"Did she leave?"

Nian quietly opened her eyes.

The room looked calm on the surface. The soft gauze curtains swayed lightly with a wisp of wind from who knew where, completely unlike a cage meant to imprison them.

But the Enchantress Grand Duke’s presence was far too intense. On top of that, the other party might have deliberately wanted to intimidate these little lambs, so for the entire night last night, they had all felt like they were staying beside a ferocious beast fast asleep.

And this was only one of the problems. Even harder to endure was the fact that although this room really did have strong soundproofing, just as it couldn’t block out the Enchantress Grand Duke’s humming, it also couldn’t block out those intense movements and sounds.

So the faint sounds next door—yet still clearly carrying an excited meaning—those delicate moans, pain-stricken cries, pleas for mercy, even the obscene sounds of rising higher and higher into the sky, then falling again and again from that height... they listened to all of it for an entire night.

"How can this Enchantress Grand Duke be so shameless!"

Nian’s cheeks were still flushed. Because of those sounds, she hadn’t slept at all last night. After all, only a few months ago, she had learned from Feifei that children weren’t made by alchemy, and experiencing that kind of thing up close really was far too stimulating.

But it seemed the only one who found it stimulating might have been her.

The candlelight in the room was still dim and soft. Those candles—made of who-knew-what material—seemed like they would never burn down. They also carried a faint exotic fragrance, which, at certain times, could stir up even more “mood.”

The most timid one, Julia, was curled up in the bathtub at the moment—the place farthest from next door. Last night, that was where she spent the night.

And that Miss Ariel she disliked also hadn’t chosen the big, soft pink bed to sleep on in a very strange way. Instead, she leaned against a patch of wall and slept right on the floor.

Both were already asleep. It seemed the noise from next door and the threat from a powerhouse still couldn’t beat the exhaustion of body and mind from being captured by the demonfolk these past days.

As for Feifei...

She was still pressed to the wall with an unsatisfied look, listening carefully to the movement next door.

"Looks like she really left."

Noticing Nian coming over, Feifei rose with a hint of regret.

She had held that posture for the entire night too. Losing her sight instead made her other senses even sharper, and the chance to listen in on a demonfolk Grand Duke like this didn’t come often.

"So even a dignified demonfolk Grand Duke can only last one night? Not very impressive."

"Is that kind of thing really that interesting?"

Nian crossed her arms, completely puzzled.

To make Feifei—who slept twelve hours a day—stay up all night listening at the wall... was there really something in this world more interesting than alchemy?

"Of course it’s interesting. This is the so-called great path of life, the origin of all things... You, a pure little child like you, definitely won’t understand." Feifei pinched Nian’s cheek.

"Who are you calling a little child..." Nian smacked Feifei’s hand away and glared.

"Whoever’s little is a little child."

"You!"

"Alright, now isn’t the time to argue."

Feifei deliberately showed off by lifting her chest’s rolling curves a little, then before Nian could blow up, pulled the topic back to business, making Nian stomp in anger.

"Even though I also really want to experience the Enchantress Grand Duke’s methods, right now probably isn’t the time for me to satisfy my personal desires. What a pity—I also prefer being on the S side. Holding the whip is always more fun than taking the whip."

Feifei rummaged around inside her sleeve, then gave a light tug.

The candlelight flickered. A slender silver thread was drawn out from her sleeve, then quickly wound into a ball in her hands.

"Here."

Feifei held the ball of silver thread out in front of Nian.

"Your turn."

"Hmph."

Nian gave an unhappy snort, but still raised a hand and covered the ball of silver thread.

"Refine."

A faint trace of magic power flowed out from her palm.

Because of the restriction on the chains, the magic power she could mobilize right now was extremely, extremely little.

But it was enough.

Under Nian’s control, the ball of silver thread rapidly melted, reshaped, and re-resolved.

This small, nimble transformation at her fingertips already condensed her exquisite alchemical technique.

No wonder she was the most famous genius in the Stone Cauldron Association lately. Feifei praised inwardly.

In just a few minutes, this small piece of magitech material—made into thread specifically for easy carrying—was refined by Nian into the shape of a key.

A dim blue light swam across the key. The magic-pattern lines refined into it only needed a slight adjustment to silently interface with most arrays.

Nian picked up the key and inserted it into the shackle on her wrist. In fact, last night she hadn’t done nothing. In secret, she had been analyzing this restriction the entire time. Now, with a light twist, the chain clattered once and slid straight down onto the floor.

Nian then helped Feifei undo the shackles as well.

"Can you use this to open the door?" Feifei kneaded her sore wrist.

"Of course. When that demonman took out the key yesterday, I took a glance. I remembered the general shape, but I just need to patch up some details."

"How long will that take?"

"The door lock is custom-made and clearly also has a restriction on it. Cracking it will take half an hour."

"That’s faster than I expected."

"Naturally."

Nian proudly lifted her chest. "In this world, there’s no one faster at prying locks and opening doors than us alchemy people."

"That doesn’t sound like you’re praising yourself."

"Stop talking nonsense. I’m going to handle the real business. You go deal with those two little tails as well."

Nian’s tone was irritated. She was increasingly disgusted with talking to this person. If it weren’t for the fact that she still needed this person’s help next, she would already want to kick away this annoying person who only knew how to run that mouth.

Even more annoying than that Margarita person.

"Fine, fine. An annoying person naturally has to do some annoying things."

Even though she couldn’t see, it didn’t stop Feifei from imagining Nian’s puffed-up, angry expression right now.

A loli getting mad was always especially cute. What a pity it was a girl who only liked alchemy and mechanical muscle-men and had no clue.

The corner of her mouth curved slightly. She reached down again and gave a tug beneath the hem of her skirt.

A staff nearly half a person tall was actually pulled straight out, and nobody knew where she had hidden it before to evade the demonfolk’s search.

She walked to Miss Ariel and Miss Julia. With a leisurely sigh, she said:

"Even though I don’t really like doing something like ambushing pretty girls, unfortunately, we have our own business to do. We can’t escape while bringing along some burdens, so I can only ask you two to sleep a little longer. If you’re lucky, when you wake up, there will just happen to be an opportunity to escape this place."

"If you’re not lucky... sorry. We don’t have any spare strength to save people either, so I can only ask you to fend for yourselves."

Feifei lightly waved the staff. Sleep magic unfolded right away. A faint glow flickered, turning into snowflake-like points of light that fell onto the two of them.

At this moment, she was instead somewhat grateful for the restrictions the demonfolk had set on them. Because most of her cultivation had been sealed, she only needed to cast magic lightly. She didn’t need to consume much magic power at all to make the two of them sleep for a long time.

After casting the sleep magic, Feifei pondered for a moment, then still spent extra magic power to place a Blessing of Life beside the two of them.

This was a special spell from the church. The blessed person looked like nothing had changed, but if they encountered mortal danger, it would activate at the most critical moment and preserve a thread of life.

She knew this thing actually wasn’t of much use. After all, this was the demonfolk’s base. Facing that demonfolk Grand Duke, no number of lives would matter.

"Just for peace of mind." Feifei sighed softly. "After all, we met once."

"Are you done?" Nian suddenly said.

"It was nothing."

"Then hurry up and come help me!"

"Oh my, oh my... I thought you could handle it alone."

"I can handle it!" Nian stomped hard. "But Reta’s side will probably be faster than mine. If I don’t speed up a bit, I won’t be able to do what we agreed on."

"Alright, alright. Since that’s the case, let big sister give you a hand."

Before turning and leaving, Feifei put her hands together and prayed sincerely:

"Goddess above, may Holy Light walk with you... and walk with us as well."

...

"Holy Light and magic combined?"

Ariel opened her eyes and looked at her palm, murmuring in surprise, "Miss Feifei and Miss Nian... are they people of the church?"

She knew those two weren’t ordinary. Their mentality alone didn’t look anything like pitiful prisoners captured by the demonfolk, but she didn’t expect their background to be this big.

"Looks like I also need to move quickly."

Ariel spread her palm and clenched her fist hard.

"This is more complicated than I imagined. If I can’t rescue the pretty girls quickly, there might not be a suitable chance later."

Of course, the most important thing was...

"Miss Muse, don’t be afraid."

Ariel took out a precision instrument personally made by her teacher and, at a speed far beyond Feifei and Nian, began to crack the room door’s lock and restriction.

"I’m here to save you!"

...

"It’s open."

With a faint friction sound, the tightly shut door slowly opened like that.

The corridor’s light was ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) far brighter than the room’s, so both of them—already used to the dim yellow light—couldn’t help narrowing their eyes slightly.

"Much faster than I imagined. It only took twenty minutes. Worthy of the Stone Cauldron Association’s proud work."

Marwen happily patted Reta’s shoulder, making the braided twist on Reta’s head—already not very neat—sway back and forth, almost to the edge of coming apart.

Reta glanced at that braided twist that had taken so long to make and didn’t say anything, only silently put the small metal mechanism on the mechanical arm away.

Marwen was also used to Reta’s silence. After all, Reta had always been taciturn. Aside from daily exchanges with Annie, even with others who were together day and night, Reta still couldn’t squeeze out more than a few words.

"Alright, we need to move quickly."

Marwen stretched a bit. "Even though I said it lightly yesterday, the moment I think there’s a demonfolk lesbian coveting my perfect body, I feel disgusted. I don’t want to become that kind of delicate little male concubine. I don’t want to, physically or biologically."

Reta looked into the room.

On the pink bed, a beautiful girl with golden wavy long hair lay there fully clothed.

Under normal circumstances, this would absolutely be a beautiful scene that could stir up endless fantasies, but right now, nobody cared.

"It’s fine. I just mixed a little drug into the chicken leg we gave her last night."

Marwen sighed. "Even though I really can’t bear to do this to such a beautiful young lady, I have no choice. Who told me I’m a good man with a sense of responsibility? I don’t dare go against the instructions of that bad-tempered princess in my family."

"..."

"What’s that look for? Forget it. Saying this kind of thing to a cold, stiff person like you is useless anyway. Let’s go. Don’t make Miss Feifei and Miss Nian wait anxiously."

The door closed again without a sound.

Everything returned to silence. And paired with the sleeping beauty with golden wavy long hair on the bed, that silence seemed like it would last a long time.

But suddenly, even without a prince’s kiss, the sleeping beauty’s long lashes trembled slightly. Under the candlelight’s glow, she slowly opened her beautiful eyes.

"Feifei? Nian? You mean Miss Phil and Miss Annie?"

Muen stared at the ceiling, muttering with a strange expression, "Former saintess candidates and god-attendant knights came almost halfway here. This lineup is even more luxurious than I imagined... Sure enough, you also know something, and you’re clearly trying to pull something big."

An infiltration wrapped in layers of disguise, yet the familiar faces he ran into were even more than he expected. Sure enough, this damn fate never stopped thinking about giving this yellow-haired villain a thousand-year kill straight through the flower core.

Pitifully, right now, aside from tightening his sphincter and doing his utmost to hide himself, he had no other way. But from another angle, the more chaotic the water was at this moment, the more beneficial it was for him to figure out the fog behind the demonfolk.

"I also need to move."

Muen sat up and looked toward the door. Looking at that door Marwen and Reta had tinkered with for a long time, the corner of his mouth traced a disdainful smile.

"You two are pathetic. You actually needed twenty minutes?"

Muen took out a leftover chicken bone from last night.

"Watch me crack it in two minutes."