1013: Cavities

Cavities

Biologically speaking, these corrupted creatures were unable to feel any emotions like fear since that would only slow them down but that didn't mean their self-preservation instincts were non-existent. 2

They would be greatly suppressed in battle but outside of that they would do whatever was necessary to make sure the colony continued to progress. And this was a prime example of that.

They were sacrificing hundreds of incomplete grunts and pouring those 'resources' to forcefully evolve another creature into being, one that would be far stronger than anything else.

If this was a game then that creature in the bog would be classified as a hero unit.

Ordinary grunts were unable to use spiritual energy or mana and depended solely on their physical bodies along with the bioengineered weapons attached to them in battle. But special creatures like this were the exception.

There would be no way to tell what it would be capable of in the end.

"God damnit, how is this even possible? Without the hive mind to give commands how could they do this by themselves? Is it really that close to waking up?"

Jin Wang's mind was racing with a myriad of thoughts. The best and safest thing to do would be to kill this creature right here and now. But the problem with that was-

"It's already too strong to be dealt with without revealing my true strength and if I do that, the Abysswalker would most certainly detect my presence. But if I leave it be...I have a bad feeling it will turn out to be something much worse. It's not even anything I have seen before so it's anyone's guess at this point," he considered all the options.

But before he could come to a conclusion by himself another loud pang rang inside his head. His head jerked backwards in the direction of the city of Argham, or rather below it.

"They've passed the second level. How did these insects get that close so quickly? The corruption would have surely kept them at bay for-" he paused mid-sentence while a light bulb almost lit up over his head.

He swiveled back around to peer towards the tear in the sky, finally connecting the dots.

"Clever bastards! The corruption build-up was too much within the prison so they purposefully created another pathway for them to escape from. This not only decreased their numbers inside the prison but divert attention to the tear for several parties..."

Jin Wang could only shake his head in dismay. He was still thinking with the information at his disposal which required limiting the exposure of the corruption as much as possible but these people weren't aware of the true danger of their enemy.

To them, it wasn't anything significant enough to warrant such caution.

"Fuck, I underestimated how far they would be willing to go. Damnit!"

Now the choice had been made for him. This planet was already deemed lost.

"Fuck fuck!" he cursed under his breath while turning around.

Jin Wang's disheveled figure cut across the sky and returned to the ruins located near Argham. He stopped for a moment to inspect the surrounding area which hadn't been touched before landing.

There were rows of old broken houses on both sides. He went up to a random one and picked up a piece of bone from an ash pile. It was approximately a meter in length while the top was covered in dozens of small cavities.

With both eyes closed, Jin Wang held the bone fragment close to his chest and whispered in an unknown language. He finished by blowing into the cavities forcefully which gave birth to a bright green flame.

He held the bone torch over his head and ventured into the house before descending two flights of stairs just as the surroundings began to change into long empty hallways that hadn't been disturbed in ages before today.

But Jin Wang had passed through here just a few hours ago so he remembered exactly where to go. And since he wasn't sure what was happening by the vault there was no need to be mindful of his surroundings.

He flew through the hallways with much the same momentum as before, touching down only ever to change directions. The green flame of the bone torch was completely unaffected by the abrupt movements and kept burning with much the same splendor it had at the start.

This was one of the defining features of the soul flame, the same one Hao Xuan had while passing through the catacombs before arriving at the city of Argham for the first time.

It would take Jin Wang less than 2 seconds to cross a hundred-meter long hallway but even then it took close to 20 minutes before he finally arrived at the destination.

The last hallway ended an oval opening which was created forcefully by Jin Wang himself during the last visit.

He covered the small cavities on the top of the bone torch to hide the flame before standing at the oval opening which led to an extremely wide dark space. The opening itself was located at a height of approximately 80 meters so everything below was easily visible.

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