Chapter 278: Iron Doll

To be honest, just looking at that iron doll, Yu Sheng felt a strange, dangerous aura wash over him—the white metal-cast smiling face held no emotional warmth belonging to a living person, yet he could clearly feel the thing staring him down, radiating a purely aggressive desire devoid of any emotion.

But "she" did not charge immediately; instead, maintaining a distance of several meters, she adjusted her posture in small movements like a dancer performing a strange dance, as if searching for the most suitable angle of attack.

The sharp blades at the iron doll's fingertips stirred the thin mist in the air, occasionally flashing with a cold glint.

Every nerve in Yu Sheng's body was taut; in the brief skirmish just now, he had already felt the thing's astonishing speed and strength. Those seemingly thin "finger blades" could block the wolf-tooth mace in his hand. Based on that alone, this thing was more dangerous than most of the evil wolves in the Black Forest back then.

Hu Li also slowly approached, staring fixedly at that strange humanoid figure wearing a black veil in the posture of a beast ready to pounce. Light gradually filled her golden-red eyes, and fox fires bloomed quietly one by one in the air.

"Eileen, is this your relative?" Yu Sheng couldn't help muttering softly.

"How is that possible!" the small doll immediately flew into a rage. "I am a noble and elegant ball-jointed doll—this thing is obviously an evil C-type joint; how could it possibly be related to an Alice doll?"

Yu Sheng tugged at the corner of his mouth; he had just asked casually, but he hadn't expected Eileen's rebuttal to come from that angle—and almost at the same time, he noticed a momentary, strange pause in the steel figure's footwork.

His spiritual intuition suddenly gave a warning; he had no time to consider any technique or response, so he simply raised his hand to block by instinct. At almost the exact moment he raised his hand, that tall and slender "female" figure charged up like a ghost, several blades slicing through the air in short, fatal arcs.

Metal clashed, sparks flew everywhere; Yu Sheng felt his arm go numb, but in the blink of an eye, he saw the iron doll jump backward like a dancer. Although its whole body looked like hard, heavy metal, this thing dodged his subsequent counterattack with the flexibility of the wind, then another afterimage swept through the air. "She" pressed forward again, the cold, glinting finger blades striking and thrusting continuously, like an unceasing storm that could not be captured by the naked eye!

Continuous metallic clashing sounds came from the mist, along with the sharp noise of blades cutting through the air. Yu Sheng barely managed to block the initial barrage of attacks and retreated a few steps by force of momentum. Then, clusters of fox fire exploded before him; a scorching curtain of fire wove a net around the iron doll. Immediately after, Eileen also locked onto the target; layers upon layers of black spider silk appeared out of thin air, covering the monster like a gloomy net!

However, just as those threads were about to wrap around the iron doll's limbs, the monster suddenly twisted its body to one side. "Her" joints seemed to snap instantly, bending into an incredible angle, and she burst out through the only gap in the spider web. Then, after several more afterimage-laden dodges, "she" found another narrow gap in the curtain of interwoven fox fire, and the finger blades thrust straight at Yu Sheng's chest!

Swift, silent, full of power, bloodless and tearless.

This iron doll had identified the "leader" among the enemies before it; every attack was clearly aimed straight at Yu Sheng. "She" had almost no unnecessary movements, and besides body movement, made no sound at all.

An elegant and perfect killing machine.

At this moment, Yu Sheng was already sweating; this was his first time fighting something like this. Now, he was barely keeping up with the thing's rhythm solely on his enhanced physical attributes far beyond human limits and the assistance of Hu Li and Eileen beside him. In such close quarters and rapid exchanges, Hu Li's high-power techniques were completely useless, and even the silk Eileen summoned out of thin air couldn't keep up with the monster's ghostly speed!

What exactly is this thing? Is it also a physical entity generated within the thick fog? But "her" movements were unlike the physical entities he had seen before, which were chaotic and driven purely by instinct; instead, they clearly displayed professional martial arts techniques and strategy. Yet this thing was obviously not human—Eileen's attitude made that clear: this monster with doll features was definitely not an "Alice doll."

"What the hell is this thing!"

Yu Sheng raised the Broken Tetanus Staff high; perhaps luck was on his side, for this strike finally landed on the monster's shoulder. This finally slightly disrupted the enemy's continuous ghostly "dance steps." Seizing the enemy's momentary stumble, Eileen instantly found her opening, and strands of black silk wrapped around the opponent's joints.

"Who knows! I really don't know this thing!" the small doll shouted in a bit of a frenzy.

"Anyway, let's just take it apart first!"

Yu Sheng shouted, and while the iron doll was still struggling slowly to break free from the spider web, he charged forward with the wolf-tooth mace in his hand.

However, just as he was about to reach the enemy, the iron doll suddenly lifted its head. That pale face still wore a "gentle" smile, but the metal plates between its chest and abdomen suddenly opened—

A dim red light expanded and contracted amidst the flesh-like, writhing metal substance. A screen-like device lit up with the red light, and the numbers on the screen were rapidly counting down to zero.

Yu Sheng: "... Holy crap?!!?"

It was too late to stop now, but he still instinctively stomped hard on the ground, trying to halt his forward charge. Eileen reacted immediately; the moment she saw the red light emerging from the monster's belly, she retracted the spider silk and instantly wove it into ropes, wrapping herself and Yu Sheng together and yanking them violently backward. Then came Hu Li, charging in from the side...

However, in the next instant, Yu Sheng saw the countdown inside the iron doll's belly suddenly stop.

Immediately after, the metal on the iron doll's abdomen closed in the blink of an eye. Taking advantage of the moment Yu Sheng, Hu Li, and Eileen hadn't reacted, "she" broke free from the restraints and arrived in an instant.

Yu Sheng only had time to slightly adjust his posture and block a vital point with his arm before feeling a sharp pain in his arm.

Two sharp blades had already pierced deep into his flesh, even going straight through his arm and fatally pinning into his chest. At this moment, time seemed to freeze, and the scene was eerily quiet.

Yu Sheng raised his head; at an extremely close distance, he locked eyes with that elegant yet terrifying killing machine—that smiling, pale face was almost within arm's reach.

"You can actually cancel a self-destruct?"

Yu Sheng's facial muscles twitched as he said this, looking utterly incredulous.

The iron doll, of course, made no response; "she" only tilted her head, seemingly confused by Yu Sheng's calm attitude at this moment.

Yu Sheng lowered his head, looked at the two "fingers" of the opponent that had already pierced his chest, thought for a moment, and decided this should be a fatal wound.

But perhaps having died many times built up some resistance; the "symptoms" of death hadn't set in just yet.

"Your blade is very good," he raised his head and said seriously to the iron doll, "give it to me."

Blood began to seep into the blades.

The iron doll finally sensed something. Although there was no change in expression, "her" next reaction clearly carried a hint of panic. The monster instantly pulled the two "finger blades" out of Yu Sheng's body, and with two clicks of her heels, she jumped back nearly ten meters.

Yu Sheng reached out to intercept, but could only manage to tear off the "nun's veil" from the opponent's head.

!

Not far away, the iron doll raised its arm again, seemingly trying to resume a combat stance—but the reaction of one of its arms was clearly half a second slower.

"She" paused for a moment, then started shaking that arm, as if trying to shake off some dirty thing stuck to it, desperately trying to get rid of it.

However, the area of uncontrollability was rapidly expanding; at first it was just the fingers, then the entire palm, the forearm, the elbow...

Yu Sheng began to feel dizzy; his body swayed, and a white figure immediately came to his side—Hu Li carefully supported Yu Sheng's shoulder, her face full of concern: "Benefactor, about to die again?"

Yu Sheng waved his hand, his eyes still staring fixedly at the monster trying to break free from control: "Wait, just wait a bit longer."

"Next time you encounter this situation, just don't fight; go ahead and sell your blood directly," Eileen muttered, "it saves a lot of effort."

"I still have to try a few moves to assess the situation, and besides, I have to show off a bit; what if I can win!" Yu Sheng glanced at her, then immediately sucked in a sharp breath due to the excruciating pain in his chest and arm, realizing he might not be able to hold on much longer. He quickly stuffed the "nun's veil" he had just torn from the monster's head into Hu Li's arms and spoke rapidly, "You two get back immediately. I'm afraid that if I die, the guy over there will lose control, and we don't know what other weird things might appear in this fog. It's not safe for you two to keep wandering outside."

"Eh?" Eileen was very surprised, pointing her finger at the iron doll over there which was temporarily still trapped, "Shouldn't Hu Li and I take her apart while we have the chance?"

"... No," Yu Sheng simply shook his head slowly, "I think this guy is strange; she doesn't seem like a normal 'entity'. Don't kill her; let my blood seep in a bit longer..."

He hadn't finished speaking when Hu Li and Eileen nodded simultaneously: "Okay!"

Yu Sheng didn't delay either; he raised his hand and pulled open a door leading to No. 66 Wutong Road.

Hu Li and Eileen rushed in without hesitation.

This was the tacit understanding established within the Inn: at critical moments, there were no unnecessary entanglements, no pushing and shoving over who would "cover the rear," no time-wasting pretense; there was only unshakable trust—

Yu Sheng trusted Hu Li and Eileen's calm decisiveness at this moment; Hu Li and Eileen trusted that Yu Sheng was dead.

And just as the door vanished, Yu Sheng heard a sharp metallic snapping sound coming from the opposite side.

He looked up in shock and saw that tall iron doll was frantically tearing at its own arm, which was gradually losing control. After several tearing pulls, that arm was already hanging by a thread. Then, "she" even raised the hand that was still under control without hesitation, directly inserted the blade-finger into the joint, and with a decisive twist—ripped that arm off!

(End of Chapter)