"There’s another one?"

Song Mirror and the others had just finished dealing with the smaller fries. When they turned around, their faces instantly went deathly pale.

There, on the bank of the churning, murky Black Water River, a bizarre creature slowly crawled into view. It was as large as a millstone and completely covered in ghastly white bone armor. With each step, its heavy body made the muddy riverbank tremble, emitting a heart-pounding rumble.

The monster resembled a giant turtle, but its back was not a natural shell. It was a cage of bone, pieced together from thick, ghastly white ribs. In the gaps between them, one could faintly see rotting, blackened flesh squirming.

"What the hell is that thing!"

Xu Hu cried out in alarm, but charged forward with his saber anyway.

"Don’t let it break our formation!"

Song Mirror roared, rushing in from the side to support him.

CLANG! CLANG!

Two sharp, clashing sounds of metal rang out.

Xu Hu and Song Mirror felt a violent jolt in their hands, as if their sabers had struck thousand-year-old Profound Iron. The massive recoil nearly tore the weapons from their grasp. Taking a closer look, they saw that the ghastly bone armor had only thrown off a shower of sparks, without leaving so much as a white scratch!

ROAR—!

The Bone Turtle was clearly enraged by their attack. It abruptly retracted its head to dodge the blades, then its scale-covered skull shot out like a spring. Opening its cavernous maw, it chomped down hard on Xu Hu’s blade.

CRACK!

With a sickening crunch, the long saber in Xu Hu’s hand, forged from Hundred-refined Steel, was snapped in two!

Immediately after, the Bone Turtle’s thick tail whipped out horizontally, whistling through the air like a steel whip studded with barbs.

BANG! BANG!

Xu Hu and Song Mirror had no time to dodge. They were sent flying by the terrifying force, slamming hard into the rock wall behind them. Both men coughed up a mouthful of blood, feeling as if their bodies had been shattered. Their eyes were filled with horror.

"Dammit... *cough, cough*... It’s one of those bone-faced aberrations the Commander mentioned!"

Clutching his chest, Xu Hu roared, "This kind of aberration’s bone shell is too damn tough! Normal weapons are useless! You’d need a Second Acupoint Martial Artist erupting with Qi and Blood just to break through its defense!"

Cai Yun, who was locked in a struggle with the Spider Monster, saw this from the corner of her eye, and her heart filled with anxiety.

The appearance of this Bone Turtle had completely thrown the battle into chaos. If no one stopped it, casualties among the team members were highly likely.

She twirled the Emei Needle in her hand, trying to break away and provide support. But the Spider Monster before her, with its eight spear-like legs, seemed to sense her intent. It went berserk, its frenzied attacks weaving an impenetrable web of venom and claws that pinned her down.

"Damn it!" Cai Yun grit her teeth.

On the shore above, Su Yu saw his team in danger and prepared to leap down from the reef to support them.

"Su Yu! Don’t come down!"

Cai Yun saw Su Yu move and anxiously cried out:

"That’s a bone-faced aberration! Its armor is as hard as iron; your Flying Locust Stone can’t break through! Get the others and fall back! Use the terrain to hold it off! Wait for the Commander’s reinforcements!"

In her view, while Su Yu was skilled with his projectiles, that was only effective against ordinary aberrations. This Bone Turtle’s defenses were on par with a Second Acupoint Martial Artist, making it even tougher than the Spider Monster she was fighting.

His Flying Locust Stone would struggle to pierce its defense, and if he got too close and it caught him, he would surely die!

However, Su Yu didn’t hesitate for a moment.

He stood atop the high reef, his black combat attire whipping in the night wind. As he looked down at the rampaging Bone Turtle and his gravely injured teammates, there was no panic in his eyes—only a cold glint as sharp as a razor’s edge.

’A bone-faced aberration. A perfect chance to test the Spiritual Ape Demon-Slaying Saber Stance!’

Su Yu’s expression was as tranquil as always. He slowly placed his left hand on the hilt of the long-dormant Mo Yuan Saber at his waist.

The next moment, he leaped from the towering reef.

While he was in mid-air, a tremor ran down his spine like a great dragon, and a low, thunderous hum suddenly resounded.

"Su Yu! Are you insane?!" Cai Yun’s terrified scream was instantly drowned out by the ringing of the blade.

Su Yu gripped the saber with both hands. His body arched in mid-air like a fully drawn bow. The hundred-and-eight-jin Mo Yuan Saber, carrying a terrifying momentum that felt as if it could crush mountains, came crashing down toward the impenetrable white bone shell!

"Demon-slaying Mountain Splitting!"

As the blade descended, the night air itself seemed to grow thick and viscous. The whistling wind fell silent, swept up by the saber’s edge and transformed into a visible shockwave!

BOOM—!

A sharp crack exploded through the night.

The black gleam of the saber cut through the shell like a hot knife through butter. The hard bone armor that had driven Xu Hu and the others to despair proved as fragile as paper before the Mo Yuan Saber, and was instantly torn asunder!

The blade was unstoppable, driving deep and effortlessly slicing through the Bone Turtle’s tough hide and bone.

PSHHHT!

A fountain of foul-smelling black blood erupted into the air, forming a grim, crimson curtain against the night sky.

ROAR—!!

The Bone Turtle let out a bloodcurdling shriek. The terrifying force of the blow slammed its massive body to the ground. Its limbs twitched, and a horrifying, deep fissure split its back armor!

The immense impact brought a moment of dead silence to the battlefield.

"He... He broke through its defense?!"

Xu Hu gasped, staring at the scene in disbelief. His eyes looked ready to pop out of his skull.

He had just tested the toughness of the Bone Turtle’s armor firsthand; his all-out strike hadn’t even left a white mark. And Su Yu had just cleaved it open in a single blow?

"Brother Song, what realm is Captain Su in? Is he really just at the First Acupoint?" Chen Cheng asked, his voice trembling as he swallowed hard.

Song Mirror coughed up some bloody spittle and suppressed his shock, putting on an air of someone who’d known all along. "Why are you so surprised? Our captain is a peerless genius. You can’t measure him by common sense."

Hearing this, the men exchanged glances, a hint of envy in their eyes. ’Is this the difference between a genius and the rest of us?’

Not far away, Xie Yun bit her pale lip, her heart fluttering. Women are often drawn to strength; seeing how powerful and young Su Yu was, she naturally felt a surge of admiration.

「In the center of the battlefield.」

Though gravely wounded, the Bone Turtle wasn’t dead. The excruciating pain only fueled its ferocity. Its massive body writhed as it tried to get up, its cavernous mouth snapping open to reveal rows of sharp teeth. It lunged, aiming to bite Su Yu’s head off with a foul gust of wind.

"Thunderclap Flash Step!"

BOOM!

Su Yu stomped down, and the ground instantly fractured, leaving a deep crater. Propelled by the explosive force, his figure blurred into an afterimage and vanished.

The Bone Turtle chomped on empty air, its sharp teeth clacking together loudly.

Su Yu had already reappeared at its side like a phantom.

"Spiritual Ape Emerges from the Cave!"

The blade flashed like lightning, stabbing from an incredibly awkward angle into the joint of the Bone Turtle’s foreleg.

PFFT!

Another spray of blood erupted.

The Bone Turtle shrieked, trying to turn, but Su Yu gave it no such chance.

He unleashed the Thunderclap Flash Step repeatedly, his figure flickering left and right as he weaved around the lumbering Bone Turtle. The Mo Yuan Saber in his hands was sometimes heavy as a mountain in his slashes, other times as nimble as a Spiritual Ape in its cunning thrusts.

PFFT! PFFT! PFFT!

In just a few breaths, more than a dozen new, bone-deep wounds appeared on the Bone Turtle’s body, its blood dyeing the riverbank red.

"Saber Stance! That’s really a Saber Stance!"

Elsewhere, Cai Yun deftly dodged another of the Spider Monster’s attacks, her eyes wide with undeniable shock and delight.

’Wielding the heavy as if it were light, with momentum that can’t be stopped... He actually comprehended a Saber Stance at his age? And such a powerful one, too!’

Even among the geniuses of Black Stone City, those who could comprehend a "Stance" at his level were few and far between!

She felt as if she were witnessing a new star on the rise!

Cai Yun felt her heart begin to race, not only because of the tense battle, but because of the boy who was currently running rampant on the field.

’A genius like this... If I don’t snatch him up now, when will I ever get another chance!’