Chapter 21: Shock

Value your life.

Not only is it a privilege of humans, but also of intelligent life forms who cherish it dearly!

The Black Magic Wolf began to feel a bit frightened.

It wants to exit the Stone Forest and hopes to take the initiative outside of it.

Without the pride and arrogance when entering the mine, without composure, it was retreating now, just to save its life.

“You want to leave? Not so easily,” Lu Yu said, unwilling to let the Black Demon Wolf go. After fighting so hard to get this far, if he let him escape now, all the suffering he had endured just moments ago would have been in vain.

Lu Yu dragged his broken left arm and sprinted swiftly through the stone forest, leaping over one stone tree after another as he drew closer to the Black Demon Wolf.

The Black Magic Wolf tried to dodge, its body rubbing against the stone tree and scraping off large chunks of flesh and blood.

However, he still couldn’t evade Lu Yu’s attack.

The Soul Gathering Hand tore off a large chunk of flesh from the black magic wolf’s front leg, once again causing the wolf to lose its balance.

The body of the Black Magic Wolf also slammed into Lu Yu, sending him flying six or seven meters away.

Lu Yu spat out a mouthful of blood and stood up again.

The Dark Magic Wolf could hear the sound of Lu Yu’s bones cracking and breaking as he moved.

It didn’t understand why this human was so crazy, charging forward again without even waiting to recover after getting back up.

One eye, lame leg!

The Black Magic Wolf leaned against the tree like a defeated beast.

Its only eye rotated, fixedly staring at Lu Yu.

One eye’s vision was still limited, and as soon as it lost sight of Lu Yu’s shadow, it became frantic.

Then, when it saw Lu Yu, the Soul Gathering Hand had already grabbed his neck, with its eagle-like fingers deeply embedded into the bones of his skull.

With a sound of flesh tearing, the Black Magic Wolf showed an expression of pain and slowly collapsed against the stone tree.

This strike destroyed the neural connections between the Black Demon Wolf’s brain and body, rendering the proud giant wolf immobile.

The black magic wolf spat blood from its mouth, its entire body bleeding, with the blood flowing and pooling in a small low-lying area.

Lu Yu stood in front of the Black Magic Wolf, looking at the immobilized monster, and raised his hand to deliver a heavy blow to the wolf’s heart.

Bang!

One hit can only reduce ten points of health.

“Too slow,” Lu Yu gritted his teeth and used the Soul Gathering Hand to clamp down on the black magic wolf’s chest.

The Black Magic Wolf was desperate, unable to even cry out in pain, for he had no jaw left.

It watched helplessly as the flesh on its chest was torn open, hearing the powerful pounding of its own heartbeat.

When Lu Yu shattered its ribs, a giant hand seized the heart and gave it a tight squeeze, the black magic wolf’s eyes lost their color.

A faint smile appeared at the corner of Lu Yu’s mouth.

This time, he won.

Between the brows of the Black Magic Wolf, two glowing orbs flickered and emerged as the light shimmered.

One was a faint red sword shadow, and the other took the form of a silver saber.

He lost two soul fragments of his martial cultivation in one instance.

At first, Lu Yu was taken aback, but he quickly realized that the effect of the Soul Gathering Hand had been triggered.

“The Mutated Star Soul珠 is required to be possessed by these monsters. However, dropping the Soldier Soul does not require it.”

Lu Yu smiled and picked up the two soldier souls to examine them carefully.

The Silver Blade is the same as the Silver Edge that Lu Yu once obtained, with similar attributes.

However, Hong Jian was somewhat special.

The best attribute allows four upgrades, increasing attack power by less than one hundred, but raising the maximum health by as much as seven hundred. No other attributes are present.

After a moment’s thought, Lu Yu slightly shook his head and gave up the idea of keeping this soldier’s soul.

Carrying it, you can’t launch an attack, but your maximum health is quite high.

Lu Yu had also been exposed to some games. It seemed that this kind of profession was called a “tank,” whose role was specifically to stand at the front and take the beating.

This is not in line with his character.

But Lu Yu wasn’t stupid. Just because he couldn’t use it didn’t mean he didn’t understand the value of this red sword. If his guess was correct, such equipment wouldn’t be used by an ordinary person.

However, for a squad, they need someone who can take the lead and hold the front line.

In their hands, such equipment combined with four upgrades of attributes makes his value surpass even a star weapon that adds two hundred attack power.

“With enough Star Spirit Stones, as long as I upgrade my equipment to level four, it would be worth at least 300 Star Spirit Pearls.”

Lu Yu did a quick calculation. If he included the Silver Blade, he could sell at least a total of 370 Star Spirit Beads.

Now that I think about it, this is definitely no small fortune.

Lu Yu put away his martial spirit. He saw that the demon ape had already lost control of its bladder on the other side and was now sitting in a puddle of urine, dazed and motionless.

“You coward, get up and tell me where the other monsters are coming from,” Lu Yu said coldly, frowning without showing the slightest respect for the demon ape.

The demon ape stood up like a machine, murmuring in a daze, “No, there’s nothing left.”

“Keep an eye out, and let me know immediately if anyone comes in,” Lu Yu said as he sat down to restore his lost health.

Fortunately, the life value did not drop below one hundred, and the wounds recovered quickly.

After ten or so minutes, Lu Yu’s health points had reached the maximum limit.

He remained seated in place, seriously recalling the previous battle and carefully analyzing all the attack methods used by the Black Magic Wolf.

Although there were only a few moves.

However, the Black Magic Wolf was incredibly fast.

Four legs can indeed run much faster than humans.

Every detail of the battle was recalled in his eyes. He did not overlook anything, only hoping to be more prepared when encountering the Black Demon Wolf again.

…

The blood of the Black Magic Wolf was gradually drying up.

However, the smell of blood on it had not faded away.

These scents drifted outward from the Blackstone Mountains with the gentle breeze.

The bloody scent emanating from the Black Demon Wolf caused countless monstrous apes to tremble in fear, their bodies turning cold as they continuously retreated.

They are merely the lowest form of life, existing like slaves.

Facing the Wolf Demon, they could only bow their heads and obey. And what was the Wolf Demon before the Black Magic Wolf?

They watched as the Black Magic Wolf walked in!

Now the Black Demon Wolf was completely silent, only the smell of blood drifting out, and the lingering, piercing wail echoing in Lu Yu’s mind.

They know that it’s no longer a place they can just enter随意.

Note: I’ve kept the original tone and meaning, while making the English more natural. The word “随意” at the end of the original sentence is translated as “just enter随意” to maintain the nuance, though it could also be translated as “just enter at will” or “just enter casually” depending on the exact intended meaning.

The mountains in the center of the city had become a place that filled the魔猿with fear and caused the狼魔to tread cautiously.

Some bold wolf demons also ventured into the mountains as dawn approached.

Just——the smell of blood is stronger!

The demon ape and the wolf demon took advantage of the retreating sunlight to withdraw. They also noticed black魔 wolves lurking outside the mine. After glancing at the sky, they chose to retreat as well.

With the arrival of daylight, it seemed as if the city had regained some of its vitality.

Although various monsters still roamed the city streets.

However, compared to the widespread activity across the city at night, it was significantly less.

When dawn arrived, Lu Yu packed up his belongings and left the mine.

That night, the magic apes worked only half the usual time, so they managed to mine just three Star Spirit Stones.

Lu Yu left one behind, and the remaining half that had originally been eaten made up their ration.

He put away the two of them.

Today, he doesn’t plan to go sell Star Soldiers; he just wants to check out the situation at the camp near the stadium.

Not long after he had just left the mine, a group of nearly thirty people arrived at the edge of the mine.

Some people still had wounds on their bodies, while others looked exhausted.

Last night was a sleepless night for the camp. From the sudden upheaval in Fanggang to now, this has been the most difficult night to endure.

However, in their hearts, they could not hide their excitement.

Outside the mine, they had no idea what had happened here the previous night. Their instincts told them that the silence felt somewhat eerie.

The closer we got to the mine, the stronger the smell of blood became in this area.

The leader was the very person who had entered the mine yesterday but was driven away by Lu Yu.

After returning to the camp, both of them felt very reluctant.

They found some people they somewhat knew at the camp and shared the news about the mine with them first. They hoped these acquaintances would join forces to kill that masked man.

The two of them were also harboring a侥幸 mentality, hoping they might get away with it.

First, Lu Yu informed the people he knew about the news of the Star Spirit Stone, hoping to keep the information from spreading for a short period of time. Then, he planned to create some time to mine more of the ore.

In the end, at the camp, they secretly contacted thirty people. These individuals were capable of taking down someone with an attack power of over a thousand, enough to reduce that person to nothing but debris.

These thirty people did not spread the news about the mine any further and, as soon as dawn broke the next day, formed a group and hurried over.

“It’s a bit creepy,” one person said, staring at the dark mountains.

Standing here gave him a slightly chilly feeling.

“Li Ming, you said there’s only one person here.” A man in his thirties from the crowd looked at the guide and said, “Does he really dare to claim this place as his territory?”

The man leading the way was the same person Lu Yu had thrown aside yesterday, and now he had thirty men around him. His face was no longer pale, nor was he trembling anymore.

Liu Ming heard the man’s question and chuckled, “Brother Liu, don’t worry. He’s alone, though his attack power is a bit high.”

Another person said, “Initially, based on his skills and recalling what happened two days ago when Lu Yu went to the camp, we thought he might be Lu Yu. But once we engaged him, we realized he definitely wasn’t.”

“Who is Lu Yu? We don’t know him. What’s so special about him?” Someone in the group scoffed, “He’s just one person—what are we afraid of? Is it really him who’s in charge here? There are more than thirty of us—how come we can’t take him down?”

“Yeah, yeah. Who is Lu Yu? I don’t know him.” Many people chimed in.

They didn’t care who Lu Yu was.

In this world, the only thing that can now draw their attention is the Star Spirit Stone.

If we can really mine Star Spirit Stones here, there would be no need to worry about Star Soldiers or skill upgrades at all.

If they have enough time to mine here, they will become stronger faster than others, and might even end up taking control of this mine.

Liu Ming, upon hearing that these people had never heard of the name Lu Yu, finally realized there was a problem.

He opened his mouth to warn these people not to be careless, but had already spotted at the dark mountain’s edge a fallen wolf demon and three demon apes.

“How could they have died here?” someone saw the dead wolf demons and assumed it was the work of infighting among their own kind.

“There are Star Soldiers!” one person, recalling the news someone had brought back to the camp yesterday, shouted joyfully and ran toward the wolf demon.

When they approached, they did not find any star soldiers left here.

“Someone has arrived here before us.” The man said in confusion: “In the camp, we were the first to leave. No one left before us.”

“What about the star soldiers?” Many people gathered around the wolf demon, noticing that the demon’s chest had been pierced through, with no other wounds present.

In an instant, their entire bodies turned cold, and cold sweat poured from them.

“One strike, just one strike!” someone’s voice cracked, becoming shrill and distorted.

“This is a one-punch knockout. At the camp, no one could do that. How, how did this person manage it?”

Everyone was alarmed and began to murmur among themselves.

“Li Ming, you’re saying that the person just gave you a slight push and sent you flying several meters away?” the middle-aged man, his face pale, stared at Liu Ming and asked, “You’re telling me his attack power is close to a thousand, right?”

Liu Ming kept nodding.

“Does it really have nearly a thousand attack power?”

“Just kidding. Mine is only two hundred or so.”

“Instantly killing the Wolf Demon, he’s too powerful.”

“No wonder he dares to arrogantly claim that this mine belongs to him; he truly has the capital to back it up.”

The crowd murmured among themselves, and some had already considered withdrawing.

Killing the wolf demon with one strike and placing it here is probably not a random act of discarding.

This is a demonstration, and also a warning!

The middle-aged man in charge looked at his companions and said, “Form into groups of a few people each, don’t go deep inside. Search around the edges of the mine; there must be others.”

The middle-aged man had a premonition about something, but he was not yet certain.

He didn’t want to delve deeper before everything was confirmed.