, wake up." A hand pushed him rudely, making him dizzy.

The only person in Duogu Village who would break into his house uninvited in the middle of the night was Derek, who grew up with him.

He opened his eyes depressedly, glared at someone beside the bed in the darkness of the room, and said unhappily: "What time is it now? You'd better have a legitimate reason! If you say you can't sleep and want to find someone to drink with, believe it or not, I will raise my hand and paw you."

Vann half sat up and raised a hand threateningly. His nails were long and sharp, and could easily break gold and stone. If he really hit Derek in the face, Derek would lose half of his thick skin.

Derek chuckled, his eyes glowing like a wild animal in the darkness. He lowered his voice and said, "I'm not here to tease you tonight. I have something serious to say - I found something wrong with Ash's house."

When Ash was mentioned, Fann's expression suddenly became serious: "What's wrong?"

He knew that since Derek had mutated, he often stayed up late at night and wandered around the village. The hunting team often discussed behind his back that Derek must have wolf characteristics, judging by the furry ears on his head and the big tail at the tail vertebrae.

Don't wolves like to howl at the moon? So it's understandable that Derek didn't sleep well in the middle of the night and was still wandering around the village, leading to seeing something.

Derek said seriously, "I think there's someone in Ash's house. I just passed by the house and heard breathing inside."

Fann glanced at his erect ears. It seemed that these extra ears were unexpectedly useful?

"Could it be Aubrey and the others?" asked Vann.

Derek shook his head. "I walked around the village and listened to everyone. Everyone is at home."

Fan En: "..." And the whole village heard it one by one? So how free are you?

Aren’t you afraid of hearing something you shouldn’t hear?

But thanks to Derek's boredom and meddlesomeness, after some investigation, it was proved that his suspicion was correct.

There had indeed been an unwanted outsider who had intruded into the village of Duogu, and was now staying at Ash's former home.

He simply got out of bed and skillfully used his sharp nails to put on his coat, with a cold smile in his eyes: "Let's go, call Lannon and the others, and go to Ash's house to take a look."

In the dark night, Duogu Village acted silently. In a short time, the members of the hunting team gathered and moved towards Ash's home.

Things are different now. They are no longer the people who are powerless in the face of huge black ships.

When they approached Ash's yard, they saw that the lights were on inside the small building in the yard. The bright lights drove away the surrounding darkness and were extremely conspicuous in the dark Duogu Village in the middle of the night.

As if afraid that others might not notice that there is someone inside it, it shines brightly and tries hard to remind people that there are people here, we are here!

The attitude is very arrogant and high-profile.

Fann smiled and glanced at Derek: "It seems that when you discovered others, others also discovered you. They are waiting for us to come to them."

Derek shuddered at his laughter, and felt that the person who usurped the magpie's nest would be in trouble. He said unhappily, "I installed the magic lamp in Ash's room with Aubrey. Ash didn't even come back to use it, and it was used by these weird guys. What kind of people are they!"

The current hunting team captain, Lannon, made a gesture to the team members, and several people were separated from the team and ran towards the nearby houses. While it was still calm, they first transferred away those with little fighting power like Grandma Lena, so as to avoid being affected if a fight really broke out.

The transferred team members took action, and Vann and Derek also led the remaining people and walked straight towards Ash's courtyard.

They are very confident.

They are not afraid even if the wizards coming are from Iluf.

Duogu Village has built its own wizard tower. Unlike other places in Broken River Plain, the control of this wizard tower is in the hands of Vann.

Within the protection range of the wizard tower, they have nothing to fear.

The group walked through the courtyard aggressively as if they were coming to accuse someone, and then... gently pushed open the door - Derek wanted to kick the door open to scare him, but when he thought that this was Ash's house, he replaced his raised foot with his hand.

After pushing open the door, before I could utter a harsh word, I saw a tall, thin, gentle and handsome boy standing not far from the door. His light blue eyes looked straight at me with a hint of excitement, the corners of his lips raised in an arc of joy, and his two dimples were deeply sunken, as if they were filled with honey.

Derek, who was leading the way, had been building up his momentum for a long time, but it was like a burst balloon, and all the air disappeared in an instant.

He stood there in a daze, incredulous: "...Ah...what?"

"Ash?" Vann was blocked by Derek's tall figure behind him. He was wondering why Derek froze, but when he heard the name, he immediately pulled Derek back, making room at the door.

Then he also saw that Ash, who had grown up a lot, walked towards them step by step, opening his arms: "Village leader, Uncle Derek, I'm back."

Vann's eyes suddenly opened wide, and his blue eyes were filled with intense emotions: "Ash?!"

His eyes moved quickly and carefully from Ash's hair to his fingertips, as if he was confirming whether this was the Ash he knew, and as if he was confirming whether Ash was doing well outside and whether he had suffered any harm.

"It's Ash!" The members of the hunting team behind him also saw the boy and exclaimed.

"Ash is back!"

"It's really Ash!"

“…”

Amid the mixed exclamations, Fann strode forward and hugged Ash into his arms: "Glad to be back!"

That's Ash!

He has grown up a lot, become more mature and stable, and also a lot more cheerful than before.

It seems that he is living well in Ilufu.

Fann held Ash in his arms and looked at the other people in the living room. These people should be Ash's companions in Ilufu, right? Ash was in Ilufu, thanks to their care.

He looked at everyone with a friendly look, and actually recognized two people: one was the girl who had signed the contract with him at the beginning and wanted to take Ash away, and the other was...

Fan En took a deep breath. This appearance...

He looked at the pale vampire and felt that the real person's appearance was more shocking than the image in the newspaper. Is this really Ash's partner?

Could it be that the newspapers were just making random reports?

Before Vann could think carefully, Derek rushed over excitedly from behind and laughed: "Ash, you finally decided to come back! How is the outside world? Is there anyone who bullies you? I heard that you found a boyfriend, are you bringing him back this time?"

As he spoke, he looked into the room and saw Sigourney standing not far away.

"Hiss—" Derek took a breath as if he had bitten his tongue, "Really?"

As they were talking, Lannon and the others also realized that tonight was a misunderstanding.

There was no crisis or enemy, it was just Ash and his companions returning to the village.

They let down their guard and rushed into the house excitedly, wanting to say hello to Ash, whom they hadn't seen for a long time.

Gossip about the stories written in the brilliant daily newspaper.

But after seeing Vann and Derek staring in one direction in shock, they also looked over curiously.

Then--

"hiss!"

"hiss!"

"hiss!"

…

Real person!

Ash rubbed the tip of his nose and felt like laughing.

He explained in a low voice: "It was already very late when we came back. We didn't want to disturb everyone's rest, so we wanted to quietly stay at my house for a while and then go to see you, the village chief, tomorrow morning."

Fine glanced at Derek with disdain: "Ash was so thoughtful, but just because of a guy who didn't sleep in the middle of the night, it was unnecessary and Ash's thoughtfulness was wasted!"

Derek raised his voice: "Hey, what do you mean? If Ash and his friends weren't here tonight, would you still dare to say that I was being unnecessary?"

He glared at Fann, and realized he couldn't win against him, so he turned around and started to shoo them away: "Alright, alright, it's okay, go to bed. Let everyone who has been relocated go back to their homes, and we'll talk about anything tomorrow. Ash and the others came back overnight, they must be very tired, let them rest for a while."

He pushed everyone in the hunting team out, and quickly left the room. Before leaving, he grinned at everyone in the room and said, "Tonight's meeting doesn't count. Let's do it again tomorrow morning."

The tall figure shrank and disappeared from the house.

Fann walked at the end and nodded politely to everyone in the living room: "It's too late now. Derek is right. You need to rest. We won't disturb you. I am Fann, the village chief of Duogu Village. We will hold a welcoming banquet tomorrow. I hope you can attend. Let's talk in detail then."

As a representative, Meng replied in a deep voice: "Okay."

Vann smiled and raised his hand to ruffle Ash's soft hair: "Your hair has grown longer. Good night, Ash."

Ash blinked, "Goodnight."

Vann turned and left the room, closing the door behind them.

"Uh, just... left like that?" Yelena sat on the sofa on one side of the living room, confused about the situation.

They did notice Derek's movements and knew they had been discovered, so they simply sat in the living room and waited for the villagers to come to them.

Didn't expect it to end like this?

Are there no tear-jerking scenes of reunion after a long separation?

Ash said "hmm" softly. The adults in their village were all very proud and would never show a weak expression in front of others.

"What about us?" Yelena asked.

Ash took a deep breath, suppressed the emotions surging in his chest, and looked at everyone: "Let's go and rest. Get a good night's sleep, and attend the village banquet tomorrow."

He walked over and held Sigourney, "There are many rooms in the house, please make your own arrangements. I'll go with Sigourney first... Sigourney?"

He lowered his head in surprise, staring at Sigourney's hand that he was holding, and felt that the vampire was now very stiff.

"Nothing." Sigourney looked calm and relaxed quickly, "Let's go."

…

After leaving Ash's courtyard, Derek kicked the excited hunting team members back home one by one, then stood in front of Vann, wiped his eyes with his hand, and said in a hoarse voice: "Damn, I didn't cry just now, did I?"

Fann: “No.”

Without waiting for Derek to feel relieved, he added, "But Ash must have known you were about to cry. That kid always sees things clearly."

After saying that, he looked up at the wizard tower standing tall in the village and let out a long sigh.

I was almost crying... Ash saw that too, right?

They are really two useless adults.