novelraw Chapter 351: Stink Bug City, Extreme Evil Everywhere
Chapter 351: Stink Bug City, Extreme Evil Everywhere
[After learning of your thoughts, Flanda suggests you change your destination. Rather than wasting time on the road, you might as well go to the nearest Stink Bug City.]
[It wants to immediately enter dormancy to digest the firefly factor and increase its strength.]
[During dormancy, it is at its most vulnerable. It knows there is a concealed safe zone there…]
[Will you follow Flanda’s suggestion and head to Stink Bug City?]
Lin Xun froze for a moment, realizing that his choice had changed the subsequent game flow.
Under the normal flow, if he did not come into conflict with the Desire Wet Nurse, he should have continued exploring around Bush Cricket City. But now that he had chosen to confront her head-on, a new map for Stink Bug City would be unlocked.
[After obtaining your consent, Flanda controls the Military Mole Cricket, making it turn and change its destination…]
[…]
[Not long into the journey, the Military Mole Cricket arrives at the destination. The abdominal cavity’s vibrations subside, and the flesh membranes on both sides open.]
[Before you lies an extremely deep underground space. The stone walls at the top do not even have half a patch of luminescent fungi, yet the underground space is not so pitch-black that you cannot see your hand in front of your face.][Specks of light come from a huge pit not far away. The pit’s range and depth are enormous, like the scene caused by a massive meteor impact.]
[However, the pit’s inner walls are not neat or smooth. An artificially carved spiral mountain road in the form of a helical staircase keeps descending, extending all the way to a small stretch of flat ground at the very deepest part of the pit. The whole structure is like an inverted conical frustum.]
[Those specks of light are embedded in the pit’s inner walls, emitting a constant and faint glow.]
[You notice many old, rusted mine carts discarded near the spiral road, along with scattered mining tools…]
[You have arrived at the Demon Zircon mining pit!]
[Flanda brings you and Kim into the massive mining pit, continuing downward along the spiral road…]
[It tells you that the Demon Zircon mining pit lies within Stink Bug City and is very close to the Divine Kingdom’s center.]
[The pit contains a precious ore called Demon Zircon. This ore can be used to manufacture the soldiers’ Exoskeleton Mask and is an extremely important strategic resource.]
[After long-term mining and excavation, the ore here has been exhausted. The glow you see on the pit walls now is from ore that contains large amounts of impurities and has no mining value.]
[The Demon Zircon mining pit has become an abandoned place. No one will come here anymore. There could be no better place for it to use as its dormancy site…]
[…]
[As it speaks, Flanda has already brought you and Kim to the bottom of the pit.]
[Looking up from the bottom, countless ores embedded in the walls shimmer with light, like a sky full of stars buried deep underground.]
[Flanda continues, saying that this place is very close to the Divine Kingdom’s center. If you explore near Stink Bug City, you should be able to obtain a great deal of intelligence about the war’s front line and the Desire Wet Nurse.]
[It is about to begin dormancy to fuse with the firefly factor. During this period, it cannot move, much less fight, so please forgive it for being unable to continue traveling with you.]
[If you encounter a predicament you cannot resolve, please do not hesitate. Immediately use the Firefly Stone it gifted you.]
[It will interrupt the factor fusion and rush to your side at the first moment…]
[Also, if you run into a Pilgrimage Angel, remember not to come into conflict with it. You must quietly avoid it.]
[Because the Pilgrimage Angel is still under the Desire Wet Nurse’s Hive Consciousness control and is continuously spreading foreign factors. If you come into conflict with a Pilgrimage Angel, the Desire Wet Nurse will learn at the first moment…]
[You have learned the exact location of Stink Bug City!]
[After you nod and commit it to memory, Flanda gives you a slight smile. Countless jet-black threads grow and spread wildly from her body, winding and intertwining, quickly wrapping the girl’s entire body and forming a black cocoon.]
[The jet-black threads do not stop growing and spreading. They keep surging out and wrapping around, making the black cocoon larger and larger. It soon swells from a normal human size into a colossal behemoth.]
[You and Kim retreat again and again, taking dozens of steps back in succession. The cocoon’s expansion speed begins to slow to an extreme, yet it never stops growing.]
[You infer that before Flanda finishes fusing the factors, the black cocoon will not stop growing. As for what it looks like inside the cocoon, you have no way of knowing…]
From the Experimental Record Handbook in the sleeping palace, it could be learned that after an Ascender perfectly fuses the firefly factor, it can possess two combat forms.
One is a humanoid state dominated by the original flesh-and-blood civilization, and the other is an Ascended form dominated by the firefly factor.
Judging from the strength of the Desire Wet Nurse and Firefly, the latter combat form should be more powerful.
Flanda was probably evolving a gigantic insect-person combat form right now…
[Kim looks at the huge black cocoon, then looks at you. Its gaze is somewhat hesitant, as if it wants to speak but stops.]
[You know it wants to stay here to protect Flanda, who is extremely vulnerable while in the cocoon state.]
[Do you want to invite Kim to travel with you to Stink Bug City, or have it stay behind at the Demon Zircon mining pit to protect the black cocoon?]
Lin Xun chose the latter without hesitation.
Flanda was currently his thickest thigh. As long as it completed the factor fusion, it would at least possess top-tier demigod realm power. It might even be stronger than Clone Body No. 57, directly advancing to a god.
He absolutely could not allow anything to happen to this big shot.
To be safe, he directly summoned the Battle Angel – Valkyrie and ordered her to stay as well to guard Flanda.
After making every preparation, Lin Xun left the mining pit and headed for Stink Bug City.
During the bus ride, he took out the fate-changing artifact and began rolling.
Although Flanda was still evolving right now, that did not stop him from first using the Damaged Wet Nurse’s Umbilical Cord to learn the location of the Complete Umbilical Cord.
After all, to roll a high Luck Value, unless your luck was absurdly good, you needed multiple attempts…
Very soon, he put away the fate-changing artifact and rode the bus in peace.
Rolling two times in a row without breaking twenty Luck Value indicated that today’s fortune was bad, and it was not suitable to try again.
[…]
[As the abdominal cavity’s vibrations subside and the flesh membranes on both sides open, you see in the distance the magnificent city Stink Bug City, covered by snow that fills the sky.]
[Looking toward the sky above the city center, the source of the swirling snowfall all comes from a colossal being that blots out the heavens – the Ascended Pilgrimage Angel.]
[The Pilgrimage Angel is no longer the pure white butterfly it was when you first met. Its two pairs of scaled wings are covered in pitch-black patterns, and those patterns present shadows like luxuriant branches and leaves.]
[The giant creature soars at the very top of the sky above the city, extremely far from the ground. If you enter the city to explore, it should not notice or discover you.]
[Do you want to enter Stink Bug City to explore, or go challenge the Pilgrimage Angel?]
The Pilgrimage Angel was a factor weapon created by the Desire Wet Nurse, and its strength far surpassed Lin Xun’s original self.
Unlike the Prototype Purgatory Angel, the Pilgrimage Angel was a standardized weapon that had already been fully developed.
From the previous battle results, although this BOSS’s Shell potential was probably not as good as the Purgatory Angel, its level should be very high, and its HP bar would be absurdly thick.
Now he had the Purgatory Angel Shell, and shikigami like the Nine-Tailed Fox and Nurarihyon. His chance of winning against the Pilgrimage Angel was extremely high, and he would very likely be able to take down this BOSS.
But Flanda’s warning made him understand that he could not act rashly right now. If he wanted to kill the Pilgrimage Angel, he would at least have to wait until the Desire Wet Nurse removed the Hive Consciousness control.
Hive Consciousness, this special attribute, was different from any special attribute he had seen before, and there was no way to see any effect that increased combat power.
Attributes like Calamitous Fallen Karmic Fire and Calamitous Fallen Dragon Embryo both had the characteristic of increasing the strength of the corresponding Shell and enhancing related skill effects.
Even the Knowledge stat he obtained at the fourth difficulty, aside from increasing brain capacity and improving resistance to seeing stars, could also strengthen a mage.
But Hive Consciousness, for now, only had the functions of repairing Exoskeleton Mask and repairing Spiked Exoskeleton Combat Armor.
As for what Flanda said about controlling masterless consciousness, he did not know whether it was because the special attribute level was too low. Right now, it was not shown at all.
Lin Xun really wanted to kill a few more BOSSes to continue improving and developing this special attribute, but the Pilgrimage Angel in front of him could only be looked at and not pushed.
[You possess the Shell of the Fire-Worshipping Heartless Ninja master!]
[You turn gracefully, opening a pair of dim eyes, and enter stealth.]
[You step on the thick snow and gradually approach the large city…]
[Because the Pilgrimage Angel is too far from the ground, the snowfall remains heavy, but it is not enough for the blizzards it stirs up to destroy buildings. The city’s buildings are covered by thick white snow, yet they have not collapsed and still stand intact.]
[As you get closer to Stink Bug City, you can already see human silhouettes wandering the streets from afar.]
[Most of them maintain their original insect-person forms, but their eyes are full of malice. They silently let out eerie laughter, the corners of their mouths splitting all the way to their ears, tearing their chelicera mouthparts.]
[That vicious, sinister, eerie smile makes your spine go cold.]
[Only a small portion of Ascenders have lost their human form, becoming strange existences like plants. Lush vines form wriggling feet that move forward slowly. A tree trunk replaces the body, and branches and leaves form upper limbs.]
[Amid the tangled branches and leaves hangs an abrupt head, also laughing eerily.]
[You have discovered Extreme Evil Ascender Residents!]
[You have discovered Extreme Evil Ascender Guards!]
[You have discovered Extreme Evil Ascender Merchants!]
[You have discovered Extreme Evil…]
Lin Xun could not help but suck in a cold breath.
“Damn, this malice is even more terrifying than the T-virus. If it were spread on a large scale, it would be enough to destroy a city, even a country.”
As an Apostle of the New World, he now also knew many inside details.
The Book of Salvation’s apocalyptic chapter also had apocalyptic chapters full of zombies and the undead. In the past, there had even been Apostles within the organization who brought viruses into reality, trying to use them to cause large-scale panic.
However, viruses could only take effect within their original chapter. They could not infect creatures in other chapters, much less turn the real world into an apocalypse.
Once exposed in reality, the virus would immediately lose activity and no longer have infectious capability.
Only the Source of the Apocalypse could cause enormous negative impact on the real world.
Lin Xun could not help but let his imagination run wild, imagining what would happen if he could control the Extreme Evil Ascended Pilgrimage Angel and bring that thing back to reality to fly around once…
But that was only a thought. The Pilgrimage Angel was far too large and obviously could not be parasitized. Even if he could Possession or parasitize it, he would not use that thing to affect the real world.
“The speed at which Extreme Evil is spreading is so fast. I have to speed up my exploration progress and seize control of malice before the Desire Wet Nurse does!”
He felt extremely anxious.
But Flanda’s fusion of the firefly factor required time, and rolling a high Luck Value to obtain the location of the Wet Nurse’s Umbilical Cord also required multiple attempts.
These were not things that could be accomplished by being anxious.
He could only suppress the anxiety in his heart and explore as quickly as possible.
Maintaining stealth, using the Ninja Master to kill one with one slash, silently eliminating Extreme Evil monsters.
Most of the monsters were city residents, so weak that they could not even drop Spirit Essence.
Only monsters like guards and sentries would drop Spirit Essence. Under the bonus of the Star Lord’s Crowned Diadem, he truly made a huge profit.
However, Lin Xun’s main purpose was not to farm Spirit Essence or grind experience, but to enhance the Calamitous Fallen special attribute by killing Extreme Evil monsters.
He farmed a large swath of small monsters, yet there was still no increase in the Calamitous Fallen attribute.
The Extreme Evil factor inside the small monsters was too little, or rather, the malice was too little. Even farming them in bulk was not enough to continue raising the special attribute.
Lin Xun explored the city while farming monsters. In Stink Bug City on the surface, most of the area consisted of residences and some buildings without exploration value.
Only when he entered the city’s central zone did he finally discover a building with a proper name.
A building with a special name was proof that it had exploration value.
[…]
[You have arrived at the very center of Stink Bug City. Not far away is a magnificent temple.]
[The temple is semi-open. Looking through the pillars standing in the forecourt, you can see the scene inside the temple.]
[You raise your hand and look into the distance, seeing that a divine idol seems to stand at the deepest part of the temple.]
[Do you want to step into the Ascension Temple?]
[You step on the thick snow and walk toward the Ascension Temple.]
[…]
[Just after passing through the forecourt and setting foot in the temple, you see the divine idol of the Desire Wet Nurse standing at the deepest part of the temple.]
[The most eye-catching thing is not the divine idol, but a burly figure standing before it.]
[That figure has its back to you. Its body is as sturdy as a small mountain, stretching its gray-white robe until it tears and deforms. Through the gaps in the tattered robe, you can see its pale carapace covered in malice patterns.]
[Judging from the outline revealed by the robe, you infer that the creature before you is a powerful Ascender that has undergone Ascension and advancement many times, losing most of its human form.]
[The burly figure seems to have noticed your arrival and turns around.]
[On the small head that does not match its huge body is a pale mask, preventing you from seeing its face clearly.]
[But solely from the malicious gaze beneath the mask, you know that this once-powerful Ascender has become a slave of Extreme Evil…]
[You have discovered the Extreme Evil Exploder High Priest!]
“This city probably does not have even half a normal Ascender left. At this speed and efficiency, once the Pilgrimage Angel finishes its surface task, it will fly underground and continue spreading Extreme Evil factors in deeper subterranean layers.”
“Until the entire Divine Kingdom becomes the Desire Wet Nurse’s source of power…”