Chapter 1174: Cheating

“Yes, it works!” Old Seven cried out in excitement. His nagging hadn’t been in vain.

The three immediately moved toward Liao Liao. A Black Gold Mobius strip appeared in Hong Xiaoxiao's hand. She raised it high, then drove a shadow spear into the concrete beneath Liao Liao's feet, anchoring the strip to the ground.

Liao Liao took a deep breath and activated Insect Kings, deliberately challenging the domain's power.

Radiance immediately enveloped her. The intangible moonlight closed in, encroaching on her psyche and willpower. Overwhelming sleepiness crashed into her. Without hesitation, she thrust a dagger into her chest. The pain of near death jolted her awake.

This clarity lasted only seconds before an even stronger wave of sleepiness hit her.

Not yet!

I can’t sleep yet!

Just a little longer!

The pain of her self-inflicted wound and the domain's hypnotic power played tug-of-war with her consciousness as the rope. To the others, the moonlight shrouding Liao Liao grew increasingly bright, almost turning her into a lamp while simultaneously dimming elsewhere in the domain.

All the moonlight inside the Domain of Night was converging on Liao Liao like intangible, gentle hands, attempting to soothe her into slumber.

Wakefulness is sinful.

Pain is the result.

The tired,

Slumber

While the night is thick.

The exhausted,

Dream

And enjoy eternal bliss.

“Insolent death monster, bow before this Empress’ wrath!”

Nainai rose onto the tips of her toes and spread her arms, graceful and light as a dancer. In an instant, the gravity around her became twenty percent stronger.

Liao Liao and Old Seven dropped to their knees, their hands barely propping them up, faces contorted in pain. A regular person would have died instantly—spine broken, internal organs shattered.

Similarly affected was the moonlight wrapping around Liao Liao. It began to slow, resembling solidifying butter.

“Heavy!”

Unable to move, Old Seven lifted his hand with difficulty and placed it on Nainai’s foot, activating Heavy. The energy flowed into Nainai's body, channeling into her Gravity. In that instant, the doubled weight pulled every lifeform on the rooftop into an inescapable marsh, both physically and mentally.

Liao Liao reached her limit. She slumbered and died.

One person remained outside the gravitational trap. Hong Xiaoxiao had maintained a thirty-meter distance from her companions, at the edge of Gravity's range. She spread her hands and activated Time Reset.

At that moment, the twenty-meter radius around Liao Liao rewound to three minutes prior.

The dead Liao Liao returned to life. Old Seven was reset. Nainai, having already used up her revival chances, remained immune to the reset's effects. Most importantly, the thick moonlight shrouding Liao Liao was reset as well.

That was Plan 4.

Over the past few days, Liao Liao had been analyzing the true mechanisms of Wang Shu's Domain of Night, knowing it would be key to defeating her.

Their previous clash had led Liao Liao to a crucial speculation: the silencing effect of the domain wasn't an area-of-effect move, but rather a targeted one against specific individuals.

This meant that while the Domain of Night covered a vast range—wherever moonlight could reach—it wasn't affecting the entire area simultaneously. The domain didn't apply a silence debuff indiscriminately and constantly across the whole area. That would require unsustainable amounts of energy.

What would it take to create a true silence domain that large and maintain it for at least six hours? Even the Support Rune Circuit had only silenced the campus of the Eleventh High School. Could Wang Shu really be hundreds of times more powerful?

With that possibility eliminated, only one explanation remained: Wang Shu merely covered a large area with her moonlight, allowing her to rush at light speed to silence anyone using a specific Talent. Her power was a targeted hypnotic effect, not a blanket suppression.

This explained why Wang Shu's second form wasn't tangible. The fake moon was merely a surveillance system watching over everything within range. Wang Shu's true form was hidden within the omnipresent moonlight—or was the moonlight itself.

Wherever the fake moon detected a prohibited Talent, Wang Shu's second form would reach the target instantly through the moonlight and hypnotize them, causing the Talent to fail and putting the target to sleep.

In theory, catching the special moonlight would be catching Wang Shu in her second form; then they would be able to make an effective attack to break the Domain of Night.

But this was all speculation. Team Liao Liao had one chance and needed to be precise.

To prove her theory, Liao Liao had used Cheating.

This talent allowed her to find an enemy's weakness given enough time, and if she already had a hypothesis, she could identify the weakness more quickly.

Still, it would normally take too long.

That's why she had enlisted Old Seven's help with Nagging. The interference had agitated Wang Shu's emotions while in moonlight form, allowing Liao Liao to identify the vulnerability and confirm her theory.

She immediately executed Plan 4.

It was named that because the plan killed[1].

The plan was simple: Liao Liao would use Insect Kings to draw Wang Shu's second form to her. To make the moonlight concentrate and linger longer, Liao Liao countered the hypnotic power with self-inflicted pain.

Then Nainai's Gravity and Old Seven's Heavy combined to trap the moonlight.

Hong Xiaoxiao was the one catching their prey with Time Reset.

If they succeeded, Wang Shu’s second form would be reset to three minutes earlier—theoretically forcing her back into human form and rendering her unconscious briefly.

Liao Liao would be resurrected. Old Seven, caught in the reset, would become unconscious as well. Nainai, immune to the effect, and Hong Xiaoxiao would remain awake to finish Wang Shu.

Countless white energy threads shot from Hong Xiaoxiao's fingertips, covering the entire rooftop and forming a dense cage. More threads recorded everything inside through touch, as if alive. The moonlight around Liao Liao began to struggle, trying to flee but unable to escape—at least not in moonlight form.

Hurry! Faster!

Hong Xiaoxiao urged mentally, accelerating the reset. Even seconds could make a critical difference.

Suddenly, everything dimmed momentarily.

The moonlight trapped in the white cage began taking form. It rapidly solidified into Wang Shu, though her eye sockets remained empty. Standing beside Liao Liao's body, she raised her right hand toward the fake moon and made a pulling motion.

The massive fake moon split in half, morphing into two small meteorites that spiraled toward the rooftop.

Dammit!

Hong Xiaoxiao quickly stopped the reset and shouted, “Run!”

Thankfully, they had prepared for this worst-case scenario. Nainai deactivated Gravity, carrying Old Seven on her Gale as they retreated swiftly.

Three seconds later, the two meteorites slammed through the building, razing it to the ground. Another boom, and the explosive shockwaves left a crater below.

Nainai flew to Hong Xiaoxiao with Old Seven in tow. Hong Xiaoxiao immediately conjured an orb of shadow to shield them.

The shockwave hurled the orb into the sky. Nainai steadied it and kept it hovering by manipulating gravity.

Once the explosion was over, the orb turned into threads of shadow and returned to Hong Xiaoxiao’s body. Nainai’s Gale kept the three of them in the air.

Two-thirds of the buildings lining the Degenerate Street had collapsed. Wang Shu hovered above the center of the crater. The half moons had turned into two white ambers. Spinning around Wang Shu, they then flew into her empty eye sockets. Her head snapped back, pink hair flying, as if struck by bullets.

Soon, she straightened herself and nodded. Her beautiful gray-blue eyes were back.

...

Meanwhile, Nainai and her companions quickly approached the crater. Hong Xiaoxiao spread her hands and shouted, "Time Reset!"

Liao Liao had foreseen the possibility of failure and kept a hairpin on her person. Even if Hong Xiaoxiao couldn't reset the entire rooftop, she could still target and resurrect Liao Liao specifically.

White shards of energy appeared in the air like living snowflakes, converging toward Hong Xiaoxiao's hands and forming a human-shaped glowing cocoon.

By the time Wang Shu had recovered her eyes, Hong Xiaoxiao had already resurrected Liao Liao and rendered everyone invisible.

Wang Shu slowly descended into the crater.

“Hm...”

She stretched and exhaled a long breath. “Whew, that was close. I almost got killed.”

1. Four is

si

, which is pronounced the same as death, only in a different tone. ☜