"You all rest well. Leave the rest to me." Chu Lian slowly turned around and said softly. Her voice wasn't loud, but it spread across the entire battlefield. Not only the girls but even the members of the special forces could hear her clearly.
"Lian, we'll wait for your return." Inori stopped the others who wanted to ask questions and spoke while looking at Chu Lian's back.
She knew that Chu Lian was serious this time. After all, after more than two hours of holding the line, not only were Li Xiu'er and Liu Yanran—two girls without powers—exhausted, and Chu Chu and the others who had just stepped into the world of cultivation worn out, but even she herself was starting to feel the strain.
The enemies she faced weren't many, but each one was far more troublesome than an ordinary zombie. Moreover, she had to constantly pay attention to the girls' safety, making sure that the special zombies couldn't exploit any openings. This kind of divided focus lasting for such a long time—she would be lying if she said she wasn't tired.
However, she also knew she wasn't the one suffering the most. Tina, positioned in the center, was even more exhausted. Every time the zombie horde approached the nearby frontlines, it was Tina who unleashed a burst of power to clear the surrounding undead, giving everyone a relatively safe zone to fight in. Such explosive attacks consumed vast amounts of Spiritual Power, a heavy burden for a spirit still in growth. And yet, she continued to endure.
The girls were all gritting their teeth to persevere. As the second core after Chu Lian, how could she show weakness before them? This wasn't about pride—it was about responsibility. As their leader, it was her duty to stand firm.
Since Chu Lian had said she would handle it, there was no point in saying more. All Inori needed to do was watch her back. After all, this wasn't the first time Chu Lian had acted so willfully—and stopping her now would be impossible.
"Don't worry. I'm not the only one this time," Chu Lian said clearly. She fully understood her own abilities. With the Spirit Convergence Device amplifying her power, she could continuously cast wide-range skills like "Unstoppable," "Void Slash," and "Breaking Blade." If she used them here, she could wipe out a massive portion of the zombie horde. That would certainly benefit the American research teams—but it would also risk exposing her abilities to them.
Even though they might already harbor suspicions, the fact that they had chosen to release the zombies while pretending not to notice her meant they still didn't consider her an important target. Their focus remained on the undead themselves.
If she annihilated these zombies now, she would immediately become the number-one person of interest in America's eyes. Those zombies were research materials—and she, a being unlike any other ability user, would become an even more valuable subject of study. The resulting trouble would be endless.
She had just managed to neutralize the Otherside's offensive. If she provoked another superpower now, she would never find peace again. Chu Lian didn't want that kind of life—and she didn't want the people around her to suffer that way either. So, she couldn't afford to do that.
"Hiru, can you lend me your strength?" she asked. "I want you to use your body to surround this area. Don't let any zombies enter. Leave everything else to me." She needed to guard against not just the Americans, but also the special forces watching nearby.
The incident with Tírnas had already been mentioned—they had definitely heard it. There was no point in hiding it now. However, what she planned to reveal wasn't everything—just enough to make them take her seriously, ensuring they wouldn't easily decide to oppose her.
So, what should she reveal? After a quick mental process of elimination, the answer became clear.
The Seven Illusions Bow, the Void Greatsword, her superhuman strength, and Tina's existence were already known. Hiding them now would be pointless. It was better to use them appropriately.
On the other hand, abilities like Teleport, Head-Hug Squat Defense, "The Gloves Abandoned by the Ladykiller," "Reimu's Donation Box," and other unique skills and items had yet to be revealed to anyone outside the girls. Those could be saved for emergencies.
Then there were her trump cards—the slumbering Hare Menjou, Inori's unused "Lost Christmas," and Kurosaki Satsuki, who had been secretly acting in the shadows. Each of them was a hidden ace.
Finally, there were the "world-ending weapon" Nina, Lich King's Manual of Cultivation, and Tírnas's Crystal Palace—now stored safely within her space. These were never to be revealed unless absolutely necessary. Until she grew stronger, they would remain her ultimate secret weapons, known only to those closest to her.
In the end, after thinking it through, only the mentally immature Anna and her guardian, Hiru, remained.
Anna had to be ruled out. Her power was indeed immense, but she didn't yet know how to use it. The only reason she had been able to fight Chu Lian to such a degree earlier was because Tírnas, bound to her body, had automatically possessed her after the seal broke, protecting her and using her own hundreds of thousands of years of combat experience to fight in Anna's stead. It was no wonder Chu Lian had been completely overwhelmed. If Tírnas had harbored even the slightest intent to kill, Chu Lian's death would have come the moment she stepped into the defense perimeter.
If Anna were to fight now on her own, being able to unleash even one percent of Tírnas's strength would already be impressive. To become as powerful as her mother, she would need a very long period of growth. Moreover, Chu Lian had promised Tírnas that she would never allow Anna to face danger while she was present. Even if that restriction only applied to situations that would force Tírnas to intervene, Chu Lian still chose to protect her completely.
That left Hiru—the one she could afford to expose. For one, revealing it could prove that there was a powerful being backing her. Whether the others believed it or not, that implication alone would serve as a protective layer. Second, it showed that she had a formidable subordinate, warning them that she wasn't someone to be trifled with. And third, it would divert attention away from Anna, concealing her existence.
She believed that with some time to grow, even if Anna could only use a tenth of her full power, she would still be comparable to an Earth-level being. By then, Anna would be a hidden ace in Chu Lian's hand—one no one else knew about.
Of course, this was an ace she would never use lightly. She hadn't forgotten how terrifying the girl's true mother really was—the one who kept calling her "Mommy" now.
However, Chu Lian failed to realize that she still held several true trump cards—ones so powerful that they could shake the world itself.
There was Eve, sleeping deep within Inori's soul, and the system's steward, Ayase—both were super beings who stood at the absolute peak of the Heaven level.
Then, there were her parents. Those two who had always acted like ordinary people—getting sick, getting injured, going on trips with their children—were, in fact, the ones who had silently supported her entire world from the very beginning.
Her mother, Li Mingxue, had a mysterious past and unknown strength, but there was no doubt she was at least Heaven-level. Her father, Chu Xiao, who appeared to be an executive in a publishing conglomerate, was secretly the supreme commander of the special forces squad that had always claimed to protect Chu Lian—a man standing at the very pinnacle of both power and authority.
It wasn't so much that she didn't notice this truth—rather, she subconsciously chose not to. She probably didn't want Ayase, Inori, or her own parents to be dragged into her problems.
"Mommy, what do you want Hiru to do?" Anna tugged at her hand, snapping Chu Lian out of her deep thoughts. Hearing the question, Chu Lian repeated what she had just been planning: "I want it to return to its true form and protect this area."
"Oh, did you hear that, Hiru?" Anna asked, scratching the little serpent coiled around her arm. Whether she truly understood or not was unclear.
Flicking its tongue, Hiru slowly nodded. It could refuse some of Chu Lian's requests under the pretext of protecting Anna, but when Anna herself gave an order, it had no choice but to obey.
"Wait, don't transform to your maximum size," Chu Lian quickly added. "Peak Spirit level will be enough—about a meter thick and long enough to encircle this place."
Revealing her servant was fine, but she needed to keep things contained to ensure her own safety. After all, Hiru's true form was unimaginably massive—even that giant dragon from before would look like a mere appetizer in comparison.
"Be good, Hiru. Listen to Mommy, okay?" Anna said softly, patting the serpent's head.
Hiru narrowed its eyes contentedly, enjoying the affection for a moment before reluctantly loosening its body from her arm. It slid gracefully to the ground and began moving outward.
"Don't panic when you see it," Chu Lian warned the girls. "It was left behind by a powerful being to protect Anna. It's not our enemy."
No sooner had she finished speaking than a dim light spread across the area. Moments later, a massive serpent—its body about a meter thick and nearly a hundred meters long—appeared before them.
The sudden emergence of Hiru's true form startled everyone in the camp. Instinctively, they raised their spirit rifles, ready to fire—but then Chu Lian's earlier warning came to mind. They forced themselves to hold back, their fingers trembling above the triggers, watching cautiously instead.
"Hiru's power is gradually recovering," Chu Lian murmured, shock flickering in her eyes. "Just how powerful was that giant originally? To have suppressed Hiru so completely—forcing it to act as nothing more than the energy core sealing Anna?"
She had once thought that the giant's power came from evolution and devouring. But after hearing Tírnas's explanation, she realized her understanding had been wrong. What she hadn't expected was that the creature's strength hadn't been increasing over time—it had been weakening.
That weakening had dragged Hiru's power down as well, leaving it increasingly unable to maintain the seal over Anna. Once its power fell below the Earth level, its consciousness likely faded completely, leaving behind only fragmented memories and instinct.
Anna's seal had then begun to unravel, bit by bit—until the day it was summoned into this world by the three from the Otherside through a special ritual. When Chu Lian defeated and destroyed it, everything finally ended, freeing both Anna and Hiru.
If not for witnessing Hiru's power now, she might never have pieced all that together.
Even though Hiru had limited itself to the peak of the Spirit level as she'd instructed, Chu Lian—now carrying traces of Tírnas's divinity—could see through the illusion. She could perceive its true strength.
"Early Earth level… and still rising. It'll probably reach mid-level in a few months and return to the Heaven level within five years. So this is the power of a god's servant…"
Her astonishment stemmed not so much from Hiru's strength itself, but from what the title "servant of a god" represented.
Boom, boom, boom! Several heavy impacts echoed in quick succession, shaking the ground beneath her feet. Chu Lian knew it was time for her to act.
Hiru had already coiled its massive body around the area, forming a living fortress. Though it wouldn't personally attack the zombies, ordinary ones—and even most evolved ones—would find it impossible to breach that boundary.
"So annoying…" Chu Lian muttered. The range of her aura was still limited—nothing compared to the hundreds of meters commanded by Earth-level experts—but even so, it covered a twenty-meter diameter around her. She was standing closer to the riverbank, and after encircling the defensive line, there remained a small section about two to three meters away from Hiru.
And right there, a group of large, mutated zombies—those that had just been attacking Inori—were now clawing furiously at the edge of her aura.
"Anna, stay here and be good. I'll be right back," Chu Lian said, bending down to plant a gentle kiss on the little girl's cheek. Leaving the sulking Anna in the care of the other girls, she withdrew her aura, braced her legs, and launched herself forward.
It was time to finish them off. With Hiru guarding the camp, she no longer needed to maintain her aura for protection.
As she leapt into the air, a layer of shimmering blue spiritual power spread across her body, forming a gleaming armor. Extending both fists, she locked onto two of the charging zombies and struck out with full force...