Chapter 151: The Mantis Stalks the Cicada, Unaware of the Oriole Behind

The giant bear fiend roared, its pitch-black fur bristling upright as dense gray mist emerged from the surface of its body, burning like gray flames.

Swish!

With a sudden, ferocious backhand slap, the blow was so swift that even Lu Yan could barely catch it with his eyes.

The master wielding the long spear failed to react in time before taking the full force of the blow.

With a loud crunch, that person was smashed like a watermelon struck by a high-speed airplane, bursting into a bloody mist with no bones left remaining.

Shoo!

The long spear that had pierced the giant bear fiend rebounded through the air, piercing clean through another expert and blowing him into two sections.

As for the giant bear fiend itself, after swatting the spearfielder to death, it charged forward and sent another expert flying a hundred meters with sheer brute force, causing the man to vomit a torrent of blood and suffer devastating injuries.

Next, a massive bear paw reached out and gripped a burly man.

The burly man turned pale with shock, desperately unleashing his bone-strength, but it was completely useless.

The giant bear fiend squeezed tightly, as easily as crushing an egg, and with a soft pop, the burly man was mashed into a pulp.

In the blink of an eye, three died and one was heavily injured.

One must bear in mind that those who attacked were all top-tier martial marquesses. Even if they were not ranked on the martial marquis leaderboard, they were not far behind.

Yet at this moment, they were being slaughtered like vegetables.

The others felt their blood run cold; daring not to press the attack, they scrambled backward in retreat.

Bang!

As if operating at the peak of its prime, the giant bear fiend moved with lightning speed. With a single leap, it closed in on Gao Wanping and lashed out with a paw, stirring up a powerful blast of air that sent the fallen leaves on the ground whirling into a frenzy.

Gao Wanping’s pupils contracted violently as he sensed a fatal crisis. Pouring every ounce of his strength without reservation, he swung his long-handled heavy hammer with all his might.

The next instant, the heavy hammer collided with the bear paw, triggering a thunderous explosion. The overwhelming force sent Gao Wanping flying backward for a hundred meters, snapping two large trees in succession.

Gao Wanping spat out two mouthfuls of blood, discarded the heavy hammer, and turned to flee.

"No, we've been tricked by this fiend! Its combat power hasn't been impaired at all; it's at its absolute peak!"

"A complete grandmaster-level combat power—this is not something we can fight against. Run!"

The remaining experts were utterly terrified, entirely abandoning any thought of lingering as they scattered and fled in all directions.

Roar!

The giant bear fiend let out a fierce howl, covering hundreds of meters in a single stride. Within moments, it overtook one of the experts and brought down its twin bear paws in a continuous flurry, reducing the man to a bloody pulp.

The rest grew even more frantic, driving their speed to the absolute limit.

Having slain one, the giant bear fiend leaped forward in pursuit of the red-haired man.

Plucking up a massive boulder from the roadside, it hurled it directly at the fleeing target.

The giant boulder whined through the air like a meteor, carrying a terrifying, overwhelming momentum.

The red-haired man dared not take it head-on and rolled to the side to dodge. Seizing the opportunity, the giant bear fiend closed the distance and rained down a frenzy of blows with both palms.

The red-haired man possessed formidable strength, easily matching Gao Wanping, but he was completely incapable of withstanding the onslaught. A single strike forced him back with a mouthful of blood, and a second shattered the bones throughout his body, sending him crashing through two more trees.

Splatter!

On the third strike, the giant bear brought its massive foot down, crushing the red-haired man to death.

Meanwhile, the others finally seized the opportunity to escape far into the distance, vanishing into the mountain forest.

Hiding high up within the branches of a large tree, Lu Yan remained utterly motionless, resembling a withered stump, though cold sweat beaded heavily on his forehead.

Was this the combat strength of a grandmaster-level fiend? It was truly terrifying, far exceeding that of a martial marquis.

Individuals as formidable as the red-haired man and Gao Wanping had virtually no power to fight back against it.

One had to remember that an expert like Gao Wanping, attacking at full power, could kill ordinary peers in a fraction of a second.

The gap between a martial marquis and a grandmaster far surpassed his expectations.

He dared not move, terrified of drawing the giant bear fiend's attention.

After slaying the red-haired man, the giant bear fiend let out a few low growls but did not pursue further. Instead, after stumbling a few steps northward, the gray mist surrounding its body rapidly shrank and faded, and its pitch-black fur lost its luster.

With a heavy thud, the giant bear fiend collapsed to the ground and remained completely still.

Lu Yan likewise stayed motionless.

This giant bear fiend was far too cunning; it played dead every single day. Only a fool would fall for it.

The time of one incense stick passed, then two...

The giant bear fiend still did not move at all.

"Could it be that the giant bear fiend's terrifying display of might earlier was just a final flash of brilliance before death—burning its remaining energy—and now it's genuinely dead?"

Lu Yan thought to himself.

Thought was one thing, but asking him to go and test the waters was out of the question.

This creature was far too treacherous; he could not afford to take such a risk lightly.

Suddenly, Lu Yan’s gaze flickered.

He spotted figures stealthily approaching from two different directions.

One of them was precisely Gao Wanping.

The other was a short-haired elder.

Both men had been present earlier, yet now they had returned.

Clearly, both likely suspected that the giant bear fiend's final battle was merely a show of external strength masking internal exhaustion, and that its energy would soon be depleted.

However, both remained exceedingly cautious. Instead of attacking, they each concealed themselves within the canopy of a large tree. Had Lu Yan's eyesight not been exceptionally keen, he would never have spotted them.

A while longer passed.

The giant bear fiend still lay completely motionless.

The short-haired elder finally lost his patience first, leaping down from his tree and stealthily creeping toward the giant bear fiend.

He was extremely careful, gripping a saber in both hands. Every few steps, he would halt to observe and confirm the state of the giant bear fiend.

Yet the giant bear fiend remained utterly still.

When the short-haired elder was a dozen meters away, he exerted force with both hands, hurling his saber through the air so that it slashed deeply into the side of the giant bear fiend's head.

The giant bear fiend still did not move.

Emboldened, the elder strode forward, pulled the saber free with a two-handed grip, and prepared to carve open the fiend's body to extract the fiend-crystal.

At that exact moment, the giant bear fiend abruptly lurched upright, its massive paw sweeping out to grab the short-haired elder in its grasp.

Hidden in the shadows, Lu Yan’s heart skipped a beat.

This old fox really wasn't dead yet; he had been faking it.

With a ferocious glare, the giant bear fiend squeezed with all its might, attempting to crush the short-haired elder.

This time, however, it did not succeed instantly.

"Ah, go to hell!"

The short-haired elder roared, violently unleashing his bone-strength while slashing his saber forward, fiercely hacking into the very wound on the giant bear fiend's chest.

The giant bear fiend let out a sharp hiss as its other paw joined the grip.

With a powerful twist and squeeze of both paws, a sickening crunch echoed out as the short-haired elder finally failed to hold on, his body bursting apart.

Even so, it was evident that killing the short-haired elder had not been easy for the giant bear fiend; it was far more labored than before.

Having slain the short-haired elder, the giant bear fiend panted heavily, struggling to push itself upright. But after a few feeble attempts, it collapsed back to the ground with a heavy thud, falling completely silent.

"Again?"

Lu Yan was speechless, firmly resolving to stay put.

Waiting a while longer, the giant bear fiend still showed no sign of life, resembling a genuine corpse devoid of even the faintest trace of a life aura.

Gao Wanping finally made his move.

He leaped down from his tree, walked around to the other side, retrieved his long-handled heavy hammer, and crept stealthily toward the giant bear fiend. When he was dozens of meters away, he sprang high into the air, fully unleashed his bone-strength, raised the heavy hammer high, and hurled it downward like a plunging meteorite directly at the fiend.

The heavy hammer spun through the air toward the giant bear fiend, emitting a terrifying, mournful howl.

With a dull thud, the hammer smashed into the remaining half of the giant bear fiend's head, turning it into a pulp of shattered bone and tissue.

Even so, the giant bear fiend remained entirely motionless.

It truly looked as though it had finally died completely.

Even then, Gao Wanping did not lower his guard, approaching slowly with a defensive posture.

Yet until Gao Wanping pulled his heavy hammer free, the giant bear fiend still made no move.

Gao Wanping swung the heavy hammer to strike the giant bear fiend's body, rolling it over to expose its chest and the gaping bloody hole located there.

The flesh was mangled, leading straight to the heart.

A ruthless look crossed Gao Wanping's face as he stepped forward, thrusting his left hand directly into the wound on the giant bear fiend's chest.

At that precise instant, the giant bear fiend moved again, twisting its body and sweeping a paw toward Gao Wanping.

Still not dead?

Lu Yan was utterly speechless.

At the critical juncture, Gao Wanping raised his heavy-handled hammer horizontally across his chest to block.

With a loud bang, he was sent flying backward for a hundred meters, his face turning pale as he coughed up a mouthful of blood.

Yet a smile broke across his face.

For clutched tightly in his left hand was a fiend-crystal, roughly the size of a child's fist.

This time, after twitching a few final times, the giant bear fiend finally fell still for good.

It seemed the giant bear fiend truly had been at the end of its rope, teetering on the brink of death; its previous explosive outbursts were indeed desperate final flickers of life, otherwise the fiend-crystal would never have fallen into Gao Wanping's hands.

Even so, the giant bear fiend's final strike before death had inflicted severe injuries on Gao Wanping.

Spitting out another mouthful of blood, Gao Wanping produced a piece of martial ration-meat to chew on, tucked the fiend-crystal into his robe, and turned to head in the direction of Lingwang City.

Lu Yan followed stealthily in secret.

Once they reached a secluded area devoid of others, Lu Yan quickened his pace.

"Who's there?"

Gao Wanping barked coldly, bone-strength surging as he spun around to scan the surroundings.

The crunch of a footstep on twigs had given him away.

This was well within Lu Yan's expectations. Unleashing his full speed, he crossed the distance in a few swift bounds, closed in on Gao Wanping, and slashed out with his saber.

Gao Wanping swung his heavy hammer to intercept Lu Yan. With a ringing clash, the two collided, and bone-strength exploded outward between their weapons.

Fortunately, both of their weapons qualified as divine artifacts; against such ferocious bone-strength, ordinary arms would have already shattered into fragments.

Lu Yan swayed slightly before stabilizing his footing, whereas Gao Wanping was forced tumbling back a dozen meters, blood seeping from the corner of his mouth.

"It's you."

Gao Wanping stared at Lu Yan, a deep undercurrent of wariness flashing in his eyes.

"It is me. Truly, you and I are bound by fate."

As he spoke, Lu Yan had already closed to Gao Wanping's left flank. Pushing off the ground with his legs, he shot forward like an arrow released from a bowstring, delivering another slash.

Gao Wanping hurriedly swept his heavy hammer in a wide arc, blanketing most of the surrounding area within its striking range.

Yet Lu Yan nimbly flipped his body, effortlessly dodging the hammer's arc, and brought his blade down toward Gao Wanping's neck.

At such close quarters, blocking with the heavy hammer was no longer an option. Gao Wanping raised his arm, attempting to parry with the metal bracer on his wrist.

With a sharp clang, Gao Wanping staggered backward.

Having been struck twice by the giant bear fiend earlier, he was heavily injured and now found himself outmatched in pure head-on physical strength against Lu Yan.

Swish, swish, swish...

Now that he had closed the distance, Lu Yan gave his opponent no breathing room, continuously raining down slashes from his Crimson Blood Saber toward all of Gao Wanping's vital points.

The heart, the throat, the eyes...

Fast—it was fast to the extreme, fluid, and ever-changing.

Gao Wanping's proud physical strength was suppressed by Lu Yan, and when it came to martial techniques, he fell short by a margin as vast as heaven and earth.

Rip!

The Crimson Blood Saber grazed Gao Wanping's chest, leaving a foot-long gash that shredded flesh and sent a torrent of fresh blood spilling out to soak his garments.