Kill and Harvest

Chen Yuan leaped, landing lightly atop a collapsed ruin, then turned to wait for the Lion Mastiff Leader.

Soon, the ground began to rumble. The massive Lion Mastiff Leader kicked up a trail of dust as it charged, its eyes locking onto Chen Yuan the moment it arrived.

Without a second thought, the Lion Mastiff Leader kept its momentum, crashing straight ahead. Its gargantuan frame acted like an indestructible tank, smashing through every obstacle in its path and carving a raw trail through the ruins of the collapsed high-rises.

However, Chen Yuan had anticipated this. With a tap of his foot, he leaped backward, nimbly dodging the charge and landing steadily on another crumbling high wall.

After smashing through the ruins, the Lion Mastiff Leader was forced to halt its maxed-out momentum. It pivoted its body and began charging toward Chen Yuan once more.

In this manner, Chen Yuan used agile leaps to constantly shift his position among the ruins, leading the Lion Mastiff Leader deeper into the debris. Before it realized, the beast was surrounded by countless boulders, concrete slabs, and steel rebar, as if trapped within a natural cage.

Chen Yuan stood firmly on the high wall, his gaze calm as he watched the Lion Mastiff Leader, whose movements were becoming increasingly sluggish.

Just as he had predicted, for a monster of such massive size, speed was its most glaring weakness.

Admittedly, a Lion Mastiff wasn't slow when running at full tilt; at its peak, it was only 30 meters per second slower than a human Martial Artist of the same rank. However, reaching that speed required a long, gradual acceleration.

If it came to instantaneous explosive speed, the gap between it and a human was even more pronounced.

Precisely for this reason, Chen Yuan had deliberately lured the Lion Mastiff Leader into this complex of ruins, using the intricate terrain to obstruct its ability to run.

At first, the Lion Mastiff Leader relied on the sheer force generated by its speed to rampage, even smashing through the ruins directly. But as its movements slowed and it could no longer build up the momentum for a charge, it could no longer replicate that destructive power.

Conversely, because its massive body was hindered by the ruins, the Lion Mastiff Leader was forced to navigate uneven piles of rubble, severely impacting its running speed and making it impossible to sprint.

Chen Yuan, however, could leverage his smaller size to leap back and forth across the ruins. Though his speed wasn't at its peak, he was still far faster than the obstructed Lion Mastiff Leader.

By now, the Lion Mastiff Leader had slowly calmed down, its body pacing uneasily through the ruins. It sensed something was wrong; in this environment, its body was restricted at every turn, while that detestable human remained incredibly agile.

This human is doing this on purpose. He wants to use these stones to restrict my body and stop me from running, but what is his goal? The Lion Mastiff Leader thought with its not-so-bright brain, finally reaching a conclusion that shocked it: He isn't trying to kill me, is he?!

At this thought, an expression of disbelief appeared in the Lion Mastiff Leader's eyes. In its view, aside from running fast, this human didn't possess much strength—he was merely equivalent to a High-level Beast Soldier. How could he dare to kill it?

One had to know, there was a two-rank difference, and the disparity in their strength was more than fourfold. The opponent's weapon could barely even penetrate its hide!

Under these circumstances, the Lion Mastiff Leader had never considered the possibility that this human could kill it in return.

Yet, judging by the current situation, that possibility didn't seem entirely non-existent. Although it still believed the human couldn't inflict substantial damage, a deep-seated unease grew within it, driving it to leave these dangerous ruins as quickly as possible.

Just as the Lion Mastiff Leader turned its body to leave, Chen Yuan, who had been observing everything, narrowed his eyes: "Trying to run? It's too late."

"You've chased me for so long; now it's my turn."

"Face the wind!"

Chen Yuan stomped hard, his figure darting out like lightning to close the distance to the Lion Mastiff Leader. Simultaneously, he thrust his long sword forward, unleashing the 2x Force multiplier he had kept hidden for so long!

That's right—during his previous battle with the beast horde, Chen Yuan had deliberately concealed his strength, refraining from using the 2x Force technique. His goal was to feign weakness and mask his true intent to hunt the Lion Mastiff Leader.

Now, the tactic had been executed perfectly; there was no longer a need for pretense.

Next, it was time for the hunt!

Whoosh—

The Streamer Battle Sword moved like a bolt of electricity, silently closing in on the Lion Mastiff Leader. Before it could even react, the blade, empowered by the 2x Force, pierced deep into its body.

Immediately following, Chen Yuan kicked off the Lion Mastiff Leader's body to retract his sword, his frame flying backward. After a few agile leaps, he landed steadily dozens of meters away.

"Awoo—!"

The Lion Mastiff Leader let out a heaven-shaking roar, filled with pain and fury. It never expected that this human would truly dare to strike, and even succeed in wounding it!

A bloody hole was clearly visible on its back, with fresh blood gushing out—the result of that very strike.

The Lion Mastiff Leader whipped its head around, its eyes blood-red, staring fixedly at the human in the distance, burning with rage.

It was thoroughly provoked and charged at Chen Yuan without regard for anything else.

However, Chen Yuan continued to execute his "dog-walking" tactic, dodging nimbly through the ruins and running the Lion Mastiff Leader in circles, occasionally darting in to land a strike. Before long, several more bloody holes appeared on the Lion Mastiff Leader's body.

The loss of blood caused the Lion Mastiff Leader's stamina to plummet, its movements becoming increasingly sluggish as it felt its body failing.

Am I going to die here? The thought flashed through its mind.

No, I cannot die! I must kill this human!

Blood blurred its vision, and the Lion Mastiff Leader let out a roar of grief and anger, using its final reserves of strength to charge at Chen Yuan.

Unfortunately, its movements were far from what they once were; in Chen Yuan's eyes, they were so slow they looked like slow motion.

"Time to end this." The thought flashed through Chen Yuan's mind. He leaped with all his might, launching himself into the air, stomping hard against the wall of a high-rise behind him to propel himself toward the Lion Mastiff Leader.

Gripping his long sword tightly, Chen Yuan put every ounce of his strength into a thrust, aiming straight for the Lion Mastiff Leader's skull.

Kill Points +42

Battle ended.

With its skull pierced, the Lion Mastiff Leader could no longer hold itself up. Its massive body collapsed slowly, kicking up a cloud of dust.

Chen Yuan pulled out his sword and approached the Lion Mastiff Leader. Looking at the massive carcass before him, he let out a slight sigh of relief: "Finally over."

If it hadn't ended soon, he would have been out of stamina.

After all, he had first fought a beast horde, then led the Lion Mastiff Leader across an entire city, and finally engaged it in a death match—each task had been incredibly taxing.

So, Chen Yuan didn't bother with anything else. After confirming the Lion Mastiff Leader was truly dead, he leaned against its body and entered a state of Deep Sleep to recover.

An hour later, Chen Yuan opened his eyes, his stamina fully restored.

He looked at the corpse of the Lion Mastiff Leader and took out his tools, carefully extracting the fangs from its mouth—these were the most valuable parts of its body.

Once the harvesting was complete, Chen Yuan stowed the fangs in his backpack and set off toward the lair of the Lion Mastiff, hoping to find some additional valuable spoils.

Half an hour later, Chen Yuan returned to the pasture. The remaining Lion Mastiffs had actually not left, seemingly convinced that with their leader intervening, that human would surely die.

It was a pity, however, that Chen Yuan was still alive, so it was the Lion Mastiffs' turn to die.

Without much effort, Chen Yuan slaughtered all the remaining Lion Mastiffs, completely wiping out this pack of Monsters.

He then strolled across the pasture's lawn, his gaze wandering as he carefully searched for any potential treasures.

Of course, he didn't actually hold much hope; he was simply following the principle that a thief should never leave empty-handed, unwilling to overlook any suspicious area.

He followed the direction from which the Lion Mastiff Leader had come, soon arriving at a patch of woods where the trees were dense and lush.

Just then, an attack like a whip suddenly struck from behind his head. Fortunately, Chen Yuan's senses were sharp, and he dodged the attack with a swift shift of his body.

He had assumed he was being ambushed by a human Martial Artist and turned his head in vigilance, only to discover that the one attacking him was not a human wielding a whip, but a thick willow tree.

This willow tree was over twenty meters tall with a trunk nearly a meter thick, and thousands of slender willow branches hung from its crown, swaying in the wind.

It was precisely because he had carelessly approached the range of the willow branches that he had triggered the lashing.

"A Willow Tree Demon? No, that's not right." Chen Yuan rubbed his eyes, a look of disbelief in his gaze. The image of the willow tree before him was extremely similar to a certain record in the original text.

"This is... a Spirit of Vegetation!"