Chapter 150: Shrink Her Down

Chapter 150: Shrink Her Down

Looking at the Loli standing motionless in the Crystal Cage, it seemed that after using up the power needed to maintain her current state multiple times, she had entered this energy-saving mode. In Zheng Yichen’s view, this was the last struggle of the force affecting her. It was just like a candle guttering in the wind—even without the wind, it would go out soon enough. Zheng Yichen didn’t mind putting in a little more effort to completely snuff out that flame!

Even though she was still, as Zheng Yichen moved, she would still turn to look at him. Every time she did this, Zheng Yichen would wind up a mechanical rat and toss it into the cage. The mechanical rat would zoom around in circles inside the cage according to its pre-set program. Loris’s reaction to this noisy little thing was very simple: she ignored it!

Zheng Yichen’s response was to keep throwing new mechanical animals into the Crystal Cage. These animals made their own unique, cacophonous noises nonstop. Each one had a different sound. After more than a dozen had been tossed in, Zheng Yichen found it somewhat unbearable to listen to them for even a moment.

Crack—

The Crystal Cage shattered into powder along with those mechanical animals. Without hesitation, Zheng Yichen grabbed the newly reinforced Crystal Cage next to him and trapped Loris, who had broken free and was rapidly charging towards him, inside it. Her movements came to an abrupt halt.

Because of the Alien Energy imbued within the Crystal Cage, every time she forcibly destroyed a Crystal Cage, her own power would diminish a bit. And as her power decreased, a vicious cycle caused the consumption to continually increase.

“Go ahead and smash it,” Zheng Yichen said. He put a finger into the Crystal Cage and gently tapped Loris’s head. Compared to before, her apparent age had dropped from about sixteen years old to fifteen… He estimated that after a few more times, she would probably revert to her original Loli body shape.

He hoped that by then she would return to normal. If not? Well, Zheng Yichen thought, a weakened Witch, with her already dwindling power further depleted… Catching her would be like handling a little kitten. Facing her at her full strength, that comparison would be reversed. But now? This opportunity was hard-won and wouldn’t wait for anyone!

However, as her power was consumed, Loris’s behavior became even more passive. Even though Zheng Yichen went to great lengths to provoke her afterwards, it was only at night that he succeeded in making her erupt once more, shattering another Crystal Cage. Of course, he still didn’t dare rest much, because Loris had already shown signs of trying to escape yesterday.

That’s right! Probably realizing that continuing like this would truly exhaust her to death, even though her consciousness wasn’t clear now, she had developed an animal-like instinct to avoid danger—to get away from here, away from that broken dragon who kept finding new ways to provoke her!

But Zheng Yichen certainly wouldn’t just let her run wild around here. The surroundings were full of Forbidden Zones. Accidentally stumbling into any of them could lead to encountering great, unknown dangers.

“Hmm, this… and this… Seems like I prepared a bit too many supplies. What a hassle. I’ll just leave them all here later,” Zheng Yichen muttered while rummaging through the storage area. Before, he had thought the prepared supplies were too little, but now that the situation had taken a turn, he instead felt he had prepared too much. It would be impossible to take everything with him when he left later.

So, taking advantage of a free moment, he prepared to set up a Magic Array here that could gather Mana, allowing it to maintain its effect for a long time. The effect of the Magic Array was… preservation. Ahem, to put it plainly, it was a Magic for long-term storage of supplies, similar to a freezer, but with a much better effect.

Since he couldn’t take these things with him later anyway, he might as well leave them here. In the future, if any lucky soul lost in a Forbidden Zone came here, they might be able to rely on these supplies to tough it out and survive.

Staring at Zheng Yichen’s back, a strange glint flashed in Loris’s indifferent eyes. In the instant Zheng Yichen yawned and stretched his arms, the Crystal Cage shattered once again. She swiftly darted towards another area, moving very fast. By the time Zheng Yichen reacted, the distance between her and him had increased from five meters to fifty meters… but that was as far as she got!

Zheng Yichen had installed Crystal Cage railings along the edges of the Safe Zone on both sides, several layers thick. For her to pass through, she would need to consume even more power. For Loris, whose body size had already shrunk severely, after breaking the crystal railings, she might directly revert to her original form from sheer weakness.

So she could only run forward or backward… Forward was where Zheng Yichen was crouching, so the only direction she could run was backward.

“……” Loris fell silent, looking at the cage that had sprung up from the ground and snapped together after she stepped on a trap. She turned her head and stared coldly at Zheng Yichen, who was fifty meters away, grinning broadly and holding a piece of roasted meat while laughing.

“Just kidding. Did you think I was staying up day and night all these days for nothing? If you can run even a hundred meters away, I’ll accept defeat!” Loris didn’t speak. She continued to stare coldly at Zheng Yichen. This time, her gaze was even more frigid than at any previous moment, making Zheng Yichen pause slightly. “You… you’re conscious?! No, wait… just who are you?!”

If it were merely a destructive instinct, then she definitely wouldn’t have a reaction like this… Even her earlier escape attempt, Zheng Yichen had just considered it an instinctual reaction due to her weakened power. But her current behavior made Zheng Yichen start to doubt his earlier assumptions. If it were only instinct, her current performance seemed a bit too intelligent.

“…Tch, fine, don’t say anything then. We’ll just take it slow. Let’s see what you can do after you run out of power to maintain your current state,” Zheng Yichen snorted lightly. He picked up the Crystal Cage on the ground and moved it back to its original spot, even adding nine more layers directly on the outside!

Loris’s earlier attempted escape had caused her body size to shrink even further. Zheng Yichen estimated that breaking three more Crystal Cages at most would completely return her to the size she was before. Just to be safe, he’d use triple the amount. These were also the last of the supplies Zheng Yichen had replenished over these past few days.

He really didn’t believe Loris’s remaining power could blow up all the remaining Crystal Cages. After provoking her a bit more and seeing no further reaction, Zheng Yichen shook his head. He summoned the Magic Weapon Summoning Book and observed the large amount of Alien Energy stored inside. Back then, Zheng Yichen had captured one-third of the Alien Energy from the entire Light Screen. Even after some consumption, a lot still remained.

He was very interested in this Alien Energy. It wasn’t Mana, but it could assimilate Mana and even produce effects similar to Mana, with even stronger power. Not only that, it could directly counteract the influence of a Witch’s ability traits. It wasn’t about having an advantage, but about matching in quality. A Witch’s Mana, influenced by her Witch ability, was of much higher quality than ordinary Mana.

Ordinary Mana facing a Witch’s Power would definitely be overpowered by the Witch’s Power, unless one used a much larger quantity to overwhelm the opponent.

But this energy was different… It seemed to be on the same level as a Witch’s Power…

“This is amazing. I wonder how to master it…”