Angel looked at the group, "Who’s first?"
By then, everyone was eager to go first, understanding they needed to act fast on what they had memorized.
Ultimately, Amisha went first, which was a sign of the group’s care for her. After all, among them, only Amisha had suffered punishment.
Amisha didn’t decline, took a deep breath, and approached the stairs.
She didn’t move immediately but hummed a cheerful nursery rhyme. Keeping rhythm with its beat, she stepped onto the staircase like dancing.
Perhaps aided by the song, Amisha moved incredibly smoothly. In just a few seconds, she reached the third level without triggering any mechanisms.
Seeing Amisha’s success gave the others more confidence.
They promptly began lining up to ascend.
The Talented Ones were now solely focused on how to safely ascend, paying no attention to the gracefulness of their ascent.
Lady Melo watched the Talented Ones, moving and jumping like intellectually challenged children, and suddenly a thought arose in her mind.
Could it be... Lady Melo turned to look at Angel.
Angel glanced at her, and Lady Melo immediately turned away, looking serious while staring at the amusing scenes on the stairs.
Everyone had different methods, and their efficiency varied, but what made Lady Melo feel relieved was that everyone made it upstairs smoothly without triggering any traps.
Indeed, potential needs to be forced out.
Although this exercise wasn’t truly difficult, for this group of people who had emerged from the Ivory Tower, achieving this was already a good start.
While Lady Melo was feeling gratified, Angel felt nothing at all. If they couldn’t overcome this level of difficulty, then they were truly foolish.
However, once the Talented Ones finished ascending the stairs, it would be their turn.
The Talented Ones were on the third floor, craning their necks to look down, curious to see how Angel and Lady Melo would ascend. They remembered their awkward ascent and wondered if they would also... The crowd dared not think too deeply, for these were the illustrious Transcendents.
Yet, what the crowd absolutely did not anticipate was that Angel didn’t take the stairs at all.
With a gentle motion of his hand, a series of ripples appeared before him, and a barely visible door opened in front of him.
Angel extended a hand to Lady Melo: Ladies first.
Lady Melo silently stepped through the door, and only then did Angel follow. Passing through this door, they directly appeared beside the Talented Ones.
Watching Angel and Lady Melo emerge from the Spacial Portal, the crowd fell into silence.
Clearly, there was such a grand and sophisticated Spacial Portal... Why were they forced to act like intellectually challenged individuals?!
Lady Melo was silent as well. She too had expected she would have to ascend in a bizarre manner, but Angel used Space Sorcery to directly transport them here.
Moreover, they transported only after all the Talented Ones had reached the third floor.
This made Lady Melo more certain of a particular suspicion in her heart.
Perhaps her cheap junior, Serum, was right. Angel was indeed sly underneath. On the surface, he appeared elegant and gentle, but his inner self occasionally displayed a mischievous streak. And this staircase incident was probably one of Angel’s mischievous sides surfacing...
Angel certainly wouldn’t admit to orchestrating this scene to see how intellectually challenged children ascend stairs.
He was genuinely training these Talented Ones. See, he managed to push out their potential, didn’t he?
Angel felt he did nothing wrong as he glanced at everyone: "The situation on the third floor differs from the other two floors; there’s only one room here, but inside that room, there may be some surprises."
Angel went straight to the point, causing the group of Talented Ones to temporarily set aside their thoughts on the staircase incident and turn their gaze toward the back.
They had noticed earlier upon ascending.
The third floor had no corridors, just a short segment resembling corridors on both sides, but it was clear to see the walls at the end.
And opposite the stairs was a large double door in a fairytale style.
The door was primarily pink and red, further accentuating the fairytale aura, with some carvings that seemed like fairy tales. But if examined closely, one would find that these tales had been modified. For example, the princess lived happily with the prince, just in a different way; the prince was eaten by the princess. Such a togetherness probably counted as being together.
The door had no traps, but the handle was somewhat low, evidently designed according to the height of a Princess.
Angel pushed open the door directly.
Everyone curiously looked beyond the door, only to find that they couldn’t see anything inside, as it was filled with rainbow-colored mist.
"Enter, there’s no danger, but there might be some surprises." Angel paused. "Or perhaps, scares."
He finished speaking and directly walked into the rainbow mist.
Lady Melo immediately followed.
The other Talented Ones had no choice but to join them.
...
As soon as Lady Melo entered the rainbow mist, she felt something amiss, as if a familiar energy was floating around.
Before she could discern the source of this energy, a door appeared ahead.
With the appearance of the door, the surrounding rainbow mist seemed to retreated somewhat. She could vaguely see a pebble path beside the door and a fenced area. And this door appeared to be the door of a wooden house?
Why was there a wooden house in the third-floor room? Was it an illusion?
Lady Melo hesitated for a moment, deciding to go inside in the absence of other clues. Moreover, Angel had mentioned earlier that there seemed to be no danger here.
With this in mind, Lady Melo walked along the pebble path to the entrance.
The door wasn’t locked and was easily pushed open.
A gentle, compassionate elderly woman’s voice came from inside: "Little Melo, you’re back. I’ve just heated up your favorite sweet snail soup, come and have a taste."
The familiar voice instantly left Lady Melo stunned. She looked up and saw an elderly woman with white hair smiling at her by the hearth inside.
This elderly woman was no stranger to Lady Melo; she was her... grandmother.
Her grandmother’s voice, her grandmother’s smiling face, all were just as she remembered. But Lady Melo knew the person before her was not her grandmother.
At least, her grandmother would stir a pot with a long spoon, not directly dip her hand into the boiling pot.
"Is this what the gentleman meant by surprise, or rather a scare?" Melo whispered.
Even knowing the grandmother before her wasn’t real, Melo still walked over. Memories long locked away unfolded in a unique way; whether real or not, she wanted to closely, earnestly see her grandmother’s face again, hear that familiar voice, even if the words were frightening, and the actions were bizarre.
But before Melo could reach her grandmother, the scene before her eyes abruptly changed.
Her grandmother was gone, the wooden house vanished, and the mysterious cauldron also disappeared. She found herself no longer in that wooden house but in a glass room.
She was not alone in the glass room; Angel was sitting in the center.
After confirming Angel wasn’t an illusion, Melo hesitated momentarily and asked, "Did you pull me in, sir?"
Angel nodded.
"Though I don’t know what you saw, it was merely bubbles created by Illusion Techniques... You probably noticed the obvious falsehoods, so it’s better not to indulge." Angel softly advised looking at the dazed Lady Melo.
Lady Melo was silent for a long while before nodding: "I understand."
Seemingly not wanting to discuss the illusions she saw further, Lady Melo took a deep breath and swiftly shifted the topic: "Sir, may I know where this is?"
"The only place within the Rainbow Illusion House not affected by illusions, also a transit point to the next room."