Above The Sky
Chapter 238 - 238 226 Mature Body 34

238: Chapter 226: Mature Body (3/4) 238: Chapter 226: Mature Body (3/4) The bizarre shadow moved without making a sound, the Wind Element Origin Substance allowing it to create hardly any air disturbances, so long as it didn’t move faster than a certain speed.

Its claw strike, though seemingly gentle, possessed enough force to shatter the scales and bones of ordinary creatures, a true assassin’s tool.

Yet this time, the Silent Claw, which had hunted many a prey, could only grasp at a layer of incredibly sturdy Origin Quality phantom.

Ian opened his eyes, a silver-cyan stream of light sweeping across the startled and furious form before him in an instant.

Hum!

Origin Quality suddenly coursed through his body, activating one organ after another, with a pale golden sheen even lighting up the sword in his hand.

The Heavy Abyss Iron Sword was swung with full force, like a black gale, instantly striking the shadowy figure.

But at the moment the Longsword hit the figure, Ian suddenly felt the sword lighten in his grasp; he hadn’t struck solidly, but rather into a tangled mess of decaying leather—the figure retreated lightly as if it were a weightless feather, already retreating with the momentum at the time of his strike.

—It was a deflection, and a highly skilled one at that!

Without a second thought, Ian immediately switched to the Water Element Origin Substance as the surrounding moisture was exceedingly dense, and a water blade appeared out of thin air on the already empty sword edge, cutting through the air to make a dual strike with a second follow-up.

Splurch!

This time, the figure couldn’t deflect the strike—it was slashed directly, emitting an incredibly piercing scream as a large clump of shattered fur and bone fragments burst from its chest.

But there was no blood.

Though the shadowy figure had an oddly agile form, it took advantage of the force from Ian’s Water Blade to drift backward, then with a somersault arrived above a rock pillar to hide in the shadows.

Yet in Ian’s eyes, all shadows were as bright as daylight, with the looming red light of hostility, akin to a cheat in a shooting game, directly pinpointing the opponent’s location.

So he took a breath and reached toward the ground.

Crack!

The young man’s slender fingers appeared delicate and fair, but when they touched the white rocky ground, they were like white jade diamonds, gripping a large stone from the ground as easily as if it was pudding.

“Locked on.”

With a shimmer of silver light in his eyes, Ian gathered strength, Origin Quality circulated to accelerate his blood flow, and he locked onto the hidden figure in the shadows that thought itself safe, hurling the rock with great force.

Boom!

The rock, thrown with all his might and bearing Origin Quality, even emanated a light gold sheen, hinting at a somewhat metallic texture.

The swiftly thrown stone soared through the air, bringing a wild gust of wind with it as it ruthlessly smashed into the figure’s head.

The figure let out another terrible scream, the sound like the abnormally shrill crying of some sort of primate, with blood spraying out—yet it was not yet dead.

The blow had left it reeling, unable to stay airborne, and so its ferocity was triggered instead, diving down from above in a desperate attack to settle life or death with Ian.

But Ian felt no sense of danger, let alone with his experience, without even having to guess he knew the opponent was feinting, planning to trick him into defending so it could turn and flee.

So he pulled out the High-Pressure Water Gun.

“Fire.”

Hum!

The jet of water streaked through the air and when it hit its target, the figure didn’t continue to plunge forward but instead turned to glide backward, attempting to escape into the cavern—the crimson line of water piercing through its body stripped away its last shred of strength for escape.

“Eek…

Eek?!”

The figure that fell from midair onto the ground, after a bout of painful rolling, noticed Ian approaching and immediately fell to the ground wailing, seemingly begging for mercy—but Ian didn’t care and swung down his sword with all his might.

Clang!

As expected, this figure was an intelligent life-form; its plea for mercy was a sham.

As Ian’s sword came slashing down, it had already raised its arm and roared as it lunged out, determined to take Ian down with it.

The figure’s arms were covered in gnarled calcified structures and were also wrapped in thick iron-like hair; theoretically, even taking a direct hit from alchemical firearms might not completely break through its defense.

But this was Ian’s Heavy Abyss Iron Sword.

With one slash, it was as though cutting through rotting wood, accompanied by the sound of shattering bones, the figure’s arm bones snapped inch by inch, the arms that crossed and lunged forward twisted inward and broke, and even the spinal bones made a faint cracking sound.

Its entire body was smashed an inch shorter by Ian’s blunt Heavy Sword.

And the figure completely rolled on the ground, devoid of any strength.

This time it was no trick—Ian stepped forward and chopped its chest to pieces with his sword, pinning down the ‘true body’ that was emitting a blue mist in the Foresight View.

A giant tapeworm entwined between the chest and spine, still wriggling, attempting to flee and leave.

“Interesting, so this is a mature parasitic life-form?”

Using his longsword to pin down the red-brown parasitic worm, which he didn’t know the length of but which penetrated the entire figure’s body, Ian bent down with great interest, closely observing the creature before him.

Under the scanning of the Silver Chip, this huge red-brown tapeworm was indeed the mature body of the light blue parasites seen before—their descriptions were identical, with the only differences being size and Origin Quality content; one was a ‘Larval Form’ and the other a ‘Complete Form.’

Although it sounded like some kind of digital X-bei evolution, it was in fact different.

Ian believed that these parasites would change themselves based on the host…

The one in the Cyan Armored Lizard had not had time to merge and evolve more deeply with its host, or in other words ‘mutate,’ therefore it still retained its original light blue exterior.

And this fully matured adult parasitic life-form possessed considerable intelligence; it must have replaced the host’s original brain and become almost a true intelligent life-form.

The youth stared at the body of the figure he had felled.

He took out the Crocodragon’s Brain Marrow Crystal from his waist and used the crystal’s Earth Origin Quality fluorescence to illuminate the details of the other’s body.

Analysis began.

The figure that intended to attack Ian was a ‘Mutant’ covered in dark brown excess hair, with legs that were all deformed.

It very much fit the description in the books of those mutants who did not gain sufficient power and were low-grade Alien Forms, appearing extremely ugly and desiccated.

This figure’s legs had avian-like reverse joints, and there was a thin membrane between its arms and legs, almost like those of flying squirrels or bats.

Moreover, due to the figure’s control over the power of Wind Element Origin Substance, it was able to glide silently between the pillars and expertly dodge Ian’s first slash.

Underneath this mutant’s hair, there were layers of hardened skin growths, the outer layer had calcified, forming tooth-like structures, and some sections resembled large fingernails.

Through the semi-transparent keratin layer, one could even see the red-brown muscles inside the mutant’s body.

These were merely external appearances.

The real point was the parasite.