Chapter 089: The Highway Killer

Beneath the waterfall, Swiftwing found a great many vines at top speed and brought them back to Shen Duo.

Shen Duo twisted them together into a sturdy emergency rope. Such simple wilderness skills had long been second nature to her in her former life.

Taken together, the vines stretched to several dozen meters.

Swiftwing stood to one side in his white-wolf form, looking on with obvious concern. "Little Duo, how are you going to use this rope?"

Shen Duo tightened her brows. "In a moment, I’ll tie one end around my waist and the other around you. I’ll go into the stone cave behind the waterfall to save them. Once I’ve got them, I’ll tug the rope, and you pull me straight out."

After hearing Shen Duo’s plan, Swiftwing disagreed at once. "The illusions in that cave are too powerful. We only got away by luck just now. And you’re badly injured. You can’t go in. I say you wait outside while I go in and save them both!"

Shen Duo shook her head with firm eyes. "No. In your current form, you can’t do much at all. The cave is too small, and you can’t even revert to your true body inside it. I’m the better one to go."

With that, she was about to set off, but Swiftwing stepped in front of her and blocked her path. The illusion earlier had already left Shen Duo grievously wounded. If it happened again, he could hardly imagine the outcome. He had experienced that environment himself; it was terrifying beyond words. One could not tell truth from falsehood at all. When the Young Lord of the Dark-Subduing Palace was in seclusion, he had entrusted Shen Duo to Swiftwing. He could not stand by and watch her throw away her life like this.

Seeing his obstruction, Shen Duo sighed helplessly. "There’s no one else here. They’re my companions, my friends. I can’t just watch them die. If I go in and there’s still no response after a quarter of an hour, you pull me out along the rope. No matter what condition I’m in, you knock me out, all right?"

Only after she negotiated with him like that did Swiftwing reluctantly agree to let her take the risk. He had Shen Duo bind one end of the rope securely around his foreleg, while the other end was tied around her waist.

Holding the emergency rope woven from vines, Shen Duo leaped into the pool beneath the waterfall.

Swiftwing did not dare look away for even a moment, watching her position in the water as she drew nearer and nearer to the torrent.

As soon as the water soaked the wound that had only just been bandaged at her waist, blood seeped out, bringing with it a dull, unbearable pain.

Because she had lost too much blood, Shen Duo’s little face had gone somewhat ghastly pale, yet she still struggled forward through the pool.

She was only seven or eight meters from the waterfall now. The spray from the massive cascade struck her face above the water, making it almost impossible to open her eyes.

Staring toward the space behind the falling water, Shen Duo drew a deep breath and plunged beneath the surface, preparing to slip under the waterfall from below.

Suddenly, a strange flare of light burst overhead. It was unlike sunlight or moonlight; it was brighter than either, searing with a scorching heat, as though it might burn her in the very next instant.

Damn it. What kind of fire was that? Wasn’t she in water?

Even Shen Duo, with all her restraint, could not help cursing inwardly.

Swiftwing’s anxious voice came through their bond. "Little Duo, get out of there! A high-tier beast has appeared on the surface!"

Shen Duo flipped nimbly underwater. The fire that had appeared above the water had truly burned down beneath the surface, and right where she had just been. Her face went black with frustration. What kind of bastard was this?

A meddlesome blow from nowhere, ruining everything at the worst possible time. Shen Duo ground her teeth in fury. Of all moments to show up, it had to be when she was about to save someone. But faced with a new enemy, she could not afford the slightest carelessness; she gathered herself fully and prepared to fight.

She burst out of the water, and Swiftwing had already taken his true form. He skimmed low over the great pool, seized Shen Duo out of the water, and flung her onto his broad back.

Standing at a higher vantage point, Shen Duo looked down upon the roaring edge of the waterfall and finally saw what had tried to burn her.

On the water sat a fox three meters tall, scarlet red, and endowed with five tails. Its entire body radiated silver-white light, within which faint threads of violet shimmered and flowed.

The fox narrowed its slender eyes toward Shen Duo, and its gaze seemed laced with impatience and irritation.

Shen Duo, however, was astonished. Such a huge fox could actually defy gravity and sit upon the surface of the water. It was simply bizarre.

"Swiftwing, can you tell what it is?" Shen Duo asked through their bond. Even though that "encyclopedia" from the Dark-Subduing Palace was not here, Swiftwing had roamed this continent for a hundred years; he was far better than her, a rookie who had only just arrived.

This time, Swiftwing too was grave and sparing with words. "Little Duo, I can’t tell its exact strength, but I’m certain it’s stronger than me. Maybe not just a little stronger..."

Shen Duo almost wanted to cough up blood again. Swiftwing was a nine-star sacred illusion beast, only a hair’s breadth away from entering the realm of divine illusion beasts. Yet he said he could not see through the other side’s strength at all. Among illusion beasts of the same rank, if the difference was no more than five stars, one could roughly sense the opponent’s power. That meant the giant red fox across from them was at least a five-star divine illusion beast...

Since arriving on the Sacred Radiance Continent, the strongest foe they had encountered had only been a one-star divine illusion beast. Now the difficulty had risen by five stars in a single leap, and with only herself and Swiftwing here, the situation before her was truly far from promising.

No wonder Dick had refused to let anyone below the level of a spirit illusionist come here. The danger here far exceeded all their expectations.

Sensing the malice radiating from the fox on the water, Shen Duo showed no intention of retreating. She drew a longsword from her storage pouch and gripped it in hand.

Faced with a formidable enemy and needing to rescue her companions, she had no way back.

Only two choices lay before her: either be ravaged by this fox, or unleash her potential and destroy the wretched creature in return.

Shen Duo took several deep breaths, steadied herself, and fixed her gaze on the red fox with its five tails.

The fox suddenly bounded twice upon the water. Its body, many times larger than Shen Duo’s, seemed astonishingly light, moving across the surface as though it were solid ground.

The moment it moved, Shen Duo lowered into a battle stance.

Then the red fox suddenly stopped, and Shen Duo had the uncanny impression that its fox face was smiling at her with ill intent.

The next instant, all five tails spread out behind it. The tips of the tails were black, and when they fanned open, they formed a great fan. A layer of silver light clung to the huge, fluffy fan, making it appear indescribably magnificent.

Yet in the midst of that dazzling motion, Swiftwing let out a cry of pain and plunged from the air...

Shen Duo did not know what had happened and hurriedly asked, "Swiftwing, what’s wrong?"

Swiftwing crashed heavily onto the shore, flattening the plants and shrubs there. Shen Duo, quick as a shadow, leaped to the ground before he landed.

Swiftwing gasped hard twice. Clearly, the attack that had been ineffective against Shen Duo had caused him great pain.

"Little Duo, this red fox released its pressure. I can’t fight anymore..." His voice was hoarse and strained.

Among magical beasts, pressure was real. If the difference in rank was too great, the lower-ranked beast had no ability to fight at all in the presence of the higher-ranked one. That was precisely why high-tier beasts could command those below them.

Shen Duo turned and met the red fox’s gaze. She could hardly believe it: this fox’s strength was so terrifying, it had even surpassed Swiftwing’s reach.

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