Chapter 206

"Hah! Thanks for your good wishes, Brother Chen!"

Ye Jiuzhong laughed heartily, "This area's huge—we might meet again later, maybe even find more opportunities. I'll go ahead first and rack up more points!"

With that, he bowed again, then turned and strode off, shouldering the spear flickering with lightning, his figure vanishing swiftly into the deepening dusk.

"Damn."

Watching his retreating back, Huang Yuanhe murmured, "This guy… really is a straightforward fellow."

Xue Xueran also nodded, "Looks fierce, but doesn't seem like a bad person."

Chen Mu's gaze was deep as he said softly, "Clear goals, pure heart—people like this usually go farther on the martial path. But what's this 'Tianlei Sect'? From what you just said, it used to be famous?"

"Yes, the Tianlei Sect has a lineage of over a thousand years, but after their Ten Thousand Manifestations elder passed away a century ago, they fell into obscurity," Huang Yuanhe replied. "If their Ten Thousand Manifestations elder hadn't died, they'd be one of the Badawu Sects today!"

"Ten Thousand Manifestations elder… died?" Chen Mu murmured.

"Supposedly tied to the Sun-Moon Mo Sect," Huang Yuanhe answered casually, then asked curiously, "By the way, Brother Chen, I've been meaning to ask—why do you keep calling me 'Huang He'?"

"Nothing much. Just convenient," Chen Mu said carelessly.

The meaning behind "Huang He" was known only to him.

"Just convenient…?" Huang Yuanhe frowned skeptically.

"Huang He. Huang He," Xue Xueran repeated twice, then nodded. "It's definitely easier than Huang Yuanhe!"

"…" Chen Mu smiled faintly, said nothing more, and walked toward the pitted ground where Ye Jiuzhong had left behind.

【Corpse detected. Retrieve?】

"Yes!"

…

One card after another was retrieved from the giant earthworm's corpse.

Chen Mu inspected them without expression.

Stamina Card, Stamina Card, Fragment Card, Stamina Card…

Indeed—he'd obtained another "Earth Tunnel" Fragment Card!

Compared to rats and rabbits, the earthworm's burrowing ability was undoubtedly stronger.

This time, he collected seven "Earth Tunnel" fragments total.

…

…

Night fell.

The glow above the ancient ruins' ceiling had dimmed drastically, like a moonlit night outside, barely enough to make out shapes.

Chen Mu, Huang Yuanhe, and Xue Xueran made camp in a sparse grove at the mountain's foot, each choosing a thick ancient tree to sit cross-legged among its branches, meditating to restore their energy.

The night forest was far from quiet; distant, unfamiliar beast roars echoed intermittently, adding a raw, dangerous edge.

Around midnight, an unusually fierce and dense chorus of giant rat shrieks, mixed with sharp whistling winds, tore through the silence of the area.

Huang Yuanhe snapped open his eyes in shock. "This commotion… so late, and someone's still fighting those giant rats? Should we go check?"

Chen Mu's "Listen to the Wind" skill had already detected it. He nodded. "The noise is significant. Might as well go see."

Xue Xueran was eager to join.

The three immediately left their perches, like three wisps of smoke, swiftly slipping toward the source of the sound.

After sprinting roughly a kilometer, they halted atop a low earthen ridge, peering down through the dim light.

Dozens of meters away, a slender figure was surrounded by dozens of scaled-clawed giant rats.

The figure wielded what looked like an ordinary iron rod, spinning it into an impenetrable wall of wind, smashing and killing rats that lunged forward.

'It's her!'

Chen Mu recognized her through night vision.

The girl was precisely the one Chen Mu had noticed earlier—slimmer than Xue Xueran, colder in demeanor, even younger!

The darkness seemed to awaken the rats' ferocity; their assault was wilder than during daylight.

Especially the leader—a giant rat nearly twice the size of the others, its scaled claws gleaming with dark luster, its aura as formidable as a Fourth Stage Innate martial artist!

It seized an opening, lunging forward with explosive speed like a cannonball, slamming hard into the girl's spinning iron rod defense.

"Boom!"

A muffled crash.

The iron rod nearly flew from her grip; she was hurled backward midair, spitting blood before crashing heavily to the ground.

"My god! It's the Bo Shan family!"

As the girl was flung backward, her face turned toward them—Huang Yuanhe finally recognized her. "One of the Badawu Clans—the Bo Shan family's Bo Bo Shanjin! Only fifteen, rumored to be Fourth Stage Innate, but her combat power rivals Sixth Stage Innate!"

"Didn't expect her to show up."

"The Bo Shan clan of the Badawu Clans?" Chen Mu narrowed his eyes.

Roar!

Squeak-squeak~

Below the ridge, shrieks and howls never ceased.

Though Bo Bo Shanjin was gifted, overwhelmed by dozens of fearless giant rats—especially the leader whose aura rivaled a late-stage Innate martial artist—she was now internally wounded, falling into a desperate disadvantage.

Yet her gaze remained cold and unyielding; she gripped the iron rod tightly, rose, and kept attacking, showing no sign of surrender.

Xue Xueran watched anxiously, admiration in her eyes. "She's so tenacious—let's help her!"

"You stay here. I'll go." Before his words finished, Chen Mu's figure shot down the ridge like an arrow released from a bow.

Mid-air, his Duan Tianhe true qi surged, instantly transformed via the Five Elements Spirit Conversion Scripture into blazing fire-type true qi, flooding into the Solitary Star Sword.

"Hum!"

The sword body trembled lightly, and crimson flames rose up, driving away the surrounding darkness.

Chen Mu dropped into the rat swarm, and sword light flared up.

"Hiss!"

"Hiss~ hiss~!"

Blazing-hot flame sword qi slashed in all directions like the scythe of the Grim Reaper; wherever it passed, the tough fur and scales of the giant scale-clawed rats were like paper, instantly torn apart and set ablaze!

Severed limbs and broken claws flew everywhere amid the stench of burnt flesh, and the once ferocious rat swarm instantly fell into utter chaos, screams ringing without end.

Seeing this, the leading giant rat let out a furious shriek, gave up chasing Boshan Jin, shifted its target, and turned into a massive grey shadow, lunging at Chen Mu with a gust of foul wind at terrifying speed!

"Beast, you seek death!"

Chen Mu's gaze turned cold. Facing this ferocious creature comparable to a late-stage Innate, he pushed his true Qi once more, and the flames on the Lone Star Sword suddenly surged.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

He struck three consecutive sword slashes — the first forced back the lunging momentum, the second carved a bone-deep gash across the tough scale armor, and the third directly severed one of the leading giant rat's scale-covered sharp claws!

"Roar~"

The leading giant rat howled in agony, its entire body drenched in fresh blood, yet its viciousness was thoroughly roused, and it charged again heedlessly.

Chen Mu's figure did not move. With a flick of his wrist, the Lone Star Sword traced a wondrous arc, the sword light seeming in an instant to part yin and yang, the pure and the turbid.

"Magpie Bridge Severance!"

The sword light flashed and vanished.

The ferociously charging leading giant rat abruptly froze midair; the next instant, a thin line of blood spread from the very center of its skull all the way down to its tailbone.

"Squelch—"

The massive rat body split cleanly in two down the middle, its entrails and fresh blood splattered across the ground, dying on the spot!

【Corpse discovered. Pick up?】