Max Level Return—I'll Protect That Fragile One

Everywhere he looked, there were scars.

Among the crisscrossing scars, an ugly word was carved meticulously with a sharp knife—

Slave.

Xu Xingguang stared at Huo Wen’an’s back, those peach blossom eyes filled with dark red bloodshot lines.

Xu Xingguang caressed the word and scars on Huo Wen’an’s back, asking him, ”Who did this?”

Huo Wen’an’s whole demeanor turned dark and enigmatic, sitting quietly by the bed, but saying nothing.

Xu Xingguang was heartbroken, his fingertips trembling constantly. ”Huo Wen’an, you have to tell me about the humiliation and harm you’ve suffered. Otherwise, how can I go with you to seek retribution!”

Upon hearing this, Huo Wen’an’s demeanor became much calmer.

”Was it the Huo Family who did this?” Xu Xingguang asked through gritted teeth.

”It wasn’t the Huo Family.” Huo Wen’an told Xu Xingguang, ”Back then, I was sentenced to prison for murder, but the place I ended up wasn’t the prison assigned by the court, it was another place.”

He said casually, ”That place was terrible, worse than the Underground Beast Fighting Arena you’ve been to. These things on my back were left there.”

Xu Xingguang could roughly guess what kind of place it was. ”Did they treat people like animals there?”

”Animals?” Huo Wen’an shook his head, ”No, there we weren’t people nor animals. They gave us a novel name: Combat Doll.”

Doll.

That was a kind of toy, even less than an animal.

”Huo Wen’an,” Xu Xingguang asked him, ”Do you know where that place is?”

Huo Wen’an shook his head again.

”I don’t know, I’ve been investigating its whereabouts all these years. But strangely, the people I sent globally have found no trace of that place.”

He frowned and said, ”It’s like a place that appears and disappears out of thin air. If I hadn’t spent three years there in a life worse than a ghost, I would doubt it was all a dream.”

But the horrifying scars on his back and the twisted ’slave’ mark were constant reminders to Huo Wen’an that his experiences were real.

Such a terrifying place truly exists in this world.

A place so elusive that even Huo Wen’an couldn’t trace it—what kind of place must that be? Xu Xingguang asked him, ”Is that place also hidden underground?”

Huo Wen’an shook his head again, ”It’s different.”

He closed his eyes and pondered, ”It’s a closed jungle, at the end of which are mountains that pierce the clouds like sharp edges. The mountains encircle us, making it a enclosure.”

”We tried to escape, but never succeeded. The mountains there are as smooth as mirrors, impossible to climb.”

That was an enclosure.

”I’ve never heard of such a place,” Xu Xingguang said. ”But it’s strange, that place clearly exists, so why can’t it be found?”

”Then how did you end up getting out?” Since escape seemed impossible, how did Huo Wen’an manage to leave?

Huo Wen’an picked up the long robe beside him and put it on as he spoke, ”In the third year of living there, a group of people suddenly appeared and took me out of that enclosure. Then, I saw the old man, and he took me away.”

Huo Wen’an’s words were ambiguous.

Xu Xingguang asked him, ”Did the old man really save you, or just take you away?” These have completely different meanings.

’Saved’ implies the old man paid a price and exerted effort, hence he would be owed gratitude by Huo Wen’an.

But ’took’ suggests that the old man and the people keeping them in the enclosure were on the same side.

Huo Wen’an lifted his hand, lovingly patting Xu Xingguang’s head, and said indulgently, ”My Xingguang is really smart.”

Upon hearing this, Xu Xingguang understood what Huo Wen’an meant.

The old man was the one who took him out of the enclosure.

”So the old man should know where the enclosure is, and clearly knows who is behind it,” Xu Xingguang pondered as he looked at Huo Wen’an, then asked, ”He won’t tell you?”

Nodding, Huo Wen’an said, ”He said that when I become the most beloved pilot of the Divine Concealment Island, and when he is dying, he will naturally tell me the whereabouts of that place.”

”I see. So between you and the old man, it’s merely a bond of mutual entanglement and cooperation. You’re not even considered family.” Xu Xingguang found it ironic.

Huo Wen’an, being such a good kid, in the end, doesn’t have a single family member or relative who genuinely loves him.

Xu Xingguang felt even more heartache for Huo Wen’an.