The entire Poison Beast World had turned dark as pitch, the sky no longer resembling a sky, the earth no longer resembling earth. Starting from the first crack that appeared in the great lake, fissures had begun spreading across the entire land — through mountains, peaks, and lakes alike, cracks branching out in every direction.

Even the poison beasts couldn’t outrun the speed of the splitting earth. Fortunately, the Four Great Poison Beasts arrived in time — otherwise Ziqing, her child, and the Silly Bear would surely have already fallen into the fissures!

Ziqing sat on the back of Zizhu, the Great Beast, clutching her child, while Henggong Fish had swollen to an enormous size, carrying the Silly Bear, the Roaring Rabbit, and the Nine-Tailed White Fox on its back, hovering in midair, guarding Ziqing and the others from front and back.

Watching mountains and rivers collapse, countless beasts dying in agony — at a moment like this, not even Ziqing and her child, nor the Four Great Poison Beasts or the Silly Bear, wanted the seal to have been opened.

The price was simply too great!

This was practically destroying the entire Poison Beast World!

They and many of the flying poison beasts could only take refuge in the sky, with nowhere left to flee — wherever they went, the ground kept collapsing, and floodwaters kept surging.

They had been holding position near a cliff, watching the streak of shimmering light still relentlessly slamming again and again into that wall that seemed like it would never crumble!

But the sky would not remain their refuge forever.

“Whoo… whoo…”

Suddenly, a mournful bird’s cry rang out. Everyone turned to look and saw a great bird, even larger than the Silly Bear, struck down by a block of ice falling from the heavens, plunging like a shooting star into the bottomless crevice below!

And it was from that very patch of sky that the massive chunks of ice began to fall — not small pieces, but chunks as large as boulders, more than large enough to crush a bear to death!

Not only were they enormous, but there were countless numbers of them, threatening to turn into a full-blown storm of ice.

At the sight, everyone was struck dumb with terror, unable for a moment to think what to do.

There was no hiding on the ground, no hiding in the sky — in this entire world, where was there left to hide, where left to flee?

The little one was the first to burst into loud wails, truly frightened out of his wits!

That very cry jolted Ziqing back to alertness — because the storm of ice was already right in front of them!

“Run!”

Ziqing cried out in alarm, and Zizhu the Great Beast instantly whipped its head around and let out a mighty roar toward the rear. In an instant, the flying beasts cleared a path, swarming densely toward the one direction where the ice storm hadn’t yet begun to fall.

Ziqing had originally hoped to take refuge in the sky while the tremors below settled — but who could have expected the sky itself would start to collapse as well?

Even though she knew this world was uncannily strange, that no matter which way they fled there seemed to be no end to it, that fleeing blindly would only end up circling back to the same place, that blind flight would only drain their strength, and no one knew how long this disaster would last — and in the middle of a disaster, stamina mattered more than almost anything!

But right now, she had no room to consider any of that.

All she could do was run!

Aside from the Four Great Special-Grade Poison Beasts, there were still quite a number of flying poison beasts in this world.

They all followed Ziqing’s lead, obeying Zizhu the Great Beast’s commands without hesitation. Except for a handful, most of them carried non-flying poison beasts on their backs as they fled together.

Beasts they might be, but even in the direst of straits, they still understood the value of helping one another.

Fleeing promptly was clearly the wisest choice — but they couldn’t keep running for long!

Very soon, they discovered that not far ahead, ice was already falling there too, closing in on them from every direction — there was truly nowhere left to run!

“Awoo…”

“Whoo…”

Before long, quite a number of the flying beasts within the group met with disaster — the ice chunks were so massive, and even though the beasts themselves were sizable, dodging wasn’t nearly so easy, especially with such limited room to maneuver.

The storm of ice pressed inward from all sides, closing the circle tighter and tighter. Ziqing, the one who mattered most of all, listened to the wails of anguish on every side and watched poison beast after poison beast fall to their deaths, her heart aching as though sliced by a blade.

How desperately she wished there was something she could do — but she herself was like a clay Buddha crossing a river, barely able to save herself. How could a mere human contend with heaven?

Even so, she made up her mind at once, clutching the little one tightly and saying in a low voice, “Zizhu, protect yourselves! And if you can, help me — protect the Silly Bear!”

With that, she pulled the little one close and leapt up off Zizhu’s back into midair.

And just at that moment, the ice storm reached them as well!

Compared to the poison beasts, compared to the massive chunks of ice, Ziqing’s small frame was actually easier to maneuver. She weaved between the great ice blocks, using them as leverage, gathering every ounce of strength in her body to kick away a chunk about to crush the Silly Bear!

Seeing this, Zizhu the Great Beast, the Nine-Tailed White Fox, and the Roaring Rabbit immediately shrank themselves into ball shapes to help Ziqing, while Henggong Fish kept its massive form, carrying the Silly Bear firmly on its back.

Ziqing kicked, one blow after another; Zizhu, the Nine-Tailed White Fox, and the Roaring Rabbit rammed, one head-butt after another — every single chunk of ice was knocked away in time through their combined effort!

The Silly Bear lay flat on Henggong Fish’s back, unusually quiet, its round black eyes fixed unblinkingly on Ziqing’s small figure. It didn’t whimper as it always used to — but looking closely, one could see tears silently trickling from the corners of its eyes.

Amid the darkened sky, the crumbling earth, and the swarm of falling birds all around them, that one small figure held on, unwavering, through it all!

Finally, amid the ice and floodwater filling the heavens, only they remained.

But then, at that very moment, the ice storm did not stop — it only grew faster and faster!

Everyone had been fleeing for so long, each of them utterly exhausted, and after so much continuous kicking and ramming against the ice, they truly had little strength left.

At this rate, it was practically a death sentence!

And yet, whether it was Ziqing, Zizhu the Great Beast, the Nine-Tailed White Fox, or the Roaring Rabbit, none of them paid any deliberate mind to the accelerating speed of the falling ice — they simply, wordlessly, gave everything they had, nimbly dodging the great blocks while pushing themselves to move even faster.

The little one, who had been curled up in Ziqing’s arms this whole time, suddenly climbed out and crawled onto her shoulder, pulling out the Wuzheng from her back. His small hands, quite seriously, helped brace and hold it steady for her.

“Mommy, Wuzheng… use the Wuzheng!”

Seeing this, warmth flooded Ziqing’s heart despite everything, and she said softly, “Have you got a good grip?”

“Got it!” the little one answered very earnestly.

Ziqing stopped kicking and instead used the Wuzheng to launch a powerful gust of wind-blade, its force alone enough to shatter an entire block of ice.

Seeing this, Zizhu and the others were overjoyed.

But who would have expected that in the very next moment, another massive chunk of ice would come falling — the sky of the Poison Beast World hung so low that the moment a large block of ice descended, one careless moment and it would crush them!

Ziqing didn’t dare let her guard down, immediately firing off another wind-blade, while Zizhu and the others leapt upward to intercept the newly falling ice.

Divided like this, though it was grueling work, they managed just barely to keep the Silly Bear safe!

But the good fortune didn’t last. As Ziqing and the others grew weaker and weaker, the ice grew larger and larger, piling one block atop another, until even Ziqing’s wind-blades could no longer keep up.

What to do, what to do!

The little one’s small arms ached until they felt ready to snap, his delicate features scrunched together in strain, yet he still held onto the Wuzheng with everything he had.

But there was simply too much ice, coming too fast — four or five massive blocks piled together all at once, and in an instant Ziqing, Zizhu, and the others found themselves swept beneath the ice, struggling with everything they had just to hold it back.