Not far ahead, that giant crystal heart had once again coalesced into shape.
Only now, its size had severely shrunk, with more than half of it gone.
Its surface was covered in spiderweb-like cracks, and its light was so dim it couldn't even compare to a poor-quality light bulb.
Every beat seemed weak and feeble, as if it would break down on the spot at any moment.
Clearly, constructing three high-intensity Illusions in a row had severely overdrawn its energy reserves.
"You... you damned insects!"
The voice of the Heart of the Ancient God came from all directions, no longer elegant and gentle or furious and exasperated as before, leaving only the impotent rage of someone who had broken down.
"How could you possibly break free from the shackles of Desire?! Greed, lust... these are instincts engraved deep within the souls of all intelligent life!"
It paused for a moment, seemingly trying to squeeze out its last shred of confidence.
"But this is all meaningless! So what if you see through the Illusion? I am immortal and indestructible!"
"As long as Desire still exists in this world, I will be eternally immortal! That iron lump from before couldn't kill me, and you won't be able to either!"
These words hit the mark perfectly.
They completely ignited the volcano of suppressed rage deep within Lin Qingyue's heart.
"Immortal and indestructible, huh?"
Lin Qingyue laughed out loud.
It was a smile of extreme danger, a yandere-style grin that mixed "kindness" with brutality.
She slowly raised her head, her eyes bloodshot with extreme fury, yet a cold flame burned deep within her pupils.
A scammer running a pig-butchering scheme had drained her of all her money, and now he was flaunting his immunity to death in front of the victim?
Is there no king's law? Is there no law?!
She skillfully pulled up the System Panel and unhurriedly selected a shimmering Character Card from the warehouse.
On the card was a voluptuous noblewoman with an elegant aura.
She wore a wide-brimmed pure white hat and a magnificent dress of the same color.
The most eye-catching features were the slightly curved horns on her head and the long demon tail swaying leisurely behind her, its tip burning with a ghostly blue flame.
This was the [Constance Character Card] she had just drawn when the Heart of the Ancient God had cheated her.
"That's just wonderful."
The smile on Lin Qingyue's face grew even more brilliant, causing the three of them, including Lin Xiyue, to feel their scalps tingle in terror.
"I just love dealing with guys like you who claim to be 'immortal and indestructible.'"
"Perfect. I'll use you to test the strength of my new character. That should... make it worth the cost."
She gritted her back teeth, fiercely issuing the command in her mind.
"System! Let me use the [Constance Character Card]!"
The moment the command was issued, a pillar of ghostly blue flame erupted from beneath her feet with a whoosh, instantly swallowing her whole.
The virtual screen above her head lit up in response.
This time, it didn't play a lighthearted and healing idol music video, nor an exhilarating battle montage.
The screen displayed a family funeral, oppressive yet tinged with madness.
To the accompaniment of jazz that was magnificent, grotesque, and a touch insane, a Demon Race Grand Duke in a white dress was personally sending her blood relatives into coffins one by one, all while wearing an elegant smile.
The composure in her every gesture, paired with the ghostly blue Netherfire, created a stark contrast that made people break out in a cold sweat.
Grand Duke of Netherfire: Family Funeral Pure Enjoyment Edition
When the blue fire dissipated, Lin Qingyue's figure reappeared.
The priest's robe she had been wearing had long since vanished, replaced by the same pure white formal dress and exaggerated hat as on the card.
Her long pink hair was elegantly coiled up, revealing her slender neck.
The face that usually bore the expression of a slacking-off salted fish now had sharp lines, radiating a full-power aura.
On the fingertips of her white-gloved hand, a ball of ghostly blue flame was bouncing back and forth like a well-behaved pet.
Her temperament had completely transformed.
From an occasionally scheming Salted Fish Priest, she had instantly switched to an Underworld Noble ready to forcibly seize souls at any moment.
Of course, the most outrageous part was her figure.
Her originally curvaceous and athletic body had now expanded to an exaggerated scale.
Lin Xiyue stared fixedly at the overwhelming pressure emanating from her sister's chest, her eyes going wide as she leaned in to mutter softly:
"Sis... confess honestly, have you been secretly training your chest muscles behind my back? This isn't scientific!"
Lin Qingyue completely ignored her sister's usual off-the-wall complaining, her gaze locked dead on the Heart of the Ancient God.
Her lips curled into a spine-chilling grin.
A max-level yandere smile!
Paired with her visually striking figure, it seemed as if she would smile and twist off the other's skull to use as an ashtray the next second.
"You... what kind of ghostly thing are you?!"
The Heart of the Ancient God panicked. It felt a shudder that struck the very depths of its soul.
That blue flame made it feel as if its very existence was being threatened.
It roared desperately to bolster its own courage: "I am immortal! I am the manifestation of all living beings' desires! I am a conceptual entity! You can't possibly kill me!"
"Oh?"
Lin Qingyue tilted her head slightly, the shadow under the brim of her hat making her smile appear even more terrifying.
Her voice had become deep and mellow, each word carrying a deadly magnetism, yet also revealing a suffocating, pathological desire for control.
"You say you originate from desire, eternally immortal?"
She took a step forward in her high heels, her ghostly blue demon tail whipping through the air with a crisp crack.
"Darling, 'immortal' is a very heavy word. It requires a massive memory bank to support, and a 'self' to define."
She gently raised her right hand, the blue flame at her fingertips dancing excitedly.
"So, what if I take all the memories since your birth, your underlying logic data, and even the very concept of 'you'..."
"And burn them all to a crisp?"
"When that time comes, what will you use to prove your 'immortality'?"
Before her voice had even faded, the flame at her fingertips shot out!
There was no dazzling explosion, nor any world-destroying commotion.
That blue fire drifted lightly, like a moth drawn to a flame, gently pressing against the crystal shell of the Heart of the Ancient God.
[Memory Incineration]!
Sizzle—
A faint sound, similar to a hard drive being formatted.
The ghostly blue flame "whooshed" open, directly enveloping the entire crystal heart tightly.
But this flame was not scorching, nor did it destroy the physical structure.
Instead, it seeped directly inside, beginning to frantically incinerate the memories and information the Heart of the Ancient God had accumulated over ten million years.
The arrogant black and red light within the Heart of the Ancient God instantly turned into gibberish, then began to collapse and vanish in great swathes!
"No! Wait! That's my..."
It finally realized the horror of this flame; it wasn't destroying its physical body, but erasing its very existence from the root!
The experience, conspiracies, and knowledge it had accumulated over countless years, the proof of its status as an "Ancient God," were now being rapidly deleted like trash data!
The terrified pleas for mercy were cut short.
Thump!
A deafening, dull thud.
Lin Xiyue swung her great shield, delivering a solid [Shield Bash] straight into the side of the crystal orb.
She brutally smashed the Ancient God's half-finished last words back down its throat.
"So noisy!"
The knight girl glared fiercely at the broken crystal ball.
"Who cares what that is! First, compensate me for my municipal sewage... bah, compensate me for my Golden Dragon Shield!"
Beside them, Su Wan and Xia Lian watched in stunned silence.
Especially Su Wan, who could clearly sense the energy level of the Heart of the Ancient God plummeting off a cliff.
This wasn't a weakening; this was dimensional reduction!
It was being forcibly devolved from a "sentient being" into a "mere energy source."
Under the Blue Fire's burning, which was filled with a sickly love, the once-insufferable Heart of the Ancient God grew more and more transparent, its size rapidly shrinking.
Finally, all the impurities on its surface faded away completely, and the Chaos Energy within was burned until not even a scrap remained.
In mid-air, only a fist-sized, crystal-clear, and pure crystal ball floated.
Its glow was soft, and it looked... a bit cute and dazed.
"Is that... it? The legendary forced formatting and low-level data wipe?"
Su Wan rubbed her temples, feeling as if the magic theory she had studied for over a decade had been trampled upon on an epic scale.
"Qingyue, this move of yours... is even more terrifying than our family's ancestral Soul Forbidden Spell."
Xia Lian weakly added another blow from the side: "And it seems its intelligence has been wiped clean now... It looks even more mindless than a slime."
At this moment, the ghostly blue flames on Lin Qingyue's body finally dissipated.
The Character Card was deactivated, and the oppressive, yandere Grand Duke vanished, leaving only the pink-haired priest in his place, fuming with heartache over her lost savings.