Volume 1: Bo'an Awakening & The Calamity Storm
Chapter 38
Luring the Tiger from the Mountain
A foul, nauseating stench howled through the suffocating subterranean conduit.
High above its head, the gargantuan, fur-matted paw of the Poison Claw Ape Lord hung poised to strike. Five pitch-black talons—each half a foot long and dripping with viscous, oily slime that reeked of rotting carrion—gleamed maliciously in the gloom. Tearing through the murky shadows with the bone-crushing momentum of a falling boulder, the razor-sharp talons plunged toward Captain Yang Zuo’s skull!
Yang Zuo knelt collapsed in the rancid black muck, his chest sunken inward where broken bone fragments punctured his lungs. Crimson blood seeped freely through his shattered tactical armor, soaking the torn plates. Every ragged gasp produced only a wet, choked rattle. Staring death in the face from mere inches away, the battle-hardened veteran hunter could barely slit open his clouded eyes as a mouthful of dark, clotted blood welled past his trembling lips.
Ten paces away, Liu Biyu collapsed against a moss-slicked concrete ledge, her raw, scraped fingers clutching desperately at the masonry. Her Water-element mana had been completely drained by the brutal skirmish. Watching the monstrous talons about to pulverize her captain’s skull, the young woman could only let out a shrill, helpless shriek:
“Captain!!”
Beside her, Ye Bin trembled violently from head to toe. The Wind mage’s calves were locked stiff with utter exhaustion; the faint updraft he struggled to gather beneath his boots dispersed into nothingness before it could even lift him.
Despair tightened like a noose around their throats, suffocating the breath from their lungs.
Yet at that razor-thin margin between life and death, from the deepest gloom of the main conduit, a slender silhouette draped in a dark tactical cloak suddenly burst into motion.
Beneath the rough-hewn silver mask, Lin Feng’s dark eyes remained as tranquil as an unrippled lake. He did not look at the descending talons poised to crush their captain, nor did he look at the hardened crust of mineral-laden mud that shielded the monster’s chest like tempered armor plate.
His gaze locked onto a single, fatal target: the right ear canal of the Poison Claw Ape Lord!
This feral monstrosity relied entirely upon its palm-leaf-sized auditory organs to navigate and locate prey in pitch darkness. Precisely because of that acute adaptation, the delicate tympanic membrane nestled deep within its ear cavity was the most vulnerable point on its entire frame—utterly devoid of protective mud armor!
Lin Feng’s spiritual sea surged with silent power.
Within his crimson Fire Stardust, seven brilliant red Star Cores flared to life, snapping together into a seamless Star Path in barely a third of a second. His casting speed was so fluid and instantaneous that there wasn’t a microsecond of hesitation!
“Fire Burst!”
Lin Feng uttered a low, cold bark.
Within his right palm, the manifested flame did not erupt into an unwieldy ball of fire. Instead, through the sheer force of his sharpened intent, the raging heat was forcefully compressed—condensed down into a crimson orb no larger than a fist. The intensely packed thermal energy radiated such staggering heat that the surrounding air distorted and warped into shimmering heat mirages.
With a snap of his wrist, the compressed bead of flame sheared through the darkness like a tracer bullet!
Whoosh!
A brilliant crimson streak scored a burning line across the mold-choked gloom of the tunnel, skimming inches above the steaming sewage current before hurtling with pinpoint precision straight into the depths of the Ape Lord’s right ear!
BOOM!!
A sharp, concussive detonation packed with apocalyptic pressure erupted inside the beast’s enclosed auditory canal!
A thousand degrees of thermal shockwave, trapped within that narrow, fleshy cavity, instantly detonated the monster’s eardrum and obliterated its auditory nervous network. Fetid black blood mingled with foul, curdled pus erupted outward, splattering across the concrete vault above. An agony so excruciating it felt like a white-hot iron spike driven directly into its cerebrum ripped through every nerve ending in its skull!
“ROOOAAARGH!!”
A gut-wrenching howl of sheer torment tore through the subterranean chamber, rebounding off the masonry walls in a series of bone-chilling reverberations that made Liu Biyu’s and Ye Bin’s eardrums ring with deafening static.
Spasming in violent agony, the Ape Lord’s descending swipe veered half a fathom off course. With a deafening crash, five steel-hard talons gouged deep into the concrete floor, churning up clouds of sludge and jagged stone chips that peppered Yang Zuo’s limp form.
Staggering backward three heavy paces, the beast sent turbulent waves roiling through the flooded conduit. Its massive, fur-covered paws clutched frantically at its ruined right ear, where thick black blood gushed down its shoulder. The towering behemoth trembled with psychotic, unbridled fury. Abandoning the dying man at its feet, it whipped its hideous visage around, bloodshot crimson eyes sweeping the gloom in search of the ambusher.
Perched atop a rugged concrete outcropping three meters above the water line, the dark-cloaked figure behind the silver mask stood resolute amidst wisps of acrid sulfur smoke.
Lin Feng looked down from the jagged ledge, his mantle snapping against the updraft of blistering air. Looking past the beast to his two shell-shocked comrades, his voice rang out with thunderous authority, slicing cleanly through the chaotic din of the cavernous conduit:
“Ye Bin! Get the Captain on your back and retreat immediately! I’ll draw it into Branch Three!”
The clarion command shattered Ye Bin’s stupor like a chiming bell. The Wind mage flinched, looking from the thick torrent of black gore streaming down the monster’s flank to Lin Feng standing high above:
“Fan Shen... you...”
“Cut the crap!” Lin Feng snapped, his tone brooking no argument. “The Captain’s internal organs are ruptured. If you don’t get him to the surface for emergency triage right now, not even the gods can save him! Move!”
Scrambling up from the foul water, Liu Biyu’s grime-streaked face was bathed in tears. She choked on a ragged sob, her voice trembling and cracked:
“Fan Shen, have you lost your mind?! That’s a peak Servant-class beast, half a step into the Warrior-class! Branch Three is a dead end—luring it in there alone is suicide! You’re just a probationary recruit...”
“Get moving! I have my own way out!”
Lin Feng cut her off with an icy bark. Deep within his obsidian pupils, there was not the faintest flicker of hesitation or fear.
He understood the tactical reality all too well. If the squad attempted to flee together, weighed down by Yang Zuo’s critical injuries and Ye Bin’s exhaustion, the alpha beast would overtake them in three bounds and slaughter them one by one. Someone had to act as bait and siphon every drop of its murderous hatred onto themselves.
And more importantly—only by shedding these witnesses could he unleash his true power without risking the exposure of his Innate Dual Elements!
Seeing the Poison Claw Ape Lord shaking its blood-drenched head and beginning to recover its bearings, Lin Feng instantly cycled a second Star Path.
A vibrant bloom of crimson fire ignited within his palm. Granting the alpha beast no reprieve, he whipped his arm forward, hurling the fireball straight at the bridge of its snout and its remaining good eye!
KABOOM!
The flame detonated squarely against the beast king’s face. While its thick, ridge-plated skull absorbed the raw concussive blast, the blistering heat scorched its grizzled facial fur to ash in an instant. An acrid stench of burning keratin assaulted its flared nostrils. Its left eye stung violently, its vision drowned in a swirling storm of scalding embers and ash.
The alpha beast’s fury erupted past the point of sanity!
As the undisputed apex predator of the subterranean underworld beneath Bian’an City, never had a puny human prey dared to deafen one of its ears and scorch the flesh from its face like this. The searing agony combined with primal humiliation transformed the beast into an unhinged engine of slaughter.
In its blood-red vision, Yang Zuo and the two frail hunters in the distance ceased to exist. Its sole target—the object of its absolute malice—was the minuscule human in the silver mask standing atop that stone perch!
“GRAAAAAHHH!!”
The Ape Lord unleashed an earth-shattering roar that shook the very foundations of the subterranean network. Its gargantuan arms hammered violently against its mineral-armored chest like rolling thunderclaps, dislodging chunks of cracked concrete from the vaulted ceiling to splash into the murky waters below.
Crouching all four limbs, it coiled its immense power and slammed downward against the conduit bed!
CRASH!
Black sewage and muck erupted in geysers reaching the ceiling. The beast’s colossal multi-ton frame surged into the air like an armored battering ram, hurtling directly toward Lin Feng’s stone perch!
“Right on time!”
Lin Feng felt not a shred of panic. The instant the beast unleashed its kinetic surge, he took half a pace back, kicked off the rock with explosive agility, and performed a graceful mid-air backflip, touching down lightly right at the entrance of Branch Conduit Three.
SMASH!
The Ape Lord’s monstrous talons crushed the concrete outcropping where Lin Feng had stood just a split-second earlier into powdery gravel. Jagged shrapnel sprayed outward like shotgun pellets, gouging deep pockmarks into the surrounding walls.
Without wasting a tenth of a second, Lin Feng spun on his heels and bolted headlong into the pitch-black maw of Branch Three!
“Graooorgh!”
Seeing its quarry take flight, the beast king bellowed in rabid frenzy. Its hulking frame crashed heavily into the water, all four limbs churning through the muck in violent pursuit of Lin Feng’s retreating back. Each thunderous footfall hammered against the masonry like a pile driver, churning a wake of turbid, roiling waves that surged into the narrow bypass tunnel.
Back in the main conduit, Ye Bin viciously swiped away a stray tear tracking through the grime on his cheek.
“Move! Don’t let Fan Shen’s sacrifice be in vain!”
The Wind mage gritted his teeth until his gums bled. Dashing forward, he leaned low and hoisted Yang Zuo’s bloodied frame onto his back. Liu Biyu bit her lower lip so hard it bruised, brandishing her focus staff to cover their flank. Channeling the final embers of their depleted strength, they sprinted desperately through the muck toward the emergency evacuation shaft that led back to the surface.
Resting limp across Ye Bin’s shoulders, Yang Zuo parted his clouded eyes. A trembling, blood-slicked hand gripped the fabric of his subordinate’s uniform, his throat working to rasp out broken, desperate syllables:
“Fan... Shen... turn... back...”
“Shut up, Captain! He traded his life to buy us this chance—we have to survive!” Ye Bin choked out between ragged gasps, his boots splashing frantically through the water toward the faint pinprick of light marking the maintenance shaft...
Deep within Branch Three, the howling rush of displaced air snarled ever closer against the back of Lin Feng’s neck.
This auxiliary conduit was far narrower than the main arterial tunnel. The ceiling hung low, barely two meters above the waterline, covered in thick patches of poisonous mold and damp lichen clinging to peeling concrete. Wastewater reached midway up his shins, making every forward stride feel heavy as lead.
Behind him, the Poison Claw Ape Lord bore down like a localized storm of devastation.
Its broad, bulky shoulders scraped incessantly against both tunnel walls, shearing off crumbling masonry that cascaded into the water. Its ruined, bleeding ear and lone crimson eye stayed locked onto the youth’s silhouette. The initial ten-meter lead was rapidly shaved away until barely five paces separated predator from prey.
The beast’s rank, scalding breath—thick with the reek of sulfur and rotting offal—seared hot against Lin Feng’s collar.
Suddenly, Lin Feng’s boots skidded to an abrupt halt.
Planting his feet firmly into the thick silt, his momentum carried him forward half a yard before coming to a dead stop in the center of the flooded conduit.
Ahead of him, the way was barred.
A massive collapse of earth, stone, and shattered masonry from the arched ceiling completely choked the channel. Dozens of multi-ton boulders wedged tightly against one another, interlaced with twisted, rusted iron girders and snarled rebar, forming an impenetrable barricade that entirely sealed the corridor.
Branch Three—exactly as Liu Biyu had warned—was a stone-cold dead end.
The churning splash of water behind him abruptly ceased.
Lin Feng turned around with calm deliberation.
Less than four paces away, the towering, two-and-a-half-meter bulk of the Poison Claw Ape Lord loomed like a nightmare made flesh. Its massive shoulders, encased in hardened mineral mud as impervious as tempered steel plate, completely plugged the narrow corridor, snuffing out the last faint glimmer of reflected light from the junction behind it.
Black gore continued to drip steadily from its ruptured right ear, sending dark, crimson-tinged ripples spreading across the surface of the pool at its feet.
The beast king glared down at the quarry pinned against the impassable rubble. It peeled back its lips to expose rows of jagged, yellowed fangs encrusted with decaying shreds of raw meat, thick cords of viscous saliva dripping from the corners of its maw. The labored, guttural rasp of its breathing echoed off the close masonry walls, sounding like a rusted blade grinding across stone inside a sepulcher.
In the beast’s primitive mind, this tiny human was completely out of options.
No trick of fire magic could save him now. There were no companions left to cover his flanks. And most crucially of all—in this cramped subterranean choke-point, he didn’t even have a single inch of room to evade a crushing blow!
It was down to just one man and one monster in the subterranean blackness.
Slowly, the Poison Claw Ape Lord raised both massive arms aloft. Corded muscles knotted under its mud-crusted hide, coiling with lethal momentum to bring down an executioner’s blow that would reduce the human’s skull to paste.
Yet, perched on the razor edge between life and death, the dark-mantled youth showed not the slightest trace of dread.
He stood tall and straight in the freezing wastewater, his breathing settling with unnerving composure after the sprint. Beneath the polished edge of his silver mask, his deep, obsidian eyes gazed unflinchingly into the gargantuan beast before him. The stillness radiating from him was so absolute that the very air seemed to freeze in place.
There was no one else here.
The hunter squad had escaped. Every prying gaze from the world above was walled off beneath thousands of tons of earth and stone.
The trap had sprung shut—precisely according to his design!
Lin Feng slowly raised his left hand. His slender fingers brushed against the chilled edge of the silver mask, nudging it slightly to reveal the sharp, sculpted contours of his jaw and cheek. The corner of his mouth curved into a cold, predatory smirk—keen and lethal as a freshly drawn dagger.
“Did you really think... I lured you in here out of blind panic?”
The youth’s voice dropped low, echoing through the cramped conduit with the eerie weight of a death knell.
Snap!
A sharp, violent crackle snapped from his trailing right palm.
No crimson blaze of the Fire Element flared to life this time.
Instead, an uncanny, bewitching flash of violet-black luminescence abruptly ignited, tearing through the suffocating gloom of the subterranean chamber!
BZZZZT! CRACKLE!
Furious arcs of deep purple lightning—writhing like miniature, ravenous vipers—danced across the tips of his fingers, shrieking with the deafening, high-pitched screech of pure destructive thunder. Beneath his boots, the stagnant, conductive black sewage surged into an instantaneous, violent boil under the immense high-voltage field, churning up plumes of white vapor while thousands of crackling micro-sparks webbed across the water’s surface!
The Ape Lord’s gargantuan frame froze mid-strike.
The mindless frenzy in the beast king’s bloodshot eye congealed into paralyzing shock. Primeval survival instincts honed over millennia screamed a terrifying revelation through its primitive soul:
The creature standing before it in the dark... was not prey!