A heaven-spanning net had closed completely around Lin Mu, sealing him at its center.
Behind him, the Rank 2 Stick Insect Gu — its disguise shed — came screaming through the air like a crossbow bolt loosed at point-blank range, driving straight for the center of his back with a piercing, shrieking wail.
Ahead, the berserk peak Rank 2 Hundred Beast King closed in with perfect, instinctive coordination.
The massive ape had lost its prized weapon and was fighting bare-handed — but its mountainous frame and the savage, sweeping arcs of its thick arms formed a wall of flesh and blood so dense and overwhelming that every avenue of evasion and escape was sealed completely shut.
By any measure, this was a death trap with no way out — a pincer designed to run him through from both sides.
Yet faced with this suffocating pressure of oncoming death, Lin Mu's face showed not even a trace of fear.
In those deep, dark eyes, something else ignited — a ferocity so savage and unrestrained it could not be contained.
Better to sever one finger than wound ten.
In the razor-thin space between life and death, Lin Mu made a decision that could only be called insane.
He did not retreat.
He charged forward.
The Rank 2 upper stage Primeval Essence in his Aperture was driven to its absolute limit without mercy.
Jade Tendon Gu.
Earth Ring Body.
Lin Mu stripped every last shred of defense from his arms and chest without hesitation, redirecting the full force of both the Earth Ring Body's deflection and the Jade Tendon Gu's damage reflection — concentrating everything, without reservation, onto his back.
Every drop of Primeval Essence he had left, he poured into his hands.
Two Metal Rend Leaf Gu condensed in his palms and fused into one in an instant.
Lin Mu crossed his arms tight against his chest.
Driven by the surging Primeval Essence, his entire body became like a dark gold drill spinning at lethal speed — and with a momentum that burned everything, that held nothing back, he hurled himself straight at the Hundred Beast King.
BOOM——!!!
A deep, bone-rattling crash detonated at the center of the clearing — the kind that set teeth on edge and made the scalp crawl.
The Stick Insect Gu's full-speed charge hit Lin Mu's back like a fully loaded freight cart at maximum velocity.
Pfft——!
Even with the Jade Tendon Gu and Earth Ring Body holding the line in tandem, the sheer blunt force of the impact still drove through him like a hammer striking through a mountain.
Lin Mu felt his organs lurch violently out of place. Sweetness flooded his throat. He could not stop it — a mouthful of blood erupted from his lips in mid-air.
But — Lin Mu made no attempt to shed that force.
He accepted it. Deliberately. Completely.
He let that devastating impact — the kind that should have shattered his spine — pour straight into him, and turned it into a propellant.
Use force against force.
With the Stick Insect's strike slamming into his back from behind, layered on top of his own full-speed forward charge —
His velocity in that single instant reached something that defied all reason.
Fast. Impossibly fast.
Fast enough that even the battle-hardened peak Rank 2 Hundred Beast King had no time to react.
Because in the Hundred Beast King's calculation, all it needed to do was hold Lin Mu for half a breath. Even if Lin Mu threw himself forward with everything he had, the Stick Insect behind him would run him through. He would be a corpse — no longer any threat.
What it could never have imagined was that the human before it would use a killing blow aimed at his own back as a launching pad.
"Die."
The killing intent in Lin Mu's bloodshot eyes was sharp as a blade.
The moment the Hundred Beast King's thick arms rose on pure instinct — reaching out to grab the blurred shape hurtling toward it —
Those two Metal Rend Leaf Gu, already razor-sharp beyond measure, were now moving at a velocity so extreme they became two streaks of light that the eye could not follow — blades of death capable of tearing through anything.
Shhk——!
The battle ended in the space between one heartbeat and the next.
The momentum from the collision could not be stopped in any short span of time.
Lin Mu's body flew forward like a meteor gone out of control, crashing through dozens of zhang of open space before slamming into the thick stone wall at the edge of the clearing with a thunderous impact — embedding himself into it, sending a cloud of dust and debris billowing outward in every direction.
Blood ran slowly down the stone face.
Lin Mu's back had been caved in by the impact. His spine groaned under the strain.
His hands were worse — the force of the cutting rebound had torn the webbing between his thumbs and forefingers completely open, bleeding freely, bone faintly visible through the wounds.
But he was still breathing.
He was still alive.
At the center of the clearing, the once-invincible peak Rank 2 Hundred Beast King stood in a posture that was strange and rigid and utterly still — arms outstretched in that final lunging grab, frozen in place.
A mountain wind drifted through, carrying the smell of blood.
Shlick.
Like a stack of blocks collapsing.
The Hundred Beast King's massive head, and both of its trunk-thick arms, slid cleanly and evenly away from its body in that moment — separated with perfect, smooth precision.
A geyser of scalding blood erupted upward and dyed the sky red.
The head rolled into a corner. Its eyes were still wide open, locked in a stare — a look of confusion and disbelief frozen into them that would never fade.
Even in death, this Beast King that had ruled its domain without rival had apparently never been able to accept that it had been separated from its own head in a single exchange.
As for the Rank 2 Stick Insect Gu that had struck from behind and delivered what should have been the killing blow — its fate was far more wretched.
The Jade Tendon Gu's damage reflection was designed for exactly this. It waited for the moment when the enemy was fully committed, guard completely down, striking with everything it had — and then it returned that force in full.
The Stick Insect's all-out, unreserved collision had crippled Lin Mu — but its own body had absorbed the full weight of the Jade Tendon Gu's backlash in return.
Hiss... hiss...
The Stick Insect's body — hard as ironwood — was now covered in a dense web of cracks spreading in every direction, on the verge of shattering entirely.
Its head had been caved inward by the rebound force. It lay in a pool of purple-black blood, its six blade-edged legs twitching without awareness or purpose.
Only the faintest thread of life remained. Half a breath from death.
Hah... cough, cough...
Lin Mu dragged himself out of the crater he had made in the stone wall with tremendous effort.
The pain had drained the color from his face completely. His entire body shook without stopping.
But he did not hesitate for a single moment. With trembling hands, he reached into the Gourd Gu at his waist and pulled out a fistful of Primeval Stones, refining them directly in his palm.
Pure primeval energy flooded into his Aperture and converted into Primeval Essence.
Rank 2 Wound-Mending Gu — full output.
A dense, vibrant wash of green light swept through his entire body, settling over the bone-deep wounds and the caved-in ruin of his back — forcing torn flesh to knit, dragging Lin Mu back from the edge of death by sheer force.
In the wreckage of what had become a slaughterhouse, Lin Mu pressed a hand to his chest and breathed in ragged, heaving pulls.
This battle — with a Rank 2 upper stage cultivation, he had faced two opponents simultaneously, met them head-on, and killed them both.
This was the absolute proof of where Lin Mu's strength now stood.
"S— Senior Brother!"
At that moment, hurried footsteps came from the edge of the clearing.
Lin Wuxie, who had just finished clearing the remnants outside the colony's perimeter, came rushing back with a face full of alarm and anxiety.
He stepped into the clearing and took in what lay before him — blood sprayed across every surface, the headless mountain of a corpse collapsed on the ground, the shattered remains of a wild Rank 2 Gu worm.
And Lin Mu, drenched in blood from head to foot, standing without falling — like a war god risen from a bath of carnage.
Lin Mu heard the footsteps and turned his head.
He wiped the last of the blood from the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand and looked at Lin Wuxie, who stood there struck completely dumb.
Lin Mu could no longer hold back what was surging inside him. He threw his head back and let out a long, roaring laugh that came from somewhere deep in his chest.
"Hahahaha!"
"Good little brother!"
"Tonight — we drink with this ape head as our appetizer!"