CR CH28

Chapter 28: Saved

The silver-white energy bullet sliced a fierce, sharp trajectory through the air. The giant beast moved incredibly fast, but it completely lacked agility.

With exceptional swiftness, Jiang Tianji pushed himself up and rolled into the opposite corridor, which had not entirely collapsed.

The screech of the two-headed serpent echoed behind him. Turning his head, he caught sight of a black afterimage.

A black, retractable chain connected two crescent-like scimitars, carrying the two-headed serpent with it as it slammed heavily into the ruins. A dense barrage of energy bullets rained down upon the beast, temporarily forcing it to retreat—his teammates were finally arriving one after another.

Jia Yun, who was the first to arrive, did not fix his attention on Jiang Tianji. Instead, his expression turned grim as he stared at the two-headed serpent temporarily backing off a short distance away.

“Jiang Tian—”

“Jiang Tianji!”

The few individuals arriving in succession bolted toward Jiang Tianji, only to be held back by Jia Yun, who had snapped back to his senses.

“Wait a minute. Something is wrong with his state.”

Feng Huo wrenched his hand free from Jia Yun’s grip, throwing a blazing temper: “What the hell is wrong with it? I’m telling you, pretty boy…”

His voice ground to an abrupt halt. Out of the corner of his eye, a silhouette was rapidly charging toward the two-headed serpent.

“Jiang Tianji, come back!” Ji Yandong took a step forward, his brows locked in a tight furrow.

Jiang Tianji offered absolutely no response to their shouts. Huang Qi ran a few steps after him in bewilderment. Just then, the runaway happened to tilt his head, allowing everyone to finally get a clear look at his hollow, frigid eyes—a textbook state of running wild and losing control.

Qi Xiuyi’s face looked incredibly unsightly: “What is going on with him?”

Bip, bip.

Everyone froze dead in their tracks, a suffocating tension permeating the air. Right at that critical juncture, the devices on all of their wrists simultaneously blared with danger alerts.

As if subjected to severe interference, the warning lasted for a mere second before their equipment completely fried and failed.

The serene composure on Jia Yun’s face finally cracked as he immediately cast his gaze into the distance.

“I felt something was off just now. The wounds on this two-headed serpent are knitting back together, and what’s more…”

An invisible shadow slowly encroached upon their spiritual networks, causing the temperature across the entirety of Area A to plunge drastically. Their eyes glazed over for a fraction of a second before they plunged into absolute darkness.

Jia Yun’s reactions were remarkably swift. Instantly concentrating his focus, he stared intently at a single point in the void to recalibrate his state.

“Stay alert!”

Ji Yandong’s voice erupted next to everyone’s ears like a clap of thunder, his words coming out at breakneck speed.

“It’s a spiritual field and mental interference. The grade is on the lower side. Recalibrate your own states and concentrate your focus to push back against it! Now that our equipment is entirely fried, we can only rely on ourselves. The absolute priority right now is to drag Tianji back; he must be severely injured.”

Beside him, Jia Yun suddenly shot him a glance but refrained from speaking further, merely stating with cold rationality: “Rest assured. The base has energy monitoring systems. Now that our equipment is fried and we’ve lost contact, headquarters should already be on their way.”

The remaining few snapped back to consciousness one after another, their breathing somewhat heavy and ragged.

Even as they spoke, they split up into several paths, rushing from different directions toward Jiang Tianji’s location.

The teaching building ahead had completely pancaked. Amidst the ruins, only the frenzied, attacking silhouette of the two-headed serpent and flashes of silver-white energy bullets could be seen, making it temporarily impossible to pin down Jiang Tianji’s exact location.

Huang Qi leapt onto a relatively intact boulder and clambered upward, attempting to secure a high vantage point to scout out Jiang Tianji’s tracks. The others followed closely behind, meticulously steering clear of the two-headed serpent’s attack radius.

Li Cheng suddenly waved his hands at them, pointing straight ahead: “Over there!”

Seeing this, Feng Huo hoisted his weapon. Jia Yun immediately pressed his hand down, stating in a chilling voice: “Don’t act rashly. It’s self-healing, and we currently don’t know the exact situation. Conserve your resources.”

His eyes remained glued to the two-headed serpent. The habitually conceited and arrogant man now bore a somewhat taut expression, all trace of his previous nonchalance entirely vanished.

Feng Huo shot him a sidelong glance, but for once he didn’t argue, lowering his weapon.

“This is bad. Why is there an energy layer covering his body?”

The situation did not permit optimism. Li Cheng was positioned closest, and he noticed the silver-white energy residue blanketing half of Jiang Tianji’s body.

Against the black combat uniform, it was difficult to discern anything clearly; a moment ago, they had simply assumed it was lingering dust.

Ji Yandong hesitated no longer, instantly vaulting over the barricade to charge toward Jiang Tianji.

“The rest of you, cover him!”

Jia Yun knitted his brows: “He is currently in a state of complete madness. Are you heading over there just to look for death?”

In the midst of his frantic rush, Ji Yandong cast a meaningful glance back at him: “Go do what you are supposed to do.”

The teammates immediately raised their firearms and aimed at the two-headed serpent, standing ready to provide interference at a moment’s notice. No one paid any heed to Jia Yun’s words; it was blatantly obvious that they only answered to their captain’s commands.

Jia Yun let out a cold sneer, turning around to vault over the jagged, uneven boulders. With a few swift leaps, his silhouette vanished into the ruins of Area A’s teaching building.

The desperate calls of his teammates felt as though they were drifting in from an immense distance.

The monster ahead had clearly been thoroughly enraged by Jiang Tianji. Large patches of the serpent’s body were covered in silver-white energy and severe scorching, yet the wounds were knitting back together at a speed visible to the naked eye.

“Remaining energy: 9%.” The Lieneng-91 in his hand issued a warning as its energy drained far too rapidly. A flash of clarity returned to Jiang Tianji’s eyes, causing his posture to stagger and waver. Yet, it was precisely this split-second stagnation that presented the two-headed serpent with a golden opportunity.

A gust of wind whipped straight at his face, carrying a dense, sickening stench.

A bloody, gaping maw filled his entire vision. Jiang Tianji’s breath hitched in his throat. At the absolute crisis point, multiple energy bullets rained down from the surroundings.

Under the agonizing pain, the two-headed serpent unleashed an enraged and tortured screech. However, its momentum was far too fast; everyone could only watch helplessly as Jiang Tianji’s body was carried along by its charge, hurtling straight toward a wall.

“Jiang Tianji!!”

Boom! Following a colossal explosion, dust billowed into the air. The wall collapsed entirely, burying more than half of the two-headed serpent’s massive body beneath it. Amidst its thrashing, broken chunks of stone cascaded down continuously.

This turn of events caught everyone completely off guard. Ji Yandong stopped dead in his tracks to stare at the ruins, his usually serene gaze giving way to a rare hint of panicked disarray.

Perhaps only a few seconds ticked by, or perhaps an eternity passed. Something seemed to twitch slightly out of the corner of their eyes.

They subconsciously shifted their gazes over, only to see a hand reaching out from a slightly shorter section of the wall a short distance away. Jiang Tianji forcefully gripped the uneven rock, unsteadily and tremulously pushing himself up onto his feet.

Before they could even celebrate, the adjacent two-headed serpent burst forth from beneath the rubble after a brief struggle, sending hard boulders flying in all directions.

The young man who had just managed to stand was violently knocked back down to the ground by one of the giant flying stones. Jiang Tianji skidded across the ground for a considerable distance before suddenly jerking his head to the side and spitting out a mouthful of fresh blood.

Ji Yandong bolted toward his location, while a furious roar echoed from behind him—it was Qi Xiuyi’s voice.

“Feng Huo!”

Feng Huo charged out from his position. A wave of internal conflict flashed through his eyes, but his movements never faltered as he trailed right behind Ji Yandong to race toward Jiang Tianji.

Dozens of energy bullets flew toward the two-headed serpent, but this time, the onslaught failed to halt its offensive.

It threw its heads back and screeched, the white energy blanketing its body shattering into pieces in an instant as if it had entered some sort of berserk state.

Humans who had neither awakened nor possessed special abilities appeared incomparably microscopic at this moment. No matter how large or how fast they made their strides, they simply could not match the speed of the giant beast.

His ears could no longer distinguish any sounds, and Jiang Tianji’s blurred vision was a complete wash of blood red. Forcing his body past its limits, he groped blindly until his fingers brushed against the firearm dropped by his side. Maintaining his fallen posture, he drained the absolute last of its energy.

“Remaining energy: 5%… 4%… 2%… 1%…”

The notifications of the Lieneng-91 updated continuously until the final moment when the silver-white light died out entirely.

Jiang Tianji tightly gripped the weapon in his hand, struggling to force his eyes open to get a clear look at the situation before him. However, he could only make out a blurred, colossal shadow.

The strength in his body was hemorrhaging away; he couldn’t even manage to lift a single finger. Yet, somewhere deep within his heart, a fire seemed to ignite, screaming with unwilling defiance.

Jiang Tianji gently shook his head, struggling rather disheveledly. The ambient noise at his ears was far too chaotic.

Shouting, screeching, and massive explosions that sounded like detonating bombs.

He forced his eyes open against the strain. The very first frame that entered his vision once his focus locked was a scene he would never be able to forget for the rest of his life.

His forest-green eyes reflected a vision that completely overturned his entire understanding of this world—beautiful, and breathtakingly shocking.

Strands of silver-white hair floated gently amidst the wind. A tall, elegant silhouette stood poised at the highest peak of the ruins. With a casual lift of his hand, brilliant blue chains of energy erupted straight out from the ground.

He stepped upon the chains to close in on the two-headed serpent, the tracks left behind by his afterimages resembling some sort of hazardous, mystical brand.

Ling Kongmiao stepped squarely onto the two-headed serpent’s head, deep-blue energy coalescing within his hand. In the span of a single heartbeat, the gentle, mysterious fireflies erupted with a terrifyingly horrific blast of power, leaving the color held within his palm as the only thing remaining between heaven and earth.

The mutated energy core was utterly crushed. The massive serpent body crashed down with a resounding roar, kicking up a massive cloud of dust.

A mutant that they had possessed absolutely no way to stand against had been transformed into a cold, lifeless corpse in a matter of mere seconds.

In a highly inopportune manner, a phrase frequently uttered by the people around him suddenly echoed inside Jiang Tianji’s mind.

“That is Captain Ling, after all.”

For the very first time, Jiang Tianji felt the true weight and meaning behind those words so vividly.

An inexplicable sense of absolute safety enveloped him. Just as his vision was about to dissolve into total darkness, he caught a whiff of that scent that put his mind completely at ease once more. His fading consciousness caused him to murmur somewhat confusedly.

“Xiao Bai…”

The silhouette advancing at a breakneck pace was radiating a hazardous aura from head to toe.

As a possessor of peak spiritual power, he caught that faint murmur in his ears without the slightest effort. The man whose eyes had been brimming with nothing but absolute frigidity froze dead in his tracks.

A tempestuous surge whipped through his deep blue eyes, only to recede silently without a trace.