# 1657
Chapter 1657: Rainbow Light Descends Upon the City
"This is..." Gongyang Wan's eyes grew increasingly bright.
"You... have you gained control of it?" Lin Qiye, seeing that Gongyang Wan's body hadn't gone out of control, asked in surprise.
"I knew I could do it!" Gongyang Wan burst into laughter, but halfway through, her expression froze. "No additional abilities? The 【Heart-Returning Gu】 hasn't disappeared either... Damn it! What use is this hand to me?!"
Gongyang Wan had risked swallowing the willow branch in hopes of gaining power from the Cthulhu Faction to break free from Huo Qubing's control. But not only had she gained no abilities, she had directly transformed into this half-human, half-monster creature. What was the point of her risk?
Gongyang Wan's expression shifted repeatedly, but in the end, she furrowed her brow and scrutinized the disgusting willow-branch arm once more.
"Lost the bet, so be it... At the very least, it looks intimidating enough." She snorted coldly.
Gongyang Wan's strong psychological resilience shocked both Lin Qiye and Wu Quan. If an ordinary person had risked their life in a desperate gamble only to end up with a nauseating arm, they would likely have collapsed on the spot. Yet she managed to calm down quickly and accept reality...
Gongyang Wan was far more powerful than Lin Qiye had imagined... in both ability and temperament.
"Do you truly feel no discomfort?" Lin Qiye asked with a frown. "Do you hear anyone speaking in your ear? Do you feel unusually irritable? Do you feel itchy all over, like something is trying to break through your skin?"
"No." Gongyang Wan waved her hand impatiently.
At this point, Lin Qiye was truly at a loss... He had dealt with Cthulhu mythology so many times, had been in such close contact with Cthulhu Faction creatures, and had never experienced mutation. This was his first time seeing something like this. According to the characteristics of the Cthulhu Faction, this was fundamentally impossible.
Moreover, the Gongyang Wan he had seen in modern society was nowhere near this bizarre appearance... Could she have used some method later to hide this arm?
"Who are you people?!" Just as the three were speaking, a roar came from the distance.
Lin Qiye turned around, only to see several figures in armor, gripping bloodstained weapons, rapidly approaching.
Lin Qiye frowned, about to say something, when Gongyang Wan beside him let out a soft hum of surprise.
"How strange..."
"What's wrong?"
"In their bodies, why are there willow branches coiled inside them?" Gongyang Wan narrowed her eyes, pointing with her right hand at the several willow-branch corpses beneath them. "Just like those."
Lin Qiye froze for a moment, then, as if realizing something,猛地looked at her willow-branch arm with the eyeball growing from it!
"You... can you see their true forms?"
The armor Lin Qiye recognized as belonging to the expeditionary soldiers who had entered the palace with the Marquis. If those outside were fakes, then the few figures before them had a very high probability of also being imposters... Yet Gongyang Wan had一眼看出 their true nature at a glance?
Could this be the ability she gained after swallowing the willow branch?
"Wu Quan." Lin Qiye called out.
"Yes!"
Wu Quan gestured, and several weapons scattered on the ground immediately flew out, piercing through the bodies of the charging soldiers.
With a series of wails, they collapsed one after another. A moment later, as expected, they turned into corpses of willow branches!
Seeing this, Lin Qiye's eyes lit up immediately. The biggest problem now was that they couldn't distinguish which were real people and which were substituted fakes. Now that those substituted ordinary people had been killed by Chloe, what about the others?
Zhan Yuwu, Yan Zhong, Wu Quan, even Huo Qubing... How could they determine who was real and who was fake?
But since Gongyang Wan had coincidentally gained this ability, all difficulties would be solved! This was their hope for turning the tide!
At this moment, Gongyang Wan seemed to have realized her special status. She turned her head to glance at the ugly willow-branch arm, her eyes narrowing slightly:
"Interesting..."
She turned to look at Lin Qiye, a smile appearing at the corner of her mouth. "It seems I'm now the only one who can distinguish their true from false... So, are we perhaps in a position to negotiate?"
"What conditions do you want?"
"I'll help you identify all the disguised monsters, and in return, Huo Qubing removes my 【Heart-Returning Gu】... How does that sound?"
"This matter, I cannot make the decision for the Marquis." Lin Qiye paused. "However, I can try to persuade the Marquis for you, but I can't guarantee the outcome... Of course, if you render great service to the Great Han this time, given the Marquis's character of clear debts of gratitude and grudges, I doubt he would refuse."
"Deal!"
Lin Qiye nodded, then after a moment, added, "Don't try any tricks during the identification. Whether what you say is true or false, the corpses will prove it... If I discover you are conflating right and wrong, I will kill you first."
"Rest assured, such things I would not stoop to doing." Gongyang Wan replied calmly.
As Lin Qiye was about to step away, his foot paused halfway in the air. After hesitating for a moment, he ultimately pointed to Wu Quan behind him.
"He's not a fake... right?"
Gongyang Wan turned to look at Wu Quan. The eyeball growing at the tip of the willow branch stared fixedly at Wu Quan.
She narrowed her eyes, and after a moment, nodded:
"Mm, he's not."
...
Outside the palace.
"Lady Saint, you've finally returned!"
At the relay station, seeing the familiar figure return, the missionaries rose to their feet, joy spreading across their faces!
"Lady Saint, you're not hurt, are you?"
"What are you saying? The Lady is the messenger of the Holy Sovereign. How could she be hurt?"
"Lady Saint, have you killed all those rebel soldiers outside?"
Chloe walked through the簇拥 of missionaries into the room, nodding slightly. "Mm, all dealt with."
She walked to the wooden chair by the window and sat down, letting out a long breath. Ever since she had left the Holy Sovereign's side to propagate the faith in the mortal world, this was the first time she had killed so many people... Although she knew those had been monsters disguised as humans, she still felt somewhat uncomfortable in her heart.
A missionary brought Chloe a basin of hot water, gently setting it beside her. As he rose and was about to say something, his peripheral vision caught something outside the window, and he froze in place.
"Lady Saint... what is that?"
Chloe raised an eyebrow and looked in the direction he was pointing. Just then, beneath the dim sky, in the wilderness outside Chang'an City, a large mass of hazy mist was slowly approaching...
The mist covered an enormous area. Under the night sky, it resembled iridescent auspicious clouds, reflecting the pitch-black night in rainbow colors. Countless commoners who had survived the disaster saw this scene and stopped in their tracks. As if witnessing a divine miracle, they knelt down reverently!
"That is..." Chloe's pupils slightly contracted.