Breaking the Chrysalis

Wei Wufu reacted with extreme speed. Almost the instant the mutated creature raised its fork, he released one hand, grabbed a stone from the sand beside him, and hurled it with all his strength at the fork the creature had flung.

Unfortunately, the stone was too small and not tough enough. The moment it struck the Red Fork, it exploded into powder. Though it deflected the fork's trajectory slightly, it was only by a tiny amount, and the fork still flew toward the chrysalis.

This was all Wei Wufu could do. There was nothing else nearby that he could use, and his legs were too difficult to move. He could not catch up to the flying fork.

The fork pierced the chrysalis at an angle, actually punching straight through it. Wei Wufu froze.

The Original Seed Egg looked ordinary, but it was anything but. It was far stronger than an ordinary Steel Gene Mutation Egg, and the chrysalis it formed was sturdier than an ordinary Steel Figurine.

Although the mutated creature was Alloy Grade, the stone had already bled off some of the fork's force. Combined with the chrysalis's toughness, it should not have been pierced through.

For it to be penetrated so easily could only mean that the chrysalis was far weaker than Wei Wufu had expected.

"How could this be? Wrong... compared... too weak." Wei Wufu could not help muttering aloud.

What he had meant was, why was its strength so low? Something was wrong. Compared to the chrysalises formed by those who had used Original Seed Eggs before, Lin Shen's chrysalis was far too weak.

For some reason, though, what came out of his mouth turned into that.

The mutated creature seemed to harbor some peculiar obsession with Lin Shen. Wei Wufu did not know whether it was because Lin Shen had struck its acupoints or for some other reason.

The chrysalis had already been pierced, but because the fork had been slightly off-center, it had not gone through the middle. Yet the mutated creature still refused to let the matter rest, dragging Wei Wufu step by step toward the chrysalis.

Wei Wufu could not exert strength with his legs. Even with both arms wrapped around the mutated creature's leg, he could not stop it from moving toward the chrysalis.

Just as Wei Wufu's mind raced wildly, trying to figure out how to stop the mutated creature and buy time, the creature abruptly stopped on its own.

Wei Wufu did not know what had happened. He raised his head toward the chrysalis, wanting to know why the mutated creature had stopped by itself.

As far as his eyes could see, heat vapor was rising from the Red Fork stuck in the chrysalis. The vapor grew denser and denser. In only a moment, the fork's metal shaft gradually turned golden-red, its color growing brighter and brighter, as though the steel had been heated until it glowed.

In truth, both Wei Wufu and the mutated creature could feel the scorching heat radiating from the Red Fork. Otherwise, the mutated creature would not have stopped.

In that brief span of time, the Red Fork had completely turned into a translucent gold, looking remarkably like steel on the verge of melting in a furnace.

Wei Wufu found it difficult to understand. Why was there such a terrifyingly high temperature?

Gene mutation was not steelmaking. At such a temperature, a person would be burned to ash. What gene mutation could there possibly be?

Could it be that the Original Seed Egg's energy was too powerful, producing such a high temperature? Then wasn't Lin Shen doomed? No wonder those people who had tried to undergo No. 14 Gene Mutation before all died. With energy this terrifying, let alone a person—even a Steel Body would not withstand it and would be melted. Wei Wufu thought to himself.

The mutated creature also stared at the glowing fork with a puzzled expression. The fork was as hard as its own body. If the fork could be burned into this state, then it could be burned into the same state as well. That left it deeply unsettled.

For a time, the scene fell into an eerie silence. The desperate urgency of a life-and-death struggle vanished without a trace, yet the tension somehow became even more intense.

Just as the fork was about to melt, at the very instant between solid and liquid, a burst of icy cold suddenly surged forth.

The fork's temperature plummeted. In an instant, it changed from gold back to red. After condensing, the fork was still red, but it had become semi-transparent, as though it had changed from metal into crystal.

Ecstasy appeared in the mutated creature's eyes. Its fork had actually become Crystal Gene Material.

Crack!

Just as the mutated creature was rejoicing, the fork suddenly shattered. Like tempered glass breaking apart, it fragmented into countless crystallized particles that fell onto the beach.

"Lin Shen... is dead?" Seeing this, Wei Wufu felt that Lin Shen inside the chrysalis must surely be dead.

Even the alloy fork had been reduced to such a state. Lin Shen inside the chrysalis should have been dead beyond doubt.

Even if Lin Shen had endured the initial blazing heat, he could not have endured that final burst of freezing condensation.

Forget Lin Shen, who had not undergone gene mutation. Even an Alloy Gene Mutator probably could not have survived it. That alloy fork was the best proof.

The mutated creature seemed to think so as well. Its gaze shifted from the chrysalis to Wei Wufu, who was holding its leg.

Crack!

Another crisp sound immediately drew both Wei Wufu's and the mutated creature's eyes back to the chrysalis.

Dense cracks appeared across the chrysalis. The next instant, the entire chrysalis shattered with a crash, revealing the figure that had been wrapped within.

Steel armor polished until it was like a mirror tightly encased a tall, muscular body. Like armor forged from mirrors, it reflected dazzling light from different angles beneath the sun, dreamlike and fantastically beautiful.

The sky and ocean were reflected across the armor, lending it an added touch of mystery and unfathomable depth.

The mutated creature stared at Lin Shen and instinctively lifted a leg to rush at him. But it found that Wei Wufu was still gripping its leg tightly. It failed to charge forward and instead staggered, nearly falling.

"Old Wei, let it go." Lin Shen's voice came from within the armor.

Wei Wufu paused slightly, wondering why Lin Shen was not taking the chance to attack and was instead telling him to release the mutated creature.

This thing was an Alloy Grade mutated creature, not an ordinary Alloy Creature.

A Steel Grade formed through an Original Seed Egg's gene mutation could indeed possibly kill an opponent above its rank, but that was no easy feat. What was more, its opponent was a Mutated Alloy Creature. Lin Shen had only just succeeded in his gene mutation and become Steel Grade. He should not have been that powerful.

Still, Wei Wufu released his grip as Lin Shen had instructed. Free of restraint, the mutated creature did not immediately charge at Lin Shen. Its ruby-like eyes studied him uncertainly.

It did not charge toward Lin Shen, but Lin Shen instead walked toward it step by step. With every step he took, the mirror-like steel armor on his body gradually began to radiate boundless scorching heat. It slowly seemed to turn red-hot, shifting from golden-red to golden-yellow. That resplendent color carried a searing aura, making him seem like a Holy Spirit Warrior burning with life itself.

The mutated creature actually took half a step back instinctively. The next second, it flew into a rage at its own cowardice, seemingly unable to accept that it had been frightened back by a Steel Creature.

Just as it was about to go mad and charge at Lin Shen, it suddenly saw white clouds of mist violently rising from the blazing armor on Lin Shen's body. The armor's temperature dropped sharply, no longer displaying that glorious radiance.

The mutated creature watched Lin Shen emerge from the rising mist, and its pupils suddenly contracted, as though it had seen something that filled it with boundless terror.

Through the gaps where the mist could not fully conceal him, Lin Shen's armor had actually taken on the semi-transparent form of crystal.

At that single glance, the mutated creature retreated swiftly without hesitation. Like a bereaved dog, it turned, leaped into the sea, and desperately dove toward the depths.

"Crystal Gene Level?" Wei Wufu stared blankly at Lin Shen as he emerged from the mist. That suit of semi-transparent crystal armor shone with a clear, crystalline radiance beneath the sun—more dreamlike and more inconceivable than even the mirror armor had been.