Second Dragon Lizard

The instant Li Zhengyang slammed on the brakes, his mind was already racing at full speed.

A Fourth-Rank in front, a Third-Rank behind.

He was an Eighth-Rank Great Martial Master.

He could beat the Third-Rank, but not the Fourth-Rank.

Fight both at once? Dream on.

Run? They had him blocked from both sides.

The dragon lizard hide had already gone into his Space Ring. Throw it out, play pitiful, and apologize? Magic Beasts were not people; they did not accept returns.

The male Dragon Lizard lowered its head, its two vertical pupils sweeping ahead before settling on Li Zhengyang.

Two streams of hot breath blasted from its nostrils.

It smelled its mate's blood, as well as the scent of her old shed skin, all over this human.

Hiss.

The sound squeezed out from deep in its throat.

The female Dragon Lizard behind him had caught up as well. Her cry was sharper and more urgent, as though she were complaining to the male.

The two Dragon Lizards trapped Li Zhengyang between them, one in front and one behind, each twenty meters away.

"Damn it, a husband-and-wife tag team."

Li Zhengyang cursed and tightened his grip on the Mountain-Piercing Spear.

He had two choices now.

First, fight head-on. A Great Martial Master fighting a Fourth-Rank Magic Beast was simply suicide. His Astral Qi density, total Blood Qi, and attack limit were all crushed across the board. No matter how fierce the Mountain-Splitting Spear Art was, it could not bridge the gap of an entire major realm.

Second, take a vicious beating before getting eaten. The outcome was much the same as the first option, except it saved him some effort.

But there was a third choice.

The male Dragon Lizard took three steps inward from the cave entrance, each step making the ground tremble.

Li Zhengyang did not retreat. Instead, he pressed himself toward the rock wall on the left.

He had noticed a crack in the cave wall less than a meter wide. Its depth could not be seen. A person could squeeze into it sideways, but a Dragon Lizard could not.

Cloud-Shocking Steps.

The instant he rushed toward the crack, the male Dragon Lizard moved.

Its speed was absurd. Its ten-meter-long body whipped around, its tail sweeping across the tunnel with Astral Qi.

A Martial Spirit-level creature was beyond comparison with a Great Martial Master.

The Astral Qi fluctuations from that tail tore through the air itself, producing a piercing shriek.

Li Zhengyang twisted sideways, barely sliding out of the tail's sweep.

But he did not evade it completely.

The tip of the tail grazed his left ribs.

In an instant, three ribs on his left side snapped, and his Body-Protecting Astral Energy was torn apart in a single blow. He slammed into the rock wall, half his body embedded in stone.

The taste of rust surged into his mouth, blood spilling from the corner of his lips.

It hurt.

It hurt like hell, but he was not dead.

The male Dragon Lizard chased after him and thrust its head toward the mouth of the crack.

It was too narrow. Its head could not fit inside, so it could only claw its way in, sending stone fragments flying.

Half of Li Zhengyang's body was wedged deep in the crack. His left hand pressed against his broken ribs, while his right still gripped the spear.

Clang.

He jabbed the Dragon Lizard's extended claw with the spear shaft. A Fourth-Rank Magic Beast did not care about such insignificant force and continued digging.

The crack was widening.

At this rate, within ten minutes, it would widen the opening enough to pull him out and swallow him whole.

Li Zhengyang retreated deeper into the crack.

After backing up five or six meters, his foot stepped into empty air.

He fell downward.

The crack connected to a vertical karst tunnel of unknown depth.

Li Zhengyang wedged his spear horizontally between the two walls, hanging from the shaft.

The sound of digging stone continued above him.

Below was darkness, but he had no idea how deep it went.

The broken bones in his left ribs pierced his flesh. Every breath felt like being stabbed with needles.

He stared down into the darkness for several seconds, then put away his spear.

And jumped.

He fell for roughly three seconds.

Then crashed into water.

The water was not deep, just over a meter. Beneath it lay gravel and silt.

Li Zhengyang crawled out of the water, soaked through. The broken ribs on his left side hurt so badly that he bared his teeth.

This was a tributary of the Underground Dark River.

The current was slow, and glowing moss grew along the rock walls, barely lighting the area within a few meters.

The digging sounds above grew more distant.

The Dragon Lizards could not chase him down here.

He had survived.

But he was trapped underground.

Li Zhengyang sat down against the rock wall, laying the spear across his legs.

He took out his phone. Luckily, it was waterproof, and the screen was still lit.

No signal.

Just as expected.

He opened the system and took a look.

[Current Blood-Qi Value: 25628]

[Current Realm: Eighth-Rank Great Martial Master]

His Blood Qi had not dropped, and his breakthrough had not regressed, but three ribs were broken and his left arm had no strength. A Great Martial Master's recovery ability was ten times stronger than an ordinary person's, but broken bones would still take three to five days to heal on their own.

He could not wait three to five days.

There were only two directions. First, go back up and fight the two Dragon Lizards to the death. Second, follow the Underground Dark River downstream and gamble on finding an exit.

There was no choice.

He got up and headed downstream.

He walked for roughly half an hour.

The Underground Dark River grew wider and wider, and the water deeper and deeper, reaching his waist in the deepest spots.

The glowing moss on the rock walls became denser, so lighting was not a concern.

As he walked, an open space appeared ahead.

The ceiling was over ten meters high, and a pile of things lay scattered across the cave floor.

Bones.

Human bones and animal bones, mixed together in a heap half a man tall.

Li Zhengyang slowed his steps.

This seemed to be a nest.

No wonder the Magic Beasts had not chased after him. They had gone home.

He raised his head and looked around, trying to find a way out.

He walked several dozen meters farther in.

Rust-covered iron bars appeared before him, the kind welded firmly in place.

Something was wrong.

Why would there be iron cages here? Magic Beasts could not weld.

He approached.

The cage on the left was empty, its door smashed open and its bars twisted crookedly.

There were people in the cage on the right.

Two people.

They were huddled in the corner, their clothes tattered beyond recognition.

One of them heard the footsteps and lifted his head.

He was a man in his early thirties, with sunken eye sockets and dried bloodstains on his face.

He wore a military green training uniform whose color could barely still be identified. A half-damaged insignia was on the left side of his chest.

Li Zhengyang recognized it.

A military insignia.

"Are you military personnel?"

The man stared at Li Zhengyang for several seconds. His lips were cracked, and he opened his mouth twice before any sound came out.

"Y-you... you're human?"

"Bullshit. What, do I look like a Dragon Lizard in disguise?"

The man's body swayed.

Another person lay beside him, motionless, though his chest rose and fell. He was alive.

"We're a reconnaissance team from the Special Operations Battalion. Three days ago, we received a mission to investigate Magic Beast activity on West Mountain..." The man spoke in fragments, his voice hoarse. "We encountered two Dragon Lizards, one male and one female. Of the six of us... only the two of us are alive."

A six-man reconnaissance team, with four dead.

Li Zhengyang looked at the lock on the iron cage.

He gripped an iron bar with one hand, exerted force, and twisted.

The iron bar bent, and the cage door sprang open.

The man touched the cage door, where the bars had left deep marks, and stared blankly for a moment.

"What's your strength?"

"Great Martial Master. Do you have water?"

The man shook his head.

Li Zhengyang rummaged through his Space Ring, found a canteen and two packs of compressed rations, and tossed them over.

"Eat first. Can you walk? What about the other guy?"

"Old Zhou's leg is broken." The man grabbed the canteen and gulped down two mouthfuls, then coughed for a long while. "He's our team leader. A Seventh-grade Grand Martial Master. The male Dragon Lizard snapped his right leg with one swipe of its tail and knocked him unconscious."

A Seventh-grade Grand Martial Master had his leg broken by one tail swipe.

Li Zhengyang looked at his own three broken left ribs.

Fine. They were fellow sufferers, crippled by the same tail swipe.

"Does this cave have an exit leading outside?"

The man gnawed on the compressed rations and shook his head. "I don't know. We were dragged in here three days ago. We tried looking, but Old Zhou can't walk, and I didn't dare go too far alone."

Li Zhengyang surveyed the karst cave.

The Underground Dark River flowed in from the east and stretched out westward.

Besides that, there were two dry cracks in the cave walls, their directions unknown.

Three possible paths.

Which one should they choose?

"How often does the male Dragon Lizard come back?"

"There's no pattern." The man wiped his mouth. "Sometimes it's a few hours, sometimes half a day. Every time it comes back, it arrives from that direction."

He pointed upstream along the Underground Dark River.

The direction Li Zhengyang had come from.

"Upstream leads to the nest, so that's out. Of the other two paths, which one did you scout before?"

"We explored the river to the west for two hundred meters. It got narrower and narrower, until there was only a palm-width crack. A person can't get through."

The Underground Dark River was out.

That left one path.

The two dry cracks in the cave wall.

One was to the north, the other to the south. Neither had been explored.

Li Zhengyang walked to the northern crack and peered inside. Darkness. No end in sight.

The air circulated, and a faint breeze drifted out.

Where there was wind, there was an exit.

"What's your name?"

"Xing Feng, second lieutenant of the Special Operations Battalion."

"Li Zhengyang, junior college student."

Xing Feng looked at the silver-white Alloy Spear on his back.

A junior college student could use equipment like that?

"Can you help carry Old Zhou?" Xing Feng tested his legs. He could stand, but had no strength in them.

Li Zhengyang walked over to the unconscious man, lifted him, and slung him over his shoulder. A man weighing over eighty kilograms was carried one-handed like a sack.

The broken bones in his left ribs ground against each other, making him frown, but he could endure it.

"Let's go."

The three of them crawled into the northern fissure.

They walked for twenty minutes.

The farther they went, the wider the fissure became, and the stronger the wind grew.

At last, a sliver of light shone through ahead.

It was not the phosphorescence of moss, but natural light.

Li Zhengyang quickened his pace.

The moment he crawled out, the sunlight stabbed his eyes, making him squint.

They had emerged from the other side of the mountain. They were halfway up the mountainside, facing east, with a barren slope stretching below them.

Xing Feng crawled out after them. The instant he saw daylight, his legs nearly gave out beneath him.

Li Zhengyang set the person on his shoulder down beside the rock wall.

He pulled out his phone.

There was signal.

Two bars. Enough.

He first sent Su Jin a picture. "Got the hide. Don't forget to transfer the seven hundred thousand."

After sending it, he checked the system again.

[Current Blood-Qi Value: 25628]

Li Zhengyang looked at Old Zhou, who was still unconscious, then at Xing Feng, who was leaning against a rock and gulping for air.

Military Special Operations Battalion.

Saving people like this had not been a loss.

"Second Lieutenant Xing."

Xing Feng looked up.

"I saved both your lives. Do you acknowledge that?"

Xing Feng froze for a moment, then nodded. "I do."

"Good. Let me ask you something."

"What is it?"

"Do you have any money on you?"

The corner of Xing Feng's mouth twitched.

This man had saved his life, and the first thing he asked about was money.

The mountain wind swept past, and a deep roar drifted from the depths of the fissure.

The sound was distant, yet crystal clear.

It was the male Dragon Lizard.

It had discovered that its prey was gone.

Its roars came faster and more urgently.

It was searching.

Xing Feng's face went pale.

Li Zhengyang grabbed the person on the ground and ran down the mountain.

"Don't just stand there—move! That beast has come looking for food!"