176: Chapter 176 Strange Changes in the City

Three months later.

'Huu～'

Nie Ning let out a long breath, ending his long seclusion.

This was his longest cultivation record to date.

Although he had always maintained his cultivation, there were usually some matters to attend to, so he had never cultivated for such a long time at once.

A month ago, Nie Ning had already reduced his research and hunting.

Apart from normal eating and drinking, and a small amount of research, he had just cultivated until now.

[Rank: Earth Knight (Late Stage), Second Ring Wizard (Peak)]

[Talent: Supernatural Adaptability]

[Bloodline: ??? (Inactive)]

[Derived Traits: Strange Beast Body, Elemental Spring, Intermediate Self-Healing (Corruption), Power of a Hundred Beasts (Corruption), Advanced Spiritual Power Amplification, Malice Perception, Advanced Hunyuan Affinity]

[Derived Skills: Assisting Evil, Advanced Hunyuan Manipulation (Corruption), Void-Rending Blade, Lightning Edge Blade, Lava Burst, Light Break Impact, Explosive Fireball, Ice Shackles, Blessing of Bravery]

[Cultivation Technique: ..., Blood Flame Tyrant Body Technique, Heavenly Pillar Guidance Technique, Stairway to Godhood]

[Imprinted Witchcraft: Eight-Fold Element Fusion Technique]

[Skills: ..., Breath Condensation Technique (Mastery), Shadow Gliding Steps (Mastery), Blood Burst Technique (Intermediate), Ice Blue Wing Technique (Mastery), Earth Spirit Puppet (Mastery), Vine Entanglement (Mastery)]

The cultivation results were gratifying; his wizard cultivation had finally reached the limit of the Second Ring, and his knight cultivation had also reached the late stage.

After hunting so many strange beasts, his data in all aspects had significantly improved.

Elemental Affinity and Elemental Manipulation had both been upgraded to advanced, and his Spiritual Power amplification had also risen slightly.

He had also acquired two skills: Ice Shackles and Blessing of Bravery.

Ice Shackles was taken from a creature named Ice-Sharp Bird, a type of strange beast that could grow to the Third Ring. It could form chains made of frost to attack and bind enemies.

Although it was a Second Ring creature when killed, its bloodline limit was Third Ring, ensuring that its power would not diminish even when used at the Third Ring level.

Blessing of Bravery could strengthen the power of the physical body and came from a Second Ring Earth-Bright Unicorn Rhino.

Although the growth limit of the Earth-Bright Unicorn Rhino was only Second Ring, the decay rate of physical enhancement skills was relatively slow, so it would be enough for Nie Ning to use for a long time.

Besides this, perhaps because he had absorbed too much Power of Corruption last time, the Power of a Hundred Beasts had mutated two months ago, turning into a Corruption-type skill.

Similar to Corruption manipulation, his own blood energy and the battle qi formed by blood energy could both undergo reverse conversion, becoming Power of Corruption that could cause maximum damage to Corruptors.

It was hard to say if it was good or bad, but Nie Ning always felt that he seemed to be becoming less and less human.

Everything seemed normal, but this kind of change made one feel a hint of unease; perhaps one day, he too would turn into a true Corrupted Creature.

It was just that he didn't know if he would still be able to maintain his current state of consciousness when such a thing happened.

...

Stepping out of the cultivation room, sunlight shone on his face, and Nie Ning couldn't help but stretch.

Turning his head to look towards the southeast, a black spot had appeared in the originally lush green forest.

That was the territory of the Green Steel Devouring Strange Vine!

The thing Nie Ning worried about most had happened after all.

Half a month ago, when he went out to get some air, he had discovered the changes in the Green Steel Devouring Strange Vine.

But that place was already completely shrouded in the Power of Corruption, and Nie Ning dared not step into that area easily.

Although he had let the Jerky Bear Head go in, it was quickly beaten up by those blackened steel vines, and in the end, it only managed to escape in a sorry state by using Shadow Shuttle.

And in just half a month, that area already showed a clear trend of expansion.

Regarding this, Nie Ning was very helpless.

With his current abilities, he was simply unable to stop the expansion of the Green Steel Devouring Strange Vine.

It could only be said that a half-baked wizard like him was indeed a bit embarrassing.

Apart from cultivation, he knew a little about everything, but was proficient in nothing.

Nie Ning did want to use arrays to suppress the Green Steel Devouring Strange Vine, but his attainments in arrays were truly not very good; even with materials, he could not create Spirit-Extinguishing arrays.

He had also wanted to try making poison to see if he could poison it to death.

But after some attempts, apart from making the Green Steel Devouring Strange Vine grow a little bit, it was completely useless; the plant's resistance to poison was much higher than he had imagined.

Nie Ning looked back and surveyed the surrounding mountains.

This mountain range was larger than he had imagined, and also much more dangerous.

Once, when he wanted to go out, he encountered a Fifth Ring Flying Red Lightning Mantis.

If he hadn't reacted quickly at that time, laid down to play dead, and used the power of corrosion to conceal himself, he would have already become a pile of dung.

And given the scope of this mountain range, it would take a long time for the Green Steel Devouring Strange Vine to erode this area.

...

After leaving the mountain range via the Teleportation Array, Nie Ning summoned his Ice Wings and arrived near the ruins.

Finding one of the ruined walls, he lifted a large rock nearby, and underneath it was a square box.

Because Nie Ning would not easily leave the mountain range, he let Lida leave information in the box if there was anything.

It had been a month since he last came, and when Nie Ning opened the box, he actually saw three notes inside.

He had thought it was information about finding materials for potion making, but looking at the sparse characters on the notes, Nie Ning's expression turned ugly.

[Sludge Monster has appeared, return quickly]

[Sludge Monster has mutated, the whole city is covered in poisonous miasma, Ska City has fallen, the citizens have retreated to Weipala City]

[A wizard has set a trap, attempting to raise and control the Sludge Monster]

After reading the contents of the notes, flames ignited in Nie Ning's hands, burning the notes to ashes, and then he flapped his Ice Wings and flew rapidly towards the direction of Ska City.

...

Just over ten minutes later, Nie Ning had already arrived in front of Ska City.

At this time, the entire Ska City was shrouded in gray poisonous miasma, lifeless, and completely devoid of any breath of life.

Scattered figures moved on the streets in the distance, wandering through the city like walking corpses.

And in the center of the city, a hundred-meter-high mountain stood tall, continuously spewing gray miasma from it.

Nie Ning's face was gloomy; he hadn't expected that after closing off to save magic crystals and appearing after a month of seclusion, it would be such a scene.

After all, having not found it for such a long time, no one knew if the sealing box was still in Ska City, which had led to his own negligence.

...

Nie Ning looked at the city before him; the Power of Corruption in the city was unimaginably dense.

Even though the notes had already mentioned that the citizens had retreated, the number of dead people was definitely not small, otherwise the Sludge Monster would not have grown to this extent!

Seeming to sense the aura of a living being, the poisonous miasma began to spread towards the direction where Nie Ning was, and the walking corpses in the city also began to move slowly.

A yellow shield formed on the surface of Nie Ning's body, and the poisonous miasma made a 'hissing' burning sound when it came into contact with the shield.

His gaze moved to that high mountain; that was the Corruptor Sludge Monster that had been contained in the lost sealing box.

In the end, Nie Ning still did not enter the city.

With the current strength of the Sludge Monster, he was afraid that without Third Ring strength, it would be impossible to resolve; this was far stronger than the Little Boy from before.