Chapter Twenty-Six: Crisis

Qin Yu saw the Tibetan mastiff lunge at her and immediately turned her wrist, blocking with her dagger and slicing the beast. The Tibetan mastiff seemed surprised to have been wounded, and began circling Qin Yu warily. She watched the circling dog with sharp vigilance, her grip on the dagger tightening further.

Suddenly, the Tibetan mastiff pounced again, ignoring its own wounds, and pinned Qin Yu firmly beneath its weight. Her eyes darkened, and she slashed at the beast with greater force, while simultaneously releasing the little Poison Mist she’d kept calling out from within her spatial ring.

The moment Poison Mist emerged, it leapt onto the Tibetan mastiff. The dog seemed to feel something intensely uncomfortable clinging to it, so it pressed one paw down on Qin Yu and used the other to scratch frantically at its own body.

Qin Yu noticed the Tibetan mastiff’s paw glowing faintly green, as an unknown liquid started to ooze from its claws, eating through her clothing. Alarmed, she remembered that her clothes were specially made—ordinary corrosive chemicals couldn’t harm them in the slightest.

She realized the fabric wouldn’t hold out for long. If that liquid touched her skin...

Qin Yu’s eyes narrowed. If the dagger didn’t inflict enough pain, then—

She summoned all her strength and unleashed her water ability. Though her power was still weak and unimpressive, her formidable willpower and desperate resolve forced the Tibetan mastiff’s paw back.

The beast, seeing its meal escape, roared in fury.

The others were already locked in combat with various mutant dogs. Unlike zombies, these animals were faster and more agile—their bullets often missed their mark. The fight was already difficult, and now the mutant dogs, spurred on by the mastiff’s roar, attacked even more ferociously.

Qin Yu knew her water ability wouldn’t last much longer; she had to end this quickly. She launched a sudden attack on the Tibetan mastiff, but it dodged. She gathered her power and struck at its head—again, the mastiff evaded. The animal seemed to relish toying with its prey.

After a dozen exchanges, Qin Yu felt her energy nearly depleted.

Meanwhile, Zhao Meng and the others were also reaching their limits, their powers fading from overuse.

The once-empty square had become a scene of brutal carnage, littered with the corpses of mutant dogs. Wang Bing and his companions, overwhelmed by sheer numbers, had been caught off guard and scratched—luckily, the color of their wounds suggested the claws weren’t poisonous.

They had assumed the mutant dogs weren’t venomous, and so long as they weren’t turned into zombies, a wound could be healed by Xia Cheng. But when one of Wang Bing’s men was bitten, the wound turned blackish-blue and his consciousness faded rapidly. Only then did they realize: the teeth were venomous—fatally so. The infected man, after casting a deep, lingering look at Wang Bing, took his own life. Better to die as a human than become a monster.

Qin Yu was unwilling to give in. She hadn’t reached S City yet, hadn’t seen that person—she refused to die here.

With grim resolve, she quickened her assault on the Tibetan mastiff. At first, it could still dodge, but as their speeds soon matched, the beast was soon covered in wounds.

Then, abruptly, the Tibetan mastiff retreated, both forepaws rotted where it had touched the poison. With a sudden motion, it scooped up a toxic bubble and hurled it straight at Qin Yu.

“Xiaoyu!” Zhao Meng’s anxious cry rang out...