Everyone was dead.
They were all completely dead.
The stench of blood lingered in the stagnant air, refusing to dissipate.
Xie Yuling walked toward the van. Inside the cabin, Wang Qin was sleeping soundly, her breathing so steady it was almost alarming.
Just on the other side of the vehicle, a pile of corpses lay haphazardly, like a heap of discarded, rotting meat.
They were covered in claw marks. Throats, abdomens—all were riddled with wounds.
One look was enough to tell that it was the work of some feline beast.
The intense contrast made her stomach churn.
She turned her head and looked at Chu Miaomiao standing to the side.
She was carelessly spinning the divine pen. Originally, this divine pen seemed very simple, but now it felt cold and bloody.
"Who... exactly are you?" Xie Yuling's voice was a bit hollow.
Chu Miaomiao merely tilted her head to glance at Xie Yuling but didn't speak. Her attention was entirely on the spinning tip of the pen.
Jiang Yunlu also stood up, the true qi within her body still recovering.
She stared fixedly at the Chu Miaomiao before her, trying to find even the slightest trace of her former self on that familiar face.
She, too, desperately wanted to know what had happened to Chu Miaomiao.
At the very least, this was absolutely not the Chu Miaomiao she knew.
Finally, Chu Miaomiao swept her gaze over them.
"Just the two of you? Do you really think you're worthy of him?"
Her voice hadn't changed, but that submissive timidity was gone, replaced by a suffocating sense of oppression. "Fighting and snatching over him, without even looking at what kind of trash you are."
Xie Yuling clenched her teeth. "Does Lin Mo know you're like this? If he saw what you look like now, do you think he would still like you?"
Chu Miaomiao stopped spinning the pen and walked over unhurriedly.
Her footsteps were very light, yet each step felt like it was trampling on their nerves.
"You don't understand him at all." She stopped in front of Xie Yuling. "Whether I am that useless piece of trash who didn't even dare to speak loudly, or the me right now, I am his.
He is extremely protective of his own and would never throw away what belongs to him."
She then turned her gaze to Jiang Yunlu, her eyes full of mockery.
"And you. The jade pendant Lin Mo gave you—he warned you time and time again to always wear it. Where is it?"
Jiang Yunlu subconsciously reached for her neck, but it was empty. In order to protect the jade pendant, she had placed it in her jewelry box at home, afraid of chipping it.
"I... I was afraid of breaking it," Jiang Yunlu defended herself in a low voice.
Chu Miaomiao sneered, the laughter devoid of any warmth. "Afraid of breaking it? So you chose to be a burden? If you had obediently worn it, I wouldn't have needed to come over here at all. Your self-righteousness wasted my time."
These words lashed at Jiang Yunlu's face like a whip.
"If I hadn't followed you, you'd both be dead cold by now."
Chu Miaomiao put her hands on her hips, turning her head to look at Xie Yuling again, her tone growing even sharper.
"And you. You enjoy the benefits he gives you while putting on airs and pretending to be reserved. Is it that hard to admit you like him? Do you have to wait for him to beg you?"
Xie Yuling wanted to retort but found she couldn't come up with any reason. The Chu Miaomiao before her was terrifyingly unfamiliar, yet so real that it sent chills down her spine.
Chu Miaomiao's cold sneer carried an intense aggressive edge.
Just then, that suffocating aura collapsed without any warning.
Chu Miaomiao's eyes rolled back. The divine pen slipped from her fingers and fell onto the gravel, making a crisp sound.
Her whole body went limp and fell down like a marionette with its strings cut.
Jiang Yunlu was quick to react, stepping forward to catch her.
The girl in her arms was very light. That decisive, ruthless ferocity had vanished completely, leaving only a small face that exuded exhaustion.
"She fainted." Xie Yuling used her spiritual sense to check her heartbeat. It had become slow, more like some kind of low blood pressure.
Jiang Yunlu also took out her phone and called Situ Yunshu.
She reported their location.
"Don't worry, we're on our way."
Situ Yunshu had originally wanted to tell Jiang Yunlu not to act rashly, but she hadn't expected Jiang Yunlu to set out directly.
Fortunately, she could tell from the phone call that she was fine.
However, it wasn't until they arrived that they realized just how chaotic the place was.
As soon as Situ Yunshu got out of the car, she saw her daughter whose clothes and pants were stained with blood.
Terrified, she hurriedly ran over.
Only after carefully checking and confirming that Jiang Yunlu had no injuries did Situ Yunshu breathe a sigh of relief.
She quickly asked about the entire sequence of events.
When she spoke of the part where Xie Yuling risked her life to save her, even Jiang Yunlu herself felt a flutter of emotion.
And Situ Yunshu tightly grasped Xie Yuling's hands.
"Thank you, Yuling. You don't mind me calling you that, right? You know, Yunlu and I were separated for eighteen years and have only just reunited. You risked your life to save her. I will engrave this kindness in my heart."
This made Xie Yuling feel a bit embarrassed.
She quickly said, "Actually, I only dared to do so because I was relying on the jade pendant Lin Mo gave me..."
Regardless of what Xie Yuling said, Situ Yunshu was still very grateful to her.
After hearing the story, Situ Yunshu reprimanded Jiang Yunlu once again.
After all, if Jiang Yunlu had just waited for them a little longer, it definitely wouldn't have been so dangerous.
Situ Dingyi alone could have handled everyone here, including Li Huan.
Situ Yunshu walked a circle, looking at the corpses and body parts scattered all over the ground.
The sight made even Situ Yunshu feel a bit nauseous. At this moment, she couldn't help but look at her daughter.
"Don't you... feel sick seeing all this?"
If she hadn't mentioned it, it would have been fine, but once she did, Jiang Yunlu and Xie Yuling suddenly felt their stomachs churning, and they immediately covered their mouths and ran to the side.
"Blergh!"
Wang Qin and Chu Miaomiao were unconscious in the car.
Situ Dingyi came down from upstairs, shaking his head as he walked.
"It's quite troublesome. The Zhou family's people are all dead. This matter will have to be handled by the Yanhuang Awakening. Perhaps... we should have the son-in-law contact Lin Mo."
Situ Yunshu crossed her arms. "No need. It would be better to let them tell Lin Mo themselves. Perhaps Lin Mo already knows."
At this time, several cars had already driven into the factory building.
Situ Dingyi immediately looked vigilantly at the approaching cars.
Liu Zheng got out of the car, followed by quite a few people.
Seeing Situ Yunshu, Jiang Yunlu, and the others, he didn't show much surprise.
He simply took out his ID.
"My name is Liu Zheng, from the Yanhuang Awakening..."
Not far away, Xie Yuling also recognized Liu Zheng, but she remained composed, pretending she didn't know him at all.
And Situ Dingyi took the initiative to step forward and negotiate.
It was also at this time that Jiang Yunlu's phone rang.
It was a call from Lin Mo.
"Hello! Lin Mo!"
"Has Liu Zheng arrived at your place?" Lin Mo's voice came from the phone.
"Did... did you notify him? He's here, but I have something even more important to tell you..."
Jiang Yunlu glanced at Xie Yuling.
Xie Yuling knew what she wanted to say. After thinking for a moment, she nodded.
If they told Lin Mo, perhaps they could find out why Chu Miaomiao had turned out like this.

] [Lone Wolf, No Male Gaze] [Protagonist is pursued early on; extreme protagonist-stans, stay away!] The "Carnival Paradise" descends and slowly devours the real world in the form of a game. By chance, Zhu Yan awakens the talent [Roleplay], becoming one of the first beta players. He thought he could develop safely, but after clearing the first instance, he is branded by humanity as the chief culprit behind the game's spread—a traitorous villain. A villain? Who would ever... become one! He'll be the villain! From then on, Zhu Yan is not only a player but also a lackey for the Carnival Paradise. Between the straight path and the crooked path, he chooses the con. With his left hand, he dons the villain's mantle, staging scenes within instances, infuriating players who decry him as a despicable traitor, all while the game happily promotes him. With his right hand, he joins the non-human organization "Fangcun Mountain," which opposes the Carnival Paradise, transforming into a mysterious player who slaughters game bosses, earning cheers of "Long live the expert!" from fellow players. Gradually, Zhu Yan rises to become an S-rank human player in Fangcun Mountain's archives, while also being the Carnival Paradise's certified top game Boss. But when the final war erupts and both major factions place their hopes in him— Players tag his various aliases: "Experts, this offensive depends on you." The Carnival Paradise's supreme Boss throws an arm around his neck: "Bro, you're the iron, I'm the steel; you can't let me down again!"

ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!

ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!

ver to a world of cultivation and returned invincible. Modern medicine is child's play compared to elixirs; technological might crumbles before true cultivation. My name is Qin Ning, Earth's sole cultivator!