novellhall Chapter 353 Xia Fa can even absorb the River of Time? The Celestial Venerables were all shocked!
Chapter 353 Xia Fa can even absorb the River of Time? The Celestial Venerables were all shocked!
Chapter 353 Xia Fa can even absorb the River of Time? The Celestial Venerables were all shocked!
Fog.
A hazy, gray fog.
Fog is everywhere.
There was no time, no space, only a hazy fog.
A gray fog covered everything, like a vast ocean where hundreds of rivers converge, surging endlessly without end.
This is the "Gray Fog of Time," also known in ancient times as the "River of Time," or perhaps the "Land of Time."
Above the gray fog, two extremely large yet indistinct figures stood.
The figure on the left resembles a jumble of pencil lines, initially like seaweed, yet its imposing presence is enough to overwhelm the universe.
The figure on the right, like a semi-transparent clump of glue, wriggled incessantly. Whenever the gray mist drifted over, its figure would automatically avoid it, remaining completely unaffected.
If anyone who has attended the Conference of Unknown Beings were here, they would surely recognize these two as the Celestial Venerable-level [Lord of the Transdimensional] and [Apostle of Knowledge]!
Even with the five overlord-level secret contracts signed by Xia Fa, the two supreme beings could not see their true faces!
At this moment, the translucent, sticky figure of the [Knowledge Apostle] trembled continuously, and ancient secret texts flew out from it.
At first there were only a few dozen, but soon they became hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands—in the blink of an eye, trillions of ancient secret texts converged into an unimaginable torrent, gathering and scattering before Him like sardines in a blue ocean.
The Lord of the Superdimensional Realm made his move. His pencil-line-like figure dispersed slightly, and tiny crystals of light flew out from within.
These crystalline lights, originally only the size of a grain of rice, transformed from flat to round into dazzling stars in no time.
But that wasn't all. These stars, which were also only the size of grains of rice, instantly transformed into strange cubes, their light intertwining and colliding with each other.
Then, even the strange cube disappeared, leaving only the hazy, ever-changing light of crystal outlines, seemingly both real and illusory.
These unknown substances, having completed their "dimensional ascension," instantly merged into the trillions of ancient cryptic texts created by the [Apostle of Knowledge].
The ancient esoteric texts seemed to have found a basis, and began to overlap with each other. Countless magical circuits and ritual arrays were born, combined, and merged in this process, and then the process was repeated.
In the blink of an eye, it can change by 10 to the power of 20.
This was clearly an extremely complex process, yet it was completed very quickly. Before long, all the magical circulation paths and ritual arrays were fixed. The sheer number of them was so great that even an Outer God would be thrown into a mental storm upon seeing them, his mind completely thrown into chaos.
At this moment, the [Apostle of Knowledge] casually waved his hand, and these magical circulation paths and ritual arrays sank directly into the gray mist of time.
Those who fall into the gray fog of time—whether human, demi-human, or any other being, or anything else—will be completely lost and never be able to escape.
However, these magical circuits and ritual arrays composed of trillions of ancient cryptic texts rose up unharmed after falling into the gray mist of time.
The semi-transparent, sticky figure of the [Knowledge Apostle] trembled, drawing all the magical circulation paths and ritual arrays back into its body.
"Alright, now the next time we summon the unknown beings and the gods from beyond the gods, we won't be afraid of any Golden Cleansers or fake Nine Great Gods invading us."
The authoritative voice of the middle-aged man, "[Knowledge Apostle]", rang out, followed by a sigh: "Just what is the origin of these Golden Cleaners? Last time they were even able to sneak in using the Time Mist—"
—This has resulted in significant losses to your superdimensional original tires.
The tone of the [Lord of the Transdimensional] was extremely calm, completely unlike the raging fury he displayed when facing the Golden Cleanser Alm the Greatbow at the last Unknown Beings Conference: "The losses are losses, so be it. Now that Lord [Absolute Defense] has returned, it seems we have a glimmer of hope, a glimmer of chance. This is the most crucial thing to do next."
The Apostle of Knowledge gave a cold laugh, the resentment in that laugh not seeming to be directed at the Lord of the Transdimensional.
It sounded more like he was addressing himself: "An opportunity? We can only live a peaceful year, and that's assuming that Lord [Absolute Defense] can hold off that group of Golden Cleaners without waking up the other sleeping Golden Cleaners. But a year later, you know, you and I both witnessed it firsthand—"
His tone suddenly became filled with an overwhelming sense of despair: "Tens of thousands of Golden Cleansers will awaken simultaneously! Who can stop them then?"
[Lord of the Superdimensional] sighed heavily at this moment: "Yes, tens of thousands of Golden Cleaners. At the time, I thought I was having a nightmare, but unfortunately, this is reality, the reality we both witnessed, the reality we cannot escape."
One of the biggest secrets involving the Golden Cleaners was revealed by two unknown beings at the Celestial Venerable level. Fortunately, this was the location of the Time Mist, so no one would overhear.
[Apostle of Knowledge] The resentment in his voice became more and more obvious: "The position of a true god is extremely difficult to achieve. Apart from those ancient rulers 30,000 years ago, countless geniuses have emerged over the past 30,000 years, but there are still only nine true gods. Even the two of us were just one step away in the end, and there is no way to make up for it."
"But tens of thousands of Gold Cleaners! Tens of thousands! How did they appear? What gives them the right to do so?"
"Tens of thousands of Golden Cleansers of Godhood—enough to destroy the universe billions of times over. If the Protoss Realm weren't indestructible, I would seriously doubt that everything would cease to exist."
The Lord of the Transdimensional said with a sigh, "What's the use of saying all this? The Golden Cleaners are just sleeping there, more than ten thousand of them. Can you kill them all? Besides, there are also the fake Nine True Gods. Didn't they also achieve the position of True Gods?"
[Knowledge Apostle] waved his hand: "Forget it, let's not talk about this. Anyway, there's still a year left. Maybe a super strong person who can fight against ten thousand people at the level of a true god will suddenly be born this year, hahaha."
The Lord of the Transdimensional shook his head: "Is that possible? They are all at the level of true gods. Even the strongest [Absolute Defense], at its peak, could only deal with a few hundred Gold Cleaners at most, and that was already an unparalleled and peerless combat power."
Neither of the two unknown beings at the Celestial Venerable level mentioned "a rank above True God," because as Celestial Venerables who had lived for over 30,000 years, both the [Apostle of Knowledge] and the [Lord of the Superdimensional] understood that True God was the highest rank.
Just like the Gold Cleaners, even if there are tens of thousands of Gold Cleaners, there will never be a Platinum Cleaner or a Diamond Cleaner, let alone a Master Cleaner, a Supreme Cleaner, or a King Cleaner.
"Forget it, let's leave it at that. There's still a year left, let's go back first."
The Apostle of Knowledge also knew that the so-called "powerful person who can fight against ten thousand with one divine position" was just His wishful thinking. Seeing that the task was completed, Chi immediately prepared to go find the philosophical attendants under his command.
"etc."
But just then, the Lord of the Superdimensional called out to Him.
The Apostle of Knowledge turned around: "What's wrong?"
The Lord of the Superdimensional said in a slightly ingratiating tone, "It's about that thing you investigated last time, something that happened about three billion years ago—"
The Apostle of Knowledge asked, puzzled, "What are you going to do?"
The Lord of the Superdimensional said quite sincerely, "Referring to the past of the mutants, especially how they became the ancient gods, will help me better develop my own secret abilities and use my authority. Besides, I am indeed very interested, after all, compared to that, the history of our supernatural world is only 30,000 years."
The Apostle of Knowledge sighed softly, "As you know, the Eternal Knowledge originally belonged to the First History, making my investigation quite difficult. However, I recently unexpectedly obtained some interesting 'fragments of reality.' Take a look, it's about the first mutant in history developing a body that can be transformed into a fire elemental—"
This universe is actually hundreds of billions of years old, which is no secret to beings of the Celestial Venerable level.
The Celestial Venerables and even the righteous gods have already thoroughly investigated how humankind came into being, and even further back—how life itself arose.
However, the questions of how the first mutant in history was born, what exactly happened to mutants that led them to become ancient gods billions of years later, and the existence of two great pillars of the universe, the "Sun God King" and the "Moon Mother Goddess," as well as why all mutants disappeared and were replaced by magicians, have always been topics that Quasi-Celestial Venerables, Celestial Venerables, and True Gods are very keen to discuss.
In particular, the "Bard" among the Quasi-Celestial Venerables, the "Apostle of Knowledge" among the Celestial Venerables, and the "First History" among the True Gods, may all be fascinated by this mysterious history spanning billions of years because they are involved in authority related to "knowledge," "legend," and "history."
Of course, it seems that only the "First History" truly knows what happened 30,000 years ago, why the ancient gods fell, and why extraordinary beings were born.
Even the physical "bards" and the "knowledge apostles" were completely unaware of this.
The Lord of the Superdimensional received those "fragments of reality" as if they were precious treasures. They were like glass shards, with various images and scenes flashing inside.
"I won't say much more. Although we may only have one year of good days left, if you need any help during this year, just come to me. Haha, I'll go back and take a good look at these ponds first." Before Yi Chi finished speaking, suddenly, the gray mist of time below began to fluctuate violently.
Without hesitation, the Lord of the Superdimensional and the Apostle of Knowledge flew upwards. After flying a short distance, the Lord of the Superdimensional led the Apostle of Knowledge to ascend several dimensions and hide in a completely safe higher dimension.
"What happened?! Could it be that Alm the Greatbow found us?"
Even the voice of the Lord of the Superdimensional trembled. In this world, besides the First History, it seems that only Alm the Greatbow, the Golden Cleanser, can cause such violent fluctuations in the Time Mist.
Even the two Celestial Venerables dared not easily become tainted by the Time Mist, much less venture into it. Once trapped in the Time Mist, they would immediately lose their way, at best being trapped forever, and at worst losing control on the spot.
If it weren't for things like "time breathing tubes" or "time travel dome", no one below the level of a true god would dare to enter the time fog.
"Don't worry, you can still run away. Alm the Greatbow will have some reservations now, after all, the First Entity is about to reappear—"
The Knowledge Apostle murmured, continuing, "Moreover, I didn't sense the aura of the Golden Cleanser. However, such violent fluctuations in the Time Mist are something I've never seen before—"
Before the words were even finished, something even more unbelievable happened.
Suddenly, the violently fluctuating gray mist of time spread out, causing countless other gray mists below to fluctuate violently as well, like boiling gray lake water.
Immediately afterwards, all the violently fluctuating gray mist of time transformed into wisps and strands, instantly piercing through the dark void and entering—the real world!
This scene completely stunned both the Lord of the Superdimensional and the Apostle of Knowledge, even causing them to lose their composure.
That's right, these two supreme beings at the Celestial Venerable level, who were just one step away from becoming true gods, and who had lived for over 30,000 years and had seen all sorts of strange and wonderful things, actually felt that they had been mentally corrupted because they had witnessed the current situation firsthand!
"Someone absorbed the Time Mist? Someone can actually absorb the Time Mist?"
The Lord of the Transdimensional, as if seeing a ghost, grabbed the arm of the Apostle of Knowledge beside him and shook him violently, pointing to the vast empty area of time mist below: "Did you see that? Did you see that?! What on earth is going on?"
The Apostle of Knowledge was completely stunned, as if he had suffered a severe mental shock. He couldn't come to his senses for a long time, and even the Lord of the Superdimensional couldn't wake him up by shaking him.
You must understand, this is the Time Mist, an absolutely forbidden place where even a Celestial Venerable would be completely lost or even lose control if they accidentally fell into it!
Only the nine righteous gods can enter the gray fog of time without getting lost, but even that is subject to a time limit; it cannot exceed one hour.
Even Alm the Greatbow, the Golden Cleanser, could only use the Time Mist's "omnipresent" nature, just like time itself, to infiltrate the Conference of Unknown Beings and then leave. Presumably, it wouldn't dare to stay in the Time Mist for long.
But now, someone has actually absorbed a huge area of time fog?
Who is this?
After a long while, the [Apostle of Knowledge], whose throat felt dry, slowly spoke: "I thought of someone, or rather, I thought of a great being."
Given His Celestial Venerable rank, the only things truly deserving of His title of "Great Being" are His unparalleled absolute defense and the two pillars of the universe: the "Sun God King" and the "Moon Mother Goddess."
Now, it seems that the "Apostles of Knowledge" have recognized a new "great being."
The Lord of the Transdimensional trembled, as if he had remembered something: "You mean the one whom the fake Nine True Gods and the Silver Universe issued divine decrees, ordering their subordinates to search for?"
Both the Lord of Superdimensionality and the Apostle of Knowledge had heard of and discussed that one.
However, in their eyes, it used to be called "an interesting little guy." After all, the methods of shattering a lifeless planet to extract its essence, absorbing a space the size of a super-giant star, and swallowing a supermassive black hole were things that the Lord of the Superdimensional and the Apostle of Knowledge could easily do as well.
Let alone the two of them, even a god could do it easily.
But now, seeing that he can even absorb the Time Mist—
The Lord of the Superdimensional and the Apostle of Knowledge finally realized that this seemed to be, indeed, a "great being"!
"Quickly, while we have the chance, use your authority to track them down. If we can find out who it is, maybe we'll have a glimmer of hope!"
The Lord of Transdimensionality seemed to have realized what was happening and frantically urged the Apostle of Knowledge onward.
The Knowledge Apostle sensed it for a moment, then silently shook its head: "Unable to track it, completely untraceable—"
Both celestial beings looked up together, gazing at the place where the gray mist of time in the real world finally disappeared. Their eyes were filled with extremely complex emotions: bewilderment, doubt, curiosity, exploration, hope, and even more so, a deep sense of awe.
Who exactly is this great being? What does he look like? And just how powerful is he?
"Ninety-eight—"
"Ninety-nine—"
"one hundred!!!"
A violent feeling of exhaustion came from every muscle in my arms, shoulders, and back.
Xia Fa let go of the horizontal bar and let himself fall until he landed on the beach with a "bang".
Countless grains of sand shot up as he struggled to get up, but he didn't see that tens of thousands of grains of sand behind him suddenly disintegrated into a gray mist of time with a "bang," all of which surged into his muscular back.
These grains of sand, which had clearly existed on this beach for a long time and were not newly created, have somehow turned into the gray mist of time.
This is like what people lost in the fog of time see: in the fog of time, there is no past, no future, and no present; or rather, the past, present, and future exist at the same moment, just like these grains of sand.
Xia Fa sat on the beach, staring blankly ahead. The temporary lapse in concentration caused by overtraining was still affecting him.
After a while, he seemed to suddenly recover and reached his hand behind his back.
"Huh, why does it feel a little itchy—"
After scratching his back, Xia Fa took out the bronze box given to him by the fanatical tomb raider, took out a piece of flesh from the wall of flesh, about half the size of a wall, and began to gnaw on it fiercely.
He ate with great relish, like someone who had run dozens of kilometers after being starving for three days and then encountered a juicy stew, completely ignoring the strong smell of blood.
In just a few minutes, he finished gnawing on the flesh of the wall of blood and flesh, which was half the size of a wall. Then, patting his round belly, he let out a long, comfortable sigh and lay back down on the beach.
"The flesh of this wall of flesh is truly a treasure, but unfortunately, too much has been used up recently, and only a third remains—"
At this moment, within his stomach and second heart, the physical flesh of the Wall of Blood and Flesh was transforming into an immense and extremely pure extraordinary power, continuously nourishing every inch of his muscles and greatly relieving his fatigue.
But suddenly, Xia Fa realized that something was wrong.
"Huh, I finally broke 100 pull-ups, what happened—"
Previously, after breaking the 85-pull-up mark, I practically grew a second heart, which greatly enhanced my strength in all aspects; otherwise, I wouldn't have been able to break the 100-pull mark today.
But now, even though he has clearly surpassed one hundred pull-ups, he doesn't feel any change.
Of course, it's also possible that changes have already occurred, but you just haven't noticed them.
For example, when I first broke the 100-do mark for the first time, I didn't feel any change at all until I sat down at the table with the feeling of hunger for a big meal—
Yes, the ability to "randomly freeload" that I gained is still extremely useful to this day. For example, the meat in this Wall of Flesh was obtained by tracking down the Wall of Flesh through randomly freeloading meals.
Not to mention, when he randomly freeloads a meal, he can transform into a disguised quasi-celestial level entity called "Glutton," which remains one of his biggest secrets to this day.
"Never mind, I'll take a shower first, then go to the treehouse for a nap. Once today is over, the distance to [Eternal Critical Strike] will be shorter."
There's only one day left until birth—"
With that thought in mind, Xia Fa pushed himself up from the beach and sat up again.
Although I was still very tired, sleeping on the soft peacock down bed in the treehouse was definitely more comfortable than lying on the beach.
However, the moment he sat up, he felt a momentary lapse in concentration.
Everything around me has changed.
The first thing that catches the eye is a giant city.
Although it is called a giant city, its walls are only twenty meters high. Compared to the walls of the City of Ten Thousand Stars and the City of Augustus, which are tens of thousands of meters high, the walls of this giant city are as short as mounds of earth.
However, Xia Fa immediately realized something.
Such a high city wall means only one thing—it was built by humans without supernatural powers, representing the limit of productivity of medieval human civilization!
Xia Fa was slightly startled when he looked down at the city walls of the giant city.
Below the city wall, countless deformed monsters roamed about.
These deformed monsters look almost like humans at first glance, but some have arms so huge they can drag on the ground, others have several mouths on their heads, and still others have bony spurs protruding from their backs like sharp swords. Moreover, most of the flesh and blood of all these deformed monsters are exposed to the air, and their skin has disappeared.
Their heads were covered with tumors of all sizes, some of which burst open with a "bang," oozing foul-smelling, yellowish pus.
"Lorete, what are you standing there for? Are you scared?"
A deep, resonant voice suddenly rang in my ears.
Xia Fa turned his head and saw a middle-aged man dressed as a witcher.
The witcher wore a linen shirt and leather pants, with two longswords at his waist, and long black and white hair tied in a ponytail at the back of his head.
What is particularly striking is his face, which is covered with crisscrossing scars, almost disfiguring him.
In an instant, Xia Fa remembered something, or rather, some fragmented memories that did not belong to him at all surged in from the void and were forcibly "stuffed" into his brain.
This witcher was the captain of the escort team, and he himself was one of the hundreds of team members.
What they were escorting was a vital treasure called "Mutant Crystal Source," which was crucial to the survival of the giant city before them, the Worm City.
That's right, the giant city in front of us is called Worm City.
Xia Fa looked to his left and right and saw the ships unloading cargo behind him, as well as the boundless sea.
This is a huge island, and he knows this place all too well.
That's right—the Worm Islands!
The Worm Islands, where the City of Ten Thousand Stars is located!
Moreover, it's right on Sandworm Island!
But now, Sandworm Island is still there, and even the bay is almost the same, but the City of Ten Thousand Stars is gone, replaced by this Worm City with a city gate only twenty meters high, and the foot of the city wall is full of deformed humanoid monsters.
He himself became a member of this escort team.
After a difficult journey on the high seas and countless battles against mutated sea monsters, only six members remained out of the hundreds of team members, and he was one of them.
Although he had figured everything out, Xia Fa's mind was still filled with endless, heavy fog.
"What is this? I've time-traveled a second time? No way!"
"This is clearly the planet Caligi, and it's on the Worm Islands in the Barron Ocean, even on Sandworm Island, which I know very well—"
"But why is the City of Ten Thousand Stars gone? And why do these deformed monsters look so weak, yet everyone here seems to be on high alert?"
That's right, to Xia Fa, these deformed monsters were at most at the fungal level.
The escort team members have all gone out to sea, so they couldn't possibly only be at the Bacterium level, right? Especially this captain who looks like a Witcher, he exudes the aura of a very strong person.
Just as Xia Fa was wondering, suddenly, the back of his right hand itched, followed by a cold, stinging pain, as if he had touched frozen metal.
Xia Fa looked down and his pupils immediately contracted.
On the back of his hand, there appeared an hourglass made of gray mist. The upper part of the hourglass was full, but mist was falling from it into the lower part.
"Could it be that once this hourglass runs out of sand, I can go back?"
At this moment, in this situation, Xia Fa could only make this guess.
He suspected that the reason he suddenly came to this place was because of the effect of breaking the 100-pull-up mark in his physical training.
As for whether they will actually receive a reward after returning, and what kind of reward it will be, that remains to be seen.
Just then, the demon hunter captain waved his hand and spoke with a resolute determination, his voice rousing: "Gentlemen, although our brothers are either dead or wounded, a great victory is within reach! Only a little over a hundred meters left! As long as we can break through this deformed zone and enter Worm City, then all the sacrifices of our brothers and all the hardships we've endured will have been worthwhile!"
Beside him, a strong young man with a brown crew cut clenched his fist and said excitedly, "That's right! As long as we get this truckload of mutant crystals in, we can turn at least tens of thousands more of our compatriots into mutants. Then we can wipe out all the deformed creatures on the Worm Islands and truly expand our territory!"
Wait, a mutant?
Xia Fa was almost stunned when he heard this.
The magician knew what mutants were.
Previously, he had speculated that he might have returned to an era 30,000 years ago, where he encountered extraordinary individuals whose supernatural powers had just been born.
But now, Xia Fa realizes that this is a really big deal—
Since this is the Worm Islands, then it is indeed this world. But since these people are not superhumans or magicians, but some kind of mutants—how many years ago have I traveled to?
"Charge! For the future of us mutants, charge!"
Before Xia Fa could continue thinking, the strong young man shouted and rushed out, and the other team members immediately pushed the carriage to follow.
The carriage was covered with thick cotton cloth and tightly bound with hemp rope.
Xia Fa had no choice but to push the carriage along with everyone else. The cotton cloth was lifted up due to the sudden acceleration, and he was able to see what was inside.
They were rhomboid crystals, stacked one on top of the other, placed in a crystal box; they seemed to be what they called "mutated crystal sources."
"Holy crap!!!"
The monsters known as "deformed beings" were immediately alerted by the charge launched by the escort team.
They seemed to sense the presence of humans at close range, and their eyes blazed with a blood-red light, as if they had spotted delicious prey, howling as they pounced.
"Get out of my way, all of you!"
The young and strong man shouted, and his muscles suddenly bulged, even tearing his clothes. He went from being 1.8 meters tall to more than 3 meters tall, and his skin turned pure black.
He seemed to transform into a human bomb, crashing directly into the horde of deformed creatures and instantly sending countless of them flying.
"Quick, with Lorick clearing the way, let's rush over there! Only a little over a hundred meters left!"
The Witcher captain shouted in a low voice, and the team members all strained together, pushing the carriage even faster.
Suddenly, a thin team member on the left shuddered and involuntarily let go of the horse-drawn carriage.
Immediately afterwards, he thrust his chest forward, and his whole body strangely floated into the air.
Before Xia Fa could react to what was happening, the demon hunter captain was already shouting, "Mantis Blade Men! It's Mantis Blade Men! I'll stay behind to cover your retreat, you all go first! Especially you, Loret, you're a fire mutant, you must stay alive!"
The next moment, a mantis-like but humanoid monster emerged from its stealth state behind the gaunt team member.
The mantis's forelegs, like scythes, pierced the chest of the emaciated team member, and the blood-stained blade was revealed from its stealth state.
Xia Fa remembered that he seemed to have transmigrated into "Loret", which meant that his current identity was a fire mutant?
What kind of mutation abilities can I use?
At this moment, blood was seen spilling from the corner of the skinny team member's mouth. He was not dead for the time being, but suddenly he grabbed the mantis blade that had pierced his chest with both hands, and a sharp light flashed in his eyes!
In an instant, an electric current surged through his entire body, flowing along the mantis blade and directly to the three-meter-tall mantis-wielding man.
The mantis trembled uncontrollably as if electrocuted, its body rapidly turning black. Soon after, the smell of burning protein filled the air, and it collapsed to the ground along with the emaciated teammate.
The other team members and the Witcher captain finally couldn't help but show their grief and indignation, but they knew that if they stopped now, their brother would die in vain.
Not far ahead, the strong and healthy young man was being held back by countless deformed creatures.
It seems that time is running out for everyone.
The Witcher captain suddenly drew his twin swords from his waist, clashed them together, and the blades immediately turned green and viscous, flowing with a foul and poisonous odor.
Without even looking, he casually thrust out two swords, and with two soft thuds, the sound of swords piercing through armored flesh echoed in the air.
Immediately afterward, the longsword pierced out, and the two invisible mantis-like creatures struggled violently to emerge. In an instant, their bodies turned a chilling emerald green, their heads lolled to the side, and they ceased to live.
The Witcher captain drew his twin swords, just about to continue escorting the carriage loaded with mutated crystals.
Just then, an extremely unpleasant hissing sound rang out, and hundreds of mantis-sword warriors emerged from their stealth state around the carriage.
These mantis-like beings originally had purplish-brown shells and terrifyingly large bodies over three meters tall. However, one of them was exceptionally tall, reaching a full five meters, and its shell had turned blood red. The mantis blades on its hands were also eerily long, over a meter long. "It's...it's the Mantis King! How—how did it attract the Mantis King?"
Beside the carriage, one of the team members, upon seeing this, seemed to immediately break down, his face filled with despair, tears streaming down his face.
Despite maintaining the mindset of a "transmigrator" to observe everything, Xia Fa finally couldn't hold back any longer and shouted, "What are you afraid of? There are less than sixty meters left, charge with me!"
The team member seemed to be awakened by his sudden shout. Although still desperate, he still gripped the wagon's handlebars with both hands and continued to push hard.
when!when!when!
From behind came the sound of clashing swords; it was the demon hunter captain, who was already engaged in battle with the Mantis King.
"Lorric is dead! Lorick is dead too!"
Suddenly, one of the team members pointed ahead and screamed in terror.
Xia Fa looked up and saw that the strong young man who could transform into a three-meter giant was now overwhelmed by countless deformed creatures. With a tearing sound, his thigh was ripped off by one of the deformed creatures.
Finally, at this point, Xia Fa also felt a sense of despair.
So many monsters, it was like a vast ocean. It seemed like there were only fifty meters left, but in reality, it felt like we couldn't reach them at all!
puff!puff!
Two sharp sounds of blades piercing bodies rang out. Xia Fa turned his head and saw that two of the remaining three team members besides him had been pierced through the bodies by the Mantis Blade Man in stealth mode and brutally lifted into the air.
One of the two team members launched ice balls from his palm, attempting to hit the mantis-wielding man in a desperate struggle.
The other one had his hair turn into spikes, which detached and flew toward the mantis-wielding man who had pierced his chest.
However, the two mantis-like figures immediately became invisible and disappeared, leaving only the hissing sound of their mouthparts moving.
"Oh no, it's just the two of us left—"
In the midst of his busy work, Xia Fa turned around and saw that the Demon Hunter captain was completely entangled with the Mantis King and could not break free either.
As for the other team member beside the carriage, he was already ashen-faced, mechanically pushing the carriage full of mutated crystals, as if waiting to die.
Without a doubt, these mantis-slaying men are more intelligent than the deformed beings. What appeared to be hundreds of them launching a general attack was actually a cover for the remaining hidden mantis-slaying men.
In the end, the mantis-wielding men's raid succeeded, and only he and another member of the escort team, who was completely desperate, remained.
"No, no, no! My brothers can't have died in vain! They can't have died in vain! I'll fight you to the death!"
Suddenly, the other team member seemed unable to bear the despair of impending death, his reason collapsed, and he released the carriage, rushing towards a group of mantis-sword men circling around him.
Boom!
He actually exploded directly, and the force was like a cannonball exploding, instantly clearing out all the mantis-wielding men and deformed creatures within a hundred-meter radius.
Without a doubt, this is his mutant ability as a mutant, and he can only use it once in his lifetime.
"Lorete, charge! If you get killed too, Worm City is finished!"
Dozens of meters behind him, the Demon Hunter Captain suddenly swung his twin swords, knocking away the Mantis King who was holding him back, and roared in the direction of Xia Fa.
It was only then that Xia Fa realized that neither the deformed creature nor the mantis-like man dared to touch the carriage.
It seems their goal is to kill all the mutants so that the wagon can never reach the Worm City.
At the same time, this carriage is quite special; only mutants can push it, and when they touch the carriage frame, they can inject mutant power into it.
But now I'm all alone. How am I going to get to the last fifty meters?
"Whatever, if I die, I'll just go back in time—"
Xia Fa had a hunch that if the identity of "Lorete" that he had transmigrated into really died, he would not die; he would simply transmigrate back to the original world ahead of time.
But that seems wrong; there must be some kind of loss.
But he couldn't care less about that now. He pushed the carriage full of mutated crystals with both hands and rushed towards the city gate.
The city gate had been slightly opened, and a hand reached out, with a starlight-like hollow appearing in the palm.
It seemed that as long as he pushed the carriage over, he and the carriage would be taken into the city by that hand.
On the city walls, heads were peering back and forth, seemingly the residents of Worm City, all watching with extreme tension this event that could determine the fate of Worm City.
"Our Worm City has recently seen a lot of young people with exceptionally good physiques. Lorett, as you know, the better one's physique and the higher their potential, the more powerful the mutant they become after consuming the Mutant Crystal Source. I can't keep up anymore; everything depends on you!"
The Witcher captain's roar rang out once more, accompanied by countless flapping wings, indicating that, led by the Mantis King, the Mantis warriors were preparing to surround and annihilate him.
The Witcher captain understood this as well, and instead used it to his advantage, holding off the Mantis Blade Man and minimizing obstacles for Xia Fa.
"Lorete, watch out!"
Just then, the Witcher captain shouted from behind.
At that moment, Xia Fa also felt a chill on his back, as a gust of wind rushed over.
It was a mantis-like creature in stealth mode, and it finally launched an attack on Xiafa.
No matter what kind of mutant, their bodies are still those of ordinary people. Even as a fire mutant, he can only spew out flames from his palms, just like the two teammates who spewed out ice balls and lightning from their palms.
In other words, this sneak attack—it seems—is unavoidable.
In a life-or-death crisis, Xia Fa's brain started working at lightning speed.
Turn around and deal with it immediately? Impossible.
To unleash flames from both palms to defend? Too late.
"etc--"
As an extraordinary individual who had signed five overlord-level secret contracts and possessed a wealth of experience in utilizing these contracts, he suddenly came up with a clever idea.
Since I am a fire-mutant, is it possible to—turn my body into fire to avoid this kind of physical attack?
The thought had barely crossed his mind when the mantis's scythe pierced his vest.
boom!!
A terrifying burst of flames erupted, and in that instant, Xia Fa truly transformed into a human torch, his body entirely composed of raging flames.
The mantis's sickle had clearly pierced his back, but it missed.
The next moment, flames spread along the scythe, and the mantis-sword man was immediately engulfed in flames with a "boom." He screamed and staggered back a few steps before collapsing to the ground, turning into charred remains.
Exclamations of surprise rang out from the city wall.
"My God, what—what's going on?"
"Why can Loretta turn his body into flames?"
"Wait, it seems like this means neither the deformed creatures nor the mantis-like beings can harm him! We—we Worm City have hope!"
"Lorete, keep going! You're a hero in Worm City! We're waiting for you here!"
"The city gates can't be opened, but the Knight Commander is ready to receive you!"
Xia Fa was slightly taken aback. Hearing the cheers coming from the city wall, he didn't expect that his attempt would actually succeed!
Now that the danger was essentially over, he turned back and took another look.
The Witcher captain was seen plunging his two longswords into the Mantis King's chest, while the Mantis King's scythe plunged into his abdomen.
On his deathbed, he gave Xia Fa a deeply gratified smile: "Lorete—I—truly—wasn't wrong about you—"
Xia Fa remained silent for a few seconds, then turned his head, gripped the wagon's lever with both hands, and, maintaining his fiery form, pushed it toward the city gate.
Whether it's a deformed creature or a mantis-like being, no matter what kind of attack it is, it can't cause any damage to his flame-like body; instead, it will burn him alive.
Finally, he arrived at the city gate.
The moment the carriage touched the hand reaching out from the gap in the city gate, Xia Fa felt as if he and the carriage had entered a tunnel, only to emerge from it immediately.
Countless residents of the worm city rushed forward and toward him.
"Lorete, you are our great hero! The top-tier mutant crystal source in this collection is yours!"
The surging crowd began to blur like ripples on water.
As soon as Xia Fa let go of his hands, he felt a moment of disorientation and suddenly realized that he was back on the beach of the small world.
Everything that just happened felt like a dream.
But Xiafa knew very well that this was not a dream.
because--
He opened his palm, and there in his palm was a rhombus-shaped, dazzling crystal that looked like a collection of starlight.
It is indeed the most superior mutated crystal source!
At the same time, the words of the witcher captain who sacrificed himself for righteousness came to mind.
"The better a person's physique and the higher their potential, the more powerful the mutant they become after consuming the mutated crystal source!"
A bold idea popped into Xia Fazhong's mind.
"Wait, with my current physique and potential, having signed five overlord-level secret contracts, if I were to consume this top-tier mutated crystal source—"
If successful, wouldn't that mean combining the two cultivation systems for becoming stronger—one for mutants and one for superhumans—into one's own body?