Parting ways

The players in the livestream were all stunned.

[What did Jiujiu just eat? A gummy?]

[Why does it feel like her stamina recovered after she ate it? Is it an item Jiujiu found?]

[Hash Brown and Dabao have them too. Maybe they exchanged points for them at the rest area or the shop?]

Xin Jiu ran faster and faster. With his time almost up, Anubis's body gradually faded. Xin Jiu glanced back. It looked like the time limit was ten minutes.

She kept running.

Unexpectedly, the grass ahead rustled, and a sika deer suddenly emerged.

...It was a fawn that hadn't even grown antlers yet.

Xin Jiu shrieked, "Get out of the way, little deer!"

The fawn stared at Xin Jiu with wide eyes. Just as she was about to crash into it, Xin Jiu slammed on the brakes, and Anubis brought his scepter smashing down at her head!

The livestream viewers couldn't bear to watch and shut their eyes in fear.

"Clown!!!"

Xin Jiu shouted. A burst of cheerful sound effects rang out, and a huge clown doll appeared out of thin air, looking just like the inflatable figures used at shopping mall openings.

Anubis couldn't react in time. He crashed into the clown and bounced back.

While his body was flying through the air, it vanished with a whoosh.

The ten minutes were up.

Anubis disappeared.

The clown doll disappeared too.

Xin Jiu collapsed onto the ground, gasping for breath. She'd survived!

[A clown? Where did that clown come from?!]

[Holy shit, this girl really is hard to kill.]

[Divine Descent's a grand stage. Don't show up without cheats.]

The sika fawn approached Xin Jiu innocently and nuzzled her with its head. Xin Jiu stroked its soft head and sighed. "Little deer, little deer, I lost a life because of you."

Just like that, one of her three chances to substitute a life was gone.

Actually, Xin Jiu could have chosen to crash straight into it, but at that speed, she would definitely have killed the fawn.

Xin Jiu sighed.

The fawn nuzzled her even more affectionately.

Chen Rui pulled back his hand, rotated his aching wrist, and walked over to sit beneath a tree, looking utterly lost.

Li Tao lay on the ground with a bruised, swollen face.

Doudou and Jiamin huddled together, not daring to say a word.

[Yuyuer, don't be sad. Your idol isn't dead!]

[And she'll be here any second!]

Chen Rui stared blankly ahead, feeling miserable. He couldn't believe the expert player he'd admired for so long had died on the second floor just like that.

He was about to take out the pin badge to remember her by when he saw Doudou point in a direction and shout.

Chen Rui looked over.

The grass rustled, and a moment later, Xin Jiu appeared riding a sika deer, with a sika fawn following behind.

Chen Rui excitedly went to meet her. "You're not dead!"

"No."

Xin Jiu jumped off the sika deer and stroked its head. "Thank you for bringing me back."

The sika deer nuzzled her, then left with its fawn.

As though he'd seen a ghost, Li Tao scrambled to his feet and tried to flee, but Xin Jiu hit his ankle with her slingshot, sending him tumbling to the ground again.

She walked toward Li Tao, one step at a time.

Li Tao roared, "How could you possibly have survived Anubis? That's impossible!"

Xin Jiu drew her military dagger, the corners of her mouth curving slightly. "Too bad. I survived anyway."

Scared out of his wits, Li Tao shouted to Chen Rui, "Chen Rui, save me!"

Chen Rui stepped forward to block Xin Jiu's path. Doudou and Jiamin did the same.

Xin Jiu laughed.

"You're going to protect him?"

Chen Rui hated what Li Tao had done too, but they couldn't let him die here now.

"There'll be a lot of dangers in this maze. One more person means one more layer of protection. Could you let him off this once, for my sake?"

"For your sake?"

Chen Rui looked into her eyes and said, "I know you're Xin Jiu."

He recognized me?

Xin Jiu looked at Doudou and Jiamin too and asked, "You want me to let him go as well?"

They nodded.

"I understand," Xin Jiu said.

Everyone sighed in relief. Li Tao gave Xin Jiu a defiant look. So what if he'd used Anubis to kill her? Weren't their companions still on his side?

But a moment later, Li Tao suddenly felt an intense pain in his throat.

He reached up to touch it. Sticky and warm.

"You, you..."

Before he could finish, he fell, his eyes fixed on Xin Jiu as his pupils gradually lost focus.

Doudou and Jiamin screamed.

Chen Rui looked at Xin Jiu with a complicated expression. "You shouldn't be this kind of person."

[Verdict's in. Chen Yuyuer is a fake fan.]

[I thought he genuinely liked Jiujiu before, but now it looks like that's all there was to it.]

[If Jiujiu weren't so capable, Anubis would've killed her just now. Where does Chen Yuyuer get the nerve to ask Jiujiu to do it for his sake? What's his face even worth?]

Xin Jiu didn't answer him. She never explained to others what kind of person she was.

"If anyone dares follow me again, I'll kill every last one I see."

Chen Rui's lips moved a few times, as though he wanted to say something, but in the end, he said nothing.

Doudou and Jiamin wanted to go after Jiujiu, but he stopped them.

"Let's go."

"But we won't get out without following her!"

Chen Rui shook his head. "She won't take us with her anymore."

She had asked them just now, and their answer had been that they hoped she would let Li Tao go.

Thinking about it now, if they were in her position, how could they possibly forgive someone who wanted them dead?

Xin Jiu strolled through the forest.

When she'd first learned that Chen Rui was Chen Yuyuer, she'd wanted to take him out of this instance with her. After all, he was one of her biggest fans.

But... never mind.

She kept walking and took Niuniu's horn out of her backpack.

Niuniu should arrive in a few minutes. Besides raising her agility, she had something else she needed Niuniu to do.

Sure enough, Niuniu caught up within half an hour.

Seeing Xin Jiu alone, Niuniu looked startled for a moment.

Seeing that expression on a bull's face was truly comical.

Xin Jiu began teasing Niuniu, exhausting him. The two chased each other like this for two hours, and then Niuniu actually ran away.

He ran away?!

Xin Jiu started chasing him.

The human and the bull chased each other like this for two days, and Xin Jiu gained another five points of agility.

Niuniu finally couldn't take it anymore and bellowed furiously, "Haven't you had enough yet?!"

"You can actually talk?"

Judging by his voice, he was a boy, sounding about seven or eight years old.

It was unbelievable.

"If you weren't chasing me so hard, I wouldn't deign to talk to you."

[I can tell. He's a little tsundere bull.]

[Now that he can talk, he's starting to look rather handsome.]

Xin Jiu looked Niuniu over a few times. No wonder he could boost attributes. He was a bull that had awakened his spiritual intelligence.

"I know you've gotten lots of agility points from me. That should be enough, right? Don't be too greedy."

Xin Jiu smiled. "I'll let you go once I get my agility up to fifty."

Her agility was only 42 now.

Niuniu: "...!"

Grandpa Chief had been right. Humans were all greedy!