Chapter 159 | The Lure

Chapter 159: 159 | The Lure

Lin Tian remained perfectly still on the floating stone pillar. Below him, the Guardian Beast slept. Its massive chest rose and fell in a slow, terrifying rhythm.

Each exhale released a wave of blistering Yang energy, warping the air above the blackened stone of the crater.

Lin Tian’s spiritual sense was entirely focused on the narrow gorge to the north. He had already mapped the spiritual fault lines in the gorge walls. He knew exactly how much explosive force it would take to bring the ceiling down.

But he could not trigger the collapse while the beast was resting in the open crater. The beast’s reflexes were too fast. If the rocks missed, he would have to fight a Peak Foundation Establishment monster in a confined space, wasting precious Qi and risking severe injury.

He needed the beast inside the gorge. He needed it pinned.

A faint, chaotic fluctuation echoed from the northern entrance.

Gu Yan’s team had arrived.

Lin Tian shifted his weight, his spiritual sense tracking their signatures moving through the narrow passage. The three disciples were stumbling blindly, drawn like moths to the blazing Yang flame of the Pure-Yang Lotus.

They were desperate, their spiritual seas nearly dry, and completely unaware of the apex predator waiting in the basin.

***

Inside the gorge, the physical pressure was suffocating. The steep stone walls blocked the wind, trapping the blistering heat radiating from the crater.

Gu Yan walked at the front, his spirit sword drawn, his knuckles white. His eyes were bloodshot. Behind him, Mei supported Hong, whose feet dragged uselessly across the sharp rocks. Dark, twisted black veins crawled up Hong’s neck, pulsing with a sickly light. Frost formed on his eyelashes, yet he sweated profusely, his skin burning with the internal fire of severe Qi Deviation.

"The heat..." Hong whispered, his voice a dry, raspy hiss. "It is burning my Dantian. The shadows are laughing at me."

"Keep moving," Gu Yan snapped, his Qi circulation faltering. "The Yang beacon is just ahead. We reach the crater, we get the Lotus for Master, and we leave."

They rounded a sharp bend in the gorge. The passage widened slightly into a small, rocky courtyard, offering a clear line of sight to the center of the crater.

Fifty meters ahead, the Pure-Yang Lotus floated in a dome of red light. And beside it, the massive crimson scales of the Guardian Beast gleamed in the heat.

Gu Yan froze. His breath caught in his throat.

Mei gasped, pulling Hong to a halt. "Senior Brother... that is a Peak stage beast. Our Qi is depleted. We cannot fight it."

"We do not retreat!" Gu Yan whispered, his mind fracturing under the weight of his paranoia. "Master’s Phantom Burns are spreading. If we return without the Lotus, she will die, and we will be stripped of everything. We just need to grab it."

High above the gorge, hidden in the shadows of a rocky overhang, Lin Tian watched them stop.

They were exactly in the kill zone. The beast was fifty meters away, but its territorial spiritual sense covered a hundred-meter radius. The moment Gu Yan stepped into the open, the beast would wake.

Lin Tian did not wait for them to make a mistake. He made it for them.

He reached into his spatial ring and pulled out a small, heavy sphere of solid iron-wood. He wrapped it in a basic sound-amplifying talisman.

He channeled a dense, piercing thread of Qi into his fingers. He calculated the trajectory and the exact angle needed to bypass the beast’s thick dorsal scales.

He flicked his wrist.

The iron-wood sphere shot through the air, completely silent until the final meter.

*CRACK!*

The sphere slammed directly into the soft, unarmored snout of the Guardian Beast. The sound-amplifying talisman detonated on impact, creating a sharp, explosive echo that rang through the crater like a thunderclap.

***

The beast’s eyes snapped open. They were glowing pools of molten gold.

It did not look up at Lin Tian. Its territorial instinct and immediate rage locked onto the loudest, closest source of spiritual energy in front of it.

Gu Yan’s team.

The beast rose to its full five-meter height. It opened its massive jaws and released a roar that shook the very foundations of the gorge. The sound wave hit Gu Yan’s team like a physical wall, forcing them to cover their ears as blood trickled from their noses.

"Ambush!" Gu Yan screamed, his voice breaking. "He provoked it! Lin Tian is here! He is using us as bait!"

"Run!" Mei shrieked, pulling Hong backward.

But the gorge was narrow. There was nowhere to run.

The beast charged.

It did not use a martial technique. It simply used its massive physical weight. It crossed the fifty meters in two strides, its heavy claws tearing deep gouges into the black stone. The confined space amplified the sound of its footsteps, turning the stone walls into a vibrating trap of noise and heat.

Gu Yan panicked. He crushed three defensive talismans in his hand.

"Protect!"

Golden barriers erupted between the team and the beast, fueled by his remaining Qi.

The beast’s front claw slammed into the first barrier.

*CRACK!*

The golden light shattered like glass. The beast’s momentum carried it forward. Its second claw swept through the second barrier, dispersing the energy in a shower of sparks.

Gu Yan was thrown backward, sliding across the hot stone. His arms went completely numb, his meridians aching from the feedback.

"Senior Brother!" Mei cried.

The beast lunged, its jaws snapping toward Gu Yan’s head.

Gu Yan rolled to the side, barely avoiding the crushing bite. The beast’s teeth slammed into the stone floor, sending shards of rock flying. The sheer Yang heat radiating from its body singed Gu Yan’s hair and blistered his skin.

"Fire Sword Art!" Gu Yan roared, desperation overriding his fear. He poured the last dregs of his Qi into his blade and slashed upward.

A wave of red sword Qi struck the beast’s forearm.

The beast did not even flinch. The thick crimson scales, reinforced with metallic spiritual energy, easily deflected the attack, leaving only a faint scorch mark.

It spun around, its massive tail whipping through the confined space.

The tail slammed into Mei.

She was lifted off her feet and thrown violently against the jagged wall of the gorge. She hit the stone with a sickening crunch and collapsed into the dirt, coughing up blood. Her spirit sword clattered away, out of reach.

"Mei!" Hong screamed.

The beast turned its glowing golden eyes toward Hong. It raised a claw to crush him.

"Get away from him!" Gu Yan threw himself forward, tackling Hong out of the way. The beast’s claw struck the ground where Hong had been sitting, cratering the solid rock.

Gu Yan’s mind was completely broken. The confined space, the overwhelming heat, the invulnerable scales. It was a slaughterhouse.

"He is watching us!" Gu Yan laughed hysterically, looking up at the rocky overhangs. "Lin Tian! Show yourself! Fight us!"

Only the echo of his own madness answered him.

***

The beast reared back, preparing to bite Gu Yan in half.

Gu Yan’s hand frantically patted his inner pocket. His fingers closed around a smooth, cold jade token.

It was the emergency escape talisman Elder Liu had given them.

"Gather around me!" Gu Yan shouted, grabbing Hong by the collar and dragging him close. He reached out with one hand and grabbed Mei’s wrist, pulling her half-conscious body against his side.

The beast’s jaws opened, revealing rows of razor-sharp teeth. A wave of corrosive, blistering saliva dripped from its maw.

Gu Yan crushed the jade token.

A sphere of pale, blinding spiritual light formed around the three disciples just as the beast’s jaws slammed shut around them.

*CRACK!*

The beast’s teeth pressed against the light barrier. Cracks spread across the surface of the talisman’s shield. The sheer crushing force of the beast’s jaw was breaking the spatial magic.

"Hold!" Gu Yan screamed, pouring his soul into the shield.

A heartbeat later, the talisman activated.

*Vwoom!*

The three figures vanished inside a burst of white light. The spatial teleportation ripped them out of the gorge, shooting them violently toward the southern exit of the core area.

The beast’s jaws snapped shut on empty air.

It roared in fury, a sound of pure, unadulterated rage. It spun around, its massive claws tearing at the stone walls, searching for the prey that had just vanished.

High above, Lin Tian watched the white light disappear.

His expression remained completely calm.

The variable had been tested. The beast’s combat patterns, its speed, and the structural integrity of its scales were now fully mapped in his mind. The team was gone. The gorge was empty.

But the beast was still in the crater. And it was angry.

The beast paced around the Pure-Yang Lotus, its golden eyes scanning the rocky walls. It smelled the lingering scent of the intruders, but the teleportation had scattered their aura. It could not track them.

Slowly, its territorial instinct took over. It returned to the center of the crater and lay down beside the Lotus, its gaze fixed on the northern entrance of the gorge. It would not leave the prize.

Lin Tian crouched lower on his pillar.

The beast was back in position. But now, it was hyper-alert. A direct approach was impossible.

But Lin Tian did not need to approach directly.

He looked at the narrow V-shaped gorge. He looked at the massive, overhanging boulders resting above the choke point. He had already calculated the fault lines. He had already mapped the exact weight required to trigger a collapse.

The beast was heavy. Its scales were thick. But it was not immune to gravity.

If thousands of tons of rock fell directly onto its back while it was confined in the narrow gorge, even its crimson armor would shatter.

Lin Tian’s lips curved into a faint, cold smile.

He did not need to fight the beast. He just needed to bring the mountain down on its head.

He circulated his Qi, reinforcing his meridians against the crushing spiritual pressure, and began to move silently along the ridge toward the structural weak points.