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?"
ine. During your journey, you save an abandoned baby girl and become her elder brother】 【You rely on each other, becoming each other's support】 【At the end of the simulation, you shield the now-grown girl with your life, sacrificing yourself to block numerous demonic cultivators. You die, and the light in the girl's eyes fades】 …… 【Second Simulation: You are transported to a world where steam and magic coexist】 【You immerse yourself in the study of magic, obsessed with its research. One day, while out, you encounter a half-blooded demon girl wandering the streets. You take her in as your student】 【You teach the demoness what it means to be human, show her the beauty of the world, and nurture her into a miracle that surpasses even the gods】 【At the end of the simulation, you die of old age in front of the nearly immortal demoness due to your mortal lifespan】 …… One simulation after another, one encounter after another. Xu Xi suddenly felt something was off: "Wait, you said you're coming to the real world to find me?"
s + Rent Collection Wealth】 At the start, he inherited a rundown house in the urban village from his grandfather. The house had no tenants, but the moment he was diagnosed with a terminal illness, a self-proclaimed empress from the Tianxuan Continent arrived as his first tenant. Ye Chuan soon discovered that with every new tenant moving in, not only did he receive massive daily payments, but he also obtained unique items related to their backgrounds. 【Acquired Bai Qianshuang’s related item: Tiger Strength Pill—dramatically enhances physical power!】 【Acquired Bai Qianshuang’s related item: Deer Blood Pill—significantly boosts vitality!】 …… From that day on, all sorts of bizarre tenants began appearing in the house: the empress from Tianxuan Continent, an apocalyptic sorceress from the Magic Realm, a mysterious scientific girl who fell through a spacetime rift… Every single day, he received strange, powerful items and endless money. Then one day, he suddenly realized—he had become invincible. Enough, enough! Stop giving me more!
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!
nd fell into a coma while saving his younger sister from an out-of-control car. He became a vegetable. No one knew that his consciousness had crossed into a world of cultivation. Over the course of sixty years, he began as the lowest kind of mine slave, struggling to survive amid mountains of corpses and seas of blood. By sheer chance, he eventually obtained the complete memories of a fallen Immortal King. Alchemy, medicine, formations, feng shui, physiognomy, artifact forging… Every great inheritance of the cultivation world was now his. But when he opened his eyes again, he discovered that ten full years had passed in the modern world. To pay for his treatment, his father had sold the family’s shop and house, leaving himself covered in lasting injuries and illness. His mother had cared for him day and night, and more than half of her hair had already turned white. His younger sister, who had been only fifteen back then, was now twenty-five. To help repay the family’s debts, she had been forced to lower her head and put on a smiling face in places of glittering lights and endless revelry. Only then did Chen Xuan understand that what he had lost was not merely ten years. He had lost the life his entire family was meant to have. The good news was that he had brought back the memories of an Immortal King’s entire lifetime. The bad news was that his soul had returned alone—his cultivation had not come with him. Spiritual energy was scarce, resources were depleted, and the modern world still had firearms, surveillance, capital, and laws. If he wanted to protect his family, break free from everyone’s control, and become truly invincible beneath the heavens, he would have to start all over again.
