134: Aliens and Iron Bear

Shen Xiaochuan walked out of the City Lord's Mansion, holding a metal box in his hand. The storm chariot was already waiting for him at the entrance. He opened the cockpit, placed the box into the passenger seat's storage compartment, and casually checked the battery levels of the communicator and the detector. The engine started smoothly, and the modified ion thruster made no strange noises. He glanced at the map; there was a red dot three hundred kilometers away. That was the Tiandou Black Market, and he could reach it in seventeen minutes.

The vehicle drove onto the wasteland, the ground covered in gravel, and picked up speed. Signal towers were long gone, and navigation relied solely on star charts. The wind blew into the cabin, pressing his combat suit against his back. He didn't turn on the auto-cruise; his hand remained on the control stick, his eyes fixed on the terrain ahead.

After traveling one hundred kilometers, the System prompt suddenly ceased. The edge of the map flickered and turned gray. He had left the official monitoring zone. He frowned; in such places, even the accumulation of faith points was slow, indicating that no one had built a Divine Domain there. Two hundred kilometers further ahead was the high-risk zone.

Along the way, he passed a Level 5 field where the surface shimmered with a dark purple light, indicating a rich mineral belt. He slowed down to take a look and saw a dark shadow moving in the middle of the field. It was massive, and the ground trembled slightly as it walked. The detector scanned it, and the values immediately went off the charts. It was a perfect grade exotic beast with a combat power exceeding 1200. He immediately hit the accelerator to bypass it. This thing was not to be trifled with right now. No matter how good the resources were, he had to be alive to claim them.

Continuing north, the sandy ground decreased, and rocks became more frequent. In the distance, broken mountain ridges could be seen. There was a smell of rust in the air, as if underground mineral veins had oxidized. He opened the sampling port and recorded a set of data, which he could hand over to the industrial team for analysis upon his return.

Suddenly, a roar came from ahead. The sound was low and caused the windshield to buzz. He immediately stopped the car, turned off the engine, and picked up his binoculars to look ahead. Three kilometers away at a canyon entrance, two people were retreating, moving so fast they almost left afterimages. They had flame-shaped markings on their foreheads that glowed red in the sunlight. They were not locals; they were extraterrestrial life forms.

A black bear charged out of the canyon, standing about fifteen meters tall, its entire body covered in black metallic armor. Each step it took cracked the ground. It slammed its front paws into the ground, detonating a shockwave that sent two giant boulders flying dozens of meters away. The two aliens dodged in a sorry state; one of them was nearly grazed, and its shoulder armor shattered on the spot.

"Retreat! We can't beat it!" one alien shouted, its voice carrying electronic static.

"Stall it first! It hasn't entered its berserk state yet!" the other replied.

But they couldn't hold on any longer. The black bear swung a paw violently; before the force of the strike arrived, the ground collapsed. The two rolled desperately to dodge, but as they landed, one of them slipped and fell to the ground. As he struggled to get up, the black bear opened its mouth and roared, a red light glowing deep in its throat as if it were about to unleash a skill.

Shen Xiaochuan didn't move. He hid behind a large rock, and the storm chariot had its lights off. Intervening at this moment was suicide. Those two aliens were at most rare-grade in strength, and together they were no match for this bear. He only hoped they wouldn't flee in his direction.

Unfortunately, they did flee. The alien who had fallen threw an incendiary grenade, creating a cloud of fire, and used the opportunity to jump up and sprint in the direction of Shen Xiaochuan. The other followed closely behind, shouting as they ran, "Run! It's chasing us!"

The black bear roared, changed direction, and charged over. The earth shook, and gravel flew everywhere. It stopped chasing the two and headed straight for Shen Xiaochuan's location. It had detected the energy fluctuations from when he had stopped the car earlier.

"Damn it." Shen Xiaochuan closed the binoculars, vaulted onto the storm chariot, and slammed on the accelerator. The engine roared, the vehicle accelerated instantly, and the tires sparked against the rocky ground. In the rearview mirror, the black bear was sprinting on all fours, faster than the car, covering thirty meters with each stride and leaving a trail of deep pits behind it.

He gritted his teeth and gripped the steering wheel, turning the vehicle into a narrow gully. The terrain here was complex, making it easier to shake off a pursuit. But the black bear didn't slow down at all; it smashed through the rock walls and forced its way in, closing the distance. The detector sounded an alarm, showing that the energy reading from behind was constantly rising.

"Trying to unleash a skill?" He jerked the steering wheel to avoid a falling rock while pressing the jamming device at the bottom of the storm chariot. A ring of electromagnetic waves spread out, temporarily disrupting the black bear's senses. It faltered, let out a low growl, but caught up again a few seconds later, its eyes even fiercer.

After running for thirty kilometers, Shen Xiaochuan knew he couldn't shake it off. Fuel was down to forty percent, and the terrain was becoming increasingly open; continuing to run would only lead to being caught. He stared into the rearview mirror and saw the black bear open its mouth, the red light in its throat growing brighter.

He couldn't run anymore.

He slammed on the brakes, grabbed the metal box and shoved it into the inner pocket of his combat suit, jumped out of the car, and quickly retreated behind a giant rock. The storm chariot automatically activated its decoy program; the engine was still running, and it glided forward slowly. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, his hand touching his chest—where the copper gear pendant his parents had given him was sewn.

"Heaven's Punishment," he whispered.

Golden chains emerged from the ground, wrapping around his arms one by one and spreading along the ground. This was his strongest control skill, supported by faith points, capable of immobilizing a target for five seconds. The time was short, but it was enough.

The black bear smashed through the wreckage of the storm chariot and was just about to pounce on the decoy when its body suddenly stiffened. Four golden chains bound its limbs, and a fifth wrapped around its neck, dragging it backward. It roared and struggled, the friction between its armor and the chains producing a piercing sound, and five deep trenches were pulled into the ground.

Shen Xiaochuan leaned against the rock, gasping for air. This move had cost him over three thousand faith points, equivalent to half an hour of wasted work. But he couldn't afford to feel the pain of the loss. The black bear's strength was too great, and the chains were already starting to crack.

The two aliens arrived just then, watching from a high ground fifty meters away.

"You're still alive?" one of them asked, its tone sounding a bit surprised.

"Did you lead it here?" Shen Xiaochuan didn't turn back, keeping his eyes on the black bear.

"Not on purpose," the other said. "We just wanted to test its strength; we didn't expect it to change targets."

"Test its strength?" Shen Xiaochuan sneered. "Are you crazy? That's a perfect grade exotic beast, not a training dummy."

"We know the danger," the alien with the flame markings on its forehead spoke up. "But we must collect combat data. We are from the Sanyan Star Domain, and this is our third observation point."

"Sanyan people?" He finally turned his head to look. "So you specifically look for monsters like this to fight?"

"We are evaluating the ecological Rank of this area," the second one said. "Thank you for intervening just now, otherwise we might have died."

"Don't thank me." He stared at the chains. "It's about to break free; you shouldn't stand so close."

As soon as he finished speaking, the black bear exerted force violently. With a loud bang, one chain snapped. Then the second and third snapped in succession. It threw its head back and roared, its eyes blood-red, and a dark red liquid seeped from the gaps in its armor, looking like blood or perhaps molten metal.

"It has entered berserk mode," one of the Sanyan people said nervously. "Run!"

"I can't run," Shen Xiaochuan said, not moving. "It has locked onto me; running now is suicide."

"Then what do you plan to do?"

"When it charges over, I'll use 'Heaven's Punishment' again," he said. "But the second time, the effect will be weaker, immobilizing it for at most three seconds."

"Three seconds is enough for you to escape."

"Not enough." He shook his head. "The terrain is too open, and its burst speed is twice as fast as mine. Unless..."

"Unless what?"

"Unless you can disrupt it for a split second." He looked at the two. "You have equipment, right? The incendiary grenade you threw earlier, can you do it again?"

The two exchanged glances.

"We still have one concussion grenade," the first alien said in a rushed tone, touching the pouch at its waist. "But if we use it, we must evacuate immediately. This is our last resort for survival."

"This grenade has a three-second delay before detonation; we must scatter immediately after throwing it."

"I'll draw its attention." Shen Xiaochuan walked out of the cover and stood on the open ground, intentionally exposing himself.

The black bear immediately locked onto him, let out a low growl, and accelerated as it charged. The earth cracked, and gravel flew everywhere. Shen Xiaochuan stood still until it was within one hundred meters, then turned and ran.

At that very moment, the second Sanyan person threw the concussion grenade, which traced an arc and landed precisely beneath the black bear's front limbs. With a loud boom, blue ripples exploded outward. The black bear's gait faltered, and its left knee slammed heavily into the ground, creating a deep pit.

Shen Xiaochuan stopped immediately, turned, and raised his hand.

"Heaven's Punishment!"

The golden chains appeared again, this time only wrapping around the black bear's waist and right leg. But it had been affected by the concussion grenade, its movements slowed, and it couldn't break free immediately.

"That's enough," the first Sanyan person shouted. "It can't move for now; we can leave!"

Shen Xiaochuan gasped for air and slowly retreated. The black bear was still struggling, the chains creaking.

"Where are you going?" he asked.

"Back to the observation station," the second Sanyan person said. "We will be staying at the black market for a while. If you want to go, we can take you."

"The black market?" He touched the purple gold card inside his combat suit.

"The Tiandou Black Market," the first Sanyan person nodded. "You're going there to trade, right? We know a few vendors; we can help make things easier for you."

Shen Xiaochuan didn't speak. He glanced at the wreckage of the storm chariot and then at the outline of the city in the distance. The mission couldn't stop; the population issue had to be resolved.

"When are you leaving?"

"Now," the first Sanyan person said. "We won't stay in this area for long."

"Then lead the way." He walked toward them. "But I have a condition."

"What is it?"

"Next time, don't use a perfect grade exotic beast for testing," he said. "You almost got me killed."

The two looked at each other and didn't speak.

Shen Xiaochuan walked over to them and looked up at the sky. The clouds were low, and the wind had picked up. He tightened his grip on the edge of the metal box.

"Let's go," he said. "I'm in a hurry."