The clearing ahead was a complete mess.
More than a dozen burly warriors were surrounding a fearsome monster bear.
The beast's shoulders and back rose high, its muscles bulging like blocks of granite. Its glossy black fur bristled like steel needles, and a thick, savage aura radiated from its entire body.
Most astonishing was its broad back. From the nape of its neck to the base of its tail, it was covered in a layer of blue-black, shell-like armor, thick and heavy, glinting with a metallic sheen. Blades and swords could leave nothing more than faint white marks on it.
"Roar—!"
The black bear reared up on its hind legs and swept its right paw sideways. A pine tree as thick as a bowl was grazed by the edge of its paw, its bark exploding in an instant as wood chips flew everywhere. The trunk was struck so hard it tilted, on the verge of falling. Its paw wind howled, sending leaves swirling into the air within a ten-yard radius.
The men were no ordinary fighters, either. Every one of them was powerfully built, their blood and qi surging. They were all warriors, and any one of them could hold their own against Song Zhong.
Their gazes were fierce, and their every word and action carried the ferocity of bandits.
One man laughed as he attacked. "Boss, if you take down this Demonic Beast and offer it to the chieftain, your position as second-in-command will be secure!"
"Hahaha! Once the chieftain breaks through, do we still have to hole up in these mountains? Sooner or later, we'll take our brothers to the villages and forts nearby and live like kings!"
"Put your backs into it, brothers! Kill the beast, and we'll celebrate properly when we get back!" The scar-faced man also roared with laughter, his attacks growing fiercer.
His name was Zhao Tianhu, a chieftain of the Black Wind Stronghold on Dawang Mountain. He had led his men into the mountains to hunt when they unexpectedly discovered this Demonic Beast.
After pursuing it, they had cornered it here.
Demonic Beasts were difficult to hunt in the first place, and the Iron-Backed Black Bear was renowned for its defenses. It charged blindly through the men, and looked ready to break free once more.
"Keep it pinned down!"
Zhao Tianhu bellowed. His bare upper body was corded with muscle. His skin had turned crimson, and the veins beneath it wriggled like earthworms.
—This was what it looked like when a warrior pushed his blood and qi to the limit. A faint red glow flowed along the edge of the Nine-Ring Broadsword in his hand.
Six bandits split into three pairs, each gripping a noose soaked in tung oil and reinforced with ox sinew.
They worked in perfect coordination. Two men flung their noose around the bear's legs, while the other four immediately hauled them tight, bracing their feet against the ground and putting their bulging muscles into it.
The Black Bear stumbled as the ropes tripped it, then spun around in fury.
But the moment it turned, the other two pairs of nooses flew around it. The six men roared as one, channeling their blood and qi into their arms. Veins bulged as they managed to drag the thousand-pound beast to a halt.
"Now!"
Zhao Tianhu seized his chance and pushed off the ground. The dirt burst open in a shallow crater beneath his feet. He shot forward like an arrow loosed from its string, gripping his sword with both hands. The red glow of blood and qi along its blade flared three shades brighter, and the blade hummed as it cut through the air.
"Schk!"
His sword slashed into an old wound over the Black Bear's shoulder blade. The earlier strike had already opened a gash there, scorching the black fur and exposing torn flesh. The blade sank nearly a foot into its body, only to become firmly lodged in the Iron-Backed armor.
The Black Bear roared in agony and brought its left paw down on Zhao Tianhu's head with a fierce gust of wind!
Zhao Tianhu didn't release his sword. Instead, he clenched his left fist, a thin layer of blood and qi wrapped around it, and met the paw head-on!
"Thud!"
Fist clashed with paw, and shockwaves burst outward.
The ground beneath Zhao Tianhu cracked inch by inch. Both legs sank half a foot into the earth, and a trickle of blood ran from his mouth and nose, yet he stood firm against that terrifying blow. The muscles in his right arm shuddered violently, and the Nine-Ring Broadsword groaned as though it could bear no more.
"Now!"
Three bandits at the edge of the clearing had already readied heavy armor-piercing arrows. Their arrowheads were Triangular Armor-Piercing Awls, and their shafts were as thick as thumbs. They drew their bows to full moon, the limbs groaning as they poured all their blood and qi into their arms.
"Loose!"
The bowstrings snapped, and three streaks of dark light ripped through the air.
"Thwip! Thwip! Thwip!"
The three heavy arrows struck true, piercing the Black Bear's right eye socket, left ear, and the depths of the wound in its shoulder.
"Graaah—!"
The Black Bear let out a heaven-shaking scream. Blood poured from its right eye, and it flew into a frenzy. Its strength surged to a terrifying degree as it tucked both paws against its chest and spun like a top!
"Bang! Bang!"
Two bandits hauling the ropes were struck by the edge of its paw. Their chests caved in as they flew backward, dead before they hit the ground.
Another man was dragged off his feet by the spinning bear and smashed against a tree trunk. His spine snapped.
As the Black Bear turned, Zhao Tianhu gritted his teeth and wrenched out his sword. The blade scraped against bone with a teeth-grating rasp, spilling a great spray of scalding bear blood.
The Black Bear was drenched in blood, but its movements grew wilder by the moment. Ignoring the ropes, it dropped to all fours and charged like a runaway war chariot toward the densest cluster of men!
"Scatter!"
One of the bandits didn't dodge in time and took the full force of the charge.
"Crack! Crack!"
Bones snapped like firecrackers. The bandit was sent flying ten yards, his body no longer recognizable when he hit the ground. Blood poured from his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth, and he died on the spot.
Qin Meng lay hidden in the grass thirty paces away. Once he realized they were bandits, he pushed Environmental Integration to its limits, held his breath, and didn't dare move. His entire body seemed to blend into the surrounding grass.
Watching the battle up close left him shaken to the core.
So this was what a battle between warriors and Demonic Beasts looked like?
That Black Bear's strength—one swipe must have carried tens of thousands of pounds of force.
The scar-faced chieftain could channel his blood and qi into his blade and cut through the bear's tough hide with ease. He had probably reached at least the Blood Changing Realm to withstand the Black Bear head-on.
The bandits' coordination was clearly a battle formation honed through life-or-death struggles.
Just then, one prompt after another appeared before his eyes:
[Life Source +1.5%] [Life Source +2.1%...]
Was the potent life essence escaping from the dead bandits?
Qin Meng felt his blood and qi stir faintly within him, and he understood at once.
Using the vegetation for cover, he crept forward a few more steps and hid behind a broken tree stump. The rate of absorption clearly increased.
[Life Source +2.8%, +3.3%...]
On the battlefield, the Black Bear was already at the end of its strength.
Its right eye was blind, the wound in its shoulder exposed to the bone, and more than a dozen arrows stuck out of its body. Blood had soaked a broad patch of earth beneath it. With each attack, its strength ebbed further.
Three bandits were dead, three were badly wounded, and only the scar-faced chieftain and six slightly injured subordinates remained fit to fight.
"Damn it..." Zhao Tianhu wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, his eyes growing even more vicious.
He took a small porcelain vial from his belt, tipped out a crimson pill, and swallowed it.
The moment the pill went down, Zhao Tianhu's skin flushed red as a hot iron, and wisps of white vapor rose from his head. His blood and qi surged violently, and the red glow on the Nine-Ring Broadsword blazed like solid flames!
"Die!"
He planted both feet against the ground, blasting open a crater as wide as a washbasin. He shot forward like a cannonball, moving so fast he left a blur behind him. The broadsword trailed a streak of red as he hacked at the Black Bear's neck!
He poured all his blood and qi, and all the pill's potency, into that strike.
"Schk—!"
The blade cut deep, and the sound of flesh tearing rang out. Nearly half of the Black Bear's neck was severed, held together by only a few sinews. But in that instant, the dying beast unleashed its final counterattack.
Ignoring the wound in its neck, the Black Bear summoned the last of its strength to rear up on its hind legs and slam its left paw into Zhao Tianhu's chest in a desperate bid to take him down with it!
Zhao Tianhu had no time to pull back his sword.
"Thud!"
The muffled impact sounded like a war drum.
Zhao Tianhu flew backward, crashing through two trees as thick as bowls before landing on the ground. Blood gushed from his mouth, and his face turned white as paper.
The Black Bear swayed, then crashed to the ground, making the earth tremble. Blood gushed from its neck like a spring. After a few convulsions, it finally stopped moving.
Zhao Tianhu struggled to his feet and wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth. Though his face was a little pale, he hadn't been badly hurt, and his eyes brimmed with joy.
They'd lost more than half their men, but at least they'd taken down the Demonic Beast.
However, his smile had barely begun to spread when it froze. He whipped around, stared toward the place where Qin Meng was hiding, and barked, "Who's there?"
Qin Meng's heart lurched. "Did I get too close and give myself away?"
"Hmph. Hiding your head and showing your tail, hoping to snatch a prize? You're asking to die!"
Before Qin Meng could think further, Zhao Tianhu narrowed his eyes. He and the lightly wounded survivors fanned out, closing in on Qin Meng's hiding place from different directions.
In just a few breaths, they were nearly upon him, every one of them glaring murderously.
Qin Meng's muscles tensed in an instant, and his right hand clamped around his sword hilt. He gauged the distance, ready to burst out, cut one man down first, then use the terrain to escape.
But at that very moment—
Another unexpected turn arose. More than twenty paces behind Qin Meng and to one side, a clamor broke out from behind a tree, accompanied by angry curses.
"Damn it. What rotten luck."
"Come on, hurry!"
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