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Chapter 164 Let Her Go

Xia Xinyan was startled and hurriedly looked back.

At the castle door, behind Tang Nian Nian floated two ice spikes.

Murong Yue also followed behind Tang Nian Nian, seemingly surprised by the scene.

There was a moment of silence.

Only the blind witch was still unclear about the situation and asked anxiously, “Wh-what happened?”

Xia Xinyan didn’t have time to comfort her and quickly called Ling Mo over to protect the witch. She then checked on Liliya, who had been pierced through the chest. Although she hadn’t died immediately, she was barely hanging on by a thread.

After piercing her, the ice spikes turned into mist and dissipated, but the wounds could never heal.

Xia Xinyan turned to Tang Nian Nian, her expression a bit complicated: “Why did you kill her?”

“It was part of the mission,” Tang Nian Nian replied without any change in her expression. “Did you feel pity for an NPC?”

“The mission also said we could let her go!”

“I just thought killing her might yield a bigger reward,” Tang Nian Nian said, not quite understanding Xia Xinyan’s strong reaction. “This dungeon will end as soon as we leave, so why do you care so much about a bunch of NPCs?”

Xia Xinyan fell silent for a moment and didn’t answer: “Let her go.”

Tang Nian Nian gazed at her for a few seconds and eventually nodded: “Alright.”

Almost simultaneously, the system issued a completion prompt for everyone present.

Tang Nian Nian didn’t linger and left the dungeon directly.

Then, the air beside them suddenly rippled, and Yan Zigui, Cheng Yu, and Hao Nan appeared one after another, each with different expressions.

Yan Zigui clapped and smiled at them, leaving behind a “not bad” before leaving the dungeon, followed by Cheng Yu. Only Murong Yue and Hao Nan approached, their faces filled with confusion: “You guys… what’s going on?”

They had too many questions to ask but didn’t know where to start.

And forget about them—Ling Mo was confused as well.

He looked at the two: “Let’s hear what happened on your end first?”

Hao Nan shrugged: “I thought that Liliya was the target. She told us that Miss Xia was being controlled by the witch, and we had been controlled before, so I believed her—then we escorted Liliya out, but then Wen got taken out on the way, and I almost got stuck inside too… Right as we escaped, the system told us we failed the mission.”

What was worse was that after failing, the system forced them to observe everything as spectators.

He felt like his IQ had taken a serious hit.

As for Murong Yue, she was with Tang Nian Nian—who had made an excuse to leave the group as they were about to exit the castle. Murong Yue sensed something was off and followed her, but Tang Nian Nian said nothing. The two of them ended up watching the whole scene unfold in the hall.

It seemed that Tang Nian Nian must have noticed something was wrong earlier… Perhaps her previous attack on the witch was a test, but she didn’t probe Liliya and instead tested Xia Xinyan.

As for the others… they were just unlucky and didn’t witness key moments, making it hard to detect the dungeon’s abnormalities.

So in the end, only four people cleared the dungeon—which was still a pretty good success rate.

While Ling Mo and Murong Yue were gathering information, Xia Xinyan tried to help Liliya. Noticing her actions, Murong Yue couldn’t help but ask, “Should we lend a hand?”

Ling Mo shook his head: “Never mind, you two go ahead. I’ll stay with her.”

“Okay, see you outside the dungeon.”

With that, Hao Nan and Murong Yue left the dungeon.

Ling Mo then picked up the witch and walked over to Xia Xinyan: “Is she still alive?”

“Alive,” Xia Xinyan nodded.

She had already given all the healing potions she bought to Liliya, but they didn’t have much effect on such heavy injuries, merely buying her some time before death.

Ling Mo seemed to understand: “So now… what do we do?”

He didn’t quite grasp why Xia Xinyan cared so much about two NPCs. As Tang Nian Nian mentioned, once they left the dungeon, it would all end, making the effort to save two NPCs seem futile, right?

Yet, he wouldn’t voice such thoughts. Whatever Xia Xinyan wanted to do was something he would support unconditionally.

That was what he should do.

At that moment, Xia Xinyan seemed to have made a decision. She took a deep breath and spent nearly ten thousand points in the Tianji shop to buy a high-quality healing potion—the best she could get, with excellent healing effects that could even regenerate lost body parts.

Then, she directly made the witch drink the potion.

Ling Mo watched as the witch’s body visibly began to heal at a rapid pace, including her severed lower body and missing eyeballs, all quickly regenerating.

Then Xia Xinyan pulled out a piece of clothing to cover her head: “No peeking.”

—At that moment, she instinctively forgot her true identity.

Ling Mo obediently sat there with his head covered until Xia Xinyan draped a new outfit over the witch, at which point he removed the cloth from his head.

The witch, now with a perfectly restored body, was far more beautiful than they had imagined. She looked like a girl in her twenties, and her current innocent confusion added to her cuteness, making her look completely different from her previous terrifying appearance.

Xia Xinyan asked Ling Mo to comfort the witch while she glanced at Liliya, took a few seconds to prepare herself mentally, and suddenly pulled out a knife, cutting open her wrist and positioning the wound above Liliya’s mouth. The girl began to drink her blood unconsciously.

“Xinyan!” Seeing this, Ling Mo was immediately startled and rushed over to stop her.

However, Xia Xinyan stopped him: “I want to save her… Don’t worry, I’ll be fine.”

After all, no matter how serious the injuries in the dungeon were, they would recover to normal once they left.

“And look, Mo Mo, now when you get hurt in the game, blood actually flows out—it’s becoming more real, right?” She forced a smile.

Ling Mo, however, could not smile at all.

He knew this was a game.

He knew she would recover after leaving the dungeon.

But he still felt pained.

He directly embraced Xia Xinyan, keeping his gaze fixed on the girl on the ground. Once her wound healed completely, he quickly pulled Xia Xinyan’s hand back and fed her a high-level healing potion.

“You absolutely can’t do this again! Just this once!”

He could unconditionally tolerate his girlfriend doing things he didn’t understand, but he absolutely wouldn’t allow her to harm herself.

He had long known about her healing ability and its strength, but whether he was selfish or not, he’d rather she not use this ability than hurt herself.

Xia Xinyan’s face was a bit pale, but she smiled in his embrace: “Okay… just this once…”

This fatal wound was no ordinary injury like the ones Ling Mo had suffered before; even the highest-level healing potion might not save her—especially since the girl was just an ordinary person who had lost the witch’s powers.

Now, it seemed her succubus healing ability exceeded her expectations, granting her a new understanding of her abilities.

That was a good thing.