Chapter 115
Chapter 115
You Lin froze. “I’m the treasure?”
Xiao Huai raised a brow. This child was so foolish it was almost endearing. “Have you forgotten how much those little witches you protected adore you? They were willing to perform a soul-sacrifice ritual just to repay your kindness.”
He looked toward the door. “But they chose the wrong method. Life and death have their course. The dead shouldn’t live on as soulbugs.”
Xiao Huai continued, “Only one witch remains. You said she has to find her own way out of her obsession, but the truth is, how desperately must she wish for you to take her hand?
“You Lin, give her a royal command. She’ll follow you.”
The moment he finished speaking, the silver chains throughout the room shattered with a deafening crash. You Lin was finally free.
The cries of the three-legged crows rang outside, and Hanako’s voice sounded in his mind.
“Big Brother… we won. Their bodies turned into a door. Hurry over.”
Xiao Huai nodded to himself. It was time to leave.
He and You Lin ran toward the palace entrance, but after they had covered barely a hundred meters, the blue-haired woman blocked their path.
Xiao Huai frowned. Had he still taken too long? He had no time for a grueling fight with her now.
He gritted his teeth, already prepared to stake everything on one final battle.
But the blue-haired woman merely raised a hand, sending a beam of blue light through the front of Xiao Huai’s clothes.
She said softly, “That little thing has been following you all along.”
Xiao Huai’s pupils widened. A small soulbug with a teal shell floated into the air. Blue light wrapped tightly around it and grew steadily more dazzling.
The next second, something heavy thudded to the ground. When Xiao Huai looked again, he saw a woman sprawled there, her face utterly blank.
The moment he recognized her, everything became clear.
Ji Yelin.
That day, he had wondered if the soulbug was not particularly bright. Now it seemed she had actually been staying at his side in search of protection. What a clever woman.
Ji Yelin came back to her senses. “I’m back to normal?! Ah, A-Zhuolang, I… I didn’t follow you on purpose, but I thought I might be safer with you. No, that’s not it either. I mostly thought the most dangerous place would be the safest… and there was a chance I might turn back.”
The most dangerous place was often the safest.
She was right.
Xiao Huai looked forward again, but the blue-haired woman had already vanished.
Her voice still lingered beside his ear. “Child, your supernatural ability is fascinating. You saved the little light in my heart, so I will let you slip past once more. Go, quickly.”
At that moment, Xiao Huai heard rumbling thunder explode across the sky, its power shaking the world in every direction.
As he ran forward, he caught sight of the blue-haired goddess in the sky, her eyes lowered as she watched him calmly.
Thunderclouds rolled overhead, ready to send lightning crashing down at any instant.
The blue-haired goddess looked up at the clouds and raised both hands, her gaze turning cold.
“Go!” Xiao Huai roared, forcing himself to focus.
The three of them sprinted onward. Soon, a blood-red door appeared ahead, and Hanako waved frantically to Xiao Huai.
“Big Brother! Hurry! The door is disappearing!”
As soon as Xiao Huai reached them, Hanako pushed the door open. White light flashed within. Lightning crashed down across the Lost Land like the sky itself had exploded, and everyone leaped through the doorway a second before it struck the ground.
Once outside, they all gasped for breath. The door slammed shut in an instant, cutting off any view of what had happened in the Lost Land.
“What was that just now…?” Ji Yelin was clearly terrified, her face deathly pale.
Joseph and Carr were both badly injured. Even Hanako had wounds.
Clearly, the three-legged crows had been far harder to handle than expected.
Joseph wiped blood from his body. “Divine lightning. I’ve only ever read about it in books. That’s a form of punishment. One strike is apparently enough to leave a player half dead.”
Xiao Huai’s lashes trembled. Was that what the woman had meant by letting him slip past?
The punishment should have fallen on him. She had bought him time.
As for how she had managed it, there was no way to know.
“How is everyone?” Xiao Huai looked around at them.
He meant their injuries.
Carr said, “Just a few scratches. I won’t die.”
Hanako tugged on Xiao Huai’s clothes. “Big Brother, Big Brother Carr is hurt really badly.”
Xiao Huai opened his supernatural ability interface and found that Carr was in particularly bad shape. His Sanity had fallen by more than thirty points, while Joseph’s condition was somewhat better.
Carr had probably wanted to prove himself on the battlefield and make up for some of his past mistakes.
Xiao Huai now understood the helplessness of the poor. He could not afford medicine to restore Carr’s Sanity.
He had exhausted every potion and all his Survival Coins in the previous battle.
Although quite a few gods had rewarded him with Survival Coins during the fight, the System Shop had upheld the principles of a profiteer and raised the price of potions specifically for him.
A potion that had cost twenty thousand now cost fifty thousand.
Even robbery in a crisis could hardly be more shameless.
“Are they truly gone?”
You Lin suddenly spoke.
They now stood inside the witches’ room where Xiao Huai had first arrived. The seven witches were still there, sitting hand in hand.
Xiao Huai knew these girls had once been You Lin’s friends. After a moment of silence, he nodded.
Just then, an excited shout came from outside. “We found it! We found the treasure! Hurry, let’s take it to the witches’ room!”
As the approaching footsteps grew louder, everyone turned toward the door.
Both groups froze when they saw each other.
“A-Zhuolang? What are you doing here? Hey, who are these people? Ji Yelin? Weren’t you asleep? How did you get here?”
The players fired off question after question.
After everything that had happened, Sun Xingye had felt something was wrong, so he gathered everyone to hunt for treasure during the night.
Cheng Shan was bold enough to go outside even at three in the morning. When nothing happened to him, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
They spent the entire night searching.
And their efforts had paid off. They had found an enormous treasure chest.
The chest was absurdly heavy. It took three people with their arms wrapped around it to carry it into the room.
The only witches the players knew were the seven inside this room. They had already prepared themselves to go home.
Yet the moment they stepped through the door, they saw six people.
Every one of them bore numerous wounds. Xiao Huai, in particular, was almost entirely covered in blood.
Three people stood in front of Xiao Huai with a child among them, but the pressure they gave off was so intense that the other players did not dare look directly at them.
Xiao Huai swept them with a cold glance, then looked at the treasure chest. “May I see it?”
Sun Xingye emerged from the back of the crowd. Dark circles ringed his eyes; he truly had spent a hard night searching.
They all knew the instance had to end as soon as possible.
Sun Xingye froze when he saw the group. How had so many people appeared out of nowhere inside the game?
Pretending to remain calm, he told the player beside him, “Open it.”
They might not be able to stop Xiao Huai.