Chapter 35: ~

Help, or not to help.

The Spark camp was already packed with people who had rushed in for refuge.

But everyone knew—these people weren’t reinforcements. They were trouble.

They had fled from danger, never once facing even a single mainline monster.

“Spark can hardly protect itself. If you shut the door on them, no one would blame you,” said Are.

“I know.”

Kang Jie fell silent for a moment, then smiled.

He had made his decision.

“Drive them away?”

“No one is born a warrior.” Kang Jie returned to the command table. “If I can turn them into warriors, I’ll consider that a great achievement. Alright—let’s start planning our strategy.”

……

In the living room.

The moment the mysterious woman spoke, Bai Xiaozhi’s heart tensed.

“Wu Xiaomi is going to die.”

“Why?”

She didn’t even know which Wu Xiaomi this referred to.

But no matter which one it was—Bai Xiaozhi couldn’t accept it.

“That girl… she was set up. Someone sent her on a suicide mission,” the woman said slowly.

A girl?

She?

“That makes no sense. Wu Xiaomi looks silly, sure—but she’s not stupid,” Bai Xiaozhi frowned. “She’s not that easy to trick.”

“Tomorrow night, the calamity of Mirror Night will descend. Many will die.” The voice under the woman’s umbrella was regal and seductive. “But Wu Xiaomi doesn’t care about any of that. She only cares about one person.”

“Who?” Bai Xiaozhi’s fists clenched.

She hadn’t even realized it herself—how, the moment she heard Wu Xiaomi cared about someone, her whole body had gone rigid.

Tense to the extreme.

But the woman didn’t answer.

She leisurely slipped off her gloves and summoned vines, squeezing their sap onto her nails.

The wine-red polish gleamed with a dewy shine.

“She cares about that person… deeply. Deeply,” the woman said, slow and dreamy. “For that person, she would rather make a deal with the devil. She would rather abandon everything—just for that person’s safety…”

“…”

Bai Xiaozhi lowered her head in silence.

So… Wu Xiaomi already had someone she cared about that much.

Of course she did. They’d only just met.

She knew nothing about Wu Xiaomi. Her past—those many years—were a complete mystery.

“You’re jealous?” the woman asked.

“There’s nothing to be jealous of.” Bai Xiaozhi forced a smile. “Wu Xiaomi and I are just putting on a show. I need her to highlight my ‘dominant’ aura, and she needs a ruthless protector… Our relationship has always been purely transactional.”

“Is~ that so?” the woman dragged out the words with amusement.

“Of course. We’ve only known each other for, what, two weeks?” Bai Xiaozhi pressed her palm down, trying to hide its trembling from the woman.

“Good then.” The woman stood. “Tomorrow night, Wu Xiaomi will die for that person. Since you don’t care—don’t regret it when it happens…”

“Wait!”

Bai Xiaozhi drew her sword.

Her gaze turned cold. That sovereign aura—like a monarch of darkness—descended all around her.

She had completely calmed down.

The tip of her sword pointed straight at the mysterious woman’s back.

“My home isn’t a place you can just come and go as you please,” Bai Xiaozhi said coldly, killing intent radiating off her. “Speak clearly—what’s happening with Wu Xiaomi?”

“I thought you didn’t care?”

“It’s not easy to find a high-quality partner as soft and cooperative as her. I’d rather not waste energy finding a replacement.”

“Oooh~——” The woman dragged her voice out again, amused.

That damn witch.

The woman sat back down.

“Do you know the Shirin City Museum?”

“I do… The owner behind the scenes is said to be a tycoon, rich enough to rival nations.”

“Recently, the museum’s been exhibiting a rare treasure called the ‘Sequence Resonator.’ It’s one of the tycoon’s private collections… and it’s Wu Xiaomi’s target.”

“She’s stealing from the museum?!” Bai Xiaozhi was stunned. “She has… absolutely no chance of success!”

As a student of the Shirin City Spirit Arts Academy, she’d been to the museum. Its security was infamous.

“She has no chance, true. But for that person—the one she grew up with, the one she’s relied on since childhood—she’s willing to risk everything.”

“……”

A strange sourness welled up in Bai Xiaozhi’s chest.

Even though, truthfully, she and Wu Xiaomi couldn’t even be called friends yet.

But the thought of Wu Xiaomi risking her life for someone else…

It made her feel uncomfortable.

Maybe it was because when she met Wu Xiaomi, she’d come to understand her own heart?

It was Xiaomi’s presence that had opened her eyes, that made her realize why she had never been drawn to men.

From that moment on, that little girl had left an impression on her.

She couldn’t help but feel something—something very much like affection.

“The tycoon’s greatest fury comes from people coveting his possessions. Word is, just last month, he caught a servant stealing and had them skinned and hanged at the gate as a warning. If Wu Xiaomi gets caught… tsk.”

“I have to stop her.”

“No, you can’t. The Resonator is the only way out of Mirror Night. For that person, Wu Xiaomi will stop at nothing to steal it. Even if it means being flayed alive. Even if it means offering her soul to a demon. Not even you can stop her.”

“Then I’ll… help her.”

“Yes, that’s right. You’ll help her.”

The woman smiled sweetly and reached out.

She placed a brown-red booklet on the table.

“…A household registration book?” Bai Xiaozhi blinked. “What are you doing with that?”

The woman gave a radiant smile. Even with only her lips and jaw exposed, her beauty was dazzling.

She handed a feather pen to Bai Xiaozhi.

“Come—sign your name.”