Role Playing the Dark Horse Character

Chapter 105: Mother Hen Leading Her Chicks

The pink-haired princess gazed at the black-haired youth.

From their words, she had already deduced their identity: "Welcome. If it’s you, it seems anything is possible."

"But you are now challenging the authority of the imperial family," the imperial princess said, her tone sinking. "You will pay a price for your arrogance, illusionist."

Li Li merely raised an eyebrow, flashing a bold smile.

"Oh?"

Her gaze touched the void, where only she could see the threads of illusion and reality.

Trust quantified as lines in her eyes, the degree of belief from the three high-rank ability users and the sole non-ability imperial member before her captured with precision.

Princess Wuyu didn’t believe her words.

But Li Li didn’t need her to believe—she only needed the ability users to believe!

"Full force!" Princess Wuyu issued the command.

A thick bolt of lightning descended from the sky, like an inverted towering tree.

The blinding white light instantly enveloped the figure in the lake.

The noble who attacked looked arrogantly at his powerful ability illuminating everything around.

A spell-type high-rank ability user, his electricity could extinguish an entire city’s lights.

His full-force strike was as swift as lightning—no one could escape such instantaneous, overwhelming power.

But at the center of the electric light, there was no one.

"Underestimated, huh."

The voice exploded by his ear, its leisurely tone strikingly clear amidst the crackling of electricity.

‘When!’ He couldn’t suppress his reaction, whipping his head around, the motion so abrupt his spine let out a crack.

The black-haired youth passed by him, crimson eyes flowing like a gentle breeze.

Then those eyes settled on the outermost water-controlling ability user, who was growing increasingly panicked.

Beneath the ice, currents surged.

The spell-type water-controlling ability user had a bead of cold sweat on his forehead.

In the blazing electric light, he sought an opportunity to shatter the ice, controlling the water to form a pillar that surged toward Li Li the moment the electric light faded.

“He’s the one who killed Qu Yan, the one who killed the Necromantic Prelude!” He stared at those crimson pupils, as if gazing into an abyss of unfathomable darkness. His lips trembled, panic spreading through his mind: “Insects, ice, teleportation—no normal ability user could have so many abilities! He can use other people’s abilities, he definitely can!”

“Don’t give him a chance to replicate our abilities!”

At that moment, he saw the corner of the other’s mouth curve into a smile.

As if saying,

“Very clever.”

Water mist refracted rainbow colors under the light, and her figure suddenly vanished in the fog.

“What are you doing!” The water pillar struck the electricity-controlling noble, piercing his shoulder, blood splattering. He turned and roared at his companion.

But soon, the sound in his mouth stopped.

Lightning flashed from the clouds, dark clouds churning, the electric glow illuminating from behind.

It was as if a massive vortex was forming.

An invisible progress bar appeared, gently touched by pale fingertips, dragged to its fullest.

“Oh, why would you attack your own people?” she said softly.

Like the reaper lowering its final scythe.

The electric light roared like wild horses, like surging waves, an identical thick current crashing down from above, striking the water-controlling ability user as he looked up!

“Boom!”

The electric light spread like a python, scorching the water mist in the air.

“Are you all insane, infighting at a time like this?” The last poison-controlling ability user glared at the electricity-controlling ability user.

The electricity-controlling ability user stared blankly at the electric strike that should have been his.

“No… I didn’t do anything,” he murmured.

As an S-rank ability user himself, he had just witnessed the death of a high-rank ability user nearly as strong as him.

And him?

He hadn’t noticed his wounded shoulder, nor had he seen that, as the electric light struck, an insect burrowed into his wound.

Lin Ruye’s ability, manipulated through the cursed undead, passed on the curse.

“It’s replication! He really replicated our abilities!” The noble turned to the princess, shouting, “This strength isn’t normal! Absolutely not normal!”

Princess Wuyu said nothing, retreating from the most dangerous part of the battlefield under Sang Feiyuan’s protection.

The mansion prepared for her by the lord of Tan City had collapsed under the abilities of the high-rank ability users.

The pink-haired princess stared fixedly at the lake, calculating rapidly.

Something still felt wrong! If that person’s words were true, why would they deliberately reveal an ability unknown to them?

But if it was false, how were the replicated abilities explained? How was it done?

A contradiction—she had never seen such a contradictory ability user!

But a battle between high-rank ability users left no room for calm thinking.

“You didn’t do anything?” The poison-controlling ability user froze, struggling to say, “You didn’t do anything?”

He had misunderstood the water-controlling ability user’s actions as well.

But he received no answer.

At the wound of the electricity-controlling ability user, blood mixed with water, turning blue.

His face began to turn purple, rotting, melting flesh as he looked at the poison-controlling ability user.

‘Your ability was replicated too.’ He seemed to be saying.

The eerie situation made the poison-controlling ability user take a step back.

That single step.

He felt an overwhelming sense of humiliation.

“No matter what you’ve done, killing you ends this!” Poison surged around him, conjured from thin air, rushing like a tide toward the black-haired youth he glared at.

His ability activated, and at the same moment, Princess Wuyu shouted: “Wait!”

She rarely showed such urgency.

“Stop!”

But it was too late.

An ice blade sliced through the ability user’s body, blood threads bursting in the air like vivid red fireworks.

Long boots stepped onto the ice, immune to the high-rank ability user’s poison.

The black-haired youth on the ice walked forward, step by step.

“Do you remember Qu Yan?” Li Li asked softly.

The final ability user’s pupils trembled as the vivid red blood in the air gathered into threads.

Her words brought to mind that purple-haired man.

He watched the black-haired youth speak as if picking vegetables at a market: “His ability was quite interesting, able to kill ability users directly through their abilities.”

Then she chuckled lightly.

A chill seemed to invade his limbs, tightening his heart.

“But for you, it doesn’t need to be that complicated.”

Those crimson pupils looked over, her tone light and cheerful: “After all, your blood has already”

Already what? he thought.

Already been controlled?

Already met the conditions for Qu Yan’s ability, right?

The invisible trust progress bar surged, reaching its maximum.

“Bang.”

The black-haired youth said with a smile.

The sound of rain pattered softly, but there was no rain today.

Red mist was blown away by the wind.

Li Li turned, the hem of her black trench coat tracing an arc.

The lights had been shattered in the earlier destruction, yet in the dim darkness of the night, her vision seemed unaffected.

“You really are… very arrogant,” Princess Wuyu said from the air.

If the illusionist had died in their encirclement, it would have just been arrogance.

But with three S-rank ability users dead in succession, and the illusionist herself still leisurely turning around, standing in the wreckage caused by abilities, chuckling.

Princess Wuyu felt anger.

Because that smile was a slight against her and the noble beside her.

A rumbling sound came from the ground, something moving from beneath toward the sky.

The ruins, like a small mountain, trembled and slid downward.

A hand emerged from the rubble.

Then a torso, a head, limbs. A giant, like a mountain, revealed itself.

A mimicry-type high-rank ability user, Princess Wuyu’s trump card, revealed his face.

He roared, raising his sturdy arm, seemingly aiming to slam it down on Li Li.

At that moment.

“No need to act.” Princess Wuyu raised her hand.

She stared steadily at Li Li and said, “You can’t beat him.”

This was her trump card against the illusionist, but only until tonight.

After tonight, she abandoned that idea.

“My eyes can see through illusions,” the ability user said.

“His ability isn’t just illusions,” Princess Wuyu said.

This person’s behavior wasn’t contradictory; he had already seen through their helplessness.

No matter what they did, they could only let the outcome unfold freely, just like now.

“He’s SS-rank,” she said with certainty. “Someone who could kill Lin Ran must be SS-rank. My assumptions were too conservative. We have no chance of winning now.”

The difference between SS and S is vast. Above A-rank, the gap between each rank widens, and no number of S-rank ability users can match an SS-rank.

Princess Wuyu, who had seen many SS-rank ability users in Floating City, knew this.

It was useless.

This outing of hers was utterly pointless.

Without an SS-rank ability user on her side, she couldn’t defeat this black-haired youth before her.

Princess Wuyu said, “Illusionist, do you dare go to Floating City?”

She admitted she had overestimated these S-rank ability users, but Floating City had more than just S-ranks.

Only Floating City, with its SS-rank nobles, might be able to kill this person.

The black-haired youth merely let out a mocking hum.

‘What’s there to fear?’ His half-smiling expression seemed to say.

Li Li knew she would eventually go to Floating City; it was a place she had to visit.

But now, she showed a trace of weariness and turned around.

“It’s late. I won’t disturb you further.”

A snap of her fingers, and her figure vanished from the spot.

“Goodbye, Princess Wuyu.”

The princess stood amid the ruins, staring long at the place where she disappeared.

...

Yiming and the others had already escaped the main battlefield of high-rank ability users with An Heyu’s help.

The people waiting to receive them saw they were all intact and breathed a sigh of relief.

An Huyu, while thinking it impossible, couldn’t help but glance at An Heyu.

An Heyu was draped in a cloak, hood up, face obscured.

After delivering them, he turned to leave.

An Huyu genuinely felt this person gave off a familiar vibe, like someone who could nag him endlessly about what he was doing wrong, with that motherly aura seeping from their bones.

Yet this person wore a skirt and high heels.

Their height was different, and their figure, wrapped in the cloak, didn’t count for much.

Perhaps because the high heels were uncomfortable, this person’s walking posture differed from his brother’s.

An Huyu had seen his brother’s corpse, and as a necromantic ability user, he didn’t believe in resurrection.

But that inexplicable feeling made him hesitate, then step forward to ask, “You—”

“Yiming! You came to find me!” An all-too-familiar blond, red-eyed boy jogged over, blocking An Huyu’s view of the red cloak.

By the time he moved aside, An Heyu was gone.

Tang and Yiming said in unison, “Who’s looking for you?”

An Huyu paused, closed his eyes, and after a long moment, opened them again.

“Aren’t you curious how I ended up here?” Yu Xiao said. “This place is far from Zhusheng City.”

“Not curious,” Yiming shook his head, and Tang agreed.

But Yu Xiao insisted, “Dog Goose dragged me here.”

Yiming felt offended. “Dog son? Who? Yu Xiao, how could you curse someone?”

...

When Li Li returned, An Heyu was already there.

He had removed his mask and pulled down his hood.

Seeing Li Li, he first asked, “Heige, are you hurt?”

He was very worried, despite having been there the whole time.

“Hurt?” At that keyword, Dan immediately looked over, like a vicious dog ready to break free. “Who did it?”

Li Li found it amusing.

She shook her head and said, “No one.”

If Princess Wuyu had released that illusion-seeing ability user from the start, the battle’s outcome might have been uncertain.

But Princess Wuyu thought she had lured An Heyu by using An Huyu as bait.

Then Li Li acted swiftly, not giving the ability user time to think, quickly setting the pace and ending the confrontation.

After asking this, An Heyu hesitated.

He was naturally cautious, but when it came to his brother, he became overly concerned.

After the matter was settled, he reflected on himself.

An Heyu said apologetically, “Sorry, I exposed myself.” Then, even more apologetically, “Thank you, Heige.”

“Pity,” Li Li said, feeling she should’ve held out a bit longer. “I didn’t wait for you to beg me.”

An Heyu’s downcast expression cracked.

He couldn’t help but smile, then composed himself, trying to sound serious. “Consider it a debt I owe.”

Whether An Heyu dropped his cover or not didn’t matter much to Li Li, and she had smoothed things over afterward.

“An Huyu wouldn’t have lasted long with the princess. Since he’s joined Tide, whether you’re exposed or not, he’ll face pursuit from nobles and the Empire,” Li Li said.

An Heyu had faked his death to avoid dragging An Huyu into trouble, but since An Huyu had jumped into Tide’s mess himself, An Heyu’s fake death couldn’t protect him anymore.

At most, An Heyu’s reveal would just be a bit awkward.

She thought, without much conscience, that she hoped An Huyu could accept his brother becoming his sister.

Or, to An Huyu, perhaps his brother had become his mother?

…

After the twists and turns of that night, the Tide members who had rushed from Zhusheng City settled down in Ranmu City.

But after last night’s events, whether the princess would stay in Tan City was now uncertain.

Li Li didn’t care to bother with it.

That illusion-seeing ability was only targeted at her; An Heyu and Dan were completely unaffected.

The next day, she thought she’d first hear news of the princess leaving Tan City, but instead, she heard that Tide had issued a challenge to the princess.

While brushing Dan’s hair and picking out a goose-yellow dress for a dress-up game, Li Li asked An Heyu, “The entire imperial family has no abilities?”

“Yes,” An Heyu nodded.

He was somewhat inclined to help, as Tide currently only had Sang Feiling as an S-rank, while the princess had three S-ranks.

Of the two S-ranks guarding An Huyu, he had killed one, leaving Sang Feiyuan and the mimicry-type Giant who appeared later, making three S-ranks.

“Why do nobles obey the imperial family’s orders?” Li Li asked, her eyes scanning several colored hair ties before picking one.

The question made An Heyu pause.

He showed a hesitant expression, then said, “It seems like a customary thing. I can’t quite think of why right now.”

“They must obey the imperial family and follow their commands. It’s just taken for granted,” he said.

“I see,” Li Li nodded, then tied a butterfly-knot hair tie into a small braid for Dan.

She clapped her hands, satisfied with her work, and under Dan’s somewhat delighted gaze, said, “Dan, go out with Red Crane.”

Dan performed a live demonstration of a smile gradually fading and turning ferocious.

“Go outshine Red Crane,” Li Li said with a beaming smile.

Dan clenched his fists. “I will.”

Looking at his reflection in the mirror, styled by Li Li, it was as if flames were blazing behind him.

The Red Crane about to be ‘outshined’: ...

An Heyu wanted to laugh but didn’t know how, ultimately showing a helpless wry smile.

...

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