When two streams of malevolent energy clash head-on, there can only be one outcome: the weaker side will be completely devoured. From then on, it will melt into the stronger energy, left entirely at its mercy.
The centipede monster, pieced together from severed limbs, let out a thrilled shriek. The terrifying, eerie sound pierced the eardrums like countless needles, seeping into the seams of one's bones from all directions.
It greedily sucked in the surging power, its body letting out crisp cracks of dislocating bones as it expanded. Fullness, endless fullness. This unprecedented, inexhaustible surge of strength drove it mad, and even the black mist surrounding it began to churn with a dark red, bloody glow.
The surrounding evil spirits had long since scattered in panic, leaving only a dead silence in the clearing before the temple. The two human skins on the ground had already been reduced to dust by the malevolent energy.
And at this moment, Wu Li happened to be dragged to that exact spot, as if hinting that his fate would ultimately mirror those two skins—reduced to nothingness.
It frantically drained the dark energy from his body, and the red-tinted black clouds around it began to grow wildly.
In front of the colossal beast, the young man's tall and straight figure appeared incredibly frail and insignificant.
The severed-limb centipede monster and the thick malevolent energy enveloped him like a living swamp, swallowing him from head to toe, inch by inch.
Just at the exact moment his last five fingers were about to be completely sucked in—
Suddenly, a pair of slender, pale hands reached out from the side.
They grabbed onto that defeated hand with a death grip.
"You are not allowed to die!" Chai Xiaomi's face was streaked with tears as she cursed in exasperation. "What the hell are you doing? Aren't you the strongest villain?! Wu Li, you noob!"
She had realized it.
This young man, on the brink of death, never possessed a true will to live.
He seemed to crave, deeply crave... death...
Just like in the deep pool of the illusion.
A slowly sinking body.
Finally lying at the bottom of the profound depths, so calm and peaceful.
Like a cold corpse.
From those world-weary eyes, she could not see a single spark of a desire to survive.
Wu Li's entire body had been swallowed, leaving only one hand tightly gripped in Chai Xiaomi's palm with all her might.
She used every ounce of strength she had, her face turning a mottled purplish-red.
The malevolent energy burned her skin, and those dark forces began to gnaw at her. Her fingers turned black from the corruption, as if it was draining her life force along her meridians.
Yet, she did not take a single step back.
The monster actually paused for a moment.
Such a trivial resistance was as laughable as a moth darting into a flame, or a mantis trying to stop a chariot.
It had been enjoying the increasingly swelling power within its body, but upon seeing this scene, its head involuntarily turned toward Chai Xiaomi little by little, bones creaking.
Among the monster's charred, black, and twisted facial features, ghost fires danced wildly in its eye sockets.
"Host!!! Run! The thing in front of you is an SSS-level monster, the highest-ranking evil entity in this entire novel!!"
Sensing that its host's life was under a massive threat, Youtiao suddenly recovered from its frozen state and screamed in her mind.
Accompanied by sharp alarm sirens, its usually flat mechanical voice carried a tremble.
However, Chai Xiaomi seemed unable to hear anything; she merely held onto that hand with stubborn determination.
The evil wind whipped up by the malevolent aura swept up a thin layer of dust from the ground, slapping against her face along with her messy hair, but her teary eyes were more resolute than ever before.
You cannot die...
You are not allowed to die...
In this moment, all fear faded away.
Only the burning conviction in her heart remained, supporting her to never let go.
For the system, this was the critical moment to calculate rapidly and deduce the optimal plan for its host.
Youtiao weighed all possibilities within a thousandth of a second. Its cold logic pointed to the only way of survival, and the optimal answer it arrived at was:
"Let go."
It roared in Chai Xiaomi's mind:
"Host! Let go immediately! If the villain disappears, the novel world will not collapse, and the core conflict will automatically dissolve. In a sense, your mission will be considered complete! I will immediately apply to headquarters to let you leave this world and return to reality, right now!"
Chai Xiaomi: "Are you saying I should trade his death for my life?"
Youtiao: "You can understand it that way. Although the villain has an immortal body, it doesn't mean his will cannot be devoured."
"In the original plot, the villain was never successfully ambushed out of carelessness, so this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!" Youtiao urged anxiously. "Host, your vital signs are dropping. If this continues, you will be completely devoured too! Let go quickly and let this monster swallow him!"
Chai Xiaomi suddenly let out a low laugh.
There was no joy in that laughter, only an uncontrollable, scorching anger that rushed straight up from the depths of her chest.
"What kind of... bullshit are you spouting!"
She gritted her teeth, grinding out every word fiercely. Her clear voice had gone hoarse with fury.
Her arms trembled from overexertion, her fingertips almost digging into Wu Li's cold skin. The malevolent energy had already spread to her forearms, burning like raging fire wherever it passed, yet she gripped even tighter.
"How could I possibly just watch him disappear? He is—"
She raised her head, tears mixing with the dirt streaking down her cheeks, but her eyes shone astonishingly bright:
"The person I like!!!"
Her voice tore through the air, as if it had also torn through some invisible shackle.
The young man's slender knuckles twitched almost imperceptibly.
Within the thick malevolent aura, a trace of light suddenly flickered across those heterochromatic eyes that had been shrouded in dead silence. It was like the moon's reflection at the bottom of a deep pool shattered by a pebble, or like dust-covered glass suddenly wiped clean, beginning to sparkle.
Deep within his chaotic, almost drowning consciousness, a thought broke through the darkness.
He seemed to have remembered a matter of the utmost importance.
It wouldn't really matter if he perished just like this.
But outside, there was still a crying idiot.
If he died, who would protect her?
Tsk.
Troublesome.
He really couldn't rest in peace.
Besides, she was so stupid, she might actually be single-minded enough to foolishly die along with him.
That wouldn't do.
He had only been joking about that.
*
The monster was clearly provoked by the girl's fearless attitude. It was no longer satisfied with a slow consumption; its head violently opened into an exaggerated, extreme black hole, lunging straight at her to swallow her whole!
The sharp alarm sirens and Youtiao's shouts buzzed in her mind.
The severe pain from the burning malevolent energy made her vision black out in waves.
As her consciousness scattered, she hazily remembered.
The night she treated the wound on Wu Li's chest, the dark energy seeping from his body had been cold, exuding a piercing chill, completely different from the scorching energy before her now.
Like ice and fire, two extremes.
Her vision gradually blurred, and her body felt so heavy it was as if she were sinking into the ground.
...She was probably really going to die.
She was even starting to hallucinate.
It felt as if the burning, scalding malevolent energy around her was suddenly covered by a familiar, freezing dark aura.
It was like falling into a deep winter pool, yet a pair of hands steadily supported her falling body.
That embrace was cold and quiet, yet it inexplicably made her feel safe.
Before she had time to open her eyes and confirm, she fell completely into darkness...
