Liu Feng quickly assessed the situation and urgently said to Zhou Wan:
"I'll deal with the big one. You find a way to kill the smaller one."
"Now!"
As soon as he finished speaking, his body shot forward like an arrow.
He rushed toward the chainsaw that had fallen to the ground due to the giant alligator lizard's violent thrashing, picking it up without hesitation. Then, he turned and lunged at the massive creature, which was tightly bound by dozens of frenzied vines.
The giant alligator lizard seemed to sense the imminent threat. It struggled to open its maw, still entangled by the vines, attempting to bite Liu Feng as he charged forward. But the vines held firm, making even the simple act of opening its mouth incredibly difficult.
Liu Feng's eyes burned with ferocity. Ignoring the lizard's movements, he raised the buzzing chainsaw and brought it down hard on the bleeding wound Lu Minghu had previously sliced open.
"Schlick! Crack! Riiip!"
The deafening screech of the chainsaw instantly drowned out the monster's roars. The high-speed rotating teeth clashed violently against tough scales, muscle, and bone.
"Die!"
In an instant, crimson beast blood gushed out like a fountain, splattering across the walls, ceiling, and Liu Feng's fierce face. Shreds of flesh and fragments of bone scattered wildly amid the chainsaw's roar.
"Roooar!"
The grievous injury provoked a shrill, agonized howl from the giant alligator lizard. Its massive body convulsed violently in desperate struggle.
Meanwhile, Zhou Wan drew a fresh arrow from her quiver. Gripping the shaft tightly, she channeled all her strength and body weight into driving it straight into the small crocodile lizard's wide, yellow-slitted eye.
"Thunk!"
The sharp alloy arrowhead pierced through the relatively fragile membrane effortlessly, plunging deep into the eyeball.
"Hiss!" The smaller lizard shuddered violently before its entire body spasmed as if electrocuted.
At the same time, the terrifying death throes of both lizards exerted immense force on Han Ning, who was controlling the vines.
"Ugh…"
Han Ning grunted, barely able to maintain the vines' grip. His brain felt as though it were being stabbed repeatedly by red-hot needles, while his body seemed stretched between two colossal elephants.
His Spiritual Power drained like floodwaters through an open sluice. His face turned deathly pale in an instant, blood trickling from his nostrils as his vision blurred with flickering stars.
On his status panel, his Spiritual Power plummeted from [6/15] to [1/15].
"Hurry! Hurry! I... can't hold on much longer!" Han Ning's voice was hoarse, his willpower the only thing keeping the vines in place.
Just then—
"I... got it..."
Chen Yan, who had been sent flying by the giant alligator lizard earlier, staggered to his feet and approached the massive beast.
He spread his arms, using both his uninjured right arm and his wounded left to clamp down on the lizard's thick neck.
With Chen Yan's assistance, the pressure on Han Ning and Liu Feng lessened significantly. The latter pressed the chainsaw down hard and pulled.
"CRACK—RIIIP!"
Amid the sickening sounds of bone splitting and flesh tearing, the giant alligator lizard's monstrous head was finally cleaved apart.
Nearly half of its skull dangled at a grotesque angle, held together only by a thin strip of bloody skin.
. The Energy Stream
Those yellow vertical pupils, the size of ping pong balls, gradually lost their ferocious gleam as the creature's struggling movements slowly ceased.
Almost simultaneously, the smaller crocodile lizard whose brain had been scrambled by Zhou Wan also went limp, only its tail twitching sporadically from residual nerve impulses.
At this moment, Han Ning—who had been continuously maintaining his vine control—slightly raised his head, an unreadable glint flashing in his eyes.
His previous experience with killing a juvenile crocodile lizard had taught him that these monsters might release nourishing energy upon death.
With so many people present, what if this energy was distributed based on who dealt the final blow? Wouldn't that mean others might benefit undeservedly?
Using the last remnants of his Spiritual Power, Han Ning silently manipulated two vines to pierce the eyeballs of both the giant and small crocodile lizards.
Thud! Thud!
The faint sound of penetration echoed as the vine tips plunged deep into the ocular cavities, following the optic nerve pathways into their brains—then violently churned!
The massive body of the giant alligator lizard convulsed once before falling completely still.
The small crocodile lizard's final neural reflexes abruptly ceased.
The moment both creatures' life forces completely dissipated, an anomaly occurred.
Two differently sized streams of energy, glowing with a soft, pure blue light, drifted upward from the corpses—one from each lizard.
The larger stream was about the size of a ping pong ball, swirling with pale blue radiance.
The smaller one was marble-sized, its glow comparatively dimmer.
Unlike last time, these energy streams didn't fly directly toward Han Ning. Instead, they suddenly divided midair.
The larger blue orb split into five portions.
The biggest segment—nearly half the original orb's size—merged into Han Ning's chest.
The next largest flowed toward Chen Yan, who was drenched in blood.
Two similarly sized portions shot toward Liu Feng (leaning heavily on his chainsaw while gasping for breath) and Zhou Wan (just pulling an arrow coated with brain matter from the corpse).
The smallest stream trickled like a brook toward Lu Minghu, still unconscious in the pile of wood shards by the wall.
The smaller blue orb likewise divided into five tiny currents, distributing itself among the five individuals in similar proportions.
When both orbs entered Han Ning's body, they merged into one.
A warmth far more intense than what he'd experienced after killing the juvenile crocodile lizard surged from his core.
Wherever this warmth spread, the excruciating headache from Spiritual Power overexertion eased.
The hollow, drained sensation throughout his body gradually faded.
Lines of phantom text automatically appeared in Han Ning's vision:
[Druid Level Increased: Lv2 → Lv3. Current Progress: 1/300]
[Spiritual Power Capacity Increased: 15 → 20]
[Current Spiritual Power: 11/20]
[New Skill Unlocked: Tree Skin Art]
[Tree Skin Art (Beginner): Conjures a layer of tough, wooden skin for additional protection. Current Proficiency: 1/100]
"Leveled up again..."
Han Ning mirrored the others' expressions of astonishment—though his surprise stemmed from the level progression.
For everyone else, this was their first crocodile lizard kill, and they were stunned by the postmortem energy division.
"What... what is this?" Chen Yan flexed his left arm, wide-eyed as the residual blue light on his body slowly dissipated. He looked between Han Ning and Liu Feng in amazement. "I feel my body recovering."
After a battle, he no longer appeared as cold as before.
"Clearly, killing monsters allows us to obtain those light clusters—just like gaining experience points to level up," Liu Feng turned off the chainsaw and sat down, carefully sensing the changes in his body as he murmured,
"My body feels like it's soaking in a hot spring... very comfortable."
"Killing monsters to gain energy... what kind of rule is this? This world... is strange." Zhou Wan's eyes were filled with complexity.
"Who cares about the rules!"
Liu Feng's eyes gleamed with excitement,
"As long as it makes us stronger and helps us survive, it's good. I knew we had to come out and gather information. Staying cooped up in a room would never have revealed this secret."
"But here's the question—how exactly are the light clusters distributed after a monster dies?" Zhou Wan frowned.