At midnight, during the moment when the Twin Moons shone their brightest, Yun Fei led Mu Lingxi around the dirt path of the Medicinal Field toward Room 4—Liang Yin’s room.
They moved cautiously to avoid alerting Jiang Qing.
To protect the privacy of the students, the Academy had set up barriers that prohibited detection within each room.
Consequently, to confirm whether Liang Yin was resting, Yun Fei poked a hole through the thin window paper with her finger.
Internally, she rolled her eyes at the Academy’s privacy measures.
‘The prevention of Spiritual Power detection is done well enough, but this physical measure is terrible. This window paper is just ordinary paper, nothing special about it at all. And here I thought there was some profound mystery hidden within! Is that it?!’
“Hey, Mu Lingxi, why do you have a night-travel suit and a face mask in your Portable Space… Are you really a proper Saintess? Could it be that your Mirror of the Heart was also corrupted by the Void and just randomly pointed at someone to be the Saintess?”
Seeing that everything was proceeding smoothly, Yun Fei whispered a teasing remark to Mu Lingxi, who was standing behind her in a matching night-travel suit that blended perfectly into the darkness.
“Huh? Of course I’m proper! To tell you the truth, I have the heart of a righteous chivalrous knight! Don’t you think those chivalrous knights in the storybooks who stand up for justice are cool? I think they’re amazing! When I go out for training, a group of people always follows me around under the guise of protecting the Saintess. I can’t even drive them away. So, I usually change into these clothes at night to do the things I want to do.”
“…”
Yun Fei unusually refrained from responding.
Shrouded by the night and the perfect concealment of the night-travel suit, Mu Lingxi could not see her expression, but Yun Fei’s mouth definitely twitched a few times after hearing that.
Deciding not to waste any more time, Yun Fei peered through the small hole she had poked.
The scene inside the room immediately entered her sight.
The room was poorly lit.
The only source of light was a dim candle flickering in the night breeze like a dying glimmer.
In this era, candles were already considered ancient relics, as they had generally been replaced by Spiritual Power Lamps.
Yun Fei’s gaze drifted around the room and soon locked onto a woman in a cyan-green robe sitting at a desk.
Her ink-black hair reached down to her waist as she held a fine brush, sketching and writing something on a piece of paper.
Through the window, Yun Fei could see her expression—one of intense focus, yet tinged with exhaustion and emptiness.
Whether it was because she was too focused or because her cultivation realm had declined, Liang Yin did not notice Yun Fei’s observation, even though Yun Fei had made little effort to hide her presence.
“Mu Lingxi, she’s awake. Let’s go in.”
After confirming the situation, Yun Fei reached out to pull the window open, but Mu Lingxi suddenly grabbed her.
“Hey! What are you doing? How can you just enter without permission?”
A look of confusion crossed Yun Fei’s face.
“Isn’t that why you encouraged me to put this suit on?”
“It’s just a habit! It doesn’t mean we have to barge in. Move aside! I’ll do it!”
Mu Lingxi pulled Yun Fei to the side and then politely knocked on the wooden window frame.
Yun Fei looked at Mu Lingxi with a bizarre expression.
For someone dressed in a stealthy night-travel suit to act this way in the middle of the night was truly strange!
“How weird…”
The window frame produced a crisp *thump-thump*.
The sound wasn’t loud, but it was just enough to catch the attention of the person inside.
Immediately following the sound, there was movement inside the room.
Footsteps gradually approached the window, and a rather weak voice called out, “Is that you, Jiang Qing?”
Although she asked the question, she didn’t seem to wait for an answer, as if she were certain the person outside was who she named.
However, tonight was full of surprises.
When Liang Yin opened the window, she froze, staring blankly at the two masked figures in black who were currently staring at each other.
Her mouth opened slightly.
“Eh?! Oh… you two must be the new junior sisters, right? If you need something, just knock on my door. Don’t follow Jiang Qing’s example by using the window in the future. Come in.”
Unexpectedly, Liang Yin only paused for a moment before recognizing the two of them.
She opened the window wider to let them inside.
The explanation Yun Fei had been about to give got stuck in her throat.
None of the prepared excuses could be said.
She could only sputter out a few words, “How did you recognize us?”
She figured that since this was their first meeting and they had the advantage of the night-travel suits, it should have been impossible to identify them instantly.
Was this a joke?
Despite the doubts in her heart, Yun Fei vaulted into Liang Yin’s room before Mu Lingxi could snap out of her daze.
Once both of them were inside, Liang Yin arranged stools for them to sit on while she sat on the edge of the bed.
“Hmm… Junior Sister Mu looks a bit frustrated… These clothes were provided by you, weren’t they? They’re quite good—truly difficult to recognize if one doesn’t look closely.”
Liang Yin gazed at the two of them gently, a hint of admiration in her eyes.
Hearing this, Mu Lingxi looked up at Liang Yin in disbelief.
“Then… how did you find out?”
“I’ve had good observation skills since I was a child. I can usually distinguish things with the naked eye. After I woke up today, Jiang Qing told me many things about recent days, but I wasn’t idle either. I saw Junior Sister Mu practicing her sword in the courtyard and Junior Sister Yun tending to the Medicinal Field. I took it all in today.”
Liang Yin laughed softly, but the movement seemed to aggravate an old injury.
Her expression changed suddenly, and she quickly covered her mouth, coughing up a mouthful of blood.
“Senior Sister!”
At the sight of this, Yun Fei and Mu Lingxi instinctively moved to support Liang Yin’s swaying body from both sides.
“…Senior Sister is fine. It’s just normal. It’s been like this since I woke up… Shouldn’t you tell me why you’re here? Based on my observations of you today, you wouldn’t disturb a patient unless it was something urgent.”
Liang Yin waved them off to show she was alright.
She took a bottle of pills from beside the bed, poured one out, and popped it into her mouth.
Once her complexion gradually returned to a more normal, healthy glow, Yun Fei and Mu Lingxi exchanged a look and nodded to each other, retracting their hands.
“Yun Fei, should we say it? Seeing her like this, I don’t have the heart to tell her such a cruel truth…”
“…Hmph, I’ll be the one to say it. You’re a Saintess, so don’t play the villain. Let this Young Master be the big bad guy.”
Under Liang Yin’s puzzled gaze, Yun Fei and Mu Lingxi exchanged another look and made their decision.
“Senior Sister, let me tell you. It goes like this…”
Yun Fei took over the conversation and recounted the entire sequence of events.
“In short, that’s the situation. We want to save Senior Sister Jiang, but we have to consider your feelings. We came specifically to ask you, but you must not tell her about this!”
After the explanation was finished, Liang Yin fell into silence.
Her eyes cast downward, her teeth bit hard into her lower lip, and her hands gripped the hem of her skirt tightly.
“So… that’s how it is? Jiang Qing… that really is something that reckless lunatic would do.”
“Senior Sister… then…”
“Is there anything to hesitate about? I blocked that attack specifically so she could live. That was my choice, and it will never change!”
Liang Yin’s expression suddenly became firm, and her voice was no longer so weak.
“As expected, that’s the choice… Good. Senior Sister, I understand. Now we can focus on researching a way to break this array with peace of mind.”
Yun Fei exhaled slowly and spoke to the silent Mu Lingxi.
“Mu Lingxi, how is it? Do you feel better now? You don’t need to feel so much guilt anymore.”
“…Yes.” Mu Lingxi nodded, her tightly pursed lips finally relaxing.
“Sigh, doing things with you is such a hassle. You worry about this and that…”
Seeing Mu Lingxi’s relieved expression, Yun Fei shrugged helplessly and then turned her gaze back to Liang Yin.
“Senior Sister Liang, there’s no time to lose. Let’s start now. Where did Senior Sister Jiang carve the Conduction Array on your body? Is it convenient for us to see?”
“Yes, it’s fine. It’s on the back of my left hand.”
As she spoke, she pulled her left hand out from her sleeve, exposing it to their sight.
It was a strange pattern glowing with white light. Rather than an array, it looked more as if a talisman that should have been carved on paper had been etched into human flesh.
In short… it was very eerie!
Staring at the pattern, Yun Fei felt its aura was familiar—so familiar it was disgusting!
This loathsome aura made it hard for Yun Fei not to associate it with Void Energy, but considering Liang Yin herself had been eroded by the Void, she didn’t think too much of it.
“I don’t know much about arrays, but looking at this pattern, it looks more like a talisman. However, I’ve rarely seen a talisman drawn on a person.”
Yun Fei muttered to herself, controlling her Demonic Power as she slowly reached out to touch the pattern.
However, the closer her Demonic Power got, the stronger that familiar feeling became.
Unease… extreme unease!
Finally, her Demonic Power made contact with the strange pattern.
In that instant, the scene before Yun Fei’s eyes suddenly changed!
She saw a dark palace hall.
The walls and floors were covered in a disgusting, pure white slime.
Without a doubt, that was the manifestation of Void Energy!
In the center of the hall stood a massive White Cocoon large enough to envelop an adult.
The slime on its surface writhed constantly.
Then, under Yun Fei’s horrified gaze, a pair of hands burst through the cocoon.
Following that, the casing was torn open from the inside, and a figure slowly stepped out.
What made Yun Fei even more breathless was that the person’s appearance was identical to Jiang Qing, except her hair had turned pure white.
The “Jiang Qing” slowly opened her eyes.
Within those crimson pupils, there was a hint of interest mixed with a trace of impatience.
“Ah… It’s a good thing I acted quickly. Otherwise, you two wet-behind-the-ears little girls would have spoiled the show…”