Chapter 39 – Unstoppable Force
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There were many floors to pass; Lin Ming could not afford to waste his energy and stamina. He had to rush to the top in a single leap and take the first place reward – the Crimson Gold Dragon Marrow Pill!
Seeing Lin Ming flying at him, the shadow warrior raised his staff to block him. But Lin Ming was too fast and before the staff had been raised to his chest, a hard fist had already imprinted itself onto its chest.
“Peng!”
The shadow warrior’s chest collapsed and it spat blood, before it fell over dead.
Lin Ming easily passed the first floor. This was natural, as Lin Ming’s strength had greatly surpassed those of the same cultivation.
Onto the second floor!
This was still a black space like before, but this time a vicious beast stood in front of Lin Ming.
“A first-level vicious beast!”
A first-level vicious beast was equivalent to a martial artist at the Third Stage of Body Transformation. This beast was a single-horned rhinoceros. Its strength as a first-level vicious beast was relatively poor; it was about as strong as a peak Second Stage martial artist.
Although its strength was rather ordinary, it had superior defensive abilities due to its tough hide. Even if a martial artist greatly exceeded it in strength and cultivation, they must still expend some effort to defeat it.
Lin Ming had to overcome several obstacles and did not want to waste his stamina. His hand turned, and a chilly deboning knife appeared in his palm. In Lin Ming’s mind appeared the single-horned rhinoceros’ blood vessels and body structure, with each of its weaknesses clear as day.
Lin Ming’s advantage was his familiarity with the weaknesses of vicious beasts.
The single-horned rhinoceros suddenly roared, and trampled towards Lin Ming. Although this was an illusionary realm, Lin Ming felt a rumbling vibration in the ground.
An illusion array was not the same as a killing array. In an illusion array, the illusions didn’t have the power to kill you, they could also cause you to feel fear. As long as you kept your heart and mind and stood your ground, then the illusion would shatter. But a killing array was different; standing still would only be suicide.
As he watched the single-horned rhinoceros barrel towards him, Lin Ming suddenly leapt to one side. His jumping posture was odd. His body was parallel with the ground and one of his shoulders nearly touched the dirt. In the next moment, the huge body of the single-horned rhinoceros passed by him. Lin Ming slammed his hand against the ground and the force propelled him underneath the beast’s abdomen.
He raised his hand and slashed with the knife!
“Puff!”
The boning knife struck just half a foot up from the center of the single-horned rhinoceros’ front thigh. This exact spot was the softest patch on the beast’s abdomen, and was also where its abdominal aorta was located.
The knife slid in like butter and gouged out the beast. A stream of blood jetted out like a broken pipe and the single-horned rhino let loose a keening anguished howl. The vicious beast trembled fiercely and then fell to the ground.
Seeing the success of his knife strike, Lin Ming was unable to restrain a sigh as he thought of how lifelike and realistic this magic array was. The single-horned rhinoceros phantom had a body structure and weaknesses just like a real single-horned rhinoceros. He thought that perhaps the magic array had a beast spirit of the single-horned rhinoceros sealed inside, thus its potent realism.
After the successful knife strike, Lin Ming pulled back instead of taking another cut. Although killing the single-horned rhinoceros at this point was not difficult anymore, he wanted to save his stamina. There was no resting between the floors of the Exquisite Pagoda.