Chapter 50: Hu Li's Assist

All the black spider silk tautened at once. The massive flesh-and-blood monster let out a series of garbled, piercing roars. Aline fought with all her strength to control those pitch-black threads, constantly changing their weaving direction in midair, combining them into traction ropes, and dragging the creature bit by bit toward the gate.

Yu Sheng, in turn, strained to hold open the gate—wider and more stable than ever before.

The "gate" possessed the property of isolating the environments on either side. Simply opening a gate could not directly "release" the harsh conditions of the other side to this one. To burn this monster to death, they had to throw the whole thing inside.

Under normal circumstances, this isolating property was naturally a good thing. It prevented Yu Sheng from accidentally triggering a catastrophic incident when he opened a passage to a dangerous zone. But at this moment, Yu Sheng truly wished the gate could fuse the environments on both sides without any protective measures.

That way, he could directly open the gate into a lake of magma. The molten rock spurting from the gate would roast the monster immediately, saving him all this trouble.

But he could only think about it—he had only just begun to grasp the power of the "gate." Ensuring he could open it in the correct position was already no small feat; he couldn't expect to use it as a flexible offensive weapon.

As thoughts raced through his mind, the monster was already dragged to the gate, and even some of its limb ends were forcibly squeezed through the door. Through the gate, Yu Sheng saw that the parts crossing the threshold quickly lost their moisture, then ignited and carbonized under the hellish high temperature...

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

The flesh-and-blood giant's struggles instantly became nearly insane—even "Hunger," which acted purely on instinct, sensed immense danger and terror at this moment. All its limbs trembled violently within the web, and countless cracks split open on its body. Eyes, mouths, sharp fangs, tentacles—even mimic structures resembling human facial features and limbs—all burst forth at once!

From its twisted, gaping maws came even more piercing roars. The roaring from just inches away made Yu Sheng's ears ring, and even his thoughts were flooded with a mountain-toppling, ocean-overturning noise. His head spun, but he still clung tightly to the handle of the illusory gate, watching the giant be stuffed bit by bit into the passage leading to the inferno.

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

Yu Sheng jerked his head up toward the direction of the cracking.

It wasn't Aline's threads breaking—the little puppet had given it everything this time, not a single slip.

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

It began to break free from the web in the sky, tearing its own body apart until it was a bloody mess. It seemed completely without pain; limbs that were severely bound were simply ripped off the body entirely. Then new limbs grew from the flesh, clinging to nearby rocks, accelerating its escape.

It turned into something almost formless, flowing flesh, quickly deforming and "leaking" through the gaps in the silk.

It was adapting to Aline's web. It was learning a new physiological structure.

"Can't hold it!" Aline's shrill cry came from nearby. "My body can't take it either! Do something, Yu Sheng!"

Yu Sheng turned back and saw fine cracks rapidly appearing on Aline's arms and face. The puppet's body was beginning to crumble.

"Shit!"

He couldn't help cursing under his breath. With one hand still propping open the gate, he reached out with the other to grab the monster about to break free.

But in the next second, he heard wind whistling past his ear. Mixed within the wind... a wolf's howl.

A wolf howl?

Startled, Yu Sheng looked up. In the night sky, shadows abruptly streaked across. Wolf-like outlines formed from the shadows. The pack howled and ran through the air, then one after another crashed into the monster, either tearing at its flesh or slowing its deformation and writhing.

Then, Yu Sheng heard a loud shout from behind him, a deep and forceful voice: "I'll help you!"

The next instant, he saw a figure nearly two meters tall rush past him like a gale. Midair, the figure delivered a flying kick, slamming into the monster like a boulder with a dull thud.

The flesh-and-blood giant's body uncontrollably "fell" toward the gate. No amount of frantic writhing, transformation, or roaring could delay the process any longer.

The burly man who had delivered the flying kick leaped and turned in the air, landing gracefully. He turned to look at Yu Sheng. "Just made it in..."

He saw Yu Sheng's face.

The burly man's expression instantly turned dumbfounded, shock filling his eyes. The whole man looked as if he'd been struck by lightning.

His entire demeanor radiated the bleakness of a guy who'd been screwed over by a shitty boss and reassigned from one frontline to another.

Yu Sheng, however, had no idea why the burly man's face suddenly became so expressive upon seeing him, nor did he have the energy to think about it. Because he noticed that the flesh-and-blood giant was struggling again—even with half its body already pushed into the gate and burned to charcoal, the remaining half stubbornly wedged itself at the gate's edge and began regenerating at an astonishing speed.

Some inexplicable connection let Yu Sheng sense... anger and hatred.

In those trembling eyes, the faint light of primitive "emotion" and thought began to appear.

The unnamed burly man also sensed the commotion beside him. He hurriedly looked up and exclaimed in shock: "Damn! This thing can still fight back!"

Immediately after, Aline's scream came: "Snapped!"

The puppet's arms were covered in cracks. The pitch-black threads snapped inch by inch in an instant. The web let out a series of sharp reports, then shattered and dispersed in a flash.

The giant was free.

But just as Yu Sheng felt the situation was lost and was about to signal the others to run, a dazzling blue light suddenly burst in the corner of his eye.

Hu Li—who had been hiding behind a nearby rampart—had somehow mustered the courage to run out. She glared fiercely at the monster struggling before the gate, crouching like a wild beast on all fours. Her silver-white fox tails fanned out in the night sky, and large patches of blue spirit fire blazed fiercely at the tip of each tail.

The fox-girl let out a low growl from her throat.

Almost at the same time, pitch-black spikes and bone fragments erupted from her limbs and body, pinning her to the ground.

Seeing this, Yu Sheng shouted anxiously: "Don't worry about this—"

But before he could finish, he saw Hu Li, still on all fours, forcefully take a step forward, snapping the spike-like restraints, then abruptly adjusted her posture—

Foxfire exploded. A dazzling flash of light suddenly cut through the darkness. Behind a silver-white cone, azure flames shot out like a rocket, charging straight at the flesh-and-blood giant struggling to escape the gate.

Before Yu Sheng could even see what the hell that was, a violent flash erupted on the giant's back. Even though Hu Li deliberately confined the explosion's range, Yu Sheng, so close by, felt as if his bones were shattered by the blast—and the monster directly hit by that silver-white cone instantly lost its balance. The flesh-and-blood giant, already pushed to its limit, staggered twice and finally tumbled completely into the gate.

As the roars rapidly faded, Yu Sheng abruptly released his control over the gate.

The illusory gate vanished in an instant.

Silence fell over the ruined temple. This sudden quiet felt almost unreal.

Aline slumped directly to the ground, her cracked arms too weak to lift.

A girl in red, riding a phantom wolf, walked over from outside the ruins, a look of astonishment on her face. Beside her followed a black-haired youth of ordinary appearance.

When the youth saw Yu Sheng from a distance, his expression froze for a moment, as if recalling something, and his brow slowly furrowed.

The nearly two-meter-tall burly man stared wide-eyed at where the gate had vanished, apparently caught in bewilderment and thought.

But Yu Sheng didn't have time to greet these "temporary comrades" who had come out of nowhere. He immediately turned back to look at Hu Li.

The fox-girl was struggling to get up from the ground. The foxfire behind her was noticeably dimmer, but she was still standing.

Yu Sheng was stunned: So what had just flown past? Wasn't it a headbutt?

Then he noticed that Hu Li seemed to be missing one tail.

Yu Sheng: "..."

So she had launched something just now?!

And you could even use it that way?!

Yu Sheng's shock was beyond words. Realizing that the silver-white cone flying with blue fire was actually Hu Li's tail, his mind went completely blank. This daze even temporarily overwhelmed the excitement of defeating a powerful enemy.

He didn't understand immortal arts or demonic magic, but instinct told him that no matter what kind of arts or magic, they probably didn't include "a nine-tailed fox can launch its tail as a missile"...

Hu Li, however, had no idea why her benefactor's face had such a dramatic expression in that instant. She only struggled to her feet. The wounds pierced by black bone spurs had somehow completely vanished. She stumbled toward Yu Sheng, her face urgent: "Benefactor..."

Yu Sheng quickly reached out to support the unsteady fox-girl: "Take a rest first—"

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

Yu Sheng was taken aback.