Chapter 338 : Complete Annihilation
Chapter 338: Complete Annihilation
After successfully swallowing the Cave Spider Men Priest into his stomach, Zhou Ming discovered it was not as easy to digest her as he had imagined.
As a devout believer of Spider Queen Iliss and a priest who had stepped into the Transcendent realm through the Path of Faith, the trump cards on her body were clearly far greater than those of the Cave Spider Men Berserker.
However, once inside the stomach of the Molting Giant Serpent, even a High-level Transcendent Expert would only be awaiting death sooner or later.
Yet the Cave Spider Men Priest’s desperate struggle before dying provided Shadow Prison and the other survivor with a chance to kill Zhou Ming.
Upon seeing the priest swallowed whole by Zhou Ming, Shadow Prison and the remaining Cave Spider Men Hunter became somewhat irrational, launching frenzied attacks against him.
As Shadow Prison rode his beast and cooperated with it to tear through Zhou Ming’s Innate Force Field, the bowstring of the Cave Spider Men Hunter never stopped vibrating.
The energy arrows carried all kinds of special effects, shining brilliantly within the dark cavern as they rained down like a torrential storm toward the Molting Giant Serpent whose defenses had been torn apart.
In an instant, scales exploded from the body of the transformed Molting Giant Serpent.
Its body, capable of ignoring machine-gun fire, was instantly riddled with dozens of bloody holes.
As blood poured down into the swamp like a torrential rainstorm, the gigantic body of the Molting Giant Serpent also crashed into the swamp, causing foul mud to explode upward like scattered heavenly flowers.
However, the Cave Spider Men Hunter was still not satisfied.
Driven by fury, he once again drew his bowstring, only to be stopped by Shadow Prison.
“Commander Gru, now that High Priest Emiler and Commander Wolf are dead, even if we kill Ten Thousand Snakes, we still won’t be able to revive them.”
“Only by leaving Ten Thousand Snakes alive and presenting him before Her Majesty the Queen do we have a chance of escaping punishment.”
Although Shadow Prison did not know why Her Majesty the Queen valued Zhou Ming so highly, he knew that the only way to avoid punishment from her was to bring Zhou Ming alive before the Queen’s divine statue.
“Shadow Prison, I hope your reasoning proves useful. Otherwise, even if I die, I’ll drag you down with me.”
Gru frowned and thought for a moment before ultimately choosing to follow Shadow Prison’s suggestion after issuing his warning.
As a Cave Spider Men warrior, he did not possess much emotional attachment toward his own race.
What he truly feared was that the deaths of Emiler and Wolf would cause the Queen to vent her anger upon him.
Spider Queen Iliss, as one of the famous evil gods of Tamu World’s underground realm, showed no mercy even toward the race she herself had created.
Her methods of torture were infamous throughout the underground world of Tamu.
Seeing Gru stop attacking, Shadow Prison finally breathed a sigh of relief.
After all, a living Ten Thousand Snakes held greater value and was more likely to earn Her Majesty the Queen’s forgiveness.
Thus, Shadow Prison rode his Demon Shadow Bat and prepared to carry the dying Zhou Ming back to the Cave Spider Men city.
Yet at that exact moment, an unexpected change suddenly descended before his eyes.
The instant the Demon Shadow Bat’s giant claws touched the Molting Giant Serpent transformed by Zhou Ming, the serpent—who had seemingly lost all ability to resist—suddenly moved at terrifying speed and tightly coiled around the Demon Shadow Bat.
“How is this possible?!”
Faced with this sudden reversal, even Shadow Prison, as a Transcendent Expert, failed to react immediately.
“No… it’s the Puppet Substitution Tribulation Technique!”
When this thought flashed through Shadow Prison’s mind, he could not understand how Zhou Ming had managed to find a medium suitable for casting this secret technique within such a short time.
In the instant he hesitated, the Demon Shadow Bat instantly suffered severe injuries.
After all, the Demon Shadow Bat was not a beast known for physical durability.
Faced with a serpent-type creature famed for constriction and crushing power, the Demon Shadow Bat instantly felt a terrifying force compressing its internal organs.
“Shadow Transformation!”
Sensing his beast in danger, Shadow Prison immediately used the unique ability of the Twinborn Demon Shadow profession, intending to temporarily transform his beast into shadow form.
However, Zhou Ming’s bloodline was also primarily shadow-attributed.
The power of the innate spell Shadow Devour instantly enveloped his own body.
Meanwhile, Gru also noticed the abnormal situation and once more drew his longbow.
Yet without the assistance of Shadow Prison and High Priest Emiler, his strength alone could not break through Zhou Ming’s Innate Force Field.
After all, the Hunter profession was inherently weaker than the Beast Taming System, and his own strength did not possess any overwhelming advantage over Zhou Ming.
“Ten Thousand Snakes, release my beast!”
At this moment, Shadow Prison became utterly panicked.
Black light instantly flashed across the black robe on his body, transforming him into a black shadow as he charged toward Zhou Ming.
Although he would not die if his beast died, the death of his beast would still inflict severe consequences upon him.
Not only would his strength plummet drastically for a period of time, but he might even die here.
“Shadow Prison, too late.”
As the power of the Molting Giant Serpent exploded forth, the Crimson Halo emerged once more, devouring the flesh and blood of the Demon Shadow Bat to nourish Zhou Ming in return.
“AAAAAH——!”
When the Demon Shadow Bat was crushed into a lump of bloody flesh, Shadow Prison instantly felt as though his mind had been thrown into mountains of blades and seas of fire, suffering unbearable torture.
Yet before he could continue screaming, the Extreme Shadow Sword extended dozens of meters and directly pierced through Shadow Prison’s chest.
At the same time, seeing that he could not break through Zhou Ming’s defenses, Gru turned around in terror and fled toward the distance.
Compared to High Priest Emiler, his faith in Spider Queen Iliss was nowhere near as devout.
Otherwise, he would not have chosen to advance through an ordinary profession path.
However, before he could escape from the swamp cavern, the black blade pierced through his chest, shadow power instantly corroding away his life force.
Before dying, Gru turned back and saw Zhou Ming controlling the Phantom Snake Hands while holding the Extreme Shadow Sword in their mouths, harvesting his life at terrifying speed.
If Gru had possessed even a bit more courage and had not panicked to the point of losing awareness of his surroundings, he might still have had a chance to survive.
Unfortunately, a warrior who had lost his courage was like a tiger stripped of its claws and fangs.
Only death awaited him.
At this moment, Zhou Ming had already returned to his normal form.
Using the Phantom Snake Hands, he retrieved Gru’s corpse.
Then, after taking away the Spatial Storage Equipment from both Gru and Shadow Prison, he directly dissolved their corpses using serpent venom.
As for the badly mangled corpse of the Demon Shadow Bat, Zhou Ming also placed it into an emptied storage equipment.
Without the slightest hesitation, Zhou Ming immediately flew into the distance.
Only a battlefield resembling the aftermath of artillery bombardment remained behind.
……
Several hours later, within an unknown rocky cavern, Zhou Ming opened his eyes from meditation.
“Fortunately, I had the Platinum Cross. Otherwise, there truly would have been no opportunity to cast the Puppet Substitution Tribulation Technique.”
Looking at the platinum-colored cross on his chest, Zhou Ming felt both fortunate and somewhat fearful afterward.
Faced with the siege of two Early-stage Transcendent Experts and two Mid-level Transcendent Experts, he had nearly exhausted all of his Spiritual Power and almost lost any chance to turn the situation around.
Fortunately, the Platinum Cross could temporarily increase a portion of Spiritual Power, allowing him an opportunity to launch a desperate counterattack even after using the Puppet Substitution Tribulation Technique.
“After returning to camp, I absolutely must improve my combat methods as quickly as possible.”
Recalling how this battle had relied entirely upon external objects and the powerful innate abilities of the Molting Giant Serpent transformation, while completely failing to display the actual spellcasting capabilities of a Beast Tamer, Zhou Ming decided to enter closed-door cultivation for a period of time.
However, before returning to camp, there was still one more matter he needed to handle.