“What’s wrong?”
Bai Xia didn’t answer Tianzheng. She halted before the stone wall at the goblin lair’s deepest point. The cave was dim, so she simply pulled out a torch.
Flames pushed back the shadows. Tianzheng, stepping closer, finally understood her strange reaction.
Earlier, the poor light and total focus on the goblins had hidden everything else. Now, under the torchlight, the cave’s true face emerged.
Everything else seemed normal. The only oddity? The wall right before Bai Xia—or rather, the murals covering it.
Unlike the rough surroundings, this deepest section was unnaturally smooth, etched with mysterious paintings.
Monsters Bai Xia couldn’t name filled the stone: serpentine beasts with six wings, wolf-headed bears trampling fire beneath hooves, birds wreathed in flame, a thunder-clawed dragon roaring in fury…
Each mural felt vividly alive. Bai Xia almost believed they’d leap out and swallow her whole.
“I doubt… goblins have this kind of artistic talent,” she murmured, pointing at the wall.
Tianzheng opened his mouth but stayed silent.
True, goblins ruled this lair—but these murals? Clearly not their work. Claiming brainless goblins carved this was like expecting a chicken to fly a plane.
If not them… who did?
But Bai Xia wasn’t pondering that. She stared at the wall, then pulled out the Thunderstone she’d just obtained.
As Tianzheng wondered what she’d do, her eyes locked with his.
“Squat.”
“…Hm?”
“Borrow your shoulders.”
She pointed to a spot near the wall’s center. “See that gap? I need a closer look.”
Tianzheng followed her finger. High up. Bare of murals. A small, smooth indentation in the center.
He raised an eyebrow but walked over and crouched.
“Climb on.”
Bai Xia hesitated a moment, then leaped onto his shoulders. *Thank goodness this is a game,* she thought.
As he rose, she swayed slightly—steadying only when his hand gripped her ankle.
She tilted her head, comparing the marble-sized Thunderstone to the gap. Not perfect… but it fit.
She pressed it in.
*Click.*
Hum!!
“Huh?”
A sudden pull yanked the stone deep into the wall.
Lightning flashed. Every mural *moved*.
A shockwave hit—not just the body, but the mind. A violent jolt.
Tianzheng grunted, stumbling back several unsteady steps. Bai Xia slipped—
“Bai Xia!”
He caught her just in time.
Dizzy, she pressed a hand to her forehead. “Uh… I’m fine.”
Then—crack… crack…
Electric threads spiderwebbed across the murals. The smooth wall fractured.
Before their eyes, it shattered.
Revealing a passage tall enough for a person.
But it felt unreal. Flickering. Inside, pure blackness yawned like an abyss, radiating something deeply unsettling.
A chill washed over them even from afar.
*What is this thing?*
Bai Xia blinked. Then froze.
“Where. Are. Your. Hands.”
Her eyes narrowed. One hand supported her back. The other… firmly on her butt.
Tianzheng arched a brow, innocent. “You believe me if I say it wasn’t intentional?”
“So the *squeeze* wasn’t intentional either?”
He set her down under her furious glare, cleared his throat, and faced the passage. “So… what *is* this?”
“Such a low-level topic switch! And ‘Great God’—you look serious, but you’re totally a lolicon! Harassing a loli is illegal! You’ll get kicked to death by a horse!”
Bai Xia huffed. *Seriously? Unlucky day? First my chest, now my butt?*
This guy—so proper on the surface, yet screaming lolicon behavior!
“But Bai Xia,” he chuckled, “didn’t you say you’re twenty? That’s not a loli. And my reaction? Just sincere male instinct. Hardly harassment.”
“A *legal loli* isn’t still a loli? Apologize to all those centuries-old lolis out there!”
Today, Bai Xia uncovered Tianzheng’s newest “virtue”: skin thicker than a city wall.
Her first impression? Total illusion. This man was dangerously shameless.
“Fine, fine. I was wrong.”
He patted her head dismissively, then turned solemn toward the dark opening. “But before you scold me—shouldn’t we figure this out first? What do you think, Bai Xia?”
“I think slashing you a few times to vent sounds way more important.”
