Chapter 268 - 146: Mori Town

Chapter 268: Chapter 146: Mori Town

Pushing aside a bush riddled with bullets and stained with blackish-red blood, Xu Mo’s pupils suddenly contracted!

Less than ten meters in front of him, in a patch of trampled grass, lay the silhouette of a behemoth.

Even lying prone, its shoulder height was visibly over 1.3 meters, and its body length, including the tail, was likely close to three meters. The creature was covered in sleek, glossy black fur, but its shoulder blades, back, and flanks bore several horrific, gaping wounds. Especially near its neck and chest, two bowl-sized bloody holes gushed dark red blood, soaking a large patch of the ground beneath. This was the primary source of the thick stench of blood in the air.

It appeared to be motionless.

But the very instant Xu Mo made out its silhouette, that familiar, bone-chilling sense of danger shot up his spine like a jolt of high-voltage electricity, racing straight to the crown of his head!

Almost at the same instant the sense of danger flared, the behemoth, which had appeared dead, suddenly moved. It let out a low, guttural roar—a mix of pain and fury—as its powerful hind legs kicked violently against the ground. Kicking up a shower of dirt and grass, its massive yet agile body launched itself through the air toward Xu Mo with unbelievable speed and agility.

Inside its gaping, bloody maw, four ghastly white fangs, like curved daggers, flashed with a deadly light. Its outstretched claws, each like a hook forged from refined steel, tore through the air, aimed straight at Xu Mo’s face and chest!

’Still not dead?!’

Xu Mo was horrified, but his reflexes were even faster! The instant his danger sense flared, he had already pushed his body to its absolute limit! The power of the Iron Bone Realm erupted like a volcano, coursing through his entire body. Instead of retreating, Xu Mo charged forward to meet the pouncing black shadow, tightly gripping his Mountain-Cutting Saber with both hands. He let out a sharp breath and roared:

"DIE—!"

A short, explosive roar erupted from Xu Mo’s chest. All his strength was channeled from the ground up—rooted through his feet, twisted through his waist and hips, transferred across his shoulders and back—and finally concentrated into his arms, pouring into the gleaming edge of his saber.

There were no flashy techniques, no deft deflections—just a direct, head-on collision of pure force, backed by an unstoppable, resolute will to cleave through anything in his path!

CLANG—SQUELCH!

The ear-piercing clash of metal and the sickening thud of a blade sinking into flesh rang out almost simultaneously!

The gleaming blade of the Mountain-Cutting Saber, imbued with all of Xu Mo’s strength and the force of his charge, met the mutated beast’s swiping claws head-on! The blade cleaved through the tough, leathery paw pads and shattered the bones of the claws, which were harder than steel. Losing none of its momentum, the saber rode the beast’s own forward lunge and sliced deep into its thick neck.

The blade sliced through muscle, severed major tendons, and cleaved bone!

CRACK!

The sickening crack of bone was clearly audible.

The beast’s lunge came to a dead stop. Its massive body seized up in mid-air, and then, with a geyser of blood, it crashed heavily to the ground!

Its head was twisted to one side at a horribly unnatural angle, hanging on to its torso by mere scraps of flesh and skin. Its yellow, vertical pupils, once blazing with feral light, now rapidly dimmed, leaving only a hollow, dying emptiness and a frozen stare of disbelief.

Xu Mo quickly took two steps back. With a flick of his wrist, he swung the Mountain-Cutting Saber in a silver arc, deflecting the scalding fountain of blood that gushed from the beast’s severed neck to avoid being drenched.

A shower of blood rained down, staining the surrounding plants and soil red.

Only then did Xu Mo get a clear look at the true face of the black creature that had nearly been his undoing.

Its overall form was still vaguely recognizable as a large feline, but the details had become far more savage. It was covered in thick, smooth black fur, with faint, dark-red, flame-like markings on its forehead and shoulder blades. Its four terrifyingly long fangs were especially notable, like a miniature version of a prehistoric saber-toothed tiger’s, but even more curved and sharp.

This was no creature of natural evolution; it had to be a deep mutation caused by the cataclysm, maybe even a grotesque hybrid of several species. It possessed a combination of strength, speed, agility, stealth, and savagery. If Xu Mo hadn’t severely wounded it with the Barrett beforehand, and if he didn’t possess the strength of the Iron Bone Realm and his precognitive senses, that last-ditch attack would have spelled doom for any ordinary Enhancement Ability User.

"Damn..." Xu Mo steadied his breathing and calmed his surging energy. He walked over and cautiously prodded the massive head with the tip of his saber to confirm it was completely dead.

Then, he raised his Mountain-Cutting Saber, aimed for the back of its skull—the hardest part—and brought the blade down with all his might!

CRACK!

A crack split open in the skull. Xu Mo used the tip of his saber to pry it wider and rummaged inside. To his surprise, he found a dark-red Crystal Core buried deep within the brain tissue. It was about the size of the top joint of a pinky finger and shaped like an irregular polyhedron.

The Crystal Core’s surface was smooth, and a very faint light seemed to shift within. However, when Xu Mo held it in his hand, he felt no energy fluctuations, only a slight warmth.

’What’s this thing used for?’ Xu Mo was puzzled, but he didn’t discard it.

He didn’t know its specific use, but his intuition told him he should keep it.

After another glance at the massive corpse, Xu Mo proceeded to remove its four fangs, ignoring the rest.

Once he was done, Xu Mo quickly returned to his SUV. The threat from the agile and strong zombies was neutralized for now. In the distance, the regular zombie horde was still shuffling closer, and it would probably be some time before they reached his position.

Now, it was time to head back and deal with his original target: the gas station in Mori Town.