Chapter 201: Flying Sword

Time seemed to freeze at this moment.

"Aha!"

Lu Mu let out an exaggerated gasp of amazement, then burst into a wild laugh.

"The smallest 'death' face! I don't even know whether to say fate chose you or abandoned you?"

He laughed uproariously, yet his eyes were a cold void, especially when his peripheral glance fell on Bai Mu Yun beside him, full of disdain.

Lu Mu restrained himself a bit, a cruel smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.

"Then according to the rules, the punishment I give you is—death."

Before the words finished, Lu Mu's figure had already vanished.

In the next instant, he appeared before Min Tianyou like a phantom, his four fingers clenched and thrust toward Min Tianyou's heart.

The speed was such that Shen Zexi's Lightning Chains only managed to leave a afterimage in the air, Qi Hengyu's fist swung through empty space, Ying Duo's bullet struck the afterimage left by Lu Mu, and Chen Mo Zhi's toxic mist was easily dispersed by Lu Mu.

"Pfft!"

The sound of a blade cutting flesh rang out.

Min Tianyou's pupils dilated instantly, cracks began to spread, his face showed a tragic smile mixing pain and realization, and blood quickly smeared across his chest.

The boy's body slammed heavily onto the ground, lifeless.

"No—!" Qi Hengyu's eyes widened to the brink of bursting, about to charge forward.

Shen Zexi's heart sank to the bottom of a valley, healing mist surged wildly toward Min Tianyou, yet reason kept telling him that a heart struck by such an attack was probably already beyond saving.

Lu Mu retracted his hand, flicked the blood from his fingertips, wiping it clean on the wings gathered at his waist, the motion elegant yet cruel.

And Yang Yixie, in front of the computer screen...

He paused briefly, then began to wonder whether he had raised Min Tianyou's affection level.

Well, because he had only encountered him once before and he wasn't a common NPC, he hadn't yet managed to increase his affection.

That's fine; during the second playthrough he'll study this NPC more to see if there are any side quests he missed, after all his current primary mission is a one‑life run, not to collect every storyline.

Compared to that, he's more concerned about another issue:

Having already sacrificed a teammate, according to typical game mechanics the next step should be a BOSS battle or forced storyline, right? He can't just keep killing, can he?

Perhaps to answer his "expectation", or perhaps to completely shatter this desperate atmosphere.

"Boom!!!!!!!"

A earth‑shaking, thunderous blast erupted above everyone's heads.

A golden pillar of pure sword‑qi, with unrivaled force, brutally tore through the thick rock layers and the metal Dome here, forcibly carving a several‑meter‑wide massive hole in this sealed underground space.

Debris rained down like rain, smoke billowed, and a shaft of daylight streamed in.

A tall figure descended slowly along the passage tinged with a faint golden hue, his face resolute, his gaze instantly scanning the scene.

He saw the gravely wounded, lifeless Min Tianyou on the ground, Shen Zexi and others standing ready yet scarred, and two Co-Absorption cultists, and finally his gaze fell on a spot not far away.

It was a mass of enormous rocks writhing strangely, the very source that had caused the recent disturbance.

To his surprise, although the stone‑giant leader had been sliced into dozens of pieces by his sword‑qi, scattering on the ground, those rock fragments were rapidly drawing together at a visible speed.

Did that sword strike miss? Failed to completely shatter its energy Core?

Yue Chengzhang immediately discerned the cause.

Earlier he had sensed Min Tianyou's distress signal from above; in haste, he could only choose the fastest yet relatively crude method.

As if summoned by the leader, rumbling sounds echoed throughout the passage, and dozens of smaller yet still massive ordinary stone‑giants surged in like a tide.

But they did not attack the group; instead they rushed straight toward the pile of fragments in the middle.

These stone‑giants, upon touching the fragments, melted like wax and seeped into them.

The rock fragments fused, reassembled, and expanded at an astonishing speed!

In the blink of an eye, a stone‑giant leader larger than before, its energy veins glowing, rose from the ground, raising its head and emitting a deafening roar.

The Blood Bar not only refilled, its maximum seemed to have risen a notch.

In Yang Yixie's words, the boss had entered phase two.

"Trouble."

Yue Chengzhang thought to himself that his primary task was to ensure the survivors' safety, especially Min Tianyou who had sent the distress signal.

And at this moment, Bai Mu Yun's complexion was frighteningly dark.

The underground base was exceedingly complex; pinpointing a location and reaching it this quickly was no easy feat.

As a result, Yue Chengzhang managed a direct passage.

Even if they grabbed something and left immediately, there wouldn't be time to evacuate.

"Go!"

Bai Mu Yun made a snap decision, low‑shouting at Lu Mu; with Yue Chengzhang present, it was basically impossible to take Luo Jinyou and the design drafts away, leaving a hard fight would only increase risk.

Lu Mu's face flashed with intense resentment; he could have killed Min Tianyou in time, and failing to complete the mission before returning would inevitably cause trouble.

He had witnessed Bai Mu Yun's "methods", gave Ying Duo a slightly threatening glare, then turned to follow Bai Mu Yun.

The kid better have a way to retrieve the items, otherwise he'll definitely report the suspected betrayal.

Both figures simultaneously became blurry, like two phantoms slipping into the dark passage untouched by Yue Chengzhang's sword light, moving at astonishing speed.

Yue Chengzhang's gaze locked onto their escape direction, yet he did not pursue immediately.

The stone‑giant leader before him had completed its enhancement, exuding an extremely dangerous aura; he had to deal with it first, otherwise these students might even be killed by the lingering combat power.

"You all leave that opening immediately!"

Yue Chengzhang didn't look back, bellowing at Shen Zexi and the others, while several strands of condensed, solid‑like sword‑qi shot out, tracing sword shapes in the air and flying to the group.

"Step onto it, and just power it with energy."

He intended to first use flying swords to ferry the survivors out of danger; these flying swords were manifestations of his Aberrant Arts, but since he had to fight the stone‑giant, he could only temporarily hand control of the flying swords to a few.

Got it, another chase battle!

Yang Yixie wasn't surprised either; fighting even a small monster before had felt like taking on a boss—overall, aren't we just too weak now?

As Yue Chengzhang's words fell, Ying Duo had already darted in a single stride to the nearest pale-gold flying sword; the sword dipped slightly, and a subtle connection formed silently.

Whoosh—!

The flying sword let out a faint hum, the golden light at its tip suddenly blazing, and it shot Ying Duo forth like an arrow from a bow.

Ying Duo! Where are you going?!

Shen Zexi shouted urgently, seeing Ying Duo not flee outward but instead cling to the inside of the rock wall Yue Chengzhang had cut, racing in high-speed loops and flipping up and down, making Shen Zexi's blood pressure spike.

Don't jump around! Just go out through the hole above!

But Ying Duo seemed utterly immersed in trying out his new mount, the wind howling in his ears, jagged rock walls flashing past ahead and the chaotic battle below in view.

He even tried a sudden sideways turn, the flying sword carving a perilous arc that barely avoided a chunk of rock shaken loose from the Dome.