Choices and Fate

"Whee—!"

Old Ma kept racing deeper into the spatial tunnel, ignoring the boy's praise. Instead, he let out a loud whinny and gave his back a vigorous shake, making the boy jolt in the saddle.

Ye Chen had spent more than a decade with Heiqi, and he knew deep down that this gesture was Heiqi's unique way of expressing disapproval.

Back when Ye Chen was young and learning to ride, whenever he made a mistake, Heiqi would shake his back like this to remind Ye Chen to pay attention to what he had overlooked.

Now that Heiqi had done it again, he was naturally trying to tell Ye Chen something.

Ye Chen's expression stiffened. His gaze instinctively fell on the long knife he had just swung at the Abyss Elite, and he discovered that its surface had somehow become covered in black sludge, like a river rock overrun with moss!

He had clearly shaken all the Abyss flesh off the blade just moments ago. Yet even so, the few scraps of flesh left behind had already regenerated and spread in the blink of an eye.

The disgusting things had even turned the tables, covering and swallowing all of Ye Chen's blood on the blade's edge. Then they writhed and spread wildly, greedily crawling toward the hand gripping the hilt!

My blood can't even stop this Abyss Matter from regenerating?

Ye Chen stared at the sight in horror, instinctively wanting to throw away the knife along with the Abyss Matter.

But just then, a rush of scorching Auling Power surged from the horse beneath him into his body, then poured into his long knife. It strengthened the purifying power that countered the Abyss and burned away the Abyss Matter on the blade, leaving the steel smooth and gleaming once more.

"Whee—!"

After saving the boy for the second time, Old Ma let out another long whinny. In that moment, the boy seemed to hear what was in his heart.

Don't engage with them. Leave everything to me!

Ye Chen heard Heiqi's thoughts, and his expression softened with emotion. For a moment, his throat tightened so much that he couldn't speak.

By now, Heiqi was the only family he had left to rely on. And just like Lyle, Heiqi would use his formidable strength to protect Ye Chen's life, even at the cost of his own.

This mount was just like his master: both were strong, and both fiercely protected their own.

"Thank you, Heiqi. I'll do my best not to hold you back."

After a long pause, Ye Chen finally managed to choke out his thanks. Heiqi gave no reply, silently carrying him onward as he focused on finding the exit to the spatial tunnel.

Several minutes later, behind the man and horse, the Abyss Elite that Ye Chen had knocked down with a Blood Bullet and the two others Heiqi had driven back with the Pitch-Black Scythe quickly regrouped. They resumed their ghostly glide and raced after Ye Chen and Heiqi.

Ye Chen looked back and saw that all three Abyss Elite had fully recovered. His brow tightened, and he immediately took out his Red Blood Flower Tea and gulped down several mouthfuls. Then, with all his strength, he formed a second "Blood Bullet."

With the odds so overwhelmingly against them, all he could do was support Heiqi from the sidelines with this last resort.

The Abyss Elite moved abreast. Once they had closed to a certain distance, they simultaneously launched an attack on Heiqi, the greatest threat.

"Heiqi, they're coming again!"

At Ye Chen's warning, Heiqi clamped the scythe in his mouth and wheeled around to charge the Abyss Elite. But they swiftly dodged. The scythe only cut a few shallow gashes into their flesh before they darted past one another, attacking Heiqi from different angles and targeting every part of his body.

Heiqi twisted and turned with practiced agility beneath the three monsters' assault, swinging his long, keen scythe again and again. The three monsters swam and dodged in turn, swinging the fangs dangling from their arms.

Amid the ever-shifting starry scene, one horse and three monsters fought a deadly battle, trading blows. In less than a minute, they had exchanged hundreds of attacks. The fight was so fierce that Ye Chen couldn't possibly interfere.

Yet even as the keen scythe kept slicing into the Abyss Elite's black bodies, their wounds healed in the blink of an eye, thanks to their terrifying regenerative powers.

As for Heiqi, to keep Ye Chen from being touched by the Abyss, he took countless attacks with his own body that he could otherwise have dodged. Blood spread across his dark coat.

Fighting three enemies while moving at such high speed, Heiqi clearly couldn't land an accurate strike on any of the Jet-Black Beasts' Abyss Cores. With new wounds continually appearing across his body, he could only keep the Abyss Monsters at bay for the time being.

The boy and the old horse were unquestionably in greater and greater danger.

Ye Chen was drenched in sweat. Clutching the reins, he shifted his gaze from one Humanoid Octopus to another, but no matter how hard he searched for an opening, he couldn't find a chance to fire.

At this rate, Heiqi won't be able to hold on much longer.

Just as Ye Chen's worry mounted, a glimmer of light suddenly appeared at the distant end of the spatial tunnel. It was the same kind of light that had appeared when the Broken Statue opened the tunnel's entrance.

Clearly, that was the exit.

Ye Chen's eyes lit up, and he immediately shouted a warning to Heiqi. He didn't know whether fortune or disaster awaited them on the other side, but for now, all he could do was pray that the light would help them escape their predicament!

Heiqi dodged another fierce attack from the pursuing Abyss creatures, then managed to turn his gaze toward the glow at the end of the tunnel. A glimmer of hope shone in his weary eyes.

Gritting his teeth through the pain, he broke through the Abyss Elite's encirclement and charged for the exit.

Realizing what Ye Chen and Heiqi were trying to do, the three Abyss Elite immediately began dissolving their bodies. Their severed flesh joined together, and they quickly fused into a horrifying giant beast with over a hundred tentacles and a hundred eyes. Then it surged forward, racing after Ye Chen and Heiqi at full speed.

Clearly, the pursuers from the Abyss had no intention of letting their quarry escape the spatial tunnel. They meant to end everything amid this kaleidoscopic starry expanse!

The fused Abyss Elite began breathing hard, as though it had suffered severe backlash.

At the same time, however, its speed and strength leaped several levels higher. In the blink of an eye, it had caught up with Ye Chen and Heiqi.

In the next moment, countless fanged tentacles surged forward like a tsunami, swallowing the boy and the old horse beneath them.

Without hesitation, Ye Chen fired. The Blood Bullet blasted a small opening through the mass of tentacles.

Heiqi seized the chance, clamped the scythe between his teeth, and swung his neck with all his might, carving a path forward through the tentacles.

But the tentacles from the Abyss seemed to grow without end. The more they were cut, the thicker and more vigorous they became. They showed no sign of letting up, and the light at the end of the tunnel grew ever fainter and more distant in Ye Chen and Heiqi's eyes.

"Hnnngh—!"

With hope on the verge of vanishing, Heiqi seemed to make up his mind. He raised his head and whinnied loudly, then lifted his hindquarters and flung the boy from his back, sending Ye Chen through a narrow gap in the tentacles and hurling him toward the last glimmer of light at the far end.

"Heiqi!?"

Caught off guard and thrown clear of the tentacles, Ye Chen reached out and cried out in shock. He had never imagined Heiqi would act with such decisiveness, such resolve.

But as the tentacles closed in to swallow him, the old horse made no call to the boy. He only gave him a quiet nod, just like that man had done, courageously making his choice and calmly facing his fate.

The tentacles wrapped around Heiqi's whole body, but he turned that to his advantage. He lunged forward, opened his mouth wide, and sank his teeth into the horrifying beast. Then he dragged it back, keeping it from swimming forward even a single step or chasing after the boy again.

The monster roared; the black horse whinnied.

The two beasts grappled with each other, then fell toward the other end of the spatial tunnel.

"Heiqi—!"

The boy cried out in despair. But as he flew into the heart of the light and through the tunnel's exit, the old horse vanished from the edge of his sight alongside the monster, disappearing into the far reaches of the countless stars.

The Trial Arc ends. The Survival Arc begins.