Chapter 480 - Random Evolution

Their ship sailed high up into the air, granting Han Wu a view of the primal bloodshed occurring below. Innumerable beasts of various forms were killing and eating each other.

Han Wu also witnessed several evolutions, all as absurd as Jiang Ming’s explanations. It was completely nonsensical. Regardless of the ridiculous nature of it all, however, there was no denying that life forms that had undergone several evolutions were unbelievably powerful.

During their voyage, they encountered a massive beast that had evolved twenty times. It resembled a pig with wings, except its face was a butt. Both the anterior and posterior ends of the pig were a butt. In fact, Han Wu was hard-pressed to say which side was even the front.

Jing Jing summoned her thousand-meter-tall Titan Osteomancers to take it down, but they failed to endure even a single blow from the beast.

The beast crushed the Titan Osteomancers with its butts. When it aimed a butt at the ship, Han Wu hastily steered the ship off course to avoid the incoming attack.

Three seconds after he did so, a stream of purple gas burst forth from the beast’s butt. Every single plant within a ten-kilometer radius shriveled up and died.

If not for Han Wu’s quick actions, he would’ve likely lost many units to the gas. This encounter forced him to realize the terrifying strength of the Desolate Civilization.

It also brought him a sudden epiphany.

What if he applied the law of the Desolate Civilization to his divine realm? Would it cause an interesting chain of reactions?

Others had always looked down on his core race from the moment he obtained his divine realm. Even after becoming the valedictorian of the first-year students, this still rang true.

𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

He had invested a wealth of resources into nurturing his locusts, but they remained weaker compared to their peers. While the locusts excelled in numbers-based combat and had powerful Self Detonation, they were still far weaker than other life forms of the same grade in single combat.

But what if he could use the law of the Desolate Civilization to evolve the locusts? If he succeeded, they wouldn’t be locusts anymore. He was curious to see how his divine realm would transform if that happened.

Han Wu sought counsel from the well-traveled Jiang Ming, explaining his idea in detail.

According to Jiang Ming, Han Wu wasn’t the first to consider using the law of the Desolate Civilization to change their core race, but all past attempts had failed.

Life forms in the Divine Civilization bred and reproduced, following a specific order of life as they evolved. Meanwhile, life forms of the Desolate Civilization existed in disorder. It was almost impossible to fuse order and disorder to alter a core race.

Still, Han Wu didn’t want to give up before at least trying it out.

He worked with Jing Jing, Jiang Ming, and the Origin of Mutation to defeat a beast that had evolved fifteen times. The three took away the valuable parts before leaving the rest to Han Wu—or rather, to his locusts.

Close to 50 billion locusts swarmed the corpse and devoured it. The effect of the Rank 6 Sacred Object Law of Gluttony meant the locusts consumed everything within ten minutes. The giant corpse was but an appetizer to the 50 billion locusts.

Many of them evolved, but not in the chaotic way of the beasts in the Desolate Civilization. There was still an order to their transformations, just like in the Divine Civilization.

Not wanting to give up, Han Wu ordered the locusts to attack and consume even more beasts in the Desolate Civilization. The locusts devoured one corpse after another, yet through it all, they continued to evolve in the same orderly manner and not with the randomness Han Wu hoped for.

Frustration welled up within Han Wu. It was like finding a treasure trove, but not being able to bring anything back with him. Unfortunately, there was nothing he could do.

Jiang Ming and Jing Jing consoled him, assuring him that his locusts were amazing regardless of whether they managed to merge the law of the Desolate Civilization into themselves.

The Origin of Mutation had a different approach, advising them to ignore merging the law into Han Wu’s divine realm for the moment. Things on the level of the Will of a Civilization were too dangerous to touch at this point.

After all, they were stuck in the Desolate Civilization. If they angered its will, they could easily be killed on the spot.

Instead, he suggested that Han Wu try nurturing a unit that the Desolate Civilization would recognize. If Han Wu found a native insect race, preferably a locust, he could merge it with his existing core race to form a brand new life form.

It was a worthy idea, though even the Origin of Mutation was uncertain whether it would work.

Han Wu decided to test the hypothesis. He ordered his 50 billion locusts to spread out to search for any native insects, with the best candidates being locusts.

The 50 billion locusts spread out and formed a formidable communication network. Their sheer numbers made it exceedingly simple to comb the area. In just one day, they had found eighteen possible candidates, with one being 80% compatible with his locusts.

Han Wu was ready to conduct his experiment.

Jiang Ming, bored, kept a curious eye on what he was doing.

The ships soon reached where the promising candidate was last seen.

The beast resembled a locust and was munching on the juicy flesh of a frog-like beast. Jiang Ming used his Divine Jurisdiction to examine the beast’s data.

[Desolate Beast: Locust Fei Hong][1]

[Evolution Count: 12]

[Skills: Death Scythe, Murderous Head Cruncher, Foshan Shadowless Wings...]

It was as strong as a High Lord life form, so Han Wu found a High Lord locust from his core race to merge it with. Han Wu and Jiang Ming then used their powerful strength to subdue Locust Fei Hong.

Commanding his High Lord locust to approach, Han Wu used Merge, fusing Locust Fei Hong and his locust into one.

Han Wu quickly checked the data of the merged life form.

[Race: Amalgamation]

[Rank: King Life Form]

[Talent: Breeding, Devour...]

[Skill: Death Scythe, Self Detonation...]

...

After skimming the data, Han Wu was left disappointed. The merge had failed in its intended purpose. Still, it was not all bad. The locust had become stronger and had even inherited Locust Fei Hong’s Skill: Death Scythe.

Hopefully, with more attempts, he would eventually get an Amalgamation with the core Skill of the Desolate Beasts, Random Evolution. Holding firm to his conviction, he continued with his experiments.

1. The Chinese pronunciation for locust is Huang, which acts as a pun here for Huang Fei Hong, or Wong Fei Hong, the famous martial artist. Unfortunately, I can’t use Huang since it might touch the trademarked name, so I left it as locust ☜