Chapter 110: Chapter 96: Shadow of Unease
Just as Giant Dragons can evolve, Female Demons can evolve too. During the nearly endless life of a female demon, it is incredibly difficult to accumulate energy solely through self-reliance. However, if by some twist of fate a female demon manages to quickly acquire a large amount of energy, she can evolve into a more advanced form.
In actuality, the initial state of a female demon can only be described as horrifying. As their power increases, their bodies become more complete. Following their original female forms, they evolve clothing and accessories. Of course, no matter what their appearance may be, these are all parts of a female demon’s body. However, no female demon evolves parts of themselves that seemed unexplained or senseless. Thus, clothing and accessories become a prominent part of their evolution.
As the legend goes, a certain emperor of the Black Dragon Empire was aided by a female demon when he was still a Crown Prince. This female demon was described as stunningly gorgeous in the recorded chronicles. The Crown Prince was naturally charmed by her and after she helped him, she disappeared quietly. To find her, he went through a grueling search to no avail. After he became Emperor, the Black Dragon Empire began researching undead beings in secret. If it were not for the widespread rejection of undead research in the magic community forcing the Black Dragon Empire to cease their research, perhaps at this time, the Black Dragon Empire might have unleashed an immortal army.
All female demons are spell-casters, capable of instinctively casting ice-element and spiritual spells. However, Little Zi doesn’t have many spells at her disposal because she hasn’t fully evolved into a Complete Form female demon yet.
Depending on whether or not a female demon’s appearance matches her original form, she may evolve into her Complete Form.
Little Zi looked down, whispering: "A headpiece, two hairpins, two sleeve cuffs, a pair of shoes, and one pendant! I just need to evolve twice more, then I can be in the Complete Form!"
Little Zi shouted excitingly.
"Let’s continue then!"
Without a word, Long Yi grabbed Little Zi’s little hand and Mana began to flood in once more. Long Yi’s endurance of Mana was significantly higher than the average person. The truth was the speed at which Little Zi absorbed Mana from Long Yi wasn’t fast, and Long Yi could not fully channel his Giant bloodline. Like that, not far from their destination, Little Zi evolved once again.
This time, she acquired a hairpiece, hairpins, sleeve cuffs, and a pair of black leather shoes.
Now, all Little Zi was missing to reach her Complete Form was the pendant.
And with that, Little Zi was filled with confidence!
"Thank you big brother, I’m already very powerful. You should rest now. This time, I want to personally take my revenge!"
With that said, Little Zi disappeared instantly.
As beings of energy, female demons can completely ignore obstacles, including flowers, grass, trees, everything. This left Long Yi and Ai Lin incredibly envious.
"So, should we wait for her here or follow her?" Ai Lin asked.
"Let’s go. Since we’re here, at least we should see what that beast looks like," Long Yi replied with a smile.
"Argh-" Bajie cried out, causing Long Yi to frown slightly.
"What’s wrong, Brother Long?" Ai Lin, noticing Long Yi’s change in expression, hurriedly asked.
"Bajie senses a scent in the air he doesn’t like," Long Yi said as he surveyed the area but found nothing out of the ordinary.
"Xiaoyou, follow Little Zi! No matter what happens, don’t rush in, let us know immediately!" Long Yi suddenly spoke hastily.
With a light chirp, Shadow Dragon unfurled its wings and rose high into the air. It left the forest and flew in the direction Little Zi had taken.
"Brother Long, is everything alright..." Ai Lin asked worriedly.
"I hope there’s no problem, though historically, anything Bajie dislikes often leads to a bit of trouble," Long Yi said slowly.
As they delved deeper into the forest, fallen trees and various trenches in the ground started to appear. There were also various types of crystals that hadn’t melted yet.
Of course, even more prominent were the crystals scattered all over the ground.
These crystals came from demons and their puppets.
The term ’demons’ refers to creatures that were infected by the unique toxins of the Demon Tribe.
The Demon Tribe comes from a plane of Crazy Demons which is an extremely harsh environment with scarce resources. All the creatures of this plane were either eliminated by natural selection due to the harsh conditions or they evolved to be extremely resistant. Every member of the Demon Tribe carries a very special toxin in their body called the Crystal Poison. This poison absorbs the energy within the creature and forms crystals on the outside. To the Demon Tribe, these crystals serve as their weapons, their armor. But for ordinary creatures infected with this toxin, it’s lethal.
Crystal Poison significantly drains a creature’s life energy while greatly stimulating its power to attack other creatures. It makes them uncontrollable, causing them to be irritable and more prone to violence in a very short period of time. Fortunately, not all infected creatures can spread the Crystal Poison. Otherwise, the entire natural system would likely collapse in a short period of time.
In fact, most infected creatures cannot survive the erosion from Crystal Poison. Within a brief period, they turn into crystal, losing all vitality. Only a handful of the strongest creatures can coexist with Crystal Poison after surviving the initial erosion. They then get transformed into powerful demons. Only creatures that have been attacked by these demons can be infected, and once they are infected, they will turn into puppets of the demons.
Looking at the situation, it was clear that Little Zi had cut her way through. The puppet-demons that died would quickly turn into pure crystals, then gradually decompose and disappear within a few days. However, the closer they got, the more anxious Bajie felt, his worry even affecting Long Yi. Long Yi, who was leading the way, had to stop and turn around to face Bajie.
"Brother, even if you’re scared, you shouldn’t show it so obviously. After all, you are a dragon of the Demon Abyss. With such a grand title, you shouldn’t be this timid. I mean, your mother used to obliterate an entire city with a single Dragon Breath back in the day,"
Long Yi consoled Bajie gently and slowly calmed him down. However, the unease in his heart didn’t disappear. Long Yi, being a Giant, had strength equivalent or greater to the Dragon Clan. However, he didn’t possess a sensitive nose like Bajie’s, and hence wasn’t sure what Bajie was worried about. Given that Bajie was just a baby dragon, his ability to communicate was limited. Long Yi could only lead the way, on one hand protecting Bajie, and on the other hand, Ai Lin. Though he had initially said he wouldn’t protect Ai Lin, when it came down to it, his masculine ego couldn’t bear to let such a delicate girl stand before him in danger.
Gradually, the landscape ahead grew increasingly ravaged, with more scattered crystals and ice-bound pieces, along with various uncrystallized animal limbs. Long Yi bent down to look and noticed what seemed like a wolf’s tail slowly crystallizing from the root upward until the entire tail turned into a crystal.
Just then, a sudden burst of intense cold erupted from a distance!
"Go!"
Long Yi yelled, already rushing towards the direction of the cold, only to be shocked by the sight revealed when he round a hill.
The ground was filled with a mixture of crystals and ice, and within these were multitudes of frozen animal corpses. And in the distance, a small figure surrounded a huge, twisted, and strange creature, continuously spraying frost and icicles.
"What is that thing..."
Ai Lin quickly hid behind Bajie, only her eyes peeking out.
The enormous creature was as large as a small house, looking like a mixture of various creatures; a wild boar’s head on the left, a wolf’s head on the right, and in a corner, there were two tusks protruding out. These body parts were stuck together by a jet-black, sticky substance. Transparent crystals emerged from the substance like spears, hurling towards Little Zi, who was gracefully dodging these crystal spears despite the difficult circumstances.
In Long Yi’s eyes, as these spears cut through the sky, they left traces of mana in the air!
Something was wrong!
Completely wrong!
This thing was not an ordinary demon!
