Chapter 7 Double-Team, Perilous Situation

As Wu Wanqing spoke, he gently flicked the ash from the cigarette in his hand.

At that exact moment, the villager uncle beside him suddenly expanded in size. While tearing through his clothes, he swept out with sharply transformed, razor-sharp claws.

Clang!

With a muffled thud, his claws were blocked by Wu Wanqing's unsheathed Demon-Slaying Sword, followed immediately by a heavy explosion.

The monster flew backward like a cannonball, violently slamming into the wall, only to pass right through it upon impact as if it were nothing more than a phantom.

Zhou Yan, observing from behind, narrowed his eyes. Is this the so-called ability to "not interact with physical reality"?

Yet earlier, when this monster had not yet materialized, it was clearly able to walk normally, open and close doors, and interact properly with physical objects.

Is this a conceptual ability of the idealistic type?

Can they choose to interact with whatever they wish, while ignoring and phasing through anything they prefer not to touch or are passively affected by?

"What a cheating mechanic."

"Damn!" Wu Wanqing retracted his kicked foot with annoyance.

At this moment, shrill roars began to echo successively from all over the village.

"Did the Fourth Squad responsible for patrolling this area eat shit?" Wu Wanqing's face twisted with anger. "So many Skin-Peelers have practically devoured the entire village, and they had no idea?!"

He quickly turned his head back to look at the three of them, focusing primarily on Luo Xuan: "Miss Luo, you've seen it for yourself. The situation has changed; the number of Skin-Peelers is far greater than we imagined. I will go and exterminate them all. You break through to the outside of the village with the other two and hold the extraction point!"

His expression turned stern: "Remember, with a village occupied by Skin-Peelers like this, there are no surviving humans. Anyone who approaches you is to be executed on sight!"

"Understood!" Luo Xuan agreed instantly.

Wu Wanqing had already hoisted his green metal case, pulled the Demon-Slaying Sword from his waist, and leaped right over the courtyard wall.

Swish!

The sound of a blade singing rang out from beyond the wall, immediately followed by the sound of a sharp weapon piercing flesh and the miserable shrieks of a monster.

A second later, the monster's dying cries abruptly ceased.

Luo Xuan looked at Zhou Yan and Lu Ming, speaking rapidly: "Let's go, stay close to me. You heard it earlier, even the weakest among the Skin-Peelers is on par with a Wonder-tier powerhouse. If you don't want to die, don't fall behind!"

As soon as she finished speaking, she took the lead and bolted toward the outer door.

Zhou Yan and Lu Ming exchanged a glance and hurriedly followed closely behind.

Just as the two of them were about to rush out of the courtyard gate, the door of the house behind them was violently kicked off its hinges, and another Skin-Peeler, identical in appearance to the previous one, surged out from within.

"Ah—" Lu Ming, standing beside Zhou Yan, shrieked in terror. Seemingly spurred by the threat of death, he burst forward with a few frantic strides, catching up to Luo Xuan, who had intentionally slowed her pace.

Zhou Yan did not mock him and likewise quickened his step.

The three of them burst out of the courtyard gate, instantly catching sight of the first Skin-Peeler slain by Wu Wanqing on the village path.

It was now headless and motionless, lying dead on the ground.

"Don't stop!" Luo Xuan led the two of them past the monster's corpse without looking back.

They had barely run a few dozen meters when the Skin-Peeler from behind closed the distance.

Amidst Lu Ming's panicked screaming, the creature swung its claws toward his back.

"Get down!" Luo Xuan roared, startling Lu Ming into instinctively diving forward, luckily dodging the claw strike.

The Skin-Peeler moved to pursue, but Luo Xuan had already spun around, leaping into the air to land directly in front of it.

"Die!"

Soaring through the air, Luo Xuan instantly unleashed nearly ten slashes at the claw-swinging Skin-Peeler.

Every single slash was exceptionally fierce, forcing the monster to parry frantically. Yet she constantly utilized the recoil from the clashes between her blade and its claws to maintain her high aerial position.

In a mere three seconds, she shattered the monster's pair of sharp claws, then delivered a mid-air thrust while passing over it, driving her sword straight down through the top of its skull and into its brain.

Withdraw the blade, twist, land!

The moment she touched the ground, the Skin-Peeler collapsed right beside her.

It was none other than the Secret Sword Technique: Swift Swallow Flurry!

Zhou Yan found it immensely satisfying to watch—his girl's swordsmanship was light-years ahead of that Li Guanzhi guy.

Luo Xuan turned around and signaled Zhou Yan to help Lu Ming up. Just as the three of them prepared to resume their breakthrough, their movements abruptly froze.

On the village path, three Skin-Peeler stood shoulder-to-shoulder, blocking the road. On their utterly inhuman, distorted faces, a mocking smile was vaguely discernible.

Luo Xuan stepped forward, placing herself between Zhou Yan and Lu Ming.

Without a word, she raised the silver case in her left hand—which she had silently carried even through the fierce battle—and held it upright before her.

Right at that moment, a harsh shout echoed from the other side of the village, belonging to Wu Wanqing: "So many damn beasts!"

"Divine Mechanism, Release!!!"

A flash of cyan light suddenly erupted from that direction, soaring straight into the sky.

Seeing this, Luo Xuan hesitated no longer. Pressing her left hand onto the top of the silver case, paths of light instantly illuminated its entire surface.

"Divine Mechanism, Release!!!"

The next instant, amidst a brilliant flood of light, she transformed into the appearance Zhou Yan had witnessed earlier that morning.

Immediately afterward, she gripped the straight, white-hilted silver blade held in front of her.

Beneath her descending glossy, transparent visor, her eyes flashed with a brilliant sapphire light, and a synthetic-sounding voice resonated from beneath the mask:

"From now on, the two of you just run toward the village entrance. The enemy—leave them to me."

With those words, her figure flickered, and she had already vanished, reappearing directly behind the three Skin-Peelers blocking the road.

Following close behind her movement were three ugly heads flying up into the sky.

Well done, Xiao Xuan.

The corners of Zhou Yan's mouth curved upward as he broke into a sprint without a moment's hesitation.

Lu Ming, seeing Luo Xuan "transform," also looked immensely relieved and skillfully followed closely behind Zhou Yan to make his escape.

Clearly, during past anomalous incidents, he had witnessed his uncle-like superior utilize the power of the Divine Mechanism many times, placing absolute trust in that strength.

During the retreat, Luo Xuan, fully armored in her Divine Mechanism battle gear, demonstrated what overwhelming combat power truly meant.

Throughout the entire evacuation, Skin-Peelers continuously leaped out from their hiding places in the houses, attempting to block their path. Yet without exception, before they could even utter a sound, they were effortlessly decapitated by Luo Xuan, who had transformed into a silver-white streak of lightning.

Having an invincible bodyguard made the evacuation remarkably effortless.

The four of them had spent seven or eight minutes walking in slowly earlier.

Now, running out at maximum speed, they reached the outskirts of the village in less than a minute.

Lu Ming hurried forward to fetch the car.

Luo Xuan took a few quick steps to catch up and stood beside Zhou Yan.

Zhou Yan stood still and looked back, seeing the headless corpse of a Skin-Peeler lying on the road every dozen meters or so.

Without a doubt, every single one of these monsters had been slain by Luo Xuan.

Ordinary Skin-Peelers possessed only Wonder-tier strength, and against Luo Xuan—whose mobility and power when wearing her divine battle suit rivaled an average attribute rating of 200—ordinary Wonder-tier foes could not even withstand a single blow.

Luo Xuan stopped beside Zhou Yan, holding her Divine Mechanism weapon in a reverse grip. The armor covering her body rapidly dissolved, merging back with the weapon to transform once again into the silver case.

"You've probably guessed it by now; using the Divine Mechanism places a heavy burden on both the human body and mind." Noticing Zhou Yan's thoughtful gaze, she took the initiative to explain.

"Especially with a special Divine Mechanism like mine, the burden is even heavier." Luo Xuan paused. "But ultimately, the reason is that my strength hasn't truly broken through to the Grandmaster level; both my physique and my spirit are still quite far from the True Realm."

"Hmm." Zhou Yan looked at Luo Xuan earnestly. "Are you alright right now? Do you need me to support you?"

"It hasn't come to that." Luo Xuan raised her head to look toward the village. "We'll wait here to rendezvous with Wu Wanqing, and then see how he plans to handle the rest of the situation."

As they spoke, a cyan-green streak of light was seen racing out from the village. In the span of two seconds, it closed the hundred-meter distance and instantly materialized before Zhou Yan and Luo Xuan.

"Not bad, how many Skin-Peelers did you kill?" Wu Wanqing didn't immediately disengage his Divine Mechanism like Luo Xuan did, asking instead in a cheerful tone.

Zhou Yan stared at Wu Wanqing's current appearance—perhaps due to being male, his Divine Mechanism armor looked significantly bulkier overall compared to Luo Xuan's slender armor, giving off a much stronger sense of power.

It was entirely cyan-green in color, differing vastly from Luo Xuan's streamlined, "neo-classical" aesthetic.

If he had to draw a comparison, Luo Xuan's Divine Mechanism leaned toward the appearance of the protagonist from a game he used to play on Earth called *Metal Gear Rising*—though that protagonist used full-body cybernetics, whereas Luo Xuan wore armor.

As for Wu Wanqing's set, it looked closer to the armor of the Master Chief from another game Zhou Yan had played, *Halo*, with the user holding a long green blade.

At that moment, Luo Xuan calmly replied: "I killed thirty-seven."

"Good!" Wu Wanqing laughed heartily, seemingly just remembering to disengage his Divine Mechanism armor. The next second, the armor all over his body shattered and sprang apart, enveloping the green longsword and transforming back into a metal case.

"I killed fifty-four. Zhou Yan, right? Call Director Chu immediately and have her dispatch all personnel to our location. An entire village occupied by a hundred Skin-Peelers, and yet no one knew a thing—the Special Operations Fourth Squad in charge of patrolling this area definitely has a problem!"

"Understood." Zhou Yan smiled and nodded, immediately pulling out his phone to dial Chu Wan.

Bang!

A crisp gunshot echoed from the distance.

Yet long before the sound arrived, Zhou Yan had already pulled his phone away and tilted his head to the side in advance.

A speeding bullet grazed past his cheek.

Luo Xuan's expression changed drastically, and she instantly flashed in front of him to block.

Wu Wanqing also immediately looked up into the distance, his face turning grim.

Two familiar sedans turned from the outer national highway into the narrow path leading toward them, completely blocking the exit route.

From the vehicles, two squads of people dressed in black trench coat uniforms stepped out casually and walked toward them.

Wu Wanqing stared unblinkingly at the newcomers, lowering his voice as he asked Luo Xuan: "Expert Luo, before we came here, did you and Zhou Yan report this to Director Chu's side?"

Luo Xuan shook her head: "No."

Wu Wanqing's expression grew even uglier, and he gritted his teeth: "Then how on earth did the people from the Special Second and Fourth Squads know about this place?"

Luo Xuan did not answer.

By then, those two squads had already walked to within roughly fifty meters of them.

A middle-aged man among them, who also carried a cyan-green case, called out from afar: "Old Wu, looks like you've run into big trouble. Do the brothers need to lend you a hand?"

The middle-aged man spoke of offering help, but the smile on his face was bizarre, reeking of schadenfreude.

Immediately following that, the leader of the other squad, who also carried a cyan-green case, let out a loud laugh as well: "Or rather, letting our boss lend you a hand wouldn't be a bad idea either!"

Wu Wanqing demanded in a cold voice: "Isn't our boss Chu Wan?"

Before he even finished speaking, a voice filled with greed drifted over from behind them in the distance: "Before they get eaten, of course the boss is Chu Wan..."

"What a pity... right now, their boss is me!"

Zhou Yan turned back around to see an elderly man slowly walking out from the village, holding a metal case in his hand just as prominently.

Turning around to look along with him were Wu Wanqing and Luo Xuan.

The moment the two of them laid eyes on the old man, their expressions turned utterly horrified.

"Grandmaster Xu Tianfang?! Wasn't he dead?!" Wu Wanqing gasped in shock.

Ahead of them stood two demon-hunting experts whose strength was no less than his and Luo Xuan's.

Behind them stood a late grandmaster who should have been dead, and he was even equipped with a Divine Mechanism.

"This time... I'm afraid we're done for."

Wu Wanqing's voice was hoarse and tinged with despair.

Lu Ming, who had already run down from the car, cowered closely behind Wu Wanqing, trembling as he took in the current situation.

Luo Xuan, with a stern expression, once again raised her Divine Mechanism upright before her.

As for Zhou Yan, he merely stood quietly, appraising the two forces that had them caught in a pincer movement, his gaze entirely calm.

***

Another chapter coming up later!