Chapter 123: The Twin Stars, Jiang Liuying (Part I)

"Yo, do you need some help?" Guo Lang and Alice had just stepped out of the portal when they saw Ye Zhichiu sent flying through the air. He was knocked dozens of meters across the open plaza, carving a deep, unsightly groove into the elegant decorative flooring.

"No need!" Ye Zhichiu stood up and spat a mouthful of blood onto the ground. "Go do whatever you were going to do; don't bother me!" At this moment, Ye Zhichiu had fully unleashed his bloodline. His stature had swelled to nearly three meters, and his muscles were thick and solid. With his beast-like, orange-yellow pupils, his presence was no less oppressive than that of the five-meter-tall Tyrant standing opposite him.

"Hmm..." Guo Lang felt a bit helpless, having expected that answer. He frowned, "Why aren't you using your blade?"

"The opponent isn't using one either..." Ye Zhichiu grinned. "How could I use a sword against someone fighting with their bare hands? That wouldn't be in the spirit of a duel's honor!"

Right, the senseless logic of the Beast race—no surprises there. Guo Lang couldn't be bothered to argue further. He turned to Alice and said, "Let's go." After the two of them left, the Tyrant took a tentative step forward. For the moment Guo Lang and the girl appeared, it hadn't dared to move. Though it was a mutated creature, its instincts were sharp. Even though those two looked small and weak, it didn't dare act rashly, especially the young girl. She felt terrifying. It had seen the video of Quella fighting that girl, and it remembered clearly that Quella had lasted only ten seconds against her.

"Hey!" Ye Zhichiu blocked its line of sight, flashing a toothy grin. "Where are you looking?"

"Ugh..." The Tyrant, which seemed to have lost its capacity for speech, stared at him in silence for a long time, its eyes filled with complex emotions.

"Don't give me that look!" Ye Zhichiu sneered. "A fight is a one-on-one affair—that's the basic rule, isn't it? I'm a warrior who respects rules, nothing more. But I’ve never been generous to my enemies, so today, you are definitely going to die here!"

The creature paused, a sinister grin appearing on its face.

"I don't know if it's my imagination," Ye Zhichiu muttered, frowning slightly, "but your expression doesn't seem to match your emotions. It's always a beat slow. Is it just me?"

The creature froze, a look of confusion crossing its face.

"Alright!" Ye Zhichiu cracked his knuckles, the popping sounds echoing clearly across the empty plaza. He beckoned with his hand. "Forget about the trivial things. Come on, let's continue!"

***

"Ugh... it's so dark!" Jiang Liuying complained, wandering aimlessly through the Third Building. She paused as she passed the headless corpses, murmuring, "Such fine men, what a pity. If you were in my realm, you’d all be qualified to enter my harem!"

As she spoke, a rustling sound—like the crawling of insects—suddenly filled the air. Jiang Liuying frowned, hugging her shoulders. "Ew... how disgusting. Even the sound is revolting!"

A black shadow suddenly appeared in front of her. Jiang Liuying merely leaned back slightly, watching it with an expressionless face.

The figure was cloaked in a black trench coat, its face covered by a mask. Its eyes, much like Ye Zhichiu's, were a vibrant orange-yellow, but they lacked his beast-like intensity, projecting instead a sense of morbidity. Two long, slender antennae swayed gently.

"Ew, those antennae are truly disgusting," Jiang Liuying said, staring coldly at the entity.

"Disgusting, you say?" The voice was raspy and multi-tonal, identical to the shadow that had killed the commander of the Southwest Military District.

"Kee-kee!" The creature let out a strange laugh. "A fresh woman, how beautiful. Master doesn't allow me to touch the women in the base, but an enemy... that should be fine, right?" It removed its mask, revealing cracked, dark lips and two insect-like fangs dripping with green saliva. To a human, it was truly grotesque.

"You said my antennae were disgusting?" The creature cackled, its antennae lashing out at Jiang Liuying like lightning. Yet, even as it attacked, it noticed with sensitivity that her expression remained unchanged—still so indifferent. Was her reaction time too slow, or was she truly looking down on it?

*Thud!* A sharp sound, like an impact against tempered glass, echoed through the building. The two antennae stopped dead just centimeters from Jiang Liuying. Judging by the angle of the bend, they hadn't stopped on their own; something had blocked them.

"This is the first time I've met someone who talks more than I do during a fight," Jiang Liuying yawned. "You didn't attack me immediately, choosing instead to stand there and spout nonsense before starting. With all that wasted time, did you really think I’d just stand by and do nothing?"

"Interesting!" The creature paused, gave a strange laugh, and suddenly vanished from before her eyes. Jiang Liuying tilted her head. "Hmm... quite fast." She flicked her finger to the left. *Bang!* Another crisp collision sound rang out. The creature's entire body had slammed into something, but it remained blocked on the outside.

"Still, I watch those two freaks every day, so my eyes have managed to adapt to your level." She walked over and tapped the invisible object separating them, producing a rhythmic knocking sound. "Tsk, the speed is decent, but the explosive power is mediocre. Not even a crack. If this were Alice, she would have found the weakness and shattered this arcane mirror, right?"

"Ugh..." The monster’s face twisted in savage fury. It clearly sensed it was being toyed with. Its antennae vibrated at a high frequency, and with a hiss, it vanished again.

A moment later, it appeared behind Jiang Liuying. If one looked closely, they would see it had descended from the ceiling.

It was filled with savage excitement, its palm aiming directly for Jiang Liuying's neck. It no longer cared about capturing her to toy with her; it wanted to tear this arrogant woman's head off immediately, take it back as a trophy, and admire that expression of haughty mockery at its leisure.

But suddenly, the corner of Jiang Liuying's mouth curled into a mocking smile, catching the monster off guard. The next moment, it realized that the instant it touched her, she shattered like glass!

"Coming from above? You have a bit of a brain, after all..." Jiang Liuying had appeared more than a meter behind it.

A chill ran through the monster. What was going on? It lunged at her again, but *bang*—it collided with the invisible barrier. The violent recoil forced it to stumble back. With a flash of ferocity, it leaped, only to be bounced off by another *bang*. The situation sent a wave of cold dread through it. It frantically attacked from all sides, only to discover with despair that it had been sealed in.

"Just a bug, indeed..." The mocking smile on Jiang Liuying’s face deepened. To the monster’s astonishment, she stepped into thin air, her high heels clicking crisply against the empty space as she walked, as proud as a queen.

If Guo Lang were here, he would surely complain: *Look at this show-off. And why is she wearing high heels with a tracksuit? Is that really suitable for fighting?*

"I suppose you have fly genes, too?" Jiang Liuying mocked. "When you encounter something you can't understand, you just bump into it blindly?"