The massive male ape stood like an iron tower in the slightly messy courtyard. It glanced around, its crimson gaze lingering on Qin Yi for a moment before shifting to the female ape lying in a pool of blood, already silent and lifeless.
It moved forward on both hands and feet, bent down, and rubbed its cheek against the other's face. Feeling that touch of death, the male ape's bell-like eyes widened slightly. It continued using its slender, bamboo-like fingers to push somewhat helplessly at the corpse that no longer held any life.
The night wind blew through, carrying a foul stench.
Qin Yi remained frozen in place, watching the scene with indifference. Sha apes had incredibly sharp senses. At this distance, any sudden movement could be perceived as a threat.
But...
Why wasn't this beast moving either?
What was it doing?
That female ape was already dead. Why was it still crouching in front of the corpse?
He didn't understand.
Then, after a moment,"ROOOOAR!!!!!"
An ear-splitting roar nearly pierced his eardrums. The male ape, eyes blazing crimson, turned its head and locked onto the only living creature present.
The moment their eyes met,
Qin Yi had no more thoughts. He calmly raised his handheld crossbow.
The instant the bolt was fired, the figure that loomed over him like a shadow blotting out the sun had already halted right before him, bringing with it a gust of bloody wind!
At first glance, the male ape's body was even taller than the house behind Qin Yi. In its presence, the handheld crossbow looked like a toy.
The male ape slowly curled its body downward. The crossbow bolt was embedded in its cheek, sinking three-tenths of an inch into the flesh. The arrowhead might have even pierced through its cheekbone. But it paid no attention to the pain. On its savage face, there was only the endless fury and sadistic desire burning in those crimson eyes.
Qin Yi racked his brain, then emptied his mind.
No hope. Just wait to die.
Hot on the heels of that thought came a dizzying sensation of weightlessness. The tight constriction around his waist told Qin Yi he had been grabbed.
The Sha ape clutched him and brought him close.
Drip...
The ape's protruding-jawed face leaned in extremely close, so close that Qin Yi could see the fine pores on either side of its nostrils, see his own reflection in those crimson pupils, and feel the breath it exhaled.
It probably smelled terrible, but he couldn't smell anything anymore.
The Sha ape's massive hand was slowly tightening. In an instant, Qin Yi lost the ability to breathe entirely.
Drip...
Listening to the creaking sounds by his ear, Qin Yi calmly lowered his gaze and glanced at his body, which was gradually deforming under the crushing grip.
...Unable to breathe, so this is what the dull pain of bones slowly bending feels like.
Drip...
This male ape probably wanted to torment him.
At this rate of tightening, in about thirty seconds... no, twenty seconds, his ribs would snap.
Drip...
But before that, due to the compression of his abdomen, his internal organs would deform, and blood would first gush out from his mouth and nose.
Drip...
Hmm?
The consciousness idling in AFK-death mode was reactivated by the strange noise. Qin Yi realized the "drip-drip" sound coming to his ears wasn't a dying hallucination, nor was it the creaking of bones under pressure.
What is this?
Drip...
That rhythmic "drip-drip" sound was getting closer, seemingly already at the courtyard gate.
This time, Qin Yi heard it clearly.
The sound was like iron implements clashing and scraping inside a cloth sack.
The male ape obviously heard the increasingly close sound too. It turned its head long before Qin Yi did, and the force in its grip also loosened.
That was also why Qin Yi hadn't sprayed blood yet.
His gaze fixed, the moonlight silent.
A thin, small figure slowly walked in from the shadows outside the courtyard gate.
It was a girl drenched in blood.
She was tall and slender, about twelve or thirteen years old, head hanging low, long hair cascading down like a waterfall. One hand dragged a bulging cloth sack that seemed to be filled with blades, while the other carried a long-handled rusted axe, its wooden handle bound to her wrist with bloodstained cloth strips.
Under the gazes of two pairs of eyes with very different emotions,
"Grrroar..."
The male ape let out only a single threatening growl. At this moment, it didn't want to deal with anything else. It only wanted to torture and kill this two-legged beast cub that had harmed its blood kin.
"..."
Hearing the sound from her home, the girl halted her steps. She released the bulging cloth sack, and a dozen or so blades tumbled out from it.
"Grrr..."
The male ape's gaze landed on them, its crimson pupils briefly frozen. A rumbling growl rose from its throat as it stared at the newcomer.
Her long hair scattered in the wind. The girl slowly raised her eyelids, sliding her fingers through her hair and pushing it upward, revealing a pair of numb, bloodshot eyes.
[Tsk...]
[So noisy...]
She thought vacantly.
Tear stains and bloodstains interwove into winding patterns across her face as she coldly surveyed everything before her.
She saw the female ape's corpse.
She saw the broken body of the girl.
And finally, her gaze settled on the small hut that she and Xiao Yi had built together, brick by brick, plank by plank.
There, a massive demonic ape crouched.
It faced away from her, only its ugly head turned around, staring at her intently.
The instant their eyes met,
The mud-stained toes of her bare foot hooked a Tang horizontal saber from the cloth sack on the ground, catching it in her hand.
Then,
The girl continued walking forward.
One hand holding the saber, the other dragging the axe.
Seeing this, the male ape's crimson pupils flickered with confusion mingled with displeased fury, its throat rumbling like brewing thunder.
It too slowly rose to its feet. The ape's ten-foot-tall frame cast a massive shadow under the moonlight.
Beneath the moonlight,
The thin, small figure and the enormous monster drew closer and closer.
All sounds fell silent at that moment. The chirping of cicadas and birdsong were stripped away from existence.
Until,
A faint...
"...Sis."
"..."
That faint call seemed to pierce through some veil between life and death.
The girl's unfocused pupils instantly constricted.
The layer of dead-gray film covering her eyes shattered in that moment.
Ruan Su woke as if from a dream, searching for the source of the sound. When her gaze locked onto the boy clutched in the Sha ape's palm, she visibly faltered for a moment, as if she couldn't believe it.
She stopped her advance. Strands of hair fell before her eyes, obscuring her expression.
Then,
Came utter stillness.
"..."
BANG!
Suddenly, bluestone shattered!!
The girl's figure vanished from where she stood.
The Sha ape's crimson pupils froze for a moment, but it reacted just as quickly. The instant it sensed the threat, it swung its arm in a sweeping arc. The arm holding the boy, over ten feet long, cast a shadow of death under the moonlight.
The rushing wind pulled the girl's long hair into a straight line, and also let the demonic ape see her expression—a killing intent so extreme it bordered on madness.
The instant the two afterimages crossed, a fine cut appeared at the elbow of the arm holding Qin Yi. Then it expanded and flew apart!
Its thick, muscular forearm was chopped clean off by the girl!
And while severing the arm, the girl used a method of leveraging her body that Qin Yi couldn't comprehend, spinning sharply in mid-air.
Her gray-blue hem traced a blurry arc in the moonlight, and a whip kick wrapped in howling wind slammed into the ape's protruding-jawed face in an instant!
A moment of stillness,
Then an explosive crack followed!
BOOM!!!
The muffled impact was like a boulder crashing into a deep pool.
The Sha ape's face deformed instantly. Its jawbone caved inward at an unnatural angle, and several fangs spun out along with a mist of blood!
Its massive frame was sent flying backward by that inconceivable force, crashing through the wooden wall. Gray-brown fur plowed a deep trench through the ground as it skidded, sending blood-mud and torn grass flying, until it slammed into an old locust tree over ten meters outside the courtyard before finally coming to a stop!
Drip...
The girl landed, her bare feet touching the ground. Her hair, lifted by the night wind, settled back onto her shoulders strand by strand.
Ruan Su caught the Sha ape's severed forearm somewhat flustered, along with the boy still clutched within it.
Steady.
Her thin, delicate frame contained an inhuman monstrous strength.
When his sister had suddenly charged forward moments ago and the Sha ape had lashed out in retaliation, it had nearly crushed him to death. But it had all ended in the instant before the ape could fully exert its strength.
Coughing, Qin Yi looked at his sister.
Ruan Su looked back at him, lips pressed tightly together, her slender, beautiful eyes barely restraining the overwhelming surge of emotion from having him back.
"...Your foot."
Sensing her intention, Qin Yi interrupted his sister's startup animation of wanting to pounce and hug him mid-battle, reminding her softly.
Ruan Su looked down at her words. Her gaze landed on her twisted left foot. Her bare ankle was bent outward at an unnatural angle.
That kick just now—she had put too much force into it, and her entire left foot had dislocated.
"Hmph..."
She let out a light snort, calmly raised her left knee, and gripped her ankle with slender fingers, following the method Qin Yi had taught her before...
Crack.
The dislocated ankle snapped back into place.
Excruciating pain surged through her, but Ruan Su didn't let out a single moan. She didn't even frown.
She nodded at him. Her dim gaze lingered on the boy's blood-soaked clothes for a moment. Then she casually tossed aside the Tang saber whose blade had been deformed by the impact, and turned around with a brisk, graceful stride.
Outside the courtyard, the massive gray-brown figure was struggling to rise from beneath the old locust tree. The stump of its severed arm sprayed dark-red blood continuously, soaking the surrounding mud into a deep brown.
Ruan Su walked step by step toward the demonic ape. With every step of her left foot, the reset ankle sent a sharp stab of pain through her, but her pace didn't falter in the slightest.
Her right hand carried the long-handled rusted axe, the heavy head dangling by her side. The dull blade dragged along the ground, carving a deep, long groove into the dirt outside the courtyard.
The stagnant mountain wind picked up again, stirring her disheveled hair and tattered clothes. Moonlight fell across the girl's face—one half flawless like an immortal, the other half a twisted, burn-scarred horror.
Those pitch-black eyes no longer held their previous deadness.
In their place,
Was a purity, a madness untainted by anything else!
Similar to Ruan Su's dislocated left foot, the demonic ape's protruding lower jaw now hung limp and useless. Its shattered jawbone dangled from its face, pulling on several torn tendons. The severed arm gushed blood.
But it paid no attention to any of it. It rolled and scrambled to its feet. The agony wracking its body and the grief of losing its blood kin drove it completely over the edge. Its crimson eyes burned with twisted fury as its feet dug into the ground, and it charged at the new two-legged beast cub on all fours.
The girl walked steadily, still advancing at a slow, unhurried pace.
The male ape was fast. Every step forward brought tremors to the ground.
The two closed in in an instant.
The male ape's remaining arm reached for the girl, its long, pitch-black nails glinting with razor-sharp coldness.
This time, Qin Yi saw exactly how Ruan Su moved.
As the fierce wind came rushing, Ruan Su's slender waist suddenly flexed. She dropped into a low backward lean, dodging the lethal swipe by a hair's breadth.
Seeing this, the ape's savage glare didn't diminish in the least. The size difference between it and this two-legged beast cub was too vast. Even just ramming into her, it could crush her into a cripple.
But the collision it anticipated never came.
While dodging with her sideways lean, Ruan Su's slender body had already completed its spinning wind-up, carrying the rusted axe in her right hand!
The axe blade flipped over, turning from edge to hammer. It traced a perfect arc of light under the moonlight, arriving at the demonic ape's skull in an instant!
THUD!!!
The wooden handle snapped. The axe head spun away through the air.
The demonic ape's massive frame, caught between its forward momentum and the tremendous force of the axe-hammer, tumbled over ten meters before finally stopping.
And this time, the demonic ape couldn't get up immediately.
Qin Yi, supporting himself against the collapsed courtyard wall nearby, watched it all clearly.
The demonic ape's skull was definitely cracked. That hammer strike from his sister had literally bulged its right eye out of its socket by nearly an inch.
In the midst of the rumbling, Ruan Su tossed away the remaining wooden stick of the broken axe handle and continued walking toward it empty-handed.
Only when she was almost upon it did the male ape manage to recover. Dizzy and clumsy, it turned its massive body around, snarling at the monster girl.
It tried to rise again.
But Ruan Su stared at it coldly, giving it no such chance.
She slowly raised her leg. Her long, straight left leg rose to a full vertical split under the moonlight.
Then,
It came crashing down!
BANG!!
The impact struck the Sha ape's enormous skull. The faint sound of cracks spreading through its cranium was even audible.
Amidst the demonic ape's furious roars, Ruan Su stood firmly on its head. She glared down at the beast, then bent over and grabbed its dislocated lower jaw.
Her slender arm trembled slightly from the strain.
Just as the male ape had gripped Xiao Yi moments ago, Ruan Su too began to apply force, bit by bit.
Squelch... squelch....
The sound of tendons and muscles being torn and ripped apart was utterly bone-chilling in the silent moonlit night.
As death truly approached, the crazed thirst for revenge in the demonic ape's crimson eyes gradually faded, replaced by a terror that came from the very marrow of its bones.
It rolled and thrashed wildly on the ground. Its ten-foot-long arm slapped at the dirt, kicking up large chunks of blood-mud and grass clippings. Its gray-brown fur became caked with filth and shredded leaves as it rolled. From its throat came the hoarse, dying whimper of a beast.
The girl didn't stop.
Moonlight shone from behind her, stretching her thin shadow long, covering the Sha ape's massive, convulsing body.
Until,
RIIIP——
The world turned black and white. Only the blood painted an eerie, gorgeous crimson through the air.
Ruan Su ripped the demonic ape's lower jaw clean off with her bare hands. The gushing blood and writhing tongue made the male ape look like a demon straight from hell. But this demon now had nothing but terror in its eyes, even a hint of pleading.
Ruan Su gazed down at it with indifference. She raised her hand.
BANG!
Her fist slammed into its forehead.
The ape's already-cracked skull deformed instantly under the blow. Cracks spiderwebbed outward from the axe wound and the impact point, spreading in all directions like a spider's web.
Her disheveled hair slid down, covering half of her face, leaving only one pitch-black, indifferent eye visible.
The Sha ape didn't die. Its crimson eyes bulged wide in agony, pupils contracting violently. The fear in them had escalated into pure trembling. A shrill shriek escaped its mouth.
Humans were prey for it to toy with.
Why... why was this human cub...
The second punch came down.
BANG!
Most of the Sha ape's hardened skull shattered. Its crimson eyeball bulged out of the sunken eye socket, squeezed between fragments of broken orbital bone, nearly popping out entirely.
The Sha ape lost the ability to struggle. Its limbs convulsed, scratching shallow furrows into the ground.
Then came the third punch.
Ruan Su's fist punched straight through the Sha ape's massive skull. Her slender arm sank into it, her knuckles brushing against soft, warm brain tissue. The sharp edges of broken bone sliced open the skin of her forearm, and dark-red blood dripped down along her elbow.
She pulled it out mechanically.
The fourth punch.
The fifth punch.
The sixth punch.
Moonlight poured down like a waterfall, illuminating every detail around them.
Qin Yi walked step by step toward the girl who seemed possessed by madness.
According to Wang Ma's confession, their group of roaming bandits had fifteen adult men and four heavy crossbows. He had taken care of two. The remaining thirteen—judging by the blades his sister had brought back in that cloth sack, they must have belonged to them.
Qin Yi came to a stop behind her. He didn't try to stop her from desecrating the corpse. He only called out softly.
"...Sis."
"..."
Silence.
The girl's swinging fist froze mid-air.
A gentle breeze passed, carrying the smell of rust and earth.
The girl turned her head, looking back at the boy who had also waded through blood.
The boy asked softly:
"Are you okay?"
"..."
The girl looked at him. She bit her lip, her nostrils trembling slightly. Finally, her beautiful eyes curved into two crescent moons glistening with tears, and she slowly raised her bloodstained hand.
Under the moonlight,
Crimson blood dripped down her snow-white arm.
The girl formed a circle with her slender index finger and thumb, the other three fingers spread open.
It was the gesture he had taught her.
I'm... okay.