Chapter 1256: Crystal Mutation (2/2)
This bite was so powerful that it broke the first creature’s leg. The others went wild at the sight of their injured companion, swarming over and tearing it into pieces. The sight of blood caused the entire group to become restless, so much so that they began killing one another. By the time the fight was over, the dead and injured were strewn across the ground. Only the most powerful one remained alive, but it was also covered in wounds.
This beast was like a lion, but it had six legs and a strong tail with bone spikes growing from it. At several meters tall, it was already a giant beast by Evernight standards. Yet, it was only a medium-sized member of the beast horde.
It jumped into the pit, bit the crystalline cluster into pieces, and swallowed it. The beast staggered like a drunkard afterward and barely managed to climb out of the hole. It then collapsed before taking the first step and began grunting in pain. The beast’s body bulged up and squirmed about, almost as though there were numerous little beasts crawling within its body.
In the blink of an eye, the creature’s skin split open, and one bone spur after the other shot out from within. Scales flipped open all over its skin, causing the creature to bleed all over. This change also brought about a change in the creature’s body size, only stopping when it was quite a bit larger than before. It barely managed to clamber up and began devouring the nearby beast corpses.
The beast began to grow rows upon rows of bone spikes all over its body. Its back, legs, and vitals were now covered in scales, which improved its defenses to a new level. After the changes in its body had stabilized, the creature looked up at Qianye and Caroline atop the pillar. This time, its eyes were filled with clear emotion.
If it was just a wild beast acting on instinct before, it had now turned into an intelligent creature. Qianye was surprised as he observed the changes. “So this is how the officers from the beast army appear.”
The various types of beasts in the horde not only had their own roles, but were also split into strict ranks. Some of them were larger, more powerful, and even looked different. This type of six-legged creature was both strong and swift, the core of the ground attack force. Their officers were the scaled, six-legged creatures with bone spikes, just like this one.
The creature looked up at Qianye for a while before slowly backing off and running away.
Qianye wasn’t about to let it escape. He arrived in the creature’s path in a flash and swung East Peak down on its back. This attack came at lightning speed, leaving no room for the beast to dodge before it was slammed into the ground.
Qianye had only used the back of his sword because he wanted to try subduing this intelligent creature. However, the beast kept struggling despite the overwhelming difference in power and seemed to have no intention of giving up. After a brief deadlock, Qianye broke its neck reluctantly.
The two returned to the pillar and began digging again. As expected, they found more clusters of crystals. Some of them were pretty small and had just emerged from the pillar.
After examining them, Qianye carefully removed the three biggest clusters and placed them in Andruil’s space. These crystals could activate the wild beasts’ intelligence, so they were definitely not ordinary objects. Qianye decided to send these to Zhao Jundu and have the Empire study them.
It was at this time that a small movement appeared in a corner of Andruil’s space. This soon developed into waves of intense fluctuations that attacked Qianye’s consciousness.
Startled, Qianye scanned the location with his consciousness, but he had to think pretty hard to recall what that little rock-like thing was. That was a tiny female bug he had picked up inside the Great Maelstrom. He had never touched it since he stored the little creature, and it had been sleeping soundly in there ever since. Who would’ve thought it would wake up all of a sudden?
Qianye retrieved the female bug, but the little critter attacked him immediately after appearing. It wasn’t big, but its bite was shockingly powerful, breaking Qianye’s skin in one chomp.
Not expecting the little critter to be so powerful, Qianye loosened his grip from the pain. The little insect flew out and made a beeline for the stone pillar below, where it began biting off the crystal in large mouthfuls. That firm crystalline substance was like candy to the little bug, who ate everything up amidst crackling sounds.
In the blink of an eye, it had devoured a piece of crystal that was larger than its own body. No one knew how its stomach was structured to be able to fit all that food.
After eating up the crystal, the insect spat out a large amount of white silk and wrapped itself in a cocoon.
Qianye looked up at Caroline with a wry smile. The latter was dumbfounded at this point. She never imagined Qianye’s storage space could carry living creatures. After a brief discussion, the two decided not to touch the cocoon and simply wait for further developments. Having witnessed the previous beast’s transformation, it could be assumed that this little critter wouldn’t take very long.
Before long, the cocoon was torn apart, and out came a giant armored-insect the size of one’s arm.
Unfurling two pairs of wings from its back armor, it took to the air and dived toward Qianye!
A shocked Caroline was just about to intercept the insect with her whip when Qianye stopped her. This delay gave the insect enough time to arrive at its destination!
However, the critter didn’t bite Qianye. Instead, it climbed onto Qianye’s shoulder and stopped there, touching Qianye intimately with its feelers.
Caroline was surprised. “Is it because it drank your blood?”
“Might be. My bloodline is special, and its intelligence has been activated, so I think it considers me family now.”
“This little fellow looks pretty impressive, but we don’t know how powerful it is.” Caroline glanced at the insect but didn’t dare touch it. She was, after all, a girl and large insects were a fairly upsetting sight.
Seemingly understanding Caroline’s words, the little insect began to squeal and squeak. It soared into the air and charged at one of the beast corpses, ramming in through its head and coming out from the other side. The entire process was like shooting the carcass in the head with a large caliber origin gun.