The shanty woman froze — but she wasn't afraid. If anything, her eyes grew even more heated.
She didn't resist Qin Xin's roughness. Her hands latched onto his forearm as she arched her waist and pressed her hips forward, and her full, shapely thighs wrapped without hesitation around his... chest and upper back.
Honestly, the shanty woman wasn't short at all, but she still looked petite next to Qin Xin. Her proudly long legs couldn't quite conquer his waist, but they seized the chance to press closer to his heart.
The sight left the two behind them utterly dumbfounded. Cheng Shi's jaw practically hit the floor as he eagerly awaited the premium content, half-tempted to hang a white banner from his personal space reading "Pay-Per-View" across the shanty's entrance.
The Blind One was equally astonished. In her "vision," all she saw was the surging tide of desire that perated the entire district — a terrifying wave that instantly swallowed Qin Xin whole, engulfing the "lighthouse" that radiated brilliant mory luminance.
"..."
"..."
Silence descended. The atmosphere grew tense.
Several breaths later, Cheng Shi suddenly sensed sothing was wrong. Qin Xin showed no reaction whatsoever to the "enemy's" "attack" — the Torchbearer hadn't rejected the shanty woman's advance at all!
'Wait — bro, are you actually enjoying this?'
But then he frowned and looked at the hand gripping the woman's collar. That hand was clearly straining — but so force seed to be suppressing it, rendering it ineffective!
A forr second-ranked warrior on the leaderboard couldn't shake this shanty woman off his body!
How was that possible?!
Sothing was wrong!!
Cheng Shi startled, and an absurd thought suddenly blazed through his mind.
"Shi Lolin?!"
Three simultaneous gasps of shock rang through the tiny shanty. The woman had still been indulging in the warmth radiating from Qin Xin's armor, greedily siphoning his desire. Hearing her own na called out so suddenly, she blinked in surprise, raised an eyebrow, and hopped off Qin Xin.
"So you're not strangers?
Yes — I am Shi Lolin.
Interesting. Who sent you?"
It really was her!
This shanty woman was actually the district's boss — Shi Lolin!!
But what was she doing in a place like this — the most remote, most ramshackle corner of the Shanty Area?
Cheng Shi and Qin Xin were both stunned. The Blind One even more so.
She turned her head slightly toward Cheng Shi, her belief in Destiny's blessing of the one who'd ascended the Ladder ever more unshakable.
Qin Xin stepped sideways to shield the other two, his expression sowhat grim:
"A Siren. One with corruptive power, at that."
Shi Lolin lightly licked the corner of her lips, savoring the warmth from the embrace just monts before:
"Sharp eyes. Not bad. What's the matter — didn't you like it?
Oh, I see. You reject my Lord. So you're from the surface?
Want to go back up?
I'd advise you to give up. Setting aside the fact that the Abyssal Volcano has been violently unstable lately, making smuggling nearly impossible — what's so great about the surface anyway? A bunch of evil-god worshippers who do nothing but follow rules and bury their heads in research...
Ha! What's there to research? Wouldn't it be better to research how to embrace desire?
The universe is full of suffering, the world brimming with setbacks. Why oppress yourselves? What matters most is learning to be tender — especially to yourselves. And if you can't figure that out on your own, well... perhaps I could show you so tenderness..."
With that, Shi Lolin rose on her toes and glided with sinuous steps to Qin Xin's side, pressing herself against his arm once more. Her entire body undulated like a water serpent against his armored sleeve, as if trying to warm that cold exterior with her searing body heat.
Qin Xin made no move. He simply let Shi Lolin writhe against him.
Seeing this, Cheng Shi could barely contain his amusent. He shuffled sideways with a crab-like step until he was next to the Blind One, muttering under his breath:
"You Torchbearers really have a few tricks up your sleeves — a honey trap?
What — does he use this often?"
The Blind One tilted her head with a smile and shook it: "Under normal circumstances, when Qin Xin goes quiet, it ans he's charging up."
"Charging up? Charging up what?"
Before Cheng Shi could process that, a violent gust of wind swept past him. Qin Xin's arm shot skyward once more — along with the beauty-snake wrapped around it — punching straight through the shanty's roof. Then, amid Shi Lolin's stunned expression and startled scream, he slamd downward with devastating force, cratering the ground beneath the entire shanty.
BOOM—
The ground itself trembled. The violent shaking sent Cheng Shi stumbling half a step as he gawked at this "titan of brute force" before him, blinking in stupefied silence.
'Wait — bro...'
But the spectacle wasn't over. Just as Cheng Shi expected the Extre Desire Brotherhood's leader to imdiately counterattack, he watched Qin Xin plant one foot squarely on Shi Lolin's chest. Both iron arms shot downward — and then he heard the sickening sound of tearing gauze layered with the grinding crack of shearing bone and ripping sinew, all punctuated by the woman's agonized scream.
Blood sprayed. A severed arm flew. Shi Lolin's hands had been torn clean off.
"..."
Staring at what looked like a scene straight out of a torture chamber, Cheng Shi was genuinely in shock. His bewildered eyes darted between Qin Xin and the Blind One, as if wondering whether this was really the Torchbearer organization he thought he knew.
The Blind One let out a soft laugh, entirely unsurprised:
"We understand well that goodwill alone won't carry you far. So the Torchbearers possess not only flas that warm the heart, but also the thunder that sweeps away vermin.
City Defenders are worthy of admiration. City Builders are worthy of fear."
At those words, Cheng Shi's brow shot up. He snapped back to focus, a sharp gleam in his eyes as he studied Qin Xin's back with a knowing smile:
"I always assud you were a City Defender. But now the Blind One tells
you're actually a City Builder?
Interesting. Though you don't strike
as the elitist type, Qin Xin.
Unless you're actually... hmm?"
Cheng Shi's implication was clear enough, but Qin Xin still didn't answer. The Mirror Person simply smiled, then extended a hand toward Cheng Shi.
"The warrior's work is done. Now it's the priest's turn. Leave her a breath of life, Cheng Shi. We still have plenty of questions to ask — let's hope she can hold out long enough."
Cheng Shi pursed his lips, then glanced at the Blind One with a teasing grin: "Let
throw your earlier questions right back at you — your Torchbearers just attacked directly. Aren't you worried about failing the trial?"
The Blind One shrugged, pulled the gauze curtain shut — not that it concealed much of anything — and turned back with a smile:
"That's what we have you for. You said it yourself — death is never a simple matter. Only that great one can define death. And you, Cheng Shi... you happen to be quite close to Him. Am I right, lifesaver?"
"..."
Well, he'd talked himself right into that one.
His teasing hadn't yielded any fun — instead, it earned him a probing counter.
Cheng Shi raised his hands in surrender, thoroughly outmaneuvered, and quickly flung a healing spell onto the already-unconscious-from-blood-loss Shi Lolin. At the sa ti, he warily scanned the area outside the shanty — only to discover that the enormous commotion just now hadn't drawn a single onlooker's gaze. This brought his mind back to whatever sound-filtering technique Qin Xin possessed.
Qin Xin noticed Cheng Shi's curiosity. His expression turned solemn as he opened his hand, revealing a polished white object.
Cheng Shi knew a thing or two about the human body. After studying it for a mont, he realized it appeared to be a... toothless jawbone?
He blinked, seeming to recall sothing, and asked with a note of surprise:
"A Silence follower's bone?
Is that thing 'eating' the sound?
Qin Xin — you didn't pry this out of soone's mouth, did you?"
Qin Xin nodded with utmost gravity, a trace of nostalgia flickering in his eyes: "I did. But I didn't remove it — he removed it himself."
"???" Cheng Shi's pupils contracted sharply, a mix of shock and unease: "A Torchbearer?"
"That's right. He was a Torchbearer — the very first one I personally recruited. When he learned that passing the fla required absolute silence and could never be known by the gods, he went behind my back and followed one of Folly's experints from the Civilization Lonely Tower. He forged himself into the Torchbearers' first silence tool."
"..."
"His wish was simple. He felt his own strength wasn't enough to save anyone, so he decided to beco part of that 'strength' — to help others, to protect others.
He sheltered many people. He protected many people. And those he sheltered and protected... right now, at this very mont, they carry his dying wish forward. In silence."
Cheng Shi's pupils contracted. His heart trembled. He pressed his lips together, montarily unable to find any words.
Guarding beauty was never a simple thing — especially in this apocalypse where everyone had gone mad. Perhaps pure goodness alone could never protect what was beautiful. Only a madness that matched this world's own color had any chance of fulfilling their wish.
So who says the Torchbearers weren't a group of madn?
They were the most insane people in this entire world!
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