Somewhere amidst the desperate chaos of the fleeing crowd, the Yan twins, Xie Lang, Zeng Shiyang, Yun Qiu, and Wu Jian found themselves granted a fleeting window of survival. The Crimson Vein Tree, having turned its full wrath toward the cultivators who dared to challenge it—Jiang Wuyu and Lu Heng—no longer hunted them. But survival was not promised. They were still caught in the fringe of a battle that cracked the land and split the sky, and each breath they took could be their last.
Yan Bai sprinted forward, half-carrying his limping brother, weaving between shattered wagons and splintered wood. Behind them, Xie Lang chased, not with desperation, but with focus—using the path carved by the twins as a guide through the mayhem, careful to keep just far enough not to alert them. Zeng Shiyang, Yun Qiu, and Wu Jian kept their own frantic pace, showing no interest in helping—or even acknowledging—the others. They weren't allies. They were merely survivors thrown into the same hell.
None of them could understand why Xie Lang, with all his cautious nature and pride, had turned his attention away from the monstrous, rampaging Rank 2 beast behind them… only to obsess over two wanted fugitives. But the truth was simple: they didn't know about the Serpent's Master Domain inheritance.
"Brother, even if we escape this, Xie Lang will still be on our heels," Yan Hei said, breathing hard, his eyes darting over his shoulder. "And if more join in, we're going to have a massive problem… What do we do?"
Yan Bai didn't respond at first. His expression was unreadable, calm even as the earth roared beneath them. Then, quietly and without looking back, he muttered, "Don't worry. I got a plan."
Yan Hei nodded immediately, not asking further. If his brother said he had a plan, then he'd follow it to the end.
Behind them, the Crimson Vein Tree's massive roots hammered the earth, exploding the remains of the outer camp walls like paper beneath a storm. Each root, thick as a tree trunk and glowing with pulsing red Qi, left behind nothing but ruin. Despite the destruction, Yan Bai's path was deliberate—he wasn't simply running. He was guiding them toward a very specific section of the wall, one far off to the right, curving along the ruins of a collapsed tower. It was away from the obvious escape routes, and worst of all, it was dangerously close to the beast's projected path.
Xie Lang narrowed his eyes. Why there? The western path is clear, open, and safe... so why head straight into the danger zone? Suspicion filled his gut, but it only pushed him harder to pursue.
As the twins neared the crumbling wall, Yan Bai suddenly leapt upward, catching a broken support beam and vaulting himself halfway up. He turned, grabbed his brother's hand, and yanked Yan Hei up with him. They scaled the height with a synergy that spoke of a lifetime of survival. Seconds later, Xie Lang landed at the base of the wall and followed suit, his gaze locked onto them like a hawk hunting its prey.
From the side, Zeng Shiyang, Yun Qiu, and Wu Jian watched Xie Lang climb and heard his sharp command: "Flank from the side—cut them off!"
Their reply was instant and scathing.
"Are you brain-dead?!" Zeng Shiyang shouted. "There's a Rank 2 beast right behind you!"
Yun Qiu spat on the ground. "If the beast doesn't kill him, stupidity will."
Wu Jian didn't even bother speaking. He just turned and ran the other way, his face pale and drenched in sweat.
But Xie Lang didn't even turn his head. Their insults meant nothing. They didn't understand—couldn't understand. If they knew what the Yan twins had, if they even suspected it… they'd be chasing them too.
And he wouldn't let them get there first.
And just as Xie Lang was about to leap after them, he heard a faint pulse—a sharp, unnatural click that made his instincts scream. He looked down—and his blood ran cold.
A spherical device was lodged into the side of the wall beneath him, faintly glowing with compressed Qi.
"Blisterbomb!!"
He reacted instantly, launching himself backward with a desperate twist—but it was too late.
The bomb detonated with a violent roar, the force ripping through the air and blasting chunks of the wall apart. Xie Lang was flung into the distance like a broken doll, barely managing to shift his body mid-flight. The explosion hurled him sideways instead of forward, sparing him from being launched directly into the path of the demonic beast—a fate that would have meant certain death.
Farther away, Yan Bai grinned as he helped his brother over the rubble, watching their trap go off with perfect timing.
"Our one and only Blisterbomb... While it's a loss," he said with a smirk, "we might've injured him enough for the beast to reach him. If we're lucky, it'll finish him off. That way, the only one who knows about the Serpent's Master Domain dies right here."
Yan Hei, still panting, shot him a glare. "Well, at least you got out alive. I swear, I'm never listening to one of your shitty plans again—we almost died!"
Yan Bai chuckled, patting his brother's head. "Please. Like that tiny brain of yours could come up with anything even half as genius."
Yan Hei made a mocking face behind him, and Yan Bai responded by smacking the back of his head.
They kept running—one after the other—vanishing into the chaos, while behind them, fire and death raged on.
Back at the shattered ruins of the mine, chaos had taken form.
The demonic beast—an enormous tangle of roots and sinew, thick like warped trunks—raged beneath the blood-red sky. Its body pulsed like a massive heart of wood and hatred, and every roar it unleashed sent shockwaves through the collapsing ground.
Lu Heng charged headfirst, meeting the rampaging roots with a guttural roar of his own. One root came whipping through the air, thick as a tree and crackling with poisonous Qi—but Lu Heng caught it with one hand. Veins bulged across his arm, glowing faintly with inner power as he squeezed down. With a sharp crack, the root snapped, green-black sap bursting from its core.
His body was shifting.
Muscles rippled grotesquely under his skin as his Golden Carnage Physique surged to the surface. His height grew with every breath, bones creaking, eyes burning gold. A faint golden sheen covered his skin, and with each step, the earth cracked beneath his feet.
He was no longer just a man—he was a weapon of war.
"Carnage Rend!" he bellowed, slamming both fists into the ground.
Golden shockwaves exploded outward like blades, carving a deep trench through the root-infested terrain. The impact blew apart a web of tendrils trying to ensnare him, sending splinters of wood and ash flying in every direction.
Above, Jiang Wuyu darted across falling rubble, his cloak fluttering like torn shadows in the wind. Where Lu Heng was brute force incarnate, Jiang Wuyu was a blade in the storm—silent, precise, and impossible to catch.
The beast howled as Red strands of Qi lacerated its thick hide—Whispering Vein String, his deadly mid-ranged technique. The threads shimmered through the air, impossibly sharp, wrapping around a gnarled limb and slicing through it with a metallic screech.
"Don't slow down!" Jiang Wuyu snapped, landing on a fragment of stone midair. "It's regenerating faster than we can tear it apart!"
From deep within the beast's chest, dozens of thick roots burst outward, whipping at them like the arms of a maddened god. One barreled toward Lu Heng with devastating speed—yet he didn't move.
He let it hit him.
The strike landed, and dust swallowed his massive frame—until a massive hand emerged from within, grabbing the root that struck him and holding firm.
Lu Heng's voice rumbled like a landslide. "mindless beast."
He twisted—ripped the root free of its core—and hurled it like a massive javelin. It skewered two more writhing appendages before crashing into the beast's side.
Roaring in defiance, the demonic creature arched its malformed body back—and slammed all remaining roots into the ground.
The mine cracked open completely.
Columns of rock collapsed, the hill split in half, and a monstrous wave of Qi-laced debris exploded outward. Jiang Wuyu leapt back, spinning in the air—silver wires orbiting him defensively. "Thread Coil Barricade!"
The wires spun into a circular dome around him, shielding him from the impact. Even so, the sheer force sent him skidding across the ruined earth, blood spilling from his lip.
Lu Heng took it head-on, golden arms crossed before him as rock and earth battered his monstrous frame. He bled, but didn't fall.
With steam rising from his shoulders, he grinned—mad, savage.
"My turn."
He leapt—impossibly high for a man his size—and came crashing down toward the beast's exposed core. "Golden Spine Break!"
The impact shook the land.
The beast howled, roots convulsing and flailing in a wild frenzy. Jiang Wuyu, seizing the moment, launched forward—"rank 2 low tier technique: Piercing Spirals." manifesting as sharp spirals of Qi that pierced through the beast's wounded underbelly, one after another in a precise pattern.
It screamed again—a sound of primal agony.
Still, even injured and outclassed in raw intelligence, the demonic beast refused to die. It was rage and instinct given form, and its only desire was to destroy.
But now, standing against it were two monsters in human skin.
One born of precision and venom.
The other, carnage incarnate.
And neither planned to back down.