“Half an hour!”
After a pause, Jiu Baiyun repeated in a low, firm voice.
“Give me half an hour!”
Hearing the absolute certainty in Jiu Baiyun’s tone, Su Zhiyun was momentarily stunned, then gritted her teeth.
“Fine!”
She then shouted to A Ran and Xiao Mu ahead, “We’re going to sprint! Run as fast as you can for half an hour!”
If they didn’t speed up now, they were all done for!
Given how the perfectly orderly mountain sparrows had suddenly fallen into chaos, Su Zhiyun had some guesses based on the system panel—it was definitely related to Jiu Baiyun.
But most of the sparrow flock had already recovered and was clearly targeting the four of them.
At that moment, the harsh chirping of the mountain sparrows came from behind.
“Chirp—!!!”
The flock, having regrouped after the chaos subsided, was now filled with even greater frenzy and icy killing intent.
Though not as numerous as before, the small group that split off to chase them carried a much more ferocious hostility.
Jiu Baiyun’s face suddenly turned grim.
He instinctively looked at Su Zhiyun.
Though she was slightly flustered, she remained relatively calm, not slowing her pace at all.
A Ran and Xiao Mu up ahead glanced back at Jiu Baiyun, then at Su Zhiyun, and gritted their teeth as they sped up.
Jiu Baiyun lay on the jolting stretcher, his ears filled with the piercing “chirp” sound that grew closer and closer, like metal scraping against metal.
The sound carried a cold sense of lock-on, almost piercing his eardrums.
He could feel Su Zhiyun, A Ran, and Xiao Mu desperately trying to pick up speed, but the weight of carrying the stretcher made their running clumsy and heavy.
Each hurried breath pounded against Jiu Baiyun’s tense nerves.
Within a minute, Su Zhiyun could no longer maintain her composure.
“Faster! Go faster!”
Su Zhiyun shouted with some difficulty, urgency in her voice.
Although she really wanted to abandon Jiu Baiyun, if she did, leaving aside whether he would survive, she herself definitely wouldn’t make it.
With the chase speed of these mountain sparrows, there was no way they could outrun them.
She kept turning her head back.
The blood-red “High Danger” on the system panel seemed ready to jump to an even more terrifying label at any moment.
A Ran and Xiao Mu couldn’t speak anymore.
Their faces were pale, sweat mixed with dust leaving streaks on their cheeks.
They could only clench their teeth, squeezing out the last bit of strength to push forward.
Jiu Baiyun, lying on the stretcher, felt his heart sink to the bottom.
Too fast!
These sparrows were faster than he had expected!
Half an hour?
Forget half an hour—at this rate, they wouldn’t last even a few dozen breaths!
He could clearly feel the violent jolts from the stretcher.
Each tremor sent tearing pain through every part of his body.
Especially the limp fox tail at his coccyx.
It flailed uncontrollably, rubbing against the fabric with every bounce, bringing waves of numbing itch and sharp pain that almost made him moan.
Worse still, the drooping fox ears on his head were acutely sensitive to the flapping wings and shrieks drawing nearer.
Each sound stabbed into his nerves like needles.
Out of the corner of his eye, he could even see his own group’s panicked escape reflected in the crimson compound eyes of the frontmost sparrows.
Their sharp beaks and claws glinted with a dark luster, mere inches from Su Zhiyun’s back.
Seeing this, Jiu Baiyun tensed up instantly.
But at this critical moment, the always somewhat grave and tense voice of the Yao Fox Demon Venerable in his mind suddenly rose sharply, with an uncontrollable impatience.
“Jiu Baiyun! Let go of your mind! Let me take over!!!”
Jiu Baiyun’s consciousness was stunned by the demon venerable’s frantic shout.
“Let go of my mind?”
He instinctively wanted to ask what the demon venerable intended to do, but obviously, it was already too late!
In his peripheral vision, the crimson compound eyes of the frontmost sparrows were right there, the cold killing intent almost piercing his skin.
The wind from their wings even lifted the fabric on Su Zhiyun’s back.
“Fine!”
Without further hesitation, Jiu Baiyun immediately agreed to the Yao Fox Demon Venerable in his sea of consciousness, then instantly emptied his mind.
His consciousness seemed to sink into a cold, viscous deep sea.
His perception of the outside world suddenly became blurred and distant.
Jiu Baiyun’s consciousness quickly peeled away, and then the “Yao Fox Demon Venerable” abruptly opened its eyes.
In the depths of the black eyes that originally belonged to Jiu Baiyun, a blue flame ignited like abyssal ice fire, instantly replacing the original pupil color.
The Yao Fox Demon Venerable tried to move a finger resting on the edge of the stretcher.
“Tch.”
A very soft, clearly dissatisfied click of the tongue escaped from its lips.
But this sound wasn’t Jiu Baiyun’s low, hoarse male voice—it carried a naturally cold female tone.
This made Su Zhiyun momentarily pause, but the crisis behind her left no time to think.
She just assumed she’d misheard.
The Yao Fox Demon Venerable immediately clamped its mouth shut upon realizing the mistake.
A faint blue glint flickered in its eyes, clearly extremely dissatisfied with the pitiful “hardware” condition of this body and the instinctively exposed voice line.
Waste!
It cursed inwardly, unsure whether it was cursing Jiu Baiyun’s exhaustion or the body’s current powerlessness.
The moment the Yao Fox Demon Venerable took control of Jiu Baiyun’s body, an intense sense of incongruity and weakness bound it like cold shackles.
The body was still heavy as lead.
The side effects from using “Qi Stillness” were still in effect.
It obviously couldn’t use any abilities that required movement now.
However, the mountain sparrow flock’s hair-raising “chirp” waves were already crashing in like a tangible tide behind them.
The Yao Fox Demon Venerable’s gaze sharpened.
It didn’t stay idle.
Even if it couldn’t move, that didn’t mean it had no countermeasures.
The next moment, two clusters of azure flame suddenly ignited in the demon venerable’s pupils.
The flames carried a bone-deep, eerie coldness and strangeness.
They danced and rose silently in its pupils, as if about to drag everything before it into some kind of illusory dreamscape.
Then, in the instant when Su Zhiyun turned back in terror and A Ran and Xiao Mu screamed,
Those two azure flames separated from Jiu Baiyun’s pupils, as if drawn by an invisible force, suddenly rose into the air.
The flames silently exploded in midair, shattering into countless fine, ethereal azure sparks.
Like a swarm of cold-light fireflies scattered by a gale, they precisely showered down onto the pursuing sparrow flock behind Su Zhiyun.
These sparks were light and seemed intangible.
They landed on the gray feathers of the sparrows without burning or harming, not even igniting a single feather.
Yet the effect was immediate!
Sparrows touched by the sparks had their crimson compound eyes instantly covered with a hazy blue halo.
Their originally high-speed, targeted trajectories suddenly became chaotic.
Though these azure sparks had no direct killing power, they acted like the thickest mud, instantly slowing down the sparrow flock’s fierce pursuit.
Su Zhiyun felt the suffocating pressure behind her suddenly lighten.
Though the “chirp” sound was still piercing, the cold lock-on feeling of being clawed in the next second was gone.
She could even sense a strange, cold energy fluctuation passing by her side.
Instinctively looking at Jiu Baiyun, she met “Jiu Baiyun’s” icy gaze.
Su Zhiyun’s mind went blank.
What’s going on…
Why does Jiu Baiyun seem different?
It’s like… like he’s become a different person…
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