Guo Yun: Plays Ye Shunguang, teammate Ye Shiyuan

[Playing value increased by 10%, current playing value is 35%.] The system issued a brief notification, after all, now is not the time to disturb the host's thoughts.

The air was quiet for a moment. Seeing this, Zhe, relying on his small body, hid to the side. Out of vigilance against the unfamiliar forces, he decided to hide and gather more information.

"I...don't remember?" Tachibana Fukufu's voice masked Tetsuya's subtle movements. Her voice, which had been joyful at the reunion, now sounded as if an invisible hand was choking her, the syllables squeezed out were sharp and trembling.

She tightened her grip on Ye Shunguang's sleeve, her knuckles turning white from the force, the fabric crumpling in her palm.

Her amber eyes widened, the pupils contracting instantly to reflect Ye Shunguang's slightly pale face. Shock, panic, disbelief—a multitude of emotions churned in her eyes, ultimately coalescing into an almost tangible fear.

"Hikaru, what did you say?" Tachibana Fukufu's voice was so soft it was almost a whisper, but every word carried a heavy weight. "You... don't remember? Don't remember what?... Is your memory of us hazy? Or..."

She didn't finish her sentence, but the unspoken meaning lingered in the air, even more suffocating than what she said aloud.

Pan Yinhu's reaction was more direct. He took a step forward—a step that caused the ground to tremble slightly and instinctively put the three members of the Dragon Kingdom team on alert.

But Pan Yinhu had no intention of attacking. His entire attention was focused on Ye Shunguang, his deep black eyes fixed on her, as if trying to read the truth from every subtle expression on her face.

"Xiao Guang," Pan Yinhu's voice was low, carrying a barely suppressed anxiety, "look at me. Think carefully. The mountain gate of Yun Kui Mountain, the sword-training ground on the back mountain, and Wei Feidi... what do you remember?"

His tone was very soft, as if he were coaxing a frightened child, but the probing meaning in his words was all too obvious.

Ye Shunguang's heart was pounding wildly in his chest.

She could feel everyone's eyes fixed on her, and cold sweat slid down her back, soaking her inner lining.

"I...I remember you all," Ye Shunguang said, his voice hoarse with nervousness. "I remember Senior Sister Ju Fufu, Senior Brother Pan Yinhu, Yun Kuishan and Wei Feidi. I haven't forgotten too much!..."

She paused, forcing herself to continue, her voice carrying a plea she herself wasn't aware of, as if trying to persuade others, and also herself: "But some things... have become very blurry. For example... how did I leave? What happened after I left? It's roughly... what happened during the time I was missing... I can't quite remember."

Ju Fufu gasped, the sound particularly jarring in the silence. Her hands clenched and unclenched repeatedly, as if she didn't know what to do.

Finally, she reached out her trembling fingers and gently touched Ye Shunguang's cheek, a gesture so tender it was almost sorrowful. "Xiaoguang, don't use the Qingming Sword anymore," her voice was as low as a mosquito's buzz, yet carried an undeniable resolve, "We'll take you away to find your master."

She spoke very softly, as if afraid of disturbing something she shouldn't. But in this silent ruin, those three words were jarringly clear.

Azure Sea Sword.

"The Azure Sea Sword? What's that? Is it the sword Ye Shunguang is using right now?"

"It's obviously not like that, right? If that were the case, wouldn't there have been side effects from using it so many times before?"

"Why did they immediately assume that Ye Shunguang had used the Qingming Sword after he said he didn't remember?"

"Blind student, you've spotted the key point!"

"Uh... Senior Sister," Pan Yinhu said in a low voice, her voice tinged with rare hesitation, "this is not the time to talk about this—"

"Why is it so untimely?!" Ju Fufu suddenly turned to look at him, her amber eyes brimming with tears that stubbornly refused to fall. "If Xiaoguang really... really used the Azure Sea Sword again, and to the point of affecting her memory, then the problem is serious! We must take her back to see her master immediately! We must!"

Her voice grew louder and louder until it was almost a shout. The sound echoed through the ruins, startling a few crows that were perched on the broken walls in the distance.

"What exactly happened?" Ye Jianguo finally spoke. As the team leader, he had to find out the situation.

The conversation had gone beyond "catching up" and involved information that could concern Ye Shunguang's safety as well as the safety of the entire team.

He stepped forward, positioning himself slightly in front of and to the side of Ye Shunguang, forming a subtle protective stance. The movement was natural, but both Ju Fufu and Pan Yinhu noticed it.

Pan Yinhu glanced at Ye Jianguo, then at Ye Shunguang, and finally his gaze fell back on Ju Fufu, his eyes filled with complex emotions.

"The Azure Sea Sword," he spoke slowly, his voice low and solemn, "is a... very special sword." He paused, seemingly choosing his words carefully, "Its power is immense, extremely powerful. But the price is also very high..."

"So if Hikari really doesn't remember what happened three months ago..." Tachibana Fukufu's voice trembled with tears, "that means she must have encountered a dangerous situation that forced her to use the Azure Nether Sword. So dangerous that it took her three months to regain some memory..."

She turned to Ye Shunguang, grabbed her shoulders with both hands, and the force was so great that Ye Shunguang frowned slightly.

"Xiao Guang, listen to me," Ju Fufu's tone was more serious than ever before, "From now on, you absolutely cannot act alone, and you absolutely cannot use the Qingming Sword again. Not even once! We must end this mission immediately, take you back to Yunkui Mountain, take you back to Weifei Land, take you back to Suibian Temple. Master will definitely have a way, definitely..."

"But..." Ye Shunguang tried to explain.

"No buts! I'm your senior sister! Listen to your senior sister!" Ju Fufu's attitude was unusually firm, and Ye Shunguang felt the pressure of a super scary little tiger for the first time, swallowing all the words that followed.

The air was silent for a long time before finally, Number 11 broke the silence.

"Well... although I don't quite understand the current situation, shouldn't we finish clearing the hole as soon as possible and then go back?" Number 11 said.

Upon seeing this, Ye Jianguo took a deep breath, his voice steady and powerful, like a boulder thrown into a raging torrent: "Ms. Ju Fufu, Mr. Pan Yinhu. I understand your concerns. Comrade Ye Shunguang is our teammate, and her safety is also our top priority."

Ju Fufu suddenly turned to look at him, her eyes still moist and filled with unwavering stubbornness.

Pan Yinhu also turned slightly to the side, giving more attention to this man with a calm demeanor, who was clearly the core of the team, apart from Ye Shunguang.

Ye Jianguo continued, "However, we are now inside a spreading 'void,' a place fraught with danger. Not only are there spontaneously emerging 'Skeletons,' but also members of the 'Praise Society' who are deliberately creating chaos. Our primary task is to eliminate the threat, dissolve the void, and prevent it from further eroding reality. This is our responsibility to the people and this land."

He paused, his gaze sweeping over Ye Shunguang's slightly pale face. "While there are questions surrounding Comrade Ye Shunguang's current condition, he hasn't lost his ability to act or make judgments. I suggest that we cooperate temporarily to complete the clearing mission here."

During this process, you can observe her closely to ensure her safety. After the mission is complete, we can sit down together, or go to a safe place, to discuss in detail the issues concerning Comrade Ye Shunguang's memories and that... 'Azure Sea Sword,' as well as its future whereabouts. How about it?"

Pan Yinhu clearly understood Ye Jianguo's intention. He looked at Ju Fufu and whispered, "Senior Sister, Captain Ye is right. This place is dangerous, and we shouldn't stay long, let alone fight amongst ourselves. Since Xiaoguang is temporarily safe, we should concentrate our efforts on dealing with the immediate trouble. With us by our side, we can definitely protect her."

"...Since you're alright... okay." She agreed in a hoarse voice, her gaze fixed on Ye Shunguang. "Xiaoguang, you stay right behind us, don't leave our side for even a moment, understand? Absolutely, absolutely do not use the Qingming Sword again! Unless... unless it reaches a life-or-death situation that even we can't handle, do you hear me?"

Ye Shunguang was filled with mixed feelings. How did things get to this point? She had absolutely no idea how to respond!

"I understand, senior sister, senior brother. I will follow behind you." She said softly with some hesitation, gripping her sword tightly.

I didn't originally intend to use the Azure Sea Sword. Anyway, it's in the system space, and there's a sword box inside. I don't need to worry about them thinking that the sword is lost or anything like that, which could easily reveal complicated issues like the national destiny system.

In short, let's take it one step at a time.

"Then... let's get going!" Number 11 scratched his head, trying to dispel the lingering heavy atmosphere in the air. "The sooner we finish our work, the sooner we can get back... uh, to discuss things."

……

The team set off again, but the atmosphere was different.

Ju Fufu and Pan Yinhu flanked Ye Shunguang, almost sandwiching him between them, forming a tight protective stance.

Zhe hesitated for a moment, then, with his short legs, quietly followed the Dragon Kingdom team, bringing up the rear with Chen Jianjun.

Soon, they encountered the first wave of skeletons.

"Hikaru, step back!" Tachibana Fukufu shouted, flicking his wrist and smashing the spherical weapon in his hand to pieces.

Almost simultaneously, Pan Yinhu also moved.

He did not use any obvious weapons; he simply clenched his fists, lowered his waist, and stood on his horse, naturally exuding a powerful and solid aura, as majestic as a mountain.

He stepped forward, his movements seemingly slow, yet carrying immense power. He threw a punch, simple and unadorned, but the air around it exploded with a muffled roar. A lunging skeleton was shattered into pieces by the powerful force, and even the surrounding ruins were covered in dust.

Number 11 is for dealing with monsters that are easy to break through defenses, one hit at a time, each strike is fierce.

The three members of the Dragon Kingdom team were also fighting, but compared to the other three, they didn't stand out much. However, it's worth mentioning that their equipment had already been upgraded some time ago, using points to exchange for the more powerful 191 System Mod and a laser gun.

The battle ended quickly, and the small group of Yi Hai was swiftly eliminated. Ju Fufu and Pan Yinhu returned to Ye Shunguang's side with steady breaths, and only after confirming that she was safe and sound did they breathe a slight sigh of relief.

As they ventured deeper, the enemies they encountered were no longer scattered rabble. Members of the "Praise Society" began to appear.

The battle against these organized cult members became intense.

"Protect Xiao Guang!" Pan Yinhu roared, took a step forward, took off the iron pot on his head, used magic to condense his energy into fried rice and threw it out, driving back several Yi Hai!

Taking advantage of the moment, Tachibana Fukufu moved swiftly, mounted her weapon, and spun at high speed, knocking away all those blocking her way. She successfully bypassed the main battlefield and rushed towards the rear to summon the Saviors of the Corpse.

Ye Jianguo and Chen Jianjun provided suppressive fire and precise kills, working in perfect coordination.

Ye Shunguang was firmly protected at the back. Watching her senior brothers and sisters fight bravely to protect her, and seeing her teammates from the Dragon Kingdom performing their duties, the urge to draw her sword and fight alongside her grew stronger and stronger.

Especially when a strengthened, exceptionally tall skeleton broke through the shockwave and roared as it pounced in her direction...

"Don't even think about it!" Pan Yinhu roared, his body shooting out like a cannonball. A straight punch, simple yet brimming with all his strength, struck heavily into the chest of the reinforced skeleton.

Crystals and metal fragments exploded and flew everywhere. Na Yihai was punched and sent flying backward, crashing into half of a low wall. He twitched a few times and then lay still.

"Hikaru!" Tachibana Fukufuku, having dealt with the enemy, immediately teleported back to her side, anxiously checking on her. "Are you alright?"

Ye Shunguang shook her head, her throat a little dry: "I'm fine... thank you, senior brother." She watched as Pan Yinhu withdrew his fist, his knuckles slightly red, but he didn't seem to care.

This feeling of being so carefully protected, like a fragile object, was both warm and somewhat suffocating. She wasn't a weakling who needed to hide behind others; at least during the Hollow Cleanup missions, she had always been a reliable asset. But now…

After clearing out the members of the Praise Society and their enhanced remains, the team took a short break. At the end of the road ahead, instead of the occasional roars of monsters, came an unusual, low, and rhythmic vibration.

"Thump...thump...thump..." It was as if a huge, sick heart was beating slowly but powerfully, each beat causing a noticeable ebb and flow in the concentration of polluted energy in the air. The light grew dimmer, and even the shadows cast by the ruins seemed to twist and writhe, like living things.

"We've arrived at the core area." Zhou Liming's expression was extremely solemn. The pointer of the energy detector in his hand swung wildly, emitting rapid beeping sounds. "The intensity of this energy reaction... and the frequency of the fluctuations... far exceed those of an ordinary hollow core. It's probably not just a simple accumulation of a large number of skeletons."

Pan Yinhu closed his eyes and sensed for a moment. When he opened them, his eyes were filled with murderous intent: "Dense etheric fluctuations... It seems that more than one 'Infamous' level Etheric Bone is being forcibly catalyzed and fused... These madmen seem to have gone all out this time, trying to make a big commotion here."

Ju Fufu gripped her spherical weapon tightly, pulling Ye Shunguang further behind her without hesitation. Her voice was tense: "No matter what they're up to, we can't let Xiaoguang get any closer. Xiaoguang, if a fight breaks out, you retreat behind that corner. Don't come out without my permission!" She pointed to a relatively intact corner of a building.

Ye Shunguang opened his mouth, but under his senior sister's unquestionable gaze, he swallowed his words and silently gripped the hilt of his sword.

After passing through the last collapsed corridor, made of twisted steel bars and broken glass, resembling the intestines of a monster, a bright and open space suddenly appeared before us.

This was a spacious area resembling an old Times Square or transportation hub, but now it was a scene of apocalyptic devastation. The ground was covered with cracked tiles, and dark red, pulsating clusters of crystals grew from the cracks.

In the center of the square, a chilling scene came into view—

A cocoon, more than ten meters in diameter and twisted and intertwined with countless dark red energy veins, writhing flesh and blood, broken metal and building debris, is suspended several meters above the ground, pulsating slowly.

[The Dragon Kingdom Squad Encounters the Pyro-Plasma Dopegana!]

[Level: Unknown!]

[WARNING! Plasma Dopegania is being enhanced and modified by members of the Praise Society! Please interrupt this process!]

"?"

"Dude, what is this thing? Unknown?!"

"Huh? Unknown?! Oh my god! It's a national alert! A national-level alert would get them! They might not see the comments we're sending now!"

"What kind of 'yin' is 'unknown'?! Are you kidding me, buddy?"

Five spellcasters, clad in dark red robes trimmed with gold and exuding an aura far more powerful than the members of the Praise Society they had encountered before, stood at the five key points of the magic circle, each holding a different magical artifact, maintaining the ritual, and chanting eerie, dizzying incantations.

If you could see through their masks, you would see their eyes flashing with a fanatical and insane red light.

"Stop them! Destroy that cocoon and the magic circle!" Ye Jianguo acted decisively without hesitation, aiming first at the skull cup in the hand of a caster and pulling the trigger. The specially made bullet shot out with a piercing sound.

"Blasphemer! Do not interfere with her arrival!" A leader of the Praise Society, standing in the center of the magic circle, clad in the most magnificent robes and wearing a crown of thorns, shrieked, his voice like metal scraping against glass. He brandished the bone staff in his hand, which was inlaid with several eye-shaped gems, and the tip of the staff flashed red light.

In an instant, the ground around the plaza churned violently, and several enormous, differently shaped, and terrifyingly powerful skeletons appeared, all bearing dark red traces of erosion.

At the same time, a large amount of viscous black mist with strong corrosive and mental interference effects rose from the edge of the magic circle, quickly spreading out in an attempt to obscure vision and block the attack.

The battle broke out instantly and immediately became extremely intense!

The Dragon Kingdom squad launched a full-scale attack on the magic circle nodes and the caster. Bullets and energy beams weaved through the black mist, colliding fiercely with the energy shields rising from the magic circle and the skeletal shields summoned by the caster.

Ju Fufu and Pan Yinhu roared and took the initiative to meet the fiercest enhanced skeletons and the leaders of the Praise Society who were trying to intercept them.

Ye Shunguang was instructed to remain on the relatively safe edge of the square, next to a half-collapsed ticket booth. But she kept a close eye on the rapidly changing battle situation, her palms sweating profusely, her heart pounding like a drum.

She could see that although her senior brothers and sisters were incredibly powerful, they were gradually showing signs of strain in the face of this level of encirclement, continuous magical interference, and the erosion of the black mist. Their breathing became heavy, and although their movements remained unchanged, their speed and strength seemed to be affected.

The red-robed leader's bone staff was extremely troublesome. It could not only draw upon the vast, foul energy accumulated beneath the plaza to create various difficult obstacles, but it could also inflict states such as berserk and regeneration on those who were enhanced with skeletons. Occasionally, it could even directly launch a mental attack, causing a stinging pain in the head and slowing down the movements.

Just as the Dragon Kingdom team, with information support from Zhou Liming, was about to break through a corner of the magic array's defenses, and Ju Fufu and Pan Yinhu were also working together to force the multi-armed giant, Yi Hai, to retreat steadily and were about to suppress the leader of the Praise Society—

A sudden change has occurred!

The giant, dark red cocoon in mid-air suddenly stopped pulsating.

Then, it expanded at an astonishing speed, its volume nearly doubling in an instant. The cocoon shell was stretched to almost transparent, and a huge, twisted shadow could be vaguely seen inside!

Then, the giant cocoon suddenly contracted inward! The force of the contraction was so great that the air in the square seemed to be sucked out for a moment, emitting a low whistling sound.

The leader of the Praise Society, in his fanaticism, abandoned both offense and defense, allowing the attacks to strike his body. Subsequently, the ether within his body was drained, and he finally collapsed to the ground as a dried-up corpse!

"Thump—!!!"

The last, loudest, and heaviest "heartbeat" sounded like a death knell, making everyone's eardrums ache and their hearts seem to skip a beat.

"Crack...crack..."

The dark red cocoon shell was covered with a dense network of cracks.

Thick, blood-red energy, shimmering with evil runes, cascaded down the crack like a waterfall, pouring onto the magic circle below.

The light from the magic circle instantly became so intense it was blinding. The five casters simultaneously let out a mournful yet ecstatic howl, their bodies visibly shriveling up as if the magic circle had drained their life force and soul, turning them into ashes!

Amidst the surging energy, a twisted figure, radiating a terrifying aura that sent shivers down one's spine, slowly descended, its feet landing in the center of a blazing magic circle, the process emitting an extremely dazzling light.

As the light faded, the figures of Ju Fufu and Pan Yinhu, whose pupils had instantly constricted as if struck by lightning, became clear—

[National Fortune System: The plasma Dopegania has changed form. Data synchronization in progress...]

[Completed simultaneously. This plasma is now named—Filthy Corrosion Dopegania Mind Without Self Elegance!]

[Rank: S!]