CHAPTER 56: CHAPTER 56 RUNE SHATTERED (VOTE FOR ME!)

As the dust slowly cleared, a creature less than two meters tall, with grayish-green skin and bizarre scales, gradually appeared before Chu Feng’s eyes. A pair of muscular arms, as thick as a person’s thigh, and two clawed feet, sharp as eagle talons, stood on either side of the monster’s body. Atop its sinewy neck with bulging muscles was an extremely odd head. Above the large mouth, filled with intersecting sharp teeth, there were no nostrils, only a vertical eye that took up most of the cheek. Two horn-like ears flanked its head, enormous in size and almost as large as the head itself, giving the impression from afar of three heads side by side.

That must be the link between the Rune on its head and the Formation! Chu Feng’s gaze sharpened as he closely watched a "γ"-shaped necklace hanging around the creature’s neck. The necklace, made of an unknown material and roughly the size of a palm, had a gray-black surface that occasionally flashed a blood-red glimmer.

Knowing that the shotgun was useless against the monster, the AA-12 in Chu Feng’s hand instantly vanished from his palm. The moment the cyclopean creature charged, Chu Feng’s muscles tensed, and he dashed forward to meet it at the same time. Just one second before they made contact, the Demon Hunting Blade, with its slender, red-and-blue-striped blade, appeared instantaneously in Chu Feng’s hand. The surging Spiritual Power inside him filled the blade of the Demon Hunting Blade in the blink of an eye. The next second, accompanied by a lightning-quick stroke of the Demon Hunting Blade in Chu Feng’s hand and the sound of slicing through leather, a pungent burning odor quickly spread through the air around them.

THUMP.

A dull thud, like a heavy object falling, resounded as the monster that had just clashed with Chu Feng blinked its huge eye.

The next second, ROAR! The cyclopean monster’s immense, anguished roar instantly filled the entire hospital.

"What’s all that roaring about? I’ll send you on your final journey!" Chu Feng’s body, which had just stopped, launched forward again. In the blink of an eye, he rushed to the side of the still-howling creature and swung his blade down...

...

「In a hospital room on the second floor of the emergency building.」

The preparatory demon Zeta, which had managed to enter the body of the powerful Exorcist with immense difficulty, had just sensed something amiss but had not had time to investigate further when an agonized scream that echoed through the entire hospital suddenly rang in its ears.

Damn it! It’s from the Gate of Breaking Boundary! The next second, a humanoid monster with emerging goat-like horns appeared in the center of the room. This preparatory demon glanced reluctantly at Huang Chuanhao’s body a few times, but with a more important task at hand, it could only reluctantly leave, repeatedly looking back.

Curse it! If I had acquired this body, I could have immediately ascended to become a Demon!

When the preparatory demon Zeta returned to the Gate of Breaking Boundary, it caught sight of Chu Feng, who had just slain the cyclopean beast. Of course, it also caught sight of the "γ"-shaped necklace in Chu Feng’s hand.

...

"Finally, I’ve got it!" Chu Feng looked at the necklace in his hand, his tightly furrowed brows finally relaxing. His hands, each grasping one end of the necklace, had just begun to exert force when an urgent voice suddenly rang in his ear.

"Stop! Hands off! Damned human!"

Naturally, Chu Feng did not heed the stranger’s words; his hands moved without any hesitation. Accompanied by a crisp SNAP, the Rune Necklace was instantly snapped into several pieces.

The next second, the air within the inner circle instantly froze. Chu Feng could even see a few specks of dust suspended in midair, showing no sign of falling. He didn’t know how much time had passed, but Chu Feng and everything around him finally regained the ability to move.

At the same time, it was as if the world was ending: the earth shook violently, as if the ground would collapse at any moment. The originally enormous serpent-like pupil in the sky was no longer its calm self. In the middle of it, a black hole seemed to have appeared, collapsing inward in a frenzy. Knowing full well this was no place to linger, Chu Feng barely managed to control his body to leap over the collapsing ravine and hurried away from the spot.

In the distance, Taran and Lin Qiu stood on the ground, covered in blood, barely steadying themselves with their shotguns. As for the monsters they were fighting, apart from those that had already become corpses, the others turned to ash the instant the Rune in Chu Feng’s hand shattered, flying into the collapsing serpent-like pupil.

"How come it’s only the two of you? Where are Amita and Dimo?" he asked, approaching the two women who could hardly stand. Opening his arms, he swept one up under each arm and quickly rushed outside the ring.

「A few minutes later,」

The giant serpent-like pupil in the sky finally collapsed into a singularity and vanished. Beneath it, where the Formation constructed from human corpses had been, now only a giant pit over ten meters deep remained. The hundreds of bodies that had been arrayed there had also fallen into the pit.

「On the first floor of the emergency building,」

Chu Feng, supporting Taran and Lin Qiu, finally found Amita and the completely unconscious Dimo here.

After listening to their accounts, Chu Feng silently rejoiced that he hadn’t been held back by that voice! It turned out that Dimo, the weakest among them, had been caught off guard during the fight and was sent flying by a faceless monster. If the other three hadn’t come to the rescue in time, Dimo’s corpse might have been what Chu Feng encountered instead.

"We should be able to leave the hospital now. You should quickly take Dimo to another hospital for treatment!"

Looking at the equally battered Exorcists, Chu Feng, who was still thinking about expanding his agency, was deeply afraid that something unexpected might happen to them. Hearing Chu Feng’s words, the grievously injured group exchanged glances, then shook their heads with bitter smiles; naturally, they wouldn’t refuse Chu Feng’s suggestion. After exchanging contact information with Chu Feng, they supported each other and left the hospital.

...

"Wait! We seem to have forgotten to return the shotgun to Chu Feng!" Lin Qiu suddenly remembered the AA-12 shotgun that she had barely managed to stuff into a spatial artifact as they reached the hospital’s main entrance.

"It’s fine. We have his contact details, so we can return it to him later," Amita said, showing Lin Qiu the still-unconscious Dimo on her back. "Right now, the most important thing is to get Dimo to the hospital!"

"That’s right. The most important thing now is to go to the hospital first. We can deal with the shotgun later!" Taran added. "Maybe Chu Feng hopes we don’t return it at all!" Her words seemed to carry a mysterious undertone.

...

「At that moment, in the spacious lobby on the first floor of the hospital,」

Chu Feng looked at the needle on the Spirit-Seeking Compass on his wrist gradually stabilizing, and a meaningful smile appeared on his face.

"Oh right! I almost forgot about you!" Turning his head, Chu Feng looked indifferently at Huang Chuanhao not far away. Huang Chuanhao’s limbs were moving bizarrely, as if he was using that body for the first time.