Nanny Zhang began struggling in agony.
The heart-wrenching pain twisted the already fierce-looking woman into something that resembled a vicious ghost.
Her eyes bulged, blood vessels spreading across them like a web. She glared fiercely at Shen Qingyao as blood continuously poured from her nose and mouth.
She reached out, trying to grab Shen Qingyao.
Shen Qingyao took a step back with a look of disgust.
Nice try.
You think you can catch me? You should ask yourself whether you’re worthy first.
“Old hag, don’t you know how filthy you are right now? How dare you reach out to me? If you try again, I’ll chop off those filthy claws of yours.”
Unable to catch her, Nanny Zhang was furious.
But she couldn’t make a sound.
“Heh… heh…”
Only strange, raspy noises came from her throat.
The sound was eerie and unpleasant.
Shen Qingyao couldn’t be bothered with her anymore.
After all, Nanny Zhang was as good as dead.
Right now, what Shen Qingyao wanted most was to take a bath, change into clean clothes, and leave this place.
She sighed.
If only her Space were still here.
It had everything she could ever want.
My Space…
My precious Space…
As she silently complained to herself, a flash of white light suddenly appeared before her eyes, so bright that she couldn’t open them.
A look of delight quickly spread across her face.
She knew that white light all too well.
Wasn’t this the same flash that appeared every time she entered her Space?
Could it be…
Her Space had come with her?
Thinking of the possibility, she immediately opened her eyes.
Sure enough, the familiar scene appeared before her.
“That’s wonderful! My Space really came with me! This is amazing!”
Shen Qingyao was so excited that her whole body trembled.
She even bounced twice on the spot like a happy little rabbit.
Meanwhile, Nanny Zhang, who remained where she was, stared in horror.
What had she just seen?
That ugly freak had disappeared right before her eyes!
Did she possess some kind of supernatural power?
Or had she already turned into a vengeful ghost and returned to take revenge on them?
Then Nanny Zhang suddenly remembered something.
Hadn’t the abbot of the Protectorate Temple said that the ugly freak possessed the destiny of a phoenix?
Could this be the power granted by that destiny?
For the first time, Nanny Zhang regretted provoking Shen Qingyao.
But she also knew it was too late for regrets.
The agonizing pain of her insides rotting made her roll around on the filthy floor.
Then she desperately tried to call for help.
Supporting herself with both hands and knees, she slowly crawled toward the door.
There were two guards standing outside.
As long as she reached the entrance, she could ask for help.
But the pain throughout her body made her crawl painfully slowly.
She had only managed to move less than half a meter when a pair of feet suddenly appeared before her.
One foot stepped directly onto her right hand and even ground down on it a few times.
The feet wore a pair of old, dirty embroidered shoes.
Her heart skipped a beat.
Eyes wide, she slowly looked upward from those shoes.
Then she saw the face she feared most.
Her heart clenched tightly.
Didn’t she leave?
Why was she back again?
Pretending she had only just noticed that she had stepped on Nanny Zhang’s hand, Shen Qingyao let out a small, fake cry of surprise.
“Oh dear, I’m so sorry. I didn’t do it on purpose. Did I hurt you?”
Hearing those obviously fake words, Nanny Zhang nearly fainted from anger.
Damn ugly freak!
You little bitch!
Why won’t you just die?
Hatred filled Nanny Zhang’s eyes.
She had completely forgotten how terrified she had been moments ago.
Using all her strength, she shifted her body and tried to continue crawling toward the door.
Shen Qingyao silently smiled.
She crouched down in front of Nanny Zhang.
The smile on her half-black, half-normal face looked especially eerie.
“Oh? Nanny Zhang, where are you trying to go? Look at you—you can’t even stand up anymore. Why are you working so hard to crawl outside? What, are your father and mother waiting for you at the door?”
Her voice dripped with sarcasm.
Nanny Zhang glared so fiercely at Shen Qingyao that she nearly ground her back teeth to pieces.
She wanted to curse at her.
But no words would come out.
She lowered her head and continued crawling toward the doorway with great difficulty.
Shen Qingyao shook her head.
She reached down, grabbed Nanny Zhang by the hair, and dragged her all the way back to where she had started.
Nanny Zhang coughed up another mouthful of blood.
Even so, she refused to give up.
She started crawling toward the door all over again.
With her hands behind her back, Shen Qingyao leisurely followed behind her.
When Nanny Zhang had crawled about two meters away, Shen Qingyao grabbed her by the hair once more and dragged her back again.
This happened four times.
At last, Nanny Zhang gave up.
With no will to live left, she lay flat on the ground and stared blankly at the sky.
Heavens above…
Earth below…
Will someone please stop this heartless demon?
Will someone save this poor old woman?
Seeing that Nanny Zhang had stopped moving and was simply lying there waiting to die, Shen Qingyao lost interest.
“Why did you stop crawling? Come on, one more time. You can do it! Keep trying!”
She even cheered her on.
The poison had already left Nanny Zhang’s entire body in unbearable pain.
By now, however, she had gone completely numb.
Fueled by anger at Shen Qingyao, she rolled her eyes back and fainted on the spot.
Shen Qingyao curled her lips in disdain and muttered quietly,
“That’s all it took to knock you out? Useless.”
As she spoke, a sharp dagger suddenly appeared in her hand.
Without the slightest hesitation, she cut the tendons in both of Nanny Zhang’s wrists and ankles.
She couldn’t risk letting the woman crawl outside again.
Now that both her hands and feet were crippled, Shen Qingyao could finally relax.
Satisfied with her handiwork, she entered her Space.
Inside, she walked into her villa.
She went to the bath on the second floor and filled it with Spiritual Spring water.
After taking off her filthy clothes, she sank comfortably into the warm spring water.
Resting both arms on the edge of the bath, she closed her eyes and let out a contented sigh.
“Ah… Nothing beats soaking in a hot bath.”
She tilted her head back and drank the entire cup of Spiritual Spring Water in her hand. As soon as the cup was empty, it magically filled itself again.
She drank another full cup, and the cup instantly refilled once more.
At first, there hadn’t been any Spiritual Spring Water in the Space.
It was the natural spring on one of the islands that had been given to her as a reward after she completed the final level of the game.
At the time, she hadn’t thought of it as Spiritual Spring Water.
She had simply assumed that spring water had to be much better than ordinary tap water.
Maybe it was even sweet.
Unable to resist, she scooped up a handful and drank it.
Sure enough, the water tasted sweet.
Not long afterward, her stomach started rumbling, accompanied by mild cramps.
A foul odor also began to seep from her body.
Only then did Shen Qingyao realize that this spring water was probably the legendary Spiritual Spring Water often described in novels.
Lying comfortably in the bath, she drank another cup.
Then another.
Only after finishing three cups did she stop.
This body was simply too weak.
Ever since childhood, the original owner had never had enough to eat or enough warm clothes to wear, leaving her with all kinds of minor health problems.
Spiritual Spring Water could completely improve this body’s condition.
It could even remove the black birthmark covering half her face.
Thinking about this Space, Shen Qingyao still found it unbelievable.
At the same time, she felt incredibly fortunate.
She had obtained this Space a few months before the apocalypse.
One day, a mobile game had suddenly appeared on her phone.
The game was called My City.
Ever since she got her first smartphone, she had loved playing casual simulation games like this.
The game’s art style was beautiful.
It was also her favorite type of city-building game.
She was immediately attracted by its gorgeous graphics and beautiful buildings.
At the time, she hadn’t understood why it had suddenly appeared on her phone.
She clearly hadn’t downloaded it herself.
Still, she didn’t think much about it.
Since it was exactly the kind of game she liked, she simply started playing.
For some reason, although she had never spent money on mobile games before…
She mysteriously found herself spending ten thousand yuan on this game every single month.
Back then, her monthly salary was only twenty thousand yuan.
After paying rent and daily living expenses, almost all of her remaining money went into the game.
Normally, even getting her to spend one yuan on a mobile game would have been nearly impossible.
Yet this game constantly tempted her into spending money.
Strangely enough, she even felt it was worth it.
After all, she had reached the maximum level.
As a bonus, the game had even rewarded her with two extra islands.
At the time, she thought she had gotten an incredible bargain.
After all, owning private islands was something she could never have achieved in real life, even in her dreams.
By the time she came to her senses, it was already too late to regret it.
The money had belonged to her.
She had willingly spent it herself.
She couldn’t blame anyone else.
Then, two days before the apocalypse began, something unexpected happened.
Her Space suddenly awakened.
She found herself transported into it without warning.
Once inside, she discovered that the Space was actually the very same My City game she had been playing.
At first, she thought she was dreaming.
She pinched herself several times, hard enough to leave bruises on her thigh.
The sharp pain made her bare her teeth.
It also convinced her that everything was real.
She truly possessed a Space.
And it looked exactly like the game.
Inside were apartment buildings, every kind of store imaginable, hamburger restaurants, hotels, candy shops, fruit stores, cake shops…
In short, if a shop existed in the real world, it also existed inside her Space.
It was practically a perfect world.
Only then did she realize that perhaps the reason she had unconsciously spent so much money on the game…
…was because some part of her had sensed what was coming.
She reached over and picked up the small mirror sitting on a nearby shelf.
Looking into it, she saw that half of her face was covered by the black birthmark.
Shen Qingyao jumped in surprise.
Honestly…
She really was quite ugly.
But it didn’t matter.
She could already feel heat spreading across both her face and the rest of her body.
She knew it was because of the Spiritual Spring Water.
Her body was expelling impurities.
She set the mirror down and leaned back in the bath.
The burning sensation throughout her body made her close her eyes and frown.
The heat gradually grew stronger.
Her stomach rumbled loudly.
Suddenly, she opened her eyes.
Looking down, she saw the bathwater slowly changing.
Black liquid was rising from the bottom of the tub.
Just as she had expected.
Her body had begun purging toxins.
The impurities turned the entire bath black.
An awful fishy stench filled the room.
The smell grew stronger and stronger.
It even felt as though the steam rising from the bath had turned black.
“No.”
“I can’t stay in this bath any longer.”
“It’s far too filthy and disgusting.”
She stood up and drained the bathtub.
The tub immediately began cleaning itself automatically, washing every corner until it was spotless.
Instead of getting back into the bath, she stepped beneath the shower and continuously rinsed her body.
Black grime kept washing off her skin.
Only when no more black residue appeared did Shen Qingyao know the detoxification was complete.
She washed her hair once more with shampoo.
Then she scrubbed herself two or three times with body wash.
She raised her arm and smelled it.
Finding nothing but the fragrance of rose-scented body wash, she finally nodded in satisfaction.
After putting on her pajamas, she picked up the dirty clothes she had tossed aside and walked outside.
This villa had always been her home inside the Space.
There were five more villas nearby.
This area was an entire villa district.
Originally, tiny residents had wandered around here, making the city seem alive.
But ever since the game world had become her Space…
Every one of those little people had disappeared.
Leaving the villa, Shen Qingyao headed straight for a dry-cleaning shop not far away.
She tossed her dirty clothes into the washing machine.
The machine was fully automatic.
It washed, dried, and then automatically hung the clean clothes on the drying rack beside it.
After putting the clothes in the washer, she left the dry cleaner and walked to a nearby hamburger restaurant.
She grabbed a hamburger and a bottle of cola.
Eating as she walked, she headed toward the exit.
Before she could leave, however, she suddenly heard a loud thud.
Shen Qingyao frowned.
There shouldn’t have been anyone else inside her Space.
Following the sound, she noticed a corner of someone’s clothing sticking out from behind the counter.
Within her Space, she could teleport anywhere with a single thought.
She immediately flashed behind the counter.
There, she saw someone she recognized—
A familiar person lying face-down with their backside sticking up.