18: Chapter 18 Liquid Cyclone, Infinite Lifespan! Did I Wrongly Accuse the System?

Li Yuan watched Laya quickly settle into her role, once again feeling impressed by her reliability. Suppressing his stray thoughts, he pointed to several high-energy reaction points marked on the system map in his mind. "We won't compete with the Guardians for those Zerglings and Drones. Let's find some more powerful bugs to 'test our blades' and see if their life essence is any different."

The warriors of the Order of the Light Guardians continued according to the established plan, splitting into several small teams to efficiently clear out scattered Zerglings and Drones in the outer areas, accumulating life energy for Li Yuan.

Meanwhile, Li Yuan and Laya quietly slipped into the more dangerous areas of Zerg activity.

Their first chosen target was a lone Hydralisk.

These creatures are the backbone of the Zerg's long-range attacks. They can coil their snake-like lower bodies and use muscle-reinforced channels to eject sharp bone spikes at incredible speeds, enough to tear through armor.

Under Laya's protection, Li Yuan cautiously approached within visual range. The Hydralisk was perched in a relatively open area of rubble, its hideous mandibles snapping and dripping corrosive saliva.

"Laya, make it quick and stay safe," Li Yuan whispered.

"Understood."

Before her voice even faded, Laya’s figure had already turned into a streak of light, darting out! The Hydralisk had just sensed danger and raised its head, its muscles contracting to fire bone spikes, when a brilliant blade-light of holy light sliced through its relatively slender neck as easily as tearing cloth.

Squelch—

Green blood sprayed out, and the Hydralisk's hideous head rolled to the ground as its massive body collapsed in convulsions. Compared to Roaches, the high-attack, low-defense Hydralisks seemed to be countered even more severely by Laya.

The entire process was clean and efficient, taking less than three seconds. Relying solely on absolute speed and her sharp light blade, Laya had completed a textbook-perfect precision decapitation.

Li Yuan stepped forward, enduring the pungent stench, and used a specially made container to collect the Hydralisk's life essence. It was a blood-red crystal, even more concentrated than a Roach's essence.

Without any hesitation, he consumed and absorbed it.

Pure life energy flowed into his body. The cyclone continued to spin steadily, though its scale seemed to grow by an imperceptible fraction. He felt no sign of a breakthrough.

"It's not working..." Li Yuan frowned slightly. "Is the quality still not high enough to trigger a 'resonance'?"

"It's okay, Master. Let's go find something even stronger!" Laya was full of energy, seemingly enjoying the feeling of "hunting" side-by-side with her master.

Their next target was a Lurker.

This is a subterranean unit evolved from the Hydralisk, and it's extremely dangerous. They can burrow deep underground and then fire highly penetrative spines from a distance for wide-area attacks, making them difficult to defend against.

This time, Li Yuan was even more cautious. Following the system map's instructions, he stopped several hundred meters away from the estimated position.

However, the Lurker's attack range far exceeded his imagination. Just as he was trying to find a hiding spot, an attack consisting of countless sharp spines came racing across the ground!

A powerful premonition of death made the hair on Li Yuan's body stand on end!

In the nick of time, a white shadow flashed. Laya, who had been on high alert, dove down and scooped up Li Yuan. The light wings on her back flapped powerfully, erupting with incredible speed as she carried him into the sky, narrowly avoiding the wave of spines that could have shredded steel.

"That was close!" Li Yuan broke into a cold sweat, his heart pounding wildly. At that moment, he truly felt the fear of brushing past death. Was this the power of a high-tier Zerg? He really couldn't afford the slightest carelessness!

"Master, are you alright?" Laya asked with concern, while simultaneously locking onto the area where the attack had just originated.

"I'm fine." Li Yuan composed himself. "Laya, take it out!"

"Yes!"

Laya brought Li Yuan to a relatively safe height, then turned to face that area.

"In the name of Light, Judgment!"

She let out a clear cry and raised her slender finger toward the sky. In an instant, the wind and clouds stilled as a giant sword formed entirely of holy light plummeted down like a falling star from the highest heavens toward her target!

BOOM—!!!

The holy light greatsword pierced through the surface without resistance, sinking deep underground. Immediately after, a large patch of land was disintegrated by the violent holy light energy, revealing the remains of the Lurker below, which had been thoroughly sliced into countless pieces.

A one-hit kill!

Seeing this scene, which was comparable to a ballistic missile explosion, Li Yuan re-evaluated Laya's combat power. An Almighty Angel, true to her name! Ranged, melee, support, healing—there was nothing she couldn't do.

He collected the Lurker's life essence. After absorbing it, the energy was even more majestic, and the nourishing effect on his body was more obvious. However, the Intent of the Northern Darkness remained like a stone dropped into the sea, showing no significant change.

Over the next day, Li Yuan and Laya found Ravagers that spat high-temperature lava, encountered swarms of Mutalisks that were mobile and good at flanking, and came across Brood Hosts carrying countless spores.

...

However, the results were disappointing.

Aside from providing a larger quantity of life energy, these life essences were no different.

In desperation, Li Yuan turned his gaze toward the mountain-like Ultralisks in the distance, but after comparing the size of an Ultralisk to Laya... Li Yuan's heart went numb.

However, just as Li Yuan was about to give up, that night's energy transmission brought a turning point.

Holding Laya, who was trembling slightly and soft in his arms, Li Yuan entered a state of internal vision. Surging energy poured into his dantian, slowly dyeing the cyclone there golden and transforming it from a gaseous state to a liquid one.

As the form changed, the plundering power of the Intent of the Northern Darkness also increased dramatically.

[Lifespan +15]

[Energy +1.4]

[Essence +1]

[Energy +0.6]

...

[Lifespan +16]

[Energy +1.5]

[Essence +1]

[Energy +0.7]

...

[Lifespan +16]

[Energy +1.6]

[Essence +1]

[Energy +0.8]

...

He was snatching more and more energy from the life essence withheld by the system, and the lifespan he gained also increased. Was this talent simply dependent on energy accumulation?

In the following days, Li Yuan began hunting for life essence.

From Zerglings, Drones, and occasionally Roaches... portion after portion of life essence flowed in continuously. The cyclone became visibly more condensed at a rate seen by the naked eye.

The Light Guardians became more skilled at hunting, and the time spent holding Laya to transfer energy grew longer. Whether it was because the posture for energy transfer was too intimate, the process too painful, or the long-term saturation of life energy, Laya seemed to develop some peculiar emotions.

Regardless, life energy was beneficial to Laya, the Light Guardians, and even the Light Mages. The bodies of the Light Guardians became more solid, the figures of the Light Mages became clearer, and Laya even gained a new form—a Human Form, where she could hide her wings and look exactly like a human.

One day, two days, three days...

After more than a week had passed and an unknown number of life essences had been consumed, the Northern Darkness cyclone in his dantian had completely condensed into golden liquid droplets.

At that moment, some changes occurred.

The energy gained from consuming a Zergling essence tripled, reaching 3 points.

Lifespan increased by 1/3, now adding 20 minutes.

Natural energy growth also reached 1 point per minute.

Most importantly, the lifespan countdown—

[Lifespan: 3683 days 4 hours 35 minutes 00 seconds]

[Lifespan: 3683 days 4 hours 35 minutes 00 seconds]

His lifespan had completely stopped decreasing...

[Lifespan: +1]

No, it wasn't just that it didn't decrease; it even automatically increased by 1 every day.

Am I immortal?

As for the system... it still showed no reaction. No prompts, no congratulations, no interference, as if none of this had anything to do with it.

"It doesn't care that I'm plundering the energy it withheld? Could it be... I misjudged the system?" Li Yuan began to deeply doubt his own Judgment.