Fortune favors the bold.
In a head-on clash, with the enemy rushing right in their faces, there was no room for cowardice. The outcome would be decided in a flash.
The last time he’d obliterated an elite leader, Su Chen had seen through it—the creature simply couldn’t withstand the full might of his explosive power.
So this time, when the enemy dared to leap right into his face, he was more than happy to oblige.
In an instant, under the pressure of a Crushing Will, a critical hit granted bonus Piercing and weak-point damage; the three-hit Sun Flame combo that followed blew the enemy’s head clean off.
"A glass cannon."
Su Chen chuckled. ’A Spellcaster’s body may be fragile, but no one can ignore their destructive power.’
"Insta-killed."
Pang Peng let out a huge sigh of relief. Instinct had urged him forward, but thinking back on it, his back was already drenched in cold sweat. The sheer oppressive force of that moment... it was probably the closest he had ever come to death.
"Impressive."
Yan Ziqian also realized that Su Chen’s strength was growing by the day. Yan Ziqian himself had entered the cave with a foolproof plan, but for Su Chen, the shotgun was merely an external tool—something extra, not his true trump card.
’No wonder he’s so confident about delving this deep into the caverns.’
When the tree falls, the monkeys scatter.
Once the elite leader fell, the cave dwellers’ aggressive assault crumbled. What had been a defensive battle instantly became a chase.
Illuminated by a brilliant cast of the Lighting Skill, the team began to map out the terrain as they gave chase.
They had fallen into a large cavern. The ceiling was covered with dense, sword-like stalactites, prompting Pang Peng to name it the ’Jade Bamboo Hall’. After leaping across a pit, they could clearly hear the sound of flowing water from below.
A beam of light confirmed it: an underground river.
They continued right, chasing their prey down a steep slope and into a passage Su Chen would later name the ’Wailing Corridor’.
It earned this name because the flat, level passage stretched rightward for at least several hundred meters before terminating in a dead end.
As they charged in, every cave dweller sleeping in the surrounding hollows was jolted awake.
But against this perfectly coordinated hunting party—and with Su Chen’s absolutely overwhelming power—resistance only prolonged their agony.
One precise Strong Thought Burst after another detonated, and the sound of wails and screams echoed through the corridor, lingering long after.
Along the way, they encountered another elite leader, this one even more evolved than the last.
It was encased in heavy, dense bone that resembled Plate Armor, with spikes embedded in its joints. Two ghastly white Bone Blades extended from its elbows. Before it could charge, Xiaoye and her Phantom Clones moved to intercept.
With a single Shadow Leap, a Soul-Splitting Claw empowered by the Corrosion Skill tore through a section of its Bone Armor, drawing a gush of black blood. The creature retaliated with a flurry of its blades, instantly slicing the Soul-devouring Dog clones into fading afterimages.
The clones, after all, were no match for its furious onslaught.
Just as it lunged for Xiaoye’s real body, the black mist around her solidified into dozens of Shadow chains, which wrapped around the creature’s limbs and torso, forcibly slowing its movements.
At that same instant.
A Crushing Will erupted.
Pinned by multiple restraints, the elite leader’s movements slowed to a crawl, as if it were trapped in a bog. Even the swings of its sharp Bone Blades became agonizingly slow.
The next instant, the muzzle of a shotgun was pressed against its brow.
BANG!
A triple-enchanted Single-Headed Bullet blasted point-blank into its skull. The three combined energies of Holy Radiance, Flame Burst, and Strong Will erupted at once, reducing it to a headless corpse.
After that, there was no longer any doubt. All that remained was the patient task of hunting down the stragglers.
If not for Yan Ruoruo’s Insight Rune, Xiaoye’s Dark Vision, and Su Chen’s Strong Thought Perception, finding the creatures hiding behind stalactites and curled up in crevices would have been far more difficult.
An hour and a half later, the dust settled in the Wailing Corridor. In total, they had cleared out the corpses of 22 cave dwellers.
But quite a few had slipped through the net.
In the left-hand area of the Jade Bamboo Hall, a dark underground river snaked out from a fissure in the rock. The remaining cave dwellers had fled in a panic along this current, which led to an even deeper part of the cavern system.
Su Chen hovered above the water’s surface, his gaze fixed on the pitch-black waterway. It was another pit, leading down into deeper territory.
Pursuing them through the water was too risky. Besides, time was short, and he had to gather the sacrificial materials as quickly as possible.
Soon.
The rest of the team had already marked at least fifteen Soul Sand Ore Crystal deposits and collected thirty-six Ashen Bud Flowers.
Before they’d left, Su Chen had already absorbed a Soul Sand Ore at 5:00 AM. The conversion process would last until around 5:00 PM, so there was no need for him to absorb another one on the spot.
"Come look at this."
Under the beam of a high-powered flashlight, Yan Ruoruo called Su Chen over to show him something she’d found in a pile of bones.
It was a rust-covered spear.
The spear’s shaft was covered in patina and the ravages of time, yet it still emanated a faint, chilling aura.
It was clearly authentic—a genuine antique.
This ancient weapon was clearly from a time before the cave dwellers devolved—back when they were still sentient and had not yet been cursed.
"I don’t know what it’s made of, but the material is much stronger than Soul Sand Metal. It’s incredibly sharp." Yan Ruoruo took a reddish-brown arrowhead out of the quiver slung over her shoulder. It was the head of the Killing Arrow she had used to pierce the cave dweller earlier.
Thanks to its Enchantment, the arrowhead was completely unscathed, though the wooden shaft had snapped.
If she was right, this arrowhead had been reforged from the very first dark-red spearhead they had found.

Comments

Loading...