Huli's Assist

All the black spider silk tensed simultaneously. The massive flesh-and-blood behemoth let out a string of muffled, piercing roars. Eileen desperately controlled the dark threads, constantly changing their weaving direction in mid-air to form tow ropes, dragging the monster inch by inch towards the gate.

Yu Sheng, meanwhile, strained to hold open the gate, which was wider than ever before, striving to make it even wider and more stable.

The "gate" possessed the characteristic of isolating internal and external environments. Simply opening a gate wouldn't directly "release" the harsh conditions on the other side into this one. To incinerate this monster, it had to be thrown in whole.

Under normal circumstances, this isolating property was, of course, a good thing. It prevented catastrophic accidents should Yu Sheng accidentally open a passage to a dangerous area. But at this moment, Yu Sheng truly wished the gate could merge the environments on both sides without any protective measures.

If that were the case, he could have simply opened the gate into a lava lake, and the magma spewing from the gate would have roasted the monster directly, saving him all this trouble.

But he could only think about it. He had only just begun to grasp the power of the "gate," and being able to open it in the correct location was already a considerable feat. He couldn't possibly expect to use it as a flexible offensive tool.

As his thoughts raced, the monster had already been dragged to the gate. Even the ends of some of its limbs were being forcefully pushed and jammed into the gate. Through the gate, Yu Sheng saw the limbs that crossed the frame quickly dehydrate, then ignite and char in the infernal heat.

In a daze, he even felt his own limbs burning.

The flesh-and-blood behemoth's struggles instantly became almost frenzied. Even "Hunger," operating purely on instinct, felt immense danger and fear at this moment. All its limbs thrashed violently within the spider web, and countless gaps split open on its body. Its numerous eyes, mouths, sharp teeth, tentacles, and even mimetic structures resembling human features, limbs, and hands, all burst forth!

More piercing roars emanated from its grotesque, twisted mouths. The close-range shrieks made Yu Sheng's ears ring, and a tsunami of noise surged through his mind. He felt dizzy, but he still gripped the handle of the illusory gate tightly, watching the behemoth being shoved bit by bit into the passage leading to hell.

However, just then, he heard a series of unsettling cracking sounds.

Yu Sheng's head snapped up, looking in the direction of the cracking.

It wasn't Eileen's threads that broke—the little doll had given her all this time, not a single chain had dropped.

It was the flesh and twisted limbs on the monster's surface that were breaking.

It began to tear itself apart from the spider web in mid-air, ripping its body to shreds, leaving it bloody and mangled. It seemed to have no sense of pain. The severely bound limbs were even torn off entirely from its body, and then new limbs grew out of the flesh, clinging to nearby rocks, accelerating its escape.

It had almost become an amorphous, flowing mass of flesh, rapidly deforming and "leaking" through the gaps in the spider silk.

It was adapting to Eileen's spider web; it was learning a new physiological structure.

"I can't hold it anymore!" Eileen's scream came from not far away. "My body can't take it either! Think of something, Yu Sheng!"

Yu Sheng turned his head and saw fine cracks rapidly appearing on Eileen's arms and cheeks. The doll's body was gradually cracking apart.

"Damn it!"

He couldn't help but curse under his breath. He had to support the gate with one hand while reaching out with the other to grab the escaping monster.

However, in the very next second, he heard a whistling wind, carrying with it... a wolf's howl.

A wolf's howl?

Yu Sheng looked up in astonishment and saw shadows flitting across the night sky. Wolf-like silhouettes formed within the shadows. The wolf pack howled in the air, running, and then crashing into the monster one after another, or tearing at its flesh, slowing its deformation and writhing.

Immediately after, Yu Sheng heard a loud shout from behind him, a deep, powerful voice: "I'll help you!"

In the next instant, he saw a figure nearly two meters tall charge forward like a gust of wind. Mid-air, a flying kick struck the monster like a massive boulder, emitting a dull thud.

The flesh-and-blood behemoth's body uncontrollably "fell" towards the gate. Its frenzied struggles, contortions, and roars could no longer delay this process.

The burly man who delivered the flying kick leaped into the air, turned, and landed gracefully. He then turned to Yu Sheng, "Good thing I made it..."

He saw Yu Sheng's face.

The burly man's expression instantly turned bewildered, his eyes filled with shock, as if he had been struck by lightning.

He exuded a sense of desolate weariness, like a fool of a leader who had been transferred from one front line to another.

Yu Sheng, however, didn't understand why the burly man's expression became so animated upon seeing him, nor did he have the energy to ponder it. This was because he discovered that the flesh-and-blood behemoth was struggling once more. Even though half of its body had already been pushed into the gate and burned to charcoal, the remaining half was still stuck fast at the gate's edge and was rapidly regenerating.

A strange connection made Yu Sheng feel... anger and hatred.

Primitive "emotions" and glimmers of thought began to appear in those trembling eyes.

The nameless burly man also felt the movement beside him. He hastily looked up and exclaimed in shock, "Crap! This thing can still fight back!"

Then came Eileen's scream: "It snapped!"

Cracks spread across the doll's arms, and the black threads snapped inch by inch in an instant. The spider web let out a series of sharp pops and then disintegrated.

The behemoth was free.

However, just as Yu Sheng felt all hope was lost and prepared to tell everyone to run, a dazzling blue firelight suddenly erupted in his peripheral vision.

Huli, who had been hiding behind the nearby parapet, had somehow mustered the courage to come out. She glared at the monster struggling at the gate, crouching low like a beast. Her silvery-white fox tail fanned out in the night sky, and large swathes of blue spirit fire blazed fiercely at the tip of each tail.

The demon fox girl let out a low growl.

Almost simultaneously, black spikes and bone fragments erupted from her limbs and torso, pinning her to the ground.

Seeing this, Yu Sheng yelled in alarm, "Don't worry about..."

But before he could finish, he saw Huli, still crouched on all fours, forcefully take a step forward, breaking free from the spike-like restraints. She then abruptly adjusted her posture—

The fox fire exploded, and a dazzling flash abruptly tore through the darkness. A silvery-white spine spewed ethereal blue flames, shooting towards the flesh-and-blood behemoth struggling to escape the gate like a rocket.

Yu Sheng didn't have time to see what it was before a fierce flash erupted on the behemoth's back. Even though Huli had deliberately contained the explosion's range, Yu Sheng, standing close by, felt his bones almost shatter from the blast. The monster, directly hit by the silvery-white spine, immediately lost its balance. The flesh-and-blood behemoth, already at its limit, stumbled twice before finally falling completely into the gate.

Amidst the receding roars, Yu Sheng abruptly released his control over the gate.

The illusory gate vanished in an instant.

The ruins of the broken temple fell silent, a silence so sudden and profound it felt almost unreal.

Eileen collapsed onto the ground, unable to even lift her cracked arms.

A young girl in red, riding on a phantom wolf, walked over from outside the ruins, her face filled with astonishment. Following beside her was a young man with black hair who looked quite ordinary.

The young man saw Yu Sheng from afar and his expression suddenly froze, as if recalling something. His brow gradually furrowed.

The burly man, nearly two meters tall, stared wide-eyed in the direction the gate had disappeared, seemingly lost in shock and thought.

Yu Sheng, however, didn't bother greeting these "temporary comrades" who had appeared from nowhere. Instead, he immediately turned to look in Huli's direction.

The demon fox girl was struggling to get up from the ground. The spirit fire behind her had clearly dimmed considerably, but she was still on her feet.

Yu Sheng blinked: So what was that thing that flew past just now? Wasn't it a headbutt?

Immediately after, he noticed that one of the tails behind Huli seemed to be missing.

Yu Sheng: "..."

So what did this girl just launch?!

It can actually be used like that?!

Yu Sheng's shock was beyond words. Upon realizing that the silver-white cone that had flown out, emitting blue fire, was actually Huli's tail, he was completely stunned. This bewilderment even momentarily overshadowed the excitement of defeating a powerful enemy.

He didn't understand immortal or demonic arts, but his instincts told him that neither should include the ability for a "nine-tailed fox to launch its own tail as a missile"...

Huli, however, had no idea what was going on with the momentary dramatic expression on her Benefactor's face. She simply struggled to her feet. The wounds on her body, pierced by black bone spurs, had vanished at some point. She stumbled towards Yu Sheng, her face filled with urgency, "Benefactor..."

Yu Sheng quickly reached out to support the demon fox girl, who could no longer stand, "You rest for a bit..."

Huli urgently interrupted Yu Sheng, "No rest, Benefactor, it's not over!"

Yu Sheng immediately froze.