A Kindhearted Passerby

Luo Jiuge.

Isolde searched through her memories again and again, certain she had never heard that name in her past life.

To pull off a solo infiltration in a bizarre world like Fallen Realm, then cleanly slaughter her way through the entire Lamp Room—this woman's combat instincts and burst damage were undoubtedly at the very top of the pyramid.

But the problem was, among the top players of her past life, there had never been a Holy Swordsman named Luo Jiuge.

Could it be... this girl had died midway through, before surviving to the later stages of the game?

The thought had barely crossed Isolde's mind when Luo Jiuge had already reached the iron rack. With a flick of her longsword, she neatly severed the chains binding the man.

The man's body sagged, and he nearly collapsed.

Luo Jiuge reached out to steady him, then pulled a low-tier potion from her bag and stuffed it into his hand.

"Hey, hang in there," she said softly.

Sweat poured from the man's forehead as he gasped for breath.

"You... cough, who are you?"

"A kindhearted passerby."

Seeing that he was still conscious, Luo Jiuge could not help joking with him.

Isolde stood nearby, observing her every move, her gaze darkening slightly.

How rare. In this dog-eat-dog game, there was actually a player who still retained the sense of justice of a "protagonist template."

After settling the man down, Luo Jiuge turned and spotted Isolde standing nearby. She called out, "Fellow countrywoman, are there any other living people imprisoned in this damned place?"

Isolde glanced at her, walked to the wall, and removed a silver access badge, her tone calm.

"Discipline Office."

Luo Jiuge immediately looked over. "Discipline Office?"

"Underground west corridor." Isolde weighed the badge in her hand. "That's the monastery's torture chamber. There should be quite a few unlucky people who were just captured there. Especially... the Northern Witch Hunters."

The man had mostly recovered. Upon hearing those words, his eyes flew open.

"Colin..." He grabbed Luo Jiuge's wrist fiercely. "Colin and the others were captured too?!"

Isolde confirmed it. This man was Aiven.

Luo Jiuge was a little bewildered by Aiven's grip and turned to Isolde.

"Northern Witch Hunters? What's going on? A dungeon side quest?"

Isolde did not even blink as she lied, her tone natural. "Something like that. A hidden quest in the monastery."

Luo Jiuge's eyes lit up. "Seriously?"

"Believe it or not." Isolde pointed at Aiven. "Take this witch hunter to the Discipline Office and find a man named Hewen. Once you complete the quest, the rewards might be generous."

After hearing that, Luo Jiuge looked Isolde up and down suspiciously. "What about you? You're not coming with me to split the experience?"

Without changing expression, Isolde slipped the silver access badge into her sleeve.

"I have another quest on me. They conflict."

Luo Jiuge became even more curious. "What kind of quest? Better rewards than a hidden side quest?"

"None of your business." Isolde raised her eyes, using an oppressive gaze to stop the other woman's probing. "For the sake of a fellow countrywoman, I'm giving you the Discipline Office quest. Whether you want to throw your life away or strike it rich is up to you."

Luo Jiuge stared at her for a while, then suddenly laughed to herself, looking rather carefree.

"Fine, everyone has their own little secrets. Once we finish our quests, how about we team up after getting out?"

Isolde coldly refused. "I don't team up."

Luo Jiuge raised a brow. "Why?"

Isolde turned sideways. In that instant, the indifference in her eyes seemed to lower the temperature of the entire Lamp Room.

"I don't trust other people."

The smile on Luo Jiuge's face faltered. Her overly bright eyes fixed on Isolde, as if trying to glean something from that utterly impassive face.

A few seconds later, she muttered softly, "...Been betrayed before?"

Isolde did not answer that meaningless question.

She turned around and walked straight to the ingredient rack beside the silver cauldron. Like an old hand, she took down a bottle of exceptionally pure Unicorn grease and casually stuffed it into her loose priestly robe.

Watching her smoothly loot the place, Luo Jiuge could not help complaining, "Fellow countrywoman, you're way more skilled than me at scavenging spoils."

"Take every last thing you can. Basic practice."

"The way you do things really doesn't sound like a righteous character."

Isolde sneered and shot back, "The way you nearly slit my throat with your sword just now wasn't any gentler than a cultist."

Luo Jiuge choked on that, then awkwardly rubbed her nose. "Fine, call it even."

Seeing Isolde about to leave, Luo Jiuge called after her, "Hey, fellow countrywoman, you still haven't told me your name!"

Isolde ignored her. On her way out, she grabbed a Holy Lamp and left the Lamp Room alone.

She was not here to make friends. She merely needed someone to cause chaos in the Discipline Office, deliver Aiven into Hewen's hands, draw the Holy Court's attention for her, and muddy the waters.

As for someone like Luo Jiuge...

If one's sense of justice was too strong, it was easy to carry other people's lives on one's shoulders.

In Fallen Realm, people like that either became strong enough to withstand all malice, or died faster than anyone else.

And as for which fate awaited Luo Jiuge, Isolde did not care in the slightest.

Inside the Lamp Room, Luo Jiuge watched the gray figure disappear around the corner of the dark stairwell and tugged at the corner of her mouth in amusement.

"What a cold temper... Still, she told me there was a hidden quest here, so she probably isn't that bad."

She gathered her thoughts and reached out to support Aiven beside her, asking in a deep voice, "Can you still walk?"

Aiven gritted his teeth and nodded, cold sweat rolling down his cheeks from his temples.

"...I can."

Luo Jiuge had wanted to tell him not to force himself, but when she saw Aiven pressing one hand hard against the wall, his knuckles turning blue as he stubbornly refused to stop, she swallowed the words that had reached her lips.

Back when she played games in front of a computer, she had hated these stubborn plot NPCs the most. They were clearly at critical health and saddled with a crippling debuff, yet they insisted on blindly pushing the plot forward, forcing players to fight monsters while escorting them like babysitters.

But now, a living, breathing NPC stood right beside her.

Luo Jiuge sighed, pulled a high-grade recovery potion from her backpack, and slapped it directly into Aiven's hand.

"Drink this."

Aiven froze. "...You already gave me one just now..."

"Cut the crap. If I give it to you, take it." Luo Jiuge impatiently cut him off, then gripped her longsword in reverse and warily glanced toward the silent corridor outside. "How are we supposed to fight a group battle if you don't recover to full?"

The two of them kept close to the dark wall and stealthily made their way toward the western corridor.

By then, the steady and orderly patrol footsteps deep within the monastery had become completely chaotic.

From far away came the furious roars of Holy Court knights.

"Seal off the inner courtyard! An intruder has infiltrated! Everyone, stay alert!"

Immediately afterward, shrill and rapid alarm bells exploded overhead.

The once cold and silent Grey Dove Monastery became lively all at once, like a shrimp pond suddenly stirred up.

The Discipline Office was not difficult to find.

The closer they came to the west corridor, the thicker the nauseating stench of blood in the air became.

The black stone walls were carved with dense silver-white cross patterns, but beneath those sacred markings hung rows upon rows of blackened iron hooks and chains of torture implements.

Luo Jiuge's temples throbbed.

Just looking at those things made her feel like they hurt terribly.

The door to the Discipline Office stood half-open. Suppressed male groans drifted out from within, along with a monk's icy voice.

"Hewen, I'll ask you one last time."

"You went to great lengths to infiltrate Grey Dove Monastery. What exactly were you after? Where are your accomplices outside hiding now?"

Luo Jiuge quietly peered inside through the crack in the door.

Countless enormous torture devices that made one's scalp crawl stood in the center of the vast interrogation chamber.

Hewen was locked to a rack with Judgment Clasps, his hands suspended overhead. His outer robe was soaked in blood, and fresh wounds covered his face.

The instant Aiven saw that figure, his breath caught. Emotions he had suppressed for so long instantly broke loose. "Hewen..."

Overwhelmed with emotion, he accidentally kicked a piece of loose gravel.

"Who's there?!" The Lamp Room monk inside was highly alert and immediately shouted.

However, Luo Jiuge moved even faster than his reflexes.

She pushed off the ground and shot directly through the gap in the door.

The moment the holy sword left its sheath, brilliant pale-gold sword light tore through the dim interrogation chamber.

The Lamp Room monk inside changed expression, almost instinctively raising a silver-white [Holy Radiance Shield].

Crack.

The shield flashed for an instant before shattering.

"Damn it! There's an intruder!"

The two elite Holy Court knights stationed nearby had only just managed to draw their swords. Their boots had not even taken their first step.

Luo Jiuge twisted in midair, flicked her wrist, and transformed into an afterimage impossible to follow.

[Thousand-Blade Light Slash]

Blinding white sword light crisscrossed wildly through the narrow interrogation chamber, weaving a net of death.

In the blink of an eye, the sword light faded.

Several formidable Holy Court knights had not even managed to use a single move before their bodies stiffened in unison and they collapsed limply to the floor.

The fluid sword combo left Aiven, who had followed in behind her, dumbfounded. His mouth hung open for a long time without closing.

Luo Jiuge casually spun her sword, sheathed the holy sword in a dashing motion, then turned and saw Aiven still frozen in place. She could not help urging him, "What are you standing around for? Hurry up and save him!"