231: Chapter 231: The Bone Fish, the Path of Metamorphosis

New Continent, atop the dark purple primary hive.

The Insect King slowly folded its twelve wings, sensing the Mental Energy feedback coming from the edge of the Old Divine Realm.

The feedback imagery was filled with brutality and bloodshed.

The final images transmitted back by the Formless Source Insects, which were forcefully torn apart by the Tyrant Demon, played continuously in the Insect King's mind.

The Insect King knew the Tyrant Demon was very strong.

However, the Insect King had not expected the Tyrant Demon could be strong to such an outrageous degree.

These Tyrant Demons wandering in the fringe areas were all bottom-tier trash that had failed in the internal competition within the Central Basin and were driven out of the core circle of the Old Divine Realm.

They had even lost the qualification to take a glance at the divine tree, belonging to the absolute bottom-feeders within the Violent Demon Clan.

Yet against such a group of fringe Tyrant Demons, in battles of the same tier, the source insects had no power to retaliate.

Even source insects that had undergone four adaptations and stepped into the Transcendent Tier still faced the risk of being counter-killed when facing Tyrant Demons at the Diamond Peak.

These Tyrant Demons risked self-destructing their neural centers and evaporating their flesh and blood just to smash open the source insects' carapaces with their bare fists.

The third-tier source insects sent out were completely wiped out.

Of the fourth-tier source insects, less than thirty percent escaped back.

These were core elites nurtured by the Zerg after expending massive resources and enduring countless life-or-death eliminations.

The royal antennae on the top of the Insect King's head trembled violently, and a cold, eerie light flashed deep within its compound eyes.

Was it angry?

Not at all.

In the Insect King's cognitive logic, the emotion of heartache basically did not exist.

The Zerg ran amok in the New Continent, the Sea and Sky Tribes were suppressed to the point of being unable to lift their heads, and even the Fire Spirit of the Extreme North was now merely a tool used by the Zerg to adapt to power.

The Zerg's only obstacle at present was this group of liquid metal monsters entrenched in the Central Basin.

To cross this mountain, the Zerg must undergo a new round of adaptation and transformation.

Filling the gene pool with lives was what the Zerg excelled at most.

"Continue."

The Insect King issued an order deep into the primary hive.

The dark purple flesh walls wriggled, and more egg sheaths split open.

Batch after batch of Formless Source Insects on the verge of a Breakthrough crawled out of the insect nest, vibrating their wings, and flew toward the edge of the Old Divine Realm without hesitation.

In the sky of the Wasteland Divine Domain, the Law streamers of accelerated time continuously flashed past.

Ten years, twenty years, fifty years.

The source insects' operations to hunt Tyrant Demons never stopped.

This was a war of attrition that was cruel to the extreme.

Most of the time, the source insects tried their utmost but still couldn't deal with a Tyrant Demon, and could only be torn apart and devoured alive by the other party after exhausting their foundations.

In other cases, the source insects attempted to forcibly analyze and adapt to the Tyrant Demon's power during battle.

The Tyrant Demon's gene sequence was too overbearing.

Titan physique, liquid metal body, the dual Laws of gravity and Shadow Lurker... and so on.

These powers intertwined to form an indestructible gene lock.

Source insects at the Diamond Peak or Transcendent Tier that forcibly underwent Fusion with this power would often lose control on the spot.

In the fringe area of the Divine Domain.

A fourth-tier source insect had just inhaled a mouthful of the Tyrant Demon's dark golden blood.

Countless tumors instantly swelled on its carapace.

Gravity lost control within its body, and Void Realm power tore apart its internal organs.

"Pffft!"

The source insect's body directly exploded, turning into a puddle of dark green minced meat scattered across the scorched earth.

Beneath the scorched earth, several red roots broke through the ground.

In just a few seconds, the source insect's remains, along with that trace of the Tyrant Demon's blood, were completely sucked clean.

The Insect King watched all this with cold detachment.

It did not care about the source insects failing to adapt, nor did it care about the corpses being devoured.

It only cared about one thing: as long as a single source insect could successfully withstand the baptism of the Tyrant Demon's power without dying, the Zerg's gene pool could usher in a qualitative change.

...

Time in the Divine Domain rolled forward.

The Violent Demon Clan relied on life-and-death struggles infinitely close to death to elevate their upper limit.

Aside from this, the Zerg could also rely on massive elites continuously trial-and-erroring and absorbing the Tyrant Demon's power to carry out tier promotions.

The two great mountains crushed against each other, shaking the ecology of the entire Divine Domain.

The Sea and Sky Tribes, which seemed to have been constantly on the receiving end of beatings, were also undergoing quiet mutations.

Especially the Bone Fish clan living within the Nether River.

Back then, when the End Mother Tree broke through the one-million-meter mark, two brand-new Law imprints appeared on its trunk: the imprint of blood and the imprint of withered bones.

The light rain of these two Laws radiated across the entire domain, having the most profound impact on the Bone Fish clan.

The Bone Fish clan were essentially special life forms composed of pale white skeletons and gloomy blue Soul fires.

They lived deep within the Nether River.

This main tributary of the Nether River that ran through the Divine Domain was grand in scale, its river water as pitch-black as ink, accumulating the dense Death Qi of the Wasteland Divine Domain for thousands of years inside.

The natural geographical advantage allowed the Bone Fish clan's comprehension speed of the Law of Withered Bones to far surpass other races.

Blood and bones were originally mutually complementary forces.

For the Bone Fish, the Law of Blood was filled with a sense of opposing repulsion, while the bone Law was the Origin of their lives.

At the deepest part of the Nether River, the water flow was nearly static.

An epic-tier Mutated Bone Fish with a body length exceeding one hundred meters lay dormant on the riverbed.

Its skeleton exhibited a deep, black-jade texture throughout its body.

The Soul fire in its eye sockets transformed from gloomy blue to burning blackish-cyan.

This epic-tier Bone Fish had thoroughly understood the basic logic of the Law of Withered Bones.

It opened its bony jaws, emitting a silent Soul vibration.

The Nether River water within a radius of ten miles around it boiled.

At the bottom of the riverbed, countless sleeping remains broke through the silt and slowly rose.

These remains included withered bones left behind by the demonic cultivation divine domain, the carapaces of dead Liquid Metal Crabs, and even some fellow Bone Fish.

The Soul fire in the epic-tier Bone Fish's eye sockets leaped.

The skeletons were reconstructed under its hands.

Black-jade-like bone spikes detached from its body and pierced into those remains.

Under the traction of the Law of Withered Bones, tens of thousands of skeletons from different races began to piece together, undergo Fusion, and compress with one another.

Soon, a bone warship one hundred meters long took shape in the Nether River water.

The surface of the warship was covered with sharp bone blades, its interior was hollow, and a miniature Soul fire burned at its core.

This bone warship did not need a driver because it was itself a living weapon possessing simple killing consciousness.

The epic-tier Bone Fish's mind stirred slightly.

The bone warship suddenly accelerated, crashing toward a group of foraging Liquid Metal Crabs of the Transcendent Tier in the distance.

The bone blades on the surface of the warship rotated at high speed, cooperating with the Nether River's water pressure to easily cut open the defensive carapaces of the Liquid Metal Crabs.

Meanwhile.

The epic-tier Bone Fish's huge caudal bone slapped the water surface.

At the gaps of its spinal bones, fist-sized bone tumors swelled up.

The bone tumors ruptured.

Swarms of flies flew out.

One kind was pale white all over, with an exterior shell made of hard bone material, named [Withered Bone Fly].

Another kind was scarlet all over, with a bloated abdomen and scalding, boiling blood flowing inside, named [Septic Fly].

During these years, the Bone Fish had successfully bred its own exclusive symbiotic flies.

The epic-tier Bone Fish let out a low hum.

Tens of thousands of Withered Bone Flies rushed toward the group of Liquid Metal Crabs whose carapaces had been cut open by the warship.

They drilled into the bodies of the Liquid Metal Crabs, directly attaching themselves to the internal skeletons of the Liquid Metal Crabs.

The Law of Withered Bones was activated.

The skeletons inside the Liquid Metal Crabs lost control, growing countless sharp bone spikes that pierced through their own internal organs and carapaces from the inside.

Before the Liquid Metal Crabs could trigger space collapse, they were pierced into hedgehogs by their own bones.

On the other side, the Septic Flies displayed an even more sinister and vicious method of attack.

The sky suddenly darkened.

Several Demon Vultures with body sizes exceeding two hundred meters swooped down from the clouds.

Their range of activity was extremely large, extending sharp claws that looked like they were cast from refined steel, attempting to prey on high-tier aquatic tribes on the surface of the Nether River.

The Septic Flies silently adhered to the gaps in the Demon Vultures' sharp claws.

Then they directly chose to self-destruct!

Scarlet blood exploded, seeping in from the gaps in the scales of the Demon Vultures' sharp claws.

This blood contained an extremely strong repulsive force of the Law of Blood, forcibly interfering with the circulation of Qi and blood inside the Demon Vulture's body.

The flapping motion of the Demon Vulture's double wings paused.

Just this momentary flaw.

The Nether River water exploded, and the bone warship controlled by the epic-tier Bone Fish surged into the sky.

The high-speed rotating bone blades cut open the relatively weak protection on the Demon Vulture's abdomen, embedding deeply into the flesh and blood.

"Screech!" Feeling the pain, the Demon Vulture frantically tore at the bone warship on its chest with its sharp claws.

Broken bones flew all over the sky.

However, the epic-tier Bone Fish's attack was only just beginning.

These bones that were torn apart had not lost their activity. Under the traction of the Law of Withered Bones.

The broken bones turned into thousands of slender bone needles, rolling backward from the wound on the Demon Vulture's abdomen to pierce into its body.

The bone needles accurately nailed onto the Demon Vulture's own skeleton.

Subsequently, the Withered Bone Flies that had long been dormant nearby swarmed over, using the bridge built by the bone needles to drill deep into the wing bones of the Demon Vulture.

Just as the Demon Vulture wanted to flap its wings and escape, its movements stiffened mid-air.

Its right wing folded backward, and with a few "crack" sounds, the Demon Vulture actually snapped its own wing raw!

Its huge body lost balance and plunged headfirst into the bone-chilling, icy Nether River.

This was the exquisite application of the Law of Withered Bones by the Bone Fish clan: Skeletal Deprivation.

As long as they were parasitized by the Withered Bone Flies, even the high-and-mighty overlord of the sky would briefly be reduced to a puppet in the hands of the Bone Fish.

The epic-tier Bone Fish at the bottom of the Nether River stopped its attack output.

It opened its huge mouth, and an eerie suction force erupted across space.

The Demon Vulture that fell into the river struggled violently, and a fist-sized ball of heart's blood containing ultimate vitality was forcibly pulled out from its wound, falling into the depths of the Nether River.

The Demon Vulture, having lost its heart's blood, was soon swarmed and completely devoured by the surrounding school of Bone Fish.

Deep within the Nether River, the epic-tier Bone Fish gazed at the Demon Vulture's heart's blood floating in front of it.

The blackish-cyan Soul fire in its eye sockets leaped, bursting forth with near-human contemplation.

A pure skeletal body was indeed exceptionally endowed under the nourishment of the Nether River's Death Qi.

However, accompanied by the elevation of its tier, this epic-tier Bone Fish increasingly felt a sense of powerlessness on the level of life.

Bones and Souls ultimately occupied only half of the Law of Life.

It extended a black-jade-like finger bone, gently touching that ball of Demon Vulture heart's blood.

Sizzle.

Extreme Death Qi and vitality reacted, and wisps of white smoke rose from the surface of the finger bone.

The Bone Fish did not retreat at all, increasing the output of its Soul fire. It was attempting to analyze this power that was completely antagonistic to itself.

If this massive vitality could be integrated into the deathly silent skeleton, regrowing flesh and blood belonging to the Netherworld creatures, what kind of physique would that be?

Or walk another extreme.

Completely abandon this heavy skeleton, let the Soul fire devour all the Death Qi in the Nether River, and transform into a formless and substance-less pure shadow life representing only the concept of "death"?

Return to flesh and blood, or Incarnation of undead life.

Two entirely different evolutionary paths intertwined and deduced in the mind of this epic-tier Bone Fish.

It closed its bony jaws and sank back into the silt at the bottom of the Nether River.

It needed more time and more experimental subjects.

The entire Wasteland Divine Domain advanced rapidly under the great might of accelerated time.

At the edge of the Old Divine Realm, the Zerg used millions of source insect corpses to pry open the Tyrant Demon's gene lock bit by bit.

Dark golden patterns began to emerge on the carapaces of the Formless Source Insects.

In the Central Basin, the Tyrant Demons charged toward a higher level of life amidst endless internal strife.

Every day, new epic-tier monsters awoke in the Blood Abyss Sea.

At the bottom of the Nether River, the Bone Fish clan hid in the darkness, silently accumulating the foundation to subvert life and death, brewing the next species explosion that would shock the entire domain.

All things vied for development, and violence grew.

Waiting only for their Divine Lord to push open the gates of this world once again.