Wizard: Starting from Escape from the Thorn Garden

The cold stone walls absorbed Chen Lin's body heat, but could not cool the flames burning in his chest.

Ella's words, "Live on, Chen Lin. At least... live to the Pale Woods," were like a brand forged in fire, deeply etched into his taut nerves.

On the eve of Winter Veil, with seven days to go, every second is precious.

In the days that followed, Chen Lin felt like he was dancing on a knife's edge.

He had to maintain a semblance of docility and complete the daily tasks assigned by Vivian—mostly taking care of dangerous experimental magical plants or assisting Ella in dealing with discarded low-level apprentices.

Every time he stepped into the laboratory, every time he felt the omnipresent, watchful gaze of the crystal ball, he felt as if he had a thorn in his side.

He carefully controlled the restlessness of the Bloodthirsty Vine on his right arm, and the silver glow emanating from the Moonlight Moss Wristband became the only buffer against the conflict between light and darkness within his body.

The real preparations are done in the shadows.

First is the purification fortress of Moonlight Moss, which is the cornerstone of escape and the key to suppressing Bloodthirsty Vines.

Chen Lin used the optimized cultivation method of the Origin Seed to create a miniature cultivation area in the deepest part of the cave for all the Moonlight Moss seeds he brought back.

He almost exhausted his previous magic stones, converting them into life energy to nurture the magic plants.

Within seven days, he harvested far more moonshine moss than he had expected, which radiated a rich, pure silver glow.

He extracted and concentrated the essence to make dozens of thumb-sized crystal tubes, each containing powerful purifying power.

Some are incorporated into specially made amulets and worn close to the body; the majority are kept as strategic reserves to deal with the unknown undead miasma of the Pale Woods.

At the same time, he was also continuously strengthening the moonlight moss barrier above the windowsill and the iron cage, and its silvery glow could now produce noticeable interference ripples to the faint detection fluctuations that approached.

Then came the control of the Bloodthirsty Vine's state, and the symbiote's agitation intensified day by day.

The essence of the swamp beast's flesh and blood had long been digested, and the Blood-Devouring Vine's thirst for higher-level life energy was like a leech, constantly assaulting Chen Lin's will. However, the source of evil energy that could be devoured within the academy was too small, barely enough to maintain a balance.

He had to use some of the resources Vivian had rewarded him with in his dimensional bag—a few low-level magic crystals containing life force.

He crushed it, mixed it with moonshine purifying liquid and his own blood, and made a special soothing bait.

Each feeding is accompanied by a fierce battle between the Seed of Origin and the Will of the Vines.

The vines greedily devoured the bait, and the energy of the moonlight moss neutralized the darkness. Chen Lin took the opportunity to imprint more sophisticated suppression runes onto the core consciousness fragments of the vines through a mental connection.

This process is painful and dangerous, like carving patterns next to a powder keg, but with each successful suppression, his control over the symbiote increases.

The Blood Qi Nourishment talent is also repeatedly tempered under this high pressure, resulting in faster healing and greater adaptability to energy impacts.

The undead moss brought back from the Bone Rot Swamp was ground into an extremely fine powder.

Chen Lin carefully imprinted the interference runes extracted from the Seed of Origin into the powder particles using his mental power as a carving knife.

He packaged the processed powder into specially made bone tubes, the walls of which were embedded with miniature trigger arrays powered by moonshine moss energy.

These are his psychological smoke bombs and energy interference bombs.

Meanwhile, he used the remaining undead moss powder, mixed it with swamp silt and a small amount of necromantic energy crystal fragments, to make two special inner cloaks for himself and Ella.

This cloak itself has very low defensive capabilities, but it can effectively absorb and scatter low-level energy detection, especially in environments rich in undead energy, where it can almost perfectly blend into the background.

Next came the few specially treated crystals of resentment, which became increasingly unstable, containing a bizarre mixture of violent negative spiritual energy and the life force of the Blood-Eating Vine.

Chen Lin carefully sealed them in a thick lead box, the walls of which were engraved with isolation runes.

He named it the Soul-Eating Bomb.

This thing was too dangerous; he himself couldn't fully control the effects after it was detonated. But his intuition told him that in a desperate situation, it might create unexpected chaos.

Finally, there's the cleaning process, which is the most dangerous and crucial step.

Everything Vivian gave her—the emerald ivy badge, the secondary space barrier ring, and the dimensional bag full of rewards—was a deadly shackle.

Chen Lin cannot simply discard or destroy it, as this would alert Vivian.

He needed a plausible way to disappear. The plan took shape in his mind—to use the dangers of the Wailing Rift mission as cover.

He needs to create a double and cause an accidental explosion deep within the rift, powerful enough to destroy all traces of objects.

A flesh-and-blood puppet from the Thorn Garden could perfectly meet this need. After being analyzed and optimized by the Seed of Origin, its creation was not a problem. Moreover, because puppets have many uses, they would not arouse Vivian's suspicion. After optimization, it could rely on the Seed of Origin to briefly simulate her own aura and remotely control its self-destruction, perfectly meeting the requirements.

All you need to do is place the puppet in the rift under the guise of preliminary exploration of the rift environment, and detonate it at the crucial moment.

Then there's the issue of materials for explosives and golems, and the unstable alchemical materials in the dimensional bag come in handy.

We need to make several trips to the outer edge of the Rift Valley to allow the Seed of Origin to deduce the proportions and triggering methods of the explosives.

He repeatedly sketched and solidified the map of the hidden underground river leading to the outskirts of the Pale Woods in his spiritual sea through the Seed of Origin. Every turn, every energy node, and every potential danger zone was crystal clear.

This is their only way to survive, and they cannot afford to lose it.

Every day, Chen Lin walks on the edge of his limits.

Exhaustion of mental energy is the norm, and the Bloodthirsty Vine patterns on his right arm still occasionally send out burning pain and bloodthirsty throbbing under the suppression of the Moonlight Moss.

Like a precise and dangerous machine, he meticulously assembled every part of his escape as the countdown ticked away.

......

Ella's condition was more delicate than Chen Lin's.

The agitation of the iron-corroding fungus was barely suppressed by the diluted secondary life essence concentrate provided by Chen Lin on a regular basis, but the rebound after each suppression was even more ferocious.

The mycelium was a deeper color, its metallic luster colder, and its thirst for high-purity life energy had almost turned into a tangible hunger, constantly assaulting her remaining sanity.

Chen Lin's concentrated solution was like a drug, temporarily relieving the pain, but it also accelerated the evolution of the fungus and its erosion of her nervous system.

As Winter Veil approaches, the atmosphere at the college gradually becomes more lively.

Decorative magical lights began to illuminate the room, filling the air with the aroma of cheap beer and roasted meat, while a lavish banquet was being prepared upstairs. Amidst this false sense of celebration, Ella, like a cold ghost, went about her routine maintenance and cleaning duties.

Her mechanical eye swept over the junior apprentices, who were lost in holiday fantasies. Data streamed silently across her eye, calculating their remaining value and potential obsolescence time.

At the heart of her thoughts, however, she was repeatedly replaying that insane plan.

Her mechanical brain worked at high speed, combining her own authority with her in-depth understanding of the academy's defense system to plan the optimal path from the mossy corridor to the deep abandoned mine tunnel.

The positions of the three rune locks, energy nodes, and the time windows between guard patrols were calculated precisely to the second.

Taking advantage of the system maintenance, she quietly implanted tiny logic bombs into the secondary barrier control crystals at several key nodes—a miniature interference device developed based on the metal erosion characteristics of iron-corroding fungi, capable of causing brief energy disturbances at specific times to create passage windows.

At the same time, she began to compile an encrypted data package containing scans of the energy weaknesses of the academy's mid-level defense nodes, the guard shift change patterns, and several backup emergency evacuation routes leading to the academy's perimeter in different directions.

When Chen Lin confronted her, Ella's response, "Where to escape to? To become fertilizer in the Bone Swamp? Or to become snacks for the undead in the Pale Woods?" was like a key, unexpectedly unlocking a deliberately sealed, encrypted area deep within her memory.

Mixed into the cold, mechanical flow of logic are some blurry yet intense fragments of imagery:

The edge of a vast, gloomy forest covered with huge, pale trees.

The sky was an eternal leaden gray. A wizard's tower, constructed of black rock and entwined with vibrant green vines, stood atop the cliff. Its emblem—a hand entwined with ivy cradling a tender bud—radiated a gentle yet resolute life force.

At the edge of the pale woods, a fortified outpost of the "Hand of Life." This isn't information from a map, but... homeland?

The younger version of himself, wearing a dark green robe embroidered with four silver stripes, had sharp eyes filled with a sense of mission.

He clutched a parchment scroll that shimmered with the light of a magical contract in his hand. The scroll's title was: "High-Risk Target Wanted Order".

The target avatar is an old wizard apprentice with a withered face and crazed eyes. Characteristics: He abused forbidden flesh-fusion magic, murdered more than thirty low-ranking apprentices, stole life essence, and has fled to the outskirts of the Pale Woods.

A fierce chase ensued at the edge of the Bone Swamp on the outskirts of the Pale Woods.

The protagonist and his target battle fiercely in a swamp teeming with necromantic energy. In a desperate situation, the opponent detonates the stolen life essence, creating a terrifying, corrupting flesh bomb.

Although he had severely injured his opponent, his left arm and half of his body were also affected by the blast, becoming infected with a variant of iron-corroding fungus that his opponent had failed to fuse with and which contained the abyssal aura... The excruciating pain, the cold, the horrible feeling of flesh being corroded, and the target's venomous curse before death: "...Let's...rot together..."

On his deathbed, a woman who seemed too perfect to be real appeared in his blurred vision—Vivian.

She seemed very interested in the abyssal iron-corroding fungus, looking at herself with a cold, assessing gaze.

"Not bad willpower...making use of waste." What followed was darkness and indescribable, painful transformation...

These fragmented memories are impacting Ella's core logic.

She was once a fourth-class elite apprentice of the "Hand of Life," with a bright future ahead of her. For the sake of the organization's mission and the generous resources for promotion, she took on the task of hunting down a high-risk defector.

The mission failed, and the infected individual was infected with a variant of iron-corroding fungus contaminated by the abyss, carried by the target. On the verge of death, the individual was "recovered" by the Thorn Garden and transformed into their current form.

Did the thorn garden save her?

No, it's just transforming her from one form of death into another, slower, more humiliating form of death, and using her abilities.

What Vivian needed was never "Ella," but rather an efficient cleanup tool with a built-in countdown timer.

Chen Lin's plan had significant flaws, the most prominent being that the two of them were only at the level three wizard apprentice level, and any level four wizard apprentice on duty could easily capture them.

She knew very well that with Chen Lin's limited strength and the two of them in their weakened state, their chances of success against Vivian and Thorn Garden's defenses were extremely slim.

She agreed to cooperate not only because of the slim chance of survival and her desire to get rid of the tools, but also because she remembered the last card she had buried—the vine frenzy!

This standard wizard-grade artifact issued by the Hand of Life is her trump card when carrying out high-risk missions as an elite apprentice. It is not an offensive weapon, but a powerful, one-time-use environmental control escape device.

Before the final battle with the traitor at the edge of the Pale Woods, she sensed the danger of the journey and hid him in advance in an extremely secluded natural stone cave covered with undead moss in the Bone Swamp. She covered it with a sealing array unique to the Hand of Life. Originally intended as a backup plan to block any formal wizards that might appear after the mission was successful, this secret was also sealed away after she was seriously injured and captured.

The resurgence of her memory allowed her to redefine that location.

Taking advantage of a routine inspection of the outer defense nodes, Ella quietly infiltrated the Bone Swamp.

Using her memory and the precise scanning of her prosthetic eye, she found the cave.

The sealing array was already very weak due to the corrosion of the iron-corroding fungus, but she still had to use a precious secondary life essence potion to safely break it.

When she took out the palm-sized, leaf-shaped talisman carved from living jade wood, its interior brimming with surging life energy, her cold mechanical heart seemed to skip a beat.

However, on her way out of the Bone Swamp, a familiar, malicious mental force locked onto her—Malcolm!

He and his remaining henchmen had been lurking at the edge of the swamp, waiting for an opportunity to take revenge!

A brief but intense skirmish broke out.

To avoid revealing her trump card, Ella relied solely on the scanning and prediction capabilities of her mechanical eye and precise hand-to-hand combat to kill one person and severely injure Malcolm. However, she also paid the price of a deep, bone-revealing wound and accelerated depletion of her life essence, barely managing to escape with the raging vine tide.

This experience made her even more certain that there was no place for her in the Thorn Garden.

After retrieving the vine frenzy, Ella's assessment of the escape plan underwent a subtle change.

The failure probability has been reduced from 87.3% to...65%. This item can create a complex maze or barrier with a wide coverage area made of activated and tough vines at critical moments. It can not only block pursuers, but also effectively interfere with energy detection and mental lock-on, buying precious time to pass through the academy's defenses and enter the underground river of the Corrupted Bone Swamp.

This is the real deciding factor!

She looked at the diluted life essence that Chen Lin regularly delivered, and deep within the cold core of logic, a faint yet undeniable fluctuation spread. It was no longer pure exploitation, but rather contained a touch of... trust and the cornerstone of cooperation.

The eve of Winter Veil has finally arrived.

The upper levels of the Thorn Garden were brightly lit, with magical fireworks blooming into dazzling yet illusory flowers in the night sky. Melodious music and boisterous laughter could be faintly heard. The Chaos vines seemed to be stimulated by the festival's energy; their withered leaves reflected an eerie luster under the magical light, and their tendrils twitched slightly, almost unconsciously.

The lower level, however, appeared even more deserted and dark.

Most of the lower-ranking apprentices and servants also received a small amount of inferior wine and food, and gathered in a few larger caves or corridors, trying to forget the fear of tomorrow with a brief numbness.

The number of guards has visibly decreased, and patrols have become less frequent.

Inside Chen Lin's cave, there was a deathly silence amidst bustling activity.

The moonlight moss on the windowsill was pushed to its limit, its silvery radiance flowing like a tangible substance, completely suppressing the blue corrosive moss on the wall.

He changed into the specially made cloak lined with undead moss, and covered it with an ordinary dark green adventure cloak.

His belt was covered with Moonlight Moss Purifying Crystal Tubes, Undead Moss Interference Bone Tubes, and Potion Packs.

The lead box containing the Soul-Eating Bomb was carefully secured to the inside of the backpack.

He gave his right arm a final check.

The patterns on the Bloodthirsty Vine appeared relatively calm under the suppression of the Moonlight Moss, but deep within the dark golden veins, the ferocious desire never disappeared. He took a deep breath and held a bottle of concentrated Moonlight Moss Soothing Agent in his hand.

The appointed time is approaching.

He walked to the inner wall of the cave and tapped it three times in a specific rhythm.

A few seconds later, the shadows twisted, and Ella's figure silently appeared.

She also changed into a dark gray, form-fitting outfit that allowed for easy movement, covered by a cloak lined with undead moss made by Chen Lin. Her mechanical left arm was completely wrapped up, but Chen Lin could feel the restless movement of the mycelium beneath it.

Her mechanical prosthetic eye swept over Chen Lin's entire body, its red light flashing slightly, as if it were quickly scanning to confirm his readiness.

Chen Lin noticed a very slight pause in her movements, and a faint trace of dark red, not completely dried, was visible under the hem of her cloak—the wound from the Corpse Swamp.

No words were spoken.

Ella tossed over a small, cold, gear-shaped object.

Chen Lin caught it, and the Seed of Origin instantly deciphered that it was an encrypted data storage crystal.

"Path, nodes, interference scheme. Mental reading." Ella's voice was extremely low, like the friction of metal.

"First rune lock, entering the interference window in ten minutes. Stay close and remain silent. Any accidents are your own responsibility."

Her tone was colder and harder than usual, as if she was suppressing something.

Chen Lin placed the crystal on his forehead, and a massive flow of data instantly surged into his mental sea, corroborating and complementing the dark river route map engraved on the Seed of Origin.

A clear, risky but feasible escape route took shape in his mind.

He nodded, his eyes sharp as knives, taking one last look at the cave where he had lived for more than half a year, a place filled with a sweet, pungent smell and despair.

The silvery glow of the moonlight moss reflected his and Ella's figures, one arm entwined with the bloodthirsty vine, the other's body parasitized by iron-corroding fungi.

Two “monsters” shaped by the Thorn Garden embark on a desperate journey toward a pale dawn under the shadow of apocalyptic revelry.

The cold stone steps descended, disappearing into deeper darkness, while the clamor coming from the upper levels in the distance now sounded like funeral music for them.

On the eve of Winter Veil, the escape begins.