Chapter 428: Rebirth from Death, Gabriella: Chen Chu, Save Me!

In a massive crater over three hundred meters wide and several dozen meters deep, Xia Youhui panted heavily as he dug around the Dragon Turtle statue, his body drenched in sweat.

Even though he was a cultivator of the Fifth Heavenly Realm, after two days of digging such a large pit, he was starting to feel completely exhausted.

"

Phew!

Time for a break."

Xia Youhui leaned on his makeshift shovel, wiped the sweat from his forehead, and stared hesitantly at the half-exposed stone sculpture before him. "I really hope I didn’t waste my time on this for nothing."

The excitement from discovering the broken stele on the first day had long since faded, replaced by confusion after days of studying the inscriptions without understanding a thing. Now, Xia Youhui was filled with doubt.

"Whatever, forget it. If I can’t figure it out, I’ll just dig out the whole statue. My brother always says, ‘When you find something you don’t understand, just dig the whole thing up.’

"Many special stone carvings need to be fully unearthed to reveal some form of enlightenment. Let’s work hard and finish this today. Then tonight, I can sit back and watch Ah Chu show off again. Hehe."

Seeing his good brother rise to prominence, showcasing ever more astonishing talents and shocking everyone over and over again, Xia Youhui couldn't help but feel excited too.

Even though he wasn’t as impressive, having such an awesome brother was enough. If his brother was amazing, didn’t that mean he was too?

That logic was flawless.

"Sis, do you think these carvings are trying to tell us something?"

Inside a mountain, Lin Xue and her sister had spent the last two days cleaning the walls of a stone hall over thirty meters tall and spanning over a hundred meters wide.

As the moss and dust were removed, the carvings on the walls became much clearer. Though the paint had long since faded due to time, the carvings still appeared lifelike.

From left to right, the reliefs seemed to depict a woman’s entire life.

It began with her as a young child, joining a sect and embarking on the path of cultivation. She grew alongside her fellow disciples, eventually descending the mountain with a man to enter another world and battle demons.

The final carving depicted the sky consumed by flames, the land submerged by deep blue ocean waters, and the sun and moon falling from the heavens, ending with a scene of total apocalypse.

As she gazed at the fire burning across the sky in the last scene, Lin Xue spoke slowly. "Little Yu, I have a feeling those flames are... alive."

"Alive?" Lin Yu was momentarily stunned, her eyes instinctively dropping to the tsunami below...

While most people were experiencing some form of success, Li Hao found himself in danger.

Roar!

With a deafening roar, a pile of rubble that had collapsed years ago suddenly exploded.

Amid the dust and debris, a void monster over five meters tall emerged, wearing intact, heavy armor and wielding a massive warhammer. Its body radiated the aura of a middle-stage level 6 beast.

The monster charged at Li Hao, crushing the ground beneath its feet with each step. Its warhammer swept through the air, creating rings of pressure and shockwaves that echoed like explosions.

Boom!

Caught off guard, Li Hao barely had time to lift his steel pillar in front of him. A force like a mountain collapsing and waves crashing slammed into him, shattering his true power.

Boom!

Under the immense power, the steel pillar smashed into Li Hao, causing his transcendent armor to cave in. His entire body was sent flying at supersonic speed, crashing into a ruined city wall a hundred meters away.

Bang!

The ten-meter-high, two-meter-thick ruined wall exploded on impact, collapsing as rubble fell and buried Li Hao. In the blink of an eye, however, the pile of stones erupted outward.

Huff! Huff!

Li Hao’s breathing was labored, and blood flowed from the cracks in his armor. Staring at the void monster enveloped in black-purple mist in the distance, his eyes grew serious.

This monster retained its battle instincts from life, making it incredibly powerful. Its strength was immense and overwhelming, with a special attribute of total destruction.

Adding to the suppression of its cultivation level, it had almost severely injured him with just one strike.

Roar!

Seeing that Li Hao wasn’t crushed to death by its hammer, the monster let out a furious roar. With a thunderous stomp that shattered the ground, it charged forward, swinging its massive warhammer.

Its overwhelming presence was like a destructive tank, annihilating everything in its path. The very foundations of the ruins crumbled beneath its feet.

"Die!"

Despite his injuries, Li Hao only grew more frenzied. His eyes turned bloodshot, filled with an endless madness and demonic rage.

Boom!

With the explosive release of his Bull Demon Battle Body form, Li Hao's body swelled to nearly four meters tall. His entire being was enveloped in a red mist as he grabbed the five-meter-long steel pillar with one hand and charged with a furious roar.

Bang!

The steel pillar collided with the massive warhammer, and a pure, explosive force erupted. The ground within a ten-meter radius shattered, and the resulting shockwave swept across hundreds of meters.

Red true power surged along the half-meter-thick steel pillar, blocking the black aura surrounding the warhammer. As he held his ground, Li Hao stared intently at the monster before him, the earth beneath his feet continuously crumbling.

I can do this. I have Innate Divine Power. I am the invincible Li Hao.

Fueled by this unyielding belief, Li Hao's king-level bloodline surged even more powerfully within him. Golden scales began to grow on his skin, and a more violent force erupted from within him.

Roar!

With an inhuman roar, Li Hao's arms exploded with strength, and he knocked the warhammer away with a deafening boom. In the next moment, the two collided again.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Their frenzied battle sent shockwaves rippling through the area, demolishing the nearby buildings. The earth shattered, and the wind howled around them.

Roar!

From a distance, a beginning-stage level 6 monster, drawn by Li Hao's aura, charged forward with a roar, racing toward him in a black blurr.

As it neared, Li Hao suddenly swung the steel pillar, glowing with red power. With a single, violent strike, he shattered the upper half of the monster’s body.

However, in that brief moment of distraction, the warhammer imbued with black power appeared at Li Hao's chest in a flash, as if it had teleported, afterimages trailing behind it.

Boom!

Once again, Li Hao was sent flying like a cannonball. He crashed through a dozen walls before finally landing with a heavy thud, rolling more than ten times before coming to a stop.

His body was now covered in blood, his muscles torn in several places, and his armor shattered.

Yet, with a slight effort, he pressed his hand to the ground and forced himself to stand once more. Blood mist swirled around him, and his face was drenched in blood, making him resemble a crazed demon.

"Not enough. It’s not enough. I still haven’t fought him. There’s no way I’m dying here today."

As he thought of Chen Chu’s distant figure, and the battle they had yet to fight, a powerful desire to survive surged within Li Hao, mingled with deep frustration.

How could he die here? He was the one who had made a pact to duel the man destined to become a god. He, Li Hao, was destined to be invincible.

Driven by the intense belief he had instilled in himself, Li Hao’s bloodline, which had already fused with his body and undergone multiple enhancements, fully unleashed its power.

Roar!

A more violent, demonic aura exploded from Li Hao’s body. The blood mist around him thickened, and behind him, a shadowy figure resembling both a Rampage Ape and a Bull Demon appeared.

At the same time, he experienced a sudden surge in his power, as he broke through into the late stage of the Fifth Heavenly Realm.

Boom!

With his cultivation advancing, Li Hao roared, wielding his pillar-like steel weapon as he charged forward once more to engage in another fierce clash with the powerful warhammer-wielding monster.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Ten minutes later, the warhammer-wielding monster’s head exploded, and its massive body crashed to the ground with a thunderous sound.

Standing beside the monster’s corpse, the four-meter-tall Li Hao was shrouded in a red mist of blood. His armor was in tatters, and he rested the five-meter-long steel pillar on his shoulder, radiating a fierce aura.

"This guy’s way of fighting is a dangerous path. If he keeps pushing his body to its absolute limits, he might die one day without even knowing it, and a small monster will claim his corpse."

As he spoke, Chen Chu clenched his right hand in the air. Several meters away, the head of a level 6 void monster was seized in his grasp, and he slightly tightened his grip.

Bang!

The monster's head exploded, and with a heavy thud, its corpse collapsed to the ground, spraying foul-smelling blood that soaked the earth. Then, a purple-black mist began to condense over the body.

From a bird’s-eye view, one could see a dozen monster corpses lying scattered across a few kilometers.

In the distance, Li Hao spewed a large amount of blood as his body and transcendent armor rapidly shrank back to a height of about 2.5 meters. With a thud, he collapsed to the ground.

As he lay there, a critically weakened and dying Li Hao used his last remaining strength to suppress his aura and carefully monitor his surroundings.

Right now, he was incredibly vulnerable, so weak that any random monster could easily kill him.

However, if he could just hold out long enough for his Bull Demon Battle Body’s resurrection cycle to pass, his injuries would rapidly heal, and his body would reassemble, restoring 30% of his strength.

Luckily, the surroundings remained eerily quiet as he anxiously waited a half hour. No contaminated monsters appeared.

Whoosh!

Suddenly, a surge of powerful life energy erupted from within Li Hao’s body. Under this energy’s influence, his tattered muscles and broken bones began to recover at an astonishing speed.

After just over ten minutes, most of Li Hao’s external injuries had healed, though his vitality was still severely depleted.

Boom!

Out of nowhere, a sonic boom echoed from the distance, startling him. He instinctively rolled over and leaped to his feet, hefting his heavy steel pillar as his gaze scanned his surroundings.

Once Li Hao had regained some of his strength, Chen Chu had resumed his relentless killing spree. Today, he was still within a three- to four-hundred kilometer radius of the ruins, having only ventured a few dozen kilometers deeper than the day before.

In this area, the contaminated monsters were mostly level 6, with a few level 7 ones. To Chen Chu, killing these small fry was no different from playing whack-a-mole—each strike claimed one life.

Venturing further into the five- to six-hundred kilometer range, however, where there was a chance of encountering level 8 contaminated monsters, wasn’t worth the risk.

Still, whenever Chen Chu came across a building in the ruins, he would pause and expand his senses, scanning for any special items that emitted unusual energy waves.

Whether it was due to cultivating the Taixu Nether Light Scripture, or the Blade of Void absorbing soul energy and growing stronger, he found that his perception had become much sharper today.

Now, whenever a contaminated monster appeared within a certain range, he could sense it immediately.

Roar!

From the depths of a rift in the earth, a forty-meter-long, scaleless black python with a pair of deformed wings and the aura of a beginning-stage level 7 monster surged forth with a roar.

Just as its head emerged, however, a golden halberd light, dozens of meters long, appeared above it. The moment the light made contact, a blinding radiance exploded.

Boom!

A massive golden fireball erupted, its diameter spanning several dozen meters, as it caused half of the cliff to collapse under the destructive force. The upper half of the contaminated beast’s body was instantly blown to pieces.

From the smoke and dust of the rift, Purple Spirit gathered and formed into a purple-black python that shot toward Chen Chu. Once it passed through his hand, it fused with the surrounding murderous aura.

"That guy’s on a rampage again today."

Inside a twenty-meter-tall mech, a genius from West Meng gazed in awe as he watched the sonic booms and streaks of light tearing across the earth in the distance.

Only top-level geniuses who had reached the Sixth Heavenly Realm dared to venture three to four hundred kilometers into this region. Even so, they remained extremely cautious, avoiding any monsters that gave off dangerous auras and prioritizing the exploration of the ruins rather than combat.

In this area, monsters started at level 6, and level 7 monsters were not uncommon. If they were unlucky enough to encounter a middle-stage level 7 monster, they could very well die.

With their strength, they would likely be able to kill one or two beginning-stage level 7 monsters if they used all their trump cards, but what would happen after that?

That was why, when they saw Chen Chu rampaging supersonically through this region without a care in the world, even these geniuses couldn’t help but feel a mix of envy and admiration.

***

Roar!

Under the dark sky, a contaminated colossal beast, covered in bone spurs and black scales with an eighty-meter wingspan and a sixty-meter-long body, let out a savage roar.

It resembled a western dragon with a lion-like head, and continuously spewed out black, laser-like breaths from its mouth.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The ground continuously exploded as the level 8 beast chased after Gabriella, who was piloting her black-and-white mech.

The forty-meter-tall mech spread its arms like wings, its form slightly transforming. As engines on both sides blasted hot air, it performed various high-difficulty maneuvers, flying close to the ground.

The mech weaved through the complex terrain at supersonic speed, evading attacks while racing toward the Oasis.

Roar!

The beast’s speed was astounding as it pursued relentlessly. A huge gray eye on its abdomen remained fixed on the mech, gathering terrifying energy within.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Over a dozen crystal-energy high-explosive missiles shot out at supersonic speed, engulfing the beast several hundred meters above the ground and interrupting its attack.

The explosion ignited in the sky, sending out waves of intense heat, but the beast emerged surrounded by black mist and unharmed, its wings flapping as it continued to hunt down Gabriella.

Both sides launched continuous attacks as they moved. Breath blasts, laser cannons, and missiles flew back and forth, shaking the heavens and causing the ground to explode.

The booming sounds attracted the attention of many void monsters, but before they could roar and give chase, the two figures had already vanished on the horizon.

𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

"We're close, just hold on for another twenty minutes and we'll be out of here."

Inside the mech’s cockpit, Gabriella calmly glanced at the rapidly depleting energy levels, while various data and flashing red alarms filled the projections on both sides.

She hadn’t expected that she would still be targeted by a level 8 contaminated beast, even with being extremely cautious. What made things worse was that the beast could fly, rendering many of her tactics useless. She had no choice but to find a way to escape back to the Oasis.

Fortunately, she had immediately chosen to flee the moment the contaminated beast discovered her. Otherwise, things might have taken a much worse turn.

With her current strength, fully integrated with her mech, she could barely handle a late-stage level 7 creature. A level 8 beast was beyond her capability.

"Warning: High-intensity energy strike detected. Attack too fast... Unable to evade... Unable to evade... Prepare for impact."

"Shit." Gabriella’s expression shifted slightly.

Boom!

Hundreds of gray beams rained down from the sky, densely covering both the mech and the surrounding land. In an instant, a series of violent explosions echoed across the heavens and earth.

The energy shield trembled furiously as it was enveloped by the beams, and the shockwaves from the energy blast sent the mech crashing to the ground, skidding several hundred meters with a deafening rumble.

"...What kind of day is this? First, I had to play hero saving a beefcake this morning, and now, in the afternoon, I’m supposed to rescue a mech?"

A few kilometers away, Chen Chu stood atop a hundred-meter-high hill with a slightly surprised look, watching the level 8 contaminated beast roaring in the sky and the mech engulfed in dust.

However, since Gabriella still had some fight left in her, he didn’t plan to intervene.

Just as he was preparing to watch the scene unfold for a while longer, Gabriella’s voice rang out from within the dust cloud in the distance. "Chen Chu, I’ve found a well-preserved relic!"