Volume 1: Bo'an Awakening & The Calamity Storm
Chapter 37
The Poison Claw Ape Lord
The acrid stench of scorched hide and singed fur mingled with the foul, suffocating miasma rising from the depths of the subterranean sewer conduits, forging a thick, pestilent pall of death that constricted the lungs with every drawn breath.
Along the slick, algae-encrusted concrete berm, the mangled carcasses of several juvenile Poison Claw Apes lay twisted in death. Viscous, blackened blood oozed from deep gouges hollowed out by concentrated fire magic, dripping rhythmically into the foul runoff below with wet, hollow patters. Sluggish wastewater, murky and choked with congealed grease and urban refuse funneled from the inner city residential districts above, swirled mid-calf around their boots.
Qin Kui leaned heavily against the sweat-drenched masonry of the sewer conduit, his broad chest heaving violently. Ragged gasps rasped through his clenched teeth. The tactical leather armor strapped across his flank was torn open in ragged shreds, exposing raw, bloody furrows where ape talons had narrowly grazed his flesh. Trembling fingers swept across his brow to wipe away streams of cold sweat as his gravelly voice broke the silence:
“Damn it all... these little runts swarmed like vermin. One more inch and my entire ribcage would’ve been gutted clean open! Good thing our little brother Fan Shen had our six locked down tight. Those two fireballs he lobbed just now were goddamn magnificent!”
A few paces away, Liu Biyu braced her mana focus wand—its tip mounted with an azure water crystal—against a concrete ledge. With unsteady fingers, she fished an empty vial from her utility belt and slotted a fresh flask of mana restoration draught in its place. The young woman’s delicate face was ghastly pale beneath the trembling beam of her headlamp; her lips were pressed into a bloodless line, fighting back the bile that threatened to surge up her throat. Wading through knee-deep sewage and rancid effluent for two grueling hours while sustaining layer after layer of Water Shields had pushed her mental reserves to the absolute brink of exhaustion.
“We... we’ve cleared out their nest, haven’t we, Captain?” Caijie asked, her bloodshot eyes turning toward the burly silhouette taking point ahead, her voice wavering. “Just a bit further up ahead is Main Pumping Station No. 4. If we inspect the drainage valves and find them clear, we can finally head back to the surface and file our report with the Hunter’s Union...”
Yet her trembling words were answered only by a tomb-like, suffocating silence.
Captain Yang Zuo stood rooted in the murky sludge, the dense corded muscle beneath his heavy steel cuirass coiled taut like the drawn string of a siege arbalest. The veteran hunter’s square, weathered jaw and battle-scarred features offered not the slightest flicker of relief following their minor skirmish. His cold, hawk-like eyes stared fixedly into the yawning, ink-black maw of the conduit ahead—the sharp elbow where the primary drainage line twisted deeper into the subterranean foundations beneath the city’s Western District.
Cradled within his calloused, leather-gloved palm, the antique bronze mana-seeking compass began emitting sharp, rapid clicks.
Tick... tick... clack-clack-clack!
The runic needle, which previously had only vibrated faintly to register the residual mana signatures of low-tier Servant-class beasts, was now spinning uncontrollably like a maddened top. Then, with a violent snap, it locked rigid—pointing directly toward the fathomless darkness waiting just beyond the bend!
“Something’s wrong...” Yang Zuo muttered, his voice dropping into a guttural, gravelly rasp that scraped in his throat. “Twelve municipal maintenance workers vanished over the past three days. Even combined, that pack of ape whelps we just slaughtered didn’t have the collective appetite to gorge on that much raw human flesh. There’s something else down here... something far worse!”
The moment the words left his lips, a bone-chilling premonition crept down the spine of every hunter present.
Stationed at the very rear of the tactical formation, Lin Feng maintained absolute stillness beneath his ash-gray tactical cloak. The upper half of his face remained completely sequestered behind the matte-silver mask, revealing only a pair of pitch-black eyes that mirrored the unfathomable depths of an ancient abyss.
Beneath the thick fabric of his tunic, pressed flat against his bare skin, the Primordial Dragon Pendant suddenly blazed scalding hot, radiating heat like a smoldering coal. Its obsidian surface vibrated with intense, rhythmic tremors that hammered against his ribs like the thundering cadences of war drums. It was broadcasting an unmistakable, high-tier danger warning: a colossal surge of predatory bloodlust—far eclipsing every Servant-class monster he had ever encountered in the wild reaches of Lu Yuan Valley—was surging upward from the subterranean deep!
“Captain! Something is swimming upstream toward us,” Lin Feng spoke out suddenly. His voice, deliberately pitched down beneath the silver mask, carried a raspy, measured timbre entirely distinct from his natural cadence. “And it’s moving at terrifying speed!”
Before Qin Kui or Liu Biyu could even begin to process his warning, the black wastewater underfoot began to churn in violent, unnatural turbulence.
Gurgle... rumble... BOOM!
From deep within the subterranean bend, massive columns of froth and foul bubbles boiled to the surface, rupturing violently and venting a foul, putrid stench reminiscent of rotting corpses sealed within an airtight tomb for decades. The viscous, grease-slicked current instantly reversed direction, swelling into a violent surge of subterranean waves that rose straight toward their knees.
The entire reinforced-concrete conduit trembled violently. Flakes of ancient moss and chunks of decayed mortar rained down in clattering showers from the vaulted ceiling into the foaming current.
Crash... scrape... grind!
The surging torrent split violently toward the flanking masonry, parting around a colossal, jagged obsidian ridge that broke through the silt and black water like an armored leviathan breaching the surface.
A towering shadow of nightmare proportions rose steadily from the lightless turn of the tunnel!
The behemoth slowly reared onto two massive hind legs as thick as stone temple pillars. Its towering frame surpassed three and a half meters in height, its broad shoulders bulging with slab-like knots of muscle dense as granite boulders. Atop its skull, jagged bone spikes thrust upward like an iron crown, nearly scraping against the arched concrete ceiling of the primary drainage conduit!
Bathed in the shuddering, flickering beams of their tactical headlamps, the horrific visage of this monstrous lord materialized in gruesome, razor-sharp detail, instantly squeezing the air from the lungs of everyone present.
It was undeniably a Poison Claw Ape—yet its physical mass was four times that of its lesser kin!
Not only was its entire frame carpeted in coarse, jet-black fur as stiff as iron wire, but encasing that thick hide was a dense crust of petrified mana mineral sludge. Decades of subterranean mineral runoff saturated with ambient magic had crystallized across its flesh, hardening into an impenetrable suit of black-scaled plate that armored the monster from its throat down to its four limbs, gleaming with the eerie, phosphorescent luster of pale ash. Every joint groaned with heavy, mechanical creaks with each raspy exhalation, venting turbid yellow plumes of toxic gas that reeked pungently of sulfur.
Yet most terrifying of all was the beast’s grotesque skull.
Within its deep-set sockets, twin crimson eyes the size of soup bowls flared with the unholy light of ghostly spirit fires. They possessed no pupils—only a fathomless well of pure, unbridled malice, feral madness, and bottomless hunger. Flanking its temples, two colossal fan-like ears flared wide like withered palm fronds, webbed with thick cords of dark purple veins that pulsed in sync with the beast’s thundering heartbeat!
“A... a Poison Claw Ape Lord?!” Qin Kui’s jaw went completely slack, his teeth chattering uncontrollably with sharp, brittle clicks as cold lead seemed to pour down his spine, rooting him to the spot. “How... how in the hell can an alpha beast lord appear inside a civilian municipal sewer?!”
“This is no ordinary Servant-class...” Yang Zuo’s pupils shrank to microscopic pinpricks, thick blue veins bulging violently across his forehead. His knuckles went white around the hilt of his heavy mana-iron greatsword as his hand shook slightly: “That mineral sludge has completely crystallized into mana plate armor... This aura has breached the absolute peak of the Servant class. It’s half a step into the Warrior class! Dammit to hell, those paper-pushing bastards at City Hall completely botched the mission briefing!”
A half-step Warrior-class beast!
Within the established hierarchy of magical beasts, subduing a high-tier Servant-class creature already demanded a seasoned squad of Basic Mages working in flawless tactical synchrony. But once an entity crossed the threshold of the “Warrior class”—even by a mere half-step—its raw physical brutality, movement speed, and natural spell resistance skyrocketed to a completely different tier of existence! That was a true apex slaughtering machine, capable of tearing an ordinary hunter squad into shredded ribbons of flesh within the span of a few heartbeats!
Hiss... SSSKKKRRR!
Fixing its ghastly gaze upon the diminutive figures standing thigh-deep in the foul water, the Ape Lord peeled back its lips, exposing jagged, yellowed fangs from which strands of viscous, emerald venom dripped, hissing and frothing the instant they made contact with the sewer runoff. Its massive, bruise-purple ears suddenly snapped erect, their outer rims vibrating at a frenzied, blinding frequency—so fast that the very space surrounding its skull seemed to warp, smearing into translucent, shimmering ripples!
WUUUUU——!!
An invisible, devastating ultrasonic shockwave carrying a lethal resonant frequency swept violently through the tunnel!
There was no deafening thunderclap, yet the subterranean atmosphere instantly thickened like drying resin. The razor-sharp sonic wave drove into the eardrums of the four mages like tens of thousands of venom-coated steel needles!
“Aaaaagh!”
Liu Biyu let out a bloodcurdling shriek as her focus wand slipped from her grasp, splashing into the muck. Clutching her head with both hands, she collapsed to her knees in the foul water. Fresh, bright crimson blood burst from both her ear canals, running in thin rivulets through her pale fingers. Under the merciless assault of the ultrasonic burst, her sea of consciousness violently convulsed; the seven Water Star Cores she had frantically tried to align for a defensive bulwark shattered instantly into drifting motes of light!
Qin Kui stumbled sideways, slamming hard against the conduit wall. His eyes bulged, crisscrossed with ruptured capillaries. Violent vertigo racked his frame, causing his stomach to heave uncontrollably as he vomited a mouthful of bitter yellow bile into the filth.
Under the crushing pressure of the sonic wave, Lin Feng also felt a sudden, piercing ache throbbing inside his skull. Yet, having endured the metaphysical trauma of transmigration that melded two lifetimes of soul strength, coupled with the strange, soothing coolness the Primordial Dragon Pendant channeled into his meridians at that crucial moment, he merely took half a step back, gritting his teeth to anchor his mental sea. His eyes remained locked upon the vibrating ears of the beast, his mind calculating with lethal clarity: this monster was weaponizing ultrasonic frequencies to shatter a mage’s Star Path connection before closing the distance to tear them apart!
“Goddammit! It’s a mutated alpha! Fall back, everyone! Fall back!!”
Yang Zuo roared like a clap of thunder. The veteran captain bit clean through his lower lip, the sharp metallic taste of blood flooding his mouth to forcibly jolt his mind awake against the disorienting sonic wave.
He knew with absolute certainty: if he took even a single step back now, the two younger members behind him would be pulverized into paste beneath the monster’s iron tread!
BAM!
Yang Zuo drove the pommel of his heavy greatsword into the conduit floor. Ochre, earthen mana erupted violently from his frame, blowing back the lingering sonic distortion. Beneath his boots, a radiant hexagonal magic circle of brilliant amber light flared to life as seven Earth Star Cores linked in flawless alignment, forging an unyielding Star Orbit!
“Earth Wave: Rock Barrier! Stone Ramparts, rise!!”
Yang Zuo’s bloodcurdling war cry reverberated through the tunnel vault.
Rumble! Crash! CRUNCH!
Foul water geysered violently toward the arched ceiling. From the silt and bedrock beneath the sewer bed, three colossal, ash-gray slabs of stone—each over half a meter thick—surged upward in succession, locking together to form an imposing barricade that sealed off the tunnel bend! This was the pinnacle defensive technique of Basic Earth Magic Tier 2—three interlocking ramparts of solid stone, sturdy enough to halt the momentum of a charging armored column!
Yet the Poison Claw Ape Lord showed not the slightest trace of hesitation or fear.
Gazing upon the three stone bulwarks barring its path, the crimson glow within its hollow sockets flared with cruel, feral contempt. It unleashed an ear-splitting shriek, its pillar-like hind legs slamming against the conduit floor to detonate a geyser of black water that blasted against the roof. Its colossal, multi-ton frame surged forward like a heavy artillery shell loosed from its cannon!
WHOOSH!
The monster’s colossal right arm shot forth. Long and grotesque like the trunk of an ancient oak, thick black veins roped across its flesh beneath the petrified mineral plate. It balled its massive fist, studded with jagged bone nodules, dragging a deafening gale of concussive force that ripped through the damp gloom to deliver a catastrophic blow directly against the first stone wall!
KABOOM——!!
A concussive blast detonated within the confined subterranean space!
There was no struggle, no hesitation! The first half-meter-thick stone rampart ruptured into hundreds of flying fragments the instant fist met rock. Carrying the crushing inertia of a falling mountain, the ape’s devastating blow blasted straight through the second rampart, then smashed the third into fine powder like a war hammer shattering brittle eggshells!
“What?!” Yang Zuo’s eyes bulged in utter horror, a spurt of fresh blood leaking from the corner of his lips as his magic was violently severed by raw physical force. The beast’s brute strength defied all mortal comprehension!
Shattered stone and shrapnel ricocheted across the tunnel like a deadly hail of iron crossbow bolts, embedding into the concrete walls with dull thuds. Through the billowing smoke and pulverizing dust, the towering shadow of the Poison Claw Ape Lord tore through the debris, hurtling directly toward Yang Zuo—less than five meters away!
A set of razor-sharp, half-meter-long black talons, dripping with deep purple venom, rose high into the gloom. Screeching through the air with lethal velocity, they plunged straight toward the captain’s skull!
“Die, beast!”
Right at the razor’s edge between life and death, a chilling, resolute cry rang out from the rear.
Lin Feng did not flinch. From the very instant the monster had raised its fist to pulverize the first barrier, he had already anticipated the catastrophic collapse of Yang Zuo’s defense. Without a microsecond of hesitation, Lin Feng’s sea of consciousness flared with blinding crimson light. Seven Fire Star Cores, under his millimeter-perfect control, snapped into a straight line in the blink of an eye!
His casting speed was nothing short of miraculous—practically bordering upon instant cast!
“Fire Burst: Bone Scorch!”
FWOOSH!
A deep crimson fireball the size of a millstone ignited brilliantly within Lin Feng’s palm, tearing through the damp subterranean mist and hurtling forward with sonic velocity. Packing terrifying thermal energy within its compressed core, the fireball carved a blazing parabolic arc through the pitch-black sewer conduit!
Yet he was far from finished!
Lin Feng’s left hand swept forward in an unbroken continuation of movement. Mana within his Fire Stardust surged like a tidal tempest; seven Star Cores linked once again in the span of a single heartbeat without the slightest pause!
“Fire Burst: Blazing Conflagration!”
Two concentrated Fire Bursts shot forth in rapid succession, screaming through the gloom like twin fiery comets homing straight for the Poison Claw Ape Lord’s chest!
BOOM! BOOM!!
Two deafening explosions detonated in violent unison. The first fireball slammed dead center into the beast’s chest, the compressed fire mana erupting into a roaring conflagration that swallowed its colossal frame in an ocean of searing flame. The second fireball bored straight into the epicenter of the blast, triggering a secondary thermal rupture that flash-boiled the wastewater beneath its feet into thick clouds of blinding white steam!
The concussive shockwave of the double blast arrested the Ape Lord’s forward momentum, shoving the behemoth back half a step. Its downward slash veered off-course, glancing off Yang Zuo’s shoulder pauldron to gouge deep into the bedrock of the sewer floor, sending showers of blinding sparks flying in all directions!
Yang Zuo threw himself into a desperate roll through the muck, escaping death by the width of a hair. Panting hoarsely, he scrambled to look up, a flicker of hope surging in his chest at the terrifying display of dual Fire Bursts.
Yet that fragile spark of hope was extinguished without mercy in the very next instant.
Through the drifting black smoke and boiling steam, the crimson flames gradually sputtered out. The Poison Claw Ape Lord remained standing, tall and unyielding like an impenetrable mountain of black iron!
Lin Feng’s twin Fire Bursts had merely charred the outer layer of crystallized mineral sludge across its chest into a dull, calcified patch of ash-gray. That armor, dense as quenched cold iron, had absorbed and dispersed nearly the entirety of the Basic Fire magic’s thermal fury. Beneath the mineral plate, not a single drop of demonic blood leaked; its core flesh was completely intact, having suffered zero substantive injury!
Complete thermal immunity to Basic Fire magic!
Beneath his silver mask, Lin Feng’s eyes narrowed slightly. Staring at the scorched patches on the beast’s chest, he recognized the peculiar heat-dissipating properties of the mineral armor, steeped in virulent toxins over decades of subterranean gestation. Unless breached by Intermediate Magic or targeted precisely at its unguarded weak points, ordinary wide-area bombardment was no more effective than scratching an itch!
Deep within Lin Feng’s spiritual cosmos, the deep-purple Lightning Stardust began to rumble. Tiny arcs of violet electricity, coiling like silver serpents, flickered subtly across his fingertips concealed beneath the folds of his tactical mantle. He compressed his mana, calculating, waiting for the perfect window to strike.
Huuuuurgh—— ROAAAR!
Enraged that its armor had been scorched by these puny insects, the Poison Claw Ape Lord threw its head back and roared in frenzied fury. Its blood-red eyes blazed with crimson malice as every stiff bristle along its spine flared erect.
The monster pounded both fists violently against its chest, producing deep, hollow concussions that thudded like giant rawhide war drums. In the next instant, its colossal frame twisted around at an eerily unnatural angle!
SWISH—— CRACK!
A whip-like tail over four meters long, previously concealed beneath the black water, whipped violently into the air!
This was no ordinary, supple primate tail—it was an iron scourge plated with hardened keratinous scales and studded with needle-sharp venomous spines. Slicing through the air with earth-shattering force, the tail swept across the water’s surface, kicking up a scythe-like crescent of pressurized spray that slashed directly toward Yang Zuo!
The strike was unfathomably fast!
Yang Zuo had barely scrambled to his feet from the foul sludge; there was zero time to construct another Earth Star Orbit. In that razor-thin instant between life and death, the veteran hunter captain could only hoist his heavy mana-iron greatsword before his chest on pure survival instinct!
CLANG! SNAP!
A bone-chilling, brittle shriek of sheared metal tore through their eardrums!
The thick greatsword forged of reinforced mana-iron buckled instantly beneath the tail’s direct impact, snapping cleanly in two! The whip-tail carried forward without losing a fraction of its momentum, slamming its full, crushing weight directly into Yang Zuo’s ribcage!
Crack... crunch!
The sickening, brittle sound of shattering bones rang out with horrifying clarity through the vaulted conduit.
Yang Zuo’s burly frame was launched into the air like a ragdoll, flying over ten meters before slamming violently against the reinforced-concrete wall of the sewer.
KABOOM!
The concrete wall fractured into a sprawling spiderweb of deep cracks. Yang Zuo slid limply down the masonry, his knees collapsing into the sludge. A heavy spray of dark, frothing blood erupted from his lips, painting his battered chestplate a glistening crimson. Beneath his shattered armor, the left side of his ribcage was severely caved in; each shallow, agonizing gasp produced a gruesome grating rattle as jagged bone fragments scraped against his punctured lung.
“Cap... Captain...”
Qin Kui stared with bloodshot, bulging eyes that threatened to tear at their corners. He crawled forward desperately through the mud, his throat constricted in choked horror. Yang Zuo was the bedrock of the Azure Wind Hunter Squad, their sole Tier 2 Basic Earth Mage and an irreplaceable veteran of countless hunts. Now, in a single brutal exchange, he had been completely incapacitated, his life flickering like a dying candle in a hurricane!
Liu Biyu curled behind the drainage curb, trembling violently as she watched the pool of fresh blood spreading across the foul water. Her legs were numb; her fingers clawed into the jagged concrete edge so hard that blood seeped from beneath her fingernails, washing into the freezing wastewater. Tears mingled with the blood dripping from her ruptured eardrums, streaking across her grime-streaked face.
Despair! A dark, suffocating despair swallowed the entire subterranean tunnel. Trapped in a dead-end conduit, both hunters were paralyzed under the overwhelming, crushing aura of the mutated alpha beast!
Thud... Thud... Thud...
Each heavy footstep of the Poison Claw Ape Lord sent ripples pulsing across the surface of the black water.
It strode leisurely toward Yang Zuo, who lay motionless in the expanding pool of blood. The distance between the monster and the fallen captain closed to less than three paces. Its hollow red sockets stared down at the gasping, bleeding man with cold amusement. The beast pulled its lips back to reveal rows of jagged, rotting teeth caked with carrion, venting low, guttural hisses dripping with feral triumph.
Slowly, it raised its colossal, armored right arm high into the gloom.
Five razor-sharp talons, black as midnight and edged like curved daggers, were wreathed in a sinister mist of virulent purple venom. Ripping through the air with a bone-chilling shriek, the claws plunged straight toward Yang Zuo’s unprotected skull!
If this strike landed, the veteran captain’s head would be obliterated into paste on the spot!
“Run... get out of here...” Yang Zuo whispered, his vision blurring from massive blood loss. Blood choked in his throat as he pushed out those final, broken words.
Seven paces away, in the deepest shadow of the sewer conduit where the beam of their headlamps failed to reach, the figure in the ash-gray tactical cloak quietly took a single step forward.
Beneath the silver mask, Lin Feng’s gaze was frigid and serene, devoid of even the slightest tremor of fear. Across the back of his hand, violent arcs of eerie, violet-black lightning began to crackle and dance, tearing through the damp subterranean mist!