Above the night sky, a dozen vines were already wrapping around the giant beasts, keeping them from running wild. But more and more gray mist demon beasts were gathering all around, so many that the Twin Trees couldn't possibly stop them all...

Du Yu pressed his back against the mall's glass window, smashed it viciously with his elbow, then turned and dashed into the mall—only to come to a sudden halt.

In the flickering light of the mall's first-floor lobby, a team of black-robed people were assembling.

At some indeterminate point, they'd already crept into the mall, using the building's cover to reach the place nearest the Twin Trees' roots.

"Gulp." Du Yu's Adam's apple slid up and down as he slowly edged sideways, while the black-robed people were already poised and ready to pounce, darting in his direction.

Du Yu moved sideways at speed, instantly nocking an arrow to his bow, but his fingers froze for a second.

He realized—the black-robed people weren't after him?

"Crash!"

"Crash..." One after another, the black-robed people burst through the windows, countless gray mist balls gathering at their chests and shooting toward the massive roots of the Twin Trees.

"Bang!" A thunderous boom!

The Twin Trees would do their utmost to protect all living things nearby, but that didn't mean you could attack them!

At the very instant the black-robed people launched the gray mist balls, a thick vine came lashing down, actually splitting the whole mall lengthwise!

The black-robed people were smashed to bits, the gray mist balls immediately blasting apart.

"Jump left, left!" Little Fen Yang's voice rang out in his mind.

Within the collapsing mall, a cloud of dust billowed up. Du Yu, scrambling madly to escape, dodged the falling planks with Little Fen Yang's guidance.

"Phew~"

He managed to dodge the collapsing planks, but couldn't avoid the shockwave from the blasting mist balls.

"Shit!" Du Yu couldn't help but curse for once, and in an instant, the blast wave knocked him flying, slamming him headlong into a stone pillar ahead.

Du Yu flung out both hands, trying to steady himself on the pillar, but ended up slamming chest-first and landing hard on a patch of weeds.

The scene suddenly shifted—Yang Qingqing's eyes narrowed!

Shadow Gu Tower, Fifth Floor!

With a move he called the "prostate brake," Du Yu dragged out a mark across the weeds and finally slid to a stop.

"Ptooey~" Du Yu spat out a mouthful of grassy dirt, hurriedly looking left and right—only to see apartment buildings on either side.

Du Yu blinked. He was back in the residential complex again?

Yang Qingqing's voice sounded in his ear: "This is Shadow Gu Tower, Fifth Floor! You should be in the center of the complex, in the garden between two buildings!"

"Whoosh~ whoosh!"

A faint sound came from overhead. Du Yu scrambled up on his knees and looked up, a sense of déjà vu creeping over him.

In the moonlight, volley after volley of Fire Arrows shot up from the rooftop of the southern apartment building.

And in the night sky, a group of black-robed people were flying at high speed toward the southern rooftop!

One arrow, two, three, four.

Missed every damn time!

Damn it! That was definitely me!

I only humiliated myself once—does this damn tower really have to play it on a loop?

Du Yu immediately turned to look at the other building's rooftop.

"Jingle~ jingle jingle~"

Sure enough, right at this moment, the girl in the Red Raincoat was backed up to the roof's edge, her foot slipping, and she plummeted off the building!

"Clack! Clack! Clack!"

The frantic click of high heels rang out—the Black Mist Woman chased after Red Raincoat, leaping after her.

This time, Du Yu, standing in the courtyard, didn't have his view blocked by the black-robed people—he saw the whole thing clearly.

"Rumble!" The sound of countless gray mist balls exploding. Du Yu knew that blast wave would topple his rooftop self.

But his eyes were locked on the falling Black-clad Woman and the Red-clad Girl... Wait!

Du Yu's eyes narrowed. He saw at the edge of the rooftop—right at the spot where the woman and girl had fallen—a figure suddenly appeared.

The high collar covered the lower half of the face, a hood shading the upper face, and a sleek hunting bow slung across the body.

In the moonlight, the tip of the hunting bow's bow arm gleamed coldly.

Me!

It's actually me again!

Du Yu stared in shock, but then a scream snapped his attention away.

The falling woman and girl drew closer; the Black Mist Woman stretched desperately to catch Red Raincoat, and in that instant—

"Aah~!" Red Raincoat suddenly let out a piercing wail, and the Black Mist Woman froze mid-action!

Just like in the lit-up house earlier, when the Red-clad Girl burst from the door and fled for her life, the Black Mist Woman had stiffened then too, like she'd been hit by some Body Fixation Technique.

One scream—instant reversal!

Red Raincoat instantly grabbed the Black Mist Woman's hand, spun around sharply, and with a jolt of strength, flung her straight at the ground.

"Thud!"

Du Yu gaped dumbly—just twenty or thirty meters away from him, the woman who'd fallen from the seventh floor crashed heavily to the earth.

And Red Raincoat drifted lightly down, landing in a completely different pose from her earlier panicked fall, her little feet planted on either side of the woman's body.

"Uh, uh..." The Black Mist Woman trembled slightly—unbelievably, she wasn't quite dead yet. At the back of her head, a puddle of black mist oozed out, soaking the ground, looking almost like blood.

"Hehe~" Red Raincoat Girl cackled, reaching her small red-tinged hand into the woman's wool coat to search around.

Slowly, she pulled out a tiny object—a miniature tower.

Shadow Gu Tower!?

Du Yu's pupils shrank. The tower was tiny, as dainty as a figurine, but its appearance was unmistakably the Shadow Gu Tower!

"Jingle~ jingle jingle~"

The girl held the tower by its spire and gave it a little shake, like she was showing off her spoils. The bell bracelet at her wrist jingled crisply.

Next, Red Raincoat pressed the little tower to the woman's head.

"Aagh! Aaaaaaah!" A shrieking scream sliced through the air.

The Black Mist Woman seemed as if the Shadow Gu Tower was sucking out her soul—a swirl of thick black mist drifted out of her skull, drawn into the little tower.

"Hehe~ Hehe~"

The little girl giggled creepily. Watching as the Black Mist Woman at her feet stopped twitching, Red Raincoat stashed the Shadow Gu Tower and pulled a small sapling from inside her coat.

Twin Tree Seedlings!

This was the real Twin Trees Du Yu remembered—one withered and dying, one brimming with life.

And what happened next made Du Yu's skin crawl!

"Stab!" The Red-clad Girl gripped the Twin Trees and forcefully stabbed the sapling's roots into the Black Mist Woman's chest!

The Black mist blood pooling around the woman started flowing back, as if the Twin Tree Seedlings were constantly draining it in.

Within the Twin Tree Seedlings, that withered, lifeless sapling slowly revived, growing green leaves alongside its partner...

"Hahaha!" Red Raincoat laughed gleefully, yanked out the reborn Twin Tree Seedlings, and dashed off.

Under the moonlit night, only Du Yu stood frozen in the courtyard, with the Black Mist Woman's corpse—her soul devoured, her blood drained—lying spread out on the ground...

In front of the monitor, Battalion Commander Liu wore an unsmiling face.

Up to now, he hadn't known the Demon Tamer Prentice's story framework, since no apprentice had ever broken through the first floor—his soldiers had no way to know how it went.

He felt crushed, not just because the Shadow Gu Tower's story revealed such deadly secrets, with all of it playing out for Du Yu, but because this brutal tale tore at his heart.

"So you weren't the villain." Du Yu's muttered words echoed for all to hear, "You were trying to catch Red Raincoat. You're... a Law Enforcer?"

Then why did you attack me?

Did you think I was an accomplice of the Red-robed People? Or maybe you were just a test set up by the Shadow Gu Tower, meant to see if I was ruthless, determined enough—worthy of learning your story...

As it turned out, since the first trial in front of the iron gate, after passing the test, Du Yu's ascent through the tower sped up rapidly.

Fast enough that he was now on the fifth floor!

Just two more levels, and he'd reach the story's final act!

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