"Oh, I didn't expect such a cute loli to have such an unexpectedly fiery temper?"
Silver Wolf, hiding in the shadows, couldn't help but click her tongue in amazement as she watched this scene.
Liu Xiyue's long-unseen fiery side reminded her of the time they spent playing games together when they first met.
Uh, I seem to be getting off track...
Her gaze returned to the dark red mist.
Silver Wolf stared at the data stream jumping across her vision, and a hint of something different finally flickered in her originally lazy eyes.
She gave a soft click of her tongue and muttered to herself, "I really don't know if I'm lucky or unlucky today... It's rare for me to go out for a stroll, yet I've run into such 'filthy' things."
Then, Silver Wolf's gaze slowly shifted to the men who had inhaled the mist.
By now, they had already fled in a sorry state under Liu Xiyue's "friendly exchange."
But before they could take more than a few steps, they all froze in place—their limbs suddenly twitched as if pulled by invisible threads, and their facial features twisted into a mess.
Liu Xiyue's eyes widened in disbelief, while Silver Wolf raised an eyebrow, looking calm as if she had expected this.
From her perspective, she could clearly see fine beads of blood seeping from the men's ears and nostrils. Their eyeballs bulged from being bloodshot, and finally, amidst heart-wrenching screams, they bled from all seven orifices and collapsed to the ground.
Silver Wolf lightly pushed up her Colorful Goggles with her fingertip, the lenses reflecting a cold light.
"Unlike the energy overflowing from Muyun City, what's leaking from this mystic realm is a harmful substance condensed purely from the negative emotions of living beings."
"And the concentration is ridiculously high. It would probably take draining the negative energy of tens of thousands of lives to accumulate such a concentrated pool."
Silver Wolf watched the scene with a flat gaze. With a flick of her wrist, she pushed the goggles back onto her forehead.
From beginning to end, she maintained an indifferent attitude toward the deaths of those few people.
On the contrary, Silver Wolf was now slightly more curious about the world beyond the mystic realm.
On the scene, unlike Silver Wolf, who had already analyzed the whole situation...
An indescribable expression appeared on Liu Xiyue's delicate face, and her almond-shaped eyes scanned the dark red smoke that was still spreading at a snail's pace with vigilance.
It's really too strange. This thing is just like a plague, making it impossible to guard against.
Having no clue about it, Liu Xiyue couldn't help but take a few steps back, covering her nose and mouth to avoid inhaling the gas.
At this moment, when the people on the scene realized that those few had truly stopped breathing, they finally understood the gravity of the situation.
"Dead... they're dead?!!"
"Someone's dead?!!"
Accompanied by the panicked cries of the crowd.
No one dawdled anymore; instead, they scrambled to escape.
For a moment, the entire scene was in chaos, with people crowding and pushing each other.
Meng Xingyao stumbled through the crowd, nearly falling from being shoved, until Cipher flashed by like a silver light, neatly grabbed her wrist, and dragged her out of the center of the chaos in a few steps.
Just as she regained her footing, Meng Xingyao clutched Cipher's sleeve, her voice tearful.
"Cat Sister! Silver Wolf... she's gone!"
"I know, but Little Princess, instead of worrying about others, you'd better be careful yourself."
Hearing her question, Cipher almost rolled her eyes.
She thought to herself, Does she really need you to worry about her?
However, she ultimately gave her a meaningful hint.
As expected, Meng Xingyao's expression changed upon hearing this, clearly realizing something was off.
"Could it be... Silver Wolf is also an Ability User? But why is Sister Yue..."
"Who knows what game they're playing."
"Anyway, Silver Wolf isn't some emotionless girl; she might even be more powerful than you."
"So stop worrying blindly."
Cipher's blurted words happened to hit the nail on the head regarding Meng Xingyao's internal conflict.
After hearing this, Meng Xingyao's tense expression finally relaxed a bit. After all, if she really just stood by and watched, it would be hard to explain to her best friend, and she wouldn't have the heart to do it anyway.
As for Cipher's subsequent words, she just took them as the other girl teasing her.
"Even though I feel more at ease, shouldn't we still go find her?"
"Alright, alright... By the way, why don't I see you worrying about that girl Liu Xiyue?"
Faced with Cipher's sudden counter-question, Meng Xingyao clearly looked a bit flustered.
The key was that her best friend's secret identity as Flame Heart couldn't be revealed casually.
So, she had no choice but to selectively reveal a part of it.
"Ah, well... um... Sister Yue is also an Ability User, so we probably don't need to worry about her."
After saying that, Meng Xingyao felt a strange sense of guilt, as if she were betraying her best friend and deceiving the "kind" Cat Girl.
And all of this naturally didn't escape Cipher's keen eyes.
She guessed that the Little Princess was probably hiding some important information, but she didn't expose her on the spot.
"Alright, Little Princess, we..."
Before she could finish her sentence, a different sound came from not far away.
Meng Xingyao looked toward the sound and could only barely see the disturbances caused by Supernatural Abilities; she couldn't make out anything else.
However, Cipher could see much more clearly.
"There seems to be a fight over there; looks like it's quite intense."
Cipher widened her eyes and could just barely see that the commotion was caused by Ability Users fighting.
Meng Xingyao, standing beside her, got a general idea of the situation.
She instinctively turned her gaze toward Cipher.
However, before she could speak, Cipher flatly refused.
"Hey, Little Princess, you don't really take me for a philanthropist or someone from the Ability Bureau, do you? This thankless task, This Cat won't do it."
Hearing this, Meng Xingyao was left speechless.
She then remembered that Cipher was also the Cat Phantom Thief.
Thinking of this, Meng Xingyao considered it again and again, then gritted her teeth and said...
"Then Sister Cipher, please stay safe. I'm going to help!"
With that, Meng Xingyao took out her Magic Wand and prepared to go support them.
But the moment she took her first step, she felt herself being violently pulled back.
Cipher's exclamation rang in her ears.
"Watch out!!!"
Whiz!!!
When her vision returned to normal, a familiar sense of dizziness hit her again.
However, the distance was short this time, so the impact was minor, and Meng Xingyao managed to steady herself.
She suppressed her nausea and looked up, her pupils suddenly shrinking.
Not just Meng Xingyao, but everyone present involuntarily covered their mouths, suppressed cries escaping their throats.
Cipher's tail puffed up like a fluffy ball as if she'd been electrocuted, her ears pinned flat against her head, and her delicate face contorted in disgust.
"Eww~ What... what on earth is this disgusting thing, meow!"
Following Cipher's gaze...
Before them was a mass that could barely be called a "living being," an eerie existence whose form defied common sense and was difficult to define with exact words.
If one had to make an analogy, it might bear some resemblance to certain insects—like a bee or a mosquito—but it was by no means a simple enlarged version of any known species.
The creature's size was exceptionally large, as bulky as a small car, looking completely out of place in the space.
Most unsettling was its overall deep red hue, as if it were soaked in blood. Its skin was covered with irregular, uneven tumors that were soft and mushy, appearing to writhe constantly.
And in the area that could barely be identified as the "head," several pairs of various blood-colored pupils were distributed.
They were of different sizes and distorted shapes; some were narrow slits, while others were perfectly round and hollow.
Every pair exuded coldness and malice, and staring at them instilled a strong sense of nausea and fear.