177: The tools used in the crime were confiscated; the smuggler is now useless.

The further down he fell, the thicker the air became.

The surroundings were no longer just pure darkness, but a corridor of dark red flesh walls.

The sizzling sound of the strong acid corroding the Lightning Shield echoed throughout the space, making one's teeth ache.

Lin Yuan hovered in mid-air, the lightning beneath his feet illuminating the internal organ world.

This place was like an operating high-temperature boiler room.

And right in the center of the boiler room, the "core" emitting a dark red light finally revealed its true appearance.

That was not a heart.

At least, not entirely a heart in the biological sense.

It was a crystal embedded in a fleshy tumor, the size of a millstone and entirely crimson.

With every pulsation, it pumped Dark Energy outwards.

"Whoa."

"Such a large Fire Attribute Crystal..."

Lin Yuan stretched out his hand, gesturing to estimate the size.

I'm rich.

This business trip was definitely worth it.

Seemingly sensing the intruder's malice, the crystal suddenly contracted.

The surrounding blood vessels bulged.

Countless tentacles drilled out from the flesh walls on all sides, frantically whipping toward Lin Yuan.

"Getting desperate?"

Lin Yuan did not dodge.

In such a confined space, this kind of physical attack was impossible to avoid.

Since he couldn't dodge, he might as well scorch the path flat.

The lightning surrounding him suddenly surged, and those tentacles hadn't even touched the hem of Lin Yuan's clothes.

They carbonized and disintegrated under the effect of the high-voltage electric field, turning into black ash that scattered everywhere.

Lin Yuan stepped on the black ash, walking step by step toward the crystal.

He raised the Scepter in his hand.

This trophy, snatched from a Divine Official, was now being used by him as a crowbar.

"Just bear with it for a moment."

Lin Yuan said to the crystal, his tone exactly like that of an unscrupulous quack doctor holding a large syringe and coaxing a child to get a shot.

"It might hurt a bit, but I'll try to be quick."

Before his voice faded.

He gripped the end of the Scepter with both hands, used force from his waist, and plunged it into the gap connecting the crystal and the fleshy tumor.

*Puchi!*

It sank deep into the flesh.

"ROAR—!!!"

Even separated by the thick flesh walls, Lin Yuan could hear the miserable scream coming from the outside.

The entire space began to violently shake.

Everything was shaking up, down, left, and right, and acid liquid constantly splashed down from above.

Lin Yuan's legs were firmly stuck to the fleshy tumor, and he was tossed up and down as the monster struggled.

"Stop moving around!"

Lin Yuan was getting motion sickness from the shaking, and his temper flared.

Not only did he not let go, but he increased the force in his hands.

"Get up... now!!"

*Zila—!!!*

Lin Yuan channeled the Thunder Power within his body through the Scepter and into the connection point.

The high-voltage current acted like countless tiny surgical scalpels, severing the nerve bundles and blood vessels connected to the crystal.

*Crack!*

Accompanied by a sound similar to a steel cable snapping.

Lin Yuan forcibly pried the millstone-sized crimson crystal off the fleshy tumor.

The dark red light dimmed for a moment, then erupted in a wave of heat.

Lin Yuan was quick to react, grabbing and hugging the crystal, which was wider than he was.

It was scalding hot.

It was like hugging a brand new branding iron.

But the smile on his face was even brighter than the crystal.

"Got it."

The surrounding flesh walls quickly began to wither and shrink, and the intense heat rapidly cooled down.

"Alright, the goods have been signed for."

Lin Yuan looked up at the passage above his head.

That was the way he came in.

But he had no intention of returning the way he came.

Flying back up would mean prying the teeth open again, which was too troublesome.

Since he had taken the creature's core, he ought to leave it a vent hole.

Lin Yuan turned around, facing the flesh wall to the side.

That was the location of the snake's neck.

As long as he punched through here, the outside would be free air.

"Go!"

Lin Yuan pulled his right hand back, his five fingers forming a claw.

In his palm, the lightning was no longer violently spurting out, but had been compressed to the extreme, forming a black-purple dot of light the size of a ping-pong ball.

High-frequency oscillation.

The air was torn open, revealing fine black fissures.

Lin Yuan took a step forward.

His palm, like a knife, plunged straight into the flesh wall... Outside.

The rain poured down.

The wind and waves on the sea surface were more violent than before.

Zhao Ya was supported by Su Wanqing, standing on a protruding reef, watching the gigantic creature on the sea surface.

Just moments ago.

The Three-headed Serpent, which had been wildly thrashing its heads and trying to spit Lin Yuan out, suddenly stopped.

Immediately afterward.

The Three-headed Serpent began to convulse.

"What's going on?"

Su Wanqing wiped the rain off her face, her voice trembling.

"Did he... succeed?"

Zhao Ya did not speak.

She just stared intently at the neck of that snake head.

There.

A point of light suddenly appeared beneath the originally indestructible scales.

At first, it was only the size of a needle tip.

The next second.

The point of light rapidly expanded, turning into a dazzling black-purple.

"Get back!!"

Zhao Ya realized something and pushed Su Wanqing.

*Boom—!!!*

A deafening sound overwhelmed the widespread thunder.

The neck of that snake head exploded.

Flesh and blood flew everywhere, and scales shot out like shrapnel.

A beam of lightning burst forth from the bloody hole in the monster's neck, shooting straight toward the sky.

Within that dazzling lightning.

A figure rushed out, accompanied by a sky full of blood rain.

He tumbled twice in the air, dissipating the momentum.

He flapped the wings on his back, stably hovering dozens of meters away from Zhao Ya and the others.

"Cough, cough..."

Lin Yuan coughed while disgustedly shaking off the mucus covering his body.

His originally flashy Hawaiian shirt had now become a rag of unrecognizable color.

His hair, looking as if it had been styled with gel, stuck to his scalp in strands.

"Peh."

Lin Yuan spat out a mouthful of fishy-smelling saliva.

He looked down at the head, which had gone limp and was now dangling on the sea surface.

Then he looked at the two stunned women in the distance.

"What are you looking at?"

Lin Yuan wiped his face irritably.

"Haven't you ever seen an Attending Physician who just finished minimally invasive surgery?"

Zhao Ya opened her mouth.

Looking at the man, who reeked horribly yet was so terrifyingly powerful, she couldn't find the right words to describe her feelings at that moment.

Minimally invasive surgery?

You call blowing a three-meter-wide hole in its neck "minimally invasive"?

"You..."

Su Wanqing suppressed the shock in her heart, trying to regain her usual composure.

"Did you kill it?"

"Kill it?"

Lin Yuan raised an eyebrow, pointing at the other two snake heads still slightly twitching below.

"What are you thinking, Young Miss Wanqing?"

"It's seafood, not a generator. Where would it get positive and negative poles so that pulling one wire cuts all power?"

"This thing has extremely tenacious vitality."

"I just confiscated its tools of the crime and performed a partial excision surgery on it."

As he spoke.

He patted his pocket, a cunning smile appearing on his face.

"The power source of that middle head belongs to me."

"As for these remaining two heads..."

He turned around, his gaze falling upon the green and crimson snake heads that were momentarily thrown into confusion.

Those two snake heads had also reacted by now.

Although they shared one body, they clearly possessed independent consciousnesses.

The strongest eldest brother in the middle was dead.

The murderer who killed the eldest brother was standing right in front of them.

"Roar!!!"

"Hiss!!!"

The green snake head and the crimson snake head simultaneously raised up, focusing on Lin Yuan.

Poison mist and raging fire were brewing deep in their throats.

"See?"

Lin Yuan spread his hands and shrugged helplessly at Zhao Ya.

"Buy one, get two free."

"This is a deal I can't afford to pass up."

He spun the Scepter in his hand once, then gripped it in a reverse hold, like a dagger.

The lightning around him, though less volatile than before, became much more condensed.

"Captain, since the most valuable one in the middle belongs to me."

"Then dealing with these two leaderless loaches will be as easy as chopping vegetables, right?"

Before his words fell.

Two terrifying breaths, forming a pincer attack, twisted toward Lin Yuan in mid-air.

But Lin Yuan's figure vanished into thin air just one second before the two streams of destructive energy could converge.

The next second.

He appeared directly above the green snake head on the left.

The Scepter in his hand was raised high, aimed straight at the massive snake eye.

"The first one."

*Puff!*

The Scepter plunged down.

Blood and crystalline fluid splattered.

Lin Yuan crouched on the snake head, gripping the Scepter that was stabbed into the snake's eye with one hand.

A cynical smile hung on his face, while the giant beast beneath his feet opened its mouth wide, letting out a howl that was about to rip through its throat.