Chapter 709 - 679: Crisis Strikes Again

Lin Xinghai fired three Depleted Uranium Armor-Piercing Rounds in quick succession before turning and leaving without a backward glance.

He had injected 1,000 points of Blood Qi Power into each of the three rounds. Such an immense amount of Blood Qi Power was enough to ensure the bullets could penetrate the heavily wounded Death Claw’s body.

Given the Death Claw’s current injuries, just two Depleted Uranium Armor-Piercing Rounds to the head would be enough to incinerate it.

The reason Lin Xinghai fired three was, of course, to be on the safe side and guarantee it wouldn’t survive.

As for Giant Arm, it wasn’t that Lin Xinghai didn’t want to kill it. The creature had sensed the danger and immediately shielded its head with its arms.

Given the Defense Power of its arms, he likely couldn’t have succeeded even if he had expended all his remaining Blood Qi Power.

Moreover, the creature hadn’t fully depleted its Elemental Power. Even if a bullet struck its head, it could instantly form an internal Elemental Barrier to block the flames. The resulting damage would be far less than he had hoped for.

So, all things considered, Lin Xinghai gave up on the idea.

After all, he had already killed two Mutated Zombies. For him, the gains were already immense.

Besides, his current mission was to retreat, not to get bogged down fighting these Mutated Zombies to the death. If he wanted to hunt Fourth Level Mutated Zombies, he could wait until he broke through to the Body Shaping Realm. It wouldn’t be too late to think about it then.

So Lin Xinghai retreated decisively. As Giant Arm sensed him leaving, for a moment, it actually didn’t dare to give chase.

It sounded unbelievable, like a Divine Demon Realm expert being afraid of someone in the Marrow Tempering Realm.

But Lin Xinghai had proven his strength with the lives of two Fourth Level Mutated Zombies. Under the circumstances, this Giant Arm was genuinely afraid.

When Lin Xinghai saw that Giant Arm wasn’t pursuing him, he inwardly sighed in relief. ’After all, I’ve already used the Cloud Burst Bomb. If Giant Arm had chased me, I would have had no choice but to stall for time and wait for rescue.’

’But that would have been a terrible idea. After all, within my nearly seven-kilometer Perception Range, there are over a dozen Fourth Level Mutated Zombies.’

’Although Divine Demon Realm experts are keeping them busy, there’s no guarantee they wouldn’t abandon their current targets to come after me.’

’Right now, retreating to a safe place is the most important thing.’

Soon, Lin Xinghai burst out of the Cloud Burst Bomb’s blast radius. By now, the flames had mostly dissipated, and the shockwave on the perimeter had long since vanished.

The moment he broke free, the members of the Xinghai Squad spotted him.

Only then did the tense squad members let out a long, collective sigh of relief, which was immediately followed by cheers.

They didn’t know the exact details of how the battle had unfolded, but the Cloud Burst Bomb’s explosion had enveloped all three Mutated Zombies.

Under those circumstances, even if the three Mutated Zombies weren’t dead, they had to be severely wounded, which would buy them plenty of time to escape.

Watching the celebrating squad in the distance, Lin Xinghai couldn’t help but break into a smile.

Just as he was about to wave to the squad to show he was okay, an extreme sense of danger welled up from deep within him.

The sense of danger was so intense, even more so than when he had been on the brink of death while being besieged by the three Fourth Level Mutated Zombies.

This sudden sense of danger left Lin Xinghai slightly stunned. His Perception Power was constantly spread out, leaving nothing unscrutinized—not even the ground beneath him.

’Under these circumstances, I can’t believe any Mutated Zombie could get close to me undetected.’

But Lin Xinghai also knew that with his current Perception Power, his intuition for danger was every bit as sharp as that of those Mutated Zombies.

’So there’s no way this feeling of danger is just an illusion.’

Faced with this strange situation, Lin Xinghai’s heart began to sink. An unknown enemy was, without a doubt, the most frightening and unsettling kind.

However, Lin Xinghai wasn’t one to simply wait for death. He slowly regulated his breathing, tensing every muscle in his body, preparing to react at a moment’s notice.

At the same time, he radiated his Perception Power outward from his body, trying his utmost to locate the source of the danger.

The moment seemed to stretch on for an eternity. Then, in the next second, his eyes twitched, and his gaze shifted downward, locking onto his own shadow.

A moment ago, there seemed to have been an extremely subtle fluctuation coming from it.

The fluctuation was so faint that Lin Xinghai estimated even a Divine Demon Realm expert would likely miss it if they were careless.

He had only been able to detect it for two reasons. First, the sense of crisis had put him on high alert. Second, his Perception Power was simply that strong.

After all, an ordinary expert in the Early Stage of the Divine Demon Realm typically had a Perception Range of only 10,000 points. His was already at 7,800. It was no exaggeration to say his Perception Power was on the verge of reaching the Divine Demon Realm’s threshold.

But even with all that, he had still almost missed it. That just went to show how stealthy and bizarre the fluctuation was.

At that moment, Lin Xinghai stared intently at his shadow. He soon discovered that it seemed to be solidifying. Visually, it was simply becoming sharper and clearer.

And this was something he observed with his naked eye.

As for his Perception Power, it was utterly useless in this moment. He couldn’t detect a single thing from the shadow beneath him.

Without a moment’s hesitation, Lin Xinghai unleashed his full Speed, trying to shake off whatever was hiding in his shadow.

But the thing was like a true shadow; no matter how fast he moved, it stuck to him perfectly.

For a moment, Lin Xinghai was tempted to use Thunder Stepping. He wanted to see if the entity could keep up after he instantly accelerated to a Speed of over 100,000.

But he held back at the last second. ’If this is its ability, then pure Speed won’t be enough to shake it off.’

’After all, you can’t escape your own shadow.’

At that moment, Lin Xinghai’s mind raced. This was where the advantage of his Time Acceleration Ability shone. Possessing ten times the perception of time meant that in a crisis like this, he had ten times longer to think than anyone else.

He quickly ran through his abilities in his mind, and his eyes suddenly lit up.

The shadow at his feet seemed to come alive, a tentacle extending toward his ankle, about to grab him.

But in that instant, Lin Xinghai’s figure seemed to turn illusory. His body then split into two, the two into four, and the four into eight. In the blink of an eye, ten Lin Xinghais stood in his place.

This was an ability one gained after mastering the Phantom Body Technique to the Perfect State: using Blood Qi Power to create phantoms that were nearly corporeal.