The clanking of iron armor resonated with a crushing rhythm, drawing closer step by step. The surrounding air grew intensely cold, until their breath began to escape as white mist. Liu Feiyang grabbed Zhang Liyin's arm, pulling her back down the original corridor as silently as humanly possible.
The 'Danger Sense' skill in his mind pulsed with a dull, persistent ache. It wasn't physical pain, but a heavy intuition warning him that the black-armored knight already knew their general location.
"Feiyang... it's following us," Liyin whispered, her voice trembling so severely it was barely intelligible. Her eyes behind her glasses were wide with raw terror. "There are no side paths on the map. Should we run back to the bedroom?"
"No," Feiyang rejected immediately without looking back. "If we run back to the room, Prince Edward will instantly know we snuck out. That balcony door he ordered us to leave unlocked is a trap designed to catch us out."
"Then what are we supposed to do?! Are we just going to stand here and wait for it to drive that axe through our skulls like that other player?!"
Feiyang didn't answer. His mind rapidly scanned the layout of the ancient map. The route to the basement library was entirely blocked by the black knight. However, just past the intersection where they stood, there was a small, faded rectangular symbol that the system hadn't fully uncovered yet. It was much closer than the bedroom.
*'The Old Storeroom'*
"Over here," Feiyang grabbed Liyin's wrist and took long, rapid strides toward the left. The tattered red dress, freed from its lower layers, allowed him to move significantly faster, despite the faint rustle of the fabric.
The clanking of iron behind them suddenly shifted tempo. The slow, rhythmic walk turned into heavy, aggressive stomps. The black knight was speeding up.
Feiyang slammed his shoulder into the heavy wooden door of the old storeroom, forcing it open. Thick dust billowed out, forcing a near cough. He quickly pulled Liyin inside before closing the door as softly as possible, instantly sliding the rust-encrusted iron bolt into place.
The room was pitch-black, cluttered with the wreckage of broken furniture. Liyin collapsed onto the floor, locking her hands over her mouth, weeping soundlessly.
*Thud... Thud...*
The heavy footsteps of the black knight ground to a halt right outside the storeroom door. Absolute silence fell over the space, so profound that the frantic thumping of their own hearts felt loud. Feiyang stood completely still, his back pressed tight against the wooden door, feeling the faint vibrations radiating from the other side.
**[ Passive Skill 'Danger Sense (Low Grade)' Active: Risk Level 80% ]**
The system screen flashed a dim orange status warning. The black knight stood motionless outside the door for what felt like an eternity. There was no voice, no sound of breathing—only the faint, scraping sound of a massive battleaxe dragging lightly against the stone wall outside... *screeech... screeech...*
Eventually, the heavy iron footsteps began to slowly drift away in another direction.
Feiyang let out a long, slow breath. He released his grip on the iron bolt and sank onto an old wooden crate next to Liyin to catch his wind.
"Is... is it gone?" Liyin asked, pushing her glasses up her nose.
"Yeah, it's gone," Feiyang replied, tapping through his system screen to check the remaining time. "But we've lost nearly half an hour. And more importantly... we almost died because the system didn't give us all the rules."
"What do you mean?"
"The rules only told us to buy time from Prince Edward. They never mentioned that this castle has other 'enforcers' patrolling the grounds," Feiyang's eyes narrowed, his gaze turning incredibly cold. "Player No. 7 died because he grabbed what he thought was a 'game-clear item,' but the knight classified it as trespassing into a restricted area without authorization."
Feiyang scanned the dark storeroom, until his gaze caught a specific object sitting on a rotting wooden table in the corner. It caught the faint moonlight filtering through a crack in the ceiling, reflecting a dull gleam.
His system screen instantly flashed a new notification.
**[ Residual Item Detected: Diary of the Villainess's Personal Maid ]**
**[ Unlock Condition: Requires 10 Life Points to read ]**
Feiyang stared at the prompt, his brows knitting together. His remaining Life Points sat at 97. If he paid 10 points, he would drop to 87, significantly increasing his chances of execution tomorrow morning.
But if he remained entirely in the dark... he would probably die tomorrow morning anyway.
A sharp, defiant smile tugged at the corner of Feiyang's mouth. His slender finger reached out and tapped the confirmation button on the holographic screen without a single shred of hesitation.
**[ Deduction of Life Points Confirmed: Your remaining balance is 87 points. ]**
The system screen flashed a brilliant green, and the old diary sitting on the rotting wooden table began to open on its own. The night wind, drifting through the cracks in the ceiling, slowly flipped the yellowed, brittle pages one by one, finally coming to a halt on the final entry written in a frantic, trembling hand.
Liu Feiyang looked down as the words projected off the page, hovering clearly in the air.
*'Day 14 of captivity... Lady Liu Feiyang is not as foolish as everyone thinks. She knows exactly what Prince Edward is doing beneath this castle. That ritual isn't a witch hunt; it's an amalgamation of demonic bloodlines. The prince needs the head of his own fiancée as the final sacrifice. My lady tried to inform the Emperor, but no one believed her... Tomorrow morning will be her execution, and the downfall of the Liu family.'*
The text gradually dissolved, and the diary crumbled away into a pile of fine dust.
Feiyang fell silent for a moment, his gaze darkening. The truth of this game wasn't as simple as playing nice with the prince to survive day by day; it was a deliberate walk toward a execution that had been predetermined from the very start. Prince Edward didn't hate the villainess because of her terrible personality... he needed her 'head' to complete a ritual.
"Feiyang... what did it say in there?" Zhang Liyin asked, shuffling closer, her face still filled with anxiety as she kept a wary eye on the room's perimeter.
"We aren't playing a standard villainess game anymore," Feiyang said evenly. He stood up slowly, brushing the dust off his now tattered red dress. "The prince doesn't want to kill me out of annoyance. He needs my head to complete some twisted ritual beneath this castle."
Liyin's jaw dropped. "Then... then no matter how much time we buy, isn't he still going to come and chop your head off tomorrow morning anyway?!"
"Yes, if I just sit around waiting in the bedroom," Feiyang sneered. His sharp gaze locked onto the ancient map in his hand once more. The system had now revealed a small, hidden path connecting directly from the back of this old storeroom down to the basement—a route that bypassed the black knight entirely.
"The system told us to stall the execution as long as possible... but it never said we couldn't shatter the protagonist's ritual," Feiyang said, his tone laced with defiance.
He walked over to the dark corner at the back of the storeroom and began pushing aside the old, stacked wooden crates. Beneath the wreckage of the furniture, a stone trapdoor was revealed, its iron pull-ring covered in a thick layer of rust.
"Liyin, you wait here and keep watch for me. If anything goes wrong, message me through the system immediately."
"But I..." Liyin hesitated visibly, fear still gripping her heart. But looking into Feiyang's dark yet unwavering eyes, she grit her teeth and nodded. "Understood... be careful."
Feiyang pulled on the iron ring with all his strength. The trapdoor groaned open with a faint, scraping creak, revealing a narrow stone staircase that descended into the absolute darkness below. A musty odor and a bone-chilling draft rushed up to meet his face, making his skin crawl.
He stepped down one stride at a time, one hand gripping the rough stone wall while the other held the hem of his cumbersome dress tight. He kept his footsteps as silent as possible. The 'Danger Sense' skill began to flash rapidly in his mind once more, but it wasn't orange or red... this time, it was an oppressive, deep violet.
The stone stairs terminated at a subterranean corridor. At the far end of the hallway, the flickering light of a torch illuminated the tall, slender silhouette of a man standing with his back turned toward an ancient stone altar.
The figure wore a pitch-black Longchamp robe, his shoulder-length black hair catching the dim light. And as the man slowly turned around...
Prince Edward's razor-sharp golden eyes locked directly onto Feiyang.
The prince didn't display a single shred of surprise. Instead, the corner of his mouth curled into a faint smile, as if he had been waiting for his fiancée's arrival all along.
"You arrived sooner than I expected... Liu Feiyang," the prince said flatly, yet a massive wave of pressure instantly crashed against Feiyang, rendering him almost unable to move.