Everyone was silent to hear the words of the commander of the Zu kingdom.

They are afraid of witches but also afraid of being considered intruders because neither of them brings any good to each other.

​​

In the end, they obeyed the commander-in-chief's orders and returned to the moon pavilion with a sense of mutual suspicion, and keep distance from each other.

All participants returned to their respective rooms.

Until nightfall, no one at all dared to leave the room.

***

Knock... knock... knock...

There was a knock on the door, causing the owner to quickly open the door.

"Good evening, please have dinner, Master," said the maid, handing her a tray of various kinds of food.

"Um, thank you," she replied, accepting the tray and closing the room again.

The girl's brow furrowed when she found the glass of wine that was also on the tray. It turns out, The emperor did not give up either.

She was Fu Xie Lan.

.

.

.

There was a knock on the door again. Seeing who was behind the door, there were Wan Lie, Ju Xian, and Xue Ning.

"Come in," said Fu Xie Lan.

"Thank you, Xie Lan," Xue Ning smiled brightly.

"Did it succeed?" Xue Ning asked.

Fu Xie Lan smiled at the girl's words. "exceed my expectation."

"Hahaha, it's nice to be able to deceive those people," Xue Ning laughed again but was immediately stopped by Wan Lie's sharp glare.

"No one deceived them, Xue Ning because the lack witch is indeed in this palace," Ju Xian said later.

"Yeah, yeah, Whatever least I'm satisfied, it seemed the plan wouldn't have worked like this without me, hahaha, right Xie Lan?" she said again glancing at the young man then looked at Fu Xie Lan.

"Emm," replied Fu Xie Lan nodding.

"I feel a little embarrassed after you screamed hysterically," said Ju Xian making Xue Ning immediately glared sharply at him.

"Tsk, maybe her scream has also reached the phoenyx academy," continued Wan Lie adding to Ju Xian's words.

The two youths laughed and continued to mock the already sullen Xue Ning.

"Xie Lan...." Xue Ning whined.

"They are so mean to me," she said again then ran and want to hug Fu Xie Lan's arm. However, her movements were stopped because of Gu Yi's intense gaze on her.

And it made Wan Lie and Ju Xian laugh even more at the sight. It was the first time Wan Lie and Ju Xian laughed like that.

It was fortunate that Gu Yi had installed a shield in the room so that whatever they were talking about would not be heard by others.

"I'm disgust of seeing you destroy that person's body," Xue Ning said again as she turned to Wan Lie.

"Wanna try it?" replied the young man.

"Stop it."

"Did the maid bring the food for you guys?" asked Fu Xie Lan.

All three of them nodded at the same time.

"You guys eat it?"

"No, Xie Lan."

"Good. Then get ready. Soon we will go to the tower," said the girl making the three people in front of her immediately put on a serious face.

But… Many guards in around pavilion," Xue Ning said. Ever since the girl returned to the room, she never left the window at all. Standing and watching everything until Ju Xian and Wan Lie came knocking on the door.

"I know," Fu Xie Lan replied then turned to Gu Yi.

"Can you take us to that tower? Without anyone knowing?"

"Anything for you, honey," Gu Yi replied gently.

***

The cold night air blew slowly, piercing into the bones.

Five people quickly left the palace without anyone noticing, breaking the silence, blending into the darkness of the night.

Darted away from the palace and followed the balls of light which were all heading in the same direction and place.

Moving for almost an hour, they stopped at a large rock in the middle of the forest. Gazing in amazement at the tower that was far away from them. even so, the flow of light that is so beautiful seems so clear.

"Xie Lan, is that the tower you mean?" Xue Ning asked without taking her eyes.

"Um, right," the girl mumbled.

"No wonder no one found it, this place is out of reach of humans," Xue Ning mumbled again as if the question in her mind earlier had been answered.

"Are we going to destroy that tower?" now Ju Xian asked. A little doubt about what they will do next.

Fu Xie Lan only nodded in response.

The girl tried to feel the strange feeling she had before when she was at this distance from the tower, but everything felt normal and fine.

She then moved closer, followed by the others. And it feels the same.

Observing the tower at such close range, her eyes could catch the runes engraved on the rock that made up the tower.

Her violet eyes flashed and then scanned the area around the tower without any obstructions. Empty, there was no one, not even anything strange that she encountered.

Fu Xie Lan then observed the crystal ball at the top of the tower for a bit longer. She noticed that every ball of light its absorbed formed snake scales which turned out to be half of its body already formed.

Even though only a few moments ago the tail had just formed, and now it had reached half its body.

She could not imagine, how many new souls became victims of that event.

Suddenly she felt nauseous, felt dizzy whacked her head. Whereas before she was fine, and now the girl suddenly felt the same as before. Cold sweat instantly dripped down her temples, drenching her entire body. She felt the pain as if someone was tugging something in her body and wanted to be snatched away by force.

Gu Yi turned his head towards the girl, finding Fu Xie Lan's reaction the same as that time, he then moved back quickly bringing Fu Xie Lan away from there. Of course, the other three followed with all sorts of questions in their minds

"Why? what's wrong Xie Lan?"

"Did something happen?"

"Are you alright?" immediately successive questions came from Ju Xian, Xue Ning, and Wan Lie when they saw the expression on Fu Xie Lan's face which was not covered by a mask.

Fu Xie Lan was silent for a while, normalizing her feelings.

'Miss, you better not go near there,' Hao's voice buzzed in the girl's mind.

'How am I going to destroy the tower if I don't come close?'

'It's very dangerous for your soul, Miss.'

'And again, there are a lot of traps around the tower,' Hao said again.

'Trap? but I didn't see anything in the area around the tower.'

'I feel an evil energy around that tower, Miss.'

Fu Xie Lan was silent for a moment hearing Hao's words.

"How do you feel when you are closest to the tower?" Fu Xie Lan asked Wan Lie, Ju Xian, and Xue Ning.

"How do we feel? I'm fine Xie Lan. What's wrong?" Xue Ning replied.

Wan Lie and Ju Xian also gave similar answers.

So did Gu Yi who was next to her.

It's weird. Why is she the only one who feels pain?