"Chap, we're both warriors of the Demonic Sect. How can you stay off to one side? This is unethical..."
Seeing Lu Lin remain unmoved, Yu Chong roared in desperation.
What?
Lu Lin was stunned, almost thinking he had misheard.
Had Yu Chong lost his mind from panic?
Talking about ethics at the Demonic Sect? Even attempting moral blackmail?
In that case, he might as well do these monsters a favor.
Lu Lin casually picked up a sharp, fist-sized rock and, his Qi and Blood erupting, hurled it with explosive force.
Powered by his"one elephant's strength," the rock tore through the air like a cannonball, whistling straight toward Yu Chong's face.
"Chap, you—!"
Yu Chong's face paled in horror. Sensing the terrifying force behind the rock, he dared not block it and frantically tried to dodge.
But owing to that moment of distraction of his, a monster, eight meters long, seized the opening and sank its fangs into his shoulder!
The monster's teeth were razor-sharp. With a single tear, half of Yu Chong's body was ripped apart. Another monster pounced, crushing his skull in one bite.
With Yu Chong dead, the remaining two stood even less of a chance. Before long, they too fell, dying gruesomely on the spot.
Hissing—
The monsters growled low, swinging their crimson gaze toward Lu Lin before launching a mad charge!
"The strongest one is only a cut above Yu Chong. Still manageable."
Lu Lin's mind raced. Gripping his dagger, he charged forward to meet them.
Moments later, the dark mountainside was littered with monster corpses.
Guided by the Martial Dao Furnace, Lu Lin extracted milky-white flesh chunks from each corpse—all containing spiritual energy—and exchanged them for Training Time.
As every monster's strength differed, the converted Training Time varied in amount.
The harvests ranged from eight months to a year and a half.
In the end, Lu Lin gained a total of eleven years of Training Time.
His cumulative Training Time now stood at forty-three years and two months.
Boom—!
No sooner had he cleared the battlefield than the ground shook again—this time more violently than ever before.
Bang!
The next moment, the earth blew up. Amidst flying debris, a colossal figure burst forth!
This monster was a staggering ten meters long, its eyes blood-red and its pitch black body covered in disgusting, tumorous growths.
It locked Lu Lin with its gaze, lunging seven or eight meters in a single bound, its crimson tongue lashing out like a whip at Lu Lin.
The tongue was coated in dark green mucus, splattering everywhere with each flick, filling the air with a suffocating stench.
It's poisonous!
Lu Lin's expression changed. He dared not block it and swiftly retreated, barely dodging the lethal strike.
But the monster did not call it quits, its tongue whipping wildly.
Lu Lin leaped onto a tree, scaling up high in a few quick movements before launching himself to another tree...
The monster roared and gave chase, attempting to climb as well. But its massive, heavy body was too much for the branches, which snapped under its weight, sending it crashing back to the ground.
Opportunity!
Seizing the moment, Lu Lin dove down, his dagger flashing with a cold gleam as it slashed at the monster's neck!
But the monster reacted with terrifying speed. In mid-air, it twisted its body, a claw swiping at the dagger with a gust of foul wind.
Clang!
It sounded like metal meeting metal. A tremendous force surged through Lu Lin's arm, numbing his hand as he was sent flying over a dozen meters before landing.
"Incredible strength! Far beyond what a Body Tempering Ninth Level has. It must be over ten thousand jin, comparable to the peak of the Body Tempering Realm!"
Lu Lin's expression darkened.
Even if going all out, he might not hold a significant advantage in terms of physical strength, let alone the monster's deadly poison.
As Lu Lin touched the ground, the monster crashed down as well, twisting upright with a furious roar, its eyes boiling with killing intent.
Simultaneously, the tumors on its body swelled like balloons, filled with a discernible, sinister green fluid.
Poison!
Lu Lin's scalp prickled. Without hesitation, he turned tail and fled!
This monster was too much—boasting not only a terrifying physical strength but also a lethal poison. A single slip might prove fatal.
Moreover, more tremors came from the distance, signaling that more monsters were approaching.
If besieged by several of them, he'd be in danger.
Now was the time to leave!
Seeing Lu Lin flee, the monster roared and gave relentless chase.
Given this, Lu Lin simply leapt from one towering tree to another, threading his way through the forest. This not only allowed him more flexibility in picking a route but also kept attacks away.
Boom! Boom!
Sure enough, the ground in the distance blew up as more monsters emerged—not ten meters in size, but still eight or nine meters long—and joined the pursuit.
Lu Lin pushed his speed to the limit, tearing through several miles without pause.
Along the way, he passed an occasional mutilated warrior corpse every so often, all victims of these monsters.
"The opponents of these monsters should be cultivators, not martial artists. The Xuesha Demonic Sect's cultivators obviously sent us here to die..."
Anger flashed in Lu Lin's eyes, but beneath it lay a sense of helplessness.
They were to us what knives are to fish. How could an ordinary warrior defy their fate?
At the same time, he noticed something odd--- there were little bloodstains around these corpses, which were shriveled like dried wood, as if drained of all vitality.
"Warriors are just tools, expendable materials. The cultivators sent us here under the pretense of gathering the 'Siming Cardamom,' but their true goal is something else."
Lu Lin's thoughts raced. From the scattered clues, he sensed the situation was far more complicated than it seemed.
Still, the sheer ruthlessness of sacrificing eight hundred warriors—including two hundred above the Body Tempering Seventh Level—sent a chill down his spine.
Hiss... Aaah!!
Suddenly, from a dense thicket to his left came a chorus of hisses and agonized screams.
A pack of monsters was besieging a group of a dozen or so warriors. Now and then, someone met a miserable death on the spot.
Lu Lin shook his head slightly and slipped past silently through the branches.
Save them?
He was just another piece of meat on the chopping block. What could he do?
Even if he saved a few, what then? More monsters would soon arrive. If a ten-meter behemoth showed up, he'd be the one running for his life.
Yet he had underestimated the monsters' senses.
He didn't shake them off , even by hiding in the trees.
Soon, several monsters burrowed out of the ground and climbed up after him.
Fortunately, none were ten-meter giants. Lu Lin dispatched them swiftly, adding a few more years to his Training Time.
"Wait... these monsters are clearly targeting warriors. Is it because of our abundant Qi and Blood?"
"Most warriors are clustering at the mountain's outskirts. If my guess is right, somewhere deeper within it might actually be safer."
Lu Lin's mind raced, and he quickly made a decision.
He leaped to the next tree, then yet another—light, swift, and silent as a cat.