Crystal Palace from Infinite Anime

As the enchantment was completed, Busujima Saeko waved her hand and sent out a poisonous blade at Patros who was riding his horse towards her.

Patros, who was wearing a tasseled helmet, reacted quickly, lowered his upper body on the horse's back, and avoided the poisonous blade that was flying towards his neck. Only the decorative red tassel on his helmet was cut by the flying poisonous blade and fell to the ground.

Then, the warhorse galloped at high speed, bringing Bertolos to Busujima Saeko.

Bertolos stabbed Busujima Saeko with a gun on horseback. The tip of the gun penetrated Busujima Saeko's body in an instant, but there was no sound or resistance feedback.

"It's an afterimage!"

With his rich combat experience, Bertolos made a judgment in an instant.

Saeko Busujima, who had burst out at full speed and dodged Bertolos's attack, had actually moved to the side and swung the sword suddenly even though the katana in her hand was clearly not long enough, at least three meters away!

"Shh!"

This blow seemed to be hitting the air, but the green light attached to the blade, which symbolized the giant devouring demon poison, suddenly broke away from the blade with this blow of Busujima Saeko, and turned into a pool of sticky venom that sprayed towards Bertolos.

"not good!"

Bertolos secretly thought that something was wrong, but he reacted without any hesitation.

Turning his head to look at the large amount of venom flying towards him like a horizontal line in the air, Bertolos raised his left hand which was holding the reins of the horse, and a ball of fire instantly ignited in the palm of his hand.

Then, he waved his hand, also in a horizontal line, creating flames in the air. These flames were much more intense than ordinary flames, and most of the venom that was flying over was evaporated in just a moment.

Unfortunately, a tiny bit of venom still landed on the horse that Bertolos was riding.

It was just a tiny amount of venom, the amount of which could only be described as a "drop". After it landed on the horse, it instantly corroded a bloody hole as big as the wrist of the horse.

The sudden severe pain caused Patroclus's horse to neigh and fall to the ground, and Patroclus also fell heavily to the ground.

If an ordinary person were to fall so hard while wearing heavy armor, he would probably faint on the spot.

But Bertolos acted as if nothing had happened. He got up from the ground immediately after falling off his horse, and even took the initiative to attack Busujima Saeko again.

He passed through the flames that he had just created, which were still lingering in the air.

The broad-headed spear in his hand absorbed the power of the flames, and a layer of flames instantly covered the spear head.

Then, just as Bertolos, holding the burning broadhead gun, was about to engage in a foot battle with Busujima Saeko, who had re-enchanted the katana in her hand with a deadly poison.

"stop!"

A voice that was very familiar to both Bertolos and Busujima Saeko rang out loudly in the dark night lit by flames.

"Whoosh!"

Dragging his sick body that was in pain everywhere, Lin Zhiyu passed through the night at an extremely fast speed. In the blink of an eye, he appeared between Bertolos and Busujima Saeko, separating the two of them with his body.

"Ayu!?"

When she found out that it was Lin Zhiyu who came, Busujima Saeko was surprised.

Seeing that Busujima Saeko seemed to know Lin Zhiyu, Bertros frowned tightly under the cover of his helmet.

The next second, there was another "whoosh" sound.

Li Meifeng, wearing a white cheongsam and holding a rope dart, followed Lin Zhiyu and appeared beside Busujima Saeko. Without Lin Zhiyu's order, she consciously took a defensive posture and guarded behind Busujima Saeko.

The surrounding Red Lion soldiers would not obey Lin Zhiyu's orders. At this time, they were surrounding Lin Zhiyu, Dokujima Saeko and Li Meifeng and were slowly approaching them.

It was Bertolos who made a "stop" gesture and said loudly:

"Everyone, stop fighting! Do not act rashly without my order!"

Then the surrounding Red Lion soldiers finally dispersed and ended their combat status.

"Lin, what is going on? Do you know this woman?" After ordering the soldiers to stop, Bertolos looked at the bodies of the soldiers killed by Busujima Saeko around him, and then asked Lin Zhiyu in a serious tone.

After a quick observation, Lin Zhiyu found that there were more than ten corpses of red lions lying around, and he suddenly felt depressed.

What is going on here...

Then Lin Zhiyu introduced Busujima Saeko to Bertram, emphasizing that Busujima Saeko was not only his lost partner, but also his lover.

After that, Lin Zhiyu looked at Busujima Saeko with a questioning look.

Busujima Saeko understood immediately and explained to Bertolos:

"I ran into some trouble before. I saw some activity here, so I came here to ask for help. However, these night watchmen refused to communicate with me at all and even attacked me without explanation."

After hearing what Busujima Saeko said, Bertolos nodded slightly, but did not doubt it too much.

He knew full well that the vast majority of the soldiers had lost their ability to think calmly. Their brains, deprived of the blessing of the Golden Tree, had deteriorated to varying degrees, and many had even become as barbaric as primitive men, their aggressiveness increasing significantly.

Even though they still retain most of their past memories, they have lost the corresponding emotions.

Many of their past habits are still there, and they still stick to their posts as they remember, but they are no longer flexible and only know that "fortresses are important and no one should approach."

So when Saeko Busujima came here for help, the response she received was swords and fire. This was not an unreasonable development for Bertolos.

"It turned out to be a misunderstanding..."

Bertolos sighed, then looked down at the bodies of the lost Red Lion soldiers around him without saying anything further.

This is exactly why Lin Zhiyu is so depressed.

Even if this was a misunderstanding, Saeko had killed more than ten of his comrades after all. Could it be that just because Saeko Busujima was Lin Zhiyu's partner, Bertros had to tell Saeko Busujima openly, "It's okay," and even welcome Saeko Busujima into the Gale Fortress?

At this point, Lin Zhiyu felt that it would be best if Bertolos and the other two Red Lion Knights didn't take the matter to heart.

Saeko Busujima realized that her actions had caused trouble to Lin Zhiyu, so she lowered her posture and decisively bowed her head to apologize to Bertolos - although her self-defense was definitely correct, she also knew that she had to at least apologize at this time to give Bertolos some face.

This made Bertram even more embarrassed. Intellectually, he knew that Saeko Busujima had done nothing wrong. But with over ten lives lost, could he just let it go like that?

Later.

The other two Red Lion Knights, Farrow and Orson, hurried over from the fortress.

Uehara Rin, who was asked by Lin Zhiyu to stay in the fortress to look after Theresa, and Laura, the two adults and one child, felt that something was wrong, so they also came from the fortress and stood beside Lin Zhiyu.

The two sides discussed for a while, and the three Red Lion Knights actually had no intention of holding Busujima Saeko accountable, but they just didn't make a clear statement.

Because Busujima Saeko is Lin Zhiyu's lover, and Lin Zhiyu is currently living in Gale Fortress.

If they don't hold Busujima Saeko accountable, then it will be difficult to say whether to accept Busujima Saeko like they accepted Lin Zhiyu, or to drive Busujima Saeko or even Lin Zhiyu away!

After all, Lin Zhiyu helped Gale Fortress twice. Once he dealt with the wild dogs and crows in the wilderness, and once he helped clean up the ruins of the Post Street occupied by corrupt relatives.

Being ungrateful is not the style of the Red Lions.

Lin Zhiyu also knew that the three Red Lion Knights were in a difficult situation, so he took the initiative to propose to take the female relatives around him and leave Gale Fortress.

The three Red Lion Knights were all soldiers and didn't try to pretend to keep her, but considering it was already late, they decided to let Busujima Saeko stay in the city for one night and told Lin Zhiyu that it wouldn't be too late to leave the next morning.

Looking up at the night sky, which was full of twinkling stars and a bright moon, partly illuminated by the light emitted by the golden tree, Lin Zhiyu shook his head and said:

"No need. The visibility in the border area at night is not that low, and I can create fire to dispel the darkness, so there is not much difference between night and day for us."

Seeing that Lin Zhiyu insisted on leaving, the three red lions nodded in succession, but still did not let Lin Zhiyu and the others leave immediately. They asked Lin Zhiyu to wait for a while until they prepared some supplies to give him, such as clothes, tents and the like.

Lin Zhiyu didn't want to take Saeko and the others to sleep in the open air in Galid, which was covered in scarlet corruption. They really needed supplies like tents, so they stayed for a while.

In the end, these supplies were organized into two huge backpacks. In addition to clothes, tents, food and water, they even included a small amount of rotten moss medicine.

Among them, what Lin Zhiyu and his friends need most now is the putrefactive moss medicine.

After all, in addition to Lin Zhiyu, there is another person suffering from scarlet corruption in their team, Saeko.

Chapter 22 The Strongest NPC

Late at night, in a field away from the main road.

In a makeshift camp with a bonfire and two small tents next to it.

Rin Uehara brought Theresa, Li Meifeng and Laura together, and the four girls squeezed into the narrow tent in groups of two to sleep and rest.

The fire flickered as the cool evening breeze blew.

Lin Zhiyu held Busujima Saeko's hand, and the two of them sat cross-legged by the campfire, keeping watch while telling each other about their experiences of the past two days.

After hearing from Lin Zhiyu about the many twists and turns that Lin Zhiyu had encountered in just two days, Busujima Saeko couldn't help but sigh:

"This world is truly dangerous. Thankfully, Yu, you always manage to escape danger. What's even more surprising is that, in a world so rife with dangers, you and I have met so many kindhearted people along the way. Should I say Theresa is truly a 'lucky one'?"

There is no doubt that compared with Lin Zhiyu and others who have the lucky person Theresa in their team, Busujima Saeko's luck is really much worse!

From the Ionian swamps to the outside of Gale Fortress, all she encountered along the way was malice.

"What about you, Saeko? What on earth have you been through these past two days? Why are your body covered with scars... cough! Cough cough cough cough!" Lin Zhiyu asked about what Saeko Busujima had experienced in the past two days, but before he could finish his words, he suddenly started coughing violently.

"Ayu? Ayu, are you okay?" Seeing that Lin Zhiyu was coughing severely, Busujima Saeko hurriedly raised one hand to stroke Lin Zhiyu's back, and her eyes were full of worry when she looked at Lin Zhiyu.

Because Lin Zhiyu's eyes were always bloodshot and his face was pale. Even ordinary people could see that Lin Zhiyu was in a very bad state, not to mention that Busujima Saeko had "supernormal vision" and could see many problems in a person when she observed them intently.

Of course, Lin Zhiyu did not hide anything. When he told Busujima Saeko about his experiences in the past two days, he had already made it clear that he was now infected with a disease called "Scarlet Corruption" and it was because of the influence of this disease that his condition was so bad.

"Is this Scarlet Corruption really that powerful? Even someone with a strong body like Ayu can't resist it..." Busujima Saeko thought worriedly.

At this time, Lin Zhiyu slowly stopped coughing, with blood oozing from the corner of his mouth. He turned his head to face Busujima Saeko and found that the hand Busujima Saeko had stretched out and placed on his back was trembling slightly.

In addition, Busujima Saeko has not changed her clothes into the cloth clothes given by Bertolos and others. Now she is still wearing only a navel-exposed sports vest.

In the light of the bonfire next to him, Lin Zhiyu could clearly see the scars on Busujima Saeko's waist, abdomen and arms.

There are also those blood-red threads that originate from scars and continue to extend under Busujima Saeko's skin. They are densely packed and very creepy to look at.

If Lin Zhiyu is in a very bad condition now, then what about Busujima Saeko?

Just from the tone of her voice when she spoke, it was clear that she was much weaker than usual.

All these signs had already given Lin Zhiyu some ideas.

But Lin Zhiyu still had a glimmer of hope and wanted to understand all of Saeko's experiences over the past two days before making a judgment.

"Don't worry, Saeko, I'm fine. Scarlet Corruption can't defeat me." Lin Zhiyu wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and said firmly.

Then, Lin Zhiyu asked Busujima Saeko again about her experiences over the past two days.

Busujima Saeko pursed her lips, as if she was struggling with something, but in the end she told Lin Zhiyu everything that had happened to her, and said with a wry smile at the end:

"I was originally wondering what virus had been sapping my vitality. Now that I've heard from you, Ayu, about the Scarlet Corruption, I think I might have been infected with the Scarlet Corruption just like Ayu."

Without Lin Zhiyu's explanation, Busujima Saeko had already made her own judgment.

Lin Zhiyu remained silent, which actually meant that he agreed with what Busujima Saeko said. However, Busujima Saeko did not show any pessimism about this, and even smiled and said to Lin Zhiyu that this was actually a good thing.

Fate made her share the suffering with Lin Zhiyu, which was better than her being fine but having to watch Lin Zhiyu suffer from illness and being helpless.

Lin Zhiyu was the only one who was helpless against Busujima Saeko. This silly woman, clearly suffering from the same terminal illness as Lin Zhiyu, was forcing herself to smile just to cheer Lin Zhiyu up.

However, after listening to Saeko Busujima's experience over the past two days, Lin Zhiyu had a new idea about treating scarlet corruption.

Because he knew that the crazy red-haired woman described by Busujima Saeko, who had extraordinary sword skills but often failed in her skills, must be Millicent - this clone who symbolized all the noble qualities of the Valkyrie Marenia's personality, and was undoubtedly a good girl.

It's not surprising that under the influence of the Crimson Corruption, Millicent would violently attack anyone in her sight.

After all, Lin Zhiyu had played the game before, and he had once controlled his character to fuck Millicent in the Ionian swamp.

I just didn’t expect that…

Saeko actually went through this process just like a "player". This should be a story that is experienced by the faded person controlled by the player?

According to Millicent's side quest in the game, after defeating the invading Mad Millicent in the Ionian Swamps, the player can meet Millicent again in a place called the Corruption Church in the east of Gallid. At this time, Millicent has lost her arm and is about to die from the torture of the Crimson Corruption.

Players must reach the heart of the Ionian Swamps and find a "golden needle" before Millicent can be saved.

Let’s not talk about golden needles for now.

Lin Zhiyu never expected that now that the game has become real, the reason why Millicent lost her arm was because of Saeko?

Actually, to be honest, Millicent is still Lin Zhiyu's favorite female NPC in the Elden Circle.

One reason is her steadfastness, the second is her tragic experience, and the third is that she is such a good fighter. She once won the championship in the Magic Circle NPC Competition with over one million views on Bilibili, and she has also been a reliable companion in the game many times to help players fight bosses.

"I didn't expect that my Mibao's hand was cut off by Saeko!" Lin Zhiyu thought with a helpless smile.

However, considering that Millicent also severely injured Saeko with "Water Bird Dance", causing countless scars on Saeko's body.

The two girls are evenly matched.

Back to the topic.

Based on Saeko Busujima's experience, Lin Zhiyu came up with a new way to deal with Scarlet Corruption, which is actually the "Golden Needle" that was not described in detail before.

How vicious is the Crimson Corruption? Even a powerful being like Latarn cannot resist its erosion.