Chapter 195

Chapter 195

Zhu Yinglong picked up two peanuts and fed them to Wu Zhi.

"Peanuts hit different when you're drinking."

Wu Zhi mumbled through a mouthful, nodding: "No wonder drinkers always snack on peanuts."

"Cheers." Zhu Yinglong tapped cups with Wu Zhi.

The bros were having a great time drinking.

Suddenly, a stream of water poured down over their heads.

"What the fuck?!" Zhu Yinglong shouted. "What's going on?"

Wu Zhi slicked back his wet hair.

"Yue-ge..."

Zhu Yinglong turned around.

Liu Fengyue stood behind them, giving Zhu Yinglong a death glare.

"What are you doing?" Zhu Yinglong snapped irritably.

"You gave Xiao Wu alcohol? Have you lost your damn mind?!" Liu Fengyue was normally chill, but when angry, he was terrifying.

At this moment, everyone within earshot turned to stare.

Gu Xi and Xu Sining happened to walk nearby.

Clueless, Xu Sining figured they were beefing.

"What's going on?"

Gu Xi's face went stone cold as he addressed the surrounding crowd. "All non-SS Levels—evacuate NOW."

The soldiers with less than SS Level psychic rating booked it without hesitation.

Xu Sining blinked. "Yo, what's going down?"

Su Yuxin and his mother were equally lost and walked over to stand with Xu Sining.

"What's going on?" Su Yuxin asked.

Gu Xi replied, "We've got a Code Red here. You'd better head back first—you don't wanna be collateral damage."

Su Yuxin nodded without further questions and left with his mother.

Wu Zhi and Zhu Yinglong, now soaked to the bone, sat there like drowned rats.

The butler came running with towels to sop up the mess.

"Is it even worth making sober-up soup at this point?"

Gu Xi: "Too late now."

Wu Zhi raised his hand guiltily: "I only had a little, fruit wine... the alcohol content isn't high..."

Chu Tangxiu stretched lazily and said gloatingly, "Come on, let me lock you up in a Spatial Barrier."

"Hell no." Wu Zhi wrapped himself in the towel, leaving only his face exposed. "I don't think I'll get drunk."

"You're already blushing." Gu Xi instructed Chu Tangxiu bluntly, "Put up a barrier."

"Got it."

Chu Tangxiu, an SS-Level Spatial Barrier specialist.

As the barrier formed, a translucent black shield appeared around them.

The lighting grew slightly dimmer.

Gu Xi pulled Xu Sining outside the barrier.

"What's going to happen?" Xu Sining was utterly confused.

Gu Xi said, "Wu Zhi can't control his psychic energy when he drinks. The SSS-Level Spirit Beast inside him might emerge."

"Oh? What does it look like? I want to see." Xu Sining was very curious, having heard about it many times but never getting the chance to see it.

"It's ugly," Gu Xi remarked.

Inside the barrier.

Wu Zhi was left alone.

All the other brothers had retreated outside.

Wu Zhi tried hard to stay sober, but he felt himself growing dizzy, his thoughts scattering.

Why was this fruit wine hitting so hard? he thought.

It barely tasted alcoholic, sweet like soda...

Wu Zhi suddenly got up from the chair and sat on the grass.

Outside the barrier, Zhu Yinglong took one look and said, "Crap, he's wasted."

Wu Zhi sat cross-legged, feeling dizzy.

Liu Fengyue shot Zhu Yinglong a glance: "This is on you."

Zhu Yinglong smiled bitterly: "Yeah, my fault."

Gu Xi brought Xu Sining to the villa entrance.

They dragged over a couch for him to sit and watch from the doorway.

"If things go wrong, get inside the house."

The servants, all ordinary people, had already been moved to the basement.

Only the butler stood on the other side of Xu Sining.

Xu Sining started feeling uneasy seeing everyone so tense.

"Will that spirit beast eat people?"

"No, spirit beasts aren't real predators. They don’t need meat for energy, so they aren’t interested in eating humans. But if they get angry, they might attack."

"Oh..."

Xu Sining sat on the chair, gazing at the far-off grass.

Zhu Yinglong, Liu Fengyue, Lin Tianyang, and Chu Tangxiu all were posted outside the barrier.

They waited for about ten minutes.

Wu Zhi, who had been sitting, started swaying like a drunk before finally face-planting into the grass.

The butler whispered, "The fruit wine prepared tonight was under 10% ABV."

Xu Sining said, "I had a sip too. It barely tasted like alcohol."

Gu Xi lowered his head. "When did you drink it?"

Xu Sining: "I thought it was cola."

Gu Xi: "You shouldn’t drink carbonated drinks either."

"I was craving it~" Xu Sining said defiantly.

Gu Xi ruffled his hair. "No more from now on. Soda’s no good for you."

"Mm-hmm." Xu Sining nodded like a good kid. He didn’t actually like carbonated drinks that much—he preferred boba~

Inside the barrier, a lion, a tiger, and a leopard had already come out.

They were pretty tame, hovering near Wu Zhi.

The food on the table got them to sniff around, but it didn’t tempt them.

Suddenly, the three spirit beasts sensed something and bolted for the edge of the barrier, trying to break free—no luck.

In the end, they all ducked back into Wu Zhi’s Spiritual Sea.

Xu Sining got up for a better look.

"Is it out yet?"

"Soon," Gu Xi said.

"What happens when it comes out?"

"You’ll see in a sec."

The second Gu Xi finished speaking, a massive head emerged from Wu Zhi’s chest.

Semi-transparent, with a blast of freezing wind.

A powerful current of air whipped around inside the barrier, the winds inside clearly chaotic.

This was Xu Sining’s first time seeing something like this, his curious eyes wide and round.

The empire keeps tight control over the powerful.

Anyone with an Innate Ability gets drafted.

So regular folks never get to see stuff like this.

The spirit beast that burst out of Wu Zhi’s chest grew even larger after coming out.

It towered three stories high.

A pair of long, twisted horns jutted from its head.

Each horn forked into two, like it was throwing up peace signs on either side of its head.

Its head was dragon-like, but with a shorter snout.

Its scalp was rough and bumpy.

It was a murky purplish-black—not exactly easy on the eyes.

Its big eyes glared fiercely.

Its limbs were thick and muscular, ending in clawed, almost human-like hands with five fingers each.

It had a lion-like build, complete with a shaggy neck mane.

But its tail was more wolfish—long, fluffy, and dragging behind.

Except for the mane and tail, the rest of its body was armored in thick, leathery skin.

It looked built like a tank.

"What’s this spirit beast called?" Xu Sining had never laid eyes on anything like it.

"Dunno. Wu Zhi calls it Fourth Brother," Gu Xi shrugged. Nobody had a clue why it looked the way it did.

"Why Fourth Brother?"

"‘Cause it’s like a chimera’s big bro."

"Huh..." Xu Sining nodded. The name suited it perfectly.

Fourth Brother went nuts like a husky let off its leash after months indoors, zooming around like crazy.

But it was way too huge.

The villa’s yard was tiny—it could cover the whole thing in two steps.

Plus, the barrier was in the way.

After a few seconds, it got pissed.

It started headbutting the barrier like a battering ram.

The hand-seal in Chu Tangxiu's grip flickered from the collision.

Zhu Yinglong asked, "You good?"

Chu Tangxiu sounded a bit unsure.

"I think... so?"

"Grr! Grr—" The spirit beast Fourth Brother's growls were deep and rough.

Ugh, annoying.

Wu Zhi woke with a start and lurched upright, just in time to see Fourth Brother's giant paw about to squash him.

Wu Zhi immediately rolled away and got to his feet.

"Get back here—"

Wu Zhi tried to recall him into the Spiritual Sea.

But an S-rank couldn't rein in an SSS-rank—unless the beast was willing, Wu Zhi had no way to force him back.

This was the worst part.

Fourth Brother loved playing outside and hated staying in the Spiritual Sea.

No way was he going back after finally breaking free.

The spirit beast raised its left foreleg and swiped at him.

Wu Zhi couldn't dodge in time and was sent flying by a brutal swipe from his own spirit beast.

"Ahhh!!!"

Wu Zhi's scrawny body spun twice in the air before crashing outside the barrier.

A large water bubble caught him just before he hit the grass.

"Thanks, man..." Wu Zhi muttered, sprawled awkwardly on the ground.

He looked up at his spirit beast, completely at a loss.

The beast kept slamming into the barrier.

Chu Tangxiu shored up the spirit-locking barrier.

But with only an SS-rank spiritual power, keeping an SSS-rank spirit beast contained wasn't gonna last.

"Wu Zhi, figure out how to pull him back—now. I can't hold out much longer," Chu Tangxiu strained, his black leather sleeves straining over his flexed arms.

"But he's being a brat," Wu Zhi whined.

Still, he tried to reason with the beast.

"Come back first. If you want to play, I'll take you to the woods another day. This is the city—there are people everywhere. You'll freak people out if you keep this up."

The spirit beast ignored him completely, backed up a few steps, then lunged full-force.

The barrier shattered with a sharp crack.

Fourth Brother the Spirit Beast immediately pounced at Chu Tangxiu.

Furious, he roared: You bastard! You're the one who trapped me!

Chu Tangxiu spun on his heels and bolted.

"Boss! Help!"

Liu Fengyue swiftly rode a large water bubble into the sky, barely dodging the attack.

Zhu Yinglong and Lin Tianyang took off like rockets.

Fourth Brother the Spirit Beast ducked his head and charged like a bull.

His horn thrust between Chu Tangxiu's legs.

With a toss of his head, he flung the shrieking Chu Tangxiu skyward.

The spirit beast itself was a pure concentrated spiritual energy.

So this charge was as painful as being struck by an SSS-level master.

Xu Sining looked up at the soaring figure.

"Holy shit..."

Gu Xi worked his vine magic from a distance.

Thick vines rapidly sprouted beneath the spirit beast, wrapping him up in seconds.

The spirit beast was caught fast.

He thrashed wildly.

Suddenly, lightning split the sky as Leibao descended onto the vines.

Jolts of electricity raced through the vines, shocking the spirit beast's entire body.

The lawn lit up with electric flashes.

The surrounding winds whipped into a frenzy.

Xu Sining squinted his eyes.

Gu Xi threw a protective arm around his neck, shielding him from the wind with his hand.

The spirit beast, vines, and Leibao were going at it hammer and tongs.

Sparks kept flying from the crackling electricity.

Since reasoning didn't work, they'd have to fight fire with fire.

"Let me turn up the heat." Lin Tianyang raised his hand, summoning a blazing inferno that burned atop the spirit beast's head, zeroing in on his horns.

The spirit beast was furious, shooting daggers at them all.

He thrashed about wildly on the ground, utterly ruining Gu Xi's prized lawn, worth a fortune, in the process.

The spirit beast, burned and electrocuted, struggled for over half an hour before finally beginning to tire and stopped struggling.

But it didn’t surrender—instead, it shrunk suddenly with a *whoosh*, instantly slipping free from the vines’ restraints.

“What the hell, it can shrink?!” Zhu Yinglong asked. “Where’d it go?”

“Over there!” Liu Fengyue spotted the spirit beast, now cat-sized, darting into the bushes.

Someone hurled a water bubble at it.

The spirit beast stopped to shake itself dry.

Vines chased after it, snaking across the ground.

The spirit beast ran faster than a cat—*whoosh*—and was gone in an instant.

The vines rapidly spread across the ground, searching for its location.

Wu Zhi could sense his spirit beast’s whereabouts and took off after it.

The spirit beast circled the villa, with a whole crowd chasing after it.

It leaped through a window, entered the villa, and made a beeline for Xu Sining, who was standing by the door.

Xu Sining sensed movement behind him and turned just in time to see the shadowy, bizarre creature pouncing at him.

“Yikes!”