Removing the cloth, Zack saw an angry Neils glaring at Zhu. On the other hand, Zhu’s pinkie had been digging into his ear; the roar from earlier entering through one ear and leaving out another with no effect.

Feeling his ears still ringing from the shout, Zack felt dizzy. He isn’t even angry at me. But I’m still affected this much… He must be really strong. And Teacher Zhu as well. He’s totally unaffected. Can I get strong like these people? Strong enough so I can do anything?

Zack’s eyes glimmered with a dim, yet fiery, light.

Looking at Zack, who had removed the blindfold, Neils, who no longer bothered with Zhu, asked, “Brat, you ready?”

“For what?” Blinking, Zack asked.

“Did William not… oh right! He didn’t. We can’t either.” Neils rolled his eyes. Without another word, his hand chopped towards the back of the boy’s neck.

The boy’s pupils constricted to the size of needles before he fainted right away.

Zhu watched from the side, not interfering in the least.

Dusting his hand with another, Neils reached into his pocket. A crumpled piece of paper came out along with his hand, which he unfurled. Going over the contents once more, his eyes fixated on a single line.

“The poison is something from Ominheim…” Neils murmured.

His usually jolly expression was long gone, replaced with a heavy expression, as if he were preparing to go to war.

“Softie Zhu, help me out. This isn’t something I can do alone. I don’t think my arcana is dense enough.” Neils looked towards Zhu.

Zhu nodded. Picking up Zack, he walked forwards with Neils, walking towards the source of creaking sound from earlier — a door leading into a modest wooden shack which could only serve as a storehouse for tools at most.

However, as soon as the two stepped in, the surrounding area subtly changed. A stale air permeated the tiny shack. Within, a few boxes lay scattered. Noiselessly, Neils’s finger slid across one box’s surface. Without him needing to do a thing, a thick layer of dust covered his finger, not letting his skin peek through from beneath the said layer.

“In how long have you people not cleaned this place? And isn’t this a bit too small?” Neils asked.

Instead of replying, Zhu walked towards one corner of the shack before bending down and running his fingers over the wooden floor-panels. Despite the time that had passed, the floor-panels seemed as smooth as finely cut glass. Not a speck of dust stuck to the floor-panels.

Drawing circles on the floor while squatting down within the corner, Zhu’s finger encountered a slight bulge, something anyone would dismiss because of some dust sticking to the floor.

However, Zhu’s finger stopped. A dim reddish-orange light seeped out of his fingernail, looking as if it were corporeal. The corporeal tendril of light seeped into the bulge like raindrops seeping through the ground after falling down from the sky. Looking at his dirty finger, Zhu sighed before standing back up.

Looking at him, Neils asked, “Had fun drawing circles on the ground? Feeling any better? Now, how about we get to work? I don’t have all day to spare—”

*Click*

Just as Neils was growing impatient, a clicking sound sonorously reverberated through the shack, cutting Neils off in the middle of his rant.

Lips arching in a faint smile, Zhu’s foot hit the corner of one of the wooden floors, causing it to loosen up as it swung within an arc, acting like an inward-closing hatch-door for a tunnel leading underground.

The tunnel had the radius of a metre, making it spacious enough to allow two people to go down their own separate ladders together, albeit in theory. However, in practice, on the tunnel’s walls made of stone bricks the size of a small trunk. A gentle current of air vaguely flowed from the top of the tunnel to the bottom, where dim flickers of light were visible. Within the tunnel, a single ladder hung against the wall, going down an unknown depth.

Settling Zack on his shoulder, Zhu was just about to descend when he saw Neils’s gloomy expression. He couldn’t help asking for the reason by raising his brow.

Neils’s own brows sank in response. His head tilted backwards, looking at his tail.

Zhu’s gaze followed. Looking at the tail, he nodded before turning away as he said, “We can get out from one of the escape tunnels down in the cellar afterwards. It wouldn’t be an issue. But remember to not land straight downwards as there’s spikes at the bottom. Instead, there’s a tunnel near the end, to reach which we gotta jump the gap. A classic trap, but it still does the deed. I’ll go down first to catch you. You can use your tail to slow yourself down, so it shouldn’t be an issue.”

While speaking, Zhu had already started climbing down the ladder, a trace of a smile concealed itself amidst Zhu’s movements. Carrying the unconscious Zack on his back, he descended the ladder. After half-an-hour of descent, he abruptly stopped, settling a little before he reached the flickering lights at the depths — a small pond slightly bigger than the tunnel, filled with a liquid unknown within which orbs of glow moved around like they were living.

Paying the scene below no heed, Zhu’s hand struck out a brick in the wall. The wall in front of him slid back, revealing a dark passageway.

Pushing against the ladder, Zhu jumped, skipped past the rest of the empty tunnel as he landed safely in the passageway, carrying an unconscious Zack as he made his way over.

Putting down Zack in a corner a distance away from the entrance of the passage, Zhu raised a finger, upon which a lone ember danced within the darkness, illuminating the dimly lit tunnel. With a flick of his finger, the ember shot out, landing on one of the torches strapped to the passageway’s wall. A sudden chain reaction followed a moment after, one torch after another, began lighting up all on its own.

Raising his head, he shouted, “You can jump down! But don’t strike the walls too hard!”

Spreading his arms forward as if to catch the latter, a bracelet on Zhu’s hand flickered with a dim flash. Zhu’s smile thickened.

Meanwhile, up above, Neils looked down the tunnel. Hearing Zhu’s affirmation, he jumped down, tail first. After a few minutes’ fall, Neils saw a glowing opening in the middle of the tunnel down below.

This should be it. Neils nodded to himself.

Striking against the wall of the tunnel with his tail, he reduced his vertical momentum while getting into position to launch himself into the passageway.

Catching the sight of Zhu’s arms spread out to catch him, Neils struck against the wall once more, disrupting his vertical momentum as he shot towards Zhu like a cannonball flung fresh out of a cannon.

Closing his eyes, Neils braced for impact. However, before he could strike the floor, something soft cushioned his momentum. Stopping after a small roll to disperse his remaining momentum and come to a halt, Neils heaved a sigh of relief.

However, as soon as he breathed in, His eyes widened. His body twitched. The fork-like tongue within his mouth quivered. Struggling as if he were being choked, Neils found himself wrapped within a sheet of saffron cloth, which he couldn’t seem to get out of, nor tear apart, no matter how he used his sharp nails.

His heart sank as he let out a howl of rage: “ZHU! YOU DAMNABLE HUMAN!!”