"No."
Lin Binbin panted, stubbornly saying: "Lord Bai Zhi, please let me continue fighting for you."
"Under the moonlight, the deeper the night, the stronger I suspect her abilities become." Bai Jie's tone brooked no argument.
"So, leave the rest to me."
Crackle!
As its words fell, the sound of a bowstring snapping through the void suddenly rang out. A long, narrow bolt of blue-violet lightning traversed the empty space and pierced straight through the two werewolves' bodies.
The Moon-Howling Werewolves shuddered as if struck by actual lightning, their bodies freezing rigid before collapsing straight down. In their chests and backs, scorched holes the size of washbasins had been blasted through.
[Moon-Howling Werewolf status updated to 'Deceased'!]
Seeing this, Lin Binbin's expression turned solemn. He retreated several steps and sank to one knee, not even glancing at Li Jiayu. Instead, he lowered his head and cast his gaze toward a certain dark corner of the factory.
He sensed something. His breathing grew slightly heavier, his body faintly trembling. Fervor swirled in his eyes, and excitement that he could not suppress bubbled up from within.
"Hm?"
Li Jiayu's impassive face finally showed a flicker of emotion. Clearly she hadn't expected the Moon-Howling Werewolves she had summoned to drop dead just like that. She too followed the direction of Lin Binbin's gaze.
She detected it now—something hidden within the mysterious shadows, as though concealing a thing of terror. It made even her heart quiver.
At the same time, she caught a strange fragrance drifting out. The scent molecules were saturated with signals of wickedness and danger, compelling her to greedily inhale several deep breaths. In that instant, every cell in her body seemed to be steeped in bliss.
Rustle, rustle...
From the shadows emerged a giant spider—bizarre yet breathtakingly beautiful.
Its form was slender and long, its entire body as though fused with the night. One after another, blue-violet patterns adorned it like brilliant constellations dotting the night sky, imparting a majestic and profound beauty. Its eight eyes emitted a faint blue-violet glow, as if possessed of infinite magical power, capable of drawing anyone who looked into them into a trance.
"You are... Nyx?!"
Li Jiayu seemed to recall something, her tone slightly elevated.
She smiled bitterly: "It seems he was acting on your orders. So... do you want to kill me too?"
The "Shadow of Nether Lightning" spider made no reply. Merely walking forward brought with it an inexhaustible sense of pressure.
Lin Binbin gazed at the demon spider's figure with a face full of reverence. In his eyes was a feverish devotion and anticipation he could scarcely restrain. Though he could no longer fight, to witness Lord Bai Zhi display divine power with his own eyes was already fortune enough to satisfy him.
"Whether it's you or Lin Binbin—if you want my life, you'll pay the price!" Li Jiayu suddenly turned vicious.
"Even if you can suppress the 'Ax-Wielder,' what of it?"
"A mere evil spawn dares to covet the great mysteries—it shall suffer the backlash!"
In this moment, Li Jiayu's facial features contorted grotesquely, half-smiling and half-weeping, half-laughing and half-crying—as though possessed by madness. Utterly bizarre.
She let out a sound that was no longer human, but rather like a demon's soul screaming:
"With my flesh and blood and soul, I offer them unto the great Dark Mother Goddess of Fecundity, the Black Goat of the Woods!"
Li Jiayu rooted herself in place like a thousand-year-old pine, her feet boring deep into the gravelly earth. She did not budge a single inch, utterly immovable.
At the same time, a strange, translucent black magic array manifested beneath her feet. Ink-like lines coiled up Li Jiayu's body like a swarm of snakes, tighter and tighter.
Until not a sliver of Li Jiayu's skin could be seen. Her entire body was devoured by the dark lines, forming a sphere of blackness—like a black hole capable of collapsing space itself.
From within the dark sphere came a tremendous energy and gravitational pull, drawing in the corpse of You Rui—already transformed into a werewolf—and absorbing it into the interior.
The demon spider halted its steps, facing this as though confronting a formidable enemy. It strained to control its body just to avoid being sucked in. Lin Binbin, having long since retreated far away, remained unaffected.
"Squeak, squeak..."
Faint sounds issued from within the black hole. An endless stream of gray rats came pouring out, each as large as a kettle. They formed a tidal wave of rodents that rapidly spread outward, surging toward Bai Zhi.
"Lord Bai Zhi, be careful!"
The demon spider, however, sneered inwardly with contempt: "How utterly revolting. Vermin, begone."
A formless, oppressive force radiated out from the spider's form, instantly covering the entire expanse of the factory.
Countless rats, as though they had ingested rat poison, froze in place, then toppled onto their backs, limbs twitching. Not a single one managed to enter within five meters of Bai Zhi.
Skill: Advanced Intimidation had been activated.
Even Lin Binbin found it difficult to breathe, feeling as though the air had thickened to sludge and gravity had multiplied several times over. He could scarcely move a single inch, as if trapped in a quagmire. Only by prostrating himself and kneeling before the mysterious being at the center could he find relief.
This was the demon spider's Lv.6 'Advanced Intimidation'—and it wasn't even being used to its full extent, out of consideration for Lin Binbin's endurance.
The greater the Vitality gap, the stronger the pressure.
"Is that it? What other dark creatures do you have—summon them all."
Bai Jie watched the dark sphere, somewhat disappointed that his opponent had only summoned some rats.
A numerical advantage through a rat-wave tactic meant nothing to it.
Suddenly, the black sphere began to violently convulse.
[Target]: Li Jiayu (Symbiote)
[Vitality]: 50
[Body Length]: 172cm
[Status]: Dissolving
(Weak spiritual essence reaction detected)
"Oh? Her Vitality changed again. 'Dissolving'... what does that mean?"
"The spiritual essence reaction has grown stronger too!"
Abruptly, Bai Jie sensed it—a terrifying mystery had descended.
The black sphere rapidly expanded. In the span of a breath, it doubled, tripled... until it grew to the height of a five-story building. From it extended thick, slimy black tentacles.
The sphere collapsed inward, half-liquid and half-solid, continuously churning and festering. It coalesced into a gargantuan mass of flesh. Upon this mass grew horrifying bodily organs, mouths dripping with sludge, and twisted stubby legs—the ends of which resembled enormous black "goat hooves."
A stench of rotting saxifrage, intermingled with the odor of spoiled corn, wafted over.
"Urgh..."
Smelling this bouquet, Lin Binbin retched directly.
That... that was Li Jiayu?!
Lin Binbin's entire body and mind trembled violently. He had never imagined that what he had been facing before was such a nauseating, horrifying existence.
At the same time, before Bai Jie's eyes, the information panel belonging to Li Jiayu shattered with a "pop" and dissipated. In its place, a new panel appeared!
"This is..."
[Target]: Dark Young / Black Goat Spawn (Demonic-Evil Body)
[Vitality]: 256
[Body Length]: 17m
[Status]: Unstable
(Moderate spiritual essence reaction detected!)
Bai Jie's attention was already seized completely by those six characters: "Moderate spiritual essence reaction!"
"Baaa!!!"
All of a sudden, the monster let out a bleating cry like a flock of goats, yet also like a beast emitting a low, growling roar from deep within its throat. The sound instantly spread beyond the factory, shrouding the city's night in terror and oppression.
Outside the factory, a cacophony of noise arose. The demon spider dimly detected the scent of human panic.