Chapter 807: Sudden Shift in Art Style

Ying's hand moved away from herself, habitually reaching for her waist, where a tachi should have been hanging.

Her hand paused in the air, then turned toward her feet, picked up the red‑black Foot-long dagger, and held it in her hand.

The white cherry‑blossom pattern on the blade's surface left a shallow trace on the carpet as the long decorative cloth dragged.

She stared at the blade's pattern, her brows furrowing tighter.

Heimu did not urge her.

Taking advantage of Ying's moment of thought, she glanced again at the tracking screen on the System Panel.

Then her attention was pulled entirely over.

Xi Lian's movement on that side stopped.

The screen showed a room.

To be precise, it was a very pink room.

The four walls were painted light pink, and near the ceiling a ring of delicate floral wallpaper was applied, with petals in soft cream white and leaves in pale mint green.

The floor was covered with an off‑white long‑pile carpet, its pile thick enough to cover the ankles when stepped on.

A princess‑size bed stood by the wall, its sheets goose‑yellow, the pillows embroidered with round cartoon rabbits, and the quilt neatly folded.

On the nightstand sat a Crystal Lamp, its shade pink translucent glass; the light filtered through, bathing the whole room in a warm, soft pink glow.

In the center of the room was a pile of Dolls.

The assorted Dolls formed a small hill, including rabbits, bears, cats, penguins, and several round, unnamed pink creatures.

A short piece of white ribbon peeked from the Doll pile; it was the ribbon that Xi Lian had wrapped around her hair ends.

Xi Lian was bound, her eyes covered with a light pink silk scarf, a pink seal with a smiling face stuck to her mouth, her whole body buried in the Doll pile, her peach‑pink hair and the rabbit's pink fur almost merging.

Her chest still rose gently, occasionally emitting a muffled "um".

Heimu stared at the screen for several seconds. The first thought that sprang to mind was not a rescue plan, but a huge question mark.

She had expected Mei Bi Wu Si's destination to be a surgery room or a cold laboratory, with stainless‑steel operating tables, glaring incandescent lamps, walls lined with silver instruments, and specimen jars soaked in formalin.

Instead, it was a room like this.

Pink walls, cartoon rabbit pillows, a Crystal Lamp, and a Doll pile.

This style didn't match at all the woman Mei Bi Wu Si who loved snakes to the point of experimenting on herself.

On the contrary, it was very much Ailixiya's style.

She once doubted whether it was really Mei Bi Wu Si who tied her.

Or Ailixiya?

Or perhaps Mei Bi Wu Si, having been influenced by Ailixiya for too long in Past World Paradise, had subconsciously adopted her method of post‑binding placement?

Heimu glanced again at the pink light dot representing Xi Lian on the map.

The coordinates had stabilized, no longer moving.

From the coordinate position, this pink room lay in the deepest part of Past World Paradise, almost the most remote area, separated from her current location by an unknown number of corridors and junctions.

Mei Bi Wu Si tossed Xi Lian into the Doll pile and left; currently the room held no trace of a second person.

Since Xi Lian's position had stabilized, there was no reason to delay further.

She must first pull her out.

Although Xi Lian was temporarily safe, being bound by ribbon and left in the Doll pile would become uncomfortable over time.

Heimu turned off the surveillance feed and looked toward Ying.

Ying still stood there, hand on her chin, brows tightly knit, evidently still straining to recall the Memory fragments before the green light surged.

"Ying."

Ying lifted her head.

"Does Xi Lian still remember?"

Heimu asked, "She was taken away by Mei Bi Wu Si. I need to go retrieve her now."

She paused, her violet‑black eyes looking at Ying through the shadow of her hat brim, "Will you come with me?"

Ying paused.

Those gray‑purple eyes blinked once, the lashes sweeping lightly over the lower lid.

Then she slightly furrowed her brows and nodded.

"I'll follow you. I also need to figure out what happened, why I attacked you in the corridor, what those markings on my face are, and …"

She looked down at her uniform and Foot-long dagger, "These."

Then she suddenly recalled something, raised her head: "Did you just just encounter the Doctor?"

Heimu shook her head.

"There was no direct sight of her. She moved too fast, leaving only some traces."

As she spoke, she raised her hand, palm up, and the System Panel's image materialized in the air: the transparent snake slime puddle on the corridor carpet, the bizarre trace Xi Lian left on the System Panel when she was whisked away at high speed, and the chaotic sliding marks Mei Bi Wu Si left.

"Fortunately, I placed a tracking beacon on Xi Lian."

Speaking of that, Heimu suddenly remembered something.

She tucked the Magic Staff into her arm fold, her right hand reaching into the hidden layer of her lolita skirt, fingertips touching a cold object.

She extracted the Crystal Flower and handed it to Ying.

"This, do you recognize it?"

Ying took the Crystal Flower.

The transparent petals reflected a faint prismatic glint on her gloved fingertips, the cluster of tiny crystal particles at the flower's core showing a very pale cool‑white hue under the dim green light.

She turned the Crystal Flower over, scrutinizing the pattern on the back of the petals, a focused gleam flashing in her gray‑purple eyes.

After three seconds of silence, she nodded: "This is very similar to Ailixiya's style. She has several of these Crystal Flowers, has sent us many. But these patterns feel more intricate than hers."

Heimu took the Crystal Flower back from her hand.

Her fingertip pinched the flower's core and turned it once, then paused.

On the colorless, transparent petals, a faint pink hue was slowly appearing.

The pink shade seeped from the petal edges inward, like a drop of diluted strawberry juice falling into clear ice, the color threading along the petal's veins.

The Crystal Flower, which had been completely transparent, now had five petal edges tinged with a very light pink, and a tiny pink dot appeared inside the transparent core sphere.

Ying clearly also saw this change.

Her Fox Ears perked up, her gray‑purple eyes widened slightly: "It just—?"

"It was completely colorless just now."

Heimu lifted the Crystal Flower to a position level with their line of sight, their violet‑black eyes looking through the petals at the faint green light down the corridor.

Her voice was pressed down to a very low whisper, as if talking to herself, yet also conversing with the pink hue inside the Crystal Flower, "I have scanned it. Pure physical structure, no data attached, no energy residue. But now it has changed color."

Why did it change color?

What triggered its change?

Heimu quickly reviewed everything that had happened from picking up the Crystal Flower to now.

Picked up the Crystal Flower. Signal vanished.

Ying appeared, her face bearing Corrosion markings, and frantically attacked her.

Defeated Ying, the Corrosion markings receded.

Ying regained consciousness.

The Crystal Flower began to change color.

If this change's timeline coincides with the timeline of the Corrosion markings receding on Ying, then the Crystal Flower may be responding to a state switch, such as Ying Jie returning from an abnormal state to a normal one.

Or perhaps the Crystal Flower needs contact with different Ying Jie instances to change.

Colorless means not yet contacted, pink means it has already contacted Ying, so could there be other colors?