Chapter 299: Rules

Lin Yifan felt a chill in his heart and instinctively swung his knife back; the instant the blade sliced the air, he sensed the edge seemed to sever something invisible.

"Sss—" a sharp howl burst in his ears, and a semi‑transparent vengeful spirit materialized in the knife light, then turned into black smoke and vanished.

"These are the lingering vengeful spirits outside Darus Castle," Ruan Qingtan said gravely, "they silently erode the minds of the living."

An injured female Survivor in the party suddenly fell to her knees; black blood kept gushing from her wound, and strange purple patterns began to appear on her skin.

"What's happening!" Lin Yifan rushed forward to check, but Ruan Qingtan grabbed him by the arm.

"Don't touch her!" Ruan Qingtan's voice carried unprecedented heaviness, and with a regretful expression he said:

"The undead toxin has already invaded her five organs and viscera; she's beyond saving, and she will soon become a revenant. I suggest you decapitate her now."

"This…" hesitation flashed across Lin Yifan's face.

Though he doesn't shy from killing, she had just been a fellow escapee; being asked to strike her now left his heart uneasy.

Yet, as if confirming Ruan Qingtan's words, the woman's body convulsed violently, her eyes turned completely black, and her mouth twisted into a grotesque grin.

"You all… will die…" her voice overlapped into a howl, and something began to writhe beneath her skin.

"Kill her quickly! Otherwise it will be too late," Ruan Qingtan shouted anxiously.

At this point, Lin Yifan also knew clearly that the woman could not survive.

Rather than let her become a revenant, a mindless puppet controlled by others, better to give her a swift end!

Lin Yifan gripped the knife handle, a flash of pain crossed his eyes, but was soon replaced by resolve.

He swung the knife hard; the blade flashed, and Xiao Yun's head rolled onto the ground.

Strangely, what spurted from the wound was not blood but thick black mist.

"Move!" Lin Yifan felt uneasy too, but gritted his teeth and said, "While her corpse hasn't mutated yet!"

Yet at that moment, a dozen people suddenly stepped forward from the crowd, smiling wryly as they spoke:

"Everyone keep moving forward! We won't go with you any longer; traveling together, thanks for your blessings, and may your future journeys be smooth!"

Only then did Lin Yifan notice that they were all wounded, and each wound showed signs of mutation.

Some cases were more severe, some less so.

Since they were traveling the same road, abandoning one's comrades like this was something Lin Yifan could not do.

But he had no solution now, so he furrowed his brows and asked Ruan Qingtan:

"Is there any way to suppress their mutations?"

Ruan Qingtan bit his lip, thought for a moment, and hesitantly said:

"There is a method, but it's not easy. Their wound mutations are due to contamination; currently only Guangxu Energy can cleanse them, but the caring energy in my body was exhausted earlier, so I can't cast it in the short term."

"Unless you have a Light Spirit Crystal on you; that thing can restore my magical power, but it's extremely rare, probably hard to obtain."

"Light Spirit Crystal? Is this the one?" Lin Yifan hurriedly took those crystals from the space and asked.

"I didn't expect you to have so many crystals!" Ruan Qingtan, surprised, said with regret after the deception:

"Unfortunately none of these are light‑type."

"I have a light one here!" At this moment, someone in the crowd shouted.

He held a crystal in his hand; perhaps because of the Dawn Sword, Lin Yifan also sensed a bit of light magic.

So upon seeing that crystal, he knew it wasn't a light crystal, quickly went over, took it, and casually tossed it to him, saying, "I'll trade you this."

After speaking, he shoved the crystal into Ruan Qingtan's hand and whispered:

"Hurry and recover."

Then, in a voice only two people could hear, he said:

"There's only one crystal; the magic it can restore is limited. Save what you can now; if you can't, don't force it. The road ahead is dangerous; you must first ensure your own body."

It's not that Lin Yifan is selfish; people have close and distant relations, even among compatriots, he would still protect his own first.

Ruan Qingtan remained calm, smiling confidently:

"Don't worry! Just apply a Holy Healing Technique to each of them; their contamination is tough but as long as you have light skills, it's easy to clear, costing little magic."

Lin Yifan said nothing more, trusting Ruan Qingtan's discretion.

The treatment went smoothly; after absorbing the crystal, Ruan Qingtan quickly removed the mutations from the injured.

With the mutation danger gone, everyone breathed a sigh of relief, and then the ground tremor began again.

Ruan Qingtan stood up, furrowed his brows and said:

"We must enter the castle quickly; this is a domain created by Darus, and within this domain we must obey its rules, which require us to enter the castle."

"We've been here for a long time; if we don't enter the castle now, we'll be breaking the rule and may be erased by it directly."

Hearing this, Lin Yifan, like the others, stood up, looked toward the distant castle and said:

"Then we'll enter the castle. I estimate we have at most another ten minutes before we can leave this Instance Plane, so after we enter, if we stall at the doorway, it shouldn't be too risky."

Everyone took Lin Yifan's words to heart.

After resting, the group began moving slowly toward the castle.

As they advanced, the ground tremor gradually ceased.

Clearly, the tremor was the pre‑punishment trigger of the rule; now that they were complying, the punishment naturally stopped.

As the distance shortened, Lin Yifan suddenly felt the pressure in the air intensify, as if countless eyes were watching them from the shadows.

"Wait." Someone in the party suddenly stopped, crouched, lightly touched the ground, and said cautiously:

"There's a trap ahead."

"A trap? What kind? How did you tell?" Lin Yifan asked urgently.

"I don't know." The person shook his head, his face solemn, and said:

"Before I came to this world, I was a professional hunter who specialized in slaying rampant beasts; after arriving here, I awakened a talent related to trap detection."

"Just now, my talent skill warned me that there's a trap ahead, and its power is great, posing a life threat."

Lin Yifan frowned tightly as he looked ahead, but the ground before him was exactly the same as the one they had walked over, showing no trace of any trap having been set.