40: Chapter 40 It's time to send you two on your way.

Lin Sisi watched the figure descending from the sky, frozen in place as if struck by lightning.

"Lin Mo?"

"Why did you come here?!"

Beside her, Ye Zhixia exclaimed.

Lin Sisi was already streaming with tears, crying until she couldn't make a sound.

The figure moved slightly, tilting his head.

The setting sun illuminated his face—the same face she had secretly looked at for twelve years. There was a fresh bloodstain on his brow bone, but that face was truly him.

Lin Sisi covered her lips with trembling hands.

"You... why did you come here?"

She stumbled forward, but her legs went weak, and she nearly fell.

Yet she didn't care; she stared fixedly at that face, terrified that he would vanish the next instant.

"It must be a hallucination... it has to be a hallucination..."

She remembered.

Fang Ming was dead.

Su Qingting was dead, Zhou Yuan was also dead, and now it was her turn.

She had heard that before people die, they see the person they want to see most. Isn't that how it always goes?

She suddenly shouted at Lin Mo.

"Go away! These are Tier 2 ferocious beasts; you can't beat them!"

The figure didn't move.

"Lin Mo, are you deaf?! I told you to go!"

Lin Sisi rushed forward to push him, but halfway there, she pulled her hand back.

She was afraid that if she touched him, this hallucination would shatter.

"You idiot, why did you come... are you here to die..."

As she scolded him, her voice dissolved into sobs.

"Please, go away, I beg you..."

"I don't want you to die..."

Lin Mo finally turned around.

He looked at her, his gaze softening for a fleeting moment.

The next second, a sky-piercing aura erupted from Lin Mo.

God Speed, activate!

Lin Sisi froze for a moment, then suddenly realized.

This wasn't a hallucination!

"Lin Mo... it really is you!"

Before the words left her lips, he had already vanished from his spot.

Lin Sisi was stunned, and then she witnessed a scene she would never forget in her life.

Under the setting sun, an afterimage exploded into the pack of leopards.

With a flash of a blade, the head of a Shadow Leopard went flying.

The blade flashed again, and a second one fell to the ground.

The third, the fourth, the fifth—

Before that one could even react, Lin Mo's blade had already sliced into its throat.

With zhan chao in hand, given the sharpness of an A-rank combat blade, Lin Mo was cutting through these mid-Tier 2 ferocious beasts like chopping melons and vegetables.

After all, the Shadow Leopard was a high-agility, high-attack ferocious beast, and its defensive capabilities were not very strong.

The pack of leopards went into a frenzy.

Having realized what was happening, they instantly let out a series of hisses.

Without needing instructions from their leader, all the Shadow Leopards lunged at Lin Mo instantly.

However, Lin Mo's footwork was unbelievably fast. With God Speed fully activated, his agility attribute had broken through 100, fully entering the Tier 3 level. These ordinary Shadow Leopards couldn't even touch the corner of his clothes.

Every step Lin Mo took covered three meters, and every time he swung his blade, a leopard fell.

His swordsmanship had no frills; it was simply fast, accurate, and ruthless.

Every strike cut in from the most tricky angles, and every strike went straight for the vitals.

[Ding! Killed mid-Tier 2 ferocious beast Shadow Leopard, gained slaughter value +120 (Cross-tier kill, slaughter value increased by an additional 50%)]

[Ding! Killed mid-Tier 2 ferocious beast Shadow Leopard, gained slaughter value +120 (Cross-tier kill, slaughter value increased by an additional 50%)]

[Ding! Killed...]

[Ding! Congratulations to the host, Flowing Cloud Aurora Slash proficiency +1, Lingyan Steps proficiency +1]

[Ding! Congratulations to the host, Flowing Cloud Aurora Slash proficiency +1, Lingyan Steps proficiency +1]

[Ding, congratulations...]

The system notifications were flooding the screen crazily.

But Lin Mo's attention was already completely focused on this group of walking slaughter values.

His swordsmanship became faster and faster.

Those movements that were originally barely trackable had now completely turned into a streak of light.

Wherever the blade light passed, blood splattered and beast corpses fell.

[Ding! Congratulations to the host, Lingyan Steps upgraded to LV3! New effect—Cloud Treading]

[Cloud Treading: Generates air waves when stepping, movement speed increased by 20%]

With the Lingyan Steps level increase, Lin Mo's speed surged once again.

Shen Yi widened her eyes, her mouth agape enough to fit an egg.

"He... he is Lin Mo?!"

"Sisi, you have a good eye..."

Ye Zhixia stared fixedly at that figure, unable to say a word.

Her blue-tier trait, Winters Touch, which she was so proud of, couldn't even damage the fur of a single leopard, yet Lin Mo had already killed several in the blink of an eye.

What on earth was going on?

Didn't Sisi say that Lin Mo was just a white-tier trait Awakener?

If she remembered correctly, the trait was something like Swift Step?

But the speed displayed by the figure before her was shockingly fast, so fast that Ye Zhixia couldn't even track it with her naked eye.

Since when were white-tier traits this outrageous?

Ye Zhixia's face suddenly flushed red.

Memories of her past mockery of Lin Mo suddenly flooded her mind...

Before they set out for training...

At the entrance of the camp canteen...

At this moment, Ye Zhixia was so ashamed she wished she could disappear.

Such terrifying speed was definitely not a white-tier trait; it had to be purple, or a quality above purple.

And she had ridiculed Lin Mo time and time again...

Lin Sisi was also stunned.

She stared blankly at that figure, her face covered in tears.

She didn't know why Lin Mo had suddenly acquired such terrifying strength.

But that didn't matter anymore.

She suddenly remembered the little boy from her childhood who always followed behind her—thin, fast, but always the one to suffer when it came to fighting.

Now, that boy had grown up and was standing in a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood, bearing everything for her.

The corpses of the leopard pack had piled up into a small hill, and the remaining twenty or so were finally afraid.

They tucked their tails and retreated, emitting low whimpers from their throats.

Lin Mo stopped, bracing his blade against the ground, gasping for air.

He was covered in blood—some from the leopards, some his own.

His combat suit was ripped in two places, revealing claw marks deep enough to see bone.

Although these beasts were 'glass cannons' and easy to cut, their speed was indeed very fast, significantly faster than the average mid-Tier 2 ferocious beast.

Coupled with their sheer numbers, Lin Mo still got scratched twice.

Just then—

"Roar—!"

Two earth-shaking roars exploded simultaneously!

The leopard pack suddenly scattered to both sides.

Two massive figures slowly emerged from the darkness; with every step they took, the ground trembled slightly.

They were two Shadow Leopards.

But they were much larger than the other leopards.

Their shoulder height exceeded two meters, their body length approached five meters, and faint silver patterns were visible on their dark cyan fur.

This was the characteristic that only appeared after a Shadow Leopard stepped into Tier 3.

Lin Mo tightened his grip on the hilt of his blade, his gaze darkening.

A Tier 3 ferocious beast—unlike the Rock-Armored Earth Dragon he had killed back then, this was a Tier 3 beast at full capacity, neither injured nor laying eggs, with its strength at its peak.

And there were two of them!

Shen Yi's voice was trembling: "It's them... they are the ones who killed the captain!"

The captain of the 18th Detachment, Zhang Zhengguo, was a Tier 2, Ninth-Stage Awakener with formidable strength.

But facing two early-Tier 3 Shadow Leopards, he had no power to fight back and was torn to shreds in an instant.

The gap between Tier 2 and Tier 3 was like a chasm, and besides, Zhang Zhengguo was facing two ferocious beasts.

And now, these two Tier 3 Shadow Leopards were attacking again.

Their target was none other than Lin Mo.

Lin Mo licked his lips, looking at the two Tier 3 Shadow Leopards before him with excitement, his fighting spirit completely boiling over in his chest.

"Perfect..."

"I'll use you two to test the effects of Starlight Moon Condensation!"

Starlight Moon Condensation, activate!!!

A violent wind suddenly rose, and a dense rustling sound echoed through the forest—the wailing of the wind passing through withered branches.

The next second, the aura around Lin Mo began to climb continuously, whipping up a sky-piercing air current above his head.

His messy hair danced wildly in the air, and the collar of his combat suit snapped loudly in the wind, revealing the bulging veins on his neck.

The aura around him was climbing at a speed visible to the naked eye!

"Boom!"

An invisible shockwave exploded outward from Lin Mo as the center!

The gravel on the ground was shaken into the air, and withered branches and leaves were swept away by the gale, scattering everywhere!

The remaining seventeen Tier 2 Shadow Leopards retreated three steps in unison.

In their crimson pupils, for the first time, an emotion named "fear" appeared.

"Roar... wu..."

One of the leaders let out a low roar, not a threat before an attack, but rather...

Extreme unease!

From this human, it felt a sense of oppression that shouldn't exist within a Tier 2 lifeform.

It was the pressure from a higher level of life.

However, the changes had not yet ended.

"Haa!!"

A low shout escaped Lin Mo's throat, and his originally streamlined muscles began to expand in an instant.

Veins bulged, like angry dragons that had been lurking for eons; upon sensing the host's fighting spirit, they instantly awakened, coiled hideously over his muscles, each one signaling that explosive power.

On his attribute panel, the number in the strength column was also skyrocketing at the same time, instantly breaking through one hundred, until it was on par with his agility.

Lin Mo lifted his eyelids and swept a glance at the two terrified beasts.

"Now, it is time to send you two on your way!"