Zhong Xuezhi poured a whole mouthful of Suppressant into his mouth, then crunched through it rapidly.
Pressed for time, he barely chewed before gulping it down in several loud swallows. Just listening made Mu Yi feel as though he were choking too.
The next instant, Du Jing tossed him another small blue medicine bottle.
At the same time, he shouted, "Captain! Sedatives! We've all taken ours!"
Zhong Xuezhi caught the bottle and tipped his head back without hesitation, pouring down another mouthful.
The sedatives were a special medicine An Beize had formulated after obtaining the roots and stems of Spine Celery. They were just the thing for countering the warthogs' Tremor Roar.
Zhong Xuezhi finished chewing in a few quick bites, tossed the bottle toward Mu Yi, then darted back into the fight.
Mu Yi caught the bottle securely and slipped it smoothly into his pocket. He had no use for it; Tremor Roar didn't seem to affect him much anyway.
He rolled his neck and shoulders, summoned pure white electric flame in both hands, and rejoined the battle.
They had already killed two of the original six warthogs. With fewer enemies, they should have had an easier time of it.
Yet Mu Yi noticed that Zhong Xuezhi and his teammates had all become noticeably weaker in combat. They were running out of steam.
Their already scant energy reserves were probably running low.
After casting an electric net, Mu Yi called to them, "Why don't you use those two Grade A shard crystals?"
Qiu Cai found a moment to reply, "Save what we can! Who knows what we'll run into after these warthogs?"
Then, brimming with curiosity, Qiu Cai asked him, "Hey, bro, you're throwing energy around nonstop. How come you aren't flagging at all?"
Mu Yi curled his fingers, abruptly tightening the net around the warthog, and replied casually, "Because I've got stamina."
Wenren Jin slipped in a comment. "Wow-"
Qiu Cai raised a hand in a thumbs-up. "Hahaha, impressive!"
A moment later, Zhong Xuezhi interrupted them coldly. "Focus on the fight!"
Mu Yi shrugged, thinking that Captain Zhong really wasn't any fun right now. Normally, he would definitely have joined in with a few wisecracks.
He had barely finished grumbling to himself when the struggling warthog in his electric net opened its long jaws wide, clearly about to unleash Tremor Roar again.
He couldn't let it have its way.
Mu Yi swiftly picked up a stick by his feet and drove it into that gaping mouth like lightning.
The stick was about a meter long, a branch snapped off when a large tree fell. Its broken end happened to be sharp and pointed.
Holding nothing back, Mu Yi thrust the stick down hard!
The point instantly pierced the warthog's tongue and throat, sending bright red blood spraying out. When it splashed onto him, its heat made his skin shudder.
After that shudder, every pore on his body seemed to open, bringing a dense rush of pleasure.
Mu Yi couldn't help laughing. He felt a release and freedom unlike anything he had ever experienced.
That sense of release and freedom made him withdraw his pheromones and simply pit his strength against the warthog.
The warthog struggled violently, spraying more hot blood that drenched his hands layer after layer.
The sticky liquid soaked his palms, making his grip slip as he tried to force the stick farther down.
After repeated scraping, the uneven wood inevitably rubbed his palms bloody.
When he felt the distinct sting of pain, Mu Yi vaguely recalled Zhong Xuezhi saying that wounds must not come into contact with their vomit.
So he pushed even harder, blocking the warthog's throat completely so it couldn't vomit anything up.
As they struggled, the two streams of bright red blood mingled, flowing down the stick and dripping into the warthog's gaping maw.
Suddenly, the warthog's massive, thrashing body froze. Its eyes, previously squeezed shut in pain, snapped open without warning.
An intense red light flared in its eyes as it stared straight at Mu Yi. A few seconds later, it abruptly began struggling even more violently.
This time, however, it wasn't struggling to retreat, but to advance. Even as the sharp wooden point kept stabbing into its throat, it fought desperately to get closer to Mu Yi.
The warthog had suddenly gone berserk, and Mu Yi's electric net nearly failed to contain it.
What was going on?
After a brief moment of confusion, Mu Yi decisively poured a handful of electric flame into the jaws that kept trying to reach him.
Carrying searing heat and high-voltage current, the electric flame plunged down, penetrating every opening and forcing the inexplicably frenzied warthog to settle down.
Its struggles abruptly ceased, followed by several violent convulsions. An extremely hoarse rasp came from its mouth.
"Hhh..."
"Hhh..."
Something was wrong. Mu Yi lost interest in grappling with it and immediately cranked every attribute of the electric flame inside its belly to the maximum.
With a buzz, the warthog's scarlet eyes burst out of their sockets, and its legs stiffened straight in an instant.
Before long, its black body began to crack, wisps of smoke rising from it. Its dying rasps gradually ceased as well.
Mu Yi released the stick. With nothing supporting it, the warthog's massive head struck the ground with a dull thud.
Mu Yi stood, panting slightly as he looked down at it. Its unclosed eyes stared straight back at him, their resentment seemingly mixed with something else he couldn't decipher.
Unable to read it, Mu Yi simply stopped dwelling on it. He casually wiped his blood-red palms against his clothes a couple of times, then turned toward Zhong Xuezhi.
Zhong Xuezhi was swinging his Ice Scythe, severing the last warthog's head.
As he withdrew his weapon, he turned toward the northern part of the forest and said in a low voice, "Something annoying is coming. Retreat. We're not fighting them."
With that, he swiftly extracted the shard crystals from all the warthog corpses, hurried back to camp, and hastily packed up.
Fortunately, to stay ready for emergencies, they hadn't unpacked anything from their bags. They only had to take down their tents before leaving.
Still, racing through Dread Gloom Forest in the middle of the night was hardly wise, especially when almost everyone was low on energy.
After they had run some distance, Zhong Xuezhi decisively announced, "Find somewhere to hide."
An Beize quickly replied, "Captain, I remember a waterfall up ahead on the left. There's a cliff full of caves behind it. We can hide in those."
The waterfall would mask their scent and the smell of blood. It really was a good spot.
Zhong Xuezhi immediately changed direction. "Move!"
They sprinted through the night for over ten minutes before reaching the waterfall.
Then they each used their own abilities to pass through the waterfall, finding suitable caves and slipping inside.
Zhong Xuezhi carried Mu Yi straight in through the air, and the two of them sheltered in the same cave.
Fortunately, the cave was fairly spacious, roughly the size of a household bathroom. The height was decent too, about two and a half meters by his estimate.
Even with Mu Yi and Zhong Xuezhi both being tall, broad-framed adult men, it shouldn't have felt cramped at all.
Yet Mu Yi felt terribly squeezed.
After carrying him into the cave, Zhong Xuezhi refused to let go. Instead, his arms tightened more and more, squeezing Mu Yi until he could barely breathe.
"Zhong Xuezhi!" Mu Yi slapped him hard on the shoulder. "What the fuck are you doing?"
Zhong Xuezhi didn't answer. He only kept panting. Despite his icy body, his breath was scorching, beating hot and erratic against Mu Yi's neck.
This was a fucking clash of ice and fire.
Mu Yi grabbed the knot of hair at the back of his head and forced him to look up.
But Zhong Xuezhi's eyes were glinting with a cold blue light, his pupils already vertical slits. A beastlike viciousness seemed to flash through them.
Mu Yi immediately sensed that something was wrong. Frowning, he asked, "Zhong Xuezhi, what's wrong with you?"
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