Chapter 034: A Thousand Wounds Inflicted on the Enemy, Yet at the End of the Road!
(Page 1 of 3) Today’s second update: Chapter 034!
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“Yu Le, don’t be foolish. You’re no match for it!” Han Yuesu was frantic with worry.
But Yu Le paid no attention. With nowhere left to retreat, the Golden-Mane Demon Rat was already charging at him, its razor-sharp claws raised!
So fast!
As he reeled in the line, Yu Le stepped lightly to the side, narrowly evading the claw sweeping straight at him.
Before he could regain his footing, the beast struck again with its other claw. It grazed Yu Le’s waist, shredding his combat suit and leaving four deep claw marks behind.
Yu Le sucked in a sharp breath of pain and swung his rod in fury, but struck only the ground. Although one of the demon rat’s legs had been injured by Han Yuesu and its movements were slow, it used a single leg to leap onto the Crouching Dragon Rod.
Not only did it evade Yu Le’s strike, it also used the momentum to climb up the fishing rod and charge toward him!
Hmph!
Yu Le snorted coldly and employed the Sticky-Clothing Lift technique. Raising both arms, he poured tremendous force into the Crouching Dragon Rod.
The rod trembled, and the Golden-Mane Demon Rat lost its footing and was flung into the air. Yet it suffered no injury. Instead, it swiftly adjusted its posture and kicked toward Yu Le in a stomping attack.
What an opportunity!
Yu Le’s gaze sharpened, and he made a bold move.
After enduring countless battles, his already-tattered combat suit burst apart. Yu Le gathered all his World-Shaking Power and concentrated it in both palms.
His hands formed a gesture extremely familiar to Han Yuesu—the signature technique of the Han family, the Ice Soul Palm—and struck at the Golden-Mane Demon Rat descending from above!
Palm and foot collided. The impact was so powerful that Yu Le was sent flying backward, crashing into a heap of debris.
The Golden-Mane Demon Rat fared no better. It was also blasted away, letting out a shrill cry in midair.
Squeak, squeak, squeak!
The Golden-Mane Demon Rat bounced across the ground several times like a rubber ball before finally landing. A closer look revealed that, aside from the leg previously frozen by Han Yuesu, its other originally unharmed leg was now a bloody mess. Its shattered shinbone protruded from the knee, and the pain caused its entire body to writhe across the floor.
Truly kicking the cripple’s good leg!
Han Yuesu was about to step forward and finish it off when the remaining Mane Demon Rats blocked her path.
“Yu Le! Yu Le, are you all right?” Han Yuesu cried anxiously while fighting off her enemies.
“I’m… not dead yet!”
From within the scattered debris, a bloodstained hand reached out. As chunks of rubble rolled away, Yu Le somersaulted forward, seized the Crouching Dragon Rod lying on the ground, and staggered to his feet.
Pfft—
Yu Le spat out a mouthful of blood, his face deathly pale.
Although he had not been struck by the Golden-Mane Demon Rat’s primary weapon—its powerful foreclaws—and had only endured an attack from one leg, the Tempered Bone Realm was still the Tempered Bone Realm. Dark force had entered Yu Le’s body and nearly shattered his internal organs.
Fortunately, the World-Shaking Power coursing through Yu Le’s body dissolved that lethal dark force!
Seeing that Yu Le could still rise and fight, Han Yuesu breathed a sigh of relief, yet her heart was filled with shock.
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She was certain she had not been mistaken just now. What Yu Le had used was none other than the Han family’s secret art—the Ice Soul Palm.
Combined with the way he had exerted force earlier, her keen eyes could easily identify that technique as a combat art as well.
Three great combat arts—mastered in a single night?
That alone would have been astonishing. Yet Yu Le was merely at the seventh stage of the Rock Realm, and without even equipping a life weapon, he had actually gone head-to-head with a second-bone Golden-Mane Demon Rat!
The power of that collision could be judged simply by looking at the injuries of the Golden-Mane Demon Rat, which was now lying on the ground and struggling even to stand.
Those in the Tempered Bone Realm could not only transform visible force into dark force—giving it greater power, stronger penetration, and a more explosive impact—but their bodies, already strengthened in the same manner as those of Rock Realm cultivators, possessed bones forged to an extraordinary hardness. This granted them far greater endurance against injury.
Han Yuesu had exhausted considerable effort to cripple one of the Golden-Mane Demon Rat’s legs while surrounded by a horde of Mane Demon Rats, using her ice-element dark force.
But what about Yu Le?
Just how many secrets did he still possess?
Yu Le had dared to take such a risk because, apart from knowing that he had little chance of victory against a Golden-Mane Demon Rat whose speed and explosive power both surpassed his own, he also possessed absolute confidence in his other special ability-type heavenly weapon.
The World-Shaking Power had not let him down!
Only by combining his own strength, the amplification and effects of the World-Shaking Power, and the Profound-grade combat art, the Ice Soul Palm, had he managed to cripple the Golden-Mane Demon Rat’s other leg.
He had caught it off guard. In that exchange, he had ruined the beast’s good leg—but it had cost him dearly as well. Though he had injured his enemy by a thousand, he had suffered eight hundred in return. Yu Le was now so feeble that he could barely remain standing.
Fortunately, under Han Yuesu’s orders, Gu Xiaoyuan had redirected all healing toward Yu Le.
As their conditions shifted in opposite directions, the healing elf gradually steadied Yu Le’s breathing.
The Golden-Mane Demon Rat, meanwhile, had lost both hind legs—the very limbs that enabled its rapid movement—and could no longer remain standing.
But it had not yet reached the end of its road. Seeing that Yu Le had begun receiving treatment, it stopped paying attention to its useless hind legs. It slammed its foreclaws against the ground and used them to generate an explosive leap, replacing its hind legs entirely as it sprang into the air and once more slashed toward Yu Le!
Facing the beast’s sudden assault, Yu Le did not retreat.
Though both his arms were numb, he still clenched his teeth and gripped the baseball-bat-sized Crouching Dragon Rod tightly.
Bang!
Rod and claw collided. The web between Yu Le’s thumb and forefinger split open, and his body swayed in place like a trembling leaf. The Golden-Mane Demon Rat, having exhausted its momentum, also fell to the ground.
Without giving Yu Le any time to recover, the Golden-Mane Demon Rat struck the ground and launched itself upward again, its two claws crossing as they slashed toward his chest.
Yu Le raised the rod horizontally to block. Under the impact, his feet slid backward.
The Crouching Dragon Rod hummed as it trembled, dispersing the force. Yet a small amount of dark force still reached Yu Le’s palm. He cried out in pain as the flesh of his palm and arm burst open, blood dripping freely to the ground!
“Yu Le!” Han Yuesu cried out in alarm.
But by then, she and Su Rui, both exhausted, were also entangled by the remaining Mane Demon Rats. They were completely unable to spare any attention for him.
Yu Le’s breathing grew heavy, and his vision began to blur.
Before he could catch his breath, the Golden-Mane Demon Rat launched another savage attack. Unable to block it completely, Yu Le took several claw marks across the chest and was sent flying into the wall.
After struggling several times, even getting back to his feet had become exceedingly difficult.
After three explosive attacks, the already gravely wounded Golden-Mane Demon Rat also crouched on the ground, briefly gathering its strength.
Clutching the Crouching Dragon Rod with both hands, Yu Le shakily rose to his feet. He had already lost count of how many times he had exhausted himself since beginning his demon hunts.
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Looking at the Golden-Mane Demon Rat, whose image had already split into overlapping shadows before his eyes, Yu Le was utterly certain that if it attacked once more, he would die without a doubt.
But he had already reached the end of his resources as well!
Was he really going to die here?
“An’an is still waiting for me to save her. How could I die at the hands of a stinking rat like you!”
Yu Le gritted his teeth. But harsh words alone were useless; his tenacious willpower had already carried him to this point.
The disparity between them was simply too great—even after crippling both of the beast’s hind legs!
His injuries were so severe that even the healing elf’s treatment had become barely more than a drop in the ocean.
He had truly been driven to the brink!
Yet Yu Le still refused to give up. Supporting himself with one hand on the Crouching Dragon Rod, he produced a jade bottle in the other.
A trace of madness appeared on his face.
“Stinking rat, even if I die, I’ll take someone down with me.”
With that, Yu Le flicked the bottle cap away, raised his head, and poured the contents into his mouth.
Chirp—
For an instant, Yu Le seemed to hear a clear, resonant birdcall, but he had no time to wonder where it had come from.
The crimson liquid glowing with golden light poured from the jade bottle into his mouth. Yu Le’s entire body convulsed. Like a packet of ketchup crushed beneath a foot, a cloud of blood exploded around him.
A moment later, Yu Le let out a hoarse, agonized cry. The shriek was so terrible that even the Golden-Mane Demon Rat nearby shuddered.
Its beady eyes stared in confusion at Yu Le within the blood mist. Then, as a scent drifted toward it, an almost human expression of intoxication appeared across the Golden-Mane Demon Rat’s face.
It was the scent of the substance in the jade bottle!
How irresistibly enticing!
For a demon beast like itself, it was undoubtedly a supreme treasure!
No longer caring about its own condition, the Golden-Mane Demon Rat slammed its claws together and shot forward, intending to deliver Yu Le a fatal blow!
Clang!
The Golden-Mane Demon Rat had only just charged into the blood mist when its half-completed claw strike was blocked.
“Hot… so hot!”
Then a heavy rod rapidly enlarged in the demon rat’s eyes and sent it flying with a single blow.
Xu Kun burst out of the blood mist like a zombie. Every vein on his body stood out, and he looked utterly demonic.
His voice was filled with unbearable agony. Amid his struggle against himself, his gaze fixed on the Golden-Mane Demon Rat in the corner, which had staggered upright and was now swaying dizzily.
“Die!”
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