Chapter 115
In the decisive battle
The dull vibrations seemed to come from a distant place, muffled as if through deep water.
Shen Zhuo.
Wake up, Shen Zhuo.
It was as if his soul was calling to his true self from the depths of his consciousness, the vibrations growing clearer and more intense until his mind suddenly awoke!
Shen Zhuo abruptly opened his eyes.
He was met with a vast, dark space, with his back against a rough wall, and the distant sounds of explosions and battles faintly reaching him. Shen Zhuo closed his eyes briefly, regaining his clarity within a few breaths, realizing that Rong Qi must have used some spatial restriction to imprison him and that the outside had already been breached.
An ordinary S-class wouldn’t be capable of causing such a commotion on Rong Qi’s turf—it must be Bai Sheng.
Gritting his teeth, Shen Zhuo stood up and tried to call out, but fatigue and dehydration left his voice hoarse and barely audible. He attempted to pat the wall, but the spatial restriction remained unyielding.
After evolution, everyone can sense where their abilities lie. Shen Zhuo, who frequently took genetic interferons, was very familiar with this sensation. As Rong Qi had mentioned before, this time his S-class evolution was likely 80% focused on genetic intelligence, with the remaining 20% mostly allocated to his Fatal Strike ability to reverse the timeline; his other four evolution directions saw little to no improvement. His mental power had already reached its peak and couldn’t evolve further, and his pheromones were very faint and had already been tinged with Bai Sheng’s scent.
His muscle strength and ability were highly limited. If he had to rely on brute force, he could handle someone like Chen Miao, but against the likes of Yue Yang, Shunsuke Noda, or Antonio—people who seemed like they were ready to strip down and compete in a heavyweight boxing championship—it was a completely different playing field.
Intelligence evolution was extremely rare and precious because it could lead to a series of brain-related abilities, but they were not combat-oriented. Trapped in this situation and needing to break through a wall, it left him somewhat helpless.
Imagining Bai Sheng shattering the space with a thunderous strike was out of the question. Shen Zhuo pressed his fingertips against the wall, his long eyebrows slightly furrowed. After a moment, an idea slowly formed in his mind. Taking a deep breath, he stepped back a few paces, stretched out his hands, and pulled—
The air gradually solidified, extended, and compressed, forming a large, magnificent, semi-transparent longbow in front of him.
B-class ability, air pressure control.
A small change in air pressure—the smaller the range, the greater the pressure strength—required high precision and stability from the user.
The arrow was drawn to its fullest, the arrowhead spinning and tightening, as sharp as a needle point, reflecting in Shen Zhuo’s cold, tranquil eyes.
Whoosh!
With a faint whooshing sound, the arrow shot out like a meteor. Upon hitting the distant wall, it dispersed into the air, leaving only a tiny white mark.
Shen Zhuo’s expression remained unchanged. His fingers steady, he drew and shot again. Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Countless arrows shot through the air, dazzling in their rapid succession. Each arrow followed the same precise trajectory, repeatedly increasing the pressure on that tiny point, compressing and compressing again. After hundreds or thousands of repetitions, there was suddenly a cracking sound.
A thin crack appeared on the spatial restriction wall.
Shen Zhuo’s eyelashes didn’t even twitch. He drew the bowstring to its full once more, and an arrow shot out—
Thud!
Bai Sheng furiously threw aside the A-class who refused to speak even in death. The body hit the wall, splattering brain matter, and then he swiftly cast a vacuum shield to protect the nearby panicking researchers. Amidst the earth-shaking chaos, he leapt forward, shouting, “—Shen Zhuo!! Where are you?!”
Amid the collapsing rubble, Shen Zhuo’s figure was nowhere to be found. His pheromones yielded no response. Rong Qi was rapidly retreating through the labyrinthine underground structure, with Bai Sheng hot on his heels. Any evolutionist trying to stop him was killed on the spot, creating a river of blood in his wake and painting a hellish scene.
With a bang, Rong Qi planted his long spear into the ground, a black chain-like pattern extending from his wrist, locking his left hand to the spear. He raised an eyebrow and said coldly:
“Come on, let’s see if you dare to gamble. Do you think causality can erase the Spear of Time as well?”
Bai Sheng almost lost his temper. The witch in his mind screamed, “It can! Don’t! Calm down!”
“Then what now?”
“Find Shen Zhuo! Only he can reclaim the Spear of Time and go back!”
“It’s useless; don’t waste your effort.” Rong Qi said indifferently, “Shen Zhuo is here, within a radius of three kilometers. If you activate causality, you’ll erase me, Shen Zhuo, and the Spear of Time together because you simply can’t find him.”
“……”
Rong Qi shrugged mockingly, a bit wantonly: “What a pity. You’re probably Shen Zhuo’s only hope right now, but you’re close at hand yet powerless. What will you do next?”
A surge of anger shot up to Bai Sheng’s head, and he laughed in fury, his eyes filled with hostility: “I heard you pride yourself on being tough…”
In an instant, he vanished from his spot, reappearing mid-air before Rong Qi, reaching for the Spear of Time:
“—Let’s see just how tough you really are!”
Rong Qi retreated like lightning, but at the critical moment of their imminent clash, not far away—
Boom!
The ground shook violently, and an arrow shattered the void!
The impregnable spatial fortress crumbled, and a figure emerged, holding a longbow, as if a divine soldier had descended, breaking through in front of Rong Qi and Bai Sheng’s incredulous eyes.
Bai Sheng almost thought he was hallucinating: “Shen Zhuo?!”
Shen Zhuo didn’t bother to explain. His clothes fluttered as he twisted his body backwards, pulling the bowstring to its full length with one hand: “Get out of the way!!”
In a thousandth of a second, everyone reacted differently:
Bai Sheng, not understanding, raised his arm. Their mutual understanding was at its peak. Shen Zhuo stepped heavily on Bai Sheng’s propped arm, stabilizing himself, drawing the bow, and aiming, his delicate eyebrows furrowing.
Rong Qi instantly realized what Shen Zhuo wanted to do. In a hurry, he had no other choice but to send a huge thunderstorm towards Shen Zhuo’s back, but was forcibly intercepted by Bai Sheng’s vacuum shield.
The thunderstorm hit the big shield, causing a loud bang.
Amid the blinding white light, Shen Zhuo released the arrow.
The invisible arrow spun forward, cutting through mountains of corpses and seas of blood, flying through pouring debris, and crossing a hundred feet in an instant.
Crack!
In the distant hall, the 500CC S-class blood bag shattered into pieces!
The thunderstorm exploded, and the surrounding ground quaked violently. Massive chunks of reinforced concrete rained down, and the entire underground structure collapsed.
Shen Zhuo’s arrow resolved a crucial threat. As the longbow in his hand dissipated, he was immediately grabbed by Bai Sheng, shielding his head, and carried on Bai Sheng’s shoulder. Amidst the collapsing surroundings, Bai Sheng shouted, “Let’s go!”
By then, no evolutionist dared to stop them—after all, the path of bloodshed Bai Sheng had carved was not for nothing. Shielding Shen Zhuo with his body, Bai Sheng charged upward through the falling debris. Only then did he have time to ask, “How did you break the spatial confinement just now?!”
Surrounded by pouring soil and rubble, Shen Zhuo, covering his mouth and nose to avoid inhaling dust, replied: “What do you think? I’m at least S-class now, very strong, okay?”
“…” Bai Sheng said, “You don’t look it, sweetheart. It feels like you haven’t gotten much stronger. Don’t tell me it all went to intelligence…”
Shen Zhuo: “Atmospheric pressure is strength too. Stop asking! Hurry and get out of here!”
A thunderous sound roared in their ears simultaneously, and in the blink of an eye, they broke through the earth, their surroundings suddenly clear.
Rong Qi’s underground fortress was built in the mountains, and now it was completely buried. A vast area of trees had collapsed into the underground cavity, with soil flowing like a torrent into the cliff and smoke rising straight up to the clouds.
The distant terrain seemed familiar. Shen Zhuo, panting and recollecting, recognized the place—it was around Quanshan County.
Rong Qi had been hiding near Shenhai all along. The vast mountains were rarely visited by people, which was indeed his style.
“I just destroyed that blood bag…”
Before Shen Zhuo could finish his sentence, an irresistible force came from behind his neck. Bai Sheng pressed his head, forcing him to turn, and a trembling, fiery kiss met him head-on.
Their breaths and lips intertwined, as if wanting to merge into each other’s bones and never part again.
It was the joy and fear of regaining something lost.
Both of them knelt on the ground, their foreheads touching, clothes disheveled, and breathing heavily. Bai Sheng’s fingers threaded through Shen Zhuo’s black hair, seemingly wanting to smile nonchalantly as usual, but even his fingertips were trembling. After a long while, he forced a crooked smile, his voice hoarse and unsteady: “…I’m sorry. I tried every way to get to you sooner, but I couldn’t think of any way…”
After days of torture and near-death experiences, Shen Zhuo was thin to the point of looking haggard, but his expression remained calm. He lowered his eyes and kissed Bai Sheng’s lips gently, whispering: “You’ve done very well.”
“If I hadn’t been possessed by Rong Qi at the time, if you hadn’t exposed the Spear of Time…”
“You’ve done very well,” Shen Zhuo repeated with emphasis, his fingers brushing over the bloodstains on Bai Sheng’s neck. “I didn’t reverse time for any other reason but to save my own lover.”
“…”
“It was my choice, Bai Sheng.”
Shen Zhuo pulled out a slender, shining chain from his open shirt collar, with a plain ring hanging at the end, matching the one on Bai Sheng’s left ring finger. The polished, gentle light of time reflected in his deep eyes.
“I’ve always been willing.”
It was as if a gap in the deepest part of his soul was finally filled, and his heart burst with a scorching flood.
—“I am willing to protect you and follow you until the day we face death together…”
“Are you willing to let me be yours too?”
The secret, tender nights during the period of submission, the tyrant’s loving yet humble proposal, and the promise and vows that never came to be—all the anxiety, desire, and restless nights were dissolved in this moment.
After running thousands of miles and wandering, at the end of this journey, where only the two of them remained, the long-sought vow finally fell heavily into their hands.
A sharp wind whistled through the trees in the distance, carrying a hint of cold blood.
Rong Qi had finally emerged from the collapsed underground dome.
“I destroyed that blood bag just now. Rong Qi is destined not to obtain the ability to reverse the timeline. He now has no choice but to kill me at all costs to prevent the Spear of Time from falling back into my hands.”
Shen Zhuo, with his evolution heavily focused on intelligence, realized immediately upon escaping confinement that the top priority was to destroy the blood bag. This both cut off Rong Qi’s possibility of taking both the ability and the Spear of Time and presented him with the scenario he least wanted to see—the timeline reversal ability returning to Bai Sheng’s side.
Now, the only path left for Rong Qi was to kill Shen Zhuo, take his body, and extract the serum. Otherwise, as long as Bai Sheng was ruthless enough to activate the indiscriminate 3,000-meter causality, all of Rong Qi’s plans would fall apart. He couldn’t take that risk.
Shen Zhuo propped himself up, gritting his teeth to stand, but his immense physical exhaustion made him stumble. Bai Sheng stood up and held him tightly.
“It’s okay. I’m here, don’t be afraid.”
“…”
Despite the critical life-and-death situation, the familiar ocean-like scent in Bai Sheng’s embrace seeped into Shen Zhuo’s lungs, making him want to surrender his will and sink into it.
Shen Zhuo closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and forced himself to snap out of that strange relaxation and indulgence. He laughed softly: “What’s there to be afraid of? Someone once swore that he could definitely keep me alive…”
Bai Sheng turned his head, with a hot light flashing deep in his eyes, and stared at the profile of his lover, who was so close to him and with whom he had kissed countless times.
“I am willing too, Shen Zhuo.”
They could both see their reflections in each other’s pupils. Bai Sheng said softly: “You have everything of mine, including faith, strength, courage, and ideals, until the day life ends.”
A fierce aura approached from afar.
Thunder roared in the sky, instantly lighting up the world!
Bai Sheng immediately pushed Shen Zhuo behind him, raising an invisible giant shield above their heads, while Rong Qi silently appeared in mid-air, his fingers sharp as knives, aiming straight for Shen Zhuo’s heart.
With a sharp, piercing sound, Shen Zhuo struck Rong Qi with a long whip of electric current. The high-voltage arc exploded on the ground, illuminating Rong Qi’s cold eyes. His usually composed face showed a trace of uncontrollable anger:
“With just you?”
He instantly grasped the whip, forcefully trying to pull Shen Zhuo towards him. But at the same time, Bai Sheng lunged forward, pushing Shen Zhuo far away with one hand, and delivered a heavy punch that sent Rong Qi reeling backward without mercy.
“Just you?!”
Shen Zhuo swiftly retreated more than ten meters, stabilizing himself by stepping on a treetop. “Be careful; he has backlash damage!”
If Bai Sheng’s winning strategy against Rong Qi was causality, then Rong Qi’s nemesis against Bai Sheng was undoubtedly backlash damage. Due to this near-divine ability of immortality, Bai Sheng couldn’t inflict any supernatural harm on Rong Qi. He could only rely on his robust physical attributes to dodge amidst the tide of abilities like ice, fire, magnetic storms, and hurricanes. Several times he nearly touched the Spear of Time with all his might, only for Rong Qi to swiftly reclaim it, stabbing Bai Sheng’s left shoulder with lightning speed!
With a sharp sound, flesh and blood were pierced through, blood spraying into the air.
Bai Sheng tightly gripped the spear shaft, his fingers and veins bulging. Rong Qi spoke coldly, “There’s something you probably don’t know…”
A fireball shot towards Bai Sheng, and Rong Qi pulled back the spear in one swift motion, leaving bloodstains flying in its wake.
“Causality and the Spear of Time are mutually irreconcilable. Otherwise, it would weaken one’s own attributes. In a higher-dimensional universe, the wielder of the Spear of Time was once unexpectedly wiped out by causality, causing the Spear of Time to malfunction without warning, never appearing again in that parallel universe.”
“Similarly, when the Spear of Time pierces you, its properties weaken relatively.” Rong Qi sneered, “Guess what would happen if you died under this spear?”
The intense pain only fueled Bai Sheng’s murderous intent. Suddenly, he smiled ferociously, “Why don’t you guess what would happen if you died by my hands!”
With a thunderous explosion, Bai Sheng’s heavy fist moved like a storm of wind and rain. In the blink of an eye, they exchanged over a hundred blows. Arms, elbows, and finger bones collided, tearing the air into blades. The terrifying roar of their battle even shattered nearby rocky cliffs, sending stone fragments flying in all directions!
Thousands of trajectories of movement projected into Shen Zhuo’s deep pupils, like rapidly changing data, forming a dynamic model that rose and rotated on flat ground.
He drew his longbow, squinting slightly, and released an arrow—
Swish.
The arrow was instantly caught between Rong Qi’s two fingers. Without looking back, he mocked, “Just a B-class ability…”
Before he could finish his sentence, his mind suddenly went blank as he saw Shen Zhuo’s cold and bright eyes.
X-level ability, mental suppression.
Brain load exceeds 400% and can trigger under special circumstances, never before seen on Earth, therefore not in the rating system.
When the ability is activated, the user must be subjected to the force applied by the practitioner for the effect to take hold, in any form. After being affected, intelligence drops by 90%, accompanied by slow reactions, cognitive disorders, acute delirium, and loss of orientation; duration depends on the practitioner’s intelligence level; cooldown period: none.
In the split second that Rong Qi caught the arrow, the force was successfully applied, triggering mental suppression.
His senses felt as though draped with a light veil, and Rong Qi’s thoughts became unusually sluggish. He couldn’t even react in time to Bai Sheng’s incoming iron fist until a loud bang!!
Rong Qi spurted blood as he staggered backward. Bai Sheng moved to seize the Spear of Time, but in a flash of electricity and stone, he couldn’t pull it out—some sort of ability with black chain patterns had tightly bound Rong Qi’s left hand to the spear!
He suddenly regained clarity, “Mental ability?!”
This was the first time Rong Qi had completely succumbed without any resistance since arriving on Earth. Instantly, a chill rose from the depths of his heart. He swiftly summoned a sharp dagger, aiming to slash at Shen Zhuo’s throat, but before he could, Bai Sheng’s precise and fierce blow sent the dagger flying through the air.
At the same moment, several swooshing sounds pierced the air as Shen Zhuo, without hesitation, fired three arrows in quick succession!
However, Rong Qi’s combat prowess was beyond imagination. In an instant, Shen Zhuo couldn’t even see the afterimages he left behind. All three arrows missed their mark, not even grazing him, and simultaneously, a clangorous sound intercepted Bai Sheng’s elbow strike coming towards his face.
Rong Qi rebuked, “Do you think I would fall for the same trick twice?!”
Bai Sheng shouted, “Shen Zhuo, dodge!”
Countless sharp needles flashed around Rong Qi, raining towards Shen Zhuo like a sudden storm. This time, he was truly aiming to kill. Bai Sheng pushed forward with his giant shield to intercept, but Rong Qi took advantage of the moment and tried to bypass Bai Sheng, intent on reaching Shen Zhuo. He prepared a magnetic storm in his palm, ready to unleash it—
Like a towering rock in a raging sea, Shen Zhuo tightened his brow and drew his bow.
Wind speed, airflow, time, angle—the dynamic data flashed beside Bai Sheng and Rong Qi. Shen Zhuo’s brain rapidly updated its calculation model, instantly drawing eleven predictive paths in midair.
Buzz.
As the bowstring loosened, a volley of arrows streaked through the air.
The arrows swished past, all nine missing their targets. Rong Qi didn’t even bother with such weak attacks. He dodged the tenth arrow by turning his head, coldly saying, “I told you, I won’t fall for this a second time…”
Before he could finish his sentence, a cool sensation grazed his neck as the eleventh arrow drew a line of blood.
—He inevitably stepped into Shen Zhuo’s final predicted path.
The force was successfully applied, and with a thud, the ability was activated!
Rong Qi’s heart sank heavily, but before he could react, everything happened in the blink of an eye. His brain suddenly felt like it had been paused, intelligence, thoughts, and reactions all dropping by 90%. He stood frozen in midair—
Behind him, the dagger he had thrown towards Shen Zhuo spun and fell down, caught firmly in Bai Sheng’s hand. Without hesitation, Bai Sheng twisted his body and delivered a heavy blow.
Thunk!
The force of the blow was as if a thousand catties, severing Rong Qi’s left arm at the elbow, sending the half-arm and the Spear of Time soaring into the air together!
It was a moment of unparalleled brilliance.
The spear whistled as it plummeted towards the ground, caught swiftly in Shen Zhuo’s palm.
1 second later, Rong Qi abruptly regained consciousness, and the backlash damage immediately took effect.
Bai Sheng’s elbow was also cleanly severed, while Rong Qi’s severed arm miraculously began to regenerate in an instant. In his rage, he reached out to crush Bai Sheng’s throat, but simultaneously, Shen Zhuo’s spear stabbed into the ground, activating the reversal of the timeline!
—Tick-tock.
The invisible giant clock of the universe rewound by 1 second.
Blood gushed from Rong Qi’s severed arm. He had not yet recovered from the mental suppression and hadn’t activated the backlash damage in time. Bai Sheng decisively and swiftly struck with an SS-level critical hit, as powerful as thunder descending from the heavens, blasting Rong Qi hundreds of miles away!
Mountains and earth shook, the tremors lingering for a long time.
Amidst the billowing smoke, Shen Zhuo gritted his teeth and stood up. His fingers gripping the spear turned blue as he looked up, panting, towards Bai Sheng. “Quick, don’t let him escape to…”
Bai Sheng hurried over, embracing Shen Zhuo. His hands were trembling slightly as he pressed a quick and hot kiss on Shen Zhuo’s forehead.
The fear and adrenaline rush finally emerged in his mind, making his tongue feel numb due to the loss of sensation.
“…” Shen Zhuo’s chest heaved. He patted Bai Sheng’s back with a hoarse and calm voice. “It’s okay, don’t be afraid, I’m here.”
These were the words Bai Sheng had said to him just minutes ago, but now they had reversed roles. Bai Sheng buried his head in the crook of Shen Zhuo’s neck and chuckled softly.
No matter how astonishingly dangerous the situation was, as long as they stood together, they feared nothing ahead, for they were forever the strongest support for each other.
“Surnamed Rong is fleeing south towards Shenhai.” Bai Sheng released Shen Zhuo, interlocking their fingers. “He must be going to find Shusuke Noda to open a spatial tunnel. We can’t let him get away this time, let’s go!”
.
The strong wind howled as they soared through the air, crossing over mountain valleys towards the city skyline that gradually revealed the vast expanse of Shanghai City.
“The two kids have intercepted those people at the HRG Laboratory. Yang Xiaodao and Shunsuke Noda went all out.” Bai Sheng narrowed his eyes, his hawk-like sharp gaze suddenly noticing something. “—There!”
In the distance ahead, the Shanghai city center was already in complete chaos and gridlock. Four major streets centered around the HRG Laboratory were cleared and sealed off. A figure with a missing left arm and bloodstains was charging towards the city—unmistakably Rong Qi!
At this moment, nothing else mattered. With the Spear of Time in hand, they could reverse any number of casualties or any amount of devastation. Even if the sun exploded and Earth was destroyed, they could pull it all back with a single reversal of the timeline.
The key to the entire battle was simple—protect Shen Zhuo.
Shen Zhuo’s life must not be lost, or everything would be over.
Bai Sheng tightened his arm around Shen Zhuo, pulling him close. His other hand flashed into a bright spear, ready to strike Rong Qi without hesitation. Suddenly, without warning, the ground beneath their feet rumbled—
With a deafening roar, smoke and dust filled the air, and the ten-story building of the Evolution Hospital collapsed.
Both of them paused simultaneously, staring from the sky at the ruins. Even Shen Zhuo’s usually impassive face showed a slight change, while Bai Sheng blurted out in shock, “Yang Xiaodao!!”
They finally reunited sob sniffle sob