Night falls, and silence settles heavily over the camp.
Within their tents, the professors and assistants sleep soundly, lanterns dimmed to embers.
At the front of the ruined castle, three shadows converge under the pale moonlight.
Lin Yu arrives first, his cloak drawn close, only to find the guard captain already waiting.
To his surprise, Elise stands beside him, her face calm, as though her presence here is natural.
He doesn't question it, but inwardly thinks she, too, may be extraordinary; otherwise, the guard captain would never allow her to join the incursion.
The guard captain explains their shared purpose in a low, steady tone.
"We will remove anything extraordinary in the castle before the professors enter tomorrow."
Elise speaks, her voice light but firm.
"If there are extraordinary monsters, they may make noise and wake the camp."
The guard captain bows his head slightly, his tone respectful.
"Miss, don't worry. I ordered the guards to burn Sleeping Grass around the camp."
Lin Yu asks evenly, "How will we divide whatever extraordinary things we encounter?"
Elise answers without hesitation.
"Father said you can keep thirty per cent. The rest belongs to us."
Lin Yu nods once, accepting the terms.
Together, he and the guard captain push against the massive castle doors.
The wood groans with a long creak, and from within, a flurry of bats screeches, swarming past them into the night.
They step inside the vast dark hall, shadows clinging to every broken wall.
Lin Yu's vision pierces the gloom, his shadow affinity making the darkness clear to him.
The guard captain's stance tells Lin Yu he walks the knight's extraordinary path, his body honed for battle.
Elise's way, however, remains hidden from him.
Even when a glowing orb of light blossoms in her hand, casting radiance across the dusty lobby, he cannot read what extraordinary path she is on.
They move through the ground floor in silence, their footsteps soft against the cold stone.
Each door they open reveals only dust, cobwebs, and broken furniture.
Elise's orb of light floats ahead, washing faded tapestries and cracked walls in a pale glow.
The guard captain searches carefully, checking every corner and shadow with disciplined precision.
Lin Yu lets his shadow energy seep outward, probing for even the faintest trace of extraordinary presence.
But every room is empty, lifeless, carrying only the stale breath of time.
A forgotten armoury holds nothing but rusted blades and shattered shields.
The dining hall smells of rot, but it is only rats scattering from the sudden light.
One chamber after another yields nothing but silence and ruin.
At last, they regroup in the central hall, standing before the staircase that spirals upward into darkness.
The guard captain pauses at the first step, his expression grave.
"The first floor," the guard captain says slowly, "let's see if we find anything extraordinary there."
Elise follows with a faint smile. "The castle is centuries old, long before our family took it. What could still remain? Even extraordinary materials, without preservation, decay into nothing."
Lin Yu steps onto the stairs, his tone quiet but firm. "Not undead extraordinary materials."
The guard captain's gaze sharpens, but he says nothing as he climbs behind Lin Yu.
Elise arches a brow. "Are you of the undead path? No one in our family has ever been."
Lin Yu shakes his head. "I follow the shadow element's extraordinary way."
Her voice is sceptical. "There is no complete shadow path. None that lead to the thirteen gods."
Lin Yu's eyes stay on the steps, his thoughts hidden. He chose the shadow element precisely because it is incomplete, but that truth is his alone.
Aloud, he only says, "My affinity is with shadow. What else can I do?"
Elise lifts her orb of light. "If you were a woman, you could have taken the witch path. The Shadow Witch is part of it."
Lin Yu doesn't answer, turning instead to the first chamber of the upper floor.
One by one, they sweep the rooms, finding nothing—no battle scars, no remnants of power, only silence and dust.
The second floor yields the same: emptiness, decay, disappointment.
They finally push open the castle doors again, the night air cool as they return to camp in silence.
Inside his tent, Lin Yu sits cross-legged, laying out the serpent's fang and poison vial.
With a breath, he sends shadow energy into them, tracing the dark veins of toxin infused with shadow essence.
The composition twists under his perception, whispering secrets of venom and shadow interwoven as one.
The next day, as the sun rises, the camp stirs awake, fire crackling with the scent of breakfast.
After eating, the group heads into the castle.
Professors scatter across the ground floor, cataloguing every fragment—small shards of metal, rusted weapons, and heavy vessels, the only relics that time preserved.
In the dust-covered hallways, footprints are noticed.
The professors exchange puzzled glances but say nothing, unable to trace whose steps they are.
Lin Yu focuses on scrubbing a large metal pot, the grime flaking under his cloth, when a sudden shout cuts through the air.
"Everyone! Come here! I found a door leading to the underground floor!"
Lin Yu's head snaps up, eyes widening.
Across the chamber, Elise freezes too, her reaction mirroring his.
Neither of them had seen such a door the night before.
They quickly abandon their tasks, striding toward the voice, the others already gathering in tense excitement.
The stairs descend into darkness, damp stone walls pressing close until the passage opens into a vast underground chamber.
The air is heavy, untouched for centuries, carrying the stale weight of silence.
At the centre of the chamber stands a towering stone tablet, its surface carved with deep, jagged characters in an unknown tongue.
Professor Claire's voice echoes sharply, filled with urgency.
"Lin Yu! Come here—see if you can decipher this language."
Lin Yu steps forward, shadows trailing faintly around him as his eyes lock on the script, strange patterns tugging at the edges of his memory.
The professors cluster near, whispering in awe, their lamps flickering across the ancient stone.
Above, the storm begins to roar, rain lashing against the old castle, winds rattling its broken windows.
By sunset, the decision is made to remain inside the ruin for safety, tents abandoned as thunder shakes the sky.
They haul their supplies into the great hall, lighting braziers and lamps until the stone walls glow faintly, their voices kept low as the storm devours the world outside.
Minutes later, another group pushes open the doors, dripping rain and mud across the floor.
The guards instantly draw steel, eyes sharp.
One of the newcomers, a man with a heavy coat and a steady face, steps forward and produces a folded paper.
"We entered the forest with the earl's permission—to survey trees for our furniture business."
The guards glance over the seal and nod reluctantly.
The knight captain sheathes his sword, and the others follow his lead.
"You may stay," the knight captain says flatly, "but you will not leave this hall."
The group agrees with curt nods and sits apart, silent except for the storm hammering the roof.
Then, a man among them speaks with an uneasy tone.
"I remember this place… I came here once, but there was no castle then."
The professors surge toward him, pelting him with questions.
Lin Yu, Elise, and the guard captain exchange sharp looks.
If his words are true, then this castle is like the underground chamber door—something that appeared suddenly.
Lin Yu excuses himself quietly, slipping into a secluded room where shadows thicken around him.
There, he finally unravels the essence of the Shadow Flower Serpent's venom, grasping how its poison binds with shadow.
By dawn, as the storm dies to a whisper, he conjures a swirl of dark energy in his palm and flicks it through the window at a bird perched on a branch.
The bird stiffens, then drops lifelessly, shadow poison coursing through its veins.
A new technique is born—First Tier Shadow Poison.
He feels his bond with shadow deepen, his energy expanding with sharp clarity.
A sudden shout rips from the lobby, forcing him to sprint back.
Grace stands pale and frantic, eyes wide.
"The tablet—it's gone!"
Professor Tim steps forward, voice steady but tight.
"Grace, speak clearly."
She gulps a breath, fists trembling.
"The stone tablet in the underground chamber—it's missing."
Shock still gripping them, the professors and guards rush toward the underground chamber, boots thundering down the stairs.
The vast room gapes empty—the stone tablet gone without a trace.
The knight captain snaps orders, his voice sharp over the echoing silence.
"Search every corner of the castle! A stone that size cannot simply vanish!"
Torches scatter through corridors and chambers, shadows torn aside as the guards comb every hall, every room, every stairwell.
Yet the search yields nothing—the tablet is nowhere within the walls.
Faces tighten with unease as suspicion turns inward.
The questioning begins, and each person pressed for answers under the flickering torchlight.
It is then that they discover the absence.
The man who had spoken of the castle's nonexistence is gone, his seat empty, his cloak missing.
A silence heavier than the storm before settles over them.
Whoever he was, he took the tablet.