Reincarnated as a Mosquito, I Sucked the Reborn Empress to Tears

Secret Realm Zero, Second Level.

The Stillness Forest.

In her past life, Gu Yuexi was at the Peak of King Realm when she came here. Even then, she’d had some difficulty crossing the Stillness Forest.

But in this life, she hadn’t even reached Ninth Grade. Despite her prior knowledge of the Stillness Forest, she still wasn’t completely confident.

Beside her, Chu Sheng sensed the fleeting worry in Gu Yuexi’s heart.

He flew over and poked her cheek:

"BUZZ BUZZ." ’What’s there to be scared of? Let’s just do it!’

With that, he took the lead and flew toward the depths of the forest.

Gu Yuexi watched Chu Sheng’s tiny figure and smiled faintly. The tension in her heart eased a little, and she followed.

The woman and the mosquito, one leading and one following, began to venture into the depths of the eerie forest.

However, Chu Sheng had barely flown a meter when he felt something was wrong.

An invisible, viscous force enveloped him from all directions, making the act of flapping his wings incredibly strenuous.

He felt as if he had fallen into a giant piece of amber, and his every movement was slowed down.

Just then, a translucent, gray, wolf-like creature flashed out from behind a nearby giant tree without warning. It opened its gaping jaws and lunged at Chu Sheng.

’Holy crap!’

Chu Sheng’s heart skipped a beat.

’This second level is different from the first—there are actually Demon Beasts here!’

"Careful, it’s a Time Shadow Wolf!"

Gu Yuexi’s warning came at almost the same time.

Chu Sheng’s reactions were lightning-fast. The instant the creature pounced, he jerked his body to the side, narrowly avoiding the fatal bite.

He immediately fired a Soul Burst Feather Blade back at the gray wolf.

However, just as the Feather Blade was about to hit it, the gray wolf’s figure once again became illusory and then vanished on the spot.

The Feather Blade passed through its afterimage and struck the tree trunk behind, dealing no damage.

Gu Yuexi’s voice sounded again, her tone grave.

"That’s a Time Shadow Wolf. They aren’t affected by the Stillness Forest, and they can briefly enter rifts in time. They’re extremely difficult to deal with!"

The words were barely out of her mouth.

The Time Shadow Wolf reappeared, silent and unseen, behind Chu Sheng, its sharp claws slashing viciously at his back!

However, as if he had eyes in the back of his head, Chu Sheng once again precisely predicted the enemy’s attack, twisting his body at an unbelievable angle to dodge again.

Its attack having failed, the Time Shadow Wolf seemed a bit surprised. Its illusory body tried to slip into a time rift to escape again.

But this time, Chu Sheng was faster!

’Dammit, you think you can run?’

Just as the Time Shadow Wolf’s body was about to vanish completely, another Feather Blade, launched with incredible speed, accurately predicted its trajectory and scored a direct hit!

AWOO!

The Time Shadow Wolf let out a mournful howl. The moment it was struck by the God-devouring Needle, its once-illusory body suddenly solidified, transforming from a semi-corporeal state into a true physical form. It fell heavily to the ground, twitched a few times, and then went completely still.

It was dead.

Chu Sheng flew over and carefully examined the corpse.

He discovered that beneath the Time Shadow Wolf’s gray fur was a network of bizarre, intricate patterns, as complex as the gears of a clock.

’Dammit, no wonder this thing was so badass. It came with its own built-in hacks.’

Chu Sheng grumbled to himself. Too lazy to study it, he immediately went for the recycle!

A second later, a system notification sounded in his mind.

[Ding! Nether Flame Insect Nest Life Essence +5000]

’Whoa!’

Chu Sheng’s heart filled with joy.

’Just one gives five thousand Life Essence! That’s even more than those Ninth-Grade Demon Beasts outside!’

’Looks like this second level, while dangerous, is a great place to farm mobs and level up!’

Without delay, the woman and the mosquito dealt with the Time Shadow Wolf and continued deeper into the forest.

...

「Meanwhile, in another part of the Stillness Forest.」

With a ripple in space, several figures quietly appeared.

The one in the lead was a woman with a graceful figure, wearing a thin veil over her face.

After appearing, she surveyed the verdant forest around them, her gaze impassive. She spoke softly,

"There’s no mistake. The mark left by our ancestor is here."

With that, she produced a translucent, vibrant green bamboo flute. Placing it to her lips, she began to play an exceptionally strange melody.

The sound of the flute was ethereal and distant, as if it did not belong to this era.

As the music slowly drifted through the forest, gray Demon Beasts began to emerge from behind the towering trees—creatures that were neither horse nor wolf.

Like the Time Shadow Wolf from before, the bodies of these Demon Beasts were in a semi-corporeal state.

Upon hearing the flute, they all emerged from the time rifts, and then prostrated themselves docilely at the veiled woman’s feet.

Then, each person in the group mounted one of these Demon Beasts—called "Time Horses"—and rode swiftly into the depths of the Stillness Forest.

Strangely, while riding the Time Horses, they moved through the forest with lightning speed, seemingly completely unaffected by its time-slowing force.

...

「On the other side.」

The deeper Chu Sheng and Gu Yuexi ventured into the forest, the more they felt the terrifying power of the Stillness Forest’s Time Law.

With every step forward, the force of stagnation they had to resist increased exponentially.

By now, their movements had been slowed to about a fifth of their normal speed. Every action felt like it was playing out in slow motion.

Meanwhile, the elusive Demon Beasts unique to the forest still moved at normal speed. Moreover, the deeper they went, the stronger these beasts became.

This made every step of their advance exceptionally difficult.

Just as Chu Sheng and Gu Yuexi were struggling against the immense lag of the Power of Time while fighting two new, stronger Time Shadow Wolves, a sharp WHOOSH suddenly sounded beside them.

They saw a troop of riders on those strange Time Horse Demon Beasts streak past them like gray bolts of lightning.

Chu Sheng froze, utterly stunned by the sight.

’What the fuck?’

’What’s going on?!’

He stared in shock at the troop of riders, all while dodging the Time Shadow Wolf’s attacks.

’Who are these people? How can they move so freely here?’

The troop of riders seemed to notice the battling Chu Sheng and Gu Yuexi, and they slowed slightly.

The veiled woman in the lead reined in her Time Horse. From dozens of meters away, her hidden eyes met Gu Yuexi’s gaze, and they locked eyes for several seconds.

Neither of them spoke.

But an invisible, tense confrontation hung in the air between them.

A moment later, the veiled woman broke eye contact. Without lingering, she led her people deeper into the forest, galloping away until they quickly vanished from Chu Sheng and Gu Yuexi’s view.

Watching them disappear, Gu Yuexi’s brows furrowed slightly.

’She was certain she had never seen these people when she came here in her past life.’

"These people seem to be able to control the Demon Beasts on this second level," Gu Yuexi said gravely.

Chu Sheng became a little anxious and buzzed:

"BUZZ BUZZ BUZZ?" ’Then what do we do? Aren’t they going to get to the stuff in the Divine Hall of Stagnation first?’

Gu Yuexi, however, just shook her head. A cold, disdainful smile touched her lips, and her voice was calm.

’Heh. The Divine Hall of Stagnation isn’t so easy to enter.’

’Let alone taking *that* from inside.’

But then her tone shifted, and her eyes grew sharp.

"Don’t worry, they won’t. But we really do need to speed up!"

As her voice fell, Gu Yuexi’s entire aura changed abruptly.

A piercing Sword of Thought swept out. The two Time Shadow Wolves still tangling with Chu Sheng were sliced in two by the Sword Qi before they could even react, their now-physical bodies falling to the ground.

Reacting in a flash, Chu Sheng immediately flew over. He spat out two streams of Nether Flame, instantly and completely absorbing the two corpses.

[Ding! Nether Flame Insect Nest Life Essence +8000]

[Ding! Nether Flame Insect Nest Life Essence +8500]

’Sweet.’

...