Chapter 50: Hu Li's Assist

All the black spider silk tightened simultaneously in an instant, and the massive flesh-and-blood behemoth let out a series of muffled, piercing roars. Irene tried her utmost to control those pitch-black threads, making them constantly change their weaving direction in mid-air to form traction ropes, dragging the monster inch by inch toward the doorway.

Yu Sheng, on the other hand, braced himself against the door, which was wider than ever before, striving to make it a bit wider and more stable.

The "door" possessed the characteristic of isolating the internal and external environments; merely opening a single door was not enough to directly "release" the harsh environment of the other side into this side. To burn this monster to death, it had to be thrown inside in its entirety.

Under normal circumstances, this isolation feature was certainly a good thing, as it prevented Yu Sheng from causing a catastrophic accident when accidentally opening a passage to a dangerous zone. But at this moment, Yu Sheng truly wished this door could merge the environments of both sides without any protective measures.

In that way, he could have opened the door directly in a lava lake, and the magma gushing out from the gateway would have instantly roasted the monster, sparing him all this arduous effort.

Yet he could only think about it—regarding the power of the "door," he had only just mastered it up to this point. Being able to ensure the door opened in the correct position was already quite an achievement, so he truly could not indulge in the luxury of using it as a flexible and versatile offensive weapon.

Amidst his racing thoughts, the monster had already been dragged to the front of the door, and even a portion of its limb extremities had been forcibly shoved into it. Through the doorway, Yu Sheng saw that the limbs crossing the door frame quickly had their moisture evaporated, and then they were rapidly ignited and carbonized in the purgatorial high temperature...

In a daze, he even felt as if his own limbs were burning.

Meanwhile, the flesh-and-blood behemoth's struggle turned instantly into something near-madness—even "hunger," operating purely on instinct, sensed immense danger and terror at this moment. All of its limbs trembled violently within the spiderweb, and countless gaps ruptured from its torso. Eyes of various sizes, mouths, sharp teeth and fangs, tentacles, and even mimic structures resembling human facial features and limbs all burst forth at once!

More piercing roars came from its ferocious and distorted giant mouths. The roar, close at hand, made Yu Sheng's ears ring, and even stirred up a roaring, tidal wave of noise in his thoughts. He felt dizzy, yet he still firmly grasped the handle of the illusory door, watching the behemoth being pushed step by step into that passage leading to purgatory.

Yet right at that moment, he heard a series of unsettling cracking sounds.

Yu Sheng suddenly looked up, turning toward the direction from which the cracking sounds came.

It was not Irene's threads that were snapping—the little doll had given her all this time and had not dropped the ball in the slightest.

What was snapping were the flesh and distorted limbs on the monster's body surface.

It began to struggle free from the spiderweb in mid-air inch by inch, tearing its own body apart into a bloody mess. It seemed to have no sense of pain at all; those severely restricted limbs were even ripped straight off its body by itself, after which new limbs grew out from the flesh, clinging to nearby rocks and accelerating its escape speed.

It had nearly transformed into an amorphous, flowing mass of flesh, rapidly deforming and "leaking" through the gaps in the spider silk.

It was adapting to Irene's spiderweb; it was learning a new physiological structure.

"I can't trap it anymore!" Irene's scream came from not far away. "My body can't hold out either! Think of something, Yu Sheng!"

Yu Sheng turned back and saw fine cracks rapidly appearing on Irene's arms and cheeks, the doll's body gradually fracturing.

"Damn it!"

He couldn't help cursing inwardly, forced to brace the door with one hand while reaching out with the other to grab the monster about to break free.

Yet in the very next second, the sound of howling wind suddenly reached his ears, mixed with... a wolf's howl.

A wolf's howl?

Yu Sheng looked up in bewilderment, seeing shadows flash abruptly across the night sky. Wolf-like silhouettes took shape from the shadows, howling and running in the air, then crashing one after another into the monster, tearing at its flesh and slowing down the process of its deformation and writhing.

Immediately afterward, Yu Sheng heard a loud shout from behind him, deep and powerful: "I've come to aid you!"

The next instant, he saw a nearly two-meter-tall figure rush over from behind like a gust of wind, delivering a flying kick in mid-air and slamming into the monster like a massive boulder with a dull thud.

The body of the flesh-and-blood behemoth was uncontrollably "dropped" toward the doorway, and its frantic struggles, contortions, and roars could no longer delay the process.

The muscular man who had delivered the flying kick vaulted in the air, spun around, landed stylishly, and turned to look at Yu Sheng: "Good thing we made it in..."

He saw Yu Sheng's face.

The expression on the muscular man's face instantly turned bewildered, shock filling his eyes, and his entire body looked as if he had been struck by lightning.

His whole being exuded the bleak sorrow of someone tricked by a foolish boss and transferred from one frontline directly to another on short-notice leave.

Yet Yu Sheng had no idea why the muscular man in front of him suddenly had such an expressive face upon seeing him, nor did he have the spare energy to ponder this matter, for he found that the flesh-and-blood behemoth was struggling once again. Even though half its body had already been pushed into the doorway and burned to charcoal, the remaining half of its body still stubbornly wedged itself in the edge of the door, beginning to rapidly regenerate.

A certain inexplicable connection made Yu Sheng feel... anger and hatred.

Primitive "emotions" and the glimmer of thought began to emerge within those trembling eyes.

The nameless muscular man also sensed the commotion beside him, hastily looking up and crying out in alarm: "Oh no! This thing can still fight back!"

Followed closely by Irene's scream: "It's snapping!"

The doll's arms were covered in cracks, and the pitch-black threads snapped inch by inch in the blink of an eye. The spiderweb emitted a series of sharp explosions, instantly breaking and dissipating.

The behemoth had broken free.

Yet the moment Yu Sheng felt that the situation was lost and prepared to shout for the others to run, a flash of dazzling blue fire suddenly erupted in the corner of his eye.

Huli, who had been hiding behind a nearby wall parapet all along, plucked up her courage and ran out at some point. She stared fiercely at the monster struggling before the door, crouching on the ground like a wild beast. Her silver-white fox tails flared out in the night sky, and massive sheets of blue spirit fire burned fiercely at the tip of each tail.

A low roar issued from the throat of the vixen girl.

Almost simultaneously, pitch-black spikes and bone fragments burst forth from all her limbs, pinning her to the ground.

Seeing this, Yu Sheng shouted anxiously: "Never mind thi—"

Before he could finish shouting, however, he saw Huli, crouching on all fours, take a hard step forward, breaking free from those spike-like restraints, and then abruptly adjusting her posture—

Foxfire burst forth, and a dazzling flash suddenly tore through the darkness. The silver-white cone spewed cobalt-blue flames from its rear, hurtling like a rocket toward the flesh-and-blood behemoth struggling to escape the doorway.

Yu Sheng had no time at all to see what that thing was, before he saw a violent flash erupt on the behemoth's back. Even though Huli had deliberately restricted the scope of the explosion, Yu Sheng, standing at close range, felt as if his bones were nearly shattered by the blast—and the monster directly struck by that silver-white cone lost its balance on the spot. Staggering a few steps, the flesh-and-blood behemoth, already pushed to its absolute limit, finally plunged completely into the doorway.

Amidst the rapidly receding roars, Yu Sheng abruptly released his control over the door.

The illusory door vanished into thin air in the blink of an eye.

Silence descended upon the ruined temple, and this abruptly fallen silence felt almost surreal.

Irene collapsed directly onto the ground, her fractured arms too weak to even lift.

A red-robed girl riding on the back of a phantom wolf walked over from outside the ruins with a look of astonishment on her face, accompanied by an ordinary-looking young man with black hair.

The young man spotted Yu Sheng from afar, his expression suddenly freezing as if recalling something, his brows gradually furrowing.

As for the nearly two-meter-tall muscular man, he stared wide-eyed at the direction where the door had vanished, seemingly lost in bewilderment and thought.

Yu Sheng, however, did not have the leisure to greet these "temporary comrades" who had popped up out of nowhere; instead, he immediately turned his gaze toward Huli.

The vixen girl was struggling to climb up from the ground, the foxfire behind her noticeably dimmed, but she was still alive.

Yu Sheng was stunned: So what was that thing that flew past just now? Wasn't it a headbutt?

Immediately afterward, he noticed that one of the tails behind Huli seemed to be missing.

Yu Sheng: "..."

So this girl had actually launched what?!

Can they seriously be used like that?!

Yu Sheng's shock was beyond words. Realizing that the silver-white cone blazing with blue fire that had flown out just now was actually Huli's tail left him completely dumbfounded—a daze that momentarily overrode the excitement of victory over a formidable enemy.

He knew nothing of immortal arts or demonic spells, but his instinct told him that neither immortal arts nor demonic spells should include the rule that "a nine-tailed fox can launch her own tail like a missile"...

Huli, unaware of the transient, colorful expressions passing across her benefactor's face, merely struggled to her feet. The wounds on her body pierced by the black bone spikes had completely vanished at some unknown point, and she stumbled hurriedly toward Yu Sheng, an expression of urgency on her face: "Benefactor..."

Yu Sheng hurriedly reached out to support the vixen girl, who could hardly stand: "You should rest for a moment..."

Huli anxiously interrupted Yu Sheng's words: "There's no time to rest, Benefactor, it's not over yet!"

Yu Sheng was instantly taken aback.