“In simple terms, just don’t look at the demon general’s whole body!”
“Where did you get that certainty?”
Jia Sha asked with a helpless sigh and a laugh, his eyes abandoning any struggle for rationality, because the Xin Ge’er in front of him was apparently memorizing this content with a serious expression.
Jia Sha looked at Xu.
Xu didn’t look confused, but his brows were slightly furrowed, revealing the confusion stirring in his heart.
But the key point was that Xu nodded and listened carefully to Yao Xing’s words.
Only then did Jia Sha belatedly turn his gaze back to Yao Xing: ‘The hero from Lin Qi really is trusted.’
Before Jia Sha could think further, Yao Xing said something else that puzzled him, but he chose not to ask more.
Yao Xing said, “Whether you encounter a demon general or not, just remember: don’t attack, and that’s all!”
Instead, Xin Ge’er, who had been silent for a long time, spoke up: “Demonkin and demon generals never cooperate. Most demon generals act independently. So why is this demon general so protective of its child?”
‘So demonkin and demon generals are separate… If that’s the case… then why…’
Stomp—stomp—
‘Maybe they’re in a cooperative relationship?’
After much deliberation, Yao Xing said: “Maybe it’s a father-son relationship?”
(?)
“No, I didn’t say that!”
Yao Xing suddenly stood up.
Outside the military camp, there was actually an identical “Yao Xing”: “Hehe, did I scare you~”
Everyone was stunned by this scene, but following the plan, they didn’t show fear and quickly prepared for battle.
Yao Xing calmly shouted: “That’s the demonkin using disguise magic! Everyone, absolutely do not attack him!”
And so, they stood in a stalemate for a while, and truly, no one made a move.
The demonkin Xi Ke helplessly pulled off the “Yao Xing” disguise: “Why are you people so boring? And… why did you tell them not to attack me? We’ve clearly never met, so how do you know so much—”
As he spoke, Xi Ke bared his fangs, his nails grew long, and he walked toward them: “Since you won’t attack me, I’ll attack you instead~”
Not good….
Yao Xing and the others had no escape; the camp tent behind them had sealed off their retreat.
Xu looked at everyone, hesitated no longer, and with a single chop of his hand, slashed open the tent, allowing everyone to run out.
Yao Xing quickly ran out: “Thank you!”
Then everyone nodded to each other and scattered like frightened birds in all directions.
Although Jia Sha and Xin Ge’er fled together, they still specifically warned the surviving soldiers to avoid becoming hostages of Xi Ke in his rage.
Xu didn’t run with Yao Xing but separated to draw Xi Ke away alone.
Yao Xing never stopped running, but her eyes remained fixed on her companions, hoping none of them would get hurt.
But when Yao Xing looked back, Xi Ke was still inside the tent, standing dazed, his face increasingly filled with excitement: “You want to play hide-and-seek, huh! Fine, fine! I’ll be It!”
“Ten.”
He actually closed his eyes and started counting.
“Nine.”
Yao Xing looked around the military camp, up and down, left and right—there was no sign of the demon general Zi Luan anywhere.
“Eight.”
‘How did that demon general suddenly appear?’
“Seven.”
‘Not good, time is almost up!’
“Six.”
“Five.”
“One.”
“Time’s up! Are you all hidden? It’s coming to catch you now~!”
Yao Xing stared dumbfounded.
This guy had broken the rules—how could he count down like that, skipping numbers in reverse order!
But there was no one to complain to.
Xi Ke was already darting around at an incredible speed, searching everywhere for people.
‘I hope everyone can get away in time.’
Yao Xing looked on worriedly.
“I caught you~!”
That shrill laugh, like nails scraping against glass, suddenly exploded from directly above Yao Xing.
(!!!)
Yao Xing’s pupils contracted sharply.
She didn’t even have time to look up.
Instinct made her body react faster than her mind, and she rolled sharply to the side.
*CRASH!!!
At almost the same instant, a thunderous roar sounded.
Xi Ke’s razor-sharp claws, black as obsidian, slammed heavily into the spot where she had just been standing.
The hard frozen ground was torn open into a large hole, and debris flew like shrapnel.
“Hehe… Miss Prophet, you’re really quick to react!”
‘Damn, when did he find me!’
Xi Ke was on all fours, like a huge, disjointed spider, tilting his head and staring at Yao Xing.
The mockery in his eyes had vanished, replaced by a pure, bestial hunger.
Yao Xing ignored the scrapes on her knees and scrambled into the dense fir forest behind the camp.
Run!
She had to run!
The sound of splintering wood behind her was unbearable.
Xi Ke didn’t need to find a path; his powerful demon body simply smashed through everything in his way.
Thick tree trunks crumbled like crackers in front of him, wood chips and flying snow trailing behind him like a furious dragon.
“Hide… hurry and hide~”
Xi Ke’s voice was sometimes near, sometimes far—sometimes leaping through the canopy on the left, sometimes slithering along the ground like a snake.
Yao Xing could feel that cold, murderous intent always clinging to the back of her neck, impossible to shake off.
Gritting her teeth, Yao Xing used the hero’s extraordinary explosive power to weave through the tangled shadows of the trees at high speed.
She knew she couldn’t run in a straight line—this demonkin’s burst speed was too strong.
So she kept using thick trunks as cover for sharp-angle turns, trying to create distance with complex terrain.
*Shwoosh!
A purple blur flashed past.
Yao Xing tilted her head, and a strand of severed hair drifted away in the wind.
Xi Ke’s dagger grazed her cheek and embedded deeply into the trunk beside her.
Then he twisted it sharply, and the whole old tree was shattered to dust by that evil magic.
“You can’t escape… I’ve already memorized your scent~”
Xi Ke exerted himself again.
He no longer maintained a human form; the spine on his back bulged grotesquely, and his speed increased even more.
He was like a black hurricane, felling rows of trees in his path.
Yao Xing’s lungs burned as cold air sliced into her trachea like a knife.
She dared not look back, only judging his position by sound.
‘Left rear… close! Closer!’
She leaped over a fallen log, twisting her body midair to dodge a horizontal sweep that would have cut her in half.
Xi Ke’s claws passed within an inch of her nose, and the wind pressure left fine bloody scratches on her face.
At this moment, Xi Ke had fully entered predator mode.
He stopped talking, emitting only a low, guttural growl from his throat.
His pitch-black eyes were locked onto Yao Xing’s back.
Each push off the ground tore up chunks of earth.
He wasn’t killing a person; he was dismantling prey, savoring the accelerating heartbeat of fear.
“—Got you!”
Disguised as a giant monster, Xi Ke leaped high, blotting out the faint moonlight.
His enormous shadow engulfed Yao Xing.
In that instant, Yao Xing felt her heart nearly leap out of her throat.
What came from above was no longer the rustle of wind through leaves, but a heavy, sticky, oppressive shadow of death.
‘Move! Move now!!’
Every hair on Yao Xing’s body stood on end.
Like a frightened cat, in the millisecond before the shadow completely covered the ground, she unleashed her full potential.
With a sharp contraction of her core, she used the momentum to perform an extremely awkward but life-saving sideways roll.
*BOOM!!
Xi Ke’s transformed, battering-ram-like body slammed into the spot where Yao Xing had just stood.
The shockwave of frozen earth and snow sent Yao Xing flying more than two meters.
She rolled several times in the snow, ice-cold slush pouring into her collar, making her teeth chatter.
But the cold also helped clear her mind, which had been numb with fear.
“Hehe… dodged again? Dodged again?”
Xi Ke slowly raised his head from the pit.
His current form had completely transcended human limits.
Bone spurs pierced through his flesh, forming a row of jagged serrations along his back.
His limbs were stretched to an uncoordinated length, and his nails gleamed with a faint purple light under the moon.
‘This guy isn’t using disguise magic at all—it’s transformation magic!’
Yao Xing didn’t bother brushing off the snow.
She pushed off the ground with both hands and dived once more into the deeper, denser shadows of the trees.
‘No… my stamina is draining too fast…’
She could hear the sound of a bulldozer crushing everything behind her.
Xi Ke had no intention of playing any intellectual cat-and-mouse game.
He was now a pure killing machine.
The sharp crack of every fir tree he snapped in his path was like another stroke on Yao Xing’s death warrant.
“Hah… hah…”
Yao Xing panted.
Her vision blurred from the intense running.
The cold wind cut through her windpipe like a knife, and every breath carried a bloody, metallic taste.
*Shwoosh!
Xi Ke’s figure leaped wildly between the tree trunks.
His grotesquely long limbs made him perfectly at home in the dense forest.
He deliberately didn’t kill her immediately but brushed past her flank, the screech of his claws slicing through the air ringing painfully in Yao Xing’s ears.
“Your running posture… is getting more and more pitiful~”
Xi Ke’s voice came from Yao Xing’s left rear, but in the next second, it was coming from the right: “Are you scared? Are you despairing? I really want to see your face… what expression it will make when it’s torn apart!”
Yao Xing stumbled, tripping over an exposed root.
She immediately caught herself with her hands, but that momentary pause gave Xi Ke his chance.
“Tear you apart!!”
Xi Ke let out a distorted roar.
His claws traced five purple trails, raking toward Yao Xing’s back like a comb.
“Ahh!”
Yao Xing screamed, throwing herself forward, using a diagonal slide to dive into a low shrub.
The ancient tree behind her, as thick as a man’s arm span, was sliced into six sections as easily as tofu and collapsed with a roar.
‘Can’t stop… stop and I’ll die…’
She stood up shakily, staring at the pitch-black forest ahead.
She didn’t know where her companions were, or when the demon general Zi Luan would suddenly appear.
All she could do was squeeze the last ounce of strength from her body in this deadly chase.
The cold wind howled.
Yao Xing felt as if her legs no longer belonged to her, but were two lead blocks mechanically swinging.
The tree shadows ahead grew sparser, replaced by a barren, rocky slope.
Yao Xing’s heart sank as she realized that in her panicked flight, under Xi Ke’s deliberate herding, she had……strayed far from the Kingdom of Cotton Seedlings!
‘This is really bad—’
The faintly shimmering stone tablet ahead marked the border between Cotton Seedlings and Lin Qi.
Yao Xing was already running unsteadily.
“Can’t run anymore, can you! Can’t run anymore!”
Xi Ke’s twisted body cast an unnaturally long shadow across the open, rocky ground.
Without the trees to block him, his speed was astonishing.
Each leap closed the distance by dozens of meters.
Yao Xing stumbled across the border line.
Her foot gave way, and she collapsed heavily onto the cold gravel.
The burning sensation in her lungs robbed her of even the strength to scream.
She could only watch helplessly as the purple monster launched into the air, silhouetting the outline of death against the moonlight.
‘Is this it…’
‘After all these resets… I still end up dying outside the border…’
‘Well… at least everyone… is unharmed…’
“I’ve really got you this time!”
Xi Ke’s bone-covered claws aimed for Yao Xing’s throat, plunging down with lethal intent.
*HMMMM!
Just as his fingertips were centimeters from her carotid artery, the ground beneath Yao Xing suddenly and without warning collapsed!
“Wah—!”
Yao Xing was engulfed by a feeling of weightlessness.
She fell like dropping into an abyss, straight into a cylindrical, deep hole.
*BAM!
Xi Ke’s sure-kill strike smashed into the empty ground, sending debris flying, but only caught a handful of air still warm from Yao Xing’s body.
“What?!”
Xi Ke roared in fury.
He looked down at the hole, but before he could even peer in, the hole contracted and healed itself as if alive.
Within half a second, the ground was seamless again, the loose soil restored to its original flatness, as if no pit had ever existed.
On the empty border, only Xi Ke’s wild, unwilling howls echoed: “Damn it! Damn it!!”
Dark.
Absolute darkness.
Yao Xing slid down a slope for what felt like an eternity, finally crashing into a pile of soft cushions.
“Cough… cough…”
Yao Xing coughed violently, trying to feel for her long sword in the darkness.
But a familiar hand firmly grasped her shoulder.
“Hero… if you had run any further, I really wouldn’t have been able to catch up.”
It was Anuo’s voice.
Though weak and exhausted, at this moment, it sounded like music to Yao Xing’s ears.
“Anuo?”
Yao Xing grabbed his arm with a trembling hand.
“How did you…”
“I’ve been following in the earth beneath your feet the whole time.”
Anuo lit a faint torch, illuminating his face, covered in cold sweat and dirt.
“When that demonkin was counting, I had already infiltrated this area. But the commotion above was too great; I had to wait for him to expose an opening and for your energy to be exhausted before I could act.”
“You saved me—I’m so grateful!”
“By the way, where is everyone?”
Anuo scratched his head and pointed behind him.
Xu, Xin Ge’er, Jia Sha, and even the other soldiers were all sitting safely inside Anuo’s underground cave.
“Thank goodness…”
Yao Xing’s nose stung, and tears welled up in her eyes, but she still hid them.
Only Xin Ge’er, from a distance, noticed her relief.