Chapter 136 Scapegoat <TOC> Chapter 138 The Incoming Enemy
Translator: SumTLMan
In the intricate and magnificent hall, the eternal candlelight burned.
The dim light illuminated the eerie vats at the edge of the hall, where the pale, enormous brains swam in the yellow-brown culture fluid. The culture fluid soaked into the labyrinthine brain cortex, occasionally flashing with a faint blue electric light.
Although Lia, the brain in the vat, had lost all her previous memories, she could still deduce that if Li Mu were to encounter any accidents, the entire Exile Realm would be reformatted like a hard drive, and she would return to her state before she had consciousness.
This was something Lia absolutely couldn’t accept.
Unfortunately, she was now just a simple brain without any other plugins and couldn’t determine Li Mu’s current situation.
The throne in the center of the hall seemed to have fallen into the deepest darkness, with no sound to be heard.
After an indeterminate amount of time, a sharp howling of a knife suddenly echoed through the empty hall.
The long knife, Blade of Annihilation, shone brightly under the stimulation of psychic energy, casting an uncertain light on Li Mu’s face.
His face was pale, devoid of any color, and he looked like a withered statue. Thin strands of psychic energy seeped out of his skin, falling onto the throne.
The deep, heavy psychic energy was like mercury, slowly overflowing from the throne and flowing through the hall.
Suddenly, Li Mu opened his eyes, using the Blade of Annihilation as a crutch, and struggled to stand up from the throne.
With a single thought, the psychic energy flowing through the hall flowed back into him like rivers converging into the sea.
Feeling the astonishing power contained within his body, Li Mu sighed. The sublimation of psychic energy was not dangerous, but it was far from smooth sailing. His psychic energy was nearly twice as abundant as an ordinary fifth-level awakened individual, and its power was close to an ordinary fourth-level awakened individual.
This resulted in the burden on his soul during the sublimation of psychic energy reaching an unbearable level for ordinary awakened individuals.
Fortunately, he managed to pull through, although he was almost unable to move due to the exhaustion of his soul.
“Lia, how long has it been?”
Li Mu asked with both hands on the Blade of Annihilation, connecting to the brain in the vat through a mental link.
“Five days, sixteen hours, and forty-eight minutes, Master. Due to Lia’s lack of data, I cannot provide further analysis on your sublimation this time.”
“It’s fine. I just want to eat something and get some good sleep.”
Li Mu said wearily, lying back down on the throne. A moment later, Qing Feng and Ming Yue brought over a large pot of fish soup cooked with the Sun Spring water.
After quickly drinking the entire pot of fish soup, he peeled a few pine nuts from the Soul Pine to soothe his weary soul.
After sleeping for a whole day, Li Mu finally fully recovered and began to familiarize himself with the changes brought about by advancing to the fourth level.
His first feeling was that his psychic energy had become easier to control. In the past, he had to use the technique of boiling psychic energy to manipulate it. Now, he could easily control the psychic energy circulating within his body, even without constructing a psychic energy pathway.
This made his energy destruction and flexibility increase significantly.
Secondly, all the holy relics, as well as the skills originating from the Exile Realm, received a massive boost.
Li Mu tried to activate the holy relic Shock, stepping on the temple floor. The floating palace was much sturdier than he had imagined. In the past, using Shock couldn’t cause any change to the temple.
At this moment, he finally felt that his Shock shook the God and Demon’s Nest, at least within a few meters radius.
He activated his Electrocontrol, and dazzling electric light burst in the surrounding air, even producing a flash of flame.
The third change was that under the influence of the strengthened psychic energy, his body’s strength, reaction speed, immunity, and metabolic abilities would experience growth for an extended period, truly possessing the essence of transcending ordinary life.
Moreover, as the psychic energy pathways were constructed, his physical fitness would grow again until it reached the limit that a human body could bear. At that time, he would attempt to advance to the third energy level and transform his psychic energy organs.
After some time of development, a delicate small town had been built in the Exile Realm. Although the area was small, it had everything needed.
The only regret was that the population was too small. The humans and various intelligent races from fantasy literature that were exchanged looked no different from ordinary life, but they were unable to reproduce.
Li Mu overlooked the town and then patrolled the Qingluo River, Xianyang Mountain, and the Lake of the Underworld within the Exile Realm with the black cranes. The mutated creatures captured from the wasteland lived here, and they did not lose their reproductive abilities, so their population thrived.
Fei Lian had an astonishing appetite, so it often went hunting in the Exile Realm, preventing the mutated creatures from becoming a disaster.
In the next instant, Li Mu returned to the wasteland world, less than twenty minutes since he had left.
The familiar eerie psychic energy permeated the air, and the deer that originally inhabited the area underwent a terrifying transformation. Their smooth fur became covered in pus-filled sores, and snake-like creatures seemed to be violently wriggling beneath their skin.
They bit each other, leaving blood everywhere, and several young deer had already been gnawed to the bone by their peers.
Li Mu looked into the distance, where a terrifying monster was being besieged by several awakened individuals.
The monster was six or seven meters long and looked like a giant moth. Its massive body was covered in a hard shell, and its hideous and bizarre head had two tentacles.
These two tentacles were extremely sharp, easily cutting through everything in their path with every swing. Occasionally, awakened individuals, soldiers, and armored vehicles were directly sliced in half.
The greater threat was the monster’s wings, which were covered in various strange eyes. With every flap, a massive amount of scales would fall.
Ordinary people who came into contact with even a small amount would immediately dissolve into pus and blood. Even armored vehicles and reinforced concrete buildings could not withstand the corrosion of the scales.
Even the awakened with slightly stronger resistance to psychic energy did not fare much better. Their bodies were covered with strange scales that burrowed deep into their flesh, causing intense pain and itching that could drive anyone mad.
The main force attacking this monster was made up of four third-level awakened individuals, who could resist the erosion of the scales. Their powerful psychic energy occasionally caused the monster to let out agonizing screams of pain.
Raja Santanu was at the rear, staring at the terrifying monster in horror. Its original form was nothing more than an ordinary moth from the palace garden.
The enraged Soul Lord projected its mighty power onto the creature, far surpassing its previous display of power.
After all, last time someone had merely killed a number of the cultivated ants, while this time the offender had directly stolen its power.
As the first target, Raja Santanu was caught off guard and directly looked at the Soul Lord. Although he wasn’t affected by the psychic contamination, he was caught off guard by the shock and had his mind momentarily dazed, allowing the mutated monster to ambush him.
A narrow, long wound was cut open on his chest and abdomen, revealing wriggling internal organs, and his body was also severely eroded by the scale dust.
After Li Mu advanced to the fourth level, his already excellent vision was further enhanced. After surveying the battlefield, he discreetly stepped on the ground.
A faint shockwave spread across the entire massive greenhouse without anyone noticing.
“I’ve found you.”