Xuanwu was stunned for a long moment before raising his head to look at the group before him.
“What are you all planning…?”
Luo Shiyi had no words either and quickly turned to Su Shan and Song Qi for answers.
The expressions on both their faces were equally troubled.
Song Qi fiddled with a stone in his hand, carefully considering the situation.
For Qiu Shiliu, setting herself on fire wasn’t difficult—after all, she had already controlled her emotions before entering Xuanwu’s body.
The hardest part for her was stopping the flames.
But why did Xuanwu’s body seem completely unharmed…?
Could there be something strange about that space, causing Qiu Shiliu to die instantly upon entering?
Su Shan also widened her eyes, staring at Xuanwu. Qiu Shiliu had clearly unleashed “Scarlet Flame” just before entering Xuanwu’s body, but after she vanished, the words “Scarlet Flame” disappeared, leaving only “Undying” covering Xuanwu.
“Guessing in such an unknown situation is just too difficult…” Su Shan murmured.
The group stood frozen, unsure what to do. Should they continue attacking or just wait and observe…?
“Ahhhhhhh!”
Just as everyone fell silent, a scream suddenly echoed from the distance.
They turned to see Ma Shier running toward them, clutching a pitch-black arm and wailing in terror.
“Damn it all, ahhhhhh!”
Gasping for breath, he stopped in front of them, threw the arm to the ground in horror, and panted heavily.
“What…?” Luo Shiyi frowned.
“Brother Shiyi, ahhh!” Ma Shier looked absolutely terrified. “Just now… this arm… damn it all…”
“Get to the point.”
Ma Shier quickly composed himself, pointing at the black arm with a trembling voice. “A second ago, Shiliu’s face floated past inside this arm!!”
“Huh…?”
For a moment, everyone was stunned. Though it was hard to believe, it wasn’t entirely incomprehensible.
“You mean ‘floated past’ like…”
“Like—how do I explain it?!” Ma Shier scratched his head, trying to describe what he’d seen. “Shiliu’s face was like a moving tattoo on this arm… just, from one end, whoosh, to the other.”
He seemed to be struggling to make sense of it himself, desperate to convince them he wasn’t crazy.
After speaking, he glanced around and quickly noticed something was off. “Wait… where’s Shiliu?”
“She went to be a tattoo.”
“What?”
Luo Shiyi scratched his head and asked, “When you saw Shiliu… was she alive or dead?”
“Huh?!”
Ma Shier was utterly baffled by the question.
“Brother Shiyi, what do you mean? That tattoo was actually Shiliu herself?!” Ma Shier exclaimed. “She’s swimming around inside Xuanwu’s arm?!”
“Pretty much,” Luo Shiyi said. “But the plan seems to have hit a snag, so is she dead or not?”
Ma Shier thought carefully about the face he’d seen.
“If that’s the case… she’s probably not dead,” he answered. “But her eyes were wide open, like she’d seen something absolutely shocking…”
“Shocking…?”
“Yeah!” Ma Shier nodded. “If her eyes weren’t so wide, I wouldn’t have been scared out of my mind…”
“If she’s alive, why hasn’t ‘Scarlet Flame’ activated yet…?” Luo Shiyi voiced his doubt, then turned to Song Qi.
Standing atop a low building, Song Qi had heard everything clearly and quickly pieced together an explanation.
If Qiu Shiliu was unharmed but hadn’t triggered “Scarlet Flame,” it could only mean her “rage” had diminished.
A “Resonance” that required “extreme anger” to activate hadn’t taken effect—meaning Shiliu must have seen something so bizarre in that space that it altered her emotions.
As they pondered this, a shadowy figure suddenly drifted past inside Xuanwu’s pitch-black body, moving from left to right before vanishing beyond sight.
That figure was Qiu Shiliu.
“Holy—” Ma Shier pointed at Xuanwu in shock. “That’s exactly what I saw!”
Xuanwu, who had been looking down, also noticed and immediately reached his left hand into his own body to grab her—but no matter how he tried, he couldn’t reach her.
Only then did the group realize what the sight of a person floating inside someone else resembled…
It was like an image on a television screen.
Xuanwu’s entire body was like a dark, three-dimensional display, always showing the standby pattern of a starry sky. But now, a person was drifting across that starry expanse.
This wasn’t quite like a tattoo—because Qiu Shiliu wasn’t on Xuanwu’s skin but inside his body.
“What… do we do now…?” Ma Shier whispered.
“Give Shiliu some time. Don’t rush to attack,” Song Qi said from the rooftop. “We at least have that much trust in her.”
“True,” Luo Shiyi nodded. “If Shiliu didn’t activate Scarlet Flame immediately, it must mean she doesn’t think it’s the right moment.”
……
It took Qiu Shiliu a long time to steady herself in this bizarre space.
The moment she first entered, her immediate thought was: “I can’t breathe.”
This strange space didn’t seem to have any air reserved for outsiders like her. She thought she was about to die.
But when she looked up, an overwhelming sense of awe slammed into her mind.
The concern about breathing was instantly forgotten.
Before her, against a pitch-black backdrop, floated countless doors suspended in midair.
Some were slightly ajar, emitting faint light from the other side. These infinite, sky-spanning doors, glowing softly, looked like a vast sea of stars from a distance, shimmering brilliantly.
Where did they lead?
Why were they inside Xuanwu’s body?
No—rather than wondering that, a better question was: What kind of place was she even in now?
After about a minute, Qiu Shiliu snapped out of her daze and realized—she was still breathing.
She was steadily inhaling and exhaling in a place with no air.
But the moment she became aware of this absurdity, she suddenly found it hard to breathe again.
Having been a member of “The Cats” for some time, Qiu Shiliu quickly understood: “Breathing” here was influenced by her subconscious.
If she believed there was no air, she would suffocate—so only when she wasn’t consciously thinking about it could she breathe normally.
Easier said than done. Convincing herself that breathing was possible in this boundless, lightless void was incredibly difficult.
After multiple failed attempts to override her instincts, she turned her attention elsewhere, searching for something to distract herself.
But as she turned—Ma Shier’s huge face suddenly flashed past right in front of her, making her eyes widen in shock.
Tai Sui Yellow Amulet Paper FuLu Taoist Love Talisman Traditional Chinese Spiritual Charm Attracting Love Protecting Marriage