Chapter 81: The Closest Moment to Freedom

Finally, Feng Ling’s biggest opportunity had arrived.

That afternoon, while she was curled up on the sofa playing games, Ling Yue suddenly came down from the third floor carrying the coat that had been stained with blood and said, “Xiao Fengling, I’m heading out for a bit. Another batch of reckless people has arrived at the perimeter, about three times as many as last time… You have to be good at home, don’t go near the main door~ Also, don’t open it if someone knocks… Unless it’s Tiancan Lili, you should recognize her magic pattern.”

Feng Ling poked her head out from the sofa cushion and asked, “About how many people?!”

“Almost less than a hundred people, but that resonance artifact from last time has appeared again, and the signal is much stronger than before. I need to deal with those endless pests before they wear through the outer barrier.”

Ling Yue draped the coat over her shoulder, then came over to the sofa, bent down, and kissed Feng Ling on the forehead.

But after the kiss, she didn’t immediately straighten up; instead, her lips lingered a beat longer on Feng Ling’s brow.

Feng Ling blinked.

This pause didn’t feel like ordinary affection at all; it was more as if Ling Yue was confirming something.

That made her heart tighten.

However, she still put on an impatient expression and said,

“Then hurry back. I want to eat blood slices tonight, you promised me last time.”

“Okay.”

Ling Yue straightened up and then pushed open the door and left.

And after the sound of the door fully closing came, Feng Ling still controlled Link to finish off the last monster in front of her, then saved her progress, quit the game, and gently placed the Switch on the coffee table.

Every action she took was half a beat slower than usual.

Because she was currently using Reverse Perception to track the red mist outline of Ling Yue.

Ling Yue passed through the cave tunnel and stopped about two hundred meters outside the mountain.

Then, on the edge of the perception field, a large dense cluster of energy outlines appeared.

And sure enough, in the hands of the leader in the middle there was a spherical magic artifact radiating pulses.

The next second, Ling Yue charged in.

At the moment the two energies collided, Feng Ling sprang up from the sofa and, without even putting on shoes, quickly rushed up to the third floor.

As she approached, the runes on the door at the end of the corridor faintly lit up.

Ling Yue had allocated a large amount of magic power to the outer barrier and combat perception, so the glow was much dimmer than usual.

This caused the rune’s power supply on the door to indeed weaken as well.

Feng Ling curled her fingers into a claw, focusing all her strength and magic into her five sharp nails, then viciously clawed at the darkest part of the rune.

However, the first strike only left a few shallow scratches, and the rune flashed once before slowly repairing itself.

So she used even greater force for the second swipe.

Then the rune suddenly burst into bright light, perhaps trying to repair itself, but the energy supply simply couldn’t keep up, so it dimmed halfway through.

Seeing this, Feng Ling struck a third time, and this time it finally caused the lock core to spring open.

“Just… just that simple?”

At that moment, Feng Ling stared intently at the door that could now be pushed open, momentarily unable to believe it.

But she had no time for sentiments now, so she walked straight in.

This room, which had been a mystery for three cycles, was much smaller than she imagined.

There were no bookshelves, no magic circle platform—only a circular deep red crystal embedded in the floor at the very center.

The surface of the crystal was slowly pulsing with a dark red light vein synchronized with the frequency of the outer barrier, and this light vein was currently shifting toward the right side of the crystal.

“…Is this the barrier core?”

The other four walls were covered with glowing runes, and each ring of runes seemed to correspond to the defensive functions of different areas of the castle.

And by the left wall there was a low table.

On it were an open notebook and nine small broken magic artifact fragments.

Then Feng Ling crouched down beside the crystal.

The main control node marked on the castle floor plan was at the lower right corner of the crystal.

That position had a ring of golden engravings finer than the surrounding runes, and in the center was a fingernail-sized recess.

Embedded inside was a small blood-colored crystal piece that was faintly emitting magic wavelength pulses…

Hmm, in her opinion, this thing should be the core switch of the entire castle’s defense mechanism.

Then she pressed her finger onto that blood-colored crystal piece.

This caused the crystal piece to vibrate, and all the runes in the room dimmed for half a second before lighting up again… but the brightness was only half of what it had been.

…She remembered the principle of the resonance-weakening artifact that Lili had mentioned last time—it could temporarily block the perceptual coverage of the outer barrier, with a duration ranging from three to eight minutes.

Right now Ling Yue was engaged in battle outside, and her perception field was being strained by both the fighting and the artifact…

So if she pulled out the entire main control node right now, the castle’s internal rune defense would be completely paralyzed for probably a few minutes, right?

And nine minutes would be enough for her to do everything she needed to.

Then Feng Ling pressed the crystal piece back, stood up, and took a look around the room.

At that moment, the notebook open on the low table was turned to a certain page.

At the top of the page, written in red pen, was:

“Practical Application Record of the Original Blood Imprint Removal Array”

Below that was a drawing of a magic circle structure almost identical to the one she had seen in the studio notebook, but it was a bit more complex.

In the center, the proportions of three materials were noted:

Ten parts removal agent, three parts blood of the imprinted, and one part blood of the caster.

“…”

Was the trace amount of blood residue she had scraped from her teeth last time enough to count as one part?

The pale golden liquid in that bottle had about a dozen parts’ worth of capacity, but the blood she had scraped in was probably less than half a part.

If the proportions were off, would the array still activate?

Feng Ling turned the notebook to the next page, and this page said:

If the caster’s blood is insufficient, the Original Blood Imprint within the imprinted’s body can also be used as an alternative trigger.

Inject the removal agent directly into the location of the imprint, and use the imprinted’s own magic power to activate it.

The imprint will then detach on its own under the effect of the removal agent.

Additionally, at the very bottom, there was a line of small-print notes:

This method will cause extreme pain and is not recommended for use in battle or when mentally unstable.

“…Extreme pain… oh my…”

Those two words “extreme” carried a bit of authority.

But it probably couldn’t be more painful than having all of one’s body parts slowly chewed to pieces, right?

Feng Ling stared at those words for about ten seconds, then closed the notebook and put it back in its original place.

Forget it!

Pain is pain!

She had already died twice anyway, and right now was the closest she had ever been to true freedom.

Why was she still dawdling over this issue!

Just do it!

So she quickly found a complete magic array activation disc from the drawer next to the main control node.

This thing was actually a palm-sized circular metal disc, engraved with the same array pattern as in the notebook, and there was a small recess in the center just big enough to hold her bottle of removal agent.

“This thing was made by Ling Yue, probably just in case of emergencies…”

Although she also didn’t quite understand why Sister Ling Yue would keep a tool that could help her escape tracking within such easy reach.

But there was no time to think about that now…

Sister Ling Yue…

She had already cleared out all the small fry, and now only the leader remained.