In the dense forest atop the ridge overlooking the depression, Lin Mu lay motionless like a moss-covered boulder, hidden in the shadows of the tree canopy downwind.
His breathing had slowed to near imperceptibility. He'd practically merged with his surroundings.
Below him, in the center of that muddy basin, a massive beast lay resting.
A mutated Ironhide Boar King.
Twice the size of an ordinary Ironhide Boar, its bristles no longer the typical tangled gray-black but a dull, charcoal-like texture.
Stranger still, faint crimson veins crawled slowly across its thick hide—like magma flowing beneath the earth.
Only twelve robust Ironhide Boars stood guard around it. Not many.
"This is the peculiarity of Black Blood Stockade's survival zone."
Lin Mu analyzed silently.
"Patriarch Lin Cang leads clearing expeditions every two or three years to ensure the clan's safety."
"The true Rank 2 Beast Kings were wiped out long ago. This Boar King must be a recent ascension that slipped through the cracks—unstable foundation, few subordinates."
A true Beast King commanding hundreds in a stampede would trample Lin Mu into paste before he could blink.
But twelve guards? That transformed this hunt into an asymmetric yet survivable gamble.
Snort—
The Boar King rolled over. Its massive body scraped against a nearby boulder.
Hssss—
A soft sizzle. A deep, blackened scorch mark instantly appeared on the hard granite, wisps of smoke rising from the stone.
Lin Mu's pupils contracted.
"Extreme surface temperature. Exceptional hardness. Causing this much damage unconsciously..."
He rapidly searched through the original novel's bestiary in his mind.
"Confirmed. The Gu parasitizing its body should be a peak Rank 1 Gu combining Fire, Earth, and Strength paths—the Charcoal Stone Gu."
Absurd defensive power, plus burning and concussive effects on impact.
A hard bone to crack. But hidden inside that bone was the marrow Lin Mu desperately wanted.
He didn't move.
For a rational hunter, patience was deadlier than any blade.
Time crawled by.
Day turned to night.
Lin Mu lay motionless in that tree canopy for a full day and night—sipping from his waterskin when thirsty, swallowing dry ration pills when hungry, even holding in his waste for fear the scent would betray his position.
Finally, he mapped the beast's pattern.
Despite having subordinates, this Charcoal Stone Boar King was arrogant and ate alone.
Every day at noon, when the sun blazed hottest, it would violently chase away all its underlings and monopolize the scorching obsidian slab at the basin's center to sleep.
It seemed to need the heat to nourish the Charcoal Stone Gu within.
The banished subordinates didn't dare approach. They could only forage and wallow in the mud pits hundreds of meters away.
"That's the only window."
Lin Mu watched the noon sun overhead, a sharp glint in his eyes.
"No guards nearby. Relaxed in deep sleep. Food won't work as bait—it's already fed and sleeping."
"I need to enrage it. One strike that hurts enough to override its reason, make it chase me alone."
Tactics set.
Under cover of darkness while the Boar King returned to its den, Lin Mu quietly made his way to a chaotic stone forest several li from the depression.
Stone pillars jutted everywhere.
The terrain was narrow and complex—hostile to a beast of the Boar King's bulk, but paradise for an agile Gu Master like Lin Mu.
He worked like a precision architect, pre-planning a perfect escape route.
He even expended Primeval Essence to move several key boulders, artificially creating "sharp turn" chokepoints only a human could pass through.
When finished, he scattered traces of Primeval Essence purified by the Liquor Worm along the path, even dragging the bloody boar hide he'd skinned earlier across the ground.
To a wild beast, the scent of higher-grade Primeval Essence was like a lighthouse in darkness—it would never abandon such a "great tonic."
The trap was set. All that remained was for the prey to walk in.
Noon the next day. Blazing sun overhead.
The Boar King lay on the obsidian slab as expected, snoring deeply, waves of scorching heat radiating from its body. No guards in sight.
Lin Mu didn't approach. He stood a hundred meters away, upwind.
Deep breath. He channeled everything into the Iron Leaf Gu.
"Go."
A deep cyan iron leaf materialized at his fingertip—edges sharp as razors, gleaming with cold light.
His target wasn't the Boar King's thick back armor. It was the most vulnerable, most sensitive spot on its entire body—the snout.
Thwack!
The blade of light screamed through the air in an arc.
His aim was slightly off—it didn't pierce directly into the nostril. But it smashed squarely into the beast's wet nose.
A muffled explosion.
Light scattered. Blood sprayed.
"RAAAAAAHHH—!!!"
An earth-shattering roar erupted.
The Boar King woke in agony. Morning rage compounded by searing pain in its snout—its eyes flooded red instantly, reason incinerated to ash.
It surged to its feet, hooves shattering the obsidian beneath it. Its gaze locked onto the insignificant insect in the distance who'd dared challenge a king.
Lin Mu deliberately revealed himself. He even made a taunting gesture with the steel blade in his hand.
Then he ran.
"ROAR!"
The Boar King went berserk. It didn't spare a thought for its subordinates in the distance—they hadn't even registered what was happening.
Like a runaway flaming war chariot, it thundered forward, trailing billowing dust and scorching heat waves.
The ground trembled. Trees groaned.
Lin Mu sprinted ahead, pushing the Swift Ant Gu to its absolute limit. His legs blurred with speed.
But to his horror, this Boar King's straight-line burst speed was actually faster than the Swift Ant Gu.
Behind him came the constant crack of snapping trees—the Boar King bulldozing everything in its path.
The searing heat waves burned Lin Mu's back even from dozens of meters away, suffocating him.
"So fast! A mutant indeed!"
One second's delay meant becoming paste.
The chase stretched on endlessly.
The guard boars tried to follow, but the beast-repelling powder Lin Mu had scattered between the depression and the stone forest drove them back.
They could only pace anxiously in place while their king charged alone into enemy territory.
Finally, the jagged silhouette of the stone forest appeared ahead.
A flash of triumph in Lin Mu's eyes.
He dropped low, executing a textbook slide, barely squeezing through the narrow gap between two stone pillars.
The Boar King behind him was beyond reason. It didn't know the meaning of brakes.
Relying on brute strength and iron-hard hide, it smashed through the outer rocks and plunged headlong into the killing ground prepared just for it.
CRASH!
Stone fragments flew everywhere.
Inside the stone forest, the Boar King's massive bulk finally became a liability.
Every charge got caught on the dense pillars, killing its momentum. Its unstoppable rush was forced into fits and starts.
Lin Mu stood atop a tall stone pillar, looking down at the beast thrashing below, about to catch his breath.
Then everything changed.
Repeatedly humiliated by this "insect," the king's fury reached critical mass.
The Charcoal Stone Gu parasitizing its body seemed to sense its host's rage and activated at full power.
The Boar King's charcoal-black hide suddenly blazed crimson—like a massive branding iron heated white-hot.
The air visibly distorted from the temperature. The stone beneath its hooves hissed and crackled.
"ROAR!"
The Boar King charged again.
This time, it wasn't just speed. There was "momentum"—the unique pressure of a Strength Path Gu.
It ignored the terrain entirely, smashing through the blocking pillars, barreling toward Lin Mu's perch with unstoppable force.
"Not good!"
Lin Mu's expression shifted. No way to take that head-on. He instantly activated the Earth Ring Body.
Red mud rings formed around his ankles. He prepared to leap to another pillar.
But mid-charge, the Boar King somehow wrenched its head around through sheer terrifying core strength.
Its massive body, trailing waves of scorching heat, defied inertia—sweeping through the air like a burning wall.
Nowhere to dodge.
In that split second, Lin Mu switched tactics.
"Red Mud—DEFEND!"
Inside his Aperture, the Red Mud Gu let out a mournful cry.
To form this shield, it burned through nearly all the boar blood energy it had stored. The dark red mud shield materialized already cracked.
It gave everything it had, instantly condensing a thick barrier before Lin Mu—dense and gleaming with dark crimson light.
Simultaneously, Lin Mu crossed his arms over his chest, flooding his entire body with Primeval Essence.
BOOM!!!
A thunderous impact—like two boulders colliding in midair.
The moment the Red Mud Shield made contact with the Boar King's hide, it was like throwing clay into a furnace.
The searing heat cracked it instantly. It crumbled, scattering into ash.
That was Lin Mu's strongest defensive measure—and it hadn't even lasted a single breath!
The massive impact traveled through his arms and into his entire body.
Lin Mu felt like he'd been hit head-on by a speeding truck. His bones groaned in a way that set his teeth on edge.
His body flew backward, completely out of control, and slammed into a pile of jagged rocks.
"Puh!"
A mouthful of fresh blood sprayed out, staining the front of his robe crimson.
He struggled to rise, but his arms were so numb he could barely feel them.
He watched the massive beast approach, step by step, its body radiating a deep red glow.
A chill unlike anything he'd ever felt crept into his heart.
"I underestimated it... This isn't just about defensive Gu or Fire Path Gu..."
"This is Strength Path! Pure physical suppression!"