“What are we waiting for then? Let's go find Sia-ch—”
Just as Lin Ling was about to blurt out “Sia-chan,” she felt the detection radar under her headscarf send out a frantic alarm, forcing her to swallow the last syllable just in time.
“Are you looking for me?”
Leticia happened to appear right as they were talking about her.
“Ah! Sia, you came at the perfect time. We need your help right now.”
Lin Ling immediately let go of Zona's hand and grabbed Leticia's instead.
“You need me?”
Leticia was still a bit puzzled as Lin Ling eagerly gripped her hands with an urgent expression on her face.
“Let's not worry about that for now. Phelan must have prepared a place already. We'll talk when we get there.”
The moment Lin Ling realized Holy Light Stasis could be improved, she was instantly filled with energy.
Phelan looked at Lin Ling's sparkling eyes and put away the recording stone in his hand. The two of them locked eyes.
“It seems I truly misjudged you. Come, Miss Saintess.”
Phelan then used wind magic to lift everyone up, even carrying along the still-unconscious Kainster.
In the experimental field—
“Hurry up, hurry up! Miss Saintess is ready!”
Lin Ling's hands were already beginning to channel Holy Light Stasis. As long as Phelan told her what to do, she would carry it out with one hundred percent effort.
“Wait a moment. Based on our observations from the last experiment, I believe everyone present should have breakfast first.”
Looking at the experimental data on his recording stone, Phelan took out some bread that had been kept in the experimental field.
This bread had been left over from Lin Ling's previous test. For the sake of experimental rigor, they had kept it, as Miss Saintess's obsession with breakfast had been recorded as a variable in the experiment.
Phelan distributed the bread to everyone who hadn't eaten breakfast yet—except for a certain Miss Saintess, who had already stuffed herself with several pieces of bread earlier that morning.
“Unfair! This is so unfair! Miss Saintess must participate in the bread-eating phase too!”
Seeing Phelan distribute the bread to everyone but completely bypass her, Lin Ling puffed up her cheeks, looking exactly like a pufferfish.
“But Miss Saintess has already eaten.”
Phelan recorded her reaction. It seemed Her Majesty the Demon King would highly appreciate this particular footage.
“No, please! Miss Saintess can actually eat a little more.”
Lin Ling tugged at Phelan's trouser leg, putting on a pitiful, pleading look.
“No. If Miss Saintess eats any more, your stomach will hurt later.”
Phelan looked down at the playing-pitiful Saintess, his expression remaining entirely indifferent.
“Phelan, meanie!”
Seeing Phelan refuse to give her bread, Lin Ling's eyes instantly turned into those of an abandoned puppy.
“Miss Saintess, you should know that trick doesn't work on me.”
Phelan instantly turned off the recording stone in his hand. If he were the subject of Lin Ling's puppy-dog eyes, he decided not to record it—all to avoid ending up in that clock tower, which was a bit too cold for an elf.
Right at that moment, half a piece of bread drifted toward Lin Ling.
Lin Ling snapped up the bread in an instant. Her movement was so fast that even with Phelan's exceptional kinetic vision, he only caught a white afterimage.
In the blink of an eye, Lin Ling was already standing next to Leticia, with the other girl's finger still in her mouth...
Realizing she had accidentally bitten Leticia's finger, Lin Ling immediately used her sleeve to wipe away her saliva, even casting several cleaning spells on Sia.
“I'm so sorry, Sia!”
Lin Ling quickly held Leticia's hand to apologize. Sia was so incredibly kind to share her bread, yet she had almost bitten this pure, holy angel.
“Ahem. Alright, since everyone has finished breakfast, let's officially begin the experiment.”
Seeing the direction the two Saintesses were heading, Phelan immediately spoke up to stop any further development between them.
Kainster, who was still lying on the ground, hadn't eaten either, but that probably didn't matter.
Could it be that even the Danasuo Flying Kick couldn't wake up this sleeping prince?
“Now, let me explain the proposal for improving Holy Light Stasis.”
Zona pulled out a recording board, even wearing a pair of highly sophisticated-looking glasses on her face.
【But where on earth did those glasses come from?】
Lin Ling watched Zona write things she couldn't understand on the large board, her attention completely captured by the glasses on Zona's face.
While Lin Ling was lost in thought, Zona had already written down a large number of experimental hypotheses.
“Alright, these are the hypotheses we've come up with over the past few days. Do you understand them, Miss Saintess?”
As she made the final stroke, Zona looked proudly at Lin Ling, who was staring intently at her. Lin Ling's expression made it look as though she was deeply contemplating the hypotheses Zona had laid out.
After all, this was the person capable of casting such a powerful unique skill. Would the hypotheses she made already be something Lin Ling had calculated long ago? Or would they just seem like child's play to her?
This thought made Zona's heart pound.
【Here it comes, she's about to speak!】
“Um... could you explain it? I don't understand.”
Seeing Lin Ling's completely blank expression after staring for so long, the glasses on Zona's face slid off instantly, and she fell backward to the ground along with the board behind her.
“Uh, ahem, let me explain it to Miss Saintess instead.”
Suppressing the twitching corner of his mouth to keep from laughing, Phelan coughed twice and used the recording stone to project a simplified concept in front of Lin Ling.
“Simply put, it's about changing the application parameters of this skill while making minor adjustments to the skill itself.”
“The demons will eventually need to expand outward. While those living within the domain have indeed found hope for survival, this is only for the current generation. One day, the space within the domain will no longer be enough, and the demons will have to expand. However, any territory associated with the Demon Realm will continuously generate high concentrations of magic.”
“Therefore, we propose to make your skill portable. If the demons can be equipped with corresponding portable devices, the intensity of these devices can be adjusted as they grow older, until they can naturally adapt to the magic-heavy environment.”
“As for the Holy Light Stasis on the fields, Miss Saintess, I have a question.”
Zona suddenly raised her hand, looking at Lin Ling with a serious expression.
“You are a human, correct? If Holy Light Stasis is your unique skill, what happens when you die?”
Zona's sharp question pointed directly at the core flaw of their current solution. Holy Light Stasis could indeed bring short-term relief to the demon race.
But in the long run, when the demon population grows and the supply of domain-storing ores runs low, what would they do if Lin Ling, the caster, was no longer around?
Rate on N.U.
