Defeat the system! Kiss my little monster!

After a long and arduous escape, they are still trapped inside the palace.

Shen Yu sighed inwardly. He heard footsteps not far away, and clutching his life, he hid behind the collapsed wall next to him.

"Surround this entire area! Remember, search every single place thoroughly; don't miss a single corner!"

"An evil spirit is causing trouble in the palace, and the Queen is an accomplice! Issue His Majesty's decree: all suspects must be executed on the spot!"

Shen Yu did not move upon hearing the sound. He leaned against the back of the wall and looked out through the gap.

The palace guards were approaching their location. The night was dark, and they couldn't see clearly except for the flickering torches. Once inside the collapsed area, the guards split into four groups, conducting a thorough search of every corner.

Shen Yu withdrew his gaze and walked to a more inward position, avoiding the increasingly approaching flames behind him.

It was barely surviving and hadn't yet sensed the energy fluctuations of the coal ball. Now, with its system damaged and its size reduced, engaging the coal ball again would only make the situation worse.

Shen Yu understood the implication. He quietly changed direction and walked deeper into the Cold Palace, hugging the wall. The Cold Palace was the furthest from the Kunning Palace and the Emperor's bedroom, and this long distance would reduce Coal Ball's perception to some extent.

Shen Yu finally hid in a corner of a pile of rocks, where the edge of the place was right next to a black river. The river seemed to be stagnant, without any ripples or signs of movement.

Shen Yu covered his mouth and nose, looking down at Gouqie Toushi. He saw that the light on Gouqie Toushi was dimming, reaching its critical point. Shen Yu didn't say anything, but directly gave it most of his yang energy.

With a hiss, the purple light on his body shone brightly again as he tried to survive.

"What do we do now? If this continues, Coal Ball and his gang will find us sooner or later." The man, barely clinging to life, was filled with despair. "We can't go on like this for another day."

Shen Yu didn't speak. He silently looked at the lifeless black water at his feet, and after a moment he heard the sound of Gouqie Tiaosheng ticking off on its data panel.

Shen Yu glanced at the data board in Gouqietousheng's hand. He noticed that the two names on the data board kept changing positions, and he couldn't help but frown slightly: "Gouqietousheng... why did you write Wen Yu's name on it too?"

It's perfectly reasonable to live a life of ignoring others: "Didn't you say before that you and Wen Yu are the same person? So if I bind you, I'm binding him, and if I bind him, I'm binding you. I can bind both of you at once without any problem."

Shen Yu: "..."

"You want to earn two Yang Qi points, right?" Shen Yu said coolly.

"You're talking nonsense! I didn't! I wouldn't be happy if the system hadn't marked me as a liar!" Gouqietousheng said irritably.

"Do you know that tying you two up required running back and forth, from outside the capital to inside? It was exhausting! And Wen Yu's yang energy level is even lower than yours. I've never seen such a spineless male lead, with a lower level than yours, sigh—"

Sighing and barely surviving, it numbly scrolled through the data panel on its hand, eventually comparing the two data values ​​together.

“Look, isn’t Wen Yu’s level even lower than yours? You still have at least 10,000 Yang Qi points, while Wen Yu doesn’t even have one-tenth of yours…”

Before it could finish saying "I'm just trying to survive," the alarm on its system suddenly went off.

Gouqie was startled. It and Shen Yu looked at the data panel in its hand and saw that the value of Yang Qi in Wen Yu's area suddenly rose after a pause, from one thousand to ten thousand, one hundred thousand, and then continued to break through one million.

Shen Yu: "...He's still not up to par?"

"Wow—" Gouqie Tousisheng was greatly shocked. He patted the data panel in his hand, suspecting that the panel had been infected by a virus. "It can still rise?! He's really something!"

"..." Shen Yu frowned. He stared at the data on the panel for a long time before asking, "How do you calculate this Yang energy value?"

"Hmm... that's quite mysterious. Besides the most important vital energy, it also includes your controllability, stability, goodwill value, evil intention value, degree of corruption, and so on," said the cowardly survivor.

Shen Yu: "For example?"

"I knew you wouldn't understand." The creature, feeling helpless, patted Shen Yu's head and explained.

"Take my two previous hosts as examples. Their yang energy values ​​were 10 and 250 respectively, both below 500, indicating that they had almost no essence. However, they were stable and had a low degree of corruption, making them low-risk hosts who could be bound to me."

The creature, seemingly oblivious to its fate, deliberately emphasized as it saw Shen Yu looking up at it, "Not everyone can be bound to me. I will only bind those who are innocent, kind, and who died unjustly."

Shen Yu asked thoughtfully, "Then how did you become attached to me?"

"Because you're also innocent and kind," he said, lying through his teeth, "and your purity is the highest among all my hosts."

Shen Yu: "..."

"So, according to you, if my yang energy level increases in the future, my personality will also be affected?"

"Oh, no, that won't happen." The cowardly survivor raised his sign of opposition. "I am a good leader; these yang energy points will only increase your essence."

Shen Yu: "..."

His gaze shifted, slowly settling on Wen Yu's ever-increasing Yang energy.

Instability... Controllability... Maliciousness... Degree of corruption...

Shen Yu pinched the bridge of his nose. He had no control over Wen Yu's situation and didn't know what she had encountered after she went out.

The people escorting the carriage were all shadows from the photography studio. If he had encountered Mo Qianyu and lost an arm, causing his yang energy to surge wildly...

Shen Yu was unwilling to speculate any further. Listening to the words of the cowardly survivor, he vaguely grasped some key points: "Cowardly survivor, if... the host you are bound to is too unstable and completely out of your control, what will you do?"

"I will completely eliminate him." The man, barely surviving, spoke coldly. "All systems are like that."

Shen Yu didn't speak again. He lowered his eyes and pondered something when he suddenly heard footsteps getting closer and closer behind him.

"Commander Mu, we have just searched this area and have not found any trace of the Demon Queen."

"You continue searching in the north, leave the south to me." Mu Yuyuan's tone was somewhat gloomy and suppressed. He sent a team of guards to the north, and then walked alone towards the direction where Shen Yu was.

The creature, clinging to life, immediately fell silent and hid inside Shen Yu's sleeve, its data bar still jumping and sliding.

Shen Yu sensed Mu Yuyuan's footsteps getting closer and closer, so he tightened his grip on the pebbles in his hand with one hand.