At the sound, the woman suddenly lifted her head.
Ivy Shen froze, stunned.
The woman in the distance lifted her head just a little, but her big dark eyes were totally blank and lifeless. Ivy couldn’t tell if she was actually seeing her, but those hollow eyes were pointed right this way—like a corpse in the dark, absolutely devoid of life.
Tears rolled down Ivy’s cheeks. The woman across from her looked totally sick, more like a living corpse than anything, but the shock still hit Ivy hard.
People always say sisters are sisters—no matter what, you can always spot the resemblance.
Right now, Ivy had to admit that was true. Even though the woman in front of her looked totally drained, there was at least a ninety percent resemblance—and it left Ivy absolutely floored.
She remembered her mom once saying she and her sister were "two eggs, two chicks"—in modern terms, fraternal twins. Not identical, but still, the resemblance was off the charts. Seriously, if someone posted a side-by-side pic of us online, people would be spamming: "Copy-paste detected!" It was almost meme-level uncanny.
The woman just stared at Ivy, totally unresponsive, still mumbling some weird tune. Suddenly, Ivy saw her reach out and pick up a rice grain from the floor—so black and moldy it had spots—and pop it right into her mouth. "Food, food... hehe..."
"No, stop, don’t eat that!" Ivy yelped, but her sister just kept grinning and chewing, totally unbothered. She even started swaying and humming like she was in her own little world. (Sis, please, this is not a mukbang challenge!)
Seeing this, Ivy’s tears fell again. The next second, she spun around and ran back. Where Gavin Wang had collapsed on the ground, she spotted the food box lying nearby. Ivy squatted down, opened it, and peeked inside—just a plain steamed bun and some side dishes. Still, she grabbed the box and raced back to her sister.
The food inside wasn’t exactly gourmet, but at least it was clean. Clutching the box, Ivy dashed back to where she’d come from.
The woman in the distance didn’t show any reaction to Ivy’s arrival.
"Sis, I’m here!" Ivy called out, grabbing the food box and leaping toward her.
Honestly, Ivy had come to the palace to scope out her sister’s location, and maybe dig up dirt on Song Zhijue and Wendy Cao, figure out what they were plotting. But she’d stumbled into this dungeon by accident, and seeing her sister tortured like this—right now, all her big plans were out the window. The only thing she wanted was to get her sister out, away from this hell.
"Ah..." Ivy suddenly frowned, her eyes sharpening. With her skills, she could easily leap straight to her sister’s side—so who the heck set up this crazy trap?!
The moment she jumped, rows of short, sharp blades shot up, all at uneven heights—some even higher than Ivy herself! The sudden change threw her off, and she had no choice but to land and jump again. The instant her feet touched down, her soles were instantly red with blood. Those blades were viciously sharp.
And that wasn’t even the worst part. Just as the blades started rising like a jagged slope, a barrage of long arrows flew from the walls. These weren’t like the old arrows—you couldn’t just catch them. Every inch was covered in razor-sharp barbs.
If she tried to grab one, her hand would be shredded for sure. Ivy clutched the food box tight, dodging the deadly arrows shooting out of the walls and the constantly shifting blades below.
"Ah... blood... there’s so much blood..." Suddenly, the woman sitting in the distance screamed.
Hearing that, Ivy glanced over—her sister was staring at Ivy’s feet and body, trembling as she reached out. "Blood, blood, so much blood..."
"Sis..." Ivy’s heart clenched at her sister’s sudden outburst. But in just those few seconds of worry, she was slashed multiple times—her back, shoulders, arms, all bleeding, her clothes quickly soaked red.
Seeing that, Ivy forced herself to focus and speed up. Just a few seconds of spacing out had gotten her sliced up—if she lost focus again, she might not make it out alive.
Song Zhijue, you’re seriously twisted. Hiding all these death traps here—what are you so afraid of?!
Ivy dodged arrow after arrow, and even when one sliced her hand by accident, she kept a death grip on the food box—no way was she letting go.
"Climb the blade mountain, descend into the oil cauldron... climb the blade mountain, descend into the oil cauldron..." Suddenly, her sister started chanting loudly.
Jumping through the air, Ivy couldn’t help but frown. What did that even mean—blade mountain, oil cauldron?!
A second later, Ivy figured it out.
Just as the last row of arrows shot down, the arrow slits suddenly blasted out scalding hot oil. It splashed all over Ivy’s hands and she sucked in a sharp breath—damn, that hurt!
Except for the central platform, every arrow slit kept spewing boiling oil—scalding and terrifying.
Right now, Ivy finally understood what 'climb the blade mountain, descend into the oil cauldron' really meant.
Thousands of blades were the mountain, and the endless boiling oil was the cauldron. If a regular person tried crossing, they’d be shredded and burned alive. And if the scalding oil rained down on wounded skin—no words could describe how much that hurt.
They were trying to kill, to wipe out anyone who got close to this place!
"Ah..." The arrows were at least blockable, but the oil just kept spraying down like rain—there was no way to dodge it all. No matter how she tried, some of it always splashed onto her.
Right then, Ivy got hit again. If she wasn’t carrying the food box, she could’ve dodged, but with that thing in her hands, her jumps were always off. Even when the burns made it hard to breathe, she clung to the box—no way was she letting her sister eat moldy scraps. She was bringing her fresh food.
"Climb the blade mountain, descend into the oil cauldron..." Her sister kept screaming, over and over. Ivy couldn’t even tell if she noticed what Ivy was going through.
"Hiss"—another unlucky hit. Ivy frowned as more blades shot up from below, the speed of the changes totally unreal. Getting hurt was basically inevitable.
But even so, Ivy wasn’t about to turn back. She stubbornly kept heading for the center. She was going to get her sister out—no matter what!
After a long while—
After dodging layer after layer of danger, Ivy finally landed by her sister’s side, gasping for breath.
Her sister lifted her head and stared at Ivy. In those blank eyes, a faint spark of light started to gather. "Blood... so much blood..."
Ivy ignored the pain all over her body, smiled a little, and squatted down in front of her. She didn’t need to look—she knew she must be covered in blood. But so what? Compared to her sister’s suffering, her own injuries were nothing.
"Here, food." Ivy grinned, her beautiful face smeared with dirt.
Her sister stared blankly as Ivy opened the box and handed her a steamed bun.
"Eat up, this bun is clean. Look, there’s some side dishes too." Ivy sat cross-legged in front of her, slowly tearing the bun and handing it over.
Her sister obediently opened her mouth and began to eat.
Ivy smiled. "Good girl." But when she got a closer look, her brain just blue-screened—her sister was so skinny it was basically meme material, like a grandma who rage-quit food for fifty years! Her bones were sticking out, her clothes were in shreds, and her face was so sunken she looked like a withered apple. Straight-up nightmare fuel, send help!
Tears slid down Ivy’s cheeks again. She glanced at her sister’s tail—those scars, deep and sunken, were whip marks, running from her waist all the way down. The golden tail was so battered and torn it was barely recognizable.
"No, no, get off!" Ivy freaked out as a horde of ants swarmed her sister’s tail wounds like they were at an all-you-can-eat buffet. She frantically brushed them away with both hands, tears rolling down her face like a busted faucet. "Crap, crap, I’m sorry—I’m so sorry, sis!"