A grim look flashed in Lin Ye's eyes. He twisted his body at the last possible second, avoiding a vital spot!
PSHCHT!
The sharp panther claws dug viciously into his left shoulder!
An agonizing, soul-tearing pain shot through him. Lin Ye let out a muffled grunt as the immense force sent him stumbling forward. Three gashes, so deep the bone was visible, were brutally torn open from his left shoulder to his back!
In an instant, blood stained half his body red!
The excruciating pain coursed through his body like an electric current.
Under that single swipe, Lin Ye's Life Value plummeted by nearly 150 points!
But he didn't stop. That last-second dodge was a calculated sacrifice of his left shoulder, made when he knew he couldn't avoid the attack completely.
An injury there would only cause him to lose blood.
It wouldn't affect his mobility in the short term.
Lin Ye could feel his temples throbbing wildly.
He had no doubt that if the panther's claws had slashed across his throat just now—
—he would already be a corpse.
In that moment between life and death, a massive surge of adrenaline allowed Lin Ye to temporarily suppress the sluggishness brought on by the intense pain.
He used the forward momentum to roll, then sprinted for the rooftop without a backward glance!
As large amounts of blood splattered behind him, the panther's pursuit grew even more frantic.
It abandoned all pretense of subtlety, smashing through every obstacle in its path in the most savage way possible as it chased Lin Ye in a straight line.
Lin Ye burst onto the rooftop.
The cold night wind hit him head-on, clearing his mind, which had grown dizzy from blood loss.
Without any hesitation, he took a running start and leaped from the edge of the six-story-high rooftop!
The howling wind rushed past his ears.
His body slammed heavily into the small mountain of discarded mattresses and sofa stuffing he had prepared below.
The massive impact still made his Qi and Blood churn, and he saw stars.
But he couldn't worry about that; he immediately scrambled out of the garbage pile.
Almost at the same instant he landed, the mutant black panther leaped down from the rooftop after him!
Its massive body cut a trajectory through the air like a bolt of black lightning, landing with a destructive aura and a deafening CRASH!
The ground trembled slightly.
However, what greeted it wasn't the corpse of its prey, but the acrid smell of gasoline.
The moment it landed, Lin Ye threw a lighter he had prepared beforehand.
A single spark flared in the darkness.
The next second.
BOOM—!
With the panther's landing spot as the epicenter, a circle of ground that Lin Ye had doused in gasoline instantly erupted in a raging inferno!
The gasoline ignited the flammable materials Lin Ye had set up nearby, and a wall of fire shot into the sky, forming a massive ring that trapped the panther squarely in the middle!
Flames quickly caught on the mutant panther's glossy, black-satin fur.
"AWOOO—!"
A shrill, agonizing roar echoed through the night sky.
The intense, burning pain made the panther instinctively roll on the ground within the circle of fire, but it couldn't completely extinguish the flames on its body.
Lin Ye stood outside the ring of fire, panting heavily, his face pale from blood loss.
A moment later, instead of staying, Lin Ye took advantage of the precious time the fire trap had bought him and continued to flee!
Lin Ye sprinted toward the final escape route he had left for himself 200 meters away—a sewer entrance.
"ROAR—!"
BOOM!
A booming sound came from behind him.
Lin Ye knew it was the panther. Realizing it couldn't put out the fire on its body, it had forcibly broken through the ring of flames.
Just as Lin Ye had guessed, the panther had charged out of the fiery encirclement, risking even more severe burns.
But it had paid the price of its right eye.
Its remaining good left eye was filled with endless fury as it began to search for the cunning human who had brought it to this wretched state.
Two hundred meters away.
Lin Ye lifted an extremely well-hidden manhole cover and dove in without hesitation.
It was a narrow pipe, only wide enough for one person to pass through, and filled with a nauseating stench.
Ignoring the smell, he quickly crawled for a dozen or so meters, then found a corner and stopped.
He pressed his ear against the cold pipe wall, listening quietly for any sound from the outside.
Lin Ye felt as though his own heartbeat was a clap of thunder, hammering in his ears.
The atmosphere was tense to the extreme.
Time passed, second by second.
Finally.
The system's notification sound echoed in his mind.
[Ding! Host has been detected as out of combat!]
[Boss Mechanism: Healing out of combat has been triggered!]
A warm and powerful life force surged from deep within his body, flowing rapidly to the wound on his left shoulder.
The three gashes, deep enough to expose bone, began to heal at a speed visible to the naked eye. Flesh and blood regenerated, leaving not even a single scar behind.
In just over ten seconds, the Life Value he had lost from his injuries was restored to full.
Lin Ye let out a long, turbid breath.
He wasn't dead.
And he had seriously wounded the panther.
Lin Ye was certain that with its vitality, it wouldn't die so easily.
Ultimately, with 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'd gone through, the panther would just run away!
Trying to trick it again would be nearly impossible.
Lin Ye took a deep breath.
'I have to take the initiative!'
Inside the narrow pipe, Lin Ye slowly inched his way back toward the manhole cover.
When he was still two or three meters away from the cover, Lin Ye froze, held his breath, and listened intently.
He heard nothing.
But Lin Ye didn't let his guard down.
Instead, he used the long staff in his hand to suddenly shove the manhole cover aside!
ROAR—!!!
The next second, a claw glinting with a cold light shot inside.
The long staff in Lin Ye's hand was instantly knocked away.
Then, a massive panther head—half its face charred black from the fire—lunged down through the manhole!
Its single, uninjured eye glowed with a menacing green light in the darkness, locking onto Lin Ye deep inside the pipe.
The hatred and killing intent were almost tangible!
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 panther.
The pipe's diameter was just right to get its wide shoulders stuck, leaving it unable to advance or retreat!
In this terrain, its speed and agility would be completely nullified!
But the power it unleashed in its death throes was terrifying to Lin Ye.
'A single swipe of its claw can crack the inner wall of the pipe!'
'Such terrifying power!'
Lin Ye knew there was no time to delay.
If he dragged this out any longer, he would be the one sealing his own escape route.
Lin Ye picked up his staff and, holding nothing back, poured all the power of his Qi and Blood into his arms. The staff in his hands became like a Poison Dragon Drill piercing the darkness as he viciously thrust it toward the panther's head!
SQUELCH!
The staff accurately pierced the socket of the panther's burned-out right eye!
"AWOOO—!"
The panther let out a shriek more piercing than any before. The agony sent it into a frantic struggle, its sharp claws gouging horrifying trenches into the walls around the manhole!
Having landed a successful blow, Lin Ye didn't press his advantage, immediately pulling back the staff and retreating.
CRACK!
A muffled thud echoed as the panther actually managed to force the front half of its body inside.
In that brief instant, several eerie, blue, unknown crystals bizarrely grew from its front claws.
Under the influence of these crystals, Lin Ye's pupils contracted.
He saw the panther's front claws miraculously extend.
It was this extension that allowed the claw to suddenly slam into Lin Ye's chest!
A tremendous force struck him, sending him sliding back several meters inside the pipe. His arms went numb, and his chest became a mess of mangled flesh and blood.
'There's no time to use Healing out of combat now.'
Lin Ye made an instant judgment.
'If I retreat and run deeper into the pipe...'
'...then the panther will just break through this narrow space, and I'll be the one to die in the end.'
The searing pain completely ignited the ferocity buried deep in Lin Ye's bones.
Instead of retreating, he advanced.
Like a man possessed, he relentlessly stabbed with the long staff in his hand!
SQUELCH!
SQUELCH!
"ROAR—!"
Inside the narrow pipe, flesh and blood flew everywhere!
Trading injury for injury!
Trading life for life!