77: Chapter 77 Mountain-Splitting Iron-Spine Rhinoceros! A Fourth-Tier Origin Beast Makes its Debut!

The ground was shaking.

That irresistible vibration traveled from the soles of the feet up to the teeth.

Thump! Thump! Thump!

Each one was closer than the last.

"ROAR!!!"

A deafening roar tore through the sky, and the mist was completely scattered.

Su Ming stood on Dahuang's back.

His gaze pierced through the flying dust, and he finally saw the behemoth approaching at high speed.

A terrifying giant beast with a shoulder height of over four meters and a body length of over ten meters appeared a hundred meters away.

Its entire body was covered in dark gray, metallic-textured armor, and rows of sharp bone spurs rose high on its back, each one as thick as an adult's arm.

Most terrifying of all was the single horn over a meter long, its tip glowing with a dark red light.

[Mountain-Splitting Iron-Spine Rhinoceros]!

Its twenty-plus-ton body was charging at full speed, the earth cracking beneath its feet as it barreled toward the No. 3 entrance behind them!

Shen Qingci's expression hardened.

"We cannot let it pass!"

The No. 3 entrance connected to the residential area on the outskirts of Jiangcheng.

Once a Tier 4 Source Beast of this size broke through, the entire suburb would be reduced to ruins.

She did not hesitate, drawing her long, narrow Tang cross-sword, "cold edge".

As a military academy student and the daughter of Shen Hongyuan, the education in her bones made it impossible for her to retreat.

But just as she took a step, her collar was grabbed by a hand.

Su Ming pulled her back and blocked her path with his own body.

"Senior, this kind of physical labor is better left to a man."

"Let me go and clash with it!"

Before the words had even faded, "BOOM!"

The ground beneath Su Ming's feet suddenly collapsed into a half-meter deep pit!

[Mass Engine], ignite!

He turned into a cannonball released from its string, launching a frontal charge toward the Iron-Spine Rhinoceros!

Ten tons.

Plus the full power thrust of the [Mass Engine].

Plus the relative velocity generated by the counter-charge.

This collision, even if it couldn't knock this guy over directly, would definitely make it suffer!

"BANG!!!!"

A terrifying roar exploded, and a visible circular shockwave swept out, forcibly scraping away a layer of the gravel ground for dozens of meters around!

Su Ming's smile froze on his face.

He had collided with a mountain moving at high speed.

A ridiculously terrifying force surged into his body through the point of contact!

Back on Earth, an adult rhinoceros only weighed three or four tons.

This one in front of him weighed at least twenty tons!

It was twice his size!

He hadn't knocked the rhinoceros flying.

In fact... he had almost been sent flying himself!

In the nick of time, Su Ming grabbed that huge rhinoceros horn glowing with red light with both hands.

Even so, he was still pushed backward, sliding at high speed, his feet plowing two deep trenches into the hard ground.

"Creak..."

The rhinoceros horn failed to pierce his skin.

But the physical impact force traveled through his chest cavity, his ribs thudded, and his internal organs churned.

Hiss!

Su Ming bared his teeth.

Is this the worth of a Tier 4 Source Beast?

He no longer dared to underestimate it.

If he hadn't advanced to Tier 3 and reached ten tons of mass; if the system hadn't allowed his internal organs to be reinforced synchronously... he would have been done for just now.

[Mass Heavy Cannon]?

No.

This beast's charging speed was too fast; there was simply no window to charge up an output.

It wouldn't just stand there stupidly and let you hit it!

He could only drag its speed down first!

Su Ming's arm muscles knotted, his entire body's mass poured forward without reservation, his feet nailed firmly into the ground.

Using the most primitive wrestling, he forced this behemoth to stop completely.

Once it lost its speed advantage, its bulky body would become its greatest disadvantage!

Both sides fell into a stalemate.

The speed of the Mountain-Splitting Iron-Spine Rhinoceros had clearly slowed down.

Just then, Dahuang attacked from the flank!

Its left head bit down on the Rhinoceros King's hind leg joint, its sharp metallic fangs piercing the thick skin, blood seeping out.

Its right head opened its mouth, and a scorching fireball was plastered directly onto the Rhinoceros King's abdomen, the smell of charred flesh spreading.

The Rhinoceros King's forward speed dropped another notch.

Immediately following, an afterimage flashed over.

Shen Qingci!

On her Tang cross-sword, "cold edge", the Geng Metal Secret Marrow completely covered it, the blade glowing with a dark golden, high-frequency vibration light.

"Extreme Edge · Atomic Line!"

The blade carved a nearly transparent trajectory through the air.

She started with her strongest single-target kill move!

Tank armor was like thin paper before it.

This strike accurately slashed at the tendon connection of the Iron-Spine Rhinoceros's front leg!

"CLANG!!"

Sparks flew!

The blade had struck the hardest alloy!

Even so, the incomparably sharp blade successfully broke through the Iron-Spine Rhinoceros's epidermis, cutting into the flesh!

Blood sprayed.

But... it only carved out a thirty-centimeter-deep wound before it could not advance even a millimeter further.

Shen Qingci's pupils constricted slightly.

The Iron-Spine Rhinoceros's defense was actually this rigid!

One had to know, a Tier 4 Source Beast was comparable to a Tier 5 Awakened.

The fact that she could break its defense at the peak of Tier 2 was enough to make the entire heavenly pride ranking take notice if word got out.

But a thirty-centimeter wound, to this ten-meter-long giant beast, didn't even count as an itch.

"ROAR!"

With its hind leg joint bitten, its abdomen scorched, and its front leg tendon slashed, the Iron-Spine Rhinoceros was thoroughly enraged by the pain!

Its giant, steel-whip tail lashed out, sweeping toward Shen Qingci at its side with the force of ten thousand jun.

Shen Qingci blocked with her sword horizontally.

"CLANG!"

A massive, overwhelming force came through, and she was knocked back over a dozen meters, the web between her thumb and index finger going numb.

The next second, the Iron-Spine Rhinoceros lifted its front foot and stomped down hard!

BOOM!

The ground cracked open into a deep pit; it forcibly stopped its forward momentum, and a red light flashed on the single horn atop its head.

Su Ming, who was wrestling with it, felt an irresistible brute force surge toward him.

The Iron-Spine Rhinoceros jerked its head up violently!

Su Ming was sent flying!

In mid-air, he forcibly twisted his body, and at the moment of landing, he activated [Inertial Drift], only then barely stabilizing his figure.

Damn it, this beast's strength is way too high!

Without Su Ming's interference, the Iron-Spine Rhinoceros's massive body suddenly rolled!

A death roll!

Twenty-plus tons of weight crushed toward Dahuang!

Dahuang had no choice but to let go and scramble to jump aside.

The situation returned to square one.

The Rhinoceros King rolled to its feet, its vertical pupils sweeping across the battlefield.

Shen Qingci looked at the behemoth that was almost completely unharmed, her heart sinking to the bottom.

The gap in strength was too great.

Dahuang, also a Source Beast, now had higher attack power than her, and it still couldn't do anything about it.

Should she activate the third sequence?

No.

[Pagoda Bone Brake] was an area-of-effect skill; facing a behemoth of this size, it couldn't cover it completely, and forcing it open would only consume her for nothing.

Just in the split second she was thinking, the Iron-Spine Rhinoceros's scarlet gaze locked onto her!

It launched another charge!

Even more violent than before!

Shen Qingci gritted her teeth, preparing to dodge sideways.

But the Iron-Spine Rhinoceros's size was simply too massive.

Its ten-meter-long body was like a moving city wall, and with that row of sharp spinal spurs, its attack range far exceeded the norm.

Shen Qingci jumped out of the horn's attack line, but she couldn't completely avoid the Rhinoceros King's shoulder impact!

At the very moment it was about to hit her body, a black bolt of lightning appeared out of thin air before her!

It was Su Ming!