Chapter 563

In the scene, only the Coffin Puller dragged the bone coffin, standing silently in place, its speech stuttering as if frozen and malfunctioning.

"Already… already mature… target, target… b-b-b-b…"

Tian Erjun, whose body was pierced through by iron chains held by the Coffin Puller, was half-unconscious and half-dead.

As thunderclouds enveloped the area and raindrops fell, his life force rapidly faded beneath the rain.

Above the Coffin Puller's head, rapid "-1" "-1" "-1" health loss prompts appeared.

Clearly, its power was far from reaching the Rain Level, let alone being able to ignore Night Rain.

But the current Night Rain was only at the Light Rain level.

Even its underlings, those grotesques, could withstand it for a while.

Yet the terror of Night Rain, its reputation, left no grotesque bold enough to resist it.

This is a battle against heaven, defying the Dao—unavoidable!

It is an instinct written into survival: since ancient times, only grotesques who knew to flee Night Rain had survived, and lived until now.

All grotesques who did not fear Night Rain, who treated it as nothing, vanished into the river of history.

The Coffin Puller, of course, also felt this soul-deep, instinctive terror of Night Rain.

But a higher will compelled it to perform one act.

In its consciousness, that act was even higher than the instinct for survival!

"Target! Target! Target! Lock onto target!"

Tap-tap-tap!

At that moment, a golden afterimage suddenly entered the range of Night Rain and rushed toward the Coffin Puller.

And as it drew near, it leapt high into the air—its target… unmistakably the suspended Tian Erjun!

Crrr!

Yet before the golden afterimage could react, the Coffin Puller raised its hand in an instant, piercing its chest with an iron chain and hanging it high in the air like a lantern, just as it had done to Tian Erjun.

Under the pounding of Night Rain, Captain Wu quickly exhausted his Qi and Blood and died, his eyes losing their luster.

The Coffin Puller withdrew its gaze, no longer paying attention to Captain Wu.

But soon, it sensed something was wrong.

Turning back, it saw golden radiance blazing from Captain Wu's body, faintly accompanied by the sound of Phoenix Cry.

When the Phoenix Cry faded, Captain Wu suddenly opened his eyes—revived from death!

Consciousness returned; in an instant, he was fully alert.

To the Coffin Puller's shock, he seized the iron chain with both hands, yanked downward with all his strength, used the recoil to launch himself skyward, and with a sharp hiss, leapt upward—his chest now pierced by a bloody hole, spewing blood as he broke free from the chain, then kicked off the chain itself to land beside Tian Erjun and rescue him.

Carrying the man, he did not even glance at the Coffin Puller, but plummeted rapidly downward, fleeing far from it.

Through that brief clash, he had tested the gap in strength with his own life.

It was an absolute disparity in raw power—not one that could be bridged by resurrection or any such trick!

So Captain Wu acted decisively: rescue the man and run.

But he was still too slow.

Or rather, his speed was too slow.

Swoosh—swoosh—

Two piercing sounds rose from behind.

Two iron chains were chasing after him!

By his previous strength, he would have been pierced through before even sensing the attack, dooming Tian Erjun utterly.

But now, in the moment just after his revival, while that strange power still coursed through his body, Captain Wu's senses became extraordinarily sharp, and his own power reached a peak.

So he immediately sensed the attack from behind and reacted almost instantly.

His first move: twisting his body midair—then the chain pierced his scapula.

His second move: hurling Tian Erjun toward the ground near Tian Dan Zhi Yuan Wu.

Fortunately, though these two actions were distinct, they were executed nearly simultaneously.

Thus, even with the chain piercing his scapula, he still used momentum to fling Tian Erjun away.

Due to the angle and Captain Wu's forced redirection, the second chain missed its target, striking empty ground instead, and was quickly retracted by the Coffin Puller.

Just as Captain Wu believed he had completed his mission…

Boom! His head exploded as a chain shot backward and struck him.

At the same time, Tian Erjun plummeted toward the ground at tremendous speed.

At this velocity, even if he escaped the Coffin Puller's range, he would die instantly upon impact.

Tian Dan Zhi Yuan Wu screamed in panic, "Aaah! Aaah! Aaah!"; Chen Qing was also flustered—he had zero experience in combat and had no confidence he could safely catch Tian Erjun, but he had already calculated the landing point and shouted for Tian Dan Zhi Yuan Wu to hurry into position.

As for the spot where Tian Dan Zhi Yuan Wu had originally stood, it was over a hundred meters away from the landing point.

"Wu Wu! It's all up to you!"

"I-I-I-I-I'll… I-I-I…"

Tian Dan Zhi Yuan Wu's teeth chattered, her hands trembling. Chen Qing even wondered whether letting a complete novice like himself take the risk might have been safer than entrusting it to a combat specialist like Tian Dan Zhi Yuan Wu.

Just then, a horseback rider suddenly emerged from the side, stepped on the horse's back through the rain, leapt upward, and caught Tian Erjun midair, cushioning the impact before landing safely.

"You Senior?!"

"You Sister!"

Tian Dan Zhi Yuan Wu and Chen Qing cried out in relief.

The newcomer was none other than You Sisi, who had originally ridden with Fang Yue!

She immediately gave Tian Erjun several pills, but when he coughed up blood, her expression changed instantly.

"Lord Han's drug resistance should have reached its peak long ago!" When Zaoqing saw You Sisi pull out the pills at dawn, he wanted to speak—but it was already too late.

Fortunately, there were only a few pills; they merely worsened the Heavy Injury, but hadn't reached a fatal stage.

Yet it was still extremely dangerous and required immediate medical treatment.

You Sisi clearly understood this, ordering the two to carry Tian Erjun onto horseback and hurry back to Qingsi for treatment.

"Keep the horses running beneath the eaves—do everything to preserve Tian Erjun."

"What about you?"

"I'm going to rescue Wu Captain. I'll catch up with you soon."

"Don't stay long in Night Rain! Lord Han, even you—"

"I have my reasons. Go first!"

Seeing You Sisi's determination, Zaoqing reluctantly agreed.

The two mounted their horses with Tian Erjun; Zaoqing also held Xiao Xuedou in his arms, took off his coat, tied it to Tian Dan Zhi Yuan Wu's back, then stretched it flat to form a makeshift canopy against the rain, and spurred the horses into a gallop.

After riding a distance and sensing Tian Erjun's drug resistance had slightly decreased, he barely managed to administer a faint Qi and Blood-replenishing pill before they finally reached Qingsi.

He handed Tian Erjun over to Qingsi's dedicated physician, then took Xiao Xuedou to study how to help Lord Han regain consciousness. Tian Dan Zhi Yuan Wu was naturally dragged along to assist.

Meanwhile, on the other side.

Beneath the Night Rain, the decapitated Wu Captain's body once again emitted golden light; a phoenix cry rang out, and his shattered skull regrew flesh and bone.

But as soon as his consciousness returned, Wu Captain sensed something was wrong.

Because… he realized he was bound by over a dozen iron chains, piercing every key bone, locking him immobile in midair.

Before he could act or speak—

Boom!

The iron chains exploded again, shattering his head.

Death began to cycle!

……

No update this month—I'll post a month-end reflection soon.

(End of Chapter)