Stronger with Crimson Modifier

He looked over.

A long, green, strip-like object lay quietly in Xu Shu’s hand.

It looked something like a bookmark.

"What is this?"

Hu Qi asked.

"You can think of this as a sort of credential. If you crush it, you’ll receive the information you’re looking for."

Hearing Hu Qi’s question,

Xu Shu answered at once.

’If I’m too slow, he’ll kill me!’

It would be too late for regrets then.

Information from the Reincarnation Bookstore could not be leaked. Anyone who did so would be obliterated by the Book Spirit.

But this wasn’t absolute.

Even the strictest rules had loopholes one could exploit; it was just a matter of finding them.

And this rule was no different.

For example, once this bookmark was redeemed,

if a non-reader crushed it, they would receive an invitation from the Reincarnation Bookstore and become one of them.

However, the bookmark was not cheap.

He would never have redeemed something like this for no reason.

Only readers who wanted to pull others into the Reincarnation Bookstore would do so.

He had taken this one off a reader he’d killed before.

He never thought it would come in handy here.

As long as this man really crushed the bookmark,

it wouldn’t matter whether he kept his promise and let him go.

Because he would then be summoned by the Book Spirit and forcibly dragged into the Reincarnation Bookstore.

And with that, Xu Shu could escape his potential fate of being killed.

It was the perfect solution.

Hearing this,

Hu Qi did not answer immediately.

Instead, he activated his Primordial Eye and looked.

A mass of pitch-black mist coiled around the emerald-green bookmark.

The aura it emitted was similar to that of the black iron chains on Xu Shu.

The aura’s trail extended somewhere into the unknown void.

Seeing this,

Hu Qi immediately closed his Primordial Eye, not daring to look any further.

After all, he remembered what had happened before.

That experience taught him that the entity behind it was not something he could currently afford to spy on.

Just touching it before had triggered an unconscious backlash, which had required the power of the Infinite Dao to neutralize.

If he spied on it again,

what if he angered the entity?

The consequences would be more than he was willing to face.

As Hu Qi remained silent,

Xu Shu’s Adam’s apple bobbed, and his face grew even paler.

His heart pounded with anxiety.

He was terrified that Hu Qi wouldn’t believe him and would think he was just trying to trick him.

He feared the man might suddenly strike and kill him right there.

At this thought,

Xu Shu spoke again.

"Sir, everything I’ve said is true! I wouldn’t dare deceive you! It’s not that I’m unwilling to tell you directly, it’s that I truly cannot speak of it!"

"Then what about that Ability you just used?"

Hu Qi asked instead.

"That is one of my Bloodline Abilities. That’s all I can say; I can’t give you the specifics! As long as you crush this, Sir, I can tell you everything you want to know, holding nothing back!"

Xu Shu said, steeling himself.

"Is that so? You can’t answer this, and you can’t answer that. In that case, you can just die!"

Hu Qi sneered.

As he spoke, he controlled the Mecha to raise the scythe in its hand.

At this sight,

Xu Shu’s face twisted in an instant.

An immense pressure slammed him to the ground, forcing his knees deep into the earth.

He roared in his mind!

’Damn it, am I really going to die here today?’

He felt a terrifying killing intent lock firmly onto him.

It was as if in the next moment, he would suffer the same fate as Lumina—his body split in two, his flesh, blood, and organs spilling across the ground.

It wasn’t that he had never considered the possibility of his own death.

In fact, for the readers of the Reincarnation Bookstore, every mission into a novel world carried the risk of death.

But he never expected his turn would come so soon.

Since entering the Reincarnation Bookstore,

it wasn’t as if he hadn’t faced danger.

But he had always managed to escape it, growing stronger step by step.

He would do anything to survive.

Countless people had died by his hand, be they NPCs from the novel worlds or fellow readers from the Reincarnation Bookstore.

But now that it was finally his turn,

he was filled with hatred and indignation. He didn’t want to die like this.

Just as his thoughts descended into endless indignation and fear,

suddenly,

he noticed something was wrong.

So much time had passed,

yet he hadn’t felt any pain.

At the same time,

the terrifying killing intent and pressure that had enveloped him had vanished, as if they had never been there at all.

He looked up.

Hu Qi had already lowered the scythe.

Then,

he felt his hand go empty.

The bookmark he had been clutching was gone.

"Don’t let me find out you’re lying. Otherwise, even if you leave this world, I have ways to make you wish you were dead."

Hu Qi’s voice was calm and cold.

He hadn’t attacked.

As a True God, he could clearly perceive the fear in Xu Shu’s heart, as well as the faint hint of scheming.

However, he could also sense the truth in Xu Shu’s words.

Of course, he couldn’t completely rule out the possibility that Xu Shu was already being manipulated by that unknown entity.

"Yes! I wouldn’t dare!"

A chill ran through Xu Shu’s heart.

’This man really does know my background. He knows I’m not from this world.’

At this thought, the corner of his eye twitched.

’This Seven-Star World is far too terrifying.’

’The NPCs here can actually see through the Reincarnation Bookstore’s concealment and sense its existence.’

Then, seeing Hu Qi gesture with a wave of his hand, he scrambled to his feet and hastily fled.

...

Hu Qi watched Xu Shu’s figure disappear into the distance.

Then, he looked away.