Chaotic Battle

The Merfolk King bared his sharp teeth, his massive frame radiating boundless power. His scaleless fish tail spoke to his identity as the King of the Merfolk of these waters. With blinding speed, he reached the altar, the scent of blood fueling his growing rage.

Before he even waved his hand, the underwater currents shifted in response to his movements, sending Deep Ones flying. Yet, there were experts among the Deep Ones; not far from the altar, a grotesque merman twice the size of a normal Deep One appeared before the Merfolk King, blocking his path.

Deep Ones grow stronger with age. Their ancestors, Father Dagon and Mother Hydra, were the first of their kind, their sizes terrifyingly vast, and the long passage of time had seemingly transformed them into entirely different creatures.

This Deep One facing the Merfolk King was also a creature of unknown age. He chanted a spell in a hoarse, shrill voice, and dark currents rose from nowhere, forming a massive whirlpool that drifted toward the Merfolk King, intent on engulfing him.

The Merfolk King ignited his ocean magic, injecting it into the whirlpool to manipulate the currents and quell the vortex. Simultaneously, he summoned even greater ocean magic, shouting incantations as he slashed his finger with his sharp nail, letting his blood bleed into the seawater.

Before long, the creatures responding to the Merfolk King's call appeared on the scene—several massive Great White Sharks. Their cruel, bloodthirsty eyes fixed on the creatures present. Obeying the Merfolk King's command, they hunted the Deep Ones and hybrids with agile precision; they were the terrifying kings of the ocean.

The large Deep One and the Merfolk King clashed repeatedly, occasionally unleashing bizarre incantations. However, the Merfolk King was no pushover; as a creature of the deep, he was intimately familiar with the ocean, and his formidable strength gradually allowed him to gain the upper hand.

Yet, the Merfolk King had not brought many of his kin, and the average Merfolk was not particularly strong in combat. Moreover, this was Ihasli, the home turf of the Deep Ones. A constant stream of Deep Ones and hybrids rushed over, preventing the Merfolk from approaching the altar and harming the eerie mass of flesh atop it—one of the anchor points for that Great Existence.

Lu Li watched the battle unfold. The Merfolk had too few helpers; destroying the anchor point while guarded by so many Deep Ones seemed nearly impossible. Lu Li found the situation daunting; the difficulty of this mission was extreme. Without the Merfolk King's assistance, they would have had no hope at all.

But now, with the waters teeming with chaos, Lu Li wrapped himself in darkness and pressed against the seabed, drifting along with the dark currents stirred up by the battle. Time seemed meaningless beneath the sea. Lu Li did not know how long it took, but he managed to hide his form and inch closer to the altar. The bubble shield on his head was miraculous, providing oxygen for such a long duration.

That eerie, massive mass of flesh was restless, occasionally extending tentacles to snatch up passing creatures and pull them into its bulk. Lu Li lurked in the sea sand, not daring to move closer; the area ahead was swarming with Deep Ones, and even if the Merfolk wanted to attack, they could not break through.

A Deep One was struck down and fell right in front of Lu Li. Beside it lay a spear engraved with runes. Lu Li remained motionless, hiding beneath the corpse of the Deep One, and stealthily reached out to grab the spear.

On the other side, Hu Wenxu and Gao Xiaowen were secretly anxious. They had intended to sneak into Ihasli to destroy the anchor point, but the sight of so many Deep Ones emerging had broken them out in a cold sweat. Deep Ones were cold and cruel; they did not need companions and lived in the deep sea year-round. They had not expected them to be so unprecedentedly united in guarding the altar during their worship.

Fortunately, before they infiltrated, they had encountered the Merfolk King, who was looking for trouble after discovering what had happened to his daughter. After they selectively shared some information, the Merfolk King had finally become an ally. Yet, seeing the Merfolk unable to break through the Deep Ones' defense, they realized that while the Merfolk King had the upper hand against the large Deep One, he could not finish the fight quickly. As time passed, the window of opportunity to destroy the anchor point grew smaller.

"This won't work. Let's be open with each other and reveal our trump cards. If this mission fails, we'll likely die immediately from the backlash, and you won't be able to complete the task given to you by the one you serve." Hu Wenxu pulled out several bottles while speaking to the grim-faced Gao Xiaowen. After they had both consumed the herbs to grow gills, they found they could communicate normally.

Gao Xiaowen nodded, took a deep breath, and revealed her left arm. The strange pattern made of black hair upon it had become increasingly bizarre. With a cold snort, she desperately drained the power of the unknown evil spirit implanted within her body. The spirit, which had been in a deep slumber, was jolted awake by this extraction, its cold, vengeful eyes staring fixedly at Gao Xiaowen.

Implant Path players needed to extract the powers of the demons and ghosts implanted within them bit by bit. Those entities were provided by the game officials and had been processed; under normal circumstances, they could not wake up, unlike the Inner Demon Path players who were prone to losing control. But that was under normal circumstances. If one were to drain them recklessly like Gao Xiaowen was doing now, it was suicide—it would 100% wake the monster and trigger a backlash.

However, before the evil spirit could retaliate, circles of strange black marks bound it. Gao Xiaowen held up her left arm, chanting a great incantation. The evil spirit within her was being used as a sacrificial offering. Gao Xiaowen's current actions were like draining a pond to catch all the fish; by using up the evil spirit all at once, her future progress in the Implant Path would be virtually impossible, and she would have to bind her fate to the Great Existence behind her.

On the other side, Hu Wenxu had no time for hesitation. He took out his long-accumulated resources. He had constantly dissected and studied monsters, and over the course of several game instances, he had researched and manufactured many finished products. He had always used these to slowly modify his own body, which was why his physical stats were so high. Such modifications required time, but they were safe; if he rushed, he risked turning into a monster immediately.

The bottles and jars before him were items he had collected and crafted. Some were concocted from vampire blood, others were chunks of flesh from unknown monsters, and there were various strange viral agents, topped off with the Flesh Ganoderma he had obtained from the Witch earlier.

If he had time, Hu Wenxu was confident he could eliminate the side effects of these items. But time was not on his side. Hardening his heart, he either injected or consumed the items before him, attempting to use them to keep each other in check and maintain a balance. Even though he knew his human body would certainly cease to exist, he thought, If I want to study monsters, I must become a monster.