Chapter 801: Fei. Yu Wan?

Its size far exceeds the corridor's width; its head immediately slammed into the ceiling, and the spread of its two front paws almost filled the entire cross‑section of the corridor, with the tips of the claws no more than an arm's length away from the opposite walls combined.

Its massive pure‑pink body glowed with a soft pink sheen under the dim green light, its fur fluffy and soft, each hair tip emitting a faint halo.

The tail was fluffy and elongated; when the tip brushed the wall it left a few shallow scratches on the wooden protective panel, its posture graceful and grand, not beastly at all, but like a moving sculpture.

Giant Fox lunged out from the flash of the blade with tremendous impact, its two front paws pressing down toward Heimu's position.

The air was compressed into a low rumble, the wall lamps on both sides of the corridor were violently shaken by the gust, the dim green light flailed across the walls, its motion out of sync with the lamps' sway, creating a dizzying sense of displacement.

Heimu looked up at the massive creature, a twitch flickering at the corner of his mouth.

"Fei.... Yu Wan?"

No.

Fei Yu Wan is indeed sizable, but the one before me is a notch smaller than Fei Yu Wan, and its color is completely off.

Fei Yu Wan is either a pale pink or a deep crimson, whereas the one before me is a uniformly intense pink, its bearing entirely different.

This is a different being.

"The cherry doesn't match, the fox doesn't match either,"

Heimu muttered to himself, his tone tinged with an Absurd sarcasm that seemed to have started from nowhere, "Where on earth did it come from?"

Giant Fox's front paws had already pressed down.

Heimu's body surged with acceleration in that instant, his whole form streaking like a black‑purple bolt through the gap between the two paws.

At the moment of acceleration, the brim of his hat was blown backward by the airflow, revealing his entire face.

Heimu's high heels lightly touched the carpet, their body flipped in an arc mid‑air, the rotation precisely controlled, just enough to slip through the claw gap without touching Giant Fox's fur.

The Magic Staff traced a violet arc in the air, the tail of the arc grazing Giant Fox's chin; the staff tip tapped the line of Giant Fox's lower jaw. Though it caused no damage, it caused Giant Fox's head to tilt slightly, granting Heimu more room.

After passing through Giant Fox, Heimu didn't stop, immediately using that momentum to rush toward the pink‑haired girl herself.

Heimu swung the Magic Staff horizontally in their hand, the staff's tail sweeping toward the opponent's wrist that held the blade.

She entered from the girl's blind spot; by the time the girl realized it, the staff's tail was already at her wrist.

The pink‑haired girl's reaction was lightning‑fast.

In the same instant Heimu passed through Giant Fox, the pink‑haired girl had already readjusted her stance, angling the Foot-long dagger upward; the dagger's back perfectly Blocking the Magic Staff's sweep.

The timing of the Blocking was razor‑sharp; when the staff's tail was less than two finger‑widths from her wrist, the dagger's back pressed against it.

The two weapons collided in mid‑air, the explosive impact causing the wall lamps around both combatants to flicker once, the dim green light flashing on and off several times.

Heimu used that brief gap to get a clear look at the opponent's eyes.

Those gray‑purple eyes, at the closest moment, showed a green filament of light flashing deep within the pupils.

The filament was positioned at the exact center of the pupil, its shape identical to the circuit‑board pattern on the opponent's face.

Corrosion.

Confirmed it was Corrosion.

A deafening roar came from behind.

Giant Fox's two front paws slammed onto the spot where she had just stood.

The force of that slam was so great that the corridor floor collapsed at the point of contact, the dark‑red carpet ripped open with an extremely long gash, the fibers emitting a prolonged "zzzz" sound as they tore, like the sound of ripping cloth but more muffled.

The wooden protective panels on both sides were shaken loose from the walls, the nails that held them leaving a dozen or so small black holes in the wall; fragments splattered deeper into the corridor, some flying several meters before landing, and after impact they kept sliding a short distance due to inertia.

When the floor gave way, layers of overlapping pipe systems were exposed beneath.

The pipes displayed semi‑transparent walls, material resembling some kind of organic glass, yet more resilient than ordinary glass.

Within, variously colored luminous fluids flowed, rising and falling rhythmically like breathing.

The pipes criss‑crossed in layered stacks, the structure so convoluted that a single glance made one dizzy, resembling an inverted city's underground conduit network.

Heimu did not look back.

Their perception had already informed them of what had occurred behind.

Then they drew a deep breath.

Heimu raised their left hand, fingertips slicing a System Panel in the air.

The panel lit up where their fingertip passed, emitting a pale blue glow.

Heimu quickly cut into Xi Lian's communication channel.

"Xi Lian,"

Their voice was pressed down to a whisper, squeezed from the bottom of their throat, "How are you doing right now?"

A clattering static burst from the other end of the comm, like someone shaking a box full of metal parts.

Xi Lian's voice came through in broken fragments: "I'm... I'm okay... just... so dizzy..."

The voice was garbled beyond recognition, but at least the person remained conscious.

Heimu shut down the comm, refocusing all attention on the battle before them.

A few meters away, Fen Mao girl had already readjusted her combat stance.

She stood at the edge of the corridor's collapse, left foot forward, right foot back, her center of gravity low, left leg slightly arched forward, right leg extended backward, the Foot-long dagger held horizontally before her, its tip pointing toward Heimu's throat.

Behind her, Giant Fox was slowly re‑solidifying into a tangible form, its body transitioning from semi‑transparent to opaque, the fur's texture sharpening from blur to clarity.

Those gray‑purple eyes, through the dim green light, stared at her, the green filament flashing again within the pupils.

Heimu lifted the Magic Staff.

The dark‑purple gem at the staff's tip burst with even brighter light the instant Heimu raised it.

Purple light particles continuously spilled from the gem's surface, swirling and shifting in the air; the particles illuminated half of her face in a flickering play of light and shadow, like someone rapidly toggling a purple lamp before her.

"First, I'll deal with you,"

She said to the pink‑haired girl, her tone calm as if stating an imminent fact, "Then I'll retrieve Xi Lian. After that, I'll find Ailixiya to figure out what's up with that Crystal Flower. Finally—"

"Pull Aha out of some corner and ask how much stuff they've jammed into my system!"

The pink‑haired girl gave no response.

She only gripped the knife tighter, her knuckles paling faintly beneath the glove, and the gray‑purple eyes reflected Heimu's silhouette, that silhouette unmoving within her pupils, as if nailed there.

Behind her, the Giant Fox had already re‑coalesced, its fluffy pink tail sweeping slowly behind it, sweeping a wide arc from one wall to the other, shattering several of the remaining wall lamps on both sides of the corridor.

The glass shards fell onto the dark‑red carpet, flashing coldly amid the faint green glints, like tiny pieces of ice.