When her soul left her body, it was in a dazed state, allowing the superpower’s energy to guide it to the other person’s location.

By the time Miao Juan opened her eyes, all her previous discomfort was gone. A flash of joy lit up her eyes. She thought her swap with Si Shuo had been a success, and the wave of excitement and delight made her subconsciously ignore the body she now occupied. She didn’t even take a close look at her clothes.

She eagerly walked up to her former body, sneered, and grabbed the chin of the still-dazed woman. Then, without a shred of courtesy, she viciously slapped her more than a dozen times.

"You dare hit me! I’ve never been humiliated like this before. Anyone who ever made me the least bit uncomfortable, I paid them back tenfold, a hundredfold.

Now, you get a taste of being slapped. Your cheeks are burning with pain, aren’t they? Your teeth ache so badly they feel like they’ll fall out, and your mouth is full of the taste of blood..."

She was euphoric, laughing almost hysterically.

However, she heard a crisp cracking sound from the side. She turned her head and saw Si Shuo and Ji Xiao Cheng Liang cracking melon seeds, watching the spectacle.

Miao Juan??!!

She looked at her own body, then at Si Shuo, then down at the clothes she was wearing. Only then did she belatedly realize she had swapped bodies with Ying Lan.

The color drained from Miao Juan’s face. Meanwhile, Ying Lan finally snapped out of her daze and viciously shoved her to the ground.

"Miao Juan, what are you doing?" Ying Lan’s face was swollen like a pig’s head. Her ears were ringing, her vision was blurry, and she felt a wave of painful nausea.

Si Shuo smirked. "What else could it be? You’re just an idiot. Did you really believe my Mother would team up with an outsider to harm her own daughter? It’s not like she’s brain-dead. It’s called acting, understand?

Only an idiot like you would have fallen for it. If we hadn’t put on that show, how else would you have taken the bait? How else could my Mother escape such a frail, dying body?

She’s twenty years younger now. And you?"

Ying Lan was stunned. She glared at Miao Juan, who was now occupying her body. "Aren’t you afraid of being punished by the Xiezhi Beast God?"

Miao Juan was finally starting to piece things together. ’Even though I didn’t manage to become Si Shuo, becoming Ying Lan’s current puppet isn’t bad either.’

’Just as Si Shuo said, Shantao is much younger than I am. I don’t know what trick Si Shuo pulled, but as long as I can escape my previous body, I can accept this.’

’Besides, Ying Lan wanted to end our partnership. Since this is our final collaboration, I don’t need to care whether she lives or dies.’

"Heh, the Xiezhi Beast God rules the Southwest Continent, which is a long way from here. You think he can manage things all the way out here? Besides, with all the evil you’ve done, even if the Xiezhi Beast God were to take notice, he wouldn’t waste his time on you." As she spoke, Miao Juan walked forward with a smile, suddenly drew the Bone Blade from the waist of her former body, and plunged it directly into the heart of the body Ying Lan now inhabited.

"This is just your avatar. The Xiezhi won’t avenge y—"

As she spoke those words, a flash of pain crossed Miao Juan’s face. Then she simply froze on the spot, as if someone had pressed pause.

Blood trickled from the corner of Ying Lan’s mouth as she coughed and sputtered with laughter. "Miao Juan, you... you didn’t really think I didn’t know what you were planning? This is just my avatar. You can’t kill me, but you... you have become my puppet..."

Watching the two of them—one dead, the other stupefied—Si Shuo clicked her tongue. ’What an intense battle. And we didn’t even have to lift a finger.’

A classic case of dog-eat-dog. Although Ying Lan wasn’t dead, her avatar had been destroyed, her superpower had backfired, and her spiritual power was damaged. She wouldn’t be causing any trouble for some time.

Ji Xiao Cheng Liang clapped his hands with a smile. He threw an arm around Si Shuo’s shoulder and gave her a firm kiss. "Sister, if we hadn’t been following your lead, messing around with our superpowers every day and coming up with all sorts of weird ideas, I never would have known that a reflection superpower could be delayed. It can achieve a temporary storage effect, and you can even choose who to reflect it onto!

In other words, my superpower can absorb damage and convert it into a single-use talisman!"

"Wow," Si Shuo breathed, giving him a thumbs-up. "Xiao Cheng, you’re incredible."

"But of course. This was a little surprise for you, Sister," Ji Xiao Cheng Liang said, lifting his chin and letting out a proud little huff.

Suddenly, Ji Liang appeared and pulled Si Shuo into his arms. He smiled, "Ssss... you’ve worked hard. Now that these two have been dealt with, the danger has passed. Xiao Cheng, you should head home and check on the cubs."

Xiao Cheng ground his teeth. "Brother Ji Liang, that’s low, don’t you think? You’re just casting me aside now that my work is done!"

Ji Liang shot him a look. "You’ve been wearing my face for the past few days. You’ve lost count, haven’t you?"

Xiao Cheng, who had been full of righteous indignation just a moment ago, immediately deflated. It wasn’t just Ji Liang’s time he had monopolized; he had taken over the time all the other brothers were supposed to spend with their female, all under the noble-sounding guise of creating a vulnerability for the enemy to exploit.

He figured he was in for a miserable few days, having to make up for all the chores he owed.

"Sister, I was doing this for our little family. It was a mission..." Xiao Cheng looked at Si Shuo with pitiful eyes.

’Matters between the males should be resolved by the males themselves. If I interfere, the conflict will only escalate!’

Si Shuo pretended not to hear him and walked over to Shantao. "Ji Liang, Xiao Cheng, do you think she has two souls in her body now? After being refined into a puppet by Ying Lan, is Shantao’s soul still inside?"

Ji Liang frowned and shook his head with a soft hiss. They didn’t understand the principles behind how Ying Lan refined her puppets, so they had no idea what had happened to Shantao’s soul.

However, he jerked his chin toward Miao Juan on the ground. "Xiao Cheng, I’ll leave her to you."

Xiao Cheng sighed softly and gave Si Shuo a hug. "Sister, I’ll wait for you at home."

Si Shuo smiled and ruffled his hair. Seeing how gentle and pliant he was, she couldn’t resist giving him a quick kiss. "Okay, we’ll be back in a little while."

Xiao Cheng grabbed Miao Juan by the collar, applied an Invisibility Talisman, and the two of them vanished on the spot.

He also took down the Protective Shield. Lu Ya, who had been standing guard nearby, rushed forward. Seeing Shantao looking as dazed and vacant as ever, he pulled her into a helpless embrace.

"My apologies for this scene, Lord Ji Liang. Shantao used to be perfectly normal, but she hit her head once. Now, she’s simple-minded and dazed most of the time, though she occasionally has a moment of clarity where she’s like a normal person again."

Ji Liang patted his shoulder. "It’s a credit to you that you’ve never given up on her."

Lu Ya gave a wry smile. "She’s the female I fell for at first sight. Even like this, she’s no trouble at all. My Couple Brothers and I talked it over. Other than the fact that she can’t respond to us normally, our life together is the same as it’s always been.

Who knows, maybe her moments of clarity will last longer, and she’ll even recover one day? If we all abandoned her and sought to break our bond, she would truly have no way to survive."

Si Shuo’s eyes reddened slightly. For some reason, her mind couldn’t help but follow that train of thought. ’If I were tricked and refined into a puppet, what would my Beast Husbands and my cubs do?’

’Would they also cherish me and dote on me, waiting for the day I might become lucid again?’

As if sensing her thoughts, Ji Liang took her hand and gave her palm a gentle squeeze.