Chapter Forty-Eight: A Careless Move Could Destroy You All

“Surprised? You’re surrounded!” The mud creature grinned in triumph, a black rod suddenly appearing in its hand.

Qin Chuan was utterly shocked at the sight. “What the—has it gained sentience? It even knows how to use weapons?!”

“B-big brother, what do we do now?” As he pondered, the drowsy bug’s soft, cute voice sounded beside him.

“It’s fine,” Qin Chuan said lightly. “If things get bad, just give them a couple rounds of your shrieks and release more poison.”

Hearing this, the bug was almost in tears with anxiety. “Seriously, big brother? You still have the mood to joke?”

When he saw he’d teased enough, Qin Chuan whispered, “Alright, when the fight starts, burrow underground. Now that all of them have come out, it’s safest below.”

The bug’s adorable blue eyes suddenly lit up. “Yeah, you’re so smart, big brother. I was so flustered I lost my head.”

“Hey! Are you two done chatting? If you know what’s good for you, hand over your spirit cores and I might leave your corpses intact.”

“Otherwise, I’ll give you a taste of my rod!”

The mud creature was irritated, seeing the sword and bug engrossed in conversation, completely ignoring him.

“Fine, ganging up on me because you have numbers, right? Come at me together!”

“Don’t say I didn’t warn you—don’t blame me if I accidentally wipe you out!”

Qin Chuan’s true form, the Cold Iron Sword, gave a resonant hum, a sharp aura emanating outward.

“Did I hear that right?”

“That worthless black sword actually said it’ll wipe us out?!”

“Yeah, a level 15 piece of junk says it’ll destroy us.”

“Haha! That’s the best joke I’ve ever heard!”

The mud creatures burst into raucous laughter, mocking him without end.

And indeed, in their eyes, a level 15 sword and a level 15 bug were hardly worth mentioning.

The bug had planned to burrow underground, but the mud creatures’ ridicule stirred its anger, and it dashed fearlessly to the front.

“This road was built by me, this tree was planted by me—if you want to pass, pay the toll! Stop laughing, this is a robbery!”

Though its eyes burned with fury, the bug’s soft, childlike voice lacked any intimidation. The words sounded utterly comical in the current situation.

“Pfft!”

“Haha! That bug is killing me with laughter!”

Even Qin Chuan could barely hold back. “Damn, my little buddy is anything but conventional!”

“Don’t get mad, little one. Watch how your big brother deals with them!”

As Qin Chuan finished speaking, he unleashed a powerful technique at the densest cluster of mud creatures.

A flash of violet light, and a hundred sword shadows rained down from the sky.

Swish, swish, swish!

Screams erupted.

In an instant, over a dozen mud creatures were pierced by the sword shadows.

But Qin Chuan didn’t hear the system prompt right away. “Huh, why isn’t there a kill notification?”

The fallen mud creatures in the distance stood up again, only to be struck down once more by sword shadows.

“Ding! Killed level 16 mid-grade mud creature, gained 750 experience points, bonus for defeating a higher-level foe—100% extra experience. Congratulations, you have gained 1500 experience points.”

Qin Chuan finally understood. “No way—they have two lives!”

Exactly. That was the mud creatures’ passive ultimate—Reformation. Upon death, they could revive at full strength. Unfortunately, facing Qin Chuan was their bad luck.

The Rainfall Slash’s area effect lasted three seconds, more than enough time to kill them multiple times.

“Flowing Slash!”

Chirp!

Qin Chuan unleashed Flowing Slash, charging straight for the first mud creature that had appeared.

“Heh, trying to kill me? Not so easy!”

“Transformation!”

Though shocked by Qin Chuan’s earlier move, the mud creature assumed it was just a sneak attack.

Transformation was the mud creatures’ active skill, allowing them to switch between humanoid and earth forms. The skill itself caused no damage; its second phase simply reduced cooldown.

In earth form, the mud creatures had only two actives: Spinning Quagmire and Assimilation. In this state, they only had one life.

But since the transformation didn’t last long, it wasn’t a fatal weakness.

So when Qin Chuan’s Cold Iron Sword struck, the mud creature instantly switched to earth form and activated Spinning Quagmire.

The Cold Iron Sword vanished into the swirling mud, as if swallowed whole.

“Big brother!”

The bug was nearly in tears at the sight.

But in the next moment, something happened that shocked both the bug and the mud creatures.

The rapidly spinning quagmire slowed, then came to a stop, frozen as if time itself had paused.

Bang!

A muffled explosion followed by a scream; earth flew in all directions. The mud creature was clearly obliterated.

“As if my slowing and freezing effects are for show,” Qin Chuan sneered inwardly. “How dare you try to swallow me?”

When he fell into the quagmire, he had repeatedly struck, triggering the freezing effect. The Flowing Slash skill had flexibility—without entering its second phase, there was no three-second limit. Since the skill hadn’t hit its target, it didn’t auto-return, allowing Qin Chuan to freeze his foe without concern.

“Little one, go hide. Leave the rest to me!”

“Okay, big brother—good luck!” The bug immediately dove into the ground, tunneling away at speed.

Though Qin Chuan had slain a mud creature, these foes were clearly tricky. With two lives and the ability to switch forms at will, they would take some effort to deal with.

“That black sword is strange—let’s get him together!”

“Yeah, kill him!”

A sly smile played at Qin Chuan’s lips. “If you’re all coming to me, all the better—saves me the trouble of hunting you down.”

The mud creatures, surging forward, had no inkling of the fate that awaited them.

It wasn’t until Qin Chuan’s dazzling figure flashed through their midst, accompanied by scream after scream, that the survivors realized they faced an unbeatable foe.

“No, this black sword is a monster.”

“We were too careless—even ten lives wouldn’t be enough for us against him!”

“Run! Before it’s too late!”

In the end, the surviving mud creatures fled in panic.

Qin Chuan didn’t pursue them. He had more interesting matters to investigate.

“How odd. This spirit core isn’t humanoid.” He examined the mud creature’s core and was surprised to find only a tiny black bead within.

“Never mind. I’ll just absorb it.”

“Devour the Source!”

“Ding! Devouring successful. Gained 160 Evolution Points.”

“Ding! Gained 1 Earth Source.”

“Ding! Congratulations, host—Innate Talent Advancement unlocked.”

“Ding! ...”

“Wait—what the—there’s a function like this?”

Qin Chuan hadn’t expected that devouring the mud creature’s core would unlock a new system feature.

“Ha! What an unexpected and delightful surprise!”