Chapter 516: Wind's Up, Cut and Run (4/10, Autumn Subscription)

These aberrations.

【Coffin-Pulling Aberration】 moves, they move.

【Coffin-Pulling Aberration】 stops, they stop.

They maintain a fixed relative distance from the 【Coffin-Pulling Aberration】, not daring to overstep by even half a step!

Fang Yue looked carefully—good lord, among the aberration horde following behind the 【Coffin-Pulling Aberration】, there were at least five Blood Grade aberrations.

But judging from the size of the red stones on their foreheads, they were all Blood Grade Initial Stage aberrations.

Fang Yue had now also entered the Xiantian Realm, so he wasn't too afraid of aberrations of the same grade.

Only, with so many of them, it would be very hard for him alone to intercept them all.

Once he failed to intercept the aberrations, the Bai Xiaoya and the others behind him would be in danger.

"Ah! It's paste!" Bai Xiaoya sniffed, pointing at the aberrations as she spoke.

"Quiet."

Fang Yue gave the order without turning his head.

"Oh…" Bai Xiaoya was unexpectedly obedient, only asking softly, "Can I eat it?"

Fang Yue didn't answer her, instead fixing his gaze dead on the 【Coffin-Pulling Aberration】 walking toward them step by step.

Although he didn't know what this thing's background was, the fact that it could keep the aberration horde behind it so docile meant it was certainly no simple matter!

"I'll make a probing strike. Be ready to grab Bai Xiaoya and Lord Han and run at any moment."

After giving Bai Xiaoya her orders, he handed Lord Han over to Qingchen. Jing Yan held Xiao Xuedou tight. The two were ready to flee at any moment.

Fang Yue took a deep breath.

Boom!!

The next instant, his figure shot toward the 【Coffin-Pulling Aberration】 like a phantom.

Fang Yue's speed was extreme, his legs burning with White Flame, pushing his speed to the limit.

But mid-sprint, Fang Yue noticed that the 【Coffin-Pulling Aberration】's half-bone, half-human head was actually slowly shifting its angle to track his movement, and its previously steady forward pace had suddenly halted.

"It can keep up with my top speed?"

Fang Yue changed his angle of approach, and sure enough, the 【Coffin-Pulling Aberration】's head moved with him—like an auto-tracking high-speed camera, locking onto him with pinpoint precision.

"Steward Liao?"

Fang Yue called out hesitantly, but the 【Coffin-Pulling Aberration】 gave no reaction at all, merely continuing to stare at Fang Yue.

Then there was nothing more to say.

Fang Yue tried weaving left and right at high speed, attempting to leave behind afterimages.

This was clearly the movement technique the Horse Seat had used earlier.

But when Fang Yue tried to replicate and reproduce it, he found that his lateral shifts simply couldn't create afterimages, nor did they make him any faster—it purely slowed him down, just bouncing left and right like a monkey.

"Looks like my Comprehension isn't enough. I can't master the subtleties of someone else's movement technique at a glance."

Oblivious to himself, Fang Yue was feeling rather pleased with his performance.

But when the 【Coffin-Pulling Aberration】 slowly raised its human-bone right hand wrapped in iron chains, Fang Yue's mood instantly tensed up.

The longer the reach, the greater the advantage.

At this distance, his Fire Blade was still far from attack range. The only move he could use was…

"Fire Feather!"

The blazing-white Fire Blade took shape in an instant, and the next moment, transformed into a skyful of scattered feathers, flying toward the 【Coffin-Pulling Aberration】.

And while the 【Fire Feather】 was still in flight, the 【Coffin-Pulling Aberration】 moved.

A blur in an instant—even Fang Yue couldn't make out the 【Coffin-Pulling Aberration】's attack trajectory, as if it had happened in perfect Synchronize.

The instant the Coffin-Pulling Aberration moved, the instant the blur appeared…

Boom!!

Fang Yue's left shoulder exploded with a roar.

Like an unbreakable iron-chain whip, it slammed squarely into his left shoulder—flesh and bone shattering, fragments flying everywhere.

His whole body was whipped away by the violent force, sent flying backward.

Stunned senseless, Fang Yue crashed heavily to the ground, tumbled a dozen or so rolls, and landed right at Jing Yan and the others' feet.

999!

"Ye… Ge?"

They and Fang Yue stared at each other, all somewhat at a loss.

From their perspective, Fang Yue had just charged out—and the next second, something had sent him flying back. His left shoulder had burst open, a huge chunk of the shoulder bone missing, exposed to the air, dripping with fresh blood.

This was Ye Ge! Ye Ge of the Xiantian Realm!

Coming back to their senses, the group couldn't help but draw in a sharp breath, staring in shock at the 【Coffin-Pulling Aberration】 ahead.

What on earth was this aberration's background?! In a single strike, it had suppressed Ye Ge!

The Fire Feather over there had long since struck the 【Coffin-Pulling Aberration】, but the damage was negligible—the 【Coffin-Pulling Aberration】 had simply ignored it.

Tap tap tap.

Bai Xiaoya nervously trotted over. Fang Yue waved a hand to indicate he was fine, then slowly stood up.

The exposed bone gap on his shoulder was already rapidly repairing and healing.

Under the boost of 【Breath of Night】, the HP Fang Yue had lost was also recovering quickly.

Only… a casual chain strike dealt 999. Three simultaneous chain hits, and he'd be done for.

This damage… he couldn't quite tank it.

Fang Yue's face darkened. The aberration before him had clearly exceeded his capacity to handle.

When it rains, it pours — perhaps it was his imagination, but the Xinghong Banyue Yinjie on the back of his hand, representing the curse 【Wuyu】, had also begun to faintly burn.

"Can I eat it? This mushy thing looks really tasty."

Seeing that Fang Yue was fine, Bai Xiaoya began drooling at the 【Coffin-Pulling Guai】.

Fang Yue was inwardly sweating — even he couldn't withstand a single strike from the 【Coffin-Pulling Guai】; if Bai Xiaoya went up, she'd be a free meal.

"Retreat! That thing isn't something we can handle!"

His face darkening, Fang Yue said it directly.

Fang Yue's realm was only Innate Third-rate Realm — he had just broken through.

But his overall strength was at the Xiantian Second-Rate Realm level.

And judging by the oppressive force the 【Coffin-Pulling Guai】 had displayed so far, Fang Yue suspected it was a… peak-level high-grade blood-tier guai.

Or perhaps… a disaster-tier guai!

Blood-tier corresponds to the Xiantian Realm.

Disaster-tier corresponds to the Human-tier!

Human-tier — that was not something Fang Yue could handle.

So he made a snap decision, telling everyone to retreat immediately.

If Fang Yue hadn't just made a probing strike, then — based on their absolute confidence in Fang Yue — both Jing Yan and Qingchen would have been full of faith in him.

But now, watching the invincible Fang Yue get his physical body shattered by a single whip strike, unable to withstand the attack at all, they immediately lost their nerve.

Without a second thought, taking Lord Han and Xiao Xuedou, the two of them turned tail and ran.

Fang Yue didn't hesitate either — he hoisted Bai Xiaoya onto his shoulder, told the two of them to hold hands, then grabbed one of them by the hand.

"Hold on tight — the wind's up, let's skedaddle!"

Able to fight and able to run, brave when it counts and wise enough to back down — that is what a truly courageous person should do!

Fang Yue's objective here was already accomplished.

Rescuing Lord Han, and incidentally pulling Bai Xiaoya out as well — that was already a pleasant surprise.

If he fought a hard battle here and Lord Han or anyone else got hurt, all his efforts would have been for nothing.

No need to fight that thing.

Escape, then seal off the final passage leading straight to Qingsi County. Let that ghost-thing fend for itself out in the wild — that counts as one way of solving the problem.

(End of chapter)