With the boost from Advanced Mind, Lin Zichen finally saw the fox‑eared girl’s true body.

She was sitting on the roof of the military bus.

Perhaps from the very start, the fox‑eared girl had never left the roof at all.

It was just that everyone’s mental strength was insufficient and they failed to perceive her presence.

Whether it was her sudden appearance in front of the bus, or suddenly inside the bus or the instant she seemed to teleport behind Shen Qinghan—those were all false images.

They were illusions conjured by the fox‑eared girl.

This fox spirit from the Source Site was extremely skilled in illusion techniques.

Bang!

Suddenly there was an explosive thud as a foot slammed off the ground.

Lin Zichen moved.

Having located the fox‑eared girl’s true body, he did not hesitate for even an instant. He flared all the vitality within him at once and his calves drove hard against the ground.

A deep pit stamped into the earth.

Dirt flew up in sheets.

Using the powerful thrust from that stomp, he shot toward the fox‑eared girl in a blink.

He raised a fist sheathed in surging vitality.

He held nothing back.

And smashed a punch at the fox‑eared girl’s head.

He sought a one‑hit kill.

Against an enemy who wanted to harm Shen Qinghan, there could be no mercy—she must be put to death.

At the instant the fist fell, the fox‑eared girl smiled.

A playful smile.

Lin Zichen’s heart sank.

‘Why was she smiling? Was she an illusion again?’

As the thought flashed, his fist crashed savagely into the fox‑eared girl’s forehead.

Then there was a vmmm.

His fist passed through the head—hitting nothing at all.

‘Another illusion.’

Lin Zichen’s heart plunged.

Even with Advanced Mind he could not handle her.

This was bad.

Without thinking more, having missed, Lin Zichen swiftly fell back to Shen Qinghan’s side, all senses flaring as he watched the surroundings.

The fox‑eared girl wanted to kill Shen Qinghan; he had to protect her.

“Interesting… You can raise your mental strength in an instant and break the illusions I’m proudest of. You keep surprising me,” came a sweet voice—from right beside him where Shen Qinghan stood under his protection.

Lin Zichen jerked his head around.

To his horror, the Shen Qinghan he was guarding had somehow become the fox‑eared girl.

But in the next second, under the boost of Advanced Mind, the fox‑eared girl before his eyes turned back into the familiar Shen Qinghan.

Lin Zichen could no longer tell.

He felt he was losing the boundary between true and false.

The fox‑eared girl’s illusions were a devastating blow to his five‑sense perception.

“Xiao Chen…”

Sensing something was wrong, Shen Qinghan called to him softly.

Lin Zichen snapped back to himself and took her hand.

There was warmth.

She was solid.

Her skin was smooth and soft—familiar.

He could confirm it was Shen Qinghan.

A chill of fear washed through him.

The fox spirit was vicious—she had tried to make him kill with a borrowed knife.

Thankfully when that sweet voice had sounded in his ear a moment ago, he had not lashed out.

Or his blow would have hit Shen Qinghan.

That fear did not last long; it faded quickly.

In its place, a small breath of relief.

From the exchanges just now, Lin Zichen had somewhat figured out the situation.

The fox‑eared girl’s mental power was strong—but not overwhelmingly so.

With Advanced Mind, he could greatly shorten the duration of her mental control.

In both exchanges just now, he had fallen into illusions and broken free the very next moment.

Also, from those two exchanges he could judge that her physical body was not strong.

It really seemed to be only at Ordinary Nine.

Otherwise, there would be no reason to spend time and effort weaving illusions instead of attacking directly.

Having grasped this, Lin Zichen scooped Shen Qinghan up and sprinted flat‑out without another word.

If her body truly was only Ordinary Nine, she would never catch his pace.

But the fox‑eared girl was more troublesome than he had thought.

He had not run a hundred meters with Shen Qinghan in his arms when he realized the sky had gone dark.

In the span of a single second, blazing noon turned pitch black.

And a perfect, absolute black.

You could not see your hand before your face.

Immersed within it, his five senses were massively suppressed.

Especially sight—it had faded to the point he could not see the road at all and could no longer sprint at speed.

Lin Zichen was forced to stop.

He could only stand still and wait for Advanced Mind to work and break the illusion.

Under the boost of Advanced Mind, his vision was slowly returning and he could gradually make out what was before him.

But the world was still black—no return to blazing daylight.

This illusion’s potency was unprecedentedly high.

Even blessed by Advanced Mind, he could only chip away at it; he could not break it outright.

“Zichen, Qinghan, where are you?!”

“Brother Chen, don’t leave us!”

“Stop shouting, calm down—you’ll only make trouble for Zichen.”

From behind came the voices of Li Moyu, Ma Xiwei and Luo Yongjian.

The two males sounded panicked.

Ma Xiwei cooled them down.

Lin Zichen did not answer them; he kept his vigilance on the surroundings.

The fox‑eared girl’s targets were him and Shen Qinghan.

As long as the other three didn’t seek death, they would be safe enough.

“Xiao Chen, why did it suddenly go dark—I can’t see anything,” Shen Qinghan said nervously, clinging to him.

Watching the dark and soothing her at once Lin Zichen said, “Don’t panic—it’s not a big problem. I can handle it.”

“Mm.”

Obediently, Shen Qinghan fell quiet and stopped disturbing him.

Then a tender voice sounded in the dark:

“Oh? So confident?”

“….”

Lin Zichen looked toward the voice—and saw only endless black.

The fox‑eared girl spoke again, “You inexplicably confident little bed slave—come, let me see how you break my illusion this time.”

As her words fell, a beautiful purple moon appeared from nowhere in the pitch‑black sky.

Its violet glow drove back swathes of darkness.

Suddenly the purple moon became an eye—its iris a pale violet.

A hint of seduction in it.

Soul‑seizing.

Lin Zichen recognized it as the fox‑eared girl’s eye.

He was shaken.

Her illusions were too strong—completely overturning his understanding of how to use mental power.

Before this, his understanding of mental power was limited.

Nothing more than lifting objects at a distance, flying, sharpening the five senses.

At the high end, a mental shock—spreading mental force to strike the target’s mind and make them black out.

But to wield mental power with a thought to weave a phantasmal realm and trap a target in it so they could not tell reality—this was his first time seeing such a thing.

“Little bed slave—here it comes,” the fox‑eared girl’s voice whispered.

As her voice fell, the huge eye in the sky glimmered with an eerie violet light.

In the next second, Lin Zichen felt his mind jolt.