The dawn light had just sprinkled over the city, and Zijing's figure was already shuttling rapidly between the tall buildings. His eyes were fixed on the front - a twisted "creature" composed of countless flowing lines was bouncing and deforming between the buildings in a way that violated the laws of physics, sometimes stretching into thin filaments to drill into the ventilation ducts, and sometimes expanding into a net-like shape to sweep across the square.

"It's heading towards the seventh block! Qianjie, stop it!" Alicia's cheerful voice came from Zijing's communicator.

"Humph, you should have let me come earlier!" A wild sneer came from a distance. The next second, the glass curtain wall of a certain building exploded, and a red figure rushed out like a cannonball. Qianjie's fist wind tore through the air and directly hammered the group of line creatures from mid-air to the ground.

The line creatures dispersed instantly before the collision, escaping in all directions like a ball of yarn being torn apart. Qianjie made a "tsk" sound: "Disgusting things!"

"Kosmo, underground drainage system." Fu Hua's calm voice sounded in the channel. Almost at the same time, the manhole cover several blocks away was blown away by the huge force. Kosmo's claws drew an arc and cut off all the silver threads that tried to drill into the sewer. The line creatures emitted a high-frequency hum, and the fragments regrouped and suddenly bounced into the air.

"boom!"

The pink crystal arrow nailed it to the billboard. Alicia stood on the top of the clock tower, the bowstring still trembling: "Oh, you escaped so fast~?"

But the creature pierced by the line suddenly liquefied and slid down the arrow shaft. Zijing raised his hand suddenly, and a translucent barrier unfolded on its falling trajectory, but saw that the mass of matter suddenly split into hundreds of fine needles and slipped away from the gaps in the barrier.

"Physical attacks have limited effects." Kevin's voice came from high above. He stood on top of a signal tower, his sword condensed with frost. "Desdobia, telekinesis interference."

"Trying..." The girl closed her eyes and concentrated, invisible ripples swept across the street. The line creature's movements were obviously delayed for a moment, and Zijing seized the opportunity to jump above it and unleash her power.

The black cube that appeared out of nowhere pressed the line creature to the ground, and then unfolded to wrap it up. However, it suddenly drilled into the ground and shuttled underground like a mole.

"That's enough." Ying's knife flashed like a crescent moon, piercing the ground and splitting the linear creature that was trying to escape to the subway entrance vertically. Pieces flew everywhere, and the two halves of the body twitched on the ground, each of them growing into a new individual.

"As expected, we need to kill all the units at the same time." Fu Hua's figure suddenly appeared between the two individuals, and the Taixu sword energy intertwined into a net. Zijing raised his hands synchronously, and countless prisms emerged from the void, turning the street into a maze of light.

"Let the cute girl take the final blow~?" Alicia's arrow refracted rainbow light in the sunlight, piercing through the cores of the two bodies. Pink crystals bloomed like flowers, completely solidifying the squirming lines.

Zijing walked to the crystal and squatted down: "It shouldn't happen again this time..."

"Be careful!" Kevin suddenly warned. Fine lines appeared on the surface of the crystal, and a silver thread shot towards the purple crystal's forehead like lightning!

"clang!"

Qianjie stood in front of Zijing and let it pierce his arm. Desdobia used all her telekinesis and the silver thread fell to the ground stiffly as if struck by lightning.

"Don't forget to finish off the enemy." Kevin shattered the crystal with his sword, and the cold air froze the debris on the ground into ice chips.

The city returned to calm. In the morning light, seven people gathered on the rooftop. Alicia played with a small piece of pink crystal, which contained the body fragments of the strange creature: "So~ what is this?"

"I don't know. There are many different creatures out there. Let's leave it to Mobius. Although he emphasizes that it's best to capture a living creature, it should be enough for research even if it's dead."

Zijing was about to take the crystal from Alicia's hand and examine it carefully when the communicator suddenly rang. He pressed the answer button and Siegfried's holographic image popped up—but the handsome old man Kaslana now had two dark circles under his eyes and a band-aid on his nose.

"Hmm..." Zijing held back her laughter, "Are you going to play boxing with Honkai Beast?"

"Stop talking nonsense!" Siegfried waved his fist in anger, and the wound was torn, making him grimace in pain. "I wanted to ask you something! Why is Xilin stronger than me?!"

"Was he beaten by Xilin? Was there a conflict between father and daughter?" Zijing wondered.

Alicia came over curiously: "Hey, isn't this the father of little Qiana and little Silin? How come he became Mr. Panda~?"

"Ahem," Siegfried cleared his throat awkwardly, "Well... Xilin has some mental symptoms, and Cecilia and I are taking her to see a doctor. She kept resisting, so I held her down, and then she beat me up..." He pointed at his dark circles and glared at Zijing viciously.

"..."

This is indeed somewhat related to Amethyst. In order to give Xilin more means of self-protection, he added a little bit of strength and speed to Xilin's body.

But, the mental symptoms...?

Zijing was more concerned about this: "What happened to Xilin?"

"Double personality." Siegfried said firmly.

"Sure?"

"Of course, that child is like a different person. He was so lively and cute before... but now he looks at me like I'm trash..."

Siegfried scratched his hair frantically. "I didn't want to look for you at first, but that girl is getting weirder and weirder. Now she's sitting on the roof of our house, saying something like 'How can a mere human give me orders?' She even asked to see you by name!"

Cecilia's gentle voice suddenly came from the other end of the communicator: "Dear, Xilin said that if you don't see Zijing within five minutes, she will tear down our house~"

“What?!” Siegfried’s face changed drastically. “Wait a minute, honey, I’ll…” The scene shook and then stopped. The last thing that came out was Siegfried’s miserable voice: “No, no, no, my new game console is still in the house!”

Zijing rubbed his temple and looked at everyone helplessly: "Sorry, it seems I have to go back."

Alicia waved with a smile: "Go quickly~ Remember to say hello to the lovely Xilin for me~?"

"I'll be back as soon as I take care of Xilin's problem. Where is your next destination?"

“Venice,” Kevin replied.

"I'll join you guys soon."

"No need, just stay there for a few days." Qianjie said with his arms folded.

"Yes, Li, I hope you can take a vacation and leave the investigation to us in the next few days." Yingye said.

Zi Jing wanted to say something, but Fu Hua had already gently pressed his shoulders and said earnestly: "Haste makes waste, and excessive hardness can easily break. Excessive fatigue will make your body and mind unable to bear it."

Kosmo crossed his arms and muttered in a low voice: "... As long as the green mountains remain..."

"Don't worry about running out of firewood~" Desdobia heard it keenly and added quickly.

"..."

Although Zijing didn't think that his body would be exhausted, he could only accept the kindness of several people.