The Blood Eye Cult would not allow someone with such a terrifying growth rate to live and stand against them.
“So, what is your answer?” the middle-aged man asked.
Lin Yuan’s answer was to level his spear in front of him.
The tip pointed straight ahead, lightning silently spreading across the shaft.
“I see,” the middle-aged man nodded. His tone held no disappointment, only a sense of “as expected.”
“Then there is nothing more to say.”
He took a step back.
Six gray-black figures lunged forward simultaneously.
After three days of recovery, Lin Yuan’s strength had indeed reached a new level compared to three days ago.
His lightning ability had stabilized from Tier 1, Level 6 to Tier 1, Level 7. The medicinal power of the Bone Tempering Pill from last night had not only pushed his physical refinement but also boosted his lightning ability.
Although it was only a one-level difference, at this stage of the lightning ability, every level of improvement brought a noticeable qualitative change.
More importantly, his space-time system ability had reached a new node on its own.
His rank hadn't broken through, remaining at Tier 1, Level 2, but the range of his “perception” had doubled.
He didn't need to turn his head to “see” the enemies behind him, and he didn't need to track them with his eyes to “lock onto” everyone’s movements.
The attacks of the six men came from all directions at once.
On the left, two short blades.
On the right, a long saber and a dark red rune chain.
From behind, two highly compressed wind blades.
There were no blind spots.
Lin Yuan didn't try to block every attack. He did one thing—he charged forward.
Not to flee, but to strike.
The man directly in front of him clearly hadn't expected him to choose a frontal assault.
According to normal logic, when surrounded on six sides, one should prioritize defense, look for an opening, and defeat them one by one.
But Lin Yuan did the opposite, charging straight at the enemy in front and completely exposing his back to the other five.
It was a madman’s tactic.
But it was also the most effective.
Because if those five wanted to attack his back, they first had to catch up to his speed.
And the speed of a lightning user was absolutely dominant among those of the same tier.
Lightning exploded beneath his feet.
Lin Yuan turned into a silver-white afterimage, appearing instantly in front of the Blood Eye cultist.
The man’s pupils constricted. Before he could even raise his short blade, a spear wreathed in lightning had already reached his chest.
It wasn't a thrust; it was a smash.
Lin Yuan used the spear shaft, not the tip.
The shaft swept across, carrying the lightning and the brute force of Nine Rounds of Bone Tempering, striking the man squarely in the ribs.
A crisp crack sounded—the sound of ribs breaking.
The cultist didn't even have time to scream before he was sent flying seven or eight meters, crashing into the gray-black mist and never standing up again.
One strike, one disabled.
The remaining five were visibly stunned.
It wasn't that they hadn't killed before. Every member of the Blood Eye Cult had blood on their hands.
But they had never seen this kind of fighting style—a completely reckless offense that used speed and power to crush, tearing a hole in the encirclement in the most brutal way possible.
And Lin Yuan’s assault was just beginning.
After disabling the first person, he didn't stop. Using his forward momentum, he spun the spear around his waist, rotating in place as the shaft traced an arc of lightning.
“Thunder Walk Through Nine Heavens, Second Form—Thunder Arc.”
This wasn't an attack move from the original technique; it was a variation he had developed himself while killing monsters in the wilderness.
By attaching lightning to the spear shaft and using the force of the spin to throw out a 360-degree ring of electricity.
It wasn't as powerful as a direct thrust, but its range was wide and its speed was high, making it perfect for when he was surrounded.
The Thunder Ring exploded, and silver-white arcs of electricity shot out in all directions.
The remaining five stepped back simultaneously, raising their weapons to block.
That single step gave Lin Yuan all the time he needed.
His toes kicked off the ground, and he launched himself from the center of the Thunder Ring, pouncing straight at the cultist on the left holding the rune chain.
The man had just blocked the impact of the Thunder Ring with his chain when a dark shadow filled his vision.
Lin Yuan’s spear tip pierced his shoulder.
While not a vital spot, it was enough to take him out of the fight.
The rune chain slipped from his hand and hit the ground, its dark red glow quickly fading.
The second one, disabled.
The remaining four finally reacted. They stopped fighting individually and quickly clustered together, forming a back-to-back defensive formation.
Lin Yuan didn't pursue them.
He stood in the mist, his spear pointing diagonally at the ground, blood still dripping from the tip.
His chest heaved slightly, but his breathing rhythm remained steady.
Nine Rounds of Bone Tempering provided not just strength, but endurance.
He was in no hurry to break their four-man defensive formation.
Because the true protagonist had yet to make a move.
From deep within the mist, clapping sounded.
Clap. Clap. Clap.
Slow and steady, with an identical interval between each sound.
The middle-aged man walked out of the mist, his expression one of admiration rather than anger.
“Tier 1, Level 7. You were Tier 1, Level 6 three days ago. You’ve broken through again.”
He glanced down at the two disabled cultists with an indifferent gaze, as if looking at two broken tools.
“You two, withdraw.”
The two injured cultists gritted their teeth and crawled up, staggering back into the mist.
The remaining four also put away their weapons and retreated behind the middle-aged man.
The middle-aged man stood before Lin Yuan, less than ten meters away.
“I had planned to save some strength to capture Su Qingyue,” he said, rolling his neck until it popped.
“It seems plans have changed.”
He raised his right hand.
Dark red light condensed in his palm—a concentration of pure energy.
The red light flowed along his palm lines, gathering and compressing until it formed a fist-sized dark red sphere in his hand.
The moment the sphere appeared, Lin Yuan felt a wave of pressure wash over him.
The power contained in that red light was at least three times that of his own full-strength strike.
Tier 2, Level 5. The gap between them was not small.
As one progressed, the gap between each level only grew wider.
Between Tier 1, Level 7 and Tier 2, Level 5 lay not just an entire major rank, but the accumulation of five minor levels within Tier 2.
Taking it head-on would be suicide.
Lin Yuan gripped his spear shaft, lightning exploding beneath his feet.
He didn't take it head-on. Instead...
He ran.
Rate on N.U.
