BXBX NOVEL Chapter 347: The Golden Spine (I)
Chapter 347: The Golden Spine (I)
The satellites detected the level 9 energy fluctuation and immediately locked on, capturing the image of a colossal black and red beast standing amid flames and thunderbolts, along with the corpse of a demonic ape that had reverted to a size of a hundred meters after death.
"Report! Strong energy fluctuations from a mutated creature have been detected. Image analysis shows a 70% similarity in form to Thunder Fiery, but..."
"But what?"
"This fluctuation has reached the middle stage of level 9, and the colossal beast is nearly a hundred meters long.
"Thunder Fiery was recorded as only being sixty meters two months ago, and there are some differences in form compared to this mutated creature, so we cannot confirm if they are the same creature."
Looking at the colossal beast model projected on the large screen, the duty officer’s expression was grave. "No need to doubt, this is indeed Thunder Fiery."
A commotion instantly stirred up.
"It really is that mutated creature. Both its form and aura give off an extremely ferocious feeling."
"The red feathery horns on both sides of its head are quite distinctive."
"This creature’s growth rate is unbelievable. When it was first discovered, it was just a little over twenty meters long. Just a little over ten days later, though, when we detected it a second time, it had already grown to thirty or forty meters.
“And then, during the third detection involving that silver colossal dragon, it had surged to sixty meters. With this speed, it makes sense that its size has reached nearly a hundred meters by now."
"Make sense, my foot! This is a monster. Its growth rate completely defies the laws of biology."
"It’s indeed incredibly fast. According to recent records, even the fastest king-level mutated creature took around eleven years to grow from level 7 to level 9."
"Damn! Eleven years compared to just a few months!"
"Look, Thunder Fiery’s moving."
"It\'s eating that level 9 ape."
"So terrifying..."
Watching the high-definition satellite images, many people inexplicably shuddered at the brutal scene.
On the ruined island, the black and red colossal beast had retracted its Golden Flames and Thunderbolt and was gripping the demonic ape’s massive corpse. Its ferocious jaws shattered the heavy, hard scales with a crunch.
Each bite tore off large chunks of flesh, and the bright red blood spurted out like a waterfall, forming pools on the ground. This blood was rich in energy; ordinary level 1 or 2 mutated beasts would burst if they consumed it, while level 3 or 4 beasts would find it a super boost.
Yet, this spilled blood was only a small portion. Most of it was held within the demonic ape’s flesh, being consumed by the Thunder Beast as it tore and devoured.
At that moment, as if sensing the satellite’s gaze, the black and red colossal beast suddenly lifted its head and let out a ferocious roar toward the sky.
Roar!
In an instant, the heavens and earth trembled, and a fierce wind howled.
Even through the screen, the sharp-fanged, blood-stained jaws filled countless people with an indescribable sense of fear.
Such a brutal scene made many in the coastal base’s monitoring room instinctively swallow their saliva, their faces turning pale. Due to their positions, these staff members had hardly been on the front lines, let alone seen bloodshed.
The mist surrounding the island suddenly surged, gradually covering the hole, and the colossal black and red beast disappeared from the large screen.
"Whoa! That beast is terrifying."
"It\'s like a demon."
"Yes, at its growth rate, it won’t be long before it becomes a mythical colossal beast."
"What should we do? Should we request an attack from the Celestial Satellite System?"
The colonel on the command platform shook his head. "It’s useless. Thunder Fiery has already become too formidable. Without a locator, it’s impossible to lock onto it.
"This mutated creature has at least five abilities, including super-image movement, strength, defense, thunderbolts, and flames. The speed, defense, and strength especially make it stronger than an average level 9 colossal beast, which will make it extremely difficult to kill.
"Moreover, it resides in the ocean. If it escapes to depths of several thousand meters, beyond our reach, humanity will face a devastating enemy in the future. Unless a king is summoned, our current technology can’t handle it."
"Therefore, the best approach is to observe and adapt. Looking at the locations where it had been detected, this demon-like mutated creature is moving toward several ocean passages, and is expected to leave us soon.
"Compared to the blue planet, which doesn\'t have the origin of the world, the mythical world is where these colossal beasts truly belong, including the king-level beings."
The colonel’s analysis brought some relief to many people. It did seem true that the monster-like creature was continuously moving toward the deep sea, with no direct conflict of interest with humanity. When a colossal beast left the blue planet, it generally wouldn\'t return; the mythical world was a paradise for transcendent creatures.
However, these were just the colonel’s own analysis. Soon, the information was compiled into a report and sent to the base headquarters at the quickest speed.
The next steps would no longer be his concern. Whether a king should be summoned or if they should just observe the situation would be decided by the higher ups.
***
On the misty island, the Thunder Fiery Emperor Beast looked up at the sky, now covered by clouds and fog. Had I been detected by the satellites again?
Perhaps it was because of the Insightful Eye from its main body, or maybe because its perception had become sharper after reaching level 8. When the satellite locked on to the Thunder Beast, it sensed within less than a minute that there was something watching it from the sky.
However, it didn’t really matter if it was being observed. With its Agility enhanced to the top level, not even a peak level 9 expert could stop it from leaving if it wanted to.
Since it hadn’t encountered any kings, though, it wasn’t yet sure how powerful they were, so it had to be cautious in its assessment.
Putting this thought aside, the Thunder Beast continued to tear and devour the flesh in its claws.
This demonic ape had been quite powerful, with pure destructive power surpassing even that of the ancient Tiger Serpent. It had a domain similar to the Deep Sea Dragon Turtle, with high-level strength, high-level defense, and various other high-level abilities like berserk gigantification, making its combat power extremely formidable.
Unfortunately, it had encountered the Thunder Beast, which was superior in every aspect.
The Thunder Beast\'s strength was unmatched, its defense impenetrable, and coupled with its blinding speed in both movement and attack, the demonic ape was completely overpowered.
The demonic ape\'s domain, which could shatter and crush everything, had been weakened by the Thunder Fiery Domain and couldn’t even shake the Thunder Beast’s incredibly dense body. In the end, it met its death in despair.
As the level 9 creature’s flesh was consumed, waves of immense biological energy erupted within the Thunder Beast. Cells all along its body frantically absorbed, divided, and compressed this energy.
Compared to level 7 or even level 8 colossal beasts, the energy and life factors contained in the flesh of a level 9 beast were on a completely different scale.
With this rich energy, the Thunder Beast, nearly a hundred meters in size, started growing at a visibly rapid pace, its scales cracking and expanding.
Boom!
When the Thunder Beast\'s length exceeded one hundred meters, its entire body underwent subtle transformations in both flesh and energy. In an instant, an even greater aura exploded outward.
Whoosh!
Under the immense pressure, rifts began to form and spread outward for hundreds of meters around the Thunder Beast, while fierce winds howled.
The late stage of level 8.
After briefly sensing the subtle changes following its breakthrough, the Thunder Beast resumed its meal, its ferocious jaws tearing apart flesh with blood splattering everywhere. It was a truly fearsome sight.
It took almost half a day for the Thunder Beast to completely devour the Six-Armed Demonic Ape, by which time its size had increased to one hundred and five meters.
After breaking through the hundred-meter mark, the density of its body increased alongside its size. This meant that it now required even more energy to grow a single meter. Additionally, some of the life essence it absorbed was converted into evolutionary energy and stored away, increasing its demand for food.
This time, however, the Thunder Beast didn’t consume everything, instead leaving behind the demonic ape’s bones, which seemed to be forged from a black-gold alloySix-Armed Demonic Ape.
The colossal beast’s skeleton towered at twenty meters high, even lying horizontally on the ground. After a quick lookover, the Thunder Beast took a deep breath, then gathered energy within its body.
Boom!
Endless golden flames roared out from the Thunder Beast’s mouth, engulfing the Six-Armed Demonic Ape’s skeleton in a blazing inferno. However, what it breathed out this time was not condensed into a breath attack, but were pure flames compressed to twice their usual intensity.
Under the extreme heat, reaching tens of thousands of degrees Celsius, the ground began to melt, and the air and microscopic particles evaporated, forming a lava lake spanning hundreds of meters.
As the golden flames continuously tempered the skeleton, the demonic ape’s bones began to emit a black and gold glow, with faint traces of runes appearing on their surface.
When mutated creatures that evolve through their physical bodies break through to level 8, their abilities would condense and manifest as runes that integrated into their entire being, including their flesh, bones, and blood. After death, remnants like scales, bones, and horns often retained some traces of these runes, especially the core spinal disks.
Humans had learned to temper the bones of colossal beasts, gathering the power of these rune traces to create incomplete runes containing the beast\'s innate abilities. These runes could then be studied, contemplated, and learned from.
This was the core source of power for most colossal beast secret scriptures.
At that moment, the Thunder Beast was attempting something similar. It was interested in the Six-Armed Demonic Ape\'s fusion and gigantification abilities and wanted to see if they could be emulated.
For a creature with a physical advantage like itself, gaining a gigantification ability through rune inscription would make its strength even more overpowering as its size increased. It was that possibility that drove the Thunder Beast to continue the tempering process for half a day and a full night.