Chapter 641: Armour

Chapter 641 Armour

“Bluesea!”

Chen Xiaolian rushed toward the Bluesea.

Earlier, seeing Sister Yun leaving, Chen Xiaolian had taken several steps forward to chase after her. At that moment, there were several metres between him and Bluesea.

Although the Power Propagation Serum was slowly allowing him to recover his basic attributes, there was still a long time to go before he could fully recover. Chen Xiaolian exerted his all to leap forward and his finger made contact with Bluesea, but it was still too late.

Bluesea was pushed back by Chen Xiaolian and his figure flew a few metres backward. However, by then, that odd-looking spike had firmly embedded itself into Bluesea’s heart.

Chen Xiaolian hastily rushed to stand before Bluesea. Reaching out with his hand, he attempted to pull the spike out. However, after making contact with the spike, he realized that it was slippery and he was unable to exert any strength upon it at all. The spike, having pierced Bluesea’s heart, continued to drill its way in.

“Damn it! Is this how you do things?” Chen Xiaolian turned and shouted at Sister Yun even as he desperately attempted to pull the spike out. Yet, despite his efforts, he could only watch as the spike continued drilling into Bluesea’s chest. 

“What should I have done?” Sister Yun continued standing on the same spot with a look of indifference. “The Bug Armour is just looking for a new host. There is nothing bad about that.”

“What?” Chen Xiaolian looked at Sister Yun with a stunned expression before looking down at the spike. At that moment, only the tentacles could be seen. The tentacles wriggled about on Bluese’s chest area. 

The spike, nearly one metre in length, had already pierced through Bluesea’s chest. However, it had not pierced its way out from Bluesea’s back. Instead, it had seemingly entered Bluesea’s body.

Bluesea’s face was set in a warped expression as both his eyes were shut tight. He appeared to be enduring a great deal of pain.

“Don’t worry, the initial process will be slightly painful. However, he will soon enter a resting state. It depends on the degree of genetic compatibility.” Sister Yun slowly made her way forward and looked down at Bluesea. “Generally speaking, the fusing process will complete in half a day’s time. This companion of yours… … has pretty good luck.”

Chen Xiaolian turned his gaze to look at Hammer’s corpse. After the spike left his corpse, it then withered at a noticeable rate.

“This is… … an enhancement-type equipment?” Chen Xiaolian finally relaxed somewhat as he asked.

It would appear that the spike, or as Sister Yun had called it, Bug Armour, was not something that would face destruction after its host’s death. Instead, it would seek out anyone close to serve as its host.

The one closest to Hammer just now was Bluesea. Thus, he was selected.

“An enhancement-type life form is quite the rare thing. However, the specifics of its abilities will depend on its genetic compatibility with its host,” said Sister Yun coolly. “Enough, there is no need to worry about your companion for the time being. Let him lie down and complete the fusion process. We… … let us talk about you.” 

“Fine.” The expression of pain on Bluesea’s face turned to one of calmness, then relief, and then one of sleep. Seeing that, Chen Xiaolian nodded and stood up.

“If my guess is correct, you should have written your own name on the Lifehymn Music Score before committing suicide, right? How many companions do you intend on taking with you?”

“Only one, a girl. Her name is Qiao Qiao… … hold up!” As he was replying, a spark lit up in Chen Xiaolian’s mind and he turned to look at Bluesea. “If that someone is an Awakened… … can I bring that person back as well?” 

“He is an Awakened?” Sister Yun gave Bluesea a glance. “Not that you can’t. However… … Awakened ones in World’s End have all lost their abilities and memories. What is the point in bringing them back?”

“No matter what, better to be alive than dead. Should I just leave him here and let him wait to be cleared out?” Chen Xiaolian abruptly raised his head to look at Sister Yun. “The favour you want from me…”

“Don’t worry, I have no interest in the return slots.” Sister Yun shook her head.

“Great.” Chen Xiaolian breathed a sigh of relief. “Then, the favour that you wanted to ask of me…”

Sister Yun looked at Toto, who was standing behind her. “Help me bring him back.”

“Him?” For the first time, Chen Xiaolian regarded Toto.

The little boy appeared to be no more than 10 years old with a fair complexion and a good-looking face. He looked just like a porcelain doll.

Since the beginning, he had barely spoken a single word. He had been holding Sister Yun’s hand tightly with a dependent look on his face.

“Yes. By using the silhouette function of the Guiding Link Fire, I am able to temporarily stop him from being cleared away by the system’s automatic refresh function, but… … I do not know how long this can continue before the Development Team discovers what is going on here and switch to manually clear everything here. Thus, sending him back is the best option.”

“Won’t that take up a slot?” Chen Xiaolian looked at Sister Yun cautiously.

“Like I said, I do not need one of Lifehymn Music Score’s life slots.” Sister Yun shook her head. “The Guiding Link Fire has already locked onto Toto. As long as you activate it, you can bring him back. However, that can only be done with the original body.” 

“What about you? Don’t you want to go back?” asked Chen Xiaolian with a frown.

“If I had wanted to return, I would have done so last time.” A peculiar smile gradually took shape upon Sister Yun’s face. “But… … why bother?”

“Last time? Could you be referring to… …”

Chen Xiaolian was reminded of Bai Qi.

“Let’s not talk about it.” Sister Yun waved him off, seemingly wanting to divert their topic. “Can you do it?”

“Yes.” Chen Xiaolian nodded. Neither Sister Yun nor Toto will be taking up the Lifehymn Music Score’s life slots. There was naturally be no issue in activating the Guiding Link Fire after he returned to the outside world. “In return, you must help me save Qiao Qiao.”

“Deal.” Without any hesitation, Sister Yun nodded her head. “Where is she now?”

“If only I knew.” Chen Xiaolian gave a bitter smile. “If not for my not knowing her whereabouts, why would I have allowed these two fellows to capture us?”

“You suspect that the girl you are looking for is captured by them as well?” Sister Yun then nodded. “Once your companion wakes up, we’ll set off.”

“You know where their headquarters are?”

“I know.” Sister Yun nodded. Suddenly, she knitted her brows and turned to look at Bluesea.

“What happened?” Chen Xiaolian’s heart grew tense.

“Even in the outside world, Bug Armour is a very rare item. I have not seen many of them, but…” Sister Yun took a few steps forward and crouched down beside Bluesea. “From what I can recall, none had ever adapted to it so quickly.”

Chen Xiaolian looked down. After the spike had pierced its way into Bluesea’s chest, its tentacles had been wriggling about on the surface area of Bluesea’s chest. At that moment, however, the tentacles were rapidly expanding.

Each of the tentacles stretched out by over 10 times as they enveloped Bluesea’s skin beneath his clothes. They were practically enveloping him whole.

After stretching out to a sufficient length, the tentacles gradually turned thin and flat, pasting themselves upon the surface of Bluesea’s skin. A few moments later, the colour of the enveloping layer had become similar to that of Bluesea’s skin. Only by looking closely could one realize the existence of the enveloping layer.

“It seems his genes is highly compatible with the Bug Armour.” Sister Yun stood up. “He will probably wake up soon.”

Sister Yun had just finished speaking when Bluesea’s eyes suddenly snapped open.

In that instant, a thin, film-like layer of faint blue membrane spread across Bluesea’s eyes. Almost instantly, no trace of the membrane could be seen again.

Bluesea’s gaze swept across Chen Xiaolian and Sister Yun. There was a calm look on his face as he slowly stood up and looked down at his two hands.

“How do you feel?” asked Chen Xiaolian as he looked at Bluesea.

“Very good.” Bluesea looked up. Next, he swung his right hand. Two tentacles shot out from the back of his hand and intertwined with each other before hardening to become a blade that was over one-metre in length.

Turning, he made his way to a nearby tree and gently pressed the blade on his right hand on the tree. Seemingly without exerting any force on the tree, the blade cut into the trunk of the tree like cutting tofu.

After Bluesea drew back his hand, the tree, which would require one person to wrap around, collapsed.

Turning around, Bluesea looked at Chen Xiaolian and smiled. “Now… … I think I can really be of assistance.”

…

The Devourer fighter aircraft rose to the sky once more and flew in the direction that Sister Yun had given them.

“You are not a member of the Coalition; how could you know the location of their headquarters?” As Chen Xiaolian was piloting the aircraft, he turned to ask Sister Yun, who was seated behind.

“I have been there before.” Sister Yun’s indifferent voice came from behind.

“When?”

“A long, long time ago.” Sister Yun appeared reluctant to talk about it.

“A long, long time? Won’t the instance dungeons in World’s End be cleared away every now and then?” Chen Xiaolian, who found the reply shocking, turned to look back at the rear side of the cabin.

“Keep moving forward.”

After saying that, Sister Yun stopped talking. She would only occasionally look out the window and instruct Chen Xiaolian to adjust the aircraft’s flight path.

It did not take long for the fighter aircraft to make its way through tens of instance dungeons.

“We should be arriving soon. Do you see the mountain up ahead?”

“That is the place?”

Chen Xiaolian looked out through the windshield to see a towering mountain before them.

In World’s End, there were no sun, moon, or stars. No varying weather, no rain or snow or any others. The sky was an eternal expanse of light, constant in quality.

The mountain, however, was an exception. Thick clouds covered the top half of the mountain and it was impossible to gauge how high up the mountain went.

“This is it. Mount Olympus, the one instance dungeon within World’s End which will exist eternal.”

Chen Xiaolian turned to look at Sister Yun and asked, “Why?”

“Because… … a certain person had once taken the palace atop the mountain for himself, making it his own Imperial Palace.” Sister Yun replied gently.

“A person? Imperial Palace?” Chen Xiaolian was shocked. “Who could possess such power?”

World’s End was the Recycle Bin designated by the system.

To make an instance dungeon something that will never be deleted forever… … that meant the person had changed the directive of the Recycle Bin.

Changing… … the laws of the system…

Sister Yun looked at Chen Xiaolian for some time before shaking her head. With a gentle sigh, she said, “Forget it, I don’t want to talk about him.”

At that very moment, Bluesea, who was in the co-pilot seat, suddenly pulled the control shaft up to its limit. As a result, the fighter aircraft pulled a 90-degree upward curve.

Caught off guard, Chen Xiaolian was thrown back onto his seat by the momentum of that move.

Toto, who was seated in one of the back seats, suddenly lost his balance and fell to the back. Thankfully, Sister Yun had managed to react in time. Pulling Toto, she turned around angrily and said, “Bluesea, what are you doing?”

Bluesea continued pulling the control shaft and the fighter aircraft performed a somersault in the sky before descending to the ground. At the same time, he said, “There is someone.”

There had been a furious look on Sister Yun’s face. After hearing Bluesea’s words, however, she quickly calmed down. 

The aircraft landed. Bluesea swiftly opened up the cabin hatch before standing up from the co-pilot seat. “Let’s go down.”

Seeing the serious expression on Bluesea’s face, Chen Xiaolian did not hesitate to jump down from the aircraft.

This time, there was no need for Sister Yun to tell Toto anything. He had already activated the Guiding Link Fire and his entire body had turned illusory.

“Where are the enemies?” Sister Yun closed her eyes for a moment before snapping them open. She looked at Bluesea. “Why don’t I feel anything?”

“I don’t know. However, they are not within a two-kilometre radius.” A faint, blue-coloured layer of membrane had once again covered Bluesea’s eyes and he surveyed their surroundings.

“Two kilometres? Your perception ability reaches that far ahead? But if that is the case, how did you know there are enemies?” Sister Yun gave Bluesea a glance. There was a sceptical look on her face.

Bluesea turned to Sister Yun. Then, he crouched down to pick up a small stone from the ground.

They were presently within a medieval estate instance dungeon. Not far away were several mills and windmills. Even farther ahead was a large castle made of large stones. The rest of the place was filled with golden-coloured fields of wheat.

Bluesea weighed the stone in his hand for a bit. Next, his body made a semicircle twist before hurling the stone forward.

The direction the stone was shooting toward was the same one that their fighter aircraft was taking earlier.

The stone left his palm at such an incredible speed, it appeared like an artillery blast, almost beyond perception.

After travelling a few hundred metres forward, however, the stone slammed into something akin a wall. An electrical current abruptly burst out and the stone shattered apart.

“If I had not pulled the shaft earlier, we will now be suffering the same fate as that.”

Bluesea dusted his hands and smiled at Sister Yun.

Sister Yun looked at the electrical current with a slight frown on her face. Then, she nodded toward Bluesea. “Your perception ability is quite good. You picked up a very good item.”

Chen Xiaolian watched as the electrical current in the sky slowly dissipated away, his brows tightly furrowed together. “But why?”

He turned around to look at Sister Yun and Bluesea. “The ones that the Coalition is going against are powerless Awakened ones. Generally speaking, there is no need to do something like this. Unless… … this enemy is targeting us.” 

“Yeah. It seems we can no longer use our earlier trick.” Bluesea nodded. “No targets are appearing within my sensor’s detection radius. It seems the other party does not intend to reveal themselves just yet.”

“Well… …” Chen Xiaolian sighed as he raised the rifle in his hand. “It seems we have been locked down.”

Just now, as he was getting off the Devourer fighter aircraft, Chen Xiaolian had picked up one of the Gauss rifles in the weapon’s cabinet.

This was the rifle that he had thrown out to Bluesea and the others back when they were in the desert instance dungeon. Through the use of electromagnetism, the rifle could, without the usage of gunpowder, accelerate its 0.1 mm bullets forward at a speed that was 10 times the speed of sound continuously. Additionally, it had almost no recoil.

Although it could only deal minimal damage toward heavily armoured targets, it was extremely lethal when used against lightly armoured targets. With an open space and sniping marksmanship, the Gauss rifle could kill off any enemy within a three-kilometre radius.

“There is no high ground here and the rifle has no scope. You won’t be able to find them.” Bluesea shook his head.

“Find?” Sister Yun sneered. Her right hand waved gently through the air and a silver spear appeared within her palm.

“I want them to voluntarily reveal themselves!”

Holding the spear with both hands, a grim look suddenly flashed across her eyes as she heavily thrust the spear down the ground.

Although nearly 70 per cent of Chen Xiaolian’s strength was lost, he could still feel a ferocious power, one without parallel, shoot down from the hilt of the spear down to the tip. Next, it entered the ground and rapidly spread outward.

Seeing that brought a halt to Chen Xiaolian’s breath.

Earlier, the Irregularity known as Hammer was already quite a strong fellow. However, when facing him, Sister Yun had only used a tree branch that she picked up from the ground.

For Chen Xiaolian, this was his first time seeing her wield a real weapon.

If so, the enemies they now face…

Nearly half of the spear had thrust into the ground. Next, Sister Yun’s eyes flashed with a divine glow and their surroundings quaked. Mists the colour of blood instantly rose into the air before evaporating away.

The pungent stench of blood assailed his nose without respite, eliciting a frown from Chen Xiaolian. He felt an urge to hold his nose.

Bluesea, who was beside him, showed no change in his expression. It was as though the stench did not exist at all. Rather, he stared intently at a certain direction with a defensive stance.

“Chen Xiaolian, back up.”

After some time, the blade once again extended out from the back of Bluesea’s hand.

A pain-filled cry rang out from afar, sounding like the cry of a wounded beast.

After a few seconds, the cry stopped. Next, a human figure flew up from the castle before flying toward them.

On the back of the figure was a pair of black-coloured wings. In just moments, the figure had made his way above Chen Xiaolian’s group. He hovered in the sky and lowered his head to coldly regard the four figures beneath him.

The figure sported dazzling blond hair. His handsome face revealed an enigmatic smile and his gaze swept past all three of the figures below before fixing upon the spear in Sister Yun’s hand.

“Were you the one who broke my spell array?”

…