Chapter 34: Golden-Eyed Cold Sheep

“Keep pulling back!”

Xia Chuan and the other six dragged the cold beast away; Xia Hong naturally freed himself from the wall, but he did not turn and flee—instead, he told Xia Chuan and the others to keep pulling hard, while he, with the second stone axe he had just taken, bent low, straightened his waist, and slashed upward at a sharp angle.

The beast’s six horns were too large and too hard to cut through.

Its body was covered in white manes, each strand nearly half a meter long, almost entirely concealing its form; during the brief contact, Xia Hong had already felt the hardness of those manes.

Undoubtedly, this cold beast was even more terrifying in defense than the Snow Mane.

It was impossible to break through its body by conventional means.

The lower jaw was the only vulnerable spot Xia Hong could think of.

“My strength is already nine thousand seven hundred jin; with the Tai Zhan Fist Style paired with a weapon, I can unleash over ten thousand jin of force—I refuse to believe your bones are this hard!”

The stone axe Xia Hong slashed upward cut through the air with a fierce wind, rapidly frictioning against the cold air seeping in from outside the cave, even sparking a faint glimmer in midair.

The force behind this strike was beyond imagination.

Sensing the threat, the sheep-like cold beast thrashed wildly; the seven men holding the ropes were yanked violently left and right.

Xu Ning, the last among them to break through, had already been dragged to the ground, yet he gritted his teeth and refused to let go, bracing his legs against a protruding rock for leverage, his feet already bleeding profusely from the friction.

Thud…………

The seven men, clinging desperately to the ropes, ultimately gave Xia Hong the opening—he struck the lower jaw, producing a deafening clash of stone and bone, as if the air itself trembled.

Yet Xia Hong’s expression changed in shock.

For the stone axe hadn’t broken through its defense—it had shattered outright against the beast’s jawbone, just like the first axe had against its horn.

This beast’s lower jaw was nearly as hard as its horns.

Roar…………

Though the axe had shattered, the cold beast clearly felt excruciating pain—it reared its head and roared, unleashing strength far beyond what it had shown before, snapping the ropes instantly; the seven men beside it were thrown sprawling.

Worse still, after breaking free, the cold beast’s first target wasn’t Xia Hong, who had just struck it with the axe—but Xu Ning on the other side.

Among the seven pulling the ropes, Xu Ning had been positioned near the head; when the ropes snapped, he was flung directly to the beast’s flank, the closest of them all.

“Xu Ning, get out of the way!”

Xia Hong rushed in front of the cold beast, placing himself between it and Xu Ning.

This time, there was no choice but to engage directly.

Xia Hong gritted his teeth, planted his feet firmly, timed his move, and seized the beast’s charging horn with his bare hands.

His intention was to hold back the beast’s charge—even if he couldn’t stop it, he could at least save Xu Ning, and he could always retreat or endure some injury.

But he had underestimated it.

The beast’s enraged charge was on an entirely different level from before.

Thud……

The cold beast’s impact didn’t just hurl him into the cave’s ceiling—it nearly severed his ten fingers at the roots.

“Don’t touch its horns—they’ll cut you!”

Xia Hong fell from the cave ceiling, looked at the gashes on his hands, had no time to tend to the bleeding, simply wiped his palms once, then immediately raised his head to warn the others.

Too late—after hurling him, the cold beast immediately charged toward the group.

Perhaps it remembered the grotesque posture of those pulling the ropes—it still targeted Xu Ning.

Xu Ning tried to flee behind the beast, but his speed was far too slow; before he could take two steps, the beast’s horn had already pierced his waist.

If it struck true, death was certain.

Xia Hong had already risen to his feet and rushed toward the beast, but the distance was too great—he could do nothing. The other six tried to intervene as well, but their strength was too weak; they were thrown back before even getting close.

His fate seemed sealed.

Sensing the danger at his waist, Xu Ning broke into a cold sweat; seeing the half-meter-long manes on the beast’s side, he gritted his teeth, leapt sideways, grabbed the manes, and soared upward—flipping midair, he landed squarely on the beast’s back.

Pfft…

Of course, it wasn’t that easy—though he avoided the waist, his shoulder was pierced by the horn; had his desperate will to survive not driven him to rip the wound free from the horn, a single flick of the beast’s head would have split his body in two.

Perhaps the wound through his shoulder ignited his ferocity—he sat atop the beast, seized a stone axe, and began hacking wildly at its back.

As Xia Hong had suspected, the beast’s defense was far more terrifying than the Snow Mane’s; Xu Ning swung the axe over a dozen times, only severing some manes—beneath them, the skin remained utterly unbroken.

Yet Xu Ning didn’t stop—he was drenched in blood from his shoulder wound, relying solely on sheer ruthlessness, terrified that if he paused, he’d never move again.

Roar…………

Suddenly, for no apparent reason, the cold beast let out a piercing shriek.

Xu Ning, seated on its back, froze—he had hacked at it for so long with little reaction; why this sudden scream?

Xu Ning reacted quickly—he stopped hacking, raised the axe, and looked down at the spot he had just struck.

Though much of the beast’s back hair had been cut away, the remaining length still covered a vast area; Xu Ning used the axe to part the hair at the strike point—and froze.

Beneath the hair lay a palm-sized eye, its center a pure golden pupil, staring at him with cold, unblinking indifference.

“This is its weakness!”

Xu Ning didn’t linger on the eye—he noticed a faint axe mark along its edge and instantly realized: this eye was the beast’s vulnerability.

“It has a golden eye on its back—that’s its weakness!”

Xu Ning shouted the warning to the others, then twisted his face into a snarl, raised the stone axe, and brought it down with all his might upon the golden eye.

“Don’t do it, Xu Ning!”

Xia Hong, still struggling with the beast, realized what Xu Ning intended and shouted a warning—but it was too late.

The Snow Mane’s weakness was its long tongue—but its most dangerous feature was also that tongue; the Frost Wolf’s weakness was its small size—but precisely because of that, its speed was terrifying.

No creature evolves a weakness without reason.

A weakness often means greater danger.

Xu Ning, convinced he was about to succeed, widened his pupils—the axe was mere inches from the fist-sized golden pupil.

But then, the golden pupil suddenly blazed with blinding light—Xu Ning’s eyes, fixed upon it, were instantly blinded.

Yet Xu Ning refused to let go of this chance—he closed his left eye, focused solely with his right, and kept the axe descending toward the pupil.

Pfft…………

Tomorrow’s first round—thank you to every brother who clicked here, whether you’re reading carefully or just flipping through. The reading growth has been strong lately; I sincerely thank you all. In a new book’s early days, even one more reader can mean more exposure than another novel. I can’t guarantee my writing will fully meet your expectations, but I’ll give everything I have to bring the story in my mind to life. Please keep supporting me, stay with me through all four rounds—my entire motivation to write comes from your daily reads. I say all this, but really, it’s just three things: thank you, thank you, and damn it, THANK YOU!!!

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(End of Chapter)