Skinwalker Belle – Chapter 433 – Black Silk Amulet

A deep blue rift pulsed slowly at the center of the laboratory.

Zhou Ming stepped through from the other side, each stride heavy, sweat beading on his forehead and dripping down in steady streams.

His rugged face—the kind carved from years as a fitness coach—was now drained of all color.

“Lily… the door’s holding.”

His voice trembled slightly. He didn’t even bother wiping the sweat from his face, his gaze locking onto Lin Fan the moment he crossed over.

Lin Fan sat on the metal workbench, her long, fair legs crossed and swinging lazily. The hem of her white slip dress barely reached her upper thighs, her bare feet swaying idly in the air.

Watching this man who’d just pushed himself to the brink, Lin Fan raised an eyebrow.

She reached into empty space and grabbed—a glass vial filled with clear liquid flew toward Zhou Ming.

“Drink it. Don’t burn yourself out before you even take over the base.”

Zhou Ming caught the vial cleanly, popped the cap, and tipped his head back to down it in one go.

The moment the Energy Potion hit his throat, his nearly depleted meridians drank it in like parched earth welcoming rain. His previously unsteady aura settled into something solid and calm.

Waves of late-stage Level 5 power rippled outward from him in concentric rings.

Zhou Ming let out a long breath, his eyes brightening.

“This stuff… it’s miraculous. Every time I drink it, I feel like I could live another ten years.”

“Stick with me, and you’ll have an endless supply.”

Lin Fan hopped off the workbench and padded barefoot over to Zhou Ming.

She wasn’t short by any measure—at 172 centimeters, she towered over most women—but standing before Zhou Ming, a solid 185-centimeter wall of muscle, she still looked almost delicate.

Her eyes, swirling with the light of distant nebulae, fixed on him.

Zhou Ming grew uneasy under her gaze. His eyes instinctively drifted downward, landing on her translucent toes.

Cherry-red nail polish gleamed under the lab’s cold fluorescent lights.

His Adam’s apple bobbed. He quickly turned his head away.

Lin Fan recalled the days when she’d still been Liu Ruyan—in that cramped apartment in Happiness Haven, spinning lie after lie to keep this “backer” of hers steady.

She’d even trotted out gems like “I want to save my first time for marriage.”

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Back then, she’d figured that if Zhou Ming ever became useless—or started spiraling out of control—she’d find a way to dispose of him.

Who would’ve thought the man wouldn’t just hold up, but would become the sharpest spatial key in her arsenal?

A casual sweep of her Mental Strength confirmed it: at late-stage Level 5 with his Spatial Ability, Zhou Ming could go toe-to-toe with a late-stage Level 6 and come out ahead.

Ten thousand meters of ocean depth. Energy shielding. Crushing water pressure. Stack all those conditions together, and even a Level 7 Evolved being might lose all sense of direction—yet he’d still managed to open the door with pinpoint precision.

All those Crystals and Energy Potions she’d fed him hadn’t been wasted.

Suddenly, her Mental Strength scan caught something that made her pause.

In Zhou Ming’s shirt pocket, pressed against his chest, were two neatly folded pieces of fabric.

…

A crooked smile tugged at Lin Fan’s lips.

“Oh?”

She circled around him slowly, her voice dripping with amusement.

“Wouldn’t have guessed it, Zhou Ming. You’re a sentimental man.”

Zhou Ming blinked. “Lily… what are you talking about?”

Lin Fan suddenly leaned in close, her nose nearly brushing his ear, her breath ghosting across his earlobe.

“What’s in your left pocket.”

Zhou Ming’s body went rigid.

“If I’m not mistaken… that’s Liu Ruyan’s.”

Zhou Ming’s face turned bright red in an instant. Not the red of shyness—it was the kind that burned all the way from the base of his neck to the tips of his ears.

He instinctively covered his pocket, like a delinquent student whose backpack had been rifled through by the teacher in front of the whole class.

“Lily… um… I…”

The laboratory was so quiet that only the hum of the culture tank drainage could be heard.

The researchers who had consumed the Energy Potion stood properly at their respective workstations, eyes down, minds closed, no different from a row of wooden stakes.

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But it was precisely this silence that multiplied Zhou Ming’s embarrassment severalfold.

He opened his mouth, then closed it.

Then opened it again.

“These things… are my good luck charms.”

Zhou Ming gritted his teeth, as if he had thrown all caution to the wind, lifting his head to meet Lin Fan’s gaze directly.

“This is the last keepsake Ruyan gave me. Every time I miss her, I touch my pocket and tell myself… maybe she’s still out there.”

Lin Fan looked at him.

This man’s expression was complicated.

There was deep affection, stubbornness, and a hint of lecherousness he himself wasn’t even aware of.

Yet somehow, mixed together, these three things didn’t feel disgusting.

Instead, they were a little… amusing.

Lin Fan felt a great sense of satisfaction from her position of superiority.

A lie casually made up back then, a stocking casually tossed aside—and now it could still keep a late-stage Level 5 Space-based superpower user so deeply devoted.

This deal was a massive win.

“Alright, alright.” Lin Fan reached out and patted his shoulder, with neither too much nor too little force. “Keep your good luck charms. I’m not going to take them from you.”

Zhou Ming’s expression relaxed.

Lin Fan looked toward the corridor.

There were still several hundred Stitched Abominations standing quietly in the passageway, controlled by Song Qing through chips.

“This base—Song Qing will lead the way, and you take over.”

“Those gene-stitched warriors may be ugly, but at least they’re Level 5 or 6 combat power. When we go to war with the Dragon Clan in the future, they’ll make excellent cannon fodder.”

“Also, you must secure Chen Dingjun’s data core. Chu Chen’s been eyeing it like crazy—if you lose it, he’ll nag you about it for the rest of your life.”

Zhou Ming withdrew all superfluous expressions, his eyes turning fierce.

“Don’t worry, Lily. Anything you arrange, I’ll accomplish even if it costs me my life.”

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“No need to go that far.” Lin Fan took two steps forward, then stopped without turning around.

“Getting things done alive beats doing them dead.”

Zhou Ming was stunned for a moment, then nodded heavily.

Lin Fan calculated the time.

That old fox Chen Dingjun should be almost at the Black Palace by now.

And that Zero experimental subject radiating a peak Level 7 fluctuation…

The pinnacle of Blue Star’s current biotechnology.

She couldn’t wait to see it.

“Lily, aren’t you coming back to Western Sichuan with us?”

Zhou Ming looked at the emerald Spirit Energy beginning to emanate from Lin Fan’s body, a hint of worry in his eyes.

Lin Fan didn’t turn around. She strode out of the laboratory, her white skirt swaying gently with each step.

“Those Federation people—it’s time to settle accounts.”

Watching that figure disappear at the end of the corridor.

Zhou Ming stood there for a long while before turning to face Song Qing and the researchers.

He touched the neatly folded piece of fabric in his left pocket and took a deep breath.

It seemed Lily hadn’t noticed… among Ruyan’s two personal items, there was also a pair of white split-toe socks tucked in between.

“Let’s go. Take me to the main control room.”

————

After leaving the laboratory, Lin Fan didn’t take the usual submarine passage.

Her current physique made the ten-thousand-meter deep sea feel no different from an ordinary swimming pool.

Plop.

The white, spiritualized figure pierced through the outer defensive barrier and plunged into the cold, oppressive seawater.

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The pressure of the sea squeezed in from all directions.

But for Lin Fan, not only did it fail to suffocate her, the water elements around her—thanks to her Water Element Affinity—actually accelerated the Hymn of Life talent running within her body.

It was the exhilarating sensation of her body madly plundering external energy.

Lin Fan stored her white dress into the System Space and pressed her legs together.

The Mermaid Royal Bloodline within her was activated once again.

Fine silver scales surfaced across her fair skin, spreading from her waist all the way down to her ankles.

Her legs fused, her bones reshaped, and a massive pure-white fishtail suddenly unfurled in the deep sea.

A flick of the tail fin.

BOOM!

A colossal surge of water detonated ten thousand meters beneath the surface, shockwaves blasting outward in every direction.

Lin Fan’s entire body transformed into a blur, following the coordinates Chu Chen had provided, charging madly westward like a precision-guided torpedo.

Too fast.

The mutated sea monsters in the waters hadn’t even registered what had streaked past before the terrifying pressure crushed their internal organs, sending them belly-up as they sank into deeper trenches.

Lin Fan silently recited those names in her mind.

Black Palace. Wang Shan. Chen Dingjun.

And that peak Level 7 Zero experimental subject.

One hundred and fifty Epic-grade Skins in hand, fifty more to go.

On the Black Palace side, Wang Shan commanded a massive force of Mind Control puppets. Chen Dingjun had just taken the fruits of his life’s work from the seabed base. Add to that the Dragon Clan that the Rift anomaly might attract…

Three factions, all gathering in one place.

Wasn’t this just a ready-made buffet?

A grin spread across Lin Fan’s lips in the seawater.

The future of Blue Star only needed one goddess.