An Unexpected Turn

"She's still alive."

Those were the first words Xia Lin spoke after climbing out of the Nether Breath Hound, Zhang Wen in hand.

Then he said something else.

"I'm going to give her back to you."

Was he backing down?

As if!

The wound at his waist had healed after he devoured the Nether Breath Hound's flesh, and his personal attributes had climbed to a new high, nearing the hundred-point mark!

The next second, Xia Lin bent forward and drew back his arm, his body like a powerful bow, with Zhang Wen as the arrow on its string!

"Catch her!!"

His furious roar and the explosive crack of shattering air swept toward Li Peipei's right.

With her White Dragon True Eye active, Li Peipei clearly saw Zhang Wen's deathly pale face.

She rushed toward Zhang Wen without hesitation, lest the fall snuff out her last breath. At the same time, she remained on guard against a sneak attack from Xia Lin.

But the movement she caught from Xia Lin out of the corner of her eye startled her, before sending her into another towering rage!

Xia Lin wasn't charging at her. He was charging behind him.

Toward the Heaven-Gifted Source Essence.

That was right...

With the battle having reached this point, everyone seemed to have forgotten Li Peipei's goal for this trip—the Heaven-Gifted Source Essence!

In fact, Li Peipei had already regarded it as hers for the taking. But Xia Lin had used the dying Zhang Wen as bait to lure her away from it. Rather than vent his anger, he was going after the treasure first!

His thinking was perfectly clear.

So clear that Li Peipei even wondered whether he was truly a complete lunatic...

Her steps faltered. For a moment, Li Peipei couldn't decide whether to save her teammate or stop Xia Lin first.

Such indecision was the behavior of a clown!

At that moment, Li Peipei embodied it perfectly...

In the time she spent hesitating, Xia Lin reached the Heaven-Gifted Source Essence and snatched it into his palm.

Farther away, Zhang Wen crashed to the ground with a thunderous boom, her body reduced to a mangled pulp. Li Peipei was only three meters away from her.

Her pretty face flushed red in an instant.

Li Peipei felt she had been played...

Xia Lin added fuel to her raging fury.

"You didn't catch her."

"I gave you a chance, and you blew it."

"Aren't you Sequence Forty-Three? Aren't you hot shit? Where's all that strength of yours?"

Nearly a kilometer separated them. Xia Lin laughed wildly while Li Peipei stood frozen in place.

She slowly turned to look at Xia Lin, who was tossing the Heaven-Gifted Source Essence up and down. The savage, terrifying grin on his face pierced her heart.

"Give me that, and I'll spare your life."

She pointed at the Heaven-Gifted Source Essence in his hand. Xia Lin pursed his lips and said theatrically, "Oh my, I'm so scared."

That approach wouldn't work.

Xia Lin wasn't afraid of threats.

Instead, Li Peipei took a deep breath and suppressed her anger.

"What you're holding is very important to our Iron Rain Base."

Her gaze was sincere, her tone solemn.

"As you know, the shattered Ash Zone descended four hundred days ago, and humanity's old order no longer exists."

"Entrances to the Ash Zone open at random, and if they aren't dealt with within ten days, disaster is inevitable. We Ash Zone Walkers can obtain treasures in the Ash Zone, and the Heaven-Gifted Source Essence in your hand is one of the most valuable."

"Its effect is to stabilize the surrounding space, allowing Ash Zone entrances to open at designated locations and keeping other nearby areas safe."

The body's original owner had memories of this.

It was also the reason this world had changed from its former political systems to the current system of bases.

"It's no use to you, because you don't have a base. Give it to me, and I can use it to save more people."

She put away her greatsword of her own accord, adopting a peaceful stance.

Then she struck her chest over her heart and declared, her gaze burning:

"May humanity endure forever, and may civilization endure forever!"

"Pfft..."

Xia Lin was amused.

He doubled over with laughter, his voice growing louder and louder.

Only when Li Peipei's face had turned ashen and she had gripped her greatsword again did Xia Lin stop laughing and point to his mutated mouth.

There, his jagged teeth flashed with a chilling gleam in the fluorescent light.

Then he took off his clothes.

The action made Li Peipei's eye twitch.

Xia Lin's abdomen had twisted into a bizarre shape!

Three whole mouths, each thirty centimeters long, had grown from Xia Lin's chest and abdomen in a triangular arrangement. They opened and closed, revealing jagged fangs.

Her eyesight was good enough to see the shreds of meat clinging to the fangs.

It was Nether Breath Hound meat.

Xia Lin spoke, almost in a murmur.

"Look at me now. Do I still look human?"

Li Peipei was speechless for a moment.

The Feast of Flesh had turned Xia Lin into a monster!

"So how could you possibly think you could talk to me about the greater good of humanity, or humanity enduring forever?"

"That'll only make me laugh."

"And all that stuff about sacrifice and moral blackmail... Peipei, have you run out of material?"

"Haven't you understood what role I came into the Ash Zone in?"

"In the humanity and civilization you're talking about, is there even a place for cannon fodder like me!?"

Li Peipei still had no answer.

She wasn't feeling guilty. She was thinking.

Thinking of a way out of this impasse, of how she could get the Heaven-Gifted Source Essence into her hands under the circumstances.

The greatsword in her hand flashed rapidly.

Dragon Flash Dance was almost off cooldown.

But a second before Dragon Flash Dance could activate, Xia Lin suddenly reached toward his abdomen and fed the Heaven-Gifted Source Essence into one of the mouths there!

He had been keeping track of Li Peipei's skill cooldown too!

"Crunch!"

"Crunch!"

It didn't taste like chicken, but it was crunchy.

So crunchy that it shattered with one bite, then merged into his body and vanished without a trace.

The Heaven-Gifted Source Essence was gone.

At that moment, Li Peipei finally tore away her peaceful disguise, and her eyes turned bloodshot in an instant.

She couldn't accept that her Heaven-Gifted Source Essence had gone to some cannon fodder!

A flood of notification sounds reached Xia Lin's ears, prompting him to burst into wild laughter.

"Look at you, woman. Nothing but lies out of your mouth. You really deserve to die!"

Stabilizing space was only one of the Heaven-Gifted Source Essence's effects, and even the most basic one.

There was a reason a Sequence-ranked expert like Li Peipei valued it so highly.

With that thought, Xia Lin slowly began walking toward Li Peipei.

"Are you angry? Furious? Do you want to kill me?"

"Come on... Today, only one of us is walking out of the Ash Zone!"

At that moment, Xia Lin's fighting spirit soared, and his blood boiled.

He wanted to press his advantage and crush Sequence Forty-Three right here in the Ash Zone!

After all, temporary attributes of nearly a hundred points were very likely a height Xia Lin wouldn't be able to reach again anytime soon.

He was in top form, and his strength was at its peak!

A light suddenly flashed before Xia Lin's eyes.

But it wasn't the light of Dragon Flash Dance, nor the gleam of a greatsword.

A roaring pillar of light appeared out of thin air and descended over Li Peipei.

Inside the pillar of light, Li Peipei's eyes were red, but she remained rational!

Xia Lin's smile vanished instantly, and he frowned deeply as he looked at her.

He didn't know what the light was, or what skill or method Li Peipei had used.

As she was Sequence Forty-Three, Xia Lin didn't dare underestimate her.

Even with his attributes explosively high, he still wasn't confident he could defeat Li Peipei.

Any unusual movement from his opponent was worth his attention, vigilance, and caution.

So he stopped in his tracks.

Eight seconds passed, and nothing happened.

Li Peipei finally spoke.

"Ten seconds."

"After completing the Ash Zone's main quest, you can leave the Ash Zone at any time... The process takes ten seconds, and any interference will interrupt the teleportation."

Xia Lin's expression changed, and he shot forward!

He realized what Li Peipei had in mind!

As Xia Lin charged at her again, Li Peipei smiled faintly, as though looking at a dead man.

"Next, I'll return to Iron Rain Base... And as long as you don't die here, you'll return to Iron Rain Base too."

"Right at the entrance you came in through."

"So look forward to it."

"Look forward to my revenge and the methods I'll use."

As soon as ten seconds were up, Li Peipei vanished without a trace.

Xia Lin was left to charge like a gale to the spot where she had disappeared and take a deep breath.

"Fuck. Picking on a newbie, are you?"