by <unknown>
"On the surface, it seems to be the most lethal poison that can melt one's guts and make them die miserably. It is even very contagious, and whoever comes close might be affected by the venom.
"However, after analyzing carefully, it is not difficult to find that there are a lot of stabilizing cells inside the venom that can help maintain the vital signs of a creature.
"According to my calculations, once a lot of 'venom' floods into the body, the skin will certainly fester, and the heartbeat and breathing will become very feeble, too. Every symptom will be no different from death. However, the most critical part of the creature's vitality will not be cut off, and it will enter a certain 'false death' state. With timely treatment, they will awaken shortly after!"
Li Yao smiled. He had made the same judgement, but he needed more proof to support his hypothesis.
His senses spread out in the forest like the tentacles of an octopus. Amid the dense bushes and thorns, every Death Teeth Guard had been precisely locked onto by him. He had even simulated dozens of pictures in his mind where he killed the Death Teeth Guards instantly. It was not until the enemies found the last few 'preys' that he gave up such a boring game and started observing carefully.
Mo Tiesheng was among the few gladiators who fought to the end.
He thought that his companions had all been slain by the Death Teeth Guards and could not have been infuriated. With the desperate roars, his body continued expanding, and his spine protruded out, growing spurs that looked like tusks. The broken horn on his head was now repaired and even thicker than when it was intact in the past, soaring up to the sky helically like the horn of a devil.
However, the gap between their capability could not be filled simply by outrage. The Death Teeth Guards were all the winners who laughed to the end in the hundreds of battles on the Skeleton Island. They also had the advantage in numbers right now. Their victory was certain!
The thorny bushes shook slightly. A black shadow darted out like lightning and leapt to Mo Tiesheng's shoulder. Then, with a strangle technique, the enemy fractured his right arm that was as thick as a bucket. It exploded with clusters of bloody mist bursting out.
Before Mo Tiesheng had the chance to scream in pain, a crocodile in iron armor suddenly dashed out of the mud below his hoofs, brutally piercing his long spear into Mo Tiesheng's chest!
When the tip of the spear reached Mo Tiesheng's chest, thousands of electric arcs spurted out abruptly. Every spiral on the spear that looked like a gold ring was revolving rapidly, allowing the weapon to penetrate through his broad chest without the least hinderance and get out from Mo Tiesheng's back. A giant heart soaked in blood was stuck to the tip of the spear and ripped apart instantly by the electric arcs.
Mo Tiesheng roared crazily and blew away the two Death Teeth Guards. He bulged his eyes, clutched the hole on his chest, and stepped forward heavily. Finally, he could not hold on any longer and kneeled on the ground, lowering his head and cramping crazily.
Very soon, deep purple blood flooded out of his wound and spread out like a plague. His enormous body soon turned into weird black.
Even the most coldhearted demon might not have been willing to look at him any longer.
But Li Yao had been observing carefully and capturing every millimeter of movement of the two Death Teeth Guards precisely.
He discovered that, fierce as the first demon's attack might have been, the 'heavy wounds' such as a shattered arm could easily be recovered with the biochemical treatment of the demon race after several days.
As for the crocodile's sudden piercing, it missed the critical area slightly at the most important moment.
With Li Yao's vision right now, he could calculate precise the distribution of his internal organs and the functioning status of the organs by observing Mo Tiesheng's heartbeat and the different temperatures of his body parts.
To put it simply, when Li Yao glanced at Mo Tiesheng casually, it was not just an entire minotaur that he saw but also different pictures including his bone structure, the distribution of veins and nerves, the precise locations of every internal organ and lymph, and so on.
Li Yao clearly 'saw' that, when the lightning-like spear of the crocodile pierced into Mo Tiesheng's chest, the attack was off by three millimeters to the right and brushed past Mo Tiesheng's heart at a close distance. The wound seemed to be fatal, but none of the lightning really touched his heart!
Then, what was the enormous heart on the tip of the spear about?
I got it. Maybe a Cosmos Ring that stores such a 'heart' has been embedded into the spear in the first place.
No living organs could be stored inside the Cosmos Ring, but the 'heart' might not be necessarily made of flesh and meat. One made of foam materials can look equally vivid at the hands of a deft craftsman.
Li Yao was a refiner. He could tell that it was not difficult to produce a false heart with natural materials as long as the appearance was identical to a real one.
The spear could release dazzling electric arcs that would strongly interfere with the sight of the audience. While the lightning was spluttering, the 'false' heart was burnt into ashes instantly. Nobody would be able to notice anything wrong!
Inside the long spear, there are also probably special narcotic drugs and false death drugs that can make Mo Tiesheng enter the weird false death state. He will also cramp, vomit blood, and have skin ulcers… Everybody will want to keep distance from him.
The audience is all far away and watching everything through the Flying Spirit Eyes. How can they discover that he is not actually dead so quickly?
Li Yao smiled. By the rattling noises in the bushes and the shaking leaves, he locked onto three Death Teeth Guards that were darting toward him.
Stomping on the branch, Li Yao threw himself to the ground Li Yao a cannonball. The earth was all splashing because of the invasion. Under the cover of the humus, he kicked the leopard demon who was best at melee combat rapidly!
As he expected, the leopard demon came close to him like a harassing fly.
Li Yao's right leg was immediately folded like a razor blade. He almost fell over because of the sudden change of movement.
Li Yao would never hand over his fate to somebody else. Although he was 99% sure that the opponents were not really trying to kill him, there was still uncertainty after all. If his right foot suffered heavy wounds, it would be a great disadvantage for him when he encountered real experts such as the Fire Ant King.
Li Yao only kicked because he wanted to show a loophole on his back so that a Death Teeth Guard who had been pretending to be a piece of rind behind him would be tempted to attack his back brutally!
Shua!
A narrow and long wound was immediately left on his back. Under Li Yao's precise control, the blood flowed out in a seemingly miserable way, but it barely diminished his combat ability.
Li Yao seemed to be staggering after he suffered such a strike and could do nothing to stop ten or so bone spears from hitting his critical parts brutally.
However, Li Yao sensed that the bone spears that seemed to be aiming at his critical parts were all going to miss the real locations of the critical parts.
The venom inside the bone spears immediately spread out!
With Li Yao's sturdy body close to that of the Nascent Soul Stage, which had also been strengthened by the mental devil, barely any poison could work on him right now. The venom of such a level could deal absolutely no damage to him.
But Li Yao simply removed all the defense on the surface of his body and allowed his skin and part of the nerve endings to be corroded.
When he 'helplessly' fell to the ground, cramping and foaming at the mouth with deep purple venomous fluids leaking out of his every pore, lengthy horns echoed far away.
The seemingly one-sided slaughter was over.
But the real game had only just begun.
Very soon, guards of the Skeleton Island in full sets of protective garments carried pots made of fine metal a
nd carved with mysterious patterns and sprayed a lot of deep blue foam on his body.
Li Yao knew that the foams could block the venom and the germs. It was a standard procedure to handle the bodies that were killed by the venom.
However, after they were wreathed in the deep blue foams, nobody would be able to find out if they were actually not dead.
Covered in the multiple layers of foam, Li Yao did not dare to expand his senses. He could only vaguely feel that he was lifted and moved to a large cart. Then, after more than half an hour's intermittent and bumpy travelling, he reached a place where the sea wind was blowing, and the tides were surging.
Li Yao interweaved his telepathic thoughts into a helix and drilled a tiny hole on the deep blue foam through which he observed the surroundings.
It was a cliff at the northwest part of the Skeleton Island with an altitude of almost a hundred meters. Below the cliff were sharp, disorderly reefs.
At the center of the cliff was an enormous pit around fifty meters in diameter. Huge waves slapping the seashore could vaguely be heard, and they were mixed with earsplitting shrieks, each louder than the last. Smelly, scarlet smoke was spurting out from the bottom of the pit, hovering in midair, and forming weird red clouds.
It was the 'Thousand Corpse Abyss', the place on the Skeleton Island where the dead bodies of the gladiators were dropped.
All the gladiators hated the place and were scared whenever they spoke about it.
Countless bodies had been piled up beside the Thousand Corpse Abyss. They were pushed into the pit by enormous beasts that were driven by the guards.
Very soon, a mill of flesh and blood seemed to have been opened below the pit. Noises of meat being torn apart and bones being fractured were echoing.
With his telepathic thoughts, Li Yao detected, to his surprise, that it was the bodies of the demon beasts that were pushed into the pit in the first batch.
It was not the 'dead' gladiators' turn until right now.
When he was pushed to the side of the Thousand Corpse Abyss, he discovered that the bottom of the pit was connected to the ocean. At the center of the bottom was a rapid swirl in which countless terrifying sea beasts that looked like hybrids of sea snakes, worms, and octopuses were swimming swiftly. None of the sea beasts had eyes, and the front end of their fat bodies was entire occupied by a bloody mouth, and more than ten circles of dense teeth could be seen.
Even a body made of iron was probably going to be ground and swallowed by the sea beasts.
Li Yao knew that such beasts were known as 'Blind Teeth Sea Demons'. They were the dominators near the seashore. The Far East Demon Kingdom had tamed the horrifying beasts as weapons and even produced a batch of destructive assault ships based on the Blind Teeth Sea Demons, which proved to be quite a headache for the navy of the Star Glory Federation.
Huala!
Li Yao and Mo Tiesheng were pushed into the Thousand Corpse Abyss!
Chapter 879: Throne of Genes |
Inside the Thousand Corpse Abyss, the dark waves crashed powerfully against the walls as if trying to escape. The Blind Teeth Sea Demons were all opening and closing their mouths in the most hideous way. Li Yao could not help but increase his wariness to the maximum. Should there be anything wrong, he could crash into the wall of the pit straightly and hide himself within the rocks.
Mo Tiesheng and the other gladiators were really in the false death state. They were like the puppets whose strings had been cut off and were freefalling into the pit, their hands and feet fluttering randomly.
The gladiators were about to become a delicious meal for the Blind Teeth Sea Demons when one side of the wall of the dark pit glided open quietly and revealed a few pathways. Half of the pathways tossed out glue nets that were as sticky as the spider webs and caught all the gladiators, dragging them into the pathway, while the other half of the pathways spurted out almost a hundred corpses of demon beasts, which replaced the gladiators as food for the Blind Teeth Sea Demons!
The entire process was quick and seamless. Unless one bulged their eyes and observed the bottom of the pit, nobody would be able to notice anything.
Just like that, the gladiators who should have ended up in the stomachs of the Blind Teeth Sea Demons were swapped and dragged underground!
"Hurry up and inject the antidote!"
"There are quite a few talents among the newcomers. They cannot be killed. Send them into the biochemical slots for treatment!"
Sensing the cold tips of syringes being stabbed into his veins softly and injected cool, comforting drugs that slowly flowed around his body, Li Yao smiled and knew that he had successfully faked his way into the Blade of Chaos.
…
One day later, deep inside the Skeleton Island, three hundred meters below the ground, inside the secret base of the Blade of Chaos…
"Where is this young talent from exactly? His body is too strong!"
"You can't tell it from his appearance at all. He is no taller than three meters, and his weight is less than a thousand kilograms, but he has swallowed more strengthening drugs than the five Red Blood Bronze Bull did!"
"It's rather strange. We retrieved his blood for analysis and found nothing wrong. He is just one of the most common chaotic-blood demons."
"Is this what they referred to as 'naturally-endowed gifts'?"
"The supervisor has commanded that the intensity of the 'Tiger Devil Body Building Medicines' be increased by three times. We'll see how the monster reacts to that. Maybe we have indeed picked up a treasure this time. He might prove to be an invincible warrior!"
Li Yao was floating in an enormous biochemical slot with his eyes half closed. He was soaked in a liquid that looked slightly red. Such a liquid was as thick as gum and stored no end of strengthening constituents that slowly leaked into his pores under slight pressure.
By perceiving the feeble vibrations of the glass of the biochemical slot, he was eavesdropping on the conversation among the members of the Blade of Chaos outside.
It sounded like the Blade of Chaos was truly not malicious and only meant to recruit new, strong members.
It was exactly as he had hoped.
The mental devil was yawning in boredom deep inside his brain. "Such healing drugs are truly as tasteless as water. It took them a day and a half to repair such minor injuries? If it were me, I could have the injuries recovered in a minute by activating your cells' potential!
"The 'Tiger Devil Body Building Medicine' that they've developed seems interesting enough, though. But the intensity is too low. Three times? Should be ten times at least. Only that will be exciting enough!
"However, hehe, there is indeed a lot of good stuff in the secret base of the Blade of Chaos. The trip is definitely worthwhile!"
Li Yao agreed with the mental devil's theory.
The biochemical slot he was placed in was not the only one in the base. He was now in a vast natural cave below the ground. Beside him were almost a hundred biochemical slots that were placed next to each other in a line. Some of other biochemical slots were embedded in the wall of the cave. One expert was lying quietly inside every biochemical slot.
Despite the blockage of the thick drugs, Li Yao could clearly sense the stronger and stronger scent inside every biochemical slot.
Five hundred meters to his left, some of the large biochemical slots were even more than twenty meters tall. The demons being soaked and refined inside were like dinosaurs that had travelled through time to modern day. Even Li Yao secretly clicked his tongue when he saw them.
The Blade of Chaos was indeed not as simple as it appeared to be, and the so-called 'Riot of Bloody Blade' was definitely not their real outburst!
Li Yao did not have the patience to wait any longer. His eyes shuddered as he slowly opened them. Cold brilliance that pierced through the strengthening drugs, the hardened glass, and the thick rocks beamed out of his bright red left eye.
"He's awake!"
"He took more poison than any
of the other gladiators did, and he woke up so quickly? What a monster!"
"Hurry and change the constituents of the drugs. Inject pacifiers!"
Very soon, Li Yao saw an old demon who had a pair of pure white wings staring at him with a smile before his biochemical slot.
The old demon was wearing an ivory robe with a crimson emblem of the Blade of Chaos painted on the chest.
Looking at the sharp blade that chopped off the gene strands for a second time, Li Yao suddenly sensed a whole different meaning from it.
"Am I… dead?"
Li Yao pretended that he was weak and drew on the hardened glass with his fingers clumsily.
"No." The old demon's voice came over through the warm strengthening drugs, somewhat blurred. "You are reborn."
…
Li Yao had been 'reborn' for eighteen hours.
In the first fifteen hours, the Blade of Chaos had run a series of thorough physical examinations on him.
With the disguise of the mental devil, he naturally passed the tests without any trouble.
After a brief rest, he was led by two members of the Blade of Chaos through a long pathway to a quiet underground temple.
There was nothing inside the temple, but enormous paintings had been decorated on the walls. However, the paintings were not about the glorious, magnificent deities nor the scenes where heroes were fighting blood-boiling battles, but the pictures of the mysterious gene strands, cells in various forms, and the fossils of countless ancient creatures.
Such paintings added to the mystery and solemnness of the temple.
Other than Li Yao, the gladiators who were 'killed' in the same game as him showed up one after another, including those swallowed by the swamp.
Li Yao was dazed at first. Then he immediately realized what had happened. There were clearly traps below the so-called 'Hell Bone Swamp', too, and the gladiators who stepped on them would be pulled away through the secret tunnels down there. After a few days, a few remnants of bones similar to the size of the victims would be thrown back to the ground, and nobody would be suspicious.