C-Rank Exotic Beast Appears, A Blade Clears the Path!

The beast tide lasted two hours.

Lin Feng killed for two hours outside the city.

His combat suit had long since been torn to shreds, his skin coated in beast blood, but not a single wound marked him.

With a Martial Master third-stage physique and a perfected Lost Trace Step, E-Rank and D-Rank beasts couldn't even touch him.

The system's announcements rang out until he was nearly numb.

[Current Martial Path Points: 10800]

[Steel of the Blade: 347/500]

He alone held back the vanguard of the beast tide.

The guards on the middle section of the city wall never lifted a hand the entire time.

They stood there watching the show, utterly mesmerized.

But Lin Feng knew the real trouble hadn't come yet.

The core strength of a B-Rank beast tide was C-Rank beasts.

They wouldn't charge ahead as cannon fodder. Instead, they lurked behind the horde, waiting for the vanguard to exhaust the defenders' stamina before striking the fatal blow.

Sure enough.

Just as the wave of E-Rank and D-Rank beasts began to thin, a dull tremor rumbled through the ground.

It wasn't the vibration of beasts running.

It was footsteps.

Step by step, heavy and rhythmic.

The beast horde parted on its own, forming a passage.

From the end of that passage emerged a massive beast.

It looked like a lion magnified ten times, its body covered in dark red rocky armor, its mane flowing magma. With every step, the ground beneath it scorched black.

A system panel popped up.

[Detected C-Rank Beast: Lava Lion King (Martial Ancestor Level)]

Martial Ancestor.

A full major realm above Martial Master.

The cheers on the city wall died instantly.

"C-Rank! It's a C-Rank beast!"

"Martial Ancestor level! Who's going to stop it?"

Panic spread through the guards like a plague.

Li Zhenguo's voice came through the communicator: "All Martial Master-level combatants, converge on the middle section!"

Captain Zhao led three Martial Masters as they leaped off the wall, quickly closing in on Lin Feng.

"Kid, this thing's not something you can handle!" Captain Zhao roared.

Lin Feng glanced at him.

"Step aside."

"Huh?"

Lin Feng didn't explain.

He first dumped his accumulated Martial Path Points into it.

"Realm, increase."

[Consumed Martial Path Points × 3000]

[Realm Upgraded: Martial Master Third Stage → Martial Master Fourth Stage!]

[Consumed Martial Path Points × 4000]

[Realm Upgraded: Martial Master Fourth Stage → Martial Master Fifth Stage!]

[Remaining Martial Path Points: 3800]

Two surges of heat roiled inside him.

Captain Zhao stood nearby, his pupils shrinking sharply.

This kid is breaking through again?

Breaking through on the battlefield?

And jumping two stages at once?

Before he could recover, Lin Feng had already charged forward.

Lost Trace Step erupted at full power.

Three afterimages carved bizarre trajectories through the beast horde, the true body charging straight for the Lava Lion King.

The Lava Lion King sensed the threat, opened its massive maw, and spewed a torrent of crimson lava breath.

The wave of heat slammed into his face, the air itself warped and twisted from the scorching temperature.

Lin Feng didn't dodge.

He met it head-on.

Mountain Splitter was raised high, Mountain-Breaking Slash charged to its limit.

All his blood qi poured into the blade, the dark gold spirit patterns flickering wildly as a half-meter-wide golden gale condensed around the edge.

"Cleave!"

The gale crashed headlong into the lava breath.

The two forces detonated in midair, the shockwave flipping every beast within ten meters.

But the gale pierced through the breath.

Carrying its remaining momentum, it slashed into the Lava Lion King's skull.

Crack!

That thick layer of rocky armor shattered under the penetration effect.

A wound deep enough to reveal bone split open from the lion king's forehead, stretching all the way to the bridge of its nose.

The Lava Lion King let out a sky-shaking roar, slammed its forepaw into the ground, and the entire slab of earth heaved upward.

Lin Feng was blasted back by the shockwave, tumbled twice in midair, and touched down on his toes to steady himself.

"One slash didn't kill it?"

He looked down at Mountain Splitter.

The blade was coated in magma-like beast blood, hissing and steaming.

A C-rank beast—truly terrifying as expected.

But that wound was already deep.

"Again."

Lin Feng charged forward once more.

This time, he didn't take the front.

The three afterimages of Lost Trace Step scattered, approaching the lion king from three directions.

The Lava Lion King crushed the first afterimage with a claw swipe, then spun to bite at the second.

But the true body had already circled behind it.

Mountain Splitter swept upward from below, slicing into the gap in the armor at the lion king's hind leg joint.

The penetration effect reached its peak in that instant.

The blade not only pierced the armor but also the muscle and bone beneath.

The entire hind leg was severed clean at the root.

The Lava Lion King collapsed in pain, its massive body losing balance and toppling sideways with a thunderous crash.

Lin Feng leaped onto the lion king's neck.

Mountain Splitter held in reverse.

"Die for me."

The blade drove straight down through the top of the lion king's skull.

Deeper.

Deeper still.

Until the hilt sank into the flesh.

The Lava Lion King struggled for three seconds, its limbs stiffened, and then fell still.

[Killed C-rank beast: Lava Lion King (Martial Hero level)]

[Gained Martial Path Points ×500]

[Steel of the Blade: 348/500]

[First C-rank beast kill, triggered special drop!]

[Acquired cultivation art: Heavenly Gale Body-Forging Art (S-rank art)]

[Heavenly Gale Body-Forging Art: Tempers the body with heaven and earth's gale qi. When cultivated to perfection, physical strength increases tenfold, allowing one to withstand a full-power strike from a peer without breaking. Each time a realm breakthrough occurs, it automatically tempers the bones, meridians, and internal organs, greatly reducing breakthrough side effects.]

[Learn?]

"Learn."

A flood of information poured into his body.

Lin Feng stood atop the Lion King's corpse, every bone in his body emitting a faint hum.

On the city wall.

Thousands of eyes were fixed on him.

Silence.

A deathly silence.

Then, someone shouted first.

"We won!!!"

The roar of cheers was overwhelming, shaking the city wall itself.

Captain Zhao stood below the wall, his blade falling from his hand without him even noticing.

He had brought three Martial Masters to reinforce, yet not a single strike had been made.

That man, alone, had taken down a C-Rank aberrant beast.

He opened his mouth, forcing out a single line: "Just what kind of monster is he?"

A Martial Master beside him replied instinctively, "Must be a cheat code."