Chapter 695: I Won't Run Anymore

Qingque felt her Alert Line slip down by half a notch.

After years of goofing off, she was still somewhat confident in her voice‑recognition skills; that voice definitely wasn't older than ten.

She reached out and grasped the door handle.

The metallic chill rose from her palm, her fingertips applying a slight force to turn the handle; with a click, the door opened.

What first emerged from the doorway wasn't a room, nor furniture, nor a little girl.

It was a row of teeth.

Dense, grain‑like teeth stretched from the left side of the doorframe to the right, and from the top lintel down to the threshold.

The whole door was completely covered by a gigantic mouth, its gape matching the doorframe's dimensions; each tooth glistened with a damp, dark‑red sheen in the dim light.

Deep within the teeth, deep within the mouth, was a massive eyeball pressed against the exact center; its pupil was vertical, surrounded by blood vessels, and the surface was coated with a sticky, transparent film.

The eyeball shifted, focusing on Qingque's face.

Then Qingque saw that on the tongue at the mouth's center, there was a tiny mouth.

It was small, its lips a normal pale pink, slightly open.

"Help~ I'm hurt......"

The voice sounded sticky and gooey.

The distressed little girl's voice was coming out of that tiny mouth.

Qingque slightly opened her mouth, her whole face frozen in the expression she had when the door opened, her mind a blank.

She felt her Reason String retreating rapidly, screaming as it receded, yet her body remained rooted, still gripping the door handle, staring at the massive eyeball in the doorway.

"I..."

She hadn't finished speaking.

The huge mouth suddenly gaped to its maximum, its body swelling out from behind the door; the walls on either side of the frame cracked apart, shards of brick and dust exploding outward, and the mouth expanded wide enough to swallow the entire corridor.

Layers of grainy teeth spun inside the cavity, revealing a pitch‑black throat below; a foul, warm, humid, rotting breath gushed from its deepest throat, blasting straight at Qingque's face.

The gust turned her entire face green instantly.

Not metaphorically—she truly turned green; her naturally jade‑green eyes were already green, and now even her cheeks were stained a vegetable hue.

The mouth stayed slightly ajar, allowing the odor to slip in, pouring straight from the mouth into her throat; she nearly vomited on the spot.

I (damn)

At that moment, her mind abruptly cut off all thought.

Whether it was a dream or what, regardless of logic, regardless of whether the other was a little girl.

She flicked her fingers inside her cuff, and a pale‑green jade token appeared between her two fingers.

Engraved on the jade token's face was a leaping fish; the whole token now emitted a faint cyan‑blue glow, light seeping from the fish‑scale patterns one by one, as if something were awakening deep within the jade.

Her hand rose faster than the monster's bite; as she flicked her wrist, the jade token traced a short cyan‑blue arc, slipping from her fingertip.

It struck the grainy tooth at the center of the huge mouth—ding!

A crisp, pleasant sound rang out, like a jade bead dropping into water, echoing through the entire corridor.

The moment the token slammed into the mouth, the whole world held its breath.

A burst of cyan light exploded from the mouth's depths; a cyan‑blue water column spun out from the center of the monster's cavity, its force pulling the grainy teeth out of the gums one by one, the massive eyeball shooting out of its socket, turning the entire mouth inside out.

The monster's body was torn into fragments within the cyan vortex, each piece of flesh further shredded by the swirling water until no residue remained.

The water column did not cease.

The cyan‑blue vortex spun forward, pulling everything in its path, shredding them into fragments, then shredding those fragments even further.

The vortex's spread grew larger, eventually carving a massive gorge hundreds of meters long before her.

From where she stood, she could see the distant TV Tower, its tip still emitting dark‑red ripples.

The entire building before her had a huge chunk removed; the cut surface was smooth like tofu sliced with a knife, its edges still dripping cyan‑blue droplets.

Water streamed across the ground, a cyan sheen covering the ruins' surface, as if a light rain had fallen.

Her field of view suddenly widened considerably.

Qingque still held the pose of having just thrown the token.

Her arm was fully extended, the jade token between her fingers no longer in her hand; the token had somehow returned to her cuff.

She stared at the "Scenic Avenue" she had created with a single hand, her jade‑green eyes unblinking.

"Huh?"

Qingque looked down at her hand, then spread her five fingers and turned her palm over, before raising her head again to gaze at the gorge that cut through the entire building; her lips moved, squeezing out the second half of a sentence, "Am I really this powerful?"

Before she could digest the fact, a sudden clamor erupted from the corridor's end, accompanied by a rapid thudding of footsteps mixed with the scraping sound of fleshy tendrils scurrying across the ground.

Qingque turned her head and saw a huge swarm of monsters pouring in from the stairwell.

Long‑necked ones, spider‑legged ones, bud‑like ones, ones split into upper and lower halves, and some whose original forms were unrecognizable; compared to the horde that had chased her on the street earlier, this time the numbers were several times greater.

The leading long‑necked creature had already flung its head forward, its neck forming an S‑curve in midair, its mouth wide enough to swallow a coffee table.

From its throat burst the two words, Happiness!

The wave of Happiness shouted layer upon layer, shaking the entire ruin.

Qingque turned back and looked again at the ruins she had just created.

The corners of her mouth lifted slightly.

This time she wasn't going to run.

She had already witnessed the power of that token, so why run?

After all, this is a dream; being invincible in a dream is only natural, isn't it?

She turned around, facing the swarming monsters head‑on, raised her right hand, forming a gun shape with thumb and forefinger, arm extended, fingertip aimed at the foremost creature whose head stretched five meters long.

Following the inexplicable impulse that rose within her, she softly uttered a single syllable.

Unlike before, this time she didn't close her eyes and fling wildly; instead, following some instinct inside her, she focused her attention on her fingertips.

That feeling was indescribable, like when the gray‑haired woman in her dream stood atop a high mountain teaching her Great Void Sword Qi, the essential points she memorized in a half‑asleep state, her heart like still water, untroubled.

Although her heart now beats far from still water, her fingers are very steady.

"biu."

It seemed as if a drop of water fell into a still lake in the air.

A cyan‑golden glow burst from her fingertips, a tiny speck, like a drop of ultra‑dense ink spreading in clear water; the light spilled from the tips, extending outward in a rhythm almost lazy.