Chapter 434: No Gains
She controlled the Vine Silk, wrapping it tightly around the blue glowing object and pulling it out. The faint sound of an emergency evacuation alarm could be heard from outside, yet she remained perfectly calm, her breathing not faltering in the slightest.
The blue glowing object had to be the chip. It was clearly fully charged and ready to detonate the miniature high-energy bomb next to the Half-beastman’s Blood Core at any moment.
Without the slightest hesitation, Ning Xuan controlled the Vine Silk, tearing open a gap where the blue chip connected to the skull and forcefully yanking it out.
The entire process, from Ning Xuan sending the Vine Silk into the assassin’s brain to her pulling out the chip, took only a few dozen seconds.
As the blood-stained, still-glowing chip fluttered to the ground, the frantically spasming assassin suddenly went limp. His body crashed to the floor with a THUD, his muscles twitching erratically.
Yu Mingche conjured a cluster of blue flame in his palm and flicked it onto the chip. WHOOSH. The flame completely devoured it.
“Thank you, Miss Ning, for freeing me.”
The moment the words left his lips, a grotesque transformation began.
The first thing to change was his skin. His layer of pale, human flesh rapidly lost moisture, becoming dry, hard, and rough, taking on a dull, keratinous sheen. A fine, scaly pattern emerged from beneath his skin, rising to the surface at a visible rate as if sketched by an invisible hand. In the blink of an eye, the scales covered every inch of his body.
The new scales were small and dense, shimmering with the cold, hard luster of Obsidian or cast iron. As they rubbed against each other, they produced a grating rustle that set one’s teeth on edge.
His bones emitted a series of heart-stopping cracks and pops—the terrifying sound of joints reversing and bones reshaping. He hunched over in agony, then his frame violently stretched and swelled. His fitted clothes were stretched taut before tearing inch by inch under the unbearable tension, falling to the floor as shredded rags. His torso lengthened, and his spine bulged outward, forming a winding, powerful ridge. His tailbone shot out, and a thick, powerful, Scale Armor-covered tail burst forth from his body, sweeping heavily across the ground and carving deep gouges into the floor.
His facial contours twisted and contorted. His pupils contracted, transforming into a pair of cold, golden vertical slits.
His fingers spasmed and curled as his nails thickened, lengthened, and sharpened into pitch-black, vicious claws that glinted with a cold light capable of tearing through metal. The entire process was swift, yet filled with suffocating agony and ferocity.
In just a few short seconds, the man before them had transformed into a giant lizard nearly twice the height of a person.
Yu Mingche and the others formed a protective circle around Ning Xuan, staring at the completely transformed Half-beastman before them.
Although he was completely transformed and a black mist was spreading through his golden, slitted pupils, he was able to remain lucid for a short time.
“Miss Ning, my real name is Lin Yang. I’m a Half-beastman with a giant lizard bloodline. Three years ago, my former master gave me to the Lord of Myriad Phenomena Star River as a test subject. Because of the giant lizard’s powerful regeneration and self-healing, I became Undead Warrior No. 19. For the past three years, I’ve been forced to carry out many missions that couldn’t see the light of day. Now… it’s finally over.” After his transformation, Lin Yang’s voice had become deep and hoarse.
As Lin Yang finished speaking, the scales on his body had already turned a dull gray. They were visibly losing their luster and beginning to flake off.
“He…” Di Youlin opened his mouth but was at a loss for words.
“This body of mine is shattered beyond repair, but this Blood Core still has some use. Please take it as thanks for the kindness you’ve shown me, Miss Ning.” A brilliant red crystal floated in the air before Lin Yang.
Di Youlin reached out and grasped the Blood Core. It was the Blood Core of an SSS-level Half-beastman, a crystallization of raw, pure life energy. It had similar properties to the Beast Core of an SSS-level Exotic Beast, making it an incredibly precious treasure.
“To be honest, even if I hadn’t removed the chip, you would have been freed today regardless,” Ning Xuan said, her expression complex.
She had initially thought that by removing the chip, she would acquire evidence to expose her enemies. However, while she was extracting it, she had “seen” the state of Lin Yang’s body.
She couldn’t comprehend how he had managed to stay alive in such a dilapidated physical state.
“It’s not the same. Now I’m free. I get to choose how I die,” he said. “Miss Ning, my body ended up like this largely because it was ravaged by that bomb. But the others… especially the poor souls who only had their chips installed in the last year… they can still be saved.”
“I’ve already transmitted the footage of you removing my chip to the others. I don’t know if they’ll ever get the chance to find you, but at least it gives them some hope to keep living. If you should encounter them in the future, please… give them a chance to survive.” Lin Yang’s voice grew steadily weaker. He then began coughing up great mouthfuls of blood as his life force drained away, his body growing completely cold.
“Master, he’s dead,” Di Youlin said, turning back to Ning Xuan after checking Lin Yang’s vital signs.
“Is the bomb inside his body still a threat?” Qinghe asked.
Di Youlin released his spiritual power to probe Lin Yang’s body. A moment later, he shook his head. “The destruction device inside him has been destroyed.”
“Normally, even if the chip is destroyed, the device will automatically detonate once its maximum response window has passed. But he used the last of his strength to destroy it… I can’t imagine why,” Yu Mingche said, looking pensively at the dead Half-beastman on the floor.
“Still, his actions saved us a lot of trouble. More importantly, based on what he just revealed, all the other ‘Undead Warriors’ in his predicament have now seen the footage of Ning Xuan removing the chip. If we run into them again, we might have an unexpected advantage,” Yu Mingche said as he retracted the Protective Shield he had readied for the explosion.
“I don’t know about any future advantages, but we certainly gained nothing today. This one is dead, his controller escaped, and the auction outside has been completely disrupted,” Ning Xuan said with some frustration.
The moment Ning Xuan finished speaking, Yu Mingche and all the others knelt.
Qinghe was the first to ask for punishment. “An assassin was lurking in the private room, and this servant failed to detect him, placing Master in danger. This servant is willing to accept any punishment.”
“I was responsible for organizing the auction and failed to detect that dangerous individuals had infiltrated the venue. I have failed in my duties and am willing to accept punishment,” Yan Fuzhen said, filled with self-reproach.
“Master, if Qinghe hadn’t detected the assassin in time and known the Undead Warrior’s weakness, I doubt we would have been able to subdue him so easily,” Di Youlin couldn’t resist adding in Qinghe’s defense.