Chapter 33: The Female Beast.

How cold-blooded was Yao Bingling?

By reputation, he was a dagger—deadly and silent. Every time he struck, blood was guaranteed to follow. The number of Anti-Entropy combatants who had fallen to his hands easily exceeded a hundred. Back then, he and his squad were known as Destiny’s coldest, sharpest blades.

But if you were to ask him that same question now, even he wouldn’t know how to answer it.

Ever since that day, he had tried to cast away the last softness in his heart—to become a perfect, efficient weapon. And he thought he had succeeded. But now he realized… he hadn’t.

“If you want to run, I won’t stop you.”

The girl before him was indeed Anti-Entropy, and likely had the blood of Destiny’s soldiers on her hands… yet he couldn’t bring himself to do what he once did without hesitation—to close the distance silently and slit her throat mid-battle.

Was it her age?
For the first time in years, a faint spark of pity stirred within him.

But what Yao Bingling considered “pity,” in the eyes of Ansel Mar, was nothing less than humiliation—the assumption that she had already lost, that he was sparing her out of condescension.

That calm tone, that certainty in his voice—every word poured gasoline on the pride and fury of the short-tempered girl.

“Very good. You’re dead.”

Ansel spoke flatly, but her fury burned white-hot.

To hell with “capture alive”!
This bastard would die—now, here, today!

She pulled two transparent vials from her belt and crushed them between her fingers. Liquid mercury—tainted with Honkai—spilled forth.

But before it even touched the ground, the silver liquid writhed in midair, obeying her will like serpents, slithering upward and into her lower back.

Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack!

A rapid series of glass-like fractures echoed from her spine. In only two seconds, a massive, amorphous silver mass surged from her back—over three meters tall. The amount of mercury in those vials should have been tiny, but this wasn’t ordinary mercury.

Reshaped by Honkai energy, its density had changed beyond recognition.

“Now die!”

Her voice was calm again—cold and final, like a judge reading a verdict.

Countless mercury spikes burst forth from the sphere—dozens, perhaps hundreds—shooting toward Yao Bingling at bullet speed!

If any of them struck, not even a bank vault door would survive.

“Wrong decision.”

In the split second that followed, sparks erupted midair—hundreds of mercury spikes colliding with each other, scattering like clashing spears.

“What—?!”

Ansel’s eyes widened. He had somehow predicted all of their trajectories, dodging every strike in less than a heartbeat. The explosions of sparks were caused by the spikes hitting each other after missing their target.

Moonlight dimmed overhead. Ansel flicked her wrist, and more mercury lances shot skyward.

Above, Yao Bingling leapt again, his feet seemingly propelled by explosives, flinging him backward midair.

“Don’t think you can run!”

She screamed, and the silver lances shifted course, homing in on him. Their speed rivaled bullets—but every time they closed in, he slipped past, predicting their path, using trees as springboards, twisting through the air with impossible precision.

“Tch! You some kind of rat?!”

“It’s called tactics.”

His calm voice carried no exhaustion, no emotion—only ice.

“Tactics my ass!”

Frustration boiled over. Every miss stoked her rage. Fine! If one spear couldn’t hit, she’d use two—four—all of them!

“Let’s see where you run now!”

The massive mercury sphere behind her erupted completely. Thousands of liquid lances shot out in every direction, turning the entire forest into a silver storm.

This was no longer an arrow rain—it was a flood of death.

The barrage sealed off every escape. He was surrounded, trapped within a cage of glimmering, lethal light.

“Die!”

Ansel clenched her fist. The storm surged inward.

He took the bait.

Yao Bingling’s eyes met hers midair, his gaze cold and sharp as a blade.

“…Scatter.”

For reasons she couldn’t explain, that look made Ansel’s instincts scream. Against her own will, her body tried to dispel the attack.

“Too late.”

The world ignited.

The heat struck like a furnace door flung open—searing, suffocating. The air itself turned into fire. Flames exploded outward, molten and blinding.

He had lured her—buying time, filling the area with his domain.

When it erupted, it was like a bomb had gone off. Transparent waves of heat consumed the mercury in an instant, vaporizing it into a rain of burning silver.

The sealed space magnified the explosion, amplifying it over and over. The inferno blasted outward with crushing force.

Ansel’s body was hurled back, her clothes aflame, her hair charred black. Yet somehow, she stayed conscious—rolling across the dirt, smothering the fire.

Her legs, bare beneath her shorts, were scorched raw; the skin burned away, exposing red flesh beneath.

And that was with Yao Bingling holding back.
Had he not controlled the blast’s angle, she’d have been reduced to ash.

When he landed, the ground hissed under his feet—earth burning, smoke rising.

“…What are you?”

Her arrogance was gone—replaced by wariness, even fear.

She had read his file. A skilled commander, a dangerous combatant, yes—but not this. She could destroy seven Titans in a row; she had thought herself overqualified to deal with one aging soldier.

But now she knew how wrong she’d been. So had her mother. So had everyone in Anti-Entropy’s intelligence department.

This man wasn’t human. He was a Honkai beast in human form.

“Beowulf.”

Yao Bingling’s voice was calm, almost nostalgic.

“Goodbye, kid.”

He raised his arm, fire bursting from his hand. A flaming greatsword formed, and without aiming, he hurled it.

The motion was casual—but the power behind it was monstrous. The sword flew like a rocket, aimed straight at Ansel’s head.

Had it hit, she would’ve died before she even felt the pain.

But—something stopped it.

A deafening roar split the night. Metal screamed against metal as a massive object intercepted the flaming blade, shattering it in midair.

A chainsaw.
A gigantic, roaring chainsaw as large as a door.

“That—!”

Yao Bingling crossed both arms, summoning two more flaming greatswords. They slashed in an X-shape, colliding with the spinning weapon.

The impact was like a grenade detonation. The ground exploded, scattering rocks in every direction.

His swords dissolved into cinders, fireflies drifting into the night. The chainsaw spun through the air, then fell—and a pale hand caught it effortlessly.

She stepped forward into the moonlight.

Tall. Strikingly beautiful.
Even as an enemy, one couldn’t deny it—this woman could have walked any runway in the world.

Her long military coat, slit high at the side, revealed flawless legs like sculpted ivory. The boots added height, bringing her eye to eye with Yao Bingling.

Had she modeled for an art class, the instructor would’ve needed to plug every student’s nose to stop the bleeding.

“Dawn Judgment? …Power output’s higher than before. Modified it, did you?”

Yao Bingling’s tone was faintly amused, his expression caught between exasperation and admiration.

“Of course. It’s been years. Weapons need upgrades—just like people, don’t they?”

“Technically,” he said with a dry smile, “mine isn’t an upgrade. More like… a full release.”

“Heh. Then that fits. The real Beowulf—leader of those monsters.”

The woman stepped forward, shielding the stunned Ansel behind her—like a lioness protecting her cub.

“So you know what I am now. And you still came here? You upgrade yourself too, Cocolia?”

“Protecting one’s child is a mother’s duty. There isn’t a mother alive who’d watch her daughter nearly die and do nothing! You’re going to pay for this, Yao Bingling!”

Cocolia roared—no longer a commander, but a furious mother beast.

The greatsword Dawn Judgment hummed and spun, its edge alive with storming Honkai particles, tearing the air apart as she swung it down toward him.