"Lian, we've got uninvited guests," Inori said softly as her eyes opened. She gazed lightly at the streetlights flickering past outside the car window, her voice airy and calm.
"I'll have to trouble you and Tina for a bit then. I can't move right now," Chu Lian smiled faintly, stroking Tina's white fur. Though it sounded like she was murmuring to herself, her words were meant for Inori, explaining her current condition.
As Inori drew the silver pistol from her thigh holster, she replied gently, "No problem. I may not be able to handle someone as strong as that big guy before, but for these three—who together barely amount to his strength—I'm not worried at all."
As if echoing her confidence, Tina, who had been lying lazily on Chu Lian's lap, let out a soft meow. Even if no one could understand her words, it was easy to sense her indifference—an almost arrogant dismissal of their approaching foes.
"Still, better to be careful," Chu Lian said, her gaze meeting her own reflection in the car window, her eyes blinking twice with quiet thought. "They're from the Otherside. We haven't dealt with them often, and they're always changing. I'm worried there might be a troublesome one among them. Opponents like that are harder to handle than those who are simply strong."
Click. Inori slowly removed the magazine from her pistol, then slid it back in with a crisp sound. Her wine-red eyes flashed with cold resolve. "Lian, most of the battles these days have been fought by you alone. It's time you rested. I can handle this."
Lifting her head, those crimson eyes gleamed with icy light. "I won't let anyone hurt you again—even if it means spilling blood."
Meow. Tina, who had been lying on Chu Lian's lap, stood up, leapt onto Inori's shoulder, and looked at her with a serious, almost solemn gaze.
Indeed, as Inori had said—from Jiuzhaigou to Tokyo, across four cities and multiple fierce battles—Chu Lian had always been the main combatant, while Inori often played a supporting role, a protected companion.
Whenever Chu Lian needed to draw the Void Greatsword, Inori would lose consciousness and fall into a deep sleep, unable to assist her. Only now had that changed—she could still fight, even after the Void was drawn.
Now that Chu Lian was seriously injured, and the other two combatants—Kurosaki Satsuki and Chu Chu—were unable to fight, the burden had shifted. The white-haired girl had only just recovered from her own wounds and wasn't yet at full strength, while Chu Chu's duty as Li Xiu'er's protector meant she couldn't leave.
Thus, only Inori and Tina—both of whom had been steadily growing stronger—remained at full combat capability. The incoming foes didn't seem overwhelmingly strong or numerous, so the two of them could handle it.
Chu Lian quickly understood this reasoning. She nodded without protest, then lowered the window divider and spoke to the driver. "Stop the car. There's something we need to take care of."
The driver couldn't hear the conversation in the back once the divider was up, so he didn't know what they had been discussing. Still, he had been instructed to follow Chu Lian's orders precisely. Though confused, he immediately brought the car to a halt.
The other vehicle, which carried Cai Ya's group, noticed Chu Lian's car stopping and also pulled over. The two cars behind them—those carrying bodyguards—moved into position at the front and rear. Sixteen men stepped out at once, forming a tight defensive circle around the girls.
Stopping on a deserted suburban road at night was dangerous, and since Chu Lian's car had been the first to halt, the guards could infer the reason. Sensing nearby enemies, they acted quickly—taking positions to protect the group and prevent any ambush.
The incident at Miss Sakurako's Café earlier that afternoon still haunted them, and they all knew that two of the girls in their charge were to be protected at any cost, even with their lives.
"I'll stay on the roof and keep watch. They're coming…" Chu Lian murmured, opening the car door and leaping lightly onto the vehicle's roof.
The night breeze carried drifting bamboo leaves. Reaching out, she caught a few between her fingers, letting them fall onto the car roof before sitting gracefully, eyes fixed on the distant darkness.
Meanwhile, Inori stepped out, pistol in hand, the faint light glinting off its silver barrel. The wind tousled her pale pink hair, making her look ethereal under the streetlights. Tina stood perched on her shoulder, eyes gleaming sharply as she surveyed the surroundings—the enemy's killing intent now fully exposed.
"Since we have guests from afar, why not come out and meet me?" Chu Lian plucked a green bamboo leaf blown near her by the wind, placed it between her lips, and played a mournful tune before speaking softly.
She spoke in Japanese, but there was no response. Only a suffocating killing intent surrounded her—one that felt as though it sought to tear her apart.
"It seems you don't understand Japanese. Then you must be guests from Huaxia. The Otherside truly is interesting… do you also have nations and languages there? I'd love to see it someday." At this point, Chu Lian no longer saw any reason to hide their identities. She spoke the truth aloud.
The moment the words "Otherside" left her lips, not only did the girls still in the car freeze, but even the bodyguards stiffened in shock.
The Otherside was a forbidden topic among cultivators. Many knew of it, but few dared to speak of it—because it was the eternal enemy that the cultivation world sought to eradicate.
Although most of the Otherside had long been sealed away, the few who escaped the seal or slipped through by unknown means were formidable beyond imagination. Their numbers were vast, and their individual power tremendous. Even with millennia of history and countless masters, the cultivation world had never truly been able to subdue them. They could only endure their periodic invasions and massacres. To cultivators, those beings were no different from demons.
Ruriko Nana and Lux Lyle, being from families privy to these ancient secrets, naturally turned pale upon hearing the word. Cai Ya and Liu Yanran, on the other hand, had never heard of it before. Confused and astonished, they couldn't help wondering—was there truly another world beyond their own?
The so-called bodyguards were the most tense of all. Every muscle in their bodies tightened, their eyes sweeping the area in full alert. Even the faintest rustle made them ready to strike.
As part of the most elite secret units, they knew well the terror of the Otherside. Those beings were strong, intelligent, numerous, and utterly fearless. Even the weakest among them—the Nightfiend Clan—were stronger than humans. And these guards were only on par with those lowest-level nightfiends.
If their opponents were merely of the Nightfiend Clan, Chu Lian wouldn't have been this cautious. But judging from her expression, the enemies approaching were of a far higher caliber. The guards couldn't help but feel dread.
"Cowards hiding in the shadows… how unpleasant," Inori muttered coldly. Breaking her usual silence, she raised her hand—her violet eyes flashing with light—and fired several shots into the surrounding bamboo grove.
Bang! Bang! Bang! The gunfire shattered the stillness of the night. But even more chilling was the anguished scream that followed—a sound like that of a wounded beast.
Hearing it, Tina's eyes gleamed with excitement. She leapt from Inori's shoulder, shifting into her spiritual form midair and vanishing into the shadowed plane, unseen by mortal eyes.
"As expected of the one who defeated the Orai Clan's champion," a raspy voice called out from the bamboo. "Though we despised that treacherous brute, his strength was undeniable. And you slew him without so much as a whisper. Impressive indeed." The tone was halfway between admiration and mockery.
"But I don't believe someone like you could have killed him without injury. At best, you're at a quarter of your full strength now. With your top fighter weakened and your numbers small, you couldn't possibly stand against us."
As he spoke, the figure finally stepped into the light.
Under the pale glow of the streetlamp, his massive frame came into view—at least two meters tall, with six jagged bone spines protruding from his back, each nearly a meter long. His bare arms were thick and covered in overlapping scales, radiating a grotesque, bestial ferocity.
"How about this?" he continued. "If you choose to join our Otherside, we'll overlook everything that's happened. My brothers and I will personally recommend you to the clan to undergo the transformation ritual. With your potential, you'd become one of our finest talents—able to summon storms with a gesture. And we… we'd become your loyal subordinates, your eternal warriors."
As the man spoke, the scales on his face shifted faintly, and his slit-like pupils gleamed with cold menace as they swept the surroundings. His words were tempting—clearly meant to lure them in—and that was likely one of the reasons they were holding their attack for now.
Recruiting geniuses from the surface world, exploiting their ambition, luring them step by step, and then guiding them into the dark world to undergo racial transformation—turning them completely into beings of the Otherside.
From his speech alone, Chu Lian could already deduce one of the goals of those Otherside operatives active in the human world. It was shocking, yet she had to admit—it was an effective strategy.
However… he was giving her far too much credit.
"Too much talking…" Inori turned around, her wine-red eyes flickering coldly as she aimed her pistol at him. Bang, bang, bang! Three shots rang out, each bullet whistling toward the creature.
Although the monster had been trying to tempt Chu Lian, he had never once relaxed his vigilance. The moment Inori fired, he knew he couldn't take the bullets head-on—the spiritual power infused into them made his instincts scream in terror.
But while his mind reacted, his body couldn't keep up. He raised his arm at the last instant to shield his face, determined to protect it even at the cost of his hands and forearms.
It was the right decision—but he never noticed the small shadow materializing behind him. A soft, fur-covered paw emerged from the void, its claws extending into three razor-sharp talons over ten centimeters long. With one swift motion, they sliced cleanly across the back of his neck.
A surge of dark green blood—the hallmark of the undead—sprayed through the air, glinting under the light.
His hands fell limply to his sides. Shock filled his fading eyes. He couldn't comprehend how he had died.
Seeing this, Chu Lian shook her head gently and murmured, "Of all opponents you could've been, you just had to be undead. Before Tina, the Underworld Watcher, you're nothing more than prey. She doesn't even need to enter combat form—her spiritual body alone can annihilate you all…"
As the massive corpse collapsed, several more figures burst from the bamboo forest, charging at Chu Lian's group with eyes glowing a furious crimson.
Chu Lian only tilted her head back to gaze at the moon, sighing softly. "The moon is so beautiful tonight… yet our visitors are so cruel. More blood will be shed once again…"
Tonight, this place would become the graveyard of these uninvited Otherside guests.
Unseen by any mortal eye, the fallen man's corpse was soon covered in a layer of violet crystal—then crumbled into dust, carried away by the cold night wind.