The overall situation was decided -- victory firmly in hand!
The lives of all the Secret Keepers, including Long Bingheng, were in Bai Jie's grasp.
A blood-red, sky-spanning giant web was continuously draining the humans' lives.
The draining speed isn't enough yet. Let's start with the priority targets... Bai Jie thought to itself.
It then directly approached Yinhe and spoke, "Yinhe?"
Yinhe suddenly opened his eyes wide, glaring furiously at the demon spider. "Bai Zhi! Don't celebrate too soon -- even if you have the upper hand now, your ending cannot be changed."
"If you dare kill us, you will bear the fury of the entire Federation! When that time comes, an S-rank Secret Keeper will come to suppress and kill you. No one will be able to save you!"
The demon spider asked, "How did you discover I was here?"
This was what it was most curious about right now.
Yinhe bared his blood-stained teeth in a vicious grin. "Getting scared now? Even if you hide to the ends of the earth, the Secret Keeper Bureau will find and eliminate you."
Sigh...
The demon spider sighed inwardly and said calmly, "Forget it. Since you dislike me, I'll respect your wish -- so you won't have to see me anymore."
As the words fell, a sharp blade grew from its foreleg. The desolate gleam sliced through the void. Even though Yinhe tried to drive his psychic power to resist, within the "Demon Web Blood Sacrifice" domain, he was ultimately far too weak.
Thud -- the head fell to the ground, blood splashing five paces.
On the severed head, both eyes bulged in fury, revealing terror.
"Next... it's you, Elder Long."
The demon spider then came before Long Bingheng. Gazing at the latter's delicate, pretty face, it suddenly thought that if such a beautiful head were to fall to the ground, it would inevitably be a sight that marred the scenery.
"Ba-Bai Zhi... don't kill me. All of this was orchestrated by the Secret Keeper Bureau. They forced me to participate." Long Bingheng opened her pained, beautiful eyes and actually began pleading for her life.
"Sure," the demon spider said.
Such an answer was clearly somewhat beyond Long Bingheng's expectations. Her cheeks immediately showed the relief of a narrow escape from death.
"Re-really?" But Long Bingheng asked again, uncertain.
"If you can survive under the spider silk, I'll consider not killing you."
"Y-you... you lied to me?"
In that instant, Long Bingheng sensed the speed at which her blood essence was being drained abruptly accelerate.
Her vision began to dim, her consciousness sinking into chaos.
Pale-faced, she murmured, "Bai Zhi... how hateful..."
Before long, vitality was thoroughly drained from Long Bingheng's body. Her skin was ashen white, her eyes tightly shut, seemingly fallen into deep slumber.
I didn't lie to you -- because it's not me who wants to kill you, but the spider silk that wants to kill you...
Bai Jie knew that Long Bingheng would never wake again.
At the same time, the barrier domain that had enveloped the entire rear mountain, seeming influenced by Long Bingheng's death, grew thin in energy. As long as Bai Jie wished, it could easily break through and escape! It seemed this barrier was connected to Long Bingheng.
But right now, this was also a rare opportunity to boost Vitality.
Just as it intended to hunt the next target,
Thump, thump-thump...
Suddenly, an eerie heartbeat sounded from within Long Bingheng's body. Bai Jie thought for a moment it had misheard.
To hell with this.
Bai Jie stared fixedly at Long Bingheng's "corpse" -- the vitality within her was actually reviving!
The ashen face gradually grew rosy again. The skin that had shriveled from blood essence loss was once again becoming supple and tender...
Long Bingheng had actually resurrected?!
Bai Jie had clearly confirmed with its own eyes that she had just died...
Even Long Bingheng herself was completely baffled. Her crow-feather-like lashes trembled faintly. Her eyes were unfocused, seeming not to know the miracle that had occurred upon her own body.
Earlier, it had said that if she could survive under the spider silk's draining, it would not kill her...
Well, this was awkward now...
Bai Jie turned the thought over again: but the situation right now was complicated, the circumstances desperate. It still couldn't leave her alive.
Having made up its mind, it was about to urge its foreleg blade to sever Long Bingheng's exquisite head.
Suddenly, a violent palpitation pounded against its heart like a heavy drum.
Spider Sense abruptly intensified.
This was unmistakably that fatal danger! There was an even more terrifying enemy!
For the first time since the battle had begun, a feeling of nervousness appeared in Bai Jie's heart.
At the same time, a not-unfamiliar engine roar came from the sky.
Immediately following, with a thunderous crash, a pair of pitch-black giant feet poked out from the dark clouds,
breaking through the murky black mist like two heaven-supporting pillars, cleaving through the sky to descend, and stomping fiercely onto the blood-red giant net.
Twang, twang, twang!
In that instant, where the giant net and giant feet made contact, it began to sink, tremble, and even rupture!
And the speed at which the blood-red threads collapsed grew faster and faster, beyond all restraint in the blink of an eye.
The 'Demon Web Blood Sacrifice' domain had actually been shattered!
The blood-red spider silk entangling the humans on the mountaintop and the Wu Gu Clan disciples on the mountainside all lost their empowered strength and vanished entirely. The humans were finally saved.
The energy that had been ceaselessly surging into Bai Jie's body also ceased at this moment.
"That is..."
A pitch-black giant humanoid torso, fully ten stories tall, jutted straight into the clouds, entering Bai Jie's vision. It had a single golden eye vertically positioned at the center of its face, and beyond that, no other facial features.
Boom!
The pitch-black one-eyed giant's two feet pierced through the giant net and landed directly on the mountaintop ground. Trees snapped and shattered everywhere. The ground cracked. Gravel and dust flew into the air.
It reached a hand out toward Bai Jie, who instantly teleported to dodge.
"You're finished, Bai Zhi..."
Long Bingheng's voice came after she had regained clarity.
But the giant did not continue to pursue Bai Jie. It merely lifted Long Bingheng with two fingers and gently set her down behind it.
Zichen, Gui Yu, and the other Secret Keepers also rapidly retreated to the rear.
"Military District reinforcements have arrived. Even if the barrier has grown fragile, Bai Zhi can't escape even with wings," Jianxin felt reassured at this sight.
"This is the Military District's power?" Long Bingheng's breath was still weak; she hadn't yet recovered from the terror of having wandered the gates of the underworld.
"A weapon of destruction -- 'Heaven's Punisher.' A being sufficient to deal with Nether-Calamity class Anomalies..." Even Gui Yu's incomparably handsome face showed a trace of emotion.
"The government and the military have both recognized Bai Zhi's threat..."
"Now that's what I call domineering!" Li Wang gazed at that towering, broad figure from behind and could not help but exclaim in admiration.
"What a shame. Deploying these terrifying weapons requires permissions and applications from the Military District, and Heaven's Punisher had to cross several prefectures and provinces. In the end, it arrived a step too late -- Yinhe is dead," Zichen said regretfully.
To prevent Bai Zhi from escaping and to seize the initiative, the Secret Keepers had no choice but to begin the operation before the Military District's forces were in position.
Of course, this was also related to Yinhe's judgment -- he believed the Military District's forces were merely a "fallback" measure, and that they could eliminate Bai Zhi without waiting for the military forces to arrive.
Yet Bai Zhi's strength had surpassed their imagination. What this decision brought was not Bai Zhi's fall but Yinhe's death.