Chapter Ninety-Nine: Assault and Slaughter

Big White lifted its head bravely to the sky, only to discover that the iron ball had somehow burrowed off into another patch of brush. Furious, it barked and yelped, unable even to form human words.

“What a fake brother you are, Little White. We’re through!”

Up in the air, after the giant claw drove the mass of mist back, its hideous true form was quickly revealed.

Around nearly a hundred people, layers of iron brambles suddenly sprouted from the ground, black as pitch yet glinting with a cold sheen that made the heart shudder.

Dense and interwoven, those iron brambles rose upward.

In the blink of an eye, they sealed everyone inside a cage, and only through the narrow gaps between the thorns could they glimpse the world beyond.

Everyone was trapped in that thorny prison with nowhere to flee, including Fan Bei, Lin Zhongqing and her brother, and Lin Xiaohong and her sister.

Fan Bei had deliberately chosen open ground precisely to avoid being caught in one sweep, yet now it seemed to have backfired.

Panicked voices rose.

“We’re finished. How are we supposed to get out?”

“Are we going to die here?”

Big White was so frightened that it shrank behind Fan Bei’s leg, trembling all over.

Most of the people were utterly terrified, but they were all on the Phoenix Cry Valley side. The people of the Hardstone Merchant Guild, by contrast, wore stern expressions and were already preparing themselves.

One by one, they activated the thin armor of pale gray, black, or yellow hues, though many could only cover their chests and arms.

“Want to keep living? Easy. Kill one person beside you, and I’ll let you out!” the giant claw said, delighting in itself.

To play the cat with the mouse—that same thought rose at once in the minds of all who still retained their composure.

The giant claw seemed very patient, showing no hurry to strike.

Many people exchanged glances, their eyes wavering, yet none made a move.

Fan Bei felt contempt in his heart. The other side had no idea that most of the people here were linked by mind, and although the people on Lin Zhongshi’s side lacked such a bond, each and every one of them had already endured countless trials. They were not so easily shaken.

“A bunch of fools. Still clinging to affection? What are such things worth when life itself is on the line?” the giant claw mocked with disdain.

Fan Bei stared hard at the claw, but unfortunately he could not see its weakness. If he wanted to forcibly purify it, would that not require tens of millions of points of mental power?

He opened The Father of the System to check. He had 6.535 million left—perhaps enough, but the other side had only revealed a single claw. At any moment, it could sever its own tail and escape.

These high-dimensional spiritual beings were shrewd indeed.

At that moment, however, Lin Zhongqing flew up into the air. A golden longsword appeared in her hand, and she swung it down fiercely at the cage.

Wherever the golden blade passed, wisps of blue smoke rose at once, and the brambles turned into showers of iron sand and shattered stone as they fell away.

“You?” the giant claw cried out in astonishment.

“Why stop at ‘you’? The real show is still to come!” Lin Zhongqing stood there with imposing grandeur, like a demigod. After she burst out of the cage, she struck again toward the sky.

A streak of azure sword light slashed toward the giant claw hanging in the air.

“You dare swing a sword at me? You truly don’t know how to die!” The giant claw met the sword light head-on.

“You’ll understand at once what irresistible power means!”

Yet in the very next instant, when the claw collided with the sword light, it was cleanly severed into two pieces.

Everyone was dumbstruck. That seemingly terrifying, ferocious, and invincible giant claw had proved to be so fragile that it could not withstand a single blow.

It was nothing but a paper tiger. That thought arose simultaneously in the hearts of the hundred-odd people.

“This is impossible!” The two halves of the burning claw hissed and screeched in rage.

Lin Zhongqing threw back her head and laughed. Her white wings beat behind her as she behaved with unrestrained boldness.

“Hahaha! Just as I expected—I am the one chosen by Heaven’s mandate! All you monsters and fiends will be reduced to ash beneath my sword!”

Then she sent out more than a dozen sword lights in succession, hacking the two halves of the giant claw into scattered fragments.

“Curse you! Just wait. I’ve already found your weakness. You will die by my hand sooner or later!”

With that sinister threat left hanging in the air, the shattered remains of the claw suddenly accelerated, transforming into countless tiny black claws that shot toward the people below.

The more brutal and overbearing a thing appeared, the more it was, in essence, a bully that preyed on the weak and feared the strong.

A trace of contempt flashed through Fan Bei’s mind, and a mass of mist immediately sprang to life, wrapping the hundred or so people in layer upon layer.

At the same time, Lin Zhongqing slashed out countless sword lights, cutting down the flying claws.

Waves of blue smoke rose. By the time the last flying claw struck the mist, it too vanished without a trace.

No one was injured. Among the crowd, many burst into tears of joy.

They had never imagined that they would survive by a hair’s breadth before those legendary evils.

One had to know that dealing with even ordinary malevolent spirits was already a tremendous undertaking; let alone these high-grade horrors lurking within mysterious lands.

Then, out of nowhere, the iron ball rolled back into view and said to Big White, “I have a feeling you might be able to do what that woman just did.”

“I can’t. Next time you get the chance, you do it yourself,” Big White said from beneath Fan Bei’s leg, ignoring it completely.

“You useless coward. All bluster and no nerve. You just wasted a chance to make yourself look brilliant,” Little White said bitterly, like a father lamenting his son’s failure to amount to anything.

“You’re the brave one. Who was it just now, hiding so well that no one could even spot the ball?” Big White shot back.

“I was observing the enemy. Know yourself and know your foe, and you’ll win every battle. You wouldn’t understand,” Little White declared with great conviction.

“You’re lying to dogs again,” Big White said, not buying a word of it.

At that moment, someone suddenly grew worried.

“Sigh, it’s gone again. What are we supposed to do from now on?”

“Yes. Are we really going to spend our days on guard like this?”

“This damn world—do ordinary people like us have no way to survive?”

Then Lin Zhongqing, still in midair, called out loudly, “Don’t panic. I’m going now to cut that evil thing down to its roots!”

With that, she flew toward where the giant claw had appeared moments before. Her figure gradually turned translucent, and at last vanished completely.

Everyone watching was left stunned.

Fan Bei hurriedly checked the log on the steward system page.

“Host attacked an unknown existence.”

“Host killed the giant claw.”

“Host entered the world of spirit matter.”

Fan Bei sighed inwardly. The Heavenly King Jade-Control Art contained a method for entering the world of spirit matter, but he had not yet learned it.

On this point alone, he was still no match for Lin Zhongqing. She was more diligent, and her cultivation experience was richer. He would have to study her properly later.

Finally, he comforted the crowd for a while. Lin Zhongshi also came over, but his face was clouded with gloom, and he repeatedly apologized to everyone.

Fortunately, these people were not ordinary folk from outside. Although many still wore displeased expressions, they soon quieted down and no one hurled insults.

Fan Bei was certain that if this had happened anywhere else, Lin Zhongshi would have been pelted with rotten eggs without so much as a second thought.