The faint, broken voices drifted over with the breeze—so soft, so gentle, so light that they tugged at her heart.
Ivy Shen sucked in a breath and zoomed through the pitch-dark palace, moving so fast she was basically a leopard on Red Bull. Ever since that cliff dive, her martial arts had gone full cheat mode—leveled up like crazy!
So even in this heavily guarded palace, she still moved fast, even as more and more guards appeared.
But a palace is a palace—everywhere was crawling with guards. Ivy had no choice but to carefully dodge her body along the tops of corridors and in front of pillars.
"Ah... ah... ah..." The voice dropped, going all smoky and spooky, like someone pressed mute on a ghost. Ivy scrunched her brows, fighting off the urge to freak out—girl, chill! Only by keeping cool could she figure out which way the creepy sound was coming from.
After a while—
After dodging layer upon layer of danger, she finally spotted a roughly two-meter-high iron tower. It wasn’t tall or wide, but it was definitely long.
From the outside, it looked extremely sturdy, and stationed at the door were four guards—all of them burly, each holding not swords but iron hammers. They looked like pure muscle.
Ivy fiddled with the gadget Lucian Vane had slipped her earlier—this thing was supposed to be super clutch. But eying the gear on those four muscle-heads, nope, not a key in sight.
There’s no way she could just split open that huge, thick iron door with one palm. Even if she could, the noise would be massive—she’d definitely attract attention.
So what was she supposed to do?
Suddenly, a familiar figure popped up out of nowhere. Ivy’s eyes practically bugged out—wait, was that Gavin Wang?!
He walked up to the guards, carrying a food box in his hand.
"Guard Wang." The four men bowed politely to him.
"Mm." Gavin Wang responded coldly. "Is that madwoman still making a fuss today?"
"She hasn’t eaten for two days—she’s too weak to make a sound," one of the guys replied quickly.
"Make sure you keep her alive, got it?" Gavin Wang warned, fiddling with the key at his waist as he unlocked the iron door. Instantly, the sounds from inside grew clearer.
"Understood," the four men answered in unison.
Seeing this, Ivy clenched her fists tightly as Gavin Wang walked inside carrying the food box.
Next second, no hesitation, Ivy whipped out her silver needles and—zip-zip-zip!—blasted all four dudes like she was throwing ninja stars in a video game.
Immediately, all four giant guards collapsed to the ground, motionless.
Seeing those four giants drop, Ivy zoomed forward like she was chasing the last dumpling at a buffet.
"What’s going on?" Hearing the commotion outside, Gavin Wang hurriedly turned to look, but just as he was about to move, Ivy struck the back of his head with her palm—her inner strength was no joke, so Gavin dropped like a rock.
Without missing a beat, Ivy rushed inside, but the moment she entered, she realized the place was way bigger than it looked—the corridor was insanely long?!
Whoosh-whoosh! Outta nowhere, a gazillion swords went full anime mode, flying down the hallway. Ivy hit the deck and rolled like a pro gamer dodging boss attacks.
The swords missed her and crashed to the ground with a deafening clang.
Now Ivy was down on one knee, peeking back at the sword tsunami behind her—okay, kinda worried now. No wonder Song Zhijue only needs four doormen! Staring into the dark, endless corridor, Ivy sucked in a breath, went ‘YOLO,’ and stood up to keep going.
This time, she was even more careful than usual.
Up ahead, the corridor was pitch-black—no light at all, like it was warning intruders to turn back. Ahead lay a bottomless abyss; best not to mess around here.
But even if it was a dragon’s lair or a tiger’s den, Ivy wasn’t about to give up. She steadied her breath and kept moving forward, step by step.
Squeak-squeak-squeak! Suddenly, rat noises echoed through the pitch-black corridor, and Ivy’s face did a full cringe. Bro, what kind of haunted house was this?!
"Ooo..." That faint, ghostly voice floated over again—soft, short, almost like it was pointing her the way.
BWONG! Outta nowhere, a massive iron ball dropped from above, swinging down like it wanted to play bowling—with Ivy as the pin.
She couldn’t see what it was in the darkness, but thanks to her sharp hearing, Ivy knew it was something massive—so she dove and rolled under it.
But just as Ivy rolled, she hit a hidden trap—spiky iron chains shot up from the floor, slicing her back open with a deep bloody gash. Ouch, 10/10 pain, would not recommend.
"Hiss—" Ivy couldn’t help but frown. This hellhole was pitch-black, not a trace of light. She could dodge the first trap by sound and instinct, but she hadn’t expected more to trigger the moment that giant thing dropped.
She ignored the pain in her back and stubbornly got up, pressing forward.
But then, out of nowhere, the path ahead suddenly smoothed out—like everything behind her had just been a bad dream.
Right then, a faint light appeared ahead. Ivy squinted to adjust her eyes to the dim glow, took a moment, and kept moving forward.
"Ah... ah..." Suddenly, that heart-wrenching voice rang out again—closer than ever.
Following the sound, Ivy crept forward. As she reached the faint light, her vision went BOOM—jaw on the floor. Was this a blade farm or a death trap designed by a lunatic?! A field of razor-sharp knives spiraled all the way to a round platform in the center. She stopped dead in her tracks.
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The distance? Insane. Like, even a flying squirrel would need a pit stop halfway! No matter how good your qinggong, you’d have to leap, land, and leap again to make it across. Clearly, this setup was made to troll even the best jumpers.
Food boxes hung from the blades far away—because the blades were so sharp, the boxes got pierced and dropped to the ground, where tons of little rats gnawed at whatever fell through the tiny gaps.
Just seeing this, Ivy could guess—Gavin Wang must always throw the food box across. Otherwise, there’s no way so many boxes would end up stuck on the blade tips.
No way—there’s no chance Gavin Wang could actually jump across all those blades to deliver food.
So if that’s how it works, what if he missed the throw sometimes, then...
Would that mean... she just wouldn’t get to eat?!
Ivy didn’t dare imagine it. Instead, she walked forward a bit more and looked toward the distant circular iron platform—there sat a woman, her head bowed. But the golden tail coiled around her made her identity unmistakable.
That was her sister—her real, blood sister!
Ivy’s tears just exploded out—she could see every detail. That golden tail was shredded, the shine all patchy and sad where the skin split. How was it even possible for a tail that long to be covered in scars, some crusty, some still bleeding? Her chest felt like it was getting stomped by an elephant. Was it him—the devil—who wanted to peel her sister alive?!
Devil. Devil!
They’re all devils!
Even worse, starting from her waist, a thick iron chain was tightly wrapped around her body, with three more chains binding her tail. Ivy could see dried blood on every single chain.
In front of the woman, open food boxes lay scattered, and her thin, frail body screamed of constant starvation.
Looking at that skinny, skeletal woman in the distance, Ivy suddenly felt a twin-like pain—as if she could feel that agony herself.
It was like she’d been through that pain herself, making her feel like she couldn’t breathe.
"Ah... ah... ah... ah... ah..." Suddenly, the woman who’d kept her head down started wailing again, her voice full of sorrow.
Boom—her breath caught, fat tears streaming down like a busted faucet. Before she knew it, Ivy blurted, "Big Sister...!"
At the sound, the woman on the iron platform suddenly lifted her head...