Boom!
Crack!
A giant tree that was as thick as a person's waist was knocked down by a gray shadow. The tree broke in half.
Howl! Howl!
The gray form hissed and snarled furiously. Around it, five figures were quickly hopping around, attacking.
The gray shadow was the Stone-Spotted Tiger King. It was twice the size of a regular Stone-Spotted Tiger, and it was full of blasting energy.
Everywhere its claws touched, deep marks were left behind. Shockingly deep furrows were even left in hard rocks on the ground.
"This thing is tough to kill!"
"But if we can kill this big one, then our Blackrock Mountains trip will be more than worth it!"
"Haha, I would never have guessed that we'd come across a Stone-Spotted Tiger King on this trip."
"Let's all pay attention. Don't get distracted!" the leader growled in a low voice.
The five warriors who were cautiously surrounding and attacking the Stone-Spotted Tiger King were also communicating with each other at the same time. They all looked quite excited. Like Shadow Gale Wolves, Stone-Spotted Tiger Kings were exceptionally rare. A warrior couldn't simply expect to come across one all the time.
The hunting squad had been to the Blackrock Mountains many times, but this was the first time they had encountered a Stone-Spotted Tiger King.
As they were fighting the Stone-Spotted Tiger King with all their might, a green shadow emerged soundlessly behind them.
The green figure was, of course, Jing Yan, who had decided to stop by after he heard the noise.
He had been about to leave the Blackrock Mountains and head back to Dong Lin City, but the howling of the Stone-Spotted Tiger King had drawn him back. After hearing such a sound, he had no choice but to check it out.
"Lin Qi?"
Jing Yan recognized the leader of the five warriors who had teamed up to attack the Stone-Spotted Tiger King. His gaze sharpened.
"It looks like a hunting group from the Lin Clan." Jing Yan's eyes lit up a bit.
The Lin Clan, just like the Jing Clan, was one of the Four Legendary Families in Dong Lin City. Lin Qi was among the top-performing disciples of the Lin Clan. At such a young age, he was already a warrior at the Sixth Heaven. It wasn't strange that Jing Yan knew Lin Qi. In fact, he had met him a couple of times before. But that was back in the days when he was still a celebrity in Dong Lin City. Back then, Jing Yan hadn't taken someone like Lin Qi too seriously.
Among the Four Legendary Families, the Lin Clan and the Jing Clan had the worst relationship. The rivalry between the two families had existed for more than a century. Yet since neither could do much to significantly shake the other, the two had never had any open fights.
But small-scale confrontations occurred once in a while between the two clans.
As soon as Jing Yan found out that it was the Lin Clan's disciples who were attacking the Stone-Spotted Tiger King as a group, he set his wits to work. If it had been some other warriors that were strangers to Jing Yan, he might simply have walked away from them. But it was members of the Lin Clan that were right in front of him. Once he discovered that, there was no chance that Jing Yan would leave the fight without interfering.
However, Jing Yan didn't show himself right away.
The fight between Lin Qi's squad and the Stone-Spotted Tiger King had just started not long ago. There was no way that the five of them could kill the Stone-Spotted Tiger King within a short time. After all, those tigers were known for their powerful defenses. The defensive abilities of Stone-Spotted Tiger Kings were even more astonishing than those of the regular ones. Even if the beast simply stood there without moving so that all five warriors could attack, it would probably still take them a long time to kill the creature.
"Lin Hu, watch out!" Lin Qi shouted at a Lin Clan disciple to his left. He never stopped moving or attack as the warning left his mouth.
Almost at the same time as Lin Qi's voice was heard, Lin Hu suddenly tucked his chubby body and rolled like a ball, moving right underneath the Stone-Spotted Tiger King's claws.
Lin Hu stood up again with a pale face. If it hadn't been for Lin Qi's warning, it would have been challenging to dodge the attack. A cold sweat broke out at the base of Lin Hu's spine at the thought that the tiger's claws could totally have hit him.
Lin Hu looked down at his torn green gown and saw faint traces of blood sifting through it. Even though he had almost entirely dodged the Stone-Spotted Tiger King's strike, its claws had still nicked him. The wound was burning.
But Lin Hu knew that this was not the time to deal with his wound. He gritted his teeth and once again launched an attack.
"Be careful, everyone! Stone-Spotted Tiger Kings are not like the regular ones. I don't want any of us to die here," Lin Qi said in a lowered voice, glancing at his teammates.
"Thank you, Brother Qi," Lin Hu said with gratitude as he rejoined the fight.
The fight continued.
Lin Qi's group of five kept leaving wounds on the Stone-Spotted Tiger's giant body. Although none of the wounds did much damage to the beast, they did add up as the tiger got hit more and more. The loss of blood gradually started to affect its mobility.
The Stone-Spotted Tiger King grew more and more irritated.
Of course, the five warriors weren't precisely enjoying themselves either. Everyone other than Lin Qi had been injured in one way or another. Fortunately, Stone-Spotted Tigers were not poisonous; otherwise, all four of them who had been injured would have been down by now.
"Okay, everybody, it's time to put our backs into this. We have to bring down this Stone-Spotted Tiger King today!" Seeing that the other four were a little exhausted and morale was running a bit low, Lin Qi tried to encourage them.
"The beast can't last too much longer!"
"If we take down this Stone-Spotted Tiger King, we get more than the reward of Spiritual Stones. What do you think the senior members of the family will think of us if they know that our team killed a Stone-Spotted Tiger King?"
Everyone else bounced back after hearing his words. Their attacks also grew a lot more aggressive.
Jing Yan was watching the fight from the shadows, and his lips curled into a cunning smile.
"It's about time for me to show up. These guys are terribly inefficient." Jing Yan narrowed his eyes and walked up to them.
"Who is that?"
"D*mn!"
The moment Jing Yan moved, Lin Qi and other members of the group immediately noticed that a warrior was approaching. They all cast quick glances at him. Now that they were in combat with the Stone-Spotted Tiger King, the last thing they wanted was for someone to interrupt them. The fact that another warrior had shown up was very concerning.
The Stone-Spotted Tiger King roared in rage.
"Ah!"
Someone suddenly screamed.
The tall, slender warrior suddenly pressed his hands against his belly. His face was twisted in pain as he backed up. His weapon also dropped to the ground.
When Jing Yan had shown up out of nowhere, it distracted the warrior. The Stone-Spotted Tiger King took advantage of the guy's momentary lapse and attacked him. The warrior wasn't able to dodge the strike completely. The beast left a horrifying wound on his belly, and blood gurgled out nonstop.
"Dongyang!" The other four shouted in unison, sudden fear sweeping over them as they saw Lin Dongyang get injured.
Lin Qi's face darkened. There was something terrifying in his look. After he checked on Lin Dongyang's wound, he let out a sigh of relief. As dangerous as the wound looked, it hadn't damaged his organs. As long as Lin Dongyang received medical treatment in time, he would live. Lin Qi turned to the warrior who had appeared behind them. He knew that if that freaking warrior hadn't shown up out of nowhere, Lin Dongyang wouldn't have been hit so hard.