Chapter 135: The Stuck Boss—2

"Hah!"

Dodging a swipe from the mutant rat boss, Bai Yuxi channeled a sudden burst of radiance into his fist, slamming it heavily into the beast's forehead, where its steel-like fur bristled.

"BOOM!" A thunderous explosion echoed.

The ferocious, snarling mutant rat boss shrieked in agony. It twisted its body in a desperate struggle, and a shallow indentation from the punch was actually left in its scalp!

"It worked!"

Bai Yuxi felt a surge of joy, but immediately heard a shout from behind: "Look out!" followed by a shrill, piercing whistle from above.

A chilling sense of crisis made the hair on his body stand on end. Instinctively, he crouched and shot backward, even utilizing an explosive "Rapid Step" to retreat from the cave entrance in a flash!

"CRACK!" With a deafening sound, debris flew across the rocky ground in front of the cave as a whip-like object, as thick as a large bowl, tore a long fissure into the stone.

Having narrowly escaped the attack, Bai Yuxi broke out in a cold sweat. It was the tail of the mutant rat boss!

Looking back at the creature inside the cave, aside from the slightly ruffled fur on its forehead, it looked completely unaffected, showing no signs of having taken a heavy blow from him.

One had to realize that Bai Yuxi’s strike was a "F9. Ten-Thousand Two. Nine-Style. Spear."

Enhanced by his custom combat gauntlets—forged from native axes with a 3% energy conductivity rate—the attack power reached a magnitude of approximately 1.35 million degrees!

Even an F7-level mutant creature should theoretically have been blasted to smithereens by such a hit. Yet, for this mutant rat boss, it had barely breached its hyper-active energy shield, causing only the slightest physical damage.

Judging by the beast’s thick-skinned and burly appearance, Bai Yuxi’s punch likely only gave it a mild headache.

In fact, instead of inflicting real damage, the punch had only served to infuriate the creature.

Struggling violently, the mutant rat boss forced its jammed body forward another few feet. As its bone spurs and plates scraped against the cave walls, the stone emitted a screeching sound of protest and crumbled significantly.

Watching the rat boss’s head nearly reach the cave entrance, everyone gasped.

"BOOM!" Another explosion echoed from deep within the cave.

The group looked at each other in horror. Besides this mutant rat boss, were there other high-risk, supernatural creatures in the core area?

Or was it possible that this severely mutated rat was not the final boss of the "Hualan Mountain Explicit Dimensional Intersection" at all?

If that were the case, could they no longer count on the high-level Transcendent Warriors in the core area to arrive in time to kill this boss?

"I think..." Willie said weakly, "would it be faster if we just dug out the other tunnel and ran away?"

"Are you an idiot?"

"Do you really think you graduated from a heavy machinery school?" Xia Youyou retorted. "Even if you dig as fast as you can, can you dig faster than this giant rat?"

"Hey, hey! Can you guys be a little more serious?"

Bai Yuxi had a headache dealing with the Seventh Squad's penchant for sarcasm. With the boss about to break free, they still had the heart to chat—they were literally running down the road of no return with their jokes!

Flexing his wrists, Bai Yuxi glanced at the Qu Yi squad huddled in the corner of the cavern. They were in a semi-crippled state, whispering to each other, and Qu Yi cast occasional venomous, hateful glares his way. They were undoubtedly plotting to use Bai Yuxi and his team as cannon fodder, hiding behind them to escape or sabotaging them in the process.

Under the mutant rat's desperate struggle, the rock walls pinning it were being clawed and chewed away, showing signs of collapse. This gave the boss more room to move, accelerating its escape. If they delayed any longer, they would be facing the beast head-on!

"Move back a little!"

Bai Yuxi took a deep breath and gestured to his companions. At this point, he couldn't worry about revealing his Transcendent combat techniques—if he didn't act now, they were truly going to die here.

Captain Luo Fei and the genius scholar Su Xiaoke exchanged a look. Clearly reaching the same conclusion, they nodded and led the Seventh Squad members back, intentionally using their bodies to block the Qu Yi squad's line of sight.

While the impending outburst would certainly be impossible to hide, it was better than nothing.

Exhaling a long breath, Bai Yuxi’s right arm began to crackle with electric arcs.

1%, 2%, 3%...

Not enough!

Still not enough!

Bai Yuxi frantically pushed his inner "Hyper-Active Energy," gathering it into his mutated arm. As the massive influx of energy surged, his arm began to emit a cerulean glow, and within the blinding electricity, the faint outline of a crystalline, jade-colored arm bone became visible.

Under the "Hyper-Evolution" state, just how vast was Bai Yuxi's inner energy?

Because they lacked equipment to measure precise physiological data, Bai Yuxi had been somewhat hazy about his own condition for some time. However, based on her assessment of his muscular density, Su Xiaoke estimated his current data was likely around F10, perhaps slightly higher, but not yet into the E-grade range.

This was due to his special constitution, which had assimilated the unique "Source Matter" of dimensional creatures. He not only possessed several times the muscular strength of a Transcendent Warrior of the same rank but could also contain several times the amount of supernatural energy.

However, while he had these advantages, the difficulty of increasing his combat level was also several times higher than that of his peers.

According to known energy tiers for supernatural personnel, an F10 Transcendent Warrior could store up to 26.21 million degrees of "Multi-Dimensional Hyper-Active Bio-Energy."

Bai Yuxi’s capacity was over four times that of a peer—meaning his current energy levels were roughly estimated to be over 100 million degrees!

...8%, 9%, 10%!

Under his frantic infusion, a massive amount of energy poured into his right arm, causing a swirling mist of plasma to rise from his crackling limb.

10%—nearly 10 million degrees of energy—was the absolute limit his current physical body could withstand!