“Heh heh… Fourth Senior Sister, why aren’t you tinkering with those puppets you made back in your rat hole? Instead, you come here to reminisce with me?”
“You don’t mean to say that you feel I didn’t kill you thoroughly enough in my past life, so you came running here to get yourself killed again, letting your junior sister have another go at you?”
As Ruogu’s mocking voice echoed, a slender figure holding a White Jade Bone Shuttle slowly emerged from the shadows in the dim corridor outside the dungeon door.
The woman wore a dark green long dress, her head completely covered by a White Silver Mask, and her body draped in a black robe that floated like a ghost as she moved to the prison gate.
Without hesitation, Gu Hongchen lunged forward with a sword aimed straight at Mo Qingyou.
Mo Qingyou didn’t dodge.
Instead, she wielded the Ling Shuttle, which had just returned to her hand, and waved it through the air, drawing a spatial rift that swallowed the sword energy Gu Hongchen unleashed.
Watching the fierce clash between these two terrifying beings, the white-clad corpse that Gu Hongchen had just mauled began trembling violently in fear.
It trembled even more as it tried to sneak away while Gu Hongchen and Mo Qingyou, locked in mutual vigilance, momentarily distracted, allowing it to creep quietly toward the corner in hopes of escaping this dangerous place.
Gu Hongchen studied the artifact in Mo Qingyou’s hand, a manic smile curling at the corner of her mouth.
“Oh? Senior Sister, that’s quite a treasure you’ve got there~”
“Too bad… once I kill you later, this little toy will have a new master!”
Mo Qingyou ignored Gu Hongchen’s taunts and instead focused on the trembling corpse that, unable to withstand the overwhelming killing intent and pressure from both her and Gu Hongchen, was trying to drag its broken body quietly toward the corner.
She furrowed her brow slightly, as if wanting to intervene and stop the zombie that was actually the daughter of Zhao Zongchang, hoping to let it remain here to complete its further evolution.
However, Gu Hongchen’s malicious aura locked firmly onto Mo Qingyou, forbidding any rash moves, and in the end, Mo Qingyou could only watch helplessly as the zombie disappeared into the shadows.
Seeing the situation beyond saving, Mo Qingyou shifted her gaze back to Gu Hongchen, deciding to deal with her first before making any further plans.
Her emerald eyes narrowed slightly, and in a cold voice, she said, “You… are not Gu Qingying. This manic demonic energy… it’s Gu Hongchen?”
“Tsk… I never expected that you actually managed to break free from the Heart Purification Art of Glazed Glass’s control and take over the body!”
Gu Hongchen laughed exaggeratedly, as if hearing the world’s biggest joke.
“Hehe~ Senior Sister, you sure know quite a lot~ You even know about the Heart Purification Art of Glazed Glass! Seems like… you must be like Second Elder Gong, reborn from another parallel timeline~”
“Heehee… Haha! Come on, tell me! How did the me from your past life kill you?”
As Gu Hongchen spoke, she tried to manipulate her system to alter her Fourth Senior Sister’s perception, preparing to deal with her just like she had with the zombies moments ago.
Yet when she thrust her sword forward, she found her Senior Sister was unaffected by the system, calmly blocking Gu Hongchen’s piercing attack with the artifact in her hand.
Gu Hongchen muttered neurotically, then her eyes gleamed with curiosity as she asked Mo Qingyou,
“Fourth Senior Sister, what is your system ability?”
Mo Qingyou’s expression remained cold and unreadable; she gave no immediate answer but instead extended an olive branch.
“Gu Hongchen, let’s cooperate! I know you coexist with Gu Qingying and are constrained by her. I have a secret method that can help you completely separate from Gu Qingying’s body!”
“Then, using my Puppet Secret Technique, I can craft a perfect new flesh body for you, granting you total freedom.”
“In exchange, you must join forces with me and help me accomplish my plan!”
Mo Qingyou’s offer was highly tempting.
For ordinary mind demons, hearing such a promise of complete liberation from their original hosts would be almost irresistible.
But Gu Hongchen was different.
After hearing this, she stared at Mo Qingyou as if she were a fool, the manic smile on her lips growing even wilder:
“Oh? Cooperation? Freedom? Hahaha!”
Gu Hongchen laughed uproariously, as if hearing the most absurd proposal in the world.
“Who cares about that nonsense? Your jibber-jabber is annoying as hell!”
Then, abruptly silencing her laughter, her crimson vertical pupils ignited with pure and absolute killing intent, and the demonic aura boiling around her surged like an ink-black sea.
“Right now, I want to do only one thing: just like in my past life, slaughter all of you annoying pests to the last one!”
Before she finished speaking, Gu Hongchen transformed into a blood-red shadow engulfed in raging demonic energy and charged directly at Mo Qingyou!
Seeing this, a flicker of dark disappointment and icy resolve passed through Mo Qingyou’s eyes.
Sharp sword light.
“Tsk~ Immune, huh? Looks like you need a system too~”
“Ah… this just got interesting!”
“Hmph! Stubborn as ever.”
Facing Gu Hongchen’s frenzied onslaught, Mo Qingyou didn’t dodge or evade.
She calmly raised her right hand and softly chanted into the surrounding void.
“System! Activate Mind Control!”
Gu Hongchen sneered triumphantly, “No use! That useless Gu Qingying already tried this with Second Elder Gong. For reborn wielders of systems like us, our abilities are mutually immune!”
Just as Gu Hongchen finished speaking, an invisible wave of thought, faster than supersonic speed, crossed the spatial distance and struck Gu Hongchen’s brow!
“System! Freeze her in place!”
At Mo Qingyou’s command, Gu Hongchen, who was still laughing wildly as she lunged forward, suddenly dropped her weapon and stood rigidly at attention.
The manic grin on Gu Hongchen’s face froze, and shock flickered in her crimson pupils.
“Huh? How… how is this possible? How could your ability affect me?”
“What… did you do to me?”
Facing Gu Hongchen’s terrified questioning, Mo Qingyou’s voice remained cold and emotionless.
“Yes. You’re right… Hosts wielding the same level system are indeed immune to each other’s abilities within a certain range.”
“But unfortunately, my system appears to be just a little more advanced than yours!”
“So, you might as well obediently fall asleep!”
As Mo Qingyou finished speaking, the scarlet in Gu Hongchen’s eyes quickly faded, and the boiling demonic aura around her was forcibly pressed back into her body by an invisible hand, sending her into a deep slumber.
As Gu Hongchen’s consciousness fell into sleep, the corpse of Gu Qingying, previously controlled by her, collapsed weakly onto the ground.
Mo Qingyou shook her head helplessly, retrieving her artifact as she prepared to forcibly extract Gu Hongchen’s soul from Gu Qingying’s body.
But at that moment, an invisible yet immense force instantly enveloped the entire dungeon! Everything—falling dust, drifting corpse aura, even the lingering psychic waves just emitted by Mo Qingyou—fell into absolute stillness!
Gu Qingying, unconscious, was frozen in place by this power, and Mo Qingyou, standing nearby, was likewise completely immobilized.
Clearly, this was Gong Shangyu’s Time Stop ability, activated from a great distance outside the dungeon through her system.
That was why both Gu Qingying and Mo Qingyou—two system holders—were frozen simultaneously.
Yet as the time stop wave held Mo Qingyou still, a sudden green light flashed in her motionless eyes, and in an instant, she broke free from the constraints of the time stop.