Chapter 761: Laigu Shi!!!

Heimu lifted her eyes again.

The violet‑black pupils cleared, and the stiff, immobilized feeling of being pressed into the soft chair peeled away from her shoulders and back, replaced by the familiar state that belonged to her: calm vigilance and a rapidly rising anger.

She looked at the floating entry panel above XiaDie's head.

The third red lock icon on the panel, which had been spinning while loading, finally unlocked.

The locked symbol shattered, revealing three characters beneath.

Laigu Shi.

Heimu stared at those three words for a full two seconds.

Her mouth corner slowly drooped, twitching several times before steadied.

XiaDie's third entry was "Laigu Shi".

"Laigu Shi!"

She let the three words sit on her tongue and chewed them once, her tip of the tongue grinding between her teeth as if to bite the name apart.

Then she turned her gaze back to the XiaDie before her; XiaDie was still speaking, lips moving, a gentle voice flowing sentence after sentence.

Phrases like "Your Excellency and I share a common goal" and "Turn Weng Fa Luo Si into what it should be."

Those words, when first heard, carried a subtle magic, each syllable landing precisely on the softest spot of her heart.

Listening again now, they felt as if each word were read from a script.

Heimu gave her no response.

Her violet‑black eyes narrowed slightly, a fine ring of purple light glowing deep within the pupils.

She activated the reverse‑scan mode of her perception filter.

The scene before her seemed to have a thin film peeled away; in the air behind XiaDie, a few ultra‑fine, pale gold threads materialized, extending from both sides of her nape outward into an indistinct darkness.

Those threads had previously been completely invisible, obscured by a higher‑priority Cognition interference.

Had the system not forcibly awakened her perception module, she probably still wouldn't see them now.

Heimu raised her right hand, her five fingers snapping into a fist.

Centered on her fist, a violet‑black ripple burst silently outward.

The surrounding setting—the warm‑yellow cocoon‑shaped chandelier, the butterfly specimen, the Antiling flower field outside the window, and the smiling XiaDie standing before her—all fractured the instant the ripple touched them.

Like a mirror struck by a stone, cracks radiated outward from the center, each emitting a faint shattering sound.

The entire mirror shattered on the spot with a loud crash.

As the fragments fell, they turned into translucent data streams, dissipating piece by piece into the air.

After the Illusion Realm faded, the reality beneath was revealed.

A violet‑white void with no sense of depth.

And the vague silhouette that materialized at the far end stood at the opposite terminus of all the golden threads.

A contour of a humanoid mechanical construct, its silver‑gray and obsidian body reflecting a cold, hard metallic sheen in the violet‑white void.

A black Eye Mask‑style helm covered the eye area, short silver‑gray horns curving backward, shoulder‑length silver hair hanging quietly beside the face.

Arms crossed over the chest, posture erect and proper, a stance so standard it could serve as a cover for etiquette textbooks.

A calm, detached smile lingered at the mouth corner.

Heimu slightly opened her mouth.

Thousands of words surged upward from her chest, bunching together at her throat.

She stared at that face, at that courteous stance, at the smile identical to the one in the game, at the golden threads linking to XiaDie's nape.

In other words, everything just now had been controlled by that creature.

XiaDie's whispers, those overly gentle touches, that line "I think we're very alike."

From start to finish, it wasn't XiaDie speaking.

It was that creature.

This damned, restless scoundrel!

"I cnm."

Heimu finally expelled the breath that had been stuck in her throat.

The distant figure seemed to let out a soft laugh.

It released its arms from around its chest, placed its right hand on its breast, leaned slightly forward, and bowed to Heimu.

"It appears, madam, you have noticed."

The voice came from afar, filtered through the violet‑white void and carrying a faint electronic reverberation, its tone reverent to the point of near‑devotion: "Approximately four minutes seventeen seconds earlier than expected. Intellect interference was insufficient to fully mask your perception; my calculation was erroneous. My deepest apologies."

Heimu's eyes twitched several times.

Her brain instantly completed the identity assessment of the being opposite her.

It is not Laigu Shi!

It lacks the full personality and Memory data of Laigu Shi, does not possess the complete Authority that Intellect destiny commands should grant, and lacks autonomous decision‑making ability and independent will.

It is a fragment of data about Laigu Shi recorded in this body, which Aha casually seized with a handful of joyous power and, after sprinkling it on, coalesced into a lingering echo.

A data echo.

A Laigu Shi joy‑version bot.

It was this thing, just now controlling XiaDie's body, whispering in her ear....., showing her....., using Ti Bao and its matching series to threaten her into making a sequel, and even almost letting her grasp the outstretched hand.

Disgusting.

Purely physiological disgust.

It rose from the bottom of her stomach, surged up the esophagus, lodged at her throat, both sour and astringent.

If it were XiaDie's own behavior, even if it were influenced by an entry, even if it were a perverted fan‑fiction girl attribute pushed to the limit, even if a sister‑obsessed extremist tied the sister to a bed, it would still be XiaDie herself.

The desire magnified by Aha's entry is still desire, and the personality distorted by the entry is also a part of the personality.

But being controlled by someone else is another matter.

Those gentle words, those faint touches, those prompts that precisely step on her soft spot, are all the optimal solution calculated by a bot based on a data model.

Even that ordering is most likely generated by an algorithm.

Heimu raised a hand.

After the five fingers opened and then closed again, black mana surged from the palm, coalescing into a slender Magic Staff shaft.

The Magic Staff's body was entirely jet black, its surface coursing with dark‑purple light patterns; its head was a violet‑black crystal encased in a thorn‑shaped metal frame, and within the crystal churned dark mist that moved like a living thing.

The staff handle fell into her hand, the staff tail paused toward the void, striking a silent dark‑purple ripple.

The violet‑white void was swept by this ripple, and the entire space trembled briefly.

She pointed the tip of the staff toward the silver‑gray figure in the distance that still maintained an elegant stance.

"Any final words?" Her voice was cold to the point of ice.

The distant figure straightened, the curve of the smile on its mask unchanged.

"Madam, I bear no hostility toward you."

The voice remained respectful, even earnest enough to give one goosebumps, "Everything I have done is solely to show you a possibility. A possibility of cooperating with you. XiaDie's data model is highly suitable as a communication medium. Her favorability toward you ranks among the top in the Golden Descendant. I merely borrowed an appropriate window."