Chapter 33

Chapter 33

Upon entering the Gobi region, the environment starkly contrasted with the rainforest zone.

Vast stretches of flat, desolate desert unfolded. The reddish-gold sand, having absorbed a full day's sunlight, still radiated a warm residual heat even at night. Distant, undulating sand dunes were sparsely dotted with desert vegetation whose leaves had degenerated into thorny spines. When the wind blew, sand and dust flew directly into one's eyes.

Aside from the scarcity of water, the Gobi region seemed more conducive to survival than the rainforest, at least lacking the unpredictable Zerg and other camouflaged rainforest beasts.

However, many Gobi creatures were nocturnal, and the Medici squad was ambushed by an adult Red Flame Centipede during their journey.

This Intermediate Zerg stood three stories tall. Its immense size, paralytic fire venom, and ability to burrow underground made it prone to sudden, devastating attacks, rendering it one of the more troublesome Intermediate Zerg types.

The Red Flame Centipede erupted suddenly as the team approached a low sand dune, kicking up clouds of dust. With a roar, hundreds of dark red legs writhed, its gaping maw poised to lunge down upon the unsuspecting group.

Cecil, who had been lingering at the team's periphery, was closest to the Zerg, his back turned. Eve sharply cried, "Cecil!"

The pale gold humanoid mech spun around!

Two thick, emerald-green shadows shot from the sand, intertwining and coiling around the Red Flame Centipede. Though merely a Spiritual State, these vines were incredibly resilient, restraining the several-meter-long Intermediate Zerg with remarkable force. These crucial seconds of control, provided by the Mist Cloud Vine, gave Cecil time to react. With a click, Jason's arms deployed two rows of high-yield ion cannons, both aimed squarely at the immobilized Zerg. Then, with a deafening blast—

The cannons fired abruptly, utterly disregarding the Mist Cloud Vine still entangled around the centipede.

Luo Lin, well-acquainted with her brother's temperament, retracted her Spiritual State the instant the ion cannons appeared. The once overwhelmingly powerful vines instantly dissolved into faint green specks, drifting ethereally before vanishing into the air.

The ion trails pierced through the mist of green light, blasting multiple holes through the Zerg's dark red exoskeleton.

The Red Flame Centipede remained frozen in its initial attack posture until a gust of wind scattered its shattered body across the ground.

"I thought high-tech weapons weren't allowed?" Dick stared in disbelief. "So many ion cannons—won't the elders object?"

"Those originally equipped on the mech don't count," Cecil sneered, as if mocking Dick's ignorance. "If I had to put Apollo away and dismantle Jason's cannons, I might as well not participate in this practice at all."

Dick could only concede to the "pay-to-win" player.

As night fell, the tracking team reported that the previously placed tracking signals were no longer moving significantly. Eve surmised that the squad leader had likely returned to the main base and signaled for the team to halt.

"Tomorrow, we'll face a tough battle against Isabella," she stated. "Tonight, we all need proper rest. Let's divide the night watch into three shifts: early, middle, and late."

Each shift would be overseen by an S-rank: Cecil for the early shift, Eve for the middle, and Luo Lin for the late. The others would be assigned to the three groups based on their abilities. Due to her suspicions about the young master, Eve specifically added three extra people to Cecil's group, while she and Luo Lin each took only two.

Facing Cecil's questioning gaze, she offered an insincere smile and explained, "Oh, it's just that Silver Moon Clematis is a healing/support-type Spiritual State. I specifically arranged two attackers and one defender to protect you, young master."

Cecil responded with a cold sneer, expressing his disbelief.

Whether he believed it or not was irrelevant. Eve spread her coat on the ground, crossed her hands over her chest, closed her eyes, and immediately drifted into sleep.

The Luna Butterfly instinctively settled on her shoulder, its wings folded as if it had fallen asleep with its owner. But Cecil knew it only appeared to be asleep—in reality, it held all of Eve's remaining consciousness. At the first sign of danger, the Luna Butterfly would instantly awaken its master.

She didn't fully trust the companions around her.

Cecil couldn't help but grind his teeth. He stared at Eve's tired, serene sleeping face for a long time, recalling the first day of the practice.

She had participated in almost every aspect alone, requiring both mental and physical effort. No wonder she didn't trust those around her.

She was asking for trouble.

After mentally categorizing Eve's behavior, he deliberately avoided looking at her.

Those fools from the side branches always believed that with enough effort, they could overcome anything. Eve thought this way, and so did that woman from his memories—always going all out in everything. Little did they know, the more a tool sharpened itself, the faster it wore down. Once its value was completely depleted, it would be discarded by its master without a second thought.

He detested such simplistic, naive beliefs.

The three others on night watch sat together at a distance, watching with bated breath as the young master stared at their captain with an unpredictable expression. They were prepared to risk their lives to save their captain if he lost control and attacked. But surprisingly, Cecil managed to restrain himself, though he still looked like a sullen, resentful man.

"What's going on?" one whispered.

"I heard the patriarch wanted Eve to marry into the family, but she refused," another murmured back—the same one who had earlier called Dick humorless.

He and Dick were close, both fond of snooping around and sharing gossip, birds of a feather.

The third person gave each of the first two a light flick on the head. Though scolding them, she instinctively kept her voice low. "Are you two trying to get yourselves killed? This isn’t gossip for the likes of you."

Some things, the more you know, the sooner you die.

Not everyone could mess with the young master.

The two shuddered, cautiously glancing at Cecil to ensure he hadn’t overheard. Relieved, they remained quiet as church mice for the rest of the early watch, thankfully without further incident.

As soon as the middle watch began, her electronic wristwatch vibrated softly. Like clockwork, Eve's eyes snapped open.

The first thing she saw was Cecil sitting cross-legged not far away, staring blankly into the distance—at the dark night sky, the sparse stars, the vague shapes of sand dunes under the darkness. Who knew what he was looking at.

Eve shook out her jacket, put it on, and quietly walked up behind Cecil. She snapped her fingers beside his ear, startling the young master lost in his thoughts. "What?" he snapped.

"What do you mean, 'what'? Go to sleep," Eve said, giving him a strange look. Did staying up all night make him stupid? "It’s my watch now."

Knowing he’d been caught off guard, Cecil returned to the center of the camp with a dark expression. Just then, Grace got up and passed by, noticing his cold, stern face. Curious, she asked Eve, "Who irked him this time? He’s been sitting alone for hours. No one had bothered him, so why does he look like he’s been wronged?"

"No idea. Maybe I interrupted him in the middle of pondering life, and he’s upset about it," Eve guessed.

Grace: "?"

She didn’t really get it.

Eve didn’t quite understand either, but she made a "shh" gesture to the other two. Following where she pointed, they saw the sand shifting not far away as a palm-sized, jade-white scorpion emerged from the ground. The area underground had been swept in advance by Luo Lin’s Mist Cloud Vine, so there shouldn’t have been any other creatures. But judging by the scorpion’s size, it was probably newly hatched.

It had a thick tail, slender pincers, and a long, slender body glowing with a faint blue light—clearly highly venomous.

Not a Zerg, so killing it wouldn’t earn any points. Eve glanced at it, and the Luna Butterfly understood, flying over to land on the scorpion’s head. The scene looked like a complete, eerily beautiful jade sculpture—a white jade scorpion with a gorgeous platinum butterfly perched on its head. But only those involved knew that the moment they made contact, the butterfly’s legs trembled slightly, silently seeping into the jade scorpion’s body and instantly taking control of its entire consciousness.

Resting her head on one hand, Eve quietly pointed into the distance with the other. The jade scorpion obediently scurried away from the camp. It wasn’t until some time later that the Luna Butterfly gracefully flew back.

Since discovering her abilities, Eve had been practicing intentionally, growing increasingly adept at using this newly uncovered Mind Control power. Now, even without direct contact, just by using the Luna Butterfly as a conduit, she could influence others. For small, simple-minded creatures like the jade scorpion, controlling them was even easier.

It was a rare moment of quiet. The steady breathing of her companions beside her, the vast night sky and endless red sand in the distance—the desert at night was as silent and sweetly dark as a dream. Though dangers still lurked, to Eve now, they were nothing.

She looked down at her pale, soft-looking palms. She knew these hands were incredibly resilient, hiding astonishing strength.

In just a few months, everything before her transmigration felt as distant as a past life.

Perhaps the stillness of night was too much like death, Eve couldn’t help but recall her uneventful past.

She grew up in an orphanage where resources were tight and relationships cold. Even the children were named by their bed numbers, so she never experienced much warmth there. The only person she remembered being exceptionally kind to her was a woman—a volunteer who often came to the orphanage. She had rare, beautiful golden hair and was a devout believer. Every time she visited, she brought candies and the gospel of God.

She was the one who gave Eve her original name, Lu Qing. "God teaches us not to walk the dark, slippery path," the woman told her, her voice gentle. "We should walk the bright, open road instead."

She ate the candies the woman brought, accepted the name she gave, but let the stories and advice go in one ear and out the other.

If there truly is a God, then why is there so much injustice in the world? Why do some have happy families while she was abandoned at the orphanage gate? Why, after fighting tooth and nail for her education, did she discover that the world beyond textbooks wasn't all sunshine and roses but only sharper class divisions? In her youth, hard work visibly improved her rankings, but after stepping into society, she realized that even her utmost efforts only brought her to some people's starting lines.

Some are destined to be the protagonists of the world, some can only be supporting characters, and others are born to be cannon fodder. But one day, when a cannon-fodder character unexpectedly transmigrated into the novel as a female supporting character, she initially wanted to return to her original world out of fear of the plot. Gradually, however, she unexpectedly found the life of this supporting character to be—

So damn exhilarating.

Exceptional talent, an illustrious background, a bright future—though not the protagonist's charmed life where everything falls into place, it was a life she had never dared to imagine before.

Eve couldn't help but chuckle, clenching her hands into fists as if holding the entire world. The dark, treacherous path was now a discarded past, and the bright, wide-open road lay right in the palm of her hand.

She had stumbled into this life unexpectedly, and she would never allow anyone to destroy it.

The middle of the night slowly passed with the flow of time. Among those lying down, there was a slight movement—Luo Lin was about to take over her shift.

Eve was surprisingly energetic tonight, even offering Luo Lin a spirited smile and saying gently, "Go back to sleep. You must be exhausted from using the Mist Cloud Vine to travel today. You deserve more rest. I can keep watch for you a while longer."

She playfully winked with her left eye: "I specifically arranged for Cecil to take the first shift just to prevent him from finding out I’m covering for you."

"You have to face Isabella tomorrow," Luo Lin remained unmoved. "You need rest too. Besides, my watch is already shorter and during the morning hours—I’m already getting the easier shift."

Eve tilted her head: "Are you worried about me?"

She opened her palm, and the Luna Butterfly flew toward Luo Lin. The moment its fine antennae touched the girl’s forehead, everything visible transformed completely. Eve showed her, in that instant, her own mental world:

A pure, dustless white sky, pale grey-blue water gently flooding the ground, and beneath a silver moon, a planet so bright it was nearly blinding—more intense than a supernova, surrounded by countless intricate, densely packed Alchemical Ciphers. Silent, formless, colorless laws cycled in operation; though no other life was visible, it radiated boundless vitality.

Through this realm, one could almost feel the absolutely stable and powerful psyche controlling it.

"Hmm?"

The Luna Butterfly had already retracted its antennae, but Luo Lin still seemed dazed and stunned. Eve worried she might not have controlled her strength properly and tentatively called out, "Luo Lin?"

"…"

The ever-expressionless girl silently glanced at her, stood up, and walked back.

She pulled her coat over her shoulders and went back to sleep.

Eve raised an eyebrow in amusement and signaled the other night watchers to return to sleep as well.

Really, she thought she might be starting to see the charm of this "three-noes" girl.