The defeated saint is also on the way to tame the evil god today

　"Light! Light! So bright!"

　"Miss, may I ask why you are here?" Mr. Tea asked politely, "Are the guards on patrol duty in this area?"

　"Dark! Dark! So dark!"

　The female soldier screamed, looking overly stimulated and seemed to have collapsed.

　She reached out to touch her eyes, but Alice immediately tapped her wand on her forehead.

　"Buzzing..."

　The light of the shadow string rippled out, and with a slight tremor, the female soldier stopped struggling and closed her eyes.

　Alice squatted down beside her and picked up the astrological pendulum. The pendulum trembled slightly a few times in the direction of the female soldier.

　"She should be one of the people who set out with the non-existent advance force." Alice stood up.

　"She wasn't swallowed by the unknown?" Vivian was a little surprised. "Or... did she escape from the unknown?"

　"It's incredible," Mr. Tea nodded slightly. "Young Master, what do you think?"

　"She must be thinking about someone," Ruan Lili murmured softly, "Or rather, someone must be thinking about her deeply. Coupled with a one-in-a-million chance of luck, she was able to avoid the invasion of the unknown."

　"It seems we have found a breakthrough." Alice nodded.

　As an individual who has returned from the black miasma, any information she gives will be of extremely high reference value.

　"Escort her back immediately," Alice decided. "Vivian, take her to the car. I'll go collect some samples."

　"learn."

　Vivian lifted the woman up by the waist with one hand, then followed Mr. Tea to the side of the road.

　Alice walked over to the black miasma in the center of the square, took out her pendulum, and prepared to collect some samples.

　As the magic wand pulled, a faint black miasma flowed into the interior of the pendulum, filling the turbid crystal bit by bit.

　At this moment, a faint sense of foreboding came over me, and then in a brief moment it spread into fear that went straight to the top of my head!

　"!"

　Alice's eyes narrowed, and she produced the Dagger of Truth, then thrust it forward fiercely.

　"clang!"

　Fire exploded, swords clashed, and Alice was knocked back dozens of steps.

　She looked carefully and saw a pitch-black blade extending from the black miasma, flashing with faint light.

　In the vague black fog, Alice saw the man with the knife - he was wearing a hood, with a pair of scarlet vertical pupils flashing under the hood, and his mouth was a mouthpart similar to that of an insect.

　It stood at the border of fog and reality, staring at Alice, making her feel a strong sense of discomfort.

　"Alice!"

　Vivian threw the female soldier in her hand away, condensed a silver sword, and stabbed it fiercely towards the black miasma.

　At the moment when the silver sword was about to hit the black fog, the figure quickly retreated behind the black fog and then disappeared in the boundless black fog.

　"boom--"

　Ice flames blasted out on the mist

　A small cut, and the mist healed it almost instantly, as if nothing had happened.

　"Ms. Ruan, don't hold on! Let the black miasma dissipate immediately!" Alice shouted.

　Ruan Lili immediately carried out Alice's words. She waved her hand, and a gust of wind fell from the sky, carrying the black mist into the sky and spreading it in all directions.

　In a few seconds, the black miasma no longer persisted and disappeared into nothingness.

　"Alice, are you okay?" Vivian grabbed Alice's shoulders and began to check.

　"I'm fine," Alice clutched her chest, "it's just... that moment..."

　Before the black knife stabbed out, Alice felt an extremely strong fear.

　It’s like diving in the deep sea, and just before your oxygen runs out, your ankles are suddenly entangled by seaweed, and you can’t get free no matter what you do.

　The moment the black knife stabbed out, Alice felt that her life was entangled in the unknown and she was only one step away from escaping into the abyss.

　"It's not here to kill me," Alice muttered. "It's targeting that female soldier. It wants to kill the people who escaped from the black miasma...!"

　"That guy exudes a powerful aura," Vivian said, looking towards where the black fog had dissipated. "Is he the Dragon Lord's servant..."

　“That’s impermanence.”

　Ruan Lili looked at the ground and pointed to the place where the assassin disappeared.

　"Look, the dusty ground is covered with footprints left by a broom. Not even the wind can blow them away," Ruan Lili said in a low voice. "Those are the tentacles of impermanence."

　"In Yanxia's legend, they are the harvesters of souls, luring those whose lifespans have run out into the underworld."

　"It's obvious that we rescued someone who deserved to die," Ruan Lili said, looking at the female soldier lying on the ground. "We must provide her with the highest level of extraordinary protection, otherwise she will definitely die, either today or tomorrow."

　"Looks like this can't be treated as a joke," Vivian said softly, "Let's ask Xiaoshu for help."

　Alice nodded, then pressed the mark on her arm and whispered:

　"Aurora, we need help."

　Under Aurora's protection, the group successfully escorted the female soldiers to Danzhou's residence.

　Under Qiuniu's arrangement, she was transported to the string magic room in the middle of the mansion and placed in the center of the protective string magic circle.

　"...Her spirit is very chaotic."

　Xingmo closed the tree's vision and looked at Alice and Vivian beside him:

　"Do you think she came back from the black miasma?"

　"Yes, and she seems to remember something in there," Alice nodded. "Aurora, can you try to extract her dreams?"

　"It's not that difficult, but..." Aurora rubbed her chin, "It seems quite scary."

　"You're still afraid of ghosts," Xing Mo chuckled. "Ghosts will run away when they see you."

　"You talk like I'm some terrifying creature," Aurora puffed out her cheeks. "Actually, I'm more concerned about that Impermanence you mentioned. It can roam in unknown territory, so I need to be careful with that kind of monster."

　"Why?" Vivian asked.

　"Because dreams are also unknown before they are revealed," Aurora explained, "So, in the most extreme case, if we enter her dream, that thing might come to us."

　"Will it be difficult to deal with?" Xing Mo frowned.

　"It'll be scary," Aurora stuck out her tongue. "Difficult to deal with? Talking about this with a dual-authority god?"

　Oh, I almost forgot there is a little evil god here.

　Xing Mo looked at the tiny Aurora and suddenly realized that now that they had established a cooperative relationship with Qiuniu, Aurora could use more of her strength.

　"Then I'll solve it for you." Xingmo gave a small wink.

　"Hmph, let's exchange it for tonight's delicious meal!"

　Aurora said as she snapped her fingers. A faint green light streamed out from the air and gathered into a string in front of her.

　She plucked the string gently, and as the sound spread, dark mist surged out of the female soldier's body, engulfing the group.

　""

　After a long time, Xingmo found herself standing in the square in the center of the village, with Howling Castle on the horizon not far away.

　"It's this village." Vivian frowned.

　"Bombardment! Bombardment! Coming!"

　As the shouts came, Xingmo looked up and saw flames constantly emerging from the Howling Fort on the horizon, and black shells were coming like a meteor shower.

　Above those shells, Xingmo saw a row of pitch-black eyes.

　"It's obvious at first glance that this isn't a legitimate shell." Xing Mo complained.

　As the shells were about to land, Xingmo saw the female soldier.

　She stood blankly in the middle of the square, surrounded on all sides by running soldiers and villagers.

　Faced with the rain of bullets that was about to drown her, the female soldier did not run away. Instead, she pulled out a pocket watch from her chest, opened it, and stared at the photo on the watch cover.

　"what..."

　Before she could say anything, the next second, bullets rained down, and the dark fog exploded, staining the entire village.

　""

　In the dark fog, the female soldier's figure disintegrated inch by inch, her body twisted and spread out like a watercolor painting.

　She walked aimlessly in the darkness, surrounded by countless people walking with her. Their faces were unclear, like a painting created by an abstract painter when he was drunk.

　After walking in the darkness for an unknown amount of time, a figure appeared in front of the female soldier.

　Out of a bridge.

　On the side of the bridge, a tall silhouette in a black robe stood.

　It stretched out its hand and handed bowls of soup to the "people" who were about to cross the bridge.

　Those people drank the soup one after another. When the soup in the bowl flowed into their throats, their bodies melted even more violently, turning into a mass of paste-like objects.

　They crossed the bridge in this twisted form and disappeared into the depths of darkness.

　Soon, it was the woman's turn to cross the bridge. She took the soup handed to her by the man in black in a daze, her eyes lowered.

　The surface of the soup is made up of mixed colors, and the colorful blocks of color reflect complex light and shadow, presenting scene after scene.

　The woman looked at the surface of the soup, and the whisper of the man in black rang in her ears:

　"Drank the magic potion...forgot the worldly affairs...walked over the Naihe Bridge...cast into the Three Lives Stone..."

　Forget... the mundane world... The female soldier's mind buzzed, and the light and shadow in her pupils shattered along with the color blocks on the surface of the love potion.

　Somehow, her mind suddenly began to rewind... back to the moment before she was swallowed by the black fog.

　She opened the pocket watch cover and saw the little boy's handsome face.

　“Ah…! Ah!!!”

　The female soldier threw away the love potion and tried to retreat screaming.

　When she regained consciousness briefly, she raised her head and saw the face beneath the black-robed man's face.

　Scarlet vertical pupils, and some kind of insect-like mouthparts.

　The moment she saw the strange face, the female soldier howled miserably and turned around to run away.

　She didn't know how long she had been escaping, maybe ten years... a hundred years... a thousand years...

　""

　Looking at the woman running away, Xingmo felt an inexplicable chill climbing up his shoulders.

　A blurry outline like an oil painting crosses the bridge...to the world on the other side...

　After being swallowed by the unknown, they ended up in such a terrifying world.

　""

　As the darkness dissipated, Aurora snapped her fingers and the room returned to normal.

　"How bizarre," Aurora muttered, "She actually came back."

　Aurora was the woman lying in the center of the string magic circle, with a complex look in her eyes.

　"That black-robed figure is the Impermanence that emerged from the black miasma earlier," Alice said with certainty. "I just took a closer look, and it also has vertical pupils, which means..."

　"That's a monster with dragon blood," Vivian nodded, "a follower of the Dragon Lord."

　At this moment, Ruan Lili, who had been silent all this time, suddenly stepped forward and looked at the woman:

　"She returned from Naihe Bridge..." Ruan Lili whispered, "She can't escape."

　"What is Naihe Bridge?" Xing Mo asked.

　"The bridge to the underworld is the final journey before humans pass away," Ruan Lili explained. "But now it seems there's no such thing as afterlife... Those who drink the soup will transform into a pure amalgam of information, disintegrating like a watercolor painting."

　"Then they will cross that bridge and offer themselves to the Dragon Lord."

　Hearing Ruan Lili's words, Xing Mo recalled what Wu Chang said by the bridge: