Chapter 438: Chapter 434: The Skyrocketing Rate of Evolutionary Energy
"Ice Age."
An ice-cold voice rang out of nowhere, echoing across the area teeming with monkeys.
In an instant, something bizarre occurred. The ground around Tu Xiao’an began to freeze over at a speed visible to the naked eye. A deep blue frost spread out in every direction, turning all the ground it touched into a thick layer of ice.
Seeing their feet frozen solid, the Crimson Sun Giant Ape and the Ape King, who were closest, simply shattered the ice with a slight tremor of their bodies.
"A parlor trick," the Crimson Sun Giant Ape sneered theatrically.
The Ape King beside him, however, turned pale. As if he had just realized something, he looked up. The deep blue frost was spreading to their kin; they were turned into ice sculptures one by one before they could even let out a scream.
The ice sculptures were breathtakingly lifelike. Each one had a unique pose and facial expression, forming up in rows just like the Terracotta Army.
The deep blue frost blanketed everything in all directions, encasing all life in ice. From a distance, the endless expanse looked like a deep blue ocean, a sight of breathtaking beauty.
Tu Xiao’an gave a faint, wicked smile. ’Insignificant tricks? Let’s see you try.’
The greatest strength of an Elemental Attribute Ability was its effectiveness as an area-of-effect killing technique. In the blink of an eye, the countless Awakened Monkeys and Spirit Monster Monkeys at the scene were all turned into ice sculptures. No one below Rank Three could withstand Tu Xiao’an’s Ice Frost Power.
With the Ice Seal complete, Tu Xiao’an slowly rose to his feet. At some point, Flying Knives as thin as a cicada’s wing had appeared, circling around him. Their number had increased from one to nine.
With a single thought from Tu Xiao’an, the nine Flying Knives shot through the air—WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH—letting out sonic booms as they vanished in a flash.
The head of a frozen Awakened Monkey slid stiffly from its shoulders. It hit the ground with a CRASH... shattering like a watermelon and scattering icy fragments everywhere.
WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH... CRASH CRASH CRASH...
One by one, the Flying Knives pierced through the heads of the monkey ice sculptures. The heads dropped to the ground, and their lives were ended.
The Flying Knives became scythes, reaping the lives of the Awakened Monkeys and Spirit Monster Monkeys. They died without a shred of pain; they left this world without even knowing they were dead.
"Ding... Host has killed a Rank One, Level 15 Awakened Monkey. 75 Evolutionary Energy gained!"
"Ding... Host has killed a Rank One, Level 16 Awakened Monkey. 160 Evolutionary Energy gained!"
"Ding... Host has killed a Rank Two, Level 21 Spirit Monster Monkey. 580 Evolutionary Energy gained!"
Ding... Ding... Ding...
As the Flying Knives swept past, Tu Xiao’an’s Evolutionary Energy skyrocketed, and the continuous chiming of the system rang in his ears.
With so many Awakened Creatures gathered in one place, it had become the perfect spot for Tu Xiao’an to grind and level up. Gaining Evolutionary Energy couldn’t be any easier.
Since these were kills rather than acts of Devouring, the amount of Evolutionary Energy gained was halved. But that was irrelevant; it did nothing to slow the meteoric rise of his energy reserves.
In just a few dozen seconds, hundreds of Awakened Monkeys and Spirit Monster Monkeys had died without ever knowing what hit them.
"Stop! Stop at once, I command you!"
The Ape King snapped back to his senses, his face contorted with fury. These were the elites of the Monkey Race! To lose hundreds in a single moment was a devastating blow to their strength.
Even when that group of humans had burst in and gone on a killing spree earlier, they probably hadn’t killed this many.
Losing Awakened Monkeys was one thing, but it wasn’t easy to cultivate a Spirit Monster Monkey. It took at least a century.
"Snake Spirit, you are courting death!"
If he didn’t stop him, all of Monkey Mountain’s finest warriors would be killed.
The Crimson Sun Giant Ape’s pillar-like arm shot out, smashing a fist toward Tu Xiao’an that was powerful enough to distort the very air.
The force of that punch was immeasurable, like a mountain crashing down.
Tu Xiao’an glanced over casually, completely unfazed. The Bull Demon King instantly entered his battle state. A brutal aura erupted from him as he transformed into his Bull Race form and met the attack with a punch of his own.
BOOM!
Both the Bull Demon King and the Crimson Sun Giant Ape were forced back several steps.
"Bull Demon King, how dare you stand in my way! Our past skirmishes were one thing, but you’ve gone too far this time!" the Crimson Sun Giant Ape bellowed, his roar like thunder, and he began to brawl with the Bull Demon King.
The shockwaves from their fight swept out, instantly shattering the nearby ice sculptures.
This sight startled the Crimson Sun Giant Ape, who hastily reined in his power, but the Bull Demon King seized the opportunity to send him flying with a vicious punch.
Tu Xiao’an paid them no mind. He was thrilled by the rising number of Evolutionary Energy points in his system. In such a short time, he had gained even more than he would from Devouring a Rank Three Demon Spirit.
As far as the eye could see, tens of thousands of ice sculptures stood in a dense forest. Of course, the vast majority were just ordinary, unawakened monkeys.
But if all tens of thousands of these ice sculptures were to be shattered, it would be an absolutely fatal blow to Monkey Mountain. It might not mean extinction, but at least half their population would be wiped out.
After all, this wasn’t the entire population of Monkey Mountain, but the vast majority of its elites were present.
The nine Flying Knives flashed through the sky, the air whistling continuously as they reaped the lives of one Awakened Monkey after another.
The Crimson Sun Giant Ape was tied up with the Bull Demon King and couldn’t break free. And so, the lean Ape King could finally sit still no longer. This was no longer a question of whether the Snake Spirit was qualified to challenge him.
He was being forced to act.
The space before Tu Xiao’an rippled, and the Ape King materialized out of thin air. His fury was immense, his eyes wide and bloodshot. Veins bulged on his face as he stared at Tu Xiao’an in a rage.
Hm?
’So fast!’
Before Tu Xiao’an could even react, he was sent flying hundreds of meters away. A golden, fiery Qi solidified around him as his Metal Body manifested.
Without the Metal Body, Tu Xiao’an would have been reverted to his Purple Gold Snake form.
"No one has ever dared to wreak such havoc on my Monkey Mountain! Not even a Demon King would dare! You are but a mere Snake Spirit—who gave you such gall?"
The Ape King’s voice was still echoing from hundreds of meters away, yet in the next instant, he appeared right in front of Tu Xiao’an. His hand shot out and clamped around Tu Xiao’an’s throat, lifting him into the air, his heart burning with rage.
"Let go," Tu Xiao’an said with indifference, completely unpanicked despite being held by the throat.
The Ape King’s brow furrowed, and his grip tightened. Without the Metal Body, Tu Xiao’an’s current form would have already been crushed.
"Still not letting go? You’ll regret this." Tu Xiao’an’s Consciousness Power suddenly surged, targeting several hundred of the nearby ice sculptures.
His demonic eyes narrowed.
CRACK... CRACK... CRACK...
In an instant, several hundred ice sculptures were simultaneously pulverized.
"No... No..." The Ape King was utterly devastated. Just like that, several hundred of Monkey Mountain’s elites were gone.
"Ding... Congratulations, Host, for killing 265 Awakened Monkeys. Gained 14,030 Evolutionary Energy!"
Evolutionary Energy: 81,670/100,000.
In a short period, Tu Xiao’an had gained over 30,000 Evolutionary Energy on Monkey Mountain—and it had only been a few moments.
If he so wished, he could kill every last one of the tens of thousands of frozen monkeys. Gaining as much Evolutionary Energy as he wanted would be no problem at all.
This was the first time Tu Xiao’an had committed such a large-scale slaughter, yet he didn’t feel much of anything. The monkeys died frozen, without a single drop of blood being spilled.
