Chapter Sixty-One: A Formidable Foe

Hum~
In a fraction of a second, Lin Xian's vision suddenly went dizzy.
Clang, clang.
Opening his eyes once more, the first thing to reach his ears was Teacher Chen's anxious shouting,
"Lin Xian! Lin Xian!"
As his eyes fluttered open and his sight began to clear, feeling the rumble of the train speeding along the rails, Lin Xian instantly jolted awake from the ground.
Beside him, seeing Lin Xian suddenly collapse, Chen Sixuan was pale with fright.
"What is wrong with you?!"
Lin Xian rubbed his temples, looking up at Chen Sixuan, "How long have I been unconscious?"
Chen Sixuan said with a strange expression, "J-just a moment. You suddenly fell over."
At this moment, Lin Xian hurriedly checked Kiki on the ground, only to find that her eyes had already been half-swallowed by the black ink. A terrible premonition instantly gripped his heart.
Thud!
Misfortunes never come singly. While Kiki's fate was still unknown, another violent impact suddenly echoed from the roof of a carriage further back.
Lin Xian's expression changed abruptly, and he said to Chen Sixuan,
"Help me look after her first!"
With those words, Lin Xian dashed straight toward the rear carriage.
Hum!
With a shift of his mind, he summoned the blueprint for the GK03 plasma blade that Kiki had given him. Raising his hand with a wave, a pile of Type-I tungsten-titanium alloy rapidly assembled and forged in mid-air. In the blink of an eye, a streamlined black long saber was slowly forged. Lacking several key materials, he had only temporarily crafted a prototype using the Type-I tungsten-titanium alloy. At the same time, he grabbed a fully loaded automatic rifle and hurried toward the rear.
The hilt still radiated residual heat from the forging process, and as Lin Xian grasped it, a jolt ran through his heart. Kiki's life and death were uncertain, and he had yet to shake off Tang Hai and the massive tide of corpses; he could only tackle the immediate crisis first.
Raising his head, he shouted toward Dalou and Shasha in the rear carriage,
"Dalou, Shasha, grab your weapons! That old bastard refuses to stay dead—we're going to slaughter him!"
"Big Brother Lin, watch out!"
Yet at that moment, Lou Shasha, who was in the fifth carriage, cried out in terror toward Lin Xian, pointing outside the train window as she yelled.
Bang!
Just as her voice trailed off, a massive, grayish-white withered claw slammed against the side of the carriage, instantly shattering the glass window with a crash. The immense impact sent Shasha flying on the spot.
Dalou reacted with lightning speed, flashing forward to catch his younger sister with one hand.
Lin Xian was sent hurtling through the air, crashing directly into a nearby supply cabinet. Scrambling to his feet, he saw that a giant white humanoid shadow had somehow appeared at the tail end of the train, causing his pupils to constrict and his expression to transform drastically!
He gritted his teeth fiercely. When it rains, it pours—isn't this that giant white monster he saw in Jiang City?!
How did it chase them all the way here?
Impossible! They had already fled over a thousand kilometers; how could a creature like this pursue them all the way along the route?!
"Dalou, watch out—there's another one!"
He warned Dalou that Tang Hai was still out there.
A corpse tide, broken tracks, a giant white monster... The more Lin Xian thought about it, the more alarmed he became. Was all of this a coincidence, or a long-laid plot?
If it wasn't a coincidence, it was terrifyingly calculated. That old bastard had to be eliminated immediately.
With no room left to evade, he had to fight. Without a second word, Lin Xian threw open the rear carriage door.
Dalou set Shasha down, snatched up a machine gun, and braced himself.
Woo~
The moment the tail door was lowered, the giant white monster crouching atop the carriage frame suddenly hung its head upside down, peering into the carriage with its deep, terrifying eyes. A dark red, cavernous maw slowly parted.
"Ugh-ah~!!"
The giant white monster emitted a shrill, piercing shriek akin to a woman's high-pitched wail, sending a sharp, painful ringing through everyone's eardrums.
In that exact instant, the guns in the hands of both Lin Xian and Dalou erupted with full firepower!
Dadadadadada!
Dadadadadada...
Overwhelming firepower poured out frantically. The steel bullets, carrying immense kinetic energy, struck the giant white monster's face as if hitting solid steel; sparks flew in all directions, yet no damage was dealt.
Instead, rounds that penetrated its open maw managed to burst forth with a spray of blood!
Seeming thoroughly enraged, the giant white monster thrust out a gruesome, withered arm, clawing wildly into the interior of the carriage!
Clatter-crash...
Every tool inside was instantly churned into utter chaos.
"Ah!"
Dalou let out a roar, his muscles straining as he grabbed a steel bar and drove it straight down into the white claw with explosive force. The tremendous strength warped the entire steel bar.
With a muffled thud resembling a steel pillar driving into concrete, the back of the giant white monster's hand was actually impaled by Dalou using the steel bar, piercing right through the carriage floor as well. The strength was astonishingly massive!
Watching this scene, Lin Xian felt a twitch in his back molars, thinking that Dalou's strength was simply too exaggerated. What would happen if he evolved further in the future?
Yet seeing this strike succeed, Lin Xian distinctly felt they had a fighting chance—gone was the sense of utter helplessness he had felt when attacked by the giant red worm earlier.
Just as he prepared to make his move, he heard a rapid sound of scrambling. Lin Xian jerked his head around to see Tang Hai emerge from nowhere, scrambling swiftly up the side of the carriage onto the roof before sprinting toward the front of the train.
Not good!
Lin Xian's expression changed sharply. At that moment, the giant white monster, its hand impaled, yanked desperately at the steel bar in an attempt to pull its arm back.
"Cover me!" Lin Xian shouted at the top of his lungs, seizing the opportunity to dash toward the rear of the carriage.
Realizing Lin Xian intended to climb onto the roof, Dalou reacted instantly, raising his gun to unleash another rapid burst of fire at the monster's probing head.
Agile of movement, Lin Xian vaulted directly over the monster's arm and leapt onto the open-air flatbed carriage at the rear. Before he could even turn around, he heard the sharp howling of wind.
Without a single thought of hesitation, he threw up an ice shield behind him and lunged toward the back of the jeep.
Bang!
The arm swung by the giant white monster instantly smashed the ice shield and the entire front end of the jeep to pieces. The safety chains snapped, and the jeep was left half-hanging over the edge of the carriage, only to be smashed apart a moment later by an electric utility pole beside the track, plunging down the roadside.
"Damn it!"
Standing on the empty flatbed carriage in the back, Lin Xian cursed inwardly. The two jeeps he had worked so hard to salvage were gone just like that, without even leaving him a chance to devour them.
"Dalou, help me hold it off! I'm going ahead to chase Tang Hai!"
Lin Xian shouted against the wind. The giant white monster was hanging upside down from the fifth carriage, while Tang Hai had already rushed toward the engine at the front.
"Got it!"
Without another word, Dalou shouldered his gun and charged out, executing a roll that narrowly dodged the muffled claw swiping down from above.
Dadadada!
Swapping out his magazine, Dalou unleashed a frantic hail of gunfire directly into the monster's mouth and eyes. Seizing the opportunity, Lin Xian lunged forward with a sprint while simultaneously activating his new skill!
"Flashback"!
This was a brand-new skill he had acquired by devouring the "Iron Guard 3" military assault armored vehicle. He hadn't even had time to test it, never expecting the first use would be in such a critical moment.
Swish!
In an instant, Lin Xian's entire figure seemed to transform into a grayish-white afterimage. Wielding the GK03 plasma blade forged from Type-I tungsten-titanium alloy, he flashed forward with gathered momentum!
With a crisp "crack," the sound of a sonic boom seemingly rang out.
The giant white monster's massive claw, swiping directly toward Lin Xian's face, grasped nothing but an afterimage. In the very next split second—squelch! A vertical hole tore through the center of its palm as flesh and blood burst and splattered in all directions!
Meanwhile, Lin Xian had already flashed past to the rear of the monster!
Hidden in the breath, striking with the edge!
Using this move for the very first time, Lin Xian felt an immense shock in his heart. Though it consumed a considerable amount of vital energy, this level of lethality was far more terrifying than he had imagined!
He knew that back in Jiang City, when he struck this monster's fingers with a short blade, he hadn't even managed to break the skin. Now, not only did he possess a new skill, a new weapon, and a vastly enhanced strength attribute, but he was finally able to pierce the creature's defenses directly. Instantly, his confidence soared!
Below, watching Lin Xian's projectile-like piercing movement, Dalou's eyes were filled with shock after shock.
Before he could react, the giant white monster began to roar frantically. Ripping the steel bars inside the carriage apart, it freed its hand, spun around, and prepared to pursue Lin Xian, who had just attacked it.
Its massive form pressed down heavily onto the carriage, emitting a muffled, hollow echo. The wheels of the fifth carriage ground violently against the rails, showering the air with wild sparks!
"Big Brother!"
At that moment, Shasha, having cleared out the carriage interior, finally found a window of opportunity to run out. She directly tossed a steel pipe to Lou Ye.
The two of them cooperated with tacit understanding. Dalou caught the steel pipe, gathered strength in his arms until the veins on his body bulged, and hurled it with all his might directly at the turning giant white monster!
Whoosh! A violent tearing sound pierced the air.
The giant white monster sensed the danger as well. Clearly possessing a degree of intelligence, it knew that both Lin Xian and Dalou were capable of inflicting direct harm upon it. Feeling Dalou's action, it immediately halted its pursuit of Lin Xian, whipped around sharply, and snapped its gruesome, withered claws shut. Bang!
Miraculously, it caught the red-hot steel pipe, instantly sending a blinding spray of sparks flying everywhere!!