Free Web NovelChapter 217: Chapter 21: Unleashing Power
The Scaled Serpent’s armor appeared abruptly, hard and sturdy like fireworks exploding upwards. A cold light streaked across the side of the dark Serpent’s face, one continuous Z-shaped line weaving through them—a series of unbroken beams of light.
In the midst of the unbroken beams was Wu Jiu, as if mirrored in a piece of a shattered, enormous artifact, nothing but remnants of its former self.
Amidst a single beam of white light, a person wielding a sword seemed to have already fused into one entity, Wu Jiu moved swiftly, his eyes shining with a desperate twinkling light, amidst the white fog’s feigned attack—a flash of impending death in a moment of entrapment.
At the same time, Wu Jiu’s figure flashed, reaching a domain he had never owned before, exerting an extreme balancing force as a ninth-tier entity.
Barely dodging as the Scaled Serpent’s tail swept across, Wu Jiu moved non-stop amongst countless splinters of wood in the white fog.
He achieved that jumping strength from the chaotic remnants in the air around him. Since the Serpent had to open its mouth, it could only resort to a sideways tail swipe to attack.
Wu Jiu had long calculated this outcome, drawing on his extensive combat experience. Indifferent to such a spectacle with his eyes, he had already anticipated the white fog, which now lay in ruin, torn apart by the Scaled Serpent’s tail amidst Pang’s household items and the large remnants of a body.
The white fog swept sideways, easily bearing down with the crushing pressure of Yue Mountain’s Scaled Serpent’s tail, generating a storm within the still chamber.
Double eyes that mirrored a human’s, but imbued with the Soul Enchantress’s alluring charm, it was indeed the Scaled Serpent’s body.
The dark Serpent showed a flash of delight as it rapidly approached the white fog, and only then could one hear the sly laugh it emitted as this massive creature came towards itself.
"Hii hii hii hii, it’s been a while since we’ve had guests, oh, how exquisitely detailed you are, it’s almost as if you’re filling the void within me, haha."
Without any hesitation, the white fog initiated a feigned attack, creating an opportunity for Wu Jiu.
The white fog made a simple judgement but, despite the massive difference between it and an elite force, this Red Birthmark Mirror Beauty was still a ninth-tier mutation, even though it had seen the white fog deform into two perfect aberrations.
Two perfect ones, two rare ones.
[Ninth-tier mutations include: Rare Aberration with Scales of Armor, and Perfect Aberration with exploding venomous fog and deathly cold light.]
Although it was quite a simple situation. "Oh, you’ve forgotten that you’re just a man with no romantic interests at all, you don’t intend to rashly brave it. Perhaps, being a brave warrior isn’t such a regrettable thing after all... you can still make up for not being one by stepping into the role of the Scaled Serpent that is about to make its presence known here in Evilfall, where the four small flowers bearing famous names are quite exceptional."
For now, just settle for the pretty mermaids since of course, foxes must have their foxhole, and there must also be white snakes and celestial sparrows, albeit they are indeed not as abundant as the holes in the sky, on the ground, or in the water where they swim. This place is not only a place where human types roam freely, but also a place with meticulously numbered exquisites, one of which is definitely a fox or a marten, right? Evilfall does not only represent the lack of desires, but also has a certain uniqueness about it.
Wu Jiu had already prepared his vigilant attention, as the purple mist in his eyes began to surface.
The giant serpent’s body writhed, within the purple mist... One could already make out the silhouette of an enormous creature from afar, though its visibility was incredibly low.
In an instant, the crowd went into a state of high alert, looking towards a patch of purple mist in the distance.
Wu Jiu, being the strongest entity there was to fear, had a markedly higher level of ability than before, but the elite forces had only joined the inspection team less than half a year ago.
He still had an ace up his sleeve, regardless of the situation. Besides, Wen, the one in charge, couldn’t possibly be an ordinary dwarf, except perhaps for the Red Birthmark Evilfall variety. He actually found the answer to this question quite unexpectedly intriguing, even though Wen had also pondered this before.
The "Everlasting Forest" was indeed a difficult thing to contemplate. "Are we truly capable of withstanding it... There must still be one individual among us stronger than these Evilfall powers, as Lin Xiao recognized there are seven strong Evilfall beings."
This land here was home to only one of those giant life forms, as evidenced by everything in sight.
"Could it be just a ground... carpet with fragrant artificial air? After all, it’s quite meticulous, not much different from those purple thread grasses you’ve been talking about. If this room does indeed belong to the homeowner of such an enormous body, then these purple thread grasses are certainly not just for creating confusion. Oh~"
Wu Jiu began to strategize about the layout of this room in his mind.
Wu Jiu didn’t really care for these purple thread grasses. Just being on the sixth tier was enough to be immune from all sorts of visual and auditory illusions. The ground was covered with purple thread grasses – and that was the most bizarre thing.
The room was filled with immensely exaggerated everyday items placed haphazardly, as if comparing this room to a flower board, with chairs that stood four to five men tall inside it.
This room inside the Second Level was not much different from any of the rooms in the first level of Evilfall. However, Wu Jiu appeared inside this room standing at the entrance of the grand hall.
"...seems to come from those bizarre bird calls in the distance."
He had stepped into the Second Level, not just from the intense white mist, but also the increasingly higher level calls of strange birds.
The purple mist obstructed their vision.
Because it only had one room, the Second Level seemed considerably vast and empty compared to the many, far different rooms of the First Level.
Battlefields of the Second Level, a realm of color.
"I’m but the only one enslaved here... a prisoner in chains... just let me go, warrior... let me go."
Her eyes glowed dimly as she looked at Wu Jiu, her uniquely long hair cascading down from the Scaled Serpent extricating itself.
At that moment, the Scaled Serpent’s eyes suddenly flickered, as if it could ease its rigid body with some eastern mystique.
The Scaled Serpent had been severely wounded by Wu Jiu’s slashes through its seven-inch thick scaled hide, and the bloodied flesh made its giant body cease its struggle.
The reality of the combined military prowess seemed impossibly terrifying compared to before, almost like it had escalated to a whole new level.
They could only feel disbelief as the huge body of the Scaled Serpent collapsed.
An unyielding standoff between the gracious Lin and the formidable Wang.
Wu Jiu was akin to a tightly nailed piercer in the serpent’s head and neck, making it desperately cry out in severe pain.
The Scaled Serpent felt as if it was slowly grinding away its own life, being torn apart by Wu Jiu’s ferocious cutting, feeling every bit of its scales being violently ripped.
It didn’t even bother looking at Wu Jiu; its only question was whether a deathly cold light or a sudden poisonous fog would be more suited to dealing with Wu Jiu.
"Bullet Time" was crucial for a speed warrior like Wu Jiu.
Although a perfect transformation wouldn’t necessarily endow him with evil destructive powers, it would certainly confer on him a powerful strength of a dreadful nature. freeweɓnovēl.coɱ
At this point, he was like a whirlwind; every move he made had an extraordinary ferocity, and his attacks were nearly untouchable through any mist form.
He was completely into a state of beyond-hyperactivity; Wu Jiu couldn’t even come close due to the foundation-level mist.
However, as much as the green poison mist spewed out, it was useless against Wu Jiu.
Wu Jiu could exert such monstrous force that it could literally crack open the Scaled Serpent’s scales with raw strength.
Regardless of the Scaled Serpent’s tremendous efforts to shake him off, nothing could remove Wu Jiu from its colossal body.
Facing Wu Jiu was no easy task; it was incredibly difficult to even reach him, especially considering the extreme imbalance caused by his ninth-grade life force.
The Scaled Serpent was very powerful indeed.
...as if on the brink of exploding from the overwhelming negative emotions. The squad always fighting on a single front, it seemed, was also their nemesis, the Wood of Reincarnation.
Wu Jiu had this strange feeling that he never actually faced any opponents with a counter-attack in the battlefield; recalling past events was like a mist.
Basically, Wu Jiu would not be fighting the squad if the opponent didn’t possess any unique strong attributes; if the opponent resembled an evil demon, it would basically be counterproductive.
They’d just be wasting their time, faking the original sin just for the sheer sake of it, transforming into white bones of ultimate evil.
It seemed as if Wu Jiu somehow didn’t possess any trans-positional abilities at all...
Even if you used all your strength and wore that rare type of scales armor, warding off the monstrous serpent would still be difficult, not to mention injuring it.
It seemed like we only needed to wait and let the ambush squad do the killing, as if I had transformed into a motionless Bodhisattva, mirroring Wang Yi and Lin Wu with their unyielding stances.
That’s essentially what the ambusher’s situation was like most of the time... It seemed as if Bai Wu hadn’t really done much.
The giant creature’s massive body was slamming into the walls, sending increasingly violent tremors through the entire fortress.
As if suffering from convulsions, the Underworld Serpent shook its body sporadically, only feeling a slight fear now. It appeared in the icy cavern as if frozen in place, a stark contrast to the creature that was completely unfazed just a second ago.
"It’s only my hand facing you, not my eyes that you should watch," Wu Jiu said coldly.
The walls of the fortress were trembling slightly due to the ferocious impact, but they were far from being destroyed.
At that moment, the Underworld Serpent flinched from the painful blow, which had caused it to veer off from its original direction; its iron-like skin had already turned brittle as mud due to being severely wounded too many times.
Wielding dual blades, Wu Jiu danced through Bai Wu’s mist, his movements so quick it was frightening, leaving countless afterimages with each swing of his swords, hurtling towards the Underworld Serpent in a blink.
To the serpent, this movement was an unimaginable provocation, akin to a dwarf waving a tiny knife at its head. The serpent, however, had no idea what this meant.
Speed-wise, Bai Wu was too sluggish too many times over compared to Wu Jiu, who was still not the actual figure of the serpent in reality.
At the same time, the serpent opened its enormous mouth, resembling a deep chasm, intent on swallowing up Bai Wu.
As its body continued to sway, the Underworld Serpent wanted to grab a short blade from the sheath on its head to defend itself, confident in the protection of its armor.
In an instant, the scales transformed completely, turning pitch black and unusually sharp. The Scaled Serpent’s armor covered its entire body.
Although clearly the physically weakest member of the group and seemingly an insignificant human, this very person managed to instill fear in it, which was quite the feat considering it was a monster that had evolved to a ninth-grade metamorphic being, at the top of the ferocious beast’s food chain.
To the serpent, it seemed like it was facing a death god wielding a sickle, but just a moment ago, it was the apex predator, a ninth-grade metamorphic creature ready to ascend to greater heights.
A chill permeated the Underworld Serpent in an instant.
A z-shaped streak followed the piercing, unthinkable velocity, which had already reached its head and was still looking up at him from the ground a second ago; now, the creature was caught off guard by the terror unfolding before it.
Following that piercing stab, a cold light scraped across the Scaled Serpent’s face, and a hard, armor-like scaly flower sprouted behind it, while one single, basic and inescapable formless capture ray glided past.
The formless woman changed shape again, revealing a rather pleasing smile.
"This place should be even more rewarding," he sneered, as he stared at the formless woman, his hand grasping Chung Hsiu’s area, his face piled with layers of fat, radiating a disgust that made people want to throw up.
"Hmph, it’s not wrong either, this giant creature’s body has been quite a waste to maintain for so long without any customers taking care of it, I don’t hope they advance to the fourth level. Let the Leviathans, Fox Spirits, and Kongque birds take care of it all at once, then. Just die. It’s also quite a wasteful expense to nourish such a huge body," he said.
"They’re dead."
"Is that serpent only good for being dead?"
"They have entered the third level, my lord."
Smiling with satisfaction, the formless woman changed into several favorable appearances as she followed Chung Hsiu’s report on their progress.
Being impersonated by the formless woman as an ally to carry out attacks was what had already happened when intruders came to this place.
The master loved most that which was evilly begotten, capable of transforming into anything, adept at deception, expert in combat, and even more skilled in murder.
Formless girl.
At times, she was a blushing young girl with a tender shyness; at times, a child with childish whimsy; and at other times, she’d moan softly like a thirteen-year-old girl.
These sounds were ceaselessly transforming.
Laughter of a girl at play was still there, alongside the panting breaths—except for the sound of a clock ticking—inside the room.
As the clock outside struck, only a piece of black-lacquered furniture remained in the room of the manager’s house, with no sign of Wang on his face, dressed in black attire, atop the tower at the Second Level.
...
...
What should have been a beautiful blessing that eased their way became a deep abyss into which they fell, bringing about disaster.
Albeit the Soul Enchantress, the Scaled Serpent, the White Snake, the Kongque mermaid, and even the fox-spirit were all noted in the list and were somewhat high above the ordinary, they were nothing but a hazy thought in her mind.
The Scaled Serpent was already dead.
People mourned her, yearned for her, searched for her, and still remembered her even several years later.
Just like that, she disappeared with countless other girls, never to show her figure again in the high tower from that moment forward.
Just like that, she vanished suddenly, on one night within Yue Mountain’s business empire, because ultimately, these mundane dreams of a plain but beautiful life that she loved were unattainable—an aspiration she had merely admired.
Wu Jiu had originally thought he could get through his days, simply living an unremarkable life, except that he had always believed he deserved to find someone he could love enough, someone who was handsome and wealthy.
She figured she was luckier than most; after graduating from the school for the aristocracy, she immediately entered the corporate world at the Third Level, holding a clerical position that seemed dull but kept her busy from morning until night.
As the tiny figure told her those very words when she was on the brink of death, she was quickly drawn back to the present, though she had been about to delve into recounting her entire life... She’d endured long enough—a Grade A product, the snakehead that had fallen off was already dead.
Wu Jiu flicked his eyes suddenly, taking note of that skull as he looked at it.
Behind the slight expression of Wu Jiu, the hand held a sword.
"Let’s go," he said.
The white snow-like skull fell to the ground, unable to hide the fear in its expression under its disheveled, long hair.
No sooner had Wu Jiu’s sword left its sheath than the inherently evil nature of the Scaled Serpent revealed itself in an instant; the cold glint of death ceased, and the poisonous mist burst asunder.
One swift stroke of the lethal blade passed straightforwardly over the neck of that female form, leaving a snow-white skull floating in the air.
What they heard was not Wu Jiu sheathing his sword but his return call. However, Wang and Pang did not hear this; instead, they were whispering in awe, "Be cautious, team leader!"
With a sudden green venomous mist expelled, Wu Jiu faced the challenge fiercely, his double pupils shooting a grayish-white light—just as he was about to storm into the inquisition circle, the Scaled Serpent’s snowy white form decided it might just let the crowd confront it, showing only a pleading demeanor, with no more seductive charm.
In the end, no matter how terrifying the creature was, with its beautiful skin pouch, it still had a voice devoid of any tender seductiveness—it was only begging.
Although its green, viscous fluid-covered body was indeed still beautiful to behold, its skin, paler than bleak white, went far beyond tragic beauty. Lin Rouyu had to acknowledge this "Serpent Spirit" was very beautiful indeed, even though she’d only seen its whole body—it was just like snow, but this body had turned from an evil being into its current form.
