Sudden Change

[Sanity: 20/200]

[Warning! Your sanity is below 30. You have fallen into madness and cognitive distortion.]

[Exempted]

The boiling blood gradually cooled.

The phosphorescent flames also slowly died down, leaving their final traces on Bai Yi's charred skin.

"Dog Bro, was it that bad?"

Tang Zheng came before Bai Yi at this moment. Looking at the man whose entire body was blackened, his clothes and skin already fused together, he couldn't help clicking his tongue.

[It's fine. Just superficial wounds. I'll be good after some repairs back home.]

Since his mouth had been burned shut, Bai Yi found himself unable to speak and could only communicate through rhythm.

Fortunately, only his mouth had been damaged. The rest of his face was still barely usable.

As Bai Yi forcibly poked open a small hole and slowly poured the Sanity Recovery Elixir into his mouth, the rest of the team emerged from their hiding places.

[Sanity: 176/200]

No matter how many times they watched Bai Yi fight, they were still shocked by his ferocious combat style.

Wang Ziyi looked at Bai Yi and asked worriedly, "Dog Bro, why didn't you activate your talent?"

[My talent is powerful, but it only lasts ten minutes. I also need some regular combat experience.]

Li Zihua did not step forward to clean or treat Bai Yi, because he had yet to develop a burn remedy, and conventional treatment would only weaken the injured person further.

No one dared waste time. After quickly clearing the battlefield, they left and headed for the treasure chest.

Bai Yi looked at the two aberrant demon corpses in his ring storage space—the Bone-Cleft Whisperer and the Inverse-Bone Walker.

"Hope they'll be useful to the shelter."

Bai Yi thought to himself. He was extremely envious of the Inverse-Bone Walker's hard bones. It would be great if he had a layer of protection like that too.

When they returned to the stone, Tang Zheng and Zhang Zhen worked together to lift it.

The instant the stone left the ground, brilliant golden light spilled out through the gaps beneath it, growing ever more dazzling as the stone was moved aside.

Everyone saw the treasure chest in its entirety. The chest was forged from golden metal, its surface embossed with vine-like reliefs, with turquoise stones the size of fingernails set at the end of every branch.

This treasure chest was far superior to the previous three they had collected.

The moment they saw it, everyone knew the trip had been worth it.

"Dog Bro, put the chest away. We should head back and rest up too."

With the mission successfully completed, Tang Zheng relaxed slightly.

[Okay.]

The moment the treasure chest was stored away, Bai Yi suddenly felt a bone-chilling cold.

That icy, powerless sensation, as though he had been placed in a vacuum, made him feel as if he were about to be frozen forever.

And the chaos and distortion filling it reminded Bai Yi that this was a rhythm belonging to an aberrant demon!

"Tang Zheng, move!"

Xie Xu's terrified voice rang out, cracking slightly.

At some unknown moment, a mouth had silently emerged from the fog.

It was a long, powerful hooked beak covered in keratinous plates. The front of its upper beak curved downward, while its tubular nostrils were split apart on either side.

Inside the beak were densely packed sharp teeth, constantly spinning within its mouth.

The enormous bird beak engulfed Tang Zheng entirely, but the attack had come too suddenly for anyone to react.

"Steel Spine Will!"

[Steel Spine Will activated. Sanity -100. Current Sanity: 76/200. Obtained 3x enhancement.]

With his sanity having reached 200 after breaking through the limit, Bai Yi no longer had to endure the pain caused by low sanity when activating his talent at maximum enhancement. This was undoubtedly a relief to him.

Bai Yi and Xie Xu shouted at the same time.

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The instant Tang Zheng heard Xie Xu's voice, he reacted immediately and jumped straight upward toward Bai Yi.

That jump saved Tang Zheng's life!

After catching him, Bai Yi exerted his full strength. With his Strength as high as 30, he rapidly retreated while carrying him.

But he had only saved his life.

Tang Zheng's legs were bitten off at the roots by the closing beak. The sound of the teeth spinning, accompanied by the sound of his legs being ground apart, clearly reached both their ears.

Within the black fog, a gigantic head pressed close to the range of the fog lamp before revealing its true form.

[You saw the Pulse-Wheel Albatross. Sanity -32]

[You saw the Pulse-Wheel Albatross. Sanity -5] (Bai Yi)

The prompt sounded amid everyone's muffled groans, and they hurriedly gulped down the Sanity Recovery Elixir. Bai Yi poured a bottle down Tang Zheng's throat.

"Run back!"

[Run back!]

Xie Xu and Bai Yi gave the order at the same time.

Without the slightest hesitation, everyone began running for their lives.

[Pulse-Wheel Albatross: An ash-colored avian aberration with a wingspan of 19 meters. Its flight path leaves behind vacuum ravines. While within a vacuum ravine, it can hide itself perfectly.] (This information could only be viewed in the log.)

The Pulse-Wheel Albatross let out a piercing cry toward the sky. Massive pale-blue ring-shaped pulses directly sent the fleeing group flying. Then it spread its wings and rose into the air, watching them from above.

"Cough, cough..."

Tang Zheng, who had fallen unconscious from excessive blood loss, was jolted awake by the pulse. Bai Yi was currently carrying him under one arm as he ran for his life.

Feeling the pain shooting through his leg, Tang Zheng quickly realized the situation. He spoke with difficulty.

"Dog Bro, put me down. I'm dead weight now. Throw me to that thing—I'll give it one big shot and buy you some time."

As he spoke, Tang Zheng raised the hand holding his gun and grinned at Bai Yi.

"Seventy-one Sanity points, hehehe... I bet I can blow it to pieces with one shot."

[At most, you'll give it a scratch.]

Bai Yi ignored him and snatched the pistol from his hand, preventing him from using his Talent.

"Dog Bro..." Tang Zheng weakly tried to say something, but the massive blood loss caused him to lose consciousness again.

"This won't work. We have to find a way to stop Tang Zheng's bleeding."

Bai Yi's thoughts raced. He slowed down and dropped into the black fog.

"Uncle Zhang, Li Zihua, jump back!"

The two immediately braked and threw themselves backward.

The bird's beak stabbed down. The surrounding trees shattered like paper, and the ground was plowed into a deep pit.

Zhang Zhen was blasted away, but Wei Fen, who had rushed up from behind, caught him in time.

Li Zihua was not so lucky. His right arm was caught by the bird's beak, and as its teeth ground together, the sinews were torn from his arm and the bones ripped out.

Then the beak jerked upward, flinging Li Zihua into the air. Its wide-open maw waited for its meal to fall in, yet nothing came.

The moment he was flung up, Li Zihua had decisively cut off his own right arm. That was how he avoided falling into the bird's beak, though he was still hurled into the black fog.

Seeing this, Xie Xu hurriedly ran toward Li Zihua with the fog lamp, intending to save him.

Wei Fen carried the fog lamp and was about to go ahead to clear the way when she turned around and found Zhang Zhen standing there in a daze.

Without showing him any mercy, she slapped him across the face.

"Spacing out at a time like this? Do you want to die here?"

The burning pain in his cheek jolted Zhang Zhen awake. He nodded gratefully to Wei Fen, then fled quickly alongside her.

At this point, only Wang Ziyi, Zhang Zhen, and Wei Fen remained by the second fog lamp.

Xie Xu had gone to find Li Zihua, while Bai Yi was nowhere to be seen.

A massive shadow circled overhead, leaving vacuum ravines in its wake. Pale-blue pulses came from time to time, leaving the three of them scrambling desperately to evade them.

At this point, they were still 2.7 kilometers away from the shelter.

The next second, another attack descended from above!