Chapter 163 - 138: Extraordinary!

Chapter 163: Chapter 138: Extraordinary!

Advancing to Extraordinary and undergoing a personal metamorphosis required harnessing the power of the laws of heaven and earth.

Shi An had long known that the interval between the end of the ceremony and the beginning of the metamorphosis would be very short. But he still hadn’t expected it to be *this* short.

It had barely been three seconds, right?

Although the start of the metamorphosis didn’t mean a Dream Descender entirely lost their mobility, they had to endure excruciating pain during the process. With their combat power plummeting, their mobility naturally dropped significantly as well. At the same time, the Dream Descender had to do their utmost to calm their mind and concentrate their Spirit during the metamorphosis. This was necessary to resonate with their physical body, Spirit, and Curse Power, merging the three into one to achieve a complete transformation.

If they couldn’t find a safe environment as soon as possible after the ceremony, they would either die at the hands of anomalies or easily fail the metamorphosis.

Shi An thought, "No wonder some peak experts clearly complete their Extraordinary Ceremony but still end up failing their breakthrough. What a pity! But this isn’t a problem for me."

Safe Zone, the hotel.

Inside a premium room.

Shi An had already transformed the space into a breakthrough site. The spacious room featured a stone platform in the center, surrounded by piece after piece of Dream Crystals. There were no less than a hundred Dream Crystals, along with many precious Treasure Medicines and Potions placed within easy reach.

Standing there, Shi An lightly snapped his fingers.

"Summoning!"

A profound power connected with the contract, bridging the barrier of space. The next moment, Li Feng appeared in the room, clad in a set of shattered armor.

Meanwhile, in the Nightmare World, Li Feng’s figure suddenly vanished from a debris-strewn small plaza. The aura that was about to diffuse during his Extraordinary metamorphosis immediately vanished without a trace. In the vicinity, a keen anomaly seemed to catch wind of something. But the next moment, it simply shook its head, its eyes blank, and continued to wander around.

Back in the Safe Zone.

By this time, Shi An had closed the door, observing Li Feng’s metamorphosis from a distance through his authority.

Black mist of Curse Power continuously surged from its body as if it were endless. The black mist filled the entire room, sweeping up the Dream Crystals one by one. Within the mist, dozens of Dream Crystals turned to dust as their energy flooded into Li Feng’s body. The metamorphosis was underway!

"No, this is more like a reconstruction. A great and terrifying anomaly is gestating within the black mist, about to be born!" Shi An muttered.

When a normal human Dream Descender advanced to Extraordinary, their metamorphosis would take at least a day, and could last up to seven days at the longest. Thus, the Extraordinary metamorphosis was also known as the Seven-Day Metamorphosis. Undergoing a metamorphosis for seven days in the Nightmare World meant that if one couldn’t find a camp for shelter, they would inevitably be eaten clean by anomalies.

But Li Feng’s metamorphosis was proceeding far faster than Shi An had anticipated. Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that it was an anomaly.

In just a few short hours, the black mist filling the room continuously contracted, transforming into a massive black cocoon. This black cocoon remained stable for another few hours before it began to splinter. CRACK, CRACK.

A terrifying aura diffused from within.

A moment later, CRACK... BOOM!

The giant black cocoon shattered completely, dissolving into curling wisps of black mist. From the mist stepped a resolute-looking young man clad in black armor.

When Li Feng was advancing just moments ago, it still somewhat resembled an anomaly. However, now that he had completed his breakthrough and stepped out, anyone who saw him would think he was a human expert!

Influenced by the contract and bathed daily in the Power of Faith, the Safe Zone’s four major anomalies indeed looked nothing like ordinary anomalies. But Little Blood, Zhuo Ling, and Nether Robe... they all still retained slightly bizarre quirks. Take Nether Robe, for instance... there were several times when Shi An woke up in the middle of the night only to find a bright red garment draped over his body. It was more than a little terrifying.

Compared to an anomaly, Li Feng seemed much more like a human. Perhaps this was because... Li Feng had originally been human. Was he formed from a wisp of human obsession?

"I seem to have recalled some things," Li Feng said. "There was once a powerful kingdom that capsized beneath a black tide."

And in his past life, he had been the captain of the kingdom’s National Library Guard? Li Feng couldn’t articulate it clearly either; he only possessed a few heavily fragmented memories. He considered these memories worthless, as he was actively searching for memories related to Cultivation and Extraordinary Abilities. Unfortunately, his findings were meager.

"How much have you changed after advancing to Extraordinary?" Shi An asked.

Li Feng was also carefully experiencing his new state. The two went to the training room to verify it.

"First is the Curse Power reserve. It’s skyrocketed by almost ten times," he said.

Shi An did some quick mental math. An expert who had Refined a Rare Level Curse Object possessed a Curse Power amount roughly between 5 and 10 units. From this, it could be deduced that a Captain Level expert at the Peak of Third Refinements Realm would have a Curse Power Value of around ten to twenty.

The ’Night Shadow Mask’ that Shi An wielded contained a full 51 units of Curse Power Value in this Curse Object alone. Therefore, after his Refinement of this Excellence Curse Object, his combat power on paper indeed surpassed that of a Captain Level expert. Of course, actual combat was also influenced by Curse Art proficiency, Curse Art combinations, experience, and so on.

As an anomaly, Li Feng’s Curse Power reserve before his advancement was already far higher than that of a human Dream Descender. At this moment, the Curse Power contained within his body was likely around five hundred points.

"However, once a human Dream Descender advances to Extraordinary, they won’t be much inferior to an anomaly of the same tier," Shi An noted.

In the mortal Dream Descender stage, human experts had frail physiques, resulting in an extremely low margin for error in combat. Refining Stage experts who excelled at close combat, like Profound Sword and Li Wei, had relatively robust Physiques. However, this strength only served to support their use of various close-combat Curse Arts. For instance, the physical requirements for the Instantaneous Sword were not low.

At this stage, even if a Dream Descender was as burly as an iron tower, their flesh still couldn’t withstand blades or bullets.