Jumping into the deep pit, Loa drew a deep breath of icy air, bent down, and braced both arms against the Earth Vein Lizard's belly. It felt cold and slippery, smeared with lingering blood and dirt. His back and waist abruptly tensed, his leg muscles bulged, and the tremendous strength of a Rank 6 Warrior burst forth.
"Up!"
With that low shout, he forcibly lifted the upper half of the enormous creature off the bottom of the pit. Sure enough, it was astonishingly heavy. Having grown up eating iron ore, its body was far denser than ordinary flesh and blood, weighing an estimated several thousand jin. Still, for Loa, who had reached Mid-Stage Rank 6 and was bolstered by battle-qi, it remained manageable.
He adjusted his stance, raised the lizard's corpse overhead, and pushed off the bottom of the pit with his toes, leaping out. The snow crunched beneath his feet as he set the corpse down. After checking his bearings, he grabbed the heavy trophy by its tail and dragged it toward the bear-cave camp with steady strides.
The journey was uneventful. During the earlier battle, the pressure unleashed by the dying Seventh-Level Magical Beast and the commotion caused by that final, terrifying stone sphere had long since frightened every magical beast with even a little intelligence far away from the area. None would dare approach this bloody battlefield anytime soon.
If anything dared approach now, Loa would slice it into eight pieces with a few swift streaks of sword qi!
Thud!
The heavy lizard corpse was tossed onto the clearing before the bear cave, sending up a cloud of powdered snow. After successive fierce battles and hauling a heavy load over a long distance, even Loa's constitution could not keep him from feeling tired. He first returned to