Escape Route

Liu Xing could now be certain that the Castle Wall of this castle was definitely covered in wallpaper, and the Elder Signs were merely patterns on that wallpaper!

Liu Xing was utterly bewildered, but he quickly came to his senses. This situation was only to be expected.

After all, for an Elder Sign to achieve its intended effect, it had to be drawn by a professional well versed in Cthulhu Mythos Knowledge, using magic power and their own Sanity. Only Elder Signs made this way would have any effect and serve as a "defense" against those evil gods and Mythical Creatures.

Ordinary people like Liu Xing, even if they knew what an Elder Sign looked like—the signs were quite easy to draw, at least far simpler than Taoist talismans—would only produce something that looked the part if they lacked Cthulhu Mythos Knowledge. Its effectiveness was easy enough to imagine.

And even for professionals, drawing so many Elder Signs was wildly unrealistic. No matter how powerful a mage was, they were still human. Every Elder Sign they drew would cost them Sanity Value, and human Sanity Value was ultimately limited. At most, after drawing a few dozen Elder Signs, they would descend into complete madness.

So, if the Elder Signs on this castle wall were all real, Liu Xing could only say that this stretch of wall ought to be renamed the "Mad Wall." Without driving tens of thousands of mages insane, there was no way anyone could draw this many Elder Signs.

And now, Liu Xing had to admit that he admired the Castle Lord. He had actually come up with such an outrageous trick—directly printing Elder Sign patterns onto wallpaper, then pasting it onto the Castle Wall to create such a spectacular wall of Elder Signs.

Seeing Liu Xing lost in thought, Wang Qi grew curious. He carefully felt the Castle Wall as Liu Xing had, and also discovered that it was covered in wallpaper. His mouth fell open. Just as he was about to make a few snide remarks, he remembered how he had nearly received a Meta-gaming penalty earlier, so he immediately shut his mouth. After thinking for a while, he finally organized his words.

"Liu Xing, this Castle Lord is pretty fashionable. Nowadays, we only put wallpaper up inside our homes, but he's started putting it on castle walls. That must have taken an enormous amount of work," Wang Qi said with a smile.

Liu Xing snapped back to his senses. Hearing Wang Qi's words, he nodded and said with some feeling, "You're right. The Castle Wall of Ains Castle should be nearly a thousand meters long, with an average height of around eight meters. That means it would take at least sixteen thousand square meters of wallpaper. Then there's the task of pasting all of it onto the wall. It really is a massive project."

Liu Xing had put up wallpaper at home before, and he had even called Wu Lei over to help. The two grown men had spent nearly two hours putting up just around four square meters of wallpaper. Liu Xing could hardly imagine how much manpower and resources it would take to finish such a vast expanse of Eldritch Sigil Wallpaper.

However, Liu Xing reached another conclusion: the Lord of Ains Castle had probably gone completely mad. Otherwise, he could not have done something so Thankless. These Eldritch Sigil Wallpapers obviously had no effect whatsoever, yet the Castle Lord had still gone to great lengths to paste them perfectly onto the Castle Wall. If Liu Xing had not accidentally touched the wall, he truly would not have realized it was wallpaper!

After silently mocking it a few times in his heart, Liu Xing returned to the large room in the Main Building with Wang Qi. Wang Si Yi was engrossed in reading an untitled book, while Bai He Cheng and Chen Ling were nowhere to be seen.

Liu Xing first greeted Wang Si Yi, then asked, "Sister Wang, where did Bai He Cheng and Chen Ling go? Wang Qi and I found something interesting while we were out keeping watch."

Wang Si Yi kept her eyes on the book. "Them? Bai He Cheng said he needed to use the bathroom, so Chen Ling took him there. You know Bai He Cheng's current condition—he can't manage without someone accompanying him. But it's been nearly five minutes now, so they should be back soon. Sit down and rest for a while first."

As soon as Wang Si Yi finished speaking, Chen Ling returned with Bai He Cheng, looking thoroughly displeased. Clearly, Bai He Cheng had not behaved himself even while using the bathroom. He had definitely caused trouble again.

Sure enough, after Liu Xing asked Chen Ling what had happened, Chen Ling told him with a look of utter collapse that Bai He Cheng, using his blindness and numb limbs as excuses, had not only made Chen Ling guide him into the proper position, but had also demanded that Chen Ling help him take off his pants!

As a straight man, Chen Ling said that he had never helped anyone take off their pants in his entire life. Who would have thought that his first time would be with Bai He Cheng?

Of course, it was fortunate that Bai He Cheng had only gone to pee this time. Otherwise, Chen Ling felt that he would have had to wipe Bai He Cheng's ass too!

After hearing Chen Ling's complaints, Liu Xing became even more certain of one thing: he needed to stay as far away from Bai He Cheng as possible...

Once everyone had gathered, Liu Xing first contacted KP004 to reopen the secret room, then revealed the information they had just obtained. "To determine our escape route from the castle, Wang Qi and I went to the main gate. We found that escaping through the small iron gate is completely unrealistic because we don't have the key. If we want to force it open, we would at least need to find weapons like an axe. And don't forget, there's an alarm system at the gate. If we force it open, we'll definitely trigger the alarm. So I started wondering whether we could open that large wooden gate by legitimate means. We've been in the castle for a while now, and we've only seen one servant, Old Wayne. There are also traces of cars driving both inside and outside the castle, so that wooden gate must be able to open."

"So Wang Qi and I found a small wooden shed along the Castle Wall. Inside, we found a domestically manufactured Electric Door Opener. According to its Operation Manual, after ten minutes of preheating and calibration, the Electric Door Opener will slowly open the gate, and after another nine minutes, the wooden gate will be fully open. I think this is our best route out of the castle—perhaps even our only route."

The other three had also heard the sound of dice landing in the Main Building and knew that Liu Xing's side had been making a check, though they had not known what it was for. Now that they heard Liu Xing explain it, the three of them finally understood.

Wang Si Yi put down her book and said seriously, "Then, if everything is as you say, Liu Xing, is this really our only theoretical escape route from Ains Castle?"

Liu Xing nodded. "That's right. Unless we can find a secret passage leading outside the castle, or find a rope long and sturdy enough, we'd better choose the method of opening the wooden gate."

Wang Si Yi thought for a while, then nodded. "I agree with Liu Xing's idea."

PS: The second update is here. Please bookmark and recommend.