The remaining four beasts were alerted by the roar of the Second-Rank beast and finally noticed Shen Biqian and the others. With furious roars, they charged forward.
Shen Biqian shouted loudly.
“Hold them off!”
Li Li and the others saw Shen Biqian dart forward like a leopard and each immediately engaged one beast of their own.
Shen Biqian leapt into the air and delivered a powerful kick to the Second-Rank beast.
Although it was only a Second-Rank beast, its massive body merely staggered slightly—it did not fall.
The wooden bindings around it also began to show signs of weakening.
At the same time, the Third-Rank beast relied on its instincts to abandon Li Li and the others and charged straight toward Shen Biqian.
Sensing the tremors of the ground behind her, Shen Biqian gritted her teeth and did not dodge.
Instead, she gathered all her spiritual energy into her fist and slammed it toward the Second-Rank beast.
If she didn’t eliminate it now, once it broke free of the Wood Binding and joined forces with the Third-Rank beast, she would be doomed.
“ROAR!”
With a final agonized roar, the Second-Rank beast finally collapsed to the ground.
At the same moment, the attack from the Third-Rank beast landed heavily on Shen Biqian’s back.
“PFFFT!”
Shen Biqian felt her internal organs shake violently and spat out a mouthful of blood.
The impact on her back burned with searing pain.
But she had no time to wipe the blood from her lips.
She rolled on the ground just in time to avoid another claw strike.
After evading the attack, she staggered back to her feet.
Wiping the blood from her mouth, she stared at the roaring beast and rushed forward again at the same time.
Bang!
Shen Biqian lifted her leg and kicked the beast’s soft abdomen.
The beast staggered backward.
However, her leg was not retracted in time, and she was struck hard by its claw.
The force was so great that she even heard the sound of bone breaking in her leg.
She dropped to one knee, her right leg completely numb from pain.
Meanwhile, Li Li and the others were also in a bitter struggle.
Because they had only awakened abilities and had no proper cultivation techniques, their progress was purely self-taught.
Li Li, the strongest among them, had only barely reached the first level of Qi Condensation.
Long Er and Long San were still below that level.
So the three of them fighting three First-Rank beasts was an extremely difficult battle.
Shen Biqian, on the other hand, had already used her strongest skill—Wood Binding—at the start.
A large portion of her spiritual energy had been consumed.
Now, she only had enough energy left for one final attack.
Seeing the beast charging at her again, Shen Biqian dragged her injured leg and forced herself to stand.
She gathered her remaining spiritual energy into her fist and met the beast’s claw head-on.
“ROAR!”
The beast let out a pained howl.
Shen Biqian’s fist had pierced straight through its claw.
But at the same time, all five of her fingers were broken and hung limp.
The beast, now enraged beyond reason, ignored its injured paw and struck at her again.
At this point, Shen Biqian’s entire body was in pain.
Her vision darkened repeatedly, and her spiritual energy was completely exhausted.
All she could rely on now was the explosive power of the leaves in her dantian.
But even if both leaves were detonated… she wasn’t sure she could kill this beast.
Li Li had just finished off one beast and was gasping heavily on the ground.
When she looked up, she saw Shen Biqian completely unable to resist the beast’s attack.
“Boss!”
She roared.
Ignoring her own serious injuries, she rushed forward and shoved Shen Biqian out of the way.
She took the beast’s full-force strike herself.
Blood sprayed as she was sent crashing to the ground.
But the beast did not let up—it raised its claw again.
“Damn it… my life isn’t so easy to take!”
Li Li rolled across the ground and narrowly avoided the attack.
She pulled out a dagger hidden in her pant leg.
She did not use spiritual energy—she simply charged forward and stabbed directly at the wound on the beast’s claw that Shen Biqian had previously created.
Shen Biqian knelt on the ground, watching Li Li fight desperately to save her.
She gritted her teeth and prepared to detonate both leaves in her body.
At that moment—
A voice suddenly echoed in her mind.
“Shen Biqian, don’t act recklessly!”
Shen Biqian, who had already resolved to risk her life, was instantly overjoyed upon hearing this mysterious voice.
This voice had always been strange and powerful.
It had never once taken these beasts seriously.
All her cultivation techniques had been given by it.
Maybe it had a solution.
“What do you have in mind?”
The voice sounded slightly annoyed.
“I’ll lend you a bit of my power. Just punch it.”
Then it muttered unhappily,
“My main body still hasn’t awakened. This power is limited—every bit I use is a loss. Such a waste. If she weren’t somewhat tolerable, I wouldn’t bother saving her at all.”
At that moment, Shen Biqian felt a strange energy surge within her dantian.
It was not spiritual energy.
She didn’t know what it was.
But wherever it passed, it brought an indescribable comfort, as if her entire body was being soothed.
Even her injuries felt less painful.
“Stop wasting time. Once it’s gone, it’s gone. If you hesitate, you’re dead!”
A sudden furious shout rang out in her mind.
Shen Biqian, who had been sinking into that strange and comfortable sensation, instantly snapped back to clarity.
She quickly guided that faint, unusual power into her right hand.
Her completely shattered fingers immediately recovered.
“Damn it!”
Li Li cursed softly.
It wasn’t that she didn’t want to shout—it was that she simply didn’t have the strength.
Her entire body felt weak and limp, drained of all energy.
She had already been struck at least five times by this damned beast.
Fortunately, it had been injured earlier; otherwise she would have been killed long ago.
But even so, she was still not far from death.
So this is how it ends…
I finally got a mother, but I never even got to feel what maternal love is like, and now I’m going to die here?
But I don’t regret it.
Boss is Auntie’s only daughter. I saved her, and Auntie will be happy.
Much happier than if I had survived.
I hope in my next life, I’ll have parents who love me too.
So I won’t have to envy other children anymore.
The beast raised its claw once again, preparing to strike Li Li down.
She closed her eyes in despair.
“DIE!”
Shen Biqian roared.
Her fist, infused with that mysterious power, slammed fiercely into the beast’s back.
The beast’s hardened exterior was like paper before that power.
Shen Biqian felt as if her arm had pierced straight into its deepest core without any resistance.
She pulled her arm back out from its body.
Blood dripped down her arm.
For the first time, she did not feel disgust.
Instead, a fierce sense of satisfaction and revenge surged through her heart.
She pushed lightly—
And the massive beast collapsed to the side.
Shen Biqian herself could no longer hold on and fell to the ground.
A low chuckle escaped her lips.
Then she laughed louder and louder, until it turned into unrestrained laughter.
“Damn beast… finally sent you to hell!”
Hearing her laughter, Li Li finally snapped out of her daze.
The overwhelming joy of surviving the ordeal made her burst into laughter as well.
“Hahaha! I knew it—I’m not that easy to kill!”
On the other side, Long Er and Long San had also finally finished off their beasts and collapsed to the ground laughing.
A sense of shared survival and bond was born between them.
Shen Biqian had originally only used force to subdue them.
But after this battle, everything had changed.
After all, nothing builds bonds more deeply than life-and-death struggles.