Cen Yao looked at the mist around it.
It didn't fluctuate this time.
It was the truth.
She continued, “What is the king doing right now?”
The crow's eyes began to dart around again.
“Caw, the king is dead! The palace is full of dead people now, there's no point in you going!”
The grayish-black mist jumped again.
Cen Yao raised her hand.
The crow shrieked, “No, no, no! I'll speak! I'll tell the truth!”
Cen Yao's wind blade fell anyway.
This time, it shaved off a row of feathers from the crow's left wing.
The crow stared at its now uneven wing, its eyes completely blank.
“I was already going to tell you!”
Cen Yao said earnestly, “This is the punishment for lying just now. They don't conflict.”
The crow: “...”
How is this Witch even more unreasonable than the one in the tower!
Cen Yao waved her wand. “Continue.”
No longer daring to play any tricks, the crow answered honestly, “The king is preparing a full moon feast for his newborn daughter.”
Cen Yao was slightly taken aback.
“A daughter?”
“Yes, the princess.” The crow shrank its neck. “The queen was dying of illness before. The king got a rainbow-colored flower from somewhere and brewed a soup for the queen to drink. The queen recovered after drinking it and even gave birth to a little princess with hair like gold.”
“When is the full moon feast?”
“In six days.”
“Are you sure?”
The crow immediately raised a wing. “Sure! It's absolutely true this time! I swear on the feathers on my head!”
Cen Yao glanced at the bald patch on its head.
The crow silently lowered its wing.
Cen Yao withdrew her wand.
So they had already reached this point in time.
When she entered the dungeon, she only knew that the rainbow flower had been stolen, but she didn't know how much time had passed since then.
The king stole the rainbow flower, the queen drank the soup brewed from the flower, and she gave birth to Rapunzel.
Now, the princess was a month old.
The System required her to retrieve the Witch's treasure within seven days.
And the full moon feast was in six days.
In other words, the time this dungeon had left for her was very tight.
Cen Yao lowered her eyes.
The power of the rainbow flower had likely already transferred to Rapunzel.
This was going to be troublesome.
Seeing that she wasn't speaking, the crow quietly nudged its way behind the branch.
Cen Yao looked up at it.
The crow immediately froze.
“L-Lady Witch, I've told you everything I know.”
Cen Yao thought for a moment and asked, “Is there an inn in Rose Town?”
The crow nodded like a chicken pecking at grain. “Yes! There's one! The only inn in town, right at the entrance of the town. There's a decapitated goose painted on the sign.”
Cen Yao: “...”
It didn't sound like a respectable inn at all.
But then again, there was no such thing as a respectable inn in a dungeon.
Cen Yao asked a few more questions about the royal capital and Rose Town. After confirming the crow wasn't lying anymore, she finally let it go.
Flapping its wings which were missing a row of feathers, the crow flew away, wobbling unsteadily. Even its back cut a wretched figure, looking like it had barely survived a disaster.
Having held it in for a long time in Cen Yao's mind, the orb finally spoke up, “Host, the way you threatened that crow just now really showed off your Witch style.”
Cen Yao: “Thank you.”
The orb: “It was just a little like a bully.”
Cen Yao: “...”
A Witch and a bully weren't entirely incompatible sometimes.
The phoenix continued flying toward the east.
Perhaps because it was a fairy tale dungeon, night fell exceptionally fast.
The sun, which had been hanging on the horizon just moments ago, seemed to have been swallowed whole by something.
The golden afterglow quickly faded, and a blue-violet twilight crept up from the depths of the forest.
The shadows of the trees stretched very long. From a distance, they looked like countless deformed figures standing on the ground, staring up at her.
Cen Yao glanced at the sky and felt the remaining magic power inside her body.
Not good.
She was currently only an Elementary Witch, and her magic reserve wasn't very large to begin with.
Since entering the dungeon, she had first purified the tower, used the crystal ball for divination, deployed her wings to fly, and then summoned the phoenix to travel, not to mention casting the Appraisal Spell and offensive magic.
The light phoenix itself consumed a lot of magic power.
Not to mention it had already carried her for over two hours.
Now, only thirty to forty percent of her magic power remained.
It wasn't impossible to keep pushing through, but it was unnecessary.
She always kept one rule in mind.
The night in a dungeon was always more dangerous than the day.
Especially the night in a horror dungeon.
During the day, it just wanted the players to die.
At night, it likely wanted the players to die in all sorts of creative ways.
Cen Yao patted the phoenix's back.
“Find a place to stay.”
The phoenix let out a low cry and flew toward the town ahead.
Half an hour later, Cen Yao saw Rose Town.
Though it was called Rose Town, there was not a single hint of romance here.
A crooked wooden sign stood at the entrance of the town, with the words “Rose Town” written on it in dark red paint.
Beside the sign, blackish-red roses bloomed in abundance. Hidden in the center of each flower was a half-open eye.
The houses on both sides of the street were low and dilapidated, with pale faces occasionally flitting past behind the windows.
There were no pedestrians in the town.
Only when the night wind blew, giggles and whispers drifted out from the cracks in the doors and windows.
Cen Yao had the phoenix land outside the town.
The light phoenix was too eye-catching. Entering the town with it would easily make her a moving target.
After landing, she recalled the phoenix, leaving only a few fire butterflies fluttering around her for illumination.
The only inn in town was very easy to find.
Because it indeed hung a sign with a decapitated goose painted on it.
The sign creaked as it swayed in the night wind. Red paint dripped down from the severed neck of the painted goose.
But after the paint hit the ground, it quickly vanished, as if the earth had quietly licked it clean.
The inn itself was extremely run-down.
The wooden door was crooked, the wall plaster was peeling off, and half the tiles on the roof were missing.
A dim yellow oil lamp hung at the entrance. The lampshade was covered in dead flying insects, and the light it cast was murky, like a pool of nearly congealed butter.
Cen Yao stood at the door and watched for two seconds.
The orb whispered, “Host, are you sure you want to stay here?”
Cen Yao whispered back, “Is there a second inn in this town?”
The orb: “No.”
Cen Yao: “Then we can only trust the quality of its service.”
She pushed the door open and entered.
The door hinges let out a grating creak.
A musty, damp scent mixed with the smell of stale blood wafted over her.
The lobby of the inn was very dark.
There was no fire in the fireplace, only a pile of blackened ashes.
A few wooden tables stood crookedly. Stains from wine and claw marks from who-knows-how-many years ago remained on the tabletops.
An old woman sat behind the counter.
Or rather, something that looked like an old woman.
She wore a tattered dark cloak, its edges hanging in shreds as if chewed by rats.
Rate on N.U.
