Chapter 906 — The Mystery Mo Jin Left Behind

The moment Gao Yang saw yet another figure appear on that "island of steel" where Mo Jin Wilde had been trapped, he instinctively raised an eyebrow, sensing something off.

The timing of this golden-haired woman's appearance... was far too convenient.

And in the notes, Mo Jin, by then clear-headed again, had evidently harbored similar doubts—

"...After Miss Metzen departed and never returned, I realized the strangeness of this island of steel was likely no ordinary matter. Under normal circumstances, no dragon would willingly come to this island, so I had even prepared myself for a long stay as a castaway. And then that golden-haired woman appeared... and the instant I saw her I felt not the slightest hope or joy, but only tension and unease.

"In a place this uncanny, any person or thing that appears without warning is enough to put one on guard.

"Keeping my guard up, I took the initiative to ask the woman her origins, and she gave me her name—she said she was called Enya, and that she lived on the continent nearby.

"The continent nearby—that was plainly the realm of dragons. So I asked her whether she was a dragon who had taken human form, and her answer was very strange... She said she was indeed a member of dragon society, but whether or not she was specifically a dragon... did not matter.

"That left me all the more confused, but my experience in that tower had taught me a lesson: in these uncanny waters, it is best not to be too curious. Knowing too much is not necessarily a good thing, so I asked nothing.

"At the same time I noticed something else: this woman who called herself Enya would, when she occasionally glanced at that towering spire, show a faint but unmistakable aversion and disgust, and even when speaking with me she seemed a little ill at ease, as though she greatly disliked this place and had come here only because some reason compelled her... Who exactly was she? What exactly did she want?

"I was full of questions, yet I asked none, and the woman who called herself Enya looked me up and down for a long while, as though observing something with great care, which left me thoroughly uncomfortable.

"After observing me for several minutes, she finally broke the silence, saying she had come to offer help...

"'You came into contact with something you should not have, and fortunately I was in time to pull you out—the hidden danger in you has now been eliminated'—those were her exact words.

"I recalled those memories of mine that had vanished into thin air in the tower, the few fragments that remained, and the scattered clues I had left in my notes, and I suddenly realized that my survival was not due to luck or the strength of my own will, but to outside help. This woman who called herself Enya... was evidently the one who had lent a hand.

"I expressed my gratitude, which she accepted without fuss. Then she asked whether I wished to leave this island and return to 'the place I ought to return to'—she said she was capable of sending me back to the human world, and would gladly do so.

"What could I say? Of course I was willing!

"Strange as all this was, and too coincidental as this woman Enya's arrival seemed, I thought I had no other choice... With no supplies, my condition worsening, unable to navigate accurately, and trapped by storms in the northern polar region, even a top-tier legendary warrior in his prime could not have returned to the continent alive. All my earlier plans for getting home had sounded ambitious, but I myself knew well enough their odds of success—and now a powerful dragon (though she never explicitly admitted it) was offering help. I could not refuse this chance.

"To be sure, accepting help from a stranger so rashly might carry its own risks... but I reckoned those risks could hardly be greater than the odds of dying while crossing or skirting the storm. Besides, this Lady Enya always gave one a sense of gentleness, elegance, and reliability; my intuition told me she was worthy of trust—trustworthy as a law of nature itself...

"I immediately asked for her help, asked her to send me back to the human world. But before that, I first brought out that strange amulet to show her and recounted the circumstances of its appearance—though I did not know whether this mysterious 'dragon' could resolve my doubts, I truly had no one else to ask. In theory, the dragons who lived in these waters were the only race that might know the secrets of that tower, and if even Enya could not be certain of the amulet's danger, then I would without hesitation cast it into the sea.

"At the sight of the amulet, Enya clearly showed surprise. She took it and examined it closely for a long while, then ran her hand over it... I do not understand what happened; in that instant there was no ripple of magic, no reaction of energy, yet some power beyond imagination did truly manifest. I felt it descend abruptly, suppressing and purifying something that lingered upon the amulet, and at the same time that ever-present panic and unease that had plagued my mind swiftly receded from my spirit—I felt a sense of calm and warmth, and Enya placed the amulet back into my hand.

"'It is safe now—it is merely a piece of metal. You may take it back as a souvenir'—so she told me.

"I did not know whether I should believe her, but the amulet did indeed feel different now; it no longer carried any unsettling aura. As a transcendent, I supposed I ought to trust my intuition in such matters...

"With this, my last doubts and hesitations were finally dispelled. I did not wish to remain on this uncanny island of steel a moment longer, and I had had enough of its bitter cold winds. I expressed my urgent desire to leave as soon as possible, and Enya nodded with a smile—that is the last scene I remember of that island of steel.

"A confusion of light and shadow enveloped me, and in an infinitely brief instant (or perhaps I simply lost a stretch of memory), I seemed to pass through some kind of tunnel... or something else. When I opened my eyes again, I was lying on a shoreline strewn with rubble, a curtain of light that gave off a faint warmth surrounding me, and that curtain itself already on the verge of dissipating.

"I gazed as far as I could and saw familiar mountains—I was already in the Northland.

"Now I sit at the edge of my own domain, writing furiously in this notebook, recording my strange and outlandish experiences of the past while. All of it seems like a mad, torn dream, full of absurd and bizarre turns and details that will not bear scrutiny, and yet there is clear evidence that these things truly happened—that amulet, which now lies quietly on a large stone to my left, glinting faintly in the sunlight..."

Gao Yang furrowed his brow.

Mo Jin Wilde... had simply come back safe and sound, rescued by a mysterious woman who appeared out of nowhere, had certain hidden dangers removed, and then returned safely to the human world?

To Gao Yang's mind, matters like this ought to involve some twist and some hidden darkness before they could count as "making sense," yet the real world seemed not to follow such rules. Mo Jin Wilde had indeed returned safely to the Northland; the decades of life that followed, and the many adventures he left behind, all attest to it. In this *Travels of Mo Jin*, the record of this "legendary lost voyage" had also reached its end, and at the very close of the whole account there was only the ending Mo Jin Wilde had left:

"...It is all over. I walk the road back to Winterhold, recalling the adventures of the past months, my thoughts gradually clearing from their haze. The familiar mountains here, the familiar villages and towns, and the real, living people I meet along the way—all speak to the receding of that nightmare. The ground beneath my feet truly exists.