Mutated Beast

Biodata

Characteristics

• Mutated Beasts are generally physically stronger than humans. At higher levels, even species without body-enhancement talents can match the physical strength of body-enhancement Awakened. 7
• They retain animal instincts but can be cautious and tactical: they probe prey, retreat from stronger opponents, and exploit weaknesses rather than attacking blindly. 9
• Mutation can radically alter an animal’s body and abilities. A Crimson Refining Snake, for example, develops fiery venom, defensive scales, and intense body heat after mutation. 9
• Many Mutated Beasts possess two or more talents, while three talents is not unusual; this is a major advantage over most humans, who typically have one ability. 2
• Some wind- or element-aligned Mutated Beasts may form elemental gems that store energy, though these gems usually dissipate when their owner dies. 17
• Their intelligence generally increases alongside their strength. Powerful specimens can communicate, make long-term survival decisions, recognize unfavorable battles, and command or influence lesser creatures. 190 263
• Most Mutated Beasts that appear harmless or affectionate while young become markedly more ferocious, bloodthirsty, and animalistic after adulthood. Doggie, a gentle adult rural dog that prefers cooked food and avoids violence, is an exceptional case. 84 332
• Some Mutated Beasts possess no reproductive barriers and can produce hybrid offspring with other species. Such hybrids may combine the parents’ strengths and flaws, while non-mutated offspring are often short-lived. 262
• Their origins can become impossible to identify after repeated mutation or hybridization. The Mountain-Bearing Horned Leopard Beast, for example, contains genetic fragments from numerous species and is formally classified as a Mountain-Backed Beast rather than a mutated leopard or cow. 607

Rank and Level System

Power Progression

Documented Species

Abilities & Traits

Racial Talents

Mutated Beasts can possess both species-wide talents and individual abilities. The number and nature of these talents vary greatly between species. 2

• Talents may grant physical adaptations, elemental attacks, sensory advantages, concealment, or mental effects. 2 9 17
• A creature’s apparent rank does not always reveal the full danger of its abilities; low-level Heavenly Foxes were able to deceive stronger Awakened. 4
• Psychic-type Mutated Beasts become far more dangerous near a King of their species, whose influence can strengthen their racial abilities. 13
• Exceptional specimens can have four or more innate talents. Big One, for example, possesses venom mist, enhanced physical ability, a bone-linked carapace, and enhanced agility. 123
• Racial abilities can be inherited unevenly. Heavenly Foxes did not inherit the Nine-Tailed Fox’s tail-based ranking talent, whereas a mutated Nine-Tailed Fox’s tail count directly reflects its advancement. 4

Cognitive Distortion

A defining talent of Heavenly Foxes that alters a living target’s cognition and perception. 2

• Allows foxes disguised as humans to remain unnoticed among ordinary citizens. 2
• Can make observers fail to recognize killings and other impossible events occurring in front of them. 2 14
• Its effectiveness may be reinforced by the presence of a psychic King Tier Mutated Beast. 13

Conventionality Reversal

A Heavenly Fox talent that forces targets to accept acts that should be recognized as abnormal. 2

• Prevents victims and witnesses from noticing violations of common sense. 2
• Works alongside Cognitive Distortion to conceal predation and human-skin disguises within Mingzhu City. 2 12

King Beast Influence

King-level Mutated Beasts exert influence beyond their personal combat capabilities. 13 200

• A King can enhance the innate racial talents of same-species Mutated Beasts within its effective range. 13
• Mental-type Kings are especially hazardous because victims whose Mental Strength is insufficient may be unable to perceive their illusions or cognitive manipulation. 13
• The Moon King’s King Beast Aura causes Mutated Beasts within three hundred kilometers to fear entering its territory, while its domain protects and strengthens nearby foxes and can grant them Super-Tier Abilities through aura contamination. 200
• King-level creatures entering Mingzhu City should be suppressed to Top-tier by the Sun-Moon Pearl, though the Heavenly Fox invasion raised doubts about whether this defense was functioning correctly. 30

King Bloodline

Some descendants of King-level Mutated Beasts may inherit traits that let their abilities damage beings beyond their own rank. 26

• Nethermist Mutated Beasts are suspected to possess this inheritance. 26
• The effect can allow attacks to threaten targets below King level despite a significant rank gap. 26
• Prince Yue is explicitly identified as a Heavenly Fox with King Bloodline, while a Flesh Tree cultivated from a Heavenly Fox corpse displayed a King’s Blood trait that made its abilities difficult for sub-King beings to resist. 68 242

Spatial Talents

Spatial abilities are rare among Mutated Beasts and can make a creature disproportionately dangerous. 125

• The Moonchasing Dark Tortoise’s Dark Tortoise Trigrams comprise Shrinking Earth to Inches, Drawing a Prison on the Ground, Spatial Distortion, Spatial Solidification, Spatial Rotation, Spatial Folding, Spatial Shockwave, and Spatial Extension. 125
• Its spatial attacks can teleport it tens of thousands of meters and kill a massive crocodile by twisting the space around its body. 125
• Using all eight trigrams consumes roughly seven-tenths of its stored Moonlight Energy, requiring strategic restraint despite their destructive potential. 125

Parasitism and Biological Hazards

Some Mutated Beasts pose dangers beyond direct physical attack. 25 521

• Nethermist Mutated Beasts can parasitize living targets, consume or replace their brains, and take control of the host body. 25
• Fog Parasites conceal themselves in dense fog, burrow into a victim’s head, consume the brain, and connect to the nervous system to assume control. 521
• Appraisal cannot identify every hidden danger associated with Mutated Beasts, their meat, or ability-granting objects. 25

Anomalous Beast-Derived Entities

Some later entities draw upon Mutated Beast traits or collective beast-related concepts but do not fit ordinary Mutated Beast classifications.

• The Near-God Being was an unknown entity that absorbed immense faith connected to the Beast God concept. Its body evolved beast eyes and other features, but its power exceeded the Transcender level and could not be fully appraised. 546
• The Beast God emerged from the fusion of Ji Zhen’s consciousness, bestiality, divinity, and accumulated resentment. Though it claimed to possess the strongest abilities of all Mutated Beasts, it was a new life-form rather than an ordinary Mutated Beast. 550 551
• The Furious Dragon Ape, a Beast of Original Sin, formed from the accumulated rage and killing intent of users of the Absolute Force Gauntlet. It is associated with Mutated Beast-like power but originated from an artifact’s emotional residue. 1046
• Deathspawn Beasts exhibit traits resembling both Eternal Silence Monsters and Beasts of Original Sin. Their forms are strongly shaped by desires such as curiosity, killing intent, and greed. 1289

Relationship with Humans

• Mutated Beast materials are a major source of weapons, equipment, and special resources in Mingzhu City. 7 9
• Crimson-Tempered Snake Scales can fuse with refined iron to improve hardness and toughness while granting a degree of self-repair. 7
• Pearl Sabers are standard anti-beast weapons, but are primarily intended for beginner-level Mutated Beasts; heavily defended beginners may still resist them. 7
• Corpse-Eating Hound bones and Carrion Nightingale ghostfire can be used to create a Nightingale Lantern, an item that conceals its bearer’s aura, scent, and information. 35
• Mutated Beasts compete fiercely for rare resources. At Salt Frost Tree Valley, hundreds fought over Salt Frost Fruits, while the blood-fed Blood Salt Fruit could potentially trigger further evolution in a beast but causes humans to explode if consumed. 23 25
• The Beast-Taming Zhu Family conducted research into Mutated Beast control and maintained laboratories for carnivorous plants, Metal Organisms, viruses, and Mutated Beast experimentation. 269 272
• Contract Gems can turn a willing Mutated Beast into a summoned beast subject to Absolute Obedience. The contracted creature receives its summoner’s potential and luck blessing, while subsequent gems can further increase potential and may awaken additional talents. 5 123 143
• Acceptance of a Contract Gem cannot be faked indefinitely: individuals who merely pretend to submit do not become genuinely bound. 309
• Zhang Ping’s Linker and Glutton combination later allowed abilities to be forcibly extracted from unconscious Mutated Beasts. Extracted powers can be transferred through Contract Gems, but poor compatibility can cause dangerous Superpower Runaway. 329 360
• Human attitudes toward Mutated Beasts are not universally hostile. Ana City’s founding legend holds that local Mutated Beasts voluntarily granted land to the kindhearted Ana, allowing a settlement to develop without beast attacks for centuries. 513
• In some historical accounts, humans were reduced to livestock and prey by Mutated Beasts, a trauma that shaped Ji Zhen’s pursuit of beast transformation and power. 523 550

Notable Incidents

• Zhang Ping’s first direct battle with a Mutated Beast is against an Armored Venom-Tail Rat near his former orphanage. He kills it by exploiting its reduced agility and stabbing through its eye. 9
• The Cleanup Team confirms that Heavenly Foxes have infiltrated Mingzhu City after killing disguised foxes and observing their bodies revert to fox form outside the city. 12
• The Salt Frost Tree Valley conflict draws humans and numerous Mutated Beasts into a large-scale battle over potential-enhancing fruit. 23
• The Moonfolk-affiliated Heavenly Fox encountered by Zhang Ping is revealed to be a Level 37 Top-tier Mutated Beast with greatly enhanced physical strength. 38
• Zhao Yanhu’s blood attracts a colossal turtle-and-serpent Mutated Beast in Venomous Marsh. The creature is subsequently contracted as the Moonchasing Dark Tortoise and demonstrates destructive spatial abilities. 124 125
• Zhang Ping’s investigation of a Beast-Taming Zhu Family laboratory reveals large numbers of imprisoned Mutated Beasts. He kills the Draconic Venom Lizard, recruits some surviving beasts through Contract Gems, and discovers that starvation had driven many captives to eat one another. 273
• Chen Xingquan directs Mutated Beasts in an assault on Ana City, using Radiation Mutation to further mutate both his forces and defenders. A-Long’s resistance exposes that the apparent beast-led disaster was orchestrated by a human. 514 515
• The King of Nether Mist is discovered to have traveled atop the Giant Moose while silently claiming a territory no other creature dares enter. 263
• Nameless kills the Mountain-Bearing Horned Leopard Beast by removing its Mother Stone from within its dreamscape, proving that actions taken in a Mutated Beast’s dream can directly kill its physical body. 607
• A previously undocumented Undead Beast, later named the Death Beast, devastates an island with its Black Curtain of Death Qi, killing surrounding life and contaminating the land and sea before resuming combat. 1334 1335