“Um?”

Suddenly, Li Ang seemed to sense something. He abruptly raised his head, his eyes seeming to pierce through the tree hole and gaze into the far distance.

The soldier bees surrounding that area had inexplicably died in droves.

The surviving bees were desperately scattering and fleeing.

“Something is rushing over here.”

Li Ang shook his head and slowly pushed himself up to stand. “Hopefully it’s that Shui Yan (Water Nightmare).”

Wanli Fengdao’s expression shifted upon hearing this. He tightly gripped his Zhanlong Sword (Dragon-Slaying Sword). The previously fractured ribs in his chest seemed to throb again. “Flee or fight?”

“Three against one. There’s no reason to flee.”

Li Ang climbed out of the tree hole and said nonchalantly, “Oh? It’s moving pretty fast…”

Thump, thump, thump, thump.

Deep within the dense forest, the Shui Yan (Water Nightmare), its pale skin hanging limply, was sprinting forward, trampling the ground.

Its nose had long since rotted and fallen off, leaving only two narrow holes from which a damp, putrid odor constantly emanated.

The iron chains around its waist clattered, dragging more than a dozen corpses of various shapes behind it, tearing through fallen leaves and gravel as they were pulled across the ground.

As long as it filled all eighteen chains, it could break free from this decaying body and complete its transformation...

Besides the two tall, burly men and the wretched, skinny one from before, there were now two more sources of fresh, living energy in the forest.

It had to be quick, and seize their bodies before the other monsters did!

Boom!

Thunder rumbled, and the Shui Yan’s (Water Nightmare) white-filmed eyes slowly turned. Its withered, wooden-like hand reached for its waist, grasped a chain without a corpse attached, and suddenly flung it into the air.

Like an insidious poisonous snake, the chain lashed out at an odd angle, instantly crushing three scout bees flying high in the air into dust. They fell from the sky like mud.

These insects were becoming more numerous. They didn’t even attack, just followed its flight in mid-air… Was it the doing of those two newly appeared living beings…?

The Shui Yan’s (Water Nightmare) consciousness, almost entirely consumed by bloodlust, could only spare a very limited part for thought.

Never mind, it didn't matter. As long as it found those living beings, it could make them all into scapegoats.

In this dark, dense forest, constantly lashed by torrential rain, the Shui Yan (Water Nightmare) had no equal.

Whoosh—

A faint sound of air being cut came from the right front. Alarms blared in the Shui Yan’s (Water Nightmare) mind. Its body abruptly stopped, and its hand gripped the chain, suddenly flinging it toward the source of the sound.

With a crash, the iron chain, as thick as a man’s arm, shattered a giant tree in its path, its momentum undiminished. It struck an ordinary-looking metal arrow that was flying in a curved trajectory.

The violent, savage power attached to the iron chain directly blasted the metal arrow into pieces, scattering them across the sky.

The Shui Yan (Water Nightmare) was about to retract the chain when it saw that the arrow fragments had not been dragged down by gravity. Instead, after a slight pause, they plunged from mid-air, raining down on its head.

The sure-hit property of the Jiao Liang Bow was too bizarre. The Shui Yan (Water Nightmare) couldn’t dodge and was struck head-on by the metal fragments, its head and face filled with sharp iron shards.

Boom!

All the iron shards exploded simultaneously, and the Shui Yan’s (Water Nightmare) withered body was instantly engulfed in intense flames.

Compared to their last encounter, Liu Wudai’s strength had increased significantly.

The infallible bow and powerful explosive arrows, combined with some auxiliary buffs, were enough to instantly kill a bunch of enemies whose details were unknown upon first encounter.

Before the flames could dissipate, a thin figure darted out from the forest.

Wanli Fengdao held the Zhanlong Sword (Dragon-Slaying Sword). His two mustaches were soaked by the rain, drooping above his lips. He looked haggard, but his eyes were bright and clear, focused on nothing but the Shui Yan (Water Nightmare).

Chop!

The three-foot Qiushui longsword produced no dazzling light or sound, but simply struck the Shui Yan (Water Nightmare) in an unremarkable fashion, slicing diagonally from its neck down to its abdomen.

This strike split the Shui Yan’s (Water Nightmare) body open for the most part. Foul-smelling, reddish-yellow pus gushed out like water, splashing on the damp pile of dead leaves and hissing as it corroded them.

The Shui Yan’s (Water Nightmare) withered body slowly fell backward,

But Wanli Fengdao twisted around and swung his sword behind him.

The three-foot Frost Blade steadily blocked a swollen, pale hand with a missing finger.

Wanli Fengdao looked up and saw a bloated, pale giant looming over him.

This was… a grown man’s corpse, wearing tattered clothes, bound to the Shui Yan’s (Water Nightmare) chain.

Wanli Fengdao’s pupils suddenly contracted. This corpse didn’t have an iron chain around its waist…

He didn’t have time to think. The Zhanlong Sword's (Dragon-Slaying Sword) sword qi crisscrossed, directly severing the giant corpse’s hand that was gripping the blade, and then attempted to slice open the floating corpse’s abdomen from the bottom up.

However, as soon as the blade touched the floating corpse’s swollen abdominal skin, he felt a strong stickiness, as if the sword would sink into it. He couldn’t cut through it at all.

“Hoo—"

The floating corpse emitted a muffled exhalation from its throat. Its left hand and the right arm, missing a hand, closed together, trying to trap Wanli Fengdao.

Whoosh—

An arrow with a spherical object attached to its tip flew along a curved trajectory,

Accurately hitting the back of the floating corpse’s head. The spherical arrow instantly burst with intense electric light, turning the giant floating corpse’s head into charcoal.

Taking advantage of this brief moment, Wanli Fengdao withdrew his longsword, retreated violently, and leapt onto a tree branch, looking down below.

The Shui Yan (Water Nightmare) was still lying on the ground, its body still burning with flames, but the corpses were gone from the ends of the eighteen iron chains around its waist.

All the corpses seemed to have disappeared,

Or rather, had been released…

Just like that giant floating corpse.

Wanli Fengdao’s pupils suddenly contracted, and a cold current surged up his spine. At the instant his body instinctively jumped away, the tree branch where he had just been standing was directly smashed into pieces.

Shattering the branch was a pale object huddled into a ball.

It was a pale-skinned, monstrously bloated infant with a blood-red mouth and red eyes.

The infant still had fragments of wood in its mouth. Missing its target, it fell to the ground like a little monkey,

Landing perfectly in the arms of a female floating corpse, reverting to a peaceful and adorable appearance.

Mother and child simultaneously looked up, their cloudy eyes, filmed with the same white as the Shui Yan (Water Nightmare), looking at Wanli Fengdao hovering in mid-air, revealing bloodthirsty smiles.