Guo Yun: Plays Ye Shunguang, teammate Ye Shiyuan

"younger sister!"

Zhe could no longer hide. His small body suddenly leaped out from behind the cover, his four short legs running wildly through the ruins, leaving a blurry afterimage in his wake.

But he was too small, and the rubble and ravines among the ruins were like insurmountable barriers for him, nearly tripping him several times.

"Wait!" Ye Shunguang struggled to catch up, but his body wouldn't obey him.

The excruciating pain in her right arm, the lingering corrosive energy in her meridians, and the exhaustion from overexertion surged over her like a tidal wave. Her vision blurred, her sword-wielding hand trembled violently, and her knees buckled, almost causing her to kneel.

Just as she swayed, a hand steadily supported her elbow.

Yi Xuan had appeared beside her without her noticing. His hand was warm and cool like jade, and the force transmitted through the fabric was gentle yet firm, carrying a strange soothing effect that calmed the turbulent blood and qi within Ye Shunguang's body.

"Xiao Guang..." Yi Xuan's voice remained calm, but upon closer inspection, one could see the intense emotions surging within his deep eyes, and the suppressed, well-like calm he had forced back to his original state. "Don't get agitated. I know what you're thinking."

She paused, her gaze sweeping over Ye Shunguang's pale face, his torn hand, and his clothes soaked with sweat and blood. A barely perceptible pity flickered deep in her eyes, but her tone remained calm: "But now is not the time to talk about these things. When we arrive at Suibian Temple, I will explain everything to you."

As she spoke, she lightly raised her other hand and tapped her fingertips lightly in the air a few times.

A few warm, yellowish-white particles of light drifted from her fingertips and entered Ye Shunguang's brow, chest, and injured right arm. The light particles, upon entering his body, transformed into a gentle, warm current, quickly soothing the stinging pain in his meridians caused by the corrosive energy.

"Don't move around here," Yi Xuan released his grip and took a half step back. "I will be back soon."

Before she finished speaking, her figure rose like a wisp of smoke. Riding on the Azure Nether Bird, she sped off in the direction Zhe was running, her speed astonishing, turning into a rapidly shrinking black dot in the distance in the blink of an eye.

Ye Shunguang stared in the direction where his master had disappeared, his lips moved as if he wanted to say something, but he found that he didn't even have the strength to speak.

The few strands of gentle energy that Yi Xuan injected were like temporarily reinforcing a collapsing dam with wooden stakes; they could only keep it from collapsing for the time being. Once the mind relaxed, the fatigue, pain, and exhaustion that had been forcibly suppressed would come rushing back like a flood bursting its banks.

She felt her vision begin to blur, and the exclamations of Ju Fufu and Pan Yinhu, as well as the voices of others, seemed to be separated by a thick curtain of water, becoming distant and distorted.

"Hikari! How are you?" Tachibana Fukufu was the first to rush to her side, supporting her swaying shoulders. Her touch was cold and damp; the girl's entire back was soaked in sweat, and her thin body was trembling slightly uncontrollably.

Pan Yinhu also staggered over. His right arm wound was still bleeding, but he didn't care at all. He just stared intently at Ye Shunguang's pale face.

Ye Shunguang wanted to shake her head to show that she was fine, and to force a smile to reassure her senior brothers and sisters, but she didn't even have the strength to lift her eyelids.

Darkness surged in from the edge of vision like a tide, quickly swallowing up all light, shadow, and sound.

"Hikaru—!!!"

Ju Fufu's screams were almost deafening.

She watched as Ye Shunguang's eyes glazed over and her body slumped backward, and hurriedly reached out to catch her. The girl's body was even lighter than it looked, like an empty shell that had exhausted all its energy, lying motionless in her arms.

"Dawn! First aid kit! Quick!" Ye Jianguo's steady voice also carried a hint of tension that was hard to detect.

He darted forward, knelt on one knee, and swiftly probed Ye Shunguang's carotid artery with his fingers, while simultaneously taking the tactical medical kit that Zhou Liming had placed in his backpack with his other hand.

Chen Jianjun stood guard around the perimeter to prevent a sudden attack by the monster.

"The pulse is weak but regular, the breathing is shallow and rapid... There are no obvious fatal injuries, but the body is extremely exhausted. It should be due to physical exhaustion that caused the coma." Ye Jianguo quickly reported the examination results, his hands moving non-stop as he skillfully injected Ye Shunguang with one injection of each of the available medications.

Pan Yinhu squatted to the side, clenching his teeth and making a cracking sound with his fists.

Looking at Ye Shunguang's tightly closed eyes, bloodless lips, and his right hand still gripping the sword with its flesh mangled and bloody, he felt as if his heart was being squeezed tightly by an invisible hand, the pain making it hard to breathe.

It's all because I'm too weak... If I were stronger, if I could break through the bone blade's defenses faster, if...

"Uh... Pan Yinhu?" Ye Jianguo's voice interrupted his self-reproach. "Help me hold her right arm down, I need to treat her wound!"

Pan Yinhu snapped out of his daze and quickly reached out to carefully hold Ye Shunguang's arm in place.

Ye Jianguo deftly cleaned the wound with disinfectant spray, applied a hemostatic gel with a slight etheric healing effect, and then carefully bandaged it. The whole process was clean and efficient.

Holding Ye Shunguang in her arms, feeling the faint warmth of his body and the faint heartbeat, Ju Fufu finally couldn't hold back her tears. She bit her lip desperately to stop herself from crying out loud, but her shoulders still trembled uncontrollably.

"She'll be fine." Ye Jianguo finished bandaging her, looked up at Ju Fufu, and said in a steady and strong tone, "Comrade Ye Shunguang's physical fitness far exceeds that of ordinary people, and her willpower is even more tenacious. She's just overexerted right now, and hasn't suffered any serious injuries. Just give her time to recover."

He paused, then added, "Moreover, the few strands of energy that her master just injected were quite extraordinary; they are gently dispelling the residual corrosive energy in her body and repairing her damaged meridians."

Ju Fufu nodded vigorously, but her tears fell even more fiercely. Seeing Xiaoguang like this, she just couldn't control herself.

"Captain, over there..." Chen Jianjun whispered a reminder, his gaze fixed on the direction where Yi Xuan and Zhe had disappeared.

Ye Jianguo stood up and looked into the depths of the ruins in the distance.

"Trust that one," Ye Jianguo said in a deep voice. "Our mission is to ensure Comrade Ye Shunguang's safety and to guard the surrounding area. Chen Jianjun, establish a temporary defensive perimeter. Uh... Comrade Ju Fufu, Comrade Pan Yinhu, you two come over here too. I'll help you treat your wounds, and you can rest for a while to recover your strength."

"Yes!" Chen Jianjun immediately carried out the order and quickly set up several simple early warning devices and defensive fortifications in the surrounding area.

Ju Fufu gently laid Ye Shunguang flat on a relatively flat surface and took off her coat to place under her head.

Pan Yinhu forced himself to calm down and began to treat the wound on his right arm, while simultaneously circulating the little remaining ether in his body to accelerate recovery.

……

At the same time, Zhe was running for his life.

Its two short legs struggled to push off the rubble and debris, and its body, in the form of a bab, flew almost close to the ground, kicking up a small cloud of dust with each push.

He could hear his own heart pounding! At that moment, his adrenaline was already surging because of the sound of the bell in his physical body outside the screen.

She's still alive! The elation that came with this thought was instantly crushed by the fear that followed—she was being hunted! The panic and despair in her voice pierced Zhe's core consciousness like an icicle.

"Help--!"

Another scream rang out, closer and more piercing than before, almost breaking the voice.

Following closely behind was a heavy, panting sound of pursuit, chaotic and numerous, interspersed with the ear-piercing scraping of metal dragging across the rough ground; the sound was so dense it made one's scalp tingle.

Zhe turned around a half-collapsed corner of a wall, where exposed, twisted steel bars lay exposed, and the sudden sight before him almost froze his blood.

About fifty meters away, a young woman was staggering toward him. She looked to be around twenty years old, or perhaps younger, and the long journey and fear made her appear exceptionally vulnerable.

His light gray casual clothes were tattered and covered in mud and dark stains that looked like dried blood. His long hair was disheveled and stuck to his sweaty forehead and cheeks, with a few strands sticking to the corners of his mouth.

Her face was covered in scratches and dust, but her eyes, wide with extreme terror, shone brightly in the dim light, burning with an inextinguishable flame of survival.

It's a bell! It really is a bell!

And less than eighty meters behind her... a dark mass!

A dozen or twenty? No, this scale is probably more than 60!

So many skeletons?! How could there be such a large-scale gathering? Did they emerge from the deeper fissures of the void?

Without time to think about the reasons, Zhe continued running at full speed, while simultaneously activating one of the few self-defense modules mounted on the body of the Bomb.

He quickly swiped his short arm across his waist, and several round objects were held between his fingers—high-efficiency smoke grenades, originally small gadgets used to escape or create chaos during reconnaissance.

Estimate the distance, predict the speed difference between your sister and the pursuers... Now's the time!

"Ring—!!!" Zhe shouted with all his might through the external speaker. His voice had the sharp distortion unique to electronic devices, but it was full of an urgentness that could not be faked.

The bell heard it.

She looked up abruptly, her gaze, which had been somewhat unfocused due to exhaustion and fear, now refocused in the direction of the sound.

When she saw the round, familiar Bomb running wildly towards her, her eyes widened instantly. A look of disbelief and confusion flashed across her pupils, followed by an incredible burst of light, a mixture of ecstasy and hope, like lightning piercing through thick dark clouds!

"Brother...brother...?!"

Her voice was soft, choked with sobs and uncertainty, as if she feared that what she was seeing was just a despairing illusion.

As soon as he finished speaking, Zhe threw a smoke grenade that traced several low, flat arcs and landed precisely about twenty or thirty meters behind Ling, right between her and the pursuing group.

"Pfft—!"

A series of muffled explosions followed, and thick, grayish-white smoke surged from the projectile, spreading rapidly like a heavy curtain rising from the ground, engulfing and blurring most of the figures of the pursuing soldiers behind it.

A pungent, slightly spicy chemical odor filled the air, effectively interfering with Yi Hai's tracking method, which wasn't necessarily based on sight. The chaotic shouts and sounds of collisions from the pursuers could be heard from within the smoke, clearly slowing and disrupting their advance.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Zhe rushed to a few meters in front of Ling, then suddenly stopped. His short body turned around, and he waved his arms forcefully, almost comically, pointing to a relatively narrow crevice passage on the side, filled with large concrete fragments.

"Quick! This way! Follow me!" he shouted urgently.

Upon seeing the gesture, Ling hesitated almost without hesitation.

Driven by the instinct for survival and unconditional trust in her brother, she mustered her last strength, gritted her teeth, changed direction, and rushed toward the passage Zhe had indicated. Her staggering steps became more steadier with a clear goal in mind.

However, they underestimated the capabilities of the "leader" among the pursuers, as well as the insidious and direct nature of the "praise meeting" tactics.

"I will refine impurity!!!"

A deep, resonant roar, filled with fervor, exploded from behind the smoke like muffled thunder!

Immediately afterwards, the smoke was torn apart from the inside by a brute force!

It is the fire that leads the chant!

His speed was completely disproportionate to his massive size, and each heavy step sent pebbles flying.

The moment he burst out of the smoke, his eyes, hidden beneath the ferocious mask, locked onto Zhe and Ling, who were turning around.

Without pausing or gathering strength, he used the momentum of his charge to swing the burning red-hot "staff" like a warhammer, cleaving it horizontally towards the two with the force of splitting mountains and shattering rocks!

The staff whistled through the air, and the flames trailed an ominous path. Before they even reached you, the eerie aura of heat and decay was already overwhelming!

Too fast! Too powerful! Given Tetsuya and Rin's speed, as well as their current distance and position, it was impossible for them to completely avoid the range of this attack!

Just as the hammer was about to strike Zhe's fragile bomb shell, engulfing the bell behind it in destruction—

"when!!!"

A crisp, yet deafeningly penetrating, clanging sound suddenly erupted, like a thunderclap in one's ear, or like jade striking jade. The clear sound drowned out all the noise; the howling of the hammer, the crackling of the flames, and the trembling of the ground were all suppressed by this single clang of the blade.

Zhe felt a violent tremor in his eardrums and a buzzing in his head, but the pressure of the hammer wind that had been pressing down on him and almost suffocating him suddenly eased the moment the sound of the blade rang out, disappearing without a trace like a punctured balloon.

The tension outside the screen eased, and only then did he have the time, or rather, the courage to raise his head and look at the dark figure blocking their way.

It is Yi Xuan.

"Exterminate the evil spirits!"

Four words were uttered softly from her lips, her voice clear and cold, yet carrying a resolute force, like ice beads falling onto a jade plate, clearly reaching Zhe and Ling's ears.

Before she finished speaking, Yi Xuan's fingertips quickly formed a hand seal, and dark blue spiritual energy surged around her, gathering in her palm like a tide.

A clear, melodious bird song suddenly rang out, and a large bird with a dark blue body materialized from the spiritual energy; it was the Azure Sea Bird.

Its wingspan was over ten feet, the feathers shimmering with light. Its beak was like a sharp blade, its claws like cold hooks, and a faint, dark yellow gale swirled around it, carrying a world-destroying force. With a flap of its wings, it charged fiercely toward Binghuoling.

"Hey——!"

The sharp cry of the Azure Sea Bird pierced the sky and hurtled the eardrums. It was even faster than when Yi Xuan appeared. It turned into a dark blue stream of light and slammed into Bing Huo Ling Song's chest.

"Bang!"

With a dull thud, the sharp beak of the Azure Sea Bird struck Binghuoling Song hard on the chest covered in armor. A gust of wind exploded instantly, and Binghuoling Song's massive body staggered backward a few steps. His heavy feet ground two deep furrows in the ground, sending pebbles flying.

It let out a deafening roar, and its originally ferocious movements were completely interrupted by this sudden attack, all its power was dissipated.

All of this happened in the blink of an eye.

"laugh--!"

The moment the Azure Bird's attack landed, Yi Xuan moved. She pounced on him like a ghost! Her seemingly slender fingers now seemed to contain immense power, her knuckles glowing with a faint mystical light, carrying a unique force that made her so fast that only afterimages could be seen.

Within a breath, several finger strikes were launched in succession, each landing precisely on Bing Huolingsong's armor. The angles were tricky, and the force was fierce, enough to break through the thick outer layer of armor protection.

"Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!"

With a series of soft sounds, the crimson patterns on the surface of the armor shattered instantly under the impact of the finger wind, revealing the pale gray biological tissue underneath.

Binghuoling's massive body jolted violently, letting out a painful roar. A clear, muffled sound of biological tissue rupturing came from his right elbow joint. The arm that was supporting the giant hammer drooped slightly at an odd angle, clearly indicating that the joint had been shattered and he had lost the ability to exert force.

Yi Xuan did not stop. Her figure darted around Bing Huo Ling Song, like a hummingbird flying around the mountains. Her footwork was extremely mysterious, without a single superfluous movement.

"Bang bang bang bang!!!" The sounds were dense, like the beating of drums, echoing in the empty ruins.

Each strike carries a unique "penetrating force." This force is not heavy, yet it can precisely penetrate the thick outer armor, avoid the hard bones, and directly act on the fragile internal biological tissues. Like a skilled butcher dissecting an ox, it penetrates the gaps between the thick layers, precisely destroying Binghuolingsong's body.

Binghuoling roared madly, trying to swing its other arm to fight back and try to burn Yi Xuan with the flames around its body. But its movements were as slow as a snail in front of Yi Xuan. No matter how it swung its arm or breathed fire, it could not touch even a corner of Yi Xuan's clothes.

Yi Xuan's figure always managed to dodge its attacks perfectly, while leaving wound after wound on its body. The dark yellow energy roamed freely in its body, destroying its core.

The crimson flames flickered, their originally blazing light growing dimmer and dimmer. The roar of the Fire-Bearing Leader also changed from violent to hoarse. Its massive body began to tremble uncontrollably, cracks multiplied, and pale red fluid seeped from the wounds, dripping onto the ground with a hissing sound, corroding small pits.

Yi Xuan's movements remained fluid and swift, his cold face still expressionless, as if the dying high-level corpse before him was nothing more than an insignificant object.

After its first attack, it charged up for a second time in mid-air, and then "Boom!"

No one at the scene could see the action clearly because Yi Xuan used talismans, so numerous that they blotted out the sky, shattering the last bit of power he had left!

Finally, after another barrage of blows, the massive body of the Fire-Bearing Lord froze completely. The flames around it went out in an instant, like a candle being extinguished, leaving not even a spark.

The weapon it held in its hand, having lost its support, drooped limply and crashed heavily to the ground with a deafening thud, sinking into the earth and creating a deep crater before disappearing.

Its tall body swayed, then collapsed forward like a mountain of gold and a pillar of jade, crashing heavily to the ground and raising a cloud of dust that blotted out the sun, completely burying its body.

Dust billowed, and a brief silence fell over the surroundings, leaving only the lingering sound of the hammer hitting the ground and the rustling of falling dust.

Zhe and Ling remained in a dazed posture, their eyes fixed on the front. They didn't even see all of Yi Xuan's movements clearly, only a series of afterimages and a series of striking sounds, before the once invincible Bing Huo Ling Song collapsed to the ground with a thud.

From Yi Xuan's sudden entry, to his wielding of his sword to block the giant hammer, to summoning the Azure Sea Bird to interrupt the attack, and finally to his swift and fierce strikes that destroyed Binghuo Lingsong, the entire process took only a few seconds.

At this moment, the ordinary skeletons who had been blocked on the other side by the smoke from the previous battle were just breaking out of the smoke range in a somewhat chaotic manner.

They came in all shapes and sizes; some dragged their broken bodies, while others opened their blood-red mouths and roared as they charged toward Zhe and Ling. But when they saw Bing Huo Ling Song lying on the ground and sensed the chilling aura of Yi Xuan lingering in the air, all their movements stopped.

They seemed to have developed an instinctive fear of Binghuo Lingsong's instant defeat, or perhaps they had lost the command source of the high-level Yihai. Their originally ferocious pursuit became hesitant, and they lingered among the broken walls and ruins not far away, emitting low and hoarse roars. Their scarlet eyes were fixed on Yixuan's direction, but they dared not take another step forward.

Some of the skeletons even began to slowly retreat, wanting to escape this area that terrified them. However, due to their instinct to form a group, they dared not leave alone and could only anxiously paw at the ground, letting out unwilling roars.

As the dust settled, Yi Xuan's figure became exceptionally clear amidst the swirling dust.

She slowly came to a stop, gently raised her hand, and brushed away non-existent dust from her sleeve. Her movements were elegant and calm, as if the thrilling battle just now was nothing more than a trivial matter, and her breathing was not disturbed in the slightest.

Only then did she slowly turn around, her dark eyes sweeping lightly across the distance before landing on Zhe and Ling, who were supporting each other and completely stunned.

The boundaries of the void were already shrinking, and with Yi Xuan killing another high-level skeleton, the process of dissolving it became even faster.

Just a few seconds later, the void dissipated, along with the remains that hadn't managed to hide in other spatial rifts. The twilight sky above was revealed, and Yi Xuan slowly walked in, uttering a single sentence.

"Would you like to return to Suibian Temple with me?"