She Only Resembles You, But After All, She's Not You

In the room on the third floor.

The moment the Heavenly Demon Illusion was shattered, Li Mo regained his senses.

Though he was now awake, he still felt mentally drained—bearing the weight of such an illusion was no easy feat.

Across from him, Yin Mianmian was also visibly shaken.

"Hah... That strange soul technique of yours, you can't use it anymore, can you?"

Her face was slightly pale.

Yet she still raised her hand and struck—a seemingly formless, weightless, soundless, and traceless palm strike.

Though the attack appeared soft and feeble, it sealed off every possible escape route for Li Mo.

Formless Entangling Silk Hand.

This supreme martial art had clearly reached perfection!

Her movements were ghostly,

far too swift.

Even geniuses ranked outside the top ten of the Hidden Dragon Ranking would struggle to withstand such an eerie strike.

Li Mo’s mind remained calm. The Starry Hammer was already in his grip, and the seven Profound Pills in his dantian suddenly spun violently.

Instead of retreating, he advanced.

Raising the Starry Hammer,

the seven stars arranged in the Big Dipper formation within his World Seed blazed with radiant light.

The small hammer carried a savage, world-sundering force, as if it could bring the very heavens crashing down.

BOOM—

The violent surge of energy was tightly condensed, not a single wisp leaking out.

This was because Li Mo’s mastery of hammer techniques had reached the pinnacle—no power was wasted.

Yin Mianmian’s eyes abruptly widened.

Her body fluttered like a leaf caught in a gale.

CRACKLE—

One Heavenly Demon phantom after another exploded into black smoke around her—first one, then two, three, four, five layers of illusions shattered like fleeting bubbles.

Rakshasa Shadow.

The first stance of a divine movement technique.

This was why she survived the hammer strike.

This was also how she could hold her own even against Outer Realm experts—Inner Realm cultivators were simply no match for her.

"The top ten of the Hidden Dragon Ranking... None of them are easy to deal with."

"Even if my soul technique counters hers..."

Li Mo tightened his grip on the hammer, calculating how many more strikes he could unleash.

"At just three apertures of the Observing Divinity stage, she forced me to go all out."

"Among those outside the top ten of the Hidden Dragon Ranking, you're the first."

Finally, her aura—at the ninth aperture of Observing Divinity—burst forth without restraint, no longer concealing the energy within the room.

Her body seemed boneless as she twisted like silk, her long ribbons coiling around her.

It looked like... she intended to wrap up Little Li and carry him away like a dumpling.

Li Mo instantly activated the Extreme Weapon Slaughter Body.

PATTER—

A gentle breeze swept in, pushing the door open.

...

Just moments earlier.

Tang Xiaobao had finished his bath.

Carrying a bucket of bathwater, he was about to head to the third floor when he suddenly paused.

At the doorway stood a familiar figure.

"Junior Sister Bing?"

Tang Xiaobao’s eyes widened in confusion.

Why was there another Junior Sister Bing?

Then, the sword Frostblade left its sheath—a flash of cold light erupted.

Ethereal and pure, like a celestial shadow descending from the moon, unavoidable—it soared into the sky in an instant.

RIP—

The ribbons filling the room were pierced by the sword’s radiance, unable to hinder it in the slightest.

This was a strike that could not be dodged.

CLANG—

Sparks flew as a dagger clashed against Frostblade.

Yin Mianmian’s body twisted unnaturally, forming a sharp angle as she abruptly retreated, shattering the window behind her.

"Li Mo... I’ll come back for you..."

Her voice seemed to drift from the underworld.

With a few flickers, she vanished into the night.

"She’d make a better thief than anything else," Li Mo remarked, not particularly disheartened.

After all, he had just fought one of the strongest young geniuses across the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths.

To be honest,

if both sides fought without restrictions or hesitation, even with the power of his World Seed, he wouldn’t be able to defeat her.

In a direct clash, he would overwhelm her—but Yin Mianmian’s true strength lay in her speed.

Even a certain bald man couldn’t swat every mosquito, right...?

At that moment, the sound of a sword returning to its sheath echoed beside him.

Li Mo turned to see Ying Bing standing there, her robes clinging to her body from the damp night air, strands of hair sticking to her snow-white neck. Her breathing was slightly uneven.

"Weren’t you supposed to be in a duel?"

"I was."

Ying Bing had sensed something amiss the moment she reached the heart of Fish-Dragon Lake.

Baili Rang hadn’t come alone—it seemed less like a spar and more like an attempt to stall her.

When she recognized the techniques of the Drizzle Pavilion on him, she immediately realized something was wrong.

"Why did you come back so quickly?" Li Mo asked, puzzled.

Ying Bing’s gaze shifted from the two steamed buns on the floor to him.

"I didn’t hold back."

What could possibly require luring her away?

There was only one possibility.

Yin Mianmian’s Heavenly Demon Illusion was most adept at disguise and deception—something Ying Bing had experienced before.

On her way back, her emotions had been in turmoil.

Her usually calm mind had been flooded with strange, unsettling thoughts.

A sixth-ranked genius on the Hidden Dragon Ranking, at the ninth aperture of Observing Divinity—even one-on-one, she wasn’t entirely confident.

What if, by the time she returned, Li Mo was already gone?

Or worse... what if she came back only to find his lifeless body...?

The more she thought, the worse it became.

For the first time, she tasted the bitterness of dread.

Now, seeing the young man standing before her unharmed, she finally felt like she had stepped back onto solid ground from the clouds...

"...Didn’t hold back."

Li Mo could guess the fate of those people.

If it had just been a duel, the Ice Block would never have rushed back so frantically that she didn’t even care about her damp robes...

"Why did Yin Mianmian say she’d come back for you?" Ying Bing’s gaze was steady as she asked.

Li Mo recounted the earlier events. "She disguised herself as you. At first, I thought it was really you, but then I noticed something was off..."

He summarized what had happened.

"How did you realize?" Ying Bing seemed genuinely curious.

"..."

Li Mo hadn’t used his Heavenly Eye at the time.

Even before the system’s warning, he had already sensed something amiss.

After a moment of thought, he answered,

"She was just similar. In the end, she wasn’t you."

Ying Bing’s eyelashes trembled slightly.

Her already unstable breathing seemed to grow even more erratic...?

Seeing the earnest look on the young man’s face,

the seed that had somehow taken root in the ice now sprouted anew, its tender shoots piercing through the cracks...

"You’ve worked hard."

"Sit down first."

Li Mo’s expression turned serious.

He noticed that not only was the Ice Block’s breathing uneven, but her ears were red, and her heartbeat had quickened slightly.

Well, it made sense—she had just sent a group of assassins (including a Hidden Dragon Ranking genius) to meet King Yama, then clashed with Yin Mianmian. She couldn’t possibly be unaffected.

Ying Bing looked up, puzzled.

She sat on the only intact massage chair left in the room.

Noticing Li Mo’s gaze sweeping over her,

she pressed her legs together, arms crossed over her chest, her expression cooling rapidly.

"What... are you doing?"

"Looking for acupoints."

"Huh?"

"Yep. Just refined my massage martial arts—gonna use it on customers later. Congrats, you get early access."

"No need..."

"Trying it won’t cost you anything. Last time, you even helped scrub my back."

Li Mo figured this counted as an investment.

...

In the dimly lit corner outside the VIP private room.

"I shouldn't have come!"

"Thought something happened to the kid and came to check, only to see this?"

"Let’s go, let’s go. Damn it, I won’t sleep tonight."

The three elders of the Clear Abyss Sect grumbled as they went about their business.

......

Need to find time to exercise tomorrow—been feeling weak lately. OrZ.

Seeking your support (power-up donations), mwah~