Chapter 35: Chapter 35: The End of the Terra-cotta Warriors

Translator: 549690339

Lin Shen was in the midst of experiencing pain that was beyond the description of muscles spasming and marrow being hammered. If he were able to make a sound, his throat would probably have been howled raw.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t even move his lips or eyes, let alone cry out; he couldn’t even blink.

Lin Shen had heard before that the process of Base Mutation was similar to that of Butterfly Transformation.

The transformation of a caterpillar into a butterfly is known as complete metamorphosis, with a dramatic change in body structure, as if one life form evolves into another.

Some even say that the caterpillar is simply a mobile placenta, and the butterfly growing inside will dissolve and absorb the placenta when the time comes.

Of course, this idea is unfounded. The process of human Base Mutation is also a reorganization of bodily structure, with the shell of the Base Mutation Egg melting, decomposing, forming threads, and sculpting an effigy, with its essence merging with the human body to build a new Steel Body.

This process is similar to grinding rice into flour and then mixing it with other ingredients to make rice noodles, hence the pain is unimaginable.

Of course, the actual process doesn’t require the body to be literally crushed, but the integration of the essence throughout the body is equally painful, almost unbearably so.

The higher the quality of the Base Mutation Egg, the more painful the process.

Lin Shen had only heard that Base Mutation was painful, but he had not expected it to be so excruciating.

White filaments grew from inside his body, intertwining with one another, and gradually formed an oval-shaped white effigy.

Wei Wufu’s expression was complicated. Before Lin Shen, none of the humans who had tried to use the primeval Egg number fourteen for Base Mutation managed to reach the stage of forming an effigy; all of them died soon after swallowing the Primeval Egg.

The fact that Lin Shen was able to sculpt an effigy meant that the shell of the Primeval Egg had already melted and decomposed into a new structure within his body, indicating that he was halfway to success.

What would follow was to see if Lin Shen’s body could withstand the integration with the essence, which could also be understood as whether he could coexist with the foreign ‘virus’.

Wei Wufu was intently observing the effigy formed by Lin Shen when, suddenly, as if sensing something, he turned his head to look at the immobilized mutant creature.

The mutant creature began to tremble slightly, causing Wei Wufu to frown slightly.

After a moment of contemplation, Wei Wufu pressed his hands forcefully on the ground, propelling his body to leap up, but unfortunately, everything below his waist was unsteady and unresponsive, greatly affecting his speed.

Wei Wufu lunged in front of the mutant creature and fiercely jabbed his fingers into the depression at the creature’s waist, exactly where Lin Shen had previously targeted.

The force of his poke was many times greater than Lin Shen’s, pressing the depression even deeper.

Unfortunately, when Wei Wufu looked up at the mutant creature, he found that its body’s trembling had not stopped.

“What method did he use? Why can he do it, but I can’t?” Wei Wufu sighed in his heart, stretched out his hands onto the ground, leaped up once more with force, and then clapped his hands hard, pushing the mutant creature’s body away.

The mutant creature rolled out for more than ten meters on the ground before stopping due to the strong gravity here; it was quite a feat to push it that far.

Wei Wufu’s only thought was to delay time as much as possible. According to the data, humans who undergo Base Mutation with the Primeval Eggs do so very quickly.

Death comes swiftly, and if successful, that too happens rapidly; there is no need to stay inside an effigy for days or months like with regular Base Mutation Eggs.

Most complete the Base Mutation within three to ten minutes after sculpting an effigy and can then break out of the effigy immediately.

Wei Wufu only needed to hold out until Lin Shen broke out of the effigy. With Lin Shen’s miraculous methods, coupled with the Steel Body transformed by the Primeval Egg, defeating the mutant creature might be difficult, but the chance for escape would greatly increase.

Wei Wufu watched the mutant creature lying in the distance, its body shivering continuously, calculating how much time he could delay if the mutation creature recovered its ability to move before him.

“Not enough,” Wei Wufu murmured to himself as he glanced at the watch on his wrist.

The mutant creature’s body quivered more and more violently, looking like it could regain its ability to move at any moment.

Since Lin Shen had encased himself, less than a minute had passed, and even if Lin Shen were incredibly fast, he would still need more than three minutes.

Wei Wufu once again pressed his hands against the ground and crawled towards the distant mutant creature.

Reaching the violently shaking body of the mutant creature, Wei Wufu pushed against it, continuing to shove it farther away.

After pushing for a short while, the mutant creature’s body suddenly jerked, then its arm lifted, followed by its body also starting to move, albeit somewhat stiffly, like a robot from a breakdance performance.

Without a word, Wei Wufu rolled behind the mutant creature and locked his arms around its neck in a rear-naked choke hold.

This move, when used on a human, can lead to loss of consciousness by compressing the carotid arteries and depriving the brain of blood supply in a brief period.

When used on a mutant creature, naturally, the effect isn’t as good. Moreover, with Wei Wufu’s legs unable to wrap around and immobilize the creature, the move was even less effective.

This was a reluctant choice for Wei Wufu, as confronting the mutant creature head-on was not advisable and would only hasten his death.

From behind it, at least its claws and legs wouldn’t easily reach Wei Wufu, and like humans, its arms couldn’t fully rotate backward.

Wei Wufu only thought about delaying as long as possible, just waiting for Lin Shen to emerge from his enclosure.

The mutant creature quickly recovered, ignoring Wei Wufu’s choke hold. It pulled out the Leaf Blade that was stuck in its eye and flung it aside.

As the Leaf Blade was removed, the mutant creature’s eye wound healed at a visible rate, soon completely returning to normal.

This was why Wei Wufu said it couldn’t be killed; during their battle at sea, he had inflicted severe wounds on the mutant creature several times.

But the creature’s healing was just too rapid, making it virtually unkillable.

In the end, it was Wei Wufu’s use of his life-saving ability to grievously injure the mutant creature to the brink of falling apart that temporarily drove it back.

Regrettably, the use of that power also caused his own body to fail, and after dragging himself onto the beach, he had passed out, with his legs taking time to recover.

The mutant creature reached back with one hand to grab Wei Wufu’s head; its dagger-sharp nails scraped along Wei Wufu’s cheek and plunged into the sand.

Wei Wufu, still choking its neck, rocked his body from side to side to dodge the mutant creature’s repeated swipes.

The mutant creature’s other hand dropped the fork and reached back for Wei Wufu.

Seeing he couldn’t dodge, Wei Wufu had no choice but to release the arm locked around its neck and, with a powerful push on the sandy ground, rolled away.

“Come on, kill me,” Wei Wufu attempted to provoke with words, trying to attract the creature’s attention.

As a creature with emotions, logically, it should want to kill Wei Wufu first after being toyed with by him.

But for some reason, after giving Wei Wufu a glance, the mutant creature picked up the red fork from the ground and, without hesitation, turned and charged toward Lin Shen’s encasement.

This was beyond Wei Wufu’s expectations, but his reaction was quick. With his hands on the ground, he exploded with all his strength, like a ground-skimming missile, catching up to the creature, grabbing one of its legs, twisting fiercely, and flipping it to the ground.

The mutant creature kicked back with its other leg; unable to dodge due to his immobile legs, Wei Wufu could only let go with one hand and grabbed its other leg.

He had thought that after being manipulated like this, the mutant creature would be enraged and determined to fight to the death.

To his surprise, even as its legs were held by Wei Wufu, the creature, after lifting the red fork, didn’t aim at Wei Wufu, who was holding its legs, but instead flung the fork with all its might towards Lin Shen’s encasement.