Feeling the tyrannical and gloomy control in his palm, the smile on Mo Fan's lips gradually retracted, replaced by an unprecedented confidence.

  After resting and recuperating in this dark karst cave for a full day, Mo Fan had not only thoroughly consolidated his LV. 5 realm but also completely adapted to this body filled with power from consecutive breakthroughs.

  "It's time to test the new tactics."

  He extinguished the campfire and cleaned up the traces left in the cave. The Gray Ape, which liked to live in groups and had extremely high IQ, and the Wind Falcon, which occupied air superiority, really didn't fit his current appetite for "steady and safe progression."

  Hunting those solitary, high-tier Spirit Beasts that acted on instinct was the key to his steady development.

  Leading the fully revamped Mystic Realm Rocket Squad, Mo Fan silently left the karst cave, advancing deeper into the Buffer Zone.

  Half an hour later.

  In an open area filled with massive stone pillars, Mo Fan stopped in his tracks.

  [ Target: Earth-Rending Giant Bear (Tier-1 Late-Stage, LV. 8). ]

  [ Traits: Immense strength, thick skin and tough flesh. ]

  About seventy or eighty meters away from them, a brown giant bear—the size of a small armored vehicle—stood on its hind legs. It was tearing a hapless deer-like Spirit Beast in half, swallowing flesh and blood in massive gulps. Every chew was accompanied by a tooth-aching sound of crunching bones.

  If it were a few days ago, even with [ Corpse Explosion ] in his hand, Mo Fan would have absolutely detoured without hesitation upon encountering this kind of "heavy tank" with a despairingly long health bar. For an HP sponge of this level, the margin for error was too low. Once it got close and merely grazed him, it would mean death or severe crippling.

  But now.

  Mo Fan didn't even have the interest to find a big tree to hide behind like before.

  He strolled casually onto a rock over two meters high, brushed off the dust, and sat down cross-legged leisurely. That posture didn't look like a hunter about to face a high-tier Spirit Beast; rather, it looked like a tyrannical director sitting in his chair, ready to enjoy his actors' performance.

  "Action."

  Mo Fan snapped his fingers.

  There was no need for him to deliberately hide his aura. Mo Yan, who had been standing by his side, directly drew the rusty sword from his back and intentionally scraped it hard against the rock, letting out a piercing shriek.

  "ROAR—!"

  The Earth-Rending Giant Bear, its meal interrupted, snapped its head around. Those bloodshot, tiny eyes locked dead onto Mo Yan not far away, and Mo Fan sitting high up. The fury of having its territory invaded made it instantly drop the food in its paws. Dropping to all fours, it charged over like an out-of-control heavy tank.

  Rumble—

  The earth trembled. Every step the giant bear took left a deep crater in the ground. That overwhelming, mountainous pressure was enough to make any mid-stage Qi Condensation cultivator's legs go soft.

  "Good speed, what a pity..."

  Mo Fan's eyes, sitting on the rock, were calm as an ancient well. Watching the giant bear that had already charged within thirty meters, he slowly raised his right hand, pointing his fingertip at that sprinting mountain of meat.

  "You're speeding."

  [ Skill: Grave Chill ]

  Hum!

  An ice-blue death energy—invisible to the naked eye and only perceptible in [ Death Vision ]—instantly crossed the thirty-meter distance, sinking into the Earth-Rending Giant Bear's body without any obstruction.

  Extreme, pure death energy erupted.

  The sprinting Earth-Rending Giant Bear suddenly let out a muffled roar of panic. It felt like it had crashed headfirst into an invisible iceberg. That wasn't physical cold, but a necrotic stiffness acting directly on its nerves and muscle fibers!

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  Its four limbs, originally full of explosive power, suddenly became as heavy as lead. Its proud charging speed suffered a cliff-like drop in just two seconds.

  In Mo Fan's eyes, this heavy tank-like LV. 8 Spirit Beast instantly turned into a clown playing in slow motion.

  "Welcome our guest," Mo Fan issued the command indifferently.

  Mo Yan, who had been poised to strike, tapped his toes and shot out like an arrow from a bowstring.

  This time, Mo Yan didn't need to run all over the place kiting like when dealing with the Raging Bull. Facing the severely slowed giant bear, he clashed head-on!

  CLANG!

  The rusty sword and the swiping bear paw collided viciously.

  Although still at a disadvantage in strength, because the giant bear's movements were slowed by nearly half, Mo Yan had ample time to adjust his posture, deflect the impact force, and even borrow the opponent's strength. With a backhand strike, the sword carved a long, bloody gash across the giant bear's flank.

  "ROAR!"

  Feeling the pain, the giant bear angrily raised its other paw, trying to smash this annoying man in black into meat paste.

  But thirty meters away, sitting up high, Mo Fan was like a cheating player controlling the entire board. His mental energy locked onto the battlefield tightly. One second before the bear paw fell, blue light flashed at his fingertip.

  [ Skill: Skeletal Armament · Bone Shield ]

  Swoosh!

  A cluster of high-density blue Mana instantly condensed on Mo Yan's raised left arm, generating a thick, pale white bone shield out of thin air.

  BANG!

  The bear paw slapped heavily onto the bone shield. The shield instantly filled with cracks, but it perfectly neutralized that fatal impact force. Mo Yan's figure only swayed slightly, and with a backhand, thrust his sword out again.

  "Shield broke? No problem, I'll give you another."

  A calm and collected smile hooked the corner of Mo Fan's mouth.

  Possessing the 600 Mana cap from the System's double compensation, plus the significantly increased Mana regeneration rate after reaching LV. 5, gave him near-infinite sustain in this intensity of combat.

  As long as he didn't carelessly use the high-cost Corpse Explosion, relying solely on [ Grave Chill ] for hard CC and [ Skeletal Armament ] for shielding, he could grind this bear to death.

  Slowed by the death energy, the giant bear was like a clumsy walking target under Mo Yan's exquisite swordsmanship, constantly accumulating new wounds. Angrily, it tried to activate its innate spell "Localized Seismic Wave." However, because its nerves were paralyzed by death energy, the cast animation was outrageously long. Every time it just lifted its foot, Mo Yan precisely stabbed its joint, forcibly interrupting it.

  Prolonged defense leads to defeat; prolonged battle leads to exhaustion.

  With the loss of blood, the Earth-Rending Giant Bear's movements became more and more sluggish. A trace of fear finally revealed itself in its eyes; it wanted to retreat.

  "Want to leave after fighting? Not that easy."

  Mo Fan keenly sensed the giant bear's intent to retreat and issued the final command in his mind.

  "No. 003, harvest."

  Just at the instant the giant bear was forced back a step by Mo Yan's sword, revealing a massive visual blind spot.

  Summon No. 003, which had been lurking in the shadow of a boulder to the rear flank all along, moved.

  Its reinforced Demon-Eye Rabbit hind legs violently shattered the rock beneath them. The streamlined skeletal frame pulled a fatal white afterimage in mid-air.

  No roar, no sound.

  This heavy-armor assassin, combining leopard bones and tiger claws, leaped high and landed precisely on the giant bear's broad back.

  In the instant the giant bear turned its head in terror, No. 003's two front claws—belonging to a tier-one high-grade Demonic Tiger, shaped like steel hooks—carried a terrifying tearing power and slashed crosswise into the giant bear's defenseless jugular vein!

  SQUELCH—!

  It sounded like a high-pressure water pipe bursting.

  Scalding fresh blood shot into the sky like a fountain, dyeing No. 003's pale skeleton red.

  The Earth-Rending Giant Bear let out a despairing, wheezing roar. Its massive body, like a collapsing building, crashed heavily onto the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust. Its four limbs twitched violently a few times, and it soon lost its vitality in a pool of blood.

  [ Rank Gap Kill: Earth-Rending Giant Bear (Tier-1 Late-Stage, LV. 8). XP +400 ]

  Battle ended.

  Total time elapsed: less than half an hour.

  Mo Fan jumped down from the rock and strolled over to the giant bear's corpse.

  He glanced at No. 003, which was shaking the blood off its claws, then at Mo Yan, whose left arm bone shield was shattered, but his main body hadn't broken a single bone. Finally, he looked down at the Shadow Leopard cloak on himself, which hadn't even gathered a speck of dust.

  Flawless Victory.

  There was no thrilling, desperate counterattack, no rolling on the ground in a sorry state. Even his heartbeat hadn't sped up much.

  This was a boring, mechanical, yet utterly precise curbstomp.

  "This is the romance of a mage..."

  Mo Fan squatted down. As he skillfully pressed his hand onto the giant bear's corpse to siphon the remnant soul, he let out a heartfelt sigh.

  Mo Yan was the Main Tank and Melee DPS, responsible for face-tanking and holding aggro.

  Summon No. 003 was the Stealth Assassin, responsible for finding flaws and delivering the fatal blow.

  And he himself stood at a safe distance, providing absolute Crowd Control (Grave Chill) and infinite shields (Skeletal Armament) as the Support and Commander.

  This perfectly complementary lineup system, in a cultivation world that emphasized solo combat or temporary teams where everyone harbored their own ulterior motives—especially when facing a wild, solitary Spirit Beast fighting purely on instinct...

  "This is simply a suspense-free dimensional strike."

  After absorbing the remnant soul, Mo Fan felt the Soul Strength in his sea of consciousness fill up a chunk again. A light named ambition flashed deep in his eyes.

  "As long as I have enough computing power, as long as resources keep up..."

  He spread his arms, looking at the vast back mountain.

  "I, Mo Fan, am an army."