131: Chapter 131: The Antidote Must Be Within Seven Steps

A member of the Time Demon Race with arthropod limbs sprouting from his thigh lay in the dirt.

His name was Colin.

The newly formed black limbs flailed wildly in mid-air, and the tumors spread up along his waist and abdomen, about to crawl onto his neck.

Mor stared at Colin's contorted face.

He gripped the long saber at his waist, blue veins bulging on the back of his hand.

The more than one thousand surviving clansmen all remained silent, looking toward this side.

"Kill him." Mor's voice was hoarse and dry.

He had traversed the starry sky for hundreds of years, killing countless human demigods and alien natives.

The Time Demon Race were nomads who lived by the blade; death was not unfamiliar to them.

But to be driven mad and mutated alive by this bizarre environment, and finally executed by their own people—this completely exceeded their psychological bottom line.

Hearing these three words, Colin stopped struggling.

His violently heaving chest calmed down.

On his face, covered in cold sweat and scorch marks, a sense of relief actually appeared.

A Time Demon Race warrior holding a broadsword walked out.

He was Colin's biological older brother, Bart.

Bart walked to Colin's side, gripped the hilt with both hands, and pressed the tip of the sword against Colin's heart.

His hands were shaking violently.

"Brother." Colin tilted his head, looking at Bart, his tone surprisingly calm.

"Help me take care of the family. My younger brother's health isn't good; let him eat more in the future."

"I have some private savings hidden in the third secret compartment of the starship's bottom cabin; take it all."

Bart bit his teeth until they cracked, his eye sockets turning red.

"Do it, Brother. There's something inside trying to crawl out; it's so itchy." Colin closed his eyes.

Bart let out a roar, exerting force with both hands at once.

The broadsword pierced Colin's heart, pinning him to the soil.

Colin's body twitched once, then gradually went limp.

The flailing black limbs also lost their power and dropped to the ground.

The surrounding Time Demon Race members lowered their heads one after another, their eyes filled with reluctance and the desolation of feeling a shared sorrow.

Bart released the hilt, his legs giving way as he knelt beside the corpse.

He reached out, preparing to gather his brother's remains and bring them back to the starship.

The strange change happened at this very moment.

Just as the first mouthful of blood mixed with dark golden pus flowed from Colin's corpse, the small dark red trees around them suddenly rioted.

The soil churned.

Hundreds of dark red roots broke through the soil.

Their speed was too fast for the naked eye to capture, instantly wrapping around Colin's corpse.

"Get lost!" Bart's eyes were about to split, and he punched at those tree roots.

His fist slammed into the roots, emitting a muffled sound like metal striking metal.

The surface of the roots flowed with the luster of liquid metal, completely unharmed.

Accompanying rhythmic sucking sounds, Colin's corpse withered at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Flesh, internal organs, bones...

Even that black limb that had just mutated was forcibly dissolved and devoured by these roots.

The entire process took less than three seconds.

Bart hadn't even had time to pull out the broadsword.

Colin was gone.

Only a set of empty, damaged combat armor remained in place, along with the greatsword stuck in the mud.

Having finished absorbing another high-tier body, the branches and leaves of the small dark red trees swayed.

The liquid metal luster on the bark became increasingly brilliant, and even richer dark golden energy flows were expelled from the stomata.

Quiet.

Deadly quiet.

Then, the suppressed emotions erupted completely.

"Fuck!"

A short-tempered Technology Faction Time Demon Race member's eyes turned blood red.

He raised his arm, and the micro plasma cannon on his wrist finished charging instantly.

The deep blue light was aimed at the nearest small dark red tree.

"I'll kill you ghost things!"

It wasn't just him.

Dozens of emotionally unstable clansmen pulled out their weapons one after another.

The Flying Swords of the cultivation side clanged, and fireballs of the magic side condensed in their palms.

Dying in a harsh environment, they accepted it.

This was the fate of star nomads.

But to have the corpse of a clansman who had just died for them eaten clean in front of everyone, not even leaving a bone fragment—

This kind of ending, where they didn't even deserve a grave, undoubtedly shattered their remaining sanity.

Boom!

Just as that Technology Faction clansman was about to pull the trigger, a silver-gray afterimage crossed dozens of meters and appeared in front of him.

Mor kicked the opponent in the chest.

Accompanied by the crisp sound of breaking bones, that clansman flew backward more than ten meters, slamming heavily into a rock, and the charging of the plasma cannon was forcibly interrupted.

"Leader! What are you doing!"

"They even ate Colin's corpse! I want to burn this forest down!"

The surrounding clansmen roared, the sharp edges of their weapons pointed vaguely at Mor.

"All of you, put your weapons down!" Mor's roar was like thunder.

He drew the long saber at his waist, the blade pointing directly at the enraged clansmen.

"Do you not want to live!"

Mor pointed at the small dark red trees swaying in the wind, the veins on his forehead bulging.

"Open your dog eyes and see clearly! These trees are not independent individuals at all!"

"The root Systems underground are all connected!"

"Pull one, and the whole body moves! This is a complete subterranean network!"

"If you dare to touch a single tree, all the root Systems within dozens of miles will break through the soil!"

"By then, all fifteen hundred of us will become their nutrients!"

Mor's saber tip pointed at the empty set of combat armor.

"Why did Colin choose to die? He did it to cut off the source of the mutation, so as not to drag down the entire camp! He traded his life for your survival!"

"You going to provoke these trees now is just trampling his life under your feet!"

"If you want to die, don't drag everyone down with you!"

The leader's angry scolding struck at the heart.

The enraged clansmen froze in place, the weapons in their hands feeling heavy as a thousand catties.

They looked in the direction Mor was pointing.

Their gaze passed through the edge of the Veil of Time, looking toward the more distant wasteland.

Small dark red trees covered the mountains and plains.

One next to another, extending all the way to the end of the lead-gray clouds.

Dense, endless.

As far as the eye could see, it was all this kind of man-eating vegetation.

A sense of powerlessness welled up in everyone's heart.

Flying Swords fell to the ground, fireballs extinguished in their palms.

The Technology Faction clansman who had been kicked away clutched his chest, lying on the ground and wailing.

Nowhere to run.

Their starship was parked outside, and they had once plundered countless resources in the starry sky.

But here, they couldn't even find a safe zone to settle down.

Mor looked at this group of clansmen who had lost their fighting spirit and slowly sheathed his saber.

He turned around, with his back to the crowd.

His hands clenched tightly, his fingernails digging deep into the flesh of his palms, blood dripping along his fingers.

Regret.

Endless regret spread in the depths of Mor's heart.

Why did he covet the divine object that could extract Void Realm energy?

Why did he bring the elite of the entire clan to tear open this barrier of time?

He thought this was a one-sided massacre and plunder.

But in the end, he had personally led his clansmen into a Hell with no chance of survival.

They were not hunters.

They were just the lowest level of food on this land.

The atmosphere was suppressed to the extreme.

Only the suppressed low groans of the wounded echoed in the camp.

Just as this feeling of despair was about to crush everyone.

A steady sound of footsteps broke this despair.

Six figures walked out from behind the crowd and came before Mor.

These were six Diamond-tier elites of the Time Demon Race.

They were the strongest core combat power in the entire nomad camp, besides Mor.

The man in the lead was named Leen.

He was wearing a set of heavy combat armor engraved with defensive runes, and there was an old scar across the bridge of his nose.

"Leader." Leen placed one hand on his chest and performed a standard military salute of the clan.

Mor turned his head, looking at these six old subordinates who had followed him in battle for many years.

"We cannot just wait here." Leen's voice was steady and powerful, revealing a determination to burn the bridges.

"The energy of the Veil of Time will eventually run out, and the medics won't last long either."

"Those brothers who have inhaled Spiritual Qi have their mutations only temporarily suppressed, and they could erupt at any time."

"What do you want to say?" Mor stared at him.

"We must go out." Leen pointed to the purple-red wasteland outside the curtain, "To explore this divine domain and find an antidote."

As soon as this was said, the surrounding clansmen all raised their heads.

"Go out? Outside is full of poisonous miasma and those man-eating trees; if you go out, you're just throwing your lives away!" the adjutant couldn't help but speak up.

Leen ignored the adjutant, his gaze fixed directly on Mor.

"Leader, we have plundered worlds of the cultivation side and know they have a theory of Taiji Yin and Yang, where opposites create and restrain each other."

"Where venomous snakes appear, there must be an antidote within seven steps."

"Although the Law of this divine domain is overbearing and bizarre, as long as it is a complete world, it must follow the underlying logic of ecological balance."

Leen pointed to the soil on the ground.

"This dark abyss spiritual energy can trigger mutations, which means it contains a very high-level Law of life reconstruction."

"Since it can forcibly reconstruct our genes, there must be some kind of Origin substance within this divine domain that can stabilize gene sequences!"

Mor was silent.

Leen's analysis was logically impeccable.

No world can only have destruction; there must be a symbiotic existence.

But theory is theory, and reality is cruel.

"Even if there is an antidote, how will you find it? Can you withstand the environment outside?"

Mor's tone softened slightly, but it was still full of worry.

Leen smiled.

The scar on his face twisted with the smile, revealing inexplicable confidence.

"Leader, have you forgotten the foundation upon which our Time Demon Race can stand in the starry sky?"

As his voice fell.

A strange spatial ripple suddenly appeared on the surface of Leen's body.

The bones in his body made cracking sounds of reorganization, and his grayish-white skin was rapidly covered by a layer of dark purple carapace.

His figure grew taller, his arms transformed into sharp arthropod limbs, the fish gills on both sides of his cheeks closed, and two antennae grew from his forehead.

In just a few seconds.

Leen had changed from a Time Demon Race member into a Zerg monster exuding a strong abyss aura.

Even the aura and energy fluctuations on his body became compatible with the surrounding environment.

Mimicry.

This was the core racial talent awakened by the Time Demon Race after breaking through the Diamond tier.

They could not only change their appearance.

They could also briefly replicate the characteristics of target organisms at the genetic level, perfectly integrating into the ecosystem of any divine domain.

It was precisely by relying on this unpredictable infiltration ability.

That the Time Demon Race had repeatedly succeeded in the Universe and starry sky, becoming a thorn in the side of major forces.

"As long as we find a native creature on the periphery and complete the mimicry."

Leen returned to his original appearance, his eyes firm, "We can deceive the rejection rules of this world and walk in openly."

Mor looked at Leen, and then at the five other Diamond-tier elites behind him who also had firm eyes.

He knew very well that in this bizarre divine domain, taking one more step was dancing on the blade's edge.

Touching any plant casually could lead to disaster.

He didn't want to see any more sacrifices.

But looking back at the clansmen in the camp who were enduring pain and might mutate and explode at any time, he knew he had no choice.

Waiting for death is not as good as fighting for life.

Mor took a deep breath and nodded heavily.

"Go."

He walked up to Leen and patted his shoulder armor.

"Remember, don't be greedy for battle, don't go deep. As soon as you find something that can suppress the mutation, retreat immediately."

Mor stared intently at Leen's eyes.

"Be careful, be careful, and be more careful. The things here cannot be inferred by common sense."

Leen nodded heavily.

The six Diamond-tier elites turned and walked toward the edge of the Veil of Time.

They checked their equipment and suppressed their aura to the lowest level.

Then, the six figures passed through the gray light curtain like ghosts and stepped into the purple-red wasteland full of unknowns and malice.