Meanwhile, on the other side.
Inside a hidden, abandoned warehouse on the outskirts of A City, a thick, pungent smell of blood filled the air.
Miss Lark slowly looked around.
Her originally gentle eyes darkened.
Her fingers lightly tightened around her magic wand, and the magical glow around her became sharp.
At the center of the warehouse, someone had drawn a huge, eerie altar with dark red paint.
The runes twisted and tangled, like dried blood, firmly imprinted on the cold floor.
On the altar, several bodies lay haphazardly—all ordinary people without any magical power.
Their deaths were extremely brutal: their clothes were ragged, their bodies covered in wounds of varying depths, the blood long dried and black, sticking tightly to their skin.
Their eyes were wide open, and the fear and despair before death still lingered on their faces.
They had no magical aura at all, just the most ordinary citizens, but these maniacs had cruelly kidnapped them and used them as sacrifices to offer to their so-called “god.”
Ye Ning slowly moved her gaze away from the bodies and fixed it on the dense crowd of cultists in front of her.
The coldness in her eyes deepened.
This group included men and women, old and young, all neatly dressed in clean, neat clothes, looking well-groomed and no different from ordinary people.
But deep in their eyes, there burned a mad and stubborn light, without any guilt or fear over the bodies on the ground.
Her gaze finally stopped on the man at the front of the crowd, the leader.
The man wore a black suit, his hair combed immaculately, looking refined and polite.
But at the corner of his mouth hung a twisted smile, and his eyes were fervent and insane, staring intently at Ye Ning.
“Foolish magical girl!” the man suddenly spread his arms wide, his voice hoarse but filled with fanaticism, as if madly roaring, “How dare you intrude upon the altar of my god and defile the majesty of my god! One day, you will be torn apart by the claws of my god, ground to dust! My dear family, don’t be afraid of this ugly monster! The light of our god will eventually illuminate the whole earth and purify all heretics!”
As he raised his arm in a rallying cry, the cultists behind him instantly erupted.
One after another, they raised their hands, chanting obscure prayers, their voices fanatical, their eyes infatuated.
The scene was chaotic and eerie, as if they were truly welcoming the arrival of their so-called “god.”
“Family?”
Ye Ning couldn’t help but snort at these words, her tone full of mockery and disdain.
She slightly raised her hand and pulled her hood down further, covering most of her face, leaving only the soft line of her chin and the slightly raised corner of her mouth.
“You bunch of lunatics with blood on your hands, harming the innocent—you’re worthy of saying the word ‘family’?”
As she spoke, she lightly raised her magic wand, and a sharp pink magical beam shot out, precisely hitting the man’s knee.
A crisp sound of bone cracking rang out, and the man let out a miserable scream.
His legs went weak, and he fell heavily to the ground.
Holding his broken knee, he wailed in pain on the cold floor, cold sweat instantly soaking his suit.
The fanaticism on his face was instantly replaced by agony, twisted and ugly.
The cultists behind him went quiet for a moment, then, as if enraged, they all pulled out magic crystal guns and aimed at Ye Ning, pulling the triggers without hesitation.
Black magical beams shot toward Ye Ning, carrying a pungent magic aura.
But Ye Ning was not flustered at all.
She lightly waved her magic wand, and a pink magical barrier unfolded in front of her, easily blocking all the black beams.
The barrier rippled gently, then abruptly expanded, and a powerful force shattered the magic crystal guns in the cultists’ hands.
Shards flew everywhere, landing on the ground with a crisp sound.
Fear began to spread across the cultists’ faces.
Their fanaticism gradually faded, replaced by deep fright.
One by one, they hesitated and stepped back, their eyes full of terror, and no longer possessed the arrogance from before—they had never imagined that this soft-looking girl could be so powerful.
Ye Ning looked at their panicked expressions, a hint of playfulness flashing in her eyes.
Suddenly, she clapped her hands together, and a cute smile instantly appeared on her face.
Her soft voice broke the dead silence of the warehouse, completely different from her earlier coldness.
“Oh, don’t be so scared. Let’s play a game. Let’s play a brain teaser!”
She tilted her head, a sweet smile on her lips.
“The rules are simple. If you answer correctly, I’ll let you go, let you go home to your mother. If you answer wrong—”
She deliberately drew out her tone, her gaze sweeping over the bodies on the ground, her voice light but carrying a biting chill.
“Then you’ll stay with your ‘family’ on this altar, as your so-called ‘sacrifice,’ and die together.”
Before the man moaning on the ground could react, and before other cultists could beg for mercy, the pink-white dumpling couldn’t wait to shake her head and come up with a question.
Her voice was crisp and cute:
“Listen up! First question: what idiom includes men, women, old people, and children?”
The man, tortured by the excruciating pain, trembled all over.
‘I can still be saved.’ He asked, “Uh… is it… ‘men and women, old and young’?”
“Wrong! Completely wrong!”
Ye Ning immediately raised her delicate little finger and shook it meaningfully, her face full of “you’re so stupid” expression.
“The answer is ‘extermination of the entire family’! You see, in ‘extermination of the entire family,’ doesn’t it include men, women, old people, and children? Everyone dies, totally your style!”
The man’s expression instantly twisted for a moment.
The hope in his eyes was shattered, replaced by deep shock and anger—he never expected this girl to give such a ridiculous answer!
This wasn’t a normal brain teaser at all; she was clearly making fun of him!
How dare she mess with him.jpg
“Hey hey hey, don’t get excited, don’t get excited,” Ye Ning quickly raised another little finger, still wearing a sweet smile, her tone ingratiating but without any apology.
“That one didn’t count, I made it too simple. Let’s play another one, this time it’ll be fair!”
She cleared her throat and started another question, shaking her head confidently:
“Listen to the second question! Little brother falls into the river and calls for help from his elder brother. What should he shout?”
The man stared at Ye Ning, knowing that this soft-looking girl definitely wouldn’t have any normal answer in her mouth, but he had no choice.
To survive, he had to follow her lead.
His hand quietly reached into his suit pocket, a ruthless glint flashing in his eyes, while stalling for time.
In a dry voice, he answered: “Is it… shout ‘Brother, save me’?”
“Completely wrong!”
Ye Ning immediately made a big X with both hands, her face full of triumph, her tone showing off.
“The answer is ‘I fell into the river’!”
Hua Niao, standing in the corner, supported himself against the cold wall.
His shoulders began to shake violently, and a suppressed laugh leaked from the corners of his mouth.
The man’s face instantly turned colorful, repeatedly fluctuating between red and warm smile points.
The veins on his forehead bulged, and his face turned red and white, extremely ugly.
Enduring the pain in his knee, enduring the humiliation of being toyed with, and Hua Niao’s suppressed laughter, he finally completely broke down.
“I’ll kill you! You lunatic!”
The man let out a hysterical roar.
He suddenly pulled out the syringe from his pocket and stabbed it into his neck without hesitation, pressing the plunger to inject all the liquid into his body.
Almost the moment the needle was injected, a thick and violent disaster aura burst out from his body, sweeping through the entire warehouse.
His body began to twist and expand violently, his bones making cracking sounds.
His originally neat suit was torn, his skin gradually became rough and black, black scales grew on his body, his eyes were bloodshot, his pupils became strange vertical slits, his fingers became long and sharp, his nails glittered with cold light, and even a thick black tail slowly grew behind him.
In just a few seconds, he transformed from a refined man into an ugly, violent disaster beast, huge in size, surrounded by a black disaster halo, letting out a deafening roar.
Ye Ning’s smile instantly disappeared, and her eyes returned to coldness.
She gripped her magic wand, her form flickering slightly, dexterously dodging the disaster beast’s violent attack.
Pink magical light burst around her.
Holding her wand, she attacked the disaster beast again and again.
Magical beams accurately hit the beast’s vital points.
The beast let out painful roars, scales falling off, blood spurting out.
Before long, Ye Ning lightly leaped, gathering a powerful force in her magic wand, and smashed it heavily onto the beast’s head.
With a loud bang, the beast’s head was shattered, black-purple liquid splattering everywhere.
The massive body fell heavily to the ground, twitched a few times, and then stopped moving.
Ye Ning put away her magic wand and slowly turned to face the remaining cultists.
Those people were already trembling with fear, slumping on the ground, ice-cold all over, their eyes filled with extreme terror.
Some were even convulsing and losing control of their bladder—they obviously had no idea that this so-called leader had such a trick up his sleeve, that he could turn into such a terrifying disaster beast.
“Ningning, don’t play anymore. The police should be arriving soon. If we don’t leave, we’ll get stuck with them.”
Hua Niao finally stopped laughing, walked over, gently patted her head, and reminded her in a gentle tone, his eyes full of affection.
“Alright, alright. Then I’ll stop playing this time.”
Ye Ning pouted, showing a bit of reluctance, then grinningly raised her magic wand and looked at the cultists slumped on the ground.
Her tone was light.
“Since the police are almost here, I’ll spare you for now. You can give the police some leads, so they don’t have to look for the murderer everywhere. Don’t worry, I won’t kill you.”
Having said that, she held her magic wand, flickered, and hit the cultists over the head.
Their eyes rolled back, they lost consciousness, and fell to the ground, entering a quality sleep.
After dealing with the cultists, Ye Ning’s gaze fell on a box that the leader had left aside.
She walked over, reached in, and pulled out a thick stack of cash and some jewelry.
Weighing the cash in her hand, her eyes immediately lit up.
She happily held up the money and waved it at Hua Niao, cheering, “Wow! He really hoarded a lot! So much money, we’re rich, we’re rich!”
She carefully stuffed the money and jewelry into her pocket, a satisfied smile on her face, completely devoid of the earlier ruthlessness.
She was back to being that money-loving pink-white dumpling.
“Let’s go, let’s go! Let’s use the money to buy sugar-coated hawthorns on a stick. We’ll buy as many as we want! Today, it’s my treat!”