“Are you ok?”

I raised my head and stared at him.

“There’s just one thing I want to ask you,” I asked. “How many ‘Wen Qingyu’ have you met before me?”

Wen Jiubo looked at me, remaining silent.

“I’m asking you!” With no one else around us, my voice echoed again and again.

“....I do not remember.” Wen Jiubo dropped his eyes.

My heart grew colder after hearing this. His answer almost threw me in despair.

“I will be just one of the many you’ll never remember, won’t I?”

At last, I asked this question, but in fact, I did not want to know the answer at all.

At this moment, a phone suddenly rang, startling me.

Wen Jiubo immediately took out his phone from his pocket, and the light on the upper left corner of the screen flashed.

“It’s a text message from Zhu Xuan.”

“What did he say?”

“He said that he’s done, and the paper charm is in position.”

Great! I secretly clenched my fist. I knew that he could do it!

Then Wen Jiubo’s phone and my phone rang one after another. I took out my phone. It was text messages sent by Su Xiaoyun and Shi Yitong.

——OK.

——Done.

“Bai said that he is in position.” Wen Jiubo raised his head. “What about you?”

“They all made it!” I said excitedly. “Su Xiaoyun and Shi Yitong also placed their paper charm in position!”

“It seems that this space is smaller than I expected. Good. We don’t have much time left.” Wen Jiubo relieved a little. He took out the last piece of paper charm from his pocket. Just when I thought he was about to cast the spell, he suddenly held his hand out to me.

“What?” I looked at the paper charm in his hand, confused.

“I said it before, I don’t have enough power to break the barrier.” Wen Jiubo said calmly. “But you do. All the powers I have lost in the past are hidden inside you. You can do it.”

I stared at Wen Jiubo; there were too many thoughts racing through my head right now. I did not know if I should get the charm or push his hand away. But all of a sudden, a horrible growl broke the silence.

I did not know when it happened, but numerous ghostly shadows appeared flying around us and along with tremulous sounds, a group of monsters slowly approached us from the shadows.

“God.. this is, what’s going on?”

“I’m just wondering why the four of them didn’t meet any monsters.” Wen Jiubo muttered. “Turns out they were all aiming for us. Gu Yu, the flashlight!”

I immediately turned on the flashlight on my phone and pointed the flashlight at the monster’s eyes. “Don’t come over!”

However, the moment I turned on the flashlight, I was stunned by what I saw.

Because these monsters.. I definitely saw them before.

Those monsters were about one-story high and grew black bristles all over their bodies, and I could smell a rancid odor emanating from them. There was a huge eye emitting green light in the darkness, and its eyeballs whirling in the orbit.

I remembered. Isn’t this the monster I encountered during the school trip? The monster even Wen Jiubo did not recognize.

When I was on Mt.Yanjin, I met one, but it was a phantom created by a dead girl. But now..

I couldn’t count how many monsters were around us, but if they all rushed towards us together, Wen Jiubo and I would not be able to escape.

Just as I was drowning in despair and closed my eyes to accept my death, I suddenly heard a voice.

“Back, bad boys.” Someone clapped his hands, and the group of horrible monsters took a few steps back to leave us some space.

And that voice.. even if he turned into ashes, I would recognize him.

Xu Yingchen——the Taoist priest Lingxiao slowly stepped forward from the darkness.

“Xu Yingchen! What do you want?!” I couldn’t help but shout at him. I wanted to move a few more steps forward, but Wen Jiubo grabbed me.

“Gu Yu!” He glanced at me, trying to warn me.

But how could I let myself be intimidated by him right now? I struggled to shake his hand off, but his grip became even tighter.

“Wen Jiubo, let me go!”

“Oh——you know, you two really look like a quarreling young couple.” Upon saying that, Xu Yingchen came closer and closer. He said with this weirdly unpleasant tone. “I told you before, princess. This fox is not worthy of your trust at all.”

That title he used completely enraged me. At that moment, it felt as if I wasn’t Gu Yu anymore but just a substitute for a princess that existed a thousand years ago.

“Don’t you dare call me that!”

“Of course, I won’t.” Xu Yingchen bowed to me as if he was showing his respect to a princess, but he then said with a smile. “Mr. Gu Yu, although you are the reincarnation of princess Qing Yu, you have your own life; you’re not her substitute, but I’m not like the sly fox over there, I know who should be trusted——”

“Enough!” I interrupted him. “I don’t want to listen to your cunning words. What do you want?! No, no matter what you’re planning on doing, I will stop you!”

“What I’m planning to do? Oh, so you already knew. Well, like all old-fashioned villains, I want to destroy the world or something along that line.” Xu Yingchen was still as calm as usual. He casually said, “But you said that you will stop me. What are you going to do? By the way, the only way to stop me is to break the barrier I set, and the only way to break that barrier is to use that paper charm.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Wen Jiubo still standing there with that charm in his hand.

“But in my opinion——It feels as if you don’t really want to use the charm, doesn’t it?” Xu Yingchen approached me; his face was almost in front of mine. I felt my whole body becoming stiff. I should have kicked him, or at least pushed him away, but for some reason, I lost control of my body.

“This is none of your business——” I said, gnashing my teeth in anger, but Xu Yingchen interjected before I could finish.

“Oh, right. It’s indeed none of my business.” He scratched his head. “But I’m such an interfering busybody, aren’t I? Perhaps I’m a bad person, maybe. But I just can’t bear to see you make the same mistake over and over again, your Royal Highness.”