Chapter 87 - 86: Crushing

Chapter 87: Chapter 86: Crushing

"VMMMM—!"

A piercing sound suddenly tore through the air.

Gu Qing stomped his foot, his body blasting forward as he charged straight at Huang Xiaoyue.

’So fast!’

Seeing Gu Qing’s figure blur into an afterimage as he hurtled toward her with ferocious speed, Huang Xiaoyue’s heart leaped in alarm. Her instincts screamed at her to retreat.

Before she could react, Gu Qing was already upon her.

No punch.

No kick.

He simply lowered his shoulder, transforming into a fully-loaded dump truck, and slammed into her with the force of a dragon’s charge.

"BOOM!!!"

A dull, explosive impact rang out.

Huang Xiaoyue was sent flying. She felt her organs shift out of place as she briefly lost consciousness. She thought she saw her great-grandmother’s spirit, and for a moment, it felt like she was about to be transported to another world.

She flew backward for several long seconds.

Finally, Huang Xiaoyue’s massive, mutated body crashed heavily to the ground with a THUD, kicking up a cloud of dead branches, fallen leaves, and dust.

"WHOOSH—!"

Again, the sharp sound of displaced air.

Gu Qing gave Huang Xiaoyue no chance to breathe.

The instant she hit the ground, he had already flashed over to her. He raised his right foot high, bringing it down on her head with the weight of a falling mountain.

Staring at the sole of the shoe descending upon her face...

...Huang Xiaoyue, her consciousness hazy, felt as if she could see the word "DEATH" written on it. She envisioned the gruesome scene of her head being stomped into pulp.

In the split second before the sole landed...

...an intense survival instinct jolted Huang Xiaoyue back to her senses. A burst of power far exceeding her usual limits erupted from within her, allowing her to roll away at the last possible moment, dodging Gu Qing’s fatal stomp by a hair’s breadth.

Gu Qing’s foot missed, slamming into the earth instead. With a BANG, the ground exploded.

In an instant, dirt and dust flew everywhere. A deep crater formed where his foot landed, and a terrifying web of cracks spread out in all directions.

Hearing the tremendous noise beside her...

...Huang Xiaoyue trembled all over. Her upper and lower rows of fangs clattered together, and her face went deathly pale.

’I can’t win!’

’There’s no way I can win!’

’This person is a monster in human skin!’

’Run!’

’I have to run now! If I don’t, I’m going to die here tonight!’

Witnessing the terrifying power of Gu Qing’s stomp, Huang Xiaoyue’s eyes filled with horror. All her will to fight vanished, and she decisively chose to retreat.

In the next moment, a thick, gray-black mist erupted from her body, blotting out the sky and instantly blanketing a ten-meter radius.

Using the cover of this rat-poison fog...

...Huang Xiaoyue immediately sprang from the ground and fled the woods at top speed.

"Junior, your senior isn’t done playing yet. You’re leaving already?"

Gu Qing took a single step, instantly bursting through the rat-poison fog. His figure appeared like a phantom beside the fleeing Huang Xiaoyue, and he gave her an unsated, player’s grin.

Huang Xiaoyue’s pupils shrank in terror. Her steps faltered, and her heart stopped.

But she quickly recovered from her shock and swung a powerful kick at Gu Qing.

She didn’t expect the kick to hurt Gu Qing; she only hoped to knock the monster in human skin back a few meters and buy herself a little more time to escape.

However!

The instant she swung her leg, her massive, mutated foot—still wrapped in torn stockings—was caught precisely in Gu Qing’s grasp.

Before she could react, Gu Qing grabbed her huge foot and swung, flinging her enormous, mutated body into the air.

When her body reached the apex of the arc...

...Gu Qing suddenly yanked downward, smashing her violently into the ground.

"BOOM!!!"

A massive crash echoed out.

Huang Xiaoyue landed on the back of her head. She slammed so hard into the ground that half of her massive body was buried in the earth, sending out a dense web of cracks.

"PTUI!"

Huang Xiaoyue felt as if all her internal organs had shattered. A sweet taste surged up her throat, and she spat out a large mouthful of blood.

Gu Qing lifted her again, and then slammed her down once more.

"BOOM!!!"

"BOOM!!!"

"BOOM!!!"

Gu Qing swung and slammed, then swung again. As he brutally smashed her into the ground, he said with a smile:

"Junior, you’re such a gold digger. Your senior here paid for your all-you-can-eat barbecue. You should at least wait for me to get my money’s worth before you leave. Otherwise, what’s the difference between this and you just freeloading?"

Huang Xiaoyue couldn’t hear a word he was saying.

She had been slammed into a state of hazy consciousness, her ears were ringing, and her brain felt like mush.

After a dozen or so powerful, heavy slams...

...Gu Qing stopped and tossed the unmoving Huang Xiaoyue, who was now like a dead dog, at his feet.

Huang Xiaoyue hit the ground with a THUD.

Her last shred of hazy consciousness compelled her to immediately beg Gu Qing for mercy:

"Don’t... don’t kill me..."

"I’m willing to be your slave, to work for you like an ox or a horse. I’ll eat grass and give milk, let you do whatever you want with me..."

"I’m begging you, spare my life..."

Huang Xiaoyue’s lips trembled, her nearly unfocused eyes filled with a desperate will to live.

Gu Qing listened, feeling nothing, and simply lifted his foot to stomp on her.

A few sharp CRACKS echoed out.

Huang Xiaoyue’s four limbs were brutally snapped, and her massive, bloody maw was stomped into a pulp.

But she didn’t die. She was merely on the verge of death, having completely lost all ability to resist.

"What a monster. She’s still not dead."

Gu Qing looked down at Huang Xiaoyue from above, his eyes filled with disbelief.

After completely disabling Huang Xiaoyue’s body and eliminating any possibility of a final, desperate attack...

Gu Qing took out his phone, found Lin Tianyang’s WeChat profile, and made a voice call.

The call connected quickly.

Gu Qing wasted no time on pleasantries, getting straight to the shocking point:

"Brother Yang, I ran into the Ratman hiding at the university. I’ve taken care of her—beat her half to death. I’m sharing my location with you on WeChat. Can you come over now?"

"What?!"

On the other end of the line, Lin Tianyang was utterly shocked, his tone incredulous. "You’re saying you beat the Ratman hiding at Hai University half to death?"

"That’s right."

Gu Qing’s voice was calm.

Lin Tianyang could hardly believe it. He wondered if he was dreaming.

After a moment of astonishment, he said sternly, "Stay right where you are. Don’t move. Secure the scene and send me your location. I’m heading over there immediately!"

He hung up the voice call.

After sharing his location.

The woods fell silent once more.

Gu Qing looked down at the barely-breathing, immobilized Huang Xiaoyue at his feet. His gaze fell on the [Feces] tag still floating above her head, and he fell into deep thought.

Only now was he beginning to vaguely understand his tag ability.

’It turns out the tags floating over everyone’s heads aren’t their profession or identity at all. They’re the future outcome for me if I get close to that person.’

’But this outcome doesn’t seem to be one hundred percent certain. It’s just a possibility.’

’Otherwise, I wouldn’t be the one who beat Huang Xiaoyue half to death. I’d have been swallowed by her and turned into a pile of her shit.’

At the thought, Gu Qing felt a headache coming on as countless thoughts swirled in his mind.

’If the mechanics of this tag ability are really what I think they are...’

’...then doesn’t the [Corpse] tag floating over Ningyu’s head mean there’s a high probability I’ll become a cold corpse if I get close to her?’

’And what about the [Magical Girl] tag over the head of that girl with glasses, Jiang Wanqiao? Don’t tell me I’ll turn into a Magical Girl if I get close to her?’

’But I’m a guy!’

His thoughts grew more and more chaotic.

As he mulled it over, Gu Qing suddenly remembered the [Traitor] tag he had seen at the Night Court.

The man with slicked-back hair and sunglasses had a [Traitor] tag floating over his head.

’Does that mean if I ever interact with him, I’ll end up becoming a Leaf Village Traitor Ninja in the future?’

’Wait, no, a Night Court Traitor?’

At this thought, Gu Qing couldn’t take it anymore.

’Unbelievable!’

’And here I was thinking that guy with the slicked-back hair and sunglasses was the traitor!’

’So after all that suspicion, it turns out the traitor was me all along?’

His chaotic thoughts continued to swirl in his mind.

Just then, a cold, raspy voice echoed eerily from above the trees without any warning:

"Just an Extraordinary Contactor, yet he possesses such formidable Physical Strength."

"A rare little lab rat, indeed."

"Since I’ve happened upon you, I’ll just have to take you back for some proper research."

A mysterious figure was hidden among the shadows of the trees. Their aura was obscure and dark, and their cold gaze was locked firmly on Gu Qing. Their tone carried a condescending, irrefutable, and oppressive might.

"Who’s there?!"

Gu Qing’s heart suddenly went cold. His expression changed as he snapped his head up toward the sound, his sharp gaze sweeping through the dense shadows of the trees, trying to find the speaker.

...

「Meanwhile.」

On a quiet street outside Hai City University, He Haikun walked with a steady, expressionless gait.

He took a cyan compass from his coat.

Then he took out a test tube.

Inside the tube was Ratman saliva, collected from the bald uncle’s severed leg.

He Haikun dripped the Ratman’s saliva onto the cyan compass. His fingertips traced the patterns on its surface as he released a trace of Extraordinary Power, slowly infusing it into the device.

The next second.

The cyan compass began to glow with a faint, fluorescent light. The patterns on its surface flickered and shifted, and it began to emit a faint pulling force in a specific direction.

"Found that Ratman."

A smile touched the corners of He Haikun’s lips. He immediately set off at a brisk pace in the direction indicated by the cyan compass, heading at full speed toward the woods where Gu Qing was.

...