novelleonline Chapter 304 - 160: Crystalized Shadow Scale Upgrades Again, Mechanic Mission
Chapter 304 - 160: Crystalized Shadow Scale Upgrades Again, Mechanic Mission
Forcing back the strain on his Spirit, Lin Ye began to analyze and piece together the information.
After a long while, he finally gleaned some useful intelligence.
This elite of the Eight-armed Race had been named Kagu in life, the captain of a combat squad within his tribe.
The strength hierarchy of the Eight-armed Race was simple, determined by the number of arms. Those with four arms were slave Warriors.
Those with six arms were elite captains, while the tribe’s legendary strongest member possessed eight arms and was revered as the Chieftain.
Kagu’s tribe was called the Blood Slaughter Tribe, and their settlement was located to the northeast, inside a massive lava canyon.
Lin Ye was very interested in the Eight-armed Race’s racial trait—the ability to suppress the Gang Sha and Martial Arts Spirituality of an area.
’If I could get my hands on that, the boost to my combat power would be immense.’
Lin Ye slowly opened his eyes, gazing off toward the distant northeast.
After a moment of thought, Lin Ye made his decision.
He immediately issued three clear commands to his eight puppets.
First, they were to operate within a maximum radius of fifty kilometers, with him at the center.
This was the maximum effective range of his Silk Puppets.
Second, they were to search for Source Crystals at all costs, mine them immediately upon discovery, and bring them back to him.
Third, if they encountered any enemy, whether it be another member of the Celestial Abyss Race or a training camp cadet, they were to retreat immediately and avoid combat.
Once the commands were issued, the eight figures scattered in an instant, quickly vanishing into the vast, black wasteland.
The elite Stone Ghost Race puppet, with its bat-like wings, also took flight.
This time, however, on Lin Ye’s orders, it flew close to the ground above the twisted, dead forest, keeping its form perfectly concealed within the shadows.
These puppets had become his eyes and ears, extending his senses across the land.
Meanwhile, Lin Ye himself slowed his pace. He was no longer pushing his speed to the limit, but instead began trying to control the surging power within his body with greater precision.
He decided that from now on, whenever he encountered an enemy he could easily defeat, he would restrain himself, using only the precise amount of force necessary to eliminate them.
"SKREEE—!!"
He hadn’t gone far when a sharp, piercing shriek suddenly echoed from high above.
Lin Ye looked up.
A member of the Stone Ghost Race, circling in the sky, had spotted him.
Almost simultaneously, the sound of heavy footfalls and the rumbling of the ground came from several different directions in the distance.
It was other members of the Stone Ghost Race, responding to the signal from their aerial sentry and rushing to provide support.
An idea sparked in Lin Ye’s mind.
’I still have a temporary skill I haven’t tested.’
’Perfect. I’ll test my new ability on you.’
With a mere thought.
HUMMM!
A layer of hard, dense Scale Armor, as dark as night, erupted from beneath his skin in less than a tenth of a second, covering him completely from head to toe.
Shadow Scale!
BOOM!
The elite Stone Ghost Race in the sky dove down, its claws whistling as they brutally raked the spot where Lin Ye had just been standing.
But it struck nothing.
Its sharp claws gouged several deep furrows into the hard obsidian ground, sending a shower of sparks into the air.
At the same time, four burly members of the Stone Ghost Race burst out from behind piles of rubble in four different directions, completely surrounding the area.
But their faces were etched with genuine confusion.
’Where did he go?’
’A living person was standing right there a moment ago. How could he just vanish into thin air in the blink of an eye?’
The blood-red sun was blazing high in the sky.
Lin Ye hadn’t made any special effort to hide. He was even still moving at high speed.
And yet, it was as if these Stone Ghost Race members were completely blind.
Lin Ye’s figure had vanished right under their noses, leaving not a single trace, not even a hint of his aura.
This was the power of the enhanced Shadow Scale!
It no longer required a dim environment, and the previous restrictions on Lin Ye’s movement were gone.
All he had to do was will it.
Covered by Shadow Scale, he could now achieve true invisibility!
Five barely perceptible streaks of golden light flashed through the air and vanished.
The four Stone Ghost Race members, still looking around in confusion, suddenly went rigid. A small hole had instantly appeared on each of their hideous heads.
They died instantly without ever sensing where their enemy was, their bodies toppling stiffly to the ground.
At the same time, the elite Stone Ghost Race member plummeted from the sky.
Lin Ye had held back.
If he had wanted to, those blasts of Gang Sha could have blown their heads apart.
As it was, Lin Ye had left their corpses intact.
Lin Ye’s figure slowly materialized nearby as the black Scale Armor on his body receded.
He walked over to the five fresh corpses and, without a moment’s hesitation, precisely implanted countless black spores, invisible to the naked eye, into their bodies.
The mycelia within the puppets he sent out were constantly consumed as they moved, and they would eventually be depleted.
To maintain this army, he needed a constant supply of new soldiers.
And the one thing this cruel Alien Race Realm was not lacking in was corpses.
These corpses would become his omnipresent eyes and ears!
...
「Six hours later.」
Lin Ye’s figure appeared in a forest of dead trees that was even darker and more bizarre.
The trees here were taller than any he had seen before, their pitch-black trunks covered in gnarled knots, reaching menacingly toward the dark-red sky.
The pervasive smell of sulfur in the air grew more intense, mixed with the foul stench of rotting vegetation. Inhaling it sent a sharp, burning pain through his lungs.
Looking up, he could clearly see the silhouette of a massive, active volcano in the distance. Its column of black smoke blotted out the sun, like a colossal pillar connecting the heavens and the earth.