Chapter 559 The Hostile Trio

It was hard to imagine that nature could evolve a creature as unique as the [Cord-Spine Blade Wolf].

It had the body of a typical four-legged wolf, yet its primary method of attack was gathering the weapons of intelligent races, gripping them in its jaws, and using the power of its waist, abdomen, and neck to deliver slashing strikes.

According to the information on the Attribute Panel, this wolf species even possessed a certain level of skill in using weapons.

This left Xia Nan marveling inwardly at the fantastical nature of the supernatural world.

However, there was no need to use his past life's knowledge and experience to overthink the logic of such a monster's existence.

After all, he was currently in a fantasy world where gods capable of manipulating the laws of physics truly existed. The highly active magic particles filling the air and interacting with physical matter made absolutely anything possible.

Moreover, throughout the long history of the Aifala Continent, the number of arcane masters focused on biological modification was simply incalculable.

To some extent, if one ignored their fame and simply observed their appearances, monsters like the Owlbear or the Armored Lurker—creatures already well-known among Adventurers—were probably even more bizarre than the Cord-Spine Blade Wolf. Tracing their origins, rumors suggested countless ties to biological spell experiments, with traces of artificial interference visible throughout their anatomical structures.

All things considered, Xia Nan didn't dwell on it.

He wedged the bladed horn from the beetle Adventurer he had just killed sideways into a narrow slit of flesh beneath his gray-blue mane. Taking a moment to adjust to his rapidly evolving body, he cast his gaze toward the black bear, Sasha, who was watching him from the side.

Opening his mouth, Xia Nan discovered that the evolved Cord-Spine Blade Wolf also possessed the ability to speak.

"How is it? You aren't hurt, are you?" he asked.

It was obvious from Sasha's dark, fur-covered face that, aside from relief at their enemy's death and the comfort of finding a teammate in an unfamiliar environment, there was also a touch of humanized bewilderment.

Clearly, he had never seen a monster like the Cord-Spine Blade Wolf before either.

Sasha moved around slightly to check his body. Seeing that he had only suffered minor injuries, he shook his head and stepped forward.

Waving his bear claws, he wrote on the ground:

[Why are you here? Is it also because of that blue light in the sky?]

Xia Nan waited patiently for him to finish writing the sentence on the ground, and was just about to answer.

Sarissa, possessing the sparrow, had already flown down from a nearby treetop.

At first, Sasha was startled by this brown-feathered sparrow that had inexplicably flown down, its eyes clearly carrying the gleam of an intelligent creature.

But after the two communicated simply through writing, they quickly confirmed each other's identities.

High in the distant sky, the glowing blue orb was slowly drifting down, still a long way from fully landing. Taking advantage of the time, Sasha shared a simple account of his experiences since his descent with his two teammates.

He had not yet absorbed any life energy to complete a First Evolution. When he descended into the Ritual Secret Realm, his racial identity was that of the black bear he currently inhabited.

As an apex predator of the mountain forests, and with the protection of an adult bear, Sasha had passed through his most vulnerable cub stage quite smoothly.

Once he acquired a modicum of self-preservation ability, he displayed the strong initiative of a veteran Adventurer. Stepping out of his comfort zone, he left the protection of the mother bear and ventured out to explore the surrounding environment.

Perhaps because their positions in the real world had been close when they were pulled into the ritual, or perhaps just out of sheer coincidence.

Luckily, on the twelfth day after descending into the Secret Realm, Sasha finally encountered another Adventurer.

And just like earlier, after confirming identities through secret signals, he discovered that the strangely behaving, colorful pheasant was none other than his teammate from the Blade of Vengeance Ship—the Barbarian, Aken.

Naturally, the two formed a party and set out to explore the surrounding area together.

Unfortunately, in a way, it was precisely because Sasha and Aken were too lucky—encountering a teammate as their first Adventurer in the Secret Realm allowed them to avoid combat between participants.

This meant neither of them knew about the ritual's special mechanism of killing for evolution, burying the seeds of disaster for what was to come.

Their initial exploration went rather smoothly. After all, both were veterans with rich adventuring experience. A black bear and a pheasant facing off against stupid, low-intelligence wild animals—even fierce predators—could handle them with ease.

That was until three days ago, when the traveling duo actually encountered Adventurers from another faction.

[It was Zephyr, the captain of the Windforged Squad, along with two other Adventurers suspected to be from his squad, though they might have just been strangers they bumped into in the Secret Realm.]

[Regardless, those three had formed a temporary party.]

Sasha waved his short, thick front claws and wrote on the ground.

At the time, Zephyr must have already completed his First Evolution and roughly figured out the mechanics of this ritual.

Upon confirming that the two figures ahead weren't his teammates—and even leaned slightly toward the hostile Raging Tide Warband—he immediately launched an attack on Sasha and Aken.

Even though they had remained vigilant, they had never absorbed the life energy of other Adventurers. They were just ordinary wild beasts in the mountain forest.

Facing Zephyr, who had already reached the First Evolution stage, along with his two helpers, the duo had virtually no room to fight back.

Aken, possessing a fragile pheasant, was killed on the spot, exiting the ritual and falling into a weakened, heavily injured state.

Meanwhile, Sasha relied on his thick-skinned black bear body to make a miserable escape. Utilizing a hidden cave he had found during his previous explorations, he barely managed to survive.

Perhaps because he didn't trust his two teammates, Zephyr, after killing the pheasant Aken possessed, directly absorbed the life energy left behind by the Barbarian on the spot.

Sasha witnessed the entire process and thereby learned of the Secret Realm's mechanism.

Now, facing the blue light falling from the sky ahead—a spectacle visible across the entire mountain forest—even though he knew the risks, he had no choice but to cautiously approach. It was his only chance to seek advancement, make up for lost time, and catch up with the other Adventurers.

"So Aken has already exited?" Xia Nan frowned, seeking confirmation.

[Yes. Fortunately, from the perspective I had when I was pulled into the Secret Realm, I could perfectly see him on the docks.] Sasha nodded. [In reality, he should only be slightly injured. It's not life-threatening.]

Unconsciously recalling the Elf captain of the Windforged Squad, Xia Nan pondered inwardly.

Right now, through Sasha's description, a few things could be confirmed.

Zephyr had already roughly grasped the Secret Realm's killing mechanism. He knew he could achieve evolution by absorbing the residual life energy of other Adventurers and had put this into action, hunting other ritual participants and even forming his own temporary party.

In terms of progression alone, he stood in the first tier of all Adventurers in the Secret Realm.

Moreover, based on the information provided by Sasha, there was a high probability that Zephyr was still located within this mountain forest area.

Under these circumstances, given the behavior Zephyr's group had displayed, it was absolutely impossible for them to miss this massive, glowing blue orb falling from the sky.

If Xia Nan chose to go there, there was a very high chance he would run straight into them.

Xia Nan was extremely confident in his current strength.

His special ability to freely use combat techniques already rendered him invincible in the Secret Realm. Coupled with his current body of a Cord-Spine Blade Wolf that had completed its Third Evolution, he didn't think the other party's combat level—as described by Sasha—could pose any threat to him.

But just to be safe, acting with caution was always a good idea.

Carefully mulling over their plan, the trio hurried toward the descending orb of light.

"Wummmm—"

The massive, dazzling blue orb of light resembled a falling sun. Accompanied by the rustling of the swaying tree canopy, a high-frequency hum of energy echoed through the air.

Even wild animals with no intelligence to speak of could sense the energy hidden within it.

Of course, unlike the Adventurers rushing over from all directions, these beasts merely reacted as if facing a natural disaster. Driven by their survival instincts, they fled far away from the area.

"Bang!"

A thick palm, as large as a woven fan, crashed to the ground with a howling force capable of easily bending steel.

Blood splattered everywhere as a wild hare—startled by the orb of light overhead and darting past—was smashed into a bloody pulp.

Five fingers covered in thick fur pinched the hare's corpse off the meadow and tossed it like a snack into a bloody, reeking maw.

This was a silverback gorilla, possessing a physique far more robust and towering than its peers.

Thick black fur covered its entire body, yet it couldn't hide the explosive, rock-solid muscles bulging underneath.

What was even more bizarre was that, in addition to being several sizes larger than a typical gorilla, this silverback had a crude axe made of branches, vines, and sharpened stone tied to its waist. Its vital areas were also protected by makeshift armor fashioned from sturdy wooden planks.

In the beastly eyes sunken deep into their sockets flashed a gleam of intelligence that no wild animal possessed.

As a noble, respectable, and rightfully superior pure-blood Elf.

Descending and possessing a filthy, stinking chimpanzee that picked fleas off others to eat was arguably the most despair-inducing and agonizing experience Zephyr had ever endured in his life.

The moment he regained mobility and realized what body he had descended into, he charged straight into a nearby river, washing himself completely clean from head to toe, and violently rejected all physical contact from his peers.

Like the vast majority of Adventurers in the Secret Realm, after adapting to this chimpanzee's body with immense disgust and subconsciously accepting its primal instincts, he began exploring his surroundings.

The turning point came in the form of a ferret Adventurer, suspected to be from the "Raging Tide Warband" squad.

Perhaps it was a contingency plan the Raging Tide Warband had long established for situations exactly like this. Just like the Goblin Adventurer Xia Nan had encountered previously, the squad member possessing the ferret had crafted wooden signs bearing their squad emblem near his den to rally teammates and declare his identity.

Under normal circumstances, this was certainly an excellent method for quickly regrouping with teammates.

But here in the Secret Realm, it only accelerated this Adventurer's death.

In the real world, constrained by the Lunar Tide Banquet and "Algae Scale" Dodd, the two mortal enemy squads had exercised restraint with each other.

But inside the Secret Realm, such concerns naturally vanished.

Zephyr barged into the other party's den without hesitation and tore the ferret clean in half.

By absorbing the life energy left behind by his foe, he evolved from a normal chimpanzee into a silverback gorilla, while simultaneously uncovering the general mechanics of the ritual.

As the captain of a professional Adventurer squad with some renown in the Southern Archipelagos, Zephyr might have his flaws, but his temperament, initiative, and decision-making skills far exceeded those of his peers.

Upon discovering the Secret Realm's mechanism of killing for evolution, he immediately formulated his next course of action. He intended to leverage the advantage of his completed evolution to harvest the life energy of other Adventurers and level up rapidly.

As for the result—

One could only say his luck was both incredibly good and incredibly bad.

On the good side, unlike other ritual participants who struggled to search the massive map but found nothing, in just a little over ten days, Zephyr actually stumbled upon two other Adventurers.

On the bad side, both of these Adventurers were members of his own Windforged Squad. As some of the rare, confirmable allied teammates in the Secret Realm, he naturally couldn't strike them down, and therefore couldn't absorb their life energy to evolve.

But if one were to ask what kind of help these two teammates could provide—

"Rustle—"

Fluffy brown fur brushed against Zephyr's broad back. A palm-sized squirrel clung strenuously to his spine, letting out unintelligible squeaks.

Those tiny paws gripped the gorilla's fur tightly, yet there was no doubt that even a slight jolt could fling the creature to the ground.

On the other side, near his left shoulder, sat a large grasshopper about the length of an adult's forearm.

Its two long antennae waved back and forth over its head, making Zephyr deeply uncomfortable. It was only because they needed to travel quickly that he suppressed his disgust and allowed it to crawl on his body.

One squirrel, one grasshopper.

These were all the teammates Zephyr had found over the past few days.

He didn't bother hiding his contempt for their pathetic combat strength.

Yet, he also had absolutely no intention of offering them help to achieve their First Evolution.

Just like the Adventurer from the Blade of Vengeance Ship who had possessed the pheasant three days ago.

Zephyr could have easily yielded that person's life energy to one of the teammates beside him, allowing them to achieve a First Evolution too.

But clearly, he was not that selfless.

"Squeak, squeak!"

The squirrel's sharp cries by his ear annoyed him immensely.

Although he couldn't understand a single word of what it was squeaking about, Zephyr could roughly guess what it was trying to convey.

It was nothing more than pointing out that they were about to reach their destination and needed to temporarily conceal themselves while waiting for other Adventurers to appear.

Yes, Zephyr's current plan was almost identical to that of the beetle Flynn, who had already been reduced to mere combat technique proficiency.

Using this highly conspicuous orb of life energy descending from the sky as bait, he would lure in Adventurers from the surrounding areas to carry out an efficient hunt.

Zephyr was equally confident in his own strength.

Having completed the First Evolution was one thing, but this silverback gorilla's robust body—with a structure close to a human's—combined with the experience and wisdom of a human Adventurer, and five relatively nimble fingers capable of using so-called "tools," was the true source of his confidence.

Zephyr didn't feel that the weak animals other Adventurers possessed, such as pheasants or squirrels, could pose much of a danger to him.