Chapter 125: The First Glimmer of Radiance

With every roar of the gargantuan creature, a soul-crushing echo reverberated through the cavern.

"What? You’re going up there alone!?" Ye Dong shoved a grenade into Lixing’s hand. "Don't just stand there bragging! Do you really think you can handle a monster of that size by yourself?"

"I’ve killed things even bigger than that." Lixing’s lips curled into a smirk. He didn't seem to be boasting. He bundled three grenades together, set his machine gun on the ground, and bellowed, "Number Three, Number Four, Number Five, cover me!"

"Understood!"

No sooner had the words left his lips than Lixing drew his pistol and charged headlong toward the massive ghost-loach.

"My god, he’s got a death wish!" Ye Dong gasped. "Even with my extraordinary physique, I wouldn't dare charge in like that. One slip-up and it’s game over in a heartbeat!"

"Don't lose focus!" Master Wei shouted. "We must secure this area before the retrieval device descends!"

"Rat-tat-tat! Rat-tat-tat!" The machine gun roared louder, spraying a relentless stream of bullets into the surroundings. The smaller ghost-loaches were soon shredded into piles of gore, but the behemoth remained completely unscathed.

Like Ye Dong, everyone’s eyes were fixed on Lixing’s position.

"The eyes!" Number Three yelled, as bullets whistled toward the giant’s eyes.

"Great shooting!" Ye Dong thought. "Number Three targets the eyes, Number Four strikes the arm holding the hammer, and Number Five clears the path for Lixing. Such skillful, seamless teamwork!"

"Awoooo!" The giant ghost-loach blocked the bullets with its hand, let out a roar, and swung its iron hammer toward Lixing.

"Boom! Crash!" The ground shook with every movement of the hammer, the deafening sound jarring the hearts of everyone present.

"Good grief, if that thing hits you, it’s all over!" Ye Dong felt a chill run down his spine and immediately opened fire with his machine gun to provide cover.

"That’s some serious strength, big guy!" Lixing moved with lightning speed, pivoting on the ground and rolling just in time to dodge the lethal hammer.

"Thud!" Almost as the sound hit them, the ground shattered, leaving a massive crater.

"Damn! If a dinosaur got hit by that, it would be turned into mincemeat!" Ye Dong stared at the meter-deep pit, his heart pounding. "If Lixing had been caught, he would’ve been reduced to pulp!"

Inside the dark cavern, bullets flew, the screams of the ghost-loaches mixed with the shouts of the team and the relentless thumping of the hammer. It was total chaos.

"Awoooo!" As the massive hammer swept through the air, it whipped up a damp, icy gust that forced everyone to instinctively step back.

Faced with the harassment from Numbers One and Two, the behemoth grew truly enraged. Its empty left hand snatched up a massive boulder and hurled it at them.

"Look out!" Before Ye Dong’s shout could fade, the rock came crashing down.

"Damn, that nearly finished us!" Numbers One and Two dove to either side, missing the boulder by less than five centimeters.

"We can't back down now. We can't give this beast a chance to counterattack!" Ye Dong gritted his teeth and aimed his submachine gun at the creature's wrist. He knew that if Lixing died here, they would all be in grave danger. Even without the behemoth targeting them, the medium-sized four-armed, four-legged ghost-loaches would be more than enough to overwhelm them.

"Come on then!" The giant’s strength was terrifying, but Lixing’s speed gave him the edge. Between their back-and-forth exchanges, the iron hammer couldn't land a single blow.

"Wooo! Awoooo!" Seeing that Lixing kept dodging rather than engaging, the creature roared. It gripped the hammer with both hands, shut its eyes, planted its feet, and began to spin like a human centrifuge!

"My god, with its frame and the weight of that hammer, this isn't just a gimmick!" Ye Dong’s eyes nearly popped out of his head.

As the creature’s speed increased, the murky air around it churned into a powerful whirlwind. Anything the hammer touched was pulverized; flying debris was swiped away by the hammer as if it were a baseball bat.

"Crack! Bang!" The flying stones acted like ancient crossbow bolts; any ghost-loach in their path was instantly turned into mush.

"This is bad. How do we break this?" The behemoth was charging toward the crowd indiscriminately. Ye Dong began to panic. "I can't use Daoist arts here. Am I really going to die at the hands of this monster instead of Guangqi?"

"Find cover! Everyone, find cover!" Master Wei ran and shouted, directing the men to hide behind large boulders.

"This isn't working! With its speed and size, I can't be reckless!" Even someone as tough as Lixing had to hide behind a boulder to wait out the onslaught.

"Master Wei, this thing has gone berserk! It’s up to you guys!" Lixing roared. "Pin it down, and I’ll feed it some explosives!"

"This is going to be incredibly difficult!" Master Wei groaned inwardly but shouted back, "With its size, I can only hold it for three seconds!"

"Three seconds is enough! Number Six, Number Seven, cover Master Wei while he performs the rite!" Lixing gripped his grenades, ready to charge.

"Are they going to use a formation?" Ye Dong, tucked behind a boulder, watched as Master Wei and the two yellow-robed Daoists put away their guns and began to chant in unison: "Neither come, nor move, nor answer; close your eyes, close your ears, seal your spirit; bind the flesh with the earthly煞, chain the qi with the heavenly煞, obey this command as if it were law!"

As the chant ended, the three men drew blood-drenched Eight Trigrams on their left palms and slammed their hands onto the ground.

"A binding spell? And a combined one at that? Can it really hold this monster?" Ye Dong squinted, his eyes locked on the spinning behemoth.

When the spinning killing machine was less than twenty meters away, three visible lightning ropes erupted from the ground, binding the giant ghost-loach tight.

"Quickly! Only three seconds!" Master Wei’s veins bulged as he shouted at Lixing.

"Three seconds is enough!" Lixing pulled the pins on his grenades and shot forward like an arrow toward the giant ghost-loach.

"Die!" Lixing plunged his dagger deep into the creature’s eye.

"Awoooo!!!" The behemoth let out a thunderous roar of agony.

"Hah!" Ignoring the soul-shaking shockwave, Lixing didn't bother pulling out his dagger; as the creature opened its mouth to scream, he shoved all the grenades into its throat.

The enraged giant struggled with all its might. Whether the three seconds had elapsed or the creature’s strength was simply too overwhelming, the lightning ropes suddenly vanished into thin air.

"Oh no!" Lixing hadn't expected the creature to break free so quickly, and the massive hammer was already descending toward his head.

"Lixing!" Seeing his comrade about to be crushed, Master Wei yelled in desperation.

"Hah!" A shout rang out as a rope coiled tightly around Lixing’s waist, yanking him away just in time.

"Thud!!!" "Boom!!!"

The thunderous crash of the hammer hitting the ground merged with the explosion of the grenades inside the creature’s belly.

"Splat!!!" A rain of blood and putrid, shredded flesh filled the air. The scene was gruesome and nauseating, and the cavern was instantly flooded with the stench of spoiled, rotting waste.

"Damn, that scared the hell out of me!" Lixing, having escaped death, stared at the hammer less than two meters away, gasping for air and trying to purge the stench from his lungs.

He followed the rope back to its source and was shocked to see it held by He Wentian.

"What are you staring at?" Ye Dong roared. "There are still plenty of ghost-loaches left!"

No sooner had he spoken than Ye Dong’s machine gun opened fire, cutting down the monsters swarming toward Lixing.

Lixing blinked hard, wiped the blood from his face, and began firing his pistol. "Bang! Bang! Bang!"

"Here! Take your gun!" Ye Dong tossed the machine gun Lixing had dropped at his feet. "Handle the big ones!"

Lixing caught the gun and smirked. "Exactly what I intended."

Master Wei wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and turned to look at Ye Dong, who was fighting valiantly. He felt a surge of admiration. "I had no idea He Wentian was this skilled. I really underestimated him before."

Once the gargantuan ghost-loach was dealt with, the remaining medium and small creatures—whether four-legged or eight-legged—could not escape their fate. One by one, they were slaughtered.

Gathered under the glow of two high-intensity floodlights, the team hadn't lost a single person despite being swarmed by hundreds of ghost-loaches, a truly remarkable feat.

"Damn, this isn't grave robbing; it's a war!" Ye Dong sat on a boulder to catch his breath, looking out over the piles of corpses. "If Huiyan were here, she’d probably be sick to her stomach."

He checked his firearms and began to worry about Xiaobao and the others. "I wonder how they’re doing. Surely they aren't having as much bad luck as I am, running into these naked ghost-loaches?"

His gaze drifted to the three characters etched into the rock: *Brave Battalion*. A flicker of excitement stirred in his heart. "If this were ancient times, Officer Li would at least be a great general. And Xiaowang and Xiaoyang would be the commanders of his elite battalion. As for Huiyan, she’d be the general’s daughter—cultured and skilled in martial arts. Then there’d be a martial arts tournament to win her hand, and I’d be the hero recruited into the family. Sigh, just thinking about it is pure bliss!"

"Hey, what are you grinning about like an idiot?" Lixing looked at Ye Dong with disdain. "About what happened earlier... thanks."

"Pfft, forget the thanks," Ye Dong sneered. "You blew up the big guy, I saved you; it’s just teamwork. Since we’re in this together, we just need to cooperate. You can skip the pleasantries."

Lixing gave a crooked smile. "Fine. Let's go regroup. Master is getting ready to come down."

"The cavern is secure. Drop the retrieval device!" Master Wei pressed the radio on his shoulder to send the signal to Lecheng.