118: Chapter 118 Cave Beast

The firelight swept across the rock wall.

Claw marks were deeply embedded in the black rock, crisscrossing in a gruesome manner.

Zhao Mengmeng's hand reached for the crossbow. The face that had just regained a hint of color turned pale again.

Lin Ye raised his left hand, pressing his index finger to his lips.

Zhao Mengmeng immediately shut her mouth. She didn't ask. Having walked this far, she had long since understood the weight of this gesture.

There was a living creature in the cave, and it was huge.

Lin Ye placed the aluminum pot back by the fire. Silently.

He gripped the damaged Fire Axe with a backhand grip, the notches on the axe blade glowing dark red in the firelight.

Zhao Mengmeng lowered her voice: "Should we block off the inside first?"

"There's a living creature inside; we can't block it," Lin Ye shook his head.

Zhao Mengmeng looked toward the end of the claw marks, where the darkness was bottomless.

"You're going in alone?"

"You guard the retreat route."

Lin Ye pushed the crossbow to her side.

"Don't let the fire go out, don't open the ice door, and only move when you hear me call you."

Zhao Mengmeng pulled the crossbow into her arms, aiming the bolt toward the depths of the cave.

Lin Ye, carrying the Fire Axe, crept along the rock wall toward the depth of the claw marks.

The perspective of the Great Xia Live Stream lowered accordingly.

[What on earth is in this cave?]

[Such deep claw marks, ordinary exotic beasts couldn't make these, right?]

[Just got onto the Level 4 Floating Island and already ran into the cave's owner; this luck is too bizarre.]

[Brother Eye having Mengmeng guard the door is the right call; the retreat route must never be lost.]

His boot soles crushed the frozen sand, making a rustling sound.

The passage sloped downward.

The further he went in, the more distant the sound of the wind and snow became.

The frost on the rock walls thinned, and the ground seeped with damp mud marks.

Lin Ye stopped and reached out to touch the stone wall.

The temperature was rising.

Outside, water froze upon dripping, but deep in the cave, it was warming up.

Either there was geothermal heat down here, or a massive creature radiating high heat was lurking about.

Lin Ye briefly activated his left eye.

His retina scanned over a large expanse of gray-black rock layers.

Twenty meters ahead, several intermittent red lines extended along the ground.

A risk of collapse.

Lin Ye closed his left eye.

He bypassed the flat ground on the right and moved forward, sticking close to the left rock wall.

The ground beneath his feet emitted a faint hollow sound.

The area under the frozen mud was hollow.

Lin Ye didn't stop and continued forward.

The passage narrowed, and at its narrowest point, it could only accommodate one person passing through sideways.

The claw marks on the rock wall were fresher, with torn black stone powder hanging on the edges.

Lin Ye brushed his fingertips over the stone powder.

Damp, unfrozen.

He slowed his breathing and stopped behind a corner.

The area ahead suddenly opened up.

This was a natural cave chamber.

Large stalactites hung from the ceiling, and the ground had been ground into deep pits by the long-term trampling of a massive creature.

A faint blue-white light shone through from the other side.

Lin Ye poked his head out just an inch.

A steaming hot spring lay across the front.

The water surface churned, and hot mist rose.

Beside the hot spring lay a snow-white mountain of flesh.

Its size was comparable to an armored off-road vehicle.

Its thick white fur was covered with blocky ice armor, its shoulders and back were towering, and its limbs were thick and sturdy.

With every breath, the white mist exhaled from its mouth and nose hit the rock wall, turning into water droplets and falling.

A pale blue light screen popped up before Lin Ye's right eye.

[Frost-Armored Violent Bear]

Lin Ye briefly opened and closed his left eye.

Blinding red light filled the cave chamber.

The red light rose and fell with the bear's breathing.

There were sparse gray spots on the surface.

The red light on the bear's abdomen was weaker, mixed with green.

Its head, front claws, and shoulders and back were wrapped in thick red radiance.

Lin Ye closed his eyes.

His temples throbbed.

The bear was still hibernating, but its ears beneath the fur twitched.

The smell of fire smoke, human scent, and the smell of blood had already drifted into the cave chamber.

The eyeballs beneath the heavy eyelids rolled once.

Hibernation was about to end.

Lin Ye slowly retreated.

His boot heel crushed a piece of loose gravel.

The gravel rolled down the slope, making a crisp sound.

The bear's nostrils twitched.

Lin Ye froze.

The cave chamber was deathly silent.

Two seconds later.

The giant bear's eyelids moved.

Lin Ye stepped back to the corner of the passage and raised his right arm.

The mechanism of the Dark Weaver popped open.

Three anchor points shot out.

The first one nailed into a crack in the left rock wall.

The second one bit firmly into the base of a stalactite on the ceiling.

The third one wrapped around a rock pillar on the right and embedded into a stone crack behind it.

The Nano-wire instantly pulled taut.

He retreated a dozen steps and set up a second layer of crisscrossing cutting nets at the narrowest part of the passage.

The bear was huge; if it charged, it would inevitably get stuck in the narrow passage.

The Dark Weaver had just gone through the giant vine climb, and the interior of the arm guard still had residual overheating stiffness; he couldn't fight a war of attrition.

Lin Ye's gaze locked onto a diagonally hanging stalactite above his head.

Its tip pointed directly at the center of the passage.

He wrapped the main line around the tip of the stalactite and pressed it into a natural groove to serve as a directional fulcrum.

Subsequently, he swung the Entrenching Tool backhand, prying up a few pieces of rubble to pile up on the inside of the corner.

The braking point was complete.

A dull grinding sound came from the direction of the cave chamber.

Click.

The massive body was waking up.

Lin Ye gripped the Fire Axe and walked back to the edge of the cave chamber.

The bear's eyes opened a crack, murky and manic.

Lin Ye bent down and picked up a fist-sized stone.

In the distance of the passage, Zhao Mengmeng heard the strange noise, her knuckles turning white.

The Great Xia Live Stream exploded.

[Holy crap! What kind of bear is this?!]

[With this size, one slap could flatten a person into a pancake!]

[Don't get close! It's awake!]

[Wait, no, Brother Eye is picking up a stone; what is he trying to do?]

Lin Ye aimed at the bear's nose.

Swung his arm.

Threw it hard.

Slap!

The stone hit the moist nose of the Frost-Armored Violent Bear dead center.

The bear's face contorted.

The cave chamber exploded.

"ROAR—!"

The sound wave shook water droplets off the rock walls.

The hot spring surface exploded into surging waves.

The ten-ton mountain of flesh sprang up.

It smashed a half-section of a rock pillar beside it with one slap.

Lin Ye turned and sprinted wildly.

Behind him, a giant palm slammed into the ground.

BOOM!

Gravel flew rapidly, one piece grazing Lin Ye's shoulder and smashing into the rock wall.

Lin Ye lowered his center of gravity and rushed wildly up the slope, hugging it.

The hot, fishy stench bore down on his back.

The Frost-Armored Violent Bear crashed into the passage.

Its massive body got stuck in the narrow rock layer, and the ice armor on its shoulders and back scraped off large chunks of black rock debris.

The entire passage rumbled loudly.

Lin Ye leaped over the first Nano-wire array.

He rushed into the dead end.

He kicked the pile of rubble hard with his left foot and pressed his right shoulder firmly against the rock wall.

He pressed his right arm down, and the 3D Nano-wire cutting net instantly pulled taut.

The Frost-Armored Violent Bear collided head-on.

A piercing friction sound shrieked within the passage.

Ice armor, white fur, black rock, and Nano-wire were all pulled to their physical limits simultaneously.

The bear's momentum was forcibly halted.

Its shoulders and back were gouged with deep grooves by the Nano-wire, and the ice armor shattered.

But it didn't fall.

Its giant paws dug into the ground, grinding through the rubble as it continued to press forward.

A heavy pulling force was transmitted back along the Nano-wire.

Lin Ye's right arm sank forward.

His boot soles plowed two deep furrows into the ground.

The Dark Weaver's engine emitted a screeching sound of being near capacity.

Zhao Mengmeng screamed in the distance: "Lin Ye!"

Lin Ye clenched his back molars, not making a sound.

The first layer of wire couldn't cut through the skin and flesh of its shoulders and back.

He stared fixedly at the bear's head pushing forward.

His thumb flicked the hook, releasing a secondary line.

The resistance suddenly decreased.

The front half of the bear lost its balance, and its head slammed forward violently.

The main line changed direction along the stalactite fulcrum, cutting straight into its left eye and the side of its neck at an oblique angle.

Pfft!

A spray of blood erupted.

The bear's left eye was sliced open.

Its body rolled and twisted in the narrow passage.

The second secondary line was forcibly snapped by the massive force.

Snap!

The broken Nano-wire whipped against the rock wall, cutting out a crevice filled with stone powder.

The web of Lin Ye's right hand split open.

Blood soaked through his glove.

With his left hand, he grabbed the Fire Axe and used the bottom of the axe handle to jam the lock on the side of the mechanism.

The bear's only remaining eye locked onto Lin Ye.

Its bloody breath sprayed from three meters away.

Lin Ye raised his left foot and kicked the supporting stone hard.

The rubble clattered down, smashing directly onto the bear's front paws.

The bear instinctively lowered its head to dodge.

The angle of the main line shifted again.

The thin wire cut into the eye socket, scraped open the cheekbone, and headed straight for the carotid artery.

A pillar of blood spurted out several meters.

"Advance!"

A low roar rolled from Lin Ye's throat.

His right arm pressed down with all his might.

The Dark Weaver's high-frequency contraction engine started in overdrive.

The stalactite emitted dense cracking sounds.

The bear was forced back by the intense pain.

But its massive shoulders and back were stuck in the passage, unable to move forward or backward.

Its violent struggling only caused the Nano-wire to cut deeper.

Crack!

The base of the stalactite shattered.

The moment the fulcrum fell off, Lin Ye threw the Entrenching Tool from his left hand.

It smashed the bottom of the stalactite, forcibly applying one final shift in pulling force.

The main line contracted violently.

Squelch!

The side of the Frost-Armored Violent Bear's head was sliced open cleanly.

The eye socket, the base of the ear, and the skin and flesh along the side of its neck fell off in a large area.

The scalding hot beast blood drenched the narrow passage in dark red.

The roaring ceased.

The massive body, aided by residual muscle reflexes, tipped forward.

BOOM!

The ten-ton mountain of flesh crashed in front of Lin Ye's feet.

The distance was no more than half an arm's length.

The blood-stained sharp claws twitched in spasms twice.

Lin Ye pulled up the Fire Axe from the side.

He swung it down at the exposed eye socket wound.

Two crisp sounds of bone cracking.

The giant bear was dead.