Volume 1: Bo'an Awakening & The Calamity Storm
Chapter 84
Fall of the Warrior-Class Beast
BOOM——!! BOOM——!! CRASH——!!
World-shattering electrical detonations erupted in violent, rapid succession from deep within the chest cavity of the Black-Winged Frenzy Wolf!
The deafening roar of thunder ripped through the storm clouds cloaking the nocturnal skies over Bo’an City, unleashing shockwaves so violent that the brick walls of the shops flanking the four-way intersection spider-webbed with jagged fissures, while upper-story windowpanes shattered into showers of crystalline shards that rained onto the asphalt below.
The unbridled, catastrophic fury of Rank 2 Lightning Strike: Frenzy Trail, amplified to its zenith by the gold-rimmed Strengthened Stars, detonated with absolute devastation. Channeling straight through the creature’s softest, unprotected gullet, the cataclysm detonated directly within the core of the Warrior-class beast’s vital organs!
AWOOOOO... GAACKK——!!
A mangled, strangled howl tore through the beast’s shredded throat. The colossal, ten-meter frame of the Black-Winged Frenzy Wolf jolted violently into the air as though hoisted skyward by the invisible palm of a titan, only to be slammed ruthlessly back onto the shattered earth!
Deep inside its physical vessel, a tempest of violent violet-black lightning raged unchecked. High-voltage electrical arcs coiled like a brood of venomous serpents, snapping, biting, and weaving madly through every sinew of tender internal flesh. The iron-black steel scales lining its exterior and the thick, armored hide that had effortlessly deflected barrages of Basic-tier spells from human mages were now rendered utterly useless.
The epicenter of absolute destruction burned from within its very heart and lungs!
The searing thermal extreme and terrifying destructive yield of Lightning Strike incinerated the monster’s viscera in the span of a single heartbeat. Heart and lungs ruptured into charred fragments, the stomach burst under the immense pneumatic compression of the raging electrical current, and the dense vertebrae running down its spine snapped one by one under the savage violet-black shocks with sickening, bone-chilling cracks!
Sizzle... hiss... hiss...!
Thick, acrid black smoke reeking of charred flesh billowed outward from the beast’s ears, snout, and fang-lined jaws. Frothy, blackened blood surged out in sickening gouts, carrying scorched clumps of ruined organs that splattered onto the rain-drenched pavement.
Flickers of violet-black lightning pulsed through the seams and fissures between the iron scales along the wolf’s breastplate, resembling an eerie, hellish lantern blazing inside a mountain of steel and gore!
The four blood-red eyes that once brimmed with sadistic cruelty now bulged violently from their sockets. Under the mounting electrical pressure surging through its cranium, the upper pair of eyes ruptured with a sickening pop, spraying two jets of blackened gore and foul, viscous ichor into the downpour!
KRAAA-CRACK... SNAP!!
The Black-Winged Frenzy Wolf’s massive forelegs, thick as ancient temple pillars, shuddered violently before the shattered joints buckled beneath the immense deadweight of its body.
In a final, desperate frenzy, it scraped its half-meter-long steel claws against the asphalt, gouging deep trenches overflowing with blood-infused rainwater. The skeletal, leathery bat wings jutting from its spine flapped erratically, shearing a solid steel streetlight pole clean in two.
Yet it was nothing more than the futile death throes of a doomed beast before the reaper’s scythe!
The formidable vitality of the Cang Lei Ridge’s beast king was hemorrhaging away with every spark of violet-black lightning rupturing outward through its hide!
Whimper... groan... rattle...
The apex predator that had plunged all of Bo’an City into absolute despair uttered one last, feeble rattle from deep within its pulverized trachea. Its foreknees collapsed, slamming into the cracked pavement and sending seismic tremors rippling across the intersection.
Deprived of all balance and support, the towering ten-meter colossus tilted heavily to one side.
Like a five-story building whose foundational pillars had been severed at the roots!
THUUUUM——!!
An earth-shattering impact tore through the night!
Tens of tons of feral, scaled mass collapsed in a dead heap across the intersection. Clouds of pulverized masonry, dust, and gory rainwater blasted three to four meters into the air, splashing violently against the crumbling walls on either side.
The ground shuddered as though struck by an earthquake. Its elongated, steel-plated tail whipped across the asphalt one final time with a screeching, metallic scrape, before going limp in the mire—utterly motionless.
Plumes of dense black smoke drifted lazily from the colossal carcass, slowly dissipating into the freezing gale.
Dead!
The Sovereign Beast of Cang Lei Ridge—the Warrior-class Black-Winged Frenzy Wolf, the nightmarish fiend endowed with demonic wings and armor-tearing talons, the terror that had forced an entire vanguard of elite mages into retreat—had breathed its last!
It lay dead in absolute ruin, an ignominious heap sprawled amidst pulverized masonry and muddy muck, felled by the hands of an eighteen-year-old youth!
The entire intersection plummeted into total, absolute silence.
A suffocating, dead silence!
No more world-trembling howls. No more feral roars tearing through the storm. All that remained was the monotonous patter of blood rain drummed against the fractured asphalt, and the murmuring trickle of runoff seeping into storm drains.
Thirty meters away, the students of Feng Lan Magic High School and hundreds of huddled refugees stood rooted to the spot.
The four directions were hushed as a graveyard.
Every eye was wide, pupils contracted to needlepoints, staring in numb disbelief at the smoking carcass resembling a miniature mountain of iron and flesh sprawled in the center of the thoroughfare.
“Is... is it really dead?”
A refugee mother clutching her infant to her bosom whispered in a voice trembling with tears, terrified that the slightest noise might reawaken the sleeping terror.
“A Warrior-class... A genuine Warrior-class monster... slain?!”
Ling Bai stood frozen against the crumbled exterior of the bakery. His entire body trembled violently, his knees turned to jelly so severely that he had to claw his fingernails into the jagged brickwork to keep from collapsing into the dirt.
The handsome, aristocratic face that had carried haughty contempt for three straight years was now ashen as a corpse. His lips twitched uncontrollably as his hollow gaze remained locked on the slender, black-clad silhouette standing tall at the center of the crossroad.
Lin Feng!
The son of a lowly truck driver whom the noble Ling Clan had treated like vermin beneath their heels... stood right before his eyes, having single-handedly slaughtered a Warrior-class calamity!
That was a Warrior-class monster!
Even his uncle, Ling Gang, or the venerated elder council of the Ling Clan in Bo’an City, would have had to muster an entire squadron of seasoned Intermediate Mages working in meticulous unison—sacrificing countless expensive defensive Magic Equipment pieces—just to dare contemplate surrounding a mature Black-Winged Frenzy Wolf.
Yet Lin Feng... an eighteen-year-old high school youth, solely relying on his own power and wielding the dual elements of Lightning and Fire, had roasted this demonic horror from the inside out!
The proud, untouchable bloodline of the Ling Clan, the arrogance he had harbored for three years over his supposedly superior Ice Element talent... in this single instant, had been pulverized to dust by the thunderous collapse of the Black-Winged Frenzy Wolf!
Beside Ling Bai, Li Peng had long since collapsed onto his backside in a filthy puddle. The crotch of his trousers was soaked through with the stench of raw terror. His jaw hung slack, teeth chattering uncontrollably with rhythmic clack-clack-clacks, gazing at Lin Feng with a vacant, shattered stare as if witnessing the descent of an ancient primordial demon:
“A demon... He’s a demon... How could anyone kill a Warrior-class...”
“Shut your filthy mouth, you useless piece of trash!”
Zhang Hu roared with thunderous force. The burly Earth Mage youth clenched his calloused fists, hot tears carving paths through the grime, soot, and mud coating his face.
His chest heaved violently, the blood in his veins boiling over as he threw his head back toward the stormy heavens and bellowed with everything he had, releasing every ounce of terror, suffocating grief, and helpless despair that had crushed their spirits through this harrowing night:
“It’s dead! The beast is dead!! Lin Feng did it!! We’re saved!!”
Zhang Hu’s roar was the spark that detonated the powder keg of suppressed emotions within the crowd.
“We survived... We’re alive!!”
“Heavens above! That boy killed the beast king!!”
Jubilant cheers, hysterical sobs of relief, and desperate calls across the throng erupted like wildfire down the avenue! Grown men embraced one another and wept openly, mothers hugged their children tightly to their chests, bowing deeply toward Lin Feng’s back in boundless veneration and gratitude.
Standing at the curb, Xiao Min pressed her slender, trembling hands tightly against her chest. The class president’s tear-filled eyes never once wavered from the youth in the tattered black shirt standing amid the acrid plumes of smoke.
His resolute profile and unyielding shoulders amidst the pouring blood rain seemed branded into the deepest recesses of her soul. Her heart hammered in wild, chaotic rhythms, an overwhelming flood of awe and reverence swelling within her breast. He had not merely saved her life and rescued hundreds of people... he had forged a miracle that would shake Bo’an City to its very core!
Beneath the shattered brickwork of the bakery, Teacher Kang Mu lay with his head propped up on a pile of jackets his students had hastily discarded.
The right side of his caved-in chest still burned with excruciating agony, each ragged breath a monumental struggle. Yet as his eyes took in the colossal carcass lying inert on the pavement, a faint, proud smile tugged at the corner of the instructor’s cyanotic lips.
“You little brat... As expected... I didn’t misjudge you...” he wheezed softly, tears welling from his weathered eyes and dissolving into the rainwater.
Behind the makeshift barricade, Lin Hai held his young daughter, Xiao Mo, in a trembling, protective embrace. The father’s rough, calloused hands gripped her frail shoulders tightly. Looking out at his eldest son standing tall amidst the apocalyptic carnage, his heart ached with agonizing tenderness, yet swelled with a pride so immense that his entire frame shook:
“Xiao Mo... Did you see that? Your brother... Our Little Feng...”
“Big brother... Big brother won!”
Xiao Mo buried her face against her father’s chest, tears streaming freely down her cheeks, yet a radiant smile bloomed upon her lips like a blossom unfurling in the midst of a violent tempest. In the innocent clarity of her eyes, her brother’s silhouette was sturdier and more unyielding than any fortress in the mortal world!
At the center of the intersection, Lin Feng stood unmoving.
The freezing night gale howled past, driving needles of cold rain against his face.
Gasp... wheeze...
Lin Feng bent forward, hands propped on his knees, his chest heaving violently. Frigid sweat mingled with rainwater, streaming down his brow and jaw to drip rhythmically onto the cracked road.
Every muscle bundle in his body throbbed with tearing agony!
Forcibly unleashing consecutive dual-element spells of Lightning and Fire while at the Basic Tier, channeling the gold-rimmed Strengthened Stars, and discharging a point-blank Rank 2 Lightning Strike... had depleted far more than just his mana reserves—it had pushed his mental endurance and physical stamina to the brink of absolute exhaustion.
Inside his Sea of Consciousness:
The once-roaring scarlet Fire Stardust had dimmed to a dull, sluggish glow, its seven Star Cores revolving with weary lethargy.
Beside it, the deep-violet Lightning Stardust was equally drained, its crackling electrical filaments reduced to faint, sporadic sparks. Both stardust clusters were more than ninety percent exhausted. The gnawing void in his mind sent buzzing tremors through his skull, bringing on wave after wave of intense vertigo.
Yet within the youth’s obsidian eyes, an unyielding, arrogant blaze burned brighter than ever!
He had done it!
A cross-tier slaughter! An eighteen-year-old Basic-tier Mage, relying strictly on his own cunning and unyielding resolve, had executed a Warrior-class monstrosity in the very first true mortal duel of his life!
Should news of this feat reach the outside world, the entire magical community of the southern region—and even the prestigious Shenzhou Magic Academy in Whale Ocean Magic Capital—would be shaken by an earth-shattering shockwave!
Lin Feng slowly straightened his spine. Exhaling a warm breath of air, he wiped a smear of fresh blood from the corner of his lips with his torn sleeve.
He turned to step toward the perimeter, intending to check on Teacher Kang Mu’s critical wounds and reassure his father and sister...
Yet the instant Lin Feng lifted his foot—
BOOM——!!
A burst of blistering, scalding heat abruptly detonated against his chest!
The searing sensation felt as though a brand of red-hot iron, heated to thousands of degrees, was pressing directly against his bare skin through his soaked shirt!
“Ugh...!”
Lin Feng gasped, his step freezing in place. Instinctively, his hand clamped down over his sternum.
Beneath the tattered cloth, the Primordial Dragon Pendant was vibrating with violent, erratic frenzy!
ROAAAR——!!
A profound, archaic dragon roar—solemn, mournful, and brimming with transcendent sovereign majesty that subjugated all living things—reverberated violently through the depths of Lin Feng’s soul! The roar produced no physical sound in the mortal world, yet within his Sea of Consciousness, it churned up colossal tsunamis that crashed against the shores of his mind!
The dark gray dragon pendant pressed against his flesh radiated an astonishing wave of heat. Its once-smooth surface was now etched with ancient, deep crimson draconic runes, as if a primordial beast of antiquity had awakened from a slumber of ten thousand years!
An insatiable, ferocious suction force—more voracious than anything he had ever felt—abruptly swept outward from the heart of the Dragon Pendant across the surrounding space!
This suction force was completely invisible to ordinary mortals and standard mages. Neither the students like Ling Bai and Xiao Min nor the hundreds of refugees in the distance saw or felt the slightest anomaly.
Yet through Lin Feng’s spiritual vision...
The entire world before him underwent a breathtaking transformation!
The falling curtain of blood rain seemed veiled in an ethereal gloom, and from the very center of the Black-Winged Frenzy Wolf’s lifeless carcass sprawled in the mud—
SHING——!!
A radiant beam of pure, brilliant emerald-cyan light, as pristine and mesmerizing as an ancient spectral jade, tore through the monster’s charred chest cavity and surged into the heavens!
The vibrant emerald light showed no sign of scattering in the howling gale.
Instead, it condensed into the ethereal phantom of a colossal wolf bearing massive bat wings, throwing its head back as it thrashed and howled in desperate resistance. The entire soul phantom was translucent, shimmering with tens of thousands of jade-green celestial motes, radiating a soul ripple so pure and potent that it caused the spiritual fabric of the space itself to tremble!
A Soul Essence!
An intact, priceless Warrior-class Soul Essence!
A supreme spiritual treasure seen once in a millennium, with an appearance rate of less than one percent when slaying magical beasts—a rarity that thousands of Intermediate and Advanced Hunter Mages might risk their lives in the treacherous wild for decades without ever being fortunate enough to witness!
HOWL——!!
The soul of the Black-Winged Frenzy Wolf flapped its phantom wings furiously, attempting to flee toward the tempestuous night sky to escape the shackles of death.
Yet before the Primordial Dragon Pendant, all resistance was nothing more than a pathetic joke!
The pitch-black suction emanating from Lin Feng’s chest abruptly morphed into an abyssal vortex. Resembling the gaping maw of an ancient dragon, it completely stripped away any chance of escape for the Warrior-class soul!
SWOOSH——!!
The brilliant emerald beam tore clean through the gloomy night rain, bearing the muffled shriek of the Warrior-class soul as it plunged in a straight, unstoppable trajectory into the chest of the youth who possessed Innate Dual Elements!