BANG!
Endless flames surged through the void, coalescing in the air into fireballs. Yusheng swept his right hand forward, and the fireballs exploded outward, hurtling toward the mutant rabbit.
The crimson pupils showed not the slightest ripple of emotion. A flash of ice-blue light swept past, and Yusheng's fireballs were frozen solid in an instant. As if stripped of their momentum, they fell to the ground as balls of ice.
"Now!"
Yusheng gritted his teeth. Endless flames gathered and took the form of a fire qilin, charging toward the mutant rabbit. But just as the creature prepared to freeze it, the fire qilin instantly dispersed and scattered. The mutant rabbit froze for a moment, caught off guard.
By the time it reacted and prepared to freeze the scattered remnants of the fire qilin, Yusheng had appeared above it, wielding a long blade condensed from flame. He brought it down in a single strike.
BOOM!
A violent explosion rang out. By now, Qingmu had already taken Uncle Gou and was fleeing toward the city.
Hearing the blast, Qingmu didn't dare look back, afraid that one glance would rob him of the will to leave.
Yusheng paid no attention to the explosion beside him. After retreating from the blast radius, he continuously formed fireballs and hurled them toward the center of the explosion, only stopping when he had completely exhausted the spiritual energy within his body.
The flames cleared. And what Yusheng saw filled him with despair.
The mutant rabbit stood at the center of the explosion. Though its snow-white fur was now marked with patches of charred black, it remained standing.
"Guu guu guu."
Crimson pupils glanced at the scorched fur. In that moment, the mutant rabbit finally showed a flicker of anger. Then, before Yusheng's disbelieving, despairing eyes, an endless chill rose from his feet and spread upward.
Moments later, he had become an ice sculpture.
After freezing Yusheng, the mutant rabbit didn't pause for even a second. It shot after Qingmu at a speed beyond human imagination.
Faster. Faster!
Qingmu repeated the words in his mind, running at a pace that pushed him to his absolute limit.
He didn't know what had happened to Yusheng. He didn't dare think about it.
Thinking would unconsciously slow him down. If Yusheng was dead and he failed to make good use of the time Yusheng had bought with his life, then all of this would have been for nothing.
Any of them could die, yet none of them could afford to.
At the very least, one person from their team had to survive—to help care for the families of the others.
Right now, he and Uncle Gou were those people. They had to live on for Yusheng, Ruoshui, and Yinguang!
BOOM!
As Qingmu ran with everything he had, a violent force suddenly struck him from behind. He and Uncle Gou were sent flying together, slamming hard into a tree.
Qingmu scrambled up from the ground and rushed to Uncle Gou's side. The man's face was deathly pale, and on his back was a massive footprint.
"Uncle Gou..."
That kick should have hit him—if he hadn't been carrying Uncle Gou on his back.
Uncle Gou had already fallen unconscious. Qingmu lifted his head in silence and looked at the familiar mutant rabbit before him.
"You deserve to die!"
"You truly deserve to die!"
Golden radiance gathered around Qingmu's body. Gleaming golden blades materialized and orbited him.
His expression hardened. He walked forward, then broke into a run. A golden longsword formed in his grip, and the golden blades swirling around him launched a frenzied assault on the mutant rabbit.
Ruoshui had been frozen!
Yinguang had been frozen!
Uncle Gou had lost his legs, and now his fate was unknown.
Even Yusheng had most likely lost his life.
Die!
Let's all die together! He swung his blade in a frenzy.
But reality was cruel. It wouldn't increase your strength just because your emotions ran high. If anything, losing your reason would diminish it.
Just like now. The mutant rabbit simply watched Qingmu approach, and then—
BOOM!
Amid the thunderous impact, Qingmu was kicked flying. The sharp golden blades around him hadn't inflicted even the slightest wound on the mutant rabbit.
"Pfft!"
He struggled to rise from the ground, but the searing pain made movement impossible. The agony radiating from his abdomen caused blood to flow ceaselessly from the corner of his mouth.
Am I going to die...?
Through blurring vision, he gazed at the world before him. Finally, his eyes slowly closed.
Yet faintly, he thought he heard a gentle voice.
"I'm sorry. I came too late."
"Rest well. When you wake, it will all be over."
Skyler Quinn retrieved two pills from his spatial ring and placed them in the mouths of the two men. Sensing their life signs stabilize, he let out a small breath of relief, then turned his gaze toward the mutant rabbit—which hadn't moved at all, simply watching him.
"Strange creature."
He furrowed his brow, looking at the snow-white mutant rabbit before him. It was clearly visible to his eyes, yet to his senses, it was as if nothing existed there at all.
No aura?
Or was it simply too well hidden?
RUMBLE...
A thunderous roar echoed from the sky as dark clouds gathered into a swirling vortex.
CRACK!
From the depths of those clouds, a bolt of lightning several meters thick descended.
RUMBLE...
Even the mutant rabbit couldn't evade such blinding speed. Its entire body was engulfed in thunder.
"Guu guu guu guu guu guu..."
"Guu guu guu guu guu..."
"Guu guu..."
From within the blue-violet radiance came the rabbit's cries. They didn't sound particularly agonized, but through Skyler's vision, he could see the creature trembling uncontrollably at the center of the lightning. Its pristine white fur had been charred black—much of it gone entirely. Even the outline of its bones was now visible.
The lightning faded. The mutant rabbit collapsed to the ground, not a single part of its body left intact.
But because he couldn't sense its aura, Skyler couldn't be certain whether it was actually dead.
Then, before his astonished—almost shocked—eyes, the mutant rabbit's body began to disintegrate. A gentle orb of light detached from within and flew off in a certain direction at unimaginable speed. In moments, it had vanished from his sight.
"A soul?"
"A clone?"
Skyler frowned, then finally shook his head.
He would report this when he returned and see if similar incidents had occurred elsewhere.
With just this much information, nothing could be determined.
But before that, Skyler looked down at Qingmu and Uncle Gou on the ground. He should wait for these two to wake up first, and check the surrounding area for any companions they might have.
Even if there were only corpses, he needed to bring them back—to prevent them from being devoured by mutant beasts.
Meanwhile, atop a snow-covered mountain peak.
A mutant white fox lay sprawled on a boulder, eyes half-closed, lost in the bliss of sleep.
High in the sky, a gentle orb of light streaked across the heavens and descended upon its head. The fox's content expression suddenly twisted into discomfort. It tossed and turned restlessly, then jolted awake in terror.
— End of Chapter —