Creak—
Ning Rongrong opened the main hall doors and hurried inside.
It was not long after Ning Fengzhi had seen the three representatives off.
"Rongrong?"
Seeing Ning Rongrong looking fairly normal, Ning Fengzhi felt the worry weighing on his heart suddenly ease.
"Dad, Sword Grandpa, Bone Grandpa! Quick, someone's controlling me. Help me drive him away!"
Panting, Ning Rongrong spoke to the three men before her.
But as they looked at her, they seemed uncertain how to respond.
Ning Fengzhi glanced at Chen Xin, then at Gu Rong.
Both nodded.
"During the examination just now, we confirmed that there's nothing wrong with you. Your mind is perfectly normal, too."
Ning Fengzhi took a deep breath and gave her their conclusion.
"Huh?" Ning Rongrong stared at her father and the two grandpas, unable to believe it.
"But... think about it! I'm an auxiliary-type Soul Master. How could I possibly beat so many people? How could I have suddenly broken through? You're just fooling yourselves if you think someone can comprehend the Dao in the middle of a fight."
Ning Rongrong stared into their eyes, hoping to catch even the slightest sign that they believed her.
Unfortunately, she saw none.
Ning Fengzhi seemed a little moved, but ultimately gave nothing away. As for Sword Grandpa and Bone Grandpa, they thought it only natural that Ning Rongrong had won, because they trusted the magical treasures she carried.
"How could this be..." Dispirited, Ning Rongrong suddenly thought of something. She pulled a pill and a scroll from her golden ring and said urgently, "Dad, look! These belonged to those people. They're what made me break through. Look!"
"But..." Ning Fengzhi hesitated as he looked at his daughter, his eyes full of concern. "There's nothing in your hands, Rongrong."
"Huh?"
Ning Rongrong's pupils contracted, and she stepped back half a pace.
Nothing there?
She lowered her head. She could see the scroll and the pill perfectly clearly.
She was afraid the pill might be poisoned, so she didn't dare eat it.
She couldn't read the words on the scroll, much less use it.
They couldn't see any of these things...
She stepped back again, shaking her head over and over.
"No... no! Why? Why can't you see them?"
She tried to take out the Little Red Bottle, the Little Blue Bottle, and the other things she'd gotten from opening chests with her Space Soul Tool, but found she couldn't.
That struck Ning Rongrong another blow.
"Please, examine me one more time. What if you missed something?"
Ning Rongrong thought of something and went to Ning Fengzhi, pleading with him.
She really didn't want to be controlled again, even though she knew her strength had grown by leaps and bounds while she was under control.
But what was that saying? If she was being controlled, was she even herself?
Ning Fengzhi shook his head helplessly.
"All right. We'll examine you again."
They called the healers back. They examined her three times, with three different teams, and each came to the same conclusion—
Ning Rongrong was completely fine. There was nothing wrong with her body, her mind was stable, and there were no signs she'd been controlled.
"Rongrong, you might just be exhausted. Get some sleep, and you'll feel better."
Ning Fengzhi patted her back as he spoke.
"Rongrong's probably still shaken by what she saw in the cave," Sword Grandpa and Bone Grandpa chimed in from behind them.
"How could this be..." Ning Rongrong murmured in disbelief. Her eyes gradually lost their light, and she slumped to the floor. "Could it really have been an illusion?"
"Yes, it was an illusion," Ning Fengzhi said. He considered his daughter's situation, then added, "How about we keep an eye on you for three days? If nothing unusual happens during that time, you'll believe there's nothing wrong with you, okay?"
Ning Rongrong nodded vacantly, then returned to her room in a daze.
Beneath the dim streetlights, Ning Rongrong kept murmuring:
"It was all fake. It was all fake..."
"Hey, everyone! We're playing Douluo: World again today!"
In the real world, it was six in the evening.
It was time for Lu Ma's daily livestream.
He'd shut down Dark Douluo ten minutes early, sent over the suggestions for the game's first day of testing, and taken a break. Now he was back to his actual job: livestreaming. His audience was small, but his professional ethics wouldn't let him disappoint a single viewer.
[How many hours did the streamer sleep?]
[Why's the streamer playing this game again?]
[Has the streamer ever played anything besides a Douluo IP game?]
"I slept for a little over an hour."
"Of course it's because the client's paying me."
"What are you talking about? Of course I've played other games..."
Had he?
Lu Ma asked himself.
He'd played plenty of games, from The Witcher 3 to Sekiro, from Devil May Cry to Zelda... But he'd never streamed any of them.
The first job he'd ever streamed was a Douluo IP sponsorship a friend had passed along. After that, he'd only ever streamed Douluo.
How strange... Would he get more viewers if he played something else?
As the thought crossed his mind, Lu Ma shook his head. He had two sponsored streams to do right now; he didn't have time to play anything else.
[666, the streamer's getting paid by the official account now.]
[What's the streamer playing today? The world boss?]
[The streamer's great at bosses! He's number one on the Black Monkey speedrun leaderboard!]
[For real?]
"For real."
Lu Ma nodded. Not long before starting work on his stream, he'd been bored and had set the world record for a no-hit, all-Yaoguai-Kings, no-exploits speedrun of Black Monkey... The video had nearly a million views on Bilibili, too. Too bad it wasn't on his account.
"So today, I'm going to take on the King of Slaughter."
He calmly announced the plan he'd already decided on.
[You mean that ridiculously overpowered King of Slaughter Tang Chen, with his self-regenerating shield and the ability to kill our characters with a single touch?]
[Can't wait!]
Lu Ma streamed for four whole hours.
After ending the stream and washing up, he got ready for bed.
He was exhausted.
What he didn't know was that, while he was away, time had started moving differently in Dark Douluo.
Three days after the Evil Soul Master incident, early morning.
Ning Rongrong was curled up on her bed, glancing now and then at the pill and scroll beside her.
Her hair was already a tangled mess from all the times she'd grabbed at it, and dark circles hung beneath her eyes.
She was afraid.
Afraid that if she fell asleep, her body would no longer belong to her.
Today was the final day of the agreement she'd made with her father.
By their agreement, if she wasn't controlled again today, she'd have to admit that it had all been a fantasy. That in itself wouldn't have been a problem, except the pill and scroll kept reminding her: this was real.
Unless she was going crazy.
Whether she was being controlled or going mad, neither was something Ning Rongrong wanted to face.
Under the strain of such intense mental pressure, she thought of a dreadful possibility.
What if the person controlling her knew about the three-day agreement and had deliberately refrained from controlling her all this time?
It seemed very possible.
She decided that she couldn't just sit around today. She had to do something to provoke the person controlling her—or prove she'd been controlled, which meant proving the pill and scroll existed.
With her hair in a wild mess, she followed her memory to the sect's infirmary.
She remembered that the Evil Soul Master had been treated here and had woken up yesterday. As an important person, she was sure to be able to see her!
When Ning Rongrong entered the infirmary, she found it empty. The medical staff were busy farther inside, leaving the girl sitting alone in front of her.
The lighting in the cave had been dim, so she hadn't gotten a good look at the girl before. Now she could see her clearly.
She looked sixteen, with short, deep-blue hair and purple eyes. She wore blue-and-white patient clothes, and her ragged clothes from before lay at the head of the bed.
Ning Rongrong hurried over and grabbed the girl's hand.
The mark of Dark Blue Silver Grass on the girl's hand had faded somewhat, but Ning Rongrong was certain it was a Dark Blue Silver Grass soul mark.
"I think I recognize you. You're the one who saved me that day..."
The girl's voice was bright and clear.
"Shut up."
By comparison, Ning Rongrong's coldness made her seem like the Evil Soul Master.
"Um."
The girl was at a loss.
Before you continue