Chapter Eighty-Seven: Evolution Island (Thirteen)

Luohan Ya opened his mouth in an exaggerated gape, his eyes flashing. The cry of pain he had already been forcing back was suddenly let loose all the more violently, until the entire cavern rang with his miserable howls. By rights, cries that pitiful should have echoed and magnified many times over, yet for some reason the Flame Demon still did not appear.

"Boy, stop trying to play tricks. My patience has limits. That is enough probing," Anriel said coldly. Clearly, all sound had been sealed off by his power.

"Heh heh." Luohan Ya smiled with hidden meaning. "Then let us have a pleasant cooperation."

"Pleasant cooperation."

Anriel and Luohan Ya each harbored their own designs, exchanging a smile of silent understanding.

"May I ask how I am meant to get out of here?"

"Take the path over there. In little more than an hour, you will be out."

"Then many thanks?"

"Think nothing of it, think nothing of it. I shall wait for you to come and save me."

"Haha! Leave it to me. I, for one, always keep my word."

"Finally out."

Luohan Ya narrowed his eyes, savoring the air outside the volcano, thick with acrid mineral fumes. He lifted his gaze toward the distance, where scattered lights dotted the night sky like stars stitched across a stretch of black silk.

"They really made it convincing," Luohan Ya said with a breath and a shake of his head, then started down the mountain.

What he had gained now far exceeded his expectations. He even felt faintly lightheaded, as though his whole body had grown a great deal more nimble. He hurried downhill all the way, shouting and whooping, leaping up and down like Tarzan among the trees. With great confidence he swept his gaze around him, and wherever he found a creature that might prove useful to him, he struck it down with a turn of his hand, devouring its power to hasten his own evolution.

"Who is it? Who dares make trouble here?"

As Luohan Ya ran rampant all the way, he finally drew the attention of the beings at the summit. The creature before him was more than ten meters long, with a human face and a beast's body. A huge black wing spread from its back, and upon that wing countless black demonic patterns faintly gathered into the shape of a colossal fiend.

"Who are you? Are you also a hunter on this island?" Luohan Ya eyed the monster before him warily, black glimmers flickering all over his body as he stood ready to enter battle at any moment.

"How did you know Moray was a hunter? Have you seen those fools from before?" the monster calling itself Moray asked in a muffled voice.

"Hiss."

"Damn it!"

Before Luohan Ya could answer, he heard an odd sound behind him. Not daring to be careless, he instantly activated his demonic form and spread his wings to the sky, trying to evade whatever was coming from behind.

Snap.

A shudder ran through Luohan Ya's entire body. Though he had dodged with all his might, something had still bitten him. His eyes turned bloodshot as he gripped tightly the unknown creature that had bitten him. Turning around, he saw that it seemed to be a snake: red eyes, green scales, and within the pale gleam of its twin fangs lurked thin threads of black. Even from afar, the first impression was one of utter venom.

"You damn thing, you think you are clever? I will make snake soup out of you!"

Luohan Ya did not even glance at the wound. He fixed a fierce stare on the foolish snake before him as wisps of demon fire quietly ignited in his palm.

"Ahhh!"

To Luohan Ya's surprise, the one screaming was not the snake, but the monster not far away. "Let go of my tail! Put out the fire in your hand at once!"

Luohan Ya looked more closely and saw that the body beneath the snake was indeed connected to the monster Moray. He said coldly, "You ambushed me and still expect me to let you go? Isn't it just a tail? I will roast it and teach you a lesson!"

With that, the flame in his hand burned even brighter. Demon fire was best at refining the soul, and the blaze seared Moray until all four limbs spasmed and foam spilled from its mouth.

Yet soul-refining did not completely annihilate Moray's spirit. Instead, it further stirred the monster's savagery. The human face grew more vicious, the beastly body more frenzied. Moray seemed to have plunged into a berserk state, or perhaps the earlier soul refinement had simply burned its wits away. The monster now was a true monster, mad beyond reason, cruel and bloodthirsty. The only feature still faintly human upon it was its face, now twisted into a hideous snarl; its gaping mouth revealed teeth sharp as blades, with scraps of flesh and remnants of limbs still caught between them.

"Roar!"

Moray threw its head back and let out a long howl that shook the forest. Countless birds and beasts surged out from the woods near the volcano, trembling as they threw themselves prostrate upon the ground, as if bowing before a king's majesty. Yet in Luohan Ya's eyes, all this had changed again. The might of advanced elven spellcraft was displayed to perfection in this moment. Wherever his will reached, a faint wave of light circled and probed the depths of Moray's being, commanding the force of heaven and earth to examine all things.

To Luohan Ya, Moray now resembled a raging volcano, suppressing every living thing around it by sheer order of life level. Even he himself felt a heavy pressure. The energy within Moray was at least dozens, even hundreds of times greater than Luohan Ya's, and this was after Luohan Ya had already evolved twice!

"Could this Moray be a peak sixth-tier creature, a king among lower beings?" Luohan Ya murmured. "It seems I was too rash. If I were to fight it now, the best possible outcome would be mutual ruin."

Luohan Ya spread the wings on his back and flew straight toward the distance, leaving only his triumphant laughter to roll across the land.

Moray's eyes burned red. It locked onto the direction Luohan Ya had fled and, with a powerful beat of its vast black wings, hauled its huge body a thousand meters at a time. In an instant, it had drawn up behind him.

Luohan Ya clearly noticed the movement behind him. His figure became indistinct, fully merging into the rhythm of the wind, becoming part of the wind itself. His speed increased yet again.

"Roar! Roar, roar!"

Moray bellowed in unwilling fury. The demonic runes on the wings behind it shone with strange light, and under their blessing its speed surged, even edging past Luohan Ya's.

"Tch. Damn thing."

Luohan Ya shot a vexed glance back, a flash of ruthlessness slipping through his eyes. "I can't keep chasing like this. My demonic transformation will exhaust my spiritual power sooner or later. I have to find a place and settle this beast once and for all!"

"That place, then," Luohan Ya said, his eyes glinting.

His whole body turned into a streak of white light and vanished into the horizon in an instant, a black light following close behind him. It was Moray.

The player Ougu Yu has advanced to a fourth-tier life form.

All players have advanced to intermediate life forms, triggering a side quest: Challenge the King of Intermediate Life Forms and accelerate the journey of evolution.

Challenge the King of the Volcano, Moray, Blood Descendant of the Demon. Currently in progress.

Challenge the King of the Polar Regions, Lances, Ancient Demon Beast. No challengers at present.

Challenge the King of the Grasslands, Bit, Beast of Evolution. No challengers at present.