At the peak of the fourth rank, I only need to make a slight move...

The ground shattered like porcelain, instantly erupting with a web of cracks.

Dust billowed as an iron hook embedded itself deep into the earth.

A deafening roar arrived belatedly.

"BOOM!"

Liu Yuan pressed her fingertips against the red welt left by the grazing chain on her arm.

Only after the adrenaline faded did she register the needle-like sting.

Her heartbeat thundered in her ears, so violently it almost felt like her ribs were vibrating.

Her sweat-drenched shirt clung to her back.

A gust of wind sent a chill down her spine, as if an icy hand had seized her vertebrae.

It was only then that she realized her entire back was drenched in cold sweat.

Just a little closer...

The scariest part wasn’t the moment the chain had hurtled toward her—it was the delayed terror sinking in now.

Her memory lingered on the instant the wind carried the metallic tang of blood past her.

She didn’t dare imagine what would’ve happened if she hadn’t trusted that split-second instinct to step back...

Would it have pierced through her chest?

Or crushed her ribcage entirely?

The others weren’t faring much better.

For a full three seconds, the riverbank was dead silent.

The girls’ ankles still dipped in the stream, their smiles frozen into masks of horror.

Then, the chain—thick as a baby’s arm—suddenly snapped taut, wrenching a chunk of earth the size of a person clean out of the ground.

Just as everyone assumed it would retract, the chain defied logic with a sharp 90-degree hook.

"AHHH—!"

A guy who’d been taking photos moments earlier wasn’t as lucky as Liu Yuan. Unable to dodge in time, the chain coiled around his ankle.

Then it yanked him backward, dragging him toward the depths of the forest.

His phone clattered to the ground a second too late.

The frozen selfie on its screen contrasted grotesquely with his now-twisted, panic-stricken face.

Another two seconds passed.

The guy’s screams for help finally snapped someone out of their daze.

Xu Kun.

His face was ashen.

He’d been the one to bring everyone out here.

If anything happened, there’d be no escaping blame.

A flash of blue light in his hand, and with a mere thought, a two-meter-long spear materialized from nothingness into his grip.

He kicked off the ground, his body shooting forward like an arrow.

Closing the distance fast, Xu Kun saw the chain about to drag the guy into the woods. He leaped, flipping the spear in his hands so the blade faced downward.

With a brutal thrust, he drove it straight through a link in the chain, the tip skewering the earth at an angle.

Using the ground as leverage, he wedged the spear shaft against the chain, halting its movement completely.

To his credit, Xu Kun’s reflexes were sharp—this was one of the best possible solutions. Far better than trying to wrestle the chain directly or frantically pulling the guy free.

Yet even so, Xu Kun felt the immense force straining against the spear.

His hands locked like iron vices around the shaft, refusing to budge.

Muscles taut, veins bulging at his temples.

The chain trembled, its metallic shrieks grating against the spear, but it couldn’t advance another inch.

Soon, others snapped into action, rushing to peel the chain away from the guy’s ankle.

He collapsed onto the ground, pale-faced, clothes torn, his body streaked with bloody scrapes from being dragged.

But his eyes were filled with the relief of having survived a disaster.

He looked at Xu Kun, his face full of gratitude.

Xu Kun, however, dared not let his focus waver too much. He simply said, "Get behind me."

Then, he yanked his spear free with a sharp motion, clashing against the iron chain and sending a shower of sparks flying.

The hook finally retreated further.

Xu Kun had already begun imagining the admiring gazes of his classmates.

He twirled the spear in his hand, executing a dazzling flourish.

"I'm at the peak of the fourth tier."

"Just a bunch of clowns here to hand me my victory."

"All I need to do is barely lift a finger—"

His words were cut short.

From behind him came the terrified screams of his classmates.

He looked up and saw a horde of undead creatures clad in tattered armor and wielding rusted weapons swarming in from all directions.

Their eyes glowed with an eerie green light, and their mouths emitted incomprehensible, bone-chilling howls.

But that wasn’t the end of it.

As the hook retracted, a massive tree thirty meters away from Xu Kun was violently smashed aside by its force.

The owner of the hook emerged from the shadows, its silhouette rising like a grotesque mountain of stitched-together corpses.

Layers of useless fat sagged from its body, draping over its chain-wrapped belly.

All five of its eyes locked onto Xu Kun at once.

For some inexplicable reason, Xu Kun felt his grip on the spear tremble without cause.

Truth be told, this monster wasn’t actually that strong.

It was still a step below the peak of the fourth tier.

But…

But…

With every step it took, undigested limbs inside its stitched-up stomach pushed against the necrotic, rotting skin, forming horrifying bulges.

Patches of human skin in varying shades were crudely sewn together with coarse rope, the stitches crawling with maggots that shook loose with each movement, leaving behind trails of yellow-green mucus that sizzled with rising wisps of white smoke.

The cleaver in its left arm was still skewered with half of a human thigh—so fresh that the nerves were still twitching…

Disgust…

An overwhelming sense of disgust…

Xu Kun was the closest to it, and thus saw everything in horrifying detail.

His throat clenched as if something were lodged in it, the boastful words he’d prepared now stuck in his windpipe.

All he felt was stomach acid burning his throat…

"Ugh—"

A violent urge to vomit…

Xu Kun doubled over, emptying the contents of his stomach from breakfast.

But the monster wouldn’t wait for him to recover.

It lumbered forward, its bloated body swaying unsteadily as it charged toward Xu Kun.

Swinging its hook-laden right arm, the iron weapon whistled through the air before crashing down!

Xu Kun had no time to finish retching. He kicked off the ground, swinging his spear upward to meet the hook head-on.

A deafening clang rang out as the spear and hook collided, sparks flying once more.

Xu Kun felt an immense force reverberate through his arms, leaving them numb.

His instincts screamed that something was wrong.

He could hold out for five more seconds at most.

He couldn’t block it!

But why couldn’t he?!

He was at the peak of the fourth tier!

The opponent’s level was clearly lower than his!

Yet, despite his strength, he could only muster half of it.

Gritting his teeth, Xu Kun adjusted his stance, forcing his breathing to steady as he tried to suppress the fear gnawing at his mind.

But…

Could he really do it?

No—he couldn’t!

He knew this monster was no match for him, yet his body refused to fight at full strength…

That grotesque amalgamation of human parts…

It triggered an instinctive, primal terror…

Some might think Xu Kun was useless.

But the truth was, ninety-nine out of a hundred people would fare no better in his place.

The human body was just that unpredictable.

Often, we can't control ourselves.

Let me give you an example.

On a narrow wooden bridge half a meter above the ground, even an ordinary person could walk across effortlessly, even enjoying themselves.

But what if it were the same bridge, just as narrow, yet suspended a hundred meters in the air?

No safety nets, no room for error—one misstep, and you’d plummet to your death, with no chance of survival.

How many people could still walk across it with ease?

How many could even enjoy it?

Or think of standing at the edge of a skyscraper, leaning over the railing to look down.

Logically, you know you won’t fall, yet at least nine out of ten people feel some resistance, a flicker of fear—whether faint or overwhelming.

Your thoughts simply can’t override your body’s instincts.

And right now, Xu Kun is like that person standing at the railing of a hundred-story building...

What fourth-rank pinnacle?

Nothing but a paper tiger.