Chapter 866: Slacking Off

That eyeball blinked once.

Then it moved away.

"Huh."

Qingque continued walking.

She passed through the crouching demon‑shadow bodies rummaging on the ground, went around the one with a swollen sac on its back, stepped over another lying on the ground that she couldn't tell whether it was sleeping or playing dead, and when she reached the end of the alley she paused, turned around and glanced back.

Five or six demon‑shadow bodies were still packed together, and after she left nothing changed.

One stretched lazily, another scratched the eyeball on its chest with a claw, and a third rummaged through the broken wooden crate and shoved an unknown object into its mouth to chew.

Qingque watched the scene, and the corner of her mouth twitched.

A wildly absurd thought suddenly sprang in her mind: could the fact that the demon‑shadow bodies didn't attack her be the worst part?

After all, the Xueyi Judge of the Ten Kings Office had already pointed at her nose and shouted "Abundance Offspring."

Now even the Abundance creation itself no longer treated her as an outsider.

"Better not overthink it," she said, turning her head back, rubbing her temples hard, and quickening her steps out of the alley.

First, get out of the sealed zone.

When she returned to Tai Bu Si and met Fu Xuan, she recounted every encounter from the moment she woke up from the sickbed, detailing everything, explaining how to investigate and how to handle it.

As long as she can go back.

She turned out of the alley, and in front of her was another empty street, with shops on both sides shuttered, and the lanterns by the roadside still unlit.

Dusk had already darkened enough to require careful watching of the road, and the distant horizon still held a thin orange‑red afterglow.

Just as she was about to step forward, her ears caught a regimented, muffled footstep sound—military boots striking stone slabs!

Cloud Cavalry!

Qingque's eyes flashed briefly, then she became cautious again.

She's still in this sealed zone, and her appearance isn't great; if the Cloud Cavalry took her as a suspect and interrogated her, how could she explain how she walked here unharmed through a sealed area swarming with demon‑shadow bodies?

She hesitated, deciding not to approach for now.

At least find a safe route out of the sealed zone first, then interact with the Cloud Cavalry in a normal way.

At that moment, some movement came from behind her.

Perspective shift.

The sunlight on the beach gradually changed from midday golden‑white to afternoon honey‑orange, slanting across the palm leaves of the shade canopy, filtering through the gaps, scattering a line of tiny specks on the brim of Heimu's Witch Hat.

She leaned back in a canvas beach chair, posture as casual as if on vacation, left leg draped over the right knee, the black satin of her off‑shoulder Lolita dress brushed lightly against her calf in the sea breeze.

She propped her chin with her right hand, and with her left hand swiped the empty space in front of her; a translucent System Panel floated silently in the air, framing a live feed from Xi Lian's side.

The pink‑haired girl was still curled up in the pastel room, lying among a pile of dolls, the warm pinkish glow from the translucent crystal lampshade falling on her face, clearly showing the imprint left on her cheek.

Her mouth was slightly open, eyelashes fluttered gently, and she muttered an indistinct dream phrase now and then, probably dreaming of something tasty.

"She slept quite soundly."

Heimu hummed lightly, swiped a fingertip across the panel, shrinking the surveillance feed into a corner.

There was no anomaly on little Xi Lian's side for now; after Mei Bi Wu Si tossed her into that room, he hadn't bothered her again, which eased her mind a bit.

She lifted her gaze, her eyes passing the edge of the panel to land on the beach chair opposite.

Su sat there.

To be exact, she was sprawled there.

The Tianhui of Past World Paradise, Kaiwen's lighthouse—now lay in the canvas chair in a posture that could be called the perfect "slacking off."

One hand rested on the armrest, fingers hanging naturally, the tips shimmering with a porcelain‑like soft glow in the sunlight; the other hand lay on her abdomen, palm down, pressing the hem of her swimsuit.

Her wine‑rose eyes were covered by her eyelids, leaving only two slender, flat slits; her lashes cast two faint curved shadows on her cheek.

The expression on her oval face transcended mere "calm": a faint smile, eyes closed, the curve of her mouth serene as if she had seen through worldly affairs and entered emptiness, her breathing rhythm steady as if in meditation.

Su's towel had vanished.

The towel she had been desperately wrapping herself in earlier had at some point been crumpled into a ball and tossed under the beach chair, its fringe trembling in the sea breeze.

Without the towel's cover, the two‑piece swimsuit of soft white and misty black lay fully exposed in the sunlight; the off‑shoulder design with a wide neckline revealed her breasts and shoulder skin, the dark‑purple and light‑blue binding strap at her waist glimmered with a subtle metallic sheen, and the gilded ring on the thin black‑white strap around her right thigh swayed gently with her steady breathing.

The pale‑white strapped flat sandals on her feet dangled.

Su's unspoken message was clear: she had given up.

She'd hidden, she'd fled, the towel wrapped and fell and wrapped again, and finally Ge Lei Xiu's "Sister Su" pierced all the pretenses.

Since she's already socially dead, she'll die a little more thoroughly.

It's just a swimsuit, just being seen by acquaintances, just losing face; she chose this tranquil, smiling, as‑if‑she‑could‑ascend‑instantly demeanor to confront a world that is too cruel to her.

About three steps away from Su, Ge Lei Xiu sat on a sun‑warmed large stone, holding a charcoal pencil, with an unknown drawing board set before her.

Her ice‑blue shoulder‑length hair was lifted by the sea breeze then fell back, and a golden hair accessory swayed lightly, refracting the sunlight into several fine golden threads.

The collar of her white off‑shoulder uniform was slightly lifted by the wind, revealing the fair skin beneath.

Her two calves, tightly wrapped in white silk, were drawn together slightly; the Light Sword hung quietly at her waist, posture proper, like a representative from a life‑drawing art class.

Her eyes focused on the board, the charcoal pencil scratching across the paper, occasionally glancing at Su before returning to draw.

From her expression, she had no doubt about the current situation; or rather, with Ge Lei Xiu's naturally transparent mindset, she didn't think Su lying in a swimsuit on the beach chair was odd at all.

Being able to draw is certainly good, as long as no major messes appear.

Heimu withdrew his gaze and brought up the System Panel again for another look.

Of course she didn't intend to sit here and wait; rather, after entering this beach space, her system permissions were capped with a restriction: global scanning was locked, map access was disabled, and even basic regional data retrieval popped up a message: "Do it yourself, earn your own abundance~?"