The voice of Shen Yunfei crackled over the communicator.
"Above E-Rank! It's huge. We've been cut off and are retreating to the third level..."
Then the signal died.
Han Qingshan clipped the communicator to his belt and turned to leave.
"Move faster. Head for the third-level rendezvous point."
The four of them stopped bothering with the smaller Exotic Beasts and hurried deeper at full speed.
At last, Han Qingshan took action against the Cold Crystal Scorpions and Iron-Armored Centipedes that appeared sporadically along the way.
It was the first time Lin Feng had witnessed the strength of a Martial Artist at the peak of his rank.
Han Qingshan didn't use his blade.
By the time he reached the Exotic Beasts, they were already dead.
He had released his qi and blood.
It was pure force crushing them. He didn't even need to use a technique.
The moment he passed five Cold Crystal Scorpions, their shells burst from within, sending fragments flying everywhere.
Old Zhao and Sun Liang were grim-faced as they quickened their pace to keep up.
Lin Feng checked the System Panel as he walked.
[Steel of the Blade: 94/500]
He was still a little short of reaching the Armor Piercing effect at level 150.
But there wasn't time to grind slowly now.
After about ten minutes, the passage ahead suddenly widened.
The third level.
The rendezvous point was a natural stone platform surrounded by uneven pillars.
Shen Yunfei's group had arrived first.
The four of them crouched at the edge of the platform, looking worse for wear.
A bandage wrapped Shen Yunfei's left arm, blood seeping through it.
The Martial Artist Rank 7 behind him, Old Ma, was in even worse shape. His right leg trembled, his trouser leg was torn wide open, and a deep claw wound showed bone beneath.
"What was it?" Han Qingshan walked over.
Shen Yunfei looked up, his expression grim.
"I didn't get a good look at the whole thing. It burst out of the ground. I only saw one foreclaw and half its body."
He held up three fingers.
"Three claws. Each knuckle was thicker than my thigh, and its shell was dark gold. One swipe collapsed an entire side passage. Old Ma nearly lost his leg."
"Dark gold shell, three claws..." Han Qingshan crouched and picked up a fragment of shell lying on the platform.
The fragment was only as big as a fingernail, but over two centimeters thick. It felt heavy in his hand.
"An Earth-Splitting Beetle?" Old Zhao leaned closer for a look, his expression changing abruptly.
"Not an ordinary Earth-Splitting Beetle," Shen Yunfei said, shaking his head. "An ordinary E-Rank Earth-Splitting Beetle is at most two or three meters long. This one must be at least five. And its shell is far harder than an E-Rank beast's. I put all my strength into one slash and only left a white mark."
Lin Feng crouched beside them and picked up the fragment to examine it.
A line appeared on the System Panel.
[Exotic Beast shell fragment detected: Mutated Earth-Splitting Beetle (D-Rank)]
It was D-Rank!
"Is this what widened the Rift?" Lin Feng handed the fragment to Han Qingshan.
Han Qingshan took it and turned it over without answering right away.
Shen Yunfei spoke first.
"Most likely. This Rift was originally E-Rank. Three days ago, it was active underground and forced the Rift wider from within. The D-Rank energy fluctuation picked up by the detection equipment was its life signal."
He looked at Han Qingshan.
"The intel was wrong this time. They said the main body inside the Rift was an E-Rank Exotic Beast, with a few approaching the Martial Master threshold. But this thing hasn't merely approached it."
Han Qingshan stood and walked to the edge of the platform to look down.
Below lay a pitch-black abyss, with occasional dark red lights flickering in the depths.
The ground still trembled, and the vibrations were coming more frequently than before.
"It's climbing up." Han Qingshan glanced back at everyone.
Nine people: two peak-rank Martial Artists, two Martial Artists at Rank 7, and the rest between Rank 5 and Rank 6. Lin Feng, at Martial Artist Rank 2, was the weakest.
This lineup would be more than enough against an ordinary E-Rank Exotic Beast, but against a D-Rank one, things looked bleak.
"Do we retreat or fight?" Shen Yunfei leaned against a pillar, fresh blood seeping through the bandage on his left arm.
Han Qingshan fell silent for a few seconds.
"We can't retreat. The side passage has collapsed, and the main passage entrance is three levels above us. Even at full speed, it'd take half an hour to get there. It can climb up from underground faster than we can run."
"Then we only have one choice." Shen Yunfei pushed himself upright against the pillar.
"Fight."
Han Qingshan nodded and quickly assigned their roles.
"Shen Yunfei, you and I will hold it at the front. Old Zhao, Old Ma, cover the flanks. Don't let its claws get behind us."
He swept his gaze over the others, stopping on Lin Feng.
"The rest of you, clear out the smaller Exotic Beasts around it. When a large mutated beast appears, it usually brings a pack of E-Rank Exotic Beasts along as guards."
"Lin Feng."
"Here."
"You take care of the smaller ones."
Lin Feng gripped his battle blade.
"Understood."
The moment the plan was set, the ground beneath them suddenly split open.
Everyone leaped back at once.
Boom!
The center of the platform collapsed in a single massive section.
A gigantic dark gold claw thrust out of the enormous hole.
Three clawed fingers, each thicker than an adult's thigh. The hooked talons at their tips glinted like metal.
The giant claw seized the edge of the platform and heaved.
A second claw emerged.
Then came its head.
A huge head rose from underground, covered in dark gold shell, with six dark red compound eyes embedded in its center.
The Mutated Earth-Splitting Beetle's upper body emerged from the ground, far larger than they had expected.
Even the part of it exposed above ground was over five meters long. Its lower body was still buried in the earth.
It opened its mouthparts and let out a shrill screech.
Then, from the hole behind it, more than a dozen ordinary E-Rank Earth-Splitting Beetles came swarming out.
"Scatter!" Han Qingshan bellowed.
The nine of them sprang in all directions.
Han Qingshan and Shen Yunfei moved at the same time.
Two torrents of qi and blood surged toward the Mutated Beetle's head from the front, their force visibly rippling through the air.
Boom!
The Mutated Beetle was pushed back half a step, a few faint white marks appearing on its shell.
That was all.
"Hard as hell," Han Qingshan muttered. He drew the long blade from his back and brought it down against the shell.
Clang!
Sparks burst through the air.
A small chip appeared in the blade.
Shen Yunfei cut in from the other side. He held his blade in his left hand; his injured right arm was useless, leaving him able to fight with only one hand.
His swordsmanship was completely different from Han Qingshan's. It was swift and nimble, aimed at slipping into gaps in the shell.
But the gaps in this mutated beast's shell were too narrow. His blade tip went in less than two centimeters before getting stuck, and even pulling it out took effort.
"Damn it!" Shen Yunfei cursed and dodged a sweeping claw.
The claw struck a stone pillar, blowing it apart halfway up and sending rubble flying everywhere.
Lin Feng didn't charge the front. He was dealing with the dozen or so ordinary E-Rank beetles.
Against E-Rank Exotic Beasts, Mountain Splitter was a whole other level.
One slash, one kill—clean and quick.
[Killed E-Rank Exotic Beasts: Earth-Splitting Beetle ×4, gained Martial Path Points ×200] [Steel of the Blade: 98/500]
Four, five, six...
The level kept rising, and so did his Martial Path Points.
[Killed E-Rank Exotic Beasts: Earth-Splitting Beetle ×3, gained Martial Path Points ×150] [Steel of the Blade: 101/500]
As he killed the seventh, a scream rang out nearby.
A beetle that had slipped through the net had clamped onto Sun Liang's lower leg. Its mouthparts pierced straight through his armor, and blood ran down his ankle.
Lin Feng rushed over, cleaved the beetle's head open, and dragged Sun Liang back.
"Fall back for now."
Sun Liang gritted his teeth and nodded, limping away.
The smaller beetles were nearly cleared out.
Lin Feng looked up toward the front.
Even with two peak-rank Martial Artists, Han Qingshan and Shen Yunfei still hadn't managed to inflict any real damage on the Mutated Beetle.
Its shell was covered in white marks and shallow scratches, but not a single spot had been breached.
Instead, the Mutated Beetle grew more excited as the fight went on, pulling its entire body out of the ground.
Its full size came into view.
Twelve meters.
Six legs, each joint wrapped in thick shell, with almost no visible gaps where the sections connected.
"Even its joints are armored!" Old Zhao shouted. "This thing is completely different from the data in the files!"
Han Qingshan retreated two steps, sweat covering his forehead.
"It's evolving."
Shen Yunfei's expression was grim too.
"Under normal circumstances, breaking through the shell of a mutated individual like this would take Martial Master-level strength."
The two exchanged a glance.
In that moment, all the earlier friction and mutual dislike fell away.
No one clung to old grudges at a life-or-death moment.
"Han Qingshan, do you have a plan?" Shen Yunfei addressed him by his full name.
Han Qingshan shook his head. "Hacking away won't work. My blade's already chipped in two places."
Shen Yunfei glanced down at his own blade, which was just as badly nicked, and hissed.
"Then we find a weak spot. No matter how tough this thing is, it has to have somewhere soft."
Listening from behind them, Lin Feng lowered his eyes to the System Panel.
[Steel of the Blade: 101/500] [Current Martial Path Points: 500]
Five hundred Martial Path Points.
Enough for a big upgrade.
Before you continue