Survival Guide After Accidentally Kissing a Demon - Chapter 346

Chapter 346

Everyone nodded and took out what they had obtained.

Susanna, Clarence, and Cassius had each received a nail, while Cyril had obtained the Fire Seed.

Although it differed somewhat from the original story, the outcome was more or less the same.

Now that everyone was accounted for, the Flying Carpet began the return journey.

As they flew back, they shared what they had experienced after entering the dark passage.

Each of them had emerged into an airtight chamber with no doors or windows.

Calling it a secret chamber would have been too generous. It was more like a room designed to drive its occupant to suicide, filled with all manner of tools for the purpose:

A bathtub filled with water, a razor-sharp dagger, bottle after bottle of poison containing unknown substances…

A sentence had been written on the wall in blood:

“Offer up what you treasure most to prove that you possess the courage to kill the Demon.”

As Beili listened to their accounts, she studied them carefully. It did not take long for her to notice the wide scar across Susanna’s left wrist.

Cyril’s and Clarence’s shirts had both been pierced over the heart by a sharp blade. Through the holes in the fabric, scars could be seen on their skin as well.

For them, the most precious thing they possessed could only be their lives.

Without life, every hope and aspiration would amount to nothing.

They must have endured a long and agonizing inner struggle in that chamber before they could obtain a Sacred Artifact and leave.

Compared to the original story, in which the male and female leads had fallen into a secret realm, encountered a group of fairies, and enjoyed their hospitality before the fairy chieftain presented them with a Sacred Artifact upon their departure, this experience had been far more painful.

Had it really been an Illusion Realm?

Beili thought of her missing heart.

Could Ashera opening a path through time and taking her back to the distant past, where he traded his heart, eyes, and body for her immortality, have been an illusion too?

And had the red blade really been nothing more than a reward for completing that strange encounter…?

…

Cyril noticed that one person had yet to speak. He turned toward the blond, green-eyed man.

“What about you, Doctor Alfredo? What did you experience?”

The others all turned their attention to Doctor Cassius.

Beili also raised her crimson eyes toward Doctor Cassius, briefly meeting his tranquil, lake-like green gaze.

Doctor Cassius slowly began to speak.

“My experience was different from everyone else’s.”

After passing through the dark passage, Doctor Cassius had also arrived in an airtight dungeon.

The same words had been written on the wall in blood: “Offer up what you treasure most to prove that you possess the courage to kill the Demon.”

However, the room had not contained any of those tools for suicide, because he belonged to the Blood Clan.

To the Blood Clan, a long life had ceased to be precious long ago. If anything, they had grown weary of it.

“What I saw in the room was an empty glass dome.”

Something more precious than life to Doctor Cassius…

The others looked at him in confusion, waiting for him to continue.

Doctor Cassius glanced at Beili once more before lowering his eyes and speaking softly.

“I took out a feather.”

No one understood.

Why would a single feather be more important to Doctor Cassius than his own life?

Cyril frowned, as though he doubted the truth of his claim.

Beili’s brows also drew together slightly.

She could roughly guess whose feather Doctor Cassius meant.

Could the volcano’s strange behavior have something to do with the feather Doctor Cassius had offered?

After a moment’s thought, Beili asked Doctor Cassius, “After you took out the feather, did it give it back to you? By ‘it,’ I mean… the dark passage.”
Doctor Cassius shook his head.

It was obvious that the feather truly meant a great deal to him. As he spoke of it, a trace of sorrow showed between his brows, too deep to conceal.

But it vanished in an instant.

“Miss Bartholomew.”

Doctor Cassius spoke softly as he extended a hand and placed a red nail in her palm.

“Here.”

Seeing this, Clarence and Susanna also took out the Holy Nails they had obtained and handed them to her.

Beili looked down at the three long red nails in her hand, then raised her head toward Cyril.

“We return to Sainthos first.”

Cyril averted his violet eyes and said coolly, “If something happens, you won’t be able to handle it alone.”

Was he worried that she would act on her own as soon as she had gathered everything?

Still, there was no denying that Cyril was right.

Beili had just examined her Mana Pool.

The lake that had once brimmed with black Mana was gone. In its place was a much vaster Mana Pool, filled with red Mana that did not belong to her.

That Mana belonged to the Red Dagger.

She could not draw so much as a trace of power from it.

After a brief silence, Susanna spoke hesitantly.

“Sister Bartholomew…”

Beili could tell that she wanted to ask about the rabbit.

They had already left the Far South and passed the southernmost Town. Once they entered Tilisha’s territory, they would be able to release the rabbit. Beili could read that hope in Susanna’s hesitant, expectant gaze.

“The rabbit ran away while I was unconscious,” Beili could only tell her.

Susanna seemed to accept the explanation and nodded regretfully.

Perhaps she had lost too much blood from her head wound, or perhaps the twisted Illusion Realm had taken its toll, but Beili suddenly felt exhausted.

Her eyelids drooped with weariness, her long lashes casting gray shadows across her face.

Doctor Cassius quickly noticed her condition.

“Use Beast Transformation and get some rest, Miss Bartholomew. I’ll treat your injuries.”

His voice was gentle. “By the time you wake up, we’ll be back in Sainthos.”

Beili nodded and placed the three long nails inside her damaged Wooden Amber Ring.

Although the ring was damaged, it could still be used. The only difference was that others could now glimpse the items inside through its cracks.

Beili then used Beast Transformation to become a butterfly and flew into Doctor Cassius’s palm.

She spread her wings flat.

Once black as ink, they had returned to their dazzling, iridescent blue-green hue.

…

The group was still within Tilisha’s territory.

Tilisha and Sainthos were locked in a fierce war.

After the Prince of Sainthos escaped from Tilisha, where he had been held hostage, the Tilisha Royal Family ordered the Teleportation Arrays to be placed under strict control.

No one except members of the Tilisha Royal Family and the Knight Order was permitted to use a Teleportation Array.

As a result, once they entered Tilisha’s territory, they had no choice but to take a lengthy detour through the uninhabited desert.

Beili felt as though she had slept for a very long time. When she awoke, she found herself inside a tent.

It was all too familiar. This was Cyril’s tent.

Beili still remembered that whenever its entrance flap was closed, the tent would turn invisible.

Clearly, the tent that had once appeared at the closing Hunt Banquet on Holy Island had proved useful once again.