Qianye’s heart sank, but he quickly raised his sword as he sensed something wrong with the situation. As expected, the earth split open continuously and one creature after another flew toward the group, six out of ten going for Qianye.

This degree of assault could do nothing against Qianye. His sword moved like smoke, phasing in and out around his body as he cut down the assailants without exception.

However, these worms were merely the first wave of cannon fodder. Everyone here knew that the true fighting force was yet to come. The werewolf count let out a miserable cry as two worms latched onto his back and ripped off two of his muscles! The count was so intent on killing that Highbeard elder in front of him that he was caught off guard and wounded by the worms.

The strength of these creatures clearly exceeded Bluemoon’s expectations. She bit her lip as she glanced at the injured Highbeard elder and werewolf, unsure whether or not to rush to their rescue. Even if she managed to save this Highbeard elder, the mission was very likely to fail with an injured teammate tagging along.

At this moment, the entire cave fell into a moment of silence. Gusts of fishy wind blew in as numerous six-legged crocodiles crawled out of the caves. Their appearance caused everyone’s expressions to change, and even Qianye felt rather apprehensive. These pegmatite crocodiles were five meters tall and dozens of meters in length, each sporting the power of a virtuous count. Most importantly, they had the advantage in numbers and were aided by the worm-like creatures. This was a rather thorny situation.

That wasn’t the end yet. After the appearance of the pegmatite crocodiles came a thick-scaled creature that resembled a rhinoceros. It was ten meters in height and had two horns on its forehead, one of which was two meters long. Its two scarlet eyes flickered with a bloodthirsty glow as it stared at everyone.

As soon as he saw the fierce beast, Qianye’s blood core began to beat uncontrollably and his auric flame blood surged, transforming into a deluge of energy. Only then was he able to resist the suppressive might emitted from the creature. This beast was at the level of a marquis, clearly strong and tenacious.

The monster locked onto the culprit as soon as it appeared. It fired a dark beam of light which duly penetrated the entangled werewolf and Highbeard elder, leaving a bowl-sized hole on their bodies.

Bluemoon’s expression changed drastically upon seeing the might of that attack. This beam was as powerful as a grade-seven origin gun, making it almost impossible for them to kite the monstrosity. One could see its strong suit just by looking at its build, and with its ability to fight at both melee and range, there was really no weakness to be exploited. Perhaps its spirit and psyche were its weaknesses, but the Highbeards had no proficiency in this regard. Not to mention overpowering the creature, Bluemoon might not even be able to kill the enemy even if it were to stand still and let her attack.

Bluemoon made a prompt decision to toss out a silvery grenade. A powerful, blinding light emerged from the exploding grenade which was soon followed by a severe ringing in one’s ears. Qianye’s vision turned white, forcing him to close his eyes in pain, and his ears were buzzing from the subsequent soundwaves. For a moment, he could neither see nor hear anything.

Additionally, the grenade released an extremely wild form of void origin power, throwing the origin power within the chamber into utter chaos. Even Qianye lost his grasp of the surroundings under the circumstances and had to rely on memory to jump toward the nearest cave wall. He crashed into many worms along the way but was able to send them flying with his sturdy physique. Finally, he bumped into the cave wall and slid down to the ground.

The glow of the flashbang gradually dispersed at this point and Qianye regained his perception. At a glance, he found countless worms—having lost their ability to fly—strewn across the ground and flailing about. They seemed to have gone into a frenzy and were starting to bite one another. The pegmatite crocodiles were swaying about in a serious daze, while the rhinoceros monster was the least affected, but its small eyes were red with tears flowing out constantly.

The grenade Bluemoon had hurled out was extremely powerful, and every being under the divine champion realm would be affected if caught off-guard. Additionally, its disruption of the senses was absolute and left no blind spots, not even sparing Qianye’s Eye of Control.

At this moment, Bluemoon and the other Highbeard elder were nowhere to be found. Some of the worms and beasts made a beeline for the werewolf count and wounded Highbeard elder as they gradually recovered their senses, but most of them had their eyes on Qianye. That giant rhinoceros was spraying yellow mist from its nostrils and its horns began to glow.

Qianye had already realized what had transpired. “So I was abandoned, huh? I do make for a pretty good bait.” Qianye laughed in self-deprecation.

Bluemoon had prepared such a flashbang but hadn’t told Qianye about it. Apparently, she had been planning to abandon him at the critical juncture all along. It would seem she had other intentions in seeking him out and recruiting him by every means possible. Just from how these worms were all drawn to Qianye, it was clear that Bluemoon hadn’t hired him for his combat strength. It was just that they had been pushed into a desperate corner soon after entering the lair, and she had no choice but to use her final trump card.

At this moment, dozens of worms had pounced onto the werewolf and Highbeard elder, and the crackling sounds as they gnawed on their victims was sickening. They devoured their prey in the blink of an eye, leaving neither their bones nor the weapons, armor, and mechanical parts. In the end, only the hardest of alloy components remained.

Qianye was unafraid in the face of such dire straits. On the contrary, the flames of madness ignited in his eyes.

“Come!” Qianye pointed at the rhinoceros.

The giant being seemed to possess a high degree of intelligence. It unleashed a violent roar and rushed madly at Qianye, knocking away or stomping to death all the troublesome worms in its wake.

Qianye shouted wildly as he charged at the incoming creature!

Halfway through the charge, Qianye tossed out several origin grenades in the shape of a fan, immediately carpeting a hundred-meter area with violent explosions. He leapt up under the cover of the dust clouds and effectively evaded the rhino’s horn attack. Then, he made a sharp, origin-power-guided drop onto the creature’s back, breaking several laws of physics in the process. With East Peak held tightly in his hands, he stabbed into the giant creature’s spine with full force!

As East Peak entered the flesh, Qianye felt as though he had stabbed at one of the empire’s sturdiest airships. No, even the airship’s outer armor wasn’t as sturdy as this rhino’s hide. Even with a weapon as powerful as East Peak, Qianye had to expend great power to push the blade inward.

After rallying his strength three times, he had managed to push the sword halfway in. Only at this point did it feel like he had thrust past the hide and reached its flesh. This rhinoceros’ skin was over a meter in thickness—Qianye had to use almost all of his strength just to get past its hide and pierce into its flesh! One had to know that the might of this sword could easily cut through the armor of an imperial battleship.

If Bluemoon and the others hadn’t fled, this rhinoceros would’ve crushed them with his skin alone. Only a grade-eight firearm at full firepower could break through its defenses.

Qianye forced his origin power through the blade and into the creature's body, destroying its fragile internal tissues in the process. Only then did the rhinoceros start to feel true pain. It unleashed a maddened roar as it produced a layer of dark yellow origin power radiance on its body. Soon, a powerful force landed on Qianye’s body and sent him flying away.

A bowl-sized defect was left on the rhinoceros' back as East Peak was drawn away. A fountain of blood gushed out thereafter, producing a sanguineous drizzle inside the cave.

The worms went mad after seeing the rain of blood. They paid Qianye no more heed and instead began chasing after the falling blood, fighting amongst themselves for the right to imbibe it.

A few drops of the liquid landed on Qianye’s face, one quite close to his lips in fact. Qianye licked the drop of blood—he immediately felt a wisp of burning energy spread throughout his abdomen, and his stamina actually recovered a bit. No wonder those worms were crazy about it.

However, the rhinoceros was simply too large, and the wound producing a rain of blood was merely a scratch to him.

Qianye wiped the blood off his face and licked the liquid off of his palm. Then, he erupted with a furious roar and entered a state of blood boil. His entire body was shrouded in dark-golden light, and his mind was filled with a thirst for battle!

The giant rhinoceros seemed to have sensed Qianye’s intent. It responded with a roar and charged at him once more.

Qianye slid sideways for over ten meters, effectively dodging the giant creature’s strongest frontal assault. Soon afterward, he performed a sideways slash at the long horn whipping toward him!

Dong!

A deep sound resembling an ancient battle drum spread far and wide. The affected worms were all blown flying, and even the pegmatite crocodiles were frozen in place.

Qianye flew out dozens of meters like a broken kite, carving a large pit as he crashed into the cave wall. Then, he slowly slid down.

The giant creature wasn’t too comfortable, either. It slid a couple of steps to the side and shook its head forcefully with a pained howl. A laceration had appeared at the base of its horn with fresh blood seeping out of it, but its body was still largely intact. Qianye’s ancient vampire constitution wasn’t really inferior to beasts of the same rank, and East Peak was a killer weapon of extreme weight. Even this rhinoceros couldn’t quite digest an all-out blow like that.

Qianye spat out a mouthful of blood when he landed. The blood actually ignited upon landing and grew into a raging golden blaze that burned out in a flash. At this moment, his auric flame blood had been activated to the extreme—every drop of it contained great power and would ignite upon leaving the body.

Qianye glanced at East Peak and saw that a small defect had appeared on its edge! East Peak had never been damaged before since its upgrade, so much so that it seemed impervious to damage even with Qianye occasionally swinging it about as a blunt weapon. But today, the giant rhinoceros’ horn was left intact while East Peak was chipped.

Qianye took out a blood crystal and crushed it, growing spirited as he absorbed its contents. He pointed East Peak at the giant creature and shouted, “Come!”

How could the giant rhinoceros endure this provocation? The roaring monstrosity charged over, causing the entire underground world to shake and tremble, almost as though it would collapse at any moment. This time, an earth-colored radiance surged constantly on its charging body. Qianye dodged to the side but was sent flying once more by the invisible force. However, golden blood energy poured out from his body and canceled out most of the impact, helping him land after flying ten or so meters back.

Qianye’s figure flickered as he arrived beside the rhinoceros once more and, with a single leap, thrust his blade into its flank! The skin here was just as thick and Qianye had nowhere to exert force mid-air. Hence, he only managed to pierce through the skin. This time, however, what he injected wasn’t origin power but blood energy.