Don't provoke mentally ill people in the infinite flow genre!

At Yi Zanglan's request, and after everyone discussed and voted, Yan Zhao and Ling Ye were given the opportunity to accompany the captain to the Imperial History Pavilion.

The three walked quickly and remained silent until Yi Zanglan seemed to remember something and turned to look at Yan Zhao.

"Is that handsome man who could cook noodles dead?"

Yan Zhao took a few seconds to realize that she was asking about Shen Yubai: "...No, he just vomited blood and is resting. The doctor in the team has also prepared medicine for him."

"Oh," Yi Zanglan responded, then glanced at Ling Ye beside her, "How's your arm?"

Ling Ye seemed a little surprised that she would suddenly ask him this question. After a moment of hesitation, he replied in a deep voice, "It's just a minor injury, nothing serious."

Yi Zanglan was well aware of her own strength, especially since she was in a state of rage at the time. Her gaze shifted downwards, and she saw half of the bandage showing through his sleeve. Although he had deliberately worn black, she could still vaguely see dark stains from the blood seeping through.

She paused, then couldn't help but complain, "Don't you usually talk? Everyone in this group is so noisy, you're practically mute."

Ling Ye sighed helplessly, "Not really, I can talk."

"What will they say?"

"What do you want to hear?"

"..."

Yi Zanglan instantly lost interest in communicating with him. She snorted coldly and looked up.

In the distance, the outline of the Imperial History Pavilion can gradually be seen through the light mist.

It was a small palace built entirely of brick and stone, with a roof covered in blue tiles and thick walls like mountains. Its appearance was cold and restrained, exuding an air of solemnity.

As an emperor, Yi Zanglan possessed a special key to open this place. The three of them entered the door and found that there were five more arched doors inside, which were divided into nine stone chambers. Each stone chamber contained countless royal secrets.

Given Yi Zanglan's less-than-friendly attitude, Ling Ye didn't want to affect her mood, so she went to search elsewhere on her own, leaving Yan Zhao to accompany her.

The so-called bookshelves here are actually square stone holes carved into the walls. Yan Zhao carefully examines the books or files in each stone hole, and takes out and reads any that he has doubts about, for fear of missing any clues.

Along the way, she repeatedly reached out her hand behind her back to check Yi Zanglan's location, doing this several times until Yi Zanglan finally became impatient.

"Excuse me, are we that close? Can you stop bumping into each other all the time?" Yi Zanglan slapped her away impatiently. "Do you and your captain act like this all the time?"

Yan Zhao instinctively retorted, "Otherwise what?"

"Please be polite. For people like us, inappropriate physical contact is a danger signal, even for someone like Ah Lang..."

The words came to an abrupt halt, and Yi Zanglan's expression suddenly darkened. He frowned and turned his head away.

Yan Zhao keenly noticed her unusual mood and quickly put his hand on her shoulder, asking, "What's wrong? Are you feeling unwell again?"

"No." Yi Zanglan hesitated for a long time before finally speaking, "It just suddenly occurred to me that if everything is as you all say, then... it means that when I turn sixteen, I really will be separated from A Lang."

"..."

Yan Zhao gazed at her, his heart filled with mixed emotions, and for a moment he didn't know how to answer.

"I really wanted to escape Raven, I've thought about it countless times," Yi Zanglan muttered to herself. "But I should have taken A Lang with me. Why didn't I take her?"

"Because of different identities and different positions, even if you think that way, Yin Canglang may not be able to leave."

The chief's only daughter, the next heir to Raven, is a demon bred by any means necessary, destined to remain in the border desert.

Some destinies are beyond our control from birth.

Yi Zanglan sighed. In that instant, she seemed to recall many past events. Her eyes reddened slightly, revealing a sorrow and vicissitude that were incongruous with her age.

She asked, "How's Ah Lang doing now? You guys said she has her own team now, how are her teammates?"

"She's probably doing alright, though. She's the kind of leader who's ruthless." Yan Zhao put it tactfully. "Her team members have probably been beaten into submission by her. I haven't heard of anyone daring to rebel—but I'm sure her team is better off without yours."

"What's so great about you?"

"You know best what's so good about us." Yan Zhao leaned closer to her, his gaze sharp, each word resolute. "Actually, you've felt it for a long time, haven't you? But you're unwilling to admit it, which is perfectly normal. After all, before we met, we couldn't believe that someone like you could exist in the world."

A born strongman, a fearless fighter, yet also a gentle savior, deserving of the purest faith and the most unwavering love.

Yi Zanglan and Yan Zhao looked at each other. She took a deep breath and hesitated, about to say something, when a sudden warning came over her. Almost without thinking, she pulled Yan Zhao behind her.

A whooshing sound suddenly arose as two sharp metal arrows whistled past. One grazed her cheek, while the other was clutched tightly in her palm, less than inches from her eye, its tip still trembling.

"There's a trap here!"

Yan Zhao was startled and immediately summoned his Furious Claw. The snow-white bone claw suddenly extended and firmly gripped a crack in the stone wall not far away.

She scooped Yi Zanglan up in her arms and, using the momentum of the bone claws, quickly swung away from where she stood.

The moment after the two escaped, the traps were fully activated, and countless metal arrows rained down from all directions, striking the spot where they had first stood.

Not only that, all the mechanisms in the Imperial History Pavilion were activated, and hidden weapons followed closely. The stone wall began to gradually move towards the center, and with a heavy scraping sound, cracks of varying widths appeared in the ground. Below the cracks were densely intersecting serrations, like the gaping maw of a deep abyss. Anyone who fell in would be torn to pieces.

Yan Zhao manipulated the Furious Claw, whirling down the incoming hidden weapons like a whirlwind, while pulling Yi Canglan along as they desperately ran towards the exit of the stone chamber.

The Imperial Archives was built entirely of brick and stone, with no blind spots inside and no tools to temporarily defend itself; speed was the only option.

During the journey, Yi Zanglan tried to connect with her bracelet, but no matter how she tried, she could not summon the so-called peerless Grim Reaper's scythe as her teammates had described.

The black bracelet on her left hand remained unresponsive, while the gold on her right hand seemed to have intensified.

Perhaps... she was never able to summon it in the first place.

057 is 057, and Yi Zanglan is Yi Zanglan.

A sharp pain shot through her neck, and she was momentarily stunned. When she looked up, she saw Yan Zhao in front of her, who was blocking a cluster of flying cross-shaped darts for her.

At the same moment, the stone floor cracked neatly from beneath their feet, with walls on both sides. They had nowhere to stand and instantly lost their balance, falling downwards.

In the nick of time, the furious claws hooked onto the stone cave above, temporarily slowing its descent.

Yan Zhao never let go of Yi Zanglan's hand, and the two of them remained suspended in the center of the crack, pulling at each other, almost touching the sharp serrations.

"The crack is closing!" Yi Zanglan instinctively raised her voice, "You don't need to...you should let go first!"

"You've never let go of my hand before," Yan Zhao said through gritted teeth, his voice low. "For me, that wasn't an option."

……

A hair's breadth away.

Ling Ye, who was originally trapped at the end of the Imperial History Pavilion by the trap, finally crossed four stone chambers to get here.

He moved with lightning speed, leaping through the air and dodging the hidden weapons coming from both sides to get close. He decisively held the Tang sword in his palm and managed to stop the crack from closing.

He grabbed Yan Zhao by the collar, using the momentum of his furious claws to drag him backward, then swiftly sheathed his sword and pulled Yi Zanglan out of the crevice along with him.

The three of them fell to the ground, then quickly got up and continued running outwards.

"...Why did the mechanism suddenly activate?"

"Because I found it," Ling Ye replied in a deep voice, "it's the blue-covered ancient book in the painting."