The Decision

"Junior, you and I are both martial artists of the Demonic Sect. How can you watch someone die and refuse to save them? Acting like this goes against righteousness..."

Seeing that Lu Lin remained completely unmoved, Yu Chong roared in panic.

What?

Lu Lin froze when he heard it, almost thinking he had misheard.

Had Yu Chong gone mad from desperation? Had he even lost his brain?

Talking about righteousness with him in the Demonic Sect? Even trying moral coercion?

Since that was the case, he might as well lend them a hand.

Lu Lin casually grabbed a fist-sized stone with sharp edges, his qi and blood erupting with a boom as he hurled it out.

Empowered by the "Strength of an Elephant," the stone tore through the air like a cannonball leaving the barrel, whistling straight toward Yu Chong's face.

"Junior, you...!"

Yu Chong's expression changed in horror. Sensing the terrifying force contained in that stone, how could he dare take it head-on? He hurriedly dodged with all his strength.

In that instant of distraction, an eight-meter-long monster seized the opening and bit down hard on his shoulder!

The monster's fangs were incomparably sharp. With one tear, half of Yu Chong's body was ripped apart on the spot, and another monster took the chance to pounce, crushing his skull in a single bite.

Once Yu Chong died, the remaining two were even less able to resist. Before long, they died miserable deaths one after another on the spot.

Hiss, hiss—

The monsters growled lowly, their scarlet gazes turning in unison toward Lu Lin as they pounced madly!

"The strongest one is only a little stronger than Yu Chong. I can still handle it."

Lu Lin's thoughts flashed like lightning. He gripped his dagger tightly and took the initiative to meet them.

A moment later, the pitch-black mountainside was already littered with monster corpses.

With the sensing of the Martial Dao Melting Furnace, Lu Lin carved out milky-white chunks of flesh from those corpses one by one. All of them contained spiritual energy, and he exchanged them all for cultivation time.

Depending on the monsters' strength, the time exchanged varied in length.

The shorter ones were eight months, ten months; the longer ones were one year. The longest chunk even reached a year and a half...

After the final tally, Lu Lin obtained a total of eleven years of cultivation time.

His total cultivation time had therefore accumulated to forty-three years and two months.

Rumble!

He had just finished cleaning up the battlefield when the ground shook again. This time, the commotion was more violent than ever before.

Bang!

The next instant, the ground exploded with a roar. Amid flying shards of stone, a colossal creature charged out!

This monster was actually ten meters long, pitch-black all over, with blood-red eyes. Its entire body was covered in nauseating lumps of flesh, ferocious and terrifying.

It locked its gaze on Lu Lin. With one pounce, it covered seven or eight meters, and its scarlet long tongue shot out, coiling straight toward Lu Lin.

The tongue was coated in dark-green mucus, which splattered everywhere as it whipped through the air. In an instant, a suffocating stench filled the surroundings.

Poison!

Lu Lin's expression changed. Not daring to take it head-on, he retreated at high speed, narrowly avoiding that fatal strike.

But the monster pursued relentlessly, its long tongue lashing and sweeping like a whip.

Lu Lin leapt onto the trunk of a large tree, climbed up to the high branches in a few moves, then sprang through the air and jumped onto another tree...

The monster roared and chased after him, also trying to climb the tree. But its body was far too huge and heavy; the branches could not bear it at all and snapped one after another, sending it crashing heavily back to the ground.

A chance!

Lu Lin seized the moment and swooped down. His dagger drew a cold, sharp streak of light as it cut straight for the monster's neck!

Who would have thought the monster would react extremely quickly? While still in midair, it twisted its body abruptly, and one sharp claw, wrapped in an evil wind, slapped viciously toward the dagger.

"Clang!"

Amid the ringing clash of metal, a tremendous force surged over. The webbing between Lu Lin's thumb and forefinger went numb, and his entire body flew backward uncontrollably for more than ten meters before he landed lightly on the ground.

"What strength! Far beyond the ninth layer of Body Tempering. It's probably already reached ten thousand jin, comparable to the peak of Body Tempering!"

Lu Lin's expression was grave.

Even if he burst out with all his strength, he might not have much of an advantage in power. To say nothing of the fact that the other party also possessed deadly poison.

The instant Lu Lin landed, the monster also smashed down heavily, twisted itself upright, and let out a furious roar, killing intent boiling in its eyes.

At the same time, the lumps of flesh on its body swelled one after another like balloons. It was clearly visible that they were filled with a ghostly green liquid.

Poison!

Lu Lin's scalp went numb. Without the slightest hesitation, he turned and ran!

This monster was too difficult to deal with. Its strength was terrifying enough, and on top of that, it had frightful venom. The slightest carelessness would mean sinking into ten thousand kalpas beyond redemption.

Moreover, tremors came from the distant ground once again. Clearly, other monsters were drawing near.

If he were surrounded by several monsters of the same caliber, then he would truly be in danger.

If not now, then when?

Seeing Lu Lin flee, the monster roared and chased him relentlessly.

Lu Lin simply chose only the big trees to leap across, weaving and dodging through the forest. Not only was he more agile that way, it also let him effectively avoid attacks.

Bang, bang!

Sure enough, the ground in the distance exploded open one after another, and several more monsters burst out. Though they were not ten meters long, they still reached eight or nine meters, and joined the pursuit together.

Lu Lin pushed his speed to the limit and ran five or six li in one breath.

Along the way, corpses of menial martial artists could be seen from time to time, all incomplete and mangled. Clearly, they had all fallen to these monsters' vicious hands.

"These monsters' opponents should have been immortal cultivators, not martial artists. Those immortal cultivators of the Blood Baleful Demon Sect were clearly sending us here to die..."

Anger flashed through Lu Lin's eyes, but deeper within that light, there was even more helplessness.

They were the ones holding the knife and chopping block, while I was the fish and meat. How could an ordinary martial artist defy the heavens and change his fate?

At the same time, he also noticed that there was almost no blood around these corpses, and the bodies themselves were shriveled like deadwood, as if all their essence and vitality had been sucked dry.

"Menial martial artists are tools, consumables. Those immortal cultivators had us come in to gather Underworld Iron Cardamom, but I'm afraid that was only a pretext. Their true aim lies elsewhere."

Lu Lin's thoughts raced. From all sorts of spider threads and horse tracks, he had already sensed that matters were far from as simple as they seemed on the surface.

Only, to turn eight hundred martial artists into abandoned pieces in one breath, including even two hundred Martial Army members above the seventh layer of Body Tempering—such ruthless methods still sent a chill through Lu Lin's heart.

Hiss, hiss... ah!!

Suddenly, from a dense forest to the front-left came waves of hissing roars and shrill screams.

A group of monsters was madly attacking a dozen or so menial martial artists, and from time to time, someone died miserably on the spot.

Lu Lin shook his head slightly and swept silently past between the branches.

Save them?

He himself was fish and meat on the chopping block. What could he use to save anyone?

Even if he made a move and saved a few people, so what? Before long, more monsters would arrive after hearing the commotion. If that kind of ten-meter giant monster were drawn over again, even he would have to flee for his life.

However, he had clearly underestimated these monsters' perception.

Even hiding up in the trees, he still failed to shake off their pursuit.

Before long, several monsters broke out of the ground and climbed up the big trees after him.

Fortunately, there was no ten-meter giant monster this time. Lu Lin counter-killed them with thunderous methods, and his cultivation time increased by several more years.

"No... These monsters are clearly coming for the menial martial artists. Is it because of the vigorous qi and blood in our bodies?"

"Most of the menial martial artists are concentrated around the outer reaches of the mountain range. If my guess is right, then the depths of the mountains might be safer instead."

Lu Lin's thoughts stirred, and he immediately made his decision.

He sprang up and landed among the branches and leaves of the next big tree, then leaped toward the next one... like a nimble cat, light, swift, and silent.