After the midnight snack was delivered, Lin Shuang and Huangpu Yuan waited a while longer. As the hour approached midnight, Lin Shuang lay on the bed, nearly falling asleep. She secretly flipped through the inner sect map under the covers, whispering to herself, “If it were me, I would definitely go this way.”
A hushed voice filled the night air, warm and slightly breathy, carrying a hint of winter plum blossom fragrance. It seeped delicately through the folds of the quilt, reaching Huangpu Yuan’s nose. The nearby sound-suppressing talisman had absolutely no effect on him.
Huangpu Yuan’s closed eyes became even more perceptive, and after a while, his eyelashes fluttered slightly. Without a word, he opened his eyes.
“Shh,” he murmured. He lowered his head and pressed her head into the quilt. Lin Shuang was startled as the edge of the quilt was tightly tucked in. She perked up her ears, her spiritual senses instantly alert. After a moment of waiting, she felt confused and silently pulled out Xiao Ai Talisman No. 1.
She glanced at the other end of the communicator.
[Xiao Ai No. 3 (Meng Zi): How are you guys doing? No one’s come here yet. Should I sneak over to find you?]
[Xiao Ai No. 3 (Meng Zi): Hello? Is anyone there? Where is everyone?]
[Xiao Ai No. 2 (Huangpu): Here. Waiting.]
They were already chatting. Lin Shuang eagerly joined in. This feeling of late-night dormitory chatter was back!
A new form of entertainment had arrived, and her spiritual senses were itching to expand.
[Xiao Ai No. 1 (Lin): Nothing’s happening.]
Finding a comfortable position, she lay on her side and joined the group chat.
[Xiao Ai No. 1 (Lin): Staying up like this all night will only drain our energy. We should take turns keeping watch.]
Lin Shuang thought it was impractical to wait the entire night.
If the thief didn’t show up, they would waste the whole night, and still have to search the next day.
By the time the wolf came, they’d already be exhausted.
[Xiao Ai No. 1 (Lin): Let me check where my paper puppet is.]
[Xiao Ai No. 3 (Meng): ???]
Bai Yu and Meng Zi were each in separate rooms, meditating.
They glanced at the backup Xiao Ai communicator, curious.
Soon after, Xiao Ai No. 3 and No. 4 received a message.
[Would you like to share Xiao Ai No. 1’s perspective?]
Bai Yu and Meng Zi clicked simultaneously.
In an instant, the Xiao Ai talisman displayed an image—
In the night, in the direction from the inner sect to the outer sect, a blue-robed “Lin Shuang” floated with dangling arms. Her skirt seemed to have no legs beneath it, and she staggered like a breeze blowing her away.
Looking closely, under the moonlight, her face was pale, almost bloodless, with strands of long hair matted together.
Her eyes were wide, showing only white, and her lips were an eerie crimson, curled into a strange grin.
“F***—”
Meng Zi nearly dropped his Xiao Ai No. 3 communicator!
Bai Yu jolted, his entire frog body going rigid!
What the hell was that!?
[Xiao Ai No. 3 (Meng): Turn that off right now!]
[Xiao Ai No. 4 (Bai): …How do I turn off the shared view?]
Wrapped in a warm, tightly tucked quilt, Lin Shuang glanced at the screen, puzzled.
“Do they have a problem with my paper puppet?”
Too highbrow to be appreciated.
Truly, too refined for others to understand.
An unmanned humanoid flying device… so convenient.
“Senior Brother Huangpu, what do you think? If I sold my paper puppet at Rongbao Studio, wouldn’t it have better sales potential than those water-soluble paper cranes?”
“I even gave her a hairstyle worth at least three hundred spirit stones.”
As Lin Shuang spoke halfway, she felt the unnaturally stiff warmth beside her.
“Very well done, junior sister. Don’t do it again.”
“…”
Huangpu Yuan closed his eyes and extinguished the incense in the room.
A spirit hound crouched not far from the window of their room.
Soon after, it ran off quickly on all four legs.
Along the way, it passed a pond and lowered its head to look at its reflection, seemingly wanting to eat the spirit carp in the lake.
It frightened the spirit carp into fleeing, which in turn startled the coral under the lake, swaying like the wind.
In cave dwelling No. 730, Bai Yu, who was sitting cross-legged, soon opened his eyes and looked out the window at the lake view.
In various cave dwellings across the inner sect, several disciples sitting cross-legged to absorb moonlight spiritual energy slowly opened their eyes.
Some looked at the spirit carp in the lake, some at the spirit sparrow on the branch, and some at the spirit hound outside the door.
“The master says that if the thief doesn’t come out before dawn, we’ll pretend to be the thief and force them out.”
“Understood.”
“The master must pass this trial to reach the Three Thousand Layer. Get to work, everyone.”
“The spirit sparrows monitoring the cafeteria continue to watch.”
“The fish group guarding the Hall of Transmission remains in place…”
“Dog clan, follow me!”
“Oh, and the master sent word—if you encounter a drifting blue-robed woman, splash water on her! Don’t forget!”
“???!”
*
“Holy crap—”
Lin Shuang, who was watching her paper puppet closely, soon noticed that it was being followed by a dog from the sect!
They were even trying to urinate at her paper puppet’s feet.
Unbelievable.
“That’s so rude.”
Lin Shuang couldn’t understand, “Do I look that unlikable to dogs?”
Beside her, Huangpu Yuan remained deathly silent.
Lin Shuang felt sad and immediately decided not to continue sharing the Xiao Ai No. 12 perspective following the paper puppet anymore.
Huangpu Yuan closed his eyes, a slight smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.
Finally, he could get some sleep.
But just for a moment, a small hand suddenly grabbed his right arm under the covers.
A faint, sweet breath brushed against his neck.
A shiver ran down his neck, his fingers stiffened instantly, and his joints and nails nearly exploded along with the fine hairs.
Lin Shuang gasped urgently, “Who is that? My paper puppet is being targeted!”
Exactly the spirit beast he had summoned.
Huangpu Yuan nodded, but as he turned his head to check the Xiao Ai shared view, he was startled.
On the screen, the paper puppet—a terrifying zombie-like figure with white eyes—floated eerily, so horrifying that even the spirit beasts had never witnessed anything like it.
Yet behind her, a figure silently dashed across the lake’s surface.
Clad in black, the figure almost blended into the evening darkness.
As the distance closed, the figure’s face was faintly visible—masked, and a hand gradually reaching toward the waist of the “paper woman!”
Huangpu Yuan sat up instantly, “Recall the paper puppet!”
Lin Shuang was sweating. The paper puppet only had a faint spiritual energy from the talisman, barely enough to mimic her running movements.
It had absolutely no combat ability!
And no escape capability either!
It could only barely deceive the observers in the night with its similar shape and a few spiritual stones tied to it.
“Recall it? No way!
If I recall it now, they’ll know the paper puppet is my trap. They’ll realize I faked going back to the outer sect to lure them in!”
“If we don’t catch them this time, they’ll be more cautious in the future!”
Then she’d be under surveillance forever!
That’s not efficient.
Lin Shuang refused, her back prickling instantly.
Was the thief really at the cafeteria?
Was her plan actually working?
But why were they targeting her?
She couldn’t figure it out!
She didn’t even have any treasures on her. Why come after her?
She wasn’t an easy target.
Why not target Huangpu Yuan or Bai Yu first?
What could they gain from going after her?
In a flash, Lin Shuang seemed to grasp a vague but crucial clue in this series of thefts.
But there was no time to think further. She quickly operated Xiao Ai No. 12, urgently scanning the surroundings, “Where’s the lake!”
“She wants to drown herself!”
“Suddenly, I really want to take a bath—”
On the screen, the zombie-like “Lin Shuang” with a ghastly figure spoke in an unnaturally rigid voice.
Huangpu Yuan: “…”
She wanted to jump into the lake and disappear, making the black-cloaked figure leave.
The paper puppet was too easy to expose.
Lying beside him, Lin Shuang frantically used her spiritual sense from afar, remotely controlling Xiao Ai No. 12 to emit sound.
And she maneuvered the paper puppet, quickly drifting toward a lake between two mountains.
But the black-cloaked figure behind her was clearly faster.
A hand was already within five steps behind her!
It’s over…
Lin Shuang closed her eyes.
No escape.
She reluctantly turned the Xiao Ai No. 12 perspective, “I can at least make the best of it and capture the criminal’s face.”
Huangpu Yuan gazed at the canopy, silent.
But just as Xiao Ai No. 12 turned its lens, transmitting the image of the black-cloaked figure’s pure, youthful eyes—about fourteen or fifteen years old—Lin Shuang was stunned.
This black-cloaked figure looked familiar, and wasn’t very tall… was it the kitchen boy who served them food?
But why was he retreating…?
His figure was rapidly retreating in the Xiao Ai No. 12 footage!
Lin Shuang, puzzled, adjusted the lens, pulling back the distance for a wider shot. As she viewed the frame, she was stunned.
In the remote lens, suddenly, a half-human-sized large dog appeared out of nowhere, charging madly toward the paper puppet “Lin Shuang,” its four legs moving rapidly forward.
All the silky white fur on its body flew up!
During the high-speed sprint, its thick, fluffy tail spread like a fan, soft and wavy, seemingly dusted with a thin layer of silver frost under the moonlight, with only the tips dyed with specks of red.
It ran incredibly fast!
In an instant, it left the stunned black-cloaked figure behind.
“Master…”
“E Bao, what are you doing?”
Just as the black-cloaked figure was about to accelerate and chase the snow-white large dog, suddenly, a fish-scaled man at the sixth layer of Ningyuan, holding a lantern, seemed to rush over.
E Bao…
As soon as the name was called, the snow-white large dog and the fish-scaled man simultaneously stiffened for half a breath.
“E, come here, don’t play around.” The fish-scaled man, after a moment of silence, spoke again.
In the inner sect, senior brothers and sisters sometimes kept spirit pets.
It wasn’t uncommon for spirit pets to go mad at night, get into fights with their owners, and run off to play.
In an instant, the black-robed figure halted, warily eyeing the fish-scaled man at the sixth layer of Ningyuan before silently retreating into the shadows.
Saved…
Lin Shuang exhaled in relief, watching the footage transmitted by Xiao Ai No. 12’s unmanned drone.
“Such a good dog.”
“Senior Brother Huangpu, are spirit dogs sold at Rongbao Studio—”
Lin Shuang asked, her eyes gleaming with desire.
But there was no response from beside her.
She turned her head in confusion and saw Huangpu Yuan with his eyes wide open, staring at the canopy, motionless, as if pondering something.
Meanwhile, the remote Xiao Ai No. 12 drone soon transmitted a “plop” sound.
In the scene, the tail of the large white dog—fluffy, white with silver highlights, and seemingly scorched into flames at the tip—completely ignored the fish-scaled man.
Majestically reaching the lakeside.
It extended one snow-white dog paw, straight and fast, and with a “plop,” pushed the paper puppet “Lin Shuang” into the lake.
In an instant, the paper puppet “Lin Shuang,” with two central spirit stones tied to it, sank into the water.
Dissolving without a trace.
The large white dog stared for a while, then turned its head.
Its pitch-black pupils seemed to look directly at the Xiao Ai No. 12 unmanned drone.
It bared its teeth in a doggy grin.
“—!”
Lin Shuang, covered in blankets, gasped in shock.
“Is it… laughing at me?”
Although she had just wanted to destroy the paper puppet to avoid suspicion from the black-cloaked figure.
But was this dog provoking her?
In an instant, Xiao Ai No. 12 automatically returned to base due to the loss of its tracking target, quickly leaving the “dog murder” scene.
Not long after, Huangpu Yuan moved, as if finally regaining his senses from the series of intense and rapid events.
His eyelashes fluttered slightly, and his dark eyes gradually regained their luster.
In the moonlight of the room, the thick, soft fox fur around his neck seemed even brighter.
The tips of the fur exuded a hint of red, like candlelight.
“Junior sister, did you see the criminal’s face?”
“Yes, the dog’s face was snow-white, with silver-tipped fur, frosty up close, and fiery from afar!”
“…”
“I’ll never forget its fur color!”
Lin Shuang was furious but instantly shut her mouth.
Huangpu Yuan’s temple twitched slightly, and he remained silent.
The two fell into simultaneous silence.
Because just a few dozen breaths later, they heard a slight creaking sound from the window beside their bed.
The paper puppet tracking had failed.
That black-cloaked figure had turned back here!
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