Sacrifice to Heaven

Lin Shen dropped heavily into a chair, his hands still trembling nonstop with pain. He wanted to pick up the glass of water on the table beside him to calm his nerves, but neither hand could grip it. The instant his fingers touched the glass, the pain made him bare his teeth and cry out.

Once the monster calmed down and Lin Shen was no longer striking its pressure points, it quickly regained its ability to move.

Its enlarged front end slowly returned to normal. Like a dark-red snakeskin rope, it slithered over to Lin Shen, slowly raised its head, and opened its mouthparts.

This time, its mouthparts did not enlarge. They only opened slightly, revealing an inner cavity that spun like countless blood-crystal gears. Then it lowered its head and spat out a small ruby-like key.

Ignoring the pain, Lin Shen reached out and used his blood-soaked, clumsy fingers, trembling like he had Parkinson's, to pinch up the ruby key.

Only after the key was in his hand did Lin Shen finally relax completely. With this key, this bizarre Gene Mutation Creature could no longer pose any threat to him.

After looking at the key, then at its mouthparts, Lin Shen was wondering where its keyhole was and whether he would have to stick his arm inside to find it when the Gene Mutation Creature's body began changing rapidly. Its several-meter-long body quickly shrank into a dark-red Pet Capsule no bigger than a peanut.

"This thing's intelligence is much higher than that of ordinary Gene Mutation Creatures. It can actually enter Pet Capsule form on its own. Does that mean it can also return to its creature form by itself without using the Pet Key?" Lin Shen muttered inwardly, beginning to doubt whether the Pet Key still held absolute control over it.

Mutated Death Smasher: Mutated Alloy Creature (Evolvable).

Strength: 21.

Speed: 21.

Hardness: 21.

Toughness: 21.

Gene Mutation Talent: Mutated Devour, Mutated Evolution, Enhanced Armor-Piercing Sting, Enhanced Instant Speed, Enhanced Hundred Refinements.

After reading its information, Lin Shen was utterly dumbfounded. Even shock could not describe how he felt at that moment.

Lin Shen had only heard of the term Mutated Alloy Creature. Legend had it that someone had obtained one before, but Lin Shen had never seen one himself, nor had he ever heard any definite news of who possessed a mutated pet.

And this thing was only an Alloy Creature, so why did its attributes reach 21? The upper limit for an Alloy Creature's attributes should have been 20. How could it have 21? Even among Mutated Creatures, he had never heard of attributes exceeding 20.

What felt even stranger to Lin Shen was that this thing had five Gene Mutation Talents, and some of them even looked familiar.

At this point, Lin Shen had no mind to think too deeply about it. He first took several tubes of medicine from the cabinet and poured them into a basin.

The purplish-red liquid filled nearly half the basin. Lin Shen soaked both hands in it, and immediately felt a heart-rending pain tear through them. It was scarcely any better than frying his hands in a wok of oil.

He endured it and did not pull his hands from the liquid. Eldest Sister had spent a fortune buying these medicines for him. They were truly meant to save his life.

He had heard that they were made from the Gene Mutation Fluid of several special Gene Mutation Creatures. Their manufacturing process and formula were Seahorn Base's top secret. No one but Seahorn Base could produce this medicine, and each bottle cost five figures.

Lin Shen had poured in five bottles. Just like that, tens of thousands were gone.

But expensive things had their reasons for being expensive. Once the initial agony passed, Lin Shen felt the injuries on his hands recovering at an astonishing rate. The bleeding from his wounds had already stopped.

If he kept soaking them like this, the cracked bones would probably be nearly healed within a few days.

"Something's wrong!" Lin Shen suddenly remembered something and rushed to check. Sure enough, the Pet Capsule of the Mutated Steel Tail Scorpion, as well as the Gene Mutation Eggs of the Black Iron Swallow and Hundred Refinements Steel Beast, had all disappeared.

After studying the Death Smasher's information more carefully, Lin Shen roughly guessed what had happened. Those things had probably all been devoured by it.

"Dead Powder's Mutated Devour and Mutated Evolution Talents should have the ability to plunder the Gene Mutation Talents of other creatures. Those other three enhancement skills were probably stolen by it." Lin Shen quickly pieced together the whole chain of events.

Because Mutated Death Smasher was too long a name, Lin Shen simply shortened it and called it Dead Powder.

What Lin Shen could not understand was why, when the Superspeed Gunslinger's capsule had been together with the Mutated Steel Tail Scorpion's capsule, Dead Powder had not devoured the Superspeed Gunslinger's capsule.

"Was it because the Superspeed Gunslinger was too high-level, making it difficult for Dead Powder to devour it? Or does it only devour creatures that have possessed a Fire Seed?" Lin Shen could not figure out which reason it was for the moment.

"I lost three top-grade pets with evolutionary potential. It's a bit of a loss, but turning them directly into Dead Powder's combat power is more useful for my current situation." Lin Shen had Dead Powder return to its creature form and carefully studied its various abilities.

Enhanced Armor-Piercing Sting gave its spike-like tail powerful armor-piercing ability. Combined with its freakish attributes, it posed a certain threat even to Crystal Grade Creatures, let alone Alloy Creatures. One stab, one kill.

Enhanced Instant Speed was an ability that boosted speed for a short period of time, and it was likewise an extremely practical talent.

Lin Shen had yet to figure out what Enhanced Hundred Refinements did. It did not seem to be an active ability, and Dead Powder had no way to demonstrate it.

Mutated Devour and Mutated Evolution could not be demonstrated either. He only knew they were devouring and evolution abilities. Lin Shen could only roughly guess that they were the key to plundering Gene Mutation Talents. As for whether they had other effects, he would have to discover that in future actual combat.

But even without those three talent abilities, Enhanced Armor-Piercing Sting and Enhanced Instant Speed alone, combined with Dead Powder's freakish attributes, were enough to place it at the very peak of Alloy Creature combat power.

With Dead Powder as a fighting force, Lin Shen finally felt that this trip to Gourd Mountain might still have a sliver of hope for turning the tables.

The reason it was only a sliver was that both the Qi and Wang families possessed Crystal Gene Level combat power. Dead Powder could barely be considered a pseudo-Crystal Grade Creature; against a true Crystal Grade Creature, it might not gain any advantage.

A sliver of possibility was still a possibility. It was better than none at all. Trapped in this predicament, Lin Shen remained remarkably optimistic.

His hands continued soaking in the medicine. He did not have much time. If his hands had not recovered by the time he went to Gourd Mountain, that would also be extremely troublesome.

Only now did Lin Shen have the time to pay attention to the Fire Seed information that had appeared in his mind.

Lin Shen was also very curious about what kind of Fire Seed Dead Powder carried.

Imperfect Super Gene Evolution Seed—Sacrifice to Heaven: Teammates sacrificed to heaven, mana without bounds. The more that die, the stronger the combat power; mountains of corpses and seas of blood, showing off even before immortals.

Lin Shen's mouth fell open. For a long while, he could not react.