She stretched and yawned, then watched as the ghost-like figure removed the eerie mask from its face.
Holding the mask, she glanced in the direction Chen Jiakai and the other two had left, then turned and went upstairs.
This ghost-like figure was none other than Su Ling.
After Chen Jiakai and his companions left with lingering resentment, she knew they wouldn't give up.
She had already detected them when the trio had doubled back to hide in the dark stairwell, observing their every move.
However, she couldn't be bothered to expose them or even inform Gu Shangse and the others. Instead, she pretended to be unaware, eating and drinking as usual.
Once everyone had eaten their fill and settled down to rest, she didn't sleep. Instead, she waited for the trio to reveal themselves.
The three, believing everyone else was asleep, emerged from the dark stairwell and voraciously devoured the leftover food.
While they were feasting, Su Ling had already completed her disguise. Unnoticed, she slipped out of the tent, whose zipper had been left unfastened, and entered her personal space.
To prevent anyone else from waking up and noticing anything amiss, she used her mental abilities to ensure everyone slept even more soundly and deeply.
This was also why, despite the commotion caused by Chen Jiakai and his group, no one else reacted.
The mental coverage ability was something Su Ling had only recently discovered. She had considered it useless and hadn't mentioned it.
But after using it tonight, she found it wasn't useless at all; it was quite interesting.
Originally, if Chen Jiakai and his companions had simply eaten their fill and left, nothing would have happened.
But Chen Jiakai was the type to eat their fill and then curse their benefactors. After he had eaten his fill and saw Su Ling and the others resting comfortably, he wanted to seize the opportunity while everyone was asleep to set fire to their tents, intending to burn them to death in their sleep.
Su Ling, who was monitoring Chen Jiakai and his group's every move from within her space, materialized the moment Chen Jiakai threw the lighter towards the tent and caught the flying lighter.
Because Su Ling had deliberately dressed in white, worn a white wig, and donned a pale white mask with bright red lips, giving her a ghastly appearance.
Her appearance in this attire had directly scared Chen Jiakai so much his heart nearly stopped.
The rest, as one might expect, was inevitable.
The trio fled the rooftop wailing and screaming. Chen Jiakai lost an arm, and Jiang Zhimin and Jiaojiao were beaten to a pulp.
In this second life, Su Ling had never wavered from her original intention and goals: she simply wanted to protect those she needed to protect, collect crystal cores, and build a mobile fortress suitable for their survival.
As for other survivors, she adhered to the principle of not offending others unless they offended her.
She would not disregard human life, even in this post-apocalyptic world where lives were as cheap as ants. She would not act that way.
Unless survivors challenged her principles and bottom line, she would absolutely show no mercy, killing them without hesitation.
Just like Wang Qiang and his group. No matter how much trouble they caused initially, it was inconsequential.
But when they harmed Sister Na and Hanhan, putting them in danger, it touched her principles and bottom line.
In such situations, she would never let them live peacefully again.
She respected every survivor's life, and she respected their willingness to do anything to survive.
But this "anything" should not threaten her or those she wanted to protect.
Otherwise, she wouldn't mind occasionally playing the role of an executioner, letting her Tang blade taste human blood.
She did not wish to be assimilated. She wanted to retain her original intentions in this world devoid of empathy and compassion, where order had collapsed and morality and conscience were non-existent.
Returning to the rooftop, Su Ling got back into her tent, lay down, then went into her space. After changing her clothes, she returned to the tent and slept soundly, without a single dream.