"Roar—!!!"
The Corpse Vine Demon Tree cried out in pain, unleashing a roar unlike any before, filled with agony and rage!
It had gone completely berserk!
In an instant, it abandoned its attacks on everyone else. Hundreds of vines converged into a black steel torrent and lashed toward Leader Liu, who had collapsed from exhaustion, with the force of a thunderbolt!
The chance!
Now!
At the very moment everyone's attention—including the demon's—was fixed on Leader Liu, Lu Chen moved!
He didn't charge forward. Instead, as if the sight before him had scared him witless, he turned and "fled in panic" toward the darkness beyond the camp.
"Thud!"
His legs gave way, and he fell to the ground in a thoroughly "wretched" heap, landing perfectly in a blind spot between the vines' attacks.
With that move, he went from the star of the battlefield to an insignificant, forgotten backdrop in an instant.
The Corpse Vine Demon Tree didn't spare a thought for the trembling "ant."
Its whip of vengeance had already come crashing down!
But just as the hundreds of vines were about to pound Leader Liu into a pulp, a shadow darker, faster, and more elusive than the vines moved!
Lu Chen moved!
His seemingly fallen posture was actually a coiled, ready-to-strike opening stance from Shadow Step!
The instant he hit the ground, every sinew and muscle in his body tensed in a strange rhythm, then erupted with explosive force!
He didn't get up. Like a fallen leaf skimming along the ground, he slid soundlessly yet at blinding speed, following the shadows cast by the whipping vines toward the massive wound cut into the Corpse Vine Demon Tree!
It all happened in the blink of an eye!
Whether it was the dying Leader Liu or the two despairing strongmen, all they saw was a blur—a ghostly shadow that flashed past and vanished.
When they looked again, Lu Chen was already beneath the Corpse Vine Demon Tree's massive wound!
Without pausing, he thrust out his right hand. The short, razor-sharp Boning Knife he never went anywhere without was already clasped in his palm!
He poured every last bit of Turtle Breath Inner Qi he'd painstakingly accumulated—the Qi that had nearly reached minor mastery—into the tip of the blade!
At the same time, the invisible Demon Suppressing Qi of his great-mastery Demon Suppressing Saber Technique, designed specifically to counter demons, gathered to its utmost limit!
He didn't choose to attack the unreachable mouthparts above.
He chose a more direct, more reckless method—one that suited his identity as an "undertaker" far better!
With the Boning Knife in his hand infused with all his strength, he drove it savagely and precisely into the enormous wound, still gushing foul-smelling juice, using an angle so expertly surgical it could not have been more exact!
This strike! Twenty-two years of cultivation!
Lu Chen roared silently in his heart.
Break...!
The blade sank into flesh, unstoppable as it sliced through bamboo!
Demon Suppressing Qi exploded, rampaging through the demon's meridians and wrecking them!
Turtle Breath Inner Qi became the sharpest of drills, boring upward without anything able to stop it!
The Corpse Vine Demon Tree's enormous body abruptly went rigid!
Even the hundreds of vines about to crash down on Leader Liu's head froze strangely in midair.
All its vitality, all its strength, rushed frantically toward the tiny Boning Knife lodged in its trunk!
Time seemed to stand still.
The next second—
"BOOM—!!!"
A muffled, thunderous blast erupted from within the Corpse Vine Demon Tree!
Its grotesque mouthparts at the top, along with the Demon Core throbbing inside, were blown apart from within by the force, reduced to green fragments that filled the air!
The massive trunk collapsed with a crash, like rotten wood stripped of every support, kicking up a skyful of dust.
The frenzied vines instantly lost all vitality. They flopped to the ground like mud, rapidly withering and rotting away.
Silence.
Silence so complete you could hear a pin drop.
The two surviving strongmen and Leader Liu, who had just escaped death, stared at the surreal scene in utter disbelief, their minds gone blank.
The dust slowly settled.
Lu Chen knelt beside the Corpse Vine Demon Tree's enormous remains, drenched in blood and gasping for breath.
His face was as pale as paper, his breathing weak to the extreme, as if he might collapse at any moment.
The Boning Knife was still embedded in the demon's wound, with only the hilt sticking out.
He slowly lifted his head and looked at the dumbstruck Leader Liu. He forced a smile so grim it was worse than crying, filled with lingering fear and sheer relief.
"L-Leader Liu... I... I think... I accidentally... stabbed it to death..."
At the same time, the system's notification rang in his mind like heavenly music.
[Host has slain the Ranked Demon, Corpse Vine Demon Tree. Gained one hundred and fifty years of Demon Devil Lifespan!] [Detected that host has slain a high-rank demon head-on. System upgrading...]
Leader Liu and the two surviving strongmen stood frozen in place like three clay statues stripped of their souls.
They stared fixedly at the colossal creature that had crashed to the ground, and at the blood-soaked figure beside its remains, swaying on the verge of collapse.
Dead?
A terrifying demonic plant, at least Entry Grade, had just... died?
And it had died at the hands of the good-for-nothing they'd all looked down on?
And in such a ridiculous, sheer-luck sort of way?
The two surviving strongmen's minds went blank. They recalled the split-second scene from before, remembering only that Lu Chen had fled in panic, then fallen over.
Then, from a corner no one was watching, he'd stabbed toward the demon's wound.
And then... that was it.
What the hell... was that kind of heaven-defying luck?!
Leader Liu was shaken for a different reason.
In his murky yet sharp eyes, there was not only the relief of having survived. There was also a deep, unfathomable suspicion.
As a seasoned Imperial Guard who had seen countless battles, he knew better than anyone how precise—and how deadly—the timing had been.
That hadn't been luck!
It looked more like a perfectly planned assassination!
But when his gaze fell once more on the young man's face—pale as paper from exhaustion and lingering fear—he forcibly crushed the thought.
Impossible.
How could a mortician who'd only recently joined the bureau, a rookie who couldn't even withstand Killing Intent and needed talismans to protect himself, possess such cunning and skill?
Perhaps... it really was just luck.