Lin Qingyue's words struck like a clap of thunder, shattering the dark cloud named "Despair" that had settled in her three teammates' minds.
"Her health bar appeared?"
Lin Xiyue murmured to herself, a glimmer of light finally returning to her vacant eyes.
That's right.
She looked at her sister's smile, so radiant it was almost blinding.
The soul-freezing fear originating from the god truly began to crumble and fade.
When has Sis ever been wrong?
Ever since they entered the Dungeon, no matter how absurd or bizarre the situation became, she always found an even more absurd and outrageous way to set everything right.
"But... our Mental Energy..."
Su Wan pressed her throbbing temples. The aftershocks of the True God's divine pressure still echoed in her mind, causing her Magic Power perception to flicker like a faulty old appliance.
"A minor issue."
With a flick of her finger, Lin Qingyue summoned the staff, Beloved, into her palm.
"Relax."
She reminded them with a grin as three soft, pure pink orbs of Holy Light rapidly condensed at the staff's tip.
"Wait, Sis! This is—!"
Lin Xiyue's eyes widened instantly, a strong sense of foreboding surging through her.
However, it was already too late.
"Cleanse Spell!"
Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!
Three pink light projectiles, bursting with girlish charm, shot out like arrows from a bow. They traced three precise yet merciless arcs before plastering themselves firmly onto the foreheads of Lin Xiyue, Su Wan, and Xia Lian.
The light exploded.
Countless pink motes of light, ethereal and dreamlike, completely engulfed the three of them.
The fear and powerlessness branded deep within their souls were gently washed away and soothed by this power, vanishing without a trace in an instant.
Reason returned to its high ground.
Clarity returned to their thoughts.
The flow of their Mental Energy also returned to its usual smoothness.
But...
The Holy Light dissipated.
The three girls stared at each other, and the air fell into an eerie silence that lasted for several seconds.
Lin Xiyue's sharp, black bob.
Su Wan's intellectual, long black-and-blue hair.
Xia Lian's neat ponytail tied at the back of her head.
At this moment, none had escaped. All had been transformed into soft, fluffy, and richly colored sakura pink.
"..."
"..."
"..."
"It happened again..."
Xia Lian covered her face in despair, her voice as faint as a mosquito's buzz.
She could already imagine it: during the upcoming stealth mission, a pink-haired Ranger crouching in the bushes, her brightly glowing head serving as a practically considerate strobe light for the enemy.
Su Wan expressionlessly pulled a small mirror from her Storage Space and examined her reflection.
After studying it for two seconds, she calmly offered her professional assessment.
"The saturation is 3% higher than last time. It seems your Magic Power has improved again."
"Pfft."
Lin Xiyue couldn't hold it in and burst out laughing.
She strode over to Lin Qingyue, reached out her mischievous hands, and mercilessly ruffled her sister's equally pink hair.
"Sis! Could you give us a warning next time? We look like a squad of walking strawberry-flavored cotton candy!"
"We do this every night, yet you all still can't relax."
Lin Qingyue looked completely innocent.
"Besides, pink is the color of justice. And it's incredibly effective, isn't it?"
With their matching pink hair, the three teammates' mental states recovered to their peak, and the suffocatingly tense atmosphere in the squad vanished during the small "Pink Hair Party."
"Alright, let's get down to business."
Su Wan was the first to regain her composure, pointing out the root of the problem.
"The school's intel on this Dungeon stated the maximum entry level is 39."
"But the true form of the 'Mother of Rebirth' we just glimpsed, even for a fleeting moment, displayed power far beyond what a Purifier of that level could handle. This violates the fundamental rules of a Dungeon."
She looked at Lin Qingyue. "If you hadn't continuously unleashed your ultimate abilities... we probably wouldn't have even had a chance to escape."
Xia Lian nodded in deep agreement, her face still pale with the lingering terror of their near-death experience.
"My intuition tells me that all space was locked down at that moment. Teleportation scrolls and any escape items would have been useless."
"That's right."
Lin Qingyue's smile faded, her expression turning serious.
"And unleashing my ultimate just now was purely due to the environmental bonus of the Dreamscape's home turf."
"Anywhere else, forget giants and trains, I couldn't even summon a handcart."
"But don't panic," Lin Qingyue said calmly. "Her arrival must be restricted. Otherwise, She wouldn't have just threatened us; She would have crushed us outright."
"Could it be..." A realization dawned on Su Wan. "The power isn't constant! She might have complied with the Dungeon Rules upon entry, but later, through some method, She broke through the upper limit!"
"Some method?" Lin Xiyue looked at her sister.
Lin Qingyue's fingertips tapped lightly on her staff as she connected all the clues in her mind.
She looked up, her eyes gleaming with the excitement of discovering a new continent, and finished Su Wan's thought.
"Yes, some method! Echo of the Heart's Abyss amplifies desire. The Mother of Rebirth feeds on desire."
"She's like a cloud server, and all Her followers in this Dungeon are terminals contributing their processing power to Her!"
"Twisted desires, amplified by the Dungeon Rules, become Her food and processing power, continuously catalyzing Her strength—upgrading Her from a Little Tyrant Learning Machine to the Tianhe-2 supercomputer!"
The three of them froze in horror at this deduction.
"This means," Lin Qingyue explained, "as long as the Mother of Rebirth's followers still exist, still bewitching people's minds, She can 'level up' indefinitely!"
"So what should we do?" Lin Xiyue frowned. "Are we supposed to kill all His followers? Just the four of us?"
"That won't be necessary."
A sly, mischievous grin spread across Lin Qingyue's face.
She gripped her staff and slammed its base into the ground with a sharp thud.
"Have you forgotten my Purification Art?"
"Our goal isn't to kill them. It's to cut off Her server's internet connection! We're going to format Her terminals, one by one!"
Lin Qingyue's eyes sparkled with eager anticipation, like a veteran gamer who'd just discovered a novel way to play.
"Let's go! Time to find our first batch of 'lucky customers'!"
They sprang into action immediately.
With Xia Lian, their professional Ranger, scouting ahead, the group of four quickly locked onto a target in a desolate hilly region.
It was a patrol squad of five Cat-men, each sporting fluffy cat ears and a twitching, flexible tail.
Their eyes burned with fanatical devotion as they hummed distorted hymns, their formation sloppy and disorganized.
"Target confirmed: five-man squad, no other enemies nearby."
Xia Lian whispered, her pink ponytail swaying slightly in the wind, standing out conspicuously.
"Xiyue, prepare for crowd control. Su Wan, give me a 'High-Precision Magical Light Pollution'."
Lin Qingyue rapidly issued commands.
"Understood!"
Though Su Wan didn't understand the string of technical terms, she guessed Lin Qingyue's intent and immediately raised her hand.
"Xiyue, on my signal, we'll take them all out in one go."
Lin Qingyue whispered, unable to suppress a mischievous grin.
She took a sphere of magical light from Su Wan's hand, compressed to its absolute limit and as bright as a star, and flicked it with her fingertip.
Swoosh!
The sphere of light, as if granted life, ricocheted at high speed between the rocks of the hills, tracing a Z-shaped trajectory too fast for the naked eye to follow.
The Catfolk patrol was instantly alerted.
"What was that?!"
The lead Cat-man barked.
However, in the next second, all the Catfolk's gazes were locked onto the frantically bouncing "little red dot."
Their ears twitched uncontrollably.
Tails wagged excitedly.
Pleasant purring sounds rumbled in their throats.
Their fanatical faith, brainwashed by the Evil God, was ultimately no match for the hunting instinct etched into their genes.
"Meow!"
It's unclear who cried out first, but the five Catfolk instantly abandoned their patrol duty, scrambling over each other to pounce on the dot of light, bumping and colliding until they formed a tangled heap.
"Now!"
A pink figure shot out like a cannonball!
Lin Xiyue charged, and just as the Catfolk piled up for the light dot, she slammed her heavy tower shield, Blackstone's Protection, onto the ground beside their feet!
"Shield Bash: Ground Shake!"
Thud!
With a dull, heavy boom, a powerful shockwave erupted from the shield's center.
The five Catfolk, who had been tumbling in a human pyramid, were instantly sent flying, collapsing in a dazed heap with stars spinning in their eyes.
The entire sequence was fluid and clean.
"Done."
Lin Xiyue slung the massive tower shield over her shoulder, flicked her matching pink short hair, and spoke coolly.
Lin Qingyue slowly walked over, nodding in satisfaction as she looked at the unconscious Catfolk squad lying scattered and piled on the ground.
"Excellent. Our first batch of group-buy customers has arrived."