"My god, is she always this big?" Sheng Yan asked, tilting his head back to look up.

"She only grows when she uses her ability. Normally, she's about the same height as a human." A clear, cold female voice came from all directions, layer upon layer.

It was as if every leaf was making a subtle sound, all converging in one's ears, creating an ethereal effect.

"A human?" Mo Bai reached out and placed her hand on the pure-white trunk, her voice tinged with doubt.

"You're beautiful. Are you in the Observation Group too?" Qiu Xuerong's ethereal, layered voice gathered around Mo Bai alone.

"Yes," Mo Bai replied.

"You'll understand later." Qiu Xuerong was as cold as ice and snow, devoid of any human warmth.

How could Mo Bai not understand?

Qiu Xuerong must have initially wanted to live like a human, trying hard to integrate into this world. But the way others looked at her gradually made her realize that she was an outsider.

Even though the captain of Mending Heaven asked the members not to look at her as an outsider, they couldn't control people's hearts. It was difficult for anyone to treat her with a normal heart.

Were the people around her wrong? No, they weren't.

Everyone was simply influenced by their environment and by human nature.

The people around her may not have looked at her strangely, but they certainly wouldn't dare have too much contact with her.

Once everyone's attitude toward her became polite, it became an estrangement.

And once estrangement set in, she would gradually come to feel that she was no longer human.

"Can I talk to you?" Liu Congyi asked, following Mo Bai's example and placing her hand on Qiu Xuerong.

Mo Bai was a little surprised that Sheng Yan didn't step forward to transcribe.

"Why?" Qiu Xuerong asked.

Liu Congyi didn't need Sheng Yan's help to convert it into text. She answered as if she could hear Qiu Xuerong's words: "The instance's power has taken away my hearing, but for some reason, I can hear your voice. My ability is to gain social energy through contact with people. Without communication, I can't use it. I want to communicate with others as much as I can."

Qiu Xuerong was silent for a moment, then asked, "When I was speaking just now, were you touching one of my snow leaves?"

"Yes, I was holding a snowflake in my hand at the time," Liu Congyi said.

Qiu Xuerong told her, "Snow has the power to hibernate, freeze, and fall silent. I can seal the abilities of monsters and players to a certain extent. I think I've probably temporarily sealed the negative effects in your body."

"But I can only hear your voice," Liu Congyi said.

"Because you're holding my leaves. Communication between trunk and leaves doesn't require sound; it travels through nerve conduction," Qiu Xuerong said.

The others could also hear Qiu Xuerong's words. Sheng Yan said to Du Heng, "You wanted to ask Sister Xue to help seal the pollution in my body?"

Even Sheng Yan spontaneously addressed Qiu Xuerong as Sister Xue out of respect.

"Yes, but your pollution is too severe. We can only seal it the way these people on the ground were sealed." Du Heng pointed to the figures buried under the snowflakes. "You'll sleep under the snow, and when the instance ends, you'll be teleported back to Peach Blossom Land and wake up."

"Mo Bai's method is still better. At least I can still serve as a meat shield," Sheng Yan said self-deprecatingly.

"Don't talk about yourself like that. I also hope that you can fight alongside us. You still have several useful cards." Du Heng put an arm around Sheng Yan's shoulder to comfort him.

On the other side, Liu Congyi was talking with Qiu Xuerong.

She asked, "Xuerong, why did you seal this domain?"

Qiu Xuerong said, "The treasures sealed within the domain were stolen, and the bones buried beneath the flowers have come back to life. I need to suppress them."

"The treasures were stolen?" Mo Bai asked in surprise.

"It was done by people from the Six Paths," Qiu Xuerong said. "I arrived one step too late and allowed them to take it. They are now carrying the treasure from this domain to the Love Amusement Park, intending to merge it with the true body of an Ultra-Star Rank monster."

"Then doesn't that mean an Ultra-Star Rank monster is about to be born?" Du Heng interrupted excitedly. "Sister Xue, why are you wasting your energy dealing with these monsters? They're all dead already. Let them fight among themselves inside the domain. We should hurry to the Love Amusement Park and stop the Ultra-Star Rank monster from being born!"

"So what if an Ultra-Star Rank monster is born?" Qiu Xuerong replied coldly.

Du Heng said, "Once the Four Pillars of Heaven form, the Infinite World and the instances will merge. Players will have to live inside instances constantly, without a moment's respite. Countless players will die."

"What does that have to do with me?" Qiu Xuerong's voice carried not a hint of humanity. "I can find a suitable place to take root and grow into a Snow-Clad Tree, sleeping quietly. If one day someone who once treated me kindly comes beneath my branches, I would be willing to shelter them from wind and rain. I would be willing to prepare a beautiful dream for them."

"This..." Du Heng found himself speechless.

The stronger the members of the Observation Group became, the further they drifted from humanity. Qiu Xuerong was a perfect example.

At that moment, Mo Bai said, "In that case, there's no reason for you to be using your powers to seal this domain, because it has nothing to do with you either. There must be something keeping you here. Something that matters more to you than preventing the birth of an Ultra-Star Rank monster. Am I right?"

"What a perceptive person," Qiu Xuerong sighed.

A pure-white branch, like that of a willow tree, descended from above and gently brushed over Mo Bai's head.

It felt as though a beautiful woman clad in snow-white robes had reached out to comfort her.

Mo Bai had the strange feeling of being gathered into the embrace of the Snow-Clad Tree.

"You're right. A rose has trapped me here," Qiu Xuerong said. "I am helping him suppress the abnormalities here while waiting for a girl to arrive and collect something he promised her long ago."

"Mo Xiangyou?" Mo Bai asked.

"So you are the person he was talking about." Qiu Xuerong let out a long sigh.

Then the enormous pure-white tree gradually shrank.

A tree just over human height appeared before them.

She stood about 1.9 meters tall, taller than everyone present. Her body was draped in clothing woven from snow leaves. Her hair was white and resembled branches.

She had no limbs. Her body was like a tree trunk, and she used her hair as hands.

Amid the hanging, branch-like strands of hair was an extraordinarily beautiful face.

Beautiful, yet still completely white.

She resembled a snow sculpture, a beautiful display piece. Simply standing there inspired awe at the wonders of creation: how perfectly it had blended human, tree, and snow into something so beautiful, and how it had painted so many different shades of white.

She truly belonged to the Observation Group.

And it was indeed difficult to regard her as human.

As Qiu Xuerong assumed a human form, the snowflake leaves covering the ground gradually melted away, and the monsters buried beneath them slowly began to awaken.

"Si-sis... Sister Xue!" Du Heng shouted three times. "They're waking up!"

"I know." In Qiu Xuerong's crystal-like eyes, there was no sign of Du Heng; they reflected only Mo Bai's figure.

"Could it be... that Mo Xiangyou fused himself with this flower field?" Mo Bai asked.

"I don't know what he did," Qiu Xuerong replied. "You can hear it from him yourself. He wants you to take him away and not let him remain buried among these dry bones."

"Then what about us...?" Du Heng asked hesitantly.

"Leave this place," Qiu Xuerong said.

Du Heng did not move. Sheng Yan and Liu Congyi also turned to look at Mo Bai.

In their hearts, no matter how powerful Qiu Xuerong appeared to be, their captain was still Mo Bai.

"You should go," Mo Bai said. "Mo Xiangyou doesn't like meeting strangers. I can handle this alone."

"You've got to be kidding," Du Heng said. "There are at least eight hundred monsters here, if not a thousand. Even if they're only around B-rank strength, fighting this many by yourself would exhaust you to death. And these monsters... I can't see any weaknesses in them. That means they have no souls and can't be harvested. No matter how many times you kill them, they'll just get back up."

"I can find the source of the anomaly. Don't worry," Mo Bai replied.

Sheng Yan did not object. Silently, he took out two cards and pressed them into Mo Bai's hand.

Mo Bai looked at them. They were Shadow World and Spider Silk, cards Sheng Yan had obtained from Biological Research Institute No. 7.

Seeing this, Du Heng said nothing further and also handed over two cards.

"Take these two, Ant Nest and Rock Fortress. I got them at the institute too."

Du Heng could only bring one S-rank card into an instance, and his first choice was Scythe of Death. As for S-rank cards like Immortal-Binding Rope, which he had taken from someone else, he was unable to bring them into instances. These two A-rank cards were already among his strongest combat cards.

Both Spider Silk and Ant Nest had area-of-effect attack abilities, while Rock Fortress was a defensive card. On the other hand, Shadow World allowed Mo Bai to merge into shadows, making her untouchable to monsters lacking the appropriate abilities.

Against a situation with monsters everywhere, these cards were indeed highly effective.

Mo Bai did not refuse and accepted them directly.

She opened her mouth, intending to tell them that she would repay them with cards of the same rank in the future.

But before she could speak, Sheng Yan already saw through her intentions.

Pointing at his now-healed skin, he said, "If you're going to pay me back for the cards, how are we supposed to settle the debt for all the times you saved me?"

Du Heng added, "You used a life-saving card, Tentacle Substitute, on me. You never asked me for compensation."

Mo Bai smiled.

"What are you two thinking? I never said I'd compensate you with equivalent cards. I meant I'd return them if I had any left over."

"No need. Use them however you want," Du Heng said generously. "Be frugal at home, spend freely on the road. When you're in an instance, don't be stingy."

Liu Congyi didn't know what she could give Mo Bai since she didn't have any particularly powerful cards.

All she could do was step forward and hug Mo Bai tightly.

A steady stream of energy poured into Mo Bai's body. It continued until her energy exceeded its normal limit by fifty percent, and her body could no longer contain any more. Only then did Liu Congyi withdraw her hands, her face pale.

She had given Mo Bai virtually all of her own energy.

Not only that, but she also took out a bottle of intermediate nutrient potion and tried to hand it over.

Mo Bai hurriedly refused.

"Stop! Your own energy is completely depleted. Keep life-saving items like that for yourself. Sheng Yan already gave me a bottle. That's enough."

Liu Congyi couldn't hear her, but Sheng Yan could.

Sheng Yan hoisted Liu Congyi over his shoulder, nodded to Mo Bai, and headed toward the manor gates together with Du Heng.

Qiu Xuerong quietly watched as they exchanged cards.

After Du Heng and Sheng Yan had walked away, the corner of her mouth moved slightly, as if she were smiling.

But she was too cold. Even her smile carried a faint chill.

Mo Bai looked at her.

Qiu Xuerong said, "They seem to have overlooked your beauty."

Mo Bai thought about it and realized that was true.

Her Appearance value was now extraordinarily high.

She was the kind of beauty that would make people on the street turn around to look. Her head-turning rate was two hundred percent, the sort of stunning beauty that made people glance back more than once.

And she was dazzling.

Perhaps because of the influence of the Indestructible Diamond title, no matter where she went, she was the most eye-catching person in the crowd, brilliant enough that people found it impossible to look away.

Yet despite being so beautiful, Ding Xun, Ye Pingjun, Liu Congyi, and Sheng Yan no longer looked at her with amazement.

Aside from Ding Xun occasionally teasing her by calling her "little beauty," the others simply saw her as a person, a teammate, a comrade to whom they could entrust their backs and even their lives.

One could say that Sheng Yan and the others had grown accustomed to her appearance and no longer noticed it. But Du Heng had only met Mo Bai twice. The first time, just like Sheng Yan, he had developed a faint attraction because of her beauty. Yet now, it was as though he could see straight through her appearance and perceive Mo Bai's soul.

It wasn't only her teammates.

Even Li Ming, who had once been her enemy, had initially felt lust because of her beauty. But after Mo Bai opened her eyes, the only emotions he felt toward her were awe and fear.

Mo Bai possessed a peculiar power that made people overlook her appearance.

Qiu Xuerong said, "Even if one day you became like me, those people would probably still throw an arm around your shoulders and haggle with you as usual."

Mo Bai spoke on Du Heng's behalf.

"Du Heng wants me to see you as a person."

Qiu Xuerong smiled faintly.

"Does he worry about my safety?"

Mo Bai fell silent.

Even she knew that members of the Observation Group could be turned into cards, yet Du Heng had never worried about Qiu Xuerong.

He respected her deeply and, by calling her Sister Xue, made an effort to regard her as a teammate.

But he viewed Qiu Xuerong as a powerful existence, not as a living person whose well-being might cause concern.

It was different with Mo Bai.

Mo Bai had repeatedly demonstrated strength far beyond her level, along with judgment and decisiveness that surpassed ordinary people's. Yet they still worried about her. They treated her like family and wished they could empty out all their possessions and hand them to her.

Qiu Xuerong left her with a final sentence:

"The radiance of your soul far surpasses the beauty of your appearance."

With that, she dissolved into countless light snowflakes and drifted away on the wind, beyond the manor grounds.