Trapped

When the Holy Stone energy enveloped the area where Su Ran was, Ma Kun, who had been pushing her forward, vanished from her sight.

Su Ran sat in her wheelchair, still holding the briefcase containing the mutated Earl’s corpse.

She and Ma Kun had packed it, and he had placed it with her just before they were about to leave.

At this moment, Su Ran found the place she was in to be somewhat familiar, very similar to the environments she had fallen into during the two previous magic formation incidents.

Within her field of vision, everything was a crimson glow, and the red moon overhead emitted a strange halo.

‘I still need to find a way out and find Old Ma first!’

Su Ran closed her beautiful eyes, and spiritual power surged out from within her, spreading out in all directions with her at the center, attempting to find the disappeared Ma Kun.

But a moment later, Su Ran opened her eyes with a look of frustration.

Ma Kun’s presence had vanished, making it impossible to pinpoint his exact location.

Just like before, the Holy Stone energy had isolated Ma Kun’s presence, seemingly intending to separate the people within the magic formation.

Faced with this situation, Su Ran was already mentally prepared.

She activated her witch’s ability, and a longsword of ice crystals quietly appeared before her.

Since the environment was similar to before, using the same method should certainly allow her to leave this damned place.

Under Su Ran’s control, the ice crystal longsword plunged directly into the ground in front of her.

The extreme ice magic essence of the sword’s body was like a hot knife cutting through butter.

Mist rose from the ground with a sizzling sound.

Su Ran wanted to disable the magic formation, but the commotion she caused this time was beyond her expectations.

Before long, Su Ran stopped her actions and waved her hand, causing the ice crystal longsword to dissipate into nothingness.

‘The core of the magic formation this time is very tough, with a layer of protection that prevents me from breaking it in one go? Or perhaps the core is just too far away from me.’

Judging by the noise she had made while trying to break the formation, if there were any enemies within, Su Ran would have already been discovered.

Thinking of this, Su Ran slowly breathed a sigh of relief.

After all, facing an enemy in her current state, she might not be able to escape smoothly.

“I can’t be trapped here for too long! I’ll have to use the second method.”

Even if there were no enemies in the formation, Su Ran still didn’t dare to stay in it for too long.

A magic formation driven by Holy Stone energy was, in essence, a form of sacrifice.

The longer one stayed within the magic formation, the more likely they were to become a sacrifice.

Clearly, the enemy did not want to confront the Jiangbei City garrison head-on.

Instead, they found the mutated Earl’s corpse and attempted to envelop everything within range to use as a sacrifice.

At this thought, Su Ran’s expression changed.

She re-weighed the briefcase in her hands.

Although the briefcase hadn’t been opened, Su Ran could clearly feel that the contents had become lighter during the process of weighing it.

In other words, as long as one was trapped in the magic formation for long enough, the enemy could achieve their goal of sacrifice even without obtaining the mutated Earl’s corpse.

The deadliest thing was that the briefcase only contained a part of the corpse; the majority was still stored at the researchers’ temporary worksite.

In the underground ruins of Jiangbei City, the researchers who had just escaped the range of the “Glitch” energy looked at their temporary workspace with lingering fear.

If they had been a step slower, they might have been trapped inside.

Winnie’s face was grim.

She had just rushed back to the underground ruins from the hunting grounds.

She had originally thought that breaking the magic formation wouldn’t take much effort, but reality proved that she had miscalculated this time.

The magic essence energy of a Sequence Five erupted, attempting to envelop the entire magic formation.

However, when the magic essence from Winnie’s body came into contact with the formation, it was like a clod of dirt falling into the sea, not even creating a splash.

“At my current sequence level, to break the magic formation, I either need to enter it or wear it down to a certain extent with magic essence.”

Thinking of Su Ran, who was still trapped inside the magic formation, Winnie’s face filled with worry.

The entire magic formation had no point of entry.

It was as if it had divided the world into an inside and an outside, and attempting to enter was simply impossible.

Therefore, Winnie did not stop her actions.

Magic essence poured from her hands, used to wear down the power within the formation.

‘Xiao Ran, you have to hold on!’

However, Su Ran did not hear Winnie’s worries at this moment.

She held an ice crystal spear, her expression grave as she dealt with the strange creatures forming around her.

A magic essence bullet shot from the gun’s chamber, hitting a humanoid withered tree not far from Su Ran.

Translucent ice crystals spread across the withered tree’s body, and a piercing shriek entered Su Ran’s ears.

This was not Isa’s world, so there was no volume button.

Su Ran could only frown and fire another magic essence bullet at the withered tree to shut it up.

The bullets Su Ran was firing now were different from the magic bullets she usually purchased from the system.

These bullets were imbued only with Su Ran’s purest witch ability.

These strange creatures had suddenly appeared before Su Ran, taking only the blink of an eye to emerge and grow.

Even though the surroundings still looked like the ruins, Su Ran believed this was not the world she was familiar with.

Clearly, as the magic formation persisted, strange creatures were gradually beginning to appear inside it.

The weight of the briefcase’s contents was already one-fifth gone.

Even knowing that staying in the magic formation any longer might make the situation worse…

Boom!

Following the sound, Su Ran looked up.

Her body trembled as she witnessed an unusual scene.

Above the magic formation, which had been enveloped by Holy Stone energy, a deep crack had now appeared, splitting the entire ceiling in two.

Through it, one could see countless slimy tentacles extending from the crack, all of which seemed to be of the same kind as the humanoid withered trees.

Seeing the slimy tentacles appear in mid-air, Su Ran felt an inexplicable chill.

‘Absolutely must not be caught by it! Absolutely not!’

Taking a potion from her ring, Su Ran swallowed it without a second thought.

Then, she stood up directly from her wheelchair.

This was one of the healing potions Isa had refined for the Witch’s Society.

She had very thoughtfully prepared a dose for Su Ran as well.

The effect of this potion was simple: it could temporarily block the pain from the fracture in her leg, acting as an anesthetic.

As a price, once the duration ended, the pain would return to Su Ran twofold.

However, in order to no longer be restricted by the wheelchair, Su Ran downed the painkiller without hesitation.

Surveying her surroundings, Su Ran looked for a spot where she couldn’t see any humanoid withered trees and began to walk, following her senses toward the core of the magic formation.

Su Ran wanted to leave the magic formation while the painkiller was still in effect.

Since the magic core was protected by a layer of defense, the magic formation she was currently in was very likely another complex, layered formation.

As long as she destroyed one, the other wouldn’t last much longer.