Outside the Barrier, Li Chen found the energy node almost effortlessly. He even found it rather anticlimactic.
Perhaps he had overestimated the strength of the Wind Whisperer Family's Barrier, or perhaps his strength simply exceeded theirs by too much.
He extended a finger, a barely perceptible wisp of chaotic energy swirling around its tip, and gently touched the weakest point of the pale green Barrier.
There was no flash of light, no explosion of energy, not even a single ripple.
As though gently parted by an invisible force, the Barrier silently opened a gap just wide enough for one person to pass through.
Li Chen's figure flickered, and he was inside the Barrier. The gap behind him silently sealed the instant he entered, as though it had never existed.
Yet just as his feet touched the soft grass within the castle grounds, he unexpectedly discovered that the spot where he had breached the Barrier was right beside a lush patch of glowing Moonlight Flowers.
And beside the flowers crouched a figure!
It was a young woman in a long white gauze dress, her figure suggesting she was in the bloom of youth.
She seemed to be searching among the flowers for something she had lost. Still half-crouching, she tilted her head up and stared, dumbstruck, at Li Chen, who had suddenly "walked" through the Barrier like a ghost.
By the hazy moonlight and the flowers' faint glow, Li Chen could see the young woman clearly from his vantage point above her.
She had long silver hair that looked woven from moonlight, loosely draped over her shoulders, and skin so fair it was almost translucent.
Pointed ears peeked through her hair, revealing her half-elf heritage.
Her features were as exquisite as if painstakingly carved by the finest artist. Her wide eyes