AZI Volume 1 Chapter 25

"…Now."

As the steel hound escapes from the reach of Li Xue's spear while Ye Chen is still a dozen meters away, Long Hua sees his chance and rushes forth.

With swift steps that made no sound against the ground, Long Hua shrinks the gap between the steel hound and himself within the blink of an eye.

"…"

As less than two meters of distance separates him from the steel hound, Long Hua rotates his body lashing the twin serpents outward.

Amidst Long Hua's rotation, the twin serpents flatten their bodies and sharpen themselves to become as deadly as cold blades.

As if it is evading a jumping rope, the steel hound dodges the attack by backflipping into the air, and the moment its hindlegs manage to land, it bounces off the ground and charges towards Long Hua.

As the steel hound's claws approach him, Long Hua lets his body fall towards the ground by bending his knees and amidst this maneuver, he throws out a punch that lands onto the former's flat abdomen.

(Damn, it's hard.)

Sensing a bit of pain in his fingers, Long Hua can't help but end up regretting his decision to throw out a punch.

(The enemy's body is harder than a diamond, hell am I thinking trying to hit it with my fist?)

As the saying goes, old habits die hard and being far too used to dealing with enemies of flesh and blood, Long Hua sighs on the inside, as he reaches his left hand out and grabs the steel hound by its tail.

Supporting his entire body weight on his feet, Long Hua recovers his stance.

Upon straightening his posture fully—with his continued hold over the steel hound's tail, Long Hua applies strength in the rotation of his left arm to smash the beast onto the ground in front of him!

*Scrrrrrr…!* tightening his grip over the steel hound's tail, Long Hua balances himself on one heel, as he spins his body in place, while dragging the steel hound against the ground—kicking up a shower of sparks!

Upon the third rotation, the steel hound begins to apply its strength in struggling to break free, however—

(This guy…)

Aiming the steel hound towards Ye Chen, Long Hua tosses it in their direction.

*…!* taking a firm step forward, Ye Chen holds the greatsword like a baseball bat and as it approaches him—

*Boom!* smashing the dull edge of the greatsword onto the steel hound's back, he propels it into the air, where Yu Ji immediately releases a volley of arrows that explodes on impact!

Dashing forth, Li Xue leaps into the air and prior to the dust clouds settling, she cleaves with her spear sending the steel hound towards the ground!

Perfectly timed, Qing Yue raises her finger and points to the steel hound that is now lying on the ground.

Looming a few meters above her head is a calabash gourd—measuring at two meters in length with a white tassel tied around its body.

"Fire!"

*BANG!!!* with a thunderous roar, a sphere of energy is fired from the lips of the gourd, and upon it landing a clean hit onto the steel hound, a deadly blast goes off!

"Urk…"

Defending himself against the scalding wind that came about as a result of this blast, Ye Chen is just about to raise a sigh of relief, but—

"Not happening."

Shifting himself to the right, Li Xue's spear lands exactly where his head had been positioned—prior to her landing on top of the weapon.

"Tch. Don't dodge next time."

"Piss off."

As Ye Chen begins to relax his stance—

*GRAWR!!!* a beastly roar that is double the blast's volume goes off, ripping the settling dust clouds apart!

"Seriously?"

As the body of the steel hound releases tendrils of ominous red mist from its joints, Ye Chen can't help but sweat, as he sees the beast's badly mangled body regenerating at an astonishing rate.

This red mist is a sign of this Apotheosized Sinner advancing to the next stage of its evolution—as a mindless weapon hellbent on killing and devouring whatever it is that it can find.

"Ah screw this! Retreat! Retreat! We're leaving this shit to someone else!"

Calling it quits quickly, Ye Chen gives the order to retreat.

If it were just Li Xue and him alone, he might consider trying to finish the steel hound off while its undergoing its evolution, but with three inexperienced lieutenants accompanying them, the risks are far too great to undertake.

During this process of evolution, the Apotheosized Sinner is constantly in an agitated state—making its aggression filled movement far more destructive.

"…Tch."

*Grawr!!* almost instantly, the steel hound turns to Long Hua—who is closest to it.

As the steel hound pounces about in a rampant manner, Long Hua runs in the opposite direction of the squad.

"Meet you all in the next patrol area!"

"Dammit."

Looking back towards the direction, where Long Hua and the steel hound are headed off to, Ye Chen thought of chasing after them as well, but—

"Hurry up, at this point, you've already lost your chance to catch up to them."

Inevitably, someone needed to be a decoy, if they wished to get away from the rampaging steel hound.

...…

*Boom! Kakaka! Boom!* accompanied by the sound of whatever it is that is being torn up—whether that be the road or the nearby pieces of rubble, Long Hua continues to run.

He had no plan in mind as to where to take this thing, or how he could even hope to lose it.

However, since it had decided to chase after him, he could only do his best to make an escape.

(Tch, getting chased and eaten by a dog. Didn't think this would be how I'd die… I guess, if there is a next life, I'd better try my best to… I don't know, make my body as durable as a Relic?)

Lamenting his fate, Long Hua grinds his teeth together in dissatisfaction.

This isn't the first time that he has felt such a powerful sense of dissatisfaction, but accompanying this dissatisfaction is also a sense of thrill, the type that one would feel when they are truly alive.

(My dearest disciple, in front of fate, just how much is the strength of a mortal worth? Beneath the Heavens, there are a number of issues that cannot be resolved by the strength of mortals. But… So long as you have pushed your hardest, you shouldn't have any regrets—even if, all the effort that you've expended was in vain. Do you recall what I have told you about in the past? About the two paths available to you in living out your life?)

In that instance, a figure dressed in white robes appeared in Long Hua's mind, and towards the question that the former had asked of him—

(Either you live out your life in tranquility, or die in tranquility ahead of time.)