Chapter 25: The Opened Door and the Lost People

The rain drizzled down, and a muffled rumble of thunder rolled through the gloomy sky.

The purple-haired youth stood forlornly in the heavy rain, wearing robes stained by rain and blood, a longsword clutched tightly in his hand.

“A mon… monster!”

Lying on the ground, the sole surviving black-robed man’s eyes were filled with palpable terror.

A dozen assassins had come, and now only one remained, slaughtered by the youth who was not yet sixteen.

The youth raised his sword, pointing it levelly.

A strange red light flickered in his extremely indifferent eyes.

Upon his small body, a black shadow slowly coiled upwards.

The shadow transformed into an ink-black dragon as it coiled.

“For killing my royal mother, your crime is unforgivable.”

A hoarse voice came from the youth’s mouth.

With a slight flick of his sword-wielding wrist, the black-robed man’s body was instantly pierced from all directions by countless black spikes that surged from nowhere.

Splashing blood dripped onto the youth’s face.

But the youth’s face remained as calm as ever.

When Mianbao woke up, it was already bright daylight.

Just as her mind, still groggy from waking up, synchronized with her body, Mianbao suddenly realized she was hugging Hu Qingyu tightly, and Hu Qingyu was hugging her too.

‘Could it be that she and Hu Qingyu actually slept in each other’s arms last night??
How is that possible!?’

Mianbao’s eyes widened, and she tried to slip out of Hu Qingyu’s embrace without a trace.

Unexpectedly, Hu Qingyu’s hand was wrapped around her waist with such force that she couldn’t escape.

And with Mianbao’s subtle movements, Hu Qingyu also slowly woke up.

“Good morning, Miss Mianbao.”

Hu Qingyu looked at Mianbao’s face, which was very, very close to his, and said with a smile, not surprised at all.

“Let go!”

Mianbao glared at Hu

Qingyu, even taking the opportunity to pinch his waist hard.

Only then did Hu Qingyu realize that what he was doing was “indecent,” and he quickly released his hand, allowing Mianbao to escape a short distance.

“I say, are you pure or shameless?” Mianbao asked.

“Before, you got a nosebleed just from seeing me wear such ordinary clothes, but now you dare to hug me and nothing happens?
Hmm??”

Mianbao deliberately dragged out the last “hmm,” her tone full of threat.

“This…”

Hu Qingyu smiled, at a loss for words.

“Smile, smile, smile, all you do is smile every day.”

Mianbao looked at him with dissatisfaction.

“Just like a stinky fox. It seems calling you Mr. Fox wasn’t wrong at all.”

“I’m hungry, I want to eat.”

Mianbao crossed her arms over her chest and said.

This was clearly an order for Hu Qingyu to go find something to eat.

Hu Qingyu said with a wry smile, “There’s almost nothing in this forest. We haven’t seen any living creatures or wild fruits and vegetables along the way. If not for our good luck in encountering a squirrel last night, we wouldn’t have even had dinner yesterday.”

Hu Qingyu meant that they definitely wouldn’t find anything, but how could Miss Mianbao believe him?

She insisted on wandering around.

How could there not be even a little something to fill their stomachs in such a large forest?

After spending some time, time proved Hu Qingyu right.

This forest not only had no magical beasts, but it also lacked even a little something to eat, or even a slightly larger living creature.

Perhaps now, the only living beings in this forest were Miss Mianbao and Mr. Fox.

“What the…”

Mianbao suddenly panicked, suddenly realizing how strange this place was.

There wasn’t even the sound of birds chirping.

“It’s just… it’s just like a real-life dead silent forest!” (Note: “Dead Silent Forest” is a novel written by the famous horror novelist of the Second Epoch’s Star-Moon Empire, Wo De · Zhen Na.)

“Scared?” Hu Qingyu said calmly.

“How could I be scared?” Mianbao said, lacking confidence.

In truth, she was a little scared in her heart, but her remaining male soul wouldn’t allow her to say the word “scared.”

“We should get out of here as soon as possible,” Hu Qingyu said.

“If we can’t get out, we’ll easily die without finding anything to eat.”

At the mention of “die,” Mianbao shuddered.

She hurriedly nodded her head, expressing her agreement with Hu Qingyu’s opinion.

The two of them walked east, following their instincts.

The road was just as before, with almost no living things in sight.

The tall trees before them seemed endless, with no end in sight.

But as someone once said, “After the darkest willows, there are the brightest flowers and another village.”

After Mianbao and her companion turned yet another corner, they finally saw something other than green, green, and more green.

A stone wall.

There was a door in the stone wall.

Beside the door were carved characters, showing signs of wear from the passage of time.

“This thing looks like it’s been around for a few years.”

Hu Qingyu and Mianbao looked at each other and nodded at the same time.

“Within a fifty-meter radius, no life forms detected.”

Zero, in her equipped Magi-Knight Armor, searched aimlessly for the missing Mianbao and her companion in the “Dead Silent Forest.”

Zero stopped at a crossroads formed by trees, and under Snow Dove’s mask, Zero bit her lower lip, unwilling to give up.

Because this crossroads, she had passed it several times.

Kunta had given this task to Zero, but she hadn’t expected Zero’s sense of direction to be not very good.

In other words, Zero was actually terrible with directions.

Therefore, Zero was now facing the biggest difficulty in her life.

Although she was very unwilling to admit it, she was lost in this forest.

Mianbao and Hu Qingyu, with no other way to go, resolutely chose to push open the door before them, which led to who-knows-what new world.

After they opened the door, the scene that appeared before them was so shocking!

The space behind the door was unexpectedly huge.

Its decorations and structure were like a magnificent palace.

It was just that perhaps because it was too old, there were signs of damage everywhere, as well as rubble and broken pillars left from some unknown battle.

“This… what is this place…”

Mianbao’s small mouth opened wide in surprise as she murmured.

Before Mianbao could come to her senses, the door behind her suddenly closed, startling her.

“Hu Qingyu! Why did you close the door??”

“What?”

Hu Qingyu was also concerned about this matter.

“Wasn’t it you who closed it?”

A strange wind seemed to blow from behind Mianbao, making the hair on her whole body stand on end.

She shivered and said, “Could it be… a ghost closing the door!?”

“…”

The eleventh time she passed the crossroads.

Zero was about to give up the mission of finding Mianbao and her companion and go back to ask Kunta to find someone else.

But—

“Which way should I go?”

Zero tilted her head and thought to herself.