It was the direction where the fountain was located.

The square was covered everywhere in a continuous sea of fire, yet only the pool where the fountain was had not been affected by the flames.

Naturally, this was not because the survivors had overlooked that place. In fact, they had all discovered the enormous thing inside the pool.

But this huge tumor seemed extremely important to the stray beasts below. They guarded the area around the fountain very tightly, and the survivors had no way to approach at all.

The moment anyone tried to charge in, those stray beasts would surge forward like they had gone mad.

The survivors had organized several attacks, but all of them failed.

However, the more it was like this, the more they could be certain that there was definitely something wrong with that giant tumor.

Otherwise, these stray beasts would not be protecting it so crazily.

No one knew whether they had been provoked by the survivors, but seeing that the situation was growing worse and worse, the stray beasts also began to become anxious.

Through the sniper scope, Xi Heyan saw these stray beasts dragging over the other tumors in the square one after another. They threw that pile of tumors into the fountain pool.

Immediately after, a horrifying scene appeared.

That enormous tumor trembled as it shook its massive body. From beneath it, it extended a bodily organ similar to a throat.

And that long organ directly pierced into the tumors that had been thrown in. It stirred around inside them at random, and then the organ began to suck up the matter within.

After sucking one dry, the organ pulled out again and pierced into the next tumor.

One after another, the tumors that had been thrown in rapidly shriveled. In no time, they were almost completely drained.

After absorbing those smaller tumors, the giant tumor’s body also began to undergo violent changes.

It became even larger than before. Its bloated body was nearly overflowing from the pool.

However, what Xi Heyan truly cared about was that the creature inside this tumor seemed to be trying to come out.

The giant tumor trembled nonstop, and the speed at which it fed became faster and faster. The tumors dragged over by the stray beasts could no longer keep up with its feeding speed.

The hearts of the survivors who noticed the movement over there jolted violently.

—They could not let it continue like this!

This was what everyone thought.

They already found these stray beasts difficult to deal with. If the even bigger one inside ran out... then they would probably be finished outright.

For a time, the survivors all sped up the movements of their hands. They practically used their lives to hold back the stray beasts in front of them.

Xi Heyan stood at a high point and fired a shot at the giant tumor.

The bullet, which had been enough to pierce through the bodies of other stray beasts, failed to leave even the slightest mark on that giant tumor. The bullet fired at it was even swallowed by the giant tumor.

Seeing this, Xi Heyan’s expression also grew a little more solemn.

Wen Yuzhi’s position was the farthest from the battlefield, but as he looked at that enormous tumor, he kept having a very bad feeling in his heart.

He had never felt such intense negative emotion from any living creature before.

From the giant tumor, the only thing Wen Yuzhi could sense was hunger. An incomparably intense hunger and craving for flesh and blood.

It seemed as if only the need to eat remained in its biological genes.

As long as no one stopped it, Wen Yuzhi had no doubt that it could swallow every living thing on Blue Luster Star into its stomach.

They had to find a way to stop it.

Xi Heyan fired several more shots. After discovering that the bullets were still being inexplicably swallowed, he abandoned the sniper rifle in his hands.

A dazzling beam of light smashed into the fountain pool.

With a boom.

Countless fragments of flesh and blood splattered out.

The giant tumor was not harmed much, but the smaller tumors thrown inside were blasted into pieces.

This laser cannon had been brought out by the survivors’ side.

Among them, quite a few people also had long-range lethal weapons.

Whether they had found them somewhere or obtained them from killing stray beasts, these had originally been their final trump cards.

But seeing that this huge thing was about to come out, they no longer had the leisure to care about trump cards or not. Whatever means they had, they all took them out.

One beam of fire after another landed on the giant tumor, and the artillery shells fell as densely as rain.

Under this kind of firepower coverage, let alone stray beasts, even the square was almost blown apart. The area where the fountain had been was directly turned into a deep pit.

However, under such circumstances, after the smoke dispersed, the survivors discovered that although the surface of the giant tumor had been blasted full of pits, it was healing at an astonishing speed.

In almost no time at all, the giant tumor had recovered.

The survivors who saw this felt somewhat despairing.

What kind of monster was this?

Could they really kill it?

Even Lottie was a little dazed.

She had once had a good friend, also a female mermaid.

Her ability was very special. No matter how serious the injuries she suffered were, her body could rapidly heal itself.

During one hunting trip outside, however, the other party disappeared.

They had never found any trace of her.

Afterward,

Lottie dreamed that her good friend had been locked inside a sealed tank, her body filled with all kinds of tubes. Those tubes were continuously drawing her blood.

She told Haisena about this.

Only then did Haisena begin to take the disappearances of their clanspeople seriously. As a result, once they investigated, they discovered that over the years, quite a few merfolk had gone missing.

Had those clanspeople truly disappeared for no reason?

Lottie thought of the tubes inserted into her good friend’s body, then thought of the monster’s eerie healing ability...

A guess she was unwilling to think about appeared in her heart.

Lottie’s eyes instantly surged with a mad blood-red color.

“Ah!!!”

The mermaid let out an enraged roar.

That piercing sound wave made every living creature in the square with hearing feel as if their brains had been struck by something. Their ears buzzed.

A mermaid’s singing voice could be the most heavenly song in the world. Yet once they became angry, that beautiful voice could instantly turn into the most violent waves of the sea.

The surging ocean and fierce storm carried an invitation from hell.

No one would want to provoke a mermaid in a towering rage.

Wen Yuzhi, however, noticed that after Lottie let out this roar, the giant tumor’s reaction became even more intense than before.

It was afraid!

Wen Yuzhi quickly realized that this giant tumor had just been afraid of a mental-energy attack!

He swept his gaze around the surroundings, and a plan immediately formed in his mind.

The mermaid’s sound wave had indeed brought the giant tumor no small amount of stimulation, but this thing had thick skin and tough flesh. In no time, it recovered.

And after recovering, it seemed to become angry as well.

Perhaps in this giant tumor’s view, these survivors were just a group of little bugs waiting to be eaten by it. Yet now, this group of little bugs was jumping around, adding who knew how much trouble for it.

Although those artillery shots had not caused much damage to it, they had interrupted its feeding. It was simply hateful to the extreme!

After all, the tumors thrown in by the stray beasts could not withstand artillery fire the way it could. After being bombarded like that, they had all been blown into bits and pieces.

Without energy replenishment, the giant tumor’s evolution happened to get stuck at the key point right before transformation.

It was only lacking that tiny bit now. How could it be willing to stop here?!

The giant tumor wriggled its massive body. It extended the organ once more, and this time, the organ’s target was the nearby stray beasts.

Those stray beasts that had been protecting the tumor to the death now became the latter’s rations.

The giant tumor devoured these stray beasts like a storm sweeping away clouds.

Xi Heyan frowned.

But in the next moment, he heard faint footsteps behind him.

Xi Heyan turned back to look. The person who had come was Wen Yuzhi.

The boy stepped on the edge of the eaves and lightly leaped over.

Seeing Xi Heyan, Wen Yuzhi did not waste words. He asked directly, “Do you have any way to help me restrain this monster for a while?”

He had to temporarily draw the giant tumor’s attention away for a while. Only then would it be convenient for what he was going to do next.

The Saint Clan royal guards beside Wen Yuzhi were all below, killing stray beasts. He could only come to find Xi Heyan.

Xi Heyan did not disappoint Wen Yuzhi either.

He thought for a moment, then said, “I can hold it off for ten minutes. During those ten minutes, I can make sure its hatred stays on me.”

“Ten minutes is enough.”

Wen Yuzhi let out a breath of relief. When his gaze looked at Xi Heyan again, the boy’s eyes were bright and sparkling.

“Thank you.”

Xi Heyan fell silent for a while. He lowered his head. The boy’s height had not yet fully grown, so at this moment, he had to obediently tilt his head up to look at him.

Under Wen Yuzhi’s grateful gaze, Xi Heyan raised his hand and lightly poked the other party’s fair, tender cheek.

That spot just happened to be where Lottie had touched him earlier.

But now, the scent left behind by the mermaid was covered by him.

“No need to thank me,” Xi Heyan said in a low, hoarse voice.

Wen Yuzhi felt his face being poked. He covered his soft cheek, his eyes round like a startled cat’s.

But perhaps Xi Heyan’s attitude was too composed and calm. After covering his cheek for a while, Wen Yuzhi seemed to feel that he might have been making too much of a fuss.

Thinking this, he put his hand down and reminded him, “Then you have to be careful. If it’s too dangerous, don’t force yourself.”

Xi Heyan cooperatively nodded and said all right.

But he seemed to want to say something else, hesitating as if unable to speak.

Wen Yuzhi originally thought Xi Heyan would tell him directly.

Unexpectedly, after the other party glanced at him, he turned around and left.

The moment Xi Heyan jumped down from the rooftop, his voice also came by Wen Yuzhi’s ear.

“I always got full marks in combat class.”

This sentence, which came out of nowhere, made Wen Yuzhi freeze for a moment.

Only after a while did he react and understand that Xi Heyan meant his strength was not weak, so Wen Yuzhi did not need to worry that something would happen to him.

Clearly, all the special care Wen Yuzhi had shown him along the way had been seen by Xi Heyan.

As the top student always looked up to in the academy, this was the first time Xi Heyan had been treated as someone who needed to be taken care of.

Recalling all the boy’s various actions, he could not help feeling somewhat helpless.

Although Xi Heyan still had no time to sort out the feelings in his heart, no man would be willing to appear as a weak person who needed protection in front of someone he had feelings for.

Xi Heyan was no exception.

Even carrying a certain desire to show himself before the other party, when Xi Heyan had fallen halfway through the air, he activated his mecha.

In the night illuminated by firelight, a tall black mecha appeared out of thin air above the square.

It was also Wen Yuzhi’s first time seeing a mecha with his own eyes.

And only after seeing one in person at close range... could one know how shocking and beautiful this legendary steel beast truly was.

The mecha, several meters tall, was fully supported by a massive, precise biomimetic metal skeleton. Its exterior had a layer of black coating, and under the illumination of the firelight, that dark black color also shone with a cold metallic luster.

Its body possessed an intense sci-fi feeling, and the mecha itself was a miracle created by humans in pursuit of exploring space, the pinnacle of human craftsmanship.

Xi Heyan’s mecha had been conceived by his mother, Lena, from the time he was born.

After several years, and several rounds of modification in the middle, it had finally been completed.

It was the weapon most suited to Xi Heyan.

If Xi Heyan holding a sniper rifle gave people the feeling of being like a ghost, with no one knowing where his bullet would come from in the next instant, then Xi Heyan piloting this mecha had completely torn away every disguise.

He no longer needed to hide, nor did he need to be cautious.

The tall black mecha hovered above everyone’s heads. It was like a fierce beast forged entirely from a metal skeleton. Just by standing there, it was already silently announcing its strength to everyone.

The instant this mecha appeared, the giant tumor seemed to sense the threat as well. It sped up its feeding.

However, Xi Heyan had already driven the mecha and charged toward it.

No one could intervene in the battle between these two enormous things.

The survivors’ side could only take advantage of the giant tumor’s attention being drawn by the mecha and quickly kill more stray beasts.

Wen Yuzhi looked deeply at the mecha hovering in midair, then turned around and swiftly rushed toward the place behind them where the supplies had been stored.

Xi Heyan was doing his utmost to buy time for him. He could not waste the other party’s effort for nothing.

One butterfly after another appeared around the boy.

They kissed his hair, rubbed affectionately against his cheeks, as if soothing Wen Yuzhi and telling him—

Do not worry. They would fight beside him.

Wen Yuzhi blinked, then also smiled and said softly, “Let’s do our best together!”

The butterflies emitted joyful emotions.

Not many people saw this scene.

The viewers in the livestream room had all run off to watch the great battle between the mecha and that monster.

【So this is what a mecha looks like. It’s really beautiful.】

【Humans are amazing. They can even create something this incredible.】

【It’s just that humans have slowly declined over the past decade or so, right? I remember twenty years ago, humans were still pretty powerful. They had an entire mecha legion. The flag was kind of pitch-black, though. I only remember it seemed to be called the Blackstone Legion...】

【Now that you mention it, I remember too. Humans really were powerful back then. Looking across the entire Starverse, no one dared provoke their mecha legion.】

【Humans were that powerful?】

【Not anymore. Humans now... tsk...】

Xi Heyan knew nothing of the bullet comments.

He only focused on controlling the mecha beneath him. All kinds of difficult movements were executed by him without the slightest sluggishness.

The tall mecha in his hands was like his second body. However skillfully a person controlled their own body, that was how exquisitely he controlled the mecha.

His constant harassment undoubtedly and steadily held the giant tumor’s hatred.

At this moment, the giant tumor had actually already split open a crack. The creature inside had revealed a head. It was a red-skinned human head, with goat-like horns on top of its head and already obvious facial features.

Clearly, Xi Heyan’s conjecture had not been wrong. If these stray beasts continued evolving, they would only become more and more like humans.

And at this moment, its attention had already completely fallen on Xi Heyan.

This hateful human!

Because of this, the giant tumor even gave up on continuing to feed. It wholeheartedly wanted to swat Xi Heyan to death first.

Countless organs spread out from beneath its body like an octopus’s tentacles.

The purpose of these tentacles was very clear.

They wanted to knock that mecha in the air down.

As Xi Heyan tangled with the giant tumor, he also kept paying attention to the direction where Wen Yuzhi was.

Suddenly, he saw Wen Yuzhi standing on a rooftop and waving at him, then making several hand gestures.

Xi Heyan understood.

The boy wanted him to think of a way to lure the giant tumor over there.

The giant tumor could move.

When its body wriggled, the entire ground shook, like a massive mountain of flesh.

Xi Heyan pretended that the mecha’s energy was about to be exhausted and lured the giant tumor little by little toward the building where Wen Yuzhi was.

The giant tumor did not have much patience.

Although it did not know that Wen Yuzhi and Xi Heyan were working together to toy with it, every time it was about to knock that mecha down, the other party would very “luckily” escape.

After enough times, the feeling of always being one step away made the giant tumor gradually become irritable.

After being toyed with once again, the giant tumor’s patience had already dropped to its lowest point. This time, it no longer continued playing this game of chase with Xi Heyan.

It suddenly sped up, its massive body lunging forward.

Unexpectedly, Xi Heyan also accelerated at that moment.

The mecha directly crossed over the building in front of it.

But because the giant tumor had no time to brake, its massive body slammed straight into it.

At the same time, Wen Yuzhi pressed the button in his hand.

He looked at the butterfly wrapped around his fingertip.

The boy’s brows and eyes curved down. He smiled softly at the butterfly and said, “How about I invite you to watch fireworks?”

As he spoke, a shaking tremor came from the ground.

Dazzling firelight exploded beneath the giant tumor.

More than a dozen tons of fireworks, combined with every flammable and explosive object the survivors had collected, created a force that simply could not be compared to the artillery fire from earlier.

Brilliant fireworks bloomed across the night sky. Countless falling flames descended like a dazzling rain of stars.

Even though they knew the crisis had not yet been resolved, at this moment, all the survivors still could not help raising their heads.

They watched this vast rain of stars fall.

Mecha were the pinnacle masterpiece of humanity’s violent aesthetics.

And fireworks were humanity’s most romantic invention in the history of industry.

Fiery trees and silver flowers beneath a sleepless sky.

Even the viewers in the livestream room fell silent under this scene of extreme beauty and magnificence.

【Humans really are so wise. The things they create are all so beautiful.】

【I’m human, and I really want to say proudly that nothing created by us humans is bad!】

【Although saying this in this atmosphere might be a little inappropriate, the fireworks are really so beautiful.】

More than a dozen tons of fireworks bloomed at the same time. At this moment, the dark night was like daylight.

If there was one problem, then the giant tumor should probably be the one to lodge its protest.

While everyone was marveling at the beauty of the fireworks, the giant tumor’s body had already been blasted full of holes.

If it could speak.

It would definitely protest in a hoarse voice.

But although it could not speak, the giant tumor let out an enraged roar.

And this sound also brought everyone back from that dazzling, beautiful dream.

They saw the giant tumor that still had not died, and the boy not far away from it.

Wen Yuzhi stood on the only building nearby that was still intact.

But this building was already on the verge of collapse.

More importantly, the giant tumor also realized that Wen Yuzhi was the culprit who had caused it to suffer such severe injuries.

In a state of incomparable fury, the giant tumor moved very quickly.

Before anyone else could react, the giant tumor had already extended an organ and launched an attack in the direction where the boy was.

【Oh my god! Cub!】

【No! Don’t hurt my cub!】

【It’s over... At such a close distance, there’s no way he can dodge!】

【Ahhh, damn stray beast! I can’t bear to keep watching...】

Without Wen Yuzhi knowing, he had already gained a large number of fans on StarNet.

At first, they had only come for his face. Everyone said there was an extremely beautiful little beauty inside, and these viewers all came with the mindset of wanting to see just how good-looking he could possibly be.

However, after watching all this way, what these viewers liked was no longer only Wen Yuzhi’s appearance, but also the boy’s personality and that affinity he had toward everyone, like catnip.

When they called him cub, they truly treated him as a young child to cherish.

Among all the survivors who chose to stay and fight, Wen Yuzhi was the youngest. He also looked as if he had never suffered any hardship, but he did not have the slightest trace of spoiled willfulness.

On the contrary, he spoke clearly, thought quickly, and most importantly, despite his young age, he possessed a calm temperament. Without anyone realizing it, Wen Yuzhi had already become the backbone of these survivors.

Having him shoot the first arrow was also an implicit expression that, in their hearts, they regarded the boy as their leader.

Even though they had only spent such a short time together, these survivors already had a great deal of fondness for Wen Yuzhi.

Now, seeing the boy’s figure fall from the rooftop under the giant tumor’s attack, their hearts instinctively tightened.

Xi Heyan’s mind went completely blank. At that moment, his body’s reaction was faster than his conscious thought.

He controlled the mecha beneath him and rushed toward the direction where Wen Yuzhi was falling at the fastest possible speed.

In front of the screen, Mansendis abruptly stood up.

Beside him, Haisena seemed to sense something. She shrank her neck and only felt as if all the scales on her body were about to explode!

The Saint Clan sovereign before her now gave her the feeling of an enraged male lion.

No, no...!

Haisena secretly took another glance, her scalp still numb.

But in her heart, she thought... what male lion? This was clearly a giant beast whose reverse scale had been touched!

At this moment, everyone in the meeting hall was pressed down until they could hardly breathe.

On the other side, all of Xi Heyan’s reactions had already been pushed to their limits.

It was clearly not a very far distance, yet at this moment, it seemed especially long.

Looking at that figure falling like a bird with broken wings.

Xi Heyan had only one thought in his mind, and that was—

Faster...

He had to be faster...

Just when everyone’s hearts were about to leap into their throats, a pair of pure white wings suddenly unfurled behind Wen Yuzhi.

【!!!】

【Mom... I saw an angel!】

【Ahhh, what did I just see?! Wings! There’s actually a pair of wings behind the cub!】

【Fuck! The cub really is a little angel, isn’t he?!】

The bullet comments were full-screen screams of ahhh, showing just how great a shock Wen Yuzhi had brought them.

But what the viewers did not know was that this shock was only the beginning. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

Amid the falling star rain, the slender boy lightly beat the pure white wings behind him.

The cold wind of the night swept past his hair, also revealing those delicate, beautiful brows and eyes.

Wen Yuzhi’s gaze was very cold.

When he was emotionally focused, Wen Yuzhi’s face had no expression.

Because he had spent so much time by the silver-haired sovereign’s side, under that influence, when the boy lowered his brows and eyes, he also carried a few traces of Mansendis’s presence—that kind of natural authority that did not need anger to inspire awe.

He lowered his head and looked at the giant tumor below that was still panting continuously. That icy gaze, paired with the radiant snow-white wings behind him...

Wen Yuzhi had no idea that, in everyone’s eyes right now, he looked like an angel of judgment dispatched by a deity to descend into the world.

And at this moment, the angel who held the power of judgment drew the longbow in his hands.

The boy’s gaze became sharp, and those originally soft brows and eyes gained an edge of his own.

With the sky full of star rain as his backdrop, Wen Yuzhi aimed at the giant tumor below and released his hand.

An arrow condensed from countless points of light shot swiftly toward the giant tumor.

The damage the explosion had inflicted on the giant tumor just now had not yet fully recovered. Its outer surface had been blasted open with many holes, and in one of those holes, Wen Yuzhi saw a beating heart.

Almost in an instant, Wen Yuzhi swiftly judged that this was very likely the giant tumor’s weakness.

There was only one chance.

Without hesitation, Wen Yuzhi used all the mental energy in his body to condense this arrow.

Amid the giant tumor’s terrified roar, the boy shot the arrow once more.

Wen Yuzhi only shot twice tonight.

Once as the signal to begin the attack.

And once now.

The arrow pierced through the giant tumor’s heart.

The energy of the exploding mental energy made it let out a wail in an instant.

The energy it had once absorbed appeared again in another form.

Countless points of light fell along with the star rain.

This was probably the most beautiful and grandest firework everyone present, including the viewers in the livestream room, had ever seen.

Looking at this grand scene he had created, Wen Yuzhi also stretched out a hand and caught one of the falling points of light.

Yet he seemed to sense something.

He raised his head.

Wen Yuzhi’s gaze passed through the falling star rain and saw the black mecha not far away.

Through the mecha’s viewing window, Xi Heyan had personally witnessed the entire process of the boy killing the giant tumor.

When Wen Yuzhi drew the bowstring and shot that arrow, his heart had trembled uncontrollably along with it.

The feelings suppressed in the depths of his heart spread like wildfire at this moment.

The sensation of his blood boiling destroyed Xi Heyan’s usual reason. He looked at that figure suspended high in the air, and the other party was quietly looking at him too.

Feeling the boy’s gaze fall on him, every cell in Xi Heyan’s body seemed to be clamoring for something.

Under this indescribable restlessness, Xi Heyan did something he would absolutely never do under normal circumstances.

The black mecha slowly walked toward the direction where the boy was.

In the end, it stopped in front of Wen Yuzhi.

In front of countless people, the black mecha slowly raised that enormous mechanical arm.

The next moment, this mechanical arm opened its palm toward the boy—

Assuming a posture of waiting to be favored.