Chapter 192: Guiding the Way

"Sister Gardenia, am I wrong about this?"

"The master treated her so well, and yet she went and did something like this. If I’d known this was going to happen, Lord Nalan really shouldn’t have ever brought her back here in the first place."

At the mention of Nalan, Zhizi suddenly snapped out of her thoughts. "Oh, right, where is Lady Nalan, anyway? It seems like she hasn’t come back since she left, has she?"

Seeing this, Rose’s eyes darkened slightly; she knew exactly where Nalan had actually gone.

She knew Nalan hadn’t come back yet, and she suspected something must have happened to her.

But she certainly wasn’t foolish enough to say any of that out loud.

"Nalan must simply be holding something back for now. With her master around, I’m sure she’ll be perfectly fine."

"That does seem true, doesn’t it?"

"When do you think the master will finally bring Linglan back? Do you think she’ll end up locked in the dungeon too?"

Zhizi couldn’t stand it anymore. Children really were such a hassle — once they started asking questions, they simply never stopped.

"All right, all right, go do whatever you’re actually supposed to be doing, and stop all this idle chatting."

"It’s almost time now. You and I need to go out on patrol together. Rose, the castle’s in your hands while we’re gone."

Gardenia rolled her eyes at the girl, then pulled her along and left, leaving Rose alone in the lobby.

Once everyone else had gone, Rose casually found herself a spot to sit down. Linglan hadn’t actually assigned her any specific task — she just needed to keep up appearances for now.

Shortly afterward, footsteps sounded near the door.

Rose paused, then looked up.

She shot to her feet in shock at once. "Tong Yin?! What are you doing here?!"

Tong Yin glanced at her and understood immediately why she’d been hidden away in this particular spot.

Rose quickly rose and rushed over, pulling Tong Yin further inside. "Linglan said you’d sleep until tomorrow at the earliest — how did you suddenly wake up already?"

"She told you to bring me here?"

Rose paused, then let go of her grip. "Yes, that’s right."

"Why? What exactly is she trying to accomplish?" Tong Yin still couldn’t quite grasp Linglan’s true purpose in any of this.

If Tong Yin hadn’t happened to wake up early, she probably would have simply passed away without ever knowing any of it at all.

Rose pressed her lips together. "If you really want to know, you should go ask her yourself directly. You should leave here now — if the master comes back and finds you here, she’ll use you to threaten Linglan without hesitation."

Tong Yin took a few steps further inside, speaking as she went. "I’m the one who opened that door."

"What?"

"I opened that door myself."

Rose was startled, not having expected Tong Yin to be the one who’d opened the door connecting the amusement park to the castle.

"Ahhhh—"

Those were the voices of Zhizi and the others outside.

"Are you going to go save them?" Tong Yin asked, watching Rose closely.

...

While everyone’s attention was fixed on Tong Yin’s sudden appearance, Lin Yun and Song Xizheng took the opportunity to slip away quietly toward the stairs.

Sang Biao led the way ahead of them, with Song Xizheng bringing up the rear.

Everything above the second floor of the castle was eerily quiet and still.

The two of them quickly made their way up to the seventh floor.

"Sister Lin, I’ll come find you once I’m finished dealing with things here." Song Xizheng gestured toward the seventh floor, indicating she should continue on and search for her own destination alone.

Lin Yun acknowledged this and kept climbing steadily toward the top floor.

By the time Lin Yun reached the ninth floor, she let out another heavy sigh.

She truly, genuinely hated climbing stairs.

Back in college, she used to climb five whole flights every single day. She never once imagined that after graduating, she’d end up in some strange real-life ordeal and still find herself climbing endless stairs on top of everything else.

They were living in an entire castle — couldn’t they have installed at least a couple of elevators somewhere?

Never mind, though — even if there had been an elevator available, they wouldn’t have dared use it anyway; they’d have been caught far too easily.

Lin Yun sighed once more and continued trudging up the stairs.

"Meow." Sang Biao let out a soft sound.

Just as Lin Yun was about to ask what was wrong, she spotted the black monster standing on the stairs ahead.

Tuan Tuan sprang out of the backpack, swelling instantly to an enormous size, staring intently at the creature confronting them, while Ghost Vine waved its vines threateningly as well.

The black monster, however, simply watched them in silence and made no move whatsoever.

After a long, tense pause, the black monster finally stirred.

Sang Biao and Tuan Tuan were so startled they nearly lunged forward and clawed at it on instinct.

But the black monster merely turned around instead; it seemed intent on heading upward.

Lin Yun and her group held back from acting rashly, unsure exactly what the black monster actually wanted from them.

The night before, she’d learned from Song Xizheng just how fearsome these black monsters could genuinely be.

After taking a couple of steps, the black monster stopped and turned back to look at Lin Yun, almost as if asking, "Why aren’t you following?"

It took two more steps forward, then glanced back once again.

Lin Yun: "?"

Was it... actually trying to get her to follow it somewhere?

Lin Yun had the three creatures tuck themselves away once more, then tentatively took two cautious steps upward herself.

Apparently satisfied, the black monster continued climbing upward.

Though she remained puzzled as to why the creature hadn’t attacked her, she chose to follow it anyway.

The floors here seemed remarkably tall. Once they reached the tenth floor, the black monster led her confidently down a corridor as though it had walked this path countless times before.

Plenty of other black monsters lingered in that corridor as well, yet none of them attacked at the sight of Lin Yun and Sang Biao.

They simply stood there in silence, letting the two of them pass by undisturbed.

Staring at the staircase ahead, Lin Yun fell silent once more. Wait... wasn’t this supposed to be the top floor already? Why were there still more stairs here?

Seeing that she hadn’t moved, the black monster actually approached her directly and raised one hand toward Lin Yun.

Sang Biao suddenly leapt out and slapped at the black monster’s outstretched hand with one claw, letting out a sharp "ha!"

The black monster reluctantly withdrew its hand. It had never intended to harm Lin Yun at all — it simply wanted her to move along a bit faster.

"It’s all right, Sang Biao, calm down."

Lin Yun quickly patted Sang Biao to soothe him.

She could sense clearly that the black monster wasn’t hostile toward them in the slightest.

Those earlier black monsters in the corridor hadn’t shown any hostility toward them either.

"All right, let’s keep moving. Lead the way."

The black monster nodded and continued making its way upstairs.

After climbing four or five more flights, they finally reached a point where no further stairs led upward.

It brought Lin Yun to another door and tried to force the lock open, but couldn’t quite manage it.

"Tiger, come here!" Tuan Tuan shoved the black monster aside and struck the lock with one powerful claw, cracking it apart and sending it clattering to the ground.

The black monster stepped back off to the side and stood perfectly still.

Lin Yun glanced at it once more, then pushed the door open. This had to be the place she’d been searching for.

"Do you want to come inside with me?"

The black monster shook its head and planted itself firmly at the doorway instead; it needed to guard the entrance and protect her safety from out here.

It could sense that chaos had already broken out beyond these walls, and that the castle itself would soon fall entirely.

It had to remain here, keeping watch over her, until she’d finished her task.

Lin Yun stepped back into the room and closed the door firmly behind her.

The only way up to this particular spot was via the very staircase they’d just climbed, and the black monster kept its gaze fixed steadily in that direction.

Down below, its fellow creatures were guarding that same spot as well.

Inside the room.

The moment Lin Yun stepped back inside, the lights within switched on automatically.

[Hiss... This room is a spatial fold — it’s absolutely massive, host, you need to hurry!]

Lin Yun’s forehead throbbed painfully at the sight before her.

With so many locks scattered everywhere, how was she possibly supposed to know which one was actually the real one?

What’s more, some locks appeared to be locked already while others sat wide open. Was she supposed to be unlocking them, or locking them instead?