"Xuan Ying, watch out!" Jiang Xinli shrieked in terror.
Her shout instantly attracted the attention of the Puppet Corpse horde.
In a flash, they all swiveled toward her, their countless pairs of crimson eyes gleaming with bloodlust.
Jiang Xinli felt her blood run cold, her body frozen so stiff she couldn't move.
"Idiot!" A vicious glint flashed in Xuan Ying's eyes, like an enraged venomous snake.
He thrust a hand into the air and grabbed; countless Ice Arrows instantly materialized, and in the blink of an eye, they coalesced into a single Ice Sword that emanated a bone-chilling aura.
"Come at me!" he roared, his voice filled with endless fury and provocation.
The horde of Puppet Corpses that had been about to swarm Jiang Xinli was drawn by his voice. They instantly turned, roaring as they surged toward him like a tide.
Jiang Xinli's heart leaped into her throat, but all she could do was watch the battlefield in tense silence.
Surrounded by the Puppet Corpse horde, Xuan Ying's lips curled into a bloodthirsty smirk as his figure shot out like a phantom.
The Ice Sword sliced through the air with a sharp whistle. Wherever it passed, the Puppet Corpses were instantly frozen solid, then shattered into countless ice shards like glass.
Jiang Xinli was utterly shocked. 'I never thought this venomous snake's superpower and Martial Power would be so incredible...'
Soon, Xuan Ying was weaving through the horde of Puppet Corpses as if it were an empty field, slaughtering them at will.
Before long, more than half of the once-dense horde of Puppet Corpses had fallen.
Just then, an even larger Puppet Corpse launched another surprise attack on him.
Xuan Ying remained calm. In one fluid motion, he executed a graceful turn and swung his Ice Sword. The blade pierced straight through the Puppet Corpse's skull, the immense force pinning it firmly to a giant ore rock behind it!
He strode forward and violently yanked out the Ice Sword, causing the Puppet Corpse's head to split open with a large gash.
Without a second thought, he used the sword to frantically mash the brain matter, then reached in and began to feel around inside the Puppet Corpse's head...
Having witnessed the entire scene, Jiang Xinli's face was as pale as a sheet.
"BLEGH~" After dry-heaving, she quietly shrank back beside the sofa and took a deep breath.
She felt a chill creeping up her own scalp, as if a wave of cold was shooting up from the soles of her feet to the top of her head.
She finally remembered why this Deserted Star was called the Gate of Hell.
It wasn't just a place of exile for high-level criminals; it was also a "distribution center" for Puppet Corpses.
It could be said that every single second, a ceaseless tide of Puppet Corpses poured onto this Deserted Star, emerging from dark corners of interstellar space through mysterious Space-Time Rifts.
Of course, besides the Puppet Corpses, there were also many other strange, terrifying, and unidentified Mutant Beasts.
And then there were the convicted felons, equally notorious for their evil deeds, who had been exiled to this planet.
Most of them were Male Beastmen, filled with desire and malice, teetering on the brink of going feral.
Jiang Xinli couldn't help but shudder. 'Without the protection of my five Beast Husbands,' she thought, 'forget surviving 100 years of exile—I probably wouldn't even live to see tomorrow's sun.'
Thinking of this, Jiang Xinli's resolve hardened once more:
'I can't get a divorce, even if it kills me.'
'However, the more powerful and deadly the weapon, if it's aimed not at the Puppet Corpses, but at me, then...'
Jiang Xinli pressed her lips together tightly. 'Not only can I not get a divorce, I have to turn these enemies into allies.'
'But reversing the original owner's malicious reputation to gain the trust and sympathy of my five Beast Husbands will take time, whether it's through acting or other means. I need to think of some other methods...'
Jiang Xinli's brows furrowed as she sank into deep thought.
The seconds ticked by.
Finally, the sounds of fighting from outside gradually died down, and the whole world seemed to fall into a dead silence.
The Space Lock on the door opened with a BEEP, and a gust of cold wind carrying the pungent stench of blood and rot blew in.
Four tall, imposing figures entered in single file.
CLICK.
Sheng Tianze, who was in the lead, raised his hand and flipped a switch, instantly illuminating the entire room.
His face and body were splattered with blood, which looked especially glaring under the light.
The others were the same; each of them exuded the exhaustion and stench of blood that followed a battle.
Sheng Tianze merely gave Jiang Xinli a faint glance before heading straight for the kitchen.
His towering figure cast a long shadow in the light.
Seeing Jiang Xinli sitting by the sofa clutching a pillow, Yue Hua Yin and Hua Xi's eyes instantly brightened, as if they had seen a glimmer of dawn in the darkness.
But the light quickly died out, and their gazes were once again veiled with wariness and distance.
A layer of fine wolf fur had sprouted on Yue Hua Yin's arm, and Hua Xi's head was a mess of ruffled Peacock feathers. They both looked battered and exhausted.
As for Xuan Ying, who came in last, his ice-blue vertical pupils were filled with crimson blood vessels. The exposed parts of his body were now completely covered in Ice Blue Snake Scales.
The Snake Scales were covered in bloodstains, bits of flesh, and a number of new wounds of varying depths, making him look savage and terrifying.
Upon seeing Jiang Xinli, he just let out a cold sneer, then found a sofa for himself, stretched out his long legs, and lay down with his eyes closed, as if nothing around him had anything to do with him.
Hua Xi and Yue Hua Yin glanced at Jiang Xinli again, their eyes filled with conflict.
Both had overused their superpowers, and their heads ached so badly it felt like they were about to split open. They wanted to bang their heads against a wall just for some relief.
They wanted to ask for help, but the memory of her past vicious behavior made them swallow the words that had been on the tips of their tongues.
Jiang Xinli calmly swept her gaze over the heads of the three men. Using her special ability, she quickly made a rough assessment of their Uprising Values:
Xuan Ying, Uprising Value 69%;
Yue Hua Yin, Uprising Value 58%;
Hua Xi, Uprising Value 55%.
All three were hovering on the edge of danger. Xuan Ying, in particular, was at risk of his Spiritual Sea collapsing at any moment.
Jiang Xinli took a deep breath and secretly checked her senses. The cooldown (CD value) for the Dodder Flower Ability at her fingertips was almost up.
She had discovered when she helped Ye Kuo soothe his Spiritual Sea before that her Dodder Flower Ability's Level was too low; once it had absorbed its fill of Uprising Value, it wouldn't absorb any more.
She just didn't know if there was a similar cooldown when absorbing other "nutrients."
She was hesitating over whether to offer to soothe their Spiritual Seas when Sheng Tianze emerged from the kitchen.
He strode over to Jiang Xinli and knelt on one knee before her, his movements gentle.
Like he was presenting a treasure, Sheng Tianze opened his palm to reveal a small pile of sparkling, transparent stones. "Female Master, for you."
Having received some of the original owner's memories, Jiang Xinli recognized them at a glance: they were the Crystal Cores pried from the heads of those Puppet Corpses.
In the interstellar beast world, Crystal Cores were an essential item for leveling up either spiritual power or superpowers.
However, not all Puppet Corpses had Crystal Cores in their heads.
Jiang Xinli was puzzled. "These... are all for me?"
"Mhm," Sheng Tianze nodded. "I washed them all clean."
With that, he took her hand and placed all the Crystal Cores in her palm.
Jiang Xinli glanced at the Crystal Cores in her hand, which were still slightly warm, and looked up at him with her beautiful, doe-like eyes full of gentleness.
"What about you?"