*Sizzle — !*
Acrid white smoke rose as the corrosive bloody water into which her right arm had transformed rapidly ate through the Ginseng Fruit’s massive palm, and He Jiulu’s body fell through the hole.
At the same time, the Dictator cane she had been holding in her teeth dropped. She snapped her carbonized left toe upward, kicking it into the air.
The cane spun in the air and landed firmly in her barely movable left hand, which was now devoid of bone spurs.
Her carbonized skin cracked open, revealing the bright red, writhing new flesh beneath. It was a gruesome sight.
Skeleton Stamen was working frantically to repair this vessel, but the speed was far behind the damage being inflicted.
“Good… Very well!” Zhen Yuanzi laughed in extreme rage. “Today, even if I must exhaust some of my vital energy, I will refine you into the most ferocious Fruit Slave at my feet!”
He formed hand seals once again. This time, the surrounding dark clouds gathered frantically, lightning flashed, and an even more terrifying energy brewed within the cloud layer.
Clearly, he was about to use a more powerful spell.
Just then, a massive gap was suddenly torn into the sun-blotting dark clouds by a black spatial rift. The piercing midday sunlight poured down, and a figure appeared in the sky.
If one were to use an idiom to describe the scene, it would be “clearing the clouds to see the sun.”
The Red Crow Rabbit’s voice followed. “*Zhi-gu-gu-gu-gu.* Finally, she’s here. Your support has arrived. Welcome your new comrade — Sui Luowen!”
Zhen Yuanzi looked up and focused his gaze. Floating in the sky was a girl around 10 years old.
She was expressionless, carrying an aura that warned others not to approach.
Her long hair was tied into two round buns on either side of her head, with the rest hanging down. White highlights shot through her black hair like irregular streaks of lightning.
She possessed a pair of bright phoenix eyes with clear blue pupils. In the center of her pupils was a nine-square grid pattern originating from the Luo Shu.
She wore a white training uniform with archery sleeves and a black sleeveless surcoat embroidered with bamboo patterns in white silk thread. On her lower body, she wore tight trousers and soft boots.
She held a long, large calligraphy brush named “Criticism.” Its handle was like a sword and its tip like a spear. This was her magic wand.
Rather than a brush, it looked more like a strange weapon designed for both literary and martial arts.
The girl named Sui Luowen swung the brush in the high sky like a long spear. Dark spatial rifts immediately manifested on the bodies of the Ginseng Fruits, tearing them apart.
“Wha… What?!” While Zhen Yuanzi was still stunned, staring at Sui Luowen in the sky, He Jiulu seized the opportunity. Gripping the cane in her left hand, she slammed it into Zhen Yuanzi’s face.
The Dictator cane struck Zhen Yuanzi’s face with a dull thud.
However, the expected consciousness control or mental shock did not take effect.
Zhen Yuanzi’s head merely snapped back. A faint sound of bone cracking came from the bridge of his nose as blood gushed out instantly. The surprise in his eyes was quickly replaced by violent fury.
“Ignorant junior! My Primordial Spirit is refined and long ago transcended the mental shackles of the common world! How can it be shaken by such heart-bewildering techniques?!” Zhen Yuanzi roared.
The effect of Dictator was closely related to the target. Clearly, this anomaly from the conscious world calling himself “Zhen Yuanzi” had a consciousness structure or cultivation method that was completely immune to this level of manipulation.
But He Jiulu’s movements did not pause for a second. She used every ounce of strength in her body to strike Zhen Yuanzi’s face over and over. She did not care even as his blood splattered onto her.
Zhen Yuanzi was dazed by He Jiulu’s reckless, continuous pummeling, and blood flowed from his nose in a steady stream.
Although his Primordial Spirit was refined and immune to mental manipulation, this purely physical brute force — infused with an obsession for survival and targeted at the fragile parts of his face — still made it difficult for him to retaliate for a moment.
‘Compress,’ Sui Luowen recited in her mind rather than chanting the incantation aloud.
By doing so, she utilized her Trait. To put it simply, her ability was to forcibly change the shape of any object, though the specific effect depended on the target’s power and the elements injected.
Sui Luowen aimed her left hand at Zhen Yuanzi and made a motion as if she were crumpling a ball of paper. Zhen Yuanzi immediately felt unprecedented pressure, but he managed to maintain his form through his sheer cultivation.
While Sui Luowen intended to twist Zhen Yuanzi’s form, she occasionally turned toward the human Ginseng Fruits. She swung Criticism to create spatial rifts, obstructing the path of the undying fruits as they tried to approach He Jiulu.
Just maintaining his form to prevent himself from being crushed into a ball took all of Zhen Yuanzi’s effort, let alone dodging He Jiulu’s strikes.
After holding out for a while, Zhen Yuanzi’s mental energy was soon exhausted. Under the weight of He Jiulu’s heavy blows and the pressure applied by Sui Luowen, he gradually fainted.
Seeing that Zhen Yuanzi had passed out, Sui Luowen stopped using her Trait. She focused instead on swinging Criticism, severing the limbs of the remaining Ginseng Fruits so they could no longer move.
Then, Sui Luowen descended from the air and landed smoothly on the ground. Her gaze drifted over He Jiulu, whose original appearance was now unrecognizable.
“Thank… you…” Although it was agonizingly painful for He Jiulu to utter even half a word, the girl had saved her. She had to offer at least a basic word of thanks.
Sui Luowen did not respond verbally. Instead, she began to use sign language.
‘Is this person… unable to speak?’ He Jiulu guessed that the girl was mute.
Seeing that He Jiulu did not react, Sui Luowen realized that she did not understand sign language. She had no choice but to use Criticism to write a sentence on the ground: “Senior, don’t push yourself.”
“Alright, you two. Hurry up and bring the anomaly and the foreign object to the Gongjishi Bathhouse, Linyin City branch. I’m getting a bit impatient,” Red Crow Rabbit’s voice echoed in both their minds.
“Additionally, He Jiulu, our new teammate is different from you. Not only is she a real girl, but she’s only 10 years old. If you don’t want to expose your true identity, pay attention.”
This time, Red Crow Rabbit deliberately spoke only in He Jiulu’s head, preventing Sui Luowen from hearing those words.
‘Ten years old?! How did you kidnap such a young child? How can you feel safe letting such a small child face these dangers?!’ He Jiulu questioned Red Crow Rabbit in her mind.
“Oh, how should I put this? It seems I previously misunderstood the relationship between human height and age. A girl around 10 years old is actually the most suitable to be an Eshu. After all, girls of this age are quite energetic.”
“At the time, I based my assumptions on the age-to-height ratio of the previous civilization. I didn’t just get your gender wrong; I got your age wrong, too. Now that I have learned the common height for 10-year-old humans, I’ve corrected that error.”