45: Chapter 45 Death Approaches

In the swamp mud, Lei Yu was trembling violently as if he had the shakes.

That five-meter-long Mutated Wild Boar was staring fixedly at him with a pair of scarlet, inverted-triangular eyes. The high-heat steam spraying from its nostrils, mixed with a thick stench of blood, rushed straight at Lei Yu's face.

"No... don't..."

Lei Yu braced his hands in the muddy water, using his hands and legs to scramble backward.

He was an S-rank lightning-element Genius at the Kyoto First Military Academy and the sole heir to the Lei financial conglomerate. He had grown up soaking in top-tier medicinal baths, eating premium exotic beast meat, surrounded by people who fawned over him.

He had come to this D-rank wilderness simply to show off his strength in front of Lin Qinghan, simply to gild his resume!

He absolutely could not die in this stinking mud ditch that didn't even have a name!

"Lei Yu! Hold the formation! Keep your distance and use lightning strikes to distract it!"

Not far away, Lin Qinghan, kneeling on one knee, forced herself to swallow the blood in her throat and used her last shred of strength to sternly order him.

Hearing this command, Lei Yu's previously unfocused pupils suddenly constricted.

"Distract it?"

Lei Yu turned his head, looking at Lin Qinghan, who had blood all over her mouth, his expression twisting to the extreme.

"Are you fucking blind! Captain Zhang Meng is crippled! Wang Hao is pinned to the ground! Three layers of ice shields couldn't even last two seconds! What do you want me to use to distract it!"

Lei Yu roared heart-wrenchingly, his voice becoming sharp and shrill due to extreme fear, completely tearing off the mask of the refined Young Master he usually wore.

"A monster... this is an unkillable monster! We're all going to die here!"

"Lei Yu, you are an officer cadet of the military academy! Do you dare to desert in the face of battle?" Lin Qinghan leaned on her broken sword, attempting to stand up.

"Fuck the cadet status! Fuck the Kyoto Prodigy title!"

Lei Yu's face was covered in mud, his features appearing incredibly ugly due to his extreme selfishness: "I am a conglomerate heir! My life is more precious than all of yours! I cannot die here! If you want its heart blood, go die yourself; I'm done playing with you!"

After saying this, Lei Yu didn't even look at Lin Qinghan again, nor did he care about Wang Hao, who was still pinned to the ground by steel bristles and reaching out a hand to him for help.

"Brother Lei... pull me up..." Wang Hao reached out weakly.

"Get lost!"

Lei Yu kicked Wang Hao's hand away.

He bit his tongue hard, pouring the last bit of lightning spiritual energy remaining in his body—not for defense, not for attack—but unreservedly flooding it all into his legs!

"Zzzzt!" Blinding blue electric light coiled around his military boots.

Lei Yu sprang from the mud pit, turned his back on the terrifying Mutated Wild Boar, and like a completely terrified stray dog, ran frantically toward the outer edges of the Mist Forest!

Escape! As long as he ran faster than his teammates and let them feed this monster, he could survive!

Watching Lei Yu's retreating figure as he ran without looking back, the light in Lin Qinghan's eyes dimmed completely, and an unspeakable sorrow rose in her heart.

This was the "Prodigy" she had brought out.

However, Lei Yu had miscalculated one thing.

In the wilderness, when facing a top-tier predator in a berserk state, leaving one's back exposed and turning to run was the stupidest, most fatal taboo in the hunter's code!

Because a fleeing back would instantly trigger the most primitive hunting instincts within the beast's genes!

"Roar—!"

The Mutated Wild Boar didn't care about the wounded on the ground or Lin Qinghan at all. Its blood-red eyes locked directly onto the sprinting Lei Yu.

Its thick hooves sank violently into the swamp. "Boom!" The ground instantly exploded into a huge mud pit.

The wild boar's massive body, weighing several tons and covered in dark red metal scales, displayed a terrifying explosive power that was completely inconsistent with its size. It launched itself directly into the air!

Like a small metal mountain flying through mid-air, it easily crossed a distance of over a dozen meters, bringing a shadow that blotted out the sky, and crashed down behind Lei Yu!

Lei Yu, who was sprinting, suddenly felt the light above his head completely blocked by something. A thick, suffocating stench blew against the back of his neck.

Lei Yu turned his head stiffly. What came into view was the wild boar's blood-mouthed maw, opened to its limit and covered in barbs and mucus!

"No!!!" Lei Yu let out a shrill scream of extreme despair. "Save me! Captain, save me!"

The cry for help had just left his throat when, "Snap!" The Mutated Wild Boar's upper and lower jaws, like two rows of hydraulic steel guillotines, mercilessly and viciously clamped shut.

No miracle occurred. Accompanied by a bone-chilling, scalp-numbing sound of bones shattering and muscles tearing, the better part of Lei Yu's lower leg, along with the lightning spiritual energy coiled around it and his military boots, was bitten off cleanly and forcefully by this terrifying bite force!

"Aaaaaah!!!" A scream that didn't sound human at all instantly tore through the deathly silence of the Mist Forest.

Having lost his legs, Lei Yu fell forward under the huge momentum, crashing heavily into the black water pit in front. Blood, like a burst water pipe, gushed frantically from his severed knees, instantly dyeing the surrounding mud water a glaring bright red.

He did not die. The powerful vitality of a Martial Artist kept him conscious, but this also forced him to endure extreme pain unimaginable to ordinary people.

Lei Yu rolled frantically in the mud, his hands clawing desperately at the muck on the ground, his fingernails all peeling off. While screaming, he turned his mud-covered face toward Lin Qinghan. "Save me... my legs... my legs are gone!"

He cried until his face was covered in tears and snot, his originally handsome face twisted like a demon. No matter how advanced medicine was, having lost his legs and with his Dantian Qi and blood having nowhere to circulate, this proud S-rank lightning-element Genius of Kyoto was destined to become nothing more than a disabled waste lying in bed for the rest of his life.

The Mutated Wild Boar stood behind Lei Yu. It chewed the severed leg twice, then with a "Ptui" sound, spat the crushed military boot and bone fragments into the mud with disgust. This flesh and blood, full of Impurities, could not spark any interest in eating.

The wild boar slowly turned its huge head. Its inverted-triangular blood-red eyes passed over the wailing prey on the ground and finally locked fixedly on the girl in white, who was half-kneeling on the ground holding a broken sword.

It still remembered that it was this woman who had released the extreme cold temperature just now, almost freezing it to death.

"Thump." The wild boar stepped with its heavy hooves, treading on the muddy water, approaching Lin Qinghan step by step. It did not charge. It walked very slowly. It was like a tyrant in control of the whole situation, fully enjoying the sadistic pleasure of driving its prey into a desperate situation bit by bit and watching the prey tremble in fear.

Lin Qinghan did not retreat. She leaned on her broken sword and slowly stood up from the swamp. Her special white combat suit was already covered in filth and blood. Her white hair fluttered messily in the wind.

She looked around. Captain Zhang Meng lay in a mud pit in the distance, life or death unknown. Wang Hao was pinned through the thigh by steel bristles, had lost too much blood, and had already passed out. Chen Fei was hanging on a dead tree in the distance, one arm crippled. Lei Yu was rolling and screaming on the ground, having become a total waste. The entire squad was wiped out.

"I'm sorry." Lin Qinghan looked at the fallen teammates, her pale lips trembling slightly, her voice so soft that only she could hear it. "It was I who brought you here." "I failed to bring you back."

She withdrew her gaze and looked back at the terrifying giant beast that was less than ten meters away. The high-heat steam spraying from the wild boar's nostrils could already blow onto her face.

Lin Qinghan took a deep breath. In those cold eyes, the last trace of fear dissipated completely, replaced by an absolute determination to perish together.

She raised her hand and wiped the blood continuously overflowing from the corner of her mouth with the back of her hand. Then, she held the broken sword, which was only half-left, with both hands. She twisted her wrist. The tip of the sword pointed inward, aiming directly at her heart!

Lin Qinghan closed her eyes, and all the remaining Frost Law in her body began to rush backward toward her heart in a retrograde manner.

She was going to ignite her heart's essence blood. She would activate the most tragic forbidden technique of the Lin family's Legacy, which, once used, would inevitably lead to Soul Flying Away and Spirit Scattering—[Ice Soul Jade Shatter]. She would use the complete end of her life to exchange for an instantaneous burst of Absolute Zero that surpassed her limits. She would drag this monster down to Hell with her!

"Come on." Lin Qinghan whispered.

"Roar!" Seemingly sensing the destructive danger brewing within its prey, the Mutated Wild Boar stopped playing around. It let out a wild roar, and its massive body leaped forward violently. Its blood-mouthed maw opened to the extreme, revealing the intricate fangs inside and a throat as dark as an abyss.

The thick stench, like a category 12 typhoon, instantly slammed into Lin Qinghan's face, blowing her hair into a mess. The wild boar's maw was less than half a meter away from the top of Lin Qinghan's head!

Lin Qinghan used force with both hands. The tip of the sword pierced her uniform and her skin. It only needed to go half an inch deeper to pierce her heart and detonate everything.

A hair's breadth away! Just as Lin Qinghan was about to plunge the longsword completely into her heart, just at that absolute moment when the giant beast's fangs were about to close and crush her!

"Boom————!!!" An extremely sharp, piercing, terrifying sonic boom that seemed as if it would tear the thick clouds of the sky apart. Without warning, it came crashing down from the very top of this Mist Forest, from that distant, extremely high firmament!