However. On a towering tree canopy a mile from the battlefield.
Lin Mu crouched among the dense foliage, using the Eagle Eye Gu in his left eye to take in the brutal yet "blood-pumping" siege below.
His face showed not a trace of joy at the alliance's imminent victory. Instead, those pitch-black eyes grew ever colder, as deep as a thousand-year-old well.
"These fools actually think hunting a beast king would be this simple?"
Lin Mu watched the seemingly favorable situation below, coldly delivering the most lethal verdict in his mind:
"Throughout this fight, though this beast has been overwhelmingly ferocious, it's purely relying on a Rank 2 variant beast's brute physical strength and instinct to battle!"
"Don't forget—Lin Qiang personally heard during the arena setup that Patriarch Lin Cang himself implanted an exceptional Rank 2 Gu into this beast king!"
"And until now... that Rank 2 Gu hasn't even shown its shadow!"
Cold observation from a god's-eye view often reveals the cruelest truths.
At that moment, in the center of the battlefield—a sudden aberration!
Lin Xue, during her continuous harassment, keenly detected a massive opening created by the Python King's excessive blood loss.
"Perfect opportunity!"
Without hesitation, she pushed the Spring Revival Gu's stimulation to its limit.
Her entire form became an arrow loosed from its bow, the Iron Leaf Gu in her hand flaring with dark light, striking directly at the Python King's blood-soaked vital point!
If this strike landed true, it would be enough to completely bisect this variant beast.
However—in the infinitesimal instant before Lin Xue's iron leaf touched the Python King's flesh.
Sensing true mortal danger, the Blood Jade Python's vertical pupils—previously somewhat unfocused from exhaustion—suddenly erupted with an intensely concentrated, almost mutually-destructive crimson radiance!
Hummm—!
A uniquely powerful and obscure Primeval Essence fluctuation belonging to a Rank 2 Gu exploded from within the Python King's massive body!
What followed was a scene that drove everyone to despair.
Beneath the Python King's shattered crimson scales, thick tendons resembling blue jade bizarrely emerged!
These jade tendons stretched taut like an indestructible net, instantly locking and hardening its muscles that had loosened from injury—even sealing shut that torn wound at its vital point!
Rank 2—Jade Tendon Gu!
Activated!
This Gu's power was utterly domineering.
Its effect wasn't simply increased defense, but rather—extreme muscle hardening, and terrifying physical damage reflection!
"Die!"
Lin Yan, eyes red with killing intent, completely failed to notice the anomaly on the Python King's surface.
Caught in an extremely heightened attack rhythm, he threw a flame-wreathed heavy punch charged with every ounce of his Primeval Essence, holding nothing back as it smashed into the wound now covered with jade tendons!
Boom!
CRACK—!!!
A scalp-numbing sound of shattering bone drowned out all other combat noise.
No scream, no torn flesh.
Lin Yan might as well have punched an iron mountain forged from ten-thousand-year black ice with all his strength.
His blazing fist not only failed to harm the Python King—the Jade Tendon Gu's unreasonable reflection mechanism instantly returned a proportional amount of that terrifying force back into his body!
Pfft—!
Lin Yan convulsed as if struck by lightning. His punching arm twisted and snapped at a grotesque angle, white bone fragments piercing through skin and muscle.
His entire body seemed struck by an invisible mountain.
He violently sprayed a mouthful of blood mixed with organ fragments, flying backward like a kite with severed strings before slamming heavily into a rock wall dozens of meters away, his fate unknown!
Had the Medicine Hall's support disciples not desperately poured healing Gu light into him to forcibly keep him breathing, this pride of the Punishment Hall would already be a corpse.
Meanwhile, on the other side.
Lin Xue's reaction in that moment reached the physical limits of the human body.
The instant before her Iron Leaf Gu would have pierced the Python King—under the Spring Revival Gu's hyper-alert neural state—her top-tier assassin's instincts detected the strange cyan glow suddenly appearing on the Python King's surface.
"Something's wrong! Retreat!"
Lin Xue's pupils contracted to pinpoints. She forcibly defied physical inertia, desperately twisting her wrist mid-air, retracting eight-tenths of the power from what should have been a full-force killing blow.
Clang!
The Iron Leaf Gu lightly grazed the jade tendon layer.
Even with only two-tenths of the original force, the rebounding shock still struck her hand like a heavy hammer.
"Ugh!"
Lin Xue grunted, the web of her hand instantly tearing open, blood streaming. Her Iron Leaf Gu let out a mournful keen, nearly shattering.
Using the recoil, she retreated explosively like a white crane with broken wings, narrowly escaping death's door.
Just one instant.
The strongest spear was broken. The sharpest assassin was forced back.
Empowered by the Gu, the Blood Jade Python had completely transformed into a mindless, rampaging heavy assault tank.
Bearing that impenetrable, damage-reflecting "Jade Tendon Tyrant Body," it began its frenzied harvest through the canyon.
It didn't even use any technique—a single roll was enough to crush an Earth Path Gu Master who couldn't dodge in time and tried to block with stone spikes, grinding him into a paste of meat smeared across the rocks like squashing an ant.
"Monster! It's invincible!"
"Run! Run now!"
The alliance that moments ago had been riding high instantly collapsed across all fronts under this absolute crushing power.
The surviving Gu Masters fled screaming for their parents, abandoning weapons and armor, wishing they had two extra legs as they scrambled desperately toward the canyon's exit.
The canyon instantly became a river of blood, a living hell.
And on that distant, elevated tree canopy.
Lin Mu watched the one-sided slaughter below. Far from feeling fear, he slowly rose to his feet.
Those pitch-black eyes gleamed with a chilling light among the dark leaves.
"What a Jade Tendon Gu, what a terrifying damage reflection mechanism."
Lin Mu saw through this Rank 2 Gu's true nature at a glance. "But in this world, there are no invincible Gu—only costs that cannot be borne."
He keenly observed that the Blood Jade Python rampaging below, though seemingly invincible on the surface, was experiencing a visible and dramatic decline in its once ocean-deep vital energy!
That was life force being frantically drained by the Jade Tendon Gu.
"The consumption of a Rank 2 Gu is absolutely not something a severely wounded variant beast can sustain for long."
A cold, certain, and cruel smile curved at the corner of Lin Mu's lips:
"It's not fighting—it's burning through its life force."
"This is the final madness of an arrow at the end of its flight; this is the death knell of terminal lucidity."
Lin Mu turned his head, his gaze piercing through layers of mist toward a hidden mountain hollow below.
There, Lin Feng's squad was similarly lurking in the shadows, holding their position.
The moment of maximum chaos had arrived.
"Time to strike, my 'oriole' young master."