novelraw Chapter 429: Corrosive Demon Wyrm
Chapter 429: Corrosive Demon Wyrm
The Corrosive Demon Wyrm sensed the threat posed by this suddenly appearing entity of the same tier.
It abandoned its continued assault on the defensive line and let out a threatening hiss.
Its massive body turned toward Su Zhan, the tumors on its flesh writhing violently as gray-green poisonous mist condensed around it, entering a state of maximum alert.
Su Zhan slowly raised his right hand, covered in scales.
In the next moment, his figure vanished from his original spot.
When he reappeared, he was already above and to the side of the demon wyrm.
The wyrm reacted with extreme speed, its thick, long tail lashing out violently toward Su Zhan.
The force of this single strike was enough to level a small hill.
Su Zhan's Fleshy Wings merely gave a slight tremor, allowing him to evade this heavy, powerful blow.
The long tail brushed past his scaled armor, the gale force it carried completely shattering several sections of ruined wall behind him, yet it couldn't even make him sway.Su Zhan spread the fingers of his raised right hand, and the Flame of Destruction quietly flickered to life.
The demon wyrm sensed the lethal threat and let out a panicked roar. It opened its massive maw, and the long-brewed gray-green corrosive breath surged forth like a high-pressure water jet, shooting straight at Su Zhan.
Su Zhan neither dodged nor evaded. He simply extended a wisp of the Flame of Destruction, gently pushing it forward.
"Hiss—!"
The breath, laden with terrifying corrosive power, visibly and rapidly disintegrated in reverse the moment it made contact with the dark red flames.
The Flame of Destruction incinerated all things, including energy!
The flames flowed upstream, following the trajectory of the breath, burning their way into the demon wyrm's mouth.
"Aoooo—!!!"
The demon wyrm let out the most agonized shriek since the battle began.
It frantically shook its head, trying to dislodge the dark red flames that clung like maggots to bone.
But it was all futile.
The flames swiftly spread inward from its mouth. Wherever they passed, whether it was the resilient muscle, the hard bone, or those corrosive-filled tumors, everything turned into insubstantial ash.
The demon wyrm's enormous body thrashed violently, churning up the already devastated battlefield around it.
Its struggles grew weaker and weaker, its wails rapidly fading into low moans.
In the span of barely over ten seconds, under the stunned gazes of everyone, that once-overbearing Calamity-level demon wyrm was completely incinerated from the inside out by that bizarre black flame, finally crashing to the ground.
Its massive body crumbled piece by piece, turning into a pile of pitch-black ash.
A gentle breeze swept through, lifting some of the ash, scattering it in the air thick with the smell of gunpowder and blood.
The entire battlefield fell into a deathly silence.
Su Zhan hovered in mid-air, enveloped by faint Mist energy.
Like a demon god descended upon the world.
Or like... the sole salvation descending amidst despair.
Su Zhan slowly withdrew the Flame of Destruction from his fingertips.
Just moments ago, he could clearly sense the vast amount of Life Essence contained within this demon wyrm.
For him, that was a tonic more effective than any miraculous elixir.
Ever since he began utilizing his secret of being able to absorb the Life Essence of Mist Creatures to advance,
hunting powerful Mist Creatures had become his fastest path of improvement.
However, this secret absolutely must not be exposed.
He knew full well just how earth-shattering this ability to directly devour the essence of Mist Creatures was, perhaps even more bizarre than the fact that he didn't need to consume humans.
If anyone were to notice, especially an organization like the Transcendence Society, it would invite endless trouble and investigation.
He had to destroy the evidence, leaving no trace whatsoever.
Conventional combat methods, whether using brute force to smash it apart or using his Life Soul ability to disintegrate it, might leave inexplicable traces on the demon wyrm's corpse.
A Calamity-level corpse drained of its life essence, reduced to an empty shell—that was far too abnormal.
Therefore, the best method was to make it completely disappear, or rather, to ensure it left no bones or ashes in a seemingly reasonable manner.
And the Flame of Destruction was the perfect choice.
This power originating from his Aberrant nature inherently possessed ultimate destructive properties. Reducing a target to ashes was the most normal outcome.
No one would suspect that anything worthy of research could survive such powerful flames.
Fire became the perfect method for him to conceal his secret.
Thus, from the moment he struck, Su Zhan's goal was crystal clear.
Avoid using any close-quarters combat or energy erosion that might leave clues. Directly employ the Flame of Destruction to incinerate it completely from the inside out.
This way, no one would ever know that the true value of this Calamity-level demon wyrm had already become part of his power.
They would only remember that he had cleanly and decisively resolved a crisis with his powerful flames.
Su Zhan felt the vast life energy within his body.
He wasn't far from reaching Calamity-level, second stage now.
Su Zhan withdrew the flames, his gaze sweeping across the battlefield.
He paid no heed to the still-shaken defenders.
His Fleshy Wings flapped once, and his figure transformed again into a streak of dark red light, shooting skyward and then plunging toward the direction of the smaller Mist Creatures that had previously breached the defensive line.
The cleanup wasn't over yet.
But everyone knew.
The crisis at Panshi Fortress had been declared over with the arrival of this dark red figure.
Su Zhan sped through various parts of the now-ruined fortress.
As for the low-level Mist Creatures running amok everywhere, he killed them at will.
A casual slash from his Fleshy Wings could bisect several Mist Creatures.
A casual extension of his claws could easily crush their skulls.
Effortlessly, he completely cleared out these low-level monsters.
The efficiency was extremely high.
The Life Essence of these low-level beings was too thin and impure. Absorbing them offered negligible gains, hardly worth the effort.
Su Zhan judged internally.
To risk using his devouring ability for these "scraps and leftovers"—if it left even the slightest clue and exposed his core secret, that would be a classic case of losing big for small gains.
Therefore, he merely carried out a physical-level purge with absolute force, ensuring no stragglers escaped.
In just a few short minutes, all remaining Mist Creatures within the fortress perimeter, whether strong or weak, were swept clean.
The roars of the rampaging monsters vanished completely.
Su Zhan withdrew the surging Mist energy around him. The Fleshy Wings on his back and the scales on his body surface slowly receded, the dragon horns on his forehead also disappeared, as he returned to his human form and landed lightly on a relatively intact patch of open ground.
The moment his feet touched the ground,
Commander Chen Hao, who had been waiting for this moment, immediately dragged his injured body forward, accompanied by several equally wounded officers whose eyes shone with reverence.
Chen Hao stood at attention and gave Su Zhan the most standard Daxia military salute.
The officers behind him, and all the soldiers around who could still stand, regardless of the severity of their injuries, simultaneously raised their arms in salute, their burning gazes focused intently on Su Zhan.
Those gazes were filled with heartfelt gratitude.
"Mr. Su Zhan!"
Chen Hao's voice boomed, "On behalf of all the defenders of Panshi Fortress, and on behalf of the tens of thousands of civilians who were saved, I thank you for saving our lives! If not for your timely arrival, Panshi Fortress today... would have surely been utterly destroyed!"