Chapter 404: Fusion Secret Technique
"...Oh, damn."
The enormous shadow descended toward the port at a speed Lin Ye completely couldn't dodge. Before being crushed to death, Lin Ye forcibly activated the World of Ashes, pulling himself into that gray world.
In just an instant, the compressed spiritual energy within Lin Ye's body was completely drained. Fortunately, he had been continuously injecting compressed spiritual energy into his spiritual energy core these past few days, otherwise he wouldn't have been able to hold on for long at all.
Furthermore, his mental energy was also constantly depleting. In his current state, he could last at most three minutes.
'What to do? That abnormal creature won't be unclear about whether it killed someone or not. When the World of Ashes collapses due to insufficient spiritual energy, if that abnormal creature is still outside, it definitely won't give me a chance to escape...'
While Lin Ye was thinking, he suddenly saw some bright red flowers growing within the ruins. Alluring fragrance drifted around the gorgeous petals.
'Huh? Something leftover from the last battle?'
Lin Ye squatted beside the flowers. He didn't know what use this thing had either.
Ashes gathered behind Lin Ye. Two figures formed from ashes appeared behind his back. They were Luo Geng and a certain second-tier male, respectively.
"Can you please stop calling me out? Especially in a place like this." The man looked somewhat speechlessly at the back of Lin Ye's head as he spoke.
"Bro, you already got me killed, and now you're calling me out to help you?"
Luo Geng was even more exasperated. Before dying, it had said it would wait for Lin Ye over there. Looking at things now, it seemed it would have to wait a very long time.
"Stop the nonsense. Calling you two out wasted a minute of my time. Give me a plan to get out of here."
Both were remnants of the dead formed from ashes and could only obey Lin Ye's commands.
"Isn't it simple? You have the Abyssal Eye and are connected to the divine seat. You can borrow that lord's power anytime, even directly invite Him over here. When that happens, nothing in this entire Plane will be able to stop you."
The man said offhandedly.
He was clearly harboring ill intentions, but this was indeed one solution.
Compared to the man, Luo Geng was much more reliable. The man could slack off to a certain extent, but Luo Geng could only honestly answer Lin Ye's questions.
"The Emerald God Cult has a fusion secret technique that allows merging with certain special plants and utilizing their traits. You could try using the traits of those red flowers. Maybe you can escape from here."
Luo Geng began outlining the method for using the secret technique. It explained it simply and clearly, and Lin Ye quickly grasped the key points.
"This is the simplified version. You can give it a try. If it's just for escaping, there shouldn't be a big problem."
The fusion secret technique first required merging with the plant, then using the technique to borrow the plant's traits.
The World of Ashes was about to collapse. Lin Ye used accelerated consciousness to seriously contemplate the principles of this secret technique. His mental energy began depleting rapidly. Not much time was left for him.
Luo Geng and the man turned to ashes and dissipated. Lin Ye touched the petals, attempting to use the fusion secret technique. The flower merged into Lin Ye's body. A large amount of ashes gathered toward Lin Ye, enveloping him within the ashes.
The flower's trait was blooming. This blooming required absorbing the substance, energy, and spirit of other living beings.
Lin Ye had used a similar skill before. Cocooning and Butterfly Transformation was similar to the process of a flower blooming. There was only one difference between the two skills. Cocooning and Butterfly Transformation relied on one's own power, while a flower wanting to bloom needed to absorb the power of others.
The entire World of Ashes transformed into ashes and gathered toward Lin Ye. But the World of Ashes was formed from Lin Ye's own power, so it couldn't provide the various raw materials needed for the flower's bloom. He could only search outside the World of Ashes for a carrier to absorb.
This process was unexpectedly simple for Lin Ye. It was very similar to Parasitism. Both involved absorbing nutrients from the external world to sustain oneself. Lin Ye, who could skillfully use parasitic runes and had studied a vast amount of parasitic knowledge, quickly parasitized within the port area through the World of Ashes.
An emerald-green plant sprouted from the port. It absorbed the port's power and began growing rapidly. The abnormal creature surfaced. It looked curiously at that plant. Within the dark seawater, it hadn't seen such a vivid color in a very long time.
The gorgeous petals suddenly bloomed. An alluring fragrance drifted over the pitch-black sea surface, but the fragrance quickly vanished. The bright red petals also rapidly withered and decayed. The entire world once again sank into darkness.
The abnormal creature raised a forelimb as large as an island, wanting to grab that little thing tainted with the port's power. But in the end, it still lowered its forelimb and silently sank into the seabed.
Lin Ye used the blooming trait to detach from the port area, successfully returning above a depth of 2475 meters. He had experience with breaking the cocoon and transforming into a butterfly, and had absorbed the port's power, so naturally he could easily detach from the port.
But just before completely leaving that area, he was locked onto by a massive mental energy for a brief moment. Fortunately, that mental energy quickly disappeared.
'That was way too dangerous.'
Lin Ye began accelerating his run upward. After using the fusion secret technique, Lin Ye not only detached from the port but also gained some new abilities through blooming.
Now he was already a fifth-tier spiritual energy user. Although he had only advanced one tier, his overall strength had increased significantly.
This time, Lin Ye didn't encounter any troublesome Mutation Creatures. Perhaps because of the port, those stronger Mutation Creatures were avoiding Lin Ye.
After some time, Lin Ye returned to the surface. He was in a somewhat sorry state now, but fortunately his outer clothing had self-repair capabilities.
Because the situation inside the small bag was somewhat bad, Lin Ye could only give up on using the Communication Device to contact the Free City. Anyway, the sports car was outside. He could return to the Free City soon.
This troublesome commission had left him feeling physically and mentally exhausted.
Zzzzt!
A beam of high-energy attack grazed past Lin Ye's head. He turned to look into the distance. An Armed Personnel wearing heavy armor was sniping at him from two kilometers away.
'Now I'm really getting a bit angry.'
Lin Ye rarely got angry because of enemies. In his view, whatever enemies did to him was reasonable. After all, combat was a life-or-death struggle;
there was no need to consider methods.
But now he was really getting a bit angry.
These people were like mosquitoes. Not very strong, but extremely annoying.
A second high-energy attack struck Lin Ye's chest, but he had already vanished from his original spot.
Two kilometers wasn't a particularly distant range for Lin Ye. To be precise, it was only a bit farther than the distance he could reach with an outstretched hand.
Less than half a minute after Lin Ye disappeared, while that armored sniper was still searching for Lin Ye's position, all the Armed Personnel around him exploded into sprays of bloody froth. The froth converged together, seeped into the armor's interior, the blood ignited, instantly destroying the armor's critical components.
The sniper was trapped inside the armor. He wanted to control his spiritual energy to tear the armor open, but the armor's material was extremely tough. He couldn't rip it open in a short while.
Lin Ye appeared in front of the sniper, staring at him without saying a word.