Chapter 112: Chapter 98 Breakthrough!
Little Zi, who was originally resting on the side, couldn’t help but chuckle to herself. Actually, she had deceived Ai Lin earlier, she just wanted to see how this girl, who had been shivering next to Long Yi from beginning to end, would react. She was somewhat surprised that the usually timid Ai Lin was able to muster such tremendous resolve and courage when Long Yi was in danger.
"Hehe, it’s about time we end this battle!"
Like soaring high, Little Zi, enveloped by chill air, joined the fight. In no time, the monster’s body started shrinking as it was continuously being eroded!
And Long Yi?
Of course, he was alright. This was actually one of Long Yi’s strategies. He managed to forcefully enter the beast’s body in search of the Crystal Core, but the hunt wasn’t easy. Long Yi’s eyes were tuned to the Mana’s operational track, but within the body of this kind of monster, the Mana moved without a pattern. He could occasionally locate the Crystal Core, but it moved away soon after.
Hence, he gradually slowed down, attempting to trick the monster into believing he had lost consciousness. Inside the monster’s body, he saw many mutated animal bodies and organs. These weren’t parts of the monster, but were being absorbed. Surprisingly, this tactic actually worked! A few times, Long Yi managed to spot the Crystal Core, but he didn’t rush. Because he discovered that there was more than one Crystal Core within the monster’s body!
Just from his observations, there were five of various sizes! There might be even more!
But grabbing them was a massive problem.
Inside the monster’s body, things weren’t stationary. They shifted and rotated with the monster’s movements. A few times, small Crystal Cores slipped past Long Yi’s hands, but he didn’t attempt to grab them, because he knew such a powerful monster couldn’t simply rely on these small Cores for survival.
Long Yi could feel that the monster was absorbing energy from his Dragon Breath armor continuously, trying to digest it. He kept infusing Fighting Aura into his Dragon Breath armor to offset the consumed energy. This armor, made purely from Dragon Breath, even if it originated from a young dragon, was no easy task to digest!
The attack from the outside became more and more intense, and the monster’s body became smaller and smaller. Long Yi could almost clearly spot the location of every Crystal Core.
It wasn’t just five or six! Neither eight nor nine! But a whole fifteen Crystal Cores! Out of these fifteen, two were the largest. The rest were relatively smaller. In Long Yi’s eyes, these Crystal Cores intertwined in a strange way, providing energy to the monster. However, the energy eventually had to be transferred to various parts of the monster’s body through the two biggest Crystal Cores.
The attacks from the outside became more and more ferocious so as the monster’s counterattacks. Although Long Yi couldn’t see outside, he realized that the two girls had also joined the fight, because it would be difficult to achieve such an effect with just Bajie alone.
At this point, all Long Yi was missing was an opportunity.
Under the constant attacks, the monster’s size continued to shrink, and it no longer blew parts of its body up, but let Bajie’s Dragon Breath constantly burn it. The various magics cast by Ai Lin in the midst of her punches and kicks rendered the monster full of wounds. Little Zi’s ice magic was constantly sprayed, making the beast’s actions slower. In the blink of an eye, they managed to suppress the beast to the size Long Yi first saw it!
At this moment, the monster’s internal body suddenly emitted a sharp scream, its figure gradually shrinking amidst swirling steam. It instantly became a third of its original size, but its body became much sturdier. A row of tentacles extended from its body, waving about. Bajie, bulky in size, was the first to be whipped away. Then a sky full of tentacles went after Little Zi in the air. Despite dodging repeatedly, Little Zi was suddenly stabbed in the abdomen by a tentacle. Immediately, her body flickered, and gray-black patterns appeared on her stomach.
Ai Lin dodged left and right, penetrating the barrier of tentacles, and launched another consecutive set of attacks, breaking through the Ethereal Light Shield on the monster’s body, but failed to break its body! How did the monster become so sturdy!?
While she hesitated, two tentacles swept across like whips. Ai Lin couldn’t dodge in time and could only raise her arms in defense. With a scream, one tendril hit Ai Lin’s arm, while the other whipped her abdomen.
Ai Lin only felt a blackout due to the pain and was sent flying away, landing far away. When she struggled to open her eyes and wanted to lift her arm, she found that her arm stung with burning pain and couldn’t exert any force. Looking down, her stomach only hurt slightly, but there were two wounds on her arms torn open by the strike just now! That attack seemed to have sucked away all her strength! The monster was squirming to crawl towards her!
Meanwhile, Long Yi in the monster’s body was silently anxious. Suddenly, the surroundings heated up and the monster’s internal activities almost entirely halted. As the body size shrank, the two big Crystal Cores were less than a meter away from Long Yi, but the distance didn’t get any closer. Just then, Long Yi sensed Bajie’s crisis and heard what seemed like cries for help from Little Zi and Ai Lin.
Alright, damn it, you brought this upon yourself! Want to absorb my power? I’ll let you have a taste!
Dragon Fighting Aura! Unleash it all!
Boom!
Long Yi suddenly transformed into a man of fire!
Twenty layers of Dragon Fighting Aura burst forth!
Forty layers of Dragon Fighting Aura! Burst forth!
The explosion of power from the two Dragon Marks blew apart the gel like substance around Long Yi. He didn’t hesitate and charged at the two large Crystal Cores. The monster, however, sensed someone was trying to attack its Crystal Cores from within and the Cores inside began to move frenziedly! Countless tentacles began trying to disturb Long Yi from inside its body.
"You damn thing, stop right now! Bajie will be forcibly evolved soon. Get in my hands now!"
Shouting obscenities, Long Yi chased down the object with all his forces. The surrounding tentacles had just appeared but were instantly burned to ash by the flames surrounding Long Yi, preventing any chance of getting closer. As space evaporated around him, the directions to dodge the two crystal cores got slim. With no room left, the two crystals suddenly burst into a brilliant light.
Damn you, are you trying to self-destruct?
In the official mission guide, there is a clear warning about monster self-destruction. Some monsters, when they are desperate, choose to blow up their crystal cores. The power of such an explosion is enormous, posing a potential threat to the combatants. If possible, one should try to end the fight quickly to avoid forcing monsters into despair.
At present, ’despair’ is the feeling of having a culprit in the stomach that can’t be digested but can’t be vomited out, right?
Long Yi didn’t have time to ponder; he saw the crystal cores flickering and rushed out. He grabbed and pulled forcefully, causing the light on the crystal cores to dim. But in the next moment, a violent explosion swept across everything.
The explosion did not come from the crystal cores but from the monster’s body. Black viscous parts were blown everywhere, but they turned into white crystal fragments in the air. Within these fragments, several larger crystal cores were mixed in.
Long Yi was thrown and tumbled in mid-air for several rounds, promptly gathering all his aura and then heavily landed on the ground.
"Everyone okay?"
Long Yi lay on the ground, panting heavily. He had exhausted a lot of energy to resist digestion.
"Awoo——"
Bajie rubbed his abdomen to signal he was okay. Little Zi drifted over slowly, the black color in her abdomen gradually fading, she didn’t seem to have any issues. Ai Lin was the only one sitting there, with red eyes, but she said nothing.
Seeing that look, Long Yi knew that the little girl was blaming herself again. Long Yi knew very well that Ai Lin had always been a girl with little self-confidence. Even though she was a genius, during the period when she most wanted to build her confidence, she had turned from a genius into a waste.
Lack of courage and self-confidence became the biggest obstacle in Ai Lin’s life. After meeting Long Yi, Ai Lin had changed a bit, but this change was not profound at all, it was merely superficial. What she needed was more self-confidence.
Long Yi got up, holding a crystal core as big as a fist, and shook it in front of Ai Lin.
"You did well, thanks to all of you." He said.
Ai Lin pouted, looking at Long Yi. Her eyes welling up with tears, yet she remained quiet.
"Are you blaming yourself?" Long Yi asked while still smiling.
Ai Lin was stunned, probably because she didn’t expect someone to ask her so directly. She then nodded slightly.
"I’m not the best at comforting people, but I want to tell you this. Everyone has their choices, and when I make a choice, I’m prepared for the consequences. So, you don’t have to believe that you made any mistakes. In fact, you didn’t do anything wrong, on the contrary, your attack helped me a lot. If you had joined the fight earlier, it’s likely we would have all been killed by this monster’s exploding crystal core."
"So, get up, because I really have run out of words."
Long Yi said with a smile.
Ai Lin shook her head, her complexion turning slightly black.
"I...can’t get up..."
Ai Lin said weakly.
"She’s been poisoned!"
Little Zi floated over and said in surprise.
