Chapter 131: “Nanny”

Unfortunately for Qu Yi, the opponent he had encountered was Bai Yuxi—a man even more “supernova” than a supernova itself!

The speed at which his “super-aggregation” energy converged, the rate at which his “super-evolved” physical traits grew, and the evolutionary potential gained from fusing with and assimilating the Abyssal Thunder Toad’s “source matter”…

None of these things meant anything to Bai Yuxi anymore.

After all, he was an “aberrant-level” humanoid monster undergoing synchronized evolution in every attribute!

Judging from the state Qu Yi had displayed, he ought to be a power-oriented Transcendent Warrior.

His physical data in other attributes might not be low, but there was absolutely no way he could develop in every direction at the F-rank level the way Bai Yuxi had.

Therefore, even though Qu Yi had already reached F9, he could never have been a match for Bai Yuxi—a humanoid monster whose condition could not even be detected by physical-assessment equipment.

Beforehand, the members of Seventh Squad had been extremely wary of the threat posed by the Tiger Squad.

But the moment Bai Yuxi and Qu Yi began fighting, they assumed combat stances without hesitation, guarding against Qu Yi’s two subordinates interfering and launching a sneak attack.

When Qu Yi’s two subordinates had originally seen him relying on the Tiger Squad’s authority to throw his weight around and bully a bunch of low-level apprentice Transcendent Warriors, they had been somewhat helpless.

So they had merely stood behind Qu Yi with their arms folded, lazily lending him their presence without interfering in the fight.

Clearly, they had not believed that these newcomers from Seventh Squad could pose any threat to Qu Yi, whose combat rank had already risen to F9.

But after Bai Yuxi had effortlessly driven Qu Yi back in just a few moves, the two men were stunned. They lowered their arms and grew tense.

It was not that they were worried Bai Yuxi would kill Qu Yi outright.

What alarmed them was the enormous discrepancy between the extraordinary energy radiating from Bai Yuxi and the combat strength he had displayed!

Everyone knew that Transcendent Warriors could restrain their own superactive and X-energy fluctuations, allowing them to achieve a “stealth” effect within another person’s supermagnetic perception.

However, with the energy-control abilities of a low-level Transcendent Warrior, it was usually very difficult to conceal one’s true energy level from the supermagnetic perception of a high-level Transcendent Warrior.

Thus, high-ranking Transcendent Warriors could easily detect their movements and see through their true combat ranks. This was known as “combat-rank suppression.”

Both of Qu Yi’s subordinates were formal Transcendent Warriors with combat ranks above E. They had assumed they could keep the situation under control, which was why they had allowed Qu Yi to act recklessly.

They were only a bunch of F-rank trash. How much trouble could they possibly cause?

What they had not expected was that there really was someone among this group of trash who had mastered “particle micro-manipulation,” someone capable of using extraordinary energy control to suppress his own energy fluctuations to roughly the F4 or F5 level.

If he had not been cooperating with his companions in Seventh Squad, Bai Yuxi could even have disguised his aura as that of an ordinary person with no extraordinary energy fluctuations whatsoever!

What astonished the two E-rank Transcendent Warriors most was not Bai Yuxi’s ability to disguise his combat rank.

Nearly every Transcendent Warrior could do that. The difference lay only in the strength of their abilities and the degree of control they possessed.

What shocked them was that even during combat, the extraordinary energy radiating from Bai Yuxi’s body did not fluctuate in the slightest.

That was truly bizarre!

How could an F5 nobody possibly force Qu Yi, an F9 apprentice Transcendent Warrior, into a position where he had no means of fighting back?

Even if Qu Yi lacked combat experience, a four-level suppression in rank was almost an insurmountable chasm for a low-level Transcendent Warrior.

So in their common understanding, the idea of a lower-ranked fighter defeating a higher-ranked one was practically impossible.

For a moment, the two men were utterly dumbfounded. They could not tell whether Bai Yuxi was merely pretending to be weak while concealing his true strength, or whether Qu Yi was genuinely so useless that he could not even defeat an F5 nobody.

But if Qu Yi was not the problem, then the situation was serious.

A master capable of keeping his energy level at F5, while ensuring that his energy did not fluctuate at all during battle—how high do you think his true combat rank might be?

The two E-rank Transcendent Warriors certainly did not believe they could accomplish such a feat.

Even the D-rank warriors they knew were incapable of it!

Besides, what could a master with such precise control over his energy fluctuations possibly want by mingling with an F-rank apprentice Transcendent Squad and hunting low-level mutated creatures on the outskirts?

Could it be that this master, like them, had come to serve as a “nanny” for the apprentice squad?

The two E-rank guards grew intensely nervous as they repeatedly scrutinized everyone in Seventh Squad, attempting to identify the person being protected.

That way, if a fight broke out, they could rely on their numerical advantage: one of them would hold off the “master,” while the other seized the person under his protection. Even if they could not defeat the master, they would at least have a hostage to trade.

And, as it turned out, their scrutiny really did reveal someone unusual among Seventh Squad’s members.

It was Su Xiaoke, surrounded by everyone and standing behind them, without the slightest trace of extraordinary energy fluctuation on her body.

An ordinary person?

Of course not!

What ordinary person would come to the core region of Hualan Mountain, the site of an E-rank joint mission? Was she looking to die?

She had to be the relative or child of some core member of an extraordinary faction!

Even if she was currently an ordinary person, she had surely been brought to this region, where X-particles were especially concentrated, to gain experience and exposure, in the hope that she might be affected by the X-particles and awaken…

“Kill him!”

“Kill that bastard, now!”

“Didn’t you two sons of bitches hear me?”

“I want him dead! I absolutely want him dead!”

“If you don’t kill him, I’ll have Brother Tiger kill you the moment we get back!”

“You bastard! You’re finished! Your whole family is finished! I’m going to kill your entire family!”

Qu Yi naturally had no idea that the imaginations of his two guards had already gone completely off the rails.

After suffering only a minor setback at Bai Yuxi’s hands, the man who had been arrogantly domineering moments earlier suddenly plunged into hysterical terror.

Like a stray dog that had just been kicked, he tucked his tail between his legs and shrank behind the two guards, howling in a choked voice, “I’ll kill your ancestors for eight generations and wipe out your entire household!”

The two E-rank warriors were mortified.

This was unbelievably humiliating!

They wished they could slap Qu Yi across the face and make the man, who had gone completely berserk, shut up.

You want to kill his entire family?

First figure out how to save your own life!

Did he really think the extraordinary world was some little general store run by his family, where he could kill anyone he pleased?

The fact that Bai Yuxi had not simply slapped him to death when they exchanged blows was already an act of considerable mercy.

To be continued.