After the dog demon fled,
Lu Chen counted to five on his fingers, then gave chase.
Before going after it, he didn’t forget to warn the three women behind him.
“It’s dangerous here. You should leave now!”
With that, his figure vanished into the thicket as well.
The three women, still shaken, exchanged uneasy glances.
“Big Sister… should we… should we get out of here?”
The woman called Big Sister had a flicker of hesitation in her eyes, which was quickly replaced by a flash of determination. “No! Let’s follow them and see! I want to know what he’s really up to!”
She then turned to the youngest of the three. “Little Sister, start the livestream right now. I have a feeling this is a golden opportunity to gain followers!”
“Okay, Big Sister!”
Little did Lu Chen know that these three women were actually fairly well-known adventure streamers online.
They’d come from out of town, originally planning to explore a different mountain.
They’d only entered the Tiger’s Cage Mountains as a shortcut.
To their surprise, they were caught red-handed by the monsters causing trouble up there.
Though they’d just survived a close call,
Big Sister, who had a sharp instinct for what would get views, immediately recognized this as a prime chance to build their audience. She absolutely didn’t want to miss it.
In her eyes, Lu Chen looked even younger than the three of them.
What gave him the confidence to take on the terrifying demons on this desolate mountain?
Gritting their teeth, the three women followed the trail.
Meanwhile,
Lu Chen kept a steady distance from the dog demon.
He only stopped when he saw it dash into a cave up ahead.
Even from far away,
he could smell a foul stench wafting toward him.
“This tiger demon has been holed up here. Who knows how many lives it’s claimed.”
“General, this tiger demon’s blood aura is thick. It seems quite formidable.”
Beside him, Fan Rusong’s expression was unusually grim.
Even though he was a messenger from the underworld,
against such a powerful demon, especially a tiger demon,
their presence was noticeably diminished.
The tiger is the king of all beasts, with the strongest yang energy.
Even in heavy winter snow, the ground around it for three feet remains clear of snow.
That’s just how potent its blood energy is.
So it naturally suppresses ghosts and spirits.
Lu Chen nodded, not daring to be careless.
This “Lord of the Mountain” mission was rated A-rank, meaning this tiger demon was at least at the mid-third-rank level.
Ever since his last intense fight with Spirit Water Daoist, Lu Chen had become painfully aware of the gap between himself and the third rank.
This Lord of the Mountain was definitely stronger than Spirit Water.
He didn’t take any chances and didn’t venture deep inside.
Instead, he activated the divine ability of the [Wei River Dragon King] to cleanse and purify.
This sharpened his senses.
While his vision wasn’t enhanced enough to see through rock,
his hearing had become significantly more acute.
He could clearly hear every bird chirp and insect buzz within a one-mile radius.
“Wait! That sound is—”
Lu Chen suddenly heard noise behind him. He whipped his head around and spotted three sneaky figures not far away.
“Seriously? They really aren’t afraid to die.”
“General, should we scare them off?” Xie Qingyi suggested.
“No need. Let them be.”
Lu Chen snorted coldly and ignored them.
He’d already saved them once.
If they insisted on throwing their lives away, he wasn’t going to stop them.
He focused his spiritual sense and listened closely toward the cave…
Inside the cave at that moment.
“Your Majesty! Your Majesty!”
The dog demon stumbled in, frantic.
The surrounding lesser demons were all roused.
Among them were bear demons, leopard demons, dog demons, deer demons, and others.
All were around the second rank.
There were over a dozen of them.
At the center, on a stone platform, a massive tiger with fierce, upturned eyes lay sleeping soundly.
Its head was the size of a large vat, and beneath it were seven or eight human skulls serving as a cushion.
Hearing the ruckus,
the Lord of the Mountain didn’t even lift an eyelid. “What is it? Where are the blood sacrifices I asked for? Did you get them?”
“Your Majesty! My two brothers and I had caught three tender-skinned women, but then some average-looking brat stole them away!”
“WHAT!!!”
The Lord of the Mountain erupted in fury.
It leaped up from the stone platform in an instant.
The next second, it landed in front of the dog demon, standing upright on its hind legs.
It was clearly a transformation-level great demon.
The other demons could only walk on all fours.
The Lord of the Mountain saw that only one dog demon remained and quickly asked, “What about your two brothers?”
“Your Majesty, they were both killed by that brat! In just one encounter!” The dog demon wept as it spoke.
“A fourth-rank spiritual cultivator?”
“Doesn’t look like it. From the mana fluctuations, more like second-rank.”
“Second-rank?” The Lord of the Mountain sneered. “Impossible. How could a mere second-rank have the power to instantly kill two demons? Unless… he used some kind of treasure?”
“I wouldn’t know, Your Majesty. In the flash of an eye, my two brothers were gone.”
The Lord of the Mountain’s tiger eyes widened. “Then how did you escape?”
The dog demon trembled like a leaf in a storm. “Your subordinate… I swore a blood oath, vowing never to eat human flesh again, and only then did he let me go!”
“Is there such a good deal in this world?”
“Is he an idiot?”
The demons buzzed with chatter.
The dog demon kowtowed frantically. “I swear by Your Majesty! Every word I’ve said is the truth!”
The Lord of the Mountain sensed something was wrong. “He just let you go that easily?”
It suddenly jolted awake and let out a deafening roar. “Not good!”
Before the tiger’s roar faded—
“BOOM!!”
The dog demon, which had been perfectly fine just a second ago, suddenly stiffened. In the next instant, its flesh collapsed like mud, exploding into a cloud of blood mist!
Immediately, a wave of green-black miasma surged like a breached dam, instantly flooding the entire cave!
Not a single corner was spared!
In that split second, the Lord of the Mountain and the demons who were caught off guard
felt the world spin around them.
Their skin and flesh began to blur and rapidly rot.
Miserable screams erupted one after another.
They all rolled on the ground in agony.
The weaker ones had their internal organs melt through in the blink of an eye, dissolving into pools of blood that seeped across the floor.
…
“Now’s the time!”
Outside the cave, Lu Chen, who had just detonated the “Pestilence Word Art,” hesitated no longer. His body shot forward like an arrow.
The three women not far behind turned pale at the screams coming from the cave.
“Big Sister, what’s happening?!”
“I don’t know, but nine times out of ten, that handsome guy did something to that dog demon!”
The eldest sister was pretty sharp.
“Little Sister, did you start the stream?”
“Yes! There are already a thousand viewers! It’s climbing fast!”
Inside the livestream, comments were flying:
—”Huh, where is this? Didn’t you say we were going to Hundred-Year Mountain to gather herbs? This is Hundred-Year Mountain?”
—”Holy crap! What’s going on? What’s that noise? I heard a tiger’s roar!”
—”Streamers, what are you doing? Where even is this? Who was that guy who just dashed out? Are you guys doing some kind of demon dungeon?”
Big Sister quickly explained: “Everyone, there’s been a slight change of plans. We accidentally stumbled into a demon’s lair and nearly died, but that guy just saved us. It looks like he’s going to take on this demon dungeon all by himself! Be patient, it should be fun! If you haven’t followed yet, hit that follow button. If you can, send some gifts. The three of us are risking our lives to bring you this stream. Please support us!”
“Yeah, follow us, like, send gifts! We’re risking it all!”
As soon as she said that,
the viewers were hooked.
Various gifts started flying through the stream.
Rocket after rocket.
—”Streamer, it’s too far from here! Get closer, we can’t see!”
“Okay!”
Big Sister gritted her teeth and moved a few steps forward.
By then, the wailing inside the cave had gradually subsided, and the dark silhouette flickered among the rocks, already closing in on the cave entrance!
…
Inside the cave, in just a few breaths, the ground was littered with demon corpses.
Those bear, leopard, and deer demons were no match for such highly concentrated plague miasma.
After a few struggles, they were all dead.
Only the Lord of the Mountain managed to protect its vital energy with its formidable demonic power, but the plague poison clung to it like maggots on a bone, impossible to expel no matter how it tried.
“Damn it!” It mustered its remaining demonic energy and lunged toward the cave entrance.
It was about to burst out—
“Get the hell back!”
A dark figure descended from above.
Lu Chen activated the [River Dragon King]’s divine ability, Turbulent Waves Scorching Heaven, and kicked the caught-off-guard Lord of the Mountain squarely back into the cave!
“Breathe a little more in there before coming out!”
“It’s YOU!!!”
The sentient Lord of the Mountain instantly realized that everything was the work of this black-clothed brat.
It roared in fury: “I’LL KILL YOU!!!!!!”
It turned into a shadow and charged.
Lu Chen didn’t dare take it lightly. He channeled all his mana and retreated swiftly.
Beside him, Black and White Impermanence, along with Ox-Head and Horse-Face, each supported his limbs, boosting his speed even further.
In an instant, Lu Chen was so fast that even the Lord of the Mountain couldn’t catch up.
As he ran, he didn’t forget to unleash the Plague Howl Pearl.
A wave of green miasma surged forth again, enveloping the Lord of the Mountain like a heat-seeking missile.
Taken by surprise, the Lord inhaled another large dose of the miasma and felt its internal organs burning with searing pain.
Its movements suddenly faltered.
Seeing it slow down, Lu Chen immediately stopped and switched to taunting mode: “And you call yourself the Lord of the Mountain? That’s all the guts you’ve got? Come on then! Come get your Grandpa Lu!!”
“I am the king of all beasts! How dare you mock me!! ROAR!!”
The tiger’s roar shook the forest. The Lord of the Mountain gave chase once more.
Lu Chen kept running, kept spreading the poison.
The two, man and demon, engaged in a chase around the rocky clearing in front of the cave.
But every time the Lord of the Mountain stopped,
Lu Chen would instantly transform into a trash-talking demon, hurling soul-piercing insults straight at it.
The Lord of the Mountain, never having endured such humiliation, was consumed by the single-minded desire to tear Lu Chen limb from limb and grind his bones to dust!
So, one kept releasing poison, and the other kept breathing it in.
Before long, the tiger demon was bleeding from seven orifices. Its skin and flesh were sloughing off in chunks, its bones clearly visible, and its speed was slowing by the second.
…
—”Wait, is this how you do a demon dungeon? Is this just how he plays, or does everyone play like this?”
—”That red bead above that guy’s head is giving off green smoke. Is that poison gas?”
—”What god is he even praying to? This is insane!”
—”Guys, I don’t think that’s poison gas. It looks more like a plague!”
—”A plague? Whoa!!!!!!”
Not only were the three adventure streamers stunned, but the nearly eight thousand viewers in the livestream were equally shocked.
They’d never heard of anyone tackling a demon dungeon like this!
And what made it even more incredible was,
it was also kind of hilarious.
Every time the tiger demon stopped, Lu Chen would unload a barrage of verbal abuse.
Not just the proud Lord of the Mountain—even the viewers watching through their screens wanted to beat that black-clothed brat to a pulp.
And so, in less than a minute of this chase,
the nearly completely rotted Lord of the Mountain finally collapsed with one last defiant roar, dead from being effectively controlled to death.
Blood pooled all over the ground.
Lu Chen’s figure flickered as he moved to the tiger’s corpse. Only after confirming it was absolutely dead did he dare approach.
“Didn’t think the Lord of the Mountain would be so hard to kill! It took over a minute of inhaling poison to die!”
Lu Chen gained a newfound respect for the demon race’s constitution.
He reached out and grabbed the tiger demon’s inner core, pulling it into his hand.
Third-rank and above demons have formed inner cores, which are the main reason they can transform.
After pocketing the most valuable item, Lu Chen had no interest in the rest.
His eyes sharpened.
He looked toward a large boulder not far away.
Noticing Lu Chen’s gaze,
the three women immediately ducked their heads, hiding behind the rock.
“You can’t see me! You can’t see me!”
The three prayed frantically.
“Stop chanting. I’ve seen you all along.”
An icy voice came from above them.
The three women froze, slowly looking up.
They found Lu Chen standing atop the boulder, somehow already there.
Their faces drained of color. Ignoring the uneven ground littered with sharp stones, they dropped to their knees and kowtowed, pleading for mercy: “Spare us, sir! We didn’t mean to!”
“Yes, please spare us, handsome!”
“Huh?”
Lu Chen noticed the phone screen on the ground.
“You… are you livestreaming?”
“Yes, yes… sorry, sir, we’ll turn it off right away!”
Big Sister moved to end the stream.
But Lu Chen waved his hand. “No need. It’s all over now. What’s the point of turning it off? I’m not the Lord of the Mountain. Why are you so scared of me? Don’t I look like a good person?!”
“You totally do! Absolutely a good person!”
“No, wait—sir is a good person!”
Lu Chen grinned and shifted the conversation: “Pretty good plan, huh? You get it now?”
The three women gave him six thumbs up: “We get it! Completely! Sir, that green smoke from your treasure… could it be?…”
“That’s right. It’s a plague. A divine ability from the [Plague Ministry]!”
“What?! You can use a plague like that?”
“You worship the ‘Calamity Bringer’?!”
The three women, upon receiving the confirmation, shuddered again, each letting out an involuntary shriek!
The thousands of viewers in the livestream were equally stunned.
—[There’s actually someone in this world who worships the Plague God!]
—[Good heavens, my worldview has been flipped!]
—[I’ve only ever heard of plagues harming people, never of a plague helping a spiritual cultivator subdue demons!]
…
Lu Chen let out a light snort and pointed to his head. “When you’re outmatched, use your brain more. Don’t go head-to-head with demons and monsters every time. Go head-to-head with your own limitations first.”
With that, he lightly tapped his toes and was already a hundred meters away.
Leaving behind one last remark: “It’s getting dark. You should head down the mountain.”
Once he was completely out of sight,
the three women exchanged glances and dared to approach the tiger demon’s corpse. It had rotted down to just a hide and skeleton.
“Such a powerful demon, and he literally played it to death!”
The three women gasped, then mustered their courage to peek into the cave.
A putrid stench hit them as soon as they entered.
Fortunately, they were prepared this time, erecting a mana barrier.
The scene inside was even worse.
A dozen demons had all dissolved into blood.
Only some bones and teeth were scattered across the floor.
Big Sister could hardly believe her eyes. She checked the time on her phone and stood frozen in shock. “From encountering the dog demon to the complete annihilation of the entire demon lair… it took less than ten minutes!”
“This dungeon must have been at least A-rank!”
“An A-rank dungeon, cleared in under ten minutes by one guy? Oh my god!…”
As the three women murmured in disbelief,
the livestream had long since exploded into chaos!
—”That was insane! I’ve never seen this kind of strategy! Gave me goosebumps!”
—”This dude is definitely going viral!”
—”Guys, tell me, where can I worship the Plague God? I want to worship!”
—”Please, I want to worship too! That move… was absolutely brilliant!!!”
