Lin Yi took a deep breath. Blood-gold Divine Markings flared beneath his skin layer by layer, and the phantom of a Savage Bull behind him solidified until it seemed real. The weight of 120,000 jin pressed heavily into every inch of his bones and muscles.
Biao stood half a step beside him, gripping his broad-backed saber crosswise. The muscles in both arms bulged as if cast from iron, veins crawling from the backs of his hands all the way up his forearms.
"Brother Biao, I'll go first. Look for an opening." Before Lin Yi had even finished speaking, he had already charged out.
Spear first, its tip ripped through the air with a piercing howl, stabbing straight at the Inkshadow Leopard's face!
The Inkshadow Leopard sensed the immense force bearing down on it head-on, and its dark-green vertical pupils suddenly contracted.
It no longer hid itself. Fine black Divine Markings, thin as ink strokes, surfaced across its body, first appearing on its limbs before spreading from its shoulder blades to the tips of its claws.
A layer of cold green light also rose within those dark-green eyes, flooding its pupils completely, like two ghostly lamps hanging in the darkness.
Lin Yi's spear struck.
At the instant the spear tip was only half a foot from the Inkshadow Leopard's forehead, its figure abruptly vanished from where it stood.
The spear drove straight into the rock where the Inkshadow Leopard had just been standing. Shattered stones flew everywhere, and a bowl-sized crater exploded across the bluish-gray stone surface, cracks spreading outward like a spiderweb.
Lin Yi's pupils shrank sharply.
"Watch out—behind you!" Biao's furious roar exploded from the side.
Lin Yi had no time to turn around. He could already feel the air behind his back being torn apart.
A cold, razor-sharp pressure was shooting directly toward the center of his back, so fast that even the instinct to raise his hairs came too late.
Without a moment's hesitation, he gripped the spear shaft with both hands, using the recoil from the spear embedded in the rock to twist and spin violently—the spear swept behind him!
Clang!
The claw tips smashed viciously into the center of the spear shaft. The crisp crash of metal against metal made Lin Yi's ears ring.
The jet-black claws carved three deep grooves into the hardwood spear shaft, which was as tough as metal.
Crack! Snap.
That hardwood spear, which had accompanied him in hunting the Savage Bull King and pinning an entire herd of Earth Gnawers to death, finally reached its limit beneath the Inkshadow Leopard's claw.
The shaft burst apart along those three grooves, breaking into several fragments that scattered across the ground.
And the Inkshadow Leopard's claw strike had not yet spent its force. The remaining power slammed straight into Lin Yi's chest!
"Puh—!"
Lin Yi was sent flying. His back smashed hard into a massive tree behind him, so thick it would take two people to encircle it.
The trunk shook violently, and leaves came showering down like rain. He had no time to stop himself; after crashing through that tree, his body slammed into a second one before he finally came to a halt. He slid down the trunk and dropped to one knee.
A mouthful of blood sprayed from his lips, bright red against the muddy ground.
The suffocating pain in his chest felt as though someone had wedged a red-hot iron plate between his ribs. Every breath came with a needle-prick sting.
The hand Lin Yi braced against the ground trembled slightly, but he did not fall.
He roughly wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth with his left arm, raised his head, and stared fixedly at that mass of inky-black shadow.
"Fuck... that speed... that's too damn sinister."
He cursed between coughs, his voice hoarse as sandpaper scraping over iron.
The instant Biao saw Lin Yi sent flying, every tactic and bit of coordination was thrown from his mind.
He no longer waited for an opening. With a furious roar, he swung his broad-backed saber down in a savage chop, the blade carrying 85,000 jin of force as it cleaved toward the Inkshadow Leopard's head!
But the Inkshadow Leopard was more than a level faster than him.
The moment Biao's blade descended, the Inkshadow Leopard's figure had already dispersed from the spot like black smoke.
The next second, it appeared at Biao's left. Its claws swept horizontally, aimed straight for Biao's head!
Biao had no time to block with his saber. Relying only on battle instincts forged over many years, he raised his left arm to shield his head.
Crack!
A bone-breaking snap, enough to make teeth ache, exploded through the air.
Biao's thick left forearm, like an iron pillar, bent outward at a grotesque angle. The sound of shattering bone was so clear that Lin Yi's heart clenched violently.
Biao was knocked flying sideways, his body spinning half a turn in midair before crashing heavily onto the rocky ground over ten feet away.
"Brother Biao!"
Lin Yi forced himself forward, ignoring the agonizing pain in his chest. He launched himself out and reached Biao at the exact instant he hit the ground, catching him with both hands.
But at the very instant he bent over to catch Biao, the air behind the back of his head was torn apart again.
The Inkshadow Leopard's second strike had arrived! It pounced from the side, claws aimed directly at Lin Yi's heart from behind.
This time, it was no longer testing him. It intended to kill with one blow.
Lin Yi had no time to block and no time to dodge.
Without even turning his head, he threw one arm violently behind him. His clenched fist carried all the power of the Savage Bull Diagram, and 120,000 jin of blood and vitality exploded from his knuckles!
Boom!
The instant fist and claw collided, the air compressed into a visible shockwave. Gravel and fallen leaves were blasted outward from the ground.
The Inkshadow Leopard's claw was blasted back by the punch, and its entire body was shoved backward several yards by the recoil.
After landing, the Inkshadow Leopard bent its limbs slightly to steady itself. Its dark-green vertical pupils stared at Lin Yi, and its chest rose and fell far more rapidly than before.
A trace of dark blood seeped from the corner of its mouth. That punch had shaken its internal organs.
Lin Yi's left fist, meanwhile, was a mangled mess of flesh and blood, and three finger bones sent back the clear sensation of having shattered.
But he did not look at his own hand. Instead, he lowered his gaze and quickly checked Biao's condition.
Biao's left arm was twisted at an unnatural angle, clearly a comminuted fracture.
A deep claw wound ran along one side of his forehead, skin and flesh rolled back as blood gushed from it and covered half his face. His breathing was shallow and rapid, and he had completely lost consciousness.
The Inkshadow Leopard was panting as well.
Those ghostly green eyes locked tightly onto Lin Yi. The light in its pupils had dimmed somewhat, and the black Divine Markings on its body were slowly losing their brilliance.
After having its all-out strike blocked, its explosive power had clearly dropped by a significant margin.
Lin Yi gently laid Biao on the ground behind him and straightened up.
He took a deep, ragged breath and swallowed back the second mouthful of blood surging up his chest. He could not show even the slightest sign of weakness, or the Inkshadow Leopard would pounce without hesitation.
He bared his teeth in a smile full of bloody froth. "You beast... already out of tricks after just that?"
The Inkshadow Leopard's ears flattened backward, and a low hiss rumbled from its throat.
Its limbs trembled almost imperceptibly. The expenditure of that peak explosive state could not be maintained for long.
Lin Yi did not rush to attack either.
Within his mind, the ink-black diagram of Divine Markings was closing its final outline.
From the instant the Inkshadow Leopard activated its Divine Ability, his Super Brain had begun recording: the paths of the markings on its limbs, the sequence in which they lit up.
Every detail had been engraved stroke by stroke into the depths of his mind.
At that moment, the end of the final fine line met its starting point, and the entire diagram of Divine Markings became complete.
"Fuck your mother—!"
Lin Yi moved!
His feet kicked off the ground, scattering gravel. Like a Savage Bull enraged beyond all restraint, wrapped in violent waves of blood-gold light and the Savage Bull phantom, he charged head-on at the Inkshadow Leopard!
The Inkshadow Leopard instinctively tried to dodge again, but this time, its speed had clearly dropped by a tier!
The glow of those ink-black Divine Markings had dimmed further, the muscles in its limbs trembling slightly after repeated bursts of power. As it dodged, its body showed the faintest instant of sluggishness.
Lin Yi seized that instant!
He lunged sideways and grabbed the Inkshadow Leopard's thick, long black tail with both hands!
"Get the hell over here!"
His 120,000 jin of strength erupted at once! The Inkshadow Leopard's body was violently swung off the ground like a black meteor hammer.
Gritting his teeth, Lin Yi turned and smashed that massive beast savagely toward the ground!
Boom!
Gravel flew, and a shallow crater was smashed into the ground. The Inkshadow Leopard let out a short, shrill screech, its limbs clawing wildly through the air.
Lin Yi did not stop! His arms exerted force again, hauling the Inkshadow Leopard up from the crater in the opposite direction and smashing it down onto the ground on the other side!
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Four times in total! Every blow carried all the strength in his body, and every blow split another fresh crack into the ground.
The Inkshadow Leopard's bones let out a string of teeth-gritting snaps under the impacts. Blood poured continuously from its mouth, spraying across the flying gravel and dirt.
After the fourth slam, the Inkshadow Leopard's tail was finally torn off at the root by Lin Yi's brute strength!
A section of black tailbone still connected to fur was clenched in Lin Yi's hand, while the Inkshadow Leopard's body crashed into the crater. It lay limp all over, limbs twisted and splayed out, with only its chest still rising weakly.
Panting roughly, Lin Yi casually tossed the severed tail aside.
He stepped into the crater and straddled the Inkshadow Leopard's back!
He raised his right fist high. The skin and flesh across it were mangled, and the agony of broken finger bones stabbed madly through his nerves every time he clenched his fist.
But he did not care anymore.
The first punch landed, collapsing one side of the Inkshadow Leopard's skull.
The second punch shattered its cheekbone.
The third punch sent dark blood mixed with bone fragments splashing across Lin Yi's face.
He pounded down fist after fist, cursing with every blow. "Fuck! Sneak attack! You fucking—sneak attack! I'll fucking—let you—sneak attack!"
Only when half the Inkshadow Leopard's skull had completely caved in, and those dark-green eyes had utterly lost all light, did Lin Yi finally stop punching.
His hand hung at his side, fingertips still trembling uncontrollably. Nearly all the skin and flesh on his knuckles had peeled back, exposing jagged white bone beneath.
He fell backward, lying flat on the edge of the crater.
Lin Yi lay there, his chest heaving violently. Every breath made his lungs wheeze like a bellows.
The fractures in his chest, the shattered bones in his left fist, and the countless scrapes and bruises across his body all seemed to flare up at once, pain making his vision go dark in waves.
But he smiled.
Bloody froth trickled from the corner of his mouth. Grinning at the sky, he muttered indistinctly, "Fuck, I won."
He turned his head and glanced at the unconscious Biao not far away, then looked at the black corpse in the crater that had gone completely still.
The ink-black Divine Markings were fading inch by inch from the Inkshadow Leopard's body.
Lin Yi lowered his arm and closed his eyes. He wanted to lie there and rest a little longer.
Just a little while.
Before you continue