A fierce glint flashed in Lin Ye’s eyes. At the very limit, he forcibly twisted his body, avoiding a fatal blow!
“Pfft!”
The sharp panther claws raked viciously across his left shoulder!
A heart-rending agony tore through him. Lin Ye gave a muffled groan, and his entire body was driven forward by the tremendous force. From his left shoulder to his back, three deep gashes were torn open by brute force, so deep the bone was visible!
Blood instantly dyed half his body red!
The pain spread through him like an electric current.
Under that one swipe, Lin Ye’s HP plummeted by nearly one hundred and fifty points!
But he did not stop. That extreme dodge just now had been a deliberate sacrifice of his left shoulder when he had no way to evade completely.
Because if that part was injured, he would only bleed.
In the short term, it would not affect his movements.
Lin Ye felt his temples throbbing madly.
He had no doubt that if the black panther’s claw just now had slashed across his throat—
He would already be a corpse.
Between life and death, coupled with a massive surge of adrenaline, Lin Ye temporarily suppressed the sluggishness brought on by the intense pain.
Using the momentum of his forward fall, he rolled ahead, then charged toward the rooftop without even looking back!
Large amounts of blood splattered down, and the black panther’s pursuit grew even more frenzied.
It completely abandoned any attempt at maneuvering around obstacles. In the most savage way possible, it directly smashed through everything blocking its path and chased straight after Lin Ye.
Lin Ye rushed onto the rooftop.
The cold night wind blew into his face, clearing his somewhat dizzy mind from blood loss by a few degrees.
Without the slightest hesitation, he took a running start and leapt from the edge of the rooftop six stories high!
The roaring wind scraped past his ears.
His body smashed heavily into the small mountain below that had long since been prepared, piled together from a large number of discarded mattresses and sofa stuffing.
The tremendous impact still sent his blood and qi churning, golden stars bursting before his eyes.
But he had no time to care about that. At once, he crawled out of the garbage pile.
Almost at the same moment he landed.
On the rooftop, the mutated black panther also leapt down after him!
Its massive body drew a trajectory through the air like black lightning, carrying a destructive momentum as it crashed to the ground!
The earth trembled faintly.
However, what greeted it was not the corpse of its prey, but a pungent smell of gasoline.
The instant it landed, Lin Ye threw out a lighter he had prepared long ago.
A spark flared in the darkness.
The next second.
Boom—!
With the black panther’s landing point at the center, a ring of ground that Lin Ye had already drenched with gasoline instantly erupted into raging flames!
The gasoline ignited the combustibles Lin Ye had arranged around it. A wall of fire shot into the sky, forming a huge encirclement that trapped the black panther tightly in the middle!
The mutated black panther’s glossy fur, as lustrous as black satin, quickly caught fire.
“Awooo—!”
A shrill, agonized roar resounded through the night sky.
The intense burning pain made the black panther instinctively roll all over the ground within the ring of fire, but no matter what, it could not completely extinguish the flames on its body.
Lin Ye stood outside the fire ring, gasping for breath, his face pale from blood loss.
The next second, Lin Ye did not stay any longer. Taking advantage of the precious time the fire trap had bought him, he continued to flee!
Lin Ye sprinted toward the sewer entrance two hundred meters away—the final escape route he had left for himself.
“Roar—!”
Boom!
A thunderous sound came from behind him.
Lin Ye knew it was the black panther, realizing it could not extinguish the flames on its body, forcibly charging out of the fire ring.
The truth was exactly as Lin Ye had guessed.
The panther had rushed out of the encirclement, braving the risk of even more severe burns.
But it had also paid the price of its right eye.
Its still-intact left eye was filled with endless fury as it began searching for the cunning human who had reduced it to such a miserable state.
Two hundred meters away.
Lin Ye lifted an extremely well-hidden manhole cover and crawled in without hesitation.
This was a narrow pipe that could only allow one person to pass through. The inside was filled with a nauseating stench.
Lin Ye had no time to care. He quickly crawled forward more than ten meters, then found a bend and stopped.
He pressed his ear against the cold wall of the pipe and quietly listened for movement outside.
Lin Ye felt his heartbeat pounding beside his ears like thunder.
The atmosphere was tense to the extreme.
Time passed second by second.
Finally.
The system prompt sounded in his mind.
【Ding! Detected that the host has left combat status!】
【BOSS Mechanism: Out-of-Combat HP Regeneration has been triggered!】
A warm and powerful life energy surged from the depths of his body, rapidly flowing toward the wound on his left shoulder.
The three claw marks that had been deep enough to expose bone began to heal at a speed visible to the naked eye. Flesh and blood regenerated, not even leaving the slightest scar behind.
In just over ten seconds, the HP he had lost due to his injuries had already returned to full.
Lin Ye let out a long breath of turbid air.
He hadn’t died.
And he had severely wounded that black panther as well.
Lin Ye was certain that, with its vitality, it should not die so easily.
In the end, relying on its beastly sense of smell, it would find this place sooner or later.
What Lin Ye feared even more was that after all the effort he had spent, it might end up escaping!
Next time, trying to trick it into falling for the same thing would be almost impossible.
Lin Ye took a deep breath.
He had to take the initiative!
In the narrow pipe, Lin Ye inched his way back toward the manhole cover.
When he was still two or three meters away from it, Lin Ye stopped all movement, held his breath, and listened carefully.
He heard nothing.
But Lin Ye did not let down his guard.
Instead, he used the long staff in his hand to shove the manhole cover open violently!
Roar—!!!
The next second, a claw flashing with cold light thrust straight in.
The long staff in Lin Ye’s hands was knocked flying on the spot.
Immediately after, a huge panther head, half its face burned pitch-black, suddenly poked down through the manhole!
Its intact lone eye flickered with a sinister green light in the darkness, locking tightly onto Lin Ye deep within the pipe.
Hatred and killing intent had almost taken physical form!
It roared, trying to squeeze its entire body into the narrow pipe.
Lin Ye suppressed the fear in his heart.
This was the final trap he had prepared for the black panther.
The diameter of the pipe was just enough to jam its broad shoulders, leaving it unable to advance or retreat!
Its speed, its agility—in this terrain, they would be completely crippled!
But the strength it erupted with in its dying counterattack made Lin Ye’s heart tremble.
One swipe of its claw was enough to crack the inner wall of the pipe!
What terrifying power!
Lin Ye knew there was no time to delay.
If he dragged this out any longer, he would be the one blocking off his own retreat.
Lin Ye picked up the long staff. Holding nothing back, he poured all the power of his blood and qi into his arms. The long staff in his hands was like a venomous dragon drill piercing through the darkness, stabbing viciously toward the panther head that had thrust itself inside!
“Pfft!”
The long staff accurately stabbed into the black panther’s burned-out right eye socket!
“Awooo—!”
The black panther let out a miserable howl more piercing than any before. The intense pain drove it into a frenzied struggle, and its sharp claws gouged one shocking trench after another into the walls around the manhole!
Lin Ye succeeded with one strike and had no intention of getting entangled. He immediately withdrew his staff and retreated.
Bang!
A muffled crash rang out. The black panther had actually forced a small half of its body inside.
In that brief instant, several strange dark-blue crystals unexpectedly grew from its front claws.
Under the influence of those crystals, Lin Ye’s pupils shrank.
He saw that the panther’s front claws had miraculously extended by a segment.
And it was that extra segment that allowed the claw to slam violently into Lin Ye’s chest!
A tremendous force struck him. Lin Ye was blasted backward several meters through the pipe, both arms going numb, while his chest became a bloody mess of mangled flesh.
There was no time to use out-of-combat HP regeneration.
Lin Ye made the judgment instantly.
If he retreated and continued fleeing deeper into the pipe...
Then once this narrow terrain was broken through by the black panther, the one who died in the end would only be himself.
The intense pain completely awakened the ferocity buried in Lin Ye’s bones.
Instead of retreating, he advanced.
Like a mad demon, he stabbed again and again with the long staff in his hands!
Pfft!
Pfft!
“Roar—!”
Inside the narrow pipe, flesh and blood flew everywhere!
Wound for wound!
Life for life!