After explaining the rules, Taoxiya pulled Ai Ya out of the room, closed the iron door, and completely isolated Bai Yue Ling inside.
Outside the door, Ai Ya narrowed her eyes and asked, “Lady Taoxiya, why is this trial so… abnormal?”
Taoxiya countered, “What’s abnormal about it?”
Ai Ya said, “I thought the so-called trial would involve walking through fire or climbing a mountain of blades, but I didn’t expect it to be almost identical to the plot of those picture books Shi Qianla usually reads.”
“A mountain of blades and a sea of fire test a person’s ‘strength.’ But these three trials mainly test one’s ‘will.'” Taoxiya paced back and forth, looking profoundly mysterious, “As long as the will you display is firm enough, you’ll naturally be able to overcome all difficulties and obtain the qualification to pray to the Goddess.”
Ai Ya listened with a head full of black lines, thinking to herself: Lady Taoxiya, you really don’t need to provide such a serious explanation for the Goddess’s peculiar tastes. That just makes it seem even stranger.
Meanwhile, inside the room.
Bai Yue Ling stared at the three identical treasure chests in front of her and muttered, “Only one key among three chests means a one-third probability. If I choose wrong, I’ll be punished by the slimes.”
“Heh, I’ve even endured the Slime Queen’s punishment. Do you think I’d be afraid of you ordinary slimes?”
The battle-hardened Little White confidently walked up to a treasure chest, crouched down, and opened it without hesitation—
Slurp!
Sure enough, a giant tongue shot out of the chest instantly, trying to wrap around Bai Yue Ling and pull her inside. However, Bai Yue Ling remained completely unfazed, swiftly sidestepping to dodge, then performing a backflip to quickly create distance.
She taunted smugly, “Hmph~ Too slow. A trash-tier slime like you could never—”
Suddenly, another slick and slimy tentacle wrapped around her ankle from behind. As her expression shifted to surprise, it traveled up her thick, plump thigh and instantly engulfed her body.
“Uwaah! Wait, how does this slime know how to ambush people?!”
Bai Yue Ling struggled desperately, looking back in panic, only to see a familiar loli’s cute face, her pale blue, spirit-like eyes filled with aggression and possessiveness.
“Guodong, why is it you?!”
Indeed, the slime that had ambushed Bai Yue Ling from behind was none other than Guodong.
Guodong instantly devoured the other treasure chest slime, her body writhing and stretching out like a giant python, coiling tightly around Bai Yue Ling.
“During this time, I’ve been searching the Royal Capital for slime kin that you humans have been keeping captive, absorbing them into my body to recover my strength. I never expected to run into you by coincidence.”
“Th-That so?” Bai Yue Ling instantly breathed a sigh of relief. Since it was an acquaintance, this should be easy to handle.
“Guodong, just give me the key directly and let me pass.”
“No.”
Guodong looked down at her from above, her translucent, sticky secretions stirring restlessly: “Since you didn’t pick the correct chest, I should give you the appropriate punishment according to the rules.”
Bai Yue Ling immediately broke out in a cold sweat, her previously triumphant expression turning into one of panic: “Wait, can’t you let a friend off the hook?”
“Who’s friends with you?” Guodong snorted lightly, her body writhing as she pressed Bai Yue Ling against the iron door, whispering into her ear, “A queen’s consort should be serving her queen. So which is tighter—the one in the game, or the one in reality?”
“Gulp—”
Guodong nodded in satisfaction, a hint of catgirl-like mischievous cunning flashing through her adorable, big eyes.
Meanwhile, outside, Taoxiya heard the screams from within the room and smiled smugly: “Hmph~ Daughter of Sistana, let you experience the humiliation I suffered when I was crushed by your mother.”
Ai Ya said worriedly, “Lady Taoxiya, are you sure Little White will be okay?”
“Don’t worry, I won’t let anything happen to your little girlfriend. Both of these slimes have undergone professional training and absolutely won’t do anything out of line. You can think of them as merciless ‘flogging machines.'”
“But somehow, I feel like this clearly doesn’t sound like flogging…”
Ai Ya pressed her ear against the door panel, quietly listening to the sounds inside, her pair of long, clean sword-like brows furrowing deeper and deeper.
Besides Bai Yue Ling’s cries, she vaguely heard another person’s triumphant voice. That person seemed to be saying: “Little White… your paladin partner is right outside the door eavesdropping, you know. Can’t you hold back a bit?”
Hearing this, Ai Ya’s expression changed drastically. Her right fist clenched tightly as she forcefully blasted open the iron door.
“Who’s in there?”
Ai Ya charged into the room, only to see Bai Yue Ling sitting on the ground, head lowered, using a key to unlock the shackles around her ankles.
She tilted her head in confusion, as if nothing had happened at all: “Ai Ya, why did you come in?”
“I… I thought I heard another person’s voice just now—a cute voice like a little girl’s.”
Ai Ya scanned the room. Aside from the opened treasure chest and two slimes curled up motionless on the ground, there was nothing else.
“A voice? You must be hearing things.” Taoxiya also came in to take a look, swishing her cat tail as she said, “This room is only known to me and a few bishops. There’s no way anyone else could get in, meow.”
She paused, staring at Bai Yue Ling: “But you—the punishment had only just begun, so why did it end so quickly?”
Bai Yue Ling stood up with trembling legs, unconsciously adopting a pigeon-toed stance, and instinctively tried to shield Guodong, who was lying motionless on the ground. She explained awkwardly, “Well… I did open the wrong chest just now, but my relationship with the slimes is ‘Close,’ so they just gave me a couple of lashes and let me go.”
Taoxiya frowned: “‘Close’? Aren’t slimes a race with low intelligence? How did you raise it to ‘Close’?”
Bai Yue Ling made up a random explanation: “It seems to be because I defeated the Slime Queen. These slimes all quite hate the Queen.”
Taoxiya snorted lightly and nodded reluctantly: “Fine, I’ll count the first trial as passed.”
It was a pity the punishment time wasn’t long enough to let Bai Yue Ling fully experience the humiliation she had suffered at Sistana’s hands.
Taoxiya clapped her hands again, and a hole suddenly opened in the ground, sucking the treasure chest and Guodong in together before disappearing.
Probably by tomorrow morning, the Church of Judgment would discover that all their captive slimes had mysteriously vanished.
“The second trial begins.”
The entire room suddenly became more spacious. The floor ahead abruptly sank down, forming a square deep pit.
A long, slender rope rose from the center, one end at Bai Yue Ling’s feet and the other at the opposite side of the room, where a set of keys hung at the far end.
“For the second trial, wrap your arms and legs around the rope and crawl across to retrieve the keys on the other side. If you fall off the rope, you must start over from the beginning.”
Taoxiya swished her tail: “Please begin, meow.”
Bai Yue Ling complained, “What kind of Special Forces Training is this…”
At first glance, this trial seemed to have no difficulty at all. However, this rope was no ordinary rope—it was coated with a thin layer of grease, making it very easy to slip off while climbing.
Bai Yue Ling grabbed the rope slowly. Because the grease was so slippery, she tried many times and fell off each time.
Finally, drenched in sweat, she gritted her teeth and charged through with one final burst of effort, completing the trial and successfully using the key to unlock the shackles on her wrists.
“Congratulations on completing the second trial. Next up is the third trial.”
At that moment, Taoxiya pushed Ai Ya forward a step.
“The content of the third trial is… enduring one minute under Ai Ya’s attacks without making a single sound.”
With that, she turned and left, leaving only Bai Yue Ling and Ai Ya staring at each other.
The enemy of the third trial was… Ai Ya?!
“Sigh… Come on, Little White.” Ai Ya slowly approached, her voice gentle, “Don’t worry, I’ll try my best to hold back.”
“Don’t come any closer—” Bai Yue Ling’s little face turned pale as she shrank into the corner of the room.