Lin Xiu took out the Tri-facet Military Dagger and stabbed it hard into the wall crack pointed out by Li Wei.
As if pressing some kind of hidden mechanism, the moss-covered wall instantly caved in. With a rumble, the sound of internal machinery operating echoed through the concrete and into the ears of the boy and girl.
"What era is this, to still have a hidden compartment like a secret room? I thought it would be completely high-tech, like something out of a science fiction novel."
Yet clearly, in Heixia, the appearance of either high-tech machinery or primitive masterpieces was never surprising. At its core, it was a realm where all fantasy and reality intertwined.
Only those standing outside the cage would voice such outdated questions.
"Which do you think stands out more here: a high-tech research institute or a grave robber's secret chamber?"
"Of course it's a grave robber's... wait... huh?"
Lin Xiu carefully considered the girl's question, realizing that his subconscious thoughts did not quite align with reality.
Behind an abandoned building, would a dilapidated look or a brand-new look stand out more?
The answer was self-evident.
"So you see, with a bit of reverse thinking, it becomes clear whether secrets of this kind or those of the other sort are more closely related to what's inside."
The Witch, with a solemn expression, removed the boy's hand from the dagger's hilt, urged him to watch his surroundings, and announced that she would handle the next operation.
Though Lin Xiu was reluctant to accept this, he ultimately agreed to her actions.
With a strength that certainly did not belong to someone of her age, the girl forcefully twisted the embedded Tri-facet Military Dagger 180 degrees, causing the sunken, fractured pieces of composite concrete to clatter down around her feet.
After about two or three minutes, this abandoned "ancient tomb" finally revealed the appearance it had concealed.
Standing before Lin Xiu and Li Wei was an inner wall made of off-white sub-superconducting material, with indistinct, staggered grid layers. The tiny display screen in the center layer used a light-transmitting substance that was clearly beyond the level of current reality.
Li Wei was certain this was something concocted by Yuyu Kami, though she could not determine whether magic was involved.
"Is this... a combination lock or something?"
Lin Xiu pressed the screen a few times, triggering a few normal doorbell chimes—even a variation of a currently popular pop song's chorus.
Li Wei, however, understood the joke. "Yuyu's crowd really have terrible tastes in humor, though their taste in music isn't bad..."
"We've come this far, using a doorbell like this to cover things up doesn't really serve any purpose anymore, does it?"
The boy scratched his head and remarked.
He swung his fists a few times, clearly wanting to punch it a few more times or hack it open with the Tri-facet Military Dagger hidden in his sleeve.
Li Wei, on the other hand, was extremely cautious. Frowning at him, she chose not to directly use the dagger in her hand to break through this final "blockade."
"Wait, Lin Xiu, don't move around just yet..."
Li Wei gently placed her right hand on the Jinglian Bracelet (a Tier-1 magical artifact with Max Magic Sensing), touching and stroking it twice as if soothing an animal's fur.
Ugh! Just as expected!
The Witch displayed a supernatural keenness of smell.
So... she had anticipated all along that this place would be discovered by other magicians, or rather, had she anticipated that it would be me and Lin Xiu from the very beginning?
To think she would resort to her trump card right at the first obstacle—Melodic Magic (any orderly melody that enters the ear causes poisoning, growing deeper as time passes)—and play psychological warfare with us...
"Xiu!"
It was the first time Li Wei had called the boy by his name in such a truncated manner.
Yet when he turned his head, Lin Xiu was already supporting his head and slowly squatting down, his vision plagued by shimmering hallucinations.
"Damn it, my father said my resistance to magic was very weak... looks like it's true..." (At the time, he hadn't even believed that magic existed.)
Though he was reluctant to admit it, a genuine sense of crisis was welling up inside the boy.
From Li Wei's estimation, his heart rate had already begun to fluctuate irregularly. Perhaps because a Pupil Master's resistance to magic was exceptionally low, his reaction was no different from an ordinary person's, or even slightly worse.
"Is this... some kind of magic?"
His previously robust voice had grown faint and delicate.
Before Li Wei could anxiously extend her arm to help him, the boy stood up on his own, gazing resolutely at the wall in front of him, where the electronic screen flickered twice.
"In your current state, you really shouldn't push yourself."
"Li Wei, you must be affected by it too, so there's no need to say things like that right now."
"Tsk... You really are something!"
The beautiful girl was angry, though her anger stemmed from concern for Lin Xiu, the fact was—she wanted to walk over and shove him aside.
Yet, in an unexpected turn of events, Lin Xiu hoisted the Tri-facet Military Dagger and struck the high-tech electronic lock on the grid layer.
And not just once.
Twice, three times, four times...
Li Wei was too stunned to speak. She never expected that a boy who looked nowhere near sturdy enough to easily smash through rock-solid alloy materials without even casting a magical tool could achieve the impossible.
Terrifying...
After a few heavy blows, although the outer layer had been swiftly hammered away, the electronic lock still held fast at the final entrance, like a guard standing resolutely to the death.
"Can you let me do the rest, please?"
Li Wei asked politely.
"No, if it's going to be done, finish it directly. No need for help."
Lin Xiu refused to give it any breathing room. Facing this electronic lock, he finally had no choice but to use that "Demon Eye" he so desperately wished to avoid.
Before Li Wei could pay close attention, the boy—cast aside as a failure by his own Pupil Master family—used the light reflected in his pupils to "invade" the screen before him.
In less than a few seconds, the entire screen was flooded with chaotic, red programming error codes.
*Click*—the final barrier swung open.
Is this the masterpiece of a Pupil Master's actions? Or were the things my father and mother told me untrue?
"Pupil power can only contend with magic through external force, and can never dismantle any magic-infused system from its foundations."
Ancient or modern, magical or scientific, technical or theoretical—it should always be this way.
Yet this boy...
Had achieved a result that defied conventional understanding.
"OK, nothing special. Just tapped a few times and it broke. Turns out basic skills really do work universally."
Lin Xiu was lying. He was lying right in front of the Witch.
Or perhaps, deep within his memories, the definition of supernatural abilities like "pupil power" no longer existed.
"I had no idea you were a programming master? When did you learn such high-tech stuff?"
Li Wei merely threw out a sarcastic remark, not expecting any real answer from the boy, and instead grabbed him and hurried further inside.
"Wait, wait? We're just going straight in?"
Still dazed, Lin Xiu felt his heart rate accelerate once again because of her warm hand.
———He was certain it wasn't just the effects of magic causing this discomfort.
The surrounding walls seemed coated in some kind of optical paint, visible only when close, and the direction the two of them were running was not a straight line forward, but a spiral, sloping gently downward.
There was no knowing where it would end up.
Li Wei wanted to use something, but thinking of the hand she held tightly in her own, she ultimately gave up.
The meager white crystal lamps had at least managed to warm this cold, gloomy secret passage slightly, but as they plunged deeper, it was as if they had triggered a sensor.
The environment grew harsher and harsher.
"It's hard to imagine how many tricks were pulled off just to keep people from finding this back door."
"Am I... going to get weaker and weaker now?" Lin Xiu panted heavily, his hands and feet growing slightly cold as he glanced back over his shoulder.
The path they had come from was no longer visible.
Thinking carefully, Li Wei's extensive knowledge of magic already exceeded the amount of information obtainable through her own corporate family background.
Though it was hard to voice it aloud, the boy already knew that the teenage girl he called a Witch was, in all likelihood, a true "Witch."
Running at this pace, the direction they were heading was clearly not the interior of the building, but its depths.
"Our descent speed is going to get faster and faster very soon. We have to finish the fight in a short time, or both you and I might kick the bucket here."
A fight—
Who was the target? What was the purpose of this operation? To retrieve the nine thousand dollars stolen by Yuyu Yiyi? Or to directly eliminate this organization?
Or perhaps it was simply an adventure?
Yet no answer was needed; following Li Wei meant everything would be fine, right? Lin Xiu thought this as if his mind were becoming unstable.
"Won't we be... ambushed along the way?"
"Ambushed? If you ask me, it's us who are going to ambush them." Li Wei replied airily.
Lin Xiu, of course, had no idea what she meant.
"What do you mean?"