Fu Miaoxue was a doll — she wouldn’t bleed, and she couldn’t be injured.

What had shattered her was the fact that Du Lai — who had always loved and protected her — had raised his hand against her.

Fu Miaoxue stood rooted to the spot, her body and mind both unable to catch up.

But Du Lai’s movements showed not a single moment of hesitation. It was as if he no longer recognized Fu Miaoxue at all. The blade between his two fingers was thin as a willow leaf, and his movements were blindingly fast — another slash came down, leaving a deep gash across Fu Miaoxue’s face.

No blood spilled.

“Move!” Yan Qingwen stepped forward and yanked her out of the way, shouting: “He’s been controlled!”

Fu Miaoxue stumbled back a few steps in a daze. Leonid charged past her from behind, driving his fist hard into Du Lai’s face!

The impact sent Du Lai staggering backward. Blood welled immediately at the corner of his mouth.

Fu Miaoxue saw it and let out an uncontrolled scream: “Don’t hurt him!!!”

Yan Qingwen was afraid she’d rush in again, and physically restrained her. He shouted at their teammates: “Attack the king! Only when Willard is dead will Du Lai come back to his senses!”

Willard, on the ground, had already gotten to his feet. He stood without dodging, watching the group with a cold sneer.

Blades and weapons flew toward him from every direction — some items, some improvised weapons — yet no matter what the attack, nothing produced any reaction upon striking Willard’s body.

Instead, it was Du Lai whose body erupted with several gaping wounds!

Blood poured out freely!

“AHHHHH!!!” Fu Miaoxue broke completely, screaming like someone had lost their mind. “STOP! Everyone stop! Don’t attack anymore!!!”

Yan Qingwen felt a cold horror seize his chest, and he couldn’t hold back a low curse under his breath: “What the hell is this item?!”

Not only could it control a player — it made the controlled person absorb all damage on behalf of the controller?! Or was it… was it the stacked effect of two separate items?

Yan Qingwen’s mind was in chaos.

The subjects around him were seething: “If he doesn’t die, we’ll lose!”

“I don’t care!!!” Fu Miaoxue screamed, her voice tearing raw. “I’m ordering all of you — do not make any further attack against him! Not a single one!”

“Snap out of it! Fu Miaoxue!” Yan Qingwen gripped her by the shoulders and turned her to face him. “Du Lai is already dead!”

Fu Miaoxue shoved him away!

“Impossible! Without my command, he wouldn’t dare leave me! He’ll stay with me — always, always with me!!!”

Yan Qingwen felt utterly powerless. As the king, Fu Miaoxue had clearly lost her function.

She had fallen apart.

Everything had fallen apart.

Just as Yan Qingwen was at the edge of desperation, Chen Hui hesitantly spoke up: “Yan Ge… look at Du Lai. On his body…”

Chen Hui was tucked behind Leonid, one finger pointing at Du Lai.

Du Lai had collapsed into a pool of blood. From his body, an extraordinarily thin black thread was slowly rising — like a loose fiber on clothing, or an inconspicuous strand of hair…

It swayed. Slowly, slowly.

“Everyone back up!” Yan Qingwen’s alarm bells went off at full force. He understood immediately — this was the entity that had been controlling Du Lai. Now that Du Lai was dead, the thread was looking for a new host.

“Does anyone have fire?!” Yan Qingwen raised his voice.

Against something this eerily strange, the best approach was to burn it.

“I — I do!” A subject fumbled frantically inside their clothing. “I have a ‘fire-starter box’ — it can ignite any object!”

The subject held up the fire-starter box, but stood there in helpless confusion, a look of terror spreading over their face, their voice trembling: “No… I… I can’t see it. Where did it go? Can anyone see it?”

The thread was so impossibly fine — shift direction by even a hair and it vanished from sight.

The group hesitated for no more than two or three seconds before another person was possessed — and turned their weapon on their own companions.

Yan Qingwen knew — Willard had changed tactics. He had originally intended to eliminate the king directly, but when he found that Fu Miaoxue couldn’t die, he turned to picking off the subjects instead.

—