Yu Xiaoyu didn't know why she made such a bold decision.
She looked up at the descending bear paw, her lips trembling, and an unconcealable fear in the depths of her eyes.
Yet, even so, she did not flinch or dodge.
*Boom!*
The bear paw, like a pillar supporting the sky, descended with a roar.
The ground trembled again, dust and smoke scattered, and the bear paw sank a full zhang into the ground.
It was not hard to imagine what the scene would be like if this palm had landed on Yu Xiaoyu.
And at a distance of less than a foot from the bear paw, Xiong Zhuangzhuang, with bruised eyes, tightly hugged Yu Xiaoyu and roared, "Are you crazy! Why didn't you dodge!"
He had almost had a heart attack from the scene just now.
After taking a punch from that impostor, he had rushed to save Yu Xiaoyu.
Otherwise, Yu Xiaoyu would have been crushed into a meat patty by that stomp.
However, Yu Xiaoyu showed no panic on her face. Instead, she hugged Xiong Zhuangzhuang's arm, her eyes sparkling, "I recognized you, you are the real one."
Xiong Zhuangzhuang was stunned, and then a little moved.
He hadn't expected Yu Xiaoyu to risk her own life for him.
"Yu Xiaoyu, don't be fooled by him, that's a scheme he used."
Xiong Zhuangzhuang, standing elsewhere, was full of anxiety, his voice filled with shock and anger.
Yu Xiaoyu glanced at him, then at the disheveled Xiong Zhuangzhuang holding her, and said firmly, "You don't need to lie to me anymore, he is Xiong Zhuangzhuang."
She could clearly feel the warmth emanating from the place where her skin touched Xiong Zhuangzhuang.
That was the body temperature only a human would have.
It was reassuring.
Wait, skin touching...
"Ah!" Yu Xiaoyu's face turned bright red, and she began to struggle vigorously in Xiong Zhuangzhuang's arms, "Let me go quickly."
Xiong Zhuangzhuang also reacted belatedly, quickly releasing his arms around Yu Xiaoyu, his ears feeling like they were on fire.
"I, I didn't mean to."
Xiong Zhuangzhuang's voice was usually gruff, but at this moment, it sounded as if it were squeezed out of his throat.
He turned his head away, afraid to look at Yu Xiaoyu's expression.
"It's alright."
Yu Xiaoyu cupped her flushed face and replied pretending to be indifferent, but her voice couldn't hide her true emotions.
A strange, indescribable atmosphere suddenly arose between the two.
*Whoosh—*
A sharp whistling sound suddenly rang out.
Xiong Zhuangzhuang's expression changed, he knew something was wrong, and turned to look. As expected, the impostor had disappeared, and even the Earth Bear summoned by the impostor was gone.
He quickly spread out his divine sense. The area within his divine sense was empty, with only the lingering gray mist.
"He escaped."
Xiong Zhuangzhuang gritted his teeth, his face full of unwillingness.
"Then what should we do? If others encounter him, they will definitely be deceived."
Yu Xiaoyu, ignoring the awkwardness, was filled with worry.
The impostor's disguise was too realistic, with no flaws. If she hadn't come up with this method, she still wouldn't have been able to distinguish the real from the fake.
Others who encountered the fake Xiong Zhuangzhuang alone would definitely not recognize him.
"Let's hurry and chase him. Even if we can't catch him, we must find the whereabouts of the others as soon as possible." Xiong Zhuangzhuang's eyes were firm, and he was determined in his heart.
He had to deal with the fake himself.
"Okay."
Xiong Zhuangzhuang asked Xiong Da to return to the spirit beast bag and proceeded towards the direction where the mist was thinnest with Yu Xiaoyu.
...
Bei Xinghan coldly withdrew the Frost Sword from the demon's corpse.
Dark red blood trickled down from the tip of the Frost Sword.
Drip, drip.
"The tenth one."
Bei Xinghan muttered to himself, his expression flickered, and he looked up at the two figures rapidly approaching him in the sky.
He stood quietly in place, waiting for the two figures to land in front of him.
"Bei Xinghan, we finally found you."
"Fellow Daoist Bei."
Both of them showed excitement on their faces, though one was more unrestrained, and the other was more reserved.
Bei Xinghan nodded faintly in response.
He hadn't expected that the first people he would find in the secret realm would be Xiong Zhuangzhuang and Yu Xiaoyu.
A hint of imperceptible disappointment flashed in his eyes.
"Fellow Daoist Bei, let's travel together." Xiong Zhuangzhuang said enthusiastically.
"En."
Bei Xinghan nodded faintly, but he did not sheathe the Frost Sword in his hand. Instead, he held it.
As the three traveled together, Xiong Zhuangzhuang would occasionally strike up conversations with Bei Xinghan, while Yu Xiaoyu listened silently, never interrupting.
Bei Xinghan was not in high spirits, and he responded perfunctorily to Xiong Zhuangzhuang's questions.
An hour later, they encountered a demon at the early stage of the Out-of-Body realm.
"Fellow Daoist Bei, leave this demon to me."
Xiong Zhuangzhuang took the lead, rushing forward before Bei Xinghan, his powerful fist wind causing sharp tearing sounds in the air.
*Boom!*
An incredibly domineering punch directly blew open the demon's head, and a mixture of red and white splashed all over Xiong Zhuangzhuang.
Xiong Zhuangzhuang, with his back to Bei Xinghan, stuck out his tongue and licked away the bloodstains on his face, a look of relish on his face.
When he turned around, he wore an expression of righteous indignation.
Just as he was about to say something, a blinding sword light greeted him.
"Ah!"
Yu Xiaoyu let out a panicked scream, looking at Bei Xinghan with disbelief.
Xiong Zhuangzhuang didn't even have time to say anything. He could only mobilize all his spiritual power to condense into his fist, gritting his teeth, and smashing it forward.
Bei Xinghan had defeated Xiong Zhuangzhuang in the grand competition, and after breaking through his inner demons, his comprehension of the Way of the Sword had further improved qualitatively.
He unleashed his full strength in this sword strike.
The sword light, like a destructive force, shattered Xiong Zhuangzhuang's punch and then landed heavily on him.
*Crash!*
The sound of shattering glass echoed.
Xiong Zhuangzhuang's body shattered into countless pieces like a broken mirror and fell from the air.
Bei Xinghan did not stop. He swung his sword again, aiming directly for Yu Xiaoyu's head.
*Crack!*
Yu Xiaoyu's head flew off, finally rolling to the ground and disintegrating into countless tiny fragments.
Her remaining half-body collapsed, also scattering on the ground.
Bei Xinghan looked at the pile of debris, his brow furrowed. There was no joy in exposing the conspiracy, but rather a chilling sense of lingering fear.
If not for the Frost Sword sensing the strangeness of these two things, he would never have been on guard.
What exactly were these things?
Where were the real Xiong Zhuangzhuang and Yu Xiaoyu?
Bei Xinghan felt that this secret realm was filled with strangeness, which made his desire to find the others even more urgent.
He raised his hand and threw the Frost Sword upwards, then leaped up and stood on the sword.
"Go!"
The Frost Sword turned into a streak of light, carrying Bei Xinghan as he sped through the secret realm.
At this moment, in the face of unknown danger, Bei Xinghan no longer held back.
But Bei Xinghan did not notice that after he left, the collapsed fragments somehow began to slowly reassemble, piece by piece, from head to toe, forming a human shape identical to him.