Chapter 50 – Hu Li’s Assist

All the black spider threads snapped taut simultaneously. The massive Amalgamated Beast let out a series of hoarse, grating shrieks. Eileen strained with every ounce of her strength to control those pitch-black threads, causing them to constantly shift their weaving direction mid-air, forming a network of binding ropes that slowly dragged the monster inch by inch toward the door.

Yu Sheng, meanwhile, pushed himself to the limit holding open a door far wider than anything he had managed before, striving to make it just a little wider, a little more stable.

A “door” possessed the property of isolating the environments on either side — simply opening a door was not enough to “release” the harsh environment on the other side into this one. To incinerate the monster, he had to throw it through entirely.

Under normal circumstances, this isolating property was of course a good thing — it prevented Yu Sheng from accidentally opening a passage to a dangerous place and triggering a catastrophic incident. But right now, Yu Sheng genuinely wished this door could merge the environments on both sides with no protection whatsoever.

That way he could open the door directly inside a lava lake, and the magma gushing out would roast the monster on the spot — no need for all this effort.

But that was nothing more than wishful thinking. His grasp over the power of “door” was still brand new. Being able to reliably open a door in the right location was already no small feat — he could hardly ask for it to serve as a flexible offensive tool on top of that.

While his thoughts raced, the monster had already been dragged to the front of the door. Parts of its limbs were even being forcibly shoved inside. Through the door, Yu Sheng watched those limbs that had crossed the threshold quickly lose all their moisture, then ignite rapidly in the hellish heat, charring to cinders…

In a daze, he almost felt as though his own limbs were burning.

The Amalgamated Beast’s thrashing became near-frenzied in an instant. Even “Hunger,” driven purely by instinct, felt enormous danger and terror in that moment. All of its limbs convulsed violently within the spider web, and countless ruptures split open across its body — eyes of every size, mouths, fangs, tentacles, even mimicry structures resembling human facial features and limbs, all burst forth at once!

Even more ear-splitting shrieks poured from its grotesquely twisted maws. The roar, so close it was almost inside him, made Yu Sheng’s ears ring, even sending a roaring surge of noise crashing through his thoughts. He felt dizzy, yet still clutched the handle of the phantom door with an iron grip, watching as the beast was pushed bit by bit into the passage leading to the inferno.

But just then, he heard a series of deeply unsettling cracking sounds.

Yu Sheng snapped his head up, looking toward the source of the cracking.

It was not Eileen’s threads that had broken — the little doll had thrown everything she had into this, and not a single strand had given way.

What had cracked was the beast’s own flesh and twisted limbs.

It was beginning to tear itself free of the aerial web piece by piece, ripping its own body apart into bloody shreds. It seemed to feel no pain whatsoever — limbs that were too tightly bound were simply torn completely off its body, and new ones grew out from the raw flesh in their place, gripping the surrounding rocks and accelerating its escape.

It had nearly become a formless, flowing mass of flesh and blood, rapidly reshaping itself and “leaking” through the gaps in the webbing.

It was adapting to Eileen’s web. It was learning a new biological structure.

“I can’t hold it anymore!” Eileen’s scream rang out from nearby. “My body is giving out too! Think of something, Yu Sheng!”

Yu Sheng turned around to see dense cracks rapidly spreading across Eileen’s arms and cheeks — the doll’s body was beginning to crumble.

“Damn it!”

He couldn’t stop himself from cursing under his breath, and could only keep one hand braced on the door while reaching out with the other toward the monster that was about to break free.

But in the very next second, a howling gust of wind suddenly reached his ears — and within the wind, there was… a wolf’s howl.

A wolf’s howl?

Yu Sheng looked up in bewilderment and saw shadows abruptly sweeping across the night sky. Wolf-like silhouettes took shape from within the darkness, the wolf pack howling and running through the air before crashing into the monster one after another, tearing at its flesh and slowing the process of its reshaping and writhing.

Immediately after, Yu Sheng heard a great shout from behind him, deep and powerful: “I’m here to help!”

The next instant, a figure nearly two meters tall came charging from behind like a gale. A flying kick mid-air, and the man crashed into the monster like a boulder, producing a dull, heavy thud.

The Amalgamated Beast’s body lurched uncontrollably toward the door, and no amount of frenzied thrashing, writhing, or shrieking could delay the process any further.

The burly man who had delivered that flying kick soared through the air, spun around, and landed gracefully. He turned his head toward Yu Sheng: “Lucky I made it in ti—”

He saw Yu Sheng’s face.

The expression on the burly man’s face instantly turned to one of shock, his eyes flooding with disbelief, his whole body as if struck by lightning.

His entire being radiated the desolate air of someone who had been screwed over by an idiotic superior and transferred from one front line straight to another front line without so much as a break.

Yu Sheng had no idea why the burly man’s face had suddenly become so expressive upon seeing him, nor did he have the energy to think about it — because he discovered that the Amalgamated Beast was struggling once more. Even with half its body already pushed through the door and burned to charcoal, the remaining half was still lodged firmly at the edge of the door, and it had begun regenerating at a frightening speed.

Some inexplicable connection made Yu Sheng sense… rage, and hatred.

Within those trembling eyes, the first glimmers of primal “emotion” and conscious thought began to surface.

The nameless burly man also sensed the movement beside him. He looked up in alarm and cried out in dismay: “Damn! This thing can still fight back!”

Immediately after came Eileen’s scream: “They’re snapping!”

Cracks covered every inch of the doll’s arms. The pitch-black threads snapped strand by strand in the blink of an eye, the spider web erupting in a rapid series of sharp pops before shattering and dissolving in an instant.

The beast was free.

Yet just as Yu Sheng felt the situation was hopeless and was about to tell the others to run, a brilliant burst of blue flame suddenly blazed into existence in the corner of his eye.

Hu Li, who had been hiding behind a nearby parapet wall all along, had at some point gathered her courage and rushed out. She glared ferociously at the monster struggling before the door, her whole body crouched low against the ground like a wild beast, her silver-white fox tails spread wide open in the night sky, roaring blue spirit fire blazing at the tip of every single tail.

A low, rumbling growl rose from the Foxgirl’s throat.

Almost simultaneously, black spikes and bone shards erupted from her limbs and body, pinning her to the ground.

Yu Sheng, seeing this, cried out urgently: “Don’t bother with this—”

But before he could finish, he watched as Hu Li, on all fours, forced herself to take one step forward — snapping the spike-like bindings — then suddenly shifted her posture—

The fox fire erupted. A dazzling flash of light tore through the darkness. A silver-white conical projectile trailed a stream of dark blue flame behind it, shooting like a rocket toward the Amalgamated Beast as it struggled to pull free from the door.

Yu Sheng had no time at all to make out what it was before he saw a violent explosion erupt from the beast’s back. Even though Hu Li had deliberately confined the blast radius, Yu Sheng, standing right beside it, felt as though the shockwave had nearly shattered his bones — and the monster, struck dead-on by that silver-white cone, lost its balance on the spot. The Amalgamated Beast, already pushed to its very limits, stumbled twice and finally fell completely through the door.

As the shrieks rapidly receded into the distance, Yu Sheng abruptly released his control over the door.

The phantom door vanished in the blink of an eye like smoke.

The ruined temple fell silent — a silence so sudden it almost felt unreal.

Eileen collapsed directly onto the ground, her cracked arms unable to lift themselves at all.

A red-clothed girl riding a Phantom Wolf walked in from outside the ruins, a look of astonishment on her face. Beside her followed an ordinary-looking young man with black hair.

The young man caught sight of Yu Sheng from a distance and suddenly froze, as though recalling something, his brow gradually creasing into a frown.

The burly man nearly two meters tall stared wide-eyed at the spot where the door had disappeared, seemingly lost in bewilderment and thought.

Yu Sheng, however, had no attention to spare for greeting these “temporary allies” who had appeared out of nowhere. His first instinct was to turn around and look toward Hu Li.

The Foxgirl was laboriously picking herself up off the ground. The fox fire behind her had clearly dimmed considerably — but she was still alive.

Yu Sheng was taken aback: so what exactly had flown over there just now? Wasn’t it a headbutt?

Then he noticed that the tails behind Hu Li seemed to be one short.

Yu Sheng: “…”

So what exactly had this girl just launched out of herself?!

Was that even something you could do?!

Yu Sheng’s astonishment was beyond words. Upon realizing that the silver-white cone that had flown out trailing blue fire had actually been Hu Li’s tail, he was completely dumbfounded. The shock of it momentarily overpowered even the excitement of having defeated a powerful enemy.

He knew nothing of immortal arts or demon techniques, but his instincts told him that no matter what kind of immortal art or demon technique it was, none of them should include the clause that “a nine-tailed fox can launch her own tail as a guided missile”…

Hu Li, however, had no idea what had caused such a spectacular expression to flash across her benefactor’s face. She simply struggled to her feet and stumbled toward Yu Sheng, her face urgent: “Benefactor…”

Yu Sheng quickly reached out a hand to steady the Foxgirl, who could barely stand: “Rest for a moment first…”

Hu Li cut Yu Sheng off urgently: “We can’t rest, benefactor — it’s not over yet!”

Yu Sheng froze.

(End of chapter)