Heaven-Defying Luck

"ROOOAR--!!!"

The Corpse Vine Demon Tree, wracked with pain, let out an unprecedented roar, filled with agony and blazing fury!

It had gone completely mad!

In an instant, it abandoned its attacks on the others. Hundreds of vines converged into a black, steel-like torrent, and with the force of a thunderbolt, they lashed viciously toward the exhausted, fallen Leader Liu!

An opening!

Right now!

In that split second when everyone's attention—including the demon's—was fixed on Leader Liu, Lu Chen moved!

He didn't charge forward. Instead, as if terrified by the sight before him, he turned and "fled in panic" toward the darkness at the camp's edge.

"Thud!"

His legs gave way, and he fell to the ground in an extremely "clumsy" manner, landing precisely in a blind spot of the vine attacks.

This single motion instantly demoted him from the center of the battlefield to an insignificant, forgotten backdrop.

The Corpse Vine Demon Tree paid no heed to this trembling "ant."

Its vengeful whip had already come crashing down!

Yet, in that hair-trigger moment when the hundreds of vines were about to smash Leader Liu into a pulp—

A shadow, faster and more eerie than the vines, moved!

Lu Chen moved!

His seemingly accidental fall was, in truth, a charging starting stance of Shadow Step!

The instant he hit the ground, every sinew, bone, and muscle in his body tensed in a strange rhythm, then exploded with force!

He didn't rise to his feet. Instead, like a leaf gliding low across the earth, silent yet blindingly fast, he followed the shadows cast by the whipping vines and slid like lightning toward the massive, gaping wound on the Corpse Vine Demon Tree!

All of this happened in the blink of an eye!

Whether it was the dying Leader Liu or the two despairing Warriors, they only saw a flicker—a ghostly afterimage.

When they refocused, Lu Chen was already beneath the demon tree's enormous wound!

Without a moment's pause, his right hand shot out. The short, razor-sharp Boning Knife, never far from his side, was already gripped in his palm!

He poured every bit of the hard-earned Turtle Breath Inner Qi—now on the verge of minor mastery—from his dantian into the blade's tip without reservation!

At the same time, the intangible Demon Suppressing Qi from his mastered Demon Suppressing Saber Technique, a force specifically designed to counter demons, condensed to its peak!

He didn't choose to strike upward at the unreachable maw.

He opted for a more direct, more savage method—one that suited his identity as a "Corpse Handler"!

With the precision of a master anatomist, he drove the Boning Knife, now brimming with all his power, fiercely and accurately into the massive wound that was spewing foul, reeking sap!

"This one slash! Twenty-two years of skill!"

Lu Chen roared silently in his heart.

"Break... now!"

The blade sank into the flesh, splitting it like a bamboo!

Demon Suppressing Qi erupted violently, rampaging through the demon's meridians and wreaking havoc!

Turtle Breath Inner Qi transformed into the sharpest drill, boring upward unstoppably!

The Corpse Vine Demon Tree's massive body stiffened!

The hundreds of vines poised above Leader Liu's head hung eerily still in midair.

All its life force, all its power, in that moment, frantically converged toward the small Boning Knife embedded in its trunk!

Time seemed to freeze.

The next second.

"BOOM--!!!"

A thunderously dull explosion detonated from within the Corpse Vine Demon Tree!

Its hideous maw at the top, along with the pulsating Demon Core, was blasted from the inside out into a shower of green fragments raining through the air!

The colossal trunk, like rotted wood stripped of all support, crashed to the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust.

The wildly thrashing vines lost all vitality in an instant, collapsing like mud, rapidly withering and rotting.

Silence.

A silence so profound you could hear a pin drop.

The two surviving Warriors and the narrowly escaped Leader Liu stared, dumbfounded, at this surreal scene, their minds completely blank.

The dust slowly settled.

Lu Chen, drenched in blood, knelt on one knee beside the Corpse Vine Demon Tree's massive remains, gasping for air in ragged breaths.

His face was as pale as paper, his aura utterly depleted, as if he might collapse at any moment.

The Boning Knife was still lodged in the demon's wound, only the hilt visible.

He slowly raised his head to look at the dumbstruck Leader Liu, forcing a smile onto his face that was uglier than crying—a grin brimming with lingering fear and sheer luck.

"L-Leader Liu... I... I think... I accidentally... stabbed it to death..."

At the same time, the system's prompt rang out like heavenly music in his mind.

Code
[Host has slain a Ranked Demon Vine Demon Tree, obtaining one hundred and fifty years of Demon Devil Lifespan!]
[Detecting host's direct kill of a high-tier demon, system is upgrading...]

Leader Liu and the two remaining Warriors stood frozen like three clay statues whose souls had been drained.

They stared fixedly at the massive, toppled creature and the blood-soaked, swaying figure beside its remains.

Dead?

A terrifying demonic plant, at least a Ranked Demon, was... dead?

Killed by a waste in their eyes?

And in such an absurd, such a fluky way?

The two surviving Warriors' minds went blank. They recalled that lightning-fast moment: Lu Chen fleeing in terror, then tripping.

Finally, in a corner no one had noticed, he thrust the knife into the demon's wound.

And then... nothing more.

What the hell... kind of heaven-defying luck was this?!

Leader Liu's shock, however, was different.

In his murky yet sharp eyes, beyond the relief of surviving a disaster, there was a deep, unfathomable suspicion.

As a battle-hardened old Imperial Guard, he knew better than anyone how precise and lethal that moment's timing had been!

That wasn't luck!

It looked more like a long-planned, perfect assassination!

But when his gaze fell again on that young face, pale as paper from exhaustion and fear, he forcibly crushed the thought.

Impossible.

A newly-recruited Corpse Handler, a rookie who couldn't even withstand Killing Intent and needed talismans for protection—how could he possess such deep cunning and skill?

Maybe... it really was just luck.