Chapter 1559: Mutual Restraint
Dou Shengnan's brows furrowed sharply, and she withdrew from the library tower without any desire to linger in battle. But as she looked down, she saw the tail of the black figure wrapped around her legs!
"Psycho." Dou Shengnan spat out three words with no fluctuation in her tone. As her expression shifted, the black cubes emerging behind her transformed into sharp cones, instantly riddling the figure with holes. However, to her surprise, the scattered black shadows individually wrapped around the materialized cones.
Dou Shengnan twisted her fingers, and the materialized cones spun at high speed, breaking free from the shadow's entanglement before dispersing back into the black water. At the same time, the library tower began to collapse. She turned to leave, but unexpectedly, the black shadow clung to her back again and thrust its hand into her lower back.
Dou Shengnan's face darkened. In an instant, her back was covered in densely packed sharp cones, shattering the shadow into pieces. But as she turned, she saw the shadow holding a black cube it had pulled from her body, laughing mockingly as it turned and fled.
Dou Shengnan's anger surged, but then the library tower completely vanished. The black water surged, sweeping the shadow away along with it—the black water was merely a symbol of spiritual power, not real water, and couldn't truly drown a figure condensed from spiritual power. But after the figure disappeared, she refocused her attention on Xu Huo.
The two entered the starship one after the other, but while Xu Huo was near the stern, Dou Shengnan stood facing him from the opposite side.
Maintaining the same positions were the white-haired old man and Jin Feixue, who had been entangled by Lili, one of the members of the Eerie Sound Knights.
Xu Huo happened to stand behind the white-haired old man. From his angle, he could see the crisscrossing wounds on the old man's back. The overlapping scars suggested this was far from just two or three rounds of full-body injuries.
However, Jin Feixue in front of the old man wasn't faring much better. The chest of his prop clothing had a large hole torn open, revealing abnormally black skin. The toxins visibly corroded his flesh repeatedly, with faint glimpses of white membranes and rapidly squirming internal organs in his abdominal cavity.
Both sides were heavily injured, seemingly locked in a stalemate. The air itself seemed frozen, with no one attempting to break the tense silence.
Dou Shengnan's expression was taut, but she didn't act rashly. She even withdrew her spiritual realm, her eyes darting between Xu Huo and the white-haired old man.
Behind Jin Feixue's closed cabin, a few non-players were moving about, likely the starship's pilots. The other members of the Eerie Sound Knights were absent. As for the abdominal cabin separated by a single floor, it was where tens of thousands of Yuecheng residents were housed.
Although the starship was large, the time from when the Special Defense Department learned of the situation to when he entered Yuecheng wasn't short. People were still boarding continuously, and logically, it should have been overloaded by now. But judging by Dou Shengnan's complete lack of intention to leave, the cabin likely had something else going on.
Xu Huo flashed into the cabin.
What met his eyes were rows of neatly arranged small cabins. Each was about a meter long and wide, two meters tall, resembling upright cabinets, but with doors and handles installed. They were spaced about a zhang apart, all facing the same direction. When someone stood before a door, it would open automatically, close after they entered, and then repeat the process for the next person.
The pure white, clean, and simple cabins looked like devouring machines. With each closure, the previous entrant vanished automatically, with no clue where they were being teleported.
"Are these all container props?" Xu Huo turned to look at Dou Shengnan, who had followed him. "You've taken quite a few people from Zone 017. It can't be just to train players, can it?"
Dou Shengnan didn't want to answer, but then he continued, "Jin Feixue and that old man have been fighting without damaging the starship. They must have paid a heavy price, right? Preferring to be restrained rather than damage the ship—is the ship important, or are the people inside important?"
"I'm guessing it's the people. After all, you could always steal another starship."
"I'm just curious—where are you sending all these people?"
The Black Blade pressed against the floor. As an A-grade prop, though it couldn't directly tear through the metal floor, it still left a mark.
"The fight upstairs isn't over yet, and the super players haven't left." Xu Huo reminded Dou Shengnan. "We have time for a few words."
"Is there anything worth saying?" Dou Shengnan's face remained expressionless, just like before.
"If these people had no value, you wouldn't have gone to such lengths to trick them away." Xu Huo probed slightly. "I thought the Eerie Sound Knights never cooperated with the Game Government."
Dou Shengnan began walking along the cabins, her shoes making a rhythmic "click, click" sound. On the seventh step, she suddenly vanished from her spot and appeared right in front of Xu Huo!
The person who had been listening to her rhythm just a second ago suddenly raised his eyes, retreating while detonating spatial ray blades throughout the cabin, even sending "All Things Want to Cut Everything" scattering in all directions!
Dou Shengnan's defense props were enough to block the ray blades. She then drew a finger-wide thin sword and pressed it against the tangents. Though it didn't directly sever these lines, it forced all the rays to peel off from the air and bounce onto her sword. As Xu Huo recalled his props, she moved her hand, and materialized cones completely sealed off his position!
With no advantage in props, and with his traits—aside from "Truth Transcends All," which was still on cooldown—ineffective against Dou Shengnan, who was also a Mental Super Evolver, Xu Huo could only be suppressed. Unable to fully evade this strike, he had to use spiritual power to materialize objects to protect his body, along with every defense prop he had.
The collision of spiritual power caused a brief dizziness. In that moment of distraction, all his defense props were destroyed by Dou Shengnan, and the distance between them was less than a meter!
Fighting a C-grade player within her own spiritual realm, even if they exceeded ordinary player standards, was no challenge for Dou Shengnan. But just as she was about to end this tedious battle, the black shadow that had appeared in Xu Huo's spiritual realm earlier showed up again—this time clinging to his back!
Dou Shengnan hesitated, scrutinizing the shadow.
Seizing this opportunity, Xu Huo teleported to the starship's stern, grabbed a new energy weapon borrowed from the Platinum Eye, and fired!
Even a starship capable of space travel couldn't withstand such a hit from the inside. Under the immense impact, the hull trembled and shifted slightly. This acted as a signal, not only enraging Dou Shengnan into prioritizing his death above all else but also reigniting the brief truce between the two on the upper deck.
"Boom!" An unusually loud gunshot pierced through the starship's roof!