The beast unleashed a tidal wave of suppressive force, desperate to halt their advance. But their berserk auras broke through the wolf's power. Its Talon-level pressure could no longer hold them back.
As they closed the final paces, Yue'er and Wuji ignited their Theríon to its absolute, soul-burning limits.
Wuji's frame groaned as he surged into a five-meter-tall titan of living stone. His massive, basalt fist hammered down with the weight of a falling mountain directly onto the Wight Wolf's skull.
CRACK!!
The impact finally bypassed the beast's natural armor. The wolf's head snapped back, its eyes clouding with disorientation. Before it could clear the fog, Wuji's massive stone arm coiled around its throat in a crushing lock, pinning the nightmare to the earth.
Simultaneously, Yue'er vaulted into the sky. She drew a hidden short sword from a concealed sheath, its blade shimmering with emerald energy. She channeled every drop of her new Seven Fangs essence into a technique far beyond her previous limits: Aurora Thousand Illusion Strikes.
In a heartbeat, a thousand identical phantoms of Mei Yue'er filled the clearing. Each one was a streak of luminous green light, crisscrossing the battlefield like a web of emerald lightning.
The Wight Wolf's primal instincts screamed of impending death. It thrashed against Wuji's iron-grip, but the stone giant delivered a devastating, bone-shaking punch that silenced its resistance.
The thousand images of Yue'er flared with blinding light.
"DIE!!"
With her scream, every illusion flashed through the Wight Wolf's massive form in a singular, synchronized blur. They left behind a thousand precision lacerations, carving through fur, muscle, and bone.
"ROAR!!"
The beast's cry of agony tore through the forest, a hollow sound that ended in a wet gurgle. Its feral eyes lost focus. Moments later, the mighty Talon Monster went limp in Wuji's grasp, its massive form collapsing into the blood-stained loam.
Yue'er and Wuji stood amidst the wreckage, their battered figures illuminated by the fading glow of their essence. But the victory tasted like ash.
The Wight Wolf lay motionless.
But their brother was still gone.
* * *
Hidden within the shifting canopy, the two cloaked observers—one a silhouette of midnight, the other of bone-white—watched the carnage below with expressions of mild, clinical surprise.
The figure in black broke the stillness, his voice a gravelly hum of curiosity. "An entertaining diversion. I suppose they are the top geniuses of the pre-school for a reason, wouldn't you say, Whitey?"
"Indeed, Blackie," the one in white replied, his tone thin and mocking. "Who could have guessed those two runts would actually hold their ground against a One Talon nightmare?"
Blackie offered a soft, dry chuckle. "A spirited effort. But this is the limit of their little rebellion, isn't it, Whitey?"
"Indeed, Blackie. In the end, the girl will be just as dead. The outcome remains unchanged."
With synchronized precision, the two figures reached into the depths of their cloaks. Each retrieved a slip of enchanted parchment—a Talisman. The one in Blackie's hand was inscribed with the character for [Recover], while the one held by Whitey bore the heavy, aggressive mark of [Force].
Holding the slips delicately between their fingertips, they spoke in a chilling, melodic unison: "Activate."
As the command faded, the talismans ignited. Their crimson symbols pulsed, then the parchment dissolved into shimmering particles that scattered through the forest air.
From their hidden perch, the two men watched the dust settle over the clearing with quiet, cruel satisfaction.
* * *
In the wake of the Aurora Thousand Illusion Strikes, Yue'er collapsed, her frame wracked with tremors. She slumped against a nearby tree for support, her exhausted face streaked with blood and sweat.
Beside her, Wuji finally released his iron grip on the fallen Wight Wolf. His stone-skin transformation withered away, leaving him in his original form as he sank flat onto his back. He lay there, his breathing a shallow, labored rasp, his complexion as ghostly and drained as Yue'er's.
The impossible feat—bringing down a Talon Monster—brought no spark of pride, no surge of triumph. Grief left little room for anything else.
They remained silent.
Tears carved quiet tracks through the grime on their faces as they closed their eyes, retreating into the memories of their lost brother. In their grief, neither noticed the faint glow beginning to pulse from the wolf's massive, still form.
Minutes passed before Yue'er forced herself to move. Every step toward Wuji hurt. She sank into the dirt beside him.
"We have to go, Wuji," she whispered, her voice hoarse and barely audible. "It isn't safe to stay here… not like this."
Wuji's eyes snapped open, blazing with a sudden, feral heat. "No! I'm going to recover, and then I'm going to finish it with my own bare hands!" he snarled, his voice thick with a mixture of rage and mourning.
But even as he seethed, the brutal truth was undeniable. They had nothing left. The Wight Wolf lay motionless, yet they were utterly spent, their reserves bone-dry.
Yue'er shook her head slowly. "It's not wise to stay, Wuji. We'll come back for it—when we're stronger. When we can truly end it."
Wuji didn't offer a verbal reply, but the audible grinding of his teeth betrayed his bitter, reluctant agreement.
Yue'er stood on trembling legs, extending a blood-smeared hand to help him up. As Wuji reached out, his gaze drifted past her shoulder. Suddenly, his pupils contracted into pinpoints. His face tightened with dread.
"Wuji? What's wrong?" Yue'er asked, her heart hammering against her ribs as she mirrored his terrified gaze.
RUMBLE!!
A suffocating pressure crashed down upon them, ten times stronger than the beast's previous aura. They could barely move beneath it.
Yue'er's soul withered as she slowly turned her head. Standing above them, perched like a god of the abyss, was the Wight Wolf. Its silver fur was pristine, its wounds gone as though the battle had never happened.
"H-How…?" Yue'er stammered, her voice fracturing into a sob of pure disbelief. "This can't be…"
The Wight Wolf loomed over her, its crimson eyes fixed on her once more. But before the crushing reality could paralyze her completely, a defiant roar shattered the silence.
"YOU WILL NOT BREAK MY WILL TO PROTECT!!"
Wuji surged forward. His body was torn and battered, but he refused to back down. He threw himself against the overwhelming suppressive force, his own muscles tearing and his skin splitting under the strain—a final, bloody rebellion against fate.
He charged despite the impossible odds.
BANG!
Without his Theríon to shield him, without his stone-skin to blunt the blow, Wuji's charge was met with a casual, brutal swipe of the wolf's claws. His broken frame was launched backward, a spray of crimson painting a macabre arc through the air before he hit the dirt with a sickening thud.
"Are you alright, Wu—"
The words died in Yue'er's throat as the Wight Wolf's head whipped toward her with violent speed. In one fluid, sickening motion, the world went dark as she was swallowed whole.
The last image burned into Wuji's retinas before his head slammed into the dirt was the horrific sight of Yue'er vanishing into that bottomless, midnight maw.
"No… this isn't real," Wuji wheezed, his voice a fractured, wet rasp. "This is a nightmare… just a nightmare."
A frantic, animalistic desperation overtook him.
He lifted his mangled, blood-slicked arm and struck his own face. Again and again, he hammered at his brow and jaw, trying to wake from a nightmare he could not accept as real.
Each blow sent a fresh spray of crimson from his broken mouth. Blood choked his anguished screams until he could barely make a sound.
Yet no matter how hard he struck, no matter how much agony he inflicted upon his own flesh—
He couldn't wake up.
The forest didn't fade. The monster didn't vanish. The cold, indifferent silence of the trees remained. This wasn't a dream.
This was hell.
* * *
The two cloaked figures remained in the gloom, watching without pity.
The one in black broke the silence, his voice a low, sinister hum. "Mission accomplished. But to ensure no whispers reach the city, we should probably erase this last one too, wouldn't you say, Whitey?"
The one in white smirked, his tone dripping with a mocking, oily cruelty. "Indeed, Blackie. It would be far too pitiful to leave the poor brute here in such a state. Let's be 'merciful' and send him to join his siblings in the dark."
Their voices rose in a chilling, synchronized command. "Wight Wolf! Finish the meal!!"
The beast, which had been prowling away from the site of Yue'er's disappearance, stopped mid-stride. Its massive head swiveled back toward the broken form of Sun Wuji, its jaws unhinging in anticipation of its final prize.
Wuji, trapped in the shattered remains of his own mind, remained oblivious to the looming shadow. He continued to strike his own bloodied face with his mangled fist, a wet thud echoing as he tried to punch his way out of reality.
But then, the world shifted.
The ground beneath the clearing gave a sudden, violent quake. The rustling leaves fell silent, and the very air grew unnaturally still—as if the forest itself had been plunged into a vacuum, holding its breath for an arrival.
A colossal magic circle of incandescent light materialized in the heavens, its sheer, pressurized presence freezing the Wight Wolf in its tracks.
The array burned with divine brilliance, its intricate patterns shifting into place. An oppressive silence fell beneath a power far beyond mortal comprehension.
RIP. BOOM!!
The heavens roared as a blinding pillar of white light thundered down from the array, striking the Wight Wolf.
The space surrounding the beast shattered like fragile glass, reality itself splintering under the sheer density of the strike. The Wight Wolf let out one final, earth-shaking howl before its massive frame was split cleanly in half. The raw energy within the beam ignited the monster's remains, triggering an explosion that vibrated through the very marrow of the forest.
A rain of scorched blood poured from the sky, painting the crimson-stained earth an even darker, visceral shade of red. Chunks of bone and smoldering flesh whistled through the air like meteors, embedding themselves deep into the surrounding trunks.
The shockwave sent a dense shroud of ash and pulverized debris swirling into the atmosphere, veiling the carnage in an eerie, choking fog.
For a heartbeat, the world went still. Even the echoes of the blast faded.
High in the branches, the cloaked figures froze, their clinical detachment replaced by raw, trembling alarm.
"What in the hell is that array, Whitey?!" Blackie hissed, his voice cracking with unmasked terror.
The one in white could only shake his head, his mocking titter replaced by a cold, hollow dread. "I don't know, Blackie! But that strike... it erased a Talon Monster like it was nothing but dust."
A frantic realization dawned behind their hoods.
"There's an expert nearby!"
"Indeed! Someone of this caliber... they must be a Peak Warrior—or even a Wing Realm Master! We're dead if we stay. Move!"
Without another word, the two shadows vanished into the thicket, their retreat a desperate, panicked scramble for survival.
The thunderous detonation jolted Wuji back to the waking world. The force of the light beam shook the earth beneath him, nearly throwing his battered body off the ground.
Groaning, he fought to lift his head, his vision swimming as he squinted against the suffocating fog that now blanketed the clearing. The air was thick with the metallic scent of blood. The mist swirled around him in ghostly, impenetrable patterns, obscuring the carnage of the battlefield.
His eyes darted frantically, searching for a shape, a shadow—anything to explain the cataclysm. But the fog held its secrets tight, drifting through the charred trees like spirits of the dead.
"What… what just happened?" he wheezed, the words barely audible over the wet, labored rasp of his breathing.
Though every nerve in his body screamed at him to rise, the agony was a physical weight pinning him to the soil. Broken, battered, and drained of every drop of Theríon, Wuji could only lie still, a spectator to a power that had just rewritten the laws of the forest.
Yet, even through the haze of pain and the memory of his friends' "deaths," a faint, flickering spark of hope ignited in his chest.
Something had intervened. Something—or someone—possessed a strength far beyond the limits of anything he had ever witnessed.