76: Chapter 76 Condensed Cores are Like Ants! The Taiyi Imprisoning Heaven Finger!

"Arrogant!"

The old man was furious upon hearing this.

Beating me is one thing, but you want to beat my dad?

This isn't just humiliation; this is digging up my ancestral grave!

The old man immediately stimulated the Source Energy within his body. His age of nearly a hundred made his Source Energy somewhat unstable, but he gritted his teeth and pulled out the long blade at his waist.

The moment the blade left its sheath, it actually carried a bit of momentum.

It's just that... the old man was in the Ninghe Realm and hadn't reached the Shaping Stage yet, so his weapon wasn't specialized.

At this moment, he swung the blade and charged over.

If he had shaped it into a blade, Chen Lin might have taken a second look, but now...

"You're quite brave!"

Chen Lin didn't even lift his eyelids.

His right hand reached out casually—catching a blade with bare hands!

Two fingers steadily clamped onto the blade edge, unmoving.

The old man's face flushed red, veins bulged on his hands, but the blade seemed welded between Chen Lin's fingers, unable to advance even a fraction.

Chen Lin glanced at him, his right hand turning from fingers into a palm, and he chopped at the middle of the blade.

"Snap!"

The steel long blade broke into two pieces upon impact.

The tip of the blade hit the ground with a "clatter," sounding exceptionally harsh in the silent mine tunnel.

Immediately after, Chen Lin kicked out, landing squarely on the old man's chest.

"Ouch!"

The old man let out a miserable scream, flying backward three or four meters, landing hard on his butt, clutching his stomach, wailing incessantly.

The few gaps in his teeth were almost knocked out by this fall; he was in a pathetic state.

[Ding! Teaching the old man a lesson in manners, harvested shock emotion points +641]

...

At this moment, the scene was deathly silent.

Everyone gasped.

Especially those from the local forces.

They looked at Chen Lin as if he were a demon.

Their faces were filled with fear.

Catching a blade with bare hands?

And breaking a steel blade so easily?

The key was that the old man in the late Ninghe Realm couldn't even block one move?

These descriptors piled onto one person, and such a young university student at that—

Holy crap.

In a place like the Lower City, they knew better than anyone what this meant.

There are no rules here; whoever has the hardest fist is the boss.

And this young man, who looked refined, clearly had fists harder than all of their heads combined.

"Uh... little brother, we were just running our mouths, please don't take it to heart."

The bald man leading them had his voice change pitch, squeezing out a smile that looked worse than crying.

"We'll shut up, we'll definitely shut up."

Chen Lin stared at him for two seconds, said nothing, and just lifted his chin, signaling them to get lost.

The few people, as if granted amnesty, hurriedly retreated several meters, putting a large distance between themselves and Chen Lin's group of four.

[Ding! Harvested shock, fear, and terror from the crowd, emotion points +400]

...

"Brother Lin, awesome!"

Wang Gu gave a thumbs up, lowering his voice and laughing, "These grandsons just needed a lesson."

Chen Lin didn't respond; his gaze had already turned to the tunnel ahead.

The entrance to the abandoned mine was still spacious, accommodating three or four people walking side by side, but the further they went inside, the narrower and more cramped the tunnel became.

The walls retained faint traces of exotic mineral veins, glowing with a dim, eerie blue-green light in the darkness, like the blood vessels of some giant organism.

The air was filled with a damp, moldy smell, mixed with a faint scent of blood.

"Careful."

Ye Huang, who was walking in front, suddenly stopped and raised his hand to signal everyone to halt.

Chen Lin followed his gaze.

At the corner of the tunnel ahead, several pools of black blood were scattered on the ground, already dried; it looked like they had been there for at least a few days.

The direction the blood was dragged led deep into the mine.

"There's something."

Gong Ling spoke in a low voice, a trace of gravity flashing in his clear eyes.

He pinched his fingers into a spell, sensing carefully.

A layer of faint white light spread outward from him as the center.

"I can feel it, inside... there are quite a few Exotic Beasts."

As a space-type martial artist, he was most sensitive to the surrounding space.

At this moment, he clearly sensed that the spatial fluctuations deep in the mine ahead were abnormally chaotic.

That was a sign that only occurred when a large number of creatures gathered.

"How many?" Chen Lin asked.

"At least... more than twenty."

Gong Ling swallowed, "There might be even more further in."

Twenty.

This number made everyone's expressions tighten a bit.

Although the four of them were the best of this year's Lixian Academy, the Exotic Beasts in the Lower City were not the same concept as those in the training grounds.

These beasts lived in the harshest environments year-round, hunting and being hunted by humans; every single one of them was ferocious to the bone.

"The highest is around the third tier, corresponding to a late-stage Shaping Realm martial artist."

Gong Ling spoke again.

Once these words were spoken, Chen Lin immediately breathed a sigh of relief.

"I thought it was something else."

"Just late-stage Shaping Realm?"

Chen Lin sneered; his full-force blow could deal 30,000 kilograms of force.

Approaching a Real Realm expert.

For Exotic Beasts around the third tier, Chen Lin could let loose!

"Follow the original plan."

"Gong Ling, you're responsible for sealing the path; shut the door and catch the dogs, don't let them run."

"Ye Huang, assist him; Wang Gu, you and I take the front."

"Understood."

The three nodded simultaneously.

Chen Lin took a deep breath and was the first to step into the darkness behind the corner.

The tunnel suddenly widened here, as if entering a naturally formed underground hall.

The mineral veins on the ceiling were denser, and the blue-green eerie light illuminated the entire space with shadows.

Then, Chen Lin saw them.

Deep inside, more than a dozen Exotic Beasts were lying or crouching, lazily gathered together.

Their appearance was like some kind of canine animal, but they were larger than oxen, their bodies covered in pitch-black scales, and their heads had no eyes, only a giant circular mouth filled with sharp teeth.

Rotten Bone Dog.

Second-tier Exotic Beast.

One of the most common Exotic Beasts in the Lower City, but also the most dangerous pack hunters.

Their vision had long since degenerated, but their hearing and smell were sharp to the extreme; once they locked onto a target's scent, the prey almost never escaped.

The moment Chen Lin's group of four stepped into the hall, all the Rotten Bone Dogs stopped moving simultaneously.

More than a dozen circular giant mouths turned toward the entrance in unison.

The fishy stench filling the air suddenly intensified several times over.

"We've been discovered."

Ye Huang's voice came from behind, carrying a hint of tension.

As soon as he finished speaking, the largest Rotten Bone Dog in the front suddenly opened its giant mouth—

A harsh, piercing shriek erupted from the depths of its throat, like metal scraping against glass, or the cry of an infant, echoing crazily throughout the mine!

This was the hunting signal of the Rotten Bone Dog.

The next instant, more than a dozen Rotten Bone Dogs moved at the same time!

They lunged in a posture that was strange to the extreme.

On all fours, yet they bounced between the walls and the ceiling like spiders, their pitch-black scales leaving trails of afterimages in the eerie light!

Roar!

One of the Rotten Bone Dogs hissed.

Sharp teeth emitted a cold, biting glint in the darkness.

Just as they rushed up.

Everything turned white.

Chen Lin grinned ferociously: "Beasts, I was waiting for you."

"Taiyi Imprisoning Heaven Finger!"