After arriving in Chuilong Town, Gao Zheng and He Qishun split up, each drawing the monsters in town toward them from a different direction to give the survivors a chance to escape.
They decided to clear the escape route first, then meet up at the survivors' gathering point.
What they hadn't expected was that one of the few Intermediate Beast General-level monsters left in town happened to be hiding near the route Gao Zheng was taking.
As the group sprinted forward, one of the women suddenly caught sight of something. She stared in that direction, a trace of sorrow showing on her face.
She looked toward a residential complex. Above its entrance, a sign with the character "Ding" still hung crookedly in the air, while most of the other characters were gone.
The woman took a deep breath, her expression once again set with determination.
With the group pressing ahead at speed, she didn't dare linger too long on the past. She refocused and continued sprinting with the others.
When they reached the area near the survivors' gathering point, Gao Zheng and the others discovered it was a hospital. The Exploration Team had already cleared most of the monsters inside. Below the hospital's inpatient building, several Exploration Team members were patrolling and killing monsters that broke into the hospital.
Gao Zheng immediately led his team forward to help the Exploration Team members kill the monsters.
Once He Qishun's team arrived as well, the two teams officially began their operation.
At first, everything went smoothly. But once they had drawn in a certain number of monsters, their roars were bound to attract even more from farther away.
As they approached the residential complex with only the character "Ding" left on its sign, a leopard's roar rang out from within.
The sound made the woman's face change. Her steps began to falter.
That woman was Su Mo—the woman Xi Qing had rescued from the convenience store at the front of this complex.
The roar came from the very same Black Leopard as before.
When the Black Leopard appeared before Gao Zheng and the others, Su Mo was transported back to that night.
After her father blocked the Black Leopard, Su Mo had panicked and kept grabbing handfuls of dried goods, hurling them at it. She had completely forgotten that she still had a knife in her hand.
Within minutes, the Black Leopard sank its teeth into her father's neck. As he struggled, blood spread across the ground.
Terrified, Su Mo started running for the door, but her legs were trembling so badly that she stumbled and fell after only a few steps.
Once the Black Leopard was sure her father was dead, it once again approached Su Mo with elegant, powerful strides.
Only then did Su Mo finally remember the knife on her. She immediately drew it and pointed it at the Black Leopard.
The Black Leopard's eyes narrowed, and it began circling her once again.
Just then, the sound of explosions crackling came from the other end of the store. The Black Leopard stopped and turned its head toward the noise. Then, with a quick turn, it charged in that direction.
As soon as the Black Leopard disappeared from view, someone suddenly yanked Su Mo to her feet and rushed with her toward the exit.
Those memories still haunted Su Mo. Fear welled up in her once more.
Xi Qing was also in the group. When she saw the Black Leopard, she felt a strange sense of familiarity. It didn't take long for her to remember. She immediately looked at Su Mo and saw the fear on her face. Even her running gait had turned awkward. Xi Qing hurriedly called out, "Su Mo, you're much stronger now. There's no reason you should lose to this beast again. You should be thinking about killing it and avenging your father."
At the words "your father," Su Mo finally snapped out of her fear. She stared blankly at Xi Qing and asked, "What did you just say?"
Seeing this, Xi Qing repeated herself. "You're strong now. You shouldn't be afraid. You need to become stronger, live well, and then take revenge on it."
Su Mo finally found her stride again. She glanced at the Black Leopard and said, "You're right. I shouldn't be afraid of it."
But the Black Leopard had already been so strong back then. How could it possibly be weak now?
Two fangs now jutted down from the Black Leopard's upper jaw, like a saber-toothed tiger's. Two small fleshy bumps had grown on its back, like a pair of tiny wings.
An imposing aura radiated from the Black Leopard—the aura of a Beast General. It was still unclear whether it was a Junior Beast General or an Intermediate Beast General.
The Black Leopard leaped forward, covering the dozen or so meters between it and the team in a single bound.
Gao Zheng swung his spear down at it. The Black Leopard shifted aside, dodging the blow, then pounced forward along the length of the spear.
Gao Zheng wasn't about to let the Black Leopard knock him down. He slammed the spear hard into the ground and used its force to vault upward, successfully leaping over the Black Leopard.
The other team members stopped as well. They formed a perimeter nearly ten meters from the battlefield between Gao Zheng and the Black Leopard, holding back monsters approaching from other directions to keep Gao Zheng from being attacked from both sides.
After Gao Zheng attacked it, the Black Leopard focused all its attention on him. When he dodged its pounce, it dug its front paws into the ground, swung its hindquarters around, and instantly turned to face him. Then it raised a forepaw and struck at Gao Zheng, who had just regained his footing.
Gao Zheng gripped the spear in both hands and used its shaft to block the incoming paw. He spun around it, then abruptly stopped when the spearhead reached the Black Leopard's belly and struck upward.
Caught off guard, the Black Leopard was knocked several meters away. Pain made it growl softly as it paced around Gao Zheng, searching for an opening.
Gao Zheng wasn't about to let it keep studying him. He twisted the spear in his hands, and it instantly split into two short spears.
Gao Zheng closed in, thrusting the spear in his right hand toward the Black Leopard's face. The Black Leopard clamped its jaws around the shaft and swung its hindquarters forward, trying to strike Gao Zheng with its tail.
Gao Zheng had anticipated this with the short spear in his left hand. He swung it at the incoming tail.
Stung by the blow, the Black Leopard released the spear and struck at Gao Zheng again with its paws—this time with both front paws.
Gao Zheng had no choice but to retreat a step. He raised both spears and thrust them toward the paws.
For some reason, the Black Leopard didn't dodge this time. It slammed both paws directly into the spear points, used them as a springboard to leap into the air, turned around midair, and opened its jaws to bite Gao Zheng.
Gao Zheng couldn't pull his spears back in time to defend himself, so he could only shift his body as far to the side as possible.
The Black Leopard sank its teeth into Gao Zheng's shoulder, making him wince in pain.
Fortunately, he was wearing protective gear. Though the bite pierced partway through, the teeth couldn't sink in far or get a firm hold. They only dug in slightly before the Black Leopard released him under the blow of the spear in Gao Zheng's other hand.
The Black Leopard had also taken a hit. The spearhead had torn a gash in its body, and together with the two wounds on its front paws, it was beginning to move with difficulty.
But after seeing its injuries, Gao Zheng realized they were facing an Intermediate Beast General-level monster, albeit one that had only just reached that level.
Gao Zheng immediately shouted, "Yue Qi, Xi Qing, join me in killing it! Everyone else, be ready to cover us."
With two peak Advanced Warriors joining the fight, the battle quickly turned one-sided. After a while, the Black Leopard finally fell beneath Gao Zheng's spear.