244: An unknown monster.

Facing a group of silent, surging Stone Armor Figures covered in spikes, Wei Ziqing's heart tightened, but his movements did not hesitate in the slightest.

He didn't know what these eyeless 'things' used to sense him—vibrations? Heat? Or some kind of instinctive perception of life aura? But their target was clear: they were charging straight at him.

He absolutely could not take them head-on! Those stone spikes covering their bodies looked vicious; if he were grabbed or solidly hit, even his armor might not fully protect him.

"Ha!"

Wei Ziqing let out a low shout. His figure, like willow catkins in the wind, suddenly slid to the left, evading the pouncing embrace of the Stone Armor Figure that had charged at him first.

Simultaneously, the bone sword in his hand transformed into a streak of dark light, slicing upward diagonally from below, striking precisely at the seam in the armor plates at the knee joint of the second Stone Armor Figure.

"Clang! Crack!"

Amidst the crisp sound, the stone armor shattered, and the Stone Armor Figure stumbled.

Wei Ziqing had already used the momentum to spin around, his sword moving with his body, delivering another swift, straight thrust that pierced a point in the center of the third Stone Armor Figure's breastplate—a spot that appeared the thickest but had actually grown brittle inside from countless subtle vibrations.

His swordsmanship was originally well-founded and solid, a family heritage. Now, with the armor's enhancement, it was even faster, more precise, and more ruthless.

He could be seen dodging and weaving within the clumsy encirclement of the Stone Armor Figures, sometimes leaping into the air, sometimes skimming close to the ground. Every perilous evasion was accompanied by a precise flash of sword light falling, cutting and slashing at the weak points of their armor.

"Crash—crack—!"

The sounds of shattering rang out one after another. One suit of stone armor after another was cleaved open and pried apart, revealing the grayish-green, constantly writhing plant mass inside.

Once these plant cores were exposed, they seemed to immediately lose the power to 'drive' the armor and their desire to attack. They 'flowed' out from the broken armor, plopping onto the ground, then frantically adhered to and spread across the accumulated water on the floor, greedily absorbing moisture, showing no further reaction to Wei Ziqing, who was right beside them.

Before long, all the reanimated Stone Armor Figures had turned into puddles of water-absorbing plants and scattered stone armor fragments on the ground.

Wei Ziqing stood holding his sword, breathing slightly heavily. Looking at those plant masses that were now quietly absorbing water, his heart was full of doubt:

"This thing... what determines friend or foe? If it just needs water, why attack me the moment it appeared? How did the ancients cultivate such a strange thing... Forget it, the wisdom of the ancients is beyond understanding."

He shook his head, giving up on thinking. If these were tomb guardians, then this was indeed a burial area.

"Sigh, it's a pity I didn't bring candles, and I can't light one in the southeast corner either," he muttered self-deprecatingly, steadying his mind and looking toward another tightly shut stone door deep within the tomb chamber.

"Keep moving forward."

He walked to that stone door and pushed it open with force.

"Rumble..."

The moment the stone door slowly opened, Wei Ziqing felt a slight resistance on his hand, as if something had snapped. Simultaneously, from the darkness above or beside the door hinge, came several extremely faint 'snap, snap' sounds, like extremely thin threads or mechanisms breaking.

Immediately after—

"Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!"

As if triggered by a chain reaction, along both sides of the broad passage behind the door, lamps embedded in the walls—which he had originally thought were stone carvings or decorations—lit up one after another, from near to far, with dim yet steady flames!

The firelight rapidly spread forward, illuminating the straight descending staircase and the deep passageway, extending all the way to a more expansive space at the limit of his vision, faintly lighting up that area as well.

"Eternal Lamps? Or some kind of mechanism sensor?" Wei Ziqing watched in astonishment as the lights automatically ignited. The flames burned steadily; it was unknown what substance fueled them, but for them to be preserved until now deep underground and instantly ignited was a testament to the exquisite design beyond imagination.

Following the firelight and the staircase downward, he entered that final illuminated open space.

This place seemed to be a naturally formed, enormous ice cavern, chillingly cold. And in the very center of the cavern stood an exceptionally massive, crystal-clear block of ice. Within the ice, sealed inside, was a vague, curled-up, enormous dark shadow.

It seemed that Wei Ziqing's intrusion had triggered something, or perhaps it was affected by the heat emitted from the rekindled lamps around. Suddenly, from several special devices on the cavern walls—similar to lamps but with more complex structures—flames much fiercer than those in the passageway sprayed out with a 'poof' sound, intensely roasting the giant block of ice!

Under the high temperature, the ice rapidly melted, water gurgling down.

However, the melted water soon flowed near the bases from which the flames sprayed. Whether it triggered some mechanism or simply soaked the fuel, those fierce flames extinguished one after another with a 'hiss' sound, leaving only the faint firelight from the passage and the white, drifting cold air within the ice cavern.

But even this brief clash of ice and fire was enough to melt away most of the giant ice.

"Crackle... splash..."

The ice block completely shattered, and the thing sealed inside fell heavily onto the cold ground, splashing water everywhere.

It was a creature of massive size and bizarre appearance. It seemed to still be in some state of rigidity or unconsciousness, its huge body twitching slightly, its surface covered in damp, short fur or hide of an indistinguishable original color.

Its head... vaguely possessed a twisted, unsettling sense of being both human and non-human.

"Wu... wa... ah..."

A few faint, intermittent whimpers, like the weak cries of a newborn infant, came from the direction of that creature, echoing faintly in the cold ice cavern, carrying an instinctive sense of discomfort and confusion at having just been freed from restraint.

Wei Ziqing's hair instantly stood on end. He tightened his grip on the bone sword, staring fixedly at the massive dark shadow that was gradually beginning to move within the dim firelight and hazy cold air.

The monster revived from the ice, its brief confusion was soon replaced by a more primitive instinct.

It shook its massive head, its huge body trembling. The layer of damp covering on its surface—something between short fur and thick hide—began to dry out and fluff up at an unnatural speed, revealing its true appearance underneath.

Under the flickering, dim firelight, Wei Ziqing saw its form clearly:

Its body was stout like a giant boar, covered in filthy, yellowish-brown fur, with a stiff tail ending in a slightly dark red tip dragging behind it.

The most scalp-prickling feature was its head—a twisted, coarse, human-like yet non-human face, embedded on a beast's body, presenting an indescribable eeriness and incongruity.

Now, this 'face' was directed at him, emitting 'wa ah... wu wa...' crying-like sounds.

Suppressing the horror in his heart, Wei Ziqing steadily held the bone sword horizontally before him, his center of gravity slightly lowered.

"Wu wa—!"

The monster let out a sharp cry. Its thick limbs forcefully pushed off the ground, charging toward Wei Ziqing with a rush of foul wind, its speed unexpectedly not slow!

Wei Ziqing was already prepared. His figure drifted back sideways like light smoke, narrowly avoiding the frontal collision that could shatter rocks.

At the moment they passed each other, the bone sword in his hand transformed into two swift streaks of dark light, slashing at the monster's shoulder blade and hind leg, one high and one low.

The monster reacted quickly, sweeping its forelimb back, using its hard claws to parry the sword slash aimed at its shoulder blade, producing a dull, metallic clang.

Simultaneously, that stiff, crimson-red tail whipped toward Wei Ziqing's lower body like a lash!

Wei Ziqing seemed to have anticipated this. His forward momentum not yet spent, he tapped the ground with his toes, and his entire body used the force to perform a nimble sideways flip in mid-air, not only evading the tail sweep but also adjusting his posture while airborne.

Just as his body flipped, his back momentarily facing the monster, the plain white 'skirt' at the back of his waist, following the spinning motion, suddenly flung outward—

"Whoosh!"

A cloud of fine, dust-like powder, shimmering with a faint light, instantly enveloped the monster's twisted, human-like yet non-human face like precisely controlled smoke!

The moment the powder adhered, Wei Ziqing had already landed, his back to the monster, but his right hand snapped its fingers with a crisp sound.

"Poof—!"

The area on the monster's face where the powder had attached suddenly erupted with a blinding flash of intense light and rapidly escalating high temperature! The light momentarily brightened the entire ice cavern, followed by the monster's agonized, mixed-with-rage, even more sharp and distorted infant-like shriek!

Now!

Wei Ziqing spun his body around, ghost-like, slipping into the opening exposed by the monster's burning pain and temporary incapacitation. The bone sword in his hand momentarily lost its form, transforming into a continuous stretch of dark, shimmering light!

The sword speed was astonishingly fast, yet it did not seek a single lethal strike. Instead, it was like a sudden storm, sweeping over the monster's torso, limbs, neck... Each strike was shallow, just grazing the surface, slicing through fur and leaving long, thin, dense wounds without penetrating deep into bones or internal organs.

This was precisely one of the essential principles of his family's martial arts—'Nine Feints, One Real Strike.' Using extreme speed to create countless superficial wounds that seemed not very threatening but actually accumulated pain and psychological pressure, aiming to shatter the opponent's will and rhythm.

"Ssssh ssssh ssssh ssssh—!"

A teeth-grating series of cutting sounds rang out densely, accompanied by the monster's increasingly frenzied and pained howls.

In the blink of an eye, the monster's yellowish-brown body was crisscrossed with dozens of thin, long sword marks. Fresh red blood rapidly seeped from these wounds, staining its fur.

The stinging pain from the intense light burns, the panic of blindness, plus this sudden, widespread cutting pain all over its body, plunged this monster, just freed from millennia of ice, into wild agony and rage.

It flailed its claws wildly, shook its head, emitting distorted, modulated infant-like roars, yet for a moment, it could not easily catch that white figure darting around it like a swimming fish, leaving wounds with each pass.

And during that earlier round of fierce attacks, Wei Ziqing had deliberately sliced the relatively fragile skin of the monster at least four or five times. The nerve-paralyzing toxin carried on his sword blade had already been quietly injected.

It was just that this monster's Physique was clearly special; the toxin did not take effect immediately.