I knew that someone as fond of cleanliness as her wouldn't be willing to leave without taking a bath first. 

That was the thought that had been going through Erwin's mind just now, and he released her without any hesitation as he had already hatched a plan in his mind, which involved watching Onean from afar in order to satisfy his own "curiosity".

Even though he was intimidated into clambering back onto the creek's bank by the lightning crackling over Onean's fingertips, he still couldn't help but turn around to take a look.

However, by the time he turned around, a revolving wall of water had already taken shape, and through the blurry ripples, he could only just barely make out Onean's exquisite figure. He watched as she whipped her long hair back behind the screen of water, and even through the watery blur, he was still able to discern her breathtakingly gorgeous curves. In this instant, she was the epitome of beauty and allure in his eyes, and it was such a stimulating sight that his mouth instantly ran dry.

Aside from the physical reaction that was only to be expected of a healthy young man, he was also struck by the wistful feeling of a wasted opportunity as he didn't have a canvas and paint on hand, so he was unable to record this vivid moment. This was the first time in his life that he had ever missed oil painting. He could even imagine just how much the artwork would be elevated by the constantly changing lights and shadows in the scene presented before him. There was no need for it to be a refined and polished piece of artwork that one would expect from a well-trained artist. Instead, it had to be wild and vibrant, capturing the raw feelings that were rising up from deep within his soul, which were culminating into an urge to create.

Despite the lack of art materials, Erwin decided to make the most of the moment anyway. He pointed a finger at a thick honeystrand poison tree nearby, then unleashed an instant-release fireball spell at it. The trunk of the tree exploded from the middle, sending tree bark flying in all directions, and sap began to flow down from the exposed part of the trunk where the bark had been stripped away.

He hurriedly sat down at the foot of the tree before pulling out the copy of "Laws of Time and Space" from behind him, then flipped to the back cover. After dipping his fingers into the sap from the honeystrand poison tree, he began to create his artwork on the blank page. He was very thankful that the black mist that had swept them to this place hadn't torn the book apart. Even though he was using the back cover of the book as the canvas for his amateur artwork, he wasn't feeling any guilt toward the book's author as he had already deduced that the author of the book was none other than his own mother. He was sure that his mother wouldn't blame him for drawing such a beautiful woman onto the back cover of the book.

Upon coming into contact with the page of the book, the sap took on an ochre color, which was an acceptable color for painting. Erwin used his index finger to trace the outline of his artwork while also using his pinkie finger to separate the boundaries between light and dark. Due to the injury on his right hand, he was a little shaky when drawing the outline, but instead of hampering the artwork, it gave the piece an interesting artistic flair. From just the few strokes that he had drawn onto the page, it was quite apparent that he had a solid foundation when it came to painting, so what he had said to Lana about his past oil painting teacher wasn't just a completely fabricated story.

Of course, this was only a rough draft of the final painting, and he would have to wait until he secured some legitimate art materials before he could complete the piece.

By the time the wall of water cascaded back down onto the creek, Onean had already put on her dress, and she was in the process of wringing out her wet hair. Even from inside the wall of water, she had noticed that Erwin had been sitting at the foot of the tree the entire time without trying any funny business, and that was rather surprising to her. 

They were situated quite far away from one another and were separated by the wall of water, so she didn't have to worry about being seen by Erwin, but she couldn't help but feel a little disappointed to see Erwin focused entirely on his artwork without sparing any attention to her.

While Erwin was absorbed in his own creation, Onean quietly made her way onto the bank of the creek. Unbeknownst to him, the subject of his artwork had already arrived beside him.

"What are you drawing?" Onean asked as she approached Erwin, giving off a faint yet alluring fragrance as she did so.

Erwin handed the rough sketch to her so that she could take a look.

Looking at the woman in the drawing, the disappointment in Onean's heart instantly faded without a trace.

A look of gleeful surprise appeared in her eyes, but she was quite sparing with her words of praise. "Hmm, it's not bad."

"Not bad? Aren't you being a little too stingy with your assessment?" Erwin asked as he raised an eyebrow.

"I'll make a final judgment when you complete the piece," Onean replied with a faint smile before returning the book to him. Only then did she notice the cover of the book, realizing that it was that copy of "Laws of Time and Space". "Why did you make your drawing on this book?"

"I didn't have anything else to use as a canvas," Erwin replied with a wry smile. "Besides, that page was blank anyway."

Onean was at a loss for words upon hearing this. She could never get a good grasp on the way he liked to do things. She had thought that this was an extremely important book to him, but he had made a rough sketch on its back cover on a whim, and that was very surprising to her. Having used the back cover of the book as his canvas, Erwin would most likely flip to the back cover to take a look at the artwork whenever he read through the book, and with that in mind, a faint blush appeared on Onean's face.

"It's alright, I have it all committed to memory," Erwin said as he pointed at his own head. "As long as it's a memorable scene, I'll never forget it. I suppose that's a part of my artistic talent."

Onean didn't know if he was intentionally saying that because he had gleaned her thoughts, or if he was saying this to assure her that he would definitely be able to produce a great final product.

...

"Hold on, is that smoke? Why is there smoke here?" Erwin exclaimed with a surprised expression as he looked at the smoke drifting through the air above the forest.

Onean cast her gaze toward the direction where the smoke was coming from, and she said, "Judging from the direction, it looks like it's coming from the place we came from."

"Let's go take a look."

Thus, the two of them returned the same way they had come, and as a safety measure, they both cast levitation spells onto themselves. With so much undergrowth in the forest, it would be far too loud to walk through it.

Before they even reached the location where the dragon's heart was situated, they caught sight of around a dozen humanoid figures roughly 100 meters away, huddled around the massive dragon's heart.

These humanoid figures were a group of leopard-human hybrid creatures with feathered wings. They possessed long and strong limbs, and they were walking around on their hind legs like humans would. However, they were far taller than the average human, and even from so far away, their faces were still very menacing to behold. The fur on their brows extended all the way up to their foreheads, and they possessed noses typical of leopards with wide, flaring nostrils, giving them a very wild and primal appearance. At the moment, their wings were still folded against their bodies, so it was impossible to tell what they would look like with their wings spread open.

"What kind of magic beasts are these? They look like they should not be messed with," Erwin said in a quiet voice. At the moment, the two of them were hiding behind a massive tree, spying on the group of magic beasts in secret.

"I don't know. I've never seen anything like them before," Onean replied with a shake of her head.

"You haven't seen them before, either? Didn't you say your teacher often took you to hunt for magic beasts in the Terarody Mountain Ranges?" Erwin asked with a surprised expression. "How could there be magic beasts here that you don't know of?"

Onean turned to him with an exasperated expression as she countered, "Do you know how many species of magic beasts there are in the Terarody Mountain Ranges? There must be thousands of them, if not tens of thousands! How is anyone supposed to be familiar with all of them? By the way, why are there still magic beasts here? Could it be that we're still in the Terarody Mountain Ranges?"

Indeed, pack-dwelling magic beasts could only be found in the Terarody Mountain Ranges. Given this piece of information and what Onean had said earlier about honeystrand poison trees, which was that they could only be found in the north, Erwin was able to roughly deduce where they were. "I heard from Christine that the northern side of the Terarody Mountain Ranges is a massive forest with barely any human habitation. It looks like we're in that forest right now."

"Looking at these things now, don't they seem like a mutation of werecats?"

"Who cares what they are? The problem here is that they look like they're very interested in that dragon's heart, but that thing belongs to us," Erwin said with a displeased expression.

"What are they doing right now? It looks like they're building a temporary altar," Onean said with an intrigued expression as she cast her gaze toward the dragon's heart.

Erwin also took a closer look upon hearing this, and he noticed that these magic beasts were picking out sturdy branches of a roughly uniform length. Looking at the way that they were placing down the branches, it really did seem like they were planning to build a round altar.

"I knew these magic beasts possessed extremely high levels of intelligence. The fact that they're building this altar means that they must have developed their own religion!"

"Indeed. Looks like we need to cast aside our preconceptions of magic beasts. You know, I suddenly had an interesting thought just now: maybe these magic beats have a civilization of their own," Onean said with a contemplative expression.

Erwin faltered slightly upon hearing this. Never had it occurred to him that a civilization of magic beasts was even a possibility.

"In that case, why is it that there are no records of any civilizations existing within the Terarody Mountain Ranges?" Erwin countered.

"Perhaps their civilization just so happened to have been born during this era," Onean speculated as she turned to look at him.

"That sounds like too much of a coincidence," Erwin said with a skeptical expression.

"But we're looking at signs of a civilization right now, so it's definitely a possibility."

Erwin pondered this notion momentarily, and just as Onean said, it certainly wouldn't be far-fetched that there could be a civilization of magic beasts given what they were witnessing here. If he were to continue to insist on denying this possibility, it would make him seem very narrow-minded. With that in mind, he said, "So what you're saying is that we're actually the same as them, except we're different species."

"You would know the answer to that question if you could set aside your arrogance as a human," Onean replied in an indifferent voice as she cast her gaze back toward the magic beasts that were busy at work. In reality, she knew what Erwin was implying through his words.

Erwin hesitated momentarily upon hearing this, but in the end, he still decided to ask the question that was on his mind, "Is there no hierarchy when it comes to civilizations?"

Onean turned to him with a calm expression, then countered, "How do you know that human civilization is definitely a higher civilization than theirs?"

Erwin was rooted to the spot upon hearing this, at a loss for how to respond.

He didn't feel ashamed for his own narrow-mindedness. Instead, he was in awe of the incredibly open-minded and intelligent question that Onean had raised. At times, it was important to detach oneself when thinking about certain problems. For example, if he didn't consider himself to be a human or a magic beast, then there would be no way for him to deduce which of the two civilizations was more advanced. Due to his worldview as a human, he was carrying biased preconceptions into this argument, thereby preventing him from making objective judgments.

"You mentioned before that you suspect there's something strange going on in the Teraroday Mountain Ranges. Could it be possible that there's something in the mountain ranges that's spurring on these magic beasts to create their own civilization?" Onean speculated.

The question that Onean had just raised was actually something that Erwin had already thought about on many past occasions. In the past, he had always felt that there had to be something in the mountain ranges that was raising the intelligence of the magic beasts, thereby giving them the ability to think like humans. However, it never occurred to him that a civilization could've arisen among the magic beasts.

"Are you referring to the Fall Crystals?" Erwin asked. "But aren't Fall Crystals only capable of arresting the flow of time? Are you saying that perhaps Fall Crystals can accelerate the passage of time as well?"

"Who knows?" Onean replied with a shrug of her shoulders. "Didn't you buy a few crates of Fall Crystal ore from Gwen? I'm sure you'll be able to figure out what they can do with some experimentation. As a time and space magician, you're better equipped than anyone else in this regard."

I wonder how Sherry and the others are doing right now. Erwin knew that his sudden disappearance had to have dealt Sherry, Lanyon, and the others a heavy blow, and he couldn't help but feel a little concerned for them.

Onean could tell what he was thinking, and she said, "Don't worry, Christine's a very smart and resourceful girl. If she can't find you in the mountains, then she'll definitely think of another way to search for you. I'm sure your friends will be fine with her looking after them."

"I certainly hope so," Erwin sighed with a nod of his head.

Unbeknownst to the two of them, while they were quietly conversing with one another, some of the humanoid leopard magic beasts had already circled around and were approaching them from behind.