Annihilation

Jiang Fei sent Chen Yun flying again, and a wave of weakness washed over him;

He had already been injured when he was ambushed.

And he hadn't mastered any martial techniques specifically meant to counter the eerie...

I'm going to die here... Jiang Fei thought;

But everything he'd done wouldn't amount to dying in vain.

If he could hold this eerie creature off for a little while, he'd already have saved countless people from being killed;

As for whether those people would die sooner or later anyway... that was beyond his control.

A familiar figure appeared before him and came closer. It was his childhood sweetheart;

Jiang Fei's expression didn't change as he swung his sword at her again.

This eerie creature didn't have many ways to attack;

Illusions, direct mental assaults, and using the bodies it possessed to attack physically...

The surroundings made illusions largely ineffective;

There were only him and her here. How could someone close to him suddenly appear?

Physical attacks weren't much use either. The eerie creature controlled Chen Yun's body, but it didn't have her memories and couldn't use the martial techniques she'd mastered;

All it could rely on was the formidable body of a fourth-realm Warrior, along with the energy inside it...

The most troublesome thing was its mental attacks!

Jiang Fei didn't know what level this eerie creature was, but he guessed it was also in the fourth realm;

His head was already throbbing with needle-sharp pain, and his vision had grown hazy...

But that wasn't the worst of it;

The worst was that if the eerie creature abandoned Chen Yun's body and chose to possess him instead... Jiang Fei wasn't at all confident he could resist it.

In the midst of his ordeal, Jiang Fei saw Chu Yuan, who had left earlier, running back toward him;

He turned around with practiced ease and brought his sword down!

"Damn!"

Chu Yuan rarely swore, but this time he couldn't help cursing;

A streak of sword energy shot toward him like a meteor, making his scalp tingle!

He had no intention of trying to block it. He pushed Smoke-Drifting Steps to its limit and dodged;

The sword energy grazed past him, still tearing away a chunk of flesh from his side before slamming into the building behind him...

As the house came crashing down, bright red blood gushed from Chu Yuan's waist.

He hadn't been injured when he fought the culprit who had impersonated him, and even his fight with the eerie creature had only left him a little shaken inside;

He hadn't expected his first real injury to come from a "teammate"...

The moment Jiang Fei saw him bleeding, he realized he'd hit the wrong person. This wasn't an illusion created by the eerie creature;

With no time to apologize, Jiang Fei blurted, "Why did you come back!?"

"I came back to save you!" Chu Yuan replied, his waist burning with pain as he used his Spiritual Power to staunch the bleeding.

"...You should leave. I can hold her off a little longer."

"Quit talking nonsense." Chu Yuan tore off a scrap of cloth from his upper body and wrapped it around the wound at his waist;

His shirt had been almost completely destroyed in his earlier fight with the eerie creature. After Jiang Fei's sword strike, it was well and truly finished...

Chen Yun's figure appeared again, hovering not far from Chu Yuan;

Her pitch-black eyes revealed no emotion, but Chu Yuan could feel her staring fixedly at his wound;

He could even sense the greed and eagerness radiating from her!

He'd only ever heard that eerie creatures liked human souls, never that they craved human flesh and blood... Chu Yuan's thoughts stirred. Could Spiritual Power not only harm her, but also serve as a powerful nourishment?

To test his theory, Chu Yuan threw her the bloodstained strip of cloth;

She darted forward, snatched it out of the air, and swallowed it whole.

Then she stared fixedly at Chu Yuan again, her gaze seemingly even more desperate...

"..." Chu Yuan couldn't help taking a step back. He shouted, "Is there any way to trap her?"

"If I had a way, would I be in this sorry state?" Jiang Fei said helplessly, touching his left eye.

"..." Chu Yuan had no answer. The eerie creature looked ready to start eating at any moment;

She might be wary of his ability to hurt her directly, but who knew when her appetite might overcome that fear...

"Just for a moment?"

Jiang Fei didn't know what Chu Yuan intended to do, but he replied solemnly, "I'll do my best!"

Chu Yuan hurriedly pulled off the cloth wrapped around his waist, soaked it in his blood, and even channeled a large amount of Spiritual Power into it, temporarily imbuing it with energy;

"Here you go!"

He hurled the blood-soaked bundle, and the eerie creature instantly turned into a blur and pounced after it!

"Now!"

Seeing the eerie creature drawn toward the bundle, Chu Yuan shouted;

Jiang Fei ignored his own injuries and lunged at the eerie creature, simply wrapping his arms around it...

"..." Chu Yuan was at a loss for words again. He'd thought Jiang Fei would use some powerful martial technique to restrain it for a moment. He hadn't expected him to just... hug it.

But now wasn't the time to dwell on that;

Chu Yuan stepped forward too and pressed a hand against the eerie creature's head, then poured in his Spiritual Power as if it cost him nothing!

Spiritual Power without anyone controlling it might be a powerful tonic for an eerie creature, but Spiritual Power under someone's control... was poison!

A piercing shriek burst from its mouth, making blood trickle from Chu Yuan and Jiang Fei's noses and mouths;

Jiang Fei took most of the shockwave head-on, leaving him in even worse shape... But he'd already looked miserable, so a little more hardly mattered.

He simply drew on all the energy in his body and clung tightly to Chen Yun's form;

A slender hand punched through his abdomen.

Blood welled out, and Jiang Fei's eyes began to dim...

But Chu Yuan could barely spare him a thought.

As soon as his Spiritual Power entered the woman's body, it found a mass of concentrated, frigid energy;

He guided his Spiritual Power toward it, trying to annihilate it!

As if she knew disaster was upon her, the eerie creature's pitch-black eyes began to flicker;

Dark blue-black lines appeared across her pallid face...

Chu Yuan understood the eerie creature's intentions at once... It was trying to escape!

But the Spiritual Power filling the woman's body seemed to form a massive net, trapping it inside its vessel...

Just before Jiang Fei lost consciousness, he felt that the body in his arms... didn't seem quite so stiff and cold anymore?

"You're awake."

Jiang Fei's eyes flew open. Dazzling lights shone down on him.

His throat bobbed. He managed to sit up, then finally took in his surroundings;

A tightly packed crowd had gathered there, everyone wearing expressions of fear and unease.

Only the area around him had been left clear...

Jiang Fei immediately recognized where he was. This was a shelter.

He felt a little relieved and turned to look at Chu Yuan beside him. "Did we take care of it?"

"Yeah."

"How long was I unconscious?"

"Half an hour."

"Half an hour..." Jiang Fei looked at the wound on his abdomen. New flesh had already begun to grow...