C22 In the Bronze

"Keep a close eye on him, Miao and Wu Yue. This guy's a slippery one. Make sure he doesn't get the chance to hurt either of you."

With that warning, Lin Yuan turned and made his way toward the blue house.

"What are you planning to do?"

Mo Sanqiu managed to prop himself up and asked Lin Yuan, his voice strained with effort.

"What else but to extract the Blood Essence?" Lin Yuan called back over his shoulder, not bothering to look back.

"I won't allow it!"

Mo Sanqiu tried to rise, but Wu Yue swiftly knocked him back to the ground with a firm slap.

"Listen, Mo Sanqiu, in your current state, if the boss wanted you dead, it would be over in a heartbeat. Get a grip on reality," Wu Yue chided.

Lin Yuan pulled out his Rapier and approached the trembling tree monster, which seemed to sense the impending doom. He lifted the blade high, ready to strike.

Boom!

A thunderous noise erupted from beneath the earth, shaking the entire zoo as if an earthquake had struck. Buildings crumbled, the concrete ground cracked apart, and countless roots surged from the earth like serpents, soaring skyward before crashing down on the blue house.

"The world's coming apart! Run for it!"

Wu Yue yelled, sprinting away with his head covered. Miao Yihong leaped into the air, her foot pushing off Wu Yue's head, and vanished from sight.

Dodging the falling debris, Lin Yuan brought the Rapier down with a decisive stroke. The violently shaking tree monster suddenly stiffened and split in two.

As the tree monster breathed its last, the surging roots outside turned to stone, creating an eerie forest of grey monoliths. A breeze swept through, and the stone forest crumbled to dust, blanketing the land in a haze of grey-black.

Miao Yihong and Wu Yue, who had been running for their lives, clawed their way out of the thick dust, bewildered by the catastrophe that had unfolded.

Lin Yuan stooped down and retrieved a golden, supple pouch from the split trunk of the Gold Tree Monster. He bit into it gently, and a liquid carrying the mingled scents of blood and vegetation slowly seeped into his mouth.

"Ahh!"

Lin Yuan's scream of agony pierced the air as the Blood Essence he had just swallowed transformed into searing flames within him. His blood and flesh boiled, his bones melted away in an instant, only to be regenerated just as quickly.

His skin cracked open, revealing not blood, but scorching flames pouring out!

The most excruciating pain came from his brain, boiling under the intense pressure, with his scalding brain matter erupting from his mouth, nose, ears, and eyes.

This soul-deep agony was a hundredfold worse than the torment of being scorched by a bonfire. Lin Yuan's consciousness shattered in an instant.

Time lost meaning until, at last, his consciousness reassembled, and Lin Yuan awoke.

The pain had vanished, leaving his body suffused with an ineffable sense of relief.

"Race: Human; Level: Bronze Zero Rank; Talent: Devour."

A thought suddenly sparked in his mind, and Lin Yuan couldn't help but smile.

He had ascended to Bronze level and acquired a talent he'd never possessed in his past life. The prospect of his future was truly exhilarating!

"Hey, girl, do you reckon our boss made it out alive?"

Wu Yue navigated the debris of the fallen building, his words trailing behind him.

"How should I know? That whole scene was like a disaster straight from the heavens. If it hadn't been for that twist of fate, we'd both be goners!"

Miao Yihong's retort was cut short as she caught the slip in his words.

"What did you just call me, you big oaf? Are you asking for a smack?"

The pair reached the blue house, their banter fading as they took in the sight of the half-collapsed structure.

"Look, the boss's stuff!"

Wu Yue's eyes gleamed as he quickly unearthed a pouch from the rubble.

"Great, we found his things, but the man himself isn't here," Miao Yihong remarked, her spirits dampening.

Despite their brief acquaintance, she couldn't shake the sense of kinship she felt with the man behind the disfigured face.

"Well, if the boss is gone, we might as well divide up his belongings."

Wu Yue's mood also darkened. In this end-of-days struggle, Lin Yuan had been the first to offer him sustenance, even if he had given him a thrashing beforehand.

"... Fine, the gun and bullets are mine, and so is the meat. You take everything else. You head back to your high mountain village, and I'll return to my Guanyin Temple. It's time to part ways."

Wu Yue nodded instinctively, then paused, realizing something was amiss. That little minx was mocking him again!

Lin Yuan's fist connected with the brick wall, leaving a gaping hole in its wake.

"Bronze Body, Strength of a Hundred Men. Truly remarkable!"

He inspected his unscathed fist and nodded in approval.

At the Tenth Rank of Dark Iron, one would possess the strength of fifty men. Advancing to Bronze would double that, while also significantly enhancing the body's durability and resilience.

While the Dark Iron stage still fell within human limits, ascending to Bronze brought about a radical transformation, hinting at an almost supernatural resilience akin to copper heads and iron limbs.

Even if an ordinary person were to strike with a knife, without exerting full force, they'd likely fail to even break the skin.

Lin Yuan, after demolishing the remaining wall with two more punches, emerged with the totem staff and rapier in hand.

He was immediately greeted by the sight of two fools wrestling over a large slab of smoked meat, engaged in a literal drool-worthy battle.

"Ptui! The meat's mine!"

"Ha! No, it's mine!"

"We had just agreed it was mine, and now you're trying to steal it again? Are you even a man? Ha!"

"Well, then consider me a woman, ha!"

"..."

Lin Yuan massaged his temples in frustration. The smoked meat, weighing a good twenty to thirty pounds, was now completely drenched in saliva. How was he supposed to eat that?

"It's mine!"

"No, it's mine!"

Lin Yuan stepped in with swift strides and delivered a punch to each of them.

The two yelped in pain, clutching their heads and crouching on the ground.

"Quite audacious, aren't you? Planning to divide my estate before I'm even dead?"

"Boss, you've got it all wrong, it's a misunderstanding!" Wu Yue pleaded, nursing his head with a mournful look.

"Yeah, just a misunderstanding. We were just helping you sort things out. It'd be a real hassle to find anything if it got lost."

Miao Yihong, nursing a sizable lump on her head, gave him a look of feigned concern.

"Hmph, so you're saying I should be thanking you?"

"No need for that. We're family, after all."

Lin Yuan shook his head, dismissing the two exhausted figures, and approached a mound of dust. With a swift tug, he dragged Mo Sanqiu out from beneath it.

"Wow, buried for so long and still not dead? Doesn't he need to breathe or what?"

Miao Yihong, observing Mo Sanqiu caked in dust, expressed her surprise.

Lin Yuan nonchalantly dropped him to the ground and peered into his vacant eyes.

"I'm really curious about what you are."

"You have the scent of a human but also the essence of a tree monster. Are you some kind of hybrid?"

Mo Sanqiu remained silent, lying still on the ground without so much as a blink, resembling someone deceased.

"Now, what do we have here?"

Lin Yuan set a small, mud-wrapped sapling on the ground. Recognizing the familiar presence, Mo Sanqiu's eyes suddenly sparked to life.

"Dijiang? How on earth did you manage that?!"