These three deadbolts only engaged under the highest level of security!
None were ordinary; they were reinforced, fireproof, and shock-resistant.
Once this main door sealed, its effectiveness rivaled the sealed stone doors of the Death Prison. It interlocked with the windows, the roof, and every other vulnerable point, turning the entire seventh floor of the Myriad Ancient Pagoda into a massive, impenetrable metal box.
Sealing the seventh floor was a wise move during a powerful enemy assault.
The entire seventh floor had just slowly sealed itself shut right in front of Fang Chengming and Yan Jiu.
Had they arrived a moment earlier, they might have caught sight of the closing doors.
Taking in the scene before him, Wan Chengming furrowed his brow, while Yan Jiu looked pleased.
The seventh-floor doors were locked down, yet only a few corpses of the Fanggu Pagoda guards lay before them.
There was no sign of Bai Yuechan, Jiang Yue, or Li Ban, who had just come upstairs.
Whether it was Jiang Yue or the ambiguously aligned Li Ban, they were only at the early 3rd Tier or 4th Tier. They were no match for Bai Yuechan, who had brought along three 4th Tier guards!
As long as Bai Yuechan successfully secured the evidence of Fang Chengming's Mutated Element, their plan for today would be half-accomplished.
Given this, Yan Jiu could not allow Wan Chengming to enter the seventh floor and stop Bai Yuechan's group.
She immediately lunged forward, intending to block him.
Wan Chengming's gaze flickered. As the tower master, he had the authority to open the sealed seventh floor.
However...
After a brief moment of thought, he decided to deal with the external trouble first. As long as he captured the First Prince, Li Yuan, he would eliminate the root of the problem. When that time came, catching the people inside the seventh floor would be like shooting fish in a barrel.
Both sides unexpectedly reached a silent consensus regarding the seventh floor incident, and the two retreated to the sixth floor.
Upon returning, they found the previously stalemated battle had suddenly shifted.
Seeing Wan Chengming descend from the seventh floor, Du An, who had been struggling to fend off his enemies, abruptly accelerated. The silver light he had previously concealed suddenly shot out from behind him.
Although these silver fragments could not easily reach Gao Jingyan's vitals, they briefly restricted his movements.
After unleashing Skinning on a large scale, Du An's speed surged once more. He blurred into a phantom, displaying a speed that absolutely did not belong to the 4th Tier.
He dashed in front of Gao Jingyan, who barely had time to register surprise, and muttered, "My Skinning skills are average, but I've practiced Tendon Puller the longest."
With a swing of his long arm, the slender black whip in his hand seemed to come alive, darting into Gao Jingyan's blind spot.
Gao Jingyan tried to lash out with his own whip to intercept, only to realize his weapon's speed couldn't even catch the afterimage of Du An's whip.
A second later, he felt a sharp, tearing pain at the back of his head, as if a venomous snake had burrowed beneath his skin.
His eyes bulged, his mouth hanging slightly open. He instinctively raised his free hand to claw at his nape, but halfway up, his arm suddenly lost all its strength.
A sickening sound like tearing silk echoed, followed by a wet gush of spraying blood and the collective gasp of everyone present.
Gao Jingyan stared into Du An's black pupils. In their reflection, he saw something being violently yanked out of the back of his own head.
He collapsed, his face frozen in utter shock.
Du An stepped back, retracting his long whip.
Tangled at the tip of the whip was a strangely familiar section of yellow bone.
"You... you didn't get poisoned—"
Gao Jingyan's lips moved, but no sound came out. Yet, Du An understood what he meant from his astonished expression.
Du An unhurriedly raised his hand, revealing a wrist marked with a dark green stain.
He gently rubbed his other thumb over it. "This color was quite hard to mix."
Gao Jingyan's eyes widened.
Thud!
He fell face-first onto the floor.
On his back, blood only trickled faintly from his cervical vertebrae.
Not much.
Very clean.
This sudden strike, killing Gao Jingyan in such a shockingly brutal manner, stunned everyone around them, friend and foe alike.
A few soldiers nearly retched.
Even the members of the Myriad Ancient Pagoda, who spent their days surrounded by corpses, felt deeply unsettled.
Some of them had extracted bones before, but typically from dead bodies.
Pulling them directly out of a living person was something none of them had ever tried.
After killing Gao Jingyan, Du An ignored the other spirit practitioners. With a flick of his whip, the nearby enemies all staggered back two steps, clearing a path.
Du An walked straight down that path to Wan Chengming's side. Yan Jiu had naturally also noticed that Du An wasn't poisoned. With the ambushes against the Myriad Ancient Pagoda and the Death Prison completely failing, she knew she had likely been played from the very beginning.
Yan Jiu retreated to Li Yuan, who was sealed within an ice shield. Aside from a few 3rd Tier and 4th Tier personal guards, she had no other qualified helpers by her side. Suddenly, the ice shield surrounding the First Prince vanished.
Li Yuan, having finished healing his injuries, reappeared.
It was unknown what healing method he had used inside the ice, but he now showed no signs of the weakness caused by his shattered element. His overall aura felt even more oppressive than before.
Even Wan Chengming and Du An didn't attack immediately.
During his icy confinement, Li Yuan's personal guards had been fending off the Myriad Ancient Pagoda forces for him.
Seeing that their prince was unharmed, they all breathed a sigh of relief.
Li Yuan opened his eyes and swept his gaze over the battlefield.
He saw Du An standing shoulder to shoulder with Wan Chengming, and Gao Jingyan's corpse lying on the floor. Surprisingly, the anger he had shown earlier was nowhere to be seen.
He glanced at Yan Jiu. "Where is Bai Yuechan?"
Staring at Wan Chengming and Du An, Yan Jiu answered in a low voice, "They successfully entered the seventh floor. However, it's sealed now, so we don't know the situation inside."
Li Yuan gave a slight nod. "Is the assassin dead?"
Yan Jiu froze, then said with difficulty, "She escaped."
Li Yuan slowly turned to look at Yan Jiu. "Trash."
The personal guards beside him stayed silent, pretending they hadn't heard a thing.
Yan Jiu gritted her teeth and didn't speak.
Although she was the Ninth Princess, her status in their Imperial Father's heart could not compare to her eldest and second brothers at all.
In fact, if her Imperial Father hadn't suddenly sought her out, she wouldn't have even known she possessed royal blood.
And though she had gone from a slave to a princess, it still hadn't changed her life of servitude.
She had suspected multiple times that her Imperial Father brought her back just to act as a dog for his other children.
Facing the reprimand, Yan Jiu endured it as she always did.
Besides, being called "trash" wasn't even the worst insult she had heard.
At this critical juncture in breaching the Myriad Ancient Pagoda, Li Yuan also didn't have time to assign blame.
"If that's the case, then there's nothing else to be done."
Li Yuan raised his hand. The pinky finger of his left hand abruptly turned ice-blue, and an instant chill enveloped the entire sixth floor.
He clearly didn't make any major movements, yet everyone nearby sank into a state of paralysis.
Even Wan Chengming, who had just been forcefully resisting the icy aura, was instantly covered in frost. For a moment, only his eyes could barely move.
"After tonight, not a single person here will be left alive."
Li Yuan tapped a finger against Yan Jiu. The frost on her body receded instantly.
Her teeth were still chattering when she heard Li Yuan's order: "Go kill Du An."
Meanwhile, Li Yuan slowly walked toward Wan Chengming. Although his face remained expressionless, his eyes were heavy with killing intent.
"Your counter-espionage trick was indeed quite good, throwing many of my arrangements down the drain. Unfortunately, no amount of scheming can overcome true power."
Cracks began to form on Li Yuan's pinky finger. The sharp crackling sound was extremely clear on the quiet sixth floor.
"You forced me to use this ability. Heh, what a pity I don't have the time to kill you by a thousand cuts. Wan Chengming, just die a quick death!"
Outside the door, the sounds of slaughter paused briefly before resuming.
Jiang Yue stood guard behind the door, her fingers constantly relaxing and tightening around the hilt of her sword.
She was terrified that someone would suddenly ram the door from the outside.
Even though she had already completely sealed the seventh floor's main entrance.
Beside Jiang Yue stood another Myriad Ancient Pagoda guard. He was only at the 3rd Tier, a confidant she had promoted after becoming a Floor Master.
But in reality, he was a colleague handed over to her by Chen Dong.
Behind the two of them lay three 4th Tier soldiers.
They were originally the First Prince's trusted aides, sent to protect Bai Yuechan, yet they never expected to die by his hands.
Bai Yuechan had first deceived them, claiming Jiang Yue was the First Prince's subordinate. After leading them to kill the inner guards on the seventh floor, he had immediately closed the main doors.
But right after the doors were shut, while the three were on guard against Jiang Yue, Bai Yuechan had suddenly struck them down.
These three guards would never understand why Bai Yuechan—whom they had protected for several years and who had always been fiercely loyal to the First Prince—would suddenly deal them a lethal blow.
Jiang Yue waited in fear and trepidation for a long time. No one rammed the door, nor did she hear the sound of Wan Chengming forcing it open.
She let out a long breath, knowing that Tower Master Wan would likely deal with the enemies outside first before checking on the situation on the seventh floor.
"Stand guard here. I'll go check on Yun Du."
The other guard was also extremely tense. "Alright."
Even as he nodded, his eyes remained glued to the main door, afraid to look away.
He was terrified that if he blinked, someone would violently burst the door open from the outside.
Jiang Yue turned and jogged toward Tower Master Wan's room. Perhaps because she was too anxious, she didn't notice her own shadow suddenly ripple.
Her heart was incredibly heavy, making her footsteps much more sluggish than usual.
The closer one was to success, the more one feared failure.
The door to Wan Chengming's room had already been smashed open, and the mechanical bookshelf inside had been swung wide.
At this moment, Bai Yuechan was standing in the narrow secret room behind the bookshelf.
Seeing Bai Yuechan's figure, Jiang Yue felt as though she had finally found her pillar of support.
When she had suddenly heard Bai Yuechan call out her Laboratory ID number, "412," during the battle, she had been so shocked she nearly dropped her longsword.
She had never expected the Laboratory to have planted a sleeper agent even in the distant Capital City.
And that it would be the First Prince's trusted confidant, the 5th Tier Bai Yuechan.
This man was actually Yun Du, the Laboratory's primary agent in charge of transferring the Core Element.
After entering the seventh floor, Yun Du had cleanly and efficiently killed his three guards, then ordered Jiang Yue to immediately close the doors and seal the floor.
But at the same time, he had given Jiang Yue the details of a few individuals, telling her to let them in if they arrived before the doors closed.
However, the fight on the sixth floor had been too intense, and with Li Yuan's fierce winds blocking the way, Jiang Yue hadn't seen anyone else enter the seventh floor by the time she locked the three deadbolts.
"Did anyone else get in?" Yun Du, wearing the identity of Bai Yuechan, knew from the footsteps that it was Jiang Yue. He asked without looking back.
"No one. Right now, only the three of us are left on the entire seventh floor."
The original guards on the seventh floor had all been killed by Jiang Yue and the other sleeper agent.
Although it pained Jiang Yue deeply to do it, she had no other choice.
If she had merely knocked them out, and someone woke up halfway through to ruin their plans, the Laboratory would never let her off.
"Not even 444 made it in?" Yun Du frowned, but didn't make any other movements.
One of his hands was pressed against the black-and-white mist inside the secret room.
Just as Qin You had described, that mist resembled a cluster of round grapes, capable of rapidly devouring small chunks of corpses.
It wouldn't disperse when waved at; intertwined with black and white, it rolled and undulated as if it were alive.
It gave off a profoundly mysterious and terrifying aura.
Without any hesitation, Yun Du immediately began the transfer.
And once the transfer started, the Mission Assistance System finally provided its conclusion.
This entity was precisely the Core Element.
Yun Du's current mood mirrored Jiang Yue's, but he kept all his excitement thoroughly hidden.
Now, they were less than an hour away from success.
This final hour felt excruciatingly long.
"Those who failed to enter the seventh floor must do their utmost to stop Wan Chengming's group from opening the doors. Even if it costs their lives," Yun Du said to Jiang Yue. "As for you, you must hold the door. If it comes down to it, use the item I gave you to destroy the lock."
Wan Chengming had a special override for the lock; he could force the doors open from the outside.
If that happened, Jiang Yue's only option to stall for time would be to destroy the lock entirely.
If that still didn't buy enough time, they might have to resort to more extreme methods.
Bai Yuechan kept his right hand pressed against the grape-like mass of black-and-white mist and raised his left hand to his chest.
There was a ring of blue around his left index finger as well.
"This is a Plain Ring Li Yuan prepared to prevent anything from happening to Bai Yuechan. It's a set with the Ice Armor Element Ring he wears himself. Both can withstand powerful external attacks."
Bai Yuechan explained the function of his Plain Ring to Jiang Yue.
"If the seventh floor falls, detonate the explosives immediately. I will activate the Plain Ring to protect myself and the Core Element. You must also delay them as much as possible."
Jiang Yue nodded decisively. "I will! I've also made arrangements. If the external assault gets too intense, the subordinates I left outside will set the tower on fire!"
After confirming that Wan Chengming was the General, the Director had reassigned many operatives to Jiang Yue.
Although only a limited number of them had ultimately infiltrated the Myriad Ancient Pagoda, it still gave Jiang Yue the chance to set up a few extra layers of contingency plans.
If Li Yuan hadn't drawn the attention of everyone in the Myriad Ancient Pagoda, they definitely wouldn't have been able to pull this off.
Yun Du nodded, though the majority of his attention remained fixed on the Core Element.
Right now, nothing could distract him.
It was just that neither of them expected a third person to be listening to their conversation right at this very moment!
Zhai Liu was hiding inside Jiang Yue's shadow.
He was in an exceedingly foul mood.
The Shadow Meld element was something he had given to Li Ban.
But in truth, among the elements he himself had fused, "Shadow Meld" was also one of them.
He had forced Li Ban to fuse with "Shadow Meld," just as he himself had been forced to do back in the day.
Despite being a legitimate prince with a proper identity and rank, the things he did were basically no different from what Li Ban did.
Come to think of it, it was truly ironic!
Earlier, during the chaotic melee on the sixth floor, Zhai Liu had kept his attention solely on Bai Yuechan.
When he saw Bai Yuechan suddenly leave Li Yuan's side and actively attack the seventh-floor guards, he knew things had changed.
He had glanced at Li Ban, who was obviously also quite surprised.
Furthermore, in that situation, Li Ban had zero chance of bypassing Wan Chengming and Li Yuan to get close to Bai Yuechan.
Zhai Liu's original plan was for Li Ban to use the opportunity of assassinating Wan Chengming to first get near Li Yuan, thereby closing the distance to Bai Yuechan, who was beside the First Prince.
But Bai Yuechan's sudden, abnormal movements had thwarted his plan.
Li Ban was still being watched by Li Yuan and Yan Jiu. If he suddenly melted into the shadows, he would undoubtedly be discovered.
In that split second, Zhai Liu knew he had no choice but to step in personally.
So, he pretended to cower in fear in a corner. No one present cared about a madman anyway.
Taking advantage of a moment when no one was looking, he dove into the shadows. By hopping between the shadows of people and nearby objects, he inched closer and closer to the stairs leading to the seventh floor.
Finally, after one last transfer, he slipped into Jiang Yue's shadow.
At that point, Jiang Yue and Bai Yuechan were already a fair distance away from Li Yuan.
If Zhai Liu struck suddenly, there was a chance he could snatch the ocarina before Li Yuan and Bai Yuechan could react.
However, the probability of success for such a move was much lower than if Li Ban had acted according to plan.
Because the curse of the starving ghost made Zhai Liu tremble uncontrollably just looking at Jiang Yue outside the shadow.
His stomach twisted violently, constantly screaming its hunger.
Especially as he got closer to Bai Yuechan and the ocarina on his person, Zhai Liu's inner craving for flesh became increasingly maddening.
He desperately wanted to tackle Jiang Yue before him, pin her to the ground, bite clean through her neck, and suck every single blood vessel in her body dry.
Then, like eating beef tendons or deer sinew, he wanted to stuff all of the woman's muscles and tendons into his mouth and chew, chew, chew...
This crazed, pulsating lust for food was stronger than any curse flare-up he had experienced in the Death Prison.
Even Zhai Liu himself didn't know exactly how long he could hold on.
He only knew that he had to endure.
He had locked himself in the Death Prison and starved for years; he couldn't let it all be ruined in this moment.
Once he got his hands on the ocarina and Bai Yuechan's heartblood, he would be free.
Even though the agony was unbearable, and even though he knew his time hiding in the shadow was limited, Zhai Liu didn't act rashly.
He wanted to wait for a moment when Bai Yuechan's attention was drawn away by someone else before bursting out of Jiang Yue's shadow.
To prevent the other man from activating the ocarina immediately.
Once the ocarina was activated, no matter how much Zhai Liu could endure, he would instantly lose his mind.
Just as he locked onto an opportunity and was about to strike, Bai Yuechan suddenly said four words to Jiang Yue.
"I am Yun Du."
Zhai Liu immediately noticed a change in Jiang Yue's movements.
She went from desperately blocking him to just putting on a show.
The two of them even fought their way closer to the seventh floor.
Afterward, Zhai Liu witnessed how the two of them joined forces to slaughter all the seventh-floor guards, and then ambushed Bai Yuechan's own three guards.
By this point, the development of events had completely exceeded Zhai Liu's expectations.
What was worse, ever since Bai Yuechan said those four words, Jiang Yue had automatically kept her distance from him. Later, she even guarded the main door, letting Bai Yuechan enter Wan Chengming's room alone.
Meanwhile, Bai Yuechan didn't relax his guard from start to finish, as if he knew someone might pop out and attack him at any moment.
This meant Zhai Liu simply couldn't wait out a suitable opportunity.
Moreover, because he was so close to the ocarina, he could barely suppress the curse within him anymore.
Just as Zhai Liu was considering transferring to another shadow, Jiang Yue finally closed the main doors.
Midway through, he had heard footsteps coming up the stairs, but ultimately, not a single person actually walked up.
In other words, the only people left on the seventh floor of the Myriad Ancient Pagoda were three traitors, plus one Zhai Liu.
After closing the doors, Jiang Yue went to report the situation to Yun Du.
Zhai Liu finally had a chance to get close to Bai Yuechan again.
Listening to their conversation, he was also acutely aware that this would be his last chance.
Even if the timing still wasn't great, he had to make his move!