Chapter 452 I Do!

Yu Sui is waiting for A Ling to recover inside the royal city.

After the light core enters the body, it takes some time to adapt. Yu Sui used the Nine Provinces Star Sea to accelerate time, allowing A Ling to reach the optimal state of integration with the light core before waking up.

The workshop was trapped by the Water Transport Divination, unable to enter or leave, also because the excessive snowmelt provided the perfect conditions for Wild Water Cliff to perform his magic.

There are still three guardians in the royal city searching for Yu Sui and Wang Jun. Besides these dangers, there are also many traps and mechanisms in the royal city.

Yu Sui surveyed the interior decorations. If she wasn't mistaken, this room must be the residence of some steward in the royal city. Compared to the environment where the disdainful people lived in the workshop, this place was practically the "emperor's palace."

Incense was lit inside to dispel the dampness from the ground.

The golden bed curtains were embroidered with exquisite dragon and phoenix designs, and the tables and chairs were made of the finest wood, worth a fortune. The jade carvings on the table were either dragons or phoenixes, the smallest being the size of an adult's fist, with clear, smooth jade and visible beauty.

When Ah Ling woke up, the first thing she saw was the beautifully patterned bed canopy. The bed beneath her was warm and soft, so comfortable that she didn't want to get up.

After a moment of stunned silence, she noticed Yu Sui standing inside the room and instantly snapped out of it: "Sister!"

How did I get here?

"Where are the others? Have the guardians of the royal city caught up?"

As soon as Ah Ling woke up, she chirped around Yu Sui's ear like a little sparrow.

"I'm still alive?" Ah Ling touched her chest, the memory of her near-death experience still vivid and terrifying.

Yu Sui sat at the table, propping her head up with one hand as she looked back. She didn't say anything, but that simple gesture made Ah Ling unconsciously tense up.

“Sister.” Ah Ling obediently sat up.

Yu Sui asked her, "Are you clear-headed?"

"I'm conscious!" Ah Ling nodded repeatedly, almost raising her hand to swear. "I remember everything that happened! I know it was you, sister, who saved me!"

What an amazing feeling, like being resurrected from the dead!

Ah Ling didn't say those words out loud.

"I saved you because I wanted to find a scapegoat to use," Yu Sui explained bluntly, pointing at A Ling. "I need to extract all your memories about the royal city from your mind. If you're not willing to cooperate, things will get difficult for me. So, are you willing?"

"I do!" Ah Ling answered without hesitation.

Yu Sui: "You'd be willing to split your brain in half?"

Ah Ling nodded: "I'm willing! If you can open my brain in half, you can sew it back up!"

She wasn't afraid at all!

In Ah Ling's heart now, Yu Sui is omnipotent!

Yu Sui smiled at A Ling, pointed a finger at her, and with a slight bend, a wisp of golden five elements energy flew towards A Ling. A Ling clutched her head in pain and screamed, "Sister!"

“Retrieving the memories I want from your brain will be even more painful than this. If you resist or are unwilling in the slightest, I will be in a difficult situation and will have no choice but to kill you.”

"I...I!" Ah Ling was in so much pain that she could barely speak. Only after Yu Sui withdrew her Five Elements Qi was she able to catch her breath. With a determined look, she said, "Sister! Believe me! I can do it! This is nothing compared to the pain of almost dying before!"

Humans have an instinctive resistance to death and suffering. Yu Sui had discussed what she was going to do with A Ling in advance, but she didn't think A Ling could do it and was prepared to do it three to five times.

Surprisingly, Ah Ling was completely unsuspecting of Yu Sui.

Amidst the agony of resisting Yu Sui's Nine Schools of Arts, Yu Sui successfully entered the depths of Ah Ling's soul, peeking into the fragments of memories unconsciously stored in her brain.

Yu Sui saw the location of the Blackwater Worm Pool from it.

The place resembled a black lake. A terrifying aura flowed through the gentle, thin currents of water. The water's surface failed to reflect the royal city's architecture; only countless tiny blue-purple lights flickered, like stars falling from the sky onto the water.

Those who practiced magic only saw black water and blue-purple starlight, a scene that was both eerie and mysterious, yet also romantic.

To a low-level sorcerer, however, one could see countless corpses beneath the water-colored light spots.

The white skeletons resembled a school of fish swimming in water. They had long spines and strange limbs. The skeletons were both human and insect-like, with bizarre shapes.

In Ah Ling's memory, there were children being thrown into the pool, and there were also obedient children who silently followed the steps down and disappeared into the water.

Ah Ling walked while crying, because children who resisted strongly were treated roughly. She was terrified of the adults with fierce expressions and harsh methods, so she walked very fast to avoid being beaten. A very fierce shout came from behind her, and Ah Ling was so frightened that she ran forward, slipped, and fell into the pool without any warning.

Once she entered the water, the whole world should have become quiet. But Ah Ling heard the ubiquitous chirping of insects, familiar, strange, and terrifying, instantly pulling her back to a sweltering summer night. The chirping of insects in the fields, forests, and ponds outside the house overwhelmed her and knocked her unconscious.

My memory ends there.

Yu Sui glanced at the girl, whose nose was bleeding and whose face was pale, and stopped. Ah Ling was already at her limit. As soon as Yu Sui stopped, she rolled off the bed, her body weak and powerless. Her nose was bleeding continuously, her breathing was heavy, and she fainted after a short while.

When Ah Ling woke up, Yu Sui was nowhere to be seen in the room; she was still lying on the floor. Ah Ling sat up, calling out, "Sister!" She searched the room for Yu Sui. After circling the room twice, she rushed open the door and was greeted by a beautiful garden in full bloom. Peonies of various rare and precious varieties lined both sides of the path, but Ah Ling didn't know this; she only thought they were beautiful.

Everything before her eyes was dazzling and novel to Ah Ling, making her temporarily forget about Yu Sui.

After Ah Ling came to her senses, she cautiously called out to her surroundings, "Sister? Are you here?"

There was no response.

Ah Ling waited for a long time, feeling dejected as if Yu Sui had abandoned her. Just as she was about to muster the courage to go outside and look, she saw Yu Sui walking out from around the corner of the corridor. Ah Ling's eyes instantly lit up. Yu Sui ran towards her like a happy puppy: "Sister! I thought you left me all alone!"

“You are now a thirteenth-level sorcerer, I won’t abandon you easily.” Yu Sui waved the food box in his hand at her and handed it over, saying, “Eat it to restore your strength. You don’t know how to use the five elements yet.”

"Thank you, sister!" As soon as Ah Ling opened the food box, she smelled the aroma of hot food, and her stomach growled honestly as she began to wolf down her food.

Yu Sui tossed her another booklet: "Learn some basic Bagua divination techniques first."

"Can I...can I?" Ah Ling's eyes widened.

Yu Sui asked, "Haven't you noticed any changes in your body?"

Ah Ling answered seriously, "Yes! I feel much lighter than before, and my vision has become clearer. I can even see some strange things, like... air currents?"

“That’s the Qi of the Five Elements.” Yu Sui rubbed a small golden-black dot with her fingertips. “Come here.”

"Hmm!" Ah Ling swallowed a mouthful of rice and hurriedly came over. Yu Sui flicked the small light dot into Ah Ling's forehead and explained, "This is called a memory dot, which is a kind of mechanism. It can store written knowledge and can be retrieved and viewed at any time. If you have any questions in the future, or if you want to know about the outside world, you can look for it here."

There are such amazing things in the world!

Ah Ling was overjoyed and couldn't wait to try it out as Yu Sui had suggested.

Yu Sui was also observing A Ling's changes and her degree of adaptation to the divine soul light core within her body.

Ah Ling now possesses a peerless divine weapon, but she doesn't know how to use it.

The memory points mainly contain the Eight Trigrams and the basics of the Nine Schools of Thought. There are also records of various schools of the Nine Schools of Thought. In the following months, Ah Ling would not eat or drink and would only read the contents of the memory points.

But there isn't that much time for her now.

After giving it to her, Yu Sui told Ah Ling to come with her and look at it on the way.

"Sister, where are we going?" Ah Ling asked happily.

You seem very happy.

"Sister, I'm so happy to receive such a wonderful gift from you!"

Have you forgotten where you are?

After hearing this, Ah Ling suddenly snapped out of her smugness and angrily punched herself on the head. She had almost forgotten what kind of godforsaken place this was.

“The people in the caravans you cheated before have all told you about the outside world, so you are different from others and won’t be unable to accept the gap between the two worlds and the new world right away.”

Ah Ling felt uneasy.

Logically speaking, she had no concept of good or evil, but the things she did to the caravan were also done to Yu Sui. After hearing Yu Sui's words, A Ling realized that she had hurt Yu Sui, and felt guilty and scared. She hurriedly said to Yu Sui, "Sister, I'm sorry, I know I was wrong. I swear, I will never do anything to hurt you again!"

Yu Sui paid no attention to the girl's troubled thoughts: "Use the wind-riding technique to travel. If you can't keep up, find a way to find me yourself."

As soon as she finished speaking, Ah Ling saw a figure flash before her eyes and then disappeared.

She stood there dumbfounded, then shouted, "Sister!"

Ah Ling was forced to learn the art of wind manipulation in a tense and exciting environment. She stumbled and fell more than seven or eight times on her way there. By the time she caught up with Yu Sui, who was waiting for her, she was covered in dirt.

She was panting, ignoring her sore hands and feet from the fall, and excitedly shared with Yu Sui, "Sister, I can fly!"

Yu Sui ignored the silly child and pointed to the Dragon Ladder Well not far away, saying, "The entire royal city is shrouded in the mirror array of the famous family. The royal city underground is the shadow projected from the ground. The real royal city is in the snow above."

"In the memories of the White Eyes, you have to go down to reach the Insect Pool, but to find the real Insect Pool, you have to go up."

Ah Ling asked in confusion, "Sister, what is a mirror array? Why do we have to go up? That's the top, there's nothing there."

Yu Sui: "Don't try to understand, I'm not saying this to you."

She spoke to Mei Liangyu, who was still in the workshop, through the water and wind well.

Yu Sui then pointed to the soldiers guarding the dragon ladder and said, "Go and wipe them all out."

"Me?" Ah Ling pointed to herself with difficulty, looking hesitant. "Sister... I think I can't beat them right now."

Yu Sui: "How will you know if you don't try? Can't you fly?"

"If you can't beat them, run away. Go ahead."

Under Yu Sui's command, Ah Ling, though lacking confidence, mustered her courage and walked towards Wang Jun.

There were six guards in front of the dragon ladder, standing on the left and right sides respectively, wearing masks with numbered labels on their faces.

Upon spotting Ah Ling, someone shouted a warning: "Halt! Who goes there? No passage ahead!"

Ah Ling was still wearing the same blood-stained clothes as before, looking very suspicious. She cried and shouted to the soldiers, "I am a maid who was called here to practice dancing. The intruders attacked the dance studio and many people died. I managed to escape, but just now I saw them fighting in the back. Please, sirs, help me!"

After saying that, he fell to the ground to make himself appear harmless.

The intruders entered the royal city, and the entire royal army was on high alert. The royal soldiers guarding the dragon ladder could not leave without permission. These royal soldiers were already on edge when they heard that the Grand Protector had been killed by the intruders. Now, when they heard from Ah Ling that the intruders had reached their doorstep, they became somewhat panicked.

They usually dealt with the minor squabbles in the workshops and had never encountered a truly difficult situation. The fact that the guardian had attacked and died actually added a lot of pressure to the royal army, making them even more afraid of intruders and causing them to become hesitant to fight.

At Ah Ling's call, the Wang soldiers looked at each other, hesitant to move.

One of them spoke first: "You two go check out the situation, hurry up!"

The two men reluctantly walked towards Ah Ling and asked her, "Where is the place you're talking about? Get up, you lead the way!"

Ah Ling got up crying and, taking advantage of the two men's inattention, punched them hard in the stomach.

Yu Sui couldn't help but laugh when she saw her simple and unpretentious attack.

However, the simplest is often the most effective. This punch, delivered with the power of a thirteenth-realm divine soul core, sent Wang Jun, who was only at the fifth or sixth realm, flying a great distance without any warning. He coughed up blood and fainted.

Ah Ling was stunned by what she saw. She looked at her fist and felt a surge of excitement.

She listened to Yu Sui's words and gathered her strength to mobilize the five elements. Even if she only slapped or kicked someone, it could cause considerable damage to someone whose cultivation level was far lower than her own.

"Who...who are you?!" Wang Jun exclaimed in shock.

Ah Ling, however, became addicted, and once again, with a simple and unadorned punch, she knocked down the person next to her.

"Grab her!" Wang Jun, who was left behind, shouted hurriedly upon seeing this.

The four of them charged at Ah Ling together. With so many people around, Ah Ling panicked a bit. Even from a great distance, she had already gathered her strength in her fists and punched out. The burst of air emitted a shrill sound that pierced eardrums and deprived Wang Jun of his hearing.

Looking at the four Wang Jun soldiers who had been thrown into the air, Ah Ling's face was filled with disbelief.

I actually did it!

Ah Ling looked at her hands, then turned to look at Yu Sui, but Yu Sui walked straight past her and headed into the dragon staircase.

"Sister! I did it! I took them all down by myself!" Ah Ling excitedly chased after her. "Sister! What did you do to me? I'm so amazing now! Super amazing!"

"They are no match for me!"

"I just swung my fist, and they couldn't even touch a hair on my head!"

Yu Sui, engrossed in fiddling with the cryptic inscriptions inside the dragon ladder, didn't even look up: "That's amazing!"

Ah Ling was delighted, not noticing anything wrong with what Yu Sui said, and continued chattering away. Seeing that Yu Sui was focused on what she was doing, and since she couldn't understand it, she looked it up in her memory.

Yu Sui is deciphering the cipher that secures the dragon ladder, aiming to guide it to a location outside the mirror image. Otherwise, the dragon ladder will never reach the floor of the insect pool.

Seeing Yu Sui pointing out dense characters and incantations from the dragon ladder, Ah Ling was shocked and full of admiration. She kept praising her sister's amazing skills in her heart and quietly shut her mouth, not daring to disturb her.

Yu Sui suddenly said, "You've already remembered what happened before, haven't you?"

"I remember now," Ah Ling nodded.

"You've also memorized the location of the insect pool?"

"I remember!"

“I’m taking you with me so you can go into the insect pool and help me find someone,” Yu Sui said. “The pool is full of artificial vipers. You already have the viper’s mark, so you won’t be attacked.”

"What are artificial worms?" Ah Ling asked, bewildered.

"Find it in the memory points."

Ah Ling immediately did as instructed.

Yu Sui also explained, "Feeding the artificial viper with medicine will cause it to expel toxins regularly. The amount of toxin crystals it expels is large, which is also the core material for making Orchid Poison, especially Resurrection Incense."

Judging from the size of the Black Castle's insect pool, the number of artificial worms inside is enormous, and the toxin crystals they excrete are enough for them to refine for a hundred years.

"Artificial insects can cause the appearance of pearls. In the first batch of test subjects, some people could see the flow of the five elements."

"This situation is rare among your batch of test subjects, but there are differences. The flow of the five elements, which was previously observed through a kind of 'eyeless eye,' has now directly formed the Nine Streams Technique."

In other words, Ah Ling's skill allows others to also acquire the Byakugan form, which is considered a type of low-level technique. However, Ah Ling's situation is rare; more often, it's like the Du siblings who are "defective products."

If Zhu Laosan knew about A-Ling's situation, they wouldn't need to capture Shi Yuezhen; they could have tied A-Ling up and studied her first.

Ah Ling is only alive today because of the ignorance and greed of the underground Wang Jun, who cooperated with Ah Ling to embezzle money from those merchant caravans. Fearing being discovered by those above, they naturally did not report Ah Ling's abnormality to their superiors.

Most of the underground royal guards had been brainwashed by famous figures and didn't know what Ah Ling's abnormality meant.

After much difficulty, Ah Ling finally grasped the most basic connection and asked in confusion, "Is it possible that other people, like me, possess the Nine Ranks of Arts even though they haven't become Eyeless? They just haven't been discovered yet?"

Even though the people in the workshop knew they were different, they were unaware that it was related to the Nine Schools of Arts because their memories were locked away by the blessing of the masters.

A clever person would hide their unusual behavior to avoid being captured by the royal army. However, the probability of this is not high; otherwise, the people in the royal city would not have risked capturing Shi Yuezhen.

As Yu Sui pondered, she realized that Shi Yuezhen might not know much. Back then, Sister Yuezhen was just a child. After leaving Black Castle, she wandered around with Cang Shu, accidentally starting to practice the Nine Schools of Arts, and even went to Taiyi because of her high talent.

Perhaps among that batch of test subjects, only Shi Yuezhen met Black Castle's expectations.

Therefore, Shi Yuezhen was only noticed by the people of Black Castle again after Taiyi exposed the Abyss of Vipers.

Under Yu Sui's operation, the dragon ladder started and began to rise quickly. A Ling heard a buzzing sound in her ears and couldn't help but look up. Her eyes saw the sealed top of the dragon ladder, which was illuminated by pearly lights.

"What exactly do they want from us?" Ah Ling said bitterly. "Is it just to capture us to manufacture orchid poison?"

Orchid poisoning is only part of the reason.

People outside obviously don't know that artificial worms can excrete toxin crystals that are beneficial for making orchid poison; otherwise, Black Castle would have been targeted by the Criminal Water Division long ago.

Xuan Kui seemed unaware that such a material existed.

The discovery of the orchid poison was more like an unexpected bonus made by researchers studying worms along the way.

The viper initially contaminates the Qi within the human body, both before and after the Five Elements Qi have gathered to form the light core. Yu Sui glanced at Ah Ling, who was still cursing beside her.

She did not have a photonucleus before she was contaminated by the worms.

Ah Ling now possesses a thirteenth-level divine soul core, and the traces of the viper within her body are now negligible. If the core is replaced, the viper can be eliminated.

No one could have imagined such a crazy solution.

Whether the worms can be completely eliminated depends on what happens when Ah Ling re-enters the worm pool.

Yu Sui didn't give out many light cores, nor was she so heartless as to use living people for light core experiments. Besides Wei Ren, Ji Meng, and A Ling, there were three other people.

One of them was critically ill and about to die. Yu Sui wanted to use the light core to cure the other person and prolong their life. She gave the light core to him with his consent, only to find that her light core was useless to the person with the skill.

The speed of the dragon ladder has slowed down, but it is still much faster than usual.

Zhu Laosan was leading a large group of people angrily toward the Dragon Ladder entrance, cursing as he went: "Mu Jin is dead, and now Xiang Zhiyuan is dead too! Are you all just good-for-nothings? We haven't even found them yet, and two of our protectors have already died!"

Black-faced Qi followed him, smiling obsequiously: "My lord, although the intruders in the royal city have not yet been found, we have found them all in the workshops, but they are trapped inside and cannot get out."

"What I want is for them to be brought here! Where are they?!"

Zhu Laosan kicked him and fanned himself with his hand: "Now that the person is dead, the young master and Xue Lao might cause me trouble. Go and call Xun Zhan over quickly!"

He walked up to the dragon ladder and pressed the buttons frantically, but the rapidly ascending dragon ladder continued to go up without stopping at all.

"What's going on?" Zhu Laosan was stunned.

He stared at the dragon ladder, which was rising without stopping, and pressed the button again with a dark face, but there was still no response.

Zhu Laosan had almost worn the dragon ladder to pieces before finally realizing there was a problem. As he turned to leave, he said coldly, "Quickly send someone to seal the dragon ladder well opening."

He took another route to the Insect Pool. Old Master Xue and the young master were both there; the end of the Dragon Ladder they had just taken was also at the Insect Pool.

The underground castle was usually free from any storms or crises, and the royal soldiers, apart from standing guard, would not encounter any danger, so no one would care if they slacked off in private.

Zhu Laosan had become accustomed to the safety of the royal city, and he hadn't really taken the intruders seriously this time. It wasn't until he saw the uncontrolled dragon ladder just now that he realized the situation was different from before.

The dragon ladder gradually slowed down as it sped towards its destination.

As the dragon ladder was about to stop, Yu Sui noticed someone outside and hovered over the button to open the door without pressing it.

Gu Gan and his two companions emerged from another passage and headed towards the black lake in the center.