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"What are you doing?"

Yino raised an eyebrow and asked in confusion as he watched the red-dressed girl continuously pour blood-colored spiritual energy into the barrier.

As Liuli continued infusing the bloody energy, the originally transparent seal turned blood-red, and even the metal chains binding the imprisoned girl gradually took on a crimson hue.

For a moment, Yino finally recalled something that had bothered him about the game.

In the game, when the tree spirit girl first appeared before players, these chains and barrier were already stained an eerie blood-red.

But when Yino first entered the ancient hall just now, these chains and barrier weren't blood-red at all!

"You're going to use Full Moon Cult's dark arts to corrupt your own sister?"

The realization made Yino blurt out suddenly.

In front of him, Liuli turned to give him a glance, surprised he had figured out her plan so quickly.

"Yes."

Liuli had nothing to hide, simply nodding before continuing to pour dark energy into the barrier.

Gradually, the blood-colored spiritual energy invaded the girl's body through the chains, making the already weak and helpless tree spirit's expression even more pained. The girl twisted slightly, taking small gasping breaths, silently releasing several painful cries formed from waves of spiritual energy.

But Liuli didn't soften her heart.

She bit her teeth lightly, her usually melancholic beautiful face now curling into a slightly manic smile—

"Yino, do you also think I'm heartless?"

"But rather than letting my Lily remain like this forever, eternally serving as the righteous cultivators' ecological machine, drowning in endless loneliness and pain..."

"Isn't the best way to save her simply letting her be free once and for all?"

Saying this, Liuli turned to look at Yino, her right blood-colored demon eye reflecting madness while her left emerald eye welled up with unwilling tears.

She looked like a sick contradiction - the game's unforgivably evil cult maiden now appearing somewhat pitiful and disheveled from Yino's perspective.

Yino could sense she had cried many times for her sister over this cruel plan, but in the end rationality won out in Liuli's mind - after all, the longer Lily lived, the longer she would suffer. Better a short pain than long suffering!

"You're right."

Yino sighed, no longer interrupting, just silently watching Liuli cast her spell.

At this point in the story, Yino had gradually come to understand the hidden truth behind volume two of the game.

Liuli knew she couldn't save her sister.

So her plan actually had two layers of meaning.

The surface level was corrupting the guardian spirit, causing chaos in the Azure Forest, then massacring righteous cultivators and pleasing the Mother Goddess through sacrifice to gain her blessing...

But the true meaning behind it was that Liuli wanted to take this chance to kill Lily, so her poor sister wouldn't have to continue suffering day after day.

In fact, Liuli's plan partially succeeded in the original timeline.

Lily went berserk from corruption and was finally defeated by the protagonist's group working together.

She did die, and the Azure Forest's chaos stopped.

But at the critical moment, the Wuji Sect's righteous elders arrived in time, using a special array to forcefully bring the Ancient Tree Spirit back from death's door.

Later, although Lily's consciousness had been devoured by corruption and died, her physical body as guardian spirit could still function within the array and maintain the Azure Forest's stable ecology.

In a sense, Lily truly became a vegetable.

At that time, young righteous cultivators all believed Liuli had selfishly caused the Azure Forest's guardian spirit to fall into such a half-dead state. Thinking about it now, Yino felt the irony.

No wonder Liuli later became increasingly manic, emotionally unstable, and fell into demonic cultivation...

She had hardened her heart to finally kill Lily, but unexpectedly, even after her sister's death, the heartless righteous cultivators wouldn't leave her sister's corpse alone, using arrays to continue maintaining the Azure Forest's ecological activities.

"Damn, those Wuji Sect elders are really something."

Yino couldn't help muttering quietly.

Watching Liuli's back as she focused on casting her spell, Yino had an idea and silently stepped back two paces, arriving at a hidden angle to the left of the blood-colored barrier at the bottom of the ancient hall's platform.

Yino remained silent, keeping his hands behind his back, materializing an arm guard on his left while quietly summoning the Frost Chant sword from behind him. His right hand, glowing with the holy mark, gently gripped the end of an iron chain in the corner behind him.

Though fully armed, Yino showed no killing intent, just quietly watching Liuli's back.

The ancient hall fell into long silence.

"...?"

At some point, the red-dressed Holy Maiden infusing blood-colored spiritual energy into the barrier gradually widened her eyes in confusion. Experience tales with empire

Due to long and focused spellcasting, beads of sweat rolled down her cheeks and her breathing became rapid. But what struck Liuli as strange was...

At some point, the tree spirit girl who should have been losing control from the dark arts' corruption had gradually stopped her painful moaning, and even Liuli's dark arts seemed to be retreating rather than advancing.

Liuli had spent so much effort infusing dark power, but now she actually felt the spell's progress was reversing!

"Why...?"

Liuli looked up in bewilderment to see the originally blood-red chains seemingly covered by a strand of golden spiritual energy.

And the tree spirit girl suspended high by several chains, whose face should have been thin and weak, gradually became rounder and more radiant.

Her sleeping face showed no pain, instead seeming to be dreaming of something wonderful, her cherry lips slowly curling into the sweetest smile Liuli had seen in a hundred years.

"..."

Her sister's sweet smile stirred something in Liuli's heart, but it also made the atmosphere feel more bizarre.

As a sister, she naturally wanted to see her sister happy, but the problem was that Liuli was clearly trying to corrupt Lily!

Now in the middle of corruption, Lily was instead becoming healthier and happier?

"Yino?!"