The rumblings from beneath the ground came closer and louder, as if something enormous was breaking through the earth.
The entire ground began to shake violently, setting dry branches and withered leaves rustling incessantly.
"Not good! Retreat now!"
Yu Chong's face changed drastically as he shouted sharply, leading the charge in a rapid retreat.
The others snapped out of their daze and started backing away in panic, but it was already too late.
Boom!
The ground exploded abruptly, sending dirt and rubble flying in all directions!
A thick, crimson "fleshy tendril" covered in mucus shot out from underground like a lightning-fast venomous python, coiling around one of the Jiuchong Gang members.
The man let out a blood-curdling scream of terror, desperately swinging the long blade at the disgusting tendril!
At the Body Tempering Fifth Level, his single slash carried three thousand jin of force—extremely fierce and powerful. But when the blade struck the tendril, it only produced a dull "thud," as if striking an incredibly tough ox hide. The long blade was violently deflected, numbing his entire arm.
The next moment, the ground around him exploded with a boom!
The owner of the "fleshy tendril" had revealed itself.
It was a monster over five meters long, pitch-black all over, its body covered in black fleshy nodules.
It had a massive maw lined with saw-like fangs, and that terrifying "fleshy tendril" was actually its horrifying, long tongue that shot out like a projectile.
The tongue retracted sharply, dragging the man toward the maw filled with sharp teeth.
Squelch!
The saw-like teeth clamped down ferociously, biting the man in half at the waist in an instant, as his blood splattered the ground.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Immediately after, the surroundings continued to explode as four or five more of the same terrifying monsters burst forth from the earth, hissing as they launched frenzied attacks on the crowd.
"Help! Save me! Gang Leader! Please, save me!"
An ear-splitting scream echoed through the mountain forest, filled with endless fear and despair.
It was the young man whose wrist Lu Lin had broken earlier. He, too, had been coiled by a crimson tongue and was being dragged toward the fanged maw.
He struggled wildly, but it was all in vain. The next moment, blood sprayed as he met the same fate as the earlier victim.
Besides him, those crippled warriors the Jiuchong Gang had captured, already missing arms, were also powerless to resist. One after another, they met gruesome deaths under the monsters' fangs.
Whoosh!
A ripping sound was coming!
A crimson tongue shot toward Lu Lin like lightning.
Lu Lin swayed subtly, dodging the attack as lightly as a falling leaf.
But the tongue described an abnormal curve in mid-air like a living creature, changing direction and thrusting again at an even faster speed!
"Endless nuisance..." A cold glint flashed in Lu Lin's eyes as he stopped dodging. The surging Qi and Blood within him erupted, and he pushed the "Nimble Cat Steps" to the limit. Moving like lightning, in just a few steps, he closed the distance to the monster in an instant!
His right palm suddenly turned crimson, carrying the force of ten thousand jin as he smacked at the monster's ugly forehead.
The monster reacted with astonishing speed, letting out a hiss as it swung its claw, kicking up a foul-smelling breeze, to meet Lu Lin's palm!
Boom!
Palm and claw collided, producing a dull metallic clang.
The monster's massive body shook violently, actually flung back by Lu Lin's palm strike. It tumbled several times before barely managing to steady itself.
One of its front claws bent unnaturally, trembling—clearly broken by the sheer force of the palm strike!
But the savage, bloodthirsty light in its eyes didn't diminish in the slightest. Instead, it grew even more frenzied. The crimson tongue flicked rapidly through the air in sharp hisses as it bolted toward Lu Lin once more, seemingly fearless of death.
"What the hell is this thing?" Lu Lin frowned, not wanting to waste time on it.
He leaped up, alighting on a thick branch of a nearby tree. Clambering like the most nimble of monkeys, he reached the canopy over ten meters high in just a few seconds.
Looking down, his pupils constricted sharply.
Below, the clearing was now a scene of devastation, like a slaughterhouse.
Half of the Jiuchong Gang members had already been gruesomely killed by the monsters, their mangled corpses scattered everywhere, blood nearly staining the black earth red.
But what happened next was even more chilling...
The blood flowing on the ground seemed drawn by some invisible force, gathering into thin streams that quickly seeped into the earth, vanishing without a trace.
Even the mangled corpses withered at a visible rate, as if all their blood had been drained in an instant!
Lu Lin could even see wisps of black mist drifting from the rapidly desiccating corpses before they, too, vanished into the ground.
This sight sent a chill down Lu Lin's spine, his scalp tingling with fear.
"What the hell is going on? Is it this Siming Mountain itself, or... something else?"
Yu Chong, down below, had clearly noticed this terrifying anomaly as well. His face turned ashen as he roared orders, gathering the remaining Jiuchong Gang elites into a battle formation and launching a fierce breakout.
Yu Chong's strength was indeed formidable. At the peak of the Body Tempering Ninth Level, clad in the sturdy "Black Demon Armor," and with over twenty years of combat experience from his time as a Martial Army soldier, he had long since mastered the essence of the "Demonic Ape Blood Qi Art".
Not only had he reached the pinnacle of Proficiency, nearing Perfection, in "Demonic Ape Palm", but even in the second combat skill, "Demonic Ape Seizing Dragon Hand," he had also achieved Proficiency!
With himself at the core of the team, as his palms went up and down and his Qi and Blood surged wildly, the monsters surrounding him were fended off time after time.
Finally, seizing an opportunity, he delivered a mountain-crushing "Demonic Ape Palm," smashing one monster's skull and killing it outright. Tearing through the encirclement, he led the remnants of his gang in a desperate charge deeper into the forest.
Behind them, the remaining monsters let out furious hisses, giving chase relentlessly.
And from farther grounds, the rumblings sounded again—clearly, more monsters had been alerted and were closing in.
Hiss... hiss... hiss...
Below, the monster whose front claw Lu Lin had broken still did not give up. Using the rest of its claws and its tongue, it climbed up the tree trunk, its crimson eyes locked onto Lu Lin.
"You're asking for death!"
As a cold glint flashed in Lu Lin's eyes, he stopped holding back.
He swooped down from the canopy like a great bird, erupting with his ten thousand jin of strength as he struck out with a palm in mid-air.
This palm blow stirred up a howling gust, creating a low-pressure zone and sweeping black leaves off from all around. With an enormous, uncontrollable force like a bursting mountain torrent, it went hurtling for the monster!
Thud!
The palm struck the monster's massive head squarely!
With the dull sound, the monster's head exploded like a rotten watermelon, brains and blood splattering everywhere. The headless corpse crashed to the ground, twitching a few times before falling still.
After killing the beast, Lu Lin didn't pause for even a moment. Like a nimble cat, he darted out lightly, landing on a horizontal branch of another tree. With a tap of his toes, he used the foothold to throw himself into the air, leaping further ahead...
Unmistakably, he was heading in the same direction as Yu Chong and his group had escaped.
In front of Yu Chong and the others, he had already revealed part of his strength. If these people lived on, they would become a major threat in the future.
If the monsters failed to finish them off... then he would do it himself.
The remnants of the Jiuchong Gang now numbered only seven.
Four of them were Martial Army elites at the Body Tempering Seventh Level or above, while the other three were also skilled fighters at the Body Tempering Sixth Level. The seven of them, under Yu Chong's leadership, were desperately fleeing toward the outskirts of the mountain range.
Behind them, those hissing monsters were pursuing relentlessly. The monsters' eyes were filled with bloodthirsty madness, as if they would stop at nothing until their prey were dead.
"We can't keep going like this! We'll be caught up and exhausted to death sooner or later!" Yu Chong growled hoarsely as he ran. "Head for the outskirts! As long as we escape the bounds of this mountain range, these monsters likely won't dare to follow!"
"Escape the bounds?" The others' expressions changed at this.
"But... the Immortal Masters ordered us not to leave the mountain for three days! Violators will be executed!" A panting young man gave the reminder as he ran, his face filled with terror.
"Do you think I don't know that?" Yu Chong's face was gloomy with fury as he gritted his teeth. "But there are only a few dozen Immortal Masters, and this mountain range is vast beyond measure. How can they monitor everywhere? We won't go back the way we came—but choose another route and go over the boundary at a deserted spot and then hole up. We'll hide until the three-day deadline is almost up, then sneak back in. Those Immortal Masters aren't gods—how would they know?"
The others' eyes lit up as if they'd grasped a lifeline, nodding in agreement that this plan could work.
Immediately, the seven of them took a sharp turn, no longer heading deeper into the mountain but instead desperately fleeing toward what they believed was the edge of the mountain range.
The "Demonic Ape Blood Qi Art" was designed to capture what the ancient Demonic Apes possessed, including not only brute strength but also speed.
As Yu Chong and the others pushed their Qi and Blood to the limit, they sharply sped up, gradually widening the distance between them and the pursuing monsters.
After a while, the trees began to thin, and they could make out the relatively normal mountain scenery in the distance—it seemed they were about to break out of this eerie area shrouded in black mist.
Hope was within reach!
But just then...
A massive black banner embroidered with a ferocious ghost descended from the sky without warning.
With a "boom," it embedded itself deeply into the ground ahead, blocking their path!
The banner fluttered without wind, emitting a chilling, sinister aura.
Then, a cold, ethereal voice echoed from within the black banner,
"Those who leave the mountain without permission... shall die!"