"Tier-3 peak? No… this is a Tier-4 beast! Qiu, you've doomed us this time!!"
Lin Feng pumped his legs, fleeing for his life. He didn't dare look back.
The crushing aura pressing against his spine turned his blood to ice.
"Chir..."
A tiny head poked out from his collar. Little Qiu's eyes shimmered with guilt and sorrow. It whimpered softly.
Too harsh.
Lin Feng couldn't glance down, but the sound softened his frustration.
A Tier-4 beast—comparable to a Nascent Soul cultivator!
Of course Qiu couldn't sense it lurking underground.
That final warning shriek had saved him. Without it, he'd be inside the serpent's belly right now.
"HISSSS!!"
"SWOOSH—!"
"BOOM!!!"
Wind shrieked behind him.
Before Lin Feng could react, an explosion hammered his back.
CRACKLE!
The golden Luminous Shield flared violently around him, fracturing like glass.
He risked a glance back.
The Ice-Blue Serpent filled the tunnel ten meters away, its massive body shimmering like frozen death.
Between them, glittering shards of ice rained down—the remnants of its thwarted strike.
"Definitely Tier-4!!"
Lin Feng's heart hammered against his ribs. His shield stabilized, but he felt its energy gutter.
A quick check: the bracelet on his wrist glowed faintly.
Damage: 65%.
One attack.
One attack had nearly shattered a Low-Grade Spiritual Artifact.
Thirty percent damage in a single blow!
First a Tier-3 ape, now this nightmare ten times worse beneath the same mountain?
Regret tasted bitter on his tongue.
The serpent paused, silver eyes narrowing. Its strike should have crushed the intruder.
Rage ignited in its gaze.
"SKREEE!!"
Its body coiled, then launched forward like a runaway train.
Dozens of meters… and still more of its monstrous length surged from the hole it had erupted from.
Its sheer size was terrifying.
"Tch!" Sweat stung Lin Feng's eyes. Too close!
Desperation clawed at him. He whirled mid-stride, arm snapping forward.
"SHIIING!"
The Crimson Soul Sword screamed through the air—
"CLANG!!!"
Sparks exploded where blade met scaled skull.
The sword recoiled violently, numbing Lin Feng's arm.
Only a shallow scratch marred the serpent's head. Its scales remained unbroken.
"HSSSKKK!!!"
The beast's roar shook the tunnel. Rage, not pain. The scratch was an insult.
Jaws gaped wide.
A bolt of glacial light shot forth—
Like a ballista unleashed!
"CRUNCH!!!"
Lin Feng barely caught his rebounding sword before the ice-beam hammered his shield.
FLASH!
The golden dome flickered, dimming to a ghostly haze.
Damage: 92%.
One more hit—
Lin Feng's face went bone-white. He spun and ran.
"There!!"
Relief surged. Ahead, rubble littered the floor. Above it—the two-meter shaft he'd dug down!
His escape route!
But climbing straight up now? Suicide.
He needed a distraction. A big one.
Gritting his teeth, Lin Feng snatched two talismans from his ring. True essence surged from his core, flooding the fragile papers.
They glowed—one gold, one crimson.
"DIE ALREADY!!"
He roared, more for courage than effect, and hurled them backward.
First: Gold-Sever Talisman (Peak Tier-3).
Second: Fire-Rain Talisman (Peak Tier-3).
Twin attacks of Golden Core late-stage power!
"SHWING!"
"WHOOSH-WHOOSH-WHOOSH!"
A golden sword-beam, wide as a door, lanced down the tunnel.
Behind it, a wall of fire—dozens of burning orbs, each the size of a human head—erupted.
The cramped space amplified the chaos.
"CRASH! KABOOM-KABOOM-KABOOM!!!"
Stone screamed. The tunnel convulsed.
Half the fireballs slammed into walls, ceiling, floor—
CRUMBLE—
Collapse.
Lin Feng's gamble.
Rocks roared down, burying the serpent under tons of debris. Dust choked the air.
GO!
Lin Feng didn't wait. He sprinted for the shaft, his true essence scraping bottom.
Behind him, the collapse chased him like a ravenous beast. Stone crashed where his feet had just been.
"RAAAAH!!!"
Lin Feng bellowed, dredging up every last spark of power. He leaped into the vertical shaft.
Foot slammed against rock wall—THUD!
Propelled upward.
Again—THUD!—off the opposite side.
THUD! THUD! THUD!
A frantic, bouncing ascent.
Twenty meters… forty meters… sixty…
He glanced down.
The shaft's bottom was gone. Sealed under thirty meters of fresh rubble.
"Huh… Hah…"
A shaky breath escaped. Not safe. Not yet.
He kept climbing.
One hundred meters higher.
"RUMBLE!!!"
The entire mountain shuddered.
Lin Feng's foot slipped. Gravel skittered.
No!
He clawed at the wall, fingernails tearing.
Saved.
Then—
"HMMMMMMMM…"
A low, resonant hum vibrated up the shaft. Cold. Ancient.
Lin Feng looked down.
Ice-blue light bloomed far below. Pure, chilling energy.
It shot upward—faster than thought. Faster than escape.
A pillar of annihilation.
"Doomed…"
The word echoed in his mind, hollow and final.
No time to dodge. No space to flee.
The light engulfed him.
Cold.
Silence.
Oblivion.