Facing the five Abyss Wolves closing in around him, Lin Yi deliberately put on the frenzied air of someone who had lost himself in the thrill of slaughter.
"Come on!"
He gave a low shout. Instead of retreating, he surged forward, meeting the three head-on.
At that moment, the first three Abyss Wolves demonstrated the tactical coordination of a proper Abyss Wolf pack:
The one in the middle was the most powerfully built. It charged straight at Lin Yi's face with a furious roar, while the one on the left crouched low and raked its sharp claws at the outside of his thigh, where it met the back of his knee.
The angle was so cunning that it was clearly aiming to cripple its target's mobility.
The one on the far right didn't immediately pounce. Instead, it skidded to a stop a short distance from Lin Yi, its thick, bony tail rising high like a scorpion's.
"Here it comes. The real killing move."
Lin Yi sneered inwardly. He had no idea how many Abyss Wolves he'd killed in his previous life, and he knew the tricks of a standard Abyss Wolf pack inside and out.
They used a frontal pounce and flanking harassment to limit their prey's room to dodge, setting up a sneak attack with corrosive acid.
A ruthless glint flashed in Lin Yi's eyes. As a "genius" who had already faced an acid attack once, he naturally had a way to deal with it.
He would exploit the gap in their timing. While the other two were out of position as they circled behind him, he'd tank the claw strike, dodge the acid, and kill the one in front!
So instead of retreating, he stepped toward the oncoming Abyss Wolf. At the same time, he twisted his hips sharply, turning the outside of his right leg—covered by the thickest greave and part of his tasset—toward the claws of the Abyss Wolf sweeping in low from the left!
"Scrape!"
With a shrill metallic shriek, several claw marks slashed across the armor on the outside of Lin Yi's right leg.
But he used the force of the claw strike to roll sideways. He dodged the glob of corrosive fluid by the narrowest margin and shifted to the side of the Abyss Wolf in front.
Then he sprang upright like a carp leaping from the water. His staff mimicked the explosive move "Rising Dragon Break" from Dark Great Sage as he delivered a vicious upward strike to the soft belly of the Abyss Wolf before him.
"Split open!"
The staff, driven by the full force of Lin Yi's body, slammed into the Abyss Wolf's belly. The end of the staff even plunged deep into its abdomen before flinging it into the air.
Next, Lin Yi lunged at the one on the left!
When the Abyss Wolf saw him coming, it howled and tried to tear into him. But Lin Yi thrust his staff forward in a swift jab, driving its tip through the wolf's mouth and piercing its upper jaw before twisting with all his strength.
At the same time, without even looking to see the result, he stepped hard to the right. His core strength surged as he twisted sharply, yanking the staff from the wolf's mouth and following through with a backhanded sweep at the Abyss Wolf on the right, which had adjusted its angle and was trying to spray acid again.
"Thud!" The end of the staff struck the Abyss Wolf squarely across its vulnerable nose.
With a bloodcurdling howl, the Abyss Wolf, struck without warning in a weak spot, saw stars. Its acid attack, which had been ready to unleash, was forcibly interrupted.
Lin Yi didn't let up. He leapt forward, gripping the staff in both hands, and brought it down with a mighty vertical blow on the back of the Abyss Wolf's head as it hunched low in pain.
"Mountain Cleaving Style!"
Crack!
The crisp, almost satisfying sound of a skull shattering marked the death of the third Abyss Wolf.
In just six or seven breaths, all three Abyss Wolves that had attacked from the front were dead!
By then, the two Abyss Wolves that had tried to circle around behind him had only just made it past the overturned tables and chairs.
What they saw wasn't prey under attack, but their kin dissolving into ash and a fierce figure turning toward them.
Fear instantly swallowed their ferocity.
The two Abyss Wolves let out short, terrified whimpers and turned without hesitation, fleeing toward the door!
"Running?"
Lin Yi's gaze sharpened as the Source Energy remaining in him surged through his body! His waist drew back like a taut bow, and the muscles in his right arm bulged as he hurled the bloodstained Black Iron Staff with all his strength!
Without pausing, Lin Yi raised his left index finger like a striking snake. A blue glow flared as he pointed at the fleeing figures!
Only then did he suppress his roiling blood and the bone-deep exhaustion. Dragging his leaden legs, he walked step by step toward the nearest speck of gray light.
It was time to reap the rewards.
He bent down, picked it up, and straightened. His movements were steady, without a hint of wasted motion.
Like a farmer gathering gleanings from a field after the harvest, Lin Yi silently and intently collected the five Spirit Radiance Crystals scattered across the hall, one by one.
Only after he had finished did he slowly turn his gaze toward the shattered doorway.
A Spirit Radiance Crystal lay still beside the threshold on the inside of the door.
That Abyss Wolf had been the fastest runner, but unfortunately, the blue light had caught up with it and struck it dead.
Lin Yi stepped over the overturned debris on the floor and went to the Spirit Radiance Crystal. He bent down again, his movements just as steady, as if he were merely picking up a pebble, and retrieved the sixth crystal.
Then he straightened and looked past the threshold to the carpet outside Hongfu Restaurant's entrance. The final Abyss Wolf's corpse lay there, frozen in a face-down position.
Lin Yi's full-strength throw had pierced it through the waist and abdomen, pinning it firmly to the ground. Its body was now slowly dissolving into ash.
Far away, several other small packs of Abyss Wolves prowling near the Nest seemed to have been startled by the sudden, fierce battle at Hongfu Restaurant, its abrupt end, and the half-strangled howl of a dying packmate.
They stopped what they were doing and watched Hongfu Restaurant warily, low growls rumbling in their throats.
But the sounds of fighting soon faded as well, and the entire area around Hongfu Restaurant sank into an eerie silence.
They scraped at the ground restlessly and growled, slowly backing away a few steps. But not one of them dared to approach Hongfu Restaurant again. They only stared fixedly at the building, which seemed to have become the gaping maw of an abyss.
Lin Yi understood the reaction of the Abyss Wolves in the distance.
The effect he wanted had been achieved. Hongfu Restaurant and the surrounding area had now been identified as a high-level threat.
For the time being, this place would become a dead zone.
Only once the Nest bred stronger Abyss Beasts and the other low-level threats had been cleared out would they gather their forces and launch a full-scale attack.
Thus, beneath the gazes of dozens of distant pairs of dark-red wolf eyes, filled with fear and wariness, Lin Yi stepped over the bloodstained threshold of Hongfu Restaurant without a trace of expression.
He stepped onto the street outside.
The summer evening sun was still scorching. The stench of blood on the street rose in the heat, making the air deeply unpleasant.
Ignoring the watching eyes in the nearby shadows, Lin Yi walked straight to the Abyss Wolf corpse pinned to the red carpet outside the entrance.
He looked down at the corpse, pierced through by his staff and pinned before Hongfu Restaurant like a sacrificial offering, and patiently waited for the Spirit Radiance Crystal to form.
Then he bent down once more, like someone picking fallen fruit in his own backyard, and picked up the seventh and final Spirit Radiance Crystal, its surface gleaming with gray light.
Only then did Lin Yi straighten and turn his gaze to the Black Iron Staff embedded deep in the ground.
Most of the staff was now coated in dark-red blood, its surface reflecting an eerie sheen in the sunlight.
Lin Yi slowly reached out his right hand, spread his fingers, and gripped the staff firmly. Its cold metal mingled with the sticky feel of blood beneath his palm.
He paused deliberately for a moment, then tensed the muscles in his arm and pulled hard.
"Scrape."
With a muffled grinding sound, the blood-soaked weapon returned to Lin Yi's hand.
Thick drops of blood dripped from the heavy end of the staff, dotting the scarlet carpet with dark circles.
Then, dragging the heavy weapon behind him, Lin Yi turned steadily and stepped over the dark-red bloodstain from the sixth Abyss Wolf on the threshold, returning to the shattered entrance of Hongfu Restaurant.
From beginning to end, he never once looked up at the pack of Abyss Wolves growling uneasily in the distance.
His figure gradually merged with the dim light deep inside the hall, and finally disappeared from view.
Before you continue