Chapter 141: 141: The Freak (Extra for Alliance Hierarch Shi Zhi Yi)
The peculiar individual, who just moments ago had shown no sign of life and had his eyes closed, had now startlingly opened his eyes.
One of his eyes was distinctly black and white, a human eye, while the other was forged of steel, yet it somehow appeared to possess life, looking extremely eerie.
The strange figure’s gaze was somewhat indifferent as he stared straight at the Mutator in front of him as if he were looking at lifeless dead matter.
Lin Shen was backing away, feeling that keeping his distance was the best choice until he could figure out exactly what this fellow was.
After all, the others had Spirit Bases in their hands, and although it seemed improbable for Ascenders to exist on Realm King Planet, it was better to be safe than sorry.
In fact, it wasn’t just Lin Shen; the others were also retreating—nobody was a fool.
The Sword Alliance Mutator, who was closest to the strange figure, also tried to back away after realizing what was happening, but he had barely taken one step back.
The figure embedded in the tree suddenly stood up.
His body was fused with the trunk; as he stood, the white jade-like wood around him cracked and splintered, shards flying in all directions.
Amongst the flying wood splinters, the figure took a step and instantly arrived in front of the Sword Alliance Mutator.
His step didn’t seem fast, but it left the Crystal Base Level Sword Alliance Mutator no time to react, as if he was paralyzed, watching the towering figure approach him wide-eyed.
It wasn’t that he was truly immobile; rather, the strange figure’s speed was so immense that his body couldn’t keep up with his brain’s reactions, making it seem as if he was frozen in place.
The others were like this Mutator; despite the figure’s movements appearing slow, their bodies couldn’t match the speed, and they watched helplessly as he extended that steel hand and grabbed the Mutator’s head with fingers like hooks.
In the next instant, everyone’s pupils contracted as they widened their eyes—the strange figure exerted force with his five fingers, directly crushing the Mutator’s helmet-like carapace and head in one go.
Lin Shen inwardly lamented that what was supposed to be dead had come alive again—if he had known it would be like this, he never would have come.
The Sacrificial Halo had only just been used, and although he had accumulated a few points since then, it was far from enough to battle this strange figure.
After the strange figure crushed the Mutator’s head, he stopped.
When he ceased moving, Lin Shen and the others seemed to recover their normal speed, simultaneously retreating rapidly to maximize the distance from the strange figure.
However, one Crystal-based Variant was an exception—the Mutator who was killed was his blood brother, and now, with bloodshot eyes from rage, he not only didn’t retreat but quickly took out a Pet Capsule and a key, activating two Crystal Base pets to pounce at the strange figure.
“Here we go again!” Lin Shen felt that immobilizing sensation again the moment he saw the strange figure move.
Whenever the figure moved, they felt as if they couldn’t move at all, not because they were completely immobilized, but because they were moving too slowly, much like a snail.
The figure moved so quickly, but his motions seemed unhurried, and every action was clearly visible.
He moved step by step, side-stepping the attacks of the two crystalline pets, and as he passed by, he crushed their heads with his hand.
Then he arrived in front of the Sword Alliance Mutator who had used the pets to attack him and did the same to him, crushing his head.
Everything appeared to be executed so methodically and unhurried, as if it were done with little effort.
Having done all this, the figure then paused, and only then did the bodies of the Mutator and the pets fall down, dropping from the tree branches.
Only then did everyone recover from their snail-like speed, retreating in alarm a couple of steps, but they had already reached the trunk of the tree and could retreat no further.
They could’ve leaped to other branches, but no one did so.
Because the strange creature’s speed was not something they could compete with. If it decided to kill them, running would have been futile, or more accurately, they wouldn’t have been able to run at all.
Everyone felt a bone-chilling cold, their eyes filled with terror as they watched the creature.
The creature’s gaze, however, wasn’t on them but lifted towards the giant fruits within the canopy.
The next second, they saw the creature leap up, kicking one of the giant fruits with its body mid-flight.
The incredibly tough fruit burst open under the creature’s kick, spilling out a large amount of liquid and something else.
Without pausing, the creature hopped from one fruit to another, each one bursting open whenever it set foot on it.
Some fruits were empty inside, some contained that corrosive liquid, and from others, along with the liquid, fell something else.
Lin Shen and the others watched as the creature stomped and burst open one fruit after another; it felt like a long while had passed when in reality, only a brief moment went by.
After the creature burst the last fruit open, it jumped down from the canopy and landed on the sandy ground below the tree.
After a glance at the items scattered on the ground, the creature, without a hint of attachment, turned and walked towards the distant desert.
It was only after the creature’s figure had vanished that everyone unconsciously began to breathe again, as if their breath had been held the entire time the creature was there.
Thump!
Lin Shen sat down on the ground with a thud, feeling his clothes soaked through.
For an instant just now, Lin Shen thought for sure that he was a goner.
It wasn’t only Lin Shen; everyone else felt the same, overwhelmed by the oppressive force of the creature.
“Got our lives back,” Xu Tiange said as he wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, evidently relieved.
Tu Xiaodao’s complexion wasn’t great either. In front of the creature, he felt like a snail without a shell, completely devoid of any sense of security.
The expressions on Zuo Qinglong and the others were complicated. They were relieved to have survived but grieved over the death of their companions.
“That creature must be one of the Ascenders, right? With such an existence on the Realm King Planet, it’s going to be unsafe in the future,” a Mutator said with a worried look.
Although Lin Shen also found the creature incredibly terrifying, upon reflection, it seemed to target only those who attacked it first.
If that creature had truly wanted to kill them, not a single one would have survived here.
The group followed the ropes down, only to find the people below surrounding and examining the liquid that had fallen from the tree.
Lin Shen walked over with Zuo Qinglong and the others, only to discover a strange object amidst the fallen corrosive liquid.
From above, they had seen that amongst the fruits that had burst open, apart from the corrosive liquid, there were other things inside.
However, not every fruit had something inside; only a small proportion did.
Although they hadn’t seen clearly what was inside there from above, now looking at what had fallen to the ground, their expressions turned odd.
The objects that lay on the ground were black iron lumps.
The iron lumps were irregular in shape, not resembling Base Mutation Eggs, but why would the giant tree’s fruits contain these iron lumps? Could these lumps be the seeds of the giant tree?