The cave was dark and gloomy.

The girl’s voice was as sweet as honey.

This voice… sounded like the whispers of a demon to Gu Shen!

Who could have imagined that the serial killer who roamed around the River Shoal late at night and murdered nearly ten men… would be a sixteen-year-old girl?

This was an out-of-control individual and a high-risk existence wielding transcendental power!

In an instant, cold sweat broke out on Gu Shen’s forehead.

Just as he was silent for a few seconds, the voice behind him spoke again, this time with a tone of resentment.

“Dr. Gu… do you… not like me?”

Gu Shen took a slow, deep breath.

If he rejected her…

There was a very real possibility that in the next second, she would take out a pair of scissors and accurately slash his neck.

After exiting the Profile state, Gu Shen’s mind remained extremely calm. He lowered his head slightly and tried his best to observe his surroundings.

The environment inside the cave was almost entirely dark, but through the slight changes in the lights and shadows that his eyes caught, he could roughly deduce Qu Shui’s current posture.

She was merely about twenty centimeters behind him, an uncomfortably close distance, close enough to attack him at any moment, just like in the Profile memory.

Crucially, if she were the transcendent in Hu Danian’s files, then what was her transcendental ability?

Everything was unknown.

Resisting the urge to turn around, Gu Shen slowly said, “Qu Shui… you’re a very good girl.”

The conclusion of his thoughts just now was…

He couldn’t reject her.

If he rejected her, she would go berserk.

The girl’s voice was clearly full of joy. “Then, you mean…”

“Yes.” Gu Shen nodded gently. “Just as you think, I like you.”

Sensing that the emotions of the girl behind him were gradually stabilizing, Gu Shen didn’t relax. On the contrary, the moment he came to the cave and Profiled the truth of the River Shoal case, his mind had been on high alert.

His fingers were already gripping the silver ruler in his sleeve, and the Blazing Fire swayed as he infused his mental power into the ruler.

A sharp pain came from his brain.

He had already used the Ruler of Truth intensely during the day. After resting for an entire afternoon, he had barely recovered to his current state. He felt light-headed just walking, and he wasn’t sure if he could use the ruler a second time.

Even if he could successfully use it again, the effect would likely be diminished.

Gu Shen prepared for the worst. This time, the Ruler of Truth shouldn’t be able to manifest too much power, and the duration would be significantly reduced. To counterattack, he needed to seize the perfect moment.

He only had one chance. If he made a mistake, he might be the next person hanging on the stone wall of the cave.

He needed to understand her transcendental ability.

“Dr. Gu, did you just say… you like me?” There was clear delight in Qu Shui’s voice. The girl reflected in the shadows covered her face with both hands and smiled shyly. “Really?”

Is her mind stable now? Gu Shen narrowed his eyes and prepared to turn around slowly.

He took a deep breath and forced a smile. “Of course it’s true… Did you bring me here to say these things?”

“… Brother Gu, don’t move.” The girl changed her form of address and moved even closer.

Did she notice my movement? Her words made Gu Shen’s entire body stiffen, freezing his attempt to turn around.

He gripped the ruler silently.

“I knew… it was right to bring you here.” Qu Shui’s voice was relaxed and cheerful. She gestured with her chin toward the inner stone wall of the cave. “Look, my father is right there. He’s watching us.”

Father? Gu Shen was stunned. In the Profile world, the person she killed was her biological father?

[“I live alone now. My parents… aren’t here anymore.”]

His thoughts raced as he tried to piece together the timeline. This girl had killed her father and then hunted targets in River Shoal. The dead were all adult males, and it was very likely that they resembled her father.

But why did she target me? I clearly don’t fit that kind of person.

He looked at the skeletal remains on the stone wall.

Qu Shui murmured softly, “After Mom left, he still drank every day and called me a freak, a scourge. After drinking, he hit me with a belt and tried to drown me in the bathtub… But… I don’t blame him for any of that…

“Because… he was all I had left.”

The girl’s arms wrapped around Gu Shen.

A chill pierced into his heart, and his expression changed drastically. He found himself firmly immobilized.

The strength of her arms was astonishing, and they were slowly tightening, making his waist feel like it was about to break.

It became extremely difficult to breathe.

The girl looked at the corpse, and her voice was no longer resentful but cheerful again. “Later, I realized… people who love each other are destined to part ways, but I selfishly wanted him to accompany me forever… So there was only one way.”

Qu Shui stood on her tiptoes and whispered into Gu Shen’s ear, “Let’s be together forever and never be apart… What do you think?”

The silence in the cave lasted for three seconds before being shattered.

“… Heh…” Gu Shen smiled faintly and spat out two words with difficulty, “Wake up.”

The girl looked bewildered.

The next moment… 

A blazing silver light exploded in the dark cave!

The ruler burst out with a furious howl.

Two streams of silver light shot out and collided with the stone wall. The moment they rebounded, they completely condensed into two slender arrowheads carrying chilling astral winds and pierced through the head of the girl beside Gu Shen’s ear.

The arrowheads pierced through her eyes and emerged from her skull.

The immense force constricting around his waist was instantly dispersed by the formidable impact of the Ruler of Truth’s arrows. Due to inertia, Gu Shen staggered forward and barely managed to catch himself on the stone wall. He finally took a deep breath.

“Ahhh!” The agonizing scream echoed between the stone walls.

All along, Gu Shen had not turned around to see Qu Shui’s true appearance in order to keep her stable and avoid alerting her.

The Ruler of Truth didn’t strike unless necessary, but when it did, it was fatal.

The silver arrows had pierced through her face. Even an assault-type transcendent who had tempered their body wouldn’t be able to resist this kind of damage.

Gu Shen was leaning against the stone wall of the cave and was panting heavily. But he turned around, his pupils constricted, and his expression instantly darkened.

The girl was covering her face that had two small silver arrows pierced through it with both hands. But there were no facial features on her face, only a distorted black silhouette.

‘Qu Shui’ knelt on the ground, writhing in agony like a small snake. Gradually, the cries of pain grew fainter and fainter. Her figure collapsed and merged into the ground, truly transforming into a small snake. The two condensed silver arrows fell to the ground and turned into silver fragments with a clatter, shattering into pieces.

The one he had shot wasn’t Qu Shui herself.

It was a shadow.

Swoosh!

The small snake darted out of the cave and instantly disappeared without a trace.

But then a voice full of sorrow, pain, and anger resounded from outside the cave.

“Gu… Shen…” The girl held the scissors and blocked the only exit, blood and tears streaming down her face. She said each word tremblingly, “Have you been lying to me?”