Chapter 8: Ninth Fortress 8

“Now, let’s talk. What’s your background?” Lola sat quietly by An He’s bedside. She set the bread back on the plate and stopped feeding her, clearly intending to have a serious conversation.

“I’ve already told Professor Su.” An He swallowed the bread in her mouth. “You must have seen the evaluation form. I didn’t lie.”

“So you know about Professor Su’s Innate Talent.” Lola eyed her intently. “But that doesn’t prove anything. In front of Su Ling, as long as you truly believe what you’re saying, it’s not a lie.”

Heh, easier said than done.

How could someone fabricating a story possibly believe their own lies? That would take some serious mental gymnastics to fool the brain itself.

An He looked at Lola’s calm face and paused, suspicion flickering in her eyes. “So that’s why you can stay by Professor Su’s side?”

Lola didn’t answer.

No way. An He was secretly shocked. Could Lola really believe her own lies?

This world’s people have some downright bizarre thought processes.

“You have a problem,” An He said with one hundred percent certainty.

“You’re the same.” This time, Lola didn’t refute her. “We’re kindred spirits. I could tell at a glance that you’re special. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be talking to you.”

No one had ever spotted what was off about Lola.

But when beasts emitting the same scent crossed paths in the jungle, no matter how well they hid, they could always detect each other’s odor with uncanny sharpness.

An He repeated her words: “We’re kindred spirits…”

Are we?

The muscles around her eye sockets tightened slightly, giving her the look of a feline predator zeroing in before the pounce.

Lola noticed An He’s subtle expression. She straightened up, her lips parting gently as the air between them coalesced into solemn words: “Valvien’s Heroic Spirit.”

An He: ?

What the hell?

It sounded like an oath, but here and now, coming from Lola, there was only one possibility—this was a code phrase.

Lola was testing An He’s identity, and she had no idea what the second half was.

An He racked her brains, hesitating before replying: “Eyes bulging like copper bells?”

It didn’t quite match, but at least it rhymed.

Lola: …

She stood up, the warmth vanishing from her eyes in an instant. With a flick of her wrist, a silver-glinting dagger slid silently from her sleeve into the gaps between her fingers.

The dagger was exquisitely crafted, only finger-length and razor-thin. An He could tell at a glance it wasn’t from the Ninth Fortress.

She had observed the bustling markets on her way in—the Ninth Fortress did smelt metal, but all their tools and vehicles prioritized raw utility: crude, unadorned practicality. People wouldn’t chase aesthetics until they achieved true stability. Yet this blade bore delicate engravings.

An He locked eyes with Lola, her left hand secretly clenching into a fist.

But the sharp blade didn’t fall on An He.

Lola tugged open her collar slightly and drew a thin cut in the hollow of her left collarbone. Then, she pressed a finger to the wound, digging out a metal chip from beneath her collarbone.

Blood pooled in the dip of her neck, but Lola didn’t so much as blink. She simply dabbed away the blood with rough burlap from her pocket.

An He’s heart pounded. A ruthless one.

Lola pinched the fingernail-sized chip between her thumb and forefinger. That, too, wasn’t Ninth Fortress tech.

Picking up where she’d left off: “An He, even if you had no issues before. Now, you do.”

She seized An He’s restrained left hand, positioned the chip against the wound from the Bone Eater’s scratch, pried open the nearly healed flesh, and shoved the chip deep into the gap.

An He broke out in cold sweat from the instant pain. The metal’s unyielding hardness clashed with her flesh, raising a small lump on her arm. The intense foreign object sensation, wrapped in agony, made her scalp tingle.

Her gaze turned icy, but she said nothing, didn’t struggle. She waited silently as Lola secured it.

Lola pressed her fingertip against the slightly raised skin, pushing down mercilessly: “When your corpse gets discarded, I’ll retrieve it.”

That held two years’ worth of painstakingly gathered data. She still had a chance to get it back.

“You’re framing me,” An He said through the pain. Lola’s scheme was crystal clear: planted evidence, frame job. An He looked up. “But this alone might not be enough.”

“It’s not on its own,” Lola replied calmly. “I’ve seen Professor Su’s mental evaluation of you. She still harbors doubts—which is perfect. I’ve already told her you deliberately infected yourself with the fungus, and you entered the fortress to spread Bone Erosion Disease throughout the Ninth Fortress.”

An He frowned. “What do you mean?”

She didn’t catch on right away.

“You’re an Embedded Spirit Body, immune to Bone Erosion Disease. But the fortress residents aren’t. And conveniently, Heidi brought you through the markets, where Helitanskia made contact with you both. How suspicious. She came down with an incurable case of Bone Erosion Disease.” Lola pocketed the dagger and stood, her eyes still as water.

An He’s heart clenched sharply. She still remembered the long-named lady smiling as she handed Heidi an apple. “She’s infected with Bone Erosion Disease?”

“Second stage. Just started showing fever symptoms.”

“I never touched her,” An He said firmly.

“Of course you didn’t.”

Lola didn’t sit again. She loomed over An He from the bedside. “Helitanskia works in the mines. Years ago, infected miners hid without reporting and got stuck in crevices. A few days back, she scratched herself on a toe bone embedded in the soil layer during her shift.”

Lola stuffed the bloodied burlap into her pocket. “But who would know? When she came to me for help, I told her it was a gift from the gods for her future child—convinced her to keep quiet. She missed her treatment window. See, you’ve been in the fortress a full day now—enough to cover the incubation gap. Professor Su and the commander will think you brought the fungus and infected the poor lady. After all, you’re the only one with confirmed diagnostic records.”

An He pressed her lips tight.

She hadn’t realized she’d been marked from the moment she entered. Was it when Heidi mentioned the screening? Or after Asta was taken? She’d ignored her instincts, missed the danger.

Helitanskia handing over the apple was likely at Lola’s behest. Even without that, as Su Ling’s assistant, Lola had a thousand ways to trick the lady into contact.

Lola hadn’t gotten her hands dirty. She’d simply turned a blind eye to a resident’s outbreak.

An He lowered her gaze halfway, nameless fury rising. “You knew Bone Erosion Disease had appeared in the fortress. Why not report it?”

“Why report something you can use?” Lola’s expression was ice-cold. “I’ve always had exposure risks, so I prepared a backup. Now you’re here—perfect to pin it on.”

An He could hardly believe it.

Lola paused. “You’ll be branded a spy. Heidi will face repercussions. And of course, Asta’s treatment ends. With Bone Erosion fungus potentially spreading wide, everyone will be too busy saving themselves.

“Of course, the chaos might get contained. But by then, casualties will be heavy. As the researcher who helped Professor Su identify Bone Erosion Disease, I’ll be indispensable.”

An He realized Lola had calculated every step for maximum gain. She wouldn’t be exposed—in fact, she’d be retained as key personnel. All at the cost of destroying the fortress.

Something blazed fiercely in An He’s mind.

How could anyone in this era disregard an entire fortress’s safety to let Bone Erosion Disease run rampant? She’d underestimated the malice and greed war had bred in humanity.

And Asta and Heidi would be dragged down with her.

An He furrowed her brow. She’d barely saved Asta’s life—now to let the warrior die bedridden, helpless? Absurd!

She lowered her eyes, forcing her heartbeat to steady. Her clenched palms stung where nails dug in.

Lola leaned down, brushing An He’s neck.

An He opened her eyes to meet hers, black irises like stagnant water: “Now, are you going to silence me?”

Lola paused. “No need for me to do it. That bread you just swallowed…”

“No need to lie to me.” An He cut her off. “You hadn’t confirmed if I was your ally yet. You wouldn’t poison the bread.”

Lola’s face cracked into a rare, genuine smile. “Heidi described you accurately. You’re truly unafraid of death. I can’t use it to provoke you into losing control. Looks like you’re even better suited as a spy than me—I’ll tell Professor Su that. You have real dead-man potential.”

An He hadn’t expected Heidi’s praise to become evidence of her spy credentials.

“Rest assured, I won’t take your voice.” Lola’s fingers traced the vein on her neck. “It’s better if you can talk. Tell Su Ling everything we said today. That way, I can play the victim, justify a full investigation into you, vent my ‘hostility,’ and dig out that chip.”

An He got it. Lola wasn’t chattering idly. She wasn’t the talkative type. Every word today was bait in a net.

She wanted An He to tattle, the more horrifying and detailed, the better. No matter what An He said, Lola could effortlessly flip it all back on her.

She knew An He’s mental state was shaky—negative credibility with Su Ling.

Seamless. One ring locking into the next.

With Lola fanning the flames, Thorn Lamp would conclude a death-defying but sloppy spy had been caught by the tail right away. Amid Bone Erosion chaos, no one would dig deeper.

Good. A terrifyingly meticulous plan.

An He stared at Lola. Her instincts were spot-on: Lola was a monster. In just two days since An He arrived, she’d devised a full counter. Comms in this world must be primitive, or the Ninth Fortress would’ve been dust.

Why didn’t Gu Xianqing warn me about this one?

Lola took in An He’s expression. “But first, a little gift. Your unstable mental state? Frontal and temporal lobe damage makes sense. It’ll make your Nestsoul go haywire—your words will match your ‘condition.'”

Lola pulled a finger-length syringe from her pocket, filled with a peanut-sized blob of milky liquid. An He’s gut screamed: dangerous drug.

She drew a deep breath, watching silently.

Lola’s featureless face drew close. She leaned in, the needle piercing An He’s skin. The metal was icy, but compared to the rage boiling in An He’s chest, it was nothing.

The moment Lola pressed the plunger, an explosion of raw emotion detonated in An He’s eyes. The feelings she’d deliberately suppressed erupted like magma breaching a dam!

Hostility, pity, rage, regret—blending like spilled paints into a sharpened blade.

An He twisted her wrist violently. Her pinky and ring finger snapped instantly. Combined with the half-fist slack she’d prepared, her entire left hand slid free from the restraint. In a blink, the gripped pencil stabbed toward Lola’s collarbone wound!

Pain from the broken fingers? Ignored, like Asta would.

They were close—too close. The pencil hit true, spearing the neck hollow.

An He felt the tip’s resistance plunging into flesh, like churning mud.

She wrenched her wrist. The pencil spun, graphite snapping off inside Lola’s meat.

Lola never pressed the plunger. She recoiled, cold sweat beading on her forehead from the pain. Like An He, she didn’t cry out—silently endured the shoulder wound.

But An He yanked the pencil free and lunged for Lola’s eye.

An He’s strike was blindingly fast! A blur in the air, the pencil hurtling with brain-pulping force toward the body’s most fragile point—the eyeball!

Lola snapped up her hand—not bare, but summoning a creature to block.

A pitch-black Bushcat: tall-eared, long-legged. Lithe and agile, it pounced and clamped jaws on An He’s wrist.

Lola had summoned her Nestsoul.

An He kept her head slightly lowered, her eyes visible through her disheveled hair fierce and silent like a savage beast. She ignored the Bushcat’s gnawing entirely, tossed aside the pencil, and forced her hand back. With the three fingers she could still move, she swiftly undid the restraints on her right hand and feet.

In her vision, Lola’s attempts to stop her slowed to an extreme crawl, as if the air had been filled with water, stretching out even the sound of the buckles falling.

The entire space held only An He’s swift, fluid movements. She pushed off the metal bed, flipping upright in a fierce surge. The moment her bare feet hit the stone floor, five enormous Ravens burst forth from her body!

Her mind swelled drum-tight, and An He nearly lost control again—but this time, she deliberately reined it in.

No chaotic noises erupted. In the Research Lab, aside from the faint clink and drop of buckles, nothing else stirred—no person, no thing.

The two stood at opposite corners, locked in confrontation. A calm yet surging killing intent filled the space around them, the air whipping fiercely like a towering wave crashing down.

The Research Lab fell into a terrifying silence.

An He’s beige patient gown was speckled with blood. Lola’s white researcher uniform was stained red from her wound. At their sides, six black Nestsouls glared at each other in hostility.

The Ravens hovered behind An He’s shoulders. Each was twice the size of a normal crow, their hard beaks like steel blades. Their wings weren’t purely black; under the glare of the white lights, they shimmered with blue-purple highlights.

An He’s figure was enveloped by the five massive birds, making her seem both infinitesimally small and utterly chilling.

Whoosh!

The Ravens dove mercilessly at the Bushcat, clamping onto its nape in the blink of an eye.

At the same instant, An He charged barefoot at Lola. Lola had only just raised the dagger in her hand when An He closed the distance. In An He’s eyes, Lola moved far too slowly—like a stuttering, frame-skipping cartoon.

Lola realized it then: An He had unleashed a massive surge of mental energy!

An He clamped her right hand around Lola’s throat, her gaze icy cold like a bloodthirsty predator. She growled low, “Don’t push me.”

Lola had never imagined seeing such a chilling look in the eyes of someone so docile.

She also hadn’t realized a person’s speed could reach such heights. Now she knows An He’s Innate Talent, Lola thought—the perfect warrior material.

One Raven’s beak pecked at Lola’s shoulder and ankle, tearing flesh in a bloody mess. Lola finally couldn’t hold back a wince. Gritting her teeth against the pain, she shot back, “Are you going to kill me?”

Lose control, kill her, then flee in guilt? How stupid. She wouldn’t survive it, and An He wouldn’t last here either.

Lola laughed despite the chokehold stealing her breath.

An He was calmer than expected. “No, I’m not going to kill you.”

She wouldn’t kill Lola—it held no meaning for her. It was just like the method Lola had taught her moments ago.

Lola was the first spy she’d encountered, hailing from the First Fortress—that place with the circular seal.

An He planned to use her, uncover her own identity, and ideally infiltrate the First Fortress in reverse.

Before that, she’d leverage Lola to track down the infection source in the Ninth Fortress mines, expose Helitanskia, and halt the widespread outbreak of Bone Erosion Disease.

Borrowing momentum took far less time than building her own power base.

Lola had miscalculated. An He hadn’t lost control this time—she was ice-cold calm, which was why she’d held back until now.

“Let me tell you something,” An He whispered. “The pattern Professor Su showed me was wrong. It’s not a tree—it’s rivers merging into the sea. And not a dove-like bird, but an eagle. Right?”

She recalled the school emblem’s details.

A pattern brimming with ambition, indeed.

Lola’s composed expression shattered like cracking ice. She stared at An He in shock. “How do you know that…? You’re not… “

Seeing Lola’s reaction sparked a new idea in An He. She tightened her grip. “You’ve got calluses on your hands—you’ve been out in the field for at least three or four years, maybe longer, right? Didn’t anyone tell you? The organization’s recognition phrase changed ages ago. Now it’s…”

She remembered the red sun symbol on the seal and spoke slowly. “Now it’s—’The rising sun.’ And when I say that, you should respond, ‘The era is calling.'”

Lola’s eyes widened in an instant, her mind plunging into brief chaos. The deputy had mentioned it: the new Golden Age was calling them.

“You’re with the Heroic Spirits Society?” Panic flickered in Lola’s eyes, then vanished.

Whatever the Heroic Spirits Society was.

“Yes, I am,” An He replied.