Chapter 817: Living Corpses
Jian Chen stared at the huge, headless and holey warbeast with an odd light in his eyes. He was perturbed. The warbeast had received fatal injuries, yet it still was not dead. This was unbelieveable.
Gentle zither sounds, concealing killing intent within, constantly rang out. The Heavenly Enchantress’s gaze remained calm throughout. Her right hand danced about on the zither strings, sending out waves of powerful sound at the huge warbeast.
The warbeast’s injuries became even worse after receiving such dense attacks. Its two limbs were quickly severed, while a large portion of its chest shattered. It had shrunken to one hundred and fifty meters in height from the original three hundred.
Any other magical beasts would have passed away long ago if they were in such a state. It was guaranteed death. However, the warbeast behaved as if it was completely uninjured; its remaining half of the abdomen and its huge, thick legs continuing to run with huge steps. Each and every step seemed to be able to collapsing mountains, causing the ground to tremble constantly.
The warbeast was soon less than a kilometer away from the duo.
Jian Chen was extraordinarily grim. The Ruler Armament, the Dragon Slaying Sword, had already appeared in his hand. However, the tiny crack on the sword that caused it to seem flawed.
The scene before him was weird; the warbeast seemed like an unkillable Class 7 Magical Beast. Jian Chen was unable to remain his calm after witnessing this.
At that very moment, consecutive closely-packed and frantic zither notes rang out. The Heavenly Enchantress’s right hand had slid across the zither, playing sixteen of the thirty-six strings together. Immediately, a series of densely-packed sound waves radiated outwards, filling up the space before them with visible ripples. The ripples joined together like a spider web, before quickly shooting towards the warbeast like a fishnet.
The fishnet of sound passed through the warbeast’s body without any obstructions, and disappeared into the distance. Shortly afterwards, the huge warbeast collapsed loudly. Its entire body had become meter-wide cubes of flesh that fell to the ground, carved into countless portions by the net of sound waves. The warbeast died with an annihilated body.
Jian Chen stared fixedly at the countless pieces of flesh from the warbeast as interest in his eyes. He could not see even the slightest blood at all. This was very abnormal.
“Senior, just what is this?” Jian Chen asked the Heavenly Enchantress. His heart was filled with endless doubt.
After a period of silence, the Heavenly Enchantress replied, “This warbeast has died countless years ago, but because of some reason in the Fantasy Star Ocean, it managed to survive as a living corpse. It has no soul or blood, and it can’t feel pain. All that is left is an indestructible Saint Ruler body.”
“Indestructible?” Jian Chen mumbled murmured softly. He thought back to what happened before, as if in thought.
“The warbeast in front of you cannot be killed, no matter what you do. Even if you obliterate its body, it’ll fully recover in no time,” the Heavenly Enchantress continued.
The countless pieces of flesh on the ground began to move about in one place as soon as she finished speaking, as if it was providing evidence for her statement. It condensed into the three-hundred-meter tall warbeast once again after just a short while. Its body was completely unharmed, and even its head had recovered to how it was before without the slightest sign of injury.
Jian Chen’s pupils narrowed to the size of a needle, and he immediately gasped coldly. He exclaimed in wonder, “So there really are weird things like these in the world. My horizons really have been broadened today.” Jian Chen turned to the Heavenly Enchantress and asked, “Senior, so how would one handle this warbeast?”
“It consumes a great amount of energy every time it reconstructs its body, and its strength will decrease slightly as well. There’s only one way to handle it, which is to constantly obliterate its body to get it to constantly consume energy, until it’s used up so much energy that it can’t rebuild its body,” the Heavenly Enchantress said.
“Aren’t we able to just run away from it?” Jian Chen asked.
“If you do that, it’ll just keep following you. Also, we can’t move around carelessly in the Fantasy Star Ocean, so we can’t shake it off. Once you let it follow you, the commotion will draw in even more mutated Class 7 Magical Beasts, as well as human Saint Rulers that have also devolved like that.” As she spoke, the Heavenly Enchantress had already struck the zither, continuing her sound wave attacks at the warbeast.
Watching as the the warbeast drew closer and closer, Jian Chen clenched his teeth and rushed up to it with his Ruler Armament, embroiling in a battle. Under their teamwork, the Class 7 warbeast did not last very long at all before being obliterated once again.
However, its body quickly began to rebuild once again. It gave out an earth-trembling roar, and attacked Jian Chen mindlessly.
The warbeast was chopped into countless pieces by Jian Chen and the Heavenly Enchantress time after time. Its strength decreased greatly every time it rebuilt its body. After killing it a dozen or so times, the warbeast was finally unable to restore its body due to the overconsumption of energy. Its diced body parts lay scattered on the ground.
The Heavenly Enchantress walked over leisurely from afar with her zither in her arms. She did not even look at the warbeast, “The Class 7 Magical Beasts here have already died an unknown number of years ago. They don’t have any monster cores to be retrieved, and after it absorbs enough energy it’ll continue rejuvenating again. You won’t be able to stop their revival, even if you turn their bodies to ashes. Let’s go. The commotion from before was too loud. Other Class 7 Magical Beasts are probably going to rush over very soon.”
Jian Chen glanced deeply at the countless pieces of dried flesh. He did not say anything, and silently followed the Heavenly Enchantress away.
Just as the two of them traveled a mere ten kilometers, they immediately felt several powerful presences appear behind them. They were all from magical beasts and humans that had all reached Saint Ruler. Not too long afterwards, another dozen or so weaker presences appeared from behind, all of which were Class 6 Magical Beasts and human Heaven Saint Masters.
Jian Chen looked back. Through the thin mist, he could see several human figures and silhouettes of huge magical beasts currently pacing mindlessly around the warbeast. Jian Chen understood that they were the same as the warbeast: organisms that had died an unknown number of years ago, leaving behind only a body that was turned into a living corpse by the mysterious energy of the Fantasy Star Ocean. They had no intelligence nor souls, and moved about according to their instincts.
“Conceal your entire presence. Don’t make any signs to alert them. We may not fear them, but getting tangled with them will be problematic.” The Heavenly Enchantress’s voice appeared in Jian Chen’s mind.
“Just how many Class 7 Magical Beasts and Saint Rulers are there?” Jian Chen asked. He was extremely grim. All the Class 7 Magical Beasts and Saint Rulers in the Fantasy Star Ocean possessed indestructible bodies. They felt no pain and had no fear. If the two of them were surrounded by these living corpses, it would be extremely troublesome or even life-threatening.
“The Fantasy Star Ocean has already existed for countless years. During that period of time, plenty of human experts and high class magical beasts have ventured into it. Some of the Saint Rulers were even famous, thousands of milleniums ago. Some of these have fallen in search for or battling over treasure, while others have died simply because of the Fantasy Star Ocean. Over the years, the experts that have died in the Fantasy Star Ocean have already accumulated a terrifying number. Every person that dies here will become like them, immortal and unaging. As a result, the number of Saint Rulers and high class magical beasts in the Fantasy Star Ocean will only increase, and never decrease. Today, probably even powerful organisations like the ten protector clans or Mercenary City have no idea about exactly how many Saint Rulers there are in the Fantasy Star Ocean.”
“There are even Saint Kings and Class 8 Magical Beasts other than Saint Rulers. As a result, we need to be extremely careful as we travel through this place. When we encounter those living corpses, we must never provoke it ourselves, even if it’s just a Heaven Saint Master. Once you do provoke one, the activity will draw even more powerful living corpses. If you die in the Fantasy Star Ocean, you’ll become a living corpse too, just like them.” The Heavenly Enchantress spoke using a communication technique.
Jian Chen felt even more heavy-hearted. No wonder the Fantasy Star Ocean was a zone of danger only second to the Death Nest. There would only be certain death if a Heaven Saint Master had ventured it. Only Saint Rulers possessed some ability to protect themselves, and even they needed to be extremely careful. Otherwise, they could easily face life-threatening dangers with just a lapse in concentration.
Suddenly, the scene before them changed greatly. The original island disappeared instantly, replaced by an endless desert. A flaming-red sun hung in the sky, scorching the ground with terrifying heat, raising the temperature of the entire region to a terrifyingly high temperature.
“Crap, we’ve fallen into a formation.” The Heavenly Enchantress furrowed her eyebrows and spoke with a deep voice.
Jian Chen immediately produced his Ruler Armament, and looked around for any activity vigilantly. He was already in peak condition, ready for battle. He had witnessed the horrors of the Fantasy Star Ocean so he did not dare to be careless at all.
Suddenly, the ground began to tremble violently. The ground where Jian Chen and the Heavenly Enchantress stood slowly began to sink into the ground and, at the same time, their feet were trapped by the moving sand, constantly sucking and dragging both of them underground.
“Fly!” The Heavenly Enchantress spoke coldly. With a flick of a finger, a sound wave immediately collided with the ground, turning the sand trapping their legs into dust. She immediately began to float.
Jian Chen did not hesitate either. Chaotic Force surged violently in his body before welling at the soles of his feet and gushing out. The devastating energy turned the sand into dust, propelling him out of the ground.
The sand below the two of them constantly sank down, forming a huge black hole. A putrid smell wafted from it. Just a breath of it was suffocating.
Soon afterwards, the entire desert began to tremble violently before forming a weird but huge, ten-thousand-meter long monster. The horrid gaping cavern below the two of them was the enormous mouth of the beast.
The monster seemed like an gekko that had been magnified countless times. It was earthen-yellow, and gave off an scorching heat. Its entire body was formed from sand.
“This is a region created from the fusion of a killing formation and an illusionary formation.” The Heavenly Enchantress mumbled softly. She could tell that it was all an illusion with a single glance.