Chapter 50

Chapter 50: Foxy’s Assist

Every strand of black spider silk cinched tight at the same instant. The massive flesh behemoth let out a string of harsh, muffled hisses as Irene drove herself to the limit, forcing those pitch-black threads to shift and reweave in midair. They twisted into towing ropes and dragged the monster, inch by inch, toward the door.

Yu Sheng planted his feet and held the widened doorway steady, pushing it open as far as he could.

The “door” sealed off the environments on either side. Simply opening it wouldn’t spill the brutal heat on the far side into this one. If they wanted to burn the thing to death, they had to shove it through—whole.

Normally, that safeguard was a blessing. It kept Yu Sheng from causing a catastrophe every time he opened a passage to somewhere dangerous. Right now, he wished it didn’t exist.

If the two sides could fuse, he could open straight into a lake of lava and let the magma pour out and roast the monster where it stood. No tug-of-war. No struggle.

But wishing didn’t make it happen. He’d only just begun to master the power of the door. Finding the right destination was hard enough; turning it into a flexible weapon was a fantasy.

By the time the thought finished, the monster was already at the threshold. The tips of several limbs were forced into the frame. Yu Sheng watched as the parts that crossed over shriveled—moisture boiled away in seconds—then ignited and charred in the hellish heat beyond.

For a heartbeat, he even felt as if his own limbs were burning.

The flesh behemoth’s struggle turned feral. Even a creature driven by nothing but hunger could recognize danger. Its bound limbs convulsed inside the Spiderweb, and gashes split across its body as it thrashed. Eyes and mouths of every size burst open. Sharp fangs, twitching feelers, and warped mimicry—human faces, hands, even feet—erupted from raw flesh all at once.

A shriek of hissing maws slammed into Yu Sheng at point-blank range. His ears rang. The sound drowned out his thoughts and left him dizzy, but he clung to the handle of Phantom Door and watched the behemoth get shoved, bit by bit, into the passage that led to hell.

Then he heard it—an ugly series of cracks.

Yu Sheng snapped his head toward the sound.

It wasn’t Irene’s silk. Little Doll was going all out, and not a single thread slipped.

The monster was tearing itself apart.

It began wrenching free of the Spiderweb, ripping its own surface flesh and twisting limbs until it became a bloody ruin. It didn’t seem to feel pain at all. Limbs bound too tightly were torn clean off. New ones sprouted from raw meat, grabbing nearby rocks to anchor itself and speed its escape.

In moments, it was less a body than a flowing mass, reshaping through gaps in the spider silk, leaking out like slurry.

It was adapting. Learning. Building a new way to survive Irene’s web.

“I can’t hold it!” Irene screamed from nearby. “My body can’t take it either! Think of something, Yu Sheng!”

He glanced back and saw fine cracks spidering across Irene’s arms and cheeks. The doll’s body was starting to crumble.

“Shit.” Yu Sheng swore under his breath. One hand had to keep the door braced; the other reached for the monster as it slipped free.

Before he could do anything, a howling wind sliced past his ear, tangled with something that didn’t belong in the ruins at all—a wolf’s howl.

A wolf’s howl?

Yu Sheng looked up, stunned. Shadow after shadow cut across the night sky. Wolf-like outlines swelled inside them. A pack of wolves ran through the air as if it were solid ground, then slammed into the monster again and again, tearing at its flesh and slowing the frantic reshaping.

A heavy shout came from behind him, deep and forceful. “I’ll help you!”

A figure nearly two meters tall charged in like a gale. In midair, the man snapped into a flying kick and smashed into the monster with a dull boom, like a boulder thrown from the sky.

The flesh behemoth lurched. Its body pitched uncontrollably toward the door. No matter how it writhed, screamed, and flailed, it couldn’t delay what came next.

The burly man spun in the air, landed cleanly, and turned to Yu Sheng. “Good thing I made it—”

He saw Yu Sheng’s face.

His expression went utterly blank. Disbelief flooded his eyes, like he’d been struck by lightning. He wore the bleak misery of someone who’d been screwed over by an idiot boss and dumped onto yet another frontline.

Yu Sheng had no idea why the man looked like that, and he didn’t have the spare brainpower to care. The behemoth was still struggling. Even with half its body jammed through the doorway and burned into charcoal, the other half wedged stubbornly at the edge—and it was regenerating.

Through some inexplicable connection, Yu Sheng felt it: anger. Hatred.

In those trembling, deformed eyes, a primitive emotion stirred. A faint glimmer of thought.

The burly man sensed it too. He jerked his head up, took one look, and shouted, “Crap! This thing can still fight back!”

“It’s snapping!” Irene screamed.

Cracks covered the doll’s arms. Then, in an instant, the pitch-black silk threads gave way. Spiderweb popped with sharp, piercing snaps and vanished.

The behemoth broke free.

Yu Sheng’s heart sank. He was about to shout for everyone to run when a dazzling burst of blue fire flared at the edge of his vision.

Foxy—who’d been hiding behind a nearby wall—was suddenly out in the open. He had no idea when she’d found the courage. She stared viciously at the monster thrashing at the door, crouched low like a beast. Under the night sky, her silver fox tails flared wide, and blue spirit flames roared at the tips of each one.

The demon fox girl let out a low, desperate growl.

At the same time, black spikes and bone shards erupted from her body and pinned her to the ground.

Yu Sheng shouted, “Don’t bother—”

He never finished. Still on all fours, Foxy forced herself a step forward. The awl-like restraints snapped. She shifted her stance, muscles locking—

Fox fire erupted.

A blinding flash tore through the darkness. From behind a silver-white cone, eerie blue flames blasted out and shot toward the flesh behemoth like a rocket.

Yu Sheng didn’t even have time to register what she’d fired. He only saw a violent flare explode from the monster’s back. Even with Foxy trying to keep the blast contained, the shockwave hit Yu Sheng like a hammer. For an instant, it felt like his bones might crack.

The behemoth, already at its limit, lost its balance. It staggered twice and finally toppled—completely—into the door.

As its fading howl was swallowed by the passage, Yu Sheng released his grip.

Phantom Door vanished in the blink of an eye.

The ruined temple fell silent. The sudden quiet was so complete it didn’t feel real.

Irene slumped to the ground, her cracked arms hanging uselessly.

A red-clad girl rode in from outside the ruins atop a shadow wolf, her face tight with shock. Beside her walked an ordinary-looking black-haired young man.

From a distance, the young man spotted Yu Sheng and froze, as if something tugged at his memory. His brow furrowed slowly.

The burly man stared wide-eyed at the empty air where the door had been, caught between shock and thought.

Yu Sheng didn’t have time to greet these “temporary comrades” who’d come out of nowhere. He turned at once, searching for Foxy.

The demon fox girl was struggling to push herself up. The fox fire behind her was dimmer now, but she was alive.

Yu Sheng’s chest loosened. Then his eyes caught the detail that made his mind seize: Foxy had one less tail.

Yu Sheng stared.

So what in the world had just flown over there? That wasn’t a headbutt.

The moment it clicked that the silver-white cone wreathed in blue flames had been Foxy’s tail, his brain went blank. For several seconds, the sheer absurdity drowned out even the exhilaration of surviving.

He didn’t understand immortal arts or demon magic, but his instincts insisted no system of power should include the rule “a nine-tailed fox can fire her own tail like a missile.”

Foxy didn’t understand why her benefactor looked like he’d seen a ghost. She staggered toward him, urgent. “Benefactor…”

Yu Sheng caught her before she could collapse. “Rest for a—”

“No rest, Benefactor.” Foxy cut him off, voice shaking. “It’s not over.”

Yu Sheng went still.