Chapter 173: Chapter 166: Only You Can Evolve?
The moment the all-annihilating black fire swallowed Qi Yun whole, the burning and destruction he had anticipated did not immediately arrive.
Instead, he felt as if he had been thrown into a rapidly spinning vortex.
The dizziness and spatial distortion were so extreme it felt as if his very Divine Soul would be flung from his body.
After an unknown amount of time, the tearing sensation abruptly vanished. Qi Yun’s feet slammed onto solid ground, and the layers of protective light around his body flickered erratically.
He frowned, suppressing his turbulent qi and blood as his Divine Sense spread outward.
The sight before him made his pupils contract.
This was no longer the boundless Sea of Elixirs.
Instead, it was a vast, empty, dimly lit underground space.
The air was damp and cold, filled with an indescribable, sickly-sweet stench—a mixture of decaying silk and some sort of biological secretion.
As far as the eye could see, the area was covered in densely packed, overlapping... cocoons.
These cocoons varied in size—some as small as a fist, others as large as a millstone. They were all a sickly white, their surfaces covered in twisted veins resembling Talismans, and they pulsed faintly as if alive.
’Is this... inside the true ruins of the Divine Silkworm Sect?’
Staring at the bizarre environment, Qi Yun’s eyes narrowed. His Divine Sense swept out like flowing mercury, only to feel as if it had sunk into a bog, severely hampered by some power permeating the space.
His gaze shifted, and a stack of Thousand Crane Talismans suddenly appeared in his hand.
But just as he prepared to use the Thousand Crane Talismans to investigate his surroundings...
CRACK... CRACK...
A series of faint yet incessant cracking sounds echoed from all directions!
Countless fissures split open across the surfaces of the sickly white cocoons at the same time!
The next moment.
One by one, misshapen ’creatures’ struggled to crawl out.
They had roughly humanoid silhouettes, walked upright, and had four limbs.
Pair after pair of eyes locked onto Qi Yun, the ’intruder,’ brimming with a primal hunger.
SKREEE—!
It’s unclear which one was the first to let out an ear-piercing shriek.
The next second, a ceaseless tide of hundreds, then thousands, of bizarre humanoid creatures erupted from the cocoons on all sides. Like a black flood bursting from a dam, they charged fearlessly toward Qi Yun, intent on killing him!
They were incredibly fast and astonishingly strong. Their bizarre postures as they ran were neither human nor beast.
’Trouble!’ Qi Yun’s gaze turned cold. He was startled but remained composed.
The Soul Refining Banner unfurled in an instant. Black qi surged forth, and wailing Resentful Souls charged forward, clashing with the vanguard of the humanoids in a brutal melee.
The Profound Nether Qi Bottle spewed Erosive Qi, instantly melting swaths of the humanoids into a thick sludge.
However, the sheer number of these humanoid creatures was overwhelming. They seemed endless, constantly hatching from the cocoons.
More troubling still, they seemed to be constantly adapting to the Netherworld Ghost Qi and the Profound Nether Erosive Qi.
The rate of casualties was steadily decreasing.
Hm?
’Are they... rapidly evolving?’
Qi Yun was slightly taken aback as he noticed the creatures’ strange ability.
’If Magic is losing its effectiveness, then I’ll just have to fuel the battle with battle itself!’
His hand seals changed, and a brilliant, dark-green fiery light erupted around him!
*Nether Spring Bone Technique*
KAKAKA—!
One hundred and eight White Bone Skeletons shot forth, cackling as they rushed the humanoid creatures. Then, a dozen of the leading skeletons detonated.
A terrifying wave of dark-green fire, carrying a dreadful shockwave, swept out, flinging back and severely wounding a large number of the humanoids.
The remaining White Bone Skeletons surged forward and opened their jaws. No longer did they bite; instead, they created powerful vortexes of suction!
The mangled bodies and chaotic Blood Essence Qi of the humanoids—those that had been killed and even those merely wounded—were forcibly extracted and devoured!
VMMM!
VMMM!
VMMM!
...
With every creature they devoured, the White Bone Skeletons’ surfaces gained a richer luster. Their bones grew thicker and denser, and the Soul Fire in their eye sockets gradually shifted from an eerie green to a deep, dark green, emitting an even colder, purer Dao Rhyme of death!
Faint, natural Magic Patterns even began to manifest on the skulls’ surfaces.
With a soft POP...
Two sharp horns sprouted from the foreheads of the White Bone Skeletons.
’You think you’re the only ones who can evolve?’
A smirk touched Qi Yun’s lips. He could clearly feel the power of his *Nether Spring Bone Technique* increasing at a visible rate.
His hand seals shifted in rapid succession as Qi Yun changed his strategy. He unleashed a barrage of various Magic to support the White Bone Skeletons, letting them devour the bizarre creatures to their hearts’ content.
The roaring skeletons became a swarm of efficient killing and consuming machines.
They rampaged through the monstrous tide, and wherever they went, the humanoids fell in droves, becoming Resources to nourish the skeletons.
Amid the ceaseless slaughter and consumption, Qi Yun’s keen Divine Sense began to pick up on some details.
Although the humanoid creatures came in various forms, their physical structures clearly bore the marks of artificial splicing and modification.
’These monsters... were they created by the Divine Silkworm Sect?’ An astonishing thought surfaced in Qi Yun’s mind.
The ancient Divine Silkworm Sect was renowned for its Magic and Elixirs.
’Why would they create so many twisted, violent humanoid creatures in this hidden place?’
’What was their purpose?’
’Were they researching some kind of forbidden evolution of life?’
’Or... was it for some even more terrifying scheme?’
’Something’s not right. Something is very, very wrong.’
Realizing there was something strange about these Divine Silkworm Sect ruins, Qi Yun lost his will to fight and began searching for an opportunity to leave.
’I can’t stay in this damn place any longer.’
’The longer I stay, the creepier it gets.’
However, after running through this sealed deathtrap for a long time, Qi Yun discovered that it seemed to be a completely enclosed space with no exit.
His hawk-like gaze swept across the deathtrap once more.
’Cocoons... hatching... an endless stream of monsters... a sealed space...’
An extremely bold, almost insane idea flashed through his mind like lightning!
’If I can’t find a way out, then I’ll... blast one out myself!’
His path forward became instantly clear, and a glint of resolve flashed in Qi Yun’s eyes!
Without the slightest hesitation, his hands flew into a series of seals, pushing the *Nether Spring Bone Technique* to its absolute limit.
VMMMMMM—!
The one hundred and eight White Bone Skeletons—having devoured countless foes to evolve a jade-like luster and a Soul Fire so dense it was nearly tangible—instantly ceased their attacks on the surrounding monsters.
Like one hundred and eight white shooting stars, they converged with astonishing speed toward a seemingly ordinary, cocoon-covered section of the rock wall in front of Qi Yun!
As the White Bone Skeletons sped forward, they began to expand uncontrollably, and countless fine cracks appeared on their surfaces.
The Corpse Poisoning Yin Fire condensed to its absolute limit within them became extremely unstable, radiating an aura of destruction!
"Detonate!"
The instant before the one hundred and eight skeletons slammed into the rock wall, Qi Yun spat out a single, cold word.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOM—!!!!!!!!
There was no sequence; at the exact same instant, all one hundred and eight White Bone Skeletons were brazenly detonated by Qi Yun using a Secret Skill.
In that instant, one hundred and eight death stars imploded and erupted simultaneously.
A terrifying blast of energy—indescribable and infused with the ultimate meaning of death, destruction, and annihilation—converged on a single point and slammed violently into the rock wall!
KRAKKA—!!!
The hard rock wall, sturdy enough to withstand a frantic bombardment from an ordinary Qi Refining Ninth Layer Cultivator, let out a heart-stopping, overburdened cracking sound in the face of this power, whose focused, exponentially magnified force was too much to bear!
The surface layer of the rock wall was instantly pulverized.
The countless cocoons and monsters attached to it were vaporized along with it.
Dust and rubble rolled backward like a tsunami.
However, what was revealed behind the rock wall was not a passage to freedom.
It was an even more ancient, even harder wall—smooth as a mirror, made of a material that was neither metal nor jade, and emitting a faint glow.
Countless lifelike patterns of Divine Silkworms in various forms covered the wall’s surface. They seemed to form a profound Array, emanating a powerful, forbidden energy that firmly guarded whatever lay beyond.
This wall was the true barrier!
The full-power blow from the detonation of one hundred and eight White Bone Skeletons had only barely torn through the outer camouflage, revealing this final, sturdier obstacle.
But it was enough!
The very instant the destructive power violently collided with the Divine Silkworm wall—
Qi Yun moved!
He was already poised to strike!
The Soul Refining Banner swirled with residual black qi to shield his body, warding off the aftershocks of the explosion.
Holding his fingers together like a sword, he madly poured out every last bit of his True Essence. It mixed with the residual force of the blast, all of it converging at his fingertips!
A point of ultimate darkness and sharpness condensed at his fingertips.
"Break—!"
With a low shout, his body moved as one with his ’sword,’ man and sword united.
A black-and-red Sword Aura, tearing through the void and wreathed in raging Demon Fire and destructive Sword Intent, seized the opportunity. It struck in the split second the Divine Silkworm wall was rocked by the shockwave and the Array’s light faltered for an imperceptible moment.
It stabbed with incomparable precision at a seemingly ordinary node on the wall—a point where the patterns of two Divine Silkworms overlapped!
TCHHSSSS—!!!!!
A sharp, grating sound of tearing and friction rang out.
The Demon Fire and Sword Intent frantically corroded the wall’s protective Dharma Light.
CRACK...
A faint yet distinct cracking sound—like a heavenly melody amid the deafening roar—reached Qi Yun’s ears!
This do-or-die strike, concentrating the entirety of Qi Yun’s True Essence and leveraging the force of the explosion, had brazenly punched a tiny, crack-rimmed hole through the incomparably hard Divine Silkworm wall that had stood for eons—a hole just wide enough for a single finger to pass through.
Beyond the hole was a faint current of air, carrying a completely different, fresh scent!
This was his only chance!
"Gathering Form and Scattering Qi!"
Qi Yun didn’t hesitate.
In the critical moment, just as the hole appeared and the Spiritual Light of the wall’s Array was about to converge and repair it, he instantly deployed his life-saving Escape Skill.
His body transformed into a wisp of formless, insubstantial, and ethereal Pure Qi, like mist or flowing water.
It slipped through the tiny, rapidly shrinking hole that had just been forcibly created.
The very instant after the Pure Qi passed completely through the hole—
VMM!
The light of the Array on the Divine Silkworm wall flared.
The tiny hole healed and vanished in an instant, as if it had a life of its own.
The wall was restored to its original state, smooth as a mirror, as if it had never been damaged.
Only the hatched, humanoid creatures remained, still milling about in a frenzy, searching for their target.
...
