Du Lai asked with a puzzled look: “Is that the only reason?”

“There’s one more,” Bai Youwei said. “Have you ever wondered — after months trapped in here, why were Marc, Dylan, and Slade the only three people left alive?”

“Maybe they were the strongest,” Du Lai replied. “Looking at the state of them, you could tell they had eaten quite a few people.”

Bai Youwei shook her head gently. “Perhaps they were the strongest — but the reason they survived must be that the three of them had reached some kind of equilibrium with each other.

Marc held the key to leaving the maze. Dylan held an endless supply of food and water. So what did Slade hold?”

Once she put it that way, everyone understood at once.

“You mean… Slade was keeping that magic sword hidden?” A’Shalina said, startled. “But that doesn’t add up either! If Slade really had the magic sword, why didn’t he use it when the Minotaur attacked him? And when those three first met us, they were so eager to hand over the key and the magic satchel — we never saw any sword!”

“Slade’s mind wasn’t clear, and he was no match for the Minotaur — so it’s not surprising he didn’t manage to draw the sword in time,” Bai Youwei said thoughtfully. “As for why he didn’t produce the sword… perhaps when they first obtained it, they didn’t see anything special about it and treated it as an ordinary weapon to keep for self-defense. After all, according to the murals, this sword only produces any effect when plunged into the Minotaur’s heart.”

Leonid said impatiently: “Whether it’s there or not, we’ll know once we check. Let’s just go! How much longer do we have to stay here?!”

It wasn’t only the “lice” affecting them — it was also the Minotaur itself, and any smell of blood. The collar could only provide some relief. Leonid was nearly out of his mind from hunger.

“Go four chambers forward, then head south all the way — that will bring us back to where Slade met his end,” Bai Youwei said, and reached out to take Shen Mo’s arm beside her. Her tone was calm. “Carry me.”

Shen Mo’s body was ice cold, still damp with the smell of liquor.

He rose in silence, lifted Bai Youwei onto his back, then touched her injured knees and spoke, his voice edged with coldness: “Don’t do that again.”

Bai Youwei wrapped her arms around his neck and gave a cold snort. “I return those exact words to you.”

Shen Mo walked forward in silence and said nothing.

After a stretch, he suddenly lowered his head and bit Bai Youwei’s hand!

He was truly merciless about it — the taste of iron filled his mouth, and he bit until he broke the skin on her fingers!

Pinpoints of dark red soaked into his lips, lending a jarring streak of vividness to his cold, severe features. The collar seemed to sense the attack, and like a tightening band, it began to contract!

Bai Youwei bit her lip and bore the pain.

Shen Mo finally released her. “Does it hurt?” he asked.

“It hurts,” Bai Youwei snapped furiously, “but it hurts a lot less than watching you die in there!”

“If I hadn’t held back, both of us would have died!” Shen Mo glanced at the others ahead, lowering his voice. “Possibly more than just us.”

“But you did hold back!” Bai Youwei buried her face against his back, tears falling. “You came out just fine!”

Shen Mo carried her forward in silence, then said quietly: “Not ‘just fine.’ Even with this collar on, I still want to eat you… every moment, without exception. I want to swallow you whole, from head to toe…”

He drew in a slow breath, as though greedily savoring the trace of blood scent from Bai Youwei’s fingers.

Bai Youwei spitefully smeared all the blood from her hand onto his neck!

“Then eat me!” she said, tears in her eyes, with a cold, bitter laugh.

Shen Mo’s footsteps stopped. “I care,” he said.

He paused two seconds, then added: “Weiwei — if I can’t hold back anymore, remember to hide inside the dollhouse. No matter what… don’t come out.”

Bai Youwei watched a small black insect crawl across the edge of his ear. Her tears fell faster.

—