Xue Ji woke up and immediately called Commander Ye.
“I’m going to find Ling Xiaoxiao. Right now.” Xue Ji’s tone was firm. This wasn’t a request for permission, but a notification.
There was a brief silence from Commander Ye on the other end of the communicator before the call disconnected.
In the command room, Chen Shijie broke out in a cold sweat. Xue Ji suddenly changing her mind at this critical juncture complicated things immensely.
“Um, Commander, she…” Chen Shijie started, wanting to say something in Xue Ji’s defense.
Commander Ye shook his head, his expression remaining steady and serious. “Did I just have a call with Xue Ji?” he asked pointedly.
Chen Shijie caught on immediately and quickly replied, “No, Commander. You were just discussing the combat plan to retake City A with me.”
After ending the call, Xue Ji turned around and her eyes met Shaya’s.
Shaya nodded, patting her chest with a smile and promising, “Leave this place to me!”
Although Shaya was petite in stature, she now gave off an incredibly reassuring presence.
“Don’t say thank you,” Shaya interrupted before Xue Ji could speak. “I want you to bring her back.”
Seeing the surprise on Xue Ji’s face, Shaya grinned, revealing her cute little canine teeth with a soft chuckle.
Xue Ji’s heart was touched by the girl’s words and smile. For the first time since returning to this world, she felt a stirring of genuine emotion.
She no longer suppressed the wildly surging spiritual energy within her. A shockwave swept across the ground as Xue Ji transformed into a streak of light, carving through the sky.
As the commotion settled, Shaya looked at the surrounding spirit beast leaders.
They were all astonished by Xue Ji’s hidden depths. Her powerful control over spiritual energy usually left her with almost no detectable aura, making her seem no different from an ordinary person.
But that sudden eruption just now… the spiritual energy, vast and profound as a mountain, even generated an oppressive pressure that made every spirit beast leader present feel immense weight.
The old ape’s peach fell from his hand, and it took him a long moment to regain his senses. The massive Boom Bear accidentally stumbled and nearly crushed the other leaders, eliciting a chorus of indignant shouts.
Shaya scanned the group, then pointed at Boom Bear and the old ape. “You two, come with me. We’re going out to fight.”
The old ape readily agreed. He seemed to have been prepared for this for a long time, with a wooden staff standing upright behind him—his weapon of choice.
“You have a good eye, little wolf,” the old ape said, stroking his beard.
Boom Bear asked in return, “Do we get food?”
This question actually made Shaya’s eyes light up. “Of course!” she said excitedly. “And human food is super delicious!”
“Then count me in.”
Boom Bear had been bored out of his mind cooped up in the secret realm. Ever since the Monarch Deer awakened, the killing among them had been forbidden. To go out, get to fight, and have food provided? Was there a better life than that?
Scar Eye, who was similarly enormous, asked in confusion, “Sis, isn’t that only two?”
The answer he received was Shaya’s unwavering, pointed stare. It seemed to say, Little brother, be smart about this. Don’t make things difficult for your big sis.
“Uh, uh… count me in too,” Scar Eye said, catching on a beat too late.
…
Three hours later, the Monarch Deer used a secret technique to temporarily open the secret realm’s large exit—the same method the special forces unit had used to enter during their retreat last time.
Shaya rode on Scar Eye, while the old ape sat on Boom Bear’s back. The two colossal figures charged out of the secret realm, heading straight for City A, which was already overrun with crimson.
The Canglong warship followed closely behind, flying towards City A alongside tens of thousands of awakened warriors clad in flight armor.
Nearly a kilometer high, a single crimson demonic flower was budding in the heart of the city. The ground, densely packed with pulsating fruits and writhing thorns, forced the special forces to abandon any notion of a ground battle.
For this operation, Commander Ye designated Shaya’s group as the absolute core. The Canglong would provide fire support, while the soldiers, using special weapons crafted by the tech department, would focus on clearing the dense thickets of thorns, doing their utmost to weaken the enemy’s strength.
The long-dormant Vampiric Blossom sensed the threat, and the entire city stirred to life.
Blood-red thorns elongated, reaching for the sky to attack the aerial units. The “fruits” on the ground trembled and swelled, bursting open to release swarms of twisted, newly spawned vampires.
Once used as nourishment for the demonic flower, they were now repurposed as puppets, tools to obstruct the enemy.
Modified by the Blossom, their flesh and blood coalesced, forcibly creating hulking humanoid monsters thirty meters tall.
Their faces writhed across the surface of the giants’ bodies, moaning in agony, seemingly still retaining shreds of self-awareness.
The giants gathered, forming a living wall that trampled the already ruined City A into further collapse. Only a few distant, resilient structures remained standing.
Seeing this spectacle, Boom Bear’s fighting spirit soared. His hands itched for action. Sand and stone swirled around him, condensing into a suit of heavy battle armor. Using his massive frame itself as a weapon, he charged forward, plowing through ten of the vampiric giants. He single-handedly engaged over thirty of the monstrous beings.
Scar Eye let out a thunderous roar, and a frosty power blanketed a hundred-meter radius. The old ape spun his staff with flourish; a single swing stirred the power of wind and cloud. The frozen giants shattered one after another under the force of invisible blows. His form shifted like moonlight on water, elusive and unpredictable, appearing from unexpected angles each time, taking out one or two giants with every strike.
The combat prowess of these three spirit beings left the awakened warriors participating in the battle utterly stunned. With just three of them deployed, they were this formidable. The dozens of other species within the secret realm… they must be a gathering of powerhouses!
The Canglong opened fire at full capacity this time. Missiles rained down like a storm, sweeping across the ground within its field of vision. After the first wave of bombardment, City A’s wreckage became a battlefield of blood and fire.
The soldiers carried out their tasks methodically, channeling spiritual energy into the specially crafted ammunition. They took aim at the demonic flower’s fruits, pulled the triggers. The silver-plated bullets, infused with spiritual energy, glowed with a unique luster—a special simulation of Song Liangpeng and Xia’s vampire antibodies.
When hit by these weapons, the demonic flower’s fruits were destroyed without regenerating. This weapon could inflict damage on the Blossom that was difficult to recover from.
“Charge!”
After receiving Cain’s blessing and evolving into her current form as the demonic flower, Xi Nuo possessed a tenacious vitality as formidable as a cancer cell’s, expanding without limit. To truly kill her, they could only rely on the vampire antibodies to suppress her vitality to the greatest extent possible.
The old ape spun his staff once more, this time directly whipping up a gale around him. A powerful suction force covered half the city, making the already clumsy giants even more sluggish.
“Little wolf, it’s time,” the old ape’s voice rang out.
The moment he finished speaking, Shaya, now fully transformed into a werewolf and holding a pure silver Western-style coffin in each hand, shot past the giants like a bolt of lightning, charging straight for the demonic flower.
Inside the coffins were Song and Xia, the bearers of the vampire antibodies. They were brought here for a single, decisive strike.
Having received blessings from the nuns of the Sacred Judgment Court and aided by Shaya, the two of them would personally end this demonic flower’s life.
If all goes according to plan.