Cen Yao acted as though she hadn't seen the emotion in his eyes.
She raised her hand and made a gesture at him.
“OK.”
Pei Tinglan: “?”
Zhu Lingxi, who had been watching her quietly, also raised her hand in curiosity.
Imitating Cen Yao's movement, she formed a circle with her thumb and index finger, while her other three fingers curled up slightly.
“Miss Cen.”
“What does this mean?”
“Ah, this?” Cen Yao walked out from behind her with a smile. “It means OK, as in ‘alright,’ ‘got it,’ or ‘no problem.’”
“Oh—”
Zhu Lingxi came to a sudden realization.
She held the circle up to her eye, looking at Cen Yao through it like a child holding a pair of binoculars.
Within the circle, Cen Yao was looking back at her with a beaming smile.
Zhu Lingxi blinked.
Then, her eyes curved into crescents too.
“OK.”
She learned very seriously.
Cen Yao couldn't resist raising her hand to rub her head again.
Zhu Lingxi's black hair was still soft and fine, feeling like velvet that had just been warmed by the sun.
Pei Tinglan sat to the side, watching this scene expressionlessly.
He suddenly felt rather redundant.
After stroking Zhu Lingxi's head and confirming that her complexion looked a bit better than before, Cen Yao finally stood up straight.
She stretched her aching shoulders, feeling like she had rested enough.
Cen Yao closed her eyes and called out in her mind.
“Orb.”
In the System Space, the orb was holding a virtual screen, nervously monitoring its Host's mental state.
Upon hearing her call, it immediately straightened its round body.
“Great Host, I'm here!”
“Give me three advanced recovery potions.”
The orb froze for a moment.
Three?
An advanced recovery potion was no ordinary potion.
A single bottle was enough to instantly replenish an Elementary Witch's magic to full, and could even repair mental exhaustion caused by overcasting in an extremely short time.
It was extremely expensive; usually, the Host had to think twice before buying even a regular recovery potion.
But the orb didn't ask why.
It only needed to assist its Host.
As for what Cen Yao wanted to do, the orb believed that with her strength and intelligence, she definitely had her own plans.
“Understood, Host!”
The orb waved its little hand.
【Ding—3,000,000 shock points deducted. Three advanced recovery potions have been delivered.】
【Ding—The potions have been placed in the inner pocket of the Host's witch's robe. Please check and receive them.】
“Host, they've been placed in your witch's robe. Remember to check them—”
Cen Yao sent it a heart in her mind.
“Got it. Thanks, Orb.”
Small flowers instantly drifted around the orb.
The very next second, the smile on Cen Yao's face vanished.
Three million shock points.
Three million!
A single advanced recovery potion cost one million shock points!
Cen Yao clutched her chest, in so much pain she almost squatted down on the spot.
Oh my god.
The shock points she had worked so hard to accumulate had vanished by three million in the blink of an eye.
Sensing her heartache, the orb comforted her in a small voice, “Host, you have to spend money to make money, right?”
“I know.”
Cen Yao took a deep breath.
“But that's three million.”
She could practically see the three million shock points sprouting wings and fluttering out of her wallet.
Her heart ached so much.
It hurt so much she could barely breathe.
However, when her gaze fell upon the souls in the magic circle, and then upon those scarred civet cats curled up on the ground, that little bit of heartache was quickly suppressed.
Once what she was about to do succeeded...
Never mind three million.
She could earn back thirty million.
Cen Yao instantly perked up again.
She turned and walked toward an open space not far away.
That patch of ground had just been burned by the Mountain of Blades and Sea of Fire. The soil was charred black and hard, and a faint burning scent still lingered in the air.
There were no cages or civet cats nearby, and it was a safe distance away from the Soul-Condensing Array.
It was the perfect spot to set up an array.
Zhu Lingxi watched her retreating back, slowly rising from the rattan chair.
“Miss Cen, what are you going to do?”
“Draw an array.”
Cen Yao turned back and gave her a reassuring smile.
“An array that will make them pay their debts in full.”
She spoke nonchalantly.
But Pei Tinglan's brow twitched.
He saw Cen Yao grip her wand tightly, her expression even more solemn than when she had set up the Soul-Condensing Array earlier. A faint, ominous premonition stirred in his heart.
What kind of massive stunt was this kitten trying to pull now?
Cen Yao paid no attention to their gazes.
She walked to the center of the clearing, closed her eyes, and mentally reviewed that incredibly complex array diagram once more.
The Karmic Retribution Array.
It was one of the advanced arrays in elementary dark magic.
It didn't directly kill people, nor did it directly inflict pain.
Instead, it placed cause and effect on the same scale.
The pain, fear, harm, and despair that wrongdoers inflicted on others would return to them in the most fitting manner once the array was activated, continuing until the victims' resentment dissipated.
It wasn't a simple eye-for-an-eye.
It was karmic self-repayment.
How you tortured others would be how you witnessed your own sins.
How you trampled on life would be how you bore the terror of those lives right before their deaths.
If you had never repented, the array would force you to watch yourself get swallowed up by your past, inch by inch, while at your most lucid.
Of course, this kind of array was also extremely difficult to draw.
It placed almost harsh demands on the caster's magic reserves, mental stability, and the precision of their magical output.
If even a single node in the array diagram was incorrect, at best, the array would collapse; at worst, it would backlash against the caster.
With Cen Yao's current magic capacity as an Elementary Witch, it should have been completely impossible for her to complete it.
But she had advanced recovery potions.
Three of them.
Cen Yao slowly let out a breath and opened her eyes.
“Let's begin.”
The tip of her wand descended.
The first wisp of magic flowed from her fingertips.
It wasn't the light gold or pale purple of ordinary magic circles, but a deep crimson that was almost black.
The dark red light looked as though it had just been quenched in blood, yet when it touched the charred ground, there was no bloody scent to it at all. Instead, it carried a cold, solemn pressure.
Cen Yao first traced the outermost circle.
The circle wasn't complete.
It was formed by the connection of countless tiny runes, each looking like a closed eye, or a mouth silently accusing.
Her hand was incredibly steady.
The tip of her wand stayed close to the ground, moving forward at an extremely slow pace.
The dark red array lines lit up bit by bit.
Pei Tinglan had been leaning back in his wheelchair, but now he unconsciously sat up straight.
He had seen many arrays.
He had seen sealing arrays, trapping arrays, summoning arrays, and sacrificial arrays in dungeons, and he had even seen forbidden arts drawn with blood by players.
But what Cen Yao was drawing now was different from all of those.
It made one instinctively feel uncomfortable.
Not because of evil.
But rather, a feeling of being scrutinized.
It was as if merely standing at the edge of the array would cause even the deepest, most closely guarded dark thoughts in one's heart to be unearthed by it.
Zhu Lingxi stood quietly to the side.
She didn't understand magic arrays.
Yet, she could feel the solemn emotions within it.
Resentment.
Pain.
Unwillingness.
And an incredibly intense obsession.
That obsession did not belong to Cen Yao.
Rather, it seemed to come from the souls quietly floating in the center of the array, from the countless lives that had once been crushed to pieces in this coffee plantation.
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