Chapter 242: Chapter 239 [I am...]
Chapter 239 [I am...]
Hundreds of tiny spiders lined up and entered the massive spider’s mouthparts, silently marching to their deaths, being crushed and devoured one after another. Upon closer examination, one could see that although the small spiders were terrified and trembling, even screaming incessantly, their body movements were consistent and uninterrupted, continually leaping into the giant spider’s mouthparts one after the other.
Chen Nuo could feel a majestic spiritual power faintly flowing.
A thought suddenly struck him...
Puppetry?
It reminded him of those controlled zombies.
"So these little spiders aren’t its offspring, but food it has stored for itself," Chen Nuo sighed.
As the feasting continued, the giant spider’s momentum grew stronger and stronger, especially its spiritual power, which was now radiating outward. Chen Nuo, Lu Xixi, and the Son of the Sun were all Controller-level powerhouses with keen senses, and all three had serious expressions on their faces.
The spiritual consciousness of the giant spider was becoming more and more intense, to the point that even if one closed their eyes and used their consciousness to feel, it seemed as if they could "see" the other’s spiritual power burning brightly like the rising sun.
During this time, Chen Nuo had thought about not letting this creature grow stronger and wanted to step forward to interrupt its feasting.
But no sooner had Chen Nuo thought to move forward and taken a step, than he felt the giant spider’s eight eyes fixedly staring at him!
The Ability Users had all gathered together, with Vanel holding the Gray Cat and walking to the back of the three powerhouses. Even Bonfrey, after being sent flying by the Empress, staggered back to his feet. However, he picked up the unconscious Sea Monster from the ground and even called over Selena, who was already pale with fear and didn’t know what to say.
"Otherwise, let’s get out first," Chen Nuo frowned. "This place is too small; it’s not advantageous for maneuvering in a fight."
Lu Xixi shook her head. "When I forced my way in, I collapsed the passage. To open another way out now wouldn’t be possible in a short time."
Chen Nuo frowned, saying, "So, what can you do now? Vanel! What does your organization have that can kill the Mother? It’s too late if you don’t tell us now!"
Vanel sighed, "It’s not that I’ve been hiding it all along, but a trump card, how could it possibly be in my hand... Lord Gomez, it’s time to take it out."
The Son of the Sun smiled wryly, looked at the group for a moment, and then contemplated before extending his hand.
His palm was empty, and Vanel could see nothing. Instead, it was Bonfrey standing at the back, a member of the Cultivator Association and a Wizard specializing in spiritual power, who couldn’t help but exclaim, "Hmm," as he stared at the Son of the Sun’s palm.
"What did you see?" Selena asked beside him.
"You’re a normal person; you can’t see it," Bonfrey shook his head, but his eyes betrayed a hint of strangeness.
Chen Nuo and Lu Xixi both focused on the palm of the Son of the Sun, each with a different expression. Lu Xixi showed surprise followed by a hint of strangeness.
However, Chen Nuo’s brows were tightly locked together.
Because, in the palm of the Son of the Sun, there was clearly a Seed of Misfortune wrapped in layers of spiritual power cocoons.
This Seed of Misfortune was different from the one Chen Nuo had obtained before.
Wrapped around this Seed seemed to be other strange spiritual forces. Although invisible to the naked eye, Chen Nuo, using his consciousness to probe, immediately sensed that the Seed was enveloped by many colorful spiritual forces.
Though Chen Nuo could not immediately discern what those mixed substances were, he could distinctly feel a powerful negative energy emotion!
It was like hearing mournful wails in the night, causing a sudden chill in the heart upon hearing it!
Chen Nuo frowned, "This is..."
Lu Xixi chuckled coldly, "Lord Gomez, this thing, it seems you mentioned it to me before, didn’t you?"
"Yes," the Son of the Sun spoke softly, "A couple of years ago, I went to Huaxia for other matters. Passing through Jinling City, I discovered a peculiar Ability User, a young girl. Her Consciousness Space harbored this strange thing.
Upon investigation, I found this thing to be very odd, bringing various negative emotional energies and calamity to ordinary people.
Especially for Ability Users with spiritual power cultivation, it’s virtually a deadly poison!
I quietly knocked the girl out and stole one from her Consciousness Space to study carefully.
And then...
I consulted the literature and materials left by our organization, only to confirm that this thing is indeed a treasure recorded by our organization hundreds of years ago!
Centuries ago, during an operation similar to today’s, our organization’s predecessors used this thing to kill a Mother!"
This thing, for the Mother, is a fatal weapon. But it is extremely rare and difficult to obtain; for hundreds of years, our organization has been exhaustively searching the world for it, yet to no avail.
"To actually find the person with this ability in Huaxia was a great surprise to me."
Lu Xixi coldly said, "But why did you go tell me about this? And then you lured me to Huaxia to take that girl as my apprentice?"
The Son of the Sun’s expression turned somewhat helpless as he spoke softly, "Lu... I’m sorry, this approach may have been to use you.
But I had no choice! The girl’s ability is still weak, and the seeds created by her consciousness are far from powerful enough!
She needs a mighty Ability User as her mentor to advance her strength and fully develop her Consciousness Space, in order to cultivate an even more powerful seed!
An ordinary Ability User couldn’t be her teacher... they would probably not last long by her side before being subdued to death by her curse-bringing ability.
Only Controllers are temporarily immune to this kind of misfortune ability.
Lu... in our organization, in this era, the strength is far from the prosperity of hundreds of years ago.
At present, I am the only Controller.
However, my abilities don’t mainly lie in spiritual power, and I have many other matters to attend to, making it impossible to take the girl with me for training. Therefore, after much consideration, the only option left was you..."
Upon hearing this, Chen Nuo couldn’t help but roll his eyes.
Nice words! It’s just because you think my Empress is naive and easy to deceive, isn’t it?
Yet inside, he felt uneasy.
The girl who cultivated the Seeds of Misfortune... what was her name again?
It’s He Rong, right?
Ugh... That little pest has already been dealt with by me.
"Lu! You must have been to Huaxia after that, right? Have you taken the girl as your apprentice?"
"...Hmph." Lu Xixi did not answer, snorted coldly, and looked away.
But Chen Nuo distinctly felt that Lu Xixi’s gaze lingered on him for a second on purpose.
The Son of the Sun felt thwarted but couldn’t really say anything, assuming that the Star Sky Empress was just in a bad mood for being used by him and that it wasn’t the right time to inquire further.
The corpulent old man retracted the Seed of Misfortune back into his Consciousness Space, "This thing is the best weapon against the Mother!
When I got it initially, it was just a young seed, far from mature, so I’ve used many methods in the past two years, especially those recorded in the ancient texts of our organization, to cultivate it."
A young seed, not powerful enough?
Chen Nuo disagreed internally.
Didn’t I use this very thing to eradicate RB’s Mother?
Ugh...
Wait, that doesn’t seem right!
To battle RB’s Mother, I didn’t just use a seed.
I... used an entire Tree of Misfortune!
I completely severed its roots!
As the saying goes, when quality is lacking, quantity compensates.
It was a success at the time, and afterwards, I didn’t ponder much more on the Seed of Misfortune.
Now it appears... my actions back then might have planted hidden dangers!
According to the Son of the Sun, that old man, the ability of the Seed of Misfortune is extremely rare. Their organization spent hundreds of years and found only one person.
And I just... eradicated it!
With that realization, Chen Nuo immediately asked, "This thing, is it only a sapling? What do you mean by cultivation to enhance its power, and how is that done?"
"The Mother is strong in spiritual power, and the most effective weapon against something with strong spiritual power is negative spiritual energy! The more malicious a person is, the more powerful the Consciousness Space they nurture becomes. For cultivating Seeds of Misfortune, that’s the perfect nourishment!"
The Son of the Sun said indifferently, "I’ve been dedicated to doing one thing for these years."
"What?"
"Lord Son of the Sun, for several decades, he has been wandering the globe, tirelessly hunting down the remnants of Nazi war criminals who slipped through the net years ago," Vanel said softly.
Chen Nuo was taken aback and nodded, immediately understanding.
Hunting those remnants of Nazi war criminals, extracting the spiritual consciousness of those human demons, and nurturing the Seeds of Misfortune!
Lu Xixi frowned and asked, "How do we use this thing?"
"Find the Mother, and during the mental interaction with it, inject it into the Mother..." The Son of the Sun said with a bitter smile, "The records in the literature are like this... But this damned spider, it doesn’t perform any mental interaction with us at all! I can’t just throw this thing into its mouth, can I?
I’ve only got this one piece, and I dare not use it rashly."
"Alright! That’s enough information sharing! That thing has finished feeding!" Chen Nuo raised his voice and shouted, interrupting the conversation among the group.
In the distance, beneath the feet of the giant spider, there was nothing left; the large number of smaller spiders that had followed it were all swallowed into its belly!
His spiritual power scan revealed that the giant spider’s spiritual strength had reached a level Chen Nuo had rarely encountered in his life!
In his memory, among the beings with strong spiritual power Chen Nuo had ever encountered, this giant spider was second only to the Mother from RB!
Though it was still far weaker than the Mother.
However, from a direct observation of the level of spiritual power, Chen Nuo could already clearly determine that the giant spider’s spiritual power was above his own!
It was also above the Son of the Sun and the Star Sky Empress!
In a state of war, the several powerhouses tacitly abandoned the common rule of the Underground World that "Ability Users do not use spiritual power to probe other Ability Users."
The three Controller-level powerhouses had already begun to assess each other’s levels of spiritual power.
Chen Nuo had a clear understanding of the current situation.
The strongest, naturally, was the giant spider after it had finished eating.
Next came Lu Xixi, whose strength was a bit weaker than the giant spider’s, about seventy percent of the giant spider’s.
Then was Chen Yanluo himself, whose spiritual power was a hair weaker than Lu Xixi’s.
The weakest turned out to be the Son of the Sun, whose spiritual power was a bit weaker than his own.
However, the Son of the Sun was not a Controller who specialized in spiritual power, nor was Lu Xixi! Both powerhouses had other abilities, so the real comparison of combat strength might not necessarily be in this order.
The giant spider, as if satiated from its feast, let out a low roar.
That bellowing howl, "HRROOOAR! HRROOOAR! HRROOOAR!" grew more urgent and deafening with each cry.
Afterward, under the astonished gazes of the onlookers, the giant spider suddenly transformed into a mass of black air, its enormous body quickly disintegrating right before their eyes!
In the end, the mass of black air shot into the sky. Twisting and entwining in mid-air, it finally landed on the ground and condensed into a humanoid form!!
Chen Nuo and the Son of the Sun both showed surprised expressions at the same time.
Chen Nuo turned his head to glance at John Sterling, who had been thrown onto the ground, then turned back to stare at the humanoid shape that was gradually forming from the swirling black mist!
Then, Chen Nuo and the Son of the Sun couldn’t help but exchange a surprised look with each other!
"Damn it... What the hell is going on? A doppelganger?" Chen Nuo exclaimed.
After the black mist reconverged, the figure standing on the ground was tall with a pale face. He wore a black robe wreathed in dark energy, and his originally dull expression slowly began to change.
A cruel smile appeared on the corners of his mouth!
This face was unmistakably John Sterling!!
The newly transformed John Sterling, barefoot, stepping on the gritty ground, slowly walked towards the group.
He walked slowly, as if in no hurry at all.
His gaze fell on Chen Nuo and the others, swept around, and then passed them, finally resting on the figure lying on the ground behind them, the already weak John Sterling.
"Hmph, trash!"
A cold rebuke, but it contained a strong psychic shock!
The words reached the ears of Chen Nuo, Lu Xixi, and the Son of the Sun; what was a mere whisper, felt like thunder reverberating through them!
Vanel behind them grunted, swayed, and plopped down to his knees, clutching his head in his hands, groaning in pain.
Even Bonfrey, who cultivated Telekinesis, seemed unable to withstand it, his body trembling violently!
As for the female mercenary Selena, she had already fainted.
The Gray Cat, Black, screamed and darted into a pile of chaotic rocks on the ground, huddling in a shadow, trembling with fear.
The person who approached carried a nonchalant expression, with a cruel smile slowly blossoming at the corner of his mouth.
Suddenly, he extended a slender hand, crooked his index finger, and gave a gentle flick!
Chen Nuo’s pupils suddenly constricted, quickly summoning his spiritual power to shield in front of him! Lu Xixi and the Son of the Sun beside him immediately reacted in the same way...
TSST!!
A thin thread of telekinesis, sharp as a needle’s point, easily pierced through the spiritual power barrier created by Chen Nuo, and then whizzed past Chen Nuo’s ear!
A soft noise came from behind!
John Sterling’s head, lying on the ground, had burst open like a watermelon!
The person in front shrugged his shoulders, walked to within ten steps of the group, and then stopped.
"I’m very sorry, ladies and gentlemen. As I have just awakened from a deep slumber, my incarnate form may have behaved somewhat improperly.
I’m sure you can understand that being in a state of hunger, it’s rather difficult to be rational.
And well, that worthless incarnation of mine might have done some unsavory things.
But now that I have eradicated that waste, I trust that beings of your stature will not hold a grudge with someone who has passed away."
The pleasant baritone voice, coupled with what seemed like polite tones.
Only, there was an undeniable coldness and indifference beneath the gentle speech!
Chen Nuo instinctively stepped forward, positioning himself shoulder to shoulder with Lu Xixi, perhaps intentionally, "Who are you... no, that’s not right, I should ask, what exactly are you?"
"Me?" The person smiled as he met Chen Nuo’s eyes.
"I was a Mammoth that once roamed the land; I was a Saber-Toothed Tiger that tore its prey in the jungle; I was a primate living in a hollow tree, chipping at stones to create fire; I am a wisp of vitality nourished and sustained by the Life Force of all beings..."
His voice was as if chanting a poem.
But at the end, the person sighed deeply, "Time has been too long; I can hardly remember what I used to be..."
He lifted his eyelids and looked at the Son of the Sun, looked at Lu Xixi, but in the end, his gaze fixated tightly on Chen Nuo!
"Of course, to answer your question with something you care most about might be the most appropriate."
With a slight bow and a smile, the person said,
"I am a Seed."