From bone collectors to the supreme ruler of humanity

Chapter 129 Run!

Over the next two days, Lin Yan led the group to slowly advance inward along the inner perimeter.

They avoided the difficult-to-deal-with third-rank demonic beasts and also didn't encounter any more troublesome, clustered demonic beasts like the Iron-Scaled Jackal. Instead, they encountered demonic beasts around the mid-stage of the second rank.

Shi Gan set a trap, Sun Laoqi fired arrows from afar, Wu Meng and Yang Tie faced off head-on, and Lin Yan provided support and finished off the enemy. Their teamwork became increasingly smooth.

In just two days, they hunted a total of thirty-one monsters.

There were thirteen Crimson Armored Beasts, fourteen Iron-Backed Wolves, and four more unnamed creatures that looked like lizards with a row of bone spurs on their backs and thick, rough skin. Old Sun said their hides could be made into leather armor that would fetch a good price.

The spoils of war were piled up into a small mountain.

Xue Li's left arm injury has almost healed.

After applying the wound medicine and using his own internal energy to heal himself, only a shallow scar remained on his left arm.

However, Lin Yan noticed that his grip on the knife was still a bit weak, and his strength was far less than before.

"I'll be fully recovered after resting for two more days." Xue Li himself didn't seem to care much about this, saying that he had suffered many injuries before and that this level of injury was nothing to worry about.

Lin Yan didn't say much, but told Shi Gan to bring Xue Li with him next time he set a trap, so that he would not have to face the enemy head-on.

On the morning of the fifth day, just as dawn was breaking, Lin Yan woke up.

The fog in the forest was thinner than the previous two days, and visibility was already about fifty paces away.

The six men ate some dry rations and continued walking.

After walking for about half an hour, Lin Yan stopped.

Out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of something: about thirty paces to his left, under the roots of an old tree, a plant growing entirely dark red.

The grass was only about the height of a palm, with thin, straight stems and a bright red fruit at the top.

The fruit shimmered faintly in the mist, and Lin Yan noticed it from a distance.

As you approach, the feedback from the [Herbal Gathering] feature automatically appears: Red Essence Fruit, a plant that takes thirty years to mature and a hundred years to bear fruit, has extremely potent medicinal properties and is one of the main ingredients for refining Breakthrough Pills.

If this fruit were picked and sold outside, just one of them could fetch three thousand taels of silver.

However, powerful demonic beasts often lurk around these kinds of spiritual herbs. Just as he was about to use his [Aura Observation] to carefully sense whether there were any demonic beasts guarding the area, he saw a hand reach out from beside him.

Yang Tie had somehow reached the old tree, bent down, grabbed the blade of grass, and pulled it out by the roots.

"Yang Tie!"

Before Lin Yan could finish speaking, everyone felt an aura suddenly explode five hundred paces in front of them.

That aura was far stronger than any of the demonic beasts they had encountered before, and by a significant margin.

Peak of the third rank.

Lin Yan's expression changed drastically. He turned around and shouted at the crowd, "Run! Run back the way you came!"

Before he could finish speaking, a muffled sound came from the dense forest ahead.

The trees in the woods began to shake violently, and something was slamming out of them.

When the first tree was broken, Lin Yan saw the true form of the demonic beast.

Its body was the size of an elephant, covered in bluish-gray scales, and its limbs were as thick as stone pillars. In the center of its forehead was a fist-sized fleshy growth, within which a dark red light was faintly flowing.

It swept straight through the dense forest, uprooting the large trees in its path, and sending splinters of wood and fallen leaves flying in a long trail behind it.

Xue Li stood closest to the monster.

He was the first to react, drawing his short sword from his waist and taking two steps back.

But in the blink of an eye, the monster had already rushed in front of him.

It raised its right forepaw, which was bigger than Xue Li's head, and slammed it down with a gust of foul wind.

Xue Li gritted his teeth, raised the short knife and held it above his head. True energy flowed into the blade, and a thin layer of light shone through it.

The claws slapped against the blade.

A crisp sound.

The short knife broke in half, and the blade flew off and embedded itself in the trunk of a nearby tree.

Xue Li was sent flying backwards, knife hilt and all, his back breaking two locust trees as thick as bowls. He rolled more than ten steps on the ground before coming to a stop against a rock.

The person simply stopped moving.

His chest was sunken with a deep palm print, and a large amount of blood, mixed with pieces of internal organs, gushed from his mouth.

Sun Laoqi was closest to Xue Li and witnessed this scene firsthand. His lips trembled, and he almost dropped the bow in his hand.

"Don't stand there! Run, or you'll die here too!" Lin Yan drew his Zhenyue Blade, its blade covered in a layer of qi, and slashed at the demon beast.

Wu Meng also reacted, and swung his heavy axe to chop at the monster's hind leg from the side.

The axe blade struck the scales, sending sparks flying, leaving only a white mark on the scales.

The monster turned its head, the fleshy growth on its forehead flashed, and it swung its head to crash into Wu Meng.

Wu Meng felt a moment of dizziness. He didn't have time to retract his axe, so he could only hold it horizontally in front of his chest. He was knocked away and slid seven or eight steps along the ground, losing his heavy axe in his hand.

Taking advantage of the moment when the monster charged at Wu Meng, Lin Yan rushed to its left and slashed at its neck with his Zhenyue Blade.

The blade made a screeching sound as it scraped against the scales, but it only managed to cut half an inch into the scales. No matter how much Lin Yan activated his internal energy, he couldn't cut any further.

The monster roared and turned to swat at you with its claw.

Lin Yan withdrew his sword and retreated, his claws grazing Lin Yan's chest, the resulting wind pressure tearing a hole in Lin Yan's clothes.

He took five or six steps back to steady himself and looked down at his chest.

The clothes were torn, and a red mark appeared on the skin underneath, but fortunately there was no bleeding.

"No, this thing is almost at the fourth rank threshold." Wu Meng got up from the ground, his right arm shaking violently, the tiger's mouth was cracked and bleeding. "We can't beat it, let's run."

In just over ten breaths, Xue Li was killed, Wu Meng was injured, and Lin Yan barely managed to cut through a layer of scales with a single, all-out strike.

Yang Tie made the third move, but he retreated faster than anyone else.

Just as the monster turned its head and knocked Wu Meng away, Yang Tie had already put away his long staff.

Before Wu Meng could even get up from the ground, Yang Tie had already turned and dashed off in the southwest direction.

After running a few steps, he took out the Crimson Essence Fruit from his pocket and threw it at Lin Yan without turning his head.

The dark red grass somersaulted a few times in the air and landed at Lin Yan's feet.

The monster shifted its gaze from Wu Meng to the blade of grass, roaring angrily.

Shi Gan, supporting Sun Laoqi, his face ashen, asked, "Sir, what should we do?"

Lin Yan bent down, picked up the Crimson Essence Fruit, and stuffed it into his pocket, his gaze sweeping across the room.

Xue Li is dead, Wu Meng's right arm is injured, Sun Laoqi and Shi Gan, both with second-grade cultivation, cannot withstand the attack of this monster, and Yang Tie has already disappeared.

This war is simply impossible to fight.

"Split up!" Lin Yan said quickly. "There's a mountain stream to the southwest. Just keep walking west from here and you'll see it. Meet at the stream. Whoever gets there first waits. If no one comes after an hour, you can go on your own. Don't linger in Cangwu Mountain."

Sun Laoqi and Shi Gan said "Take care" to Lin Yan and then ran away.

Wu Meng picked up the heavy axe, glanced at Xue Li's corpse, gritted his teeth, and followed.