Living steadily in the world of gods and mystery

The terrifying might shook the ground as if an earthquake had struck, with countless clumps of mud cascading down.

Fortunately, the hole was dug deep enough.

The giant claw reached about one-third of the way down before it could no longer continue; the creature seemed to expend enormous strength, ceaselessly probing and groping.

Sharp claws, each about ten centimeters long and colored a dark, amber orange, swept across the walls of the hole like a hot knife through butter, leaving behind myriad deep scratches.

"Collapse!"

Zhou Hong’s magic artifact launched forward.

A beam of golden light struck directly at the giant claw.

The claw shuddered slightly, its surface’s hazy spiritual light dispersing, splattering droplets of fresh blood, promptly followed by Chen Li’s spiritual power-infused finger snap, which caused the beast to retract its claw sharply in pain.

Accompanied by a roar like thunder.

Before the two could even catch their breath,

the giant claw plunged in once again, this time with even more ferocity, more terrifying, as if a weight of ten thousand tons was pressing down, the earth shook violently again, and the walls of the hole began to twist as they could barely withstand the strain.

As before, the two managed to repel the beast yet again.

Taking the rare opportunity to catch their breath, both leaned against the wall in silence, their heavy breathing the only sound.

Chen Li’s heart pounded violently, his expression grave.

Is this the might of a Second Order Demon Beast?

It was completely beyond what the two of them, in the middle stage of Qi Cultivation, could contend with; attacks with their full strength were nothing more than a mild annoyance to it, causing only superficial skin injuries.

If time could be reversed, Chen Li swore he would have dug the hole properly, devoting all time and energy to the task, not only during the day but also at night, making sure the hole was several times deeper.

He would also dig more tunnels, creating a labyrinth, like a rabbit’s warren...

At this moment, more loud scraping from digging above signaled that the injuries had thoroughly enraged the beast.

The two hastily launched several attacks, but beyond making the Demon Beast even more furiously incensed, the effect was minimal.

Chen Li swiftly produced a porcelain bottle, flicked off the lid with his thumb, and poured the remaining five Qi Replenishing Pills into his mouth to recover his spiritual power.

"What do we do now?" Zhou Hong gasped for breath.

"When there’s a chance, you run with all your might and don’t worry about me," Chen Li exhaled and said resolutely.

"And... what about you?" Zhou Hong asked anxiously, her complexion turning pale.

"Me? The same. If we’re lucky, one of us might live. Otherwise, we both die."

After speaking, Chen Li moved to the bottom of the hole without another word, his amulet deflecting the falling mud while he repeatedly unleashed spiritual power-infused finger snaps at the giant beast above.

"Bang!"

"Bang!"

"Bang!"

"Bang!"

...

The concentrated force of the spiritual power-infused finger snaps exploded upon the beast’s skull and claws without respite.

The onslaught, like a whirlwind and sudden downpour, made the beast’s body tremble uncontrollably, its massive head flung backward repeatedly; before its roars of fury could escape its throat, they were broken off by the snapping power, reduced to whimpers.

Caught off guard, the beast found itself momentarily rigid and unable to continue its offensive.

After seven or eight snaps, the beast’s spiritual light around it dissipated, and the snapping force struck directly on its cheek, bursting into sprays of blood.

Then, with power gathered from behind, Zhou Hong launched another forceful Golden Light Nail that hit just above the brow of the beast, sinking over two inches into the flesh—clearly a deep injury, entering the bone and causing significantly more damage.

Regrettably, the aim was still off, missing the eye.

With a miserable howl, the beast retracted and vanished from the hole’s entrance.

Chen Li took the opportunity to summon back his flying sword.

It roared impotently from above for a while.

The next second, the paw stealthily reached out again to continue digging the hole, never revealing itself.

It clearly would not rest until its goal was achieved.

Chen Li could only seize the opportunity to attack for a while, but to the demon beast that had regained its protective spiritual light, it was hardly effective.

Massive amounts of soil fell down from time to time.

The demon beast’s paws were like a giant excavator, and in just a few strokes, one-third of the hole was dug out.

Just as despair began to grow in Chen Li’s heart, a painful howl came from above the hole, prompting the demon beast to stop digging and instead start retching violently, creating a startling commotion.

What was happening?

In the dark, Chen Li and Zhou Hong looked at each other, both somewhat unable to react for a moment.

As the seconds ticked by, the demon beast stayed above for a while before beginning to leave, accompanied by intermittent, miserable howls that gradually grew fainter and fainter until they disappeared entirely.

"Did it eat the poisoned meat placed at the entrance of the courtyard?" Zhou Hong asked somewhat uncertainly.

"It’s possible!" Chen Li listened carefully for a while, and when he heard no more disturbances, he said, "Stay here, I’ll go outside and check."

"Be careful!"

Chen Li grunted in acknowledgment, retracted his flying sword, and without the aid of any ropes, leapt up, his body rising four or five meters into the air. Then, using hands and feet in unison, he agilely flipped over to the outside within a few seconds.

Under the faint light of the night sky.

His house had been completely reduced to ruins, a pile of broken walls and rubble.

The bedroom, in particular, had been replaced by a huge pit, four or five meters deep and over ten meters wide, with a terrifying mound of vomit beside it, emitting a strong stench.

There were as many as six or seven corpses alone.

Some of the bodies were so decayed that their stomachs had burst open, their guts spilling out, with patches of bone faintly visible and blood continuously flowing.

Chen Li glanced over them and felt a wave of nausea, quickly averting his gaze.

He hurriedly walked to the courtyard.

The courtyard gate was no better, having been completely shattered by the demon beast’s might, leaving only broken wooden planks scattered on the ground. Chen Li’s gaze searched the area, but he could not find the poisoned meat that had been frozen on the courtyard’s entrance.

He couldn’t help feeling somewhat relieved.

Luckily, Zhou Hong’s arrangement had worked; otherwise, today would have been the day of his demise.

He stepped out of the courtyard and looked at the disorderly trail of footprints in the distance—the terrifying demon beast had vanished without a trace.

He felt his whole body relax.

Surviving felt goddamn good.

...

This attack was not only on Chen Li’s location.

Including the neighbors, Zhong Shiqing’s family, six households were completely wiped out. Chen Li found only four magic artifacts in the ruins and did not encounter a single survivor. Among these, one household was like Chen Li’s, having dug a hole for shelter.

But they, too, could not escape the demon beast’s cunning and patience.

It was as if playing a game.

Like a cat toying with a mouse, the more the prey struggled, the more difficult it was to catch, the more exciting it became.

...

Returning ’home’

Before he had time to celebrate his narrow escape from death, Chen Li heard more bad news from Zhou Hong.

"I just looked around, and all the food in the kitchen has been eaten by that damn demon beast, and the food stored in the basement will only last us for about five or six days of normal consumption—we’re running out of food."

Space in the basement was limited, so there wasn’t much food stored there. Originally, it was just in case they were trapped and needed to hold out for a few days; who would have thought that the demon beast would eat anything and everything, wasting nothing, not picky at all.

Fortunately, precious items like pills were stored in the basement.

"Don’t worry, we don’t need to fret about food. If it comes to it, we’ll just buy some from people we know!"