Snatching Food from the Tiger's Mouth — A Massive Haul

Lu Yuan didn't throw a fourth stone. Instead, he worked his way down the cliff face, descending from the top of the gobi plateau back to ground level.

While the two Black-stripe Gray Rock Beetles were still frozen in hesitation from his last throw, he'd already moved along the wall to the rope he'd prepared earlier. Both beetles charged out of the passage at once.

He stopped at the narrowest section of the gorge, roughly a hundred meters from the charging beetles, and flipped his right hand — a medium-sized plastic bucket appeared in his grip. He opened it and poured the thick, transparent liquid inside across the passage floor, working the bucket back and forth in several passes to guarantee a solid, unbroken barrier from wall to wall.

This was a next-generation combustion oil — colorless, odorless, and once ignited, it burned for an extended period at ferociously high temperatures. Yet another item from the beginner forum's must-have list. He'd bought it as a precaution. He hadn't expected to actually use it.

With the oil laid down, he climbed back up to the top of the gobi plateau.

Up top, he pulled out a roll of green plastic bags. The material was a tough, waterproof, abrasion-resistant specialty nylon — versatile enough for a dozen uses in the field. Also a forum recommendation; he'd bought a full roll of twenty, just in case.

One by one, he stretched each bag open and stuffed it with the weathered sand and gravel covering the plateau. He packed nearly every loose grain within reach into all twenty bags. When they were full, he grouped them four to a bundle and lashed each bundle with rope, producing five groups in total.

"Almost ready," he murmured. "Just one last step."

He drew his black-light alloy sword and drove the blade into the gobi cliff face, leaving only the handle exposed. He tied a length of thick rope to the handle and gave it several hard tugs to verify it held. Then he reached for a small spray canister and coated himself in scent-eliminator, masking his body odor entirely.

He stowed the canister, brushed his hands together, and let his eyes narrow into a quiet smile.

*"All set. Now let's see if we can turn a bicycle into a motorcycle."*

He had a plan. He couldn't guarantee it would work perfectly — but as long as the odds were reasonable, he was willing to roll the dice.

He moved to the stone-throwing position from his earlier experiments and picked up the four pre-prepared stones. Two at a time, in quick succession, he launched them in opposite directions.

*Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.*

The steady drumbeat of impacts jolted both Black-stripe Gray Rock Beetles out of their contentment. Without the earlier barrage of falling stones, they'd been peacefully grinding away at the rock. They did not enjoy the interruption.

They were about to enjoy things far less.

From the gobi top, Lu Yuan watched both beetles burst across the invisible oil line, each charging toward a different impact zone. The smile on his lips sharpened. He took out a torch, lit it, and flung it down at the oil.

*BOOM!*

The instant the flame touched the combustion oil, a wall of searing heat erupted. Fire roared up in a solid sheet, blazing from the passage floor to the rim of the gobi plateau in the span of a heartbeat.

Both beetles skidded to a stop just short of the fire wall. Even elite-rank beasts like them couldn't push through that heat without consequence. They let out furious shrieks.

Lu Yuan didn't pause. Just as he'd rehearsed it in his mind a hundred times, he grabbed the first bundled group of four bags and hurled it with both hands over the top of the fire wall.

*BOOM!*

The bags burst the instant they hit the heat. Sand and gravel erupted outward, swept up into the updraft of wind and flame, filling the passage with a dense, swirling haze.

Some of the sand had half-melted in the inferno before it fell. A portion of it rained down directly onto the beetles' carapaces.

*Hiss.*

Wisps of smoke curled from their shells. The beetles lurched back in alarm, retreating several more paces, shrieking in frenzied rage at the fire wall.

Lu Yuan was already throwing the second group. Then the third. The fourth.

*BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.*

The relentless barrage drove them to the edge of their rage. By the time the fifth and final bundle sailed over, the air above the passage had gone completely opaque — a churning curtain of airborne sand, heat-haze, and debris that no eye could penetrate.

In the heart of the inferno, some sand had melted entirely and trickled down the walls. The rest swirled in the roaring wind, forming a solid, impenetrable invisible barrier.

Above the fire wall, yellow sand choked the sky. The world had gone amber. The two Black-stripe Gray Rock Beetles, blind with fury, had no idea that someone had already slipped into their den and was about to help himself to everything they'd guarded.

And fortune, as they say, favors the bold. The chest was right there. Lu Yuan was not the kind of man to walk away from a chest.

He checked his position on the plateau, moved to the section directly above the wooden chest, seized the rope with both hands, and dropped.

He descended the forty-meter cliff face faster than any trained soldier on rappel — just a handful of breaths from rim to floor. Even at altitude the heat had been punishing; at the bottom, it was worse. The temperature had eaten through the oxygen; every breath came with effort, and the scorching air prickled across every inch of exposed skin.

He didn't slow down.

If it had been bare fire alone, the beetles would have spotted his silhouette the moment he went over the edge. The sand curtain was his only cover. He had to move before it thinned.

He hit the ground running, sprinting straight for the wooden chest.

No lock. He threw it open.

Two glowing orbs sat inside — one white, one pale green.

He didn't stop to think. He swept both up and sealed them in his battle-mark space.

One white orb shot through with strange, intricate lines. One pale green orb with the unmistakable silhouette of a large black sword suspended at its core.

A common-rank Transcendent Gene Chain. An elite-rank Gene Armament — a longsword he could actually use.

*Worth a fortune. More than a fortune.*

At that exact moment, a trickle of half-melted sand cascaded down from above. Some of it landed on the beetles' carapaces with a sharp hiss.

They reacted instantly. Both beetles wheeled around, shrieking, and charged back toward the passage.

Lu Yuan didn't wait. He grabbed the rope and climbed.

Going up was slower than coming down, but he was over the wall in roughly ten seconds. The moment he crested the top, he didn't rest for a breath — he coiled the rope in one motion, wrenched his black-light alloy sword free from the rock, and ran.

Wind howling, sand flying, fire still raging behind him — he sprinted along the gobi plateau and put as much distance between himself and the passage as he could. The combustion oil was nearly spent; his battle-mark space hadn't had room for much. Between what remained and the constant rain of falling sand smothering the flames, that fire wall would die sooner rather than later. When it did, if those beetles found him nearby, he was finished.

So — run.

He ran until the noise faded to nothing, then dropped flat on the surface of the gobi, chest heaving. The gale drove sand and grit across his face. He didn't care.

He lay there and let his lungs work.

The whole operation hadn't taken long, but he was spent. Not just physically — the relentless mental tension had wrung him out every bit as badly as the exertion had.

Slowly, a grin spread across his face.

He looked at the two glowing orbs resting in his battle-mark space, and the grin threatened to take over his entire face.

One white orb. One pale green orb.

A common-rank Transcendent Gene Chain and an elite-rank Gene Armament. A longsword.

*As a Gene Warrior who had only Awakened a few days ago, walking into the den of two elite-rank beasts and stealing their chest right out from under them — that was completely insane.*

"Snatching food from the tiger's mouth" didn't even begin to cover it.

Incredibly dangerous. Absolutely worth it. What he'd walked away with was beyond any price.

*Typical of me,* he thought, the grin going a little unhinged. *The man destined to be the pillar of the Human Race.*