Chapter 624: A Relaxing Meal

The wormhole shuttle was a device that would allow its passengers to zip through the wormholes. It couldn't negate the spatial rifts completely, but it provided a means by which weaker lifeforms could travel from world to world. It also moved very quickly. A regular person would need to walk for three days to get from one side of the wormhole to another, but a shuttle required only an hour.

There were even worse dangers in a wormhole than spatial rifts—void nodes. At these nodes, there were void-type lifeforms that were able to roam freely through the wormholes of the third realm and somehow defend themselves against the ravages of the spatial rifts.

They hunted for prey along these wormholes; even a strong third-realm hunter would be hard-pressed to do much against them, because destructive techniques couldn't be unleashed with impunity within these wormholes—just like how people who shouted recklessly atop snowy mountains could cause an avalanche.

Strong attacks could decimate the wormhole entirely, spawning destructive spatial rifts that could instantly kill an entire party.

Within the third realm, there were specialized mercenary teams that hunted down these void lifeforms. Their skin and bones were principal ingredients for crafting wormhole shuttles, and each shuttle could be sold for an astronomical price.

As a result, despite the danger of these lifeforms, there were frequently hunting parties that traversed the wormholes and hunted them down.

The wormhole that Zhang Lie was in was very short. In almost no time at all, he had reached the other side. The entrance was covered by a layer of vines, which Zhang Lie cut off with a simple wave of his hand.

He heard a series of pained screeches—the vines shot toward him as though they were venomous snakes. There were so many of them that they filled the exit to the wormhole, but they all exploded once the bat king screeched.

Zhang Lie strode out the wormhole to find the desolate ruins of a stone city, surrounded by gigantic trees and vines. The trees grew out of the houses. Vines covered the ground and trailed up the walls. Zhang Lie felt as though he had stepped inside a forest treehouse.

Behind him was the largest building in the city, where the entrance to the wormhole was located. On its roof grew a gigantic carnivorous plant, vines spilling everywhere from its roots.

The bat king's screech hadn't managed to kill it. Vines swarmed toward Zhang Lie from all directions.

"Is this a plant-type lifeform, then?" Zhang Lie sent a punch flying toward the plant, tearing apart the vines and exploding the flower at the very top.

[You successfully killed a mutated-grade bloodborne flower. By consuming the petals of the mutated-grade bloodborne flower, you may receive one to ten mutated gene fragments.]

Unfortunately for Zhang Lie, the petals had all been annihilated by his punch. Before he could think about the message some more, he felt a huge swarm of mantises zipping toward him.

They were each about two or three meters tall, and they flew at a surprisingly rapid clip. The demonic bats that Zhang Lie controlled flew into the air, but they were easily struck down by the mantises.

They screeched, but all their sound waves could do was disorient the mantises for a moment. If the mantises managed to get close to them, the bats would die.

The bat king finally took to the air. Its shrill screeching caused a large number of mantises to implode. Blood and forelegs rained down from the sky.

Suddenly, with a blinding flash of light, part of the bat king's wings was cut off. A blood-red mantis appeared behind the bat king. It was about the size of a human—smaller than the other mantises, but more than an order of magnitude faster.

The superior-grade bat king was about to open its mouth to launch another sound wave, but the red mantis chopped its head off before it could do so.

The superior-grade bat king's body fell from the sky. The red mantis darted through the flock of bats, killing every bat it touched.

"[Fists of the Silent Sea: Soar]!" Zhang Lie sent a fist flying into the sky, genetic energy rushing out of him like a flood. The frightening aura swept over the mantises and caused them to drop from the skies. The red mantis, with its extreme speed, avoided Zhang Lie's punch and began to counterattack.

[You successfully killed a regular-grade blood mantis. By consuming the flesh of the regular-grade blood mantis, you may receive one to ten regular gene fragments.]

[You successfully killed a mutated-grade blood mantis. By consuming the flesh of the mutated-grade blood mantis, you may receive one to ten mutated gene fragments.]

The blood-red mantis darted faster and faster, leaving countless afterimages in the air. It swiftly closed in on Zhang Lie, lifted its forelegs wide in an attempt to behead him, and—that was it.

The moment it met Zhang Lie's gaze, its eyes took on a rainbow sheen. The red mantis suddenly became petrified. With a wave of Zhang Lie's hand, the red mantis immediately darted off respectfully. The remaining mantises in the sky all fled, but Zhang Lie didn't give chase.

There were still quite a few bats left. They weren't very strong, but Zhang Lie didn't intend to let them go. If he were to do so, they would immediately return to the cave and terrorize the alien race on the other side of the wormhole.

He had the bats scavenge for firewood as he roasted some of the fallen mantises. The bats had their fill, and, curiously enough, so did the blood-red mantis.

Zhang Lie enjoyed his meal to the pleasant chime of notifications in his head informing him that he had gained more and more gene fragments.

Zhang Lie: a disaster-grade lifeform

Framework: Foundation, Lv. MAX; Ninecarp Transformation, Sixth Form: River Dragon Techniques: Rippling Walk (pinnacle), Three-Wave Crescendo (pinnacle), Calm Waters (advanced), Fists of the Silent Sea (pinnacle), The Boundless Blade (pinnacle), Eclipse (pinnacle), Syzygy (pinnacle), ?Ninesoul Dragonblade (advanced), …

Genes: Basic, 10; Mutated, 10

Soulshards: White Grub (superior), Blood Ant (superior), Potbellied Toad (mutated), Eternalspring Cocoon (superior), Dragonwolf (superior), Moonlight Wyrm (peak), Golden Roc (peak), Mistmeld Clam?(disaster)

After finishing his meal, Zhang Lie proceeded deeper into the city. He quickly heard some sounds coming from the distance...