450: Chapter 450: The Flas Die Down, Promotion (Major Chapter) 450: Chapter 450: The Flas Die Down, Promotion (Major Chapter) He Ao saw a creature with such high energy content for the first ti.
It was a gigantic conical creature, dozens of ters tall, covered with large chunks of rock and dirt, and in places where the soil was thick, even lush trees grew, forming a small forest.
If it weren’t for the four sturdy legs covered with a hard exoskeleton underneath its huge body, He Ao might have thought a mountain had stopped right in front of him.
Or rather, it was a moving mountain.
An imposing energy that seed endless circulated and amassed within this mountain-like being.
This was the life form with the highest energy intensity He Ao had ever seen.
Even Elijah in his peak state had an order of magnitude difference compared to this monster.
He Ao even doubted whether this was a B-level exotic beast, or an angel.
However, on this giant beast, He Ao did not feel the unique pollution and madness of an angel.
He Ao stood still, sweat sliding down his cheek.
He didn’t move, watching the monster’s movents intently.
The beast seed to have no head, or its head was hidden sowhere He Ao couldn’t see; it also lacked any visible mouthparts for eating.
As He Ao was contemplating, the giant beast adjusted its body, stepped on the encroaching flas with its two front legs, and with a fierce slide, extinguished the flas that were thousands of degrees high, cutting a firebreak tens of ters wide.
At the sa ti, his two back legs also slid flexibly, keeping the flas behind at bay with another firebreak.
He Ao’s position was slightly central in the fire-free zone, also surrounded by a patch of unburned Phantom Mushrooms.
With this movent from the great beast, its body overshadowed He Ao, the mountainous creature blocking out the sky above him.
Once it completely cut off the flas, the exotic beast slowly lifted its right front leg, which was covered with an exoskeleton and cylindrical in shape.
As this leg lifted, He Ao noticed the crushed bat carcasses on the ground; what once were great bats had turned into chaotic froth of blood, leaving behind only what seed to be crushed bone remains.
He Ao looked up at the gigantic beast’s lifted foot, which was covered with a dense array of large and small ‘mouths.’
These mouths were all open, revealing the pale, triangular, sharp teeth inside, so of which were stained with bright red blood, seemingly having enjoyed a feast.
This monster’s ‘mouthparts’ were on the soles of its feet.
It relied on ‘stepping’ as a ans to feed.
A flicker of insight passed through He Ao’s mind.
But while he was observing those mouthparts, the beast’s lifted leg suddenly shifted, aligning those bloodied, fanged ‘mouths’ towards He Ao’s direction.
He Ao’s mind tensed, and he imdiately averted his eyes.
He was still in a state of Stealth.
Judging from the fact that the beast had not yet attacked him, it had not yet detected his presence.
However, the quick reaction of the Beast when He Ao observed its sharp ‘mouths’ proved they were not just mouthparts for feeding, but they might also have so kind of sensing ability.
The speed with which He Ao’s gaze shifted was extrely fast, taking only an instant to move away from the observation.
The dense ‘mouths,’ which had already sensed his look, lost direction in a blink, the huge foot shifting about as if searching for the person secretly spying on it.
The distance between He Ao and the foot was not far, and as the gigantic foot moved, those sharp fangs almost touched He Ao’s body, with a strong, nauseating stench assaulting him.
And throughout this process, He Ao made not a sound, holding his breath, his chest no longer rising and falling, and only the faint heartbeat echoed in the night.
anwhile, his muscles were tense, ready for a hard fight followed by a chance to escape, should he be discovered.
Eventually, the gigantic paw halted just in front of He Ao.
The mouthparts, bristling with sharp teeth, opened and closed, crushing remnants of bone on the teeth into a pulp as if venting so dissatisfaction.
This paw slowly pulled back, lingering over the slightly charred and yellowish Phantom Mushrooms beside He Ao.
However, the paw didn’t descend; the exotic beast appeared to be contemplating whether to eat these Phantom Mushrooms, its movents frozen in place.
At that mont, He Ao looked up at the underside of the mountainous bulk of the beast.
The surface was covered in mud, along with so freshly broken blades of grass, suggesting that it might have just been pressing down on the ground.
He Ao roughly understood how this gigantic beast concealed itself.
It probably retracted its legs when inactive, finding a place among the mountains to camouflage itself as a peak.
Amidst the mud, He Ao spotted a few pieces of fabric stained with blood that seed relatively fresh.
These were from the ‘convoy’s’ work clothes that he had hitched a ride with earlier.
From leaving the city to the ambush, He Ao had been on a vehicle the entire ti, and the convoy had never encountered this exotic beast.
Therefore, it was very likely that after the convoy was attacked, this exotic beast passed by the site and accidentally picked up the cloth from one of the deceased.
It seed that the beast’s ‘habitat’ was likely on the route from the ambush site it passed through.
Moreover, its ‘habitat’ might be near the ambush site, which wasn’t far from the Phantom Mushrooms area.
This could explain why such a powerful exotic beast was also drawn to the Phantom Mushrooms.
Because it was close enough.
However, it was clear that the allure of the Phantom Mushrooms didn’t have a strong effect on this exotic beast.
Maybe in the beast’s mind, the concept was rely ‘tasty food’.
The driving force behind its actions was still the B-level exotic beast’s own thinking, not like other C-level exotic beasts that were completely controlled by the Phantom Mushrooms.
At this mont, the beast’s paw was suspended above the Phantom Mushrooms, evidently also skeptical about this ‘delicious’ food.
He Ao didn’t know if Phantom Mushrooms could erode the body of a B-level exotic beast, but if such a massive body was fully invaded, it would likely release an even more terrifying quantity of Phantom Mushrooms.
He Ao didn’t want to gamble on that possibility.
He took a deep breath and activated Super mory.
The huge exotic beast hesitated for a mont, then slowly retracted its paw.
It gave up on the seemingly ‘delicious’ food, and without turning around, it started moving backward into the forest’s depths, under the cover of night.
It seed to have no front side, or perhaps, every side was its front.
He Ao watched the enormous figure gradually disappear into the night.
The exotic beast moved quickly, but its body was so massive that He Ao could still make out its shadow as it entered the mountains.
Once he was sure the exotic beast had moved far away, He Ao deactivated Super mory and Stealth.
His body instantly lost all support, plumting face-down towards the muddy ground below.
In the final mont, he lifted his hands with the last of his strength to protect his face.
With a muffled thud, his body hit the ground hard.
The night breeze blew over the silent plains, carrying the peculiar yet fragrant scent of the crisp, golden Phantom Mushrooms nearby.
That period was the most dangerous, the B-level exotic beast was not only powerful but also keen.
He Ao didn’t know if altering its decisions would be noticed by the beast.
‘Ease Thought’s ability wasn’t invincible.
When Elijah used it against He Ao, He Ao had noticed this ability to alter choices.
If the exotic beast had detected that its decision had been altered, He Ao believed it would have eagerly returned to turn the one who altered its decision into a pulp.
Therefore, He Ao had to activate Super mory and Stealth and remain on high alert.
Fortunately, the exotic beast had not noticed anything.
A single change of choice was not easily detectable, and it seed that the ‘Ease Thought’ ability He Ao acquired was much stronger than the effect Elijah achieved using the Thought Stone.
At least when He Ao obtained the Thought Stone, the information it conveyed did not include the ability to change C-level choices.
The surging high temperatures were slowly fading away, leaving only the late-night breeze to disperse the heat from the ground.
The flas in the distance seed to be gradually disappearing, and the hillsides full of Phantom Mushrooms were now just a silent, charred black.
As the brightness of the flas slowly receded and he regained so strength, He Ao sat up from the ground.
He patted the dust off his hands and took out a Mithril Test Tube containing a flowing dark green liquid.
Talent Sequences 115: Nightwalker
The ritual for Nightwalker required one to ‘sneak past at least one C-level living being without detection and to inflict certain damage on it.’
From He Ao’s past experiences, the higher the level of life involved in the ritual, the better the effect of the ritual.
He Ao pulled out the cork and poured the liquid inside into his mouth, drinking it all at once.
This ti, he had sneaked past five C-level exotic beasts and killed every single one of them.
Besides, he had also sneaked past a very powerful B-level exotic beast, although he was not sure if changing its choice counted as inflicting damage.
As the green liquid entered his mouth, He Ao felt a strong corrosive pain that rose from inside, as if he had drunk a bottle of sulfuric acid.
Following that, a powerful force burst forth within his body.
Used to such effects from multiple advancents to C-level, He Ao quickly guided the energy within his body along the pathways of Martial Arts circulation.
With each layer of energy changing within him, He Ao also found that his physical strength was rapidly recovering.
The Secret dicine was digested quickly, and in a short ti, he had fully advanced to C-level.
As the last drop of energy fused into his brain, He Ao felt his entire body relax.
He stretched lazily, and in an instant, he disappeared, completely rging with the dark night.
Then, in the blink of an eye, he reappeared two ters away.
This was the ability of the Nightwalker, ‘Night Walk.’
Nightwalkers could blend their bodies into ‘Shadow’ or the darkness of night.
Upon rging into the night or shadows, Nightwalkers could move within them.
Throughout the process, Nightwalkers would beco one with the night/shadow, existing in a sort of ‘invisible’ state with a high level of Concealnt, almost undetectable unless encountered by soone with special abilities—akin to an upgraded flagship version of Stealth.
However, Night Walk had environntal limitations; it could only be used in places with shadows or darkness.
In places without shadows, one still had to rely on the D-level Stealth.
Beyond this, Night Walk had another powerful ability: it could achieve a sort of ‘blink’ effect within the night.
This blink could ignore architectural barriers, allowing a Nightwalker to instantly traverse any two places connected by shadows.
For example, if a door blocked the way, but shadows slipped through the crack, then He Ao could use the shadows passing through the crack to appear directly behind the door.
The ‘Shadow’ that had ambushed He Ao before must have entered his house in this way; unfortunately, it was too confident and got killed by He Ao before it had the chance to use Night Walk during the fight.
Wherever the shadow could reach, the Nightwalker could reach.
But this ability had its limits: it could not pass through completely enclosed areas without shaped shadows, so it could not achieve a complete disregard of obstacles for teleporting.
Second, one could only traverse a distance of up to two ters, and using it would inflict a heavy toll on the body.
Continuous use could even result in direct death, essentially classifying it as a life-consuming skill.
Of course, the plain Stealth state that rely grants invisibility also places a strain on the body, just much less so.
anwhile, upon his promotion to C-level, He Ao also heard those familiar, fuzzy whispers.
However, the whispers heard by the “Nightwalker” were different from those heard by the “warrior,” “Hunter,” and those with “Super mory.”
The whispers that “warriors” and “Hunters” heard were the sa, possessing a kind of subjective allure, a ‘narration’ as if they had a story to tell.
The whispers for those with “Super mory” were just aimless background noise, which grew stronger as He Ao advanced to C-level.
The “Nightwalker” was subject to madness, chaotic insanity.
Those whispers seed like the ramblings of a madman from the abyss, telling illogical tales.
Resisting these whispers was a bit harder than the previous two kinds He Ao had encountered, and they had a stronger impact on the Transcendent.
Having been in this world for so long, He Ao had roughly figured out the rules of transcendent abilities.
The stronger the ability, the greater the price that had to be paid.
If a Nightwalker used “Night Walk” over an extended period, it would inevitably lead to both physical and ntal exhaustion.
The outco waiting for them would be succumbing to the whispers and descending into madness.
Every gift cos with a price.
He Ao took out a fireproof, sealed bag from his embrace.
Inside the bag was a golden-hued, slightly blackened powder—the remains of Phantom Mushrooms after being burned.
The last fla in the distance was gradually fading out.
In this vast area, only the patch of Phantom Mushrooms before He Ao was still giving off a faint vitality.
He Ao tore open the sealed bag and sprinkled its contents evenly over the patch of Phantom Mushrooms.
He then fumbled in his embrace for a mont, pulling out a half-charred cigarette case.
Most of the cigarettes inside were damaged, except for one that was slightly more protected on the inside.
He Ao drew out this cigarette, put it in his mouth, and tossed the cigarette case into the patch of Phantom Mushrooms.
He turned around and felt in his pants, finding a tal lighter that was still slightly warm to the touch.
This lighter was one he had bought from the Andavi family, and it was of decent quality.
He was very fond of this device that could produce a fla without electricity.
The lighter’s wheel scraped against the darkness, creating an orange-yellow fla, and lit the specks on the cigarette.
As thick smoke rose before his eyes, He Ao stood up straight and glanced at the lighter still emitting flas in his hand before throwing it behind him.
At the sa ti, he slowly walked into the silent night.
The tumbling flas landed on the golden powder, igniting a roaring inferno.
A small SUV appeared in the night ahead, and a young girl in simple sportswear jumped out from the back seat.
Her mouth was wide open with a smile, yet clear tears stread down her cheeks.
As she tumbled and scrambled towards He Ao, she cried out, “Dad!”
He Ao watched the approaching girl, stopped in his tracks, and revealed a smile.
He removed the cigarette from his mouth and pinched out the ember.
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