Die, Replay, Repeat

Chapter 79: The Puppet Master

A bone-chilling silver light, with the moon's glow, came down from the sky. The silver-haired woman instinctively looked up to find Fang Xiu diving down, wielding a scalpel imbued with Specter power, aimed directly at her.

The bright moon served as a backdrop, its pale light blending with the gleam of the scalpel, both reflecting in the woman's eyes. This was the moment Fang Xiu had been waiting for.

Despite not recognizing the scalpel, the silver-haired woman, a second-tier psychic, could sense the power within it. Her silver hair reacted instantly, stretching out like a thick tentacle at high speed towards Fang Xiu's arm.

Fang Xiu's right hand, holding the scalpel, was tightly clamped by the hair, immobilized completely. The strength of the silver hair far exceeded that of the black hair. To prevent Fang Xiu from using his left hand, another strand of silver hair quickly wrapped around it.

Now, both of Fang Xiu's hands were restrained, and he was suspended in mid-air. The silver-haired woman smiled triumphantly, ready to enjoy Fang Xiu's fear and panic. But to her surprise, Fang Xiu looked down at her like a victor, his face shadowed by the moonlight. In the shadow, a blood eye suddenly lit up, emitting a sinister and ominous vibe.

"Look into my eyes!" a chilling voice echoed in the woman's ears. As their eyes met, a wave of Spiritual Energy burst from the blood eye, shooting straight into the woman's gaze

The woman's brain was hit hard, a ringing noise overwhelmed her, and she rolled her eyes back, fainting.

With her unconscious, the silver hair released Fang Xiu. As he fell from the air, he thrust the scalpel towards the woman's neck. But just then, several sounds came from afar.

WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH!

Three silver throwing knives, arranged in a triangle, flew towards Fang Xiu. Unfazed by the sudden attack, Fang Xiu even smirked slightly.

_'So they've finally decided to show themselves.' _He quickly redirected his scalpel, cutting through the air at an incredible speed.

CLANG! CLANG! CLANG

The three knives were instantly split in half. The force of the knives, however, knocked him back several meters.

Then, from behind a nearby hill, two women and two men slowly emerged.

The leading one was a woman in a wine-red long dress. Following her were the traveler couple and a muscular, broad-shouldered man over two meters tall, his body concealed under a black hooded cloak.

The woman in the wine-red dress didn't say anything and immediately issued a command: "Kill him!" Upon receiving the order, the traveler couple immediately pulled out pistols and started shooting at Fang Xiu.

Fang Xiu couldn't withstand bullets. He swiftly dodged and took cover behind a large rock. At such a distance, and with only two pistols, it was difficult to hit a psychic who had activated five percent of their Spiritual Energy.

It seemed, however, the woman's intention wasn't really to shoot Fang Xiu, as even when he took cover, she didn't order her subordinates to stop firing. Only when the bullets ran out did the traveler couple stop, standing emotionlessly like puppets, as if waiting for new orders.

Fang Xiu rose slowly from behind the rock, looking towards the woman in the wine-red dress, now understanding her true intention.

She's here for the silver-haired woman!

The silver-haired woman, who had fainted earlier, was now nowhere to be seen, apparently carried away by the tall, muscular man.

"Quick! Bring her to me!" The woman in the wine-red dress eyed the silver-haired woman brought by the muscular man with an uncontrollable ecstasy in her seductive eyes.

Finally, as the silver-haired woman was brought to her, the woman in the red dress, with her long, pale hands and bright red, diamond-studded nails, reached out in a frenzy.

She placed her hand on the silver-haired woman's forehead, and a wave of Spiritual Energy flowed into her, like a parasite invading her brain.

What happened next was even more shocking. The silver-haired woman, previously unconscious, stood up on her own. However, her eyes were lifeless, and her body was rigid, like a puppet.

The silver-haired woman knelt before the feet of the woman in the wine-red dress.

"Wang Erni greets you, master," she said, then voluntarily leaned in to kiss the exposed foot in a gesture of submission.

The woman in the wine-red dress burst into ecstatic laughter, her face flushed with excitement, as if basking in the afterglow of her triumph.

"A second-tier psychic! A Class-B Specter! Now they are all mine! With such powerful forces, once I return, I will be an S! The president! Hahaha"

"Have you finished laughing?" A calm voice interrupted the woman's hysterical laughter.

"Ah?" The woman slowed her laughter, looking seductively at Fang Xiu. then she playfully blinked at him. "Fang Xiu, is it? You dont seem surprised to see us."

"People from the Bright showing up isn't really surprising to me," Fang Xiu replied calmly.

The woman in the wine-red dress appeared even more intrigued. "You know me?" she asked with interest.

"Wang Yanyan, the Puppeteer, a core member of the Bright." Fang Xiu stated her identity calmly. He had information gathered from Lin Ziyang, including Wang Yanyan's appearance, personality, abilities, and status. Though he had never met the Puppeteer before, her recent display of abilities allowed him to make a confident guess.

Fang Xiu had suspected the involvement of someone like Wang Yanran since the Special Operations Squad was controlled. The method used to control the villagers by the silver-haired woman was clearly different from that used on the Squad, who had no hair in their bodies. Additionally, the silver-haired woman was powerful enough to control all the Specters in the village to kill them at the village chief's house that night, but she didnt. Instead, she went to great lengths to lead them to Blackwater River.

It wasnt hard to deduce that from the beginning, the silver-haired woman had no intention of killing them. Considering her attachment to Blackwater, treating it like home, it was not difficult to infer her motive. Her likely goal was to create a decoy, let them kill it, and then went back, thing they had complete their mission.

However, Wang Yanyan came here and complicated matters, escalating the situation.

"