Ma Shen did not answer. She was glaring at Lu Zhi with an expression of anger and grievance, and suddenly burst into tears, "Wuwuwu, I knew it, you don't like me, you never liked me..."
Lu Zhi: ???
What's going on?
"Nonsense, Aye loves me the most!" Barbie Q, having regained her freedom, stomped angrily on the ground.
Ma Shen ignored her, continuing to sob, "Why, I just want to be a horse that carries people, is that my fault? Wuwuwu..."
Lu Zhi: ...
The serious and tense atmosphere had completely derailed. Lu Zhi sighed and said, "Actually... it's not impossible to fulfill your wish."
Ma Shen's eyes widened in surprise, "Ah? Really?"
Lu Zhi nodded helplessly, and suddenly beckoned to Wang Cao Tian, who was watching all this with a stunned expression below.
Wang Cao Tian trotted over, not understanding.
Lu Zhi asked Ma Shen, "As long as you carry someone once, will you obediently return your power to Barbie Q and merge with Barbie Q?"
Ma Shen nodded quickly, almost hitting her neck on the sharp scythe blade. Frightened, she instinctively retracted the Grim Reaper's Scythe Hook.
Fortunately, Ma Shen did not make a move. Either she knew she couldn't defeat Lu Zhi, who held the scythe hook, and dared not retaliate, or she genuinely wanted to fulfill her wish and trusted Lu Zhi.
"Senior Wang, please lend me your back." Lu Zhi coughed and revealed her intention to Wang Cao Tian.
"No problem!" Wang Cao Tian didn't expect Ma Shen's wish to be so simple. He patted his chest and assured, "It's just letting her step on my back a few times, right? No problem!"
Wang Cao Tian immediately turned around, facing away from Ma Shen.
Ma Shen excitedly raised her front hooves.
Lu Zhi: "Wait, you're a bit big. I think you'll be able to step on someone with all four hooves if you shrink down."
Ma Shen nodded upon hearing this, "You're right."
As soon as she finished speaking, Ma Shen suddenly shrank to the size of a baby and excitedly leaped onto Wang Cao Tian's back with her hooves.
"Oh my god!—" Wang Cao Tian fell to the ground with a thud, as if a mountain had fallen on him, crushed flat.
Even when shrunk, Ma Shen's weight was on the scale of Mount Tai.
Wang Cao Tian was a strength-type user. Lu Zhi had calculated the strength of his body, and it could support Ma Shen's 'oppression'.
"I finally have someone under my hooves, hahahaha..." Ma Shen laughed happily and madly.
Lu Zhi looked at Ma Shen as if she were looking at a... not very intelligent child?
Barbie Q stared at Lu Zhi expectantly. Before she could speak, Lu Zhi interrupted with an unceremonious smile, "No, you don't want to."
Barbie Q lowered her head dejectedly, her hooves scraping the ground, and then secretly looked enviously at Ma Shen.
Lu Zhi calculated that she only had three minutes of power left and urged, "Alright, your wish has been granted. It's time to fulfill your promise."
Ma Shen's frenzied laughter abruptly stopped. She affectionately rubbed Wang Cao Tian's back with her hooves before leaping off his horse-like form.
Lu Zhi quickly helped Wang Cao Tian up and whispered, "Senior Wang, are you alright?"
Wang Cao Tian clutched his waist and hissed, weakly saying, "I feel like my back isn't mine anymore."
Lu Zhi suppressed a smile, "Thank you for your hard work, Senior."
Wang Cao Tian waved it off, "It's nothing. If it weren't for you, we would probably all be dead here by now."
Wang Cao Tian looked Lu Zhi up and down, not delving into why he possessed power comparable to a deity. He only asked, "What should we do next?"
Lu Zhi looked at Ma Shen and Barbie Q and said, "Merge."
Barbie Q and Ma Shen, one pink and one black, glared at each other.
Barbie Q said, "I don't like you."
Ma Shen snorted, "I don't like you either."
Barbie Q stomped her hoof angrily, "If it weren't for Aye, I wouldn't need you at all!"
Ma Shen taunted unceremoniously, "If I hadn't kept my promise, I wouldn't need you either!"
Wang Cao Tian: ???
Lu Zhi: ...
This bickering was endless and quite childish.
Lu Zhi slammed the Grim Reaper's Scythe Hook onto the ground, its sharp blade silently sinking into the soil, and said, "There's not much time left, don't dawdle."
Barbie Q and Ma Shen simultaneously took a step back. In the next second, their movements were synchronized. Their heads touched, no longer pushing each other away as if wanting to devour one another, but rather gathering their mutually accommodating energies.
Seeing this, Lu Zhi finally breathed a sigh of relief.
As a white light enveloped Barbie Q and Ma Shen, the light suddenly blazed, spreading rapidly and illuminating the entire world in white.
When Lu Zhi, Wang Cao Tian, and Jiang Yue opened their eyes, everything had disappeared. Only a mirror-like water surface reflecting the sky remained beneath their feet.
"Where is this?" Jiang Yue looked behind her in a daze and frowned, "Our horses are gone too."
Tap, tap...
Lu Zhi suddenly looked up towards the source of the sound. A fully grown horse with pure white fur, gradually turning pink as it ran, and black hooves, stopped in front of Lu Zhi.
A sentence suddenly flashed through Lu Zhi's mind: There are no colors in this world that cannot be reconciled. It's just that you haven't yet seen the body that can display their colors perfectly.
"Aye." The lively voice was still the familiar Barbie Q.
Lu Zhi pinched her brow, finally unable to resist correcting, "Don't call me that casually."
"Mhmph." Barbie Q unhappily raised her horse head.
Lu Zhi sighed. This was their true nature.
"So... did we pass the trial?" Wang Cao Tian asked blankly.
Jiang Yue stared at Barbie Q and said, "Setting aside rewards, may I ask, Ma Shen, can you help us fight the invading anomalies?"
Barbie Q only felt close to Lu Zhi. When she looked at Jiang Yue, the noble aura of a deity caused Jiang Yue to break out in a cold sweat and she dared not look directly, her head involuntarily drooping.
Although Barbie Q's voice was still that of a娇憨 young girl, it was cold and arrogant, "Humans, do not place all your hopes on me. This is a war between humans and anomalies. The only thing I can do is bestow upon you the power to fight the anomalies."
Jiang Yue was taken aback, her fists clenched, and she asked excitedly, "With your divine power, why won't you directly help us?"
Barbie Q suddenly reverted to her child-like human form. Two white stripes adorned her clean cheeks, and she placed her hands on her hips, indignantly saying, "Deities are not allowed to interfere directly. Being able to grant you the power to fight anomalies is already a great favor."
Lu Zhi was secretly shocked. Gods were not allowed to intervene in the war between humans and anomalies. What about Shen Qi?
"What if they intervene?" Lu Zhi asked.
Barbie Q's voice became obedient when speaking to Lu Zhi, and she honestly replied, "At best, their power will be suppressed. At worst, they will be erased by the laws of the world."
Lu Zhi's body and mind trembled. Shen Qi... can gods also die?