“Young Hero… Young Hero?”
“What is it?”
Hearing Li Zhi Ran’s call again, Xu Lin snapped out of his thoughts.
“I said earlier that I need to go prepare the item to protect you tonight.”
We’re jumping straight to that?
“If you’re interested, you can come watch. Perhaps using your abilities, you could even give me some guidance.”
Guidance?
Xu Lin felt she was overestimating him.
But… should he go take a look?
She didn’t seem to be avoiding the topic at all.
“Alright.”
Xu Lin nodded.
There was nothing else to do anyway. It wouldn’t hurt to watch.
At the very least, before all this started, he needed to see with his own eyes how this so-called protective item was made. That way he’d be mentally prepared.
Li Zhi Ran led Xu Lin to a door deep inside the apartment.
Just one glance at the door was enough to make anyone hesitate.
It was a heavy black wooden door, covered in complex and eerie patterns—actual raised carvings.
An unsettling aura even emanated from it.
Li Zhi Ran stepped forward to push it open.
Whether intentional or not, the door felt immensely heavy as she pushed, as though she were moving a massive stone slab.
When it finally budged, it let out the deep, resonant creak unique to ancient heavy doors.
As the door slowly opened a crack, a wisp of black smoke actually drifted out, vanishing in an instant.
Xu Lin wondered if he had imagined it.
The door swung fully open.
Inside was a profound darkness—far deeper than the hallway they stood in. It was the kind of blackness that seemed to swallow light whole, a perfect absorber from which nothing returned.
“Young Hero, please come in.”
Li Zhi Ran stood at the threshold and beckoned him.
Then she stepped inside.
Xu Lin stared at the abyss-like darkness but did not immediately follow.
He could feel it—a force inside repelling him.
An illusion?
“Young Hero?”
Li Zhi Ran poked her head back out from the darkness, looking at him with puzzled eyes. The hesitation in his heart was forcibly suppressed.
He took a step toward the doorway.
The moment the tip of his foot crossed the threshold, an enormous pressure suddenly surged out from within, slamming straight into his face.
A bad feeling hit him. He tried to pull his leg back.
Too late.
His vision went black, and he instantly lost consciousness.
…
When he came to again, he found himself lying on his back, feeling something soft beneath him.
One glance upward, and he recognized the strange headboard of the bed in his new room.
I’m… back in the room…
“Young Hero, you’re awake!”
A startled cry came from the side. Then Li Zhi Ran’s face appeared above him, filled with worry.
“What… happened to me?”
He slowly sat up, rubbing his head.
His mind was still a mess.
“I’m sorry, Young Hero. It was my oversight. I never imagined my magic workshop would affect you so strongly.”
Ah… right. I was about to follow her into that room, then a force hit me and everything went dark.
Wait—no, what the hell is actually in that room? That was terrifying!
Even Lin Shen Xue couldn’t do anything like that, could she?
“Heehee, looks like your power level is still too low, kid. You couldn’t withstand the energy of the Demon Realm!”
Noxis’s mocking voice followed immediately.
“The energy of the Demon Realm?”
Another weird term.
“Yes, Young Hero. Inside my magic workshop is an item from the Demon Realm. It’s what I use when crafting magic tools. I thought you would be fine being near it, but I never expected…”
Li Zhi Ran’s face showed clear remorse.
Her eyes lowered, glistening slightly. Though her expression remained cool and distant, she genuinely looked pitiable.
A new facial expression unlocked.
But that wasn’t the point right now!
An item from the Demon Realm? Does something like that really exist? Or is this just the power of her tag?
Maybe because she uses her tag abilities in that room all year round, her immense power has accumulated there permanently.
The moment I stepped in, I took the full brunt of it and couldn’t handle the shock?
Thinking this, Xu Lin quickly opened his status window to check for any negative buffs.
Nothing.
However…
“This positive buff got weakened!”
After eating Li Zhi Ran’s “Witch’s Dinner” earlier, he had gained the buff 【Feast of the Witch】—duration 12 hours.
Now the remaining time showed only 6 hours. It had been cut in half.
“Did I sleep for 6 hours?”
“Minerva, how long was I unconscious?”
Xu Lin hurriedly asked her.
“Young Hero, you were out for almost an hour.”
She didn’t know why his expression changed so suddenly when he asked, but she answered quickly anyway.
“Almost an hour…”
Xu Lin murmured to himself.
“In other words, that so-called Demon Realm energy really did weaken the buff. It counts as a mental attack.”
“Which means… that dinner literally saved my life. If I hadn’t eaten it and just walked straight into that room, what would have happened?”
Xu Lin didn’t dare imagine the consequences.
“Young Hero, are you still feeling unwell anywhere?”
Li Zhi Ran looked at him with deep concern.
Hearing her worried tone, Xu Lin relaxed a little and met her gaze.
“I’m fine now.”
He wasn’t lying. Aside from the brief confusion upon waking, he felt completely normal.
If anything, he felt even more energetic than usual.
“I’m really okay.”
Seeing she was about to say more, Xu Lin quickly hopped off the bed and moved around to prove he was perfectly fine.
“Though… I don’t think I can go into your magic workshop anymore. I was curious what was inside.”
“Young Hero, let Noxis examine you just to be safe.”
Even seeing him full of life and energy, Li Zhi Ran still wouldn’t let go of her worry.
She then picked up Noxis and walked circles around him.
So Noxis doubles as a medical scanner now?
He inwardly complained.
Soon, Li Zhi Ran returned to stand in front of him.
“It’s really healed…”
Even with the result, she still seemed a bit unconvinced.
“As expected of the Young Hero—your body is truly strong!”
In the end, she let out this sigh of admiration and accepted it.
“Well… it’s mostly thanks to that dinner you made…”
“Since you’re alright, I can continue the preparations with peace of mind. Tonight is quite urgent.”
Her expression quickly turned serious again.
“Unfortunately, since the Young Hero cannot enter the magic workshop, I will have to do it alone. Please rest well and conserve your strength for tonight.”
Conserve my strength? Like I’m going to get any sleep tonight?