The group grew carried away, vowing to finish off every last walking corpse.
No one noticed the long, long fissure quietly appearing above the valley. Darkness poured endlessly through it, devouring the light.
Qin Yu finished off his sixtieth walking corpse, but instead of stopping as planned, he fought with ever greater fervor. The system hurried to remind him.
【Host, you’ve killed too many. Too many!】
Qin Yu seemed not to hear. The Four Beasts Token whirled in his hand, leaving nothing standing wherever he passed.
The system realized something was wrong. Its new host hardly seemed like someone who would solve his enemies’ problems for them—unless he had lost his mind…
Qin Yu was swinging his sword at the walking corpse before him when a powerful electric current suddenly coursed through his body. His strength drained away in an instant, and he dropped to his knees with a thud.
The agonizing pain brought him to his senses. Realizing the system had shocked him, he spat through gritted teeth, “System, fuck your ancestors!”
【If I hadn’t intervened, your mind would have been devoured!】
“Couldn’t you have been gentler?!”
“Shocking me like this—are you that eager for me to die?!”
The walking corpse stared at Qin Yu with hollow eyes and laboriously tilted its head, as though puzzled by why this man had knelt down.
Then it growled at him in warning.
“Hrrr…”
An unprecedented blast of “poison gas” hit Qin Yu square in the face, nearly knocking him unconscious.
Fuck. This thing’s breath was even more devastating than the stench of its rotting body.
Fury flared inside him. Summoning his remaining strength, he used the Four Beasts Token to chop off its head. Then he, too, collapsed, unable to move.
He intended to recover a little strength, but when he looked up, he discovered that the sky had somehow turned pitch-black, as sinister and frightening as the dead of night.
What was going on? Had they been killing walking corpses until nightfall?
No. His weakness came solely from the electric shock. He felt none of the exhaustion that would follow an entire day of fighting, which meant he hadn’t been fighting nearly that long.
Day must have begun turning into night while they were slaughtering the walking corpses. Yet none of them had noticed; they had been completely absorbed in the fighting. Without the system’s electric shock, even he might never have snapped out of it.
Apparently, this was the villagers’ next move. But where was the danger lurking in this darkness?
【Aaaaaah! Save the female lead! Hurry and save Liu Yunbai!】
【Warning! Warning! Failure will result in nine bolts of heavenly lightning as punishment.】
Liu Yunbai?!
What had happened to her now?
Qin Yu’s heart lurched. He hastily scrambled up and searched for her.
An enormous black hole suddenly appeared nearby. Its tremendous suction dragged many people inside, Liu Wanrou among them.
Despite her ninth-level Qi Refining cultivation, she could offer no resistance and depended entirely on Jiang Fu to hold her back. But he could barely keep himself steady; with Liu Wanrou’s weight added to his own, he couldn’t hold on.
Just as they were about to be dragged into the black hole, a blue figure flashed past and pushed them clear.
“Liu Yunbai!”
Qin Yu was certain he had just broken his personal hundred-meter sprint record. At the last possible moment, he caught Liu Yunbai’s hand and drove the Four Beasts Token into the ground with his other hand to anchor himself.
“Hold on to me! Don’t let go!”
Liu Yunbai stared in shock at the person gripping her hand. A spark of light returned to her lifeless eyes. He really had come to save her again!
Unfortunately, the black hole’s power was both uncanny and immense. His sixth-level Qi Refining strength was nowhere near enough to pull her free. He might even lose his own life.
“Qin Yu, let go!”
“No!” Qin Yu refused through gritted teeth. “Hold on tight!”
If I let you go, I’ll be struck by lightning until I’m burned to a crisp!
He turned and roared at Jiang Fu and Liu Wanrou, “Do you have any conscience at all?! She got pulled in because she saved you, and you’re just going to stand there and watch her disappear?”
Jiang Fu recalled that he and Wanrou would already have been swallowed if Liu Yunbai hadn’t appeared and pushed them clear. He stepped forward, took Qin Yu’s hand, and helped pull.
A flicker of venom crossed Liu Wanrou’s eyes. Then she hurried over with an anxious expression and threw her arms around Qin Yu’s waist.
“A-Yu is right. My sister saved me. I have to save her, too.”
Her soft little hand brushed, seemingly by accident, over Qin Yu’s sensitive side. He jerked involuntarily, his grip momentarily weakening.
“Ah!”
Liu Yunbai was swept into the black hole. Without time to think, Qin Yu leaped in after her, caught her, and hurled her out with every ounce of strength he had.
The moment Liu Yunbai was pushed clear, the black hole vanished.
She landed on the ground, her mind filled with the image of Qin Yu risking his life to save her. For a long time, she couldn’t recover her senses.
Seeing her like this, Jiang Fu approached with conflicted feelings and reached to help her up.
“Get up and come with us. Don’t let his sacrifice go to waste.”
Liu Yunbai went rigid.
Her mind hated him, found him repulsive, yet the instant Jiang Fu touched her, her body trembled with excitement. Again. It was happening again—that feeling of having no control over herself.
Seeing Jiang Fu reach to help Liu Yunbai and even offer her comfort, Liu Wanrou once again felt events slipping out of her control. She despised that feeling.
She stepped between them and fussed over Liu Yunbai, checking her for injuries.
“Fourth Sister, are you all right? Are you hurt anywhere? You nearly scared me to death! Please never risk yourself for me again. If anything happened to you, I’d never eat or sleep in peace for the rest of my life.”
With a few words, she neatly glossed over the fact that Liu Yunbai had saved Jiang Fu.
Liu Yunbai knew this woman’s true nature perfectly well. She coldly brushed her hands away.
Unexpectedly, Liu Wanrou toppled backward into Jiang Fu’s arms, her face full of hurt.
“Sister? I… are you still angry with me?”
Liu Wanrou had her back to Jiang Fu. From his angle, it looked as though Liu Yunbai had pushed her. He immediately snapped, “Fourth Princess, Wanrou was only concerned about you. Why did you push her?”
“I didn’t push her!” Liu Yunbai protested helplessly.
Jiang Fu refused to listen to her explanation.
“You chose to save us. No one forced you. What gives you the right to take your anger out on Wanrou?”
“I…”
“Wooo… woooo…”
A ghostly wail cut off Liu Yunbai’s explanation, putting everyone on edge once more.
However angry Jiang Fu was, he knew this was no time to question her.
“There may be more dangers here. Let’s leave first.”
Heaps of skeletal remains littered the silent cavern. One glance was enough to make a person’s scalp prickle and limbs tremble. Amid the bones stood a red coffin that looked as though it had been steeped in fresh blood.
Suddenly, a scream shattered the cavern’s stillness.
“Aaah…”
Qin Yu appeared out of thin air and crashed into a heap of bones with a resounding thud. He twitched twice, then lay completely still.
Just then, a creaking sound came from inside the coffin.
Its tightly fitted lid slowly opened an inch, and a tall figure sat up inside.
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