The oppressive force radiating from the thirty-meter crocodile was like a mountain of solid weight, crushing down on every person's heart!
The black killing aura swirling around its body carried a corrosive, bloody stench that stung the skin like needles.
Those dark-yellow vertical pupils swept over the group of insignificant Qi Refining disciples with cold indifference, as though regarding a pile of livestock waiting to be slaughtered.
A demon beast equivalent to the peak of the tenth level of the Qi Refinement Realm — one that had even touched the threshold of the fourth rank!
Against such a creature, forget their group of disciples who topped out at the sixth or seventh level of Qi Refining — even twice their number would be throwing their lives away!
"Senior Brother Zhou!"
The quiet female disciple was the first to snap back to her senses, crying out as she moved to rush forward.
"Don't come over here!"
Zhou Shan forced himself to endure the searing agony of his shattered leg, veins bulging on his forehead, and snarled through gritted teeth.
He watched as two more inner disciples who had been standing nearby — trying to seize the moment to rescue him — were casually swatted by the thirty-meter crocodile's massive, bone-spike-covered tail, sent flying like swatted flies!
One died on the spot, every bone in his body shattered, coughing up blood.
The other barely clung to half a life, but was too gravely wounded to rise.
A wave of despair instantly spread through the group.
Zhou Shan clenched his jaw, reached into his Storage Bag, and pulled out a crimson Pill, forcing it into his mouth to stem the gushing blood from his broken leg. His complexion turned deathly pale.
He cast a long, deep look at the disciple who had died for him, his eyes filled with guilt and anguish.
Then, mustering every last ounce of strength, he screamed hoarsely at everyone still alive and still able to move:
"Split up and run! Now! Save whoever can be saved! This beast is an ancient monster from the deep pool in the back mountains — it's nearly gained sentience! We are no match for it! Not unless a Foundation Establishment Elder comes in person!"
The survival instinct overwhelmed everything else.
The remaining seven or eight inner disciples needed no further persuasion. Without a moment's hesitation, they scattered like startled birds, fleeing desperately in every direction!
This was not heartlessness.
When faced with an absolute gap in power, it was the only possible way to preserve one's life!
To stay was to be annihilated to the last person!
Chen Yang didn't hesitate either. He pushed the spiritual energy within him to its limit, unleashing the qi and blood power of the Nine Revolutions Body Tempering Art, and chose a direction where the trees were relatively dense, ready to sprint away.
However.
In the very fleeting moment he moved.
The thirty-meter crocodile, which had been about to pursue another disciple, snapped its massive head around. Its dark-yellow vertical pupils locked onto Chen Yang in an instant!
A bone-chilling killing intent crashed over Chen Yang like a tidal wave!
"Roarrr——!"
The thirty-meter crocodile let out a deafening roar and abandoned its original target entirely.
Its four massive, powerful claws tore into the ground, sending clouds of dust billowing into the air.
Its enormous body surged forward at a speed utterly at odds with its size, charging straight after Chen Yang!
"What?!"
Chen Yang's heart lurched with terror, his scalp going numb!
"Why is it chasing me?!"
The other disciples fleeing for their lives also noticed this bizarre turn of events, and turned back in shock.
"Why is that demon beast fixated on Junior Brother Chen?"
"What's going on? Is there something special about Junior Brother Chen?"
"Forget it! Just run! While we still can!"
No one could answer that question, and no one dared to stop.
Zhou Shan, supported by the quiet female disciple, stumbled along in flight, anxiously glancing back. When he saw Chen Yang being targeted by that terrifying giant crocodile, his eyes nearly split with fury as he screamed:
"Junior Brother Chen! Find a way to break free! We'll go for help! Hold on!"
They all assumed Chen Yang had used some special method to deliberately draw the demon beast away, buying them a chance to survive. Their hearts swelled with both gratitude and worry.
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Chen Yang, for his part, was cursing his luck inwardly!
He pushed his speed to the absolute limit, weaving frantically through the trees, trying to use the terrain to shake off the pursuit.
But the thirty-meter crocodile clung to him like a shadow. Its massive body smashed through tree after tree with brute force, staying right on his heels — the distance between them not only failed to grow, it was steadily shrinking!
A foul, reeking wind blasted him from behind.
Chen Yang could even feel the hot, wet breath the giant crocodile exhaled as it panted!
"Why is it only chasing me?!"
His heart churned with shock and fury as his mind raced.
He suddenly recalled the moment the thirty-meter crocodile had looked at him — those eerily human-like vertical pupils had held not only cold killing intent, but also something else hidden within them…
Greed. And hatred.
Hatred?
Greed?
In a flash of lightning-quick thought, a realization struck him like a bolt from the blue!
Demon cores!
He had previously hunted and devoured a large number of demon cores from demon beasts in the back mountains in order to rapidly advance his cultivation — especially the demon cores of Blazing Flame Tigers!
And in his Storage Bag right now, there were still several demon cores of various types that he had duplicated using a clay bowl and hadn't yet had the chance to use!
For a powerful demon beast like this one — on the verge of breaking through to the fourth rank, its intelligence nearly awakened — devouring the demon cores of other powerful demon beasts was the finest supplement for its advancement!
And the intense residual aura of demon cores clinging to Chen Yang's body was, to this thirty-meter crocodile, like a beacon in the dead of night — an irresistible, fatal attraction!
To test his theory, Chen Yang risked splitting off a thread of divine sense and retrieved from his Storage Bag one of the duplicated demon cores — a Shadow Wolf core with a relatively weaker aura — and held it in his hand.
Sure enough!
The instant the demon core appeared, the thirty-meter crocodile in pursuit behind him seemed to go berserk, letting out a roar even more frenzied and excited than before, its speed surging up yet another notch!
The greed in those vertical pupils was almost tangible!
"So that's what it's after!"
Chen Yang's heart went ice cold!
This was serious trouble!
Carrying the "treasure" this beast desperately craved, it would never give up the chase!
What to do?
Where to run?
Back to Butterfly Valley?
The valley entrance was wide open with nowhere to hide — that was practically suicide!
Go for help?
The other disciples had scattered in all directions. Whether any of them could find a Foundation Establishment Elder was anyone's guess — that was too far away to solve an immediate crisis!
A plan — reckless to the extreme, yet perhaps the only path to survival — was born from his desperation: go deeper into the back mountains!
The depths of the back mountains were dangerous, but the terrain was complex. Perhaps he could use the environment to maneuver.
And moreover…
A figure surfaced unbidden in his mind — silver hair like snow, an aura of cool detachment — the Elder of Spirit Sword Peak, Shen Hongmei!
The sect's orders had stated that all Foundation Establishment Elders had gone deep into the back mountains to suppress the source of the disturbance…
Then Elder Shen Hongmei was very likely among them!
"Go find her!"
Once the thought arose, it became overwhelming.
Though that senior's temperament was unpredictable, for some reason, in this moment of life and death, Chen Yang felt an inexplicable sense of trust in her.
His mind made up, Chen Yang bit down hard, abruptly changed direction, and stopped trying to flee toward the outer perimeter. Instead, he turned and ran desperately toward the deeper, more perilous reaches of the back mountains!
* * *
At the same time.
Near the entrance to Butterfly Valley.
Zhou Shan and the seven or eight disciples who had managed to escape were leaning on one another, gathered together in a wretched state.
Every face bore an expression of terror, every breath coming in ragged gasps.
"Quickly! Go find an Elder! Or find a Senior Brother or Sister with higher cultivation! Junior Brother Chen drew the demon beast away to save us, and now he's…"
Zhou Shan urged them on through his pain, his voice tight with urgency.
Just then.
Amid the wreckage of the devastated herb plots ahead, a figure in a moon-white inner disciple's robe, holding a folding fan, was leisurely bending down to pluck a spirit herb that had somehow survived the destruction.
The group looked closely, and someone recognized him:
"It's Senior Brother Lin Yang from Qin Valley!"
"Senior Brother Lin? I heard he just recently broke through to the eighth level of the Qi Refinement Realm!"
"Eighth level of the Qi Refinement Realm… can he handle a thirty-meter crocodile nearly at the fourth rank?" someone asked doubtfully.
"Even if he can't beat it outright, maybe he can stall it long enough to buy Junior Brother Chen some time!"
Zhou Shan, as if grasping at a lifeline, hobbled forward urgently with the female disciple's support, throwing aside all formality as he called out:
"Senior Brother Lin! Did you receive the sect's summons and come to help?"
Lin Yang slowly straightened up, tucked the spirit herb into his Storage Bag, and turned around. That inscrutable, androgynous smile still played on his face. He tapped his folding fan lightly against his palm and said with casual indifference:
"Summons? Heh, I have no interest in getting mixed up in all this fighting and killing. I merely came by to pick up a few scraps — it seemed a shame to let these spirit herbs go to waste."
His gaze drifted to Zhou Shan's bloodied, broken leg, and the corner of his mouth curved into an amused arc:
"My, my, Junior Brother Zhou — that's quite a nasty wound. Run into something tough?"
Zhou Shan was too anxious to care about his attitude, and pressed on urgently:
"It's the Black-Scale Twenty-Seven-Meter Crocodile! No — it's a thirty-meter crocodile now! Peak third-rank, nearly breaking through to the fourth! We're completely outmatched! Junior Brother Chen drew it away to save us, and right now he's being hunted — his life is in danger! Senior Brother Lin, your cultivation is profound — could you possibly…"
"Junior Brother Chen?"
The smile on Lin Yang's face froze in an instant. Those narrow eyes of his narrowed further as he cut in:
"Which Junior Brother Chen?"
Zhou Shan was taken aback by the sudden shift in his demeanor. An invisible pressure seemed to descend over him, making even him — a Body Cultivator at the seventh level of Qi Refining — feel slightly breathless. He answered instinctively:
"It's… it's Chen Yang — the one who recently advanced to inner disciple and defeated Li Yan in the trial!"
Lin Yang was silent for an instant. Every expression drained from his face, leaving behind only a fathomless calm.
He spoke again, his voice betraying neither joy nor anger:
"Which direction did he go?"
Zhou Shan was thrown off by this reaction, but immediately pointed in a direction:
"He went… he went deeper into the back mountains!"
Lin Yang said nothing more. He didn't even spare Zhou Shan and the others a glance. He simply closed his folding fan with a soft snap.
The next moment, he took a single step forward.
It appeared slow and graceful, yet with that one step, his figure had already appeared dozens of meters away!
Another step — dozens of meters more!
His speed far surpassed the aerial flight of an ordinary Qi Refining disciple, like an Earth-Shrinking Step — in just a few flickers, he had shrunk to a tiny white dot and vanished swiftly into the dense forest leading toward the back mountains!
He left Zhou Shan and the rest standing there, utterly dumbstruck.
After a few breaths, Zhou Shan finally snapped back to his senses and shouted hoarsely in the direction Lin Yang had disappeared:
"Senior Brother Lin! Be careful! That thirty-meter crocodile's power rivals the Perfected tenth level of the Qi Refinement Realm! Don't engage it head-on!"
But Lin Yang's figure had long since vanished from sight.
Whether he had heard the warning, no one could say.