I Knew He Was Up to No Good

Shang Yu's fingertips twitched at his side. Flecks of red light suddenly appeared in his ruby-like fox eyes as he stared in Rosent's direction, unmistakable calculation hidden in the shadows beneath his brow.

The people from the empire probably didn't know that many pollution entities were hiding nearby. Although their squad was powerful, with pollution entities surrounding them ahead and pursuers behind, it would be hard for them to escape unscathed. They might as well... lure the empire's people over to draw their fire.

But if they did that... there would be no one guarding the guide.

He couldn't let the guide be put in danger.

"Tsk, Shang Yu, don't tell me you're scared." Rosent's voice was like an ice-cold needle. His fingertips brushed the sword at his waist, and the silver knights' insignia gleamed coldly in the scattered light. Though he couldn't quite tell what the fox was plotting this time, the taunt had already escaped his lips. "If you're scared, hand over the guide like a good boy and stop struggling in vain. With Lord Carlos here, none of you are getting out of this forest! If you know what's good for you, I'll leave your corpse intact!"

Carlos was actually fine?!

Shang Yu's heart sank. That couldn't be right. Carlos's mental landscape had long since been thoroughly contaminated, and they had also set him up and injured his sea of consciousness. How could he...

If what Rosent said was true, they were in trouble.

Carlos was a 3S-class sentinel, one of only a handful at that level in the entire interstellar realm. Although Ers was just one step away from 3S, he hadn't broken through yet. The gap between each level was like an unbridgeable chasm. If they faced Carlos head-on, they had almost no chance of winning. When that happened, not only would they be unable to take the guide away, but their entire team would probably be lost here.

His thoughts spun like madly turning gears. Within minutes, a dangerous plan offering their only chance of survival had taken shape in his mind.

Without betraying anything, he attached a protective device to the girl. It was a product secretly developed by the Federation, capable of concealing the pheromones of guides and sentinels and withstanding a full-force blow from an SS-class sentinel.

Now he only needed to time things right and get the guide back before the support troops arrived...

"Heh, before that, you'd better worry about yourself!" Shang Yu's voice suddenly turned cold. His crimson mental power abruptly condensed into the shape of a fox's claw, sending an iron-scented wind past Rosent's ear before slamming into the ancient tree behind him. The trunk shuddered with a crash. As Rosent hurriedly dodged, the fiery-red fox also charged like a gust of wind, tearing at the white bat hanging upside down from a branch.

"Damn it, you sneaky bastard!" Rosent was nearly knocked to the ground by a powerful force.

He cursed furiously, but his body moved faster than his mind. A blade formed from mental power hummed as it traced a silver-blue arc straight toward Shang Yu's face. But worried about hurting the guide, he abruptly pulled back his strength. His boot soles gouged deep furrows in the rotting leaves as he forcibly redirected his attack.

Shang Yu had intended to lure Rosent toward Ers in the first place. As the two fought, they moved farther and farther away, drawing ever closer to where Ers and the others were.

Before long, Daniel and Will arrived with a squad of sentinels, following the pheromone trail Rosent had left. But before Rosent could breathe a sigh of relief, a familiar stench reached his nose. He couldn't mistake it: that was the distinctive smell of pollution entities gathered together!

"Damn you! You damned fox, I knew you were up to no good!" A few strands of Rosent's black hair had come loose and stuck to his sweat-dampened temple, leaving none of his aristocratic elegance. He swung his blade at the pollution entities lunging at him and shouted to the empire's sentinels arriving behind him, "Stay back! This is the pollution entities' nest!"

Unfortunately, it was already too late. The pursuing imperial sentinels had already drawn the pollution entities' attention.

"Fuck! Where's the guide? If you dared bring her somewhere this dangerous, I'll fucking kill you!" Daniel swung his sword and cleaved an oncoming pollution entity apart, splattering dark green fluid across his shoulder guard. He looked around, his voice brimming with barely restrained anger.

"The guide isn't here. She's in a tree in the forest behind us," Rosent said over his shoulder to Daniel and the others as he dealt with the approaching pollution entities.

"Enough talk. Hurry up and deal with these pollution entities, then go find the guide." Will frowned deeply. Fortunately, Lord Carlos had been delayed on the way. Otherwise, in his current physical condition, how could he have endured all this?

Meanwhile, when Ers saw Shang Yu return, anger surged through him, and he nearly punched him in the face. "Shang Yu, didn't I tell you to take good care of the guide?!"

"Don't worry, I know what I'm doing." Shang Yu couldn't explain everything in a hurry, so he could only do his best to calm Ers down. He said confidently, "She's safe right now. This is the only way we can retreat with her."

In fact, everything was indeed going according to Shang Yu's plan, with just one thing he hadn't anticipated...

The unconscious guide woke up early.

Yuqing's eyelashes fluttered. The smell of damp, rotting leaves and earth filled her nose. Years of constant vigilance in the apocalypse had kept her from sleeping too deeply, even when she was exhausted. Once her body had gotten the rest it needed, her tense mind immediately forced her awake.

"Is anyone there?" Yuqing bit her lower lip, steadied herself against the tree trunk, and slowly stood up. She walked around, but there was no entrance or exit, so she had to find a way to "climb over the wall." Taking a deep breath, she stepped onto the protruding parts and climbed up, finally hauling herself onto the tree trunk with great effort.

But as soon as she stood upright, she sucked in a sharp breath and instinctively shrank back. The bottom of the nest, woven from dry grass and branches, was at least dozens of meters above the ground. Layers of tree canopies spread out below, and the sunlight overhead made her dizzy. Only then did Yuqing belatedly realize that she was in a giant bird's nest.

Yuqing's fingertips dug into the dry grass at the edge of the nest, and her calves trembled uncontrollably. "Fuck, that's high..."

Even when she had gone out with her team to fight zombies, they had never driven her to a place this high.

"Qiqi, where are you?!" Yuqing missed her best friend more than ever. If Yun Qi were here, her plant-based ability could get her safely down in no time. But at the thought that Yun Qi's fate was still unknown, Yuqing felt as if a bucket of cold water had been poured over her, and she calmed down.

She couldn't panic. She had to find a way to find Yun Qi.

She couldn't just sit there and wait to die.

Yuqing took a deep breath and slowly crouched down, keeping away from the edge of the nest, which was swaying badly. She felt along the woven structure with her fingertips until she touched several thick, sturdy branches that looked like the main supports. Several half-withered vines were wrapped around the edge of the nest. Following them down with her eyes, she could see the trunk and branches of the oak tree beside it, less than two meters away.

Though her fear-induced trembling hadn't completely subsided, she had forced herself to calm down. Her physical and combat training in the apocalypse hadn't been for nothing. Yuqing gripped the thick vine beside her again and slowly edged onto a fork in the tree. She cautiously tested a burl below with her right foot, grinding her heel against it. Only after confirming that it was sturdy enough did she slowly climb down, one step at a time.

The rough bark soon scraped her fingertips raw, and she could even feel tiny splinters digging beneath her nails. But fortunately, she was getting closer and closer to the ground...

Yuqing encouraged herself inwardly.

It's okay, it's okay. Even if I fall from this height, I'll only spend a month in bed at most...

Crack.

Yuqing's expression froze...

No way?

I can't be that unlucky, can I?!

Her body lost its support in an instant, and the sensation of weightlessness gripped her heart. Yuqing cried out instinctively as she plunged downward. She couldn't help closing her eyes, her body tensing.

But the expected pain never came. Instead, she fell into someone's arms, carrying a faint scent of pine.

The impact made him grunt, and he fell backward, but his arms instinctively wrapped around her waist, steadily cushioning her fall. With him acting as a cushion, Yuqing felt almost no pain.

"Mmph..."