Don't mess with that Miao boy, he's sickly and perverted.

Before the big battle, Song Yueyao had already made all the necessary arrangements.

Chai Xiaomi's task was to stay behind and take care of the seriously wounded soldiers.

Among them, the oldest person was the most seriously injured. His wound needed to be dressed with powder every day, and the gauze soaked with blood and pus also needed to be changed.

With practice, she gradually became more skilled and adept, even muttering a few words of everyday conversation while bandaging the wound.

"Uncle Zheng, let me tell you, my dad once cut his hand while chopping vegetables and screamed like a pig being slaughtered, but my mom didn't even pay attention to him in the kitchen. You're much tougher than him."

"Your dad's still chopping vegetables?" The veteran chuckled.

"Yes, that's right. In my family, it's always the men who cook. My mother only goes into the kitchen to wash fruit at most."

The old soldier, enduring the pain, grinned broadly: "That's quite a sight! But if I had a daughter like you, I'd be happy to cook for you. It seems your parents have raised you very well; your complexion is rosy, just like the lucky dolls pasted on doors for Chinese New Year."

Chai Xiaomi's hands didn't stop moving; she deftly tied a knot in the gauze, lowered her eyes, and smiled bitterly: "Not really, it's just that I haven't seen my parents for a long time."

The veteran was taken aback.

"However," she raised her head, her previous bitterness vanishing, and a smile curved her lips, "during these days without my parents, my husband has taken good care of me, and he has raised me very well."

"He knows I have a sweet tooth, so he always buys me lots of delicious food. He also knows I love to dress up, so he buys me lots of pretty dresses. And he doesn't want me to work hard. He fights with me for the basin when washing clothes, he fights with me for the broom when sweeping, and he even tries to take the glass of water from me. I told him I'm not made of porcelain, and he said I am a porcelain doll."

"Well, the old man just said you were a lucky doll, but it turns out you're a porcelain doll!" The old soldier looked at her with affection and smiled, his wrinkles deepening at the corners of his eyes.

But then I saw her eyes suddenly turn red.

Large tears rolled down unexpectedly, landing on the newly changed gauze and leaving small water stains.

"Girl, what's wrong with you?"

Outside the city, deafening cheers pierced through the city gates and surged in.

"We won! We won!!!"

The seriously wounded soldiers were overjoyed, and they all propped themselves up, not even caring that their wounds had reopened.

All the joyful, excited, and enthusiastic cheers were silenced.

In Chai Xiaomi's mind, only the hesitant, mechanical voice of the fried dough stick remained:

"System detected: The main storyline 'Defeat the Barbarians' has been completed. Two characters have been determined to be 'inevitable death' and have been forcibly logged off. Storyline correction complete, about to enter the final chapter."

"Congratulations, host! The transmigration mission has been successfully completed! Did you enjoy this journey? A rating section will appear on the interface shortly. Remember to give this system a five-star review! In ten minutes, the system will teleport you back to your original world. Countdown begins—"

After reciting the last paragraph of the standard script in a businesslike manner, You Tiao added softly, "Goodbye, Xiaomi."

It knew that they would probably never see each other again.

It also knew that Xiaomi's hopes had been dashed.

Unfortunately, it's just a system and can't interfere with the plot.

Before our eyes, a countdown screen slowly appeared.

"Forced offline? Who forced me offline?" Chai Xiaomi didn't even have time to wipe her tears. She took off running and ran desperately toward the city gate.

However, the closer he got to the city gate, the more frantically his heart pounded.

The cheers gradually subsided.

For some reason, an ominous premonition welled up in my heart.

The city gates were wide open.

A familiar figure was kneeling in the distance.

The boy had his back to her, enveloped in a seven-colored halo. Beneath him was a circular, rotating array with flowing light patterns, completely isolating everyone else from the outside.

In the sky, a colorful sphere floats suspended in mid-air, slowly rotating.

Bright red bloodstains stretched from Wu Li's entire body, like fine threads, continuously flowing up to the city wall.

Chai Xiaomi looked up and saw a figure standing atop the city wall, the bloodline entering his body. The figure held a Bagua compass, a chilling smile playing on his lips: "Even if you use every trick in the book, it will be futile. The Illusionary Stone is a priceless treasure. The formation is complete; no one can break it. Forcibly breaking the formation will only result in a backlash and your death!"

"Thanks to a message brought back by a deserter, I learned that this precious immortal body was actually in this Deer City."

Grand Tutor Yin glanced disdainfully at the group of people attacking him from outside the formation, feeling his lifespan gradually increasing within his body.

"So, it was you who was so eager to achieve immortality! My foolish father was nothing but a tool you used!" Song Yueyao was blasted away by the energy, and Jiang Zhiyu hurriedly flew over to catch her.

Both of them had blood on their lips and were unable to break into the formation no matter what they did.

The white cat, the most seriously injured, looked at the boy in the formation with eyes full of heartache and anger, and cursed in a trembling voice: "You brat! You ruined yourself with your arrogance! You used all those tomb bats and insect swarms to protect the soldiers, leaving yourself without even a barrier."

Otherwise, how could this villain have taken advantage of the situation?

Just as this cunning villain said, the Illusionary Stone is a rare magical artifact that can absorb the power of all things for its own use. At this moment, Wu Li's purest blood is being drawn out little by little by that bead and transferred into his body.

Seeing the white cat still shakily trying to get up, Wu Li forced a weak smile and said, "Don't waste your energy..."

After saying that, he didn't even have the strength to speak anymore.

He suddenly felt that this was how his ending should have been.

His beloved wife was a lavish gift bestowed upon him by Heaven; she didn't even belong to this world...

Therefore, when he fully enjoys the warmth, beauty, and joy she gives him, he should pay the price.

After all, he was once a thoroughly evil person, his hands covered in blood, yet he inadvertently acquired such a precious treasure.

How could God, who is so stingy, always be kind to him?

Or perhaps, the time has finally come for his exchange with the Goddess of the Three Paths to come true.

If his fate could bring her a peaceful and tranquil life, why wouldn't he be happy to do it?

Thinking of this, he felt no sadness at all, but rather a sense of joy, though that joy was tinged with reluctance.

In the end, he was greedy...

The boy's back gradually bent.

Feeling dejected and lost.

A hundred meters behind him, You Tiao's mechanical voice even carried a hint of a sob: "A villain is a villain after all. No matter how hard we try, the plot will create countless variables to eliminate him."

"Xiaomi, face reality. Don't you miss your family? There are only five minutes left. You'll soon be back in your familiar world, reunited with them! You're finally going home, don't do anything foolish!"

Chai Xiaomi did not answer.

She just stared at that bent-over figure, at that once spirited and arrogant young man, now like a lamp about to burn out, slowly dimming.

Her hands were trembling, her eyes were burning, but her gaze had never been so clear.

Youtiao was taken aback: "Wait! What are you going to do? You've completed your mission!"

The girl raised the bow that shimmered with icy light, and the bowstring was drawn from her fingertips like a cold crescent moon. "I remember Ouyang Huai saying that this divine weapon can destroy the power of immortal artifacts. Whoever obtains this bow can break through anything in the world."

The fried dough stick was so anxious his voice cracked: "No, no! The magic artifact's formation has already been activated. Anyone who tries to break it by force will suffer a backlash, and you'll die!"

Chai Xiaomi said resolutely, "If the plot must erase him from the story, then let me bear this predetermined fate in his place!"

You Tiao wanted to persuade him further, but the words caught in his throat.

It remembered something.

With the host's lousy skills, not to mention her accuracy, she might not even be able to draw the Xuan Arrow on this ice bow.

When Wu Li taught her before, it was a complete disaster. To put it bluntly, all she knew how to do was play music with this bow.

With only three minutes left in the countdown on the screen, You Tiao quietly breathed a sigh of relief.

Sending the host back to the world safely is the system's duty. But bringing Xiaomi back to her family is its last selfish wish as a friend.

But then something unexpected happened.

Chai Xiaomi silently recited the key points that Wu Li had taught her:

"Three steps: loosen your fingers, steady your body, focus your eyes..."

In a daze, she seemed to feel the scorching sun of that day, the refreshing breeze by the lake, and the boy's lazy voice seemed to whisper in her ear, clear and cool like a mountain spring, resonating with her heartbeat: "Archery is not about drawing the bow with your hands, but about guiding the arrow with your back. At the moment of release, your will must reach the bullseye before the arrow."

"Willpower..." she murmured, repeating his words.

A startling beam of light suddenly condensed on the bowstring, shining into her burning pupils.

Hot tears rolled down one by one, shimmering in the white light.

"Mom and Dad, I'm sorry."

If it were you, you would also do the same for each other without hesitation.

The countdown on the light screen had only ten seconds left.

9, 8, 7, 6...

A beam of light suddenly shot out from the string!

Like lightning striking the iridescent stone floating in the air, light flowed between heaven and earth, and the bead shattered piece by piece.

"Xiaomi! Xiaomi! Little—"

The system detected that the host's vital signs were about to disappear and could no longer attach itself. You Tiao was forcibly recalled by headquarters, and the sound gradually faded away.

The iridescent stone suddenly exploded!

Thousands of fragments burst forth, like a cascading rain of stars, dyeing the entire sky with a colorful tapestry of broken pieces.

It was dazzlingly colorful, like a magnificent firework in full bloom.

She never imagined that the iridescent stone she had painstakingly stolen by climbing through the dog hole would eventually bloom before her in such a way.

Chai Xiaomi seemed amused and gently tugged at the corner of her lips.

Then, drained of all strength, he slowly collapsed...