Thirty-five girls

The crowd had been cleared, yet ten young women remained by Song Lili’s side.

"These ten are not right," Qin Chuan said, observing them closely. He noticed they shared a common trait: they were all bundled up tightly, and all were wearing gloves.

"It can't be!" A possibility crossed his mind.

As if to confirm his suspicion, one of the women tried to pull her phone from her pocket, but her fingers were too stiff to bend. She took off her glove, only to see that her hand was not a human hand at all, but the hand of a plastic mannequin.

Reflexively, she patted her entire body, finally letting out a shriek of terror. She tried frantically to rip off her clothes to see if the rest of her body had also turned into plastic, but her rigid, artificial hands could not bend, leaving her only to tug clumsily at her garments.

Song Lili walked behind her and helped her tear the clothes away. Sure enough, the woman’s body was that of a plastic mannequin.

"How could this happen! Ah!" The sight completely shattered her perception of reality, and Qin Chuan’s as well. The other nine women were in the exact same state. Desperate screams echoed through the empty shopping mall.

"Are you police? Help me! Please, help me!"

Before they realized their bodies had turned into mannequins, they had moved with perfect agility. Now, however, every one of them had lost the ability to move. Some stood like real mannequins, with only their living heads screaming in agony, while others lay on the floor, shaking uncontrollably.

"What do you want?" Song Lili challenged Liu Lang, looking somewhat deranged.

Liu Lang tossed his dagger into the air and caught it, walking toward her slowly. "Do you know Tu Ning?"

Song Lili stopped her frantic laughter and stared at him intently.

"Did she turn you into this?" Liu Lang asked, noticing the tear tracks on her face as he drew closer.

"You hurt my Xiaobao."

"You saw that?" Liu Lang asked tentatively. "I didn't know she was Xiaobao at the time. But she's fine now; every night she insists I tell her the story of Cinderella before she'll go to sleep."

Song Lili knew that Xiaobao always threw a tantrum, demanding a story before bed.

"Trust us, we will help you return to a normal life," Liu Lang said naturally, the image of Song Lili before him seeming to overlap with his own.

Song Lili let out a self-deprecating laugh, as if to say it was already too late to go back.

"You definitely can! There are many people like you now, myself included. I made a wish by accident and gained what seemed like an incredible ability, yet I’m still living a normal life. I live with my parents; they even talked about setting me up on a blind date this morning. Think of Xiaobao—we will find a suitable body for her, and for you too!"

Song Lili’s eyelashes fluttered, and tears streamed down her face.

"Giving up on yourself is the easiest path, but it is also the most worthless! We can all live well! Because there was no direct evidence, your husband hasn't been convicted yet. If you come back with us, you can be the witness needed to put him away!"

Liu Lang took another step forward, but Song Lili seemed triggered, shouting for him to stay back.

"If you don't step back, they will all die!"

She had come to the mall today intending to complete Tu Ning's task so that she might save Xiaobao, only to run into Liu Lang. She felt that killing him was the only way to soothe the hatred in her heart. But now, hearing him say that Xiaobao loved the stories he told, her resolve had softened significantly.

High above in the mall, snipers had been deployed, their crosshairs trained on Song Lili’s head.

"It seems I can't escape today. Just kill me," Song Lili said earnestly.

Liu Lang didn't follow the sudden shift. "What?"

"Kill me. If you smash my head, I can finally die. There’s no turning back after becoming like this. My intuition is very sharp; Xiaobao must really like you. She only listens to the Cinderella story when I tell it to her." She looked at him with sorrow. "Their power is something you cannot resist..."

Liu Lang grew angry. He might not be able to defeat a B-rank like Tu Ning, but he had seen A-rank and S-rank beings before. Wasn't crushing Tu Ning as simple as squashing an ant?

"It’s not Tu Ning. It’s my intuition."

A commotion stirred behind them. Before Liu Lang could react, Song Lili jerked her head up. "Xiaobao!"

"Mommy! Brother!"

"It hurts! Mommy! Brother! It hurts!"

A woman wearing sunglasses approached, holding Xiaobao’s bloodied, severed head. "I can't believe you caused such a scene over such a trivial case. It’s unbearable."

She tossed Xiaobao’s head onto the ground and stepped on it.

"Hey! You monster, surrender now and confess who the mastermind is, and I’ll grant you a quick death! Otherwise, this is what happens to this ball!"

She stomped down hard, and flesh and bone splattered across the floor.

"Xiaobao!" Song Lili let out a wail and rushed forward, but Xiaobao was already gone. After only two steps, it was as if all her strength had been drained; she collapsed to the ground, weeping uncontrollably.

Liu Lang was so enraged he lost the ability to speak. Xiaobao—she wasn't a monster. She was an innocent, pitiful child who begged him to tell her Cinderella stories... How could they? How could they!

"AH!"

A flash of cold light struck directly at the woman’s throat!

The woman was no weakling; she blocked Liu Lang’s thrown dagger with her long nails. "You idiot, what do you think you're doing!"

"Amaterasu!"

Blood poured from Liu Lang’s eyes like a waterfall, and the blue flames burned more ferociously than ever before!

The woman could not shake off the flames of Amaterasu. She rolled on the ground in a wretched, agonizing state, screaming in pain. Her attendants grabbed fire extinguishers, but they were useless. Liu Lang’s fury filled his entire being, and the flames of Amaterasu grew ever brighter.

Die! Die and be buried with Xiaobao!

A bell rang. A tall monk in red robes appeared, shaking a bell in his hand. Every time he rang it, the flames of Amaterasu dimmed. After three rings, the flames were extinguished.

The woman was on the verge of death, yet she still babbled, "I want you dead! I’m going to torture you until you wish you were dead!" Her attendants had already called an ambulance and were rushing to load her into it.

"Do you know who we are, you brat? You dared to hurt the young lady of the Beijing circle—your time is up!" one of the attendants threatened before fleeing in a panic.

The monk looked at Song Lili on the ground, then at Liu Lang.

"Little donor, I have never seen you in the Beijing circle. Why are you aiding the evildoer?" His face was full of compassion as he turned his prayer beads.

He was A-rank; the pressure he exerted on Liu Lang was comparable to Xiao Rong.

"Put down the butcher's knife, and you shall become a Buddha on the spot." The monk reached out a large hand. Though he made no sudden movements, he was already right in front of Liu Lang.

Liu Lang wanted to dodge, but his vision was completely filled by the monk's palm; there was nowhere to hide. Just as he was about to be captured, Song Lili blocked his path. The monk grabbed Song Lili by the neck, and her head went flying.

"Don't you want a body? This is the only one left!"

Hearing this, the ten women whose heads were attached to mannequins rushed toward the headless body Song Lili had left behind! They tore at each other, even coming to blows. One woman’s head was ripped off her mannequin and rolled onto the floor, where she could only hiss mindlessly.

The monk dared not strike these victims too hard; he merely let out a cold huff and vibrated their heads off.

Looking back at Liu Lang, he saw a large group of police officers, led by Qin Chuan, standing in front of him, pointing their guns at the monk. "Hands in the air!" Even the snipers had their crosshairs fixed on him.

Helpless, the monk flicked his sleeves and turned to chase after Song Lili. Song Lili had run into a women's clothing store. Before the monk could pursue, ten naked, headless female bodies rushed out from within.

"Do not look upon what is improper!" The monk immediately closed his eyes and pressed his palms together. He stood there, eyes shut, not daring to move, while the ten bodies fought and clawed at one another.

The ten severed heads on the floor suddenly shouted, "Those are our bodies!" As if their potential had been ignited, they all flew into the air, soaring toward their own bodies.