Speed of Life and Death

Without Xie Xu's warning, Wang Ziyi and the other two did not realize the danger until the attack entered the fog lamp's range.

A gigantic beak descended from directly overhead, blocking off every possible escape route. It intended to swallow all three of them in one bite!

A figure suddenly shot out of the black fog. Bai Yi drove his blade into the beak.

"Crack—"

The tip of the bone blade shattered outright, while the beak remained completely unharmed. Bai Yi's attack did not delay the monster's movements by even 0.1 seconds.

Just as the three were about to be shredded by its sharp teeth, Bai Yi grabbed the broken blade and swung with all his strength at the Pulse-Wheel Albatross's rhythm.

The sensation was completely different from before. Its rhythm was as tough as a steel cable, and Bai Yi's blade could not cut through it at all.

This was the first time Bai Yi had encountered a rhythm he could not sever. He put in more force, rapidly moving his hand sideways and using the jagged blade like a saw to cut through the rhythm at high speed.

Though he failed to saw through it, the disturbance in its rhythm still caused the Pulse-Wheel Albatross unbearable pain.

It abruptly raised its head and flung Bai Yi away.

Then it launched itself into the air.

As Bai Yi fell, he dropped into the vacuum trench it had left behind.

All sound suddenly vanished. His lungs could no longer draw in oxygen, and his body began to react badly.

Fortunately, due to gravity, Bai Yi quickly fell out of it and rapidly caught up with his teammates ahead.

[Talent effect remaining: 8 minutes 17 seconds]

Xie Xu also returned with Li Zihua. After finding Li Zihua earlier, he had quickly stopped his bleeding.

While running wildly, Li Zihua looked at Tang Zheng, whom Bai Yi had tucked under his arm.

Noticing the team doctor's look, Bai Yi's voice came through:

[He only lost too much blood. He's not dead. I've already stopped the bleeding.]

At this point, they were still 1.4 kilometers from the shelter.

Having yet to catch its prey, the Pulse-Wheel Albatross naturally would not let these morsels escape so easily.

It rapidly circled the group, casually smashing apart the trees and monsters in its path.

Countless vacuum trenches surrounded Bai Yi and the others, but due to the black fog, they knew nothing about it—except Xie Xu!

After foreseeing what would happen to them two seconds later, he promptly reached out and stopped at the edge of a trench.

Xie Xu spoke at an extremely fast pace.

"There's a vacuum zone ahead created by the Pulse-Wheel Albatross. Empty all the air from your lungs. We only have ten seconds. Rush through in one breath. If we don't make it across, we die."

An attack came from overhead, as though urging them inside. Not daring to hesitate, they all rushed into the vacuum.

First second!

It was an agonizing sensation. All sound vanished, leaving only a piercing buzz. Their eardrums began to ache intensely from the loss of pressure in the vacuum.

Second second!

Their preemptively emptied lungs did not rupture from the air and form pneumothorax, but residual air still caused their lungs to keep expanding.

Though they were in a vacuum, the black fog of the Misty Land and the fog lamps were unaffected. They still intertwined ten meters around them, just as before.

Normal gravity allowed Bai Yi and the others to run normally.

Third second!

The moisture on mucous membranes such as their mouths and eyeballs gradually began to boil as the boiling point plummeted. Dense bubbles appeared across their tongues, while their eyeballs bulged outward as the vitreous fluid vaporized.

Fourth second!

Capillaries beneath their skin began to rupture, forming purple blotches. However, the tough dermis prevented their bodies from bursting further, and everyone's body slowly swelled as if being inflated.

Fifth second!

Their bodies stopped expanding after reaching 1.5 times their original volume. Wang Ziyi and Li Zihua, who had the lowest constitutions, suffered ruptured eardrums under the severe pressure loss and could no longer hear anything.

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The Pulse-Wheel Albatross's attack arrived at that moment.

Xie Xu had foreseen it, but unable to make any sound in the vacuum, he could only raise his hand and point at Wei Fen.

Sixth second!

Everyone had been watching Xie Xu from the corners of their eyes. The instant she saw where he pointed, Wei Fen immediately changed direction, trying to evade the monster's attack.

Bai Yi also charged toward Wei Fen. At this moment, he was completely unable to sense the Pulse-Wheel Albatross's rhythm.

[Run toward me.]

"A vacuum can't block the transmission of rhythm, so why can't I sense the Pulse-Wheel Albatross's rhythm? Is it a trait of the monster itself..."

Watching Wei Fen change direction again and run toward him, Bai Yi found his answer.

With his 30-point attributes, Bai Yi was incredibly fast. The instant the beak stabbed down, he pulled Wei Fen away and shoved Zhang Zhen aside as well.

The seventh second!

Everything seemed like a silent pantomime. There was no sound, only flying stones grazing past their bodies.

Missing with its strike, the Pulse-Wheel Albatross tilted its head and aimed its open beak at Zhang Zhen, who had yet to steady himself not far away.

"Bzzzz—"

A pulse shot toward him. With no time to react, Zhang Zhen was blasted away by the pulse and slammed into a tree behind him like a cannonball.

Multiple bones throughout his body suffered comminuted fractures, and he slid to the ground like a rag doll.

The eighth second!

Overstimulation caused their vagus nerves to begin cutting off signal transmission. Everyone except Bai Yi started to feel dizzy.

[Keep running. I'll take care of Zhang Zhen.]

Wei Fen and the other three gritted their teeth and continued fleeing, while Bai Yi appeared beside Zhang Zhen with Tang Zheng.

Without time to assess his condition, Bai Yi grabbed his arm and swiftly dodged the aberrant demon's next pulse attack.

Zhang Zhen's arm felt like a lump of soft flesh. There was no trace of the hard bones that should have been there; only the occasional small hard fragment indicated that bones still existed inside him.

"Comminuted fractures."

The ninth second!

Wang Ziyi finally could not hold on any longer. Her retinal blood vessels ruptured, and her vision was obscured by a bloody haze. At the same time, her vagus nerve completely shut down, and she lost consciousness.

She involuntarily pitched forward.

Xie Xu suddenly shuddered all over. As though he had seen something he could not accept, he desperately lunged toward Wang Ziyi.

The next second, air returned to their lungs as the four finally ran out of the vacuum zone.

However, none of them had physiques that surpassed human limits. Their eardrums had long since ruptured, leaving them unable to hear anything.

"Get out of the way!"

Xie Xu's shout did not wake Wang Ziyi. The instant he grabbed her, a beak descended from the fog above, aimed straight at her head!

Xie Xu exerted himself fiercely, pulling Wang Ziyi into his arms.

But unfortunately, he was not Bai Yi. With a strength of only 8, he failed to save Wang Ziyi in time, managing only to pull half her body out of the beak's reach.

As the beak closed—

From Wang Ziyi's right shoulder down to her right leg, nearly half her body was directly torn apart by the Pulse-Wheel Albatross!

[Psychology: Sorrow 100/100]

Blood, organs, and entrails sprayed from her body. Xie Xu dropped to his knees, his eyes bloodshot, and frantically stuffed the scattered organs and intestines back into Wang Ziyi's abdomen.

But the massive wound kept forcing the organs out. Xie Xu was merely doing useless work.

He kept shaking Wang Ziyi, telling her to hold on, not to fall asleep, that once they got back, Dog Brother's shelter could save her.

And at that moment, they were still a full kilometer away from the shelter!