Volume 1, Chapter 282 – Outside the World

The instant the gunshots rang out, several bullets were already screaming toward her, wrapped in searing streams of hot air.

Shi Lan had never expected that group to suddenly open fire. She only had time to tilt her head slightly, narrowly avoiding the bullet aimed straight at the center of her brow.

The scorching bullet grazed Shi Lan’s forehead, carving out a line of blood. The remaining bullets struck her body without obstruction, boring several inches in before being caught fast by her tensed muscles.

Killing intent flashed through Shi Lan’s eyes. No longer paying any attention to Zhao Ye, who was still clinging to life on the ground, she ignored the pain of the bullets lodged in her body and shot forward like lightning, like a tiger breaking free from its cage, pouncing straight toward the dark corner.

“Are you insane?! Why the hell did you fire?!”

A woman’s shriek came from the darkness.

Gunshots rang out again, but this time Shi Lan was already on guard. Her spiritual sense was sharp enough to evade bullets.

Within the space of a few finger snaps, Shi Lan had crossed more than a hundred meters and arrived in front of the people hidden in the shadows.

Three men and one woman, all familiar faces—they were the same classmates from Ning An’s class who had never looked like decent people. One of them held a silver pistol, and the smell of gunpowder had not yet faded from the muzzle.

“Ning An, this…”

Seeing the coldness on Shi Lan’s face, one of the men forced out a smile and was just about to explain when the gunman standing beside him expressionlessly raised his pistol again and said, “This Ning An is probably a fake. She’s not one of us. Kill her!”

Before he could pull the trigger, before the others had even managed to react, they only saw a blur. The gunman had already been pinned to the wall by Shi Lan’s hand around his throat, while the silver pistol flew four or five meters away, its barrel already twisted out of shape.

Shi Lan’s grip slowly tightened as she looked at the others, who had only just come back to themselves, and asked softly, “Who are you people?”

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“Who exactly are you? Are you here to do missions too? I remember this world isn’t a team instance. How did you get in?”

The woman stepped forward. Not only did she fail to answer Shi Lan’s question, she instead frowned and fired off a whole string of questions.

After the gunman said those words, the group seemed to have thought of something. Their expressions lost their tension, and it was as if they had suddenly become fearless.

“Who cares what kind of god she is? She’s alone. How much trouble can she cause?!”

The woman was just about to ask more when one of the men beside her cut her off coldly and barked in a low voice:

“Activate the Outer-World Battlefield!”

The instant the words fell, Shi Lan’s hand slackened, and the person she was holding simply vanished on the spot.

An invisible wave spread out over dozens of li, and the surrounding space seemed to freeze in place.

The sensation was strange and mysterious, as though everything had been isolated outside the world.

Shi Lan’s vision blurred, and four figures appeared before her once more. Still three men and one woman, but their looks and builds had changed completely. The woman had delicate features, a neat ponytail, and wore a black skintight suit made of some unknown material. A three-chi saber was slung diagonally across her back, and glints of blade-light flickered in her eyes, making her look strikingly valiant.

The other three men wore similar black skintight suits. Though their weapons varied, all of them were cold weapons.

The group stood in a loose semicircle, with the middle-aged man carrying the long green case on his back faintly taking the lead.

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At this moment, all of them were staring fixedly at Shi Lan, their expressions somewhat dazed.

Shi Lan lowered her head for a glance. Her jeans had already turned into a pale green trailing gown, and her long fingers were like carved jade pillars, unstained by the slightest speck of dust.

“Hah…”

Closing her eyes to feel the powerful astral qi surging through her body, Shi Lan could not help letting out a soft sigh. This feeling was still far more comfortable.

Within this space, aside from the four people before her, Lin Mo, Zhao Ye, and the others had all disappeared.

Clearly, this was some other kind of bizarre technique that could pull beings not native to this world into an Outer-World space. Though she was residing inside Ning An’s body, she was ultimately not a creature of this world.

Shi Lan could sense that her current body was not physical. It was a body simulated out of her spirit by this space, almost without the slightest flaw. It was extremely similar to the virtual combat space possessed by the Empress-raising System.

These people really did have great secrets on them.

Looking at the tall woman before them, beautiful to the point of seeming unreal, the men exchanged glances. The battle spirit that had been running high within them before was instantly ground down by more than half, and for a moment they actually hesitated.

It was not because the woman before them was too beautiful, but because the energy fluctuations pouring off her were far too terrifying, like a blazing sun hanging overhead, overwhelmingly powerful beyond reason.

“She’s got to be at least fifth rank, right…”

“And what was it you said before? How much trouble could one person cause?”

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“Who the hell knew she’d actually be a god…”

The four of them swallowed in unison, caught in a miserable dilemma.

If she really had fifth-rank strength, then even if they fought her head-on, tied themselves together, and then multiplied themselves by ten, they would probably only be able to choose a somewhat more dignified way to die.

Just as the atmosphere was becoming awkward, Shi Lan experimentally reached out her hand. Countless motes of light emerged from the void and gathered into her palm. A few breaths later, they condensed into a purple battle halberd.

Even weapons can be simulated according to one’s will…

Shi Lan could not help falling silent in surprise.

“M-my lady…”

A timid female voice pulled Shi Lan out of her thoughts.

Looking at the people before her, Shi Lan lightly swung the battle halberd and was just about to step forward when she saw them all drop to their knees in perfect unison, so practiced it was as if they had rehearsed it a thousand times. Together they cried out:

“Please, my lady, spare our lives!”

Shi Lan frowned in puzzlement. Their earlier attitude had been arrogant in the extreme. She had assumed it would take quite a bit of effort to force information out of them.

After thinking for a moment, Shi Lan let the battle halberd dissipate and walked over to them.

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Seeing the hem of her gown so close before their eyes, they instinctively held their breath. Cold sweat soaked their backs, and their fingers dug deeply into the ground.

“Get up and speak.”

Shi Lan did not particularly enjoy staring at the backs of people’s heads.

…

Shi Lan sat on top of the long green case, holding the three-chi saber in her hand and idly drawing circles on the ground. The few people in the distance sat stiff as cicadas in winter, not daring to make the slightest move.

After a brief exchange, Shi Lan already had some understanding of these people.

The four of them were a team. The one woman was called Xue Qiong. The middle-aged man leading them was called Liang Yunnan. Shi Lan did not ask the names of the other two.

According to Liang Yunnan, they all came from a place called the “Cube.”

The term “Cube” was a common name recognized by a whole group of people like them.

The Cube was a massive square-shaped space. As for exactly how large it was, they did not know. Inside it, it was divided into countless smaller spaces. The Cube issued missions at fixed intervals, and most of those missions involved entering various small worlds to complete them—in other words, the “instances” Xue Qiong had mentioned earlier.

What interested Shi Lan even more was that whether it was Liang Yunnan, Xue Qiong, or the other people inside the Cube, they all shared one thing in common.

They had all entered the world of the Cube only after dying accidental deaths.