The Thing Underground Emerged

The communicator crackled with Shen Yunfei's intermittent voice.

"Above E-rank! Massive size, we've been cut off and are retreating to the third layer..."

Then the signal died.

Han Qingshan clipped the communicator to his belt and turned without a word.

"Push forward faster. Head to the rendezvous point on the third layer."

The four of them stopped bothering with the lesser mutant beasts and sped deeper into the area.

Occasional Cold Crystal Scorpions and Iron-Armored Centipedes popped up along the way, and Han Qingshan finally made his move.

Lin Feng witnessed a full-powered Martial Artist for the first time.

Han Qingshan didn't use his blade.

By the time he walked past, the mutant beasts were already dead.

Qi and blood released externally.

Pure strength crushing everything—no technique needed.

Five Cold Crystal Scorpions had their carapaces burst from the inside the moment he passed by, shards scattering across the ground.

Old Zhao and Sun Liang's faces tightened as they quickened their pace to keep up.

Lin Feng walked while checking his system panel.

code
[Steel of the Blade: 94/500]

Still short of the armor-breaking effect at 150 stacks.

But there was no time to grind it out now.

After about ten minutes of walking, the passage ahead suddenly opened up.

Third layer.

The rendezvous point was a natural rock platform surrounded by jagged stone pillars.

Shen Yunfei's group had arrived first.

Four people crouched at the edge of the platform, looking worse for wear.

Shen Yunfei had a bandage wrapped around his left arm, blood seeping through.

The Martial Artist seventh-rank behind him, a man called Old Ma, was in even worse shape—his right leg trembled, his pant leg torn open wide, revealing a claw wound deep enough to see bone.

"What was it?" Han Qingshan walked over.

Shen Yunfei looked up, his expression grim.

"Didn't get a full look. It burrowed up from underground—only showed one front claw and half its body."

He held up three fingers.

"Three claws, each knuckle thicker than my thigh, carapace a dark gold. One swipe caved in the entire side passage. Old Ma's leg barely made it."

"Dark gold carapace, three claws..." Han Qingshan crouched down and picked up a piece of broken shell lying on the platform.

The fragment was only the size of a fingernail, but over two centimeters thick, heavy in the hand.

"Earth-Splitting Beetle?" Old Zhao leaned in for a look, his face changing instantly.

"Not an ordinary Earth-Splitting Beetle." Shen Yunfei shook his head. "A normal E-rank Earth-Splitting Beetle is at most two to three meters long. This one's at least five meters. And its carapace hardness far exceeds E-rank—I put my full strength into a slash and only left a white mark."

Lin Feng crouched beside them, picked up the shell fragment, and examined it.

The system panel flashed a line of text.

code
[Detected mutant beast carapace fragment: Mutated Earth-Splitting Beetle (D-rank)]

It was D-rank!

"This is what's propping the rift open?" Lin Feng handed the fragment to Han Qingshan.

Han Qingshan took it, turned it over a few times, and didn't answer immediately.

Shen Yunfei spoke up first.

"Most likely. This rift was originally E-rank. Three days ago, it was moving underground and forced the rift open from the inside. The D-rank fluctuation the detection equipment picked up—that's its life signal."

He looked at Han Qingshan.

"The intel this time was wrong. The higher-ups said the rift's main inhabitants were E-rank mutant beasts, with a few bordering on Martial Master threshold. But this thing—it's not bordering anymore."

Han Qingshan stood up and walked to the edge of the platform, looking down.

Below was a pitch-black abyss, with occasional dark red specks flickering.

The ground was still trembling, the frequency denser than before.

"It's climbing up." Han Qingshan glanced back at the group.

Nine people: two Martial Artists, two Martial Artist seventh-ranks, the rest ranging from fifth to sixth-rank, with Lin Feng at Martial Artist second-rank bringing up the rear.

This lineup would be more than enough to handle ordinary E-rank mutated beasts, but against a D-rank one, it was a stretch.

"Retreat or fight?" Shen Yunfei leaned against a stone pillar, fresh blood seeping through the bandages on his left arm.

Han Qingshan was silent for a few seconds.

"Can't retreat. The side passage collapsed, and the main passage entrance is three levels above us. Even at full speed, it'd take half an hour to get out. It burrows up from the ground faster than we can run."

"Then there's only one choice left." Shen Yunfei straightened up from the pillar.

"Fight."

Han Qingshan nodded and quickly laid out the tactics.

"Shen Yunfei, you and I will handle the frontal distraction. Old Zhao, Old Ma, you two guard the flanks—don't let its claws get around behind us."

He swept his gaze over the remaining people, stopping at Lin Feng.

"The rest of you clear the smaller beasts around it. When a large variant like this shows up, it usually brings a batch of E-rank escorts."

"Lin Feng."

"Here."

"You go clear the small fry."

Lin Feng gripped his war blade tightly.

"Understood."

The deployment had just finished when the ground beneath their feet suddenly split open with a crack.

Everyone leaped backward at once.

Boom!

The entire floor at the center of the platform collapsed inward.

From that massive hole, a dark-golden giant claw emerged.

Three claw fingers, each thicker than an adult's thigh, with hooked tips gleaming with a metallic sheen.

The giant claw grabbed the edge of the platform and heaved.

A second claw came out.

Then the head.

A huge head drilled up from underground, its surface covered in dark-golden carapace, with six dark-red compound eyes embedded in the middle.

The upper half of the Mutated Earth-Splitting Beetle surfaced, its size far exceeding estimates.

Just the part above ground was over five meters long, with the lower half still buried in the dirt.

It opened its mouthparts and let out a piercing screech.

Immediately after, from the hole behind it, over a dozen ordinary E-rank Earth-Splitting Beetles swarmed out.

"Spread out!" Han Qingshan barked.

The nine people shot outward in all directions.

Han Qingshan and Shen Yunfei moved at the same time.

Two surges of blood energy slammed head-on into the mutated beetle's head, the force visibly rippling through the air.

Boom!

The mutated beetle was pushed back half a step, leaving a few shallow white marks on its carapace.

That was all.

"Ridiculously tough." Han Qingshan cursed under his breath, drew the long blade from his back, and slashed down along the carapace.

Clang!

Sparks exploded everywhere.

A small chip broke off the blade's edge.

Shen Yunfei cut in from the other side, holding his blade in his left hand—his right arm was injured and couldn't exert force, forcing him to fight one-handed.

His blade technique was completely different from Han Qingshan's, favoring a light and fast style, specifically targeting the gaps in the carapace.

But this variant's carapace gaps were too narrow; the blade tip sank in less than two centimeters before getting stuck, and pulling it out was a struggle.

"Damn it!" Shen Yunfei cursed, sidestepping to dodge a sweeping giant claw.

The claw smashed into a stone pillar, shattering it in the middle, sending rubble flying everywhere.

Lin Feng didn't charge the front. He was handling the dozen or so ordinary E-rank beetles.

Mountain Splitter was a complete overmatch against E-rank beasts.

One slash, one kill, clean and efficient.

[Killed E-rank mutated beast: Earth-Splitting Beetle ×4, gained Martial Points ×200]

[Steel of the Blade: 98/500]

Four, five, six...

The count was rising, and so were the martial points.

[Killed E-rank mutant beast: Earth-Splitting Beetle ×3, gained Martial Points ×150]

[Steel of the Blade: 101/500]

By the time he cleared the seventh, a scream rang out nearby.

Sun Liang had been bitten on the calf by a beetle that slipped through. The beetle's mouthparts pierced straight through his armor, blood streaming down his ankle.

Lin Feng leaped over, cleaving the beetle's skull with one slash, and dragged Sun Liang back.

"Fall back for now."

Sun Liang gritted his teeth, nodded, and limped to the rear.

The small beetles were mostly cleared.

Lin Feng looked up at the front.

Han Qingshan and Shen Yunfei, both at the peak of the Martial Disciple realm, had still failed to deal any real damage to the mutated beetle.

Its carapace was covered in white marks and shallow scratches, but not a single one had truly broken through.

Instead, the mutated beetle grew more excited as it fought, pulling its entire body out from underground.

Its full form was now exposed to view.

Twelve meters.

Six legs, each joint wrapped in thick carapace, with almost no gaps visible at the connections.

"Its joints are armored too!" Old Zhao shouted. "This doesn't match the filed data at all!"

Han Qingshan retreated two steps, sweat beading on his forehead.

"It's evolving."

Shen Yunfei's expression was equally grim.

"This kind of mutated individual normally requires a Martial Master-level combatant to break through."

The two exchanged a glance.

In that moment, all their earlier friction and mutual disdain vanished.

At a life-or-death juncture, no one had time for that.

"Han Qingshan, do you have a plan?" Shen Yunfei addressed him by his full name.

Han Qingshan shook his head. "Can't cut through it head-on. My blade already has two chips."

Shen Yunfei looked down at his own similarly dulled sword and sucked in a breath.

"Then we have to find a weak point. No matter how tough this thing is, it's got to have a soft spot somewhere."

Lin Feng listened from the rear, then glanced down at his system panel.

[Steel of the Blade: 101/500]

[Current Martial Points: 500]

Five hundred Martial Points.

Enough for an upgrade.