NOVPUBThe castle at night was accompanied by darkness and cool breezes.
The climber felt his way along the wall, slowly making his way up to the third floor, intending to traverse the castle via the external flying buttresses.
Trailing far behind him was the archaeologist.
Unaware, they passed one after the other through the room of the Traveling Poet, who, in the midst of retrieving character memories, sensed something and looked up at the door.
His eyes shimmered as he peered through the thick door, faintly making out two sneaky figures passing by outside.
Hmm, judging by the distance, they shouldn’t be together.
The Traveling Poet pondered for a moment—Cerys had hinted a few times that it’s best to avoid wandering around the castle at night.
But honestly, the deserted night was also the best time for gathering intelligence and taking action.
After some thought, the Traveling Poet flipped out of the windowsill.
...
In the palace, Xu Shuo saw him leave the room and squinted slightly.
The exterior walls of the castle were adorned with numerous protrusions and bas-relief decorations, and the Traveling Poet clung to the wall, judging the position of the two moving figures before letting go and swinging his body out.
He agilely landed on a fourth-floor rose bas-relief, his feet perched on a ledge less than ten centimeters wide, practicing his light-body skill along the edge of the castle.
During dinner, Cerys had taken him on a tour of the castle, and he had virtually memorized the structure and routes of the castle.
As he leaped through the castle, passing the bundles of columns, the Traveling Poet also took down all the hanging brass oil lamps.
In an instant, the already dark corridors of the castle became even darker.
Finally, he landed in a corridor close to the outer wall, hung up the oil lamps he had taken down before, and immediately the hallway became abnormally bright.
From a distance, it stood out starkly against the rest of the castle.
After hanging the lamps in this corridor, the Traveling Poet ran two more trips to fetch a few more oil lamps, then hung them up at the corner of the hallway as well.
At that moment, the two sneaky figures peeked over this way.
Detecting movement, the Traveling Poet immediately ducked out of the round arched window, pressing his body flat against the wall.
And Xu Shuo saw it all in the mirror.
Vaguely guessing the Traveling Poet’s purpose for doing this, he raised an eyebrow with interest, switched to resting his cheek on his hand to watch, and let the Blood Vine pour him a glass of wine.
...
The climber had just walked onto this corridor from the flying buttresses when he was stunned by the brightly lit passageway.
He looked down to unfold the 3D map, then observed the surrounding structure.
There was more than one route to the Tall Tower in the center of the castle; in fact, the tower, connected by numerous flying buttresses, was accessible from all directions—earlier, he had chosen his route based on proximity.
Now he could also go left to reach it.
However, looking at the brightly lit corridor to the right, vastly different from the dark confines of the rest of the castle, the climber frowned.
He opened the map to see where this corridor led, finding that crossing it would take him to another palace parallel to the Tall Tower.
Not too far apart.
So, the climber fell into thought.
Below the staircase of the corridor.
The archaeologist followed cautiously and quietly, and upon seeing the climber standing motionless at the corner, she immediately shrank back and peered around the wall to spy.
Why wasn’t he continuing?
Considering the direction, he was probably planning to go to the Tall Tower, right?
The archaeologist intended to explore there first as well, but upon noticing the climber’s movements, she decided to let this person scout ahead first.
So what had happened now?
The archaeologist below the stairs could only vaguely see the light above but couldn’t discern the specifics.
Seeing the climber had been standing in the same spot, deep in thought for a full minute, she slightly furrowed her brow and gently opened the ordinary book in her embrace.
In the archaeologist’s view, blood-red writing gradually appeared on the otherwise unremarkable pages.
[Cage]... Find adventures at freewebnovel
[Where it envelops]...
The blood-red writing appeared and quickly vanished, then new characters emerged once more, leaping across the page without Order, but the intermittent fragments formed a sentence.
[Where the light envelops, there lies his Cage.]
The archaeologist furrowed her brows, just as she was about to continue probing, she saw the figure of the climber above move; he stepped towards the left passage, disappearing around the corner.
Seeing this, the archaeologist closed the book and cautiously climbed up the stairs.
Upon seeing the scene before her, she finally understood why the climber had hesitated for so long.
...
High upon the castle wall, the Traveling Poet who had been silently observing the corridor was somewhat disappointed to see the climber not choose to come this way.
However, to his surprise, after a moment, the archaeologist who had also stepped onto the stairs and rounded the corner hesitated, then chose this bright corridor!
She did not continue to follow the climber.
Whatever she considered, the archaeologist’s expression was full of caution and vigilance, but she still chose to walk down this brightly-lit corridor that was suggestive of traps.
In the entire castle, this place was starkly different from the others; aside from making one suspect there might be something here — it also forced one to deeply ponder whether this was an intentionally set trap.
To be honest, its suspiciousness was off the charts!
It all boiled down to whether the onlooker had the courage to venture forth!
Watching the archaeologist move forward with careful probing at every step, the Traveling Poet was greatly relieved. He turned and climbed to a higher floor, continuing his task of removing other oil lamps.
After all, the castle’s routes were labyrinthine; without a clear path, one would never reach the palace.
However, just as he landed with an oil lamp he’d taken down, he realized that the corridors he intended to hang it in were already replete with oil lamps.
Brightly lit.
Traveling Poet: "..."
...
After walking through the corridor that was less than fifty meters long but felt eerily strange, she came upon a brightly-lit passageway and ahead, a staircase leading upwards.
The archaeologist took a deep breath and continued forward.
She did indeed consider that there might be traps here.
But she had no choice.
After all, her mission was to [obtain Green’s Handwritten Notes], and who Green was is almost self-evident.
Because the records in the "Document" indicate that the Witch has never truly been with the knight, it’s unlikely that the Witch changed her name, and the system probably wouldn’t present such a trap-like mission...
Well, probably not.
In any case, compared to searching for mission clues in the Witch’s room, she was more interested in the clues within the [Cage]!
The legends recounted in the "Document" she acquired stated that the knight was imprisoned by the Witch in the palace of the castle.
The archaeologist stood at the corner of the corridor and peered out through the carved windows to assess the situation outside, determining the position of the Tall Tower and her current location.
This brightly-lit path seemed indeed to lead to a palace.
And by now, she had already climbed several staircases.
"It really is quite high…"
The archaeologist grumbled to herself, resigned to continue forward, and the absence of danger along the way allowed her to relax slightly.
Hence, she completely failed to notice a pair of dark eyes quietly watching her.
...
