Chapter 175: Unexpected Rampage

The King of the Forest had suffered devastating injuries, hanging onto life by a thread, yet it was not quite dead. Its limbs hung heavily, its skull cracked, and it was entirely powerless to resist. The demon let out another low roar, seizing the struggling creature and pinning it to the ground.

At that moment, the demon had gone completely mad, relentlessly swinging its fists and pounding away without a single pause at the prostrate King of the Forest. Its sharp fangs and demonic claws tore into the flesh of the beast, ripping open its abdomen as though intent on tearing it apart alive and stripping it bare.

Even after the breath had left the creature, the demon refused to stop, tearing the carcass into bloody fragments and flinging the pieces aside in a gruesome, gory spectacle.

Next, the demon plunged its demonic hand deep into the chest cavity, tearing out the magical core and clutching it within its blood-soaked palm to absorb it entirely. Acting like a primal, blood-drinking beast, it then proceeded to devour the flesh and vital essence of the King of the Forest bite by bite.

Ling Xiaolei trembled as she hid behind a boulder, unable to believe that the horror unfolding before her was the work of Heiyu.

"Heiyu... you, what is wrong with you..."

In the eyes of the demon, she could detect not a shred of emotion. She realized this was no longer the Heiyu she knew, but a completely raving, demented fiend devoid of reason. She had to stop him, yet her legs felt weak as water.

"No, I must stop Heiyu. Only I can help him..."

Suddenly, a surge of immense courage emboldened her. With a fierce leap, she threw herself off the cliffside. A purple chain was anchored into the rock face above; grabbing hold of one end, she kicked off the sheer precipice with all her might and swung toward the forest where Heiyu was.

The chain reeled outward. Upon landing in a crouch, Ling Xiaolei rolled forward over her knees, steadied herself, and swept her gaze around. She saw Heiyu's physical form standing behind the demon, enveloped in a dense shroud of darkness so thick his appearance was obscured, standing rigidly motionless.

"Heiyu!"

She cried out, springing to her feet and running at full speed until she reached the rear of the towering demon, where she grabbed Heiyu by the arm. At that moment, his body was icy cold, stiff as stone, and his gaze was vacant. Startled, she flinched and drew her fingers back with a twitch.

"Heiyu, you, wake up!"

It was said that the blood of demons ran cold; Heiyu's face was deathly pale now, and faint, extremely fine light-gray blood vessels could be seen beneath his skin. His consciousness had completely vanished, his eyes hollow, staring blankly upward as a crimson light flashed before them.

"No, if this continues, Heiyu's body won't be able to bear it. I have to wake him up at once!"

Ling Xiaolei was on the verge of tears, yet she forced herself to remain calm, calling out to him repeatedly while grabbing his arm and shaking it vigorously:

"Heiyu, Heiyu! Wake up! Wake up!..."

She thought with a pang of bitter regret: *Ah, if I had known, I never should have provoked this King of the Forest. We should have headed straight to Red Port. If anything happens to Heiyu...*

Heiyu's consciousness remained unrestored, his gaze blank and unseeing, completely deaf to her words. As she wept aloud and shook him fiercely, she finally drew the attention of the demon before them.

The demon, whose maw had just formed a black hole to consume the massive carcass of the King of the Forest, now whipped its head around, fresh blood dripping from its jaws. In the eyes of the towering monster, Ling Xiaolei was as insignificant as an ant, yet its malevolent gaze suddenly locked onto her, immediately marking her as an enemy attempting to harm Heiyu.

"Roar!"

With a furious bellow, the demon expelled a gale from its mouth laden with a turbid, dark aura. Broken branches and flying grit whipped toward Ling Xiaolei. In an instant, the shockwave blew her completely off her feet, sending her tumbling backward a dozen times.

With a heavy thud, her back slammed into a tree trunk, sending a wave of sharp pain through her body.

The roaring continued. Forcing her eyes open against the violent wind, she propped herself up into a sitting position and discovered a deep gash slashed across her left arm—doubtlessly cut by a sharp branch during her backward tumble—with blood soaking completely through her sleeve.

The sheer power of the demon's roar made her chest feel constricted. She immediately scrambled to her feet, ducking behind a tree, and tore a strip of fabric from her shredded sleeve to bind the wound on her arm.

The demon's assault had not ceased. Suddenly, a violent gust swept past the top of her head, chilling her to the bone; the very tree she had been leaning against had been severed by a single swipe of the demon's hand, snapping a meter off the ground and crashing sideways.

Caught completely off guard, Ling Xiaolei was once again exposed to the demon's line of sight. Though she did not turn back, she felt the chilling pressure at her spine—the demon was staring directly at her.

"Run!"

Her mind went entirely blank, leaving room for only a single thought.

She immediately broke into a sprint, but at her speed, how could she possibly outrun the colossal body of the demon? With a single stride forward, the demon blocked Ling Xiaolei's path. Its heavy breathing expelled turbid air mixed with the stench of fresh blood as it raised a demonic claw to strike her down.

Sweat beaded on Ling Xiaolei's forehead. In her desperation, the Summoning Tome on her wrist flashed.

"Greedy Wolf!"

Greedy Wolf burst forth from a cloud of smoke beneath her. Just as the demonic claw was about to touch her, Greedy Wolf slammed its body against hers to knock her aside, caught her upon its broad wolf-back, and lunged forward with a few rapid strides before leaping high into the air, escaping the reach of the deadly claw.

Greedy Wolf's leap carried it a vast distance. Its physique had also grown by leaps and bounds since its previous manifestation, boasting a wide back and powerful paws.

Upon landing once more, Greedy Wolf executed a sharp turn, circling around to the rear of the demon. Guided by Ling Xiaolei, it raced in sheer desperation through the pitch-black forest, feeling as though there was nowhere left to flee. Ling Xiaolei clung tightly to the wolf's neck, sprawled flat across its jolting back.

The demon's attacks followed closely behind. Several falling claw strikes were evaded by Greedy Wolf, but owing to the razor-sharp turns, Ling Xiaolei was nearly thrown from the wolf's back with every maneuver.

Seeing that the demon had exhausted its patience and grown enraged, it let out a wild roar and slammed its demonic claw furiously against the ground. The earth behind Greedy Wolf shattered from the impact, causing the beast to lose its footing and stumble. It flipped over and crashed heavily to the earth, flinging Ling Xiaolei far through the air until she hit the ground with bone-jarring force.

The demon took a single stride directly above her, raising its demonic claw once more. At that moment, Ling Xiaolei's life hung by a thread.

"Heiyu..."

Struggling back up from the ground, she stared into the eyes of the demon in near-despair, her body caked in soil and rotting dead leaves.

Behind the demon, the unconscious Heiyu was walking forward step by step. An aura of aberrant evil clung to him, and every plant his feet touched withered and shrivelled instantly.

His pitch-black bangs obscured his eyes, his pale face serene yet chillingly ruthless, devoid of the slightest trace of human emotion, as though he were an entirely different person.

At the very instant the demonic claw descended, Greedy Wolf, striving to protect its master, mustered its final ounce of strength and leaped into the air, slamming directly into the demon's face. Stumbling, the demon halted its downward strike and instead swept its palm horizontally, shattering Greedy Wolf's physical form into a plume of black mist that vanished into nothingness.