Star Martial Era: From Mortal to Emperor

Chapter 20: Battle in the Secret Realm, Fighting Ferocious Beasts

The valley floor was dark and damp, with lush vegetation and spiritual energy condensing into a faint white mist. The decaying leaves piled up heavily underfoot, and each step was silent, with danger lurking in the shadows.

The deeper they went, the denser the spiritual energy in the air became, along with a faint, malevolent pressure. The silver aura, the size of a millstone, above Lin Chen's head slowly swirled, its starlight shimmering, automatically purifying the malevolent energy in the air. After absorbing the pure portion of Zhao Xuan's aura, his star power became more condensed, and his perception range nearly doubled.

Before long, a fierce and wild aura swept over them. A black shadow flashed, and a huge, first-tier peak black-striped wolf suddenly darted out from behind the tree. Its fangs were sharp, its fur was black, and its wolf eyes were ferocious. It pounced straight at Lin Chen's throat to kill him.

A first-tier peak ferocious beast, its combat power is comparable to that of a martial artist at the eighth level of Body Tempering. It is fast and has sharp claws, and ordinary contestants can only retreat in a sorry state when they encounter it.

Lin Chen remained calm, using the "Chasing Star Step" technique at its peak proficiency to lightly shift his weight and dodge the wolf's fierce claw attack. Just as the black-striped wolf missed its target, the branch beneath its feet suddenly snapped, causing it to stumble and reveal a fatal opening.

Lin Chen seized the opportunity, gathered star power in his palm, and unleashed the full power of the Great Perfection of the Myriad Manifestations Fist, precisely striking the wolf's head's vital side.

"Awooo—!"

The black-striped wolf howled in pain, its body stiffened, its qi and blood became disordered, and its attack power decreased sharply.

Lin Chen followed up with another palm strike, the force restrained yet aimed directly at a vital point. The black-striped wolf collapsed to the ground, powerless to struggle any longer.

After slaying the ferocious beast and collecting its inner core, Lin Chen could clearly feel that his blood and qi had become even stronger. Just as he was about to turn around and continue forward, he saw a low-grade spirit stone and two green-leaf grasses lying in the black-striped wolf's den.

Continuing deeper for over a hundred feet, the view suddenly opened up, revealing a natural cave. The cave entrance was filled with extremely rich spiritual energy, shrouded in white mist. Outside the cave, vegetation grew vigorously, clearly indicating that this place was the core of the entire valley's spiritual energy convergence.

More importantly, Lin Chen could clearly feel a powerful surge of starlight emanating from the depths of the cave, resonating strongly with his Star Martial Core.

Before they could get close, a deafening roar suddenly erupted from inside the cave, and an oppressive aura swept over them, several times stronger than that of the Black-striped Wolf.

A massive, crimson-red, spiky-shouldered, second-tier Flaming Porcupine slowly emerged. Its tusks protruded, and its body radiated heat. The spikes contained a faint fire energy. It was a low-grade second-tier ferocious beast, with combat power comparable to the peak of the ninth level of Body Tempering. It possessed astonishing brute strength, extremely strong defense, and its spikes could be launched to injure people, making it extremely difficult to deal with.

Second-tier ferocious beasts are beings that can only be contended with in the latter half of the secret realm. In a one-on-one battle, even the top-ranked geniuses in the group need to be cautious and dare not fight head-on.

The Fiery Porcupine sensed the intruder's presence, its eyes widened in fury, its body blazing with fire, and the spikes on its back trembled slightly. Suddenly, it unleashed a burst of fiery red spikes that shot straight at Lin Chen's vital points with a whooshing sound!

Extremely fast speed and tricky angles, blocking all evasive maneuvers.

Lin Chen's mind sharpened, and he activated the Star Chasing Step to its limit, maneuvering with incredible agility through the gaps in the spikes, narrowly avoiding all the projectiles. One of the spikes grazed his arm, tearing his martial arts uniform and leaving a shallow bloodstain.

"Wow, that's fast!"

Lin Chen thought to himself, continuing to walk and gradually closing the distance.

To deal with such ferocious beasts that have strong defenses, tricky ranged attacks, and brute force in close combat, ranged attacks are disadvantageous; the only solution is to break through their defenses at close range.

When the fiery porcupine saw that its spikes missed, it charged forward in a rage, its hard head smashing down like an iron hammer, breaking vegetation and shaking the ground in its wake.

Lin Chen didn't confront it head-on; instead, he suddenly lowered his body and crawled under the belly of the Fiery Porcupine.

The fiery porcupine missed its target, its massive body crashing against the rock wall with a deafening roar, sending rubble flying. It shook its head, even more enraged, and turned to charge at Lin Chen again.

As Lin Chen moved around, he carefully observed the porcupine's weaknesses: its thick skin was incredibly tough, but the area around its eyes, under its belly, and where its neck connected were the weakest points in its defense.

Moreover, after each collision, it experiences a brief period of stun, which presents the best opportunity for an attack.

After several rounds of maneuvering and pulling, the fiery porcupine charged at him again, and Lin Chen used the same trick, crawling under its belly.

Just as the Fiery Porcupine finished its charge and its body stiffened, Lin Chen turned around and suddenly rose higher.

The Myriad Forms Fist: Starfall Armor Breaker!

The concentrated stellar energy condensed into a pinhead-sized point, carrying unparalleled penetrating power, and precisely pierced the Flaming Porcupine's left eye.

"Aww—!"

The fiery porcupine let out a agonizing roar, its massive body trembled violently, its charge came to an abrupt halt, and the fiery energy around it quickly dissipated.

It covered its eyes, spun around frantically in place, and howled in pain.

Lin Chen gave it no chance to breathe, lunging forward and slamming a fist into the neck joint.

"Snap!"

The sound of a cervical spine breaking rang out, and the massive body of the Fiery Porcupine collapsed to its knees with a thud, its life force rapidly fading away.

A moment later, the second-tier Flaming Porcupine was completely lifeless.