Chapter 59 Snow Cake's Metamorphosis

Han Ning panted, dropping out of his fully transformed state.

In a battle lasting barely over ten seconds, the vast majority of his spiritual energy had evaporated.

The clothes on his body had also been completely blown to shreds.

Taking advantage of the thick mist, he picked up the backpack he had dropped not far away and changed into a fresh set of clothes.

"I'll have to use this full-firepower state more sparingly in the future," Han Ning wiped the water droplets from his forehead.

Unleashing his power felt exhilarating, but the consumption was immense.

A pure blue ball of energy flew out from the dead tuna and burrowed straight into his body.

In an instant, a surging wave of warmth washed over his entire being.

This was his first time experiencing more than two hundred points of energy flooding into his body all at once.

"Ugh, ah..."

His entire body felt as though it were soaking in a hot spring, a sensation even better than flying.

[Druid Growth Progress +225] (Current Lv5, 226/2000)
[Mental Strength +0.2] (Mental Strength: 2.2)

Because of the coral monster's death, the surrounding battlefield grew increasingly chaotic.

Having lost the monster's terrifying psychological suppression, a portion of the remaining creatures seemed to suddenly snap awake and fled in panic from the area.

However, an even greater number of monsters remained in a frenzied state, throwing themselves recklessly at the Awakened team.

"Hold the line! Don't let them break the formation!" roared the muscular man in the camouflage vest, commanding the remaining Awakened to put up a desperate defense.

Han Ning glanced briefly at the fiercely contested battle; with a portion of the monsters gone, this group was barely managing to hold them off.

His attention returned to the coral monster beneath him.

The tuna's energy had already been absorbed by him, but now that the coral monster's main body was dead, why hadn't any energy leaked out yet?

"Could it be... it's not completely dead?" Han Ning recalled his first encounter with the mirage worms.

The very moment the thought crossed his mind.

Crack... Snap!

A series of fine cracks suddenly burst open across the surface of the charred coral remains, and a faint tricolor halo filtered through the crevices.

Han Ning's eyes narrowed as he flicked out a vine, rummaging through the debris.

Glug~

A crystal, roughly the size of an infant's fist and completely irregular in shape with its surface covered in dense cracks, rolled out.

Its exterior was wrapped in a jelly-like substance, while its core contained a cluster of shimmering tricolor radiance.

Although it had been scorched by the high temperature of Han Ning's thermal breath and its surface was slightly blackened, the interior remained largely undamaged.

With the appearance of the crystal.

"Roar-oo! Roar-oo!"

Xuebing, which had been standing guard on the side, grew inexplicably restless.

It began circling around Han Ning, darting back and forth.

"A-ah!"

As it swam around, its yellow vertical pupils fixed on the tricolor crystal, and an intense craving was transmitted through their soul bond.

It was as if that crystal held a fatal attraction for it.

"You want to eat this?" Han Ning looked at Xuebing's uncharacteristic urgency and scooped up the crystal with a vine.

"A-awooo! A-awooo!" Xuebing responded frantically.

Han Ning pondered for a moment.

This crystal was most likely the condensed essence of the coral monster.

As his animal companion, if Xuebing devoured the crystal, the majority of the energy essence would ultimately be fed back to him through their contract. Perhaps Xuebing's intense desire for it might bring about some unique changes?

"Alright."

He controlled the vine and tossed the crystal straight toward Xuebing's wide-open mouth.

Xuebing whipped its neck forward and caught the flying crystal in its jaws.

The tricolor-shimmering crystal vanished inside its mouth.

Xuebing's throat rolled as it swallowed the tricolor crystal down into its belly.

The next second, a drastic change occurred.

"Ao, aaaaaah!"

Having swallowed the crystal, Xuebing's eyes glazed over, its mouth gaping wide as it began to let out piercing, miserable screams.

Its previously bouncing body suddenly stiffened like a rat that had eaten poison, and it flopped over into the water.

"??!"

Seeing this, Han Ning couldn't help but step forward, fearing something had gone wrong with Xuebing.

However, judging from their soul link, the creature's life force was still extremely vibrant.

"Ao!"

After crashing into the pool of water, Xuebing's body began to convulse violently.

From the gaps between its grayish-white scales, blinding blue, purple, and red rays of light burst forth.

The light pierced through its flesh and bones, even casting bizarre, psychedelic hues upon the churning white mist all around.

"Wabi-babo..."

Xuebing lost focus in its eyes, and thick streams of saliva drooled from the corners of its mouth.

Its thick limbs kicked about unconsciously in a frenzy, churning the muddy water into a froth.

"%...#￥...! Roar! Roar!"

After the halo spread across Xuebing's entire body.

Han Ning acutely sensed that from the depths of Xuebing's soul, a continuous wave of destructive, tyrannical emotion was being emitted.

That violent aura belonging to the Black Tide was once again influencing Xuebing!

Intertwined within those tyrannical emotions was also a trace of a desperate thirst for life.

Much like a carp yearning to transform into a dragon.

Clearly, the crystal contained the aura of the Black Tide.

Understanding the situation, Han Ning immediately activated [Nature's Blessing].

Under the blessing of the earth, a rich emerald green light bloomed from his palms, enveloping Xuebing.

Hiss, hiss, hiss!

Xuebing's scales lost their luster at a visible rate, turning scorched, brittle, and curling up.

Large sheets of them peeled away from its body, exposing the bright red flesh beneath.

The turbid floodwater, upon touching these bare wounds, hissed like water dropped onto a red-hot branding iron, evaporating into massive plumes of white steam.

wisps of black qi, hard to discern with the naked eye, mixed into the white mist and dissipated into the air.

As Nature's Blessing continuously purified and nourished it, the tyrannical emotions deep within Xuebing's brain were gradually driven away.

"Awoorrh!"

Xuebing's scream suddenly pitched higher, shifting into a deep, resonant roar Han Ning had never heard before.

Its flesh constantly tore apart and reorganized.

Finally, the shedding of its scales began to slow down.

Atop the raw flesh, a layer of pearl-like, warm, lustrous white keratin began to grow.

This newly formed skin rapidly hardened, soon transforming into closely packed, porcelain-smooth scales of pure white.

The new scales were smaller and smoother than the old ones, with faint tricolor fluorescence flowing along their edges.

Its snout slightly shortened, presenting sharper, more resolute lines.

Right at the center of its brow, a tricolor crystal scale the size of a fingernail emerged.

This scale was in a perfect diamond shape, resembling the most meticulously cut pure gemstone.

"Roar-oo..."

A low growl with the texture of grinding metal echoed out.

Xuebing propped up its body, slowly rising from beneath the murky water surface.

Water droplets slid down its porcelain-white body, revealing the newborn armor covering it from head to toe.

Xuebing now stood nearly 1.5 meters tall at the shoulder, with a body length of just over 4 meters. Its height sloped gradually from head to tail, radiating a sense of absolute power.

Its limbs were slightly thicker and longer than before, and the tips of its five claws flashed with a chilling, cold light.

A row of dense, serrated bony spikes protruded along its slender tail, which whipped about flexibly in the water like a white bone whip.

The tricolor crystal scale on its brow pulsed irregularly with light in rhythm with its breathing.

Its eyes had transformed into a peculiar form resembling glazed crystal, though the overall hue remained brassy.

Yet, along the edges of its pupils, an imperceptible web of intertwined purple, red, and blue lines had materialized.

A faint, subtle mental oppressive force began to radiate from its body.