Chapter 323: Counterattack: Supersonic Arrow

A petite grey-white phantom figure spun and leapt across the high-rise's outer wall without pause, nimble as the most agile of apes.

Behind it, a grotesquely hideous Ghost Claw pursued relentlessly with terrifying flexibility; every time it appeared, it unleashed a wave of massive destruction!

One after another, gaping holes like enormous wounds appeared on the body of this "giant" called the "high-rise," and then, when the Ghost Claw struck out one final time and tore through a wall—

"Squeak— creak—"

The teeth-grinding sounds rang out one after another from the high-rise; they were the remaining walls, pillars, and steel reinforcement inside the building finally unable to bear the weight of the massive volume above!

Under the grey, hazy sky, clouds of dust drifted down with a rustling patter, making it look even more like a towering giant making one last death throes—yet in the end, it was all in vain.

Accompanied by a tremendous rumble, the nineteen-story high-rise completely collapsed at the fifth floor, and the dozen-plus stories above pressed down with an overwhelming, crushing force.

The first to bear the brunt was the twisted "monster" located on the fifth floor!

The enormous, hideous Ghost Claw had not yet had time to retract before it was pinned fast by the warped, twisted mass of rebar and walls pressing down on it, like a slumbering beast slowly waking and opening its bloody maw to devour its prey.

"Rumble rumble rumble…"

"Squish squish—"

The once strong and resilient Ghost Claw instantly spurted out copious yellow-red pus, and countless flesh buds that had gathered to form the claw were squeezed and sliced, flying everywhere.

Darkness was closing in! About to devour the "monster" within!

At the same time, as the high-rise collapsed, Baichuan—who had orchestrated all of this—especially in his current form as an ordinary, frail tabby cat, was naturally in no better state.

With the violent shaking and an entire building coming down around him, for Baichuan clinging to the outer wall, it was nothing short of a cataclysmic upheaval!

At this moment, he was like a small boat adrift in the deep sea, facing the baptism of a raging storm head-on: a young beast on an Earth Dragon-tossed earth, directionless and exhausting itself in flight.

The collapse of the building could shift and turn at any moment due to the slightest factor; even Baichuan could no longer judge the situation around him, and could only flee on the fly according to the direction he had memorized at the very last moment.

"Rumble rumble rumble…"

Sounds like thunder rang out unceasingly, but he paid them no heed; his entire being was in a state of razor-sharp focus, his golden cat pupils constantly swiveling, watching in all directions and listening on all sides; while dodging the flying debris, he fled the danger zone at his absolute top speed.

Yet this scene, in the eyes of the Zhou Yun siblings, looked like a streak of flowing shadow walking across the collapsing building as if it were flat ground; no matter how the building fell, no matter how dangerous the sharp, high-velocity flying rocks were,

before it they were as nothing; the flowing shadow would at times dart forward, leap up, or spin and turn back in a lateral fold—countless postures, ever-changing, displaying the most essential charm of speed!

In the end, at the very last moment before the building fully collapsed, he locked onto the direction and suddenly leapt from the upturned spire, flying toward them; the various flying rocks, garbage, and debris along the way were nothing more than stepping stones, springboards for another leap into the air,

and finally, with the aid of a giant boulder, he successfully landed above their heads.

At this moment, by sheer coincidence, a beam of light fell from between the thick fog in the heavens above.

That light, however dim, was dazzling against the surrounding darkness!

It fell from behind onto the leaping grey-white figure, refracting a scattering of fine golden radiance.

Seen from afar, the grey-white phantom seemed to descend upon the world cloaked in dazzling brilliance; amid the flying fur, a pair of bright, clear golden cat pupils were utterly calm, like a waveless deep pool.

In the end, he lightly spun through the air, his slender, clean limbs constantly tapping various intact platforms to bleed off momentum, and landed before the Zhou Yun siblings, leaving behind a trail of footprints laced with spiderweb-like cracks!

Those were the impact forces he had bled off!

Yet the very next instant, Mao Mao, who had just landed in such a dashing fashion, had barely steadied himself when his four limbs suddenly went weak and he collapsed into a flat cat-pancake.

"Ah! Mao Mao!"

The girl's startled cry rang out, and she jogged over to pick him up.

To this, Baichuan, for once, did not react.

No other reason—his entire cat life had been completely wrung dry.

Escaping the building, he had utterly exhausted every ounce of potential in his feline body!

It was also at this moment that the sky brightened.

The terrifying commotion of the building's collapse was slowly fading; with such an enormous disturbance just now, the coming upheavals were bound to be many—this place was about to become a troubled ground.

Apart from anything else, the large number of unconscious "human figures" definitely could not escape.

Thinking of this, Zhou Yun made a snap decision and, together with his sister holding Mao Mao, set off along the route he had planned out over the past few days—

First stop, the parking lot!

This was the escape route out of Gucheng he had weighed several times before finally deciding on.

Within this vast Gucheng, escaping on foot on one's own two legs was nearly impossible; first and foremost, they needed a decent means of transport.

And as luck would have it, near this residential complex, Zhou Yun happened to remember there was a large parking lot; among the vehicles parked there, he had once spotted one that looked like an armored car, and he had once seen a rumor online that it seemed to belong to some big shot.

Whether or not that was the case, even if they couldn't find that particular vehicle, finding a large truck, or even a motorcycle, would do.

It was far better than the two of them running for their lives on foot.

Originally, under normal circumstances, they had planned to look for a car within the residential complex, but alas…

……

"…What a remarkably gifted little beast."

At the same time, atop a high-rise much farther behind the Zhou Yun siblings, a tall woman in strange clothing murmured while holding up binoculars.

"What a pity…"

After a long while, once the siblings had walked far away with the little beast in their arms, she finally lowered the binoculars, casting a somewhat regretful glance at the collapsed building lying across the path below, a hint of disappointment in her eyes.

It was obvious that, had it not been for the collapsed building blocking her path, she would have rushed over long ago.

The scene from earlier—the performance of that grey-white tabby cat—had been fully observed by her; one had to admit, even for her, who had seen and experienced all manner of visitors from other worlds in this region, in that instant she was somewhat stunned and shocked.

It had nothing to do with power; it was simply that the little beast's performance was too breathtaking!

To think it could toy with a Desire Spirit so thoroughly in such a frail body.

"M-My lord, that's a cat, a creature unique to our world; if you want one, perhaps you could look for a few more here…"

As the woman's voice fell, after a short while a voice tinged with fawning replied; just from the sound of it, one could picture a cringing sycophant who only knew how to flatter.

And indeed it was so—the owner of that ingratiating voice was a man in a suit, slightly paunchy, bowing and scraping; normally, a suit's function is to set off a man's decorum and generosity, as well as his upright figure, enhancing his charm.

But worn on this man with his handlebar moustache and puffy, fleshy face, it was utterly comical—like an ape dressed in a hat and clothes.

The tall woman did not answer, nor did she show any intention of paying him heed; she turned around, casually tossed the binoculars in her hand to one side, and took the lead in leaving.

Beside him, a man in yellow-green armor caught the delicate telescope, glanced at him, and said kindly, "What the leader wants is no ordinary little beast — or is it that the little beasts in your world all perform like this?"

"If that's really the case, you might just have rendered a great service."

"Uh… th-this, this…" The man in the suit was at a loss for words, his neck flushing red as he stammered for a long while without managing a single sentence.

Would he dare to deceive them at will?

He wouldn't dare.

Yesterday's bloody, horrifying scene still kept spinning in his mind — it was a young master with an insufferably arrogant look on his face, oblivious to the situation, throwing his weight around, the son of the big boss of his company, a big shot he had once had to flatter in every possible way — but yesterday, he died.

Just because he spoke out of turn, one of this group of strangers had casually pointed a finger at him, and in the next instant his head abruptly burst open like a watermelon, white, red, and yellow mingled with a soft, warm sensation, drenching him all over…

With the woman's departure, the subordinates clustered around her also left right behind her.

"Let's go."

In the end, the man who had spoken earlier, seemingly grateful for the previous man's generosity, called out to him when he saw him standing there in a daze.

"Oh, oh, alright. Thanks, big brother! Thanks, big brother!"

"Big brother, what should I call you?"

The man in the suit turned his head back, his face plastered with smiles as he hurried to catch up.

"Don't, I'm no big brother." The man in yellow-green armor waved his hand. "You don't need to act like that either — our leader doesn't like that sort of thing. She only values the strong, and only the strong can catch her eye."

"As for you?" The man shook his head in disgust before continuing, "Considering you took the initiative to hand over so many items earlier, I'll give you this one piece of advice. I really don't know what's so weird about your old world — how could someone of that build still live so comfortably…"

Hearing this, the man in the suit scratched his head and laughed a few times. "I see… thanks for the heads-up, big brother… You mean our old world? If big brother's interested, I'll definitely tell you everything I know…"

……

After leaving the initial residential complex, Baichuan ate a little something in the girl's bag to replenish his energy, gradually recovered his breath, and jumped down from the girl's bag.

After all, being a cat — no matter how light his weight, for a girl only in junior high school, it was still no small burden.

As they moved farther and farther away from that initial residential complex along the way, Zhou Yun's siblings and Baichuan finally once again saw those strange phantom figures, as well as the clusters of unconscious "human shadows."

At this point, their forward speed suddenly dropped sharply, and their movements became cautious as well.

Unlike the cramped indoor environment, where being careful was enough to avoid being surrounded by large numbers of "human shadows," the outside was different — one careless moment and it would be over!

Being cautious the whole way, a distance of merely one kilometer took Zhou Yun's siblings half a day to traverse.

……

"Tap tap tap…"

In a dim underground parking garage, a series of crisp footsteps rang out.

A man, a woman, and a cat slowly appeared here. The woman among them, her face full of curiosity, kept looking around at the surroundings. Thanks to the underground parking garage itself being a place where people rarely lingered, even though this city had already fallen, with unconscious "human shadows" resembling zombies clustered everywhere, this place could still be considered relatively safe — only two or three half-rotted corpses lay scattered about haphazardly, and a sparse few "human shadows" crouched dazedly, gnawing and feeding.

However, these were no longer an insurmountable enemy for Zhou Yun's siblings as they were now. After taking care of them in a few moves, and failing to find the "armored vehicle" Zhou Yun had wanted most before, they could only choose a vehicle that looked reasonably sturdy.

"Buzz buzz buzz…"

Accompanied by the faint sound of the engine starting, this slumbering steel beast slowly opened its bright "eyes," and the "human shadows" in every corner immediately raised their heads and began to stride over, pouncing toward them.

But in the very next instant, Zhou Yun slammed his foot on the gas, and the car was immediately seen smashing through the encircling "human shadows" and charging out.

The massive steel beast, having mustered all its strength, burst out of the underground parking garage and began swerving left and right on the road.

Speeding along the way, it was fortunate that Zhou Yun's residential complex was located on the outskirts of this city — once they drove out of the surrounding area, they could immediately get on the highway. This was also why he had insisted on finding a car.

Even if the highway ahead might be broken, by then they should have escaped far enough.

However, while the thought was good, unexpected things often happened.

For instance, at this very moment — having only been on the highway for less than an hour after escaping — Baichuan abruptly raised his head, sprang up from the seat, and looked through the back seat toward the rear of the car. In the next instant—

"Awooo—"

A distant wolf howl rang out, followed immediately by the earth trembling, carrying a fierce, blood-tinged wind.

Zhou Yun, who was still driving, saw his eyes suddenly contract — through the car's rearview mirror, he clearly saw the newcomer: a giant wolf the size of a small sedan!

The giant wolf's fur gleamed with a greasy sheen, every strand standing on end like incomparably hard steel needles. At this moment it was flicking its crimson tongue, sending drool flying everywhere, madly pursuing them from behind.

And its speed was extremely fast, seemingly treating this uninvited vehicle as an intruder.

There was no time to hesitate. Seeing the giant wolf closing in, Zhou Yun hurriedly floored the gas pedal, and the little car's engine once again roared madly.

At this point, even Baichuan stretched his body, readying himself for battle.

Don't look at him being small — but with his unrivaled Sharpness claws and considerable speed, he could still hold his own for a while. At the very least, surviving on his own wouldn't be a problem.

Only, his gaze held a trace of doubt — he always felt that something was off about this giant wolf's state?

Rather than hunting, it seemed more like fleeing for its life?

This doubt had barely arisen when Baichuan, who had been staring at the back, watched his pupils contract unceasingly. In an instant, every hair on his body stood on end, and he immediately turned and leaped onto the driver's seat, grabbing Zhou Yun.

"Mao Mao?!"

Zhou Yun, in pain, couldn't yet understand what was happening, but under his body's instinctive reaction, he uncontrollably caused the little car to swerve sideways.

In an instant, the already speeding vehicle lost traction, flipped sideways, and slid off the highway that had already lost its guardrails. Yet at this moment, Baichuan felt a sense of relief, because—

The next instant—

A white, arrow-shaped air wave swept across at low altitude with incomparably swift speed, raising terrifying shockwaves along the way, completely plowing the ground and vehicles flat, like a violent wind passing through!

Only after that did a piercing boom sound.

That was because the incoming object was even faster than the speed of sound!

The giant wolf, the size of a small sedan, under this single strike, was directly pierced through with a massive wound and pinned to the ground, wailing in agony.

At this moment, the incoming object slowly revealed its true form—

It was an arrow a full thirty meters long!

……

(End of this chapter)