Chapter 106 - 104: The Queen Mother of the West

Chapter 106: Chapter 104: The Queen Mother of the West

Feng Ling suddenly felt the urge to curse.

Her original plan didn’t involve fighting the Minotaur. She was completely focused on the Maze Master, so she didn’t want to waste unnecessary energy and stamina on the Minotaur.

Once caught in a fierce battle, the amount of Card Energy one had would determine life or death.

But the current situation left her no choice but to act!

Two Fox Demons were on the tree, yanking hard at the fruit. The branches and leaves rustled and shook. The fruit stuffed into their clothes was about to burst out, yet they greedily kept picking more—

Feng Ling summoned her Teeth and Claws, wanting to strangle those two foxes on the tree!

But she was a step too late.

A ripe fruit fell straight down, landing with a THUD on the Minotaur’s massive body.

The Minotaur’s eyes snapped open. It snorted a cloud of foul air, scaring the two foxes so much they fell from the tree. The fruit in their arms tumbled and rolled all over the ground.

The Minotaur sat up and swatted one of the foxes into a meat patty! It was as simple as crushing a mouse with a bare hand.

The other fox grabbed two fruits and fled frantically down the mountain, disappearing in a flash.

At the same time, the Minotaur spotted Feng Ling and her group of intruders!

Its bloodshot bull-like eyes widened even further. It bent down and picked up the steel fork by its side. The fork was caked with bloodstains, marks left from repeated slaughter.

Feng Ling immediately raised a hand and pulled Baozi behind her.

Baozi’s ability was crucial to her right now; there could be no mishaps at a time like this.

Feng Ling shot out two Teeth and Claws, which flew toward the Minotaur’s wrist gripping the steel fork and bit down hard! Then, she used the same trick again, sending out another two Teeth and Claws to bite the monster’s knees!

’Based on my experience,’ she thought, ’when dealing with a monster this large, I have to control its range of motion first, or it’ll be impossible to get close.’

The Minotaur’s lower body was covered in thick, long fur like a yak’s. The Teeth and Claws bit into its knees but didn’t touch the monster’s flesh, failing to make it kneel like the Horse-faced Monster.

With its wrist bitten, the monster’s steel fork thrust went wide, stabbing deep into the dirt. Its left hand, however, rose high, clearly intending to swat Feng Ling dead like it had the fox!

BANG!

Pei Xianjue fired her gun, hitting the Minotaur in the head.

The massive head only swayed slightly. The raised palm came smacking straight down toward Feng Ling—

Directly beneath it, Feng Ling rolled away, nimbly dodging the blow, and summoned a scythe bone blade with lightning speed!

With a loud SMACK, the Minotaur’s left hand slammed onto the ground and was simultaneously impaled through the palm by the Bone Blade!

The monster roared in pain and fury!

It ripped its left hand up, let go of the steel fork with its right, and grabbed the limb-like strip connecting to the Bone Blade. With both hands, it forcefully tore that section of the Bone Blade off!

Blood splattered across the ground, but Feng Ling’s expression remained unchanged.

She ducked and dashed under the Minotaur’s legs, quickly getting behind the monster. She summoned another Bone Blade and slashed viciously at its Achilles tendon!

Her cut was precise and brutal. The Minotaur roared in agony and tried to turn and grab her, but as soon as it lifted its foot, the injured ankle made it lose its balance. Its massive body fell uncontrollably, kneeling toward the side of the mountain path.

"Deputy Pei!!!" Feng Ling shouted, as all four of her Teeth and Claws wrapped around the Minotaur’s horns, forcing its head down. Her Bone Blade shot straight for its throat!

Pei Xianjue seized the opportunity. She leaped onto the Minotaur’s back in a few steps, her two curved blades erupting in flames as she plunged them deep into the monster’s shoulder blades!

The Minotaur let out a terrifying roar! It violently straightened its upper body, the immense force sending the two attackers flying over ten meters!

However, the attack had been effective.

Blood gushed from its throat, and its back was covered in scorch marks. The fire spread across its fur, engulfing its whole body. It threw itself to the ground, rolling in an attempt to extinguish the flames, then struggled to crawl toward the large tree not far away—

Beneath the tree lay a few of the purple fruits dropped by the foxes.

When Feng Ling saw this, a thought struck her like lightning. Her eyes flew open, and she yelled, "Don’t let it eat the fruit!!!"

Everyone instantly understood!

The Fox Demons had risked their lives to pick the fruit, the giant serpent in the lake also wanted the fruit, and Oxhead and Horseface patrolled the mountain day and night to guard this very tree! The fruit might be the reason the Maze Creatures kept reviving!

Huangfu Miaomiao was scared stiff. Worried that all their efforts would be for nothing, she immediately transformed into her Ghost Shadow and swept away all the fruit on the ground.

But there were still hundreds of fruits left on the tree!

With the Minotaur’s strength, it only needed to ram the trunk once to knock countless fruits down.

"I’ll go burn the tree down!" Pei Xianjue struggled to her feet and ran toward the large tree.

Feng Ling also pushed through the pain to get up, rushing forward and digging her Teeth and Claws deep into the wound on the Minotaur’s ankle to stop it from crawling any further.

The Minotaur roared, howled, and thrashed on the ground, rolling its body, trying to shake off the Teeth and Claws, but the wound only grew deeper!

The flames gradually spread along the filthy fur to its heel. Feng Ling felt the scorching pain of the fire and was forced to retract her Teeth and Claws.

Meanwhile, something unexpected happened on Pei Xianjue’s end—

Just as the dry bark and leaves caught fire, countless skulls scurried out from the dense, dark canopy of the tree!

Each skull had sprouted eight legs, swarming down the tree like a terrified horde of cockroaches, big and small, a dense and teeming mass!

Pei Xianjue was startled. Just as she was about to incinerate them all with her flames, she suddenly heard Baozi cry out in alarm, "Quick, run!..."

’What?’

Ignoring the danger, Baozi charged directly into the mass of crawling skulls, grabbed Pei Xianjue by the arm, and started pulling her down the mountain.

Li Qing and Huangfu Miaomiao, startled by the massive swarm of skulls, also hastily backed away.

Feng Ling was in the middle of finishing off the Minotaur with an axe. Without the support of Pei Xianjue’s ability, the flames on the monster’s body quickly died out. But the monster’s hide was so tough and its flesh so thick that she couldn’t sever its head in a single blow.

She gripped the axe and hacked at it several more times, wishing she could kill it instantly. Just then, she heard Baozi yelling "Run!" and subconsciously looked up—

With just one glance, her heart began to pound uncontrollably!

It wasn’t because of the skulls crawling all over the ground, but because of a withered, bone-like hand slowly reaching out from inside the tower.

Feng Ling felt a familiar sense of dread.

Although the oppressive aura wasn’t that strong yet, her temples throbbed, and an immense sense of crisis made the hair on her body stand on end!

At that moment, the behemoth under her axe finally breathed its last, its blood staining the entire mountain path red.

But Feng Ling didn’t feel the slightest bit of relief.

Her breathing nearly stopped, her eyes fixed unblinkingly on the dark doorway of the tower.

The almost skeletal hand rested gently on the doorframe. Then, half of an old woman’s face slowly emerged from within.

It was an indescribable ancientness, so old that her age was indiscernible, so old that even her gender was ambiguous, leaving only the terror of the living dead.

Her white hair hung to the ground like graying moss. Her skin was like grayish-green tree bark, and her eyes were two deeply sunken black holes. The old woman stared at them eerily with these two black holes, then opened her toothless, wrinkled mouth—

Baozi once again screamed in terror at everyone, "Run! Run!"