by <unknown>
A hundred fiery snakes suddenly dispersed in the sky and whipped down brutally, leaving deep ravines inside the forest.
Those fiery snakes were all made of the feathers of the Mirage Falcons.
After every feather was pierced into the trunk of a tree, the tree would immediately be set on fire, burning at a speed far higher than normal flames would. All the trees were charcoal within a moment.
The trees deep inside the Hundred Desolation Mountain had grown for thousands of years and were harder than rocks, but even they could not resist the bombardment of the fiery feathers. It was not hard to guess what would happen to a body made of flesh and blood if it was hit by such feathers.
The location where Li Yao and Jin Xinyue had originally been was drowned in an ocean of flames.
The ocean of flames spread out as if it were a spring. The birds were particularly concentrated near the route of Li Yao and Jin Xinyue's escape.
Li Yao and Jin Xinyue found it hard to raise their heads because of the barrage.
Right then, an enormous Mirage Falcon finally revealed its real appearance in the sky.
Even Li Yao gasped at its hideousness.
It seemed more fitting to call the Mirage Falcons combinations of pterodactyls that had grown feathers and hawks than to call them birds.
Its head was almost ten meters long and could be extended or retreated free at will. When the beast was cruising at a supersonic speed, its head would hide in its body so that its body would be perfectly streamlined like a water drop.
However, right now, it was hovering in midair at a low speed, and it stretched its neck out like a snake. The ten or so crimson lumps that grew on the neck all expanded slowly, emitting translucent, orange brightness.
"What is it doing right now?"
Li Yao had no idea why the Mirage Falcon quitted the stealth mode and why it was stretching its neck in midair like a crowing cock.
But Jin Xinyue exclaimed as if she had run into a ghost and quickly ran away, covering her head with her hands.
Li Yao had an ominous feeling. The neck of the Mirage Falcon had been extended to the limit. Then, it suddenly shortened, like the barrel of cannon moving backwards because of the reoil. A cluster of brilliant red crystals spurted out its mouth and exploded in the sky, bombarding the entire forest like meteorites.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
For a moment, the earth was shaking as if dozens of volcanoes were erupting at the same time. Tusks formed of magma rose up from the ground, and the surrounding five hundred meters was all wreathed in fire. The blast, along with the hot waves, even reached a thousand meters away!
Thankfully, the enemy did not lock onto Li Yao and Jin Xinyue when performing the attack, and the landing point of the attack was to their east.
Even so, the two of them found it hard to keep stable in the overwhelming blast. They collapsed to the ground and did not come back to themselves for a long time.
"Cough cough. Cough cough cough cough. They are getting serious!"
Brutality beamed out of Jin Xinyue's eyes as she gnashed her teeth. "This is 'Fiery Shooting Star', the ultimate attack of the Mirage Falcons. The genes of the Mirage Falcons are all edited specially so that they can digest marrow crystals of the fire class that will then be kept in their craws. After a long time of purification, they will become natural marrow crystals bombs!
"However, the capacity of the craws of a Mirage Falcon is limited. Also, triggering the marrow crystals will damage their body, too. Therefore, such terrifying methods are not resorted to unless it is absolutely necessary!
"I didn't know that they were so determined to deal with me!"
Li Yao spat a thick glob of phlegm that was mixed with blood. His eyes, which were narrowed like the edges of two blades, were filled with killing intent as he observed, "Therefore, it is confirmed now that you have been abandoned by the Gold Crow Kingdom!"
Although the blast dealt no significant damages, it had blown away the powder on their body, which helped to disperse their smell. The bloody phlegm that Li Yao had spat out was quite pungent, too. The Blood Moon Wolf Raiders immediately detected them.
"Hoooo! Hoooo!"
The prolonged howls were like death sentences.
Very soon, almost a hundred obscure shadows appeared in the burning forest behind then. They seemed to be extremely powerful wolves with objects that looked like human beings on their back.
Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!
The Blood Moon Wolf Raiders locked onto their targets with their smell quickly. However, the human-like creatures on their back rose up and moved forward like lightning being attracted the branches of the trees. They were even faster than the wolves!
"Eight-Armed Demonic Apes!" Jin Xinyue's face was pale. "They are the real experts of jungle combat in the Kingdom of Lion Butchers. Nobody is willing to deal with the wretched monkeys in a forest!"
"You go first, and I'll stall them. We'll meet later in the waterfall in the southwest!"
Li Yao did not expect that the enemy would value Jin Xinyue so much, but their reaction only suggested that the secret inside Jin Xinyue was precious.
Naturally, Li Yao would not let Pantheon of Demons take back such a secret easily.
Jin Xinyue pondered for a moment and nodded her head, instantly vanishing into the forest.
Li Yao had put a Child-Mother Heart Connecting Ring on her ankle, which could allow him to detect where she was. Therefore, he was not worried that she might run away.
"Let's do this!"
Faced with incoming enemies from all directions, Li Yao felt like his blood was boiling. He extended his left arm, and the primeval cells inside his body expanded to the maximum, bordering on explosion.
"In your strongest form, burst out all the primeval force!" Li Yao bellowed. He felt that his flesh was torn apart, and a primitive, barbaric strength was flooding out from the depths of his left arm. Scents of desolation circled around his left arm, making it cramp and expand, until in the end, his left hand turned into…
A hoof.
Gazing at his left hand, which was now a hoof, Li Yao was at a loss for a long time.
Gritting his teeth, he did it again. Just come on, the primeval force!
He summoned his spiritual energy, and his mitochondria was activated to the maximum. The hoof on his left arm was gone, only to be replaced by… a flipper with membranes among fingers that looked like a duck foot.
"…" Li Yao.
Deep inside his brain, the mental devil was secretly chuckling. It seemed to be trying to hold back its laughter so hard that its head was purple.
"Asshole!" Li Yao was mad. "Was this your trick?"
"You can't be serious, right? Are you blaming this on me?" The mental devil floated inside his brain comfortably and replied with smile, "Dear brother of mine, do you know that, of the billions of ancestors of human beings, 99% are herbivores or feed on microorganisms? In short, they are absolutely useless at fighting.
"You don't know the mysteries of the genes at all, and you want to activate the feature of a strong ancestor by stimulating your primeval cells randomly?
"To be honest, you were already unbelievably lucky to have gotten a hoof and a flipper. If you were not, it would not have been unusual if your left arm had crumbled. Why else do you think that Cultivators from the past to modern day have hardly practiced such arts?"
Li Yao was rendered speechless. He was silent for a moment before he said, "Didn't I activate an awesome claw when I stimulated the primeval cells for the first time?"
The mental devil looked at him with derision and yawned lazily.
Li Yao thought of something and immediately realized it. "You were helping me, weren't you?"
Chapter 858: Terrifying Primeval Appearance |
The mental devil snorted in acknowledgement, raising its head in pride.
"Then what are you doing right now?" Li Yao demanded.
"Nothing," the mental devil replied lazily. "After our discu
ssion a moment ago, I feel that you are right and reasonable. Your words were such a great enlightenment to me! Yes, killing is not going to solve any problems. That's especially so given that human beings and demons might be brothers of the same origin who should live in peace. How can they attack each other?
"Therefore, now that so many of your 'brothers' are rushing toward you passionately, why don't you explain the ultimate truth of 'peaceful coexistence' with your deft tongue?"
Li Yao did not have the chance to curse before a highly-heated bullet swooshed past by his head and blew a giant tree in front of his face to smithereens.
The stinky smell of his hair being burnt immediately spread out.
More than ten Eight-Armed Demonic Apes grinned hideously. They were less than a hundred meters away from him now.
Every Eight-Armed Demonic Ape had four extremely long arms that extended from their shoulder blades. They also had two abnormal arms on their back whose joints could be switched to any direction.
Most of the time, they jumped among branches in predictable angles and at an amazingly high speed with their feet, the short limbs on the back, and their long tail.
The four arms that were spared carried a lot of heavy magical equipment. One Eight-Armed Demonic Ape was enough to blow out immense firepower. Right now, the dozen Eight-Armed Demonic Apes were opening fire at the same time. The web of fire was impenetrable and left a wasteland inside the forest.
The situation would have been less tricky if there were only Eight-Armed Demonic Apes, but behind the Eight-Armed Demonic Apes were the Blood Moon Wolf Raiders. Moreover, the humming sounds of the Mirage Falcons tearing apart the air could be heard from the sky, too.
The thousands of demons present could exhaust Li Yao with their sheer number.
Li Yao spat, turned around, and ran away!
Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!
The crimson feathers in the halo of demonic energy exploded right below his feet, turning mud into magma instantly, which left bloody holes on his skin. He was grimacing in pain, his veins bulging.
"Therefore—"
The mental devil smiled. "Killing is necessary on certain occasions, and it is helpful for the solution of some minor problems, isn't it? As for me, the sleazy, evil, and brutal mental devil, I might be of some use after all, right?"
"…" Li Yao.
"I'll take your silence as a yes if you don't want to say anything."
"…" Li Yao.
The mental devil laughed and stretched out its arms. "Very good. We have finally reached a preliminary consensus. Now then—"
Deep inside Li Yao's brain, the mental devil suddenly expanded, its redness turning Li Yao's brain into a land of blood. His left eye shuddered abruptly, and his pupil expanded like a blossoming flower. Bloody streaks rippled out of the deepest part of his eye and rotated, transforming his left eye into a bloody swirl!
Li Yao came to an abrupt halt while fleeing. His left arm straightened out. Explosive noises burst out in the deepest part of his bones. His every pore was spurting out thick, red gas nonstop that seemed to be the smoke of incense!
Covered in the bloody air, Li Yao's skin was now a golden color, with silver liquids being secreted from his pores. Very soon, the silver liquids consolidated into a glamorous armor. The cells on his elbow reproduced and ossified crazily until his elbow turned into a high-rising bone blade that looked like the fin of a shark. His five fingers were enveloped in the neat, silver armor, too, which significantly increased their hardness and defensive ability without reducing their agility at all. The front ends of his fingers grew sharp claws resembling those of dinosaurs and tigers. After a slight shake, the sound of air being torn apart could already be heard.
He felt that his palm was itching. Then, a half-round pearl which looked like a red crystal protruded out of the center of his palm. Deep red streaks were swimming delightfully like fish inside the pearl.
"Hu…"
Li Yao could not help but shiver and moan in great satisfaction. His body was like a volcano that was spurting out the most furious magma after billions of years of dormancy!
The enhancement of his body was already gratifying enough, and the improvement of his senses and his brain gave him a feeling that he had been reborn!
Shua! Shua! Shua! Shua!
In the moment, his eyes, ears, and nose felt incredibly refreshed. The lights, the soundwaves, and all kinds of particles were mixed together.
The rattling noise of the tree leaves, the faint body scent of the enemies, and the ever-changing shadows in the forest… All that information and more collided brutally inside Li Yao's brain, breaking into tiny, golden fragments before they were reconstructed into virtual battlefields.
Everything inside the virtual battlefields was under Li Yao's control. He knew the position and the route of attack of every enemy and had even begun to analyze the capability of the enemy with their movement speed and breathing frequency.
Shua! Shua! Shua!
The battlefields continued increasing, changing from one to two, to four, to eight, to sixteen, to thirty-two, to sixty-four!
The sixty-four virtual battlefields were running at the same time, precisely simulating the potential changes of the situation after he adopted sixty-four different tactics so that he could select the best tactical option.
My computational ability has significantly improved again!
Despite the excruciating pain in his brain, it was a pleasant surprise for Li Yao.
Ever since he advanced into the superlative height of the Core Formation Stage, his computational ability had remained stagnant. He had thought that it was the ceiling of the Core Formation Stage and did not expect that he would break the barrier at this moment!
After perceiving his brain cells in 0.01 seconds, he immediately realized that his soaring computation ability boiled down to the vastly changed brain cells.
Brain cells were among the most mysterious cells in a human body, and their greatest feature was that they were undividable and uncopiable.
Most of the cells in a human body, such as the liver and muscles, could divide and reproduced. One could stimulate the cells with their spiritual energy in training to speed up the division and reproduction. The weak, old cells withered, but stronger, new cells were born and replaced them.
Brain cells differed to other cells in that they could not be divided or reproduced.
The number of brain cells was fixed the moment one was born, which was approximately fourteen billion and would dwindle as one's life went on.
Starting from their twenties, the brain cells of every adult would reduce by around a hundred thousand until they died.
If their parents were both Cultivators, and their bloodline was stronger, it was possible that the number of their brain cells would be larger when they were born—say, it could be more than twenty billion. But correspondingly, after their spiritual root was awakened and they embarked on the path of Cultivation, they would burn their soul every once in a while, which meant that the consumption rate of their brain cells was multiple times higher than that of ordinary people, too.
It was also the biggest factor that limited the longevity of the Cultivators.
It was true that Cultivators could train their body until it was as hard as steel. They were not scared of fire or flood, and they were immune to most diseases.
For the stronger Cultivators, they could even suppress cancer cells with their own strength!
However, even if a Cultivator was never engaged in combat and attached great importance to body fitness, their body might be as healthy and strong as a young person, but their withering brain cells were irreversible.
In the end, because of the fatigue of their brain cells, they might succumb to brain death even though their body was immaculate!
But right now, Li Yao had discovered that, when part of his brain cells activated the primeval state through atavism, they began to boast abilities, however feeble, of division and reprodu
ction.
While his original brain cells were withering, new brain cells were being produced incessantly!
Li Yao was overjoyed by his findings.
"This is the ultimate form that I can build right now!" There was pride and expectation in the mental devil's voice. "The enhancement that the Blood Stripe Virus performed on living creatures is just based on their natural instincts. They do not have systematic theories. Therefore, the secret arts of training of the demon race are indeed of tremendous help for us!
"I have activated 1,354 segments of your recessive genes with the gene map that Jin Xinyue provided, allowing you to display the features of seventeen ferocious beasts!
"Right now, you are ten times stronger than Yan Xibei was!
"The preliminary gene maps are already enough to activate such terrifying combat ability. If we manage to get the most sophisticated gene maps inside the Pantheon of Demons, we will certainly be able to produce the strongest apocalyptic body ever! Haha. Hahahaha!"
"Can you please not laugh so bloodthirstily?" requested Li Yao.
"Not a problem." The mental devil immediately regained its previous calmness and said mildly, "I can even remove all the 'bloodthirsty', 'evil' strength and stop them from 'corrupting' your body so that you are talk about your noble ideals of 'peaceful coexistence' with your brother demons. How does that sound?"
"I said nothing!"
Shua!
Li Yao's feet stomped on a branch heavily, and the thick, tensile branch sprung Li Yao to the Eight-Armed Demonic Apes like a spring.
The Eight-Armed Demonic Apes did not expect that he would be bold enough to counterattack. They were all slightly dazed, but they soon roared and lunged at their enemy, waving their bone blades and chainswords.
After his computational ability broke the limits, Li Yao felt that he was placed in the middle of thick glue. Time slowed, and the ruthless-looking, crazily-yelling Eight-Armed Demonic Apes all turned into slow sloths for him.
Li Yao dodged between the bullets, lasers, acid, and venomous liquids that they spurted out unhurriedly. Their blades and firearms seemed to have turned into slates and steps for him on which he was dancing a dance of lightning. All the weapons that were touched by the tip of his feet slightly altered their direction.
