Chapter 87: You Were Deceived

Xing's face still wore that goofy smile of "I'm really a caring little cotton‑padded jacket," completely unaware that she was dancing on the brink of an erupting volcano.

She looked at Black Tower's "brilliant" smile, feeling her mediation task was perfectly completed, her sense of achievement overflowing.

However, Black Tower's next words poured down like a bucket of icy water, hitting her straight on.

The voice squeezed out word by word from clenched jaws, carrying a grating, teeth‑aching friction:

"I—don't—have—sister!"

"You…you've been deceived!"

(Ah this…)

Xing's mind blanked for a moment, but immediately her quirky thoughts kicked into high gear and quickly produced a "reasonable" explanation:

No sister? Impossible!

Black Tower Lady is denying the past! She's evading her inner guilt!

That gentle, sorrowful sister was right; Black Tower Lady is an extremely tsundere!

She must be crying inside now, suffering over her "lack of honesty"!

A surge of intense sympathy and a sense of duty—"I must rescue this lost girl (?)"—instantly filled Xing's chest.

Her gaze at Black Tower was filled with boundless pity and a resolute "I get it."

(Sister once said, in this situation, love and a hug are needed to melt the ice in her heart!)

In the blink of an eye, Xing stepped forward again, moving faster than Black Tower could react, and once more threw open her arms, embracing Black Tower tightly with "Family Affection Radiance."

This time, she even mimicked the imagined "Black Tower's Sister," one hand gently patting Black Tower's back, the other stroking Black Tower's smooth long hair, whispering in a voice she thought supremely gentle:

"I know, I know… Little Black Tower, you've put on that 'Mask' again…"

"It's okay, Sister won't blame you… everything's over…"

"Li… Little… Black Tower…?"

"Mask…?"

In Black Tower's mind, the string called "Reason String," after being stretched by a series of high‑intensity pulls—"Sister Rumor," "Forced Hug," "Ruan Mei Misunderstanding," "Exploding Plush," "Childhood Bullying"—finally, under the ultimate stimulus of the words "Little Black Tower" and "Mask"—

"Break!"

A crisp cracking sound that seemed to echo deep within the soul.

It was her pride as a genius, the most basic sense of boundary of an independent self…

All the defenses built up were, at that moment, completely pulverized by Xing's combo of "Gentle Head Touch Kill" and "Childhood Nickname Awakening."

Black Tower felt red light tinging the edges of her vision.

The Space Station's alarm didn't sound, but her personal alarm system had fully collapsed.

Time seemed to freeze for an instant.

At the other end of the corridor, San Yue Qi faced a stunned Aisida, gesturing wildly as she painted a vivid picture of Black Tower Lady "rolling down the Knowledge Ladder when she was a child."

"…so, Aisida, Black Tower Lady actually…"

"Bang—!!!"

Before she could finish, a huge bang rang out, and a Black Shadow accompanied by a sharp whoosh streaked past them at terrifying speed!

"Wow!" San Yue Qi jumped back in fright.

Aisida was even more shocked, covering her mouth.

The Black Shadow slammed precisely into the high‑strength observation window on the corridor side—capable of withstanding meteor impacts—producing a dull "Bang"!

The glass shivered violently, its internal stress structure flashing wildly, yet the material held firm and did not shatter.

Then the figure, like a flattened frog, slowly slid down the smooth glass surface, landing with a "plop" and flopping on the ground, even bouncing a little.

The two stared and saw it was Xing!

She seemed unscathed (the power of Preservation of Destiny truly lives up to its name, though that blow almost blew her Star Core apart).

"Xing?!!" San Yue Qi and Aisida shouted simultaneously, rushing over.

"Are you okay? How did you…"

Just as San Yue Qi was about to crouch and check, a clear, icy footstep sounded from the corner.

"Step…step…step…"

The sound carried no emotion, like the death knell of the Grim Reaper, advancing step by step.

The three of them (including the barely upright Xing) simultaneously turned their gazes toward the source of the footsteps.

Immediately, Black Tower's silhouette appeared at the corner.

Her complexion could no longer be described as "black"; it was an extreme gloom that seemed to absorb all light.

The low pressure she exuded dimmed the corridor lights a few shades, and the air was filled with a suffocating, terrifying aura.

In her violet eyes burned a cold flame capable of freezing souls.

She walked step by step, her gaze locked on the collapsed Xing on the ground.

San Yue Qi and Aisida froze instantly, like small prey stared down by an ancient beast, holding their breath and instinctively retreating several steps, pressing tightly against the wall.

(Damn! Black Tower Lady is… angry?!)

San Yue Qi wailed inside.

(What on earth happened?! What did Xing do?!)

Aisida's mind went blank, feeling that Black Tower Lady was billions of times scarier than the Antimatter Legion right now!

At that suffocating moment, two more figures hurried over upon hearing the noise—Jizi and Walther, who had been startled by the earlier bang.

"What happened?"

Jizi's steady voice rang out as her sharp eyes swept the scene: the cracked observation window, the dazed Xing lying on the floor, the frightened San Yue Qi and Aisida clinging together, and the Space Station's owner, clearly in a rage, walking step by step.

The seasoned navigator instantly realized the situation was far from ordinary.

She stepped forward, positioned herself between Xinghe and Black Tower, trying to ease the atmosphere, her voice as gentle as possible: "Black Tower Lady, please calm down. What exactly happened? Xing... she…"

Before she could finish speaking, the limp "victim" on the ground seemed to see a savior, jolted violently, like a drowning person grabbing a floating log, scrambling up with hands and feet, clutching Jizi's high‑heeled leg tightly, burying its face in her skirt hem, and, with a sobbing (more frightened) voice, shouted:

"Sister Jizi! Help—!"

"Black Tower Lady... she suddenly hit me! And wants to kill me!"

Xing's accusation was laden with extreme grievance, as if completely forgetting the "deeply moving" "comfort" she had just offered.

Black Tower's footsteps halted.

Her cold gaze swept over Jizi, landing on Xing's body that was clutching Jizi's thigh, that look was practically as if she were staring at a piece of gum stuck to the sole that wouldn't come off.

Her chest rose and fell violently, clearly angered again by Xing, the scoundrel, for his shameless accusation.

She opened her mouth, seeming to want to describe this Star Core Essence with the most incisive, most venomous language, but the peak of Rage seemed to temporarily block her proud linguistic center.

She inhaled deeply, then exhaled slowly, and finally forced out two words from between her teeth that, in her vocabulary, could be called "plain and straightforward", yet were filled with endless fury and contempt:

"This... this..."

Her slender fingers pointed at Xing, the tips trembling slightly, "Idiot! Fool!"

Those two words seemed to carry a thousand‑pound weight, striking the silent corridor.

Walther pushed up his glasses, brows knit, he could see that Black Tower was truly enraged, otherwise, given her temperament, she would never use such... down‑to‑earth vocabulary.