Gu Luoxin’s complexion blanched, and his voice cracked when he cried out in fright, "Xiao Shen!!" He rushed towards the man and reached out to support him, the rims of his eyes reddening, "A–Are you okay?!"
However, Shen Nianzu decisively pushed him away, causing him to stagger backwards. "Don’t get close to !" He growled. The sharp teeth in his mouth made it difficult for him to speak, and he ended up biting his own lips, leaving crimson blood saring across the pale surface. The sight of his twisted features made him look all the more ferocious, eo much that Gu Luoxin could only stare at him blankly.
Shen Nianzu trembled as he clutched his throbbing head. He squeezed his eyes shut, trying to alleviate the dizziness to no avail. His breathing beca harsh and quick, like a wild injured animal struggling on its last breath. He took a deep breath and spoke in halting words, "Don’t touch ... or I may accidentally injure you."
Gu Luoxin choked on his tears, "But..."
Noir landed nearby and folded his wings, glancing at Shen Nianzu. It was apparent that he had overheard their earlier conversation because he advised Gu Luoxin, "Don’t get close and add trouble." Even Lucius stayed quiet this ti, its erald eyes staring at Gu Luoxin unblinkingly as though echoing its owner’s words.
Gu Luoxin’s gaze snapped to him, wide-eyed and bewildered like a deer caught in headlights, but then he bit his lips and nodded, his entire deanor now dejected like a wilted flower.
Shen Nianzu struggled to retrieve another portion of stabilizing agent and chugged it down his throat, barely managing to keep the infection at bay. Damn it! Who could have predicted that Lily would still be alive inside the cocoon? Thanks to her skill card that could absorb the vitality of living beings around her, it weakened Shen Nianzu and sped up the process of the infection!
As the trio’s attention was montarily diverted by Shen Nianzu’s infection, a crimson pillar suddenly shot up to the sky, and the sea parted to reveal the struggling white cocoon, now riddled with crimson light bursting through its sieve-like surface. In a flurry of movent, it shook violently and spat out two figures— Lily and Jin Jiuchi!
"Hahahaha!!" Lily’s gleeful laughter echoed around them as a sea of spider lilies blood beneath her feet, providing an eerie cushion on the water’s surface for her to stand stably. The ominous glow cast twisted shadows over her features. Clearly, she had been disfigured inside the cocoon due to the corrosive substances, but now, all of her wounds were miraculously healing before their eyes. The bloody pus vanished, her lted skin knitted back together, and her hair grew long and silken like black silk. Clad in a bloody and tattered cheongsam, standing amidst a field of crimson lilies, she resembled a wicked and evil demoness erging from the depths of Hell. She sneered, "Do you think you’ll get rid of so easily? Well, sorry to disappoint you!"
Shen Nianzu’s face contorted in anger as his eyes fixed on Lily’s hand gripping Jin Jiuchi’s collar. Jin Jiuchi himself seed to be unconscious, his head hanging low, making it difficult for Shen Nianzu to ascertain his condition. His fists clenched, the fury within him boiling akin to magma on the brink of eruption. "What have you done to him?!"
"What have I done to him?" Lily jeered. "If you had handed him over to in the first place, this wouldn’t have happened, so you only have yourself to bla!"
"Da Shen!" Shen Nianzu stumbled forward as he brandished his blade, but he felt weak, so weak that he was not certain if he could swim to where they were. His entire body ached, and the pain in his head was excruciating as if soone had struck him with a hamr again and again. He knew that his condition was rapidly deteriorating. His ti was running up, and he should not get any closer to Lily’s crimson pillar so as to not exacerbate the infection, but...
He glowered at Lily, "I warned you before!"
To hell with the infection! If he could not bring his foolish husky back, then his surna was not Shen!
He was about to throw all caution to the wind when Gu Luoxin’s startled cry alard him. Following the young man’s gaze, he saw the cocoon floating amidst the churning sea. A dozen rfolk were trapped within its sticky body, and among them was none other than Ariel, the core NPC!
Shen Nianzu sucked in a breath. If Ariel was devoured by the cocoon, everything would be done for. Jin Jiuchi would not be able to complete his personal task!
He looked at the pale and unconscious rmaid, then at Lily who was blatantly mocking him, and his fury reached a breaking point. His grip on the blade tightened so much that his fingers bled from the force.
Just then, Noir patted his shoulder and said lightly, "I will bring her here." With that, he unfurled his wings and flew away.
The direction Noir was heading was the sa as Lily’s. Thinking that the man was going to attack her, Lily’s pupils shrank and a hint of fluster appeared on her beautiful features. But recalling sothing, she soon regained her composure and showed a triumphant smile.
The outco of this battle had already been preordained the mont she erged from the cocoon alive!
Seeing her confident smile, Shen Nianzu’s heart thudded heavily in his chest and an ominous premonition coursed through him. Sure enough, in the next second, Noir’s wings suddenly vanished in midair and he plumted straight to the sea!
"Great God!" Gu Luoxin cried out in alarm, for he knew very well Noir’s aversion to water. "You..." he snapped his head to Lily, his eyes reddening in fury. "You evil bitch!"
He was ready to summon his kingkong to fight her to death, but to his bewildernt, his skill card remained unresponsive to his call. "Why... why can’t I use my skill card?!" He tried to retrieve his props, but nothing seed to work, except for the dagger and yellowed bandages he had originally kept in his body. He managed to order the bandages to reach Noir, trying to provide so aid. Even then, he was still panicked,
"Xiao Shen, what’s going on?!"
Shen Nianzu gritted his teeth. He, too, tried to use his skill cards and props to no avail. He couldn’t seem to summon them at all, as if he had lost them completely. Right now, apart from the transparent blade in his hand, he was no different than an ordinary person— or worse, an infected on the verge of turning into a hideous nightmare creature!
"Can’t use your skill cards and props, hmm?" Lily casually checked her manicured nails and grimaced in disgust when she found them broken and dirty. But it only lasted for a second before manic delight took over her features. "Thanks to you," she shifted her gaze to Gu Luoxin. "I was able to retrieve my teammate’s skill card. It’s very important to , you know? I’d be dood if it fell on another person’s hand!"
Both Shen Nianzu and Gu Luoxin froze in place, realization dawning on them.
No wonder... Shen Nianzu thought. No wonder she had gone to such lengths to take the skill card away in the end, no wonder she could be so confident in her ability to feed on players and NPCs, and no wonder she and the Scarred Man could unleash their murderous rampage without anyone detecting them. So the Scarred Man’s skill card... it must have originally possessed the function to lock players’ abilities, similar to Gu Luoxin’s bandages, essentially a skill of crowd control!
When combined with Lily’s parasitic skill card, wouldn’t it be the sa as granting a pair of wings to a tiger?! The reason why Lily was willing to take the man as her teammate, it was all because of this skill card!
"You...!" Gu Luoxin’s eyes turned bloodshot in anger, especially when he recalled the event where his hard-earned reward was snatched away right in front of his eyes.
"What?" Lily continued to mock. "Angry? Regretful? You’re too weak, that’s why. If you have the ability, co and—" her words were abruptly cut off when a hand suddenly gripped her wrist in a tight grip, almost dislocating her bones.
Lowering her gaze, she t a pair of heterochromatic eyes filled with bloodlust and ferocity. "What... have you done to my teammates?" Jin Jiuchi’s voice was laced with a dangerous intensity.
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