The girl was clad in a skin-tight black suit, her figure exquisitely curved, looking no older than Xiaoshu, with a lingering hint of immaturity in her brow, yet her eyes burned with undisguised murderous intent—the very picture of someone ready to champion the cause of all wrongs in the world.

Seeing that her opponent was a girl of similar age, Xiaoshu waved her hand, retracting her throat-locking claw, tossing aside the wooden staff, and proactively offering her right hand in a gesture of truce. To her surprise, the girl refused to back down, gripping her sickle and sweeping it horizontally towards Xiaoshu. Startled, Xiaoshu leaped back two meters, chastising her, "Why are you trying to kill me for no reason?"

The girl gave a light laugh, then darted forward with the swiftness of a striking viper, the sickle held ready. "For acting as a jackal for the tiger, you shouldn't die. Who should?" Before the words fully left her lips, the tip of the sickle pierced Xiaoshu’s back, tearing a long gash across the fabric. With a slight pull forward, accompanied by a sharp zzzzt of ripping cloth, her once fine long-sleeved shirt was shredded into tatters. Xiaoshu was left looking like a beggar, clad in mere strips of fabric, inadvertently revealing the scars left by spider bites in the Sea of the Dead.

Seeing the dense tapestry of scars, the girl suddenly halted, tilting her head as if lost in thought. After a long moment, a look of pure confusion crossed her face as she asked Xiaoshu, "You've been to the Sea of the Dead?"

Sensing a shift in momentum, Xiaoshu was secretly delighted, though she kept her expression perfectly blank. She shot the girl a cold glance, gave a noncommittal grunt, and feigned an air of utter indifference.

"Then do you know where the Blood Kin Compass is?" The girl took a step closer, her voice laced with concern.

This question truly stumped Xiaoshu. Since the beginning of this ordeal, only two people had used the Blood Kin Compass: Yingzi and Xiaoyu. Though Xiaoshu was the master of Shadow Reflection Villa and had indeed visited the Sea of the Dead, she knew absolutely nothing about that device. She vaguely recalled Xiaoyu mentioning it once, but the specifics of its location or usage were completely lost to her. Still, one should never appear too earnest when trying to charm a girl; admitting ignorance now would waste this hard-won opportunity. Moreover, the sickle in her hand resembled Xiaoyu's; perhaps this girl knew something about Xiaoshu's whereabouts.

Thus, Xiaoshu deliberately played coy, refusing to answer the girl's query directly. Instead, she sized the girl up dismissively and asked with a tone of veiled contempt, "What is your name?"

"I..." The girl, being young after all, was easily led astray by Xiaoshu's maneuver and forgot her initial purpose. She trailed off, following the other's lead. "My name is Li Bingyu."

"Oh," Xiaoshu inwardly gloated, realizing the hook was set. She then adopted a stern expression and pressed on, "You are so young, with a bright future ahead. Why are you engaging in this sort of killing? Those people might have their flaws, but the nation has laws, courts, and prisons. Even if they committed crimes, it is not your place to mete out punishment."

"I..." Bingyu blushed deeply under Xiaoshu’s rebuke and lowered her gaze to the gleaming sickle in her hand. After a moment of hesitation, she mumbled, "This was unavoidable. I've been dead for three days, and the only way to preserve this shell before it vanishes is to kill ninety-nine people."

Hearing this, Xiaoshu was rendered speechless, feeling as if she were walking through a haze. The sight of the identical sickle in Xiaoyu’s hand sent a sharp pain through her heart. After a long silence, she finally managed a faint murmur, "If you are dead, how are you still standing here?"