Chapter 384: Divine Might Descends from Heaven (2/3) |
A slender, transparent pale yellow little snake slowly swam through the water.
"Splash—"
A long-fingered hand extended from the darkness, grabbed the water snake, its fingernail lightly pinched, severed the head, then placed the remaining part into its mouth, swallowing it down the throat like slurping noodles.
After letting out a satisfied burp, the owner of the hand slowly said, "The great ones will be descending soon. Are all the things prepared?"
"Father, everything is ready. The weight of the ore this time is double that of the last batch. The contribution should be enough."
"That's good... Only by completing the tasks set by the great ones can we live well. Your third son is about to come of age, right? I see he's clever and resourceful. He can be sent over to the great ones' side." The owner of the voice turned its head. This was an old fish-man with a hunched figure and turbid, yellowish eyes.
It wore a bright, colorful scale garment and on its head was a bone crown that only a Great Priest could wear.
The Dark Tide Tribe Chief, Lan Zhuo, was somewhat reluctant. "Father, third son is not only smart, but also talented. I want him to inherit my position, or he can stay by your side."
The Great Priest, the old fish-man, reprimanded, "Foolish! What future is there staying here? He'd only be a fish for his entire life. Only by leaving this place can he become a human, a true fish-man."
"What they want is just for us to gather ore for them, for us to stay here and act as their eyes and ears, to kill other Descenders. But if one day in the future, we provoke an enemy on their level, our Dark Tide Tribe will have only one outcome—annihilation!"
Lan Zhuo's voice grew agitated. Several times, it had dreamed that they provoked an enemy they couldn't match, ultimately leading to the tribe's destruction.
The old fish-man shook its head slightly. "We have no choice. You are still young. You didn't witness that battle back then. I personally saw the monster that descended from over there. It single-handedly smashed through our entire tribe and, despite the heavy protection, tore off the head of the chief before the last."
"Does such a monster truly exist?" Lan Zhuo murmured.
"Of course it does."
Before the old fish-man's words faded...
"BOOM—"
The rock wall diagonally behind them exploded, sending a massive surge of turbulent water rushing in. A tall, burly figure bent down and slowly walked out from the shattered opening.
The surrounding lake water was pushed aside by an invisible force. In its left hand, it held a person; in its right, it carried a crimson greatsword, blade pointing down.
"Found them."
"Who is this!?" Lan Zhuo and the Great Priest's pupils contracted, staring in shock at Mogu, who had suddenly barged in.
The Great Priest reacted quickly, muttering incantations under its breath. It saw the Great Priest point a finger towards Mogu.
The surrounding water currents seemed controlled by an invisible force, transforming into strands of ropes that bound towards the target.
Thick, deep-blue water ropes coiled around Mogu's body. Mogu's brow furrowed slightly. It took a step forward, shoulders straining. The water ropes snapped layer by layer. From its movements, it seemed the water ropes hadn't exerted even the slightest controlling effect.
It took another step forward, the crimson greatsword slashing down.
"Not good." A glint of sharp light flashed in the Great Priest's pupils. It swam forward a few steps, shielding its son behind it.
Lan Zhuo had no time to think more about why this fish-man could suddenly appear here, or where the warriors of its tribe had gone.
In haste, it raised the nine-section bone staff in its hand, let out a low roar, its body swelling slightly, skin taking on a faint silvery-gray hue.
"CRACK—"
The nine-section bone staff broke from the middle.
The descending red light was reflected in Lan Zhuo's eyes.
It fell straight down from the center!
Both person and staff were split in two.
The Great Priest turned and fled, but a faint sound of water being sliced came from behind.
The sword blade cleaved through the water, drawing a straight line of blood. It swept past the old fish-man's lower abdomen. A pain shot through its waist—it had been cut in half.
Mogu retrieved its greatsword, casually resting it on its shoulder.
It thought for a moment, then picked up the four pieces of corpse floating in the water.
Lanxie, held in Mogu's other hand, watched this scene and couldn't bear to look, closing its eyes. Throughout the journey being carried by Mogu, it had personally witnessed the other party plowing through everything in its path.
Every obstacle along the way was met with a single sword stroke that severed heads.
Facing such an opponent with such formidable individual strength, without preparation, their tribe couldn't stop its advance.
...
"Master, it's been dealt with," Mogu returned to report. "These fish-men are individually very weak, even weaker than the fish-men from the last map. But their numbers are great, likely no less than ten thousand."
Qin Ziwen understood. "Weak individual strength, it seems that is their weakness."
It seemed the weakness of the Dark Tide Tribe's fish-men lay precisely in their individual strength.
Otherwise, they would truly be all-rounders.
On the other side, without the guidance of the Dark Tide Tribe fish-men, the remaining giant leeches gradually scattered, most returning to the water.
Compared to the environment on land, they preferred living in the water.
Only a few giant leeches remained within Bluestone Fortress.
"Let's go, take a look inside."
Qin Ziwen walked into Bluestone Fortress. Some of the residents originally hiding in their homes, sensing the situation outside, attempted to fight back, using torches to drive away the giant leeches.
Before their eyes, a giant leech wriggled backward, blocking the path of the crowd.
Mogu casually swung its hand.
Blood Land slashed down!
The giant leech before them was directly split in two.
Even after being divided into two halves, both sides of the body continued to wriggle.
A large amount of yellow pus-like blood flowed from the wound.
Mogu struck out with another slash.
The remaining parts were again divided into quarters.
This time, only one part of the body wriggled. The muscles on the surface of the other part twitched a few times before settling into stillness.
Qin Ziwen narrowed his eyes, examining it up and down, quickly discovering a pattern.
The part of the body connected to the ends of the giant leech maintained activity, while the parts entirely belonging to the middle section showed no signs of twitching, directly becoming still.
At both ends, this giant leech had a sucker each.
The suckers were hidden beneath the body, but as the muscles wriggled, they revealed the suckers concealed underneath, which had a structure of three semicircular jaw plates. The edges of these jaw plates were lined with many fine, white sharp teeth.
Presumably, this part was used to cut through the skin and suck blood from the wound.
This giant leech was massive in size and appeared to have tenacious vitality, but after Mogu's experimentation...
After it was divided into eighths, almost no segment of its body could maintain activity.
It seemed this thing wasn't capable of infinite regeneration.
However, cutting it into eighths required too much effort. And this was just one. So using fire was still the most cost-effective.
Under the scorching of flames, a giant leech's body continuously shrank, its surface rapidly exuding a large amount of moisture, like a sponge being squeezed dry.
When its body length was reduced to only one-tenth of its original size, its body became dry and stiff, its movements extremely sluggish.
Further scorching with flames turned its skin charred yellow. Its body emitted the charred smell of burning protein, mixed with a faint metallic, rusty odor.
The entire body curled inward, like a cooked large shrimp.
Finally, it turned completely black, stiff and hard, transforming into a charred black ball covered in fine crack lines.
Just like a piece of thoroughly burnt charcoal.
Gently poking it with a stick produced a crisp "crack" sound.
It directly shattered into several shapeless pieces of black residue. Through the broken sides, nothing remained inside, only a black, hollow space.