Chapter 560 Instant Kill

That glowing blue orb slowly descending from the sky, radiating dazzling light, held far more life energy than a single adventurer could provide—whether judged by its sheer size or the commotion of its fall.

If an adventurer who hadn't yet absorbed any life energy seized this opportunity, they could likely skip several rungs on the Evolution Ladder on the spot, elevating their species tier to the very apex of all secret realm participants.

And if an adventurer who had already achieved their First Evolution, or even their Second Evolution, absorbed it, they would establish an absolute advantage over everyone else in the truest sense.

Of course, since this was a mechanism specifically designed by the secret realm itself to accelerate the ritual, it was highly unlikely to have any exploitable loopholes.

Unlike the shapeless, smoke-like wisps of glowing blue light that drifted up from dead adventurers, the mass currently descending from the sky seemed held by some invisible restraint, compressed into a tight sphere.

Under these circumstances, even adventurers with the ability to fly couldn't simply intercept and absorb it in midair.

The orb would only become absorbable once it touched the ground.

Zephyr breathed a sigh of relief when he realized this.

He had worked hard to evolve into his current silverback gorilla form. Although it was admittedly too clumsy and brutish for his tastes, its combat capabilities were outstanding.

If he lost out on this bounty to some trash on a lower evolutionary rung just because he lacked the ability to fly, he wouldn't be able to sleep for days.

Thinking this over, he glanced at the teammate perched on his shoulder, who possessed the body of a giant grasshopper.

Limited by its size, the grasshopper's flight speed might be a bit slow, but if his teammate actually flew high enough, Zephyr's current body truly wouldn't be able to do anything about it.

He would have to keep a close eye on things once the life energy touched down, ensuring his teammate didn't snatch it first.

According to their previous plan, the group of three—or more accurately, a silverback gorilla accompanied by a squirrel and a grasshopper—arrived at the orb's expected landing zone.

Judging by its descent, it would take another thirty to forty minutes to touch down.

Planning to use the orb as bait to harvest any attracted adventurers while securing the life energy for himself, Zephyr first carefully scoured the nearby area. He confirmed that, for the time being, no one else had arrived.

Then, working intensely, he began setting up various hidden traps—unassuming contraptions that would provide his group with crucial information about any intruders.

The silverback gorilla form was undeniably ugly, but as a higher primate housing the soul of an intelligent being, its capabilities far surpassed those of ordinary beasts.

Its thick yet dexterous fingers, guided by the experience of a veteran adventurer, expertly wove vine fibers, fallen leaves, and wooden boards into one trap after another.

Once preparations were complete, Zephyr took his two teammates and hid within the canopy of a giant oak tree to wait patiently.

But to his surprise, nearly thirty minutes passed—including the time spent setting the traps—and nothing stirred in the surrounding area.

'This makes no sense...'

Zephyr found the situation incredibly odd.

He already had a rough estimate of this secret realm's size and the number of adventurers dragged into it.

Given how brightly it shone, the falling orb of life energy was visible across this entire mountainous forest region.

Even if it didn't draw the dozen or two adventurers he had pictured swarming in from all directions, it shouldn't be completely deserted.

Zephyr even began to suspect that he had unknowingly stepped into someone else's trap.

Just as his unease grew deeper...

"Crack."

The crisp snap of a breaking branch suddenly echoed from a thicket on the opposite side.

The squirrel adventurer tightly gripped the fur on Zephyr's back, and Zephyr peered in the direction of the noise.

A strange black bear stepped into view. Unlike an ordinary bear, it moved with a light, awkward grace, almost like a feline.

A strange look flickered in Zephyr's eyes.

He recognized it, of course.

Not too long ago, he had harvested a substantial amount of life energy by killing an amateur adventurer next to this very bear—one who had claimed to be from the Blade of Vengeance.

He had intended to slaughter the bear along with its companion, figuring the extra energy might push him to another evolution.

Yet the seemingly clumsy black bear had proven exceptionally nimble when dodging and fleeing through the forest.

After a few quick rolls through the dense grass and bushes, it had vanished without a trace.

And now—knowing full well that Zephyr might still be nearby, it dared to show its face?

Had it gained some unknown trump card over the past few days, or was it simply desperate to seize this massive orb of energy and surpass everyone else?

These messy thoughts flashed through his mind. Watching the incredibly cautious black bear inch forward, Zephyr fell into a deep state of hesitation. He didn't dare to make a move, opting to stay put and observe.

Right at that moment, the black bear's gradual approach toward the landing zone seemed to trigger the hostility of another adventurer lurking in the shadows.

A lynx, measuring nearly one and a half meters in length, leaped down from a high branch.

Covered in dark brown spots, its pointed ears vibrated slightly as it let out a snarl.

Its brownish-yellow eyes flickered with the unmistakable gleam of an intelligent being.

Most likely unaware of Zephyr's presence, the lynx adventurer lunged straight for the black bear the moment it hit the ground.

Whether it had already achieved an evolution was unknown, but this lynx was distinctly larger than ordinary members of its species.

Even facing a small-to-medium black bear, it didn't lose ground in the slightest.

Within a few exchanges, relying on its superior agility and razor-sharp claws, it slashed deep gouges across the bear's hide.

The lynx itself was only breathing slightly, completely unscathed.

Watching from the sidelines, Zephyr planned to wait a bit longer for both of them to suffer heavy injuries before swooping in to clean up.

But the battle suddenly shifted.

The black bear intentionally left an opening, luring the lynx adventurer right into its attack range.

Taking another vicious claw slash to its shoulder in exchange, the bear brought both of its massive, heavy paws slamming down onto the lynx's skull.

Channeling all its strength and leveraging its immense body weight, the bear violently pinned the lynx to the ground.

As the black bear leaned in to bite the lynx's exposed neck, Zephyr acted. Having already claimed the life energy of both adventurers as his own property, he naturally couldn't allow the bear to land the killing blow and absorb the prize.

With a deafening roar, Zephyr gripped his crude stone axe in his right hand and seized a thick branch with his left. His heavy body swung down, dragging almost half the canopy with him as he launched himself into the clearing.

Seemingly shocked by Zephyr's arrival, the black bear wore a slightly exaggerated expression of surprise. However, its grip unconsciously loosened, allowing the lynx to break free.

Both were experienced veteran adventurers, so their situational awareness went without saying.

Having narrowly escaped the bear's clutches, the lynx adventurer rapidly swept its gaze from the nearby black bear to the hulking silverback gorilla.

A look of calculation flashed across its face.

Then, without hesitation, it spun around and fled into the dense brush.

For Zephyr, this was undeniably the worst possible outcome.

He had planned to let them exhaust their stamina before moving in to reap the rewards. He had only revealed himself early to prevent one from killing the other and wasting the life energy.

Because he had acted prematurely, both the black bear and the lynx still retained plenty of stamina to fight or flee.

Now he faced two prey: one fleeing, and one staying put.

Having lost the chance to catch them both in one fell swoop, Zephyr was forced to pick a target.

It only took a moment of thought to make his decision.

With the blue orb of life energy about to touch the ground, he couldn't afford to run deep into the jungle to chase a fleeing target at this crucial juncture.

His deep-set eyes quietly shifted from the lynx's disappearing back to the black bear standing right in front of him.

Unable to speak, they had no way to communicate.

Knowing that this adventurer was a member of the Blade of Vengeance, Zephyr had no intention of wasting time trying to scratch out words in the dirt to talk.

Driven by his beastly instincts, Zephyr roared wildly. He raised his stone axe high, fully intending to charge down the black bear adventurer.

But right at that moment, from the brush where the lynx had vanished...

A gruesome sound of a sharp blade tearing through flesh echoed out, accompanied by an agonizing beastly screech that was abruptly cut short.

Zephyr instinctively turned to look.

"Thump, thump..."

The lynx's head, its eyes wide with terror and its severed neck dripping blood, rolled out of the bushes like a stray ball.

With a soft splat, a wolf paw stepped through the blood and paced out of the brush.

Cyan-gray fur swayed gently in the forest breeze. Wisps of glowing blue mist, the very essence of life energy, drifted from behind it and absorbed into its broad spine. The creature's massive body remained partially cloaked by the canopy's shadow, tracing a terrifying, savage silhouette.

Its wolfish eyes were deep and abyssal. A slender, sword-like horn was clamped horizontally within the Wolf's Maw. Looking at the fresh blood dripping from the blade's edge, one could easily picture how cleanly the horn had sliced through the lynx's flesh just moments ago.

Zephyr had never seen a wolf monster of this sheer size, nor one that fought in such a manner.

But that didn't dull the sheer terror that erupted from the depths of his being the moment he laid eyes on it. His current wild beast body screamed with primal survival instincts, drowning him in an overwhelming sense of lethal danger.

'I'm going to die! I'm going to die! I'm going to die!'

Like a hare hearing the beat of an eagle's wings over the plateau, or a fawn catching a glimpse of a tiger's stripes deep in the jungle. It was the absolute suppression between predator and prey. This insurmountable gap on the Evolution Ladder made Zephyr almost completely abandon the thought of resisting.

But the soul controlling this body was a veteran adventurer who had sailed the perilous seas for years. In a flash, his human reason overpowered the beast's instinct.

Knowing he stood no chance in a direct fight, and that his heavy gorilla body was far too slow to run...

Zephyr made the most ruthless, decisive choice available in his current predicament.

He crossed both of his thick, fur-covered hands behind his back.

His right hand clamped down on the squirrel perched on the left side of his neck, while his left hand seized the grasshopper resting on his right shoulder.

Zephyr could clearly feel his two teammates writhing in his grip, accompanied by their panicked squeaks and screeches of confusion and terror.

But he had no other choice. He was facing an enemy whose species tier far exceeded his own, an apex predator that had completed an unknown number of evolutions.

The next second, he squeezed.

"Splat."

Viscous fluid squelched against his palms as two sickening crunches rang out through the air.

The mangled corpses of the squirrel and grasshopper tumbled from the gorilla's grip.

Two streams of glowing blue light traveled down Zephyr's thick arms and rapidly absorbed into his body.

By sacrificing his own teammates, Zephyr triggered his Second Evolution.

His massive, boulder-like body rapidly inflated like a balloon.

His thick arms stretched and warped like clay. Thick plates of keratin replaced the fur around his knuckles and elbows, while two massive, boar-like tusks erupted from his upper lip, curling continuously outward.

Xia Nan naturally wasn't going to just stand there and watch his opponent's evolution cutscene.

[Cord-Spine Blade Wolf], a Rare wolf species that haunted the ruins of ancient battlefields. A true combat master of the blade, far more powerful than the Winter Wolf. It was the product of Xia Nan's Third Evolution.

At this moment, guided by a human soul and armed with combat techniques, the beast unleashed an explosive combat prowess that completely shattered the limits of its species.

A deafening wolf howl erupted as the massive wolf vanished from its spot.

In its place surged a blurred, terrifying, and ethereal Wolf Head constructed entirely of pitch-black energy.

The distance between them was crossed in an instant.

Zephyr had zero time to react. His evolution was only halfway finished.

The wolf's eyes perfectly reflected the gorilla's deep-set, stunned gaze.

Core muscles contracting, Xia Nan tilted his head slightly. Ochre-red energy condensed along the surface of the horn blade clamped tight in the Wolf's Maw, warping the surrounding air with sheer force.

Launching into the air, Xia Nan twisted his entire massive frame, spinning a full three hundred and sixty degrees.

"Vwoom!"

An ochre-red arc, stretched almost into the shape of a full moon, tore through the air.

[Fang Hunt], [Gravity Etching], [Spinning Slash], [Heavy Tide].

All four combat techniques were layered into a single, devastating blade strike in an instant.

And the result of that single strike—

"Slish."

The slash was far too clean.

It wasn't until the blade-wielding giant wolf landed back on its four feet that the towering mountain of flesh frozen behind it finally began to split and collapse.

Blood slowly oozed from a hair-thin crack extending diagonally from the gorilla's neck and shoulder all the way down to its opposite flank.

The two halves of the body seemed to hesitate, held together by sheer friction, but gravity ultimately won.

Half of the silverback gorilla's body—its entire head, right arm, and upper torso—slid cleanly off the bottom half and slammed into the ground.

The perfectly smooth cross-section revealed organs that hadn't even registered their death yet, still twitching and trying to function.

On one side was an ordinary adventurer who hadn't even finished his Second Evolution;

On the other side was a "cheater" who had already stepped into the Third Evolution, possessed a massive advantage in combat techniques, and used his Attribute Panel to meticulously plan and select his evolutionary path.

The snowball effect within this Ritual Secret Realm had started rolling the exact moment Xia Nan descended into the world and unleashed his first combat technique in the brush outside the wolf den.

Sweeping up the corpses of every adventurer he had slain along the way, that snowball had grown into an avalanche that none of the other participants could ever hope to rival.

And in a few seconds, it would trigger yet another leap in his evolution.

Hum—

Life energy poured endlessly from Zephyr's bisected gorilla corpse into Xia Nan's body.

Translucent characters began rapidly scrolling through the empty air before him.

Not far away, the massive, glowing blue orb of life energy slowly descending from the sky finally touched the ground.