280: Chapter 280 A False Sense of Security

Xing Yaoyan instantly used "Claw Strike" to burst from the ground, quickly putting distance between herself and the mysterious person behind her. The grass on her head also flew off directly.

Qian Mo reacted even faster. The moment the voice fell, the phantom of a massive black scale appeared behind him. Countless black threads of spiritual energy struck at the newcomer like black tentacles at an extremely tricky angle, almost sealing off all of the opponent's escape routes.

Xing Yaoyan's golden eyes glowed slightly, but she chose not to attack.

Her Malice Perception gave her no warning, so she knew the other party held no malice toward them; it was better to wait and see.

Soon, she watched as a sturdy arm stretched out from the shadow beneath the tree, grabbing Qian Mo's spiritual energy threads without dodging or evading.

"Kid, your Superpower is quite interesting. It can actually slightly weaken the circulation of my spiritual energy..."

The voice was much clearer than before, and the two quickly recognized the newcomer's identity.

"Martial General Hu Dachui? When did you get here!" Xing Yaoyan was very shocked.

What shocked her even more was that, through her "Spirit Eyes," she clearly saw the other party's arm actually stretching out from the tree's branches. Furthermore, there were no traces of damage where the arm met the tree trunk, as if the two were originally one...

"I just arrived too. Look, as soon as I got here, I heard this kid wanting to sell me out... Also, your hiding pose is too unique..."

As he spoke, Xing Yaoyan watched the sturdy man's figure slowly "precipitate" out of the tree, finally standing completely before them.

This Superpower is truly strange. Before and after, Xing Yaoyan hadn't felt a shred of spiritual energy fluctuation from him. It wasn't until his whole person appeared that she could only capture a faint fluctuation of spiritual energy from him...

"If only I could devour a bit of his spiritual energy..." Xing Yaoyan thought to herself.

Although her four current ability imprints were already full, as she advanced further, she could unlock the fifth, the sixth... There was no harm in absorbing more Superpowers or Innate Talents; who would complain about having too many options...

Seeing that it wasn't an enemy, Qian Mo, who was in front of her, gradually relaxed his previously tense body.

[Ding! Detected Superpower "No Phase", recorded.]

[Ding! No Phase: legendary grade Superpower. The Esper can copy attributes they come into contact with and convert them into specific Superpowers. As the Esper's Rank increases, they can control the direction of the attribute conversion to some extent...]

Hearing the System's prompt, the danger level of this sturdy man rose another level in his mind.

According to what the System said, he could unlock earth-elemental Superpowers by touching the ground, and wood-attribute Superpowers by touching trees... His methods were bizarre and his tricks endless. If an average person didn't understand this, they would easily misjudge his Superpower, thereby suffering a massive information disadvantage...

Fortunately, there was the System's intelligence...

At this moment, Martial General Hu Dachui was complaining casually on the surface, but in reality, he was secretly enjoying watching the reactions of the two people in front of him.

Back when he had first joined the Starlight Exploration Team, everyone had looked at him the same way after he displayed his strength. If he weren't usually so low-key and didn't care much about his image, the Starlight Exploration Team's second star position wouldn't have been Zhao Chu's, but his own...

"Ahem... What are you two still standing there for? We need to get moving quickly. It will be dark in three hours..." Martial General Hu Dachui walked off in one direction first.

"What happens when it gets dark?" Xing Yaoyan asked curiously.

Back during the Blood Refining, when she had first been teleported to the Land of Destruction, she had quickly entered "Peach Blossom Spring," and it was still daytime when she came out. So, she didn't know what difference the Land of Destruction would have at night.

"There will be Star Beasts." Qian Mo answered first.

"Star Beasts? Doesn't the Land of Destruction always have Star Beasts?"

"There are Star Beasts during the day, but very few come out to be active. Only when night falls does the frequency of their activity increase..."

"And... those big guys also like to be active at night..." Martial General Hu Dachui added this sentence.

Xing Yaoyan could feel his voice trembling slightly.

"Come to think of it, kid... You've learned this relevant knowledge quite well. It seems your education level isn't low... Oh right, I forgot to ask for your names!" Martial General Hu Dachui slapped his forehead; he knew he had forgotten something important.

"Owl."

"Wolf."

Xing Yaoyan and Qian Mo answered simultaneously.

They had coincidentally chosen their previous codenames.

"Good, I'll remember that..."

Martial General Hu Dachui didn't care about the truthfulness of the names. Having been in this line of work for so long, exposing one's own details upon first meeting was tantamount to seeking death.

It was just that they were quite famous, many people knew them, and they were strong, so they couldn't be bothered with any codenames and simply addressed each other by their real names.

Afterward, the three of them quickly headed toward their destination.

At first, their speed was still quite fast, but as the woods gradually disappeared and the familiar land—full of massive cracks and filled with a deathly aura—appeared before everyone, their speed dropped significantly.

Only now could they be considered to have officially entered the Land of Destruction...

"Stay close..." Martial General Hu Dachui lowered his voice.

The next moment, Xing Yaoyan felt an invisible energy sweep over her.

She quickly realized this was the sturdy man's spiritual energy shield.

At the same time, she felt as if she were a part of the land beneath her feet; whether it was her aura or anything else, it had all completely merged into the aura of the land.

What kind of Superpower is this...

Both were for hiding one's own aura, but the sturdy man's could be said to be much more advanced than Xing Yaoyan's own "Stealth." "Stealth" was merely shielding one's own aura, while the sturdy man's ability didn't just hide it, but also added the aura of the environment to it, making it even harder to be discovered... or was it?

Suddenly, Xing Yaoyan's expression changed drastically.

"Roar!"

A massive figure streaked through the air, carrying two blood-red rays of light, and launched a surprise attack on the three of them without any warning.

Even Malice Perception only began to sound the alarm when it was almost right in their faces, which showed that the opponent had locked onto their position long ago; this was merely a fatal strike launched by a hunter after its prey had completely relaxed their vigilance.