Ice-blue hair, eyes so cold they seemed to freeze one's soul, and the mechanical device shimmering with light behind her ear.
And the massive cracked sword she held in her hand.
This was Lacy, known as the "Angel" within the organization, the same person who had shattered Ning Yu's weapon on that rainy night.
The one who had said, "We will meet again."
"It's you."
Ning Yu narrowed her eyes. This person claimed to want to help her but had set up an ambush to attack her.
She ignored the now motionless mutated zombies on the ground and fixed her ruby-like eyes on Lacy.
"We meet again."
Lacy smiled slightly, her previously expressionless face melting like ice, a bright gold beginning to spread through her eyes, replacing the icy blue.
Ning Yu remembered—this was the sign of Lacy entering her second phase. In this state, it was as if her entire personality had changed.
Before Lacy could say more, Ning Yu sidestepped into the mist, activating [Mist Walk].
Shen Yiyue's sniper rifle was also in action, its barrel spitting fire as bullets imbued with time manipulation flew toward Lacy.
"It's a misunderstanding. I'm not here to fight you."
Lacy spread her hands in a gesture of helplessness.
But neither Ning Yu nor Shen Yiyue listened to her. After all, she had set the ambush first, and now they couldn't trust her.
Shen Yiyue's bullets halted in front of Lacy, a faint blue ripple shield appearing, the bullets creating ripples across its surface.
Ning Yu's figure appeared behind Lacy, and Blood Kite pierced into the barrier.
It was no longer the original [Crimson War Blade], and its tip easily broke through Lacy's shield.
Though Lacy hadn't directly attacked Ning Yu to trigger [Moon's Moment], Ning Yu had no intention of stopping her assault.
She swung Blood Kite, slashing at the barrier countless times in a flurry!
Lacy's barrier trembled violently, shaking until it finally shattered with a crisp sound.
Her supposedly impenetrable shield was broken by Blood Kite!
Lacy's expression remained unchanged, still wearing that mysterious smile as she shook her head slightly in resignation.
Now, Ning Yu's blade and Shen Yiyue's bullets were no longer obstructed.
Lacy dodged Shen Yiyue's time-stopping bullets, but Ning Yu's blade followed her like a shadow, relentless in its pursuit.
"Clang!"
Lacy placed her massive sword in front of her chest, blocking Ning Yu's fierce strike.
"You've grown much stronger. I wasn't wrong about you."
Ning Yu frowned. Her attacks with Blood Kite were like a storm, yet Lacy didn't engage in a direct confrontation, instead opting for a passive defense.
It seemed as if she truly had no intention of fighting.
Was she really not here to ambush them?
"What about these mutated zombies?"
Ning Yu glanced at the now motionless cyborg-like zombies on the ground. It seemed they had truly stopped attacking under Lacy's control.
"Just a test of your strength."
Ning Yu's attacks grew faster, leaving only afterimages in the air.
To keep up, Lacy sprouted a pair of blue light wings from her back.
Unlike Ning Xuan's mechanical wings, these were genuine light wings, resembling the delicate wings of a fairy, composed entirely of some kind of energy.
The energy flowing through them rippled backward, as if burning, gently swaying with Lacy's movements.
"Clang!"
Their weapons clashed once more, and Lacy still didn't take the initiative to attack.
Shen Yiyue suddenly noticed Ning Yu raising her hand behind her back, signaling her to stop attacking.
"You really want to help me?"
Ning Yu slowly retracted Blood Kite, her eyes still locked on Lacy, wary of a sudden attack.
Lacy released her grip, sending the cracked sword back into an invisible space. She spread her light wings and flew to the massive portal.
After manipulating it for a moment, she closed the portal and then turned back to Ning Yu.
"Of course."
"Why?"
Ning Yu pressed immediately, leaving no room for evasion.
This was Ning Yu's biggest question. She had been watching her for so long—what did she want?
"We still have time. Your dear sister is tracking Chen Xing's trail. We can talk slowly."
She walked over to the destroyed altar in the center and placed a small soul gem on it.
The altar reactivated, the surrounding light paths glowing again, though far less effectively than with the original large soul gem.
But it seemed enough for Lacy. She manipulated the altar, and the devices on it began to shift and move.
A screen slowly rose from below, the energy from the soul gem flowing into it, seemingly powering it.
"The soul gems, these altars—are they your work?"
Ning Yu frowned, staring at her, unable to imagine that someone so beautiful could create such an evil, even cruel, energy extraction mechanism.
"It is me, and yet it isn't."
She seemed to have finished her work and turned to look at Ning Yu. Shen Yiyue, realizing the fight was over, slowly walked over as well.
Ning Yu was speechless.
"I suggest you start speaking plainly."
She was barely holding back the urge to punch this riddle-spouting person.
"Hahaha, you're still as fiery as ever."
Lacy couldn't help but laugh softly, her golden eyes sparkling with a crystalline light.
"The me you're seeing now is the real me."
She pointed to her eyes, signaling to Ning Yu.
"What you usually see is my protective personality, which you can simply understand as a program I designed."
"The one who attacked you initially was also my protective personality."
Ning Yu listened, only half understanding:
"So androids don't dream of electric sheep, but they can have split personalities??"
Shen Yiyue almost burst out laughing beside her, while Lacy was nearly choked by her words.
"First, I'm not an android. Second, this isn't a split personality."
Lacy rolled her eyes at Ning Yu in a very vivid manner, then pointed to the altar below.
"These altars were also designed by my surface personality."
"Why do something like this? This isn't William's goal. Why are you betraying him?"
Ning Yu began to speculate.
At the mention of 'William,' Lacy's eyes trembled, as if the name stirred something deep within her.
"How do you know that name?"
close your eyes and open them again, only to find yourself transmigrated into the role of a villainous male supporting character. Readers familiar with urban wish-fulfillment novels know that it is only through the relentless antics of the villainous male supporting character that the plot between the male and female leads can progress. As the villainous male supporting character, Long Aotian not only has to bully the female lead, harass the second female lead, and flirt with the third female lead, but he also has to go all out to antagonize the male lead. In the end, when his body is discovered, he is still clutching half a moldy fried dough stick in his hand. Fully aware of the plot, Long Aotian is determined to change his fate, starting with the female lead! In the beginning, the female lead lacks confidence: "Big brother, I hope I didn't scare you?" In the middle, the female lead treads carefully: "Brother Long, please don't hit me, okay?" Later on, the female lead becomes coquettishly clingy: "Aotian, it's time to pay the 'public grain' tonight." Long Aotian's legs go weak, and he feels like crying: "I taught you to be thick-skinned, not shameless!"
ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!
lanned to earn money steadily and take life at a slower pace. But he never expected... his father's remarriage, and the stepmother bringing along a dependent, would completely disrupt his life's plans...
ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!
