The dark wizard had no idea he had already become the “black rat highlighting Lady Witch's badassery” in the livestream.
He was still struggling.
He suddenly lowered his head, opened his mouth beneath his hood, and spat out a string of obscure incantations.
In the corners of the secret chamber, the paper talismans that Cen Yao had burned to ash suddenly surged once more.
The black ash swarmed like a horde of living insects, crawling densely toward the edge of the magic circle, attempting to corrode the silver-white lines.
Cen Yao glanced at them.
“Breeze.”
A gust of wind materialized out of thin air.
The talisman ash was swept up, spinning, compressing, and balling up into a small, dusty sphere.
Then, with a soft plop, it fell into a makeshift trash box Cen Yao had casually conjured up.
The dark wizard: “...”
Chen Lin: “...”
Wang Tao: “...”
The Queen: “...”
For some reason, despite clearly being a highly dangerous dark art, her handling of it suddenly made the scene look like a house cleaning session.
The dark wizard flew into a rage from the humiliation.
“Damned Witch!”
“Do you think this is enough to trap me?”
“You have no idea who I am!”
His figure suddenly sank, rapidly shrinking from a projection into a small, black, rat-like creature, attempting to squeeze through the gaps in the chains of light.
The creature was pitch-black all over with dark red eyes, a long, thin tail, and a small, tattered black robe draped over its back.
Chen Lin stared blankly.
Wang Tao blurted out, “He actually turned into a rat?”
The black rat's movements stiffened for a fraction of a second.
A trace of disgust flashed through Cen Yao's eyes.
“Come back.”
A thin thread of light shot out from her fingertip, wrapping around the black rat's tail with a whoosh.
Just as the black rat managed to poke half its head out, it was dragged right back.
It struggled frantically in midair, its four legs flailing wildly like it was paddling water.
“Let me go!”
“Damn it! Let me go!”
“You despicable Witch! How dare you humiliate me like this!”
Then, the thread of light ruthlessly smacked its little butt cheeks a few times.
“!!!”
“Ahhhhh! I'll kill you! I'm definitely going to kill you!” The dark wizard thrashed even harder, the entire rat utterly losing its mind.
Cen Yao looked down at it.
Her eyes were calm, without a single ripple.
In reality, she was out of options, and to be honest, she was currently a bit repulsed by that thread of light.
Perhaps sensing its master's disgust, the thread of light swayed a little as if aggrieved, then ruthlessly smacked the black rat's butt once more.
It was all this black rat's fault for making its master dislike it, whimper...
The rat's butt visibly bounced twice with a distinct boing-boing.
Chen Lin: hiss...
Wang Tao: shudder...
The Queen: gasp...
The two humans and one ghost couldn't help but cover their own behinds.
People could accept any way of dying, but social death was absolutely out of the question! (Crossed arms)
Cen Yao's hand, hidden inside her Witch's robe, pinched her thigh as hard as she could to keep herself from laughing out loud.
She couldn't laugh. If she laughed, the powerful boss aura she had worked so hard to cultivate would instantly crumble.
Pouting slightly, she said, “A mere black rat from the gutters dares to show off its meager tricks before me.”
The black rat fell quiet for a moment, struggling to raise its head.
It happened to lock eyes with Cen Yao's obsidian-like eyes beneath her hood.
Those eyes were deep and tranquil.
It was like looking at a boundless sea, or gazing into an endless abyss.
In the West, it was rare to see black eyes, let alone eyes so calm they sent shivers down a rat's spine.
For some reason, a chill surged up the spine of his projection.
He shuddered instinctively, lowering his head out of sheer reflex, unable to even utter his threat of “you will regret this.”
Cen Yao: ?
Was she really that scary?
She had only given him a perfectly ordinary look.
Chen Lin, Wang Tao, the Queen, the Little Princess, and the black rat on the floor whose power was mostly sealed all fell into a bizarre silence.
For a moment, the only sound left in the secret chamber was the faint humming of the flowing magic circle.
The orb spoke up in Cen Yao's mind with a sigh, “Host, is it possible that you really look like a major villain right now?”
Cen Yao: “...”
She decided to ignore that comment.
Cen Yao raised her hand, wrapping the black rat tightly with the silver-white chains of light until it was rolled into a compact ball.
Only the rat's head was left exposed.
Then, she cast three more layers of seals on it.
Magic Sealing.
Muting.
Escape Prevention.
The dark wizard opened his mouth to curse, but only managed to squeeze out a pathetic “squeak.”
Cen Yao nodded in satisfaction.
The world was finally quiet.
Having dealt with the dark wizard, Cen Yao turned her attention back to the Little Princess.
The Little Princess was still bound by the vines.
The earlier wisp of purification had temporarily calmed her down, but the pollution core inside her body was still there.
Her face was pale and blue, her body cold. No matter how one looked at her, she was already a corpse.
It was just that her soul had been sealed inside her physical vessel by the dark wizard, unable to leave.
And the pollutant was sealed inside her body along with it.
A living person's flesh and blood would nourish the pollutant.
In turn, the pollutant controlled her physical vessel, driving her to constantly feed and slaughter.
If it truly succeeded in growing, the Little Princess's soul would never be able to move on.
By then, she would completely degenerate into a monster that knew nothing but slaughter.
Once that happened, it would be too late to save her.
The only option would be physical elimination.
The Queen seemed to realize this as well.
She drifted to the Little Princess's side, wanting to touch her but not daring to.
“Lady Witch...”
Cen Yao glanced at her.
“There's still time.”
A faint glimmer of light rekindled in the Queen's eyes.
“Really?”
“Yes.”
Cen Yao paused, then added, “But it will be very troublesome.”
These words were the absolute truth.
Completely extracting the Little Princess's soul from her polluted vessel was not something a simple purification spell could solve.
She needed materials.
She needed to brew a potion to stabilize the soul on short notice.
She needed a vessel that could host the Little Princess's soul.
She also needed a sufficiently stable extraction array.
Most importantly, she had to ensure that the pollution core wouldn't explode during the extraction process.
Cen Yao looked at the black rat wrapped into a ball.
The black rat: “Squeak?”
For some unknown reason, it suddenly felt even colder.
Over the next two days, the palace fell into a state of bizarre chaos.
The King reappeared after vanishing for a period of time.
However, he had clearly suffered a massive shock.
He no longer dared to return to his study, nor did he dare to approach the old western garden of the palace. Every night, he had guards surround his sleeping quarters so tightly that not even water could trickle through.
Yet, no matter how much he guarded against it, traces left by the Witch kept appearing throughout the palace.
For instance, in the early morning, a line of large words made of bubbles floated in the palace fountain:
Return my treasure.
Or in the afternoon, the white roses in the royal garden all bloomed in pitch-black.
Their petals opened and closed, chanting in perfect unison:
Thief.
Thief.
Thief.
Or when the King was dining, the roast chicken on his plate suddenly sat up, flapped its two wings, and shouted:
The King is a thief.
Before collapsing back onto the plate with a splat.
The entire palace staff was driven to the brink of madness.
As for the King, he grew more haggard by the day.
Meanwhile, the culprit, Cen Yao, was busy saving the Little Princess.
On the first day, she went to the dwarf workshop in the royal capital to trade for materials.
At first, the dwarfs were unwilling to pay any attention to a Witch.
That was until Cen Yao took out three bottles of healing potion, two bottles of anti-pollution potion, and a piece of magic-inscribed iron that could heat itself automatically.
The eyes of the leading red-bearded dwarf lit up instantly.
“You know how to brew potions?”
Cen Yao said modestly, “A little.”
The red-bearded dwarf stared at the potions for a long time, wishing he could press his entire face against the bottles, before looking back at Cen Yao's Witch's robe and wand.
“What do you want?”
“Stardust ore, moon-silver, soul crystal, and preferably some materials that can stabilize the mind.”
The red-bearded dwarf's beard twitched.
“The things you want aren't common.”
Cen Yao produced two more bottles of offensive potions.
The red-bearded dwarf immediately changed his tune: “But we dwarfs love trading with straightforward friends the most.”
Cen Yao: “...”
As expected.
The orb was right.
The dwarf race favored practical things.
With just a few bottles of potions and a couple of minor alchemy items, she successfully traded for a batch of materials sufficient to construct a soul vessel.
Upon her departure, the red-bearded dwarf even enthusiastically gifted her a slightly flawed piece of stardust ore.
“Come back next time, Witch friend!”
Cen Yao accepted the ore, her mood excellent.
Since she was already here.
If she didn't trade for a bit more, how could she justify making this trip?
On the second day, she returned to the old western garden of the palace.
Chen Lin and Wang Tao had completely turned into two obedient tools.
If told to guard the door, they guarded the door.
If told to pass materials, they passed materials.
If told not to ask questions, they immediately shut their mouths.
Wang Tao had even learned to proactively clean the floor while Cen Yao brewed her potions.
Although the Cleaning Spell was triggered by a temporary little tool Cen Yao had given him.
But his attitude was extremely proper.
Cen Yao found these two good-for-nothings to be rather hassle-free.
Over these two days, Cen Yao did not avoid the dark wizard.
Quite the opposite.
She bound the dark wizard in the center of the secret chamber, forcing him to watch the entire process.
Watching her dismantle the pollution structure he had left inside the Little Princess step by step.
Watching her brew the potions.
Watching her sketch out an extraction array a hundred times more intricate than his own shoddy talismans.
Watching her peel away the outer shell of the pollution core bit by bit with her purification spell.
From his initial furious curses to his subsequent frantic struggles, and finally to his silent numbness, the dark wizard went through it all.
For the first time, genuine terror surfaced within his tiny, dark red eyes.
It was not the fear of death.
Rather, it was the fear of his creation being destroyed.
He regarded the Little Princess as his most perfect masterpiece.
A magnificent creation capable of fusing the vitality of the rainbow flower, royal bloodlines, a baby's pure soul, and a pollution core.
Yet now, right before his eyes, Cen Yao was dismantling this creation piece by piece.
To the dark wizard, this was a fate worse than death.
By the morning of the sixth day, the extraction array was finally complete.
In its place was a massive magic circle woven from silver-white and pale gold light.
In the center of the array, the Little Princess lay quietly.
The pale blue hue on her body had become even more pronounced.
The Queen knelt just outside the array, her hands clenched tightly together, her soul form trembling uncontrollably from tension.
Chen Lin and Wang Tao stood in the corner, not even daring to breathe too loudly.
Suspended in midair, the dark wizard kept his eyes glued to the center of the array.
Draped in her purple Witch's robe, Cen Yao stood directly in front of the array.
She held her black wand in her hand.
Before her stood three bottles of potions.
The soul-stabilizing potion.
The pollution extraction potion.
The vitality fusion potion.
These were all concocted by her over the past two days in a rush.
Their quality was far from perfect, but they would suffice.
Cen Yao took a deep breath. “We are starting.”
The Queen's soul form shuddered violently.
“Please...”
Her voice was hoarse.
“Please save her.”
Cen Yao did not look back.
“I will do my best.”
She waved her wand.
The first bottle of potion rose, dissolving in midair into countless pale blue points of light that drifted down onto the Little Princess's brow, chest, and limbs.
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