Chapter 264: The Pitch-Black South Wing Behind Her
If someone told Lin Sanjiu that she had "feminine charms" half an hour before, she might laugh coldy to express her disbelief. However, considering the current situation...
Lin Sanjiu exhaled. She glanced at the book cover once more reluctant to accept the facts before she casually tossed the book back to Silvan.
Just moments before, when Lin Sanjiu held the rolled-up book in her slender hands, her heart nearly missed a beat when she caught a glimpse of the t.i.tle on the book: "A World History of Asian Art".
"Well, as expected, it isn"t the right book." Lin Sanjiu felt a little disappointed. At the same time, she fixed her gaze on the enigmatic man in front of her, "But, it would be rather careless of him if he"d just keep a target book in his back pocket."
Right now, Lin Sanjiu was standing on top of a bookshelf, and the dim sunlight from the window shone on the exposed muscles and blood vessels which belong to her pair of skinless legs. Connecting this to her unique, refres.h.i.+ng voice, Silvan finally realized who the woman in front of him was. He held the side of his waist which bore the brunt of Lin Sanjiu"s powerful attack and lowered his head. He took a breath, almost as if laughing or sighing, before he spoke slowly, "So, you are that person from the central hall."
Even though the woman, in front of him, had already showed her open hostility toward him with her surprise attack and stole his item, that did not seem to bother Silvan. His expression mellowed quite a bit but he continued looking at Lin Sanjiu with a glimmer in his eyes.
"This might sound a little offensive," he was almost murmuring his words, "but, would you be willing to join my team?"
"Of course not!" Lin Sanjiu never felt that she had any sort of feminine charm, much less captivate such an attractive-looking man like Silvan. She firmly believed that the man had something up his sleeves so she let out a dry laugh, "Why can"t you join my team instead? The first target book must be with that woman called Peach. If you hand her over to me, there is room for negotiation."
"Regarding that matter," Silvan shook his head, seeming to show his disappointment, "I can"t do that even if it is a request from you."
The bizarre expression and reaction he had when he first saw Lin Sanjiu had faded fully from his face. Silvan put both his hands in his back pockets and leaned against the bookshelf behind him. He regained his usual laid-back, lazy demeanor. Lin Sanjiu only felt a sense of "normality" when he reverted back to his usual att.i.tude. She scanned her surroundings quickly.
That group of mushroom-like people from the West Wing team had disappeared. There was a black figure on the ground, and that person was clearly not breathing. From the looks of things, the remaining members from that team must have retreated back to the west wing. She had scanned the second floor of the east wing multiple times but she still couldn"t find any sign of Peach. She figured that the woman was probably hiding on the first floor.
If she wanted to go to the first floor, she had to bypa.s.s Sivan, who was right in front of her. However, she knew that it wasn"t going to be easy. The man had just fought off five people from the West wing single handedly, but appeared unharmed. He even killed the person lying on the ground. Not only was he going to be difficult to deal with, Silvan"s current number of lives would certainly be dauntingly high. Once the disparity in the number of lives between two parties reach a certain threshold, it would be almost impossible for the person with the lower number to defeat his/her opponent.
Just when Lin Sanjiu was feeling slightly antsy, Silvan suddenly looked up, almost as if he wanted to say something.
Without warning, a "boom" suddenly came from the other end of the library. It wasn"t loud, but the light from the red fiery flames which suddenly appeared quickly drove away the darkness from half the library.
As the blaze raged, a sharp screech pierced the air. A black figure of a humongous creature was thras.h.i.+ng around violently in the fire. However, no matter how hard it struggled, it could not escape the fire. The creature shrieked and tossed its body, flinging countless flickering embers in the air. Soon, the fire spread to the handrails of the stairs and then to the bookshelves in the central hall.
The flames that suddenly erupted from the second floor of the north wing had also lit up a small figure hiding near the banisters on the second floor. Lin Sanjiu was startled because she noticed that the small figure hugging a book was Rena.
Almost simultaneously, the members from the North Wing team, who were in the central hall, howled when they realized that their wing was on fire. A few black shadows immediately rushed up the stairs to the second floor of the north wing. Rena was aware that she was in a very bad situation. She immediately stood up and wanted to escape, but the fire around her was too big. She tried a few times to get away but the burning black shadow blocked her and trapped her back into a corner.
When Lin Sanjiu saw that the north wing members had already rushed over to Rena, she couldn"t care less about the book that Silvan found. Lin Sanjiu leaped up and immediately lunged herself toward where Rena was. Silvan reacted and chased after her but he wasn"t fast enough because seeing Lin Sanjiu fly off the second floor was beyond anything he could expect. He held the banisters tightly and stared motionless in the direction of the north wing. The flickering light from the flames shone on his face, revealing his stunned expression.
Lin Sanjiu didn"t have time to consider what was happening behind her. When she reached the banisters at the north wing, all the flames suddenly extinguished. The library was once again plunged into darkness. As the flames were the special effect from a book, there was a time limit. Once the time was up, the effect naturally disappeared. However, those short 30 seconds were enough to save Rena"s life. A few seconds after the fire disappeared, the large earthworm-like creature fell to the ground with a loud bang. It crumbled into large segmented columns of soot.
Even though the creature had been burnt beyond recognition, the people who had rushed up to the north wing to surround Rena were shocked by the sight.
"What"s that?" the man in the top hat asked in a mumble as he threw a glance at Rena, who was covered in wounds. "How did you and that thing reach this place?"
After getting rid of one enemy, Rena found herself facing another group of enemies. Using her knees, she supported herself up. She glared at the faces of all the people surrounding her and panted as she replied, "Isn"t that thing something you guys left there?"
The man in the top hat examined the column of ashes on the ground curiously before he smiled darkly.
"Little girl, this thing has nothing to do with us. I hope you have enough lives…"
The location Lin Sanjiu landed wasn"t that good. She found herself some distance behind the group of people from the north wing. When the man in the top hat said that, Lin Sanjiu had just climbed over the banisters. Unfortunately, a member from the team spotted her.
However, she did not antic.i.p.ate the following words said to her.
"Ah, seeing that we caught someone, you guys are finally willing to help?" the person scowled, "We already made an agreement yet they only sent you?"
Lin Sanjiu froze. The other party had probably mistaken her for someone else.
"Who? It must be someone they haven"t seen before…" As she considered the situation, she answered the person vaguely. She walked over to the person and suddenly realized something. From where the person was facing, Lin Sanjiu realized that the pitch-black south wing was behind her.