The massive body of the Antlion collapsed with a thunderous roar, kicking up violent gusts of wind. The robes of the two young witches fluttered like banners, snapping sharply in the gale.
Wang Yue and Medeili descended to the bottom of the pit.
The sand had been completely swept away by the “Flowing Cloud Strike,” exposing the bedrock. Within the layers of pressed and stacked rock, a subterranean cavern had appeared.
“Let’s go inside and take a look.”
Wang Yue leaped down, entering the mouth of the cave. She led the way down a regular, man-made corridor.
A thin layer of dust had settled in the tunnel, but the curved walls and ceiling possessed a transparent, crystalline texture. The colors shifted through various shades of blue, making the place look like a glass tunnel in an aquarium.
Wang Yue noticed that strange deep-sea fish were embedded inside the crystals forming the tunnel walls. They didn’t look like fossils; rather, it looked as if a section of the seabed had been flash-frozen, carved into transparent ice cubes, and then put on display.
After walking ten meters, they were blocked by a circular vault door.
This heavy, sturdy piece of machinery was locked into the wall by thick bolts. It was covered in a layer of frost, and a chilling mist emanated from it. The door wasn’t locked with a key, but featured a central handwheel designed to retract the bolts.
Wang Yue tried to turn the wheel, but it wouldn’t budge. The bearings were clearly frozen solid.
She raised her wand and channeled her Witchcraft.
Initially, it was just a small flicker, but the temperature steadily rose until it became a high-heat jet capable of melting steel plates. Even so, the ice refused to thaw.
Wang Yue frowned slightly. A Harmonic Rune lit up at the tip of her wand. High-Frequency Particle Blade!
The particle blade swept forward, only to be blocked by a shimmering, ever-shifting barrier. It couldn’t even touch the surface of the iron door.
“You’ve got to be kidding me. Is this some ‘lie on the ice to catch a carp’ mechanic? Devs, please, have some mercy…” Wang Yue grumbled, referencing an old tale of extreme self-sacrifice.
She gripped the wheel with her bare hand. As her body heat transferred, she felt a damp sensation against her palm. The ice was actually melting!
“So cold!”
She couldn’t hold on for long. She let go, bringing her hand to her mouth to blow warm air on it, trying to bring life back to her frozen palm.
In the blink of an eye, the frost began to creep back over the wheel.
It was going to be a war of attrition.
“We have to take turns warming it.”
Wang Yue realized the trick; this was a cooperative challenge.
She warmed it first until she couldn’t stand the cold anymore, then Medeili reached out to take over. Soon, Medeili’s fingers also went numb with pain.
Wang Yue swapped back in.
Medeili pulled her hand back, tucking it into her clothes and rubbing it against her body for warmth.
The two of them took turns until the troublesome ice finally melted. They turned the handwheel, the drive shaft retracted the bolts, and the vault door opened with a heavy creak.
Boom!
Caught off guard, a torrent of ice and snow surged out from the corridor. Wang Yue was knocked back onto her backside. The shield around her froze and shattered instantly!
She slid across the sand for a distance before she managed to trigger her Mana Fountain Shield.
Propping up the shield, she pushed forward against the freezing wind. After a few steps, she realized something was wrong. Her Mana Fountain Shield was being consumed at an incredible rate, requiring a fresh cast every two or three seconds.
“Get back!”
Based on her mana regeneration speed, Wang Yue made a decisive call. Holding the shield steady, she backed away slowly until they were clear of the corridor.
The situation had been incredibly dangerous. If she had hesitated for even a moment, they would have been buried inside.
After waiting for five full minutes, the blast finally subsided.
The two of them re-entered the passage. This time, they met no resistance and reached the end smoothly.
Before them stood a stone cup carved from grayish-white, transparent calcite. Its carvings were intricate and strange, shaped like a cluster of octopus tentacles rising from sea foam, cradling a massive giant clam shell.
The walls of the cup were smooth and white with a glazed sheen. Inside sat a pool of pure, beautiful blue liquid that looked like a solution of heavy metal salts.
“Is this a Fluid Regalia?” Wang Yue guessed.
“Deep Blue Aria,” Medeili spoke up, having been quiet for a long time. “There are several universal templates for Fluid Regalia. This is one of them.”
“You know your stuff. Put it on.”
“Me?” Medeili blinked, startled.
“Yeah. We need to balance our strength. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket,” Wang Yue explained.
Medeili looked at her, a trace of worry hidden in her gaze.
“Hurry up, we need to get out of here,” Wang Yue urged.
“Yue,” the orange-haired girl whispered, her lashes lowered, her voice strained. “Have you ever heard the story of the Gingerbread Man?”
Wang Yue shook her head, looking at her in confusion.
Medeili began to tell the tale:
“Once, there was a Gingerbread Man. His skin was crispy ginger biscuit the color of toasted wheat. His eyes were two dates. His body was baked from hundreds of pounds of flour, honey, brown sugar, candied fruit, and orange peel. He smelled wonderful.
“The Gingerbread Man lived in a Lead-Grey city where every industry was failing and the streets were desolate. People worked all day and night, yet they still starved.
“He pitied those people. He couldn’t bear to see their misery.
“He let a starving little girl eat his fingers. He let a family of flower farmers, who had lost everything when the snow crushed their greenhouse, eat his arms to help them survive the winter.
“Slowly, his body became full of holes. He gained much, but he lost much more.
“In the end, the broken Gingerbread Man lay on the long dining table of an Almshouse, and the Little Hands of the orphans tore him apart and ate him. All that remained was a warm, beating heart.”
Wang Yue thought about it for a moment and offered her critique:
“How should I put this… it sounds pretty weird. Is it a story about sacrifice?”
“I don’t want you to become like that… My father died because of that. There is too much sadness in this world and too little warmth. If you are only ever good to others, you will lose everything sooner or later.”
Medeili gazed at her, her eyes clouded with a hazy mist.
“Am I like that? I think I’m actually quite selfish. If I were the Gingerbread Man, I might give the girl my fingers, but I wouldn’t save the farmers.”
“You would,” Medeili said with absolute certainty.
“Well… how does the saying go? ‘All disadvantages in this world are due to a person’s lack of ability.’ So, don’t try to talk me out of it. Time will prove everything.”
Wang Yue glanced at the stone cup and spoke in a commanding tone:
“Enough talk. Put it on. Carry out my will.”
That decisiveness reached Medeili, bolstering her confidence and making her expression firm.
“Alright.”
Medeili agreed, crossing her arms to grab the hem of her coat and pulling it up.
“Do I need to take everything off?”
“Yes. If you activate it over clothes, they’ll just be disintegrated.”
Medeili seemed very familiar with this, as if she had encountered Fluid Regalia before.
Amidst the rustle of fabric, her clothes fell to the ground piece by piece. She kicked her shoes to the side. Then, her pink-and-blue panties slid down her smooth hips. She lifted a heel, pulled them off, and since she didn’t know where to put them, she simply dropped them on the floor.
Finally, her slender fingers peeled away her white stockings, revealing plump calves and snowy-white feet.
Wang Yue was momentarily dazed by the sight.
With a serious expression, Medeili reached toward the blue liquid in the stone cup.
The moment her fingertips touched the surface—splash!
The deep blue liquid surged upward, instantly covering her entire body and forming a tight, gelatinous coating. The material looked like a sharkskin swimsuit, with a microscopic structure on the surface that made it super-hydrophobic.
Medeili moved, her feet gliding across the ground. Like a surfer, she zipped around the perimeter of the tunnel in a smooth circle before coming to a steady halt. Then, she performed a back-sliding step, one-two, one-two, friction-less on the floor.
“What kind of ability is this?” Wang Yue asked in amazement.
“The ability of the Deep Blue Aria is to glide along the geometric surface of objects. It’s also puncture-resistant—if a sharp weapon hits me, it will just slide off. It has a great deflection effect on Witchcraft, too… And of course, no one can grab me. I’m very slippery; I’ll just slide right out of their hands,” Medeili explained.
