The park was exceptionally quiet. Over a dozen corpses had been devoured completely, leaving the scene without any trace of abnormality, as if nothing had ever happened here. No one would ever know that on such a peaceful afternoon, more than ten people had lost their lives in this place.
Zhao Mingyue and Bai Yu buried the kitten’s body beneath a willow tree by the riverbank.
Before Zhao Mingyue could even sit down and offer a few words of comfort, her phone rang. It was a friend request from someone claiming to be Lu Liangting’s sister. Without thinking much of it, she accepted. As soon as the connection was established, the person sent a message.
“Bai Yu, look.”
Handing the phone to Bai Yu, Zhao Mingyue was puzzled. “Why does this person want to kill me, and even gathered so many people? I don’t seem to have any grudge against her. My enemies… seem to only be Wang Xinxin.”
The message was simple. It first introduced the sender’s identity, then directly stated that the person trying to kill Zhao Mingyue was someone Bai Yu knew. It gave her name, explained why she had appeared at Lu Liangting’s estate, and mentioned that due to some conflict, this person was injured and fleeing towards a certain street, likely residing nearby.
That was all. No instigation, no pleading on the person’s behalf. It was merely a delivery of information, with no threats or coercion. The choice was left entirely to Bai Yu.
Zhao Mingyue grasped Bai Yu’s hand. “Should we go?”
“Yes.”
“Alright. But the sun is so strong today, why don’t you possess me? It wouldn’t be easy for you to act otherwise.” Zhao Mingyue patted her chest, full of confidence. “I think my body is quite good.”
Bai Yu pondered for a few seconds, then finally nodded gently. Seeing this, Zhao Mingyue spread her arms wide, adopting a welcoming hug posture. A smile hung on her face as she waited for Bai Yu to “come into her embrace.”
After all, they were about to “become one.” A little ceremony beforehand was perfectly normal, wasn’t it?
Bai Yu naturally understood Zhao Mingyue’s thoughts and proactively hugged her.
Her eyes gently closed, Zhao Mingyue could clearly feel Bai Yu entering her body. It was a strange sensation, as if another soul had suddenly appeared within her. At the same time, her body began to feel like it wasn’t her own. Her consciousness was gradually stripped away, becoming a “spectator,” unable to control even her own physical form.
She could truly feel Bai Yu’s presence, that sense of being filled. But truthfully, the feeling wasn’t entirely pleasant. It was like total paralysis; her mind was awake, yet her body wouldn’t move an inch.
What was worse, not only could she not control her body, it started moving on its own. Zhao Mingyue wondered if this counted as hiring a “boosting service.”
“By the way, Little Sister Yu, are you really okay with my clothes?” Zhao Mingyue remembered something in her daze.
“It’s fine. This clothing is very thin; it doesn’t affect anything.”
Her eyes slowly opened. They were pitch black, tinged with a dark red hue. Strands of blood threads began to seep from Zhao Mingyue’s body, covering her form and creating a thick, solid-black long dress. Underneath this dress was a form-fitting inner lining akin to dragon scale armor.
These thin but incredibly strong dragon scale armor pieces wrapped around Zhao Mingyue’s body almost without a single dead angle, especially around her vital areas. These were all formed from Bai Yu’s blood threads. After the last two enhancements, these threads far exceeded the quality and quantity she possessed back in Eternal Life Village.
As for why the outer layer of protection was a dress, that was Bai Yu’s reluctant compromise. Zhao Mingyue was already wearing a dress; she couldn’t exactly tear it off, could she? A dress wasn’t a major issue anyway; she was basically used to it. The priority was that Zhao Mingyue’s body remained unharmed. Although these blood threads were a part of her body, they were numerous and regenerated extremely fast.
Once in control of Zhao Mingyue’s body, Bai Yu pinpointed the location and sprinted off at full speed.
It was truly troublesome. Why was she so unlucky today?
Sun Hanyue had escaped the Lu Liangting estate and fled towards the outskirts of the city. Once she was certain the maid sisters weren’t following, she stopped and slowly walked along the street. The Lu family residence was located in Tianchang City’s affluent district, a rather secluded spot, though the scenery was excellent. A few blocks out, she was in the true suburbs, practically deserted except for the highways.
“Ugh, what a hassle. Where did things go wrong?” Sun Hanyue felt that events simply refused to develop as she had envisioned. Every critical juncture had someone popping up to stop her.
“If that damn woman hadn’t blocked me, letting me brainwash Lu Liangting a bit, I’d be at least a third of the way to success.” she grumbled. “Is there something wrong with her head? Am I wrong?”
“If Lu Liangting’s heart is truly set entirely on the Doctor, you’ll all suffer for it. You’ll all be crying then.”
Sun Hanyue moved her body around. She had sustained significant injuries today: a slash across her chest, another on her ankle. Her stamina was heavily drained, and she had multiple other wounds across her body, all inflicted by Gardenia.
“If it weren’t for this new body, could someone like her even have wounded me?”
The more she thought, the crueler her luck seemed today. Everything was going wrong. “I’ll adjust my condition first. Those two sisters, I must find a way to eliminate them. Once I sweep them aside, I can stay by Lu Liangting’s side smoothly.”
“There’s a saying, isn’t there? Love grows with time.”
“But for today, forget it. I’ll head home first.” she decided. “I refuse to believe my luck can stay this bad. This day has to pass eventually. Once I’ve exhausted this bad luck, fortune should finally favor me, right?”
Sun Hanyue felt she must have failed to consult the almanac before leaving home, her luck was so rotten. What she didn’t know was that the rotten part was still to come.
The further she walked, approaching the embankment of a river, the more Sun Hanyue felt something was off. There was absolutely no one around, not a single shadow. This was very wrong.
“Haven’t I… been to this place before…”
Frowning deeply, Sun Hanyue stopped in her tracks. It was at this moment she finally realized her surroundings were somehow amiss. That utility pole just now, she had definitely seen it. And yet, walking along, she had somehow returned to it.
“Stop playing games!” Sun Hanyue shut her eyes tight and snapped them open again. The surroundings seemed largely unchanged, yet it felt as if some layer had been broken.
However, this time when she opened her eyes, there was suddenly an extra person in front of her.
At first glance, it was a man in a long black leather coat, looking unremarkable save for a cold, arrogant demeanor. But upon a closer look, once she sensed his aura, a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood seemed to appear before her eyes. The nauseating stench of blood instantly enveloped her.
Her soul felt seized by an invisible giant hand, a long saber pressed against her forehead. Any extra movement, no matter how slight, and her entire body would be minced into pulp in an instant. The man with the long saber at his hip just stood there quietly, like an impending storm. Without a single superfluous action, he made it hard for her to breathe; her entire body trembled almost imperceptibly.
Sun Hanyue’s mouth dropped open, her pupils contracted sharply. Her throat rolled as she swallowed, seemingly losing the ability to speak. After a long moment, she finally managed two words in a low, hoarse voice.
“The Doctor!?”
If this were her old body, she definitely wouldn’t be this scared. She was ranked sixth, after all. If she couldn’t win, couldn’t she just fight to the death and flee? But this was her new body. And the opponent was still that same person, his aura unchanged. How could she not be terrified?
Yet, in the next second, Sun Hanyue’s expression changed drastically. “No!”
“You’re not the Doctor!”
Squelch!
Fresh blood dripped from the tip of the blade.
Sun Hanyue looked down, unwilling to believe her eyes. The illusion before her had vanished. That mountain of corpses, that nauseating stench of blood, it had all been her hallucination, her own imagination. As it turned out, simply changing bodies could not eradicate some things. These things were etched deep into the soul, never to be erased.
Her reaction had been fast enough, ensnared by that hallucination for at most one or two seconds. Unfortunately, those two seconds were enough to end her life.
Her heart pierced, Sun Hanyue grabbed the blade of the Blood Thread Long Blade with both hands. Even speaking became difficult. “So, Doctor, you also resort to such underhanded tricks.”
The hallucination she saw was indeed not the “Doctor” of her memories. But the one who had come to kill her was, quite truly, the Doctor “herself.”
Bai Yu did not reply. Her other hand gripped a Blood Thread Short Blade and drove it into the back of Sun Hanyue’s neck, severing her spine. She would give this person no time to react, no opportunity whatsoever.
She had taken a shortcut, using a wraith’s mental hallucination attack. This was mainly because, on the way here, Zhao Mingyue had been chattering incessantly in her mind, offering endless suggestions. One of them was exactly this: why not try using a wraith’s abilities? Perhaps there would be a surprise.
In combat, Bai Yu practically never used the power of ghostly monsters, relying only on her blood threads and the long blade in her hand. This time, besides using the Ghost Wall Maze ability to clear away pedestrians, she had also noticed the detail that Sun Hanyue was not in good condition. This person seemed to have lost too much blood and was in a daze. Given that, she might as well test the power of a wraith. And that led to the current scene.
“Who’d have thought… I’d still end up dying by your hand.”
“Damn it all. I never should have cooperated with that old woman.”
Sun Hanyue wanted to clench her fist and retaliate, but with her spine severed, she had no strength at all. Surviving this long with such an injury was already testament to her strong life force.
“Doctor, I’ll tell you a secret. That Nightmare is formulating a fairly massive plan right now. She’s roped in a lot of people, even tried to recruit me.”
“This plan of hers, it’s aimed directly at you. That lunatic doesn’t care about the Quests at all. She just wants to have a showdown with you, to determine who’s better.”
“Hahahaha, anyway, you be careful. Don’t go dying so easily. I want to watch you two mutually wound each other, then get picked off by someone else, and keep me company in my grave.”
“Damn it. Today… today has been… truly unlucky…”
After speaking her last words, Sun Hanyue’s breath ceased.
