Chapter 654 - 429: Mission [2]

A pillar of fire shot into the sky, illuminating a radius of dozens of meters and turning the once-dim field ridges as bright as day.

In the distorted waves of heat.

The monster’s body gradually disintegrated, turning into wisps of black smoke that dissipated into the air.

In the firelight, two figures bathed in blood still stood.

But at this moment, they had lost their previous composure.

The red-haired man’s body had returned to its lean form. His entire left arm was gone, severed at the shoulder, and blood dripped continuously from the tattered sleeve.

The short-haired woman beside him was covered in wounds, and the spider lily tattoo on her body had returned to normal.

"DING! One Intermediate Yin Beast eliminated. Reward: 100 manuscript fee points!"

A cold, mechanical voice rang out in her mind.

But it only made the short-haired woman’s expression turn even uglier.

"Did you get a notification for that thing?"

The short-haired woman repeated the message she had received in her mind.

Hearing this,

the red-haired man shook his head.

However, his expression grew even darker and more sullen.

’I paid such a heavy price, yet just because I wasn’t the one to land the final blow, I get no reward?’

Seemingly noticing this,

the short-haired woman offered to split the reward with him once they made it out alive.

Failing that, she would let him have the reward from the next Yin Beast they encountered. Only then did the red-haired man’s expression soften slightly.

However, both of them immediately thought back to the notification’s content.

According to the world’s plot information in their minds, Yin Beasts were divided into four Levels: Basic, Intermediate, High, and King.

’—And a monster like that was only an Intermediate Level.’

’If they encountered a High-Level Yin Beast...’

’As for the legendary King Level? That would be a guaranteed death sentence.’

"Let’s go!"

With no further exchange, the two forced their injured bodies to move and quickly retreated.

In the blink of an eye, their figures melted completely into the pitch-black night.

...

A case like theirs was just an exception.

Although there were many Intern Readers in this world, most had not yet made a move, choosing instead to lie low and wait.

After all, there were still several days until the mission deadline, so there was no rush.

...

The night was black as ink, growing deeper still.

In the blink of an eye, it was two in the morning. All was silent.

「Shenmu City, Qinglu Mountain Villa.」

In the backyard of a three-story European-style villa, a patch of clearly fresh, dark soil trembled slightly, shattering the dead silence.

Immediately after, wisps of black smoke seeped out from the soil. They snaked and coiled in the air like phantoms, gradually converging to form a pitch-black shadow.

The shadow resembled an octopus the size of a water buffalo, yet it was completely different from an ordinary octopus.

The suckers on its tentacles were lined with ring-shaped serrations that glinted with a sinister, cold light in the darkness.

After it slowly materialized, its cold gaze instantly pierced through the glass, locking onto a security guard on night watch inside the house.

A venomous look flashed across its face.

However, just as it was about to make a move,

a man’s deep voice suddenly sounded from the side.

"So this is a Yin Beast? It feels somewhat similar to a Resentful Spirit..."

The Yin Beast whipped its head around to see Hu Qi standing there, though it hadn’t noticed when he arrived.

He was currently watching the octopus monster with great interest, his gaze like someone examining a new toy.

A corpse lay beneath this patch of soil.

It was none other than Xiaochen, who had been shot in the head during the day.

This Yin Beast had clearly been born from his corpse.

And the moment it appeared, it had developed a murderous intent toward Black Wolf, the man inside who had killed Xiaochen that day.

This behavior was almost identical to that of a Resentful Spirit.

The octopus-like Yin Beast seemed enraged by his gaze. Its tentacles whipped through the air as it lunged toward Hu Qi.

However, Hu Qi merely raised his hand and made a grasping motion, and an invisible, powerful force instantly enveloped the Yin Beast.

Suppressed by this force, the Yin Beast’s massive body shrank rapidly. In the blink of an eye,

it had shrunk to the size of a ping-pong ball and fallen into Hu Qi’s palm, motionless.

After doing all this, Hu Qi’s figure vanished from the spot.

And inside the house, the security guard, separated only by a wall, noticed nothing at all.