Chapter 130: Electric Lightning Eel, World Rift

At 4 P.M. in the reading room, Chen Chu quietly flipped through the fifth volume of the Mutated Beast Encyclopedia.

In recent years, a vast number of mutated beasts had appeared globally, varying in strength. Some could even be domesticated and bred, just like pigs and sheep in the past.

One of the largest types of domesticated mutated beasts was the Mountain Fluffy Boar, which had mutated from the previous mountain black boar. After the mutation, this species was several times larger than before, with adults weighing up to two tons. Their meat yield was high, and they could be fed with easily obtainable fodder and vegetation.

However, while not as bloodthirsty and ferocious as before, creatures of this size could still unleash tremendous power when even slightly angered. They weren't something ordinary people could raise. Therefore, most of the large breeding conglomerates would lease multiple mountain ranges and hire cultivators in the Second or Third Heavenly Realm to manage the boars.

This was one potential career option for ordinary cultivators with average talent, the ones who had only reached the Second Heavenly Realm by the time they graduated high school and lacked the courage for combat and the military.

Of course, Chen Chu wasn't looking to become a breeder; he was reading through the information on these ordinary mutated beasts to find suitable targets for his avatar's fourth evolution.

Although the Sword Armored Fiery Beast had already gained an energy ability, its flames were mediocre underwater, and its explosive strength wasn't keeping up. Besides, who would complain about having more abilities?

Chen Chu needed to be very careful in choosing which ability to give his avatar, as it was a crucial part to standing out among mutated beasts in terms of combat power.

Mutant beasts that had evolved to level 7 or above were all very powerful, each possessing at least two or more abilities.

While Chen Chu was quietly reading, a warm stream appeared out of nowhere and started to merge into his body, strengthening his physique.

Earlier, after the Fiery Beast had cultivated for half a day and made some gains, it had gone hunting for food. The warm stream surging in Chen Chu's body right now was the feedback from the beast's growth.

Chen Chu could only speculate about the nature of his Soul Splitting ability, as the attribute page didn't offer any detailed information about it. Likely because of their souls originating from the same source, Chen Chu and his avatar remained synchronized in their consciousness and perceptions, without any delay. It was as if there was a connection point between them that distorted time and space.

The evolution energy the avatar accumulated would flow through this connection into Chen Chu, which was why they could synchronize their enhancement. However, other than sensory input, that energy was the only thing that could go through that connection, which explained the inability to share cultivation arts or innate abilities between their bodies.

Suddenly, Chen Chu's gaze paused on a page in the book.

[Electric Lightning Eel, an ordinary level 1 or 2 mutated beast. The largest known body size is 7 meters long and half a meter thick, and it is believed to have mutated from the electric eel of the Old Era.

This species can be found in streams in the Changbai Mountains, and is capable of instantly releasing powerful lightning abilities. Its threat level underwater is equivalent to that of an ordinary level 3 mutated beast.]

"The Changbai Mountains?" Chen Chu pondered, jotting down the location where this mutant beast was found. From what he remembered, that was going to be the location of one of the post-holiday purge missions.

By now, Chen Chu had four potential options. The other three targets were level 3 mutated beasts: the Double-headed Ice Python, which had ice abilities; the Shadowy White Fox, which could camouflage itself with its tail; and the Earth Black Bear, which possessed the ability to twist the gravity around it.

Ice, camouflage, lightning, or gravity. Due to the mutated beasts' levels, their abilities wouldn't be very strong, but that wasn't as important as their unique characteristics.

As long as the Fiery Beast could devour and absorb these abilities, he could later enhance them to a terrifying degree through attribute strengthening.

For the rest of his winter vacation, Chen Chu spent each day cultivating or researching, while directing the Fiery Beast during its hunts for mutated creatures. Both his main body's strength and his avatar were steadily growing, and in the blink of an eye, several days passed by.

At 5 o'clock in the afternoon, accompanied by the melodious chime of the clock, Luo Fei raised her head from the scriptures she had been reading and sighed. "Another day has passed."

"Yeah." Chen Chu nodded.

The girl tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and said softly, "Since coming back, I feel like my mind has become much more lax."

"That's normal. We're not in Kyrola anymore, so we no longer need to be vigilant every day."

With that, the two of them got up together, returning the borrowed books to their original places and walking out of the teaching building along with a few other students who had also been studying.

As they walked across the campus, Chen Chu noticed that the roadside branches and street lamps were adorned with red lanterns and colorful lights, brimming with a festive atmosphere.

Luo Fei said with some anticipation, "It's only seven days until the New Year. I heard that there will be lantern exhibitions along the Wujian River from the 30th to the 15th of the first lunar month this year, and there will be a grand fireworks show on the night of the 28th. Most of the fireworks manufacturers from the surrounding cities are going to participate. It'll be beautiful."

After speaking, she turned to look at Chen Chu, her bright eyes shimmering slightly.

Understanding what she meant, Chen Chu couldn't help but smile and said, "I wonder if this year's lantern exhibition will be good. Shall we go together then?"

The girl's eyes sparkled with a smile as she nodded gently. "Okay, let's also invite the rest of the group as well."

Chen Chu paused for a moment. "...Um, sure. It'll be livelier with more people."

As they talked, the two of them walked out of the campus.

Walking along the familiar road towards home, it wasn't until they reached the intersection where they parted ways every day that Luo Fei waved her hand gently and turned to walk down another street.

𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

Standing at the intersection of the traffic lights, Chen Chu watched the girl's figure disappear into the distance. He felt a sudden sense of youthfulness, as if he was living a completely normal high school life, and everything about the mutated beasts and avatar was just a dream.

Chatting with a beautiful classmate every day, making plans to go see lantern exhibitions, watching fireworks...

Suddenly, Chen Chu's eyes narrowed.

Three hundred meters down in the deep dark sea, the Fiery Beast, which had been cultivating the Hidden Divinity art on the seabed, suddenly raised its head, its cold eyes showing a look of surprise.

In front of it, a hundred meters away, an endless surge of transcendent energy erupted, boiling the surrounding water as it became pure and clear, like the freshest spring water in the world. Even from a hundred meters away, the Fiery Beast could take a deep breath and feel the rich energy fill its body with power, rejuvenating its spirit and energy.

A gap, the source of the surging transcendent energy, continued to expand, and a blue light appeared, slowly unfolding.

The rift was over three meters long and half a meter wide. However, what was on the other side wasn't the ocean, but a snow-covered plain.

Boom!

Suddenly, the sea area within a radius of ten kilometers went into a rampage, as countless marine creatures started swarming toward the rift, ranging from mutant sharks and sea pythons, to ordinary small fish, all the way down to shrimps.

Not just any creature could withstand the three-hundred-meter depths, however. All of the small fish and shrimps were crushed by the water pressure halfway, and only mutant creatures over several meters long could swim far enough down.

Among them, the one at the forefront charging toward the rift was a giant-mouthed shark with black scales all over its eight-meter body. Its tail thrashed madly as it charged down from above, and then...

Bang!

The sea water exploded, and the black shark's head was smashed in. The Fiery Beast even heard the sound of breaking bones echoing through the water.

The rift was right there, but despite the transcendent energy surging through it, not a single drop of water was flowing through from this end. There seemed to be some kind of barrier preventing entry from this side.

Unfortunately, only the Fiery Beast noticed this. The other mutated beasts, already somewhat lacking in intelligence, seemed to have gone mad, charging forward recklessly.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

The seabed was suddenly filled with the sound of collisions, and many fast yet not strong enough mutant fish were directly killed by the rebound force.

Those that survived their initial attempt, however, were unwilling to give up. After recovering from their daze, these ordinary mutant creatures crowded together with frantic energy, and in just a blink of an eye, a sphere of fish over a hundred meters in diameter appeared on the seabed.

Many weaker mutated fish were directly crushed by the overwhelming mass, their bodies bursting open. For a while, thick blood mixed with the many corpses permeated the water and sank down to the bed.

After more than ten minutes of this frenzy, the Fiery Beast finally felt the continuous surge of transcendent energy gradually weaken. The rift suddenly vanished, as abruptly as it had first appeared.

This scene made the Fiery Beast ponder. It now had a better idea why there was so much transcendent energy in the deep ocean; compared to the land, the ocean occupied a far broader area on the planet, naturally resulting in more mythical world rifts appearing within them.

There could potentially even be stable channels connecting to the mythical world at depths of tens of thousands of meters, such as in those Deep Sea Restricted Areas, where there were monstrous creatures of mountainous size and terrifying strength that even humans felt powerless against.

Normal marine environments couldn't possibly sustain creatures of their size, unless...

By now, the world rift had disappeared completely, and the mutated fish frenzy gradually subsided. Mutated sharks and other fierce predators, such as squids with lengths of eight to ten meters, started looking at the crowded prey around them with ferocious eyes.

However, they didn't notice a black-red dragon-like beast slowly stand up in the distance, bursting forth with a fierce aura.

Roar!

Amid the savage roar, the water exploded, and in an instant, the Fiery Beast smashed through the water like a black light, rushing into the pool of mutated fish.

With each strike of its claws, the head of another creature over five meters in size would be blasted apart, and each swing of its long black tail resulted in yet another fish being pierced through.

Before they could even move, over a dozen large mutated fish were killed.

The sudden appearance of the rift hadn't been of much use for the Fiery Beast, but the mutated fish that had gathered due to the rift were basically free lunch. Faced with this gift from nature, it naturally wouldn't decline.

In just a few minutes, the water was dyed crimson with blood, and the bodies of dozens of mutated fish over five meters long floated or sank to the bottom of the sea.

Among this huge mass of carcasses, the menacing black-red mutated beast held one fish in each claw, happily devouring them.