Chapter 81: Evolution Island (VII)

The dwarf spun proudly beside Luo Hanya, striking a series of celebratory poses he thought looked impressive. Luo Hanya, however, felt his entire body stiffen. Glancing down, he was shocked to see that the areas where he could no longer move were turning gray.

“What is this—” Luo Hanya tried to speak, but as soon as he opened his mouth, even his lips and tongue began to turn gray. “Stone—”

A faint sound managed to escape his throat, but it was the last. In that moment, Luo Hanya had become a statue radiating a dim gray light. Aside from his eyes, which could still move, there was nothing to distinguish him from a stone sculpture.

“Hahaha, all frozen at last?” The dwarf laughed, sending Luo Hanya toppling to the ground with a hefty kick. Luo Hanya’s body hit the floor with a muffled thud, like a great stone colliding with iron.

“Weren’t you acting all high and mighty? Threatening me? Since I became a hunter in this godforsaken place, no one has ever dared treat me like that!” the dwarf spat, his words filled with resentment. “Now you’re just a pitiful piece of rock. I can do whatever I want with you! You’ll learn what it means to be a captive!”

Though Luo Hanya had fallen to the ground, he felt no pain, and his health remained unaffected. It seemed whatever the dwarf had used was not life-threatening.

With a roar, the dwarf snatched his musket back from Luo Hanya’s paralyzed hand and began to pummel him mercilessly, all the while muttering, “I’ll smash you! I’ll smash you to pieces! That’s what you get for disrespecting me, for insulting me! See if I don’t shatter you into dust!”

Luo Hanya lay motionless, but his hearing and sight remained intact. Listening to the dwarf’s furious tirade, he was puzzled.

He felt no harm, yet the dwarf was indeed striking him, even straddling his motionless form to bludgeon his head with the musket. But reality was cruelly ironic: no matter how hard the dwarf struck him, not even a white mark appeared on Luo Hanya’s body, let alone a crack.

After several minutes of frenzied blows, the dwarf finally tired. He tossed the musket aside, slumped to the floor, and gasped for breath.

“Never used this damned thing before. Didn’t think it would be so useless—it turns people this hard. Must be meant for self-defense or something,” the dwarf grumbled, eyeing the motionless Luo Hanya with confusion. He drew his musket and fired a few more rounds at Luo Hanya, scattering sparks across the petrified body, but still causing no harm.

“Even immune to magic effects?” the dwarf muttered, dumbfounded. He pounded his chest in regret. “How could I have squandered something like this so carelessly? How stupid can I be?”

Luo Hanya, observing the dwarf’s remorse, was laughing inwardly. He rolled his eyes—the only part he could move—mocking the dwarf’s misfortune.

The dwarf noticed Luo Hanya’s silent laughter, but instead of anger, he took a deep breath and forced a grim smile onto his ruddy face. “Enjoy it while it lasts. Soon, you’ll have no tears left to cry.”

A jolt ran through Luo Hanya’s heart. “Is he planning to throw me through that great door?”

“Hmph! I told you before, didn’t I? There’s an ancient demon corpse here,” the dwarf said, dragging Luo Hanya’s body toward the massive gate. “No corpse here, but there is a living ancient demon. Go have a heart-to-heart with it!”

With a performative click of his tongue—pretending to be regretful—the dwarf shoved Luo Hanya through the giant door.

As Luo Hanya was pushed inside, he felt himself falling downward, tumbling for several seconds before crashing into something unknown. The impact bounced him far away, but even so, he suffered no injury. Resigned, he moved his eyes to observe his surroundings.

It was dark, yet utterly silent, as though no creature had ever existed here. Suddenly, not far away, he saw a black abyss from which tongues of flame occasionally surged upward.

By the light of those flames, Luo Hanya realized he was in a great hall—vast as a cavern, empty and elongated. At the easternmost end, the cavern stretched into darkness. In the center stood two rows of massive stone pillars, each carved to resemble towering ancient trees, their tops splitting into many sculpted branches that supported a finely wrought ceiling. The pillars were black and polished smooth, reflecting the fire’s red light.

Luo Hanya found himself between two of these colossal columns, with the bottomless black chasm nearby—a deep fissure from which tongues of fire ceaselessly licked the pillars, sending up curling black smoke that drifted through the stifling air. At the far end of the hall, the floor sank into a bottomless pit, above which a solitary stone bridge spanned the void. It was perhaps thirty yards long, its narrow width permitting only one person at a time.

Stunned by this work of supernatural architecture, Luo Hanya noticed a shadow not far from him—a black statue holding a bow, with an arrow fallen at its feet, as if the figure’s hand had slipped in shock while drawing the string, sending the arrow clattering to the ground.

As Luo Hanya studied the statue, a surge of fire erupted from the abyss, illuminating the scene. By its dramatic light, he saw that the statue’s face was twisted in terror.

Suddenly, a shadow materialized within the flames—a monstrous figure emerging from the depths. Luo Hanya stared wide-eyed, unable to discern its true form. It was as if the thing was made of pure darkness, a humanoid silhouette shrouded in shadow, exuding an indescribable aura of evil and dread that radiated outward in waves.

It approached the flames, and the light seemed to recoil, as if it were the true master of fire and nothing dared to shine in its presence. Leaping across the fissure, the fires from the earth’s core greeted its arrival, igniting the mane on its back and trailing a long ribbon of flame behind. Black smoke swirled through the air, conjuring the terror of impending doom.

In its right hand, it wielded a blade as fluid and insubstantial as a tongue of fire; in the other, a whip of nine flaming tails. As it set foot on the ground, the entire cavern trembled. It threw its head back and let out a hoarse, shattering roar—a sound so mighty it shook the heavens and sent waves of fear through all who heard it.