Observing Wanfa from the martial arts school servants

Chapter 89 Ironclad Rhinoceros

The following day, at dusk.

After Lin Mu finished crafting the "Swallow Wind" short sword for Quan Feng, he climbed onto the city wall.

Dusk was pressing in from the direction of the Evernight Forest.

The clouds on the horizon were burned to a dark ochre red by the setting sun. The light leaking through the gaps in the clouds was not golden, but an extremely abnormal and oppressive dark orange, as if something was slowly burning behind the clouds.

The flags on the city wall fluttered in the evening breeze.

Several bowls of half-finished cold tea, drunk by the guards, sat on the crenellations, and the water rippled in circles as the flagpole trembled.

Wen Haoran stood in front of the westernmost crenellation of the city wall, holding a bamboo slip in his hand, facing north.

Three steps behind him, three guards stood silently in a row.

Yue'er sat on the edge of the battlement, swinging her legs. She was still quite cute when she wasn't talking.

Wen Haoran gazed at the dense dark clouds in the distance, his brows slightly furrowed.

"The carrier pigeons that flew out a few days ago, haven't they replied yet?"

A guard behind him whispered, "No."

Wen Haoran tapped the bamboo slip in his palm.

It will take another six days for the sect's reinforcements to arrive, but a Transformation Realm demon beast has already appeared today.

In yesterday's three waves of attacks, the first wave was led by Ming Jin demonic beasts, the second wave was led by An Jin demonic beasts, and in the third wave, the armored rhinoceros charged a distance under the light of the Righteous Qi, its flesh scorched black but it did not retreat.

The homing pigeons were sent out four days ago and should have returned to Heyuan under normal circumstances.

It seems a bit strange.

He took a step forward, and the ink characters on the bamboo slips began to glow with a very faint, pure white light.

Just as he was about to make a move, Lin Mu grabbed his wrist.

"It's only dusk now."

Lin Mu gazed at the sparse groups of demonic beasts below the city.

There weren't many of them; most were low-level demonic beasts lingering on the opposite bank of the moat, tentatively climbing up the city wall, only to be knocked down by rolling logs and boulders before climbing back up.

"Save your righteous energy for tonight; leave these to me."

Lin Mu didn't wait for him to nod. He pulled the old cloth off his shoulder with his right hand, and the blade of the Windthorn gleamed with a dark, ebony luster in the twilight.

He pushed off the crenellation with his left foot and leaped down from the city wall like a night falcon.

His robes fluttered in the twilight as he swung his spear horizontally in mid-air, and the moment he landed, the fist-shaped end of the spear slammed into the head of a demon wolf climbing across the moat.

Before the demon wolf could even howl, its head was smashed into its chest cavity by a fist.

He drew his gun, held it horizontally, and the tip of the gun drew a dark golden arc in the twilight.

Three demon wolves pounced from three directions simultaneously. He took a sudden step, his body skimming along the ground as he swept out diagonally, the tip of his spear touching the throat of the nearest demon wolf before retracting.

As the demon wolf landed, a jet of blood spurted from its throat.

The second demon wolf pounced from behind, but Lin Mu didn't turn his head. He struck the wolf's jawbone with the butt of his spear.

The entire demon wolf was blasted away and crashed into a pile of rocks on the opposite bank of the moat, where it lay motionless.

The third wolf pounced on his face before he could retract his spear.

Lin Mu released the gun barrel with his left hand, his five fingers slightly curled into claws, and the three fingers of the Stone Claw precisely locked the demon wolf's neck bone.

With a snap, it was crushed.

Cheers erupted from the city wall from the guards.

Some people pounded the crenellations with the handles of their swords, while others shouted "Scholar Wu!" down towards the city walls.

Yue'er sat on the edge of the stack, her swinging leg paused for a moment, then she snorted disdainfully.

Wen Haoran put the bamboo slip back into his sleeve, stood in front of the crenellation and watched quietly, his attention focused on Lin Mu's spear.

Lin Mu had knocked down most of the monsters on the opposite bank of the moat with a few spear thrusts, and the rest began to retreat, gathering in a circle at the edge of the pile of rocks.

Only one armored rhinoceros remained steadfast.

Its size was a whole size larger than the fully grown armored rhinoceros from yesterday, and its back was covered with dark gray bone armor, with extremely fine and dark gold patterns inlaid on the edge of each piece of bone armor.

Its horn was as thick as an adult's arm, and its tip gleamed with a cold, dark gold light in the twilight.

Its four hooves dug deep pits in the muddy riverbank, and with each exhale, two plumes of white mist shot out of its nostrils.

This is an adult Ironclad Rhinoceros, at the Transformation Realm.

Lin Mu held the Wind Thorn horizontally in front of him, staring at the deepest and densest dark gold pattern on the tip of the unicorn.

The armored rhinoceros's markings are concentrated on the tip of its horn and on its forehooves. The markings seem to be pulled from its body to its exterior by something, with each marking converging at the tip of its horn.

Lin Mu decided to play with it for a while, after all, the Ye family was still waiting for him to forge weapons, and he had to give them a "complete" one.

The Ironclad Rhinoceros didn't give him much time to think.

It lowered its head, pointed its single horn at Lin Mu, dug a deep pit in the riverbank with its hind hooves, and then crushed over him like a moving mountain of bone armor.

Lin Mu dodged the unicorn by sidestepping, the tip of his spear slicing across the rhinoceros's shoulder blade.

The spear tip grazed the bone armor, sending up a string of sparks and leaving only a very faint white mark.

The rhinoceros's momentum did not diminish, and it smashed through the pile of rocks behind Lin Mu.

Pebbles scattered and flew in the twilight, hitting the city walls with a crackling sound.

The cheers from the city wall gradually subsided.

The guards craned their necks to look down from the city walls.

Someone muttered something first.

"Weren't you so powerful just now? How come you can't even hurt a rhinoceros now?"

Lin Mu strode through the rain of pebbles, maintaining a distance of three zhang from the rhinoceros, his gaze fixed on the dark gold patterns on the tip of its horn.

Every time the rhinoceros's markings light up, it's a prelude to its charge.

The tip of the horn shines first, then the forehooves and ankles, and finally the patterns run back from the ankles to the horn, and the whole rhinoceros rushes out like an arrow.

What he needs to determine is whether, when the lines light up, the force flows from the horn to the hoof or from the hoof to the horn.

The third collision.

The fourth round.

The fifth round.

The rhinoceros's charge grew increasingly violent, each horn strike carving a deep furrow in the pile of rocks, crushing the rubble to pieces with its hooves.

Lin Mu continued to hide and observe.

His clothes were grazed by the horn several times, his shoulder was torn, and his trousers were ripped by gravel, but he never used his full strength.

People on the city wall started to get impatient.

"Why isn't it finished yet?"

"You've dodged this so many times already, if you can't take it anymore, just come up here and let Brother Haoran do it!"

I'm a little hungry.

The moon was complaining on the edge of the barricade.

Next came the sixth round of impacts.

With a low growl, Lin Mu finally saw the rhinoceros clearly when the tip of its horn lit up.

The brightening of the markings flows from the horn towards the hoof and ankle.

The kinetic energy from the impact accelerates through the natural patterns on its body, accumulating power at the tips of its horns and exploding outwards at its hooves and ankles.

When the rhinoceros rushed in front of him, its horn was only three feet away from his chest.

Lin Mu dodged to the side, and the frequency of the patterns lighting up, the speed at which the dark golden light flowed within the patterns, and the complete loop of the force from the tip of the horn to the hoof and back to the tip of the horn during the collision—all of this was captured by the myriad methods of martial arts.

After observation, the Ironclad Rhinoceros Origin Mark can be replicated.

Will it be a reissue?

He silently said "yes" to himself.

A powerful and savage force surged into his dantian, flowing from the energy-gathering patterns at the horn tip to the explosive patterns at the hoof and wrist, and back to the horn tip—a complete collision loop.

The rhinoceros charged again.

Lin Mu stopped dodging.

He stomped his left foot on the ground, his body advancing instead of retreating, the tip of his spear drawing a dark golden arc in the twilight, precisely piercing the gap between the tip of the unicorn horn and the hoof.

The spear tip pierced the soft area beneath the rhinoceros's neck, an area unprotected by bone armor.

The Nine-Headed Serpent Mark exploded along the tip of the spear, and the Raging Rhinoceros's momentum froze three feet away from him.

The four hooves dug the last deep pit on the riverbank, and the huge body crashed to its side, the bone armor on its back smashing into the pile of rocks.

The soldiers urging battle from the city gates suddenly fell silent.