Darkness, thick like ink, enveloped the unique damp chill and strong stench of the underground drainage ditch.
Ling Chen stood in knee-deep sewage, mixed with sludge and unidentifiable decaying matter.
The Soul Jade Physique's icy will, like an invisible probe, penetrated the heavy darkness and concrete barriers, precisely locking onto three distinct violent auras coming from three different directions.
One Mutated Rat King wasn't enough, but two more should suffice.
Three bats had already darted in different directions earlier.
They were not only his eyes and ears but also the most lethal bait and catalyst.
The first bat's target was to the northwest, three hundred meters away, at the entrance of a half-collapsed underground parking garage. There, an energy source, sharp as a tempered steel knife and carrying an acrid smell like metal friction, was entrenched—a Mutated Doberman.
It might have been a police dog in its previous life, but now its body was swollen like a pony, its muscles coiled like steel wires, and its originally shiny black fur was replaced by a layer of dark silver, bone-ossified scales resembling fine chainmail.
The most terrifying thing was its mouth; its upper and lower jaws had mutated into something like hydraulic shears, and its canine teeth had evolved into two rows of interlocking, rotating metal sawteeth that gleamed with cold light! At this moment, it was irritably tearing at the remains of a half-corpse, its metallic teeth cutting through bone with a grating "crunch."
The bat, like a provoking moth, circled rapidly above its head, emitting piercing ultrasonic waves! The Mutated Doberman suddenly looked up, its crimson eyes instantly locking onto the purple shadow in the air, a low roar like an idling engine rumbling in its throat!
It abandoned the remains, pushed off with all four limbs, and, like a black arrow released from a bowstring, furiously chased in the direction where the bat had disappeared into the ditch! Its sharp claws plowed deep furrows in the ground!
The second bat's target was to the southeast, two hundred and fifty meters away, a huge crack caused by an earthquake leading to an abandoned subway tunnel.
There, a cold, slimy energy fluctuation, carrying strong radiation contamination and a highly toxic stench, permeated the air—a Giant Lizard.
It should have been a small pet like a gecko in its previous life.
But now, it was over five meters long, its entire body covered in thick, dark green, moss-like scales that continuously secreted mucus, and a row of bone spikes glowing with eerie green phosphorescence protruded from its spine.
The end of its thick tail had evolved into a meteor hammer covered in bone tumors! It was coiled deep within the crack, flicking its forked, snake-like tongue, licking the sewage seeping from the rock wall.
The bat suddenly swooped into the crack, its sharp claws scraping against the Giant Lizard's thick scales with a harsh sound! Numbing mucus with faint electric arcs seeped from the bat's wing membranes, clinging to the Giant Lizard's scales.
Although it couldn't penetrate its defense, the provocation and numbing sensation instantly enraged this cold-blooded behemoth!
It let out a hoarse roar, its massive body, like a train, burst out of the crack, its thick limbs scrambling against the rock wall, crushing forward in the direction the bat was fleeing! Wherever it passed, gravel rattled down, leaving behind sticky green toxic traces!
The last bat's target was directly ahead, a hundred meters away, at the banyan tree root hollow where the Mutated Rat King was located. It was already completely enraged!
The bat repeatedly swooped and darted above its head, occasionally raking its relatively fragile earlobes and nose tip with the sharp claws on its wingtips! Although it couldn't cause substantial damage, the continuous harassment and provocation were like the most malicious mockery, completely igniting the ferocity of this fierce beast!
It abandoned tearing at the tree roots, its crimson compound eyes fixed on the purple shadow in the air, and a high-pitched, almost ear-splitting "squeal" tore from its throat!
Its strong hind legs suddenly pushed off the ground, and its body shot up like a cannonball, its sharp hooked claws tearing through the air, directly pouncing on the bat!
Three fierce beasts! Three berserk killing intents! Precisely guided by the three bats, they furiously rushed towards the same coordinates—the intersection of the drainage ditch where Ling Chen was located!
Ling Chen stood in the sewage, like a reef in the eye of a storm. His hoodie's hood had already slipped off during his previous "fall," revealing a pale but expressionless face.
Below his left eye, five dark red blood patterns, like burning brands, emitted an eerie glow in the darkness.
He slowly raised both hands—no, it should be said both claws—tiny, almost silent dark purple electric arcs danced on his fingertips.
"Come..." he murmured, his voice as cold as abyssal ice.
After holding back for so long, he could finally go all out and have a good fight!
Boom! Boom! Hiss—!
Three berserk auras arrived almost simultaneously!
The Mutated Doberman was the first to break through the darkness! It was like a black lightning bolt, with a scream that tore through the air and sparks of metal friction, directly pouncing on Ling Chen!
Its massive metal mouth, split to its ears, opened, and the rotating, saw-like canine teeth, like a meat grinder, bit towards Ling Chen's head! Its speed was extreme!
Ling Chen's feet remained still, his body, like weightless willow catkins, drifted back half a step with a hair's breadth difference at the critical moment!
The saw-like canine teeth, carrying a fishy wind, grazed past his nose tip! At the same time, his right index finger darted out like a venomous snake's tongue!
A wisp of extremely condensed dark purple electric arc silently pierced the relatively soft underside of the Doberman's throat, which was exposed by its pounce!
Pfft!
The electric arc, like a red-hot steel needle, instantly penetrated the flesh! The Doberman let out a painful whimper, its movements suddenly pausing! But its defense was too strong! The electric arc only pierced an inch before being blocked by tough muscle and ossified scales! The intense pain instead stimulated its ferocity!
It violently shook its head, its metallic teeth sweeping horizontally! At the same time, its thick tail, like a steel whip, lashed towards Ling Chen's waist!
Almost simultaneously!
Hiss—!!!
The Giant Lizard's massive body, like a crushing tank, slammed into the opening of the side ditch! Bringing with it a strong stench and highly toxic mucus!
It didn't directly attack Ling Chen but opened its massive mouth, large enough to swallow an adult, and sprayed a dark green, pungent, highly corrosive venom like a high-pressure water gun! Its coverage was enormous! Enveloping both Ling Chen and the Mutated Doberman!
It seemed to want to take them both down.
Ling Chen smiled. He loosely clenched his left hand, and the three circling bats, as if receiving a command, instantly swooped down! Two of the bats fearlessly crashed into the torrent of venom! The third bat, meanwhile, spat out paralyzing mucus, attempting to slow the Giant Lizard's movements!
Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle—!
The moment the venom touched the two bats, it emitted a terrifying corrosive sound! The two bats, like wax figures thrown into strong acid, instantly melted by more than half! Emitting shrill screams!
But they bought Ling Chen a tenth of a second with their bodies!
Ling Chen suddenly exerted force with his feet! His body moved sideways like a ghost! Narrowly avoiding the main spray of venom! But a few splashes of venom still grazed the sleeve of his left arm! The fabric instantly charred and carbonized! A burning pain came from his skin!
At the same time, the Doberman's steel whip tail also arrived!
Bang!
Ling Chen turned sideways, using his right arm to take the brunt of this heavy blow! The immense force made him feel like he had been hit by a truck, and he flew backward! He slammed heavily against the slippery wall of the drainage ditch! His throat sweetened, and a trace of blood overflowed from the corner of his mouth!
The mutant's formidable defense prevented him from fracturing bones, but his internal organs were shaken.
"Roar—!!!"
The Mutated Rat King's roar pressed in! Taking advantage of the moment Ling Chen was sent flying, its massive body, like a cannonball fired from a barrel, with an ear-splitting shriek and a strong stench, charged directly towards where Ling Chen landed!
Its sharp hooked claws gleamed with an eerie blue light, aiming straight for his heart! Its speed was faster than the Doberman's! Its power was more concentrated than the Giant Lizard's!
Attacked from front and back! A deadly situation!
However, Ling Chen's eyes remained calm and unruffled, and while blood flowed from the corner of his mouth, he even wore a faint smile.
It was just his internal organs being shaken; what did that count for?
"Thunder Wings... open!"
Boom—!!!
A pair of dark purple bat-like giant wings, with violent thunder flowing across their surface, suddenly tore through his clothes from his back and unfurled defiantly! The violent lightning instantly illuminated the entire dark drainage ditch! Reflecting the hideous faces of the three fierce beasts like hellish demons!
The moment the Thunder Wings unfurled, a terrifying pressure, like a solid heavy hammer, slammed deep into the souls of the three fierce beasts! It was an instinctive fear originating from a higher level of life! Stemming from absolute awe of destructive energy!
Even if beasts are smart and powerful, they will fear fire, and they will fear the things their ancestors feared for generations, foolish and pathetic.
The Mutated Doberman's charging movement suddenly stiffened, and a hint of fear flashed in its pupils! The Giant Lizard's action of spewing venom also paused! Even the most frenzied Rat King's pouncing speed noticeably slowed by half a beat!
Now!
Ling Chen's body, propelled by the Thunder Wings, vanished from his original spot as if teleporting! Leaving behind an afterimage!
He appeared at the Mutated Doberman's side! The Thunder Wings, like two massive thunder battle blades, screamed as they tore through the void, fiercely striking the Doberman's relatively vulnerable waist and joint connection!
Pfft—!!!
The dark purple lightning was like a hot knife through butter! The tough ossified scales and reinforced muscles were like paper in the face of the raging thunder!
The Doberman let out a distorted, shrill wail! Its massive body was literally cut in half at the waist! The severed section was charred black, emitting the foul stench of burning flesh!
The upper half, with spurting blood and internal organs, slammed heavily into the sewage! The lower half twitched a few times, then stopped moving!
One strike! Instant kill of the Mutated Doberman!
But Ling Chen's movements did not pause in the slightest! The Thunder Wings reversed! His body, using the recoil, spun rapidly like a top!
He avoided the Giant Lizard's sweeping, bone-spiked meteor hammer-like tail!
The massive tail slammed heavily into the spot where Ling Chen had just been standing! The concrete wall was shattered like tofu! Debris flew everywhere!
Ling Chen, airborne, vigorously flapped his Thunder Wings! His body, like a hawk turning, instantly ascended!
He dodged the Giant Lizard's immediate, giant shovel-like lower jaw bite!
At the same time, he clenched his hands! The remaining two bats, like soldiers receiving a death order, let out sharp screeches, charging fearlessly towards the Giant Lizard's two massive eyes, which glowed with an eerie green phosphorescence, like two purple streaks of light!
Puff! Puff!
Bat B's sharp claws viciously struck the Giant Lizard's left eye! Bat C, like a suicide bomber, slammed heavily into the Giant Lizard's right eye, instantly detonating the bio-electrical energy stored within its body!
Boom!!!
Blinding electrical light exploded on the Giant Lizard's head! Although it couldn't blast through its thick eyelids and scales, the momentary strong light and electrical shock caused the Giant Lizard to let out a painful and furious roar! It violently shook its head, and its movements became fatally chaotic and sluggish!
"Die!" Ling Chen's cold voice cut through this almost boring indifference! He was airborne, Thunder Wings retracted behind him, his body plummeting like a meteor! His right fist clenched! Violent dark purple lightning furiously gathered at his fist!
"Thunder Strike... Break!"
Boom—!!!
An extremely condensed, terrifying bolt of lightning, like a purple drill, erupted from his fist! With a scream that tore through the air and an indomitable will, it precisely pierced into the Giant Lizard's wide-open mouth, which was agape from pain!
Pfft—Boom!!!
The lightning passed through the Giant Lizard's mouth! And out the back of its head!
Bringing out a large gush of charred brain matter and shattered skull! The Giant Lizard's massive body suddenly stiffened! The eerie green phosphorescence instantly extinguished! It slammed into the sewage like a pile of boneless mud, stirring up a huge splash!
Second one! Instant kill of the Giant Lizard!
Continuous burst! Instant kill of two powerful mutated beasts! Ling Chen's face instantly turned somewhat pale.
This body is really a bit weak, Ling Chen sighed.
The light from his Thunder Wings had dimmed by more than half! The energy within his body was rapidly draining like a floodgate opening! He tore a piece of flesh from the Mutated Doberman and quickly stuffed it into his mouth, replenishing his consumption.
But the crisis was not over!
"Screech—!!!"
A sharp shriek full of brutality and greed! The Mutated Rat King, taking advantage of the moment Ling Chen had just killed the Giant Lizard and his old strength was exhausted while new strength had not yet emerged, appeared behind him like a ghost!
Its sharp hooked claws, with a cold glint that could tear through anything, viciously struck towards his back! The speed was extreme! The angle was tricky and vicious!
There was no avoiding it!
A hint of indifference flashed in Ling Chen's eyes! The Soul Jade Physique's cold will instantly squeezed out the last bit of potential! He violently twisted his waist and turned! The muscles in his left arm bulged, and dark purple lightning patterns flashed wildly under his skin! He didn't dodge! His left fist, with a will to perish together, slammed heavily into the Rat King's striking claw!
Then he would trade injury for life!
Pfft!
Bang!
The sharp claw penetrated Ling Chen's left arm without hindrance! Blood splattered! Intense pain came! But Ling Chen's left fist, like a heavy hammer, slammed heavily onto the Rat King's relatively vulnerable wrist joint!
Crack!
A bone-cracking sound that made one's teeth ache! The Rat King's wrist joint was shattered! The movement of its hooked claw instantly deformed!
"Roar!" The Rat King let out a painful shriek! But its ferocity did not diminish! Its other intact hooked claw, bringing a more violent stench, went straight for Ling Chen's face! At the same time, its serrated maw opened, biting fiercely at Ling Chen's neck!
A cold light burst from Ling Chen's eyes! His right fist clenched again! The remaining lightning frantically gathered! But he knew that if he threw this punch, even if it could severely wound the Rat King, he would inevitably have his throat bitten through!
Troublesome, it would probably take a while to recover.
In the nick of time!
"Screech—!!!"
A sharper shriek, full of command, suddenly sounded from Ling Chen's shoulder! It was a bat! It had struggled to fly back at some point, its only remaining half-wing flapping wildly, emitting a very peculiar high-frequency sound wave with a mental shock!
A hint of surprise flashed in Ling Chen's eyes, he didn't expect this bat to be quite useful, he'd bring a few more back, no, since the neighbor's villa wasn't occupied now anyway, he'd just let them breed freely.
This sound wave, like invisible steel needles, fiercely pierced into the Rat King's brain! Its scarlet compound eyes instantly flashed with an extremely brief moment of confusion and disorientation! Its pouncing movement showed an extremely subtle delay of less than 0.1 seconds!
For Ling Chen, that was enough!
"Die!" He roared! The lightning from his right fist exploded like a final fireworks display! It was no longer a long-range attack, but concentrated at his fist! As if he had put on a pair of lightning gauntlets! He slammed it heavily into the Rat King's relatively soft throat, exposed by its shriek!
Pfft—!!!
Lightning burst! Flesh and blood flew!
The Rat King's massive body was sent flying backward as if hit by a high-speed train! A bowl-sized blood hole was blasted open in its throat! Charred flesh was turned inside out! Its trachea and blood vessels were completely torn! It slammed heavily into the sewage, its limbs twitching wildly, making a leaky "ho ho" sound, its scarlet compound eyes staring fixedly at Ling Chen, full of unwillingness and resentment, before slowly dimming.
Third one! The Mutated Rat King! Dead!
Silence. Deathly silence.
Only the faint sound of bubbles bursting in the sewage, and the strong, nauseating smell of blood and char permeated the air.
Ling Chen knelt on one knee in the sewage, breathing heavily. The wound on his left arm, pierced by the Rat King's sharp claws, was bone-deep, and blood constantly dripped from his fingertips. The Thunder Wings on his back had long since dissipated, leaving only two charred wing marks and torn clothing.
His face was as pale as paper, and blood constantly overflowed from the corners of his mouth. The continuous bursts, instantly killing three powerful mutated beasts, had consumed an enormous amount of his energy!
But cold flames burned in his eyes, and his body frantically operated, greedily absorbing the flesh and blood energy and death aura permeating the air. Especially the life essence emanating from the Rat King's corpse, which was hundreds of times purer and more concentrated than that of ordinary ghouls!
He struggled to stand up and walked to the Rat King's corpse. Ignoring the terrifying, ferocious head, he pointed his right hand like a knife, dark purple electric arcs leaping at his fingertips, and fiercely plunged it deep into the blood hole blasted open by the lightning in the Rat King's chest!
After a stir, he slowly withdrew his arm. In his palm, he was holding a fist-sized Heterocrystal that glowed with a deep dark gold color, as if molten lava flowed within it! As soon as the Heterocrystal left the corpse, a vast and pure life energy permeated the air!
The Rat King's Heterocrystal ! The energy core of a Tier 1 Mid-stage mutated beast!
Ling Chen, without hesitation, stuffed the crystal core into his mouth! As if swallowing a red-hot iron!
Violent energy instantly exploded within his body! Like a bursting flood, it scoured his dry meridians! The Soul Jade Physique, like a greedy glutton, frantically devoured and refined this energy!
The wound on his left arm wriggled and healed at a visible speed! The consumed energy was rapidly replenished!
Even... below the outer corner of his left eye, next to the fifth crimson blood pattern, an even deeper, more demonic sixth blood pattern was slowly condensing and forming!