A Desperate Battle!

The moment he lowered his spear, Lin Zhen felt a rare surge of excitement in his heart.

In his previous life, he had only completed the first level of Nine Heavy Spears River. The second level required a manual he did not have, and besides, he had been too timid in his previous life to even consider such an all-out fighting style.

In this life, the fear in his heart had vanished. Sure enough, he had grasped the initial intent of Rainstorm.

Putting away the Snake Fangs, Lin Zhen had already lost track of how many venomous snakes he had killed. Checking the time, he found that ten hours had already passed.

"Sure enough, when cultivating, one loses track of time. There are less than two hours left before we leave the Town."

"During this final stretch, I need to thoroughly explore this place and kill as many venomous snakes as possible to ensure our team can enter Yilan County safely."

Carrying the Black Dragon Spear, he deliberately startled the grass along the way, drawing out the venomous snakes hiding in the shadows. Whenever a snake appeared, Lin Zhen immediately killed it with overwhelming force. He barely even needed to use his Flying Knives.

Even so, fewer and fewer snakes appeared.

Ahead stood a two-story building, the only surviving structure amid these ruins.

As he approached the building, Lin Zhen caught a foul, fishy stench.

"This should be the Snake Den. I wonder how many snakes and insects are still inside. Once I clear this place out, it will be time to leave."

After a thousand years of weathering, the door had almost completely rotted away. Lin Zhen kicked the remaining plank flying.

"It stinks!"

A wave of nauseating stench rushed at him. Lin Zhen nearly vomited and almost turned around to leave.

"No. It may stink, but it looks like no one has ever come here. The military might not have searched every inch of land. What if there is a Meteorite here?"

Lin Zhen carefully entered the small building and looked around. Finding no obvious damage to either the ceiling or walls, he felt somewhat disappointed.

"Was this place never struck by a Meteorite? Then why would snakes and insects make their nest here?"

After searching around without finding even a trace of snakes or insects, Lin Zhen frowned in confusion. He moved aside some trash and prepared to check the basement.

"Hiss! Hiss!"

A gray venomous snake suddenly shot out from the basement entrance, its flattened head lunging viciously at Lin Zhen.

Whoosh!

With a flick of his wrist, Lin Zhen nailed the snake firmly to the wall with his spear. Then he pulled and twisted the weapon, killing it.

After cutting off its fangs, Lin Zhen understood.

"So the real nest of the snakes and insects is in the basement. That makes things easier."

Enduring the thick stench from the basement, Lin Zhen first set some weeds on fire, then lit two wooden planks and tossed them down below.

Thick smoke billowed up. As it covered the stench, it also threw the snakes and insects in the basement into chaos.

Venomous snakes rushed out of the basement one after another, their huge triangular heads terrifying to behold. Lin Zhen guarded the entrance, his spear flashing like lightning as he refused to give even a single step, killing every snake that emerged.

A sheet of spear shadows swept past. The venomous snakes hissed, rolled, and fell. Blood splattered across Lin Zhen's clothes, but he did not notice in the slightest.

This continued for ten minutes before the basement finally fell quiet.

Lin Zhen felt his arms trembling slightly. During that time, he had killed at least twenty or thirty huge venomous snakes.

"Have I cleared them all out? Why did the smoke disappear so quickly? I should go down and take a look."

With his spear in hand and his Flying Knives ready at any moment, Lin Zhen cautiously entered the basement.

The moment he stepped inside, Lin Zhen's eyes lit up.

No wonder the smoke had vanished so quickly. There was a slanted hole above the basement, nearly three meters in diameter. Inside the basement was an enormous deep pit.

Within the pit lay a huge venomous snake of indiscernible length, coiled within as it continuously flicked its tongue at Lin Zhen.

"A Meteorite Crater! There really is a Meteorite Crater here. For it to become the nest of snakes and insects, this must undoubtedly still be a Dark Energy Stone. Otherwise, this snake would never have grown so large."

"This venomous snake has been altered by Dark Energy and is now a C-Rank Mutated Beast. But the military was not even sure whether there were any C-Rank creatures here. It looks like no one has truly come here before."

Normally, let alone a Warrior Level fighter encountering a C-Rank Mutated Beast, even General Level fighters would not dare provoke one lightly. Several people had to join forces to kill one safely.

Lin Zhen had no one to join forces with now and could only face it alone. If it were any other C-Rank creature, he would definitely be no match for it. But a snake-type Mutated Beast? Lin Zhen was not afraid at all.

The giant snake remained coiled in the deep pit, constantly flicking its tongue at Lin Zhen and raising its head in an attacking posture, warning him not to approach.

Yet it never left the pit on its own. Clearly, it was reluctant to abandon whatever was inside.

Ignoring its warning, Lin Zhen lit another plank and threw it into the pit.

The giant snake let out a hiss and actually bit down on the plank, flinging it straight back out.

"Wow, you're practically becoming a spirit. I refuse to believe I can't deal with you."

Lin Zhen moved again. This time, he was going to start a real fire.

He gathered all the dry grass and wood he could find nearby, then ignited a blazing fire in the basement.

At last, the giant snake could no longer remain in the pit. It shot out violently and bit at Lin Zhen.

Lin Zhen had been waiting for this moment. With a movement of his Mental Power, three Flying Knives shot out at once, stabbing in a triangular formation toward the giant snake's eyes and the vital point seven inches below its head.

This giant snake was clearly much faster than ordinary snakes. With a flick of its head, it avoided the vital strikes. Lin Zhen's three Flying Knives only tore away several scales and some flesh.

Lin Zhen became Man and Spear as One, charging forward like a cannonball and delivering his fiercest strike directly at the giant snake's gaping bloody jaws.

The spear pierced into the giant snake's mouth. The tremendous impact threw its head backward. Lin Zhen exerted every ounce of strength in his body, gripping the spear with both hands and forcing it downward.

"Stay right here!"

The Long Spear brutally nailed the giant snake's head to the ground, its tip sinking half a meter into the earth!

An ordinary snake would have died by then, but this giant snake possessed extraordinarily tenacious vitality. Its long body slithered up from the pit and suddenly wrapped Lin Zhen within its coils!

Immense crushing force pressed in from all directions, and Lin Zhen's bones seemed to groan at that instant.

"This is bad! This beast has absorbed Dark Energy, and its vitality far surpasses that of its kind. I underestimated a C-Rank Mutated Beast."

Breathing became difficult. Lin Zhen could not move his limbs at all. The giant snake was over ten meters long and had wrapped him up like a rice dumpling. Though its head was nailed down, it still wanted to crush Lin Zhen to death before it died.

"No! I absolutely cannot die here. I have to kill it before I suffocate!"

"Though my hands and feet cannot move, I still have Mental Power!"

His Mental Power surged. The three Flying Knives that had fallen to the ground rose into the air once more, flashing with cold light as they stabbed again toward the giant snake's eyes and the vital point seven inches below its head!

Puff! Puff! Puff!

Unable to move, the giant snake could no longer evade. Its eyes were immediately blinded, and Lin Zhen's Flying Knife stabbed viciously into its vital point.

Yet the giant snake did not die immediately. Its body continued to contract and tighten.

"I can't breathe! Even the air in my chest has been squeezed out. My ribs are about to break!"

"My Mental Power, again!"

The Flying Knives rose once more and stabbed toward the giant snake. This time, they entered through the top of its head.

Two Flying Knives went first, stabbing fiercely into the giant snake's skull. This time, Lin Zhen did not even intend to retrieve them. After the knives sank into flesh, he desperately drove his Mental Power, cutting sideways!

A hole was forcibly sliced open in the giant snake's skull, and Lin Zhen's third Flying Knife drove straight in!

Puff!

Blood and brain matter splattered everywhere. The giant snake's crushing strength instantly weakened somewhat.

Wave after wave of dizziness hit Lin Zhen. He knew this was the sign that he was about to pass out. His Mental Power could not withstand such intense expenditure.

But he had no choice. He summoned his Mental Power again, pulled the Flying Knife out, then drove it back in!

He did not know how many times he repeated this. Later, he relied entirely on sheer willpower to hold on, refusing to let himself lose consciousness.

The giant snake's crushing strength finally grew weaker and weaker.

"Final strike!"

Lin Zhen bit down hard on his tongue. The pain cleared his mind slightly. As he launched the final strike, a roar filled his mind, and his body went limp at the same time.

The giant snake died. It no longer had even the slightest crushing strength, while Lin Zhen lay sprawled atop its corpse, his limbs weak and unable to move at all.

In stark contrast to his body, more than half of the aura of Mental Power in his mind had undergone Silver-level Transformation after being tempered at the boundary between life and death!

PS: Happy New Year, everyone! May you be happy every day. Before asking for votes, Hei Tu never thought we could reach eleventh place, but we actually did it. You all are amazing! But only reaching the top ten truly counts as making it onto the signed new releases ranking. Could everyone give Hei Tu a little New Year gift? At the very least, let's narrow the gap with those ahead of us! Keep it up, everyone! Send those recommendations our way!!!

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