Final moment?

The bat flew downward from the highest point of the room ceiling, unreachable by any source of lights presented in the room.

"WHAT IS THAT." Ren Ying exclaimed in panic as he jumped away from the stone platform into the nearest floor as he picked up his weapon hurriedly.

When his feet connected with the ground, he tiled his head up and made eye contact with the bat while feeling a warmly thick blood flowing out of his ears, down to his side.

The bat size was comparable to his; its pointy ears were twitching upward while it grinned widely, exposing its sharpy fangs excitedly at the sight of its prey.

Ren Ying glared at it angrily because he could tell that this unknown beast saw him only as a mere toy and soon to be its food after it got bored of playing with him.

But soon, he forced his emotion to calm down, as his opponent this time looked difficult to deal with, incomparable to the previous bats he had fought.

Judging by its appearance, Ren Ying could tell that it belonged to the same type of beast, but fell under the two-star beast category.

'A two-star Thunder Bat?' He recalled that just like humans, beasts could also improve their strengths, but through the evolution of their bloodlines.

The sight of the two-star Thunder Bat swooping down faster at him as if it couldn't wait any longer to play with its toy pulled him out of his thought.

It gave out a loud squeak that contained the Qi of lightning, turning the normal squeak into a thunder roar that people could only hear on a heavy rainstorm day.

This time, instead of taking the sound attack head-on with his ears, Ren Ying applied some of his lightning Qi right above his eardrums to protect it from its lethal squeak.

And as expected, his defensive moves worked effectively against the sound attack, this improved his confidence in dealing with this two-star beast.

'It seems like my chance of defeating this beast is not zero.' Ren Ying comforted himself as he knew there was no way out of here except for defeating this two-star Thunder Bat.

When the two-star Thunder Bat saw its sound attack get blocked off easily, its eye narrowed, giving off a fierce and intimidating look.

It increased its speed yet again, finally surpassing what Ren Ying could follow.

"Sigh... I guess my journey will end here." He whispered quietly to himself in a calm tone as the figure of the two-star Thunder Bat faded from his vision.

Perhaps dying once had turned him a little indifferent toward death; after all, what was the difference between his first death and probably his second death?

None.

'But do I want to die in this type of world where everything is possible? Of course not!' Ren Ying shook his head as the dimmed determination in his eyes got brighter.

'If I can't follow it with my eyes, then I shall use my ear.' Ren Ying took back the lightning Qi that he applied to his ears after making up his mind to fight till the end.

When Ren Ying fully closed his eyes and shifted his entire focus onto his hearing, every sound in the room seemed to flow into his ears as if his ears were absorbing all the sounds, collecting every piece of information in it.

The sounds of his sweat hitting the floor once in a while, the blood from his ears dripping down and sticking on it, the sound of thunder that came along with the fall of lightning from above—he could distinguish every sound.

When the sound of his breathing became slower and longer, Ren Ying finally heard a thunder roar pop up next to his head.

He got down while aiming his sword toward it as the sound shook his eardrum violently yet again, increasing the amount of blood flowing down.

CLINK.

His attack connected with the two-star Thunder Bat perfectly, yet it didn't cut deep into it as the two-star Thunder Bat had a surprisingly hard sturdiness.

It disappeared from its spot instantly, emitting another thunder roar yet again as it got startled by the unexpectedly successful attack from Ren Ying; it didn't expect him to be able to counterattack at all due to the difference in realm.

Knowing that the sound indicated the relocation of the two-star Thunder Bat, he waited patiently without even sparing a little bit of his attention to wipe away his ears blood.

He ignored every thunder roar dropped randomly from above, nowhere near him.

He knew that the two-star Thunder Bat would definitely underestimate him; it would only attack him by appearing next to him as it was more enjoyable for it; besides, it needed to get close to him for its sound attack to be effective anyways.

Again, the two-star Thunder Bat appeared next to him, emitting out an ear-splitting sound while swinging its lightning claws toward Ren Ying's face.

Hearing the sound of swift, sharp claws coming to his face, he raised up his sword and pressed against it.

When his sword met with the two-star Thunder Bat, a sound of metallic clang echoed out as it produced a small fire spark along with the blue-lightning particle as both sides had their weapon coated with lightning Qi.

'Besides its annoying sound attack, its also capable of coating its claws in lightning Qi?' Ren Ying's face grew colder as he realized how difficult this fight would be while his sword was relentlessly being pushed back.

He pushed the lightning claws back with all his might as he blinked away from his spot.

Even then, the two-star Thunder Bat didn't give him any breathing time; it appeared next to him and continued to pressure him with its speed and strength advantage.

Ren Ying kept using his lightning trace to avoid confronting it as to preserve his energies while waiting for the two-star Thunder Bat to make a mistake.

...

...

...

Unfortunately, this went on for a long time without much change to it, except Ren Ying sustaining more injuries to his exhausted body.

Ren Ying frowned along with his body shaking nonstop slightly. He realized that his combat experience wasn't enough to overcome this life-and-death fight against this beast.

The surrounding sounds were getting quieter and blended in together, making it harder for him to notice the arrival of the two-star Thunder Bat as he felt more intense pains inside his ears.

'DAMN... am I losing my hearing sense?' Ren Ying thought unwillingly.

'Are you telling me that my loss of hearing sense was all for nothing?' He refused to accept the fact that his sacrifice was meaningless.

'Heh, so what about it? does it even matter when I'm about to die?' Ren Ying slowly came to face his reality as he let out a low laugh.

He opened his eyes powerlessly with his remaining energies as he gazed around, trying to find the figure of the two-star Thunder Bat.

Seeing that the two-star Thunder Bat hadn't revealed itself yet, he breathed weakly as he glanced down at his miserable body state, which was now worse than when he just took over this body.

Ren Ying had almost exhausted his entire lightning Qi, meaning that he could no longer escape with the help of his movement technique.

He remained still in one spot as he shouted out in rage toward his surroundings, "When will this stupid game of yours end? HUH? Is it that fun to you?"

After hearing its pitiful prey wishing for its end, the two-star Thunder Bat finally appeared far away, facing him.

It squeaked happily with a hint of mocking toward Ren Ying.

Ren Ying glared at it with his eyes full of killing intents, but soon it returned back to a calm state as his shaky voice lowly surfaced.

"Winners take everything, while losers lose everything, right?" He said this directed at himself.

Ren Ying knew that in this type of world, you could only blame yourself for everything that happened in your life.

Being weak? Your fault.

Dying an unjust death because you're too weak? Your fault.

If he wanted to be mad at someone, then it had to be himself.

He sighed softly as his death was approaching, yet Ren Ying wasn't scared; instead he wondered, 'Do heaven and hell really exist? But if it does, then where would people in this cultivation go after dying?'

After all, there were only a few kind-hearted people in this world, though they wouldn't go far into their journey, as kindness in this world was extremely expensive.

The two-star Thunder Bat in his vision finally moved after being bored of mocking him, waking Ren Ying up from his thought.

The two-star Thunder Bat darted straight toward him at a slow pace.

"You got quite a hobby." Ren Ying sneered at it without caring about his approaching death.

The time slowed down in his eyes as his past flashed before him.

...

"Here, I just bought an ice cream for you." A sweet and gentle voice emerged from his side.

Ren Ying's head turned uncontrollably to stare in the direction of where the familiar voice came from.

His head stopped moving on its own when a girl wearing a high school uniform entered his sight.

"Huh, why aren't you saying anything? Are you still mad at me?" She talked to him softly.

'Li Mei?' Ren Ying wanted to call her name out loudly, but his pitifully gentle voice was stuck inside his mind.

Instead, a younger voice came forth out of his mouth with a little sharpness. "Of course not! How many times do I have to tell you this?"