Chapter 675 436: Return [1]

"Cough, cough..."

「Several kilometers away, deep within a dense forest.」

A gust of sinister wind suddenly swirled as an ink-black mist twisted and coiled under the sunlight, gradually coalescing into a graceful figure.

San Hui stumbled into view. Her face, once as radiant as jade, was now as pale as paper, a trace of unwiped blood lingering at the corner of her lips.

Trembling, she reached a hand behind her back.

Where three fluffy fox tails should have been swaying, only two now hung limply.

This was her special Ability.

Each tail represented one of her lives.

Three tails meant three lives.

'What in the world is that fire?'

San Hui endured the intense pain and looked toward the distant spot where she had stood before.

The once-towering mountain peak had vanished, replaced by a stretch of still-burning scorched earth.

A few tongues of pale golden flame still flickered, not yet extinguished.

When a breeze carried the scorching air toward her, she couldn't help but shiver.

In the thousand years since her birth, this was the first time she had felt a shudder from the depths of her soul when facing someone other than Lord Yamatai.

As her gaze fell upon the flames, a deep-seated fear flashed in her eyes, as if she were looking at something terrifying.

She recalled what had just happened.

The instant that giant palm descended, she had sensed the terrifying nature of the flames within it.

She'd had a powerful premonition.

If those flames so much as touched her, the consequences would be unimaginable.

After all, the sight of Chiyu Sakura's death was still fresh in her mind.

A fire that could directly incinerate Yin Energy.

She feared that if she came into contact with it, even with her Ability to trade a life for a life, she wouldn't be able to save herself.

Therefore,

she had unhesitatingly self-destructed.

She used this method to escape the area.

And as it turned out, she had made the right choice.

Because, within her perception, the auras of the other five High-Level Yin Beasts—aside from herself—had all vanished.

They were clearly all dead.

One had to remember that among them were beings with powerful life-preserving abilities, much like her own, yet not a single one had survived.

She already had a guess as to the master of that attack; it was clearly the work of the Young Man with the Black Banner.

What she hadn't expected, however, was that this location was dozens of kilometers from the center of the nuclear explosion where he was located.

'How did that person attack from so far away?'

Thinking of this, she recalled the earlier deduction from the old man with the goatee and immediately cursed inwardly.

'That idiot!'

'He sounded so convincing, I almost fell for his crap.'

'Terrifying power that can casually wipe out five High-Level Yin Beasts and crush a mountain peak, and you told me he was seriously injured and it was the perfect chance to ambush him?'

'Good thing I didn't listen to his nonsense, or I probably wouldn't even have had the chance to escape right now.'

She warily scanned her surroundings, about to turn and leave.

Suddenly, just as she turned, she noticed a figure that had silently appeared among the branches of a tree up ahead.

The moment she saw the person's face, San Hui's pupils constricted violently, and her scalp tingled with fear.

She froze on the spot.

Because that figure was none other than Hu Qi.

"You..."

A bone-chilling cold shot up her spine.

She had just opened her lips to speak when she saw Hu Qi's calm expression.

He raised his hand and waved.

SHIING!

The air let out a sharp hiss.

A white line shot out, slicing through San Hui's body without any warning.

"Guhh..."

Her pupils contracted sharply and her lips parted, but she couldn't even form a complete syllable.

The white line sliced diagonally into her from her left shoulder, passed through her chest, and exited from her right waist.

At the same time, the blade of air continued onward, its momentum unchecked.

An ancient pine tree about a hundred feet behind San Hui suddenly let out a sharp CRACK as its crown tilted and slid off, revealing a cross-section dense with growth rings.

A several-inch-deep gash exploded open on a mountain rock even farther away, sending rubble tumbling down.

A straight furrow abruptly appeared among the dead leaves on the ground, as if carved by an invisible plow, exposing the fresh yellow earth beneath.

Back where she stood, San Hui's upper body slowly slid off, the cut unbelievably smooth.

Strangely, however, there were no internal organs to be seen, only a mass of ink-black Yin Energy that was dissipating.

The next second,

her figure suddenly burst like a firework, dissipating into countless fine wisps of Yin Energy.

...

「Over ten kilometers away.」

San Hui's figure coalesced once more.

This time, her face was as white as frost, completely drained of color.

Of the two tails that had remained, another had now vanished, leaving only a single, lonely one hanging limply behind her.

This meant she only had one life left.

If she were killed again, she would truly die.

Furthermore, her form was now wavering in the air, illusory and unstable, as if she could be scattered by a gust of wind at any moment.

After suffering one heavy blow after another, she could barely even maintain her human form, her silhouette beginning to distort and blur.

Noticing her condition, the instant she reappeared, she unhesitatingly fled in the opposite direction at Extreme Speed.

Her speed was so great that it kicked up a sharp whistling sound.

At this moment, only a single thought remained in her mind: 'Escape! I have to escape this place. Staying any longer is a death sentence.'

...

「Back at the original location.」

Hu Qi watched this unfold, his gaze flickering slightly, but he did not give chase.

If he had wanted to kill her, she would not have survived that last attack.

'Killing her now wouldn't squeeze out her maximum value.'

With this in mind, he began to walk forward.

The reason he had previously chosen to stay in Shenmu City...