Chapter 173 - 124: The Swordsmanship Club’s Situation! Can Extraordinary Creatures Be Eaten? I’m Already Full, So What Do You Think?

Chapter 173: Chapter 124: The Swordsmanship Club’s Situation! Can Extraordinary Creatures Be Eaten? I’m Already Full, So What Do You Think?

"Uh..."

As the president of a club, Zhong Fang was naturally no fool. He quickly understood why Chen Chong had brought the matter up.

Since the topic was already on the table, he decided to just lay out everything he knew, partly to give Ning Yu a heads-up.

After all, he’d already heard about what happened to the Swordsmanship Club from Zhang Meng and Wang Biao, and he knew they were close with Chen Chong.

When lives were on the line, it was better to be upfront than to hide the truth. She’d have to face it sooner or later anyway...

"President Ning Yu, please don’t think I’m overstepping. Of the thirty people we sent back, three were from your Swordsmanship Club. But aside from one who’s just unconscious and seems otherwise stable, the other two are in critical condition."

"One of them... half their body is a mangled mess of flesh and blood, and they’ve gone into shock from blood loss. The other lost an arm, and their leg was broken too. With the medical care available now, it’s hard to say if they’ll even make it."

"Also, we found the bodies of two other members of your club. One was missing the lower half of their body. The other... there was only half a face and a hand left..."

As he spoke, Zhong Fang found it difficult to continue. The two had died such gruesome deaths that when they first saw the scene, almost everyone had thrown up on the spot.

Compared to all the other bodies, theirs were in slightly better shape than those who had been crushed into paste or had vanished without a trace. But only by a little...

A jolt ran through Ning Yu as if she’d been struck by lightning, and she froze, utterly stunned.

Everyone stopped walking. No one moved forward. Expressions of sympathy and sorrow surfaced on their faces.

Most members of the Fishing Club could empathize with Ning Yu’s reaction.

They had also started with nearly a hundred members, but in just fourteen short days, their numbers had been cut almost in half, leaving only fifty-odd people.

It was all thanks to the Unihorn Catfish.

But thankfully, they had gotten their revenge, successfully hunting down the Unihorn Catfish under Chen Chong’s leadership.

This was also why the members of the Fishing Club, despite searching for him for a full day and finding nothing, still chose to risk their lives by staying here and continuing their wait.

Beyond being in awe of Chen Chong’s strength, they were also driven by a deep sense of gratitude for what he had done...

After a long moment, Ning Yu’s lips trembled. "You’re lying to me, aren’t you? I only brought five people with me. Ning Feng went back to the school long ago, so there should only be four of them here. Three were sent back, and two bodies were found... that makes five people..."

Before she could finish, Chen Chong spoke up. "Because Ah Yu and Xiaowu came looking for you."

"What?" Ning Yu’s eyes widened in disbelief. "Their injuries hadn’t even healed yet! Weren’t they supposed to be resting at home?"

"You didn’t return for a whole night. They were probably too worried and came out to find you. By the time I noticed the next day, they were already gone. If nothing else went wrong, they must have found you, and died because of it..."

Chen Chong wasn’t trying to kick her while she was down. He just wanted her to face reality. It was better for her to learn everything at once here than to go back clinging to false hope.

In the world they now lived in, there was no spare time for grief. You had to do whatever it took to survive...

CLANG—

The Tang Blade that had never left her hand fell to the ground.

Ning Yu cried.

Even a girl as tough and resilient as her couldn’t bear the pain of losing those close to her.

The ice-cold facade she usually wore crumbled in that instant, leaving only anguish.

Wang Biao, Qi Zhen, Zhong Fang, and the dozens of Fishing Club members were deeply affected. Many of them felt their eyes mist over and turned away...

Chen Chong walked over to Ning Yu and squatted down in front of her.

After a long silence, he slowly began to speak...

"If you were a gentle, delicate girl like Shen Xinrou, I would offer you my shoulder and speak words of comfort."

"But you’re not. If I actually did that, it would be an insult to you."

"You are incredibly strong inside, as strong as anyone."

"Grief is a natural human emotion. But after this, I hope you don’t let it drive you to despair."

"Ning Feng is still alive. And three of your members were taken back to the school. They need you to lead them. Whether for your own sake or for theirs..."

"You have to keep fighting to live."

Listening to Chen Chong’s words, Ning Yu kept her hands pressed to her face, her whole body still wracked with sobs from her intense sorrow.

But as the seconds and minutes passed, her sobs grew less frequent until, finally, she lowered her hands.

Though tear tracks still stained her cheeks, the grief in her eyes was gone, replaced by resilience and an unidentifiable rage.

Chen Chong picked up the Tang Blade from the ground.

Without a word, Ning Yu took it from him.

By the time she stood up again, her expression had returned to its usual emotionless, icy state, as if everything that had just happened had never occurred.

"President Zhong, can you take me to the bodies?"

Ning Yu’s voice was incredibly hoarse. Despite her best efforts to conceal it, a slight tremor remained.

Zhong Fang nodded and said to a man beside him, "Qiqi, take two people and escort President Ning Yu over there."

"Yes, President..."

Watching Ning Yu walk away, Chen Chong turned. "Let’s go. We’ll head further in, too."

The group followed him, gradually disappearing into the darkness...

「A long time later.」

Staring at the corpse of the Blood-tooth Python, which stretched out before them as far as the eye could see, every member of the Fishing Club was dumbfounded.

Their faces were masks of pure shock and disbelief.

Even though they had already learned outside the cave that the Blood-tooth Python had been killed, seeing it now with their own eyes, they still couldn’t suppress their utter astonishment.