Chapter 54: The Spirit Realm Seems Suspiciously Over-Nannied
With a violent struggle, Yin Shuo revealed his ugly original form. His goblin-like, twisted, and slender body was covered in dark red skin, looking far more wretched than his usual human form. This was likely the reason why he maintained a human appearance during combat.
A pitch-black, armored fist hurtled forward, carrying a piercing whistle of displaced air.
"Boom!!"
The entire unfinished building trembled wildly, emitting a precarious, creaking wail. Countless debris fell from the heights, clattering onto the ground and splashing into muddy puddles, stirring up muddy ripples.
Suddenly, the remaining four action-capable S-rank Crimson Lurkers were struck with utter terror, a chilling dread shooting straight from their tailbones to their crowns.
The S-rank Crimson Lurker that had reacted the fastest earlier—the one that went to slack off with Silver Ji—completely abandoned the idea of idling with the girl. It violently clawed, gripped, and yanked at its own chest with its dark red sharp claws, instantly ripping out a burning core.
Gritting its teeth, it discarded the core, endured the overwhelming wave of weakness washing over it, and bolted away at maximum speed without the slightest hesitation.
....
Dawn broke.
The unfinished building had been completely reduced to ruins. Shattered stones and steel rebars littered the ground, soaked in the blood of countless Crimson Lurkers. A howling, bloody wind swept across the area, resembling the arrival of an apocalypse.
A three-meter-tall giant sat atop the ruins. Beside him, a blood spear impaled the bodies of the five S-rank Crimson Lurkers, hanging them up like shish kebabs. Their limbs had been broken, leaving them utterly incapable of struggling or resisting.
Furthermore, through a period of scientific research, Ye Mingqiu discovered that S-rank Crimson Lurkers were not entirely immortal. One only needed to completely crush and destroy their bodies seventy-seven times to reach their recovery limit, cracking the immortality of the Crimson Lurkers... This should probably be considered useful intelligence, right?
"Monster."
Looking at the giant from afar, Silver Ji suddenly felt that the S-rank Crimson Lurkers—viewed by humans as terrifying monsters—were really nothing special. Compared to this tyrant, they were as cute as pets.
The next moment, Ye Mingqiu's body stirred. He slowly stood up, his massive form rapidly shrinking back to its original size. The heavily damaged armor hung on his body as if it could break at any second; one didn't even need to check the detailed stats to guess that the durability of this equipment was about to hit rock bottom.
Yet Ye Mingqiu paid it no mind. He reached out and grabbed the blood spear. The blood-crystal patterns interconnected with his arm, seeming to fuse into a single entity. Pure crimson energy surged from the blood spear, flowing through the blood-crystal patterns and into his body.
[Prompt: The blood spear has fed back pure life energy to your body. Your maximum health +380]
Health: 1,284
"Ah~"
Ye Mingqiu let out a sigh of comfort. Feeling the surging, immense power within his body, his smile grew increasingly rich. Looking at the S-rank Crimson Lurkers, who had now turned into pitch-black stone statues, he pulled out the blood spear.
The blood spear was definitely no ordinary silver weapon; its growth potential and feedback characteristics far surpassed gold or even dark gold-grade equipment.
It was hard to imagine that its predecessor was merely an ordinary bronze combat spear without any special attributes. It had simply passed through a battlefield and fused with blood-crystaltites, evolving into its current form.
Among the weapon traits of the blood spear were the Divine Power of Blood Crystals and the Source of Life. This indicated that blood-crystaltites themselves were an extremely rare item. When Zhaoge destroyed the world, gods and overlords existed; blood-crystaltites were most likely rare minerals used by those gods or overlords.
From this perspective, the fact that I managed to unearth four blood-crystaltites... seems pretty lucky, doesn't it?
After all, the only ones I killed on the battlefield were ordinary soldiers, at most battle commanders—a ridiculously huge gap compared to divine and overlord-level entities. Yet I managed to drop four blood-crystaltites from such loot boxes.
Am I really that lucky?
Ye Mingqiu smiled and instinctively glanced at his talent panel. Every time his attributes increased, he would subconsciously check the talent panel. After all, possessing more talents had always been his core advantage. Without talents, he could never have obtained a legendary-grade class.
And now, when his maximum health reached 1,284, the previously dim plus sign had unexpectedly lit up once again, meaning he could continue to add new talents.
I understand!
Life is the core!
Possessing more vitality allows me to acquire more talents. To gain vitality, I must have the blood spear harvest higher-quality blood, such as the boiling blood and source blood of the Crimson Lurkers.
I must keep fighting!
[Prompt: The completion rate of your second-ring quest has accumulated to the maximum limit of 500% and cannot accumulate further. Do you wish to complete it immediately?]
Maxed out? Then complete it!
[Prompt: You have obtained 1,000 psionic points]
[The third ring of the main quest has begun]
Quest Content: Beyond the regular Crimson Lurkers, even stronger [Leader-tier] Crimson Lurkers exist. Please gather intelligence on them as much as possible and avoid engaging in combat with them.
Quest Reward: 300 psionic points
Failure Penalty: All attributes -1
Quest Completion Rate: 800%
[Prompt: The completion rate limit for this quest is 500%, and the overflow portion will not be settled. Do you wish to complete the quest immediately and claim the reward?]
"...Yes." Ye Mingqiu looked at the countless ordinary Crimson Lurkers and the corpses of the six leader-tier—meaning S-rank—Crimson Lurkers, feeling somewhat strange.
[Prompt: You have obtained 1,500 psionic points]
[The fourth ring of the main quest has begun]
[Additional Note: This ring of the quest carries extreme danger. You may choose to return directly for settlement]
Quest Content: Track down the traces of [Leader-tier] Crimson Lurkers.
Quest Reward: 100 psionic points
Failure Penalty: None
Quest Completion Rate: 800%
[Prompt... (omitted)]
Complete.
[Prompt: You have obtained 500 psionic points]
[The final ring of the main quest has begun]
[Additional Note... (omitted)]
Quest Content: [Leader-tier] Crimson Lurkers possess near-immortal power. However, are they truly immortal? Can they truly not be killed? Using everything you have mastered—all knowledge and power acquired within this world—slay a [Leader-tier] Crimson Lurker.
Quest Reward: 2-star skill book
Failure Penalty: None
Quest Completion Rate: 700%
[Prompt...]
Complete.
[Prompt: Your quest completion rate is too high. You have obtained a 3-star optional skill book. Please choose one of the following skill books]
A: Crippling Strike: Active skill. Deals massive damage and inflicts a crippling effect on the enemy.
B: Self-Awakening: Active skill. Can be used when afflicted by mental-control-type skills to actively break free.
C: Basic - Spirit: Passive skill. Enhances bodily constitution and spiritual potential. Each point of spirit will yield higher enhancement effects.
"Choose C."
Ye Mingqiu made his decision quickly. Option A was sheer garbage; he had no use for it in the early game, nor in the late game. In the early game, it was completely useless against non-overlord and non-monarch-tier units, while also occupying a general skill slot. In the late game, such low-tier skills were entirely unneeded.
Option B was garbage among garbage. Possessing triple abnormal-status resistance and crowd-control resistance bonuses through [Valor], [Undead Tyrant], and [Tyrant Form], he hadn't been crowd-controlled even once so far.
Since I won't be getting crowd-controlled anyway, why would I bother learning a debuff-clearing skill? To waste a skill slot?