Chapter 50: Hu Li's Assist

All the black spider silk tightened simultaneously in an instant. The massive, fleshy behemoth let out a series of muffled, ear-piercing roars. Irene exerted every ounce of her strength to control those pitch-black threads, forcing them to constantly shift their weaving direction in mid-air, combining them into pulling ropes to drag the monster inch by inch toward the Gate.

Yu Sheng, meanwhile, desperately braced the Gate, which was wider than ever before, struggling to keep it even wider and more stable.

The "Gate" possessed the characteristic of isolating the environments inside from the outside. Simply opening a door was not enough to directly "release" the harsh environment of one side to the other; to burn this monster to death, it had to be thrown in entirely.

Under normal circumstances, this isolation characteristic was certainly a good thing, as it prevented Yu Sheng from causing catastrophic accidents when accidentally opening a passage to a dangerous area. But at this moment, Yu Sheng truly wished the Gate could merge the environments on both sides without any protective measures.

That way, he could simply open the Gate directly into the lava lake, allowing the magma gushing from the entrance to roast the monster instantly, saving him all this immense effort.

But he could only think such thoughts—he had only just begun to master the power of the "Gate." Being able to ensure the Gate opened in the correct position was already quite an achievement; he truly could not expect to use it as a flexible and versatile offensive tool.

As his thoughts raced, the monster had already been dragged to the front of the Gate. Parts of its limb extremities were even being forcibly squeezed and shoved into the entrance. Through the Gate, Yu Sheng saw those limbs crossing the threshold being rapidly desiccated, then quickly ignited and carbonized in the purgatorial high temperatures...

In a daze, he even felt as if his own limbs were burning.

The fleshy behemoth's struggle instantly turned nearly frantic—even the "Hunger," which acted purely on instinct, sensed immense danger and terror at this moment. All its limbs trembled violently within the spiderwebs, and countless gaps tore open across its body. Eyes of all sizes, mouths, fangs, tentacles, and even mimetic structures resembling human facial features and limbs all burst forth at once!

Even more piercing roars erupted from those hideous, twisted giant mouths. The roar, so close at hand, made Yu Sheng's ears ring and even stirred a mountain-shaking, sea-surging noise within his very thoughts. He felt dizzy and lightheaded, but he still gripped the handle of the illusory Gate tightly, watching the behemoth being shoved inch by inch into that passage leading to purgatory.

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

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

It wasn't Irene's silk that was breaking—the little doll had given it her all this time, not a single link had failed.

It was the flesh and twisted limbs on the monster's surface that were breaking.

It began to break free from the spiderwebs in mid-air bit by bit, tearing its own body apart into a bloody, mangled mess. It seemed to possess no sense of pain at all; those heavily restrained limbs were even ripped directly from its body, only for new limbs to grow out of the flesh, clinging to nearby rocks to accelerate its escape.

It had nearly become an amorphous, flowing mass of flesh, rapidly deforming and "leaking" through the gaps in the spider silk.

It was adapting to Irene's webs; it was learning a new physiological structure.

"I can't hold it!" Irene's scream came from nearby. "My body can't take it either! Think of something, Yu Sheng!"

Yu Sheng turned his head to see fine cracks rapidly appearing on Irene's arms and cheeks; the doll's body was gradually fracturing.

"Dammit!"

He couldn't help but curse under his breath. He had no choice but to brace the Gate with one hand while reaching out with the other to try and grab the monster that was about to break free.

Yet, in the very next second, the whistling of wind suddenly reached his ears, and within that wind was... a wolf's howl.

A wolf's howl?

Startled, Yu Sheng looked up and saw shadows abruptly streaking across the night sky. Wolf-like silhouettes formed from the shadows; the pack howled and ran through the air, crashing into the monster one after another, or tearing at its flesh to slow down its process of deformation and writhing.

Immediately after, Yu Sheng heard a loud shout from behind him, the voice heavy and powerful: "I am here to help you!"

In the next instant, he saw a figure nearly two meters tall charge from behind like a gale. With a flying kick in mid-air, the figure slammed into the monster like a massive boulder, producing a dull thud.

The fleshy behemoth's body was driven uncontrollably toward the Gate; its frantic struggling, writhing, and roaring could no longer delay the process.

The burly man who delivered the flying kick leaped in the air, spun, and landed gracefully. He turned to look at Yu Sheng: "Luckily, I made it—"

He saw Yu Sheng's face.

The expression on the man's face instantly turned to bewilderment. Shock filled his eyes, and he looked as if he had been struck by lightning.

He radiated a sense of desolation, as if he had been tricked by an idiot leader into being transferred from one frontline to another.

Yu Sheng, however, did not know why the man's expression had become so colorful upon seeing him, nor did he have the strength to contemplate it. He discovered that the fleshy behemoth was actually struggling once again. Even though half its body had been pushed into the Gate and burned to charcoal, the remaining half was still deathly wedged at the edge of the Gate and had begun rapid regeneration.

A strange, inexplicable connection made Yu Sheng feel... anger, and hatred.

Within those trembling eyes, the glimmer of primitive "emotion" and thought began to emerge.

The nameless man also sensed the movement beside him. He hurriedly looked up and cried out in alarm, "Crap! This thing can still fight back!"

This was followed by Irene's scream: "It's snapping!"

Cracks covered the doll's arms, and the pitch-black silk snapped inch by inch in the blink of an eye. The spiderweb let out a series of sharp, explosive cracks before instantly shattering and dissipating.

The behemoth was free.

However, just as Yu Sheng felt the tide had turned and was preparing to tell the others to run, a brilliant burst of blue fire suddenly erupted in the corner of his eye.

Hu Li, who had been hiding behind a nearby wall, had somehow mustered the courage to run out at some unknown point. She glared fiercely at the monster struggling before the Gate, crouching on the ground like a beast. Her silver-white fox tails spread out in the night sky, and large patches of blue spiritual fire burned fiercely at the tip of each tail.

A low growl emerged from the demon fox girl's throat.

Almost simultaneously, pitch-black spikes and bone fragments erupted from her limbs, pinning her to the ground.

Seeing this, Yu Sheng shouted in panic, "Don't worry about—"

But before he could finish, he saw the crouching Hu Li force herself to take a step forward, breaking through those spike-like restraints, and then suddenly adjusted her posture—

The fox fire exploded. A dazzling flash of light suddenly pierced the darkness. Behind a silver-white cone, ethereal blue flames surged, launching like a rocket toward the fleshy behemoth that was struggling to escape the Gate.

Before Yu Sheng could even make out what the object was, he saw a violent flash erupt from the behemoth's back. Even though the subsequent explosion was intentionally contained by Hu Li, Yu Sheng, being so close, felt as if the sound of the blast nearly shattered his bones. The monster, struck directly by that silver-white cone, lost its balance instantly. The already overextended fleshy behemoth staggered twice before finally falling completely through the Gate.

Amidst the rapidly receding roars, Yu Sheng abruptly released his control over the Gate.

The illusory Gate vanished into thin air in an instant.

Silence fell over the ruins of the broken temple; this sudden arrival of silence felt almost unreal.

Irene slumped directly to the ground, unable to even lift her fractured arms.

A red-clad girl riding on the back of a phantom wolf walked over from outside the ruins, her face filled with astonishment. Following beside her was a black-haired young man who appeared quite ordinary.

The young man saw Yu Sheng from a distance, his expression suddenly freezing as if he had remembered something, his brow gradually furrowing.

The nearly two-meter-tall burly man stared wide-eyed at the direction where the Gate had disappeared, seemingly lost in a state of shock and contemplation.

Yu Sheng, however, did not have the luxury of greeting these "temporary comrades" who had appeared out of nowhere; his first instinct was to turn back toward Hu Li.

The demon fox girl was struggling to climb up from the ground. The fox fire behind her had clearly dimmed significantly, but she was still alive.

Yu Sheng froze: *So, what was that thing that just flew by? Was it a headbutt?*

Then, he noticed that it seemed like one of the tails behind Hu Li was missing.

Yu Sheng: "..."

*So, what the hell did this girl just launch?!*

*And you can actually use them like that?!*

Yu Sheng's shock was beyond words. After realizing that the silver-white cone that had flown out amidst blue flames was actually Hu Li's tail, he was completely stunned. This stupor even momentarily suppressed the excitement of having defeated a powerful enemy.

He did not understand immortal arts or demon sorcery, but instinct told him that no matter what kind of immortal art or demon sorcery it was, it shouldn't include "a nine-tailed fox can launch its own tail like a missile"...

Hu Li, however, had no idea what was going on with the colorful expression on her benefactor's face. She merely struggled to her feet. The wounds on her body caused by the black bone spikes had vanished at some unknown point. She stumbled toward Yu Sheng, her face filled with urgency: "Benefactor..."

Yu Sheng quickly reached out to support the demon fox girl, who could no longer stand: "Rest for a bit first..."

But Hu Li urgently interrupted him: "I can't rest, Benefactor. It's not over yet!"

Yu Sheng was momentarily stunned.

(End of Chapter)