Chapter 84: The Clash of Attributes and Power (Part One)

Ye Bai gripped the Jinghong Blade tightly, pointing it straight at the heavens. With the force of earth and sky behind him, he drew forth a shining white blade light. Along the blade's edge and spine, the power of fire gradually spread upward, finally converging at the tip. The entire blade gleamed white, and the characters “Jinghong” sparkled under the sunlight.

“Ha!”

Ye Bai stomp forward, slashing his Jinghong Blade at the gene creature before him. In the instant his blade descended, the fire attribute erupted, enveloping the blade completely. Where the word “Jinghong” was engraved, a pair of tiny voids remained, resembling the eyes of hell that could devour all things.

Bang.

The gene creature lunging at him was struck in the head by the Jinghong Blade, and its body was instantly reduced to ashes by fire. The surrounding gene creatures, unaware of what had happened, were likewise consumed, their bodies disintegrating from the inside out.

The Jinghong Blade, upon striking, created a vacuum. Ye Bai seized this fleeting moment, attaching compressed fire attribute particles onto the blade’s outline. Due to atmospheric pressure, the outside air rushed to fill the vacuum. Yet, the fire attribute had already filled the void, and the incoming air, laden with tremendous force, compressed the fire particles a second time.

Instantly, the densely arrayed fire particles became even smaller, shooting into the bodies of the approaching gene creatures.

Each fire particle, compressed twice, became even more concentrated. Once inside the gene creatures, they acted as miniature bombs, detonating within and destroying internal structures before burning the entire body.

“Hahaha, excellent. From now on, I’ll call you Fire Bodhi.”

Once again, fire attribute power flashed along the blade. Fire Bodhi, after its first release, was clearly wielded with greater skill the second time.

Bang. The gene creature before him was decapitated, flames spreading from the severed neck until nothing but ash remained. Fire Bodhi released its fire particles, dispersing into the surrounding gene creatures, burning them fiercely before they could even reach Ye Bai.

Fire Bodhi, burning with crimson lotus fire, purifies the world with Bodhi’s heart. He hoped the Jinghong Blade in his hand, wielding Fire Bodhi’s power, would consume all evil and ignite a new world.

Ye Bai had now been battling among the gene creatures for over an hour. The dark-blue earth at the nest’s center was almost visible.

Just as Ye Bai thought to kill the gene creature before him and wait for the others on the dark-blue land, a green light pierced heaven and earth, shooting straight up from below the dark-blue soil.

“Xiao—”

On the other side, Bai Wan’er, who was protecting Yao Ling, saw the green light in the sky and her expression changed dramatically. She ignored the Yao Ling before her and rushed toward the source of the green light.

Meanwhile, Feng, shrouded in black energy and wielding two daggers, showed little change in expression. It was as if nothing that happened concerned him, and the fleeting green pillar seemed entirely normal.

Ye Bai and Cao Xiaosen wore identical expressions: mouths agape, faces filled with shock. No one spoke, but it was easy to guess that the green light had been released by Xiao Ou.

Although Xiao Ou hadn’t said explicitly that he’d broken through to that realm, to be able to stand unchallenged in the outer and newly entered mid-layers of Zone B, he must at least be at the advanced Foundation stage—perhaps just a step away from Initiate level, or maybe he’d already broken through?

Ye Bai could hardly imagine what it would take to condense a wood attribute force capable of piercing heaven and earth. The amount of wood attribute energy stored within would be unimaginable. For now, even if he exerted himself to the utmost, he could barely send any attribute power outside his body.

Yao Ling was still immersed in her swordplay, her technique growing more refined. With her lifelong mastery of wood attribute power, she could often kill the most gene creatures with the least energy.

She had heard Bai Wan’er’s startled cry; when she surfaced from her meditative state, Bai Wan’er had vanished. Yet her wrist’s intelligent device, Little Wood, showed that a massive wood attribute force had just appeared.

“Brother Xiao? Ye Bai?” The first to come to her mind were these two. Of the six, only Xiao Ou, Ye Bai, and herself possessed wood attribute power.

“No, it must be Brother Xiao.” Yao Ling exclaimed, running forward. Only Xiao Ou could release so much wood attribute force at once.

The Yao family, like the Xiao family, could only awaken wood attribute power. After awakening, they usually possessed more wood power than others, but she could never unleash so much herself—Ye Bai even less so. Thus, only Xiao Ou remained.

“What happened to Brother Xiao?” Yao Ling waved her sword defensively, instantly slaying the gene creature that approached. Since childhood, her elder brother and Xiao Ou were invincible in her eyes. When she was young, she had secretly dreamed that if she were to marry, it would have to be someone stronger than them.

She had never expected the radiation zone to be so dangerous, threatening even those who had always seemed invincible.

After the green pillar flashed from beneath the dark-blue earth, rumbling sounds erupted below. The reinforced ground suddenly burst open, and two figures shot out from underground.

“Xiao!” Bai Wan’er, now close to the dark-blue earth, immediately recognized Xiao Ou as one of the figures rising from below.

Her gray protective suit was enveloped in dense, earthy-yellow attribute power.

Crack.

The earth beneath Bai Wan’er’s feet split open, and a giant hand formed of earth attribute power slowly emerged, reaching toward Xiao Ou.

Bang. Xiao Ou smashed through the giant earth hand, continuing to fly off into the distance.

“Xiao!” Bai Wan’er cried out, rushing toward where Xiao Ou had flown. Her heart raced; she stamped the ground hard, her body wrapped in earth power, leaving only her head exposed, as if clad in yellow armor.

Bai Wan’er mustered all her earth attribute energy, forming an even larger giant hand beneath the ground. It cradled her and reached for Xiao Ou.

Bang. As Bai Wan’er caught Xiao Ou, she felt as if her chest had been struck by a massive hammer. Blood spilled from her lips; cracks appeared in the giant earth hand beneath her feet, and only then did the two slowly descend to the ground.

Xiao Ou’s face was dark and grim. He glanced at Bai Wan’er and took a pill from his pocket for her to swallow.

“That beast’s strength is incredible.” Xiao Ou rubbed his aching arm and stretched out his other hand. Futu flew back from the underground nest. He continued, “I don’t know what disguise it’s wearing this time, but we have to finish it quickly. If we alert the monsters inside, we won’t even be able to escape.”

Bai Wan’er, after swallowing the pill, recovered her breath, walked to Xiao Ou’s side, and said, “Xiao, maybe we should let it go. In another year or so, I feel I could break through anyway. This is far too dangerous.”

She truly didn’t want to see Xiao Ou hurt again. The last time in Zone C, when they encountered an active intelligent nest, Xiao Ou was injured protecting her. That left her scarred, afraid he might be hurt again.

Xiao Ou said nothing, turning to meet Bai Wan’er’s gaze. Resolve, unwillingness, regret, and stubbornness flickered between them until Bai Wan’er finally relented. Xiao Ou gripped Futu in his right hand, the sword flashing green, and strode toward the ruined dark-blue earth.

Xiao Ou had lost count of how many disguises he had stripped from advanced Foundation-level intelligent beings.

When he first entered the core nest, corpses of gene creatures were everywhere—not the weak, sick, and elderly gene creatures easily wiped out with a single sword outside, but the “soldier ant” gene creatures once tasked with battle.

Their bodies had become empty shells; flesh, blood, and organs vanished, leaving only the husks used for combat.

At that time, Xiao Ou kept a close watch on the biological detector on his intelligent device. He was now at advanced Foundation level—his target, too, was an advanced intelligent being. Face-to-face, he feared nothing, but a surprise attack could easily be fatal.

The detector showed no trace of life, yet Xiao Ou’s instincts told him the intelligent being was near—his goal was here.

As he bent to examine the dead gene creature shells, suddenly the detector lit up with countless red dots, all signs of life.

Xiao Ou froze, quickly retreated several steps, and pressed himself against the nest wall, ready in case the underground corpses rose and surrounded him.

The red dots matched the locations of these long-dead gene creature corpses.

But the dots vanished in less than three seconds.

“Dead yet alive, alive yet dead?” In this cursed radiation zone, anything was possible—especially in the presence of intelligent beings, where things grew ever more bizarre.

The underground nest, abandoned by the advanced intelligent being, was now pitch black, impossible to see. Xiao Ou could only rely on his intelligent device’s biological detector to sense life.

Even though he’d reached the peak of Foundation, a step away from Growth stage, he hadn’t surpassed human limits. He was still human; night blindness remained a fundamental obstacle to evolution.

Wood attribute power worked on the muscles around his eyes, allowing him to see the underground lab more clearly, though the night vision function of his intelligent device had failed long ago—before entering Zone B.

Various radiation streams and energy waves had rendered many functions useless. Only basic utilities remained: long-distance communication, night vision, video—all were gone.

All that was left were life detection, terrain scanning, 3D modeling, and combat video recording.

Xiao Ou surveyed the gray environment, the gene creature husks motionless, showing no signs of life. He was about to venture further inside to explore.

Suddenly, a gene creature corpse behind him sprang up, attacking Xiao Ou’s heart.