A kick filled with the power of "Raging Bull" landed on the Alien’s bloodied face, shattering its facial bones and disfiguring its appearance to the point where it no longer resembled a human.
Even so, it still clung to Wu Qiuyi’s entrails and refused to let go, dragging the bloody mass along the ground as Wu Qiuyi retched up blood from the pulling.
Xu Huo drew his sword and sliced off its arm, then kicked the creature away!
The disfigured and armless Alien tumbled two meters before suddenly flipping back up and lunging at him fiercely, unafraid of death!
Xu Huo, worried about Wu Qiuyi, couldn’t simply run away. He grabbed a handful of clothing and threw it at the Alien, sidestepping as it lunged, then pulled out a lighter and set it on fire!
Ke Liang and Shen Yi had reached the door outside; together, they used bungee cords to ensnare the Alien, now flailing and engulfed in flames, dragging it to the rubble nearby and trapping it beneath a collapsed building.
Taking the opportunity, Gu Yu picked up a large rock and smashed it repeatedly on its head. The cracking was indistinguishable; whether it was the stone or the Alien’s skull breaking was unclear, but only when its struggling movements lessened did she stop.
By then, the Alien’s head was dripping with blood, half-buried in rubble, its clothing nearly burnt away, with only some fibers stuck to its charred skin that had not yet been extinguished, causing the flesh to shrivel and blacken.
The Alien was motionless.
"It’s dead now!" Gu Yu panted, wanting to make sure with a few more hits, but unexpectedly, the bloodied Alien suddenly raised its upper body towards her in attack!
Gu Yu, startled, fell on her butt and instinctively kicked out, her toe jamming directly into its mouth!
She couldn’t help crying out; all Aliens carried poison, and if bitten, she could likely die weak and decaying from full-body rot!
Kicking away the Alien’s head, Gu Yu quickly got rid of her shoe and hopped aside, carefully examining her foot, "Please no injuries, please no injuries... it didn’t bite me!"
Assured she hadn’t been injured, she turned back to look at the ground.
The Alien, now silently clutching the shoe in its mouth, no longer moved; it seemed the action of biting off the shoe had exhausted its last bit of strength.
Ke Liang found a kitchen knife in the rubble and chopped off its head.
"Now it’s truly dead."
Watching the deformed head roll away, everyone was still trembling with fear, the Alien’s vitality was so strong that they couldn’t let their guard down until its head was separated from its body!
"Was it this Alien that made the noise just now? How did it escape?" Shen Yi asked, coiling up the bungee cord.
"One escaped, could the other Aliens have escaped as well?" Ke Liang said.
"That shouldn’t be possible." Gu Yu’s eyelids twitched, "If the other two had also gotten out, they should have appeared by now!"
The group exchanged uneasy glances, and that’s when Shen Xin remembered Wu Qiuyi, "Hurry and check on Wu Qiuyi, she’s wounded!"
Gu Yu and Ke Liang rushed back into the store, Shen Yi assisted Shen Xin in walking in, but as soon as they entered, they all froze.
Wu Qiuyi, cradled in Xu Huo’s arms, was spitting blood nonstop, almost immersed in a pool of her own blood. Blood spilled from her mouth and, despite being pressed against her abdominal wound, continued to flow unabated. Blood covered her clothes, the floor, everything within sight was a sickening shade of red... It was unimaginable that a person could bleed so much!
"How could this..." Ke Liang’s lips trembled. He wasn’t present upstairs to witness the attack on Wu Qiuyi and had assumed she’d suffered minor injuries, completely unprepared for such a gruesome scene!
Not just him, everyone’s pupils shook at the sight, particularly as Wu Qiuyi continued to vomit blood. The Evolver’s tenacious vitality meant she didn’t die immediately from her severe injuries but writhed in agony, struggling in the throes of death.
"I... I have a Self-Healing Potion..." Gu Yu said shakily as he took out the remaining half-bottle of Self-Healing Potion, only to suddenly see several empty bottles already lying by Xu Huo’s feet.
"It’s no use," Xu Huo put down Wu Qiuyi and, with his blood-dripping hands, grabbed a small bag from a corner. Under her longing gaze, he took out a photograph from inside it and placed it on her chest, then pulled her hand to rest on top of it.
Clutching the photograph tightly, Wu Qiuyi seemed to smile, and then the last bit of bloody foam bubbled from her mouth. She stared blankly at the ceiling, her breath gradually fading away.
The few people standing or squatting around all had red eyes, and Shen Xin couldn’t help crying out, "Why did this happen? We had already killed the most dangerous Alien..."
Shen Yi comforted his sister, "It was an accident, no one could have predicted it."
Xu Huo closed Wu Qiuyi’s eyelids and stood up, saying, "I’m going to check the trap entrance and look for Lin Pei and Wang Chaoqing while I’m at it."
Gu Yu snapped back to reality, "I’ll go with you, it’s not safe to go alone."
"Let’s split up," Ke Liang said. "You check the traps, I’ll go look for people. Shen Xin is injured and can’t move conveniently, so Shen Yi should take her to the gas station... and take Wu Qiuyi as well. We can’t leave her here alone."
"Everyone, be careful," Xu Huo said with implied meaning. "The Alien might not have escaped on its own."
Gu Yu and the others felt a chill in their hearts, immediately recalling the person who had ambushed them before. With Wang Chaoqing and Lin Pei missing, it was quite a coincidence that another Alien had escaped.
Ke Liang’s face turned dark and fearsome, "If it was done by someone, I will avenge Wu Qiuyi."
Xu Huo was non-committal and, giving the body on the ground one glance, he turned and walked away.
Gu Yu followed closely behind him.
The two didn’t speak along the way. They first went to the nearest trap, only to find that indeed the metal plate had been knocked open. The opening gaped wide, with knives scattered all over the ground.
"This looks like it was broken by impact," Gu Yu said uncertainly as he examined the metal plate. The edges of the break were uneven, with no signs of cutting. The black metal was very hard; without the aid of tools, it would be difficult for players to break it.
Xu Huo was also uncertain, so they moved on to inspect another trap.
Fortunately, the other two traps were unharmed, their seals tightly closed.
"Could it be because of the distance?" Gu Yu wondered aloud. "These two traps are further from the gas station; maybe the Alien didn’t react as violently to them."
"Not necessarily," Xu Huo pointed to some dust traces on the edge. "These indicate that the Alien also rammed into the metal plate but wasn’t successful."
"Since we heard the noise, it doesn’t make sense that only the one nearest to us got out. Look at the melted metal; do you see any signs of fracture?"
Gu Yu leaned in for a closer look, "There really isn’t! I knew my tools couldn’t be that weak!"
"So you think either Lin Pei or Wang Chaoqing released the Alien?" she asked, turning back to him. "But why would they do that? Under those circumstances, when the Alien gets out, wouldn’t everyone be in danger?"
"The Alien that comes out of the trap will return quickly; as long as you avoid the time it roams, the danger is almost zero," Xu Huo said. "Although the situation just now was fraught with peril, there was no danger to those who didn’t show up."
Gu Yu was silent for two seconds, "Wang Chaoqing doesn’t seem like it, do you think it was Lin Pei?"
Xu Huo let out a cold laugh, "We’ll know when we get back. He should be at the gas station by now."