Its entire body of狰狞 muscle tissue was as tough as steel, just like Chen Xiangyu's "Steel Skin," impervious to blades and bullets.
Gong Xiao attacked from the other side of the Giant Strength Beast, swinging her military spike like a club and slamming it heavily into the beast's head.
With a dull thud, the beast shifted slightly, failing to dodge completely. The spike struck its cheek, where the muscle-defended flesh deflected it, but its eye was injured, blood streaming out.
Wounded, the Giant Strength Beast went berserk, flailing its arms wildly. None of them dared to block it, all dodging instead. Fortunately, aside from its straight-line charge speed, the beast was clumsy in movement and turning, like a lumbering giant bear. When its massive arms swung wide, it couldn't recover in time. Gong Xiao's spike struck its head again, and Xu Haishui also smashed his short spear like a club onto its forehead.
The Giant Strength Beast let out a pained roar, its forehead split open, blood gushing out. Its massive body swayed, clearly dazed by their combined assault.
Though its head was a weak point, that was only relative to its muscle-covered body. With Xu Haishui and Gong Xiao's strength, several strikes only wounded it, not killed it.
Ding Longyun had just hit the beast's back with his steel rod. Seeing it wobbling as if about to fall backward, he knew the moment had come. He leaped forward, switching the rod to his left hand, and reached out with his right, slapping the beast's bald back of the head.
"Soul Devour" activated.
The Giant Strength Beast's eyes rolled back, showing only whites. Its body swayed and crashed to the ground with a heavy thud, lifeless.
"Soul Devour" could destroy from within, penetrating flesh and muscle—a terrifying ability.
Seeing Ding Longyun succeed, Gong Xiao and Xu Haishui stopped.
By then, Su Li had already killed the Crocodile Lizard but failed to obtain the special ability "Venomous Fang." He turned back to see Ding Longyun and the others had taken down the Giant Strength Beast together, nodding inwardly. This outcome was within his expectations, not surprising.
After all, Ding Longyun, Gong Xiao, and Xu Haishui were all Level 4 Spirit Source users with considerable strength. Even in one-on-one combat, they wouldn't be much weaker than a Level 4 elite beast. With three working together, taking down a clumsy, brute-force beast like the Giant Strength Beast was naturally easy.
As the Giant Strength Beast died, besides a Spirit Source flying from its corpse, the fierce red muscles on its arms began to peel away.
"Congratulations, Brother Ding." Gong Xiao saw it at once and understood immediately.
The Giant Strength Beast's special ability had been acquired by Ding Longyun.
The peeling red muscles on the arms turned into two red orbs of light, which shot with a whoosh onto Ding Longyun's arms, merged into them, and vanished.
Ding Longyun clenched his fists, letting out a low growl. Blood-red substance began to appear on the surface of his arms, like veins surfacing.
"Giant Strength Burst!" he roared, swinging his arms out, his face full of joy.
"How is it? What exactly is the 'Giant Strength Burst' ability?" Su Li guessed it was related to strength but didn't know the details.
Ding Longyun relaxed his hands, and the blood-red veins on his arms slowly faded. "The ability adds five hundred jin of strength to my arms. I can now deliver thirteen hundred jin of force."
"That ability is decent." Su Li thought to himself that if he had learned "Giant Strength Burst," his strength could have exceeded two thousand jin. Too bad.
Why did Ding Longyun get the ability from killing the same elite beast while he didn't? Had all his luck been used up when he got that talent earlier?
The Arrow Snake Beast and Water Monkey Beast that had stayed on the rooftop had fled cleanly after the two elite beasts appeared. But at the stairway entrance, figures kept moving, emerging from the stairs.
These were all humanoid, but with white fuzz on their faces, pale skin, and swollen features—all Corpse Beasts.
Not only were Corpse Beasts appearing at the stairway entrance, but they were also climbing up from the edges of the rooftop, one after another.
In a short time, at least twenty Corpse Beasts had gathered on the rooftop.
They slowly approached from all sides toward the center, but their target wasn't entirely Su Li and his group. More of them were drawn to the corpses of the two Level 4 elite beasts.
The flesh and blood of these elite beasts attracted them.
"They're all high-level Corpse Beasts." Su Li activated "Peek Rune," and after observing, he was slightly startled. All twenty-plus were high-level Corpse Beasts, not a single low-level one.
Compared to low-level Corpse Beasts, high-level ones had greater strength, had evolved a special ability, and possessed some simple intelligence, making them harder to deal with. In Su Li's eyes, these high-level Corpse Beasts were even tougher than the Level 4 Water Monkey Beast.
Most of the high-level Corpse Beasts lunged at the corpses of the Crocodile Lizard and Giant Strength Beast, while a smaller number surrounded them.
Gong Xiao and Xu Haishui said nothing, stepping forward to meet them.
Ding Longyun laughed heartily, in a good mood after gaining his new ability. These high-level Corpse Beasts were perfect for practice.
Blood-red veins appeared on his arms as he activated his newly acquired "Giant Strength Burst," adding five hundred jin of extra strength. He gripped his steel rod and swung it at a high-level Corpse Beast charging at him.
Su Li also joined the fight with his machete. These high-level Corpse Beasts weren't easy to handle. He had Xu Xuehui retreat to the center of their group, protected by the four of them, who each faced a direction to fend off the beasts.
Su Li struck first. The high-level Corpse Beast in front of him didn't even have time to show its special ability before his machete sliced across its neck, sending its head flying.
A Spirit Source emerged from its corpse, absorbed by Su Li.
"Level 4 Spirit Source User: Spirit Source 38/50"
Sensing the information in his mind, Su Li activated "Spider Walk," his figure weaving like threading flowers among several nearby high-level Corpse Beasts, his machete swinging repeatedly.
Three heads, still dripping blood, flew off.
In an instant, Su Li absorbed three more Spirit Sources.
"Level 4 Spirit Source User: Spirit Source 41/50"
Meanwhile, among the other three, Gong Xiao struck first, smashing a high-level Corpse Beast's head with her military spike, gaining a Spirit Source and bringing her total to fifteen.
Next was Ding Longyun, then Xu Haishui, each taking down a high-level Corpse Beast in turn.
With "Giant Strength Burst" mastered, Ding Longyun's strength had risen a level. Each strike now carried a thousand jin of force, significantly more powerful.