Chapter 86 - 84: Crystal Spirit Race
SHHCK!
The sound of the spear piercing flesh echoed clearly through the dead-silent subway tunnel.
With a deadpan expression, Lin Ye twisted his wrist. The spiraling force from the spear tip instantly pulverized the mutated hyena’s heart.
He pulled the spear out.
Warm blood flowed down the groove on the spear’s shaft.
[You have reached Level 15!]
[You have gained 1 Skill Point!]
[You have gained 1 Free Attribute Point!]
The notifications rang in his mind.
A full day had passed since Lin Ye and Zhang Yuqing had moved to this massive collapsed subway area in the southern suburbs.
Now, only the final twelve hours remained before the three-day competition came to a complete end.
Just this morning, the second leaderboard settlement announcement had arrived right on schedule.
The total number of survivors had plummeted to 112.
This meant that everyone still alive had secured a spot in the second round of the individual competition.
But the competition wasn’t over yet.
The final rankings would directly determine the matchups for the second round, making them incredibly important.
Compared to the first day, Lin Ye’s rank hadn’t improved; in fact, it had dropped five places to nineteenth.
Zhang Yuqing’s rank had fallen even more drastically, slipping past sixtieth place.
This result didn’t surprise Lin Ye.
He and Zhang Yuqing had squeezed out nearly all their time, and their hunting efficiency was nothing short of terrifying.
But there were simply too many geniuses in all of Dongjiang.
The true monsters at the top of the pyramid had clearly found their own, more efficient hunting methods.
Lin Ye skillfully opened his attribute panel and, once again, added the 1 free attribute point to Spirit.
As for the 1 skill point, he invested it into [Spear Stance].
Lin Ye closed the panel, his gaze piercing into the deeper darkness of the subway tunnel.
He had no intention of stopping to rest.
In these last twelve hours, every extra point he could scrape together would give him a greater advantage in the second round’s matchups.
However, just as he was preparing to go deeper, a suppressed groan came from Zhang Yuqing behind him.
Lin Ye turned back.
He saw Zhang Yuqing leaning against a cracked wall, down on one knee. A fine layer of cold sweat beaded on her forehead, and her breathing was rapid.
"What’s wrong?" Lin Ye asked.
"I... I don’t know."
Zhang Yuqing’s voice trembled with a hint of confusion.
"It’s just... I feel so agitated, and my head hurts. It’s like there are countless insects crawling inside my brain."
She looked up, her face etched with pain.
"Lin Ye, let’s not go any further."
"My intuition is telling me that it’s dangerous up ahead."
Lin Ye’s brow furrowed.
He scanned his surroundings.
The air was filled with the damp smell of rust and dust. A cold wind gusted from the depths of the tunnel, making a low whistling sound.
Everything seemed normal.
’Is it the claustrophobic and oppressive underground environment causing a stress reaction, like claustrophobia?’
’Or could it be...’
’Is there really some kind of spiritual interference here that they haven’t detected?’
Lin Ye remained silent for a moment before continuing forward.
He needed to verify it.
He had walked less than fifty meters.
Lin Ye stopped.
He was sure now.
It was the latter.
A faint but intensely oppressive spiritual fluctuation was emanating from the depths of the tunnel, like an invisible sound wave.
The fluctuation had a minuscule effect on him, merely causing a trace of imperceptible irritation and aversion.
But for Zhang Yuqing, whose Spiritual Power was far weaker than his, this constant spiritual pollution was undoubtedly immense torture.
"Look ahead!"
Zhang Yuqing’s startled cry broke Lin Ye’s train of thought.
Lin Ye followed the direction she was pointing.
The sight before him made his pupils constrict slightly.
In the wider transfer hall area up ahead, the bodies of mutated beasts lay scattered everywhere.
There were at least a hundred of them.
Without exception, all the mutated beast corpses were in a bizarre, shriveled state, as if their blood and moisture had been instantly drained, turning them into some kind of air-dried specimens.
But the dark red bloodstains on the ground had not yet fully coagulated, indicating they had been formed less than half a day ago.
Lin Ye’s frown deepened.
’If other contestants had carried out a large-scale hunt here, why would the beasts’ deaths be so bizarre?’
He walked over, bent down, and began to carefully examine the corpse of a mutated wolf.
The mutated wolf’s fatal wound was on its throat.
A clean, sharp cut.
The wound was as smooth as a mirror, as if sliced open in an instant by some indestructible blade, with no signs of a struggle.
Strangely, a thin layer of dark purple crystals had formed along the edges of the wound.
Lin Ye reached out and gently pinched off a small piece.
The crystal was cold to the touch and hard, but it quickly crumbled to dust between his fingertips.
He couldn’t feel any residual energy from these purple crystals.
This was completely different from the blue Source Crystals he had seen in the ruined city, which contained source energy.
"Ugh..."
A more pained groan came from Zhang Yuqing behind him.
Lin Ye looked back and saw that she could no longer hold on. She was curled up on the ground, clutching her head, her body twitching uncontrollably from the intense pain.
’I can’t let her stay here any longer.’
Lin Ye walked to her side, scooped her up in his arms, and turned back the way they came.
After setting her down in a safe corner over a hundred meters away, where the spiritual pressure had significantly weakened, Lin Ye looked at her pale face and spoke.
"Wait for me here."
"I’m going to check things out up ahead."
Zhang Yuqing wanted to stop him.
But the bone-deep weakness and headache left her with barely enough strength to open her mouth. She could only look at him with a worried and pleading gaze.
’If this were the real world, a real ruined city, I would have turned around and left with Zhang Yuqing without a moment’s hesitation.’
’Curiosity killed the cat.’
’I’ve never been a particularly curious person; playing it safe and self-preservation are my guiding principles.’
’But this is a virtual competition space.’
’The worst that can happen is getting eliminated.’
’With my current points, and Zhang Yuqing’s, we’ve already secured our spots in the second round.’
’In that case, there’s nothing to be afraid of.’
’Fortune favors the bold.’
Lin Ye no longer hesitated. He turned and headed back toward the hall littered with desiccated corpses.
He lightened his steps, suppressing his presence to the absolute minimum.
As he went deeper, the spiritual pressure grew stronger and stronger.
Lin Ye also began to feel a noticeable discomfort.
His temples throbbed, and it was as if the insane, overlapping whispers of countless people were ringing in his ears, leaving him agitated.
He had to devote a portion of his focus to resisting this spiritual corrosion.
Finally, Lin Ye’s gaze locked onto a completely deformed train car that had overturned on the tracks.
Faint, eerie purple light pulsed from the car’s shattered windows, flickering between bright and dim.
That was the source of the spiritual pressure.
Lin Ye moved like a phantom, closing in silently.
He peeked through the twisted and deformed window frame, looking inside the car.
A single glance.
Every muscle in Lin Ye’s body tensed instantly. He felt as if he had been plunged into an icy cavern.
He saw the terrifying entity responsible for such widespread spiritual pressure.
It was a...
Creature?
It was small, only about the size of an ordinary house cat.
Its form was mostly humanoid.
Its body was composed entirely of a crystalline shell as smooth as a mirror, as if carved from amethyst.
Beneath the streamlined shell, the pure radiance of energy flowed slowly, like veins.
Its face was very different from a human’s.
It had no nose and no mouth.
There was only a single eye, floating above its face, emitting an unnatural, eerie glow.
That single eye was like a pure purple gem, with countless tiny points of light swirling within it, forming a miniature galaxy.
A single look felt as if it could suck one’s very soul inside.
Several sharp crystal spikes grew from its joints and along its spine.
At that moment, it was perched on the massive corpse of a mutated bear.
Wisps of blood-colored energy were being drawn from the mutated bear’s corpse, converging into its unnatural single eye.
The mutated bear’s corpse was shriveling at a speed visible to the naked eye.
This creature exhibited an inexpressible strangeness and evil, yet it also possessed an almost divine purity and beauty.
Two completely contradictory qualities merged perfectly within it.
A terrifying thought surfaced in Lin Ye’s mind.
’This thing...’
’It’s not a mutated beast.’
’This is...’
’A true member of the Celestial Abyss Race!’