Chapter 16: Always look at me

Chapter 16

The Demon Worm grabbed Shi An's clothes with its six legs in a death grip, its expression management had gone completely out of control, and it screamed out miserably.

"You're so noisy!" Shi An complained loudly over the wind.

"It's you who's sick aaaaaaaaahhhhh!" The Demon Worm screamed hysterically in an even more miserable voice.

The Abyssal Rift instinctively rejected all intruders, and those, like now, who jumped directly from it would be directly recognized as enemies, so all the magic released during their descent would be nullified.

So ......

Don't drag me with you when you fucking kill yourself!!!!!

Suddenly, there was a "whirring" sound, and the speed of the descent suddenly slowed down.

The sound of the wind, which had been as harsh as a sword just a moment ago, became dull and dull, lifting Shi An's figure and keeping him firmly in mid-air.

Magic Worm: "????"

It grips Shi An's shirt with its six shivering, thin legs and reacts a little too quickly for a moment.

The sound of a regular wind was faintly heard behind them.

The Demon Worm twisted his head dully in the direction from which the voice had come.

The two huge pitch-black dragon wings flapped elegantly and slowly, the pitch-black scales flickered with a metallic shimmer, and the cold and hard wing bones protruded slightly, spreading out to be several meters long, with a kind of shocking and bizarre beauty.

"It ...... this ...... you ......" The Demon Worm was dumbfounded, words failing him: "When did ...... ......"

Shi An landed lightly but steadily on the ground and thought for a moment before answering:

"About the time we're nearing the crack, I feel like it should be okay."

Dumbfounded, the Demon Worm repeated, "Should, should? Meaning you're not sure?"

Shi An nodded rightfully and replied, "Yeah, how do you know if you can fly unless you jump off."

Magic Worm: "......"

What to do, really want to hit him.

But the fight is truly unbeatable and humble.

Shi An touched his dragon's wing cherishingly, "Unfortunately, I'm not quite powerful enough right now, that's why it's only this big, the wings I used to have could cover the entire plains when fully extended."

--However, the wings, while still small, are now at least no longer mimetic.

Shi An tilted her head back and closed her eyes slightly.

The concentration of poisonous gas in the crack was more than ten times that of the outside, and the grayish-white poisonous mist as thick as liquid enveloped the depths of the crack like a barrier, noiselessly enveloping Shi An.

Little by little the familiar power surged into the body, as if it were welcoming their compatriots, friends, and masters.

--At this rate, it's only a matter of time before it's fully recovered.

Shi An slowly opened her eyes, golden-red light burning and shining deep within her pupils.

He was able to sense that in the depths of this rift, there was an even stronger, purer, and darker fluctuation of magical power.

It was calling to him silently from a distance, smelling irresistibly seductive.

"Come on, let's go deeper."

Shi An blinked, her originally crisp voice becoming a bit hoarse.

The moment his words fell, the two huge pitch-black dragon wings closed up and retracted inside his body.

But, only just two steps out of the way, he closed his stride without warning.

Demon Worm was puzzled, "What's wrong?"

Didn't we say we were going deeper?

Shi An reached out and touched his hand toward his back.

He hesitantly whispered, "That, I probably did not think enough about the whole takeoff thing ......"

"?!"

The Demon Worm suddenly realized something, and it jerked its head around to look behind Shi An.

The clothes on the other party's back were torn and tattered by the wings, leaving only a few strips of cloth hanging wobbly in the air, between which the pale and slender spine could be vaguely seen.

Shi An said sadly, "It's a little cold."

Magic Worm: "......"

Grass.

*

In the heavy gray-white fog, Mu Hang walks forward unhurriedly.

Another demon snarled and lunged from the darkness not far away.

However, before it approached Mu Hang's side, the silver light and snowy sharpness flashed noiselessly, cutting a beautiful arc in the air, and the thick fog was almost cut for an instant, leaving a narrow fault in the middle.

All that was heard was a thud, and the body parts fell to the ground.

Dark blood spattered from between the neatly sliced sections, coating the jagged stones of the ground evenly.

The man's leather boots stomped indifferently on it, his pace not even slowing for a second as a result.

Mu Hang lowered his head to the probe in his palm.

The abyssal fissure had spread to the widest it had ever been, the distance between the rock walls on either side had exceeded ten meters, and the instrument readings were the highest they had ever been, almost to the point of making him vaguely alarmed.

If left unchecked, I'm afraid the crack will soon spread into a full-fledged passageway.

I'm afraid that this time the situation is more serious than he imagined.

In the past, gaps that were just tens of centimeters wide were able to release a number of difficult abyssal species.

And I'm afraid that the demons that were released this time were not only unprecedented in number, but even in size.

They've been locked within the abyss for tens of thousands of years, and Mu Hang isn't sure humans are equipped to deal with these strange species.

However, closing the abyss is the priority.

Mu Hang lowered his eyes and scrutinized the palm-sized instrument in his hand.

The magical fluctuations within the rift were simply too strong to be detected by conventional means, and this was the Crisis Management Office's proprietary detector, capable of withstanding the maximum level of magical threshold.

Use it in order to find the Eye of the Abyss.

The Eye of the Abyss was often located in the center of the entire rift, and it would constantly release the magic power unique to the bottom of the Abyss outwards; with it, the rift could only exist, so the only way to completely close the Abyssal Rift was to destroy it.

It's not like the Administration hasn't tried to take it away and study it before.

However, because the power contained within it is so dark and violent, it destroys itself the moment it leaves the crevice, and so far humanity has not succeeded in obtaining a sample.

Mu Hang stops in his tracks.

He frowned slightly in some confusion, raising his eyes to the steep rock face before him.

Suddenly, his gaze faltered slightly, and his sight fell a few meters from his head - there, at a sharp rock that had been tainted pitch-black by magic, hung a strand of cloth.

Mu Hang's eyes deepened slightly, flashing a look of doubt.

He gently crooked his finger.

The wisp of cloth was tugged by an invisible force and slowly and leisurely floated down and lay in his palm.

...... are pieces of human clothing.

*

Shi An stopped abruptly in her stride.

He raised his head and looked fixedly in one direction.

Only to see that not far away, countless dark and rigid thick vines held up a high platform, with a bit of dark red light shining at the top, it was a not so big sphere, a deep red color shining in the darkness, it looked treacherous and strange, with a thin black slit across the center, it looked as if it was an eyeball.

Shi An was able to perceive it clearly.

That's right, that's it.

This is what one has been looking for.

That thick, wonderful, tantalizing darkness was pouring outward in a steady stream at the moment, filling his limbs in the twinkling of an eye.

An intense thirst welled up from the depths of his soul.

Shi An stared fixedly at the eyeball, uncontrollably heading in that direction--

"Hey hey! Wait!" The Demon Worm sensed something was wrong.

But Shi An walked straight towards the Eye of the Abyss as if she hadn't heard.

I don't know when it started, but the teenager's eyes under his long black eyelashes had completely turned into an extremely pure red color, like fiery burning lava flames, with light golden lines shining and clustering around the narrow and slender pupils in the center.

The inhuman qualities are displayed with impunity, appearing to be well-behaved and cruel.

As the distance shortened, a light layer of black and gold scale texture floated up on the originally white and soft skin.

The further forward you go, the more conspicuous it becomes.

Dark, icy scales grew from under Shi An's eyes, spreading down his cheeks and deep into his clothing-covered neck.

"Hula-"

Only a harsh wind sound could be heard, and two huge pitch-black dragon wings stretched out from the roots of the teenager's shoulder blades, and with an extremely light flap, they instantly sent him toward high ground.

Caught off guard, the Demon Worm was thrown off Shi An's shoulder.

It rolled around a few times in its dust, and by the time it got up in a daze, it saw that Shi An had long since flown to the top of the high platform.

The Demon Worm exclaimed, "My lord! You wait! That one can't be touched!!!"

Before the words left her mouth, Shi An had already reached out her hand and caught the black and red eyeball in her palm without hesitation.

"......" the demonic worm stuttered.

The teenager was seen slightly lowering his head, gazing at his palm with a thoughtful look on his face.

The Demon Worm had an ominous feeling in his heart:

"Touch, touch it, but you mustn't--"

Shi An tilted his neck and swallowed.

"--Eat." The Demon Worm uttered the last word woodenly.

The grayish-white mist that had been half-still was stirred by some terrifying force, rolling and roaring like waves in a storm, as if it were a maddened beast, stirring and charging in the depths of the canyon.

The fog converged in all directions.

The wall of fog was viscous and thick, flowing like a liquid, and visibility was minimized.

In the gusty wind, the demonic worm struggled to grab the grass roots underneath it with its six thin legs, its body swaying and shaking, only barely keeping itself from being blown away.

A deafening roar came from overhead, instantly resounding throughout the valley.

It was a sound that hadn't been heard in the entire continent for ten thousand years.

The Demon Worm froze and subconsciously looked up.

The heavy mist rolled on, spreading as if possessed of life--

In the next second, a huge dragon with a pitch-black body broke through the fluid-like fog without warning and violently leapt into view!

The golden-red vertical pupils were like flames that were burning in the darkness, the pitch-black scales flickered with streams of light, and the huge wings behind them unfolded lightly and gracefully, almost able to cover the sky and the earth.

It craned its neck and let out another long bellow.

The terrifying aura belonging to the fantasy species overrode the entire valley, recklessly displaying its power.

Above the ground, commotion surged among the swarms of magical creatures near the Abyssal Rift.

They cowered and shivered.

Fears forgotten for tens of thousands of years awaken again, leaving them terrified and bewildered.

The demons instinctively bowed their heads and crouched their bodies in the direction of the rift, submitting under that absolute might.

Inside the main control room.

With all hands on deck, the data on the big screen is reconnected.

With a drop, the screen lit up again and a row of new students appeared on it.

A staff member stared at the data on the screen and hesitantly asked a question

"Is that ...... system malfunctioning somewhere?"

"What's wrong?"

The man in charge frowned and looked in the direction the other man had indicated.

The rankings of the freshmen are neatly listed on the edge of the screen.

At the top was a familiar name.

-- "Shi An".

A score that had been 0 since the start of the test turned into a string of horribly high numbers, firmly in first place.

The man in charge froze.

Although he hadn't paid much attention to this year's freshmen, he also vaguely remembered that he seemed to have heard of this name.

Isn't Shi An ...... the famous loser who failed the test three years in a row?

"Drip-drip-drip--"

Not far away, the detection instrument suddenly sounded a sharp alarm.

All hands were tied and panicked.

"What's going on?!" The person in charge was shocked and angry.

"This ...... this ......"

The staff member wore the same bewildered and overwhelmed expression, "In a moment ago, the reaction of the Abyssal Rift suddenly disappeared, but, but--"

"But what!"

"More, a higher energy magic wave has appeared! It's at the location of the abyssal rift!"

The head man rushed over.

He could barely contain his out-of-control expression as he saw the readout of the magic level on the screen:

"This, this can't be!"

*

Deep in the cracks.

Mu Hang jerked his head in the direction from which the voice came.

This ...... this is ......

Rarely did he lose his composure a bit, a crack appeared in his always calm and indifferent expression, and a hint of disbelief surfaced in the bottom of his eyes.

When the second dragon roar sounded, the sword in Mu Hang's palm, which was condensed by magic power, shattered into specks of light.

The magic power fluctuations on his body instantly skyrocketed, the space under his feet folded, and he moved over a hundred meters in a matter of seconds.

He lifted his silver-white eyelashes and stared intently in the direction the voice had come from.

A hint of incandescence floated in the bottom of his eyes, which were as clear as a frozen lake.

It's getting closer.

Not far away in mid-air, the huge body of the fantasy species was vaguely visible in the misty tangle, its pitch-black scale armor glistened with a metallic cold luster, and it looked so powerful and free that it was breathtakingly beautiful.

Dragon.

A species that exists only in fantasy and legend.

Ten thousand years after their extinction, there is no trace of them on the continent.

Mu Hang still remembers the trembling and fervor in his heart when he first saw the record of the dragon in the ruins of his family.

...... How powerful, how scary, how beautiful.

In that instant, the paranoia and fanaticism that had slumbered in his soul and blood awakened, pulling him like irresistible gravity, urging him on, seducing him.

Over the years, Mu Hang has traveled through countless mountains of blood.

He reaped the lives of the demons, stepping over their corpses indifferently, as if he were a death god who knew no fatigue.

The world feared him more than they respected him - some called him a strong man, a patron saint, while others called him a devil, a madman.

But there is one thing that Mu Hang knows very well.

These painless killings will never satisfy their own desires.

The more you kill, the more empty you become.

The desire to hunt dragons was buried deep in the darkest corners of his soul, as if it were a whisper from the distant past, urging him anxiously all the time.

--

The dragon seemed to sense his presence.

It lowered its head in the misty, poisonous fog.

Golden ruddy vertical pupils looked away and met the man's silver-blue eyes.

Mu Hang pressed the hilt of his sword.

A shudder of war rose deep in his chest.

He could feel the intense, overwhelming, almost terrifying beauty pouring out without restraint.

Strong killing intent surged up with it.

--such a beautiful creature must die by his sword.

Shi An blinked, recognizing the other instantly despite the darkness around them.

It was his future stash!

Shi An felt his current state.

It was still far from its heyday, but it was much stronger than earlier.

Now all that was missing was a magic item that could secrete resin so he could preserve the collection in perfect condition and make him a part of his treasure!

Shi An flapped his wings and flew.

He remembered that he seemed to have seen the trajectory of that kind of demonic creature's activities when he was in the rainforest area before, and choosing a day to do so, why not just do it today-

But Shi An had just flown out of the rift when she suddenly got a very bad feeling.

Like a balloon that had been punctured and leaked, the magical power that had just been restored continued to drain away from the body, and extremely quickly turned into nothingness.

...... eh?

Shi An froze.

In the moment of distraction, he flew a little askew, and his left wing momentarily hit a rock wall to the side.

Ouch, ouch, ouch!

Shi An sucked in a breath of cold air in pain, tears on the verge of coming out.

Wait, that's not right... After transforming back to his original form, with the protection of his scales, there's no way he could have felt pain from such a small impact!

On the ground, the magical insects struggled to chase the shadows cast by the dragon's wings overhead.

What it didn t have time to tell Shi An just now is that although the Eye of the Abyss can briefly provide a large amount of magic power to the outside world, the problem is that ...... as soon as it is out of the rift, it will be ineffective ah!

The Demon Worm cried frantically inside.

It had been in someone's pocket for so long that it hadn't exercised in a long, long time.

So running is really fucking exhausting ahhhhh!

*

Mu Hang saw, in the distance, the giant dragon condescendingly glancing towards himself, before stretching his wings and flying towards the abyss beyond.

He wordlessly quirked his lips and stepped to catch up.

The ghostly blue eyes narrowed slightly, and the silver eyelashes couldn't cover the fiery paranoid battle intent underneath them.

--It's okay, you'll always be watching me after I hang your head in my room.