Neither Oliver nor Mu Xue had any intention of cooperating with the so-called archaeological investigation team.
First, it was troublesome.
Second—and more importantly—they both knew that the most valuable thing inside the ruins was already gone.
So without hesitation, they left that "honor" to Fan Wenxin, then boarded the shuttle at the secret-realm station and returned to Luocheng.
Because secret realms were places all Trainers flocked to, almost every realm open to the public had a dedicated station. Shuttle buses regularly ran directly to the nearest city.
On the Alliance's side, this meant extra revenue from fares.
For Trainers, it made traveling far more convenient.
However, once they arrived in Luocheng, Oliver suddenly realized something awkward.
They had come straight to find Fan Wenxin the moment they arrived—never booked a hotel, then immediately entered the secret realm. Now it was already quite late, and there was no guarantee any nearby hotels still had rooms.
"…Forget it. I'll try searching online for nearby hotels and see if we get lucky," Oliver said helplessly.
Mu Xue glanced at him.
"Why go to a hotel?"
"Then where are we supposed to sleep—"
Halfway through his sentence, Oliver suddenly froze.
"…Wait. You have a house in Luocheng too?"
Mu Xue blinked, neither confirming nor denying it.
As one of the Four Heavenly Kings, and a symbolic figure of the Xia Kingdom Alliance, her status alone explained everything. The resources required just to raise her many Champion-tier Pokémon were astronomical—she was a wealthy woman in every sense of the word.
And for convenience when visiting different secret realms, she owned properties in nearly every major city.
This was the first time Oliver had ever seen Mu Xue act even remotely playful. Normally, she always wore a calm, detached expression, as if nothing in the world could truly move her.
Mu Xue's Luocheng residence was located in a high-end villa district—and it was even larger than her villa in Rongcheng.
The villa had three above-ground floors and a basement.
The entire basement had been converted into a private training room.
Every wall and ceiling was reinforced with special materials—attacks below Gym Leader level couldn't even scratch it.
Just the cost of renovating this training room alone probably exceeded ten million Alliance credits.
The three upper floors were equally luxurious. As Oliver toured the place, he couldn't help but sigh inwardly.
Damn capitalism…
"Wow. This is insane," Oliver clicked his tongue.
"Big sister, I don't want to work hard anymore—please take care of me!"
Given how long they'd been together, Mu Xue should have been immune to this kind of teasing by now.
Yet this time, she uncharacteristically felt her heart skip a beat and turned her head away slightly, avoiding his gaze.
Oliver, meanwhile, was too busy admiring the décor to notice anything unusual.
Mu Xue led him to a room on the second floor.
"You'll stay here," she said. "I'm on the top floor. You're not allowed to come up there."
"Got it. Oh—by the way, I might use your training room."
"Do whatever you want."
She dropped that sentence and hurried upstairs.
The moment Mu Xue reached the upper floor, she suddenly remembered something—
All her villas were places she lived in alone.
No other man had ever stayed in them.
Which meant every wardrobe in the house was filled with women's clothing…
Including some very private items.
Even though she rarely came to this villa and most of the clothes were unworn, the thought of Oliver accidentally seeing them made her scalp tingle.
She immediately rushed back downstairs and knocked on Oliver's door.
At that moment, Oliver had just taken off his shirt and was about to shower.
They had just come back from the desert—who knew how much sand was still clinging to him? He felt uncomfortable all over.
Hearing the knock, he casually walked over and opened the door.
"What's up?"
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