A Sudden Fierce Battle

Night deepened.

The lights of countless homes dotted Jinping's night like stars.

Standing inside this unfamiliar house, Xiao Xuebai finally sensed that something was wrong with the atmosphere around her.

A long disguise would eventually reveal flaws, whether through the senses or intuition.

At that moment, Xiao Xuebai suddenly realized that the male homeowner standing beside her was no longer nervous and courteous. His breathing was restrained, his muscles taut, and even his expression had turned stiff and pale. This sudden discovery made fear crawl instantly into her chest.

She had worked at Wanzhong for four years, having transferred from the administrative department to the security department two years ago. Xiao Xuebai had never encountered any major cases. She usually dealt only with internal company disputes and arguments. Never before had she realized that danger was so close to her.

Until Jiang Qian's calm voice reached her—

"Senior, let me check the next room."

At that moment, all the warnings Jiang Qian had given her came flooding into Xiao Xuebai's mind. Only then did she realize that the phenomena and abnormalities she had so easily overlooked had long since been noticed by her intern, who had warned her about them.

But she had understood too late...

Xiao Xuebai stopped walking. She heard Jiang Qian's footsteps drawing nearer and nearer.

Then she finally pulled herself together.

No, I can't let Jiang Qian get hurt too! He's just an intern. It's his first day on the job—he shouldn't have been here in the first place... Overcome with panic and regret, Xiao Xuebai made one final effort:

She turned toward the male homeowner beside her!

Using the most natural, relaxed tone she could manage, she said, "I just remembered that I left a piece of testing equipment in the car. Sorry, we need to go get it."

With that, she turned somewhat urgently toward the living room...

In that direction, Jiang Qian was already walking toward her, his steps unhurried and his gaze calm.

"Jiang Qian, let's go downstairs first..."

Before Xiao Xuebai could finish, the approaching Jiang Qian pressed a hand against her shoulder and shoved her in the opposite direction!

The change came too quickly.

Before Xiao Xuebai could figure out what was happening, her body had instantly been separated from Jiang Qian...

Yet at the very moment the two parted, an enormous, thick pink tongue lashed past!

Yellow, viscous corrosive saliva sprayed through the air with it!

It splattered across the walls and floor, rapidly leaving patch after patch of corrosion...

At that moment, Xiao Xuebai pushed herself up from the floor and stared in shock at the writhing, thick tongue dragging along the ground. Terror instantly filled her heart, accompanied by a strong sense of physical nausea.

The source of that giant tongue was the mistress of the house.

At that moment, the woman's slightly plump body had swollen, her face grotesquely puffed up, and her mouth split open into a bloody maw as she tried to reel in the massive, muscular tongue that had nowhere to go.

The giant tongue had missed.

But Xiao Xuebai noticed that the hunting tip of that fat tongue had not come away empty-handed.

A specially made electric baton, its voltage activated, was curled up by the tip of the tongue and pulled back into the woman's mouth...

In that instant, barbs scraped against the tongue's coating as neurotoxin, corrosive fluid, and electric current clashed together! The woman let out a low roar, frantically clawed the baton away, and collapsed to her knees with her tongue twitching!

Meanwhile, Jiang Qian had already exchanged several moves with the middle-aged man rushing toward him, the two locked in close combat!

"J-Jiang Qian?"

Xiao Xuebai raised her head and stared blankly in Jiang Qian's direction.

Then, without warning, she saw a look in the eyes of this formerly harmless intern that she had never seen before. That cold, sharp edge made her feel as though needles were pricking her back the moment her gaze met his.

The young woman sucked in a breath.

But she understood one thing clearly: Jiang Qian had just saved her.

Just as the poisonous toad had been about to swallow her whole, he had pushed her away from the center of the vortex in time...

With her heart tangled in turmoil, Xiao Xuebai turned her gaze back toward Jiang Qian.

Jiang Qian and the platypus-like male homeowner were still locked in a brutal brawl.

Like his wife, the platypus was a Second State: Heteromorphic Form. He unleashed killing moves with mad cunning! Relying on the venomous spurs growing from his feet and his fluid leg techniques, he chained attacks together to suppress Jiang Qian.

He even began spraying venom to increase his chances of landing a hit:

The scattered liquid, carrying a complex mixture of toxins, swept through the air!

Yet none of his tricks hit their mark.

Jiang Qian used Snake Shadow Stealth, his movements shifting and weaving like a phantom as he evaded one vicious, tricky attack after another.

His understanding of platypuses, mammals of the monotreme subclass, had allowed him to anticipate the opponent's possible killing moves well in advance and prepare countermeasures.

What followed was a clash of skill.

The Bone-Breaking Special Training he had once undergone showed its immense value at this moment.

As Jiang Qian moved with agility, he focused his Spirit Vision to assess his opponent's stamina, condition, and venom reserves. Just as he had done during every sparring session with Ye Xiaojing, he remained restrained and patient.

By comparison, his opponent was a higher-ranking Second State: Heteromorphic Form. With a platypus Identity Card, the man had feet covered in venomous spurs as a powerful offensive weapon. Jiang Qian had nothing of the sort.

What was more, even his only electric baton had been fed to the toad.

Yet Jiang Qian showed not the slightest trace of being constrained or intimidated. His composure made him seem more like the hunter who had carefully laid the trap.

Watching from the side, Xiao Xuebai was terrified, her hands and feet ice-cold.

Just then, a stream of venom lashed past Jiang Qian's shirt, nearly making Xiao Xuebai cry out!

The middle-aged man stepped back. Watching the venom corrode through the barrier of clothing and splash onto Jiang Qian's skin, quickly raising blisters and swelling across the surface of his flesh, a sinister smile appeared on his face.

But this seemingly perilous moment was actually only Jiang Qian's first taste before he began to "feed."

Jiang Qian's body suddenly grew excited!

This is the feeling—my blood surging forward, craving deadlier toxins... Jiang Qian fully embraced his body's desire. Every cell in his body released its greed for poison, making him gaze at his opponent with the focused hunger of a ferocious beast that had not eaten in months.

"Jiang Qian!!"

Xiao Xuebai panicked at once when she saw this, tears nearly spilling from her eyes!

But her ability had nothing to do with fierce combat, and she could not help him now.

Behind her, the Big-Mouthed Toad woman had already straightened up and was staring hungrily at the girl's slender figure...

Xiao Xuebai spun around, her pupils contracting!

Just as the toad woman was about to repeat her old trick, countless tentacles that no one else could "see" crawled over the woman's plump body.

The tentacles wrapped around her layer by layer, tightening...

"Ah, wh-what is this?!"

The toad woman let out a shrill scream!

As though she had seen something utterly unbelievable, her eyes abruptly widened, blood vessels filling them as tears welled up instantly.

Then her body gradually shrank and wilted. She crawled across the ground, begging the air for forgiveness...

"Son, Mom is sorry... It's... it's all Mom's fault! Boohoo..."

Her tongue had just been scorched by electricity, so her speech was still slurred. Yet her attitude was deeply repentant, as though she had completely forgotten that she had been about to murder a colleague.

The middle-aged man and Xiao Xuebai both stared in bewildered uncertainty. Only Jiang Qian, through the "master's" vision, could see the Sorrow Demon clone tightly embracing her plump body...

"What the fuck are you standing around for?!"

Her husband had already flown into a rage.

While cursing, he drove the venomous spur beneath his foot toward the approaching Jiang Qian!

Strangely, Jiang Qian did not evade.

The venomous spur plunged straight into Jiang Qian's skin and muscle, blood spraying from the torn wound.

Yet Jiang Qian's expression did not change. He raised a hand and seized the opponent's mutated clawed foot. The rampant greed in his eyes made the man, who had been ecstatic at landing his attack, freeze in momentary confusion.

It was as though Jiang Qian was not the one who had been hit—he was?

The truth was immediately proven.

The platypus venom entered his blood vessels, ready to ravage its prey, only to suddenly encounter the "prey's" ruthless plundering!

The venom that had always worked without fail, the deadly poison that could torment prey until they begged for death, was stripped apart and completely digested within Jiang Qian's repeatedly enhanced Poison Resistance!

Then a bizarre sight unfolded before Xiao Xuebai.

The Second State: Heteromorphic Form, who had clearly held every advantage, suddenly wore a twisted expression before a First State: Cognitive Form.

Venom more complex and ferocious than his own surged back at him through the venom-spur channels in his feet!

Starting from the venom sacs, it seeped into his blood, tissues, gastrointestinal tract, and brain...

"Ah—stop, stop it, aaahhh~~~"

An agonized moan of ultimate pain accompanied his frantic struggling!

Very soon, he collapsed at Jiang Qian's feet, unable even to crawl...

Jiang Qian stood where he was, his shirt torn and the wounds on his body still bleeding.

With an indifferent expression, he stared at the "prey" on the ground as it gradually lost consciousness, then slowly shifted his gaze toward Xiao Xuebai.

The air around them instantly fell silent.

Only the toad-like mistress occasionally sniffled and whimpered—she was still suffering miserably within the illusion created by the Sorrow Demon clone.

Meeting Jiang Qian's gaze under such circumstances made Xiao Xuebai's heart skip violently!

The look in Jiang Qian's eyes frightened her so badly that she nearly suffered heart palpitations.

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