Chapter 149: Chapter 146: Slaying the Wind Leopard with a Sword, A Little Knowledge of Runes

Holding their breath, the group slid silently down the coarse cliff face.

Pushing aside a thick layer of dark green vines, they revealed a pitch-black cave entrance easily three meters high.

A foul gust of wind, a mixture of blood and rot, rushed out from the depths of the cave, so nauseating it made one want to gag.

Wang Meng was about to charge in first with his Giant Axe, but an arm stretched out across his chest, stopping him firmly.

It was Han Feng.

"Something’s not right."

His voice wasn’t loud, but it made everyone freeze.

Within the field of Spiritual Vision that Han Feng had activated, the energy signatures deep inside the cave were outlined with perfect clarity.

Over a dozen dark red orbs of light, representing Tier One Demon Beasts, were moving restlessly.

And in their center, a far more intense and violent Tier Two Energy Core burned like a miniature volcano on the verge of erupting.

"Fuck!"

Wang Meng also caught the thick, cloying stench. His expression darkened as he cursed in a low voice.

"This goddamn safe point has been turned into a lair for a pack of Wind-Split Leopards!"

Without a word of nonsense, Zhang Hao lowered his center of gravity. The blade of the long saber in his hand began to glow with a visible layer of cyan Inner Qi.

"Same as always. I’ll take the big one."

His voice was as cold as a blade.

"Finish off the small fry. Make it quick!"

Before his words had even faded, dozens of ghastly green lights suddenly flared in the darkness at the end of the cave!

ROAR—!

A deafening roar exploded from the depths.

An impossibly fast gray afterimage, accompanied by a shriek that tore through the air, burst out of the darkness and lunged forward!

It was the Tier Two Early Stage Wind-Split Leopard leader!

The Wind Blades swirling around its claws even left deep gashes in the hard rock walls.

"Bring it on!"

Instead of retreating, Zhang Hao advanced, the rock beneath his feet shattering as he took the initiative and charged to meet it.

The Inner Qi of a Meridian Passage Realm Third Layer cultivator poured unreservedly into his saber, unleashing a dazzling, crescent-shaped blade of light!

CLANG!

A metallic clang so sharp it made one’s eardrums go numb!

The ferocious Wind-Split Leopard leader was actually sent flying backward by Zhang Hao’s incomparably domineering strike.

It crashed wretchedly against the cave wall, sending shattered rock flying.

This was the absolute power of an A-Level elite from East Sea Martial Arts University!

With their leader repelled, the remaining dozen or so Tier One Wind-Split Leopards went berserk, surging forward from all directions like a gray torrent!

"Hahaha, die for me!"

Wang Meng’s battle lust flared. He swung his door-panel of a Giant Axe with the force of a roaring tiger, focusing entirely on raw, overwhelming power.

The two Wind-Split Leopards at the very front were struck by the flat of the axe and instantly turned into a mush of mangled flesh and blood.

Fan Jian’s figure, on the other hand, became a wandering phantom. Each flash of his Short Sword precisely claimed the life of a Demon Beast.

Han Feng’s fighting style was completely different from the others.

He stood motionless as a mountain on the team’s right flank, holding the Profound Turtle Shield in his left hand and the Black Tungsten Gold Longsword in his right.

A cunning Tier One Peak Wind-Split Leopard used its packmates as cover to silently creep into a shadowy blind spot.

Its target: Su Yue, who was in the middle of chanting for a rune!

Han Feng didn’t even glance sideways.

He just flicked his wrist, bringing his sword back in a casual upward slash.

It was still the simplest upward slash from the Basic Swordsmanship manual.

But with the dual enhancement of his Body Tempering Perfection Qi Blood and the Sword Control Technique’s Mental Method, the sword strike was unreasonably fast.

SCHLICK.

It was a soft, almost inaudible sound.

The Wind-Split Leopard’s lunge came to an abrupt halt. A thin, red line materialized on its belly.

The next moment, hot viscera mixed with blood spilled out and splattered all over the ground.

It didn’t even have time to let out a whimper before it died, twitching.

"Holy shit!"

Old Liu, who was desperately holding back a Demon Beast with his shield, caught sight of this from the corner of his eye, and his heart skipped a beat.

"Fengzi, your swordsmanship... is too damn insidious!"

"Just cleaning up our doorstep."

Han Feng’s tone was flat. With a flick of his wrist, he shook the beads of blood from his blade.

He took a step forward, his body appearing just as Wang Meng’s Giant Axe swing lost its momentum.

His Longsword became a black flash of lightning, precisely parrying another Wind-Split Leopard lunging from a blind spot.

His positioning was flawless.

From the very beginning, there was no suspense in this battle.

In just two short minutes, a dead silence returned to the cave.

Except for the Tier Two leader still barely clinging to life under Zhang Hao’s saber, all the other small fry had been eliminated.

"Stay down!"

Zhang Hao roared, his long saber flaring with brilliant light. A powerful Dragging Blade Slash precisely split the Wind-Split Leopard leader’s spine!

CRACK!

The sound of bone cracking was sharp and ear-piercing. The Fierce Beast let out an unwilling wail as its massive body crashed to the ground.

Zhang Hao stepped forward and plunged his long saber into its skull, ending its life for good.

The battle was over.

"Haa... So this is a Tier Two Demon Beast. Its bones are really tough."

Zhang Hao shook his numb wrist and began to skillfully process the spoils of war.

"Don’t just stand there. Hurry up. The smell of blood will attract trouble."

Everyone immediately got to work.

Han Feng also crouched down, cut open a Wind-Split Leopard’s chest cavity, and retrieved a cloudy crystal from within—the Demon Core.

Su Yue glanced at Han Feng and took the initiative to explain.

"We don’t have to carry all these materials. If we run into people from our Spiritual Energy Technology Academy, we can trade them directly for finished Potions."

"According to the rules, you guys get a forty-percent cut."

Han Feng nodded.

’So this Secret Realm really is a mobile market where the strong prey on the weak.’

Twenty minutes later, the spoils had been divided.

Everyone’s gaze turned to the deepest part of the cave.

There, a bluish-gray stone stele, about half a person’s height, stood silently.

Its surface was covered in profound and complex ancient Runes, with a distinct indentation in the center.

"The control core for the safe point."

Han Feng walked over and activated his Spiritual Vision.

In his eyes, the stele was no longer a dead object but a precision Array node composed of countless Energy Circuits, connected to every inconspicuous Crystal Stone on the cave walls.

"Fengzi, you can understand this thing?"

Zhang Hao was a little surprised.

"The intel said we just need to stick some Spirit Coins in it."

"Mm, it’s a very interesting composite barrier."

Han Feng’s fingers gently traced the cold patterns on the stele.

A vast amount of knowledge from his Skilled Level Rune Construction flowed through his mind.

He pointed to several key Rune nodes, his tone certain.

"Its core functions are energy isolation and light-and-shadow mimicry."

"Once activated, this place will completely disappear from all external Perception—be it sound, smell, or energy fluctuations."

"From the outside, it will just look like an unremarkable stretch of rock wall."

Su Yue stared at Han Feng in shock and blurted out.

"You can read ancient Rune Arrays?"

She was a top student at the Spiritual Energy Technology Academy, yet even she could only perform the most basic energy analysis on a relic like this.

But Han Feng was reading it as if it were nothing more than a simple mechanical blueprint.

"I read some miscellaneous books back when I was fixing airplanes."

Han Feng replied casually, as if it were just a trivial hobby not worth mentioning.

He didn’t explain further, simply pulling three Spirit Coins from his pocket and fitting them precisely into the stele’s indentation.